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CHAPTER 64:
CRUX OF COMPROMISE
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Author's Notes: The music for this Chapter is, in order of scene: 'Faraway Promise,' from the XENOGEARS Original Soundtrack, Disc One; and after it, until the end of the Chapter, 'Godsibb,' from the XENOSAGA Episode Three Original Sound Best Tracks, Disc Two. Both compositions can be found in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section.
Sora didn't want to still be awake, and aware.
If he wasn't leaning against Kairi's left side, with the firmly steadying solid warmth of her arm around his back holding him up as his back rested against one of the backs of the shoddy couches built from hastily fitted down filled cushions, and sticks, and with the just as stable surely solid protective warmth of her shoulder below his head, and her side against his own, as the beating of her heart against his side, lulled the terrified despair, and all of the pain, and hurt, away, he extremely highly doubted he would still be calm enough to have not fallen asleep from exhaustion, or at least be able to process what was going on in his vicinity.
If not from the bleached stark indelible horror of everything that had happened since he'd set foot on Toy Box, until he'd murdered an innocent little girl, while compelling Kairi, and Riku, to do so along with him, with their own hands, themselves; from the draining aches that still reverberated all throughout him of Maleficent's Black Fang, and Biting Cold.
Kairi was here, though.
Riku wasn't here.
Jiminy could never be here, once again.
But Donald, and Goofy, were standing on the opposite side of the couch from the side of his Kairi was sitting on, not holding him as they literally kept him on his feet, but standing watch to ensure Kairi could.
He couldn't even truly call out to Kairi, just as much as Riku had been correct about Donald and Goofy.
However, Kairi, and Donald, and Goofy, were still here.
He was still a part of their hearts, held close in their hearths.
Kairi, and Donald, and Goofy, were still a part of his own; just as his own right arm was wrapped around Kairi's back to hold her against him, to seek to give her, and them, surely solid warmth, whether they were sharing this time, or thinking of each other, and one another, over the distance.
Even though Sora wished it wouldn't, that still kept all the aching terror and despairing agonies away enough there was a point to staying awake.
Back home.
And this time, all of them were on the shores of a fjord during winter vacation.
They'd all made it back, yes.
Is Ava really the same as Peter Pan, or the young Mickey?
She's in Kairi's heart, not the Timeless River, or a world where time doesn't rush the same, so how doesn't that tie her to the rest of you the same way Roxas, and Ven, a
Sora drew what warm and revitalizing strength he could from Kairi's embrace, and nearness, to push those thoughts to the side.
That, at least, was something he could worry about another time.
Because there was no way to avoid what they'd all returned home to.
For the second time, Sora had failed to keep a war from breaking out.
The potential for collateral damage to the realm of light, and its denizens, if not the World itself, was far tinier, unless this did incite the interstellar war Mickey was so terrified Elsa would cause, was far less.
But that meant little when, this time, there was a far greater likelihood countless more people would, not lose their hearts, or have them shattered, or fall asleep, or even lose their memories, but die.
Does this mean you admit death is a question of numbers, and it makes a difference the sole casualties the first time were Kairi's father, her middle siblings, and Eraqus?
In addition, even if the worst that happened to everyone involved, or most of the people involved, this time around, was that they fell into some kind of darkness, it would happen to far too many people for Sora to attempt to be with them in their last instants, or nearly so, and at least see them off.
I'm certain you were really able to turn all those frowns upside down, and send all those people into the next life, or onto a shore across, if not within, another dark ocean, by casting those hearts off on the laughter of their Gummi ships after you couldn't think of a way to do it without beating them bloody and black until they had no bones left they could utilize to turn their frowns from your smiles.
Oh, right. Xemnas did retain enough vitality to turn his back to you, in the end; while the past Riku Replica didn't even get the chance, seeing as he got slung like the sack of assembly components, or produce, he is over the shoulder of the present Riku Replica when he went bone Gummi voyage back into the realm of darkness.
Sora drew more solid assurance from Kairi's close embrace to push the thoughts away.
Her hold shifted, and while its protectiveness didn't lessen, it now clasped him as though he was a lifeline she was drawing desperate assurance from, but as though she might not be aware she was.
Sora pulled Kairi closer against his own side, and he shifted his own arm to hopefully be more assuring and securely reassuringly sure, as he attempted to place the reason for this.
