Xtreme Heart Battle Between Preteens. (WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU)

[vacantis]

Vanitas lay floating and half awake on the inside of their heart. Ven, floated before him, looking down at the X-blade. It seemed...different. More tarnished then he'd imagined. Jagged and ripped. Ven wasn't stupid, but between the battle with that blue haired girl (what was her name..? he didn't remember) and his own adjustment to the new presence of his heart it took a few turns of thought before he realized.

Our union didn't work.

And oh, that wasn't good. Master Xenonort needed the complete X-blade to unlock kingdom hearts. Ven needed..well no Ven didn't need anything actually. He knew that. But Ven knew that this malformed keyblade meant he wasn't whole. And if he wasn't whole he couldn't do the best job he could, couldn't serve Master Xenonort, couldn't...couldn't...

He shook the thoughts away, schooling his face as he pointed the X-blade at Vanitas's stirring body.

"It wasn't finished." He said quietly, but his soul was quiet, so unless Vanitas started shouting, he was bound to hear. "Our union..I mean. The X-blade can't stay broken like this." He paused, the his eyes seeming a little blanker by the second. "Why won't you join me? We need to complete it."

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[vapidus]

It turned out that being sworded and magiced to a pulp on the outside translated to whatever place Vanitas had ended up on the inside, because he felt, not to put too fine a point on it, like shit.

Despite the urgency of the situation still hammering at the inside of his chest, waking was groggy and slow, and awareness coincided with his feet touching smooth glass.

He opened his eyes, and saw Ventus standing across from him, lit up from underneath, and felt a surge of spiteful satisfaction at the sight and words, with attendant smirk.

It was soured by a glance at the images below, and then dismissed, unescaped. He summoned his own keyblade. The eyes on it fixed on Ventus, and the rusted, chipped thing he was holding.

"You assume I even care about that." Vanitas straightened his spine, and shifted a foot back. "Why would I complete something so pathetic?"

[vacantis]

"We have to." Ventus said, with the air of somebody repeating something very obvious. "Its why we exist."

The logic was pretty obvious to him, which made Vanitas' reactions all the more incredibly frustrating. He gnawed at his inner lip a little, unseen. It was all part of Master Xenonorts plan, of course, but Vanitas had never met Master Xenonort before this week, so how could Ven explain?

He decided to stick to what he knew. "And I wouldn't call it pathetic." He said, taking a few steps foward, tapping a finger to the handle of the blade. "Your heart is contained in it." Unless Vanitas wanted to call himself pathetic, which Ven would kind of agree with. For a personification of darkness, he wasn't that strong.

[vapidus]

He kind of walked into that one. Vanitas does what he usually does whenever someone (Aqua) scores a verbal hit, which is pretend that didn't happen.

Vanitas tensed as Ventus approached, and similarly tried to keep his posture still, ready and relaxed. Neither of these things would have fooled anyone.

"We exist," he said, keeping both hands on Void Gear. "Because some idiot thought it would get him what he wanted." He puts as much of a sneer on the words as he can manage.

Ventus is right. As creatures of darkness go, he isn't that strong. But as creatures of light go, neither is Ventus. Neither of them have been in environments conducive to their natures. Here, in the heart, it might just become down to bloody-mindedness versus the power of spite. Vanitas can only hope, given how things played out beforehand.

[vacantis]

"Master Xenonort is not an idiot!" Ven spluttered, lowering the X-blade a little to gesture with a hand. It must be a bit funny for Vanitas, to see the person who'd stalked his life and made it a nightmare grow flustered with indignation.

"He's a genius, a Master, he's going to open up Kingdom Heart's and fix everything!" Ven wasn't really sure what everything was, honestly. It had been something he'd pondered over a few years, but ultimatly it never mattered. The thoughts went nowhere, and there were no answers to be found in the enclosed world he lived.

