~ I know you~

~ I walked with you once upon a dream ~

~ I know you ~

~ the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam ~

"That would be the last night we ever spent beneath the same stars."

I'm sorry, Aqua. I should have been a better friend.

"When equal powers clash, their nature is revealed.""You see how powerless you are to save them?"

I'm sorry, Ven. I should have been a better brother.

"Remember that darkness lurks in every heart." "Let your whole heart blacken with anger!" "Push the darkness down, give it no quarter in your heart."

I'm sorry, Master… I should have been a better son.

"There's darkness within me…" "The darkness is nothing to fear."

This light...it's so warm.

This is my eternal punishment… to know I failed everyone I've ever loved…

His breathing was sharp and his forehead was slick with sweat even if he kept shivering as though he were freezing. His right hand kept flinching, twitching, tightening into a fist and motioning as though he were trying to draw something in the air.

His lips smacked together as he attempted to make any kind of noise draw out of his dry throat. The most he has ever mustered up the strength to say during his bedridden state was, 'sorry.' Over and over again.

Cinderella, who had been watching him throughout the night and now into the early morning, began to guess he was attempting to call his blade to his hand. To provide some sense of comfort in his weakened state. As if he could fight off a fever with brute strength.

However, he couldn't do so at the moment.

That magnificent weapon of his was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't with him when he came crashing through the atmosphere, and she didn't feel secure enough in his current health to go venturing out into the dark to look for it.

Not that she was sure she could lift such a heavy and dangerous weapon.

She has to assume due to his fugue state, that his blade couldn't be called now. Maybe having to do with intention and with strength. Not that he had either of those things at the moment.

Brushing his loose hair that hung over his forehead aside, she let her fingers trace the edges of his strong jaw line. The sensation of gentle fingers on his skin making his breath hike and his body tense.

She had hoped maybe he would recognize her tenderness and find it within himself to relax and steady his breath.

She placed a kiss against his forehead, to test how hot he was running and to just give the ill warrior a little affection. She was sure he would be grateful for the gesture if- when he stirred awake eventually.

He was still blisteringly hot to the touch, and she reached for the rag that had been resting in a bowl of iced water for some time now and let it rest against his forehead. His sharp hiss of discomfort was enough for her to cringe, her heart breaking in her chest. He was struggling so hard just to breathe.

"I'm so sorry." She whispers to him sweetly, her hand resting against his taut forearm and giving him a soft squeeze. Her eyes glistened with tears as his unfocused, barely lidded eyes glowered at the ceiling above him.

As much as she wished he could see her, he was far too gone in the pain to process her presence. He possibly didn't even know where he was at the moment, to be honest.

The constant ramblings of vague apologies and the murmured names of his companions echoed in the quarters that Cinderella had barreled him into after finding the Keyblade Wielder nearly dead just outside the estate. Crashing landing from among the stars.

It was an awful attempt to roll him into the wheelbarrow, her hands slipping off of his bloodstained armor more than just a couple of times on the pulls, and barreling him back into the groundskeeper's quarters to get him somewhere warm and safe was an effort that left her arms stinging and sore. He was dead weight at every opportunity.

And the rolling from wheelbarrow to straw mattress wasn't an easy transition, and she apologized profusely as he cried out in intense pain as he was shuffled.

The groundskeeper's housing was plain and droll, sporting a simple cot with a plain table and a chair too short of a leg. An open window without blinds or shutters.

Cinderella couldn't help but conclude they lost their groundskeeper not because he was 'asking for too much money' but because they had given him such a horrid place to rest at the end of each working day.

It was in abysmal shape, with hay covering the floors and the smell of horses and chickens permeating from the room. She would apologize from the less than stellar place to rest and recuperate.

It would have to make do for now. There was no way she was going to be carrying Terra up the stairs to her tower without arousing suspicion and so easily. Not only because he was heavy but because she couldn't believe he was still bleeding.

Terra's body was layered in sheets that he continued to bleed through and that were replaced. His body shifted ever so slightly to the discomfort he was feeling in his busted armor and a flash flood of blood would release immediately after. She didn't know if it was pooling in his armor and it would spill out at the right angle or if he was just continuing to hemorrhage.

And he continues to lose blood at this rate…

Cinderella's resolve had come, he needed immediate attention and his wounds needed to be bound. She wouldn't lose him. She won't.

