eachdraidh | first key; Seelie locked (forward dated a little)

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first key; Seelie locked (forward dated a little)

[It's been a...strange few weeks. Even with being used to other worlds by the time of his arrival, he's never stayed for this long. By now, Terra has a fair idea of how things work around here, and if not an idea, then he can guess at least. Or at least he thinks he's got this. In front of him, there's a chess set, set up in a rather peculiar way compared to most. For instance, there are a few raised platforms, and the pieces, while obviously still intended for their original uses, look different.

A little faerie chirps on the other side of the chess board, trying to lift one of the pieces near her and obviously failing if the way her body gets pulled down with the piece is any indication.]

Hey, hey. Careful or you'll hurt yourself.

[He reaches to help her and the faerie puffs her cheeks and pouts at him, wings beating as fast as a hummingbird's as she lowers the piece and crosses her arms, making him chuckle and shake his head before returning his attention to the network.]

I didn't think they were actually able to do it. Bring us things from home I mean.

[Terra holds a piece up, then places it down.]

I'm set up in the library if anyone is up for a game. Strong minds are equally as important as strong bodies.

[He then inclines his head.]

Unless you're looking for getting your butt kicked in the more physical sense, I'll be down in the training grounds later.

[And the feed ends.]

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[He does look happier, even more so than when he'd met him as a kid, and that makes him smile when he remembers what Riku has told him he's been through. Terra chuckles a little, shaking his head when he sees the creature. It's brighter than an Unversed, so at the very least he doesn't mistake it for that.]

I hope it's house trained.

[Considering Riku told him he's been to other worlds, it likely means he hasn't been in the one place at the one time often.]

I've never seen anything like it. Unversed, yes, but not that.

[If he had taken it for an Unversed, Riku would have been quick to correct him.]

I think so. I've never noticed any trouble, anyways.

Just before I came here, Sora and I were sent to seven Sleeping Worlds--worlds that hadn't been restored when Sora brought them all back the first time. These guys, Dream Eaters, helped us fight the Nightmares to find the Sleeping Keyholes.

What are the Unversed? Another enemy?

[Unversed weren't ever that colourful.]

Sora and you...the boy you were with when I first met you?

[Years ago on the island he means. Come to think of it, Riku had mentioned Sora during the feast. It's curious that Sora is a keyblade user too, though he figures maybe Aqua or Ven had something to do with it. They'd all been to the same worlds - Aqua had been tracking him down even - so it would make sense. The question makes him nod, a small frown forming.]

They're beings made of negative emotions. They started being active just after our Mark of Mastery exam. That was what led Master Eraqus to opening the Lanes Between.

Yeah, that's him. [Heh. The two of them have been together forever, it sometimes seems.] The Keyblade chose him too, along with another of our friends named Kairi.

[He shakes his head when Terra explains the Unversed further.]

I've never run into them. Maybe they're all gone by my time.

[That confirms that for him, and he nods. It sounds like they're about as tight knit as he, Aqua and Ven were before the Mark of Mastery exam, which makes him smile a little.]

Aqua and Ven must have taken care of Vanitas then.

[He doesn't want to think of what else might have happened, whether or not Ven merged with him like Xehanort had planned. Terra pauses to explain.]

They come from his Darkness, and last I knew were running rampant in the worlds. That's what Master Xehanort told me anyway.

[While he doubts the old man now, he doesn't think he was particularly lying about the whole truth of that part at least.]

Vanitas... you've mentioned him before. He was Ven's darkness, right? Xehanort created him.

[How could one person's darkness be responsible for something like the Unversed? If Terra's master had opened what he's calling the Lanes Between--which is strange in and of itself to Riku; Yen Sid has mentioned the lanes between worlds that he and Sora can access with their Keyblades, but never had they needed to be opened--it must mean that they had spread to multiple worlds.

Riku shakes his head.]

Seems like Xehanort was responsible for a lot of things. In my time he created the Heartless to plunge the worlds into darkness.

That's right. Ven used to be his pupil before he brought him to live with us after that happened. That was four years ago.

[He wonders how Ven got roped into that in the first place, what kind of person he'd been like before Vanitas had been ripped from his body. If Ven was the Light and Vanitas was the Darkness, then it explained how they were so different despite coming from the same person. Terra had had a whole month to pick and think over different bits and pieces, though he does raise an eyebrow.]

What are Heartless?

Edited 2015-07-03 21:36 (UTC)

[Riku makes a quiet, scornful noise. He hadn't seen it coming, but it doesn't surprise him in the slightest to hear that Ven was once Xehanort's pupil. He's read the Ansem Reports; he knows exactly what the other man is capable of doing. He'd turned all of Ansem the Wise's apprentices into Nobodies and performed experiments on human subjects to create the Heartless. It's not that hard to imagine him doing the same sorts of experiments on his own pupils too.]

The Heartless are creatures of darkness. They're created when a person's heart is taken from its body. The heart becomes a Heartless--the body left behind becomes what's known as a Nobody.

Xehanort was able to release his heart from his own body to make himself into one of each so he could control them.

[It's weird. He knows.]

[It's not that weird to Terra, not when the last part rings a bell in his head. All of a sudden it feels like the breath is knocked out of him, and his brow furrows into a deep frown.]

Out with the old and brittle vessel, and in with a younger, stronger new one.

[The words are mostly murmured to himself, glancing away from the locket screen. What Riku says just confirms a few things that Terra's been thinking on since their talk at the feast. Where he'd been during the last ten years. The thought makes him shiver, before he collects himself, a slightly troubled look on his face.]

I knew he could take his own heart out of his body, but I didn't know he could split it.

[Riku can barely hear what it is that Terra murmurs, but he can catch enough. That, in combination with the older man's shiver and expression, has Riku second-guessing what he's just said. He doesn't want to tell Terra that Xehanort's taken over his body. He doesn't want to have that conversation.

But he shakes his head, choosing not to remark on it for right now.]

He didn't split his heart. Sorry. I meant that when he released his heart from his body, his heart became a Heartless and his body became a Nobody. That's what allowed him to control them.

[He doesn't say anything more on the matter, instead reeling himself in from asking. He doesn't want to put that kind of pressure on Riku, not to mention they shouldn't be talking about this over the locket anyway. No, he'll think about it on his own. The explanation has his attention though, frown deepening.]

Two Xehanorts. I could barely handle one.

[It's meant as a half joke, the small quirk of his lips enough to tell Riku that. Though it's nothing he should be joking about, especially with the implication that he, in fact, didn't handle one.]

So Nobodies are the bodies left over by people who become Heartless, is that right?

[Riku returns the small half-smile. That makes two of them. Because he hadn't handled Ansem; he'd managed to hold back Xehanort's heart for a few seconds, but in the end it had been Sora that had put an end to his Heartless. He'd done better against Xemnas, but even then--he'd taken a direct hit to the side, an injury more than Curaga could heal. Riku's under no delusions here; if it hadn't been for Sora, he probably wouldn't have been able to finish Xemnas off.

And he'd only fought one half of Xehanort at a time, or a younger version of himself. What must it have been like to fight against the real thing, with all his experience?]

That's right. They're two parts of a whole.

It turns out if you destroy both somebody's Heartless and their Nobody, they can rejoin to become a whole person again.

[That half-smile on his face fades.]

So we haven't handled him yet, either.

[Maybe if he had waited, if he had let Ven and Aqua fight with him instead of pushing Ven behind him and running off to face the old Master on his own, maybe Riku wouldn't be dealing with him ten years later. But that had required being of sound mind in the first place, and his rage had been uncontrollable. Xehanort had egged him on, he was sure of that now.]

We'll do it together.

[Even if it meant holding Xehanort back from within. Terra knew he was strong enough to keep the Darkness back, so if what happened to him is what he's assuming, that's likely the only way he'd be able to help.]

He's counting on dividing us from our friends no doubt, but we're stronger than that.

Yeah.

[How often has it been thanks to their friends that they've made it through? Sora, when he'd taken the Keyblade away from him. Kairi, when he'd vowed that Ansem would not use his body to harm her. Everything they'd had to do to restore Sora's memories, or defeating Xemnas, or how Axel of all people had shown up in the nick of time when all else had seemed lost.

If not for the friendships they shared, not one of them would have made it through everything unscathed. Terra's right--together's when each of them is strongest. Together, they can defeat Xehanort.

A smile comes to Riku's face as he considers Terra's words, and he nods.]

We'll do it together. All of us.

[He returns the smile, nodding in return. That was right. Riku had said that there were seven of them who would bring down Xehanort, and while he mightn't be one of them he could at the very least help from the inside, if his fate was what he thought it would be. Everything that had happened had been because of his inability to keep his Darkness in check. Well, he'd make sure that he was strong enough to hold Xehanort back when the time came.]

Someone once made me realize how powerful it is just to believe. No matter how impossible things seem...a powerful enough dream will always be enough to light the darkness.

[That seemed to be a dream everyone shared, defeating Xehanort. Past and present, Terra was sure that they'd be able to make sure he wouldn't hurt anyone else.]

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first key; Seelie locked (forward dated a little)

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