#terraquanort

[mimiplaysgames]

And There Are Storms We Cannot Weather (Ch. 3)

Pairing: Terranort x Anti-Aqua Rating: M Word Count: 3,303

Summary: Terranort baits her into following him—straight to Castle Oblivion.

Read on AO3

A/N: First fic of 2021 and I had to give it to the dark OTP. I spent weeks insecure about this chapter, but it’s thanks to @lyssala​ for reading through it and assuaging my fears. This is honestly the end of... the easiest part of this fic ljgfjlgfjfklgj I’ve really got my work cut out for me. Thank you all for your patience, feels like it’s been a while!

~*~*~*~*~

My Worst Brings Out The Best In You

Waking up is nothing like how she remembers it to be. Soreness ruptures her back, and her skin jolts as she peels off of knuckles of stone that dug in all night. She barely remembers if she dreamt. What she really can’t recall is if there’s such a thing as a refreshing morning. 

To top it all off, her ass is numb. Aqua groans when she stands up, stretching as hot gusts blow into the cave, throwing dust to her legs, caking the armor, nudging the shadows as they stir. Besides the wind rolling pebbles along, there’s no noise to enjoy in the Badlands, all the sun glaring down on bleached red sand.

The first thing she does is not breakfast (she must), nor a wash (she should), but to close her eyes, reading darkness. Maybe he woke up, too. 

He did.

He’s here.

Aqua shushes her Heartless. They’re squirming, reacting to the way her heart is pounding. At the mouth of the cave, Aqua surveys where she should go. The Badlands splay out with endless sunlight, no shade to cover her except for a passing dust storm. It’s not a view she’d share with anyone; it’s the worst place to sneak around. She’d be like a marker with a giant arrow, her shadow stretching to grotesque proportions depending on the way the light hits her.  If she’s going to titter around this exposed, she’d better make it count.

She starts by running then she fades away into clouds of smoke, magnetized to the nearest cool spot beneath a plateau, a stark, black slice across the dirt. Here she’ll recover and look for a different spot. As long as it heads in the same direction. 

It’s after the third resting place, a tunnel cutting through a mountain, that she notices she’s heading towards the Graveyard. Well, if she heads west she’d reach it. But her gut feeling—a twinge in her nostrils—veers her slightly north. When Aqua steps out amidst a precipice, she spots a gathering of oddly skinny rock towers stretching to touch the sky. No natural force could have made them.

On each of these towers stands a cloaked figure. Different heights, different hierarchies, with hearts inexperienced, lost, angry, bored, apathetic. There’s one with a third mind. Regardless, they all reflect the image of an old man somehow, like a plague they’ve infected themselves with. 

Ah, there he is, wearing black like all the rest. 

She inches closer, melting into a shadow cut off by a boulder, peeking over the edge. On the tallest tower is someone she hates to recognize. The only one without a hood. Bald. Old. Breathing with the excitement of a bully crushing dirt into another child’s hair. He’s about to land something big and Aqua knows what it is but she doesn’t care anymore. She just wants him dead for stealing.

Xehanort waves a hand and Aqua ducks back. He couldn’t have seen her. 

But when she risks a glance, most of the figures burst into a fire of purple and black, disappearing. 

Except for the only one she wants, of course.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if they knew she was there. Aqua thrusts forward, gliding over the sand, flying up parallel to one of the rock towers until she gracefully floats back on her feet at the top. 

He stands across from her, a field of what looks like ruins in the distance behind him. He takes off his hood and draws a proud smirk on his face.

“I’ve proposed they take care of you,” he says, proceeding to undress his gloves one finger at a time.

It’s a funny way of saying he asked them to get rid of her, and maybe Aqua should be nervous about it, but she tells herself that she can handle twelve nameless men. That is, until she thinks about their empty spots in this ritual circle.

Is this supposed to intimidate her? She has to hand it to him, he’s got spine. “Looks like they left you to do it yourself.”

There’s a flash—a knot at the edge of one eyebrow—of a shot of rage, like he’s about to chew her head off. Then he flashes teeth. He smiles too much.

“Then we shall begin,” he says, rolling his shoulders. “Mind a detour?”

Energy sparks at the tips of her fingers, readying a Keyblade but she stops short of summoning it. A detour? He’s not making a move. Aqua leads a staredown, watching for signs of what he’s plotting.

But he doesn’t plot. He steps backward off his pillar with that ridiculous gremlin smile as if to let himself fall. An inky doorway swirls open and swallows him whole. 

Aqua bursts across the chasm, throwing herself into the same portal. She won’t lose him this time.

She lands on a muddy, brittle pathway suspended in the air, where clouds blot the sky so there’s no horizon to see. She lands on what could have been where she first conjured her very own Rainfell. Where she slapped Terra in the face that one and only time. Where she made love to him, where she picked up her Master’s abandoned Keyblade for the first and last time—it’s all erased here, ground and packaged into a single path where even the mountains eroded to dust. It’s worse than the Badlands. It’s home. 

The castle stands in the same condition she left it in years ago: painted the color of stale, crusty shit and topped with a bright turquoise roof, like a surprise gift to give your worst enemy. Warped with upright towers, towers that jut out to the side, and towers that hang upside down, it’s disjointed and bizarre, a puzzle with mismatched pieces forced together. Which is exactly the point: let the intruder wander, let him be lost, let him forget and enjoy the oblivion. 

He has thrown away his cloak at the entrance of the castle, Terra’s armor adorning his left arm. He has his back to her but there’s a tension in his shoulders as though he’s pretending not to notice she’s behind him. 

There’s one reason, and one only, why he’d bring her here. Aqua readies the Keyblade.

“Like an animal,” he quips. She can imagine him snickering. “Always prepared to deal the first blow.”

She strikes. He dodges. She’s right—he is snickering, making a show of gripping the door handle like bait asking to get caught. “Stop,” she hisses. Which is stupid. Of course he wouldn’t.

Of course he’d turn the handle. Of course he’d glance at her, tilting his head as an invitation to come inside with him. 

“You don’t have the right!” she yells.

He laughs, leaving the door open for her. 

Terra. She could lose him today, forever. If they spend hours wandering the rooms of this castle, they’d lose memories with no way to predict which ones go first. The painful? The nostalgic? Either way, there’s no such thing as Terra and Aqua holding hands if they are gone.

Aqua tackles the front door before it slams in her face. It’s heavy, resisting her at first before swaying momentum and throwing her off balance. Instead of a grand entrance hall with a proud foyer, luscious stained glass displays, mirrored marbled stairways, and a warm hello, it’s just one room. 

An empty blank room, so clean that she’s the stain, framed by polished sculptures and a rose dais she doesn’t recognize. It’s not like she had a design in mind when she transformed the castle. There’s no memory of where this came from, no record of it ever written. Not even from Eraqus, who had an idea and not a clue. She takes one step; it echoes like a screech. The white on white on white glare back. The walls stand like sterilized canvases, starched for a bleed of whatever color in exchange for a few of her thoughts. They know. This isn’t home. There’s nothing here. Just him.

“Lest you forget, this was my home, too.” He smiles.

Aqua nearly spits that it isn’t, wasn’t, never will be, but that isn’t true, is it? He’s pleased with himself, leaning on the door on the opposite side with his elbow propped up as though the castle is a casual friend he’s embracing.

“Now, isn’t this exactly where you would prefer me to be?” he asks. 

“Acting like an idiot?”

“Somewhere familiar. Old family. Fond memories. A place to call your sanctuary.”

She shrugs it off. “Not much of a spectacle anymore.”

His eyebrows worm one by one. He’s lucky he has Terra’s face, otherwise she’d shave them. “But a spectacle worth revisiting.”

“There’s nothing left,” she snaps. “This place is empty.”

He strokes a finger on the door, a gesture that is halfway between Is that so? and Not so fast. “Except one room.”

Hunger churns in his eyes and she’s uncomfortable with the way he’s looking at her, like he’s about to drag her by her ankles. 

“Don’t bother asking. It’s not like you’d ever see it,” she says.

His nostrils flare, surveying disgust as he scans the room from floor to ceiling. There’s a ferocity there, an ignition of something ready to deteriorate. Aqua settles for what’s coming, claws extending as they fasten her Keyblade. If she tears flesh today, so be it. It will only be a little. 

How he gets himself to smirk the next moment is a secret she’d have to learn. “Then a bargain. The Chamber of Waking, and I won’t harm him.”

Aqua grunts and cuts an arc through the air with her Keyblade, firing a sphere of energy dark enough to absorb light. He blocks it with a wave of his hand and he chuckles like there’s not a day worth living if you’re not close to dying. 

Summoning his giant Keyblade, he swings back, rupturing the tile beneath him as it cracks and crumbles towards her. She dodges, but an explosion bursts from beneath and knocks her off balance. As she turns over to stand up, he’s already looming over her. 

They’re in a tight space, the walls knitting together and forcing them to take intimate strikes and forgo the fancy spells. Tinks and shears and blasts echo as though one hit is actually three, the sound of their blades bashing against each other. Her Heartless can’t form a congregation here. He doesn’t bother with his Guardian either, too cumbersome and clunky to maneuver inside.

He’s slower than her, but the close proximity means she’s running out of space to dodge his wide reach. Every hit he throws is the force of a boulder destroying a mountain as it avalanches, testing her balance, stealing the seconds that she needs to steady herself and parry the next. 

She readies a spell. He blows the tile beneath them, an earthquake tripping her feet.

Every curse she scrambles with—a Sleep, Confusion, anything to throw him off—does nothing, as though he’s feasting on her efforts. She should’ve known better.

It’s fine. Aqua’s tough without her Heartless, tough without needing to trust anyone but herself. Glowing with an icy hotness that burns like frozen snow on exposed skin, she’s about to multiply—

“You will not,” he says.

He pummels into her like a canon, his armored hand around her throat as she collides back onto the door behind her. Not the front door, no—she’s foolish and distracted enough not to notice that he’s been circling her in this small, square room. He’s pinning her against the other, the one that would lead to Ven but wouldn’t. It creaks under the weight of her body and the pressure of his strength.

“I could lock you up in this purgatory,” he whispers, his breath brushing her cheek, her nose, her lips. Smiling. “Or you could take me to him.”

Aqua pants, her fingers scratching the surface of the door. The thought of being left behind—

Like choked breath, she stops the moment she sees the proud expression on his face. 

It’s a bluff.

Calm down. He wants to scare her. It’s a bluff. 

He needs her to get inside regardless, even if he doesn’t know everything. That you need the Master’s Defender at all is a secret only shared with those who wield it. He wouldn’t know. Despite how desperately she wants to dig her way out, Aqua keeps her chin high, staring him down. She scoffs through her nose. 

His eyes twinkle as he reads her. Aqua tries not to lead him on with any assumptions. Keep it stoic.

But there’s something about the way she’s doing it that’s betraying her. She’s failing with every second that he blinks. “Ah,” he cooes, “you do not have the means—”

Claws into flesh—she pierces his wrist, right through the leather in between the metal, and he yelps. Pulls off of her. She closes the gap with black fire and cold fingers and the intent to rip an iceberg in half. He has his arms over his head, his Keyblade forgotten as he pathetically defends himself against a rabid monster flailing at him.

All she sees is the opportunity to take back. Priming a sharp hand over his face (and at such the perfect angle to peel it off his skull), she lunges forward and pins him under her. Reaches to his waist. Pulls the orange Wayfinder out of his pocket.

He yells and throws her off of him. His pupils shrink to nothing, his Keyblade burning with an unnatural color. He’s clutching his chest as though his heart is pounding too quickly and is about to plop dead. Aqua is on her knees, the Wayfinder’s chain threaded around her red knuckles.

Move. She needs to move while he towers over her, a trickle of drool seeping from his lips, his white hair messy. He’s manic, searching her and searching the floor and searching the walls, moaning. Aqua has to move. Aqua sits frozen. 

Has he forgotten where he is? 

Is this… 

She whispers his name, barely audible.

For a moment, he stares past her. He growls and throws himself on her, the back of her head hitting the floor. Pupils so small his eyes are golden orbs, two little false lights in the dark, tempting you to go deeper into the fog where a monster waits. Like the Guardian’s, watching her take her last breath underwater. As though he knows no weapons, or no magic, he squeezes a fist around her hand, his fingers prying the Wayfinder out of hers with such strength that he could amputate them. Aqua chooses her fingers and lets go. 

Once he has it back in his possession, he stumbles off of her, heaving and hunched over. With the Wayfinder to his chest, his pupils slowly grow back. Brows knitted, lips quivering, eyes lost. That’s not a face Xehanort would make. 

Then he runs. He bolts down the terrace, disappearing in a cloud of smoke, leaving Aqua on the floor, leaving the doors open. Terra’s body is traveling like a shooting star. She can feel it propel somewhere in the far sky, where the stars hover above the clouds. She could follow him, fight more and more and more until she drags him to the ocean kicking and screaming and losing.

But it aches.

But she’s tired. She’s fought, and they’ve matched the same games over and over, with nothing to show for them except sore throats and scratched cheeks and defeated bodies slumped over floors like they weren’t dignified Keyblade wielders but wronged children.

It aches. It aches more than anything the Realm of Darkness threw at her, as though a hollow has cracked inside, collapsing her lungs into a pit of gravity and threatening to take the rest. If this is how it feels to be human again, why bother going back? What good is it to pretend that fate is kind and hearts are strong and one day he’ll realize what just happened and wake up with his blue eyes?

Instead, she should try to find Ven on her own, without her Master’s Defender. Her heart will lead the way, let her keep her memories. Or she’d lose it all, walking in circles, be the ghost that haunts this castle and create a legend that will keep her name immortal. It’s a stupid idea.

Aqua rolls over to her side, the tile underneath jutting into her hips and ribs. The doors he left open frame the outside, a dry and empty nightmare. She misses the sound of pattering, the smell of moisture, the promise of green every year. The Land of Departure certainly had its dreary days when the clouds were thick, but the light never dimmed. It would rain and all would be clear, the raindrops bulbous as they pummeled and exploded into miniature puddles.

Maybe the reason why the dirt is so rancid here is because rain never fell on Castle Oblivion. If she and Terra were caught under an onslaught, they’d continue to par. Water never stopped her flow and he couldn’t be bothered to slow down. 

There was one obnoxious day when Terra grabbed her elbow and dragged her to the front porch, just under the awning in an effort to keep dry but it was futile—they were still pricked by frigid droplets. Beneath the rain, his blue eyes were less noticeable. His dark hair weighed heavy but it was thick enough to perk up if with less gusto. He smirked at her, and she knew what it meant.

She smacked his arm while he glanced through the entrance as he watched for signs of someone coming. If the Master, they’d be in trouble. If Ven, they’d have to suffer relentless teasing, and maybe pay off his blackmail. 

When Terra was sure no one would see them, he went for it in spite of her whispered giggles and hushes. A warmth on his lips that burned on hers when the rest of her was cold, drenched, and shivering. 

I wanted to know what you taste like in the rain. 

He had tasted like water, a spring from the mountain.

She was close to Terra today. She’s sure of it. 

Tied to her sashes is her blue Waydfinder in immaculate condition, glass stronger than metal with a vibrance that’s foreign to her. 

It sits in her claw, blood red framing its brilliant shine. She’s done so well not to stare at it every time she felt nostalgic, but here she is now: a damn mess, with scales that cover skin, rough and pointed at the tips. Cold with layers of calloused leather that never molts unless she tears it off, building on top of her knuckles that folds as she retracts her claws, like there’s something slithering beneath. Her hands are now beyond repair, so thick that she’s unable to feel what she touches. 