By nature, Ven was not violent. By teaching, he had been taught violence as tool. In practice, he'd never once really applied it for anything he cared about. There wasn't much. Xenonort never needed protection, only servitude. All Ven could hope to do was work to be his guard, his sword, his tool, and that would be enough.

But now something was finally stake, even something as ambigious as a plan and his masters honor. Ven set his jaw with a click and raised the X-blade again. "I won't let you stand in his way." He said, unused to the emotion swelling inside him. It felt like the desperation of training, but worse. "You can't. I won't let you. If you won't join me, I'll make you again. I'll kill that girl to. I'll do it."

[vapidus]

It was a little funny. The taste of weakness on his tongue and in his nose. It made Ventus seem much less like a monolithic, gapless relentless armor and more like something Vanitas could let ugly pity curl into the disgust for and fear at.

Vanitas made a face and lifted one hand long enough off his keyblade to make mouth motions with a hand, before dropping it back down. Some part of him was giddy, energized in a sick way.

"And he's going to vomit moonbeams and solve all wars and give everyone a million munny for the low, low price of licking his boots? No thank you." In a way, pity was the other side of hate. Look at this thing. Yes, Master, no Master, everything you say Master. He hated it. He hates it. When has any Master ever deserved it? This, is what he'd merge with? He'd rather die.

And then Ventus raised his sword, and said those words, and any mocking pretense dropped into an ugly snarl as Vanitas's hands clenched on Void Gear hard enough it vibrated a little as he likewise lifted it.

"Don't you dare."

enter the darkness but FLUTE starts playing.

[vacantis]

"Then stop me." Ventus' tone wasn't even mocking, and maybe that was the worst part. There was no joy in it, just a single minded fervor in those blank blue eyes. He needed to fight Vanitas again, kill him here in this heart for them to become one. He needed to do it, so he would. Ven paused, thinking before he threw out another jab. "I'm fighting her right now, you better hurry."

He raised the X-blade, inwardly mourning that it's shape didn't allow for his familiar back handed grip. The blade didn't sing in his soul like Wayward Wind had, no gentle comfort. The X-blade felt vast and powerful and confusing and Ven stopped thinking about how he felt near instantly. It didn't matter.

Luckily Xenonort had always been a prepared Master. When he thought Ventus had grown to accostomed to his own keyblade, he'd made him fight without it, or with anothers. Ventus pulled his foot back, raising the X-blade in an upper handed grip and--moved, the same wind speed they shared driving him forward to upper cut at Vanitas with the blades shining edge.

oh heck yes

[vapidus]

"What?"

That catches him off-guard, and therefore so does the X-blade - not a good start to the fight. He barely manages to reflexively block, and there's enough speed and therefore enough momentum in the large blade that he has to slide backward and let his own be knocked aside to avoid it being flung up into space.

Until now Vanitas hadn't given any thought towards what might be happening on the outside. If there's anything he'd assumed, it would be that since they were both here, their bodies were collapsed, unpiloted.

It suddenly occurred to him now that Ventus had the home advantage. It lended an urgency that hadn't been there before. He couldn't just refuse, he had to end it, and quickly.

Vanitas didn't wait around for the strike's followup. With a twinge of concentration he collapsed into a dark puddle and shot backwards (that was still so, so weird to do), giving him enough space to ground himself and come back at Ventus with a two handed strike, Void Gear's tip shining with the beginning of a travelling slash.

[vacantis]

"Oh, so you weren't aware of it." Ventus said tonelessly as he brought the arc of the blade down to where puddle-Vanitas had been standing. Honestly...what? How could he do that? It was gross. Why was darkness like that! "I was wondering... I figured if you were, you'd be more upset though."

Vanitas shot out of his darkness puddle beside Ven, coming around for a strike that Ven had to hop back and guard. The blow was strong enough to rattle teeth, but even this incomplete X-blade was a formidable weapon. Ven felt bruises form, but he regained footing to swing again, throwing himself forward to force Vanitas back.

"Oh...I guess that means I'm not the real me." Ven said, his eyes drifting up a bit as he brought the blade down. He was shifting into the half focused state of a fight, more mumbling to himself then anything. "Because part of me is in the body and part of me is in here..." What a strange thought. It stirred absolutely nothing in him.

[vapidus]

The way Ventus speaks is starting to really annoy Vanitas. Well, it annoyed him before, but that annoyance was buried under other things, and has now come to the surface. The way he just doesn't seem to care, like all of this is a shopping trip to him. It's rankling right at the part of Vanitas that wants to be taken seriously.

"How did you think I was supposed to know, genius?"

That's a level of multitasking that made Vanitas nearly throw up, the one time he tried it with an unversed.

Once more Vanitas is sent rapidly stepping back to avoid being cleaved in twain on a more physical than conceptual level. This time, prepared, the block goes 'properly' - Void Gear's teeth catch and lock the spines of the chi-blade, and give enough leverage to twist the thrust of the strike away. Terra would have approved. Probably.

"Of course you're not real," Vanitas says, more to inflict harm than because he really believes it. Empty creature from Ventus riven... then again, is he really going to listen to Xehanort? He can't even tell if it's worth it to dig at this other than that he needs to sink his teeth in something. "Look at you. You're nothing."

This time he tries a different tactic, jumping up to get gravity in on the action of a downward stab. He's running out of time.

[vacantis]

That's really rude. It's not like Ventus is used to talking in a way that doesn't comprise entirely of one word answers, reports and nodding along to monologues. Vanitas should be more understanding.

"Oh, I dunno." Ventus really has no idea how Vanitas would know. He's not really sure how he knows, actually. His blade clangs down, twisted into void gears snarled teeth and he blinks a bit, unable to pull away. He twists, trying to catch the momentum of the strike as Vanitas parrys it away. It's not the most sucessful and he stumbles, exposing his back and side to Vanitas as he staggers.

You're nothing. Vanitas says, as Ven looks up, hefting the blade. The insult glances off, Ven barely even registers it as such. What could he say? What Ventus is doesn't matter. It just matters what he can become. What Vanitas is preventing him from becoming.

His block is sloppy, Void Gear makes contact and Ven grunts as it makes contact. It hurts, but he knows that doesn't matter. With a cry he kicks up, trying to push Vanitas off balence.

"You're not anything more then me." Ventus says, his even neutral tone turning into something more frantic, more bitter. "We're the same. You just won't do what you're told!"

[vapidus]

The problem with a jump is it's very hard to change your direction mid-air. The keyblade connects, the impact jarring up Vanitas's arms, but so does the kick to the midriff. Vanitas manages to catch himself on the stained glass with the balls of his feet and the fingertips of an outstretched hand, sword arm curled around.

Ventus's outburst has him laughing, a disbelieving, eyebrows upturned laugh. He rises up from the crouch to try again, this time with a sideways slash.

"I'm pure darkness. I never do what I'm told." This is a lie. He does the dishes, with enough motivation from Aqua. He'll begrudgingly 'knock it off' if the gig is up on what he's been doing. He's sort-of followed Eraqus's restriction on the Unversed, albeit only really in his sight. Actually it maybe isn't so much of a lie at all.

"We're not the same because I'm not some sort of pet following his Master around."

[vacantis]

Ventus pulls himself up in time to watch Vanitas clatter to the ground, clutching his shoulder. It gives him enough time to mutter a Cure spell, breathing a little as he feels the pain leech away under the comforting green light and smell of flowers.

Vanitas lashes out again, and Ventus rises to meet him, the blades knocking together once again. He bares his teeth, something alighting in his vision for once as he strikes out with more intensity, knocking aside the slash and following up with another counter attack.

"Don't talk about Master Xehanort like that! I am not a pet!!" It..it isn't like that. It isn't. Xehanort has done so much for Ven, he created him! He owes everything to the Master, and Vanitas...Vanitas was just. He paused his barrage to level the X-blade at Vanitas throat, his face twisted up in unfamilar rage. "You are! You were so easy to manipulate--following that Terra guy around like lost puppy! Like he cared about you and that stupid world!"

[vapidus]

Vanitas's triumph in finally getting a reaction is cut short as the chi-blade hits him; the blade and sharp spines leave a cat-scratch of myriad cuts across him that start seeping black mist. The double movement was too fast - he hisses, put on the defensive, with no focus to spare other than blocking each new strike as it comes, forced into less and less favorable position despite attempt to disengage, because of attempt to disengage.

Still, the smug look (covering up a scared look) persists even as the tip of the blade points at Vanitas's throat under his chin. What finally knocks it off is Ventus's declaration, and it becomes downright murderous.

"Following him was my choice!" And not anyone else's. No one made Vanitas chase after him - the reason he told no one was because he knew it'd be shot down if he asked. The comparison incenses. "How stupid are you? You'd have to be blind not to see how much the idiot cares!"

Vanitas would not be as confident in this declaration as he is, were it not that he has proof. The very clothes he's wearing, that he tugs at as if to remind himself they're still there, are Terra's hand-me-downs but more than that, they're record that he made the offer. Again and again, an extended hand, despite all reason and no reward.

It's only the sword-tip that keeps Vanitas from lunging at Ventus again.

[vacantis]

Ven face screwed up indescribably as Vanitas spoke. What he was saying...it just didn't make sense!

"You don't owe him anything." Ventus shot back, shifting to what he understood, what he understands. Terra, Vanitas and that girl, they don't make any sense. Someone power hungry, someone useless and a weak construct of darkness. Useless, all of them. He knew, because Xehanort told him. The idea sparks something that whispers with his masters voice.

"....Cared enough to kill Eraqus for you?" He pulls the blade back with a woosh, close enough to ruffle Vanitas' bangs, shifting into a battle stance. "What a hero...what a friend...Guess you didn't want to do it yourself. Did you thank him?"

[vapidus]

"Yes. Yes, he did!" If there had ever been any doubt (and there had been, a lot of it), that had in horrific fashion removed it. Vanitas's eyes are gleaming a fever-bright yellow, the sides of his mouth curved up and exposing teeth.

Vanitas had never gotten along with Eraqus, as an understatement. Dwindling scenarios of killing him had played out as fantasy across his mind. Despite this, it had never seemed like it could actually happen. What did happen had never seemed like it could actually happen. It marked an irreversible change.

Vanitas doesn't immediately move after the blade is withdrawn, suspicious, expecting a feint of some kind. When he does, however, it's with that same velotic rush, meant to overwhelm.

"You're right," he says, leaning into the backhand strike. "I don't owe anyone anything, least of all you."

He's been thrown off balance. Ventus had him right where he wanted him. And then it clicks. They can't fuse if he's dead. Ventus has a handicap that Vanitas definitely doesn't.

ventus voice: jfc and i thought i had issues

[vacantis]

Whatever reaction Ventus had hoped to glean from his other half, this was not it. He was ready with the guard, but he was forced back by the brutal nature of the counterattack and the gleeful look in Vanitas's eyes.

Gross. A small part whispered, curled up small. He liked that that happened. Ven turned the thought over, the fragile emotion it carried, and ultimatly discarded it. What would it do?

Instead he blocked again, his eyes half lidded. Inwardly, he panicked, but the thought followed a long practiced pattern. Fear, pain, a loss of clarity of vision. Luckily he'd always been taught what to do. Focused on memories of his masters voice, guiding him through forms, chiding him through innumerable enemies. The blooming emotions calmed, when Ventus rose to strike again, his eyes were as dead as ever.

"Glad to hear it." He lifted the X-blade, muttering a targeting spell to get Vanitas off his back. "You can forget about them, then. Terra and er..Aqua." That was her name. "They're useless. They don't matter. Or...they won't I guess." He's not explaining that one. "They can't help you."

local boy refuses to process his brother killing his dad. 'nope, not today'.

[vapidus]

Vanitas was pushing forward fairly well until the spell and the unfortunate discovery that targeting spells could lock on to a puddle of darkness just as well as otherwise.

"I'm not going to forget about them," Vanitas hisses, singed, albeit with the tone of someone bothered by the fact they've apparently forgotten a great deal of things before. One hand goes to a pocket and a familiar five-pointed shape, fingers crooking into the gaps between points. It's still warm which means... well he hopes it means that Terra and Aqua are still alive. He also hopes that Aqua is kicking this broken thing's ass out there.

"You say that. They're helping me right now." He straightens up, the tip of Void Gear lowering slightly. He doesn't belong to them. He doesn't owe them anything. And he cares about them. The star in his hand is tangible proof that they care about him too, as much as some part of him will always be baffled by that. They don't need to be here to help. They're the reason he's still doing any of this.

Vanitas flips Void Gear around with a hand until the pommel faces upwards, then wastes no time hooking the star onto the keychain in one rapid motion. The keyblade shivers as it transforms along it's length, the teeth elongated and blocky, wound around with a sinuous relief. Only one eye remains.

Vanitas has to resist the urge to marvel at it, because he didn't know if that would work. It's lighter, and he hefts it level with Ventus's eyes with one hand.

"They're not my masters, they're my friends and that makes me more powerful than you."

its ok ven has never properly processed an emotion in his life

[vacantis]

Aqua is definatly kicking his ass. Theres...theres a mouse now to? The vague impression of what Other Ven is doing is starting to give him a bit of a headache, mostly because most of the impressions he's getting are a lot of magic hitting him. Distracting. Other Ven should be doing better.

Vanitas's speech makes him grit his teeth, makes something bitter curl up inside the emptiness in his head. Friends The concept echoed blankly, bouncing off nothing. Ventus doesn't have friends, he has a purpose. He has his loyalty and his Master and he knows thats exactly all he has. All he should have. The state of the world. The bitter thing is squashed under a heel, smeared like a thin film across his thoughts.

"We'll see." He says curtly, ignoring the words, ignoring the new keyblade, ignoring his headache, ignoring the look in Vanitas' yellow eyes. He shifts his stance and pushes off, bringing the X-blade down against Void Gear with everything he can muster, and then some.

He hardly has a second to gape as the force of the strike, of his soul and Vanitas' clashing so utterly rips across the world around them, a malestorm of light and dark sparks as the stained glass beneath them shatters.

[vapidus]

Vanitas wouldn't be Vanitas if he didn't rub it in. He sees those gritted teeth and hears those curt words and lifts his chin with it.

"We will." He also has to have the last word, when it comes to things.

They clash together like current-driven icebergs - the impact rings out across the space, a tone so strong and high that it's only natural glass should shatter. Vanitas's eyes widen. The feedback pain feels like his ribcage has been crumpled up like a piece of paper, and he struggles to draw breath.

He floats in the dark space, surrounded by drifting and tumbling shards. He can see Ventus in the distance, the impact having pushed them apart.

[vacantis]

The pain is intense, and even with Vens discipline he curls over as he’s flung backwards, biting his tongue as something in his chest fragments into a thousand shining shards. His head knocks against one of the fragments of glass as he eights, the impact singing through his body like a tuning fork.

Somewhere he can feel his body stumble and weaken. It sends the singing tune desperate, The heart lies shattered, and X-blade came from that. Vanitas was killing them both, but more importantly he was destroying what Master Xehanort has worked so hard to create.

He needed to end this.

There was nothing to push off of in the void of his heart but Ven fling himself forward with a sheer force of will, light collecting around the X-blade as he brought it down. “You’re destroying everything!!” He cried, a raw sound never heard,. “You’re ruining it! Join with me! Join or we die!”