Terra Unbound - Guilt

Guilt

Woods

Unaware of what's going on at the Castle That Never Was, Terra entered the woods through the hole in the Tram Common area of the town. Looking around the woods carefully, he covered his head with the hood – a part of him told him to do so, so he could avoid detection from anyone – from the coat he's wearing; as he did so, he looked down at his semi-bare chest, showing the scar in the middle. He was about to pull the zipper up to cover it when he head a sound.

Footsteps.

Not sure if it's a friend or foe – and not taking any chances if it's either the former or the latter – he looked around the area and spotted a tree wide enough to hide behind it. He quickly ran behind it and pressed himself against it, making sure that no one could see him at the entrance to the hole or at the path that leads to another area in the woods.

Peering out from behind his hiding place, he saw a small figure walking into the clearing. No, really, the figure is like around two feet tall; the figure is also wearing a black coat like he and that Saïx person, and has two big round ears on top of its head, a thin whip-like tail could be seen sticking up from under the coat. Anyways, the figure walked in the crossroad of the woods then stopped, looking around the area, as if looking for something.

Narrowing his eyes a bit, Terra studied the person. For some odd reason, there's something… familiar about him… Finally recognizing the shape, he blinked with his mouth agape. "…Mickey?" He muttered.

In his stupor, he didn't realize that there's someone else besides him and Mickey, for he was suddenly punched in the face by that someone, landing in a heap in clear view, onto his side. Strangely enough, the hood didn't fall off his face.

The person, who Terra identified as Mickey, turned to the source and saw a person on the ground, in a black coat. Thinking of him as a threat, he got into a fighting stance and a flash of light appeared, forming into a key shaped sword with the blade colored gold, the teeth in a shape of a crown, the handle around the hilt white, the band that held the blade and hilt together red, and the keychain is colored gold with the main one in three circles shaped like a mouse's head; ready to fight if this person does anything suspicious.

Terra, meanwhile, pushed himself up a bit with a groan and rubbed his sore cheek, wincing when he felt it was swollen a bit. He was about to cast a Cure spell when he heard something being summoned; he looked to the source, only to see a tip of a blade pointing at his face threateningly.

"Alright, what number are you and why are you here?" The owner of the blade demanded. The blade looked like a bat wing in dark blue at the blade, red at the 'flaps' and a blue eye at the top of a black hilt. Terra looked up at the person holding the blade, seeing a boy that looked like he's 15-16, bluish-silver hair that goes to his shoulder blades in layered spikes, his fridge covering his forehead well but spared his ears, though he had a black blindfold over his eyes for some reason and a black coat on. Also for odd some reason, the boy looked familiar as well.

"…"

"…" The boy slowly lifted his hand to the blindfold and moved a bit of it off his left eye and opened it, revealing it to be bluish-green, and seemed to examine him. His eye then set itself on the keyhole shaped scar on Terra's chest and narrowed it. "The other members don't have that scar…" He muttered, closing his eye and replaced the blindfold over it.

"…What? What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'members'?" Terra questioned, getting steadily confused by the minute.

Mickey did a take at the voice. "Terra? Golly, is that you??" He took his hood off, revealing his peach colored face with the rest of it black as well as his ears, nose and eyes.

Terra sighed then took off his own hood. "It's nice to see a familiar face at last…"

The King jumped a little. "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! It really is you!!"

The boy lowered his sword and looked at Mickey, confusion written on his face. "You know him?" He asked, surprised that the King knew this person.

"Oh, right, I never mentioned him to you, I guess," Mickey commented then chuckled. He turned to Terra, who stood up. "Terra, this is Riku," he introduced the brunette to the other boy, using his hand gestures, "Riku, this is Terra."

At 'Riku' the older human stared at the boy in shock. "You… You're Riku?!" He exclaimed, pointing at him.

Under his fridge, Riku raised a brow. "Yeah? What of it?"

"But… you were five when I last saw you!!" Terra took a step back from Riku.

"Wait… you and I met before? But I don't remember you," Riku tilted his head to the side. "Or… at least I don't think so…"

"But… how…" Terra was at a loss of words. How can this be? Wasn't this boy a child when he last saw him?

"By the way, where have you been this whole time Terra?" Mickey asked, "I haven't seen you since your group's battle with Master Xehanort and Vanitas ten years ago."

"What?? Ten years?!" Terra exclaimed, "But… I… AUGH!" He clutched his head with both hands, as if he had a headache. "What the fuck is going on here?!?"

"Um… maybe you should explain what happened to ya, up until now," Mickey suggested, seeing the distress on the brunette's face.

"Y-Yeah! That's sounds good…" Terra muttered, still with a hand on his head; Riku, meanwhile, looked confused by everything that he heard.

And so, Terra told Riku of his tale (with the King explaining some things to Riku) about being a Keyblade Apprentice to a Keyblade Master named Eraqus, living on a world called the Land of Departure while training under him, later being joined by his friends Aqua and Ventus, then taking the Master Qualification Exam – or MQE for short – with Aqua, though she passed, then left to search for their master's old friend and fellow master, Xehanort, while taking out creatures called Unversed, going to a bunch of worlds and around the end, the three of them regrouped at a world called the Keyblade Graveyard to take on both Master Xehanort and his apprentice, Vanitas, the former telling the trio that he plans on using Kingdom Hearts to unleash the forbidden secrets of the Keyblade War to the worlds, by using Ventus' heart to gain the final form of the Keyblade, the X-Blade, to unlock Kingdom Hearts; and to that end, Master Xehanort needed a body to insure that he could see his plans through, choosing Terra as his vessel. They all battled, though in the end, the corrupt Keyblade Master managed to possess him by transferring his heart into his body, though his armor came to life and battled his possessed body.

"After that, my body must've fainted," Terra continued to explain, "because I then found myself in Radiant Garden, though Xehanort is still controlling my body and Aqua found me. They battled but I managed to regain control of my body, and used his Keyblade to seal the both of us away. Then… nothing after that; though, the next thing I knew, I woke up in a dungeon of sort, escaped from there and battled a person named Saïx then came here, where I met three kids and now, here we are."

"Wow…" Was all Mickey just said, stunned. Riku was pretty much stunned as well. "So you don't know what happened to Aqua then?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Terra asked, confused. Did something happen to her? Then a thought hit him. "Wait a minute, what happened to Ventus??"

Mickey had an uneasy look on his face. "Um…" Terra suddenly grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Tell me! What happened to Ventus and Aqua??" The brunette demanded, desperate to know what happened to his friends.

"Hey, knock it off!" Riku shoved Terra off the small king, who became a little dizzy after being shaken.

"But…!"

"Terra, please calm down," Mickey sighed, putting a hand on his head. "As much as I wanted to tell you… you won't like the news…"

"Mickey… I have to know…" Terra muttered, his blue eyes glazing over, "I… I need to know what happened to them…"

After looked at his face for a while, Mickey sighed then hung his head. "Alright," he said reluctantly. Looking back up, he began, "It seems that, while you were taking on Master Xehanort, Vanitas managed to knock out Aqua; though, it seemed that she took on someone else that got her to be knocked out. But anyways, the dark apprentice would've killed her if Ven hadn't intervened. It seems that not only Vanitas is Ven's darkness but also the source of the Unversed; but anyways, Vanitas then possessed Ven and created the X-Blade. I healed Aqua and the two of us took on the possessed Ven; it was an arduous battle but Aqua managed to destroy the X-Blade."

Terra silently listens to the story, but… what's this unease that's suddenly building up in his chest?

"The X-Blade, though, suddenly unleashed a burst of bright light and consumed everything," the King continued, "I managed to save Aqua and Ventus, but… it seems your body was caught in the explosion. I took them to Master Yen Sid's tower to recuperate, but… for some reason, when Aqua awakened, Ven didn't."

"Why's that?" Riku asked, though he, too, also has a feeling of unease.

Mickey sighed again. "…Master Yen Sid explained that, Ventus managed to defeat Vanitas within his mind but… at the same time with Aqua destroying the X-Blade, Ven lost his heart; his body became comatose, and will not wake up until his heart returns to him…"

"!!" Terra and Riku gasped, their eyes widening at the news.

"After that, Aqua took Ven's body to hide him… And that's the last I saw of them…" Mickey finished, a sad look appearing on his face as he said the last sentence.

The two boys became silent.