I’m ugly, she realizes, keeping her claws contracted so they don’t scratch the surface of her Wayfinder. It’s still pretty. 

Dull stars float down to the entrance of the castle. Not stars, but a plethora of orbs, pairs of them as her Heartless pile on top of each other and funnel inside, squirming themselves free. It would have been easier for them to make a line. They’re silly, sometimes. 

Something small butts its head into her—the six-year-old, scratching the tile as it makes space up against her belly. It lets her wrap her arm around it. Another Heartless nuzzles up to her chin. One sits at the crown of her head, and another nestles at the small of her back. More tack on, forming a seabed to let her rest. 

It would’ve been lonely otherwise. The night seems flippant now, impatient for the sun to come up in a world where it can’t shine. 

#terraqua #terraquanort #dark terraqua #anti-aqua #dark aqua #terranort #kingdom hearts fanfiction #kh fanfic #i'm taking so damn long with this fic #and it's such a rarepair #but I need to see it to the end so badly #my fic

[originalladyscythe]

The Munsters au...

Originally I planned on using Xemnas but he is just so tall compared to everyone.

Edit, pic nowin original post about this

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 #terraqua #terraquanort #ventus #vanitas #kingdom hearts birth by sleep #kingdomhearts #master xehanort

[kingdomsaurushearts]

I want them to interact so bad!

#aquanort #Aqua #terra #xemnas #Terraqua #Terraquanort #KH3 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts spoilers #my art #kingdomsaurushearts #fire star animations

[somniumars]

“You never could beat me…Terra.”

⭐️ Twitter ⭐️

#e3 #terraqua #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh aqua #aquanort #kh terra #xemnas #doodle #i drew this so fast i got whiplash #terraquanort

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Grief

Mysterious Tower feels like a cage. Aqua paces around the small rounded room (a cell, if she is honest with herself) she has been placed in, longing for Terra, wide-open space where she can roam free, and darkness. She and Ventus had been brought to this place by the light keyblade wielders, after they had ‘rescued’ them days before. Since then, she has chosen to remain in the room they allotted her, refusing to venture out and talk to the wielders. Why should she mingle with the enemy, after all?

Terra… gods, her heart aches for him, though she is loath to admit it, and is filled with a deep terror over what they could be doing to him. She misses him every day—the comfort and familiarity she felt in his presence, the joy and carnal pleasure he brought her. She would give anything to have him with her here now—maybe then she would feel less alone and afraid. At the same time, though, she is angry at him for leaving her like this and would gladly kill him if he were here.

She is painfully aware that she could just leave this place, as she is so powerful that no one could stop her if she chose to do so, but she cannot hurt Ventus like that. It is strange—usually she would not care about anyone else’s feelings, but it makes her uncomfortable to think of him being in pain in any way.  

She knows that she shares a strong bond with Ventus. She felt it when she first saw him when Terra was taken from her. A strange, beautiful pain and joy, as if she were coming face-to-face with something she had not realised she had been missing for all of this time. She does not know what to make of it. Part of her lights up with recognition; another part of her is dismissive of it; and yet another part of her just wants to forget it all and revel in the darkness.  

oOoOo

‘Aqua?’

It is Ventus, come to see her. She looks up as he edges into the bedroom with wide eyes, as if he thinks she will do him harm. Her? It is unbelievable. She would never hurt Ventus. Or would she?

Yes, she would, if it means getting out of this prison and finding Terra again. Nothing is more important than that. Right? Besides, Ventus is scared of her. That is enough to make the anger and hurt rise through her again. Why should he be afraid? What has she done to make him feel that way?  

She fights back the confusion and pain that stabs her heart and says coldly, ‘Yes? What do you want?’

He falters, his face falling as he sees the anger in her eyes. ‘I—Master Yen Sid wants to see you. He wants to talk about what’s been happening. He—’

He stops at the furious look on her face. Thankfully it is not directed at him, but rather at the old retired master. Master Yen Sid had been the one who had forbade Mickey from rescuing her before it was too late. She knows that now, thanks to Ventus. Why should she take the time to talk with someone who had betrayed her so badly? (And besides, she suspects that if she does go and talk with him, she will do something drastic—such as murdering him with the darkness she has at her disposal or throwing him into the Realm of Darkness so that he can see how he likes being stuck there for over twelve years.)      

‘I do not want to speak with him,’ she says without turning around. ‘You may tell him that.’

‘But—'  

‘Go and tell him that and leave me alone.’ Please… She tries to ignore the part of her that urges her to turn and beg him to stay. That part of her is weak. That part of her will only bring pain and loss down on her again. Still, a stray tear streaks down her cheek as Ventus silently leaves her alone.  

oOoOo

She does not know what she is feeling or why. She knows that she loves Ventus like a brother, and longs to mend their relationship to how it was when they were both living in the Land of Departure with Terra and Master Eraqus. But at the same time, part of her is determined to push him away. She is dangerous and filled with darkness—what if she hurts him? She could not bear that. And she also could not bear to see the condemnation on his face when he realises the things she has done—which he would quickly discover just from seeing the truth in her eyes.

She has other visitors aside from Ventus. Almost none of them are welcome. The Mouse comes once, his eyes filled with guilt and sorrow. He tries to explain himself and ask for forgiveness for his role in her corruption, but she is not having any of that. She knows that she will never forgive him for his inaction and abruptly tells him so. It cost her everything and she cannot forget about it so quickly.

Mickey is saddened by her angry admission (for they had been good friends once), but he accepts it and leaves her alone. He does not come to visit her again, much to her relief.    

Sometimes the boy Riku visits her, along with Kairi, the Princess of Heart she met once years ago in Radiant Garden. Kairi is now a keyblade wielder herself, much to her surprise, and is currently training with Merlin and another boy named Lea in Radiant Garden. Riku is now a Keyblade Master, having passed his Mark of Mastery Exam shortly before she joined the Organization. They both hover at her bedside (Riku carefully placing himself slightly in front of Kairi) and look incredibly nervous, as if she could suddenly snap and attack them both.

They are all very wary around her, something which sets her on edge. At least in the Organization it could be used to her advantage. Here they just tip-toe around her as if she could burn them and do not let her behaviour truly affect them.

Sora (the boy with the spiky brown hair) is the only one who does not visit her. Not that she cares. It is because he is too busy travelling with Donald and Goofy in their Gummi Ship, protecting the worlds. Ventus speaks very fondly of Sora, who was after all the person who gave his heart refuge when it needed it most, and also healed it when it was shattered by Master Xehanort long ago. She would be lying if it did not upset her somewhat. Ventus used to act that way toward her, but now all he does is act wary and afraid.

She wonders if it is her fault. She has become something dark, like Vanitas and she does not hate it. She likes the darkness—she likes how it makes her feel powerful and in control. When she had first been brought into the Organization, she had felt so helpless and broken. Then when she had embraced the darkness, it had gone away and she had felt more powerful than she had ever felt before. 

Terra would understand, she knows. He would tell her that she is beautiful, that the darkness in her is beautiful. He would not fear her. He would accept her.

Deep down, she wants to have that same acceptance from Ventus. But she has seen the way Ventus acts around her, and she does not think it likely that he will love her the same way as he did before.

Weeks pass like this, and she begins to wonder why she does not go already. Because of Ventus, she tells herself. But if Ventus will not accept her, why should she stay for him?      

oOoOo

One day, she has had enough. It is time for her to leave this place and these enemies and go and find Terra again. Then they can continue doing what they’d been doing before this mess occurred. She would like to bring Ventus with her, but she knows that is not possible. Ventus fears her. It is clear enough by the way he has been avoiding her. He must hate her for handing him over to Master Xehanort. Why would he want to go anywhere with her? 

He certainly will not want her to stay. And no one else will be upset if she goes away. They must surely think that she is a monster, and that she will destroy them all eventually. Yes, leaving is the best course of action, for everyone involved.  

Unfortunately, when she walks to the end of the staircase, she finds two keyblade wielders waiting there. There to stop her from leaving, she assumes. She crosses her arms in anger as they face her with grim faces.

‘You cannot keep me here against my will,’ she snaps at them. ‘It is not your way.’

‘That’s true.’ Riku steps forward. ‘But it’s also not right to let you go when we know what you’re going to do. We can’t let you cause chaos in the worlds.’

‘What makes you think that I will do that?’

‘The look on your face,’ he says. ‘I know that look. I’ve seen it in the Heartless. You crave darkness and won’t stop yourself from bringing it into the worlds.’    

‘Master Aqua, please listen to us,’ Kairi begs. ‘You’re sick. You need help. You can’t just leave!’  

‘You do not know anything about me, or what I have been through,’ she snarls. ‘Nothing at all. You cannot tell me what to do!’

(Truthfully, she is not sure that she knows anything about herself anymore, either. All she knows is that she has become something dark and dangerous. Something they would not understand or tolerate.)  

‘Trust us,’ Riku says. ‘Let us help you.’

‘I do not trust any of you,’ she says coldly. ‘You abandoned me in the Realm of Darkness; when I called for aid you ignored me and let me be tortured by Xemnas. I would rather go back to the Organization than spend another minute longer here.’

She turns to leave. No one stops her. Except—

‘Aqua, wait! Don’t go!’

She turns her head to see Ventus—or someone who appears to be Ventus—coming to a halt in front of her. His hand reaches out pleadingly to her.

Foolish boy. Does he truly think he has a chance of stopping her?

She scoffs at him. ‘Why? There is nothing for me here. What do you think—’

‘Because…’ He takes a deep breath. ‘I want you to stay.’

To her surprise, he grips her wrist with his hand and places a trinket in her palm, before backing away from her. It’s made of green glass and shaped like a star. No—a wayfinder.

‘See this?’ he says. ‘You made one for each of us, as a symbol of our friendship. You said that they represented an unbreakable connection and if we had one of these we would never be torn apart.’

An unbreakable connection…

‘You promised us we’d always be together. Don’t you remember?’

She stares at the trinket mutely, and all she can see is the jagged pieces of her own falling into the sand. It makes her want to weep. Before she knows it, she is clutching it to her chest, feeling as minuscule and worthless as she did in the Dark Margin. 

Her entire body trembles with emotion. Ventus takes a careful step toward her, and then another. She does not try to stop him, can only stand frozen as he comes to a halt inches away from her.

‘Listen,’ he says desperately. ‘I don’t care if you’re like this now. I don’t care if Terra is like this. I’ve missed you so much--I--I just want my friends back.’

That’s when the dam breaks.

‘Oh, Ven…’ 

Suddenly she is crying deep, wracking sobs that reverberate through her entire body.

The other keyblade wielders quietly leave the room to give the two friends some privacy as they cling to each other with thirteen years of grief spilling down their faces.  

She does not know how long they stand like that, clinging to one another. Minutes? Hours? She only knows that time fades away around them until they can only sense each other and nothing else. She can hear herself crying as she clutches Ventus to her chest with her entire being. Strange… It feels so strange. She has not cried in a very long time. Not since Xemnas had found her at the Dark Margin and turned her into a creature of the darkness. It… feels good. Like something has been released inside of herself.

Ventus does not react badly to her strong grip; in fact, he burrows his head into her chest.

Finally, the sobs die down, and they both draw away, though they do not let go of one another. They just gaze at one another silently, daring the other to speak first.    

‘I—I know you’re hurting,’ Ventus finally says. ‘I’m hurting too. But—don’t shut us out. Riku and the rest—they’re not our enemies. They don’t want to hurt us. They want to help us. Please give them a chance.’

She cannot believe that, even now. No matter what she does, she will never forget the worst moment of her life, which only occurred because they did not help her. For so long, it has been drilled into her that they are the enemy; she will not change her opinion of them so quickly. But she can see that it means a lot to Ventus, as she sees the desperate look in his eyes, and so she reluctantly gives in.

‘I… All right.’

Ventus’ face lights up at her words; he hugs her tightly, not noticing her flinch at the gesture.

‘But I still do not trust them,’ she tells him. ‘What if they stab us in the back?’

‘Don’t worry,’ he tells her. ‘They can help us get Terra back. They won’t hurt us. They need us.’

‘I have no interest in their war,’ she retorts coldly. She just wants Terra, and Ventus. Nothing else matters to her but them. She has had enough of being used by other people for their own gain and wants nothing more than to pursue her own goals, wherever it may lead her.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ventus says. ‘They’ll help us anyway, even if we don’t fight. It’s the best chance we have.’

He is right about that, unfortunately. They cannot rescue Terra by themselves, however much she wants to. Reluctantly, she nods at him. He smiles again in relief and hugs her. ‘Thanks, Aqua. I swear you won’t regret it.’

She hopes she will not—or else she does not know what she will do.      

#terraquanort #darkqua #aquanort #ventus #riku #kairi #kh fanfiction #my fanfiction

[turnaboutwriter]

JUST IMAGINE THESE TWO SEXY, NORTED PEOPLE MAKING A SEXY, NORTED COUPLE FOR A MOMENT PLEASE

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh 3 #kh3 #kh3 spoilers #aqua #terra #terranort #terraqua #terraquanort #is that a viable ship tag for them??? #SOMEBODY DRAW THEM TOGETHER PLS #THEY'RE BOTH SO SEXY #aquanort #SEXY (EVIL) POWER COUPLES FOR THE WIN. #I wasn't expecting so many notes on this omg

[spirit-of-creativity16]

Aquanort: If I have to suffer,then everyone have to suffer!

*Start attacking everyone including her friends*

Ventus: Terra, we have to get out of here!

Terra: Aqua...

*memorize of powerful she is*

Sniff...You're beautiful!

Aquanort: Huh...*get a kissed from Terra* O///O

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts birth by sleep #kingdom hearts fragmentary passage #aqua #terra #ventus #aquanort #terranort #terra x aqua #aqua x terra #terraquanort #terrqua

[artjay49]

What took you so long to find me?

(save aqua pls you had one job Riku and Mickey ONE JOB and now I’m cying because my queen is norted but I love this new KH3 trailer so much I am very excited!!! And here we all thought that Sora was gonna be norted next haha ha haaaaaaaaaa)

edit: even if this Aqua was an illusion let me board your terraquanort ship for the time being @chachacharlieco

#kingdom hearts #norted #kingdom hearts 3 #KH3 #trailer #aqua #terra #terraqua #welcome to the norted gang Aqua #is this technically #xemnas

[mimiplaysgames]

And There Are Storms We Cannot Weather (Ch. 2)

Pairing: Terranort x Anti-Aqua Rating: M Word Count: 3, 872

Summary: It’s a simple plan: pull Xehanort’s heart out of Terra’s body. Until she learns the worst.

Read on AO3

A/N: What a way to break out of a hiatus: by going after the hardest WIP I’ve ever worked on. I have to thank @lyssala and @steadyknight, my beta readers, who assured me that this didn’t need as much work as I thought. I’m also just grateful for their excitement over this??? Thank you so much. ;-; ;-; ;-;

~*~*~*~*~

Are You Dead or Are You Sleeping?

Darkness is cool to the touch, a flame that numbs the skin with the breeziness of a damp, early morning. As she travels through the corridor, Aqua lets it coax her anticipation to sleep.