"You requir"
"Why he"
However, no matter how much he let himself drown in Kairi's solid warmth, and how safely the calm clarity of her hold kept agony and terror too far to genuinely take in, he couldn't register it.
Or what had been clawing at him for so long that, above all, this was what he should have spoken to Kairi about before he'd been cast off from Destiny Islands for Lacuna within, or tied to, The Final World.
Lightness filled him that, whatever it was, even if the Foretellers could predict the forthcoming battle enough to nudge things more than they already had, he'd very likely remember the answer soon.
If the battle didn't remind him, perhaps Robert, whoever he was, with his legal skills, could assist Sora in deciphering what was so far in the farthest reaches of his heart his mind had been refusing to think about it, or what it truly meant, since
"You must see to the tasks before you first."
"The tasks before me? There's so many."
"All the more reason for you to make an effort."
"My friends… are my power!"
That was true, but this time, Sora could almost believe it was the same thing as his refusal to acknowledge who was among the new Unions.
And, even securely held in the near warmth of Kairi's embrace for this long, Sora still couldn't call up the conviction he'd once held in his beliefs.
If he was honest with himself, he hadn't truly been able to si
Robert.
Anna had found Robert for him.
All Sora needed to do was find Robert himself, and this would all go away.
Still, Kairi was here, blanketing him in the quieting and assuring protective revitalization of her warmth.
Donald, and Goofy, were right nearby, safeguarding him as they had themselves, from afar, and near.
Sora hadn't genuinely been in a position to attempt to stop this war.
It was just as premature to give up hope he could do so, as it had been any other time.
While Goofy had already thought of a way for them to accomplish the insurmountable, and defeat prophecy itself.
It had almost certainly been a lost cause to attempt to keep the Note Blade from becoming smelted, but it had still been sealed away behind a lock no one but Sora, or another Kye-Blade, could open.
Sora even had valid reasons to believe, because he'd used the Kye-Blades, literally no Kye-Blade but Sora's could do it.
And that meant, as long as Sora never chose to do so, they'd already beaten Yozora, Luxu, and the Foretellers.
So what if Maleficent had learned from eavesdropping on the Xehanorts, and so many previous losses?
They'd beaten her once, and they could keep doing it.
This last time, or, if necessary, however many times they needed to until she recognized, no matter how much effort she put into it, they'd stand between her and her goals until she was at last willing to take things to the treaty table.
Kairi's brothers, or not, Terra-Xehanort now melded with a Xehanort who was already young, or not; the Xehanorts were, for certain, down to two, now.
They'd lost over half their selves, including the real, most experienced one who had passed the Mark of Mastery Exam and, formality or not, had shown himself as worthy of being termed Keyblade Master.
Anyone else, Sora could contend with the same way he had the other denizens of darkness who had been affiliated with unaligned factions, or operating on their own, including Empyreal, and Mare.
Even if this war was destined, this was no more a lost cause than even their apparent defeat by Kairi's Demon Tide, or Xehanort's completion of the Kye-Blade, had been.
There may still be a way to stop it.
Robert was out there.
Robert would make it all better.
And, if even Ralph, and Vanellope, could keep each other in their hearts under the conditions they had, Sora could keep in his heart the chamber there was no more binds to how people could think of, and feel for, each other, and one another, than anything could govern destiny.
He'd added other chambers to his heart since this journey began, the same way he had during his other adventures.
And, as long as he could cry, he could love.
Turning his mind to them, Sora could tell the fatigue from the Black Fang, and the rest of his battle with Maleficent, still ached with marrow deep pulses.
However, even though Sora knew much of this was due to the reassurance of Kairi's embrace, it wasn't as effortless as when he was at his most warily alert to discern his surroundings, and his internal state.
It had been too long since he'd opened his eyes.
Sora was going to stop this battle, and war, from unspooling, at all.
Sora looked to his left, and, across the cracked hard packed brown boulevard between the igloos that led down a slope to what used to be the bridge between Arendelle and the fjord, Sora could see Roxas sitting with his back resting against the rear of the chair he was upon, keeping watch.
Sora knew Roxas' mind was as elsewhere as Sora's own, but he also trusted in Roxas' own devotion to his vows, and his year of training in the first Organization Thirteen learning how to gain full alertness the instant someone, or something, required him to.