This meant it was time to remove his armor from his body. Time to see what kind of damage he had sustained out there amongst the stars.

She carefully peeled back the sheets to examine the damage to make a plan of attack. Upon closer inspection, he was worse than she had initially thought.

His pauldrons and greaves were dented from devastating smites, there was a rupture in his abdomen with the jagged pieces of metal continually irritating and cutting into his stomach with every attempt at a deep stomach breath.

His bottom half was battered and bruised. His face was scored in open sores and fresh bubbling burn wounds. Cinderella leaned in close, grabbing hold of his wrist and attempting to pull off the gauntlet.

The initial pull didn't work, but with a measured and precise dip in the correct angle and slide, the glove was removed and his hand was bare. It was wet with sweat, the blood from his shoulders pooling in the digits of the gauntlet and spilling over the bed. Staining the straw beneath him.

"What happened, Terra? What happened out there?" She begged for him to say something. Something other than sorry. He didn't offer a single sound in return. She rested her forehead against his own, her breathing growing uneasy and the feeling of her head against his eased her racing thoughts. Closing her eyes and she recalled the night they shared once again. Terra coughed and wheezed, his hand shaking and tensing as his whole body recoils in pain. Cinderella brushes his cheek, soft coos ease out of her lips as she tries to comfort him. "I'm here, I'm right here. I've got you. Everything is going to be ok…"

I will return to you. I promise, my princess.

She took a measured breath, determination in her heart as she began to remove the other glove…

" It must be hard, you know?"

Terra's mindscape is a barren landscape, unseen floors coated in dense black fog as his eyes peek around for the owner of the voice. Seeing nothing in the dark but just boundless darkness.

" Failing, time and time again. And when it really mattered, when you needed to succeed more than any other time in your life, you called me back to help you. Eraqus would be so ashamed. "

However, when it wants to make itself known, that's when he sees it. It's golden eyes staring back at him in the dark.

"What are you?" Terra's hand goes to summon his Keyblade, only for nothing to materialize. The golden eyes bounce in a jovial way, huffing its subdued laughter. "Answer me!"

" Come on, boy. You know me. I'm that monster you have cornered in the room. " The voice echoed, its cackle reverberating off of the nonexistent walls and pounding in Terra's head. " I'm the Beast. I'm the Devil. The darkness of your heart. I'm everything you're scared of being. Everything you are scared of showing. "

Terra sees the eyes come close, its golden hued stare inches From his own. He throws a punch and it phases through the fog, not hitting anything but air.

" We always swing. " The voice uttered, disappointed in the attempt. " Come on, Terra. You know I'm not here. I'm never truly here. You are just dying and you want something to blame for your trespasses before your heart stops beating. Can't blame you for that. "

"Dying?" Terra's jaw clenched and his eyes went wide. His heartbeat echoed outside of his chest. Making his own body vibrate with each slowing thump. "I'm… dying?"

" It's a shock to me too, buddy. " The voice echoes, before it lets out a whine. " But you would rather face me with your last breaths than dwell on the memories of all those you've failed. Not that I can blame you, again. Why look back on happy memories knowing you are the one that made them all go to Hell? You ruined everyone's lives- "

"Shut up!" Terra roared, the eyes pulling back before growing to the size of moons. Looming over Terra with its antagonistic gaze. Terra didn't back down. "Shut up!"

" I can't! You're doing this to yourself! I'm only saying what you're thinking! Terrorize yourself and I'm going to do that for you! Want to blame yourself? Here I am! Blaming you! " The voice mirrored Terra's intense voice, before the sensation of warm lips were felt. Terra blinks, those eyes dimming and smoothing out to a mellow yellow glow instead of a heated golden light. " Where did that come from? "

"I'm so sorry." Her voice came out and echoed into the abyss. Terra's blood chills and his eyes dart to the direction of her voice. It couldn't be? Her?

Terra picks up his feet and runs, charging into the dark. Calling out for her in the dark.

"Cinderella!" His voice echoes for eternity. "Cinderella!"

The chest piece was the last piece of his armor that was attached and the one she was most terrified to remove. The clinking of its straps unbinding and coming loose enough to slip off. Revealing his bare broad torso to her.

She left it to lay against his cot, her eyes taking in the battered body of this warrior. He had been through a rough battle, there was no denying.

He was beaten purple and flushed red, with sores all across his body and swelling in the most harshly damaged areas. His torso plates along his breastplate were sundered by a direct strike, with an open wound that was still bleeding even now.