When a portal opens to a new world, she steps onto a precipice. The sudden exposure to sunlight and air is like withstanding a slap to the face. And yet... Feeling the sun again after all these years is the giddy reminder that she’s powerful. She’s free, she can go wherever she pleases. But does it have to blind her? It takes longer than usual for her eyes to adjust.

The grass stalks are as tall as she is. Canopies litter the horizon, and jungles claim the mountains beyond, except for the highest peaks. Near her is a lumpy dirt trail, flattened by people spending years traveling on foot. Now, she only has to determine which direction he took.

Darkness works in a network of shadows, always present and always shifting, stretching to giant proportions before shrinking into the tiniest crook. Shadows mold together. They speak and leave echoes behind. 

Aqua concentrates on tracing them. She starts with the way the wind sways the grass stalks, blending their shadows together, until they brace the footsteps of a stalking panther, hiding in a field of flowers. Pollinating from one flower, a bird takes flight. Now it soars, its grounded shadow passing that of a tree’s.

There he is, stepping over a root deep in a thicket. There he is, with his strange, beating heart, rumbling with the flutter of someone facing the edge of a cliff yet with the steady lull of meditation. He takes up too much space in the cavity behind his left breast, making it hard for her to sense Terra. Once she’s done with him, though, that will cease to be an issue.

“I know where you are,” she whispers, pleased with the way he whips over his shoulder, expecting to see a face behind him when there’s no one. 

But voices prevent her from moving. Footsteps climb uphill - two men - and Aqua billows into the shrubbery, first smoke and then nothing, just the empty space between.

“I don’t expect he’s much of a nice guy.” She recognizes this voice.

“Emperors rarely are. Unless they’re naked.” This one chuckles. 

Riku, Champion of Understanding The Darkness and of Having Enough Of His Own as he claimed on the black shores where he met Aqua, waits for a large, soft man to (casually) catch up. Riku is not tall - barely a couple of inches taller than Aqua - but he stands that way. Professional and confident. He stood that way when he fought against her, and stood the same when she won.

“Is there a story behind that?” Riku asks. She’s so close to him, just a leaf away from his shoulder, but he doesn’t notice her eyes staring up at him. He grins with the subtleness of someone who doesn’t like attention. 

The man scratches his scalp under his small hat, then rubs his fingers onto his sweeping poncho, with sandals to match. He must be a farmer. On his leash is a llama dragging a cart. 

“The sun punished our most wicked emperor.” The farmer takes this restful opportunity to sip water out of a spouted, clay pot. His smile is big and inviting, his stature enormous and big-bellied. He gestures wildly as if telling a story to children. “Set his clothes on fire every time he wore them. Or at least,” he shrugs, “made them feel that way. But the emperor wouldn’t stand down. He ruled naked in his own palace for the rest of his life.” He smiles. “But he always kept feathers in his hair. Man liked to have some class.”

“Don’t they all.” Riku rolls his eyes. “Is your emperor the type that likes to keep his clothes on?”

“Anyone with half a sane mind would.” The farmer laughs, but he doesn’t sound certain. If anything, he’s nervous and excited and naive.

“Can’t wait to find out.” Riku doesn’t sound convinced. 

“You know, I share a name with an emperor.”

“Pacha?”

“The one and only.” Pacha clicks with his tongue and that gets his llama going again. “Best emperor we’ve ever had. Brought down the price of milk. Who wouldn’t think I’m blessed with charm and good luck?”

This finally brings a genuine smirk to Riku’s face.

The men chat as they continue their way, disappearing downhill. It gives Aqua the opening to step out. 

It has to be some sort of escort mission. If a Keybearer is here, then there are wild Heartless roaming around. She’ll have to keep hers hidden. Either way, whatever Riku is doing is not her problem.

She hones in on her destination. Kicks off her feet and glides through the grove. It’s easy to catch up to Xehanort - blend in with the shadows, pass through the trees, speed up, go even faster. Her heart won’t lead her astray. With every yard, she burns with the vigor that darkness had numbed away. She heaves. She’s found him, she’ll pin him down, she’ll take him back. 

By the time she catches sight of his white hair, she snaps. She roars. Just seeing his face is a sharp reminder that no matter what happens, she has to see this through. Calling for her Keyblade, she attacks. 

He barely dodges, landing on his knees. He flashes a toothy grin like he’s baring fangs.

“You’re here,” he announces, and nearby birds scatter. “Never would I have considered myself so fascinating as to be worthy of your graceful presence.”

She scoffs and moves to strike. But he only laughs something hearty, with a boom. He floats backward into the thicket, waving his arm like he’s dismissively tossing a farewell. 

Xehanort hovers in circles behind the trees as though to shake her off. Which is stupid, really, when she could feel where he is.

But that’s what he wants, isn’t it? When she takes a moment to locate him, it leaves her open to attack - from the Guardian. 

It hovers close, blowing humid breath, muscles twitching like it’s in pain. It groans so deeply and so quietly she can only hear it as a whisper. She stabs it with her Keyblade and it lurches backward. She cartwheels away to create more distance, then stills to focus on Xehanort’s whereabouts. 

The process takes too long. The Guardian attempts to grab her. She dives, throwing herself father away. It is relentless, hurling spurple, fiery blasts. Overwhelming her. Not letting her stay still. If she’s ever going to focus, she’ll have to beat it into submission. Knocking her Keyblade into its face feels good.

But her focus has shifted.

Footsteps charge behind her. No time to react. Xehanort tackles her - strong arms around her waist - and throws her onto the ground with a grunt and a blow to the stomach. 

His hair. It’s brown. She’s face to face with plastic blue eyes and a smug, foreign grin. 

She stops breathing. Before she realizes.

“Get off of me!” She knees him in the gut. He winces and grabs his side while she crawls out of his grip and starts to float away.

He growls and grabs her by the ankle, whiplashing her back onto the ground. The Guardian picks her up by the forearms, clasping them together so that she loses her grip on her Keyblade. 

Aqua shrieks and her Heartless hear the call. The ground rumbles, the birds scatter farther as a tidal wave of Shadows slither to and fro in a fury. Help help help help.

The Guardian drops Aqua and disappears. She rubs her scalp to soothe the headache, only to find herself alone. Xehanort has gone, leaving nothing but his warmth on her skin. Straggling onto her feet, Aqua closes her eyes and follows his heart when she hears a courageous yell.

Riku catapults into the sky, a large Keyblade in hand, cutting through her Heartless right down the middle. The most vulnerable. He vanquishes one, its life force pulling and twisting and snapping Aqua in the shoulder before any identifying trace of it vanishes. 

Xehanort left her to face Riku alone.

“You’ve tricked me,” she curses. 

Her Heartless gather into a tornado, defending themselves. She summons energy from a pit deep inside her core - Darkness responds just as quickly as Light - and her heart throbs with the movement of water crackling at the touch of freeze. Sharing a tether with her, the Heartless absorb the same growth, stacking a barrier around their communion. It makes Riku’s strikes as soft as silk. She commands, “Take care of him.” 

She whisks away, deeper into the thicket until it opens up to a valley, riddled with boulders and divided by creeks. Xehanort doesn’t leave a scent but a trail of essence. His heart is beating quite rapidly now. 

Aqua doesn’t have much time until she loses her temporary upgrade, but soon she catches him in the distance, white hair back on center stage. He’s running, but too slow. She glides faster, her Keyblade ready to slam him at full velocity.

Right before she could run him over, he turns and blocks her attack with his Keyblade. They ricochet, a thunder clap booming the instant they touch. She gracefully lands on her feet. He collapses and tumbles onto his back, groaning as his Keyblade dissipates as quickly as it came. He doesn’t bother getting up. 

Good. He’s doing nothing but heaving, one hand on his shoulder as he gazes listlessly at the sky, not acknowledging her as she struts closer.

He chuckles. “Bested by scorn. I didn’t expect I’d live to see the day.”

“Get up.” 

He only lifts himself onto his elbows, fine with settling there. His eyebrow cocks, inviting her to do what she wants. “What sort of fantasy are you plotting?”

She snarls. But she has to take it easy. She can’t harm the body.

Aqua threatens his left breast with the tip of her Keyblade. Normally, this is a forbidden act. Normally.

“One where I’m drowning you,” she says, stalking the lines of his face, patiently anticipating the exact moment where he squirms. 

“How inconvenient.”

He may act unintimidated, what with the way he flicks his wrist as if her words bore him. But there’s still one truth: he ran from her. His eyes snake down her arm to the metal inches away from his skin. She presses the blunt end of her Keyblade under his chin and tilts it back up to face her, the metal digging into his windpipe.

Years of lengthy debates about matters of the heart - how it works, whether it’s born in darkness or in light, its purpose with intense emotion - have agreed on one thing: to touch a heart with a Keyblade is unspoken of. Its effect is irreversible and numerous. Creating new personalities, breaking the mind, erasing the memories, banishing the sense of self, cloning the shadow. The heart will always fight back against an act so unnatural that no Master has even tried to experiment with it.

At least not with Light. Nothing about this Xehanort is natural.

Aqua doesn’t want complications. Just a simple act of plucking his heart out of place and throwing it away to Where It Doesn’t Matter. Where the panthers can eat it. Where Kingdom Hearts can reclaim it. It doesn’t belong in Terra’s body, so it shouldn’t be difficult. Put him to sleep so he doesn’t fight back.

She’ll preserve the body in the same ocean that birthed her anew. The water will restore Terra back to (almost) normal. Darkness has miraculous methods. It gave her the choice to leave, something Light has consistently failed her with. It will keep him safe until he’s ready to talk. Maybe then, they can take something back for themselves when he’s not so different from her anymore.

She’ll have to be gentle.

“I’m taking your heart out,” she hisses. “It’s more than you deserve.”

Xehanort’s eyes carefully lock with hers as a new, knowing, self-satisfied, punchable smile inches its way to his ears.

“Whose heart?”

Her teeth grit against each other, nipping her lip. He’ll regret asking stupid questions. Biting her tongue, she focuses on what’s most important.

The heart is a proud organ. It sings with its own voice, sheet music on display as a record of a person’s hopes for the future, their fears developed by the past. She expects one of them to be silent. 

But it isn’t. 

It’s a mess. 

It’s a mess, a cannibal, a wrestle of two where one drinks breath from the other. When one pushes away, the other pulls it in. One beats and the other follows rhythmically. Words are shared, dreams are rewritten. Muscle and sinew intertwine and blend. There is no point where Xehanort ends and Terra begins. They are two. They are one. And when they both notice she’s reading them, together they shush her. To throw one away is to shred them apart. She’d have to say goodbye. 

So all Aqua does is stare at him. All he enjoys is her hesitance.

A crackle of twigs and the rustling of leaves announce Riku’s stumbling arrival, panting. When he sees them, Keybalde to heart, his eyes snap open. 

“Don’t do that!”

Riku uppercuts, knocking Aqua’s Keyblade away. He steps between them. If he thinks he’s doing the right thing, he’s stupid.

Aqua doesn’t give him the benefit of explaining herself. She can’t even speak - she gasps from his sudden appearance, and hammers away at him by instinct. Riku is quicker, his strikes are harder, a prodigy in every movement. They flurry through attacks, powering each swing with magic but neither of them back down. 

Here her Heartless come, colliding onto the ground and set to wash Riku over. He glances at them - there is that perfect opening. She swings from a direction meant to mislead him. He takes the bait. Landing a blow across his fighting arm, she throws him into a boulder. 

But Xehanort is gone. Again. 

“You made me lose him,” she mutters.

Xehanort has left this world entirely, and worse. He’s nowhere to be found. But how is that possible? She should be able to tell where he’s going, where he’s landing. Maybe he’s too far for her ability. 

“Find him,” she says to three of her Heartless: the hunter, the butcher, and the accused. 

Behind her Riku groans, holding his head. Pacha scurries into view, pushing branches off his face, and helps Riku up.

“Are those monsters going to move?” Pacha quietly asks Riku about the horde near them, waiting for her instructions.

“I don’t know. I’m fine, don’t fuss.”

“Monsters?” Aqua says, turning over her shoulder.

Riku is still shaking on his legs when she approaches, and Pacha holds his arms out in surrender. But she doesn’t attack the farmer. Instead, she pins Riku’s neck between the boulder behind him and her Keyblade, chipping minerals from the surface.

“Is that what you see when you look at me?” she calmly asks Riku. Because Pacha doesn’t know any better. Because Riku doesn’t understand what he fights. “Do you think that’s fair, after everything I’ve been through?”

Riku gapes at her. He has normal eyes, the color of turquoise. He soon wipes that look off his face. “It’s not.” At least he’s respectful. 

“Please don’t hurt him, miss,” Pacha pleads, leaning forward. Attempts to touch her shoulder with assuring intention but he’s lucky he doesn’t make contact. “We have a misunderstanding. He means no harm.”

Pacha is trying to cater to her point of view, his round brown eyes earnest and desperate. His voice is warm like tea, giant chin tense yet unassuming. She hates how terrified he is of her. Golden eyes of a monster. 

“I’ll spare him,” she whispers. “Just for you.” 

With that, she swings a dark blast that sends Riku flying off yards away, knocking him out. Pacha runs after, picking him up in his arms. He glances over his shoulder to see if she would chase them. Do not worry, Pacha, she wouldn’t. She simply doesn’t want to be bothered. 

Her chosen three have not moved from their spot though, twiddling their claws around their antennas. 

“What do you mean you can’t find him?” she asks them. 

Aqua tries again and connects with the expanse between the worlds, but he has disappeared from her radar.

She tries not to panic. She summons a portal, reaching for him among the shadowy tendrils in a network that surveilles everything within deep space. It licks many stars, many worlds, many lights, millions of them, earth and people and animals, in a void that stretches forever. All hearts beat just past the border where none can survive. She goes further, to pockets with no worlds and holes with no stars. The one heart that matters isn’t here, and isn’t anywhere, as if he stopped existing.  

“What kind of magic is this?” Darkness should not be able to cloak him this well. 

So he is nowhere in the Realm of Light or In Between. There’s one more place to check. She leaves the void, coming back to the desert where she found him the first time. Night blankets it now and blankets it empty. 

Digging her claws into the sand, Aqua sinks into black, floating down to a seabed that houses a tipping clocktower, where night doesn’t stop and her thoughts mute. Darkness watches over its own, the same creatures that hungered for her heart before now casually passing by. A Darkside acknowledges her presence with short interest, as though it’s not an intimidating giant but a child. She asks the Realm of Darkness if he’s here. He’s not. 

Aqua swims back up, breathing only when she reaches the desert.

What’s left to do now? Nothing, but wait for him to turn back on again. He’ll have to - whatever magic he’s using can’t last forever.

In this moment of quiet, Aqua crashes into one revelation: she’s tired. She’s never felt that way in the Realm of Darkness. The desire or need to sleep hasn’t occurred to her in years. At first, she avoided it out of fear that she would miss a rare chance of escape. It’s bizarre to measure how heavy her limbs have become, to feel her eyelids wither. She’s weak.

She could always go back to the Realm of Darkness and shake it off, but it’s not a bad weakness. As she walks, she takes note of how her thighs feel sore and like jelly all at once, fatigue settling beside the determination to keep functioning. The moment she rests will be bliss - the thought of it is alluring, as though sleep is a forbidden sweet. She wants a taste. This is what it feels like to be alive. 

Ahead of her is that same cave where she left Terra’s armor. It’s as good a place as any; she’ll be hard-pressed to belong somewhere else. The armor sits in the same spot, covered in dust.

