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CHAPTER 46:
COUNTDOWN TO OATH'S NIGHT
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Author's Notes: The music for this Chapter is, in order of scene: 'Corridor Of Time,' from the CHRONO TRIGGER Original Sound Version, Disc Three; and then 'Fragments Of the Heart,' from the VALKYRIE PROFILE Original Soundtrack, Disc Two; and after it 'Frozen Flame,' from the CHRONO CROSS Original Soundtrack, Disc Three. The first piece and the third one can be found on Zophar's Domain, and the second in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section.
Roxas landed from the Ars Arcanum's Finis impact on the dark and pale colored boulevard with Oathkeeper and Oblivion back at the ready, as the bulb shaped Heartless with the six light feathered wings he had identified as an Angel Star disintegrated behind him.
"I'm losing patience with this," Vanitas commented in angry irritation where he stood nearby.
"If we run across another one, or a Heartless of similar capabilities; I'm going to begin bringing out Unversed.
"We have better uses for our time than picking scrape after scrape with Heartless."
Anna knew that this assumed the two Xehanorts, and Sora; were at the Castle That Never Was, or its replica, where they were headed.
But that was their best guess as to where to go as any, and if Sora actually wasn't being held there; the sooner they were as sure as they could be of that, the better.
It wasn't just Sora Anna was particularly terrified for now, though.
Anna glanced over at Elsa, hanging back to conserve what magical energy she'd recovered since the battle with Maleficent for creating a means of ascending to the hovering castle that was now close ahead and above of them, and for the likelihood of a confrontation with the Xehanorts.
Anna didn't want Elsa to get anywhere close to a battle with seekers of darkness who were as much more experienced and resourceful with ethereal energy than Elsa as the Xehanorts; but, if she hadn't resigned herself to Elsa's determination to take them on if it came down to it, she wouldn't have come here by herself when she'd known Elsa wouldn't let her rescue Sora all by herself.
Vanitas wasn't as talented or sharp as the Xehanorts, but he had their experience; so Anna was reasonably sure he could at least keep Elsa alive if the two of them couldn't actually defeat Young Xehanort and his Terra-Xehanort familiar when cooperating.
It was Roxas who Anna was incredibly concerned for now.
Roxas hadn't betrayed a thing about how he was feeling once he'd indirectly vented about how upset he was to see The Castle That Never Was, or a facsimile, here; but Anna knew as well as Elsa Roxas was even farther from the composed and determined Nobody he was acting like now, than he'd been since he'd discovered Xion was still robbing energy from three of the people she loved the most.
To say nothing about how much that attitude, or anything similar, had been nothing greater than a mask even before then.
Elsa caught Anna's glance, and strode over to her.
"I know what signs to look for," Elsa assured Anna.
The older royalty gave Anna a weak, but surely confident amused smile Anna knew her older sister wasn't truly feeling any more than Roxas.
"I'm not going to let all of my years hiding in my room go to that much of a waste."
Anna found herself unable to breathe; and she realized she was still just waiting for Elsa to do something ill advised herself, due to what Ira had told her about Anna's horrific sins on Toy Box and the rest of what her first ice curse had brought about, particularly as Elsa was now aware that Kristoff was aware of how he'd been the one to damage Granpabbie's ability to heal it.
She'd have told you by now, if there was anything to talk about.
Yes, Elsa kept secrets from you before, so you can't fully trust her promise not to shut you out and push you away any longer; but a promise is still a much different thing than a lie.
And no one in your family directly lied to you, just Granpabbie when he altered your memories.
They just kept you in the dark.
It wasn't even a white lie.
They just didn't say anything, one way or another.
Elsa is not going to do what Roxas just did again.
And she is not going to directly say she wanted to kill herself by drowning herself at Ahtohallan, she reconsidered, and then go back on something like that.
But just thinking about how even Elsa wouldn't go that far just caused it to be harder to breathe.
Because, sooner or later, Anna knew Grandpa would confront Elsa, and Elsa would refuse to let Anna shield her from that inevitable meeting.