His mouth was ajar, a true breath of air entering his system and his chest shuddering as he was able to breathe so clearly and uninhibited by the stabbing shards of his armor.

Cinderella washed her hands clean, took up a needle and thread and got it sewn up. Muttering an apology when she dug the needle too deep or pulled the thread too tight.

The rest of the morning was spent placing the ice cold rag over the bruises that swelled, tenderly stitching up the open wounds and ensuring that he was still breathing.

Once the last stitch was snapped, the ice cold rag resting on the artery point along his wrist, and breathing easing enough that she swore he might've actually rested for at least half an hour before a rolling shock of pain in his body startled him awake.

She heard him echo out a breath of relief, and his body relaxing against the cot. Her eyes went wide as she felt his forehead with the back of her hand and mumbled a thoughtful prayer to the Light.

The fever broke and it was the first sign things could be turning around for the Keyblade Wielder. Which meant it was time to rest.

The sun was rising across the Tremaine Estate not long after, and Cinderella was laid back in the only chair in the groundskeeper's quarters, her hand intertwined with her noble resting knight as she counted her blessings and hoped he would be able to rest easy even for a little bit.

The Mysterious Tower

"Irresponsible." Was the first word out of Yen Sid's mouth as he got up out of his chair and walked along the edge of his desk. His thick brow furrowed as he stared at the Fairy Godmother. "Truly irresponsible. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Her eyes are pulled shut, her fingers tapping one another as she looks from her floor to the Grand Sorcerer. The huge man towering over her and glaring down at her.

"I was only trying my best to take care of-" The Fairy Godmother's eyes went wide as he rested the back of his hand against her shoulder. Her voice drew to a hush and was eventually silenced as Yen Sid shifted his eyes from the Fairy to the open window.

"I am not as cruel as to blame you for your due diligence." Yen Sid noted, his eyes glancing over the vastness of his domain. His feet carrying him to the window sill and his eyes staring out over the shimmering orange hued horizon. His thick brow pulled together into a harsh expression as he leans forward and rests his hands against the edges of his window frame. "We have a duty to ourselves and the worlds. To use our gifts for the benefit of all. Your commitment to the Princess is noble, and good. However, the depths of your love for her could have placed all of us in danger. You have upset the balance of the realm."

"She is in love, Master! To a boy who will lose his life!" The Fairy Godmother said, her hands fiddling with her wand before she walked over and rested it along the table top. Her thin ivory wand placed gingerly on the wooden desk. Her eyes squinted and her arms folding over one another. She stared at Yen Sid with a stern glare, offended that the Grand Master would be so curt with her. "I have committed to protecting and providing for my Princess. Just as we were ordered to. Aurora got the three good fairies to protect her, Princess Kairi is under the watchful eye of Merlin. You put Snow White under the protection of her step mother. Look how that turned out?"

The silence that immediately followed was telling. Yen Sid glances at the table, noticing that the Fairy Godmother was without her wand. He simply nods, shutting his eyes. His scowl is prominent and takes focus and measured breaths.

"I cannot fault you for loving your Princess." Yen Sid stated sincerely, hands shifting from the windowsill to rest at his sides. He bowed in respect to the good Fairy. "I respect your commitment to your world."

"Master Yen Sid-"

"It doesn't beat my commitment to the realm."

Yen Sid's hands rose and in a blinding flash of light, the Fairy Godmother's body grew rigid and became encased in stone. Having her breath taken from her body. It was so quick, she didn't have a chance for her reaction to be shown on her face.

She looked to be in the middle of her solemn speech when Yen Sid had the draw on her and casted the spell.

Yen Sid, with an unburdened loosening of his shoulders, tugged on his sleeves and walked along the edge of his desk, grabbing the Fairy Godmother's wand and inspecting it thoughtfully.

He felt the humming of power that she held in her wand and the enormity of responsibility that she was tasked with using with wisdom and with courage.

He gave a solemn nod, acknowledging the good things she had done and the years of service she had provided to the realm. A moment passed where he wanted to snap the wand and keep it from falling into the hands of those that would use it thoughtlessly.

"It's such a pity." He whispered gently to himself as he tucked the wand away in his sleeve. He returned to his seat, smoothed out his vestment, and rested on his decision. "You were a trusted friend. But we must not threaten the balance."