“You’re dirty,” she chastises.

Sitting across from it, she wiggles into the ridges of the rockface, which stab her around the spine, and brings her knees to her chest. Her claws brush against her skin as she hugs herself, frigid. The dirt beneath is rough and stiff on her muscles, but they agree with the rest, sighing something delicious with relief. The stars here are needle pricks in the sky, like they’re farther away. They leave the desert dark, the wind howling and cold. Aqua shares the view with her Heartless, who slither into the cave and fill it up.  

Next to her, the armor sits tall. Terra wasn’t always tall, but the last few years together proved otherwise. 

But Terra was always strong. Training with him was never about beating him through brute force. A fool’s errand, really. It was about outmaneuvering him, outsmarting, outpacing. The best training she could ask for to prepare her for the worst.

Terra won at wrestling, almost unanimously. One knee hooked behind hers, and huge arms wrapped around her back, and one hand pushing her pelvis hard against the ground, and his shoulder to her face, smelling of sweat and yeast and faded sandalwood from the shower early that morning. And heat. His heat on her.

Give it up, he would say. 

Forfeit, he’d continue when she wouldn’t stand down.

Really, Aqua? You’re such a sore loser. 

Maybe that was slightly true. Aqua would press a hand somewhere where his fussed shirt exposed skin - near his neck, or the small of his back - and summon ice, jolting him with the speed of a surprised cat. Still, he’d have the nerve to hold onto her despite the torture, to drag her where he landed, because he despised losing just as much. Because he liked to stay close. Because she liked it, too, and slowly he figured that out.

That’s cheating. Terra’s laugh shivered, as rigid as his voice. 

What Aqua would give to hear that laugh now. She takes her tattered sleeve and wipes a layer of dust off the armor’s visor, gently so she wouldn’t knock it over. 

Terra’s (Xehanort’s) heart, their one and strongest bond, mesh together. Aqua mimics by intertwining her own fingers, red on red like bloody exposed tissue. One by one, she unlaces them, playing images of untangling threads of muscle in her mind over and over, ripping the knots that can’t be undone. When the time comes, Aqua can’t be sure she’ll have the strength to do the same to him. 

She can do it. For his sake. She can’t for his sake. 

One of her Heartless - the youngest and oldest - paws at her lap. Heartless can’t be understood like humans. Part of succumbing means to strip themselves of the experiences that mark them as an individual from all the rest. Reading their hearts usually turn up nothing, but Aqua may get a memory of a long-forgotten occupation. Flashes of what their friends sounded like. Sometimes a face. Never a name. Always a turbulent feeling.

The youngest and the oldest is a six year old, turned a thousand years ago. A blonde girl in a blue dress, looking up with curious eyes. She wants reassurance, alarmed by Aqua’s reminiscence. After all, this girl doesn’t have strong images of her past life to hold onto, so the sudden rush of feelings must be painful in the only way nostalgia could deliver. 

“It’s okay to be alone,” Aqua says, petting the Shadow. “It’s better that way. You get more resilient when you don’t have to rely on anyone.”

When you don’t have to feel disappointed. When you don’t risk betrayal. While Heartless swarm together, they can’t communicate. They don’t understand much except for hunger, until they get distracted and they forget, numbing over and leading a simple life.

It’s so much better than remembering everything, hoping someone would come for her as long as she stayed patient. 

Aqua can spare some time as she leans her head back against the stone, knuckling her skull. The Heartless cradles into her arms.

Aqua has waited for twelve years. One more night doesn’t compare.

A/N: This chapter makes references to Emperor’s New Groove (2000).

#terraqua #terraquanort #terranort #anti-aqua #dark aqua #dark terraqua #riku #pacha #kingdom hearts fanfiction #kh fanfic #there's a lot I'm excited about in this fic #and a lot i'm terrified #my fic

[rarutohope1234-blog]

Terra/Xemnas: oh, hello there my lady. Aqua: it been such a long time, had it.

#terraqua #terraquanort #Terra #Aqua #kingdom hearts #xemnas #Aquanort

[mimiplaysgames]

And There Are Storms We Cannot Weather (Ch. 1)

Pairing: Terranort x Anti-Aqua Rating: M Word Count: 4,457

Summary: If light won’t give Aqua her family back, she’ll use darkness to free them instead. There’s just one problem: him.

Read on AO3

A/N: Happy TWO-YEAR fic anniversary to me!! I’m releasing this a week ahead of the big day, I was just too excited to keep it to myself. This is such a rarepair (strangely? WHYYYY) and it’s exhilarating and liberating to get on something different! It’s an Enemies to Friends to Lovers fic and it’s such a scary thing to work on. I need to thank my two betas: @steadyknight who is my sharper edge and will push me to my limits, and @lyssala who is my soft embrace and will keep me hopeful. Together, they balance this piece out and without them, I would not have the courage to post this. Thank you both so much for your insight, encouragement, and critiques. ;-; ;-; ;-;

~*~*~*~*~

Laced With Nitroglycerine

If she asks anyone in the world whether she exists, they’d say no - they don’t remember her, after all. They don’t even know why she disappeared in the first place, nor do they want to.

At least, no one today remembers her. She led a whole life a long time ago, and she spent twelve years recounting those memories like they were printed in a book, word for word. Each one of her loved ones has a text of their own, and if she had her way, she’d have them all on a shelf along with hers, together.

But there are empty spots on her shelf now. One is dead.

Another is sleeping, and she can’t retrieve him without the right key, unless she risks losing her mind.

The last one is unaccounted for.

So she traces her steps like she’s reading backwards, and watches people from places they don’t notice: within the cracks in between cobblestone, where they step on her; by the dumpster, where they abandon waste all over her, never realizing they’re burying her; under the storm drain, where they don’t bother to look; inside of closets, where they’re too preoccupied to peek.

After hours of eavesdropping useless conversation, she decides staying in Radiant Garden isn’t worth her trouble. She leaves, heading nowhere until she’s distant enough to wonder where she belongs. 

Nowhere is a wasteland, with only a graveyard. And a man.

When the man sees her coming, he’s delighted to see her again, the way a child imagines a demon would be: lips curled, showing both rows of teeth, and a hungry glare where she’s the feast.

He looks the same, but he doesn’t, golden eyes ambered and deep which pierce through her. His hair is whiter than the sun - there’s no denying his presence, even yards away in the middle of an unmarked Keyblade burial site.

"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different - such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came."

These are his first words to her, rich and smooth like the hum of a distant earthquake.

His glee cackles, an indication that he is no different from the very last moment she's seen him and that he has changed in every single way imaginable.

“I fell into darkness for you,” she says, her voice icy.

“Come again?”

She doesn’t lend a second for thought. He will not play dumb today. He will take responsibility.

Gliding across the sand, Master Aqua whips out a Keyblade - tacky blue slamming against ornate silver, her ugly Keyblade bouncing off of his as he knocks her back. 

He sneers when he glances at her weapon. “Interesting choice for plunder.”

She grunts. She shrieks. She won’t give him a chance to talk (who cares what she stole?). Aqua slams her Keyblade against his, again and again and again. He’s going to take responsibility for leaving her behind. She will make it hurt.

He parries, sliding his blade up against hers to throw her off balance. Then he steps forward, and disappears in a puff of smoke. Pops back up, too close for comfort and erasing the space between them.

Close enough to grab her. Enough to take a faint whiff of cologne every time he takes a massive swing of his heavy Keyblade.

She dodges, floats, kicks dirt in his face - anything to break the air between them but still he comes charging at her, chest open for a strike and yet he gets too near to allow her a clear shot.

Like he knows she wants to. He knows what his weaknesses are and leaving his body exposed isn’t one of them. 

Damn him.

They trade blows, metal to metal in beats and uppercuts, always blocked, clanking away and making enough noise to wake the dead. 

Then without warning, he lurches back to keep his distance, strutting her in circles like he’s the predator. 

If that’s the case, then he truly cannot grasp what he’s dealing with.

“Following ghosts from your past, are you?” he says, keeping his Keyblade flexed. “No, I am mistaken. You walk among them.”

“You’re not who I’m looking for.”

“On the contrary,” he coos, “I am.”

Digging into his pocket, he pulls out a metal and glass trinket, dipped in a color bolder than the earth beneath his feet. 

"Give it back," she growls, as quiet and collected as a feline stalking prey.

The warm-orange Wayfinder dangling in display catches the sun when he wiggles it, before he clasps the entire thing in his large hand. He shoves it deep into his pocket like he's making a show out of taking something precious away from her.

“It is mine,” he says with a smile as sarcastic as a snarl.

Part of her should have known. The Realm of Darkness is not the only monster with teeth, and the moment she freed herself left her exposed to all that is hungry in the outside world.

When she steps forward, he steps back, his grin brimming like he’s excited. She throws herself against him for another hit. 

He replies by playing coy, using switch and bait tactics to avoid every one of her attacks until she tires out. She's smart enough to realize it but she's too angry to care, telling her body that it can finally rest when he’s stopped breathing.

A lurch back when she lunges, a swerve when she's too close - he blends in and out of darkness to put distance between them just so she wastes her time catching up. He’s amused, beckoning her to come near with a finger. Come, is what he’s saying when he does this, I’m over here. 

It's only when she starts getting furious, when darkness starts smoking off her skin, that he finally loses interest in taunting her.

She's used to attacks that stun; she's dodged and blocked against them all her life, but his have an extra kick, an extra surge of that desperate need to be stronger, faster, better, bigger.

Power is seductive and he's addicted to the girth of his muscles, into the way he slams his Keyblade onto hers, in the way his shoulders flex and tense with gusto when he pushes hard enough to make her stumble, in his prowess with dark magic that allows him to be too fast for his size.

He's a cheater, put simply. He cheats the laws of physics when he teleports, when he launches himself across the field like a bulldozer, when he floats around and mocks how hopelessly she chases him. 

"So unrefined," he says about her flurries and fireworks, her ghosting and her flashy waves of purple. "You are deafening the desires of your heart," he continues like he's giving advice to a boring child, his posture suddenly lax like he has nothing to fear.

"I listen to it." She doesn't. It's abandoned her, silent as a weep when she turns to herself for answers.

"Clearly.”

"Shut up."

It's not like she doesn't know how her heart feels - angry and bitter enough to propel her forward, to make that Keyblade glow darkly and launch fireballs, blinding him until she follows through and meets him face to face, Keyblade to Keyblade, grinding and sparking and trembling. There's enough hatred and misery mixed in their magic to pool darkness together, a mass so dense it could stain stardust with black ink.

"You will do better by paying attention," he smirks, and she wants to punch it out of his face. His eyes scan her own, so deep and slick in gold that it reminds her of what she truly is: the same as him.

She spent many foolish years indulging in fantasies of what she'd make with their bodies once they were both reunited - making war was far from it.

"Give in," he says smoothly, their Keyblades shaking by this point. "Let your heart speak for itself."

She nearly spits at him. How dare he tell her how to do anything?

"Yes." He approves of her reaction, like he's getting off on it.

She’ll make him regret speaking to her like that.

Dropping to her knees and sweeping with a kick, she trips him, disappearing from his line of vision and leaving him stranded with nothing but dead Keyblades. 

Aqua doesn't have much to say with words anymore. Her phantoms would pull their weight with that kind of hard work.

They creep from the Keyblades, stalking him until they finish their lap and vanish. Meant to be disorienting, they're a message, a filter for her pain so that someone out there knows. So that someone listens because dammit, she's been talking to herself for too many years.

"You left me to rot alone--"

"I waited so long for you to come get me--"

"I only wanted to go home--"

"I don't know what I did all this for--"

"Did you not care about me enough?"

“Traitor…”

"You will drown with me--"

But the bastard is not intimidated. He strides, barely giving them much of a glance as he rolls his shoulders and stretches his neck. He's not moved by her words when he should be.

So she slithers, comes right behind him for a direct hit but he's suave and self-assured, blocking her with the force of a boulder.

It's hard to say what catches his attention, what with her shrieking when she misses such an easy target. His eyes drink her face like he's reading her, down her ink-stained arms to her pauldron and ripped sleeves, like he's undressing them.

"What a wasted opportunity," is all he has to say.

He counters - three grounded steps forward with furious swings before a horrendous slam to the ground, darkness lapping at her face and tossing her backward. She stumbles over her feet, her still-foreign Keyblade forsaking her grip.

Aqua spits dry sand out of her mouth; this place is out of her element. He stands in her way, proud and reserved, brushing hair out of his face. Seeing him do that makes her blood boil and her mood miserable.

"It is not a wasted effort, however," he says, towering her, enjoying how he's looking down on a woman on her knees, clutching her chest and gasping for breaths. "What power would you hold if you simply-"

"What do you care?"

"I can offer you a better existence," he says, one hand at his waist, his Keyblade not fading away in the other. "Something with more class than a beggar in the desert."

"Who says I'm begging?"

"You are a commodity, a great asset."

“For what?” She scoffs. “To be a Seeker of Darkness? Summon Kingdom Hearts? None of that is my problem.” Looking him in the eye, even from the ground, makes her feel tall. “I’d rather swallow acid than stand next to you.”

He's smug. "Your heart is weaker than I expected, fleeing the inevitable like a wounded creature."

"It is not weak," she says, emphasizing the sharpness of that last word with a tisk.

She realizes she’s good at this - pretending to know what she’s about even though she wonders if she's truly gone apathetic. 

What she wants right now is to scratch that smile off his face. "Neither is Terra's."

"Terra?" he asks like he has forgotten who that is. He searches the horizon, his lips curling with captivation when he remembers a game he's won. "Terra yearns for my confidence."

Whatever ego-rubbing he's feeding off of, it emanates in clouds of smoke licking the skin of his fingers. "Terra desired strength.” He holds a fist in the air, flexing the forearm. “Witness how powerful he is now. You can have the same, whatever you desire if you learn to control it."

She scoffs, rolls her eyes.

"You know nothing of the darkness,” he says.

Nothing? No. “I am darkness.”

She screams. She knows plenty, years' worth. Master Aqua hates darkness. Master Aqua reeks of it.

They come, hundreds of Heartless in reply, desperately crawling over each other like they will each die if they're too slow.

She hears them, trickling like raindrops... help help help help help.

At first, he's proud, waving his arm in grandeur like he’s announcing their arrival. He’s expecting they're here to be used as his example. 

Yet he's the one insinuating she knew nothing. What a fool.

It's delicious to see him hesitate when they don't answer him.

Aqua laughs, twisted enough to remind her he's not the only one who's changed. "They're mine," she informs him.

With her horde, she's finally mutable, melting into their group when they save her, ebbing with their movements.

Until the man with Terra’s face is surrounded by a tornado of monsters. Until they are face to face again, and he's shaking to push her off of his Keyblade.

Her claw grips the armor on his left arm and he braces himself as she scratches the metal.

“Smile at me like you used to,” she commands, bringing her face closer to feel his breath.

He doesn’t obey. His teeth are locked in a snarl, his eyes occasionally darting to see if his blind spots are in danger - not in fear, but in fury. 

Refusing her is the wrong answer. "What I want with all my heart is to take you back," she tells him with savor in her voice. "I swear, no matter where you are, I will be close. I will make sure you are never too far away from me. I will fix you."

He throws a mean glare before he knocks her off and teleports out of the eye of the storm, forcing her to open her Heartless barrier open and chase after him. 

Now he gets serious. He slams the ground with his Keyblade, and the dirt under him ripple like the deep sea in the middle of night. From there, he floats, casting a spell, a summon - a Guardian of sorts - and the colors start weaving shadows.

Aqua and her Heartless have a heart-to-heart link. She doesn’t need to say anything for them to know what she wants. They leave her, twisting in a tidal wave with the intent to crash into him directly while she deals with his new threat on her own.

The shadows underneath her feet converge and slither. They are cold and slimy, the touch of something lurking underwater brushing against her legs.

Bursting out of the ground, it grabs her by the leg and thrashes her around like a toy. The momentum of it makes her dizzy, and she limps in its hold. 

She shivers at the sight.

Empty yellow eyes, but angrier. Mouth taped by bandages like it’s injured. An empty shell in the middle of its chest, like it feels less than a regular Heartless. It’s huge and broadchested, and the first thing that comes to mind is the exact moment when she first met this creature. It hurt.

It hurt her. 

Disappearing from its grip in a puff of smoke, Aqua comes at it from above, Keyblade in hand. 

Her Heartless know to circle back away and pummel into the beast from behind. It takes a direct barrage of her grunts and strikes with her Keyblade - and her very kicks - to its face, until she’s too pissed off to have mercy and she starts coming at it with her worst blasts and explosions. 

She’s found the man’s weakness - this creature. It raises its hands to cover its face from another one of her surging powerballs when the man throws himself in between, blocking with a barrier. Juggling both her and the tidal wave, he knocks out her attacks with large shockwaves while commanding the Guardian to deal with the Heartless - blast by violent blast, creep by unnerving creep. 

The Guardian hides and stalks her Heartless, targeting the ones in the middle: the ones less aggressive and are only there to fill numbers. The lost. The confused. The children.  

Each time it leaps from the ground and takes a hard strike, Heartless are ticked off, lost to nothingness forever in just one shot. 

Aqua gasps.

Every Heartless vanquished is a sting somewhere, like a knotted string pulled from the surface of her skin until it cuts off her circulation. Then it snaps - from her back, her bicep, her face, her own heart, like a slap of rubber. Each and every one.

They’re gone. They’ve suffered enough crawling around the Realm of Darkness, and now this. It’s not fair.

Aqua calls them nearer to her. Together, they are sturdier, and she pets one of her Heartless - the youngest yet the oldest one of the group - to make sure it’s alright. 

Man and beast teleport far enough away to add yards between. His shoulders heave with breath, and he staggers ever so slightly before straightening, like he has to remind himself that there’s something to be proud of. 

The Guardian is dismissed, and the man opens up his arms and bows to her. 

Stalemate. Surrender. It doesn’t matter. All she feels is pain when she promised herself after she left the Realm of Darkness that she’d never feel it again.

“Equal powers,” he says, hiding his defeat in his smile, “equal strengths. Equal truths.” She doubts that. “You are a worthy enough adversary, and yet I’ve bided enough of my time on you.”

He turns over his shoulder.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me,” she spits, her knees shaking. 

It’s uncanny for an enemy to expose his back - traditionally his weakest spot - but he doesn’t consider it. 

“You came here looking for ghosts, were you not?”

“It has nothing to do with you.” 

“The graveyard is the perfect place to find one,” he says, waving his hand to beckon her. “This one is exactly who you’re looking for.”

Whether he’s taunting her or amusing himself, it’s easy to tell but hard to differentiate. 

“You’re lying.”

“Suit yourself.” He continues on his way like he’s talking to himself. “The departed never linger.”

He doesn’t wait for her to catch up. Is he telling the truth? He’s smart, she’ll give him that. Smart and obnoxious, but he can’t afford to boldly take her to a trap.

If he pisses her off, she can finish the job. He’s weak enough now, and he should know this. 

Aqua follows, her Heartless obedient and staying close. She eyes his shoulders, tracing the muscles to his spine. The most vulnerable spot is right at the brain stem. 

He’s so much the same, and yet his stride has more bravado, more of a direction of where to go, like he’s solved all of his problems that plagued him in his young life. 

“Tell me,” he says, glancing over his shoulder, “how did you escape the Dark Realm?”

Aqua doesn’t answer. It’s not his right to know.

“Peculiar,” is all he has to say about her silence.

She stops. “You’re wasting my time-”

“Here.” He gestures with his arm toward a blunder of rocks and boulders that have recently been blown off from a plateau high above. 

Some of the pieces gleam in the harsh sunlight. 

“This…” she hisses. 

Armor. Chunks of it, sliced and abandoned in gold and red, next to a humongous, dull Keyblade laying flat on the ground. A scrap heap instead of a memorial, like all the rest. 

She feels the man watching her as she gapes at the rubble before her.

“A lingering spirit,” he explains, his voice laced with a touch of condescension. “But no more. He spent far too long waiting for repentance until he was depleted of his will.”

She glares at him, golden eyes to golden eyes. His lashes are still luscious and as long as ever, lips slightly chapped as they always are. His lips are the same, but the smile is ugly. It twists, mischievous, like he understands exactly who’s responsible for this mess.

There is so much anger unspoken for but she doesn’t need words to tell him. Her fingers twitch, ready to slash him across the chest... but she’s drawn back by the very armor that needs her, pulling her heart heavily towards the ground. She doesn’t want to look at it but she knows it’s there, waiting for her to take care of it. 

She can’t leave it now.

So she stares, waiting for the man to cower in her sight, refusing to be the first to step down. 

But he notices what she’s trying to hide, and smirks. “You’re bound by his chains.”

His words pump her blood, her heart banging in her ears.

“Be wary of dead weight,” he says softly, his eyebrows pulsing upward. “Tied to your ankles, it will make you sink.”

“I know enough about drowning,” she quietly says. 

He cocks his head, leaning forward. “There are depths you still cannot fathom.” 

She inches closer to him, and can feel his breath on her lips. “We’ll see how hard you struggle to swim,” she whispers. “From now on, every breath you take is a gift from me.”

Something flickers in his eyes, and he smiles to himself. 

Straightening up, he leaves her for silence, taking a step into a portal of darkness until it zips up behind him. 

She hates him. Hates him for that stupid smirk he’s always wearing. Hates how good he is at reading her so easily, for knowing at first glance that she’d stay behind with the rubble when he turned over his shoulder.

She hates him for not letting her grieve her losses in peace. 

The Realm has made good work of numbing her for twelve years, and now she takes a piece of it with her. Any surge of emotion - despair, nostalgia, yearning, wishing, and yes, even love - fades, leaving her stuck between yelling and not caring. Escaping the Realm should have been triumphant - not really deserving of applause, but it should have been the most important moment of her long life.

Standing here, in the midst of this mess, she wonders if waiting has been pointless all along. 

Spurts of Heartless crawl toward the armor - they’re curious, as much as she is shaken by the sight. They’re attracted to what she feels, and because this armor makes her feel something, their interest spikes.

“Don’t touch,” she commands, and they squirm away.

First she takes the helmet under her arm. With the other, she grabs the torso by the neck rim, dragging it behind her. A few yards away is an indent carved into the plateau, right under an outcrop. It’s cooler there because the sun can’t touch it. 

She takes laps, bringing in gauntlets and leg braces, all by herself. Finally, she drags that enormous Keyblade through the dirt, leaving a trail. It’s bigger than she remembers.

In the cave, she assembles the hips upright on the ground, right against the rock. Balances the torso on top. Lays the legs in front. Tries to attach the arms, but they simply fall. 

Then the helmet. Sand spills out of the folds. One of its tall ears is chipped halfway, among other missing bits that tell her it was bashed in the face. Its visor is cracked, the damage running deep when she traces it with her finger. She imagines a pair of deep blue eyes behind the glass, but all she sees in the foggy reflection is her morphed face, gold eyes staring back.

“You broke before I did,” she says spitefully. Then the spite fades away, just like everything else. “I waited a long time for you, and…”

And it looked like it waited a long time for someone, too. 

No matter how many times she wills her Heartless away, they always come back. Like puppies, they want to know what’s next. They just don’t have the words to ask. 

“He’s not too far, don’t worry,” she says. Whether she’s saying it to her Heartless or to the armor, she doesn’t think too hard about it. “But this comes first.”

She balances the helmet on top of the torso, taking extra time with it. The last step is to lean the Keyblade next to the suit, against the rock. She’d rather have it here than among the nameless Keyblades out there - at least this can be a proper shrine, something to tell strangers who walk by that this was assembled with care. That someone who is nameless to them has been loved by those who remember him. 

It’s better than the treatment she’s gotten, and she’s okay with that. 

There’s still so much to fix. 

Years of study have taught her that hearts are connected, and if a friend is in danger, she’d feel it. 

Now that she’s spent enough time fighting with this version of a man, she can replay how his twisted heart beats (morphed, melted? Something is off with the way his heart thuds). 

He’s traveling farther with each second, landing in a world that’s relatively close. He’s not in danger, not in the slightest, but it’s impressive how darkness makes it so much easier to track him than light could ever do for her. This is exactly why Heartless have an upper edge over people, lusting after hearts all the time, and she can almost feel it beating as though she has a hand over his chest.

Stepping out into the sun, Aqua and her pets are the only shadows in a world where nothing can escape its glare. A brighter light creates a darker shadow, and therefore the desert makes her the most powerful being here. Puffs of darkness spit up with dust with every step she takes, and Aqua conjures her own dark portal. It won’t be hard to find him.

There are no rules when dealing with a madman.

But he’s not the only one.

#terraqua #anti-aqua #dark aqua #terranort #terraquanort #kh fanfic #kingdom hearts fanfiction #antiaqua #there's too many tags just for her #i'm so excited to start this though!!! #and so intimidated #holy shit #what am i doing #my fic

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Darkness

On the day of the Keyblade War, Aqua stands with the light keyblade wielders and faces down Master Xehanort and his Seekers across a sea of desert and stone. The old man is grinning smugly, his gold eyes alight in triumph as he looks back at them. There is no remorse for the pain he has caused them all with his convoluted plan.

Her blood boils just looking at him. This man is the cause of her agony, and that of Terra and Ventus. She longs to destroy him just as he destroyed her. She longs to rip him apart piece by piece and make him feel the agony she has felt over the past ten years because of him. Unfortunately, she is not the one meant to strike him down—Sora is—so she will just have to settle for watching him die. Besides, reaching Terra is a more important priority at this point.

She thinks she can see him, somewhere among the line of Seekers. They all have their hoods up so she cannot say for sure, but she is familiar enough with his shape and posture to take a good guess at which one he is.

When it begins, the sky darkens until it looks like night has fallen. Heartless and other monsters manifest themselves and launch themselves at the keyblade wielders, who begin to fight them.

Aqua ignores them all and makes a beeline toward Terra. Seeing her, he turns and runs, away from the main fight. She follows him. She knows that it is probably a trap, but she does not care at this point. All of her being is roaring, raging, focused on her need to get to him. And besides, she is not alone; she can feel Ventus a few steps behind her, begging her to slow down and think for a moment.

‘Terra!’ she snarls. ‘Stop running from me!’

It does not matter—he keeps running all the same. Muttering under her breath, she conjures up a dark lasso and throws it at him. It catches him around the waist and sends him off his feet. A strong feeling of satisfaction rises within her at his howl of anger. Good. The darkness runs up his body, paralyses him. Not for long, for he too is a darkness-wielder, but long enough. She lunges at him just as he breaks free.

Her tackle sends him sprawling. Enraged, he snarls at her words that make Ventus’s eyes widen; she simply smiles dangerously and grabs at his neck, squeezing until he is gasping for air. She ignores Ventus’ cries of shock and snarls at him, ‘Give us back Terra, or I swear I will crush you.’

His mouth moves to form a resounding ‘no’. She sees red, and her grip on him tightens.

Ventus’ voice cuts through her rage and brings her back to herself. ‘Aqua, wait! Don’t kill him! It’s Terra’s body!’

Of course… She shakes her head at herself. How could she have forgotten? Their main focus is rescuing Terra. They cannot free Terra if she has destroyed his body.

She does not realise that he is rendered unconscious until she loosens her grip and he does not fight back. Curious… She supposes that she must have been choking him for longer than she thought. 

She looks to Ventus, who is gazing at her with new eyes. ‘What now? How can we reach Terra?’

Ventus shrugs helplessly. Neither of them has the Dive to the Heart ability, and Riku and Sora are nowhere to be seen. It seems impossible. Frustrated, she kicks at the sandy ground and turns away.

‘We will have to carry him further away from the battle, at least,’ she decides, and moves to haul him to his feet.  

Suddenly, as she hooks his arm across her neck and shoulder, a set of images assail her mind: Three wayfinders in outstretched hands; her face, gold-eyed and silver-haired; and Ventus’ face. Her eyes widen in surprise.

‘Terra!’ She grabs Ven’s hand and puts it in Terra’s grasp. ‘Look, Ven! He is trying to reach us.’

Ventus’ eyes widen as he sees the images she has seen. Neither of them knows what they mean, but it becomes clearer as they are assailed with more images.

‘He’s… confused,’ Ventus says slowly. 

They look at one another with the same thought in mind. They must help him before Xehanort consumes him. But first, Aqua decides, they must carry him to a place of safety. They cannot be on this world when the X-Blade is forged.

‘No,’ Ventus says when she voices her thought. ‘We can’t abandon them! It wouldn’t be right.’

Right? She almost scoffs at that word. Since when has doing the ‘right’ thing ever helped them in any way? And besides, all three of them could be lost if they remain in the Graveyard any longer. The much wiser course would be to escape now, while they still can.

Still, she reluctantly yields to Ven’s intense glare and settles back down beside Terra-Xehanort’s prone form. ‘All right,’ she says grudgingly. ‘But first we must help Terra.’

‘Yeah.’ Ventus’ eyes blaze with determination. 

The two of them move to sit at Terra’s—Xehanort’s—side. They look at each other and nod, knowing without a doubt what they must do. They close their eyes and concentrate, until they move past the images flashing before their minds and into the muddled thoughts behind them.

Terra… Aqua’s breath hitches as she is flooded by his turbulent feelings. We are here.

Let us help you, Ventus adds.

What… I… Who...?

Listen to us. We will guide you. You are your own person, you are not Xehanort or part of Xehanort.  

Xehanort? No… I am nothing… no one… part of him…

You are you, they tell him in unison. Unique from Xehanort.

But the memories… they are not mine…

They are, they tell him. Your memories are your own. You only have to claim them.

I… I…

He falters. They concentrate harder, giving him what strength they have, until--

ooooo

Blinking and squinting, they find themselves standing on Terra’s heart-station. They see Terra immediately. He lies in the centre of the station, covered in shadows of darkness, groaning faintly as if he is in pain. (The painful echo in Aqua’s heart confirms it.)

‘Terra!’

Aqua falls to her knees beside him. As she does so she sees the chains on his hands and feet. Made of darkness, she thinks. They have a strange luminosity to them.

He does not answer. His eyes are closed; his head lolls slightly as she desperately shakes his shoulders.

‘Terra, can you hear me? Please answer me!’

‘What a sight,’ a familiar voice says mockingly from behind them.

Immediately she knows who it is. How can she not? It has haunted her dreams for months on end now. Slowly she rises and turns to face him.

‘Foolish Master,’ Xehanort says. ‘Still as misguided as ever. You cannot win. He belongs to me—as do you.’