And how Hans had used Anna so effectively against Elsa over a year ago proved beyond doubt that a grandfather who all but doubtlessly hated her and saw her as a monster, or, at best, an incredible disappointment as both a granddaughter and a heir to the throne; was the one irrefutable anathema nightmare Elsa could never cope with; no matter how unexpectedly well she was taking the revelation her powers had brought about everything Elsa had been frightened they would for most of her life the very night she'd first become terrified of them.
Sooner or later, perhaps even because Elsa was the one to pursue the meeting, Grandpa would speak to Elsa, and tell Elsa how disappointed, or worse, he was in her; and then the depths of ruin Elsa could crumble to would very likely become as imperceptible to Anna as they had been for so many years until Sora had brought them back together.
Especially because Anna knew the real reason Elsa was even keeping it together this relatively well about that was because, this time, Elsa was attempting to protect Anna.
Anna wasn't even sure she wanted to find a solution to her own problems now, assuming it was still possible one could be discovered anywhere after she'd murdered Jiminy.
Because she knew, if she did, Elsa had very little left then to stop her from taking Anna's place at the foundations of an abyss.
Anna wanted to retch violently for new reasons now; because she knew she most of all shouldn't have so little faith in Elsa's ability to surmount adversity, even more so because, whether it was for Anna's sake or not, Elsa genuinely was looking what she'd done to Christopher's family, Christopher, Toy Box, Jiminy, and Kristoff, wholly in the face without recoiling from it, and Elsa herself and her arcane talents, as much as she could be.
Then something sick and cold plunged molten lava through Anna as she realized there was another possibility she'd overlooked.
Had her idiocy in attempting to set Elsa up with Roxas worked?
Too well?
To the point that Elsa saw Roxas as a knight in shining armor who could carry her safely on a white horse above all her problems and away from all despair and pain, as Anna had once seen Hans?
If Elsa was using Roxas as an escape from what she'd really done with her first curse, as Anna had Hans, Anna had no idea what warning signs to look for that could alert her Elsa was making those mistakes.
This needed to end, and now.
Anna pushed away all the guilt and shame she knew she would feel when she at last fessed up about what she'd done; but now, in uncountable and a single way most of all, she was not going to conceal or think twice.
"Do you have a minute for me to apologize for something?" Anna asked, not even wasting time to attempt to keep her voice steady.
Thankfully, she felt no relief at all it was.
Elsa blinked.
Then her eyes went a little wide, clearly putting the pieces together about why Anna wanted to apologize to her when they were discussing Roxas.
But Anna wasn't relieved at all to see nothing more than Elsa's usual discomfort at the concept of close bonds with others appear on her face at the revelation of why Anna had urged Roxas to become Elsa's friend.
The next thing Anna knew, everything inside her stomach was rushing up into her mouth at the discovery she couldn't tell one way or the other precisely how Elsa was taking this; and tears were blinding Anna's eyes as she desperately attempted to keep her insides from jettisoning everything that was her when Elsa doubtlessly already felt horribly injured by the discovery of the kind of bond Anna had wanted her to have with Roxas, even briefly, and that Anna hadn't been open with Elsa about it until now.
Then Elsa's hand was on Anna's back, rubbing it in light but soothing strokes, and an amount of the ill tightness inside her drained away.
"I have no means of answering what you're worried about," Elsa spoke in a low voice Anna knew Roxas couldn't hear, and the contained self hate and guilt for her inability to assuage Anna's worries caused all of her to heave and clench violently once more; before it loosened, as well.
"Even after knowing Olaf and Marshmallow and Kristoff and Sven for well over a year by now, I'm still not entirely sure what it feels like to want to be friends with someone, or to want someone to be my friend; far less what the potential for a romantic bond is.
"What I do know is the same thing Olaf taught you.
"Whether it's as a friend, or a love; Roxas' needs come before my own, and they're what I'm worried about; not the specifics of the kind of tie I'd like with him."
Anna realized her legs had given out and she was falling, but then Elsa's arms were around her, keeping her up.
Whether it was as a friend or a romantic love; that at least meant, if Elsa was desperate for anything, it was to love Roxas, and not to be loved by him.
That meant it was less likely she was taking Hans' route.