"About time, sleepy bum," Kairi commented from Sora's side, and Sora could breathe a little easier there was still a sizeable amount of mirth that wasn't forced in her voice.
"I was thinking over whether flicking, or poking, your eyes, was a better way to wake you."
The lightness increased at how much mirth could also rush to fill him without the need to force it.
"I wasn't aware the flowers on Destiny's Embrace were enough of a green thumb to beat Darksides," Sora commented with fatigued ease.
A better joke might be about Kairi waking him up with a kiss on the lips, but whether light remained in the deepest darkness, or black devoured all colors, any faith Sora could have retained his heart possessed pure light, in any of its shapes, had been erased after she'd kissed him on the lips before they'd all
without Jiminy
at last gone on a true adventure through a whole world, albeit one comprised of a whale altered into a biomechanical battleship by an incantation.
Mirth such as that belonged with ephemeral whimsies, in a reality where the sole light the black couldn't devour were his tears.
"The last Mickey told me, your ordinary sword didn't do any better to enable you to fend for yourself against that Darkside."
The humor was still in Kairi's tones, but there was now the same lack of even the energy that should have been there before they'd reunited in the real Scala ad Caelum.
The aches permeating everything down to foundations deeper than Sora's most intrinsic marrow were once more present, as Sora recognized enough hours should have passed since they'd returned Donald, Goofy, and himself, at least, should be rested enough they could defend the others effectively if anyone struck.
Or, if the soldier spoke up about a particular topic, who had walked up to Roxas hours ago with the purpose of one intending to convey orders to someone, but who had then remained at a distance on alert for any danger, clearly having been told to wait to convey them until totally necessary unless Roxas inquired of the soldier's presence first.
"Your time has run out.
"And your meaningless existence along with it."
"It is too late."
"You must see to the tasks before you first."
"For us, perhaps… but not for them."
"All the more reason for you to make an effort."
It was time to ask Kairi what, precisely, Sora had abandoned her to by refusing to confront the truth of who was waiting for her.
Sora pushed himself up with his left arm, while keeping his other around Kairi.
Then he turned to place that spare arm around her and tug her in his direction with both, to let her know she could fall against him.
Kairi flinched, though, and all she did was bring her other arm around his own back, with sure protectiveness that didn't feel as though it was attempting to draw anything from him, and then drop her forehead tiredly against his, clearly intending to let him know she wasn't going to shut him out this time, but she also didn't want him to carry her hurt now.
Sora pushed the anguish warping his insides away.
"What was it that happened, or you found out, this time?" he questioned, and lightness returned at how it took no effort to keep his voice steady.
Kairi's face didn't just remove all sentiment from itself.
She closed her eyes, obviously not wanting to risk them betraying anything to him, or anyone else.
"Before I can ask you to carry this hurt with me, I have a question of my own.
"And I want you to be honest with yourself when you answer it, and not just with me."
Sora started.
What could Kairi possibly believe he wouldn't be willing to be honest with himself about, if the alternative was lying to her, even without being aware of it?
"You know that D"
"But no matter who you c"
Though, Sora couldn't place this, as well.
The surroundings of the space and nebulae flecked star strewn vista where Sora had brought Mickey's light to the other guardians were superimposed as the inside of a transparent globe, rippling as though it were a curtain, over the solid surroundings of the repairing Arendelle.
Sora was now sitting, all by himself, on the familiar parched and chapped wastes of the crossroads in the Keyblade Graveyard from which Xehanort had forged the Skein of Severance, under a familiar overcast sky now flooded with a funnel of untold hearts suspended in a preserved spiral up in the direction of Kingdom Hearts.
Adumbrating all of their surroundings, dropping past the edges of what should have been the horizon of the Keyblade Graveyard in all directions, to rise farther than his eyes could discern, was the walls of a vortex of haphazardly dancing, twirling motes in pale, faded shades, or grays.
In front of him, in the center of the crossroads, rested the familiar Black Box.
Before it stood Yozora's Heartless, but with an even more reserved arrangement to his visage, and stance, that told Sora it wasn't the Yozora he'd first met he was talking to, with an ordinary Kingdom Key Starlight in his left hand, and another, in his right one, with the same reversal of hilt and blade colors that Mickey's Kingdom Key Darkness had possessed Sora knew it was a Kingdom Key Starlight Darkness of its own.
The barest traces of a carved out, concave, thinly fissured, emptily broken smile curved up the corners lips of someone Sora knew could solely be one person.
"At final.
"You did it.
"Welcome back.
"Or, should I say, for the first true time, at all:
"Welcome.
"And this time, you weren't so deranged as to spend a lot of time and effort attempting to stop a war before you arrived, this time to genuinely tread its soil.
"Welcome to the bottom of the abyss.
"Welcome to the threshold of Lacuna."
"You have, Kye-Blade, at lastly, closed your heart off to all your lights in the darkness.
"I have been waiting; unknowable more ages than it will take the last red dwarf stars, and super giants, remaining in a silent cosmos three hundred trillion years long since parched of the last scraping and wheezing traces of hearts and life to wither to the ashen black dwarfs, and the pulsar headstones of dead gray crystal, that quietly herald forever lasting vacantness to no one, and no thing, that has never cared the palest glimmer, as all the particles left in every universe that once could have been break apart into the last perpetual cold of any tomorrow; for this."
Roxas jolted violently at the sight of white, so bone chalk pale it was almost see through, washing over Sora the same way he'd vanished into clarity over a year ago, for him to disappear, this time from not just under Kairi's hand, but inside the embrace of her arms itself.
handsandarmsreachingforSoraashecollapsedintoscintillatinglightinavaultofcarpetedpurplewithalargekeyholeofstormingglaringcolors
transparentlettersdancinginfrontofhimwithaforestbehindhimandXemnasbeforehim
Kairi's mouth dropped open, and she moved her arm, and hand, to call Destiny's Embrace.
Before she could, however, or the light where Sora had been did more than dim a little, Goofy was already corkscrewing through the air with Donald holding onto his heels.
Both of them sailed into the light, vanishing into it wholly as it faded, leaving behind no evidence Sora, Donald, or Goofy had once been there.
Coils were swiveling around Kairi's hand.
They vanished themselves, as the silhouette of someone Roxas knew could solely be Ava flickered over Kairi.
A larger, transparent silhouette, that of the card Luxord had given Sora before what he'd believed would be his second recompletion had fully begun, appeared in front of Roxas.
"I can't keep this open for long," what must be Ava's voice called to him from past it.
"All I have time to tell you is Luxord went off on his own after Sora returned to practice the abilities of a Heartreaver himself, so this should take you to him while keeping your heart intact.
"Donald and Goofy have no idea what they're in for.
"I barely have enough reserves to even do this, so this may be my last chance to say this.
"I'm all but certain of it now.
"Ven saw the vision of Kairi, and Faerie traveled to Gaes, for the same reason.
"It's because–"
"I am not a marionette," Kairi snarled with savagely vicious determined hate at herself, and terror for Sora.
"Neither is Ava," Mare snarled with exasperated fury, as she unwound from a black cannonball and landed at Roxas' side with both of her hands inside an ordinary colored Blox hovering before her as though it were a keyboard, positioned closer to the giant card than he was to make it clear, whatever was past it, she wasn't letting him go in there without her.
"We can ensure Sora won't get stranded anywhere, to begin with, this time, unless you're the one to act like a reckless loon, and so, this time around, do it."
Kairi inhaled a drawn breath, but she didn't say anything.
"Ava may have used up her current chance to tell us anything, but I recognize so much of what's past that door I was able to arrange its tapestry of great heart memory into something I can actually hack, to a limited degree.
"Before Kairi cut Ava off, whatever dark world heart lies across this door, its tapestry oscillated the same way the data in Pete's memories about the Cornerstone of Light did."
Roxas started.
He didn't know if it was what Elsa had said, or Runeard, or both.
However, his insides shifted slightly.
Because if the Cornerstone of Light was to light what Lacuna was to darkness, and Yozora, and the Foretellers, while they hadn't denied it held a place in their machinations, had referred to it far less than anything else, Roxas could now sincerely believe he knew what the genuine puzzle was they should have been assembling for so long.
They shouldn't have been asking what Yozora, Luxu, and the Foretellers wanted to use the true, or an artificial, Kingdom Hearts for, in order to conceptualize a New World of false pure light.
Kingdom Hearts, in all its variations, had been nothing more than part of an intricate diversion to ensure they remained jumping at silhouette after shade safeguarding any present or potential Kingdom Hearts, all while they kept their attention off another of the Foretellers' essential targets the whole time.
The Cornerstone of Light.
Or, whatever what they called the Cornerstone of Light was, itself.
Who was Roxas attempting to kid?
Sora had first encountered the Cornerstone of Light after Roxas, and Xion, had returned to him; he'd visited a time when Xehanort and Eraqus were still best friends with Roxas, and Xion, within him; much of the data of Sora's first adventure, that, for the most part, Roxas, and Xion, hadn't been present for, had been reconstructed in its presence; and time travel that partially defied to ordinary constraints on it had been accomplished in its presence.
"Mickey," Xion's voice sounded from the Blox, horror and recrimination, even with everything Xion had gone through since she'd discovered she was still siphoning him, and others, that caused Roxas to feel like he was about to throw up.
"Did Chip and Dale utilize the Cornerstone of Light to develop your version of Gummi technology, and just how widely used is it in worlds with interstellar civilizations by now?"
Mickey inhaled with sharply harsh horror of his own.
There was an almost mirthful, broken defeat in Mickey's voice now.
"We've applied bits and pieces of the methods of Gummi technology other star faring civilizations have implemented, but the Cornerstone of Light is still the blueprint for almost everything we've done with our Gummi technology.
"The Foretellers don't have as precise a manual as before for how to bring Synchronicity Perceptual into being, but they don't need it, any longer."
"Roxas… I'm out of time."
"You just trailed behind Sora as one of the shadows he casts, as usual.
"That's what caused the light to expose their filth for what it is; you could never have done it all by yourself, landfill of even darkness."
"This puppet will have to play her part."
"Now you'll see!"
nonowaynono
nostaynoaway
Roxas didn't understand why, this time, the erasing and searing clearing terror wasn't almost gibbering.
"I believed I was upholding the world order, so there are still countless worlds that don't utilize it.
"But with all the ones that do apply it, and all the Heartless and Nobodies that have hijacked its tech, and all the events that have catalyzed its spread over the last decades, my culture has effectively given all of the observable realm of light the ability to construct walls, and store information within those walls, wherever it so chooses."
Xion's words were now composed, and matter of fact.
"Thus meaning, while Xehanort, Vanitas, Maleficent, Ursula, and the others have been running a smokescreen for all these years, and also spurring the growth of Gummi technology, another End of the World, or The World That Never Was, has been constituting itself right under our noses.
"This, also, has been going on for all these millennia, since the first Gummi technology was established in Daybreak Town, and when the realms were first sundered.
"But I'm the one who accelerated the process.
"And, unlike the End of the World, or The World That Never Was, by now, this World That Never Was, and End of the World, is almost finished.
"All it needs is the last piece.
"The great heart.
"And the Final Door that opens upon it."
It didn't matter why the fright, and self hate, wasn't nearly gibbering, now, however.
How Roxas shouldn't have been able to feel altered nothing.
He moved in the direction of the card door, silver and black already coiling around his hands.
An ascending, tall sheet of ice lanced diagonally between Roxas, and Mare, and the silhouette of the door to wherever Sora was, preventing Roxas from reaching it.
"Hold your ground, Roxas," Elsa called from the side in her regal voice.
Before Roxas could respond, though, thick, dirt mired rivulets of water dribbled and flowed without warning from the top of the ice wall, streaming down the surface of frost Roxas was gazing at and swirling together as though it were coagulating paint.
The pools of water heaved and rippled as though they were storm tossed seas, and familiar locations appeared within each of them.
Roxas felt his eyes become wide as he registered what this meant.
Elsa can track Maleficent through Ahtoha
"Roxas," Axel's voice sounded from one of the nearby images, with an uncertain hardness to it Roxas hadn't heard since before he'd totally recompleted within Sora.
In the image just to Roxas' left, and rising from the height of his knees to above his head, Roxas, wearing an all too familiar black coat with its hood down, caked and matted blood all over the sides of his face, and what was visible of his hands, with the coat's hood hanging down in tatters behind burnt and shredded hair, stood facing Axel where Isa had once attempted to prevent him from quitting the first Organization Thirteen with Oathkeeper and Oblivion in his hands, while Axel stood where Roxas had.
"Axel."
"Shut up!"
"How many times do I have to beat you?"
There was no delineation between anything but the image, as the entirely and utterly never any yawning abyss of compact layered diamond hard desperate hate and fury in that Roxas' voice consumed away clearly erased all of not couldn't inevitably haves.
"Get out of my way."
Axel shrugged his shoulders in well practiced, forced nonchalance that didn't mask what the Roxas of this worldline knew he must be feeling inside.
"Sure thing, depending on where you're headed."
"I'm going to visit Kingdom Hearts, and recover all the hearts we supplied it."
Axel's mouth dropped open.
"Don't try to talk me out of it."
Axel's face settled into confident determination, and he shifted into a battle ready stance, his hands raised to call his chakrams to them.
"Then you've made my decision for me.
"We both know what will happen to you if I let you do that."
The other Roxas snarled, an undiluted sound of absent all and any bridles distilled hate that wasn't even the wordless cry of a Dusk incapable of human speech, but the sounds of a practically feral, cornered animal coiling to spring with the rapidity of Xemnas at his most deft.
this is me
someone who wasn't either Roxas must be thinking that
the thought was coming from somewhere else, severed separate and without feeling disjointed from any other not awareness
this is the night below the realm of darkness we've been attempting to dive into
this is what I would have become if I'd beaten Riku
this is the unblemished soldier Xemnas wanted me to be
"Don't even think it.
"The poser who kept giving us so many problems just tried to stop me, himself, and as soon as he lowered his guard because I was on my back, I opened the jugular in his throat, took his head clean off, and then I crushed his heart with the points of both these Keyblades, and then their handles, to make sure he was dead."
Genuine terror, clearly not for himself, passed swiftly over Axel's face.
Flames washed out from his palms in all directions, and the two partitions of Eternal Flame were in both hands and shifted into a neutral position, one ready to be thrown horizontally, the other up vertically to shield Axel, within fragments of seconds.
A different kind of determination appeared on Axel's face, before it settled into a visage as emotionless as the earliest ones Roxas had seen.
"So that's how it's going to be, huh."
Axel's words were almost dead now, and hopeless, but with a solid determination that now said he would win this battle, whatever it took.
"I'm sorry, Saix."
The other Roxas spasmed as if the entirety of a Thundaza's current had coursed through him.
The words of his speech were contained, but they were no less the animal reverberations of a soulless soldier who had cast away his humanity than the earlier snarl had been.
"You have the unmitigated nerve for him to be the one to whom you apologize?
"After you let her die from even her legacy itself?"
Axel started.
The Roxas of this worldline processed darkness was closing upon the edges of his vision, and oxygen was coming faintly.
The other Roxas went fully and utterly stiff.
"You already don't remember her at all, do you!?
"This is all your fault, everything, the entire nightmare, every single instant of hurt she went through wouldn't have happened if not for you!
"And you've already forgotten all about her!?
"You can go ahead and join her!"
Xion sat in the Usual Spot talking with Hayner, Olette, and Pence, sound refusing to form into words as they discussed a thief while reality fell up and away into blackness before him
Sora's Shadow rose out of the cobblestones of Twilight Town while Roxas tripped down the steps of Radiant Garden's grand hall in front of the Final Keyhole to fall uncoordinated onto his face
Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie stood over an unconscious Xion resting in Kairi's bed in her room in the Mayor's house as Roxas clutched his head as he lay on the ground on the play islet with the fallen paopu trunk
Sora's arms gave out as he attempted to raise them to block the strike from the Keyblade of Hearts as Xehanort's Heartless chopped down in Riku's body, and the Keyblade of Hearts smoothly cut down into Sora's head, his body rippling as though it had become a pond of its own around the Keyblade for it to carve into Sora's heart
his body fragmented into scintillating and dancing embers of light for Roxas to appear on his back at the feet of Riku's, and Kairi's bodies, blinking and uncertain, and Namine to do the same on her torso, perpendicular across Kairi and facing down as Kairi's heart rose into the air and, without Sora willingly freeing it from its danger, it shuddered in suspended equipoise between the grip of Aqua's cantrip and the torsion of the incomplete Keyblade of Hearts wielded by the Heartless of a more experienced Keyblade Master in the body of a novice wielder as he sought to drag it back into Kairi, and there complete both its Keyblade and the Door to Darkness
it gyrated and spun haphazardly on an axis in the direction of Roxas and Namine as though, whether or not the enchantment was attempting to uncover; if sending Kairi's heart into Namine might give Xehanort's Heartless what he wanted anyway, or perhaps wake Kairi up without completing the Final Keyhole; or whether the Keyblade of Hearts would even work on a Nobody, or, at least one who wasn't Kairi's, the way it had on Sora; and which of the two was the safest vessel to fall back into, indecisive about which Nobody to hide in, then back in the direction of Kairi, then back in another direction toward one of the Nobodies
in the periphery, Goofy pounded on the sides of the invisible barrier with his shield, and Donald alternately shot Blizzard incantations of varying tiers and potency at the barrier in front of him, or Thunders of differing tiers and might at the barrier above Xehanort's Heartless, seeking to break through and go to where Sora had been, or, at least, distract Xehanort's Heartless enough Kairi's heart could retreat into Roxas or Namine
something soft and powdery struck, and shifted against the back of
clear blue sky and clouds drifting within it
"It's been too long, Mickey."
the voice was unfamiliar
"Larsa?
"I knew you might make this journey yourself, and you really did go to the trouble.
"You're an Emperor, not a Princess of Heart glowing a last light in the darkness.
"But, welp, it still appears you may be just in time."
liquid obscured everything
black followed it
Sora pushed anything but his guard away with the strength, and clarity of heart and mind, he'd drawn from Kairi's protective warmth.
It left, right away, as Sora jumped to a stably balanced posture on his feet.
Childhood's Laughter whirled into his right hand in a wash of light, but Sora couldn't risk calling the Kye-Blade here, at all.
Sora registered the heft of an unfamiliar Keychain in his right pocket.
Tidus must have located it nearby, and put it in Sora's pocket when Sora wasn't paying attention, and he hadn't even genuinely processed placing Tidus on the platform.
Or, at some point after Sora had placed him on his back.
Sora knew better than to lower his guard to an opponent such as this, though, or the body he was utilizing.
Empyreal just snorted quietly.
"If it was a fight I was looking for, you'd already be on your back, if even conscious.
"You're not here because I want your heart, your life, or both.
"You're here because I'm not certain the upcoming battle will be enough of a flashpoint it will kindle the interstellar war Mickey fears.
"I learned the last futility of attempting to prevent, or stop, a war long ago.
"All we'll accomplish, if we seek to do so, is to just demonstrate to the people we hold the dearest, and to ourselves, we really all are nothing more than a morass of meat evaporating into a fading pool of cells in a vacuum endless and infinite of its absence of point that nevertheless gasps inching and crawling on its belly onward in the parched paleness.
"That even the abyss that could have once stared into the quietly disintegrating particles when all space and history gutters out that would have been able to prove to anything that came after our hearts, and what we felt within them, once existed will inexorably become buried by the shriveling up of time and space until there is no residue left after the last drop of blood has been spilled, not even the infinite zero approaching eternal null.
"And I will not stand by while Strelitzia, Ephemer, Skuld, and my Chirithy journeys beyond even the horizon of infinite zero, and arrives at forever mӧbius.
"You're here to ensure the forthcoming battle ignites an interstellar total war between Arendelle, and the Foretellers, by the chalk dead salt of your hands at relaxed quietude powdered to flakes of ash by mine."
.
"Sense has nothing to do with it. It just is."-Luke Skywalker
"This is what you were talking about, right? What did that ruskakk do to you?"-Nick Rostu
"He infected me."-Luke Skywalker
"Infected–? With some kind of disease or something? A parasite? What?"-Nick Rostu
"Worse. He infected me with the truth."-Luke Skywalker
"Huh?"-Nick Rostu
"That it's all a joke. Not even a funny one. A pointless, stupid waste. A spark of suffering extinguished to eternal nothingness. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no… this can't be happening!"-Luke Skywalker
"What? Skywalker, talk to me!"-Nick Rostu
"It's not me inside the stone. It's not me hanging in the Dark at the end of the Universe. It's her. It's going to be her."-Luke Skywalker
"Her who?"-Nick Rostu
"Leia. My sister."-Luke Skywalker
STAR WARS:
LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR