towerofanimus | (no subject)

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Characters: Aqua, AU!Sora (

lamentless)
Setting: Floor 11 and Floor 20.
Format: Prose ~~i love you past-tense~~
Summary: Aqua takes up the reigns of Master, and breaks some bad news.
Warnings: Most probably angst. Spoilers for Birth by Sleep.

Floor Eleven//
She sat by the lake with her knees drawn up just enough to rest her arms and chin on them. Sora wasn't happy with her for giving him the Keyblade, she was sure. She had always known it would hurt him, even all those years ago on that beach. But now that she had connected the dots and seen the picture that they made, she was sure she hadn't made a mistake in bringing him closer to the light. It was going to hurt, and so was what she was going to tell him.

But whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Aqua just wished she didn't have to be the one to cause the pain.

Floor Twenty//
The magician waited, staring out into the distance beyond the tower. Master Keeper dangled at her side, held firmly in her right hand. It would be hard to teach Roxas all the intricacies of the Keyblade when she wasn't using her own, but she was pretty sure she had enough experience to explain it well enough. Plus, she could start on teaching him magic. Hopefully he would show as much of an aptitude (and enthusiasm) for it as she did when she was an apprentice.

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Sora had almost decided to stand her up, but in the end, he's here, stepping down the staircase. He watches, blinking as she sits there, before he slowly approaches. Hands are in his pockets, and he doesn't look at all happy to be here. If it had been about a month earlier, he probably wouldn't be even this civil. So, he's quiet, shoulders slumped.

"You wanted to talk to me?"

She raises her head and tilts it to look at him, arms falling to her sides. "Yes," she answers; her voice is level, but there's trepidation on her face.

She's trying to think of the best way to go about this. There's no easy way to tell someone that their guardian is a monster, but Aqua liked to think she could at least be tactful about it.

Eventually, she looks out to the lake, resigned. "...Can I tell you a story first, about two friends of mine? It won't be too long. But it'll help you understand."

"Whatever. You called me here."

He rolls his shoulders in a shrug, then plops down to stare out at the water. He doesn't want to be here, but he might as well respect her and listen. He doesn't see what he has to understand. She either knows his dad or not.

It's a good thing she's learned to distance herself from pain. His reactions would probably hurt, otherwise.

"Their names are Terra and Ven," she starts. "Ven is in the tower too. You might have spoken to him." It was a big place, but she wouldn't rule out the possibility, especially since they were all from the same universe. "And...I think you may have already met Terra, when you were young. They're my closest friends. We grew up together under a great man by the name of Master Eraqus."

Aqua looks down to Master Keeper, resting dormant at her side. "He's passed on now. But he taught us so much. He taught us how to protect the light. And the people important to us.

"Ven wasn't with the Master as long as we were, though. He had a different master for a long time. That master was named Xehanort." Though, to be honest, she had her moral qualms about referring to that man with the title of "master". "Xehanort is an evil man, corrupt to his core by darkness. He once did something terrible to Ven."

The mage takes the Master Keeper in hand, folding her legs to the side to rest the Keyblade in her lap. "He removed all of the darkness from Ven's heart to create a monster of pure negativity, which he named Vanitas. He almost killed Ven doing it. That's when Ven came to stay with our Master.

"But Xehanort was old, and he didn't want to die. In fact, he wanted much more than that. He wanted absolute power. To do that, he needed a new body." Her gaze lifts from the sleeping Keyblade atop her thighs out to the water again. "Terra...he was sort of like you. He succumbed to darkness, influenced by Xehanort's lies.

Xehanort took Terra's body as his own. I don't know what happened to either of them after that." She shifted, setting Master Keeper aside again. "...but...your father looks almost exactly like Terra did once Xehanort possessed him.

It's been more than ten years since then. A lot has happened." Finally, Aqua looks to Sora. "Do you know anything about your father's past?"

Sora remains quiet for a good few minutes afterward. He has to remain calm. He doesn't know who Xehanort is--that's not his dad. But the fact they look highly similar? He has to consider that. Ansem didn't teach him to question his orders, however he did teach him to learn.

"...He was a king of a beautiful world, and he ruled peacefully. That is, until the Heartless came. The destroyed it, reduced it to ruins. After that, Dad began to study them and the mysteries of the heart. He learned to control the Heartless. It was how he found me. When my parents abandoned me... The Heartless came to take me because I was vulnerable. But instead, he saved me. and he's raised me since."

There is quiet after that. But he's not done. He'll sigh, pulling his knees to his chest. He lets that story linger for the moment, lets her take it in. They can't be the same person, after all, this Xehanort and his dad.

"...He concluded that the Heartless exist because humanity's run out of time. They've become such monsters themselves, that eventually they turn into them. So they don't deserve to exist anymore."

And that's it. That's the most she'll hear of his story. He's too guarded, too bitter, to open up on anything else just yet. And it's quite obvious he doesn't really believe that his dad's evil or anything.

Heartless. She wishes she'd known what they were called when she had to fight so many of them. It's a fitting name.

She has to narrow her eyes a little in thought. She wanted to remark that the Heartless weren't exactly a new threat; she'd fought them a decade ago. But Sora might have already known that much. She doesn't want to risk upsetting him further with careless remarks.

"Do you know what world he ruled?" asks the woman instead, politely inquisitive. Maybe she's wrong about this. She hopes she is. She doesn't want to think about the idea that maybe, all saving Terra did was unleash Xehanort on a whole other generation.

"He doesn't talk about it. Says it's too painful."

And that's that. Sorry, Aqua, he doesn't know much more. It took a lot to get what he did get out of the old man. But then, he realizes he doesn't know anything else about his dad.

"...I see." Even though she really didn't. Something felt so inexplicably off that she couldn't even describe it. The globe could have had its axis toppled horizontal and it still wouldn't have been an adequate comparison to how off this felt.

But she had stressed Sora out enough.

She looks to him again, smiling. "Thank you for coming. I know you probably didn't want to." There are more pieces to this puzzle, but they'll have to wait. Aqua shifts, but she doesn't stand. Her smile takes a note of sorrow. "...I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you. If you want to learn how to use the power I passed on to you, then I'll teach you. But I understand if you don't."

Her hand travels the length of Master Keeper's undecorated shaft. "...and for what it's worth, I do hope you see your father again. I'll keep my eye out." If he was linked to Terra somehow, she wanted to find him too.

He tenses up as she offers to teach him. He wants to scream at her, tell her that he wants her to take it away--he was happy with his old weapon, but now he can't call it. But that won't solve anything. Instead, he just gives a hollow nod before standing himself.

"...That all you wanted to know?"

"I only wanted to know whatever you could tell me," she answers patiently. She doesn't want to lie and outright say yes, because there's a lot more she wants to know, but if Sora can't tell her then there's no point to dwelling on it. "You're free to go, if you want."

"...Answer me one thing," he begins, pausing to look out over the water. He won't look at her. Can't, not right now. She's confusing him, making his head hurt. She's too nice. Aren't the Light and Dark supposed to clash? But that's not his concern right now.

"...Why? Why did you give me that thing when you already knew I'm of the darkness?"

Why are you so nice to me? Why do you even care? So many other questions, but this is the important one.

She glances over to him with curiosity, surprised that he's still speaking. She doesn't expect the question, but she has an answer all the same.

"When I met you on that island all those years ago," she starts. "I was going to give you the power then. But...Terra had already passed on the rite to Riku. And I didn't want the two of you to clash over it like Terra and I did." She looks out to the water, and the strange rainbows stretching over it. "I don't think all hearts begin in darkness. I saw a light in you back then."

And, even though he's not looking at her, she returns her attentions to him to smile. "And even if you don't think it's there, I still see it." It was buried, and pretty deep down, but it's hard to extinguish something like that.

"I don't want you to have to feel alone here."

"I don't want you to have to feel alone here."

Immediately, Sora goes stiff. Whatever wheels in his head work grind to a halt and he just stares forward, eyes a bit wider than normal. Alone...? Like what his parents made him feel like...? Either way, he's trying to sort out the emotions brought up over this. There are, unfortunately, too many, and he just remains stiff there. Not responding, but not moving to leave, either.

Her smile fades at his reaction to an expression of worry. She supposes it's good that he hasn't bolted, but this response doesn't seem very good either.

"Sora?" she tries cautiously, unaware of the emotions she's stirred up within the boy. "Are you okay?"

He takes a moment to unfreeze, but then he offers a half-hearted smile to Aqua before shrugging.

"...Y-Yeah. Fine."

He's not going to say that even Dad hadn't said anything of the sort. He was often on his own, so this is... Surprising.

Her concern changes to relief when he responds (and even smiles just a bit; maybe she had made progress after all), and she visibly relaxes, shoulders slumping a little. "Good."

She doesn't require anything else of him, but she figures it would only be courteous to offer: "Do you have any other questions?" She had asked him so many, after all.

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oh man infodump blargh

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