"You know that's what Kristoff really wants for you, right?" Elsa queried, her tone now at a regular volume.
The sickness in her stomach and being were back for a wholly different reason now.
"The specifics of how he's bound to you don't matter, as long as you're doing okay."
"That's the same as saying it wouldn't have mattered if you were still stuck in your room or the ice palace, as long as nothing was wrong with me," Anna responded.
"In other words, you don't understand how much Elsa loves you."
She pushed the memory of what Christopher had said about how much her sacrifice would have hurt Elsa if it hadn't broken the curse as distant as she could before it could make her retch, very likely into dry heaves.
"And, in a lot of ways, it's even worse; because, before I convinced you to stop shutting people out, you at least had a life outside of our own bond.
"With the exception of Sven and the trolls, Kristoff had literally nothing and no one before he met me.
"And that doesn't even get into how you were just scared people didn't, or wouldn't, like you for years; while the castle staff actually did look up to you a lot, both as a person and their potential leader or leader, and before then Mom and Dad were alive.
"Until Kristoff met me, I don't know if there was even one single human who showed him true kindness."
"You can't be everything for everyone, Anna," Elsa said with reassurance in her voice Anna didn't even attempt to draw any revitalization from.
"Until I saw how much the Foretellers hurt you; that was actually how I increasingly wanted to live, because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't rid myself of the fear I need to hold onto what you've given me as tightly as I can, or it will all turn out to be nothing more than a whimsical dream that could never possibly have come to pass."
Anna became aware Elsa was once more the sole reason she was still standing; because Anna had been seeing more and more signs Elsa was becoming more greatly and more greatly determined to prove herself to Anna, and the other people around her, over the months; and Elsa was now talking about that in the past tense.
Anna knew better than to believe that meant Elsa had wholly come to terms with this, but this sounded like a step in the right direction.
"But then the Foretellers threatened you, and the need to keep from losing you to a real terrible danger drove my limitations home to me very well."
Could Anna believe that; given what Elsa was risking by intending direct military action against the Foretellers, and perhaps Maleficent and the Xehanorts?
Given how, after so many years of being the one attempting to take care of Elsa; the sole way Anna could justify accepting her own limitations, if that, was if Elsa was hurt or died when Anna hadn't had any time to see it coming and attempt beforehand to find a way to do whatever it took to keep Elsa alive, and safe?
And it was Elsa who was now attempting to take care of Anna.
"You're no more than a human, Anna; just like me."
Those words must have cracked another dam already straining practically to rip asunder into countless shards; because Anna wanted to laugh bitterly.
Feel don't conceal
Don't think twice
There was nothing Elsa could say that could make this right; any more than Sora could, or anyone else.
The bitter self hate and despair in her voice caused it to sound almost unrecognizable as hers, even with how Sora had convinced her she didn't need to atone for all the years she'd been helpless and powerless to be there for Elsa as much as Anna had believed.
In the end, it didn't matter how much or how little she needed to atone, or how much hope she did or didn't have, when she'd still let Elsa suffer at all.
"I don't have your burdens, so it's not okay for me to accept my limitations.
"What's the point of learning what love is if I can't be everything for everyone?
"They need me to be.
"You need me to be.
"So does Sora.
"And Kristoff.
"And Olaf.
"And Sven and Marshmallow and even Grandpa and Hans.
"If I'm really this wonderful, considerate person you and Sora and Kristoff and Olaf keep treating me like I supposedly am; I'd be able to be everything for everyone; and make everyone happy in every potential way, solve everyone's problems the second they have them with total completeness, carry everyone's pain for them so they'd never feel any of it themselves, understand how everyone feels and thinks the instant I meet them without making a single wrong assumption about that person, know everything there is to know about how reality functions, and prevent everyone from being hurt a single other time in the future.
"You've never been a monster, but I should be one."
Elsa's eyes flew wide.
"Maybe then, if I wasn't human; but something different, and maybe even better; I'd be able to do all that."
Elsa's voice was drawn with terror and concern.
"That's not possible for any kind of living being but a Goddess; and not one from the Olympus inhabitants or a similar group, but one at least on par with the true Kingdom Hearts.
"Flights of fancy like that won't make anything better."
When Kingdom Hearts might really be able to give Anna the ability to do all that, how could it not make everything better?
What was the point in not telling Elsa how she really felt?
The longer Anna kept this secret, the harder this would be for Elsa when she at last found out.
Anna opened her mouth.
Then she blinked.
She shut her mouth quickly; for she needed to suppress the urge not just to throw up, but to pull out of Elsa's arms so quickly it might terrify Elsa even more than she already was.
Because, for an unknown reason, a revolting and familiar denial Anna had believed she'd never feel once more was walling off much of her heart.
"You kind of set off an eternal winter… everywhere. Well, it's okay. You can just unfreeze it."
"I can't!"
"You kind of set off an eternal winter… everywhere. W"
Then the sickness was gone as Anna became aware the sensations of the sentiment didn't match anything she could recall feeling, but the emotions Sora expressed when he talked; and everything that meant.
"Even Data-Sora didn't learn about that kind of h…
"No, he did. He said the same thing I did when I felt Anna's pain in my heart when Elsa sent the ice into her heart."
"When Data-Sora saw Data-Namine's memories of Roxas and Lea and that mysterious girl.
"'Something terrible happened, didn't it?'
"And I said, 'But… I think something terrible must have happened.'"
Something terrible was happening now.
Something so terrible that, even after everything the Foretellers and the Xehanorts and Maleficent had already put Sora through; even though he knew so far better than Anna not to believe things could just get better at the flick of a wrist by now he shouldn't be denying any truth at all, far less this desperately; Sora was refusing to face it with the same wholeheartedness he'd hurled himself into Goofy's plan to confront those truths for what they were.
Something so terrible that, as Sora had once felt Anna's own pain in his heart, she was now doing the same thing.
There was more than just denial of a single truth.
And then Anna realized, at an unknown distant edge of her perception or imagination or lack of any or memory or hallucination or nightmare that she was no longer standing, with tears in her eyes and on her face, and Elsa was pulling her head back against her shoulder.
Because that wasn't all that Sora was denying.
He was experiencing resigned but defiant and challenging relieved determination to open a kind of path he never had before, without any guilt telling Anna this would break his promise for Kairi to the Xehanorts; and the path he sought to open led to a safe location somewhere far away from Kairi and Riku, out of slack terror they were in the presence of a kind of pathway he was familiar with that might become even more of a danger to them that if he opened the path too close to them, he'd hurt them.
And he was denying that whatever it was that was horrifying him so much could actually be any danger to Kairi and Riku, while knowing past communicating more than at any time in his life that what he was denying was very likely the single greatest danger the two people he loved and wanted to protect the most had been in for all of their lives.
Sora was so terrified of Kairi and Riku, and of himself, and of reality, and of this truth, now; he was about to partially unknowingly abandon them to a nightmare worse than anything they'd endured before in their lives.
There was simply the lack of not now.
Nor was there any fear of even the most infinitesimal selfish wish this would cause Kairi to break it off with Sora once more; or fear of what Anna might need to offer Sora if one or the other, or both, of them, did call it off once more; or hatred for herself for what that would do to Kristoff, whether or not Sora was so broken now he actually accepted.
There was no longer any longing to spend as much time with the one person who had believed in her when no one else had, and who understood torment and despair and loneliness and reproach as much as Elsa and Kristoff did.
There wasn't even the desperate need to be everything for everyone, so she could make everything right she'd abandoned Elsa to for most of her life.
There was nothing more, and nothing less; than the same clarity of determination and intent Sora had given her when she'd at last brought Elsa home.
Anna was not going to let this happen.
Feel don't conceal
Don't think twice
Anna gently but with assured and reassuring swiftness pulled free from Elsa's grip and got to her feet.
"I don't know if it's the Foretellers, the Xehanorts, Maleficent, or someone else; but Sora, Kairi, and Riku are being set up for something once more; and this time it's something so terrible that I can feel Sora denying what's going on."
Elsa reached her own feet fast, her face neutral.
Roxas started slightly.
Vanitas started violently, and then he scowled.
"We may need to risk being discovered," Anna continued without additional delay.
