Work Text:
He awakens in the Realm of Darkness. He has been summoned. Darkness wraps itself like a bandage around the festering wound that is his heart. Here, his existence is less painful.
His master has summoned him in the midst of combat and he relishes in it; the chance to strike, to lash out, is a welcome balm. A woman is standing before him, anger etched into her face. Everything about her shines. Her eyes are bright and hot as the sun as they glare at up at him. Her hair is the color of the noontime sky. It hurts to look at her.
Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts --
She charges at him. She looks incomplete, somehow. She has no weapon. The woman jumps up and kicks his face, but the blow is nothing compared to the pain of seeing her, of seeing the hate in her eyes, of hating her back. She jumps away after her blow lands, but his hand shoots out to clamp around her ankle and pull her back. He holds her aloft in front of him.
Blue as the sky and bright as the sun.
His grip tightens painfully around her ankle and every fiber of his being, every pulse of his ruined heart urges him to strike her down. He wants to stain that light of hers black and vile, wants to make her just like him so he won’t be ashamed when he looks at her.
But he has no will but his master’s. And his master commands him to release the woman. She takes the opportunity to strike at his master as she falls, but it is easily blocked. She lands a distance away from them, and he can feel his master’s plans, the sadistic satisfaction he gets from it. The woman stands crouched on the beach, ready for the next attack. The world is cast in shadows around her, with sand like ash and waves like ink. And still she shines.
His master raises his hand and gives a silent command.
He summons all of his anger and pain and shame, until it is a tangible force swirling around his heart. He lets it grow until it nearly consumes him, until all that exists is his anguish. Her eyes widen. He sends his darkness hurtling towards her.
The impact. The cry. The splash as she hits the water.
Triumph surges through him. He can feel his darkness overtaking her as she sinks into the depths, can feel the way it wraps around her and chokes out her light. She is falling, she’s corrupted, she’s just like him --
Aqua. Aqua is falling.
For a moment there is more in his heart than just darkness. And then there is pain that rips through him like a blade because that was Aqua. Anger and shame mix and swirl again, but this time the hate is directed inward because what has he done? He wants to go to her. He wants to scream.
He can barely register his mistake before his master is turning and walking away. Tethered to his master’s will, he can only follow. He feels the last dying glow of Aqua’s light as she sinks further and further into the sea.
He is forced to leave her in this world of earth and water and the darkness that surrounds it.