Riku was thinking that it's somewhat similar to what happened to Kairi when she lost her own heart…

Terra, though, is a different story, his brain reeling with the information. He didn't want to believe it. His brain was rejecting what he heard. Ven… Ven is… gone? No! It couldn't be!! But… what of Aqua? What happened to her?! Did she flee after he sealed himself and Xehanort away?

As he tried to come up with an explanation, the dream he had earlier came to mind. The dream about… him and Aqua sinking into a black goop of sort and a large black hand came out of the goop, as if intending to take her under…

He tried to figure out what it mean when suddenly his head was hit with a flash of intense pain that failed to go away. "AGH!" He cried out, clutching his head with a hand, getting startled looks from Riku and Mickey.

"Terra, are you okay?!" Mickey cried out, worried about the brunette.

He couldn't answer… He was in too much agony to form a sentence. The pain became worse, making him clench it with both hands, grimacing tightly. His body began to twist this way and that in a distressed spasm. "GAH!" He managed to let out, throwing his head back, losing his balance and falling to his knees. He caught himself before he could completely fall to the ground, grabbing a fist full of grass. He felt like his head was about to explode! Making small grunts of pain, he squeezed his eyes shut, the pain making him unable to open them…

With Xemnas (around the time Mickey told Terra about what happened to his friends)

"…" Xemnas stared at the empty armor with a Keyblade in front of him as he sat in the chair in the middle of the Chamber of Repose. "…Someone you know told me that this armor belonged to you… I have no idea about where you are, truly. I don't even remember your own name…"

"But… for some reason or another, I feel… comfortable around you," Xemnas had a thoughtful look on his face as he said that, tilting his head to the side. "If I could find the Chamber of Wakening… will I have my answer?"

He went silent, as if waiting for an answer from the suit of armor. After a moment, he sighed then stood up from the seat. "I have to go now," he told the armor, "I'll return whenever I can…"

He then walked out of the room and into the hall, not bothering to use a Corridor of Darkness to go back to the castle. As he walked, he racked his brain to try to remember his past some more. He couldn't place his finger on it, but… when he brought Roxas into the Organization, he looked… familiar. Why was that?

Also, he had a feeling that there's something Xigbar's not telling him. Sure he told him of his true identity and stuff, but… he didn't tell him the names of his 'friends', and so much more…

Just as he was about to exit the hall, his head, like Terra's, was suddenly struck by a flash of intense pain. "AGH!" He at first held his head with a hand – grimacing tightly – then used the other hand to clutch it as it got worse. He let out pained grunts, not able to make coherent words due to the agony he was in. He felt weak at the knees, but willed himself not to fall

"A… A… ARGH!" He stuttered, his body twisting this way and that in a distressed spasm; a part of him was really, really glad that no one else is around to see him like this. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, for the pain has made it impossible for him to open them…

--------

Falling…

Why… is he falling?

He blearily opened his eyes and fully opened them in shock when he noticed he was falling in a dark tunnel. But that's the third thing he noticed. The second thing he noticed was a bright light in the distance; the first thing he noticed was a person clad in armor riding on a vehicle of sorts and was flying at him. He tried to open his mouth to say, well, anything, but… his voice won't work! And he also found that he couldn't even move his limbs either!

The sound of an engine accelerating brought his attention back to the person clad in a silver, blue and gray armor as they speed up to him.

Wait… he knows this person!

When the person is close to him, they reached out and grasped his right hand, his other arm and legs now dangling in the tunnel. Then the person – or she when she grunted – hefted him over her front as she turned the vehicle to light above them and sped toward it. Though, he noticed that the ship was slowly starting to descend with them on it.

"Only one of us can make it out of here…" He heard her mummer to herself. Shifting his eyes to try to look at her, he wondered what she meant when suddenly it hit him.

No… she wouldn't!

A sphere of light surrounded the ship and the ship itself disappeared, though the armor is still holding on to him. Before him was a beautiful girl with short blue hair in the color of water with eyes the same shade as her hair; his eyes widened as she floated along with him, a familiar gray and blue Keyblade in her hand. Gently she took his right hand and put her Keyblade into it. "Take this," she ordered, pushing the fingers so he could grasp the hilt.

Still holding onto his hand, she went as close as she could to him. He blinked confusingly at her but his eyes widened when she placed her lips unto his own. A sphere of blue light surrounded him and the armor holding him and she drew away from him; she then waved her arm and yelled, "GO!"

He and the armor holding him flew away from her and toward the light above them. As he was getting closer to the light, the girl was farther away from him. He felt his eyes watering up and he managed to move his left arm to try to reach her.

"A…qua…" He heard himself saying before everything went bright…

Terra snapped his eyes open with a small gasp. The sudden migraine he got was gone but… he didn't worry about that.

"Terra, are you alright now?" Mickey asked the brown haired Keyblader when he didn't respond for a few moments.  

"…" Terra stayed in the same position he was in for a moment. The hand griping his head slowly fell away and he stared at it. "Oh my god…" He muttered, low enough to not be heard, but Riku and the King could hear well with their superior hearing.

"What is it?" Riku asked        

He didn't hear Riku, nor did he hear anything in general. He kept staring at his hand long and hard, an unreadable expression on his face.

He should've known… He had some sort of clairvoyance during his battle with Xehanort… but he had no idea that it could actually happened to them…

"… No… Ven… Aqua..." He found himself choking up a little, though he didn't care. But… he felt horrified. Horrified by the fact that he couldn't save them.

It… should've been him… It should've been him. It should've been him! It should've been him!! It should've been him!!!

As these thoughts ran through his head, he brought up the hand that was on the grass to his face to examine it along with the other hand. He clenched his hands, squeezed his eyes shut, and gritted his teeth. "Why… WHY DID YOU DO IT?!?" He raised his fists in the air and slammed them onto the, causing a small tremor. Riku and Mickey cried out in shock as the ground shook a little.

"WHY?" The brunette continued to pound the ground with his fist. "WHY DID YOU SAVE ME?? YOU COULD'VE SAVED YOURSELF AQUA!!" As he continued to rant, he kept making small tremors, causing the trees to shake. Riku and the King tried their best to steady themselves. Suddenly the tremors stopped and the two looked at the taller human, his forearms on the ground, hunched over. Riku lifted up the piece of the blindfold as the two looked at Terra. They could barely see it, but he was quivering.

"… …I… I could've…" He chocked out, stifling… a sob? "I could've… I could've saved you two! But…"

Terra could feel the tears running down his cheeks, but he didn't attempt to wipe them away. They freely fell off his chin and onto the grass under him. "First our master… and now you two??" He could no longer hold it back and completely broke down.

"…" Mickey looked on sadly as Riku replaced his blindfold over his eye. Giving Riku a glace and back at Terra, he sighed and went over to the young man.

"Terra… It'll be alright," Mickey said soothingly, rubbing the young man's back gently. It seemed the said brunette didn't hear him, as he continued to sob quietly. Meanwhile, Riku looked on, understanding what the older human was going through.

He remembered that he had felt this way when he realized that he was tricked the whole time, and of the things that had happened to his friends. Kairi is now staying at their home islands, waiting for their return, but…

Striding over to the brunette and stopped next to his, he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I think I know how you feel," he said. Terra didn't stir in his lament, but the silver haired male had a feeling it caught his attention. "You felt that you've failed your friends, from all the things that happened back then. You and I were possessed by an evil person, driving insane by lust for power or knowledge." Terra moved his head a bit so he could look at the silvernette, surprise evident in his eyes. "Two friends of mine lost their hearts, but one was in the heart of my other friend. The two are okay now, with one on our home world… but…"

The brunette blinked as Riku suddenly made a frown. A sad frown. "Some things had happened, and my friend was put to sleep so he can regain what he lost…" Mickey, who had stopped rubbing Terra's back to listen in to the conversation, made a sad look at this. "It's taking a long time, but, eventually, Sora will be his old self again…"

"I'm doing everything I can, to make sure he sleeps peacefully," he continued, "and to repent for everything I've done. But, no matter what, Sora and Kairi forgive me, even after everything that happened to them." He made a small smile as he said the next sentence, "And I'm sure your friends will also forgive you, because-" he looked at Terra at this "-they're your first and true friends. Your heart is connected to theirs. Never forget that."

Terra kept on staring at Riku, absorbing all the info he had told him. "…How will I know… if they all… forgive me?"

"Try looking inside of you Terra," the said brunette looked at the mouse king as he said the sentence. "No matter how vast your darkness is, there's always a small bit of light that's too stubborn to go out." At this, Terra straightened up and sat on his heels, "Ven and Aqua are your light; the light to balance out your darkness." He closed his eyes with a grin. "Even if they're not in this realm anymore, they'll always be inside your heart."

"… Okay…" The brown haired male nodded, deciding to take his advice. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrating on… whatever is in him, since he suddenly remembered that he couldn't feel his own heartbeat earlier. Shaking his head mentally, he went back to concentrating on his friends. The blackness was replaced by a white void, and he could see the familiar faces of his friends.

Ven made a silly grin as he put his hands behind his head, tilting his head a little; Aqua made a warm smile at him, nothing dark against him in her eyes. In fact, in both of their eyes. The void disappeared and he opened his eyes. He closed them again softly, and tears formed in his eyes. But not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. "Thank you. Both of you," a tear ran down his cheek. "Heh, I can't remember the last time I felt like this…"

Mickey nodded in understandment while Riku nodded just once, but a very faint smile is on his face. Wiping the tears from his eyes and taking the hand offered by Riku to help himself up, he inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, calming himself down. "Now… can you two tell me what's been going since… that day?"

"Welp, okay," Mickey scratched his head, "but first, we should find a more suitable location to discuss this. There might be members of the organization listening on us!"

"I think I know where we should hide," the two looked at Riku after he said that. "Besides, maybe they should help explain this, too."

"They?" Terra parroted, tilting his head a little.

"You'll see when you meet them." Riku began turning to the path that lead to the other part of the woods. "Let's go." He made his way to that part of the woods, the King not far behind him. Terra made a small smirk and began to follow them.

Ba-bump…

Terra had not taken two steps before he felt a throbbing pain in his chest. In reaction, he put a hand, over the scar, on his chest, letting out a grunt as he closed his left eye, bending over slightly. 'What the- What the hell was-'

Ba-bump…

"AGH!" The throbbing pain suddenly turns into agonizing pain, causing the brunette to clutch tightly on his coat while his other arm hugged his chest. Due to the scar being covered, no one didn't notice the keyhole-shaped scar glowing.

Not even Riku and the King when they turned to him, surprise evident on their faces. "Terra, what's wrong??" Mickey asked, worried about the brown haired warrior.

Terra let out small grunts of pain but still managed to say, quaking in his voice, "I… don't… know…" Before he let out an agonized scream as a pale yellow aura and an inky black aura appeared around his form, the two auras looking like they were fighting over dominance of Terra's being. Mickey and Riku took a step back, the force of the two energies overwhelming as they heard something like a heartbeat.

"Terra! You've got to control your light and darkness, or they'll destroy you!" Riku called out, sensing the danger in the situation.

The older human gritted his teeth, fighting back whatever sound that wanted to escape from his mouth; yet it also showed that he was trying to balance out his light and darkness within him. 'Ven… Aqua… help me!' He mentally called out to his friends.

As if it was God's answer, the two auras around him started to calm down, bit by bit. During the chaos, Riku breathed deeply through his nose and a scent made itself present.

A familiar scent.

As Riku stared at Terra in shock, the auras around the latter and the heartbeat disappeared. Terra's arms fell limply to his sides, as he let out a small moan, before he fell to his knees and onto his side.

"TERRA!" Was the last thing he heard before everything went black…

Meanwhile, at the Castle That Never Was…

Xigbar quickly made his way to Xemnas' room, for he had to tell him that someone had hacked into their computer mainframe earlier. He had a feeling who did it, but he gotta tell the Superior about it. Its one of the rules of the universe after all. But what disturbed him was that he wasn't at Where Nothing Gathers when he tried to report it, so he figured that he might've been in his room.

"Not good, not good, not good," he chanted to himself as he neared his destination. Coming to the door, he knocked on it. "Hey Xemnas! Come out! I gotta tell ya something!" No response. "Uh… Xemnas?" Still no response. He turned the knob to find it unlocked and slowly pushed the door open. "Hello…?" He called out as silently as he could…

"!!" He gasped, seeing the silver haired man on the floor, lying on his side, passed out. "Xemnas?? What the hell happened?!? HEY!"

In an unknown location…

"…Terra and Xemnas had passed the first trial…"

"I see… And know, let's see if they'll pass the second trial. In the meantime, go do what I've instructed and I'll do my part."

"As you wish…"