"Vanitas, can you–"
"We already know you're here, and here is where everyone but our contingency is remaining," the voice of the Foreteller they'd been informed was called Aced, filled with contained and partially unrestrained anger, interjected.
Elsa jolted violently, and an amount of blood drained from her face.
Roxas whirled to face the oval out of the three forming at the rough points of a triangle in front of them with Oathkeeper and Oblivion in a defensive position, and he shifted into a ready stance.
Vanitas snarled viciously.
Anna didn't need to expend any effort not to start.
She just moved in front of Elsa, unsheathed her gunblade, and positioned it at the ready.
The familiar figure of a large male in a bear mask stepped through the corridor of darkness he'd spoken from.
Two figures in black coats resembling the ones Mickey had told them the members of the first two Organization Thirteens had worn walked out of the other two, their hoods up.
Then a trail of shimmering white with motes of ivory drifting off of its back portion darted in disjointed angles and arcs; at times at slow ranges, at times at ordinary paces, at times at faster ones, down from the sky; and landed between them, Aced, and the two unidentified likely foes to burst into a dome of rushing white that faded and revealed King Mickey, standing at the ready with his own Keyblade set in a stance that told Anna he was anticipating a horribly strenuous undertaking.
"Truthfully, I believe the trap that's being sprung here is ours," Mickey spoke to Aced and the two mysterious people with worried but assured determination.
Anna didn't know whether to hope or fear that, after what she'd heard about him, Yen Sid was involved with a trap that; at least before they'd left the Usual Spot, no one had alerted Elsa and the rest of them was being put into place at all, or of the reason for it.
"Sora's Lane Between should be taking him to the top of The Castle That Never Was, the Altar of Naught; and the rest of our most dangerous enemies here should be occupied in one way or another by now, and in no position to stop you!
"Meet up with Sora there while I hold these three off!"
Before Anna could even open her mouth, to ask any questions to Mickey or Aced or anyone wearing a coat; an orange sphere wrapped in gigantic shifting chains similar to the one Sora had attempted to imprison Christopher in manifested around Mickey, Aced, and the coated figures.
She attempted to; but then, almost certainly moving fast for Anna's sake, Elsa shifted her left foot and sent ice out below it and beneath Roxas, Vanitas, and Anna.
It rose into a wide pillar and began to curve upwards and forwards in the direction of the huge drifting citadel.
Kairi didn't know whether she was more anguished to learn that the Note Blade required a heart of light and a heart of darkness from two puppet weapons to construct it, or relieved that one of the two people closest to Empyreal was this determined to be there for him.
"I see no reason we can't be amenable to that," Gula responded without changing his tone.
"But your own refusal to accept we know what we're doing, and you're the ones who will end up hurting the hearts of the World and the World itself, may prevent that from happening.
"You must know by now how determined Roxas is to forge the Note Blade for himself, and not Kairi; and without revealing anything too sensitive, if he's able to attempt the sabotage and is successful in taking it far enough, no one but Empyreal will be able to contribute enough darkness."
"I believe there are things I need to be filled in on," Yozora's Heartless put in, with slight irritation at how he'd been talked over.
"We'll get to that," Gula answered.
"For now; all you need to know is that, while all we're in a position to bring about today is the first true step in implementing Synchronicity Perceptual; your initial self set a process into motion a good amount of millennia ago that has at last stored enough memories and feelings from enough generations of successive Keyblade wielders, Dream Eaters light and dark, Princesses of Heart, and a number of more unique components. All that we need to wait for now is for Ephemer to bring the last components here, and for the Dream Eater in between to be born by sleep, and then everything will be in readiness."
Riku's face shifted slightly.
The numbness was gone, but the aches everywhere were now far more clawing and dragging with exhaustion than before and simultaneously far off draining.
"You did not just say that you're going to shatter Riku's heart," Kairi spoke.
"No, I'm telling you that you are," Gula replied, unruffled.
Riku's face lost all of its sentiment.
Kairi suppressed her urge to clench her hands and teeth very tightly at once.
"For all your threats and attempts to scare us into losing all hope in everything but your roles, I've yet to see it actually happening," she responded, keeping her new terror back the same way she had many of the others.