She doesn’t lower her keyblade. ‘I do not belong to you,’ she says flatly. ‘And neither does Terra.’

‘Yeah,’ Ventus says, glaring at him. ‘Terra belongs with us and we’re going to prove it!’

He laughs. ‘Then do,’ he sneers.

They attack him, but again and again he covers himself with a dark shield before they can make contact with him. Each time she hears Terra cry out in pain.

‘You see?’ he says smugly. ‘You cannot defeat me without first putting him down.’

No… Shaking with rage, she swipes at him again, with the same result as before.

‘There is no other way,’ Xehanort says. ‘Put him out of his misery or leave him with me. From the look of him,’ he adds casually, ‘I am sure he would prefer the first option.’

She glares at him, hating that he dared to read her mind. ‘There is always a way! I won’t let you take him from us again!’

Frantically she searches her mind for something, anything, that could help. But all she can think of is Terra. Terra… That’s it!

Terra! We need you!

Xehanort glares at her, astounded. ‘You fool. Terra cannot hear you now!’

‘He can!’ she retorts back. ‘I know it!’ Terra! We can fight him together—the three of us!

She crouches before Terra, not caring about what Xehanort is doing. Ventus follows suit. Our hearts are connected. The three of us can do it! Now break free and help us!

For a long moment she holds her metaphorical breath as she waits. Please… she begs. Just come back to us. I believe in you. Ven believes in you. Just… come… back!

She caresses his cheek, willing him to wake up. Somewhere around her, she feels Ven do the same thing. Together they concentrate. And then they feel it: a glimmer of light, terribly faint, but there.

Terra! The word is shouted in unison.

…

Aqua… Ven… The words are filled with weariness and pain.

We’re here. Let us help you.

Shock, disbelief, and finally hope blossom.

How?... He’s strong…

The three of us are stronger. Now fight back!

I… I…

They feel him steel himself, and immediately bolster his light, showering him with memories. The day they met… the days they trained Ven on the summit… the days and nights they spent together, watching the stars. The night Aqua gave them their wayfinders, and the promise they made to one another.

By the time they are done, she can feel the tears staining his cheek. The chains disappear in a burst of light.

No! Xehanort’s voice echoed around the platform, furious and frustrated.

Aqua kisses Terra on the crown of his head and stands up to face the old Keyblade Master. ‘Leave, now,’ she says coldly. ‘Or pay the price.’

Xehanort’s eyes flash. ‘Then face the powers of hell!’

Before any of them can react, the station shakes violently. Darkness erupts from Xehanort’s figure, and spreads throughout the area, tainting it. With a thrill of horror, Aqua realises that the old keyblade master is about to destroy this heart-station and take them all down with it.

Aqua, Ven, you must go! Terra’s voice sounds in her mind, strained and panicking. This is not worth it!

‘No!’ 

She’s waited too long and lost too much to give up now. He and Ven are the only family she has left, and she will not lose either of them again if she can help it.

Of course, Ven refuses to leave them behind. She keeps a tight hold of both of their hands as the darkness rises higher and higher, spreads until the platform is consumed by it. With a thrill she feels the floor beneath them disappear, leaving them stranded in air.

They fall.

oOoOo

Sometime later, Aqua finds herself drifting back into consciousness on the sandy ground of the Keyblade Graveyard. Opening her eyes, she spies Terra’s still-comatose form. Her heart freezes as she senses the emptiness within him. No… Terra? 

‘Aqua?’

She turns at the sound of a ragged familiar voice, and sees his Ventus’ face on the other side of her. His blue eyes are exhausted; his face is filled with love and concern as he looks at her.  

Ven…

‘You stayed with us,’ she croaks out. 

‘It’s what friends do,’ he responds simply. ‘I would never leave you and Terra when I thought you were in danger.’

‘Thank you,’ she says simply. There is nothing else to say.  

Her eyes stinging with tears, she grabs hold of his hand, and reaches to take Terra’s. Both of them, here with her… it’s a dream come true. Is it truly over at last? She prays that it is. 

#kh fanfiction #terra #aqua #ventus #aquanort #darkqua #terranort #xehanort #my fanfiction #terraquanort #maybe a bit of terraqua? #idk #i have no clue how well this turned out #i like what i've written though #so that's good

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Determination

After that, Aqua is determined to do what she can to conquer the darkness inside of herself and rescue Terra. Every day she works with Riku to learn more about the darkness she carries, and to better control her emotions. Riku tells her that just because she is a creature of darkness doesn’t mean that she has to surrender to it utterly. She can learn to wield it without letting it consume her. She knows she must if she wishes to save Terra.

At first, she does not trust Riku, but gradually she warms up to him. It helps that he has been through a similar experience to herself. He knows what it is like to fall into darkness. Of course, he has never been broken like she has, but she has to admit that it is comforting to have someone to talk to who has experience with the darkness and does not reject it outright.

Sometimes Ventus joins them, when he is not training with Kairi and Lea in Radiant Garden. Otherwise she and Riku are alone together. She does not mind, not once she has grown used to Ventus’ absence. She finds that she likes Riku as a companion—he does not chatter incessantly and make annoying remarks like Xigbar, and he does not try to make her feel better like Ventus does. He just waits out her angry moods until she calms down.

‘I—I’m sorry we couldn’t rescue you in time,’ he says abruptly one day. ‘Me and Sora would’ve, if we’d known. But Yen Sid wouldn’t let Mickey tell us. He didn’t want us to go on a reckless quest when we didn’t have the means to free you.’

‘Oh.’ There is little she can say to that. As much as she hates it, it makes a lot of sense.  

‘And when we finally found out, it was too late. So, I’m sorry. Just—don’t be so angry at Mickey about it,’ he begs her. ‘It wasn’t his fault. His hands were tied.’

Well… Part of her knows that he is right, and that she is placing too much blame on Mickey for what happened to her. But a larger part of her is still irrationally hurt and angry that they had come to her aid too late to help her fight off Xemnas. If they had been there, she would not have been tortured and placed under Xehanort’s control for so long. She would have been safe. (She longed for that, she realises, for so long. Even when she did not realise it.)  

She lets him see the pain and anger in her eyes as she replies, ‘I know. But he was still too late.’

He looks away silently and nods. He understands. There is too much pain, too much grief to forgive what happened.

‘When I was a stupid kid, I wanted to escape my island so much that I let the darkness consume me. I attacked one of my best friends and almost got the other one who I was trying to save killed. In the end Ansem Seeker of Darkness possessed me and I was only saved from that because of Sora.’  

She bites her lip and looks away. She had not expected such raw honesty from him. ‘I did more than you did,’ she argues. ‘I destroyed an entire village! I did countless horrific things while I was in the Organization. And I would’ve caused Ven even more pain if Master Xehanort had succeeded in turning him into another vessel.’  

‘Ven’s forgiven you for everything,’ Riku reminds her. ‘Even those things. You know that.’

She huffs. ‘I cannot understand why. It was only sheer luck that Master Xehanort failed in turning him into another vessel. I would’ve been responsible for that, for his pain, if it had worked in the end.’

‘But it didn’t work. It’s over now, Aqua. Don’t look back on the things you can’t change.’

She gapes at him. How did the young boy she met once become so wise? Through many hardships and trials, she suspects. She does not query him about it, not wanting to accidentally delve into any too-painful memories that he has.

Riku proves to be a good listener, and soon she finds herself confessing more to him—things she has not had the courage to tell Ventus about. Riku doesn’t interrupt her, and instead nods and listens as she tells him more about the things she has done—the chaos she caused and the people whose lives she destroyed. She also admits the guilt and confusion she feels now about it all.   

She thought that he would reject her once he knew, but to her surprise, he does not. She must admit to herself that she had been wrong about him, and about the other light-wielders. They are not the enemy; perhaps they can be trusted after all.     

‘How can I tell Ven any of this?’ she says to him. ‘He will not understand.’

‘How will you know if you don’t try? You never know, he might surprise you.’ He touches her shoulder. ‘He cares about you,’ he assures her. ‘If you tell him, he won’t reject you outright. He’ll understand and hear you out.’

oOoOo

‘Did you ever wonder how you managed to escape from him?’ Riku asks her days later after a training session. ‘It shouldn’t be possible, you know.’

She shook her head. ‘We did not escape from him,’ she tells him flatly. It still hurts her to recall that day. ‘Not really.’

‘But you still know yourself, even though you have part of his heart in you. He has no control over you.’ He gestures to her gold eyes and silver-blue hair. ‘Didn’t you ever wonder why?’

She shrugs. ‘It did not matter. He had already taken everything else in my heart.’

‘It does now if you want to rescue Terra.’ He nods when she looks at him in surprise. ‘What if whatever happened with you is the key to saving him? To helping him regain control over his heart?’

It gives her more hope. If it will truly help Terra… She decides that she will think about it. Aside from trying to gain more power over the darkness than Xehanort, she does not know how she managed to escape from his control. She supposes that a large factor in it was the luck they—she—had during those few days. Xehanort had not cared enough (to her surprise) to try to recapture them until they had returned to the castle in search of Ventus.

Eventually, after days of thought, she understands. It is not simply her darkness that made it harder for him to control her. From the very beginning, she had fought for her own dominance and freedom, every step of the way. And because of that and her relationship with Terra-Xehanort, she realises, her identity had re-pieced itself and pushed Xehanort away. A hybrid identity—not her original one—but all the same it is her identity and not Xehanort’s.

Terra, on the other hand, had become tired and resigned, after being possessed for over twelve years. Recompleting as part-Xehanort must not have helped matters in the least. And it was not just that. She knows that he was so reluctant to accept that he was Terra and not Xehanort. Sometimes she could see an empty, dead look in his eyes, as if he had lost his identity and Xehanort’s had taken over.

Perhaps if she had been able to break free from Xehanort because of her identity, then Terra can too. It is worth a try, since they have nothing else to try as of now, and she plans to suggest it to Ventus soon.

When the times comes, however, before she can tell Ventus, he speaks to her first. ‘I had another dream about Terra,’ he says excitedly. ‘I almost reached him this time!’

Her spirit rises to hear that. She did not dream of Terra this last night, but she has been dreaming sporadically about him for the past few weeks, and she knows Ventus has been dreaming about him as well. If Ventus almost got through to Terra in his latest dream, then they are much closer to winning him back.  

She closes her eyes and lets out a heavy breath. ‘Ventus,’ she begins carefully. ‘I have an idea. But I must tell you something first.’

He looks at her expectantly, and, with great trepidation, she finally confesses everything to him. Every offense; every piece of guilt that has pierced her heart.

Ventus silently listens as she speaks. She dreads to know what he is thinking. Is he judging her as harshly as she feels he is?  

‘Ven, I’m sorry,’ she tells him, when she has finished. ‘If you want me to go—’

He shoots her an astonished look. ‘Aqua, I already told you. I don’t want you to leave. You’re one of my best friends.’

She gapes at him. ‘But—I’ve destroyed people’s lives! You can’t ignore that!’

He sighs. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’m not happy about you destroying a village, or everything else you say you were planning on doing when you ran away. But I can’t hate you for it. Not when I know you feel guilty about it and you’re changing. And not when you still have a chance to redeem yourself.’

She feels her eyes sting with tears at his words and the steadfast look in his eyes. ‘Ven…’

He smiles tearily at her and changes the subject. ‘What’s your idea?’

She tells him. Ventus listens intently to her words, and she sees his eyes fill with emotion that she has not seen in a long time.

‘You think it’ll work?’ he asks hopefully.

‘It must work,’ she says adamantly. ‘I did it, so maybe Terra can too.’  

He nods at her, his eyes blazing with a determination that mirrors her own. Yes, she thinks with elation. They can do it. They will save Terra and help him regain himself, and then they can finally be together again.  

#kh fanfiction #my fanfiction #ventus #terranort #aquanort #darkqua #aqua #terra #terraquanort #idk how well this turned out #i rushed it a bit #because i really want to finish this fic by the time KH3 comes out

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Rage

That night, she dreams of the boy who she has felt for the past few nights. What is his name? She cannot consciously remember, but her heart recalls it immediately. It fills her with a swamp of emotions: Joy. Guilt. Grief. Pain. Sorrow.

Somewhere in the expanse of darkness that surrounds her, he calls her name. Her heart leaps in her chest. Could it be…? No, why would he want to see her? She gave him to Master Xehanort. She has done unspeakable things. He should hate her.

Even so, she can feel him reaching for and calling to her. And then she is reaching for him, suddenly desperate to get to him. Suddenly, the darkness dissolves around her and she finds herself in a small dusty dungeon cell. As she contemplates why she has appeared in this place, she sees a surprisingly familiar figure in the corner of her eye.

She can barely breathe as she spins around to look at him. And there he is, just as he appeared when she last saw him all those years ago. Messy blonde hair, short stature, friendly blue eyes. 

‘…Ventus? Is it really you?’

He doesn’t say anything, just gazes at her. He looks older and weary—far from the innocent boy she remembers from their old life in the Land of Departure. Like her and Terra, the time spent during the past thirteen years has clearly altered him permanently. It pains her to see it, as it is largely her fault, and so she turns her head away.

She waits for any response he might give, but all he says is, ‘Come find me, Aqua. I’m waiting.’

oOoOo

When she wakes up, Master Aqua knows what she must do. She shakes Terra-Xehanort awake and tells him of her dream.

‘It is a message,’ she says resolutely. ‘We must go back to the castle and find him. I know it in my heart.’

He agrees, and they set off. Xehanort is still a bit reluctant, but he knows that she will go anyway, and he does not wish to be left behind. Besides, something in him tells him that this is the right course of action. They must return to The World That Never Was and rescue Ventus if they wish to move forward now.

They get into the castle so easily that it worries Xehanort. There should be more guards about. Something must be wrong. What if this is a trap?

Does it matter? A voice deep inside him says. We are already inside.

And besides, he reminds himself, they are both capable fighters and can face whatever comes next together. He must believe that, or else how can they survive?

He looks at Master Aqua and can see the cold determination in her eyes. He remembers her promise. We will kill them all. Gods help him, part of him—the Terra part—hopes that they do. That part of him wishes nothing more than to see them dead at his feet for what they have all done to him and the people he cares about. Especially Xemnas. But another part of him—the Xehanort part—recoils at the thought of harming the people who made him who he was. They may not have any choice about it, of course, if they wish to rescue Ventus.

They descend into the castle dungeons. They have never been down there before, but it does not matter. All they have to do is focus on Ventus’ heart and they will be led to where he is.  

When they arrive at the cell where Ventus is being kept, Xemnas is waiting for them, along with three others in the Organization. Good, Aqua thinks. She can have her vengeance on them now.  

‘I knew that you would return to us eventually.’ The Nobody steps out of the shadows of the cell, along with three others in the Organization. The sadistic Larxene is there, as are Xigbar and Marluxia. ‘You could not resist the urgings of your heart. How weak it has made you.’

Aqua opens her mouth to snarl something at the Nobody, but Xehanort breaks in, thinking that it would be better if they do not antagonise him so quickly. ‘What do you want?’

Not deigning to answer that, Xemnas steps aside to reveal the presence of a familiar-looking boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Ventus. Darkness swirls around him, holding him in some kind of paralysis.

‘Ven!’

‘Ventus…’ Terra-Xehanort breathes beside her, sounding just as caught between horror and bitter joy as she.  

They stare at one another, trying to process what they are seeing. Ventus… To her surprise, her eyes fill with sudden stinging tears. Her heart aches with agonising feeling that she cannot comprehend. Blinking rapidly, she shakes it off and turns back to Xemnas.

‘Let him go,’ she snarls at him.

To her fury, Xemnas only laughs. ‘It will be my pleasure, if you agree to return to us, Master Aqua,’ he tells her. ‘You and Xehanort are sorely missed in the Organization.’

Her eyes flash in anger and determination. She knows exactly what he is saying, and she will have none of it. ‘Guess again!’

‘Aqua, wait—’ Xehanort reaches for her, but it is too late. She attacks, sending great balls of darkness at the Nobody and his comrades. He deflects them with ease, sending them straight back at her, causing her to dodge and attack again. He steps back, letting Larxene, Marluxia and Xigbar take over the fight. They step toward her with their intent clear in their eyes.    

The fight with Xigbar is laughably easy. Aqua toys with him for a while, dodging his lasers, before attacking and slamming him into a wall. For a moment she locks eyes with him and relishes the look of fear in his remaining eye. How the tables have turned! She remembers a time when he was nothing but cocky and smug. It is good to see this raw fear in him before she wipes that look away forever.

Without further ado, she reaches and presses her hand against his good eye and lets the darkness within her flood out. Xigbar screams as it burns it away.

‘I hope you like being blind,’ she snarls.

Xigbar is still screaming as the darkness devours him. When he is nothing but dark ash, she turns to Larxene and Marluxia.

She considers them both with callous eyes filled with hatred. ‘You helped invade my home. Because of that you deserve to die.’

Marluxia’s eyes narrow, but before he can protest the darkness devours him whole. It then makes its way to Larxene. Larxene’s eyes widen in horror as she realises what is about to happen. She can only gasp out, ‘You can’t… I can’t die again…’ before the darkness devours her as well.

After that, there is a stunned silence. Master Aqua stands on her feet still, her wrathful eyes on Xemnas. The senior Nobody does not seem phased by what just happened, or by the fury directed at him. 

‘You are magnificent.’ Xemnas’ eyes shine with admiration and hunger. ‘Truly magnificent.’

Aqua ignores his words and moves toward him. It is his time to die now. He is the one responsible for her torture and capture; he must receive the most heinous death of all.

‘Aqua—’

She will not stop until everyone associated with her—their—pain is destroyed. She steps toward Xemnas. Darkness slithers from her skin toward him--corrosive darkness that will destroy him where he stands. Xemnas however does not look afraid—in fact, he is smiling as if he is looking forward to something.

It is then that Xehanort feels a sharp stab of pain in his head. As he grimaces and raises his hand, he meets Xemnas’ knowing eyes and his mouth dries up in fear. The master may not have control over Master Aqua anymore, but he still has control over him. How did he ever think he could run away from that? It is a stark reminder that he will always belong to the Organization.  

He watches Aqua prepare to eliminate Xemnas. Part of him would gladly see him dead, but another part of him is wholly against the idea. If Aqua goes through with this, who knows what the master will do in retaliation? He cannot let him harm her. He cannot let him harm either of them.

‘Stop!’

Xehanort’s voice is so forceful that Aqua’s tendrils of darkness immediately draw back at the sound of it. He takes a deep breath as Aqua, Xemnas and Ventus all turn to stare at him. He knows what he must do.  

‘Xemnas… If you wish to make a trade, I will suffice. Just let Master Aqua and Ventus go.’

‘What?’ Aqua gapes at him. The blood drains from her face. ‘What are you—'

Xemnas narrows his eyes. ‘You have always belonged to the Organization, Xehanort. As for her--’  

‘Shut up,’ Master Aqua snarls. Her voice is so menacing that Xemnas’ mouth closes immediately. She turns to Xehanort. ‘If you think you are going through with this, think again!’  

‘I have made my choice,’ he says flatly. ‘You cannot stop me.’

I can try, she thinks but does not say aloud. He is hers, after all. How can she not fight for what is hers? How can she not make him see that his place is with her?

As he starts toward Xemnas, Master Aqua roughly grabs his arm. Her eyes are filled with a terrified rage that pierces his heart. ‘Do not do this!’

He shakes her hand off, glaring at her. ‘I must! I will not let him take you for himself!’

She bristles at that. He is a fool if he thinks she would be easily taken. ‘But—’ 

‘I can distract him. If I stay here, he may not wish to claim you again. You can be free, as you so wished.’    

She wants to convince him, to make him stay with her, but he has made up his mind and nothing she can do will change it. She remembers that much of their childhood together in the Land of Departure. He was always so stubborn when he had decided to do something. (So was she, for that matter. That part of her has not changed either.)

Stay with me, her eyes beg his silently. Please…

He returns her gazes with infinite sorrow and regret. I cannot. I am sorry, Master Aqua.  

She does not resist as he kisses her forehead and turns away. ‘Please… Take Ventus and run. Do not stop until you are far away from here.’

Her shoulders slump ever so slightly. She looks so torn-up inside that his heart aches to see it. He hates that he is the cause of it.

He turns and walks toward Xemnas. Behind him, Aqua snarls in rage and grief. She makes to lunge, but Ventus grabs her arm and holds her back, whispering in her ear. From the corner of his eye, he sees Xemnas’s lip curl upward and his fingers flick. A ball of darkness forms and flies straight toward Master Aqua. Too absorbed in herself, she does not see it—but Xehanort does.

‘Aqua!’ Without thinking about it, he deflects the ball of darkness… straight toward Xemnas. It of course disintegrates before it makes contact with him. Bursting with fury, Xehanort lunges at the Nobody, ready to make him pay for daring to attack Master Aqua. Xemnas stumbles back but isn’t surprised at this sudden act of rebellion. He is him, after all, and he has his memories. He had to have seen it coming, to an extent. Not that it matters now.

He does not know why he does it—there is just one chain of thought in his mind: her name, over and over again. Another large part of him is possessive—she is his and he won’t let Xemnas kill her if he can help it.

With his entire being, he forces the Nobody away from Aqua. Xemnas does not resist—he has what he wants now. His eyes flash, and Xehanort feels his body seize and his throat constrict. Gasping for air, he scrabbles at his neck, but he can do nothing as his muscles weaken and his vision darkens. The last thing he sees is Ventus being freed from the dark paralysis and running toward Master Aqua.

That is good, part of him thinks. They can escape together, even if he cannot go with them. Once they are gone Master Xehanort will not bother pursuing them. He can take some comfort in that. 

She feels it as he falls. It feels like a big hole is being ripped through her heart, piece by piece. 

‘No!’

The rage in her is so strong that it almost feels like it will shatter her completely. Terra…Xemnas… Master Xehanort… So help her, she has a great longing to murder all three of them, painfully, for the hurt they have inflicted on her. But she cannot dwell on that now. There is Ventus to think of. So she takes a deep breath and summons a dark corridor and watches as Ventus runs through it with a backward glance, before she forces herself to walk through it as well.

They emerge into the light of day in a world she does not recognise. Numbed by what has just occurred, she allows Ventus to take the lead and follows him. She does not know where they are going, and she does not care at this point. All she can think about is Terra and Xemnas and what she has just lost. It is a bitter pill to swallow. She has gotten the freedom she so desired, but she has lost Terra. 

She should not care at all, she knows, not about another member of the Organization, but she does. He was her best friend, once, a long time ago. He also cared about her when no one else did and gave her comfort and a bit of happiness in her short and corrupted life. Now he is gone.  

She does not have time to think about that, though, because a group of light keyblade wielders has arrived. There are two of them, she notes—a boy with silver hair and another with spiky brown hair. Both are headed their way with keyblades drawn. Her chest tightens in fear as they come to a halt in front of the two of them. What could they want? What could they take from her that has not already been taken? She thinks of Ventus and bile rises up her throat.  

‘Do not touch him,’ she hisses.

‘We won’t,’ one of the other boys assures her. ‘We don’t want to hurt either of you.’

She doesn’t believe him. How can she? She has spent too long in the darkness to assume that people won’t hurt her. These people will hurt her, hurt them, just like Xehanort did. 

They have already hurt her, she thinks bitterly. They are the ones who left her in the Realm of Darkness to rot and didn’t even come to help her when she called to them for aid. It’s their fault she’s like this now. They don’t deserve her mercy. So, she lunges toward them, keyblade in hand, ready to attack.

Startled, the boy jumps back, just avoiding being sliced in two. ‘Don’t fight!’ he begs. ‘We’re here to rescue you!’

She does not care. All that matters is that they are the enemy who need to be snuffed out. She will not listen to anything they have to say.

‘Please!’

‘No,’ she snarls. ‘No!’

‘Aqua!’

It’s no use. She can’t hear Ventus—she can only hear the blood pounding in her ears and the rage and pain reverberating within her heart. They will pay for everything she has endured, every loss she has faced and the agony she has felt. She will make sure of it. She will--    

(There is suddenly a sharp pain at her temple, and then nothing. The world fades to darkness around her.)

oOoOo

Hours later, she groggily wakes up to find herself in an unfamiliar place. 

She can feel Ventus somewhere close by, but that is of no consequence. A more pressing matter is where she is. 

She takes note of her surroundings. She seems to be in some enclosed space filled with bright colours. She is lying on a stretcher of some sort… She tries to move her hands but is unable to. 

Alarm flashes through her. She looks down to see that she is in chains made of light. Her eyes widen; her mind flashes back to a memory of helplessness that she had hoped never to experience again.

‘No…’

She tugs at the bindings repeatedly, but they do not budge. ‘No!’ Panic rises within her. ‘Release me! You cannot trap me like this!’

Footsteps sound. Ventus’ face appears within her line of vision. His hand grabs her own trembling one. ‘It’s all right, Aqua,’ he says to her. ‘We’re safe now.’

She snarls at him her disagreement. She is trapped in a strange enclosed space, in chains. How can she ever feel safe?

‘I’m sorry about the chains,’ he continues. ‘We were scared you’d hurt yourself. You kept moving like you were having a nightmare.’

‘Who is we?’

‘Mickey, Sora and Riku,’ he tells her. ‘They’ve been tracking the Organization for months, searching for us. It’s lucky they found us in time, or I don’t know what could’ve happened.’

The Mouse… She closes her eyes to stop herself from screaming. Ventus has given her to the enemy. How could he do this? Why would he do this? Has he been working with them all along?      

‘No… No!’ She snarls at him; he flinches in surprise. ‘You betrayed me! You have given me to the enemy!’

The boy’s eyes widen. ‘That’s not—’

She trembles violently. ‘You… you…’ She fumbles for words as he watches with a bewildered expression.

She tries to tell him that she hates him, but she cannot bring herself to say the words. (It is not as if she actually despises him, after all.)

It does not matter in any case. He can see the venom in her eyes. It is not directed at him, but he does not know that. The look he gives her in return is filled with a hurt beyond imagining. Good. Let him feel the agony she is feeling now.

What will happen to her now? What will they do to her and Ventus? What will the Organisation do to Terra? 

She closes her eyes and tries not to let the rage and terror consume her.

#kh fanfiction #my fanfiction #terraquanort #terranort #aquanort #ventus #xemnas #no flames please

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Light

Weeks pass, and finally Aqua begins to settle into the Mysterious Tower. Although she still does not trust anyone there except Ventus, she has begun to relax and finally accept that she is in a safe place and that these people may not mean her and Ventus any harm. It helps that they are kind to her and Ventus and make it clear that they are not the same as Xehanort’s organization.

Riku and Kairi both offer to help her in their own way. Riku offers to teach her more about her darkness, and Kairi offers to use her light-based Princess of Heart powers to help heal her heart. Aqua listens to them warily, and curtly declines their offers of help. She does not trust them enough yet to know for sure if they will not just try and destroy her for being a being of darkness, and she is not willing to risk finding out. They are not disappointed about her rejection, though, and simply tell her that their offers will always stand.

Two weeks after her breakdown, however, she is finally convinced by Ventus to accept help from Kairi so that her heart can begin to recover from her long ordeal. It is difficult, of course, since she herself does not think that there is anything wrong with her and thus doesn’t see how it will help her, but soon she has to admit that Kairi’s light magic does soothe her frayed nerves and clears her mind and makes her feel lighter in general.    

Not surprisingly, she is extremely wary when Sora and Riku start hanging out with Ventus casually as friends, snarling slightly whenever she sees them get close. It is not that she hates them personally anymore—not like she still detests Mickey and Yen Sid—but she is suspicious of anything that could be a threat to Ventus. It is only when Ventus assures her that he is not in danger with them and that he wants this that she finally backs down. But not before threatening to feed them to the Heartless if they ever put Ventus in unnecessary danger.

In the meantime, she and Ventus also become more re-acquainted with one another. It has been a long time, and they hardly recognize the people they used to be. She learns of what Ventus endured while being held captive by Xehanort, while she reluctantly tells him a tiny bit about what it was like in the Organization with Terra. It pains her, but she owes Ventus that much, after all that he has been through.  

She would’ve avoided speaking of how she gave Ventus over to Master Xehanort—in fact she had hoped that they would not have to speak of it—if it weren’t for Ventus. He forces her to confront her guilt over that event, and assures her that he does not blame her for any of what he went through. She is sceptical about that, but he says firmly, ‘You weren’t in your right mind. I know that. We all do.’

She looks away from him, unable to face him. ‘That is not true,’ she says. ‘I… I did it of my own free will. When he ordered me to do it, I did not even hesitate, or think. I just did it without a second thought.’ It pains her inside to remember it, even now. She’d sworn to protect him, but instead she had betrayed him and handed him over to Xehanort.

‘No,’ he insisted. ‘He was controlling you. It wasn’t your fault. You have to believe that. And even if it was, I forgive you anyway. So, you don’t have to feel guilty about it anymore.’

It touches her that Ventus, who suffered because of what she did, is trying to reassure her and comfort her. Tears spring into her eyes at the thought of it.

‘Thank you, Ventus,’ she says. ‘You are a true friend.’

He grins a teary grin at her. ‘All I’ve wanted is to see you and Terra again,’ he tells her. ‘How could I ever be angry at either of you for anything that might’ve happened? You’re my best friends.’

To stop herself from crying again, she looks away and changes the conversation topic.

oOoOo

One day, Ventus suggests that they go on an outing to another world. She looks at him as if he is crazy, when he makes his proposition. He wants to take time off now, when Terra is still in danger? It is ridiculous. She would say so, but Ventus speaks first.

‘It’ll be good for us,’ he says. ‘We can’t help Terra if we’re not at our best.’

Grudgingly she agrees, and the two of them fly off to Neverland.

It is strange to be back there. The last time she was in Neverland, she led an ‘expatition’ with the Lost Boys and Peter Pan up through Rainbow Falls. She found Ventus’ wooden keyblade abandoned and fought Vanitas in the Indian Camp.

She looks around at the scenery, awe filling her heart. She has not seen such beauty in a very long time—not since she fell into the Realm of Darkness thirteen years ago. Too long a time, she thinks.

She sniffs, and feels a tear roll down her cheek. That is surprising—she had thought that she had run out of tears to cry. But these are tears of joy, not only grief. Ventus take her hand—not possessively or with intimacy, but in a clear show of support and friendship. She turns to see him grinning at her.

‘It’s nice, isn’t it?’ he says. ‘I had the same reaction when I saw it again for the first time.’

She nods, rendered speechless by everything she is seeing. Something baffles her, though. How can he be so nice to her when she has been so horrible to him? She supposes it shows how good he is compared to her. She can’t help it—guilt and remorse give her heart a twinge. She looks away from him, suddenly uncomfortable.

‘Ven, I’m sorry. I have not treated you well.’

Ventus looks away. ‘It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot.’

It touches her to see how selfless he is being—unlike her. She cannot remember a time now (after her corruption) when she had not thought of herself first. Now, for the first time, she considers him. He has been through as much as she has, she realises with a twinge of guilt. He has been held captive by Master Xehanort, has probably endured isolation, fear, worry and pain, and yet he thinks of her first instead of him. It opens her eyes to see it.

‘No,’ she says adamantly. ‘It is not. I haven’t been fair to you at all. I will make it up to you somehow. I promise.’

She does not know how yet, but she will think of something. She has too. She has been self-absorbed for far too long—it is time she focused on someone else for a change, and not just for her own self-interest.

Ventus sees the new light and conviction in her eyes and grins again. She can see his eyes brim with hope as he hugs her tightly. ‘I’ll hold you to that,’ he tells her. ‘Don’t worry.’

oOoOo

That night, she dreams of Terra for the first time in months. Not the brown-haired, blue-eyed man she’d visited before, but a cross between him and the silver-haired, gold-eyed man present in her memories of Xehanort’s Organization.  

‘Terra?’

The name feels strange in her mouth. She reaches out a hand to him, but he just looks at her with those cruel gold eyes and turns away. She can almost sense what he is saying. Go away. I do not want you here. But she keeps reaching for him, calling out his name until her mind’s voice is hoarse with it. No matter how much he objects, she will always be there for him, no matter what.  

She wakes up with a hammering heart and a sweaty forehead, and fear, protectiveness and rage in her heart. Unlike the previous dreams, she remembers this one clearly. She mulls over it in her mind. What is Xehanort doing to Terra? She dreads to think of it.

‘I dreamed of him too,’ Ventus admits over breakfast that morning, when she recounts her dream to him. ‘I was floating in darkness and I could sense him somewhere below me. I tried to reach him but I couldn’t.’

Though Aqua is reluctant, they decide to go to Yen Sid to ask for his advice on the matter. She supposes that since Terra’s life is at stake, they can take the risk just this once. Though, she vows that if the old master betrays them, she will take Ventus and run, no matter what the younger keyblade wielder thinks.

‘Hmm.’ The retired old master fixes them with an intense glare as they tell him about their dreams. ‘This is most interesting.’

‘What does it mean, Master?’ Ventus asks.

‘It means that there is still a chance for him,’ Yen Sid says. ‘I had thought that he would be too darkened by Master Xehanort to be recovered, but if either of you can reach him then perhaps it is not too late.’

Her heart leaps at his words. She bites on her lip to stop herself from gasping in hope.  

‘That is all that I can tell you. The rest you must solve yourselves. Now go.’

‘Wait,’ she snaps as he turns away. ‘Why are you helping us?’

He eyes her grimly. ‘Because I care, Master Aqua. You, Ventus and Terra are like niece and nephews to me. Master Eraqus was also my old friend. I want nothing more than for you three to be happy and safe.’

‘So you say,’ she snaps, glaring daggers at him. Where was he when she and Ventus were in danger, then?

Before she can say anything more, Ventus elbows her and tells the retired master, ‘Thank you, Master Yen Sid. We’ll do as you say.’

As he says? Over her dead body. But Ventus drags them both out of the tower room before she can so much as open her mouth to speak again.

Although she still does not trust Yen Sid, his words have invigorated her, given her more hope than she ever dreamed of. If she becomes more skilled in controlling the darkness, and Ventus finishes his keyblade master training, then perhaps they will be ready to save Terra.    

#kh fanfiction #my fanfiction #kh #terraquanort #aquanort #darkaqua #darkqua #aqua #ventus #terranort

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

Endless Rage

She bides her time. Over the past weeks, the darkness has strengthened within her, pushing back against the Xehanort influence, loosening the control he has over her. Soon, she knows that it will cancel out the influence, and she will be free. Nothing else matters.

It may be foolhardy to try and leave, but she does not care. For so long, she has strained at her bindings, longing for freedom. Now that she is so close to obtaining it at last she cannot back down. She wants her mind and body back, and she wants Terra. (He has already agreed to come with her, which pleases her immensely.) The only way for all this to be possible is if they leave the Organization for good.

We can kill them, she tells him over and over again. We can kill them all and leave this place. Is that so difficult to ask for? For them to be together and free?

He knows that she is not thinking clearly, but he goes along with it anyway. He wants to believe that it is true, and part of him does not want to be separated from her again. Not only would she be gone if she does this, but he would likely never see her again, something which gives him a cold, empty feeling deep inside his heart.

To his surprise, Master Aqua manages to convince Xemnas to let them both go on a mission together. It sends a strange feeling of unease through his heart, especially seeing the expressionless look on Xemnas’ face. He does not think about it anymore, however, after seeing the jubilant look in her eyes. It lights up her face and robs him of breath.

When they are alone again, she kisses him. ‘Soon we will be together forever and free,’ she says joyfully.  

Her words give him a feeling of rightness in his heart that he has not felt before.

It takes another few weeks for Xemnas to finally send them both on a mission together. Aqua lets out a breath of anticipation as he gives them their orders and dismisses them. Finally… She can barely force herself to wait until the dark corridor forms before she practically leaps through it, Terra—Xehanort—following at a slower pace.

‘What now?’ he asks her, once they have emerged into the world. ‘This was your idea.’

‘Wherever we want,’ she says simply.

She takes his hand and grips it tightly. He returns the squeeze, to her satisfaction. 

They run. 

oOoOo

It takes a week for the Organization to finally track them down. Xehanort cannot think of why. Perhaps their hold on them truly has loosened that much. Or perhaps Master Aqua’s darkness is clouding their senses.

Whatever the reason, he is glad to have a respite with her. They traverse the worlds, travelling to wherever they want. The days are filled with chaos of their own making; during the nights they lay under the stars and make love to one another as roughly as they ever have before. During those days he comes to admire and (dare he say) care for Master Aqua more than he ever has before.  

It is blissful, and he is sorry it must end. No matter what either of them says aloud, they both know deep inside that the Organization will locate them eventually, and when they do they must be ready to fight. 

They are in an unknown world when the Organization finally finds them. They appear almost out of nowhere—four of them. Aqua recognizes Xemnas immediately, as well as Ansem Seeker of Darkness. The sadistic Larxene is also with them, and so is Xigbar. The four Seekers surround them; seeing no point in trying to outrun them, Master Aqua and Terra-Xehanort turn to face them.  

‘I knew that this would occur,’ Xemnas says, stepping forward. ‘It is why I let you go. Master Aqua has become quite… uncontrollable, as of late, and the Master wished to see where it would lead.’

Aqua opens her mouth to snarl something at the Nobody, but Xehanort breaks in, thinking that it would be better if they do not antagonize him so quickly. ‘What do you want?’

Ignoring him, Xemnas steps aside to reveal the presence of a familiar-looking boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Darkness swirls around him, holding him in some kind of paralysis. He stares at them with mingled joy, disbelief and horror. 

Aqua stares back at him. Somehow a part of her lights up at seeing him; at the same time, her heart squeezes painfully in her chest. ‘Ventus?’ 

‘Ventus…’ Terra-Xehanort breathes beside her, sounding just as caught between confusion and bitter joy as she.  

They themselves have only a faint, warped memory of him (most of their recollections of him come from Master Xehanort) and yet their hearts thud with recognition. Ventus...

‘He is of no further use to us,’ Xemnas says. ‘You may have him, unless you would rather see him die here.’

The Nobody’s words snap her back to reality. Blinking rapidly, she shakes off the strange feeling and turns back to Xemnas. 

‘Kill him,’ she snaps. ‘Why should I care?’

‘You would let him die just to fulfil your desire?’ Xemnas raises his eyebrows. ‘How intriguing.’ He motions to Terra-Xehanort. ‘He belongs to us. We will have him back now.’

She meets his impassive gaze with her own blazing one. ‘And what of myself?’

‘You are free to leave if you wish, Master Aqua. You have been a hindrance to us and we no longer want you. But we will be taking back what you stole from us. By any means necessary.’  

‘I will kill you all first,’ Aqua snarls. ‘I will not let you part us again!’

She attacks, sending great balls of darkness at the Nobody and his comrades. He deflects them with ease, sending them straight back at her, causing her to dodge and attack again. He steps back, letting Larxene and Xigbar take over the fight. They step toward her with their intent clear in their eyes.    

The boy begs her to stop; she ignores him. Why should she listen to a boy she barely even knows? And a boy filled with light, to boot. She attacks the two Nobodies again. 

Ventus does not know what to do. She is like a wounded, crazed creature, unable to be reasoned with. He looks to Terra, but he only stands by watching events unfold with a look of malicious satisfaction in his gold eyes. Pain burns in his chest. What had been done to his friends to make them so… so monstrous?

In the chaos, none of them notices what happens next. No one except Xehanort, that is. From the corner of his eye, he sees Xemnas’s lip curl upward and his fingers flick. A ball of darkness forms and flies straight toward Master Aqua. Too focused in her rage on Xigbar and Larxene, she does not see it—but Xehanort does.

‘Aqua!’ Without thinking about it, he deflects the ball of darkness… straight toward Xemnas. It of course disintegrates before it makes contact with him. Bursting with fury, Xehanort lunges at the Nobody, ready to make him pay for daring to attack Master Aqua. Xemnas stumbles back but isn’t surprised at this sudden act of rebellion. He is him, after all, and he has his memories. He had seen it coming, and had most likely planned for it. 

He does not know why he does it—there is just one chain of thought in his mind: her name, over and over again. Another large part of him is possessive—she is his and he won’t let Xemnas kill her if he can help it. 

With his entire being, he forces the Nobody away from Aqua. Xemnas does not resist—he has what he wants now. His eyes flash, and Xehanort feels his body seize and his throat constrict. Gasping for air, he scrabbles at his neck, but he can do nothing as his muscles weaken and his vision darkens. The last thing he sees is Ventus being freed from the dark paralysis and running toward Master Aqua with his keyblade drawn and ready for action. 

She feels it as he falls. It feels like a big hole is being ripped through her heart, piece by piece. ‘No!’ 

She leaps toward them, but it is too late. Xemnas opens a dark corridor and steps through it, with an unconscious Terra-Xehanort in his arms. It closes before she can reach it. The other Organization members are swift to exit after that, knowing that their mission has been completed.

‘No…’  

The rage in her is so strong that it almost feels like it will shatter her completely. Terra…Xemnas… Master Xehanort… So help her, she has a great longing to murder all three of them, painfully, for the hurt they have inflicted on her now. She feels herself collapse onto her knees, wrapping her arms around her chest as if that could hold in the sheer amount of rage and grief that is in her heart.

A hand touches her shoulder; she roughly shakes it off. ‘Do not touch me,’ she hisses, not bothering to turn and face whoever it is. ‘Leave me alone!’

It is a bitter pill to swallow. She has gotten the freedom she so desired, but she has lost Terra. She should not care at all, she knows, not about another member of the Organization, but she does. He had cared about her when no one else did and gave her comfort and a piece of happiness in her short, corrupted life. Now he is gone and she is left with a hollow feeling in her blackened heart.  

She does not have time to think about that, though, because a group of light keyblade wielders has arrived. There are two of them, she notes—a boy with silver hair and another with spiky brown hair. 

Alarmed, she moves to stand. What could they want? What could they take from her that has not already been taken? 

Ventus... A tiny voice inside of her whispers. They will take him away. You will lose him like you have lost Terra.  

Fear strikes her; she can feel her eyes burn with rage. She does not even know the boy properly, and yet she knows that she will kill them brutally if they try to hurt him.      

‘Do not touch him,’ she hisses, shielding him with her body.

‘We won’t,’ one of the other boys assures her. ‘We don’t want to hurt either of you.’

She doesn’t believe him. How can she? She has spent too long in the darkness to assume that people won’t hurt her. She’s experienced nothing but hurt ever since she fell into the Realm of Darkness. These people will hurt her, hurt them, just like Xehanort did. 

They have already hurt her, she thinks bitterly. They are the ones who left her in the Realm of Darkness to rot and didn’t even come to help her when she called to them for aid. It’s their fault she’s like this now. They don’t deserve her mercy. So, she lunges toward them, keyblade in hand, ready to attack.

Startled, the spiky-haired boy jumps back, just avoiding being sliced in two. ‘Don’t fight!’ he begs. ‘We’re here to rescue you!’

She does not care. All that matters is that they are the enemy who need to be snuffed out. She will not listen to anything they have to say.

‘Please!’

‘No,’ she snarls. ‘No!’

She lunges again at him. 

‘Aqua!’

It’s no use. She can’t hear Ventus—she can only hear the blood pounding in her ears and the rage reverberating within her heart. They will pay for everything she has endured, every loss she has faced and the agony she has felt. She will make sure of it. She will--    

(There is suddenly a sharp pain at her temple, and then nothing. The world fades to darkness around her.)

oOoOo

When she wakes up, the blonde-haired boy is by her side. Ventus? a part of her whispers. She gazes up at his shadowed eyes. It cannot be… can it? Master Xehanort has him. She handed him over to him. So how can he be here of all places?

A more pressing concern is where she is. She seems to be in some enclosed space filled with bright colours. She is lying on a stretcher of some sort… She tries to move her hands, but is unable to.

Alarm flashes through her. She looks down to see that she is in chains made of light. Her eyes widen; her mind flashes back to a memory of helplessness that she had hoped never to experience again.

‘No…’

She tugs at the bindings repeatedly, but they do not budge. ‘No!’ Panic rises within her. ‘Release me! You cannot trap me like this!’

Footsteps sound, and the boy’s face appears within her line of vision. A hand grabs her own trembling one. ‘It’s all right, Aqua,’ he says to her. ‘We’re safe now.’

She snarls at him her disagreement. She is trapped in a strange enclosed space, in chains, with a stranger. How could she ever feel safe?

‘We’re sorry about the chains,’ he continues. ‘We were scared you’d hurt yourself. You kept moving like you were having a nightmare.’

‘Who is we?’ She speaks through gritted teeth; the boy flinches at the menace in her voice but does not draw away from her.

‘Mickey and Riku,’ he answers steadily. ‘They’ve been tracking the Organization for months. It’s lucky they found us in time, or we don’t know what could’ve happened.’

The Mouse… She closes her eyes to stop herself from screaming. This worried-looking boy has given her to the enemy. How could he do this? Why would he do this? Has he been working with them all along?      

‘No… No!’ She snarls at him; he flinches in surprise. ‘You betrayed me! You have given me to the enemy!’

The boy’s eyes widen. ‘That’s not—’

She trembles violently. ‘You… you…’ she fumbles for words as he watches with a bewildered expression on his face.

She tries to tell him that she hates him, but she cannot bring herself to say the words. It does not matter in any case. He can see the venom in her eyes, directed entirely at him.

The look he gives her in return is filled with a hurt beyond imagining. Good. Let him feel the agony she is feeling now. All she wanted was freedom. Was that too much to ask for? Now she is a prisoner again. What will happen to her now? What will they do to her? What will the Organization do to Terra?

She closes her eyes and tries not to let the rage and fear consume her.

#kh fanfiction #terraquanort #terra #aqua #ventus #xemnas #xehanort