Chapter Text
For long as he can remember, Terra’s dreams have been strange.
Worlds he’s never seen, people he’s never met. He’s never dreamed about his own life, made ordinary in comparison to the fantastic reaches his sleep goes into.
He used to talk about his dreams with Master Eraqus, with Aqua.
Used to being the key part of that sentence. Before...Terra reads. Not as much as Aqua does, sometimes, but he studies pretty well. He’d like to think, at least.
There’s a book he picks up. It’s called Protections against Darkness.
He reads it because the Master is always talking about how dangerous Darkness can be and maybe this book can help with that. The title certainly implies as much.
Most of the book? boring, too dry, to remember. One certain sentence, Terra recalls all too clearly.
Only those with strong Darkness Dream ever so Vividly.
Strong Darkness...is that why his dreams are like that? It can’t be, right? Master Eraqus would have said something. Wouldn’t he?
But maybe...he just shouldn’t say anything. Let the dreams fade away, maybe it’ll go away if he doesn’t talk about them as much. Or at all.
So he stops bringing up his dreams. Eventually both Aqua and Eraqus stop asking. And the dreams, in a way, do fade. If not remembering any details in the morning counts for that.
So it goes for years. As he gets older and trains and grows closer to becoming a Keyblade Master. To leaving the Land of Departure to explore the worlds himself.
Until the day Master Xehanort brings Ventus to the Land of Departure.
That night, Terra’s dream is brighter, more real, than any he’s had before.
Another strange place, but it reminds him of the Land of Departure. Not quite a castle, but a large manor.
That’s what these big houses are called, right? Right.
A manor surrounded by an iron-wrought fence. The gate...Terra walks up to it. Examines it. It’s covered in roses. Huge blossoms the size of his palms, different shades of pink on the ends of thick thorns.
Thorns that look sharper than knives.
They cluster around a strange crest in the gate’s center. A snake’s head. Anguis is the word carved along the edges. A word that seems familiar, in a way.
His hands hover near the gate. Not quite touching, don’t want to cut his hands open on those thorns.
“Hello?” Terra calls out. Not expecting an answer, since the manor looks empty from what he can see. The windows are dark, after all.
Sure enough, there’s no answer.
He shrugs and moves to step away.
Creak.
The gates slowly open themselves up for him.
Terra waits to see if anyone walks out to greet him. No one. Just an empty manor, with a gate that’s newly opened itself up.
Well, he can’t turn an invitation like that. That would be rude.
Terra walks through.
The gardens look as neglected as the manor itself, abandoned and overgrown.
Terra only can name a few of the plants he spies, dandelions intermixed with roses and chrysanthemums while orchids hang from the ancient oaken trees. Far more blooms lie unknown by his limited flower knowledge. Waiting for someone to tend them.
“Who does this place belong to?” he wonders. Because it’s not his, Terra knows this down to his very Heart. Even if this is a Dream, it’s not his Dream.
How does he know this? He has no idea.
Only that he’s here. In the gardens.
Maybe Terra should try inside the manor for the answers? The front door is finely carved, with the same snake patterns as the iron gate. Dandelions and stars litter the edges.
This door doesn’t fight him like the gate. It opens up right away for Terra to slip inside to incredibly dusty rooms. So much dust. Everything looks almost grey as a result of that dust.
That dusty front room is where Terra sees the first living being outside of himself.
There’s a man. A man who is about his own height. Dressed in black from head to toe.
His hair is pink. As pink as the roses outside and almost...feathered? Like the petals of those same roses.
The man is busy examining...a vase? Terra takes a look himself. Frowns. It’s very lumpy and oddly glued together in a strange way, but it’s probably a vase.
Maybe.
A vase patterned like a tabby cat. Or maybe that’s just the breaks? Hard to know.
“What are you doing here?”
Ah! Pink hair, bright sharp blue eyes, right in his face!
“Uh, the gate just opened for me?” Terra tries, stepping back with his hands up.
The man seems to relax at that. “I see.”
He turns away. Back to the ‘vase.’ Staring at it like it’s full of answers.
Terra lowers his hands. Takes a look at the object himself, to see what this man seems so interested in. Nope, still the same. Still as weird and as lumpy as when he first laid eyes on it.
“I’m looking for something,” the man says abruptly.
“What are you looking for? I can help,” Terra offers.
The man...ignores him. Walks away from the ‘vase’ deeper into the manor’s hallways. Where there are so many doors.
Terra walks after him. There’s not really anywhere else to go, and so far this man’s been the only other person he’s seen here.
The man just...wanders. There’s no purpose to where he goes.
“Maybe you should figure out what you’re looking for first,” Terra suggests.
The man narrows blue eyes at him. “I’ll know it when I see it.”
Terra scratches at his head. There’s...look, he knows he’s not the smartest. That’s Aqua. But that way of searching also seems kind of...wasteful of time?
“It’ll be quicker if you know what you’re looking for first before you look.”
The man breathes out through his nose. “Really.”
He runs a hand through his hair. Scattering some pink petals from there onto the floor, Terra can’t help but notice.
“What’s your suggestion to an amnesiac for remembering anything, then?” The words are bitter.
Terra blinks. Amnesiac? “You’ve lost your memory?”
“Yes, that is what the word means.” The man’s eyes are intent on him. Icy shards of blue that won’t be looking away any time soon.
Terra swallows. Think, think, think!
“Well, is there anything that you’ve found that is familiar to you? Maybe you can start from there.”
The man tilts his head in consideration. More petals fall.
Where are they coming from? Does he have roses growing on his head? Terra’s seen stranger in his dreams, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if that’s the case.
“That’s a good idea,” the man eventually says, sounding almost surprised by the thought.
Terra doesn’t take offense. He’s not as quick-witted as Aqua is, plodding slowly to catch up to her. He’s used to it.
“Where should we search?” he asks
The man considers, twirling a black gloved finger through his hair. Shedding more petals as a result.
“Well...”
“Have you tried the gardens?” Terra suggests after several long minutes waiting patiently for the man to come up with anything.
“Hm, that’s not a bad idea. The gardens it is.” The man gives a firm nod and walks over to the door to go out. Terra follows close behind.
“Ugh, what a mess,” the man sighs at the sight. “How am I supposed to find anything in there?”
Terra rubs his chin. The man’s sharp blue eyes keep glancing over in the direction of a fountain, though the man himself doesn’t seem to realize it. A fountain completely dry of any water, choked up with weeds and muck. A mess like everything else here.
“One step at a time.”
Terra moves over to the fountain, a careful hand reaching out to rest on its sill. One thumb rubs against the dirt, showing a glimmer of pale stone underneath.
He looks over to see the man watching him, an unknown emotion on his face.
“Is there something you want?” the man asks abruptly. “A favor? A debt?”
Surprised, Terra shakes his head. “No, nothing like that. I just want to help.”
Like a good Keyblade Master should, right.
“ No one just wants to help,” the man presses. “Why? Tell me.”
The leaves and greenery rustle, almost in response to the man’s growing frustration. They probably are reacting to him because this must be his dream, Terra suddenly realizes. Not Terra’s own, though he may be sharing it for some unknown reason.
“Well. I don’t know how I got here,” Terra starts. As honestly as he can be, hoping that it’s enough. “But since I’m here, I’d thought I’d help? Since I’m stuck here.”
“Hm. A poor answer, but I’ll let it pass. For now,” the man allows. “Since you don’t know how to leave apparently.”
He stresses the last word like he thinks Terra’s lying to him. Which he wouldn’t! Never!
“I’m only helping,” Terra almost snaps back, before he reigns in his temper. Master Eraqus is always telling him he gets angry too fast and too easy.
“So that’s who you are,” the man says. He’s smirking, like he finds Terra losing his temper to be funny. “Fine. You can help, as you call it.”
A gloved hand reaches out to where Terra’s is, on the fountain sill. For one crazy moment, Terra almost thinks the man means to touch his hand.
He doesn’t, of course. Only sets to rubbing off the dust too.
“This fountain first, if you’re keen on assisting. Then the rest of the garden.”
“Sure,” Terra agrees. A little confused by the man’s sudden turnabout. Was he trying to make Terra mad? Why?
...Maybe he’ll figure it out with more time around this person. Along with this man’s name.
The rest of the dream is spent cleaning off the stone fountain the best they can without any cleaning gear or materials. Hard work, but they do manage to clear down to the stone itself under the mud on one side.
Before the dream ends. Before Terra wakes up.
Terra wakes up for training near dawn.
He doesn’t think much about the dream. What are the chances he’ll have it again after all? Every night has been a different dream for as long as he can remember.
What says that this one with the manor and the pink haired man will be different?
Nothing.
Terra takes a breath and keeps moving forward.
It’s what he’s always done.
What else can he do?
~
Ten years later, ten years apart, a man with pink hair lays on his new bed. Staring up at a white ceiling.
He narrows his eyes at it. Searching for something that isn’t really there.
Only in memory. Only in dreams.
He’s a newcomer here, to this World That Never Was as of yesterday. He’s never dreamed like this before.
Not of this man who looks like the person he’s supposed to call Superior and yet not at all at the same time.
“Who are you?”