"Roxas gave in briefly, but he wouldn't be the first of us to do it."
Kairi suppressed the flood of unease at the reminiscence that, while Terra and Riku and Namine and Xion, and even Aqua once Sora had removed Xehanort's Heartless' influence from her, had all come home sweet home by themselves or merely with encouragement; it had taken force from Riku, and the temporary removal of the memories Roxas retained long enough for him to become entirely unaware of who Xion was, to pull him back home.
And that had been when he'd just retained incomplete memories of Xion.
A willingness to murder or hurt himself was a far different thing from a willingness to kill or hurt others.
Kairi had no reason to believe Roxas was any more willing than any of the others to give into the darkness, and stay there.
"We have our weaknesses; but when push comes to shove, we find the light left in the darkness, and pull each other, one another, and ourselves out of it.
"As soon as Riku discovered what Dad really wanted him for; he came to his senses and brought himself back to the light. Terra did the same thing.
"It's the same for the rest of us; even Lea and Isa and Vanitas, in their own ways, who willingly strode dark trails for years.
"All hearts possess darkness, and all hearts can give in, and all we can do is accept that and choose the light anyway; but that doesn't mean that it's only a matter of time before everyone will. We stumble, but we've all learned a long time ago that doesn't mean we need to fall."
Kairi suppressed the surge of self hatred at the memory that; while Anna had shown Sora that pain could be overcome as long as people had each other, thus enabling him to reach Dad, bring him and Eraqus home to each other, and lock Kingdom Hearts before it could obliterate the realm of light; and Roxas had shown Sora that people were themselves because they had each other to be themselves together with, thus enabling Sora and Riku to mend their fences enough they'd been able to defeat Xemnas, and then finish making up so they could hold onto hope long enough for her letter to reach them and bring them the rest of the way home; all Kairi herself had shown Sora was that love and light remained even in darkness, and nothing about what that love and light was comprised of, and how to defeat the most inept of all of the five Xehanorts.
Light, darkness, or both; while she had no trust in Yozora's scripts, she still didn't have that much reason to regain trust in herself, or to believe that she should have had any to begin with.
"Ah, but tell me what you believe hearts that refuse to fall will do if they believe they've already given in," Gula spoke back.
Ice even colder than frost that could suspend the vacuum and absolute zero itself tore evaporating lava throughout all of Kairi's being.
She wanted to open her mouth, but her heart and mind even refused to attempt to find the words.
For several seconds, Kairi felt weightless, and then the cobblestones beneath her jolted violently.
Whatever had just happened to Scala ad Caelum, however, Kairi couldn't decipher it.
"Larxene said it herself about Elsa; if she'd believed her magical talents were dark, they would have become dark.
"Hearts that refuse to give in, no matter what they're offered, are actually the easiest ones to break of all. Countless examples throughout history and the cosmos make it plain there's often no more than one way to do it, so discovering that method is child's play.
"You just convince them they're already dark, enough they can't tell that what actually happened is that their own belief that they're dark has just obscured their ability to see the light still shining beneath that fabricated shell of darkness.
"You know Sora better than any of us.
"What do you think he'll do, in his current condition; as soon as he arrives here to discover, now that all the actors have arrived; we just tossed this part of Scala ad Caelum, Lane Between included, into the realm of darkness, something Sora had more than enough reason before he convinced Young Xehanort to deploy him on a mission here to anticipate we're fully capable of doing?
"You reminisce that time flows differently there, correct?
"While he'll arrive very soon as the realm of darkness sees time; according to the calendar of the realm of light, he will arrive soon before the time Young Xehanort tasked him to Return To Mansion at their real base, Twilight Town's Old Mansion; and, unless he can return this portion of Scala ad Caelum to the realm of light, with no chance of making it back there in time to fulfill the promise he made to your two brothers, the last two members of your family, to carry your tears."
All the blood in Riku's face drained away.
Kairi's heart was so drawn even slackness itself could fit through the singularity of terror and self hate and emptiness and horror it had become, and it must have been her pupils and not her eyes that were enclosing them with tears.
She knew she almost certainly had no chance to find the Lane Between in time.
Then a coated figure walked out from an alleyway to their left, its hood up.
The figure's voice was female.
"You, on the other hand, we require to embrace the darkness of your own choice.
"Even if we can convince you you're already dark, that won't be enough to ensure you can make use of Abyssal Aether for the purpose Master Yozora intends. No matter how low you dive, as long as it's merely from conviction you belong to the darkness rather than a willingness to embrace it with all your heart, it won't be sufficient to weave Synchronicity Perceptual together.
"And, if you really are a Princess of Heart, and you're willing to harness their capacity to love others to its fullest extent; you will do it, sooner or later.
"Because you need to stop having faith that living as a Princess of Heart, or Xehanort's daughter, amounts to what you believe it does.
"Your father was willing to give into the darkness from the second Eraqus betrayed him and attacked him from behind without provocation, although that alone wasn't what drove him to actually do so.
"As a Princess of Heart, you come up short as well. Very few Princesses throughout history have been as ineffectual as you.
"While the other six Princesses were dampening the flood of darkness out of the Door to Darkness, all you could do was create a Wayfinder.
"While Belle outwitted Dilan, and Jasmine Jafar; you couldn't even remember who it was who you most wanted to protect, and you needed Riku to protect you from Isa.
"While Anna, without a Keyblade or any form of weapon, showed Sora that the key to defeat Xehanort was to trust that the light that remains in the darkness was to be found in each other, and not in power over destiny; you couldn't even grasp what about you tormented Lea.
"It wasn't until you protected Sora from the Demon Tide and Lich, and then singlehandedly drove Xemnas on the defensive in a duel, that you at last measured up to the other Princesses; and even then you merely protected Sora from death and pain of your own making, and then you lowered your guard to Xemnas and he defeated you when you had fared the best out of any of the guardians against him singlehandedly, so you should have applied that to defeat him.
"Even then, did you enable Eraqus and Xehanort to reconcile, and thus let Sora close Kingdom Hearts before it devoured the World for a second time?
"It was the contrary.
"Anna lit the road for Sora to do that, while you had become a soldier.
"You need to stop believing the light is any better than the darkness.
"Belief in love and warmth is what corrupts the light into darkness, because people who cherish the light are then deceived by the mistaken daydream what they do has worth; and methods such as reconciliation are somehow better than conquest. They become blind to how all endeavors lead to nothing but pain, and refuse to accept the World itself must change in order for any choice to bring about anything.
"Someone, somewhere, needs to convince you to at last grow out of your childhood whimsies; and as no one else appears able to, it's clear now it falls to me.
"If you won't believe anyone else, Foreteller or otherwise, who attempts to show you why the one single hope tomorrow has is to change the World itself; will you at least listen to your mother when she tells you that she's talking from personal experience as a former court mediator for Ansem the Wise?"
.
"Your father is trying to take responsibility for the mistakes you children made. You should be grateful to me and stop complaining."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev
"Grateful?! If you're not gonna' stop, I'll make you stop!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev
"Oh? You're going to raise your hand against your own creator? I'm impressed you have the nerve."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev
"Shut up! Stop this monster, now! Or I'll kill you!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev
"Are you sure? Your dear brother is inside me, you know."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev
"Gaignun! Is your consciousness still there?! Gaignun! Can you hear me?!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev
"You're wasting your time. His consciousness is deep inside me. Your voice won't reach him. Unlike you, this son has served me well. Although, I admit I was surprised when he killed me."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev
"Do you realize how much blood has been spilled for your selfish ambition?! Return Gaignun to normal!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev
"It doesn't matter. It has all been a sacred sacrifice so that I may transcend U-DO."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev
"What's the point?!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev
"I imagine you heard from Sellers. I am the first human being to make contact with U-DO through the transfer experiment. I obtained this power then. But along with it, I was implanted with an inescapable fear. I trembled before that fear. I struggled against it and ran. And eventually, I realized that this fear was in fact what shackles people to the human realm. And to overcome that fear requires the power of a God."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev
XENOSAGA: Episode 3:
ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA