Heart to Heart - Final Chapter!

[eiahmon]

Title: Heart to Heart
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Disney and Square own it all; I only wish I did. Why in the hell cant I come up with these wickedly cool characters and twisted plots? Why?
Summary: Sequel to Burning Heart and Earth's Rebirth. A special assignment from Ansem sets Dilan's conscience on edge, and he reaches out to the only person that he knows can help, the one person that he though he would never speak to again; Xehanort.

13.

It was early in the morning when Xavier pulled himself out of his warm bed and began to get ready for the day ahead. He tried not to think about what he was going to have to do later on as he took a bath and got dressed for the day. He then walked the short distance to Xehanort's room to find him still sleeping in the predawn darkness, curled up on his right side under his quilt. He stepped up to the bed and gently shook him awake.

"Time to get up, Xehanort." The boy mumbled something and snuggled down further under the quilt. Xavier smiled faintly and pulled it away. "C'mon, time to get moving, little one."

Xehanort blinked his eyes open and sat up. "It's too early." he mumbled as he rubbed the sand from his eyes.

"I know, but we have a busy day, so get up and get dressed. I'll got see about breakfast."

Xehanort nodded sleepily, and after making sure that he was up and was not going back to sleep, Xavier went downstairs to the kitchen. To his surprise, his mother was already up and had cooked breakfast just for the three of them. His father was at the table, drinking a cup of coffee.

"Was Xehanort planning to leave without saying goodbye?" he asked.

"How did you know?" Xavier asked as he sat down at the table as well. His mother put a plate of bacon, eggs and biscuits down in front of him.

"We knew that you were looking for a way to send him home." Elissa replied as she set a plate down in front of her husband. "It was easy to guess when you led him out of the room yesterday and how both of you were so somber the rest of the evening."

Xavier sighed. "Yes, we're sending him home today, and yes, he was planning to leave without saying goodbye."

"Why?" Jascha asked.

"For the same reason I left the Destiny Islands without a backward glance when Master Limahl offered to take me on as an apprentice: it was best just to go. If I had gone to tell my parents goodbye, I don't think I would have been able to leave."

"Do you regret it?"

"Do I regret leaving with Master Limahl? No, even with everything that happened, the years that followed were the best of my life. Do I regret leaving without saying goodbye? Sometimes. I know that it was ruled that I had drowned, and I am sure that they were devastated by the loss of their only child."

Xehanort wandered into the room then, still rubbing his eyes now and then, and he stopped short when he saw Elissa and Jascha at the table. He sent a hesitant glance at Xavier, and then he sat down at his usual spot at the table and started on his breakfast without a word.

"Are we leaving soon, Xavier?" he asked after a few minutes.

"As soon as you finish your breakfast."

"Aren't you going to take anything with you?" Elissa asked. Xehanort looked down at his plate and said nothing.

"He can't." Xavier replied for him. "He can't take anything from the future back with him, because there will be no explanation for its appearance in the past, though..." He looked at Xehanort. "Did you grab your Wayfinder?"

Xehanort nodded silently as he finished eating. "Can we go now?"

"Yes, we can. Why don't you head over towards Even and Vexen's; I'll catch up with you in a moment."

Xehanort nodded again and hopped out of his chair. He turned in the direction of the front door, but then he paused, turned around, and walked over to Elissa. He gave her a hug and allowed himself to be hugged in turn before he stepped over to Jascha and repeated the procedure. He then walked out of the dining room, and a few seconds later, they heard the front door open and shut. Xavier turned to follow him, but he paused when his mother spoke.

"He's never coming back, is he?" Elissa asked softly.

"He will." Xavier replied quietly. "I'm standing right here. Look at it that way." He then walked out of the dining room, and out of the house, following Xehanort.

The walk to Even and Vexen's was silent, save for their footsteps crunching on the gravel road. Xehanort held tight to Xavier's hand as they went, while Xavier tried to ignore the fear and anxiety coming from the child next to him. They reached their destination quickly, where they found Even waiting to let them in. Inside the house, they found not only a sleepy eyed Vexen waiting on them, but also Lea and Isa.

Isa stood up from the chair he had been sitting in when they walked in and held his arms out. Xehanort walked into the offered embrace without a word, and Isa leaned down and whispered something into his ear.

"I wonder," Even said quietly from where he stood beside Xavier.

Xavier looked at him. "Wonder what?"

Even looked at him for a second and then looked back at Isa and Xehanort. "Vexen, Xigbar, Xaldin, Zexion, and Lexaeus often wondered why Xemnas picked Saïx for his second instead of Zexion. I wonder if this had anything to do with it?"

Xavier looked over to where Xehanort was still holding tightly to Isa, seemingly afraid to let go. Isa was gently running his hand down the boy's hair, while Lea watched them with a sad smile.

"It is possible." he replied. "Sometimes I can't help but wonder how many of my past decisions were influenced by my time here. Promoting Saïx ahead of Zexion could have just been one of many that were influenced in such a way."

"I wonder how different things could have been?"

"I try not to think about it. After all, if things had been different, it might have been Ienzo dying in that cell instead of Isa."

Even shuddered at the thought, but he replied anyway. "Or the Organization may not have been formed at all, especially since it seems as though you acquired your drive to leave the Destiny Islands from being here. What about then?"

Xavier shrugged as Xehanort stepped away from Isa and walked over to Lea. "Then I would have stayed on the islands, married, raised a family, and taken over my parents' general store once they retired, and I probably would have been content with that."

Lea patted Xehanort on the head, and the boy then turned to Vexen, who threw himself at Xehanort with a sob. Even stepped forward, and Xavier followed him as Xehanort was nearly knocked to the floor by Vexen's weight.

"You can't leave!" Vexen sobbed. "I don't want you to go!"

"I have to." Xehanort said quietly. "I need to go home."

"But you are home!"

"No, I'm not."

Vexen stamped his foot. "You can't leave! I.. I won't let you!"

Xehanort tried to pry himself away, but Vexen wouldn't let go. "Let go, Vexen. I have to leave."

Xavier and Even gently pried Vexen's hands open, and Even pulled him away from Xehanort. Vexen wailed, and Xavier saw Isa and Lea give each other a knowing look.

Xehanort looked up at him. "Can we go now?" he whispered.

Xavier spotted the tear tracks on the boy's face and nodded. "Yes, let's go." Xehanort stepped closer to him, and he wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He waved to the others in the room, and then he portaled them both out.

They made their usual series of jumps before stepping out onto Master Yen Sid's lawn, and Xehanort took a deep breath before he started towards the front doors. Xavier followed close behind, and in short order they founds themselves stepping into the study at the top of the tower, where they found Master Yen Sid and Merlin waiting on them.

"Master Xehanort," Master Yen Sid said with a nod. "Are you ready?"

Xavier looked down at Xehanort, who nodded with a weak smile. "We're ready." he replied without looking up.

"It would be best, I think," Merlin said, "if the boy were asleep for this."

Xavier nodded in understanding, and then he knelt down to better look Xehanort in the eye. "Are you sure that you're ready, little one?"

Xehanort nodded again, wrapped his arms around Xavier, and laid his head down on his shoulder. "I love you." he whispered.

Xavier smiled faintly and returned the gesture. "I love you too, child, so very much." He wanted to say more, to assure the boy that no matter how dark things might become, they would get better, or some other pointless drivel, but he stopped himself. It would do no good to tell him something that he would forget in the next few minutes anyway. He felt Xehanort's arm tighten around his neck, and he ran his hand down the boy's hair.

"Go to sleep, Xehanort." he whispered as he let his magic flow through his hand into the child in his arms. "Things will be better when you wake up."

There was a soft sigh, and then he felt Xehanort relax in his arms as the sleep spell took hold. He felt his eyes burn as he stood up with Xehanort in his arms, but he blinked away the tears before they could form; he could cry later. Right now, he had more important things to do.

"Now what?" he asked the two wizards.

Master Yen Sid stood from his desk and gestured him over to a series of runes and circles drawn in white chalk on the floor; a ritual circle. He'd seen them before on various worlds, but he himself had never had need of one.

"Are you sure that you want to go back with him?" Merlin asked, and Xavier merely nodded. "Then sit here in the center of the circle, and hold him on your lap."

After taking a second to securely nestle Xehanort in his arms, Xavier walked over to the circle and stepped into the center, careful not to disturb the chalk. He didn't want to think of the consequences if one line was out of place. He sat down and cradled Xehanort on his lap and waited. The two wizards came to stand on either side of him, and after a second they began to chant in some language that he had never heard before. He closed his eyes as the words ran together and seemed to echo off the walls and ceiling of the study, and then he felt something pulling on Xehanort, as though it was trying to yank the boy out of his arms. He held on tighter and felt himself being pulled backwards as Yen Sid's and Merlin's voices began to fade, like they were moving away. The floor seems to vanish from underneath him, and a loud roaring filled his ears. He then felt himself falling, falling, falling...

… only to stop abruptly when he landed on something soft, accompanied by the sound of wood stressed to near breaking.

He opened his eyes just as the sound of crashing surf fell on his ears, and he saw a ceiling above him. He carefully sat up, with Xehanort still asleep in his arms, and even though the light was dim, he still recognized the bedroom around him.

"I can't believe it," he whispered. "It actually worked."

He looked around the room, and he easily recognized the light wood furniture, the desk under the far window, the dresser in the corner, and the bed on which he was sitting. There were the gray curtains that his mother had made him hanging over the windows, and his long, sleeveless black jacket hanging on the back of the door. His boots, he knew, would be sitting by the front door out in the living room.

A slight tug against his body prompted him to shake off the memories and stand up. He carefully laid Xehanort down, and then went to the dresser to find clothing for him to sleep in. He couldn't leave the coat here after all. He quickly found a shirt and pair of shorts, and he dressed the boy for bed without waking him. The coat he rolled up and tucked under his arm, while he banished everything else into a dark portal. He then tucked Xehanort into bed and stood there for a moment to watch him sleep. He would wake in the morning like normal and remember nothing of the four months he spent in the future, but he would have a drive to leave the world that would be so strong he would jump at the chance when it came, leaving with a complete stranger without saying goodbye.

Xavier sighed; his parents must have been devastated.

"Xehanort?"

Xavier felt his heart skip a beat at the sound of that familiar voice, and he slowly raised his head and turned around to see Riki standing in the door. She looked just as she had the last time he had seen her, with her fair skin, sea blue eyes, and the white hair that she had passed on to her son. She was looking at him, puzzled, before her eyes flicked down to Xehanort. She then looked back up at him and smiled.

"Mom," he said in a near whisper.

She smiled at him again, "Hello, Xehanort." and the sound of her voice sent a surge of emotions through him. She stepped into the room, and he backed away, but the bedroom was small, leaving him with nowhere really to go. He bumped up against the desk as she walked up to him, reached up, and ran her fingers through his hair like she had during his childhood.

"I don't know how this is possible," she said quietly. "But here you are, all grown up." She smiled at him again, and he looked away. "Xehanort?"

"I'm not.." He stopped himself before he could finish the sentence. She didn't need to know that he refused to go by the name she had given him because he loathed the person that he used to be. No mother needed to hear that her son had become a madman, even if he had managed to pull himself out of it later. "How did you know who I was?"

"It's not hard for a mother to know the child that she carried, birthed, and raised. I know your heart as well as I know my own."

Xavier lowered his gaze to the floor. "Mom..." He felt her arms go around him, and he tried to step away. "Don't-! You don't understand!"

She placed her fingers against his mouth, silencing him. "I understand that there is something that you're hiding from me. I won't ask you what it is," she said when he went to say something. "but nothing you could say or do is going to make me stop loving you. There's no reason to be afraid of me, Xehanort."

Xavier looked over at the bed, where his younger self was still sleeping. "He's going to leave." he whispered. "A few months after he turns fourteen, a stranger will arrive on the islands, and he'll leave with him. It'll be said that he drowned out at sea, but it won't be true."

"Where will he be?"

"Seeing the universe. It'll be the happiest time of his life, and he'll never come back here. You'll never see him again."

"Do you have a place to call home?"

Xavier looked at her through the hair that was hanging in front of his face. "Yes,"

"Do you have a family that loves you?"

He gave her a small, yet genuine, smile. "Yes."

"Are you happy?"

"I am."

She tucked his hair behind his ear. "Then I am happy, knowing that you are enjoying your life."

He felt another tug against his body, stronger this time. "I have to go soon." he whispered. "I can't stay here for long." He lowered his gaze back to the floor. "I'm sorry." For leaving without saying goodbye, for never coming back once I had passed the Mark of Mastery, for letting you believe that I had died, for becoming a person that you would be ashamed of, for so many, many things.

"Don't apologize, Xehanort. I think that, once you return home, you need to make peace with what ever it is that's bothering you. There is something that you're afraid to tell me, something that you don't want me to know. I'm not going to ask whatever it is, but I think you need to find some way to deal with it, so it will stop haunting you."

"I don't know how."

She gave him that knowing look that he remembered so well. "I think you do." she said gently. "I also think that you're afraid to."

The tug on his body became a steady pull. "I have to go," he whispered.

Riki relinquished her grip on him and stepped back to stand by the bed, where her son was still lying asleep. She then blew him a kiss and waved. "Be happy, Xehanort. Don't let it destroy you."

Xavier went to say something: apologize again, tell her he loved her, anything, but the words caught in his throat. He felt his eyes begin to burn as he raised his hand and returned her wave, and then he felt himself being pulled forward away from his boyhood home, away from his mother, away from the past that he had long ago sought to leave behind. Then he was rising, like he was coming up through deep water.

He seemed to fall upward to land hard on the floor of Master Yen Sid's study. He knew he should get to his feet because an attack could be waiting, but he just couldn't at first. Something was slipping away from him, and though he tried to grab a hold of it and keep it close, it slipped out of his grasp and vanished.

Why was he crying? He wiped the tears from his face and looked at his wet fingertips in confusion. What had happened? Why was he upset? Why was his heart aching so?

"Master Xehanort?" came Master Yen Sid's voice from his right. "I see that you succeeded."

Xavier finally managed to get his feet, though his legs shook a little under him. "I assume so," he replied. "It's as you said, I can't remember what happened back there, though since I am standing here and have distinct memories of living on the Destiny Islands until I met Master Limahl, then I assume things worked out fine."

"Then there is one other matter to deal with."

Xavier looked at the elderly keyblade master, who was in truth only a few years older than himself. "And that is?" He had a pretty good idea of what the man was talking about, but he wasn't going to admit that.

"You have many crimes to answer for."

Xavier closed his eyes and nodded. "I do. I've committed many wrongs and hurt so many. I deserve to spend the rest of my life rotting away in a prison somewhere, but I've already left one set of parents worrying and wondering about me. I'm not going to do that again. I also have an apprentice that would very much like to take his Mark of Mastery soon." Xavier looked over at Master Yen Sid. "And yes, his heart is still in one piece. You'll meet him sometime in the future, I'm sure." Before the other could say anything, Xavier opened a portal where he stood. "Leave me be, Master Yen Sid. You have nothing to fear from me as long as you leave me and mine alone. Call off the search, announce that I died. It's the least you can do for your part in ensuring that I followed the dark path to begin with."

Master Yen Sid closed his eyes and nodded faintly, and Xavier mirrored it with a smile of his own as the portal closed behind him.

******

He stepped out of the portal in the usual spot by the barn to find that it was still dark out, though he could see lights on in the house. He'd been gone longer than that, hadn't he? It certainly felt like hours had passed. He trudged up the worn path to the house and stepped through the backdoor. He could hear the chatter from the dining room of a family having breakfast, and suddenly he didn't want to be a part of it. He turned away from the dining room and went up the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. He didn't want to see anyone at the moment.

He sat down on the bed that had been Xehanort's, drew his knees up to his chest, and closed his eyes with a sigh. His heart ached with a dull pain that he hadn't felt since he had left the Destiny Islands all those years ago. Like any other normal child, he'd been homesick off and on, and there had been a few times where he'd almost asked Master Limahl to take him home. His mind knew, logically, that Xehanort was still with him in some form, after all, they were the same person, but that did nothing against the feeling that the room was too empty, too quiet, and too lonely.

Soft footsteps sounded on the wood floor, followed by the feel of the mattress sinking down under someone's weight as they sat down on it. "Xavier?" came his mother's – adopted mother's – voice from his left, and he felt something within him break then. He felt her arms come around him, and he leaned into the embrace as a soft sob escaped him. Hot tears ran down his face as he began to cry, grieving for the parents and home that he had left behind so many years ago, for Master Limahl, for Eraqus, for Master Ansem, and for all the others that he had hurt with his actions, but most of all, for himself, for that innocent child that had grown into the biggest threat to the worlds since the ancient Keyblade War, hated and feared by so many. It wasn't what he had hoped for when he had left the Destiny Islands with Eraqus and Master Limahl, it wasn't what he'd planned after passing the Mark of Mastery.

His mother held him, stroked his hair, and murmured soothingly to him as he cried himself out, and then she sat quietly beside him as he raked his hair back from his face and scrubbed at his red and swollen eyes. Then she asked him a question.

"What happened, Xavier?"

"I don't know." he whispered.

"You don't know?"

"I can't remember anything that happened in the past-"

"You went back with him?"

"I had to make sure that he made it safely. I wasn't going to hand him over to Master Yen Sid and Merlin and just hope they did things right. I had to go with him, but now I can't remember what happened when we went back. I remember the spell being cast, and I remember coming back, but nothing that happened in between, yet I..." He trailed off as more tears tracked down his cheeks.

"Yes?"

"Something happened, something more than just taking the boy that I thought was my own home. I don't know how I know this, but I know something happened back there. My heart tells me that something important happened, but I don't know what."

"The spell took you to the Destiny Islands, yes?"

Xavier nodded. "It did."

"Then maybe you should go back there. I know you've been avoiding it for years, but maybe it holds the answers you seek."

"It's not safe for me return there. Sora and Riku will attack me on sight."

Elissa gently turned his head to face her. "Normally I would never advocate one of my children going into a potentially dangerous situation, but between having to let Xehanort go, and whatever you experienced in the past, you're hurting. You've never admitted it to anyone, but you've been hurting as long as I've known you. First it was the pain of not knowing who you were, then it was the pain of knowing that those you once cared about hated and feared you. Now you're here, hurting again, and I can't do anything to help you but give you my best advice. You need to face what's bothering you-"

...make peace with whatever it is that's bothering you...

"- and hopefully find peace with yourself." She reached up and ran her hand down his hair. "You can't go on like this, Xehanort."

He looked away from her. "You've never called me that before."

"Because hearing it seemed to pain you, and you were in enough pain as it was, but when Xehanort was here, while everyone else saw a Replica, or your younger self, I saw you. I saw you in Xehanort's voice, gestures, speech, mannerisms, everything. Despite all the time and events that separate you from him, despite the possession, you and him are the same. I know you don't like to think about it, but it's true, and you need to face that."

"I can't, Mama, I just can't."

"You must, even if it means facing up to actions that you would normally never do. I know that the Darkness had influenced you and that you would never do such things now, but they are still part of your past, and therefore part of you. Use them as a reminder to never fall like that again, use them to drive you forward from here on, but don't deny them. Doing so is an insult to all the ones that were hurt, including yourself."

"I don't know what to do, Mama."

"I think you do, just like I think that you're afraid to."

Be happy, Xehanort. Don't let it destroy you.

"I need to go," he whispered after a moment, and his mother reached out and hugged him.

"Go," she told him. "Take your journey of healing, do what you need to do, and when you're ready, your family will be here waiting for you. Just promise that you'll be careful."

"I promise." He returned the hug and then stood up from the bed. "I love you." Instead of taking the Corridors of Darkness, he opened the Lanes Between and summoned his glider.

"I love you too, Xavier. Now go; we'll be here when you get back."

He nodded, and then flew through the portal without a backward glance.

******

It was dark on the Destiny Islands as he flew over the main island, heading for one particular place. It had been 68 years since he had left the islands as a teenaged boy, and he was surprised by how little had changed. Houses had new coats of paint, while a few were missing here and there, but it was nearly the same as it had been on the day he had left. There was the general store that his parents had owned. (He wondered who had it now?) There was the house that one of his many admirers had lived in, one that he hadn't cared for because she had been interested in him only because of his supposed divine ancestry. There was the park where his mother had taken him to play when he was small. There was the small stretch of beach where he and a few other children had giggled madly while burying their laughing parents in the sand. There was the cove that he'd been pushed into by a few older boys after he'd been unable to control the ocean. (He almost wished they were around to dare him to try now.) And there was the narrow sandy path that led up to...

"No," he whispered as he touched down on the small beach that he had once built sand castles with his father on. The small, two bedroom house on stilts that he had lived in for the first fourteen years of his life was in ruins. He stared at it as he surveyed the damage, scarcely able to breathe for fear a stray breath would knock it down. Most of the roof was gone, and all of the windows were blown out. The front door was gone, while the back door was banging loosely on one hinge. The wood slat screens that protected the windows from the harsh tropical sun during the day and high winds and debris during severe weather were also all gone, leaving only scars on the exterior walls that at one time had been painted blue. The front porch and the stairs that led up to it had collapsed, while all that remained of the back porch were a couple of the posts that had once supported it. A few of the main stilts that supported the house itself were also gone, making it dangerous to be near the structure at all.

"What happened?" he said to himself, even as his mind supplied the answer. A hurricane had most likely come ashore, and the storm surge and high winds had done their part. Lack of occupants to repair the damage and time had done the rest. Had no one claimed the house once his parents had died? He sat down on the sand on the beach and stared up at the ruined structure. A cool ocean breeze, smelling of salt water and seaweed, ran through his hair, and he shivered. Spray from a breaking wave splattered against his hair and coat, which prompted him to stand and move away from the water.

When he stepped closer to the house, he spotted something hanging from a nail in one of the stilts. His breath caught in his throat as he reached out and picked up the Wayfinder that he had last seen hanging around his younger self's neck. Its leather cord was dried and cracked, and sand filled the etched lines of the center token and shells. As it had when he was a child, a strange calm seemed to settle over him, clearing his head and settling the ache in his heart as he gingerly brushed the sand off of it.

Before leaving with Master Limahl, he had taken the Wayfinder and left it lying on the seawall on the play island. Someone must have found it and returned it to his parents, and then someone had hung it from the stilt for whatever reason. How? When? Why?

He shook his head; it wasn't important. He had something bigger on his mind, like what had happened to his parents? Had old age caught up to them? Or had they died in the same storm that had damaged the house?

"What has come from the sea, has returned to the sea." he said softly as he looked at the Wayfinder, citing a belief from his mother's side, fitting considering that they were rumored to be descended from a sea god. He had to find out what happened to her, as well as to his father, and there was one place in town that might be able to tell him. Casting one last look at the sad remains of his former home, he summoned his glider and flew off towards the center of town, where he would hopefully find what he was looking for.

He landed a few minutes later in front of the town hall, which housed the birth and death records for everyone on the islands. A quick tap with his keyblade opened the doors, and he walked inside and upstairs to where the archives could be found. He remembered vaguely where death certificates were kept, but since surnames were not used on the islands, it took him some time to find his parents. He found his own first, and reading the paper, yellowed from age and rippled from humidity, about his believed drowning death made him shiver. Thankfully, families were kept together, so the next ones in the file belonged to his parents.

He read his father's first, and he was relieved to learn that the man had passed away of old age well into his 70's. His mother's was next, and she too had passed from natural causes less than a year after her husband. He sighed and put the certificates back in the box he had found them in, but as he turned away, movement on the other side of the shelf caught his eye. He turned back to face the file as his eyes tracked a white flash that seemed to run down the aisle on the other side of the shelf before vanishing. He sensed no one else in the building but himself, but he still moved around the shelf to check. When he did so, he heard something fall to the floor where he had just been standing. He quickly walked back to that spot, keyblade at the ready, to find an envelope lying on the floor where he had been standing while reading the certificates. He dismissed Dark Gaze, leaned down, and picked it up. The paper was old, older than the death certificates, and when he turned it over, he saw his family crest, a cresting wave, embedded in the wax seal. There was also faint writing on the front that he couldn't make out.

He walked over to the window, where the bright moonlight made it easier to see, and his breath hitched when he saw his name, written in his mother's handwriting. Blinking away tears, he carefully broke the seal, and unfolded the paper inside. The moonlight seemed to shine brighter on the letter, which allowed him to read it easily.

My son,

It has been many years since you left that I sit down to write this letter, in the hopes that one day you will come home and find it. You father has been gone for several months now, and I know that my time is nearing.

Many on the islands believed that your "death" had left me touched, as I refused to grieve for you, and I wouldn't say that you had returned to the sea at your funeral, as I said for your grandmother when she passed. You know this is custom in our family, but I couldn't say it for you when I knew that it wasn't true. I know that you left with the stranger that arrived on the islands, just as you said you would. Letting you visit the play island that day, knowing that you would never come back, was the most difficult thing I had ever done, but I knew. I knew that you would never be happy here. I don't know how is was possible, but I know you saw the outside worlds, and I know the drive to see them again was tormenting you, so I let you go.

I missed you, I cried for you, as any mother would do, but at the same time, I never wished you home. I knew you were happy and enjoying your life somewhere, and I didn't want to take that from you. My only hope is that sometime you find a love and family of your own. Don't spend the rest of your life alone, Xehanort. It is a lonely existence.

When I met you that night in your room, you were afraid of something, something that you didn't want me to find out. I told you then to make peace with it, and now I say it again. No mother wants to see her child in pain, even once that child has grown and seen the universe. Do what you must, and then enjoy the rest of your life, and never forget that your mother loves you.

Love you always,

Mom

A single drop of water fell to the paper, where it was quickly absorbed, blotting the old ink. Xavier quickly folded it back up and pressed it to his heart. He had met his mother in the past? He had spoken to her?

"What I'd give to remember it, Mom." he whispered in the empty room.

Another breeze ran through his hair then, even though the room was closed up, and he carefully folded the letter, returned it to it's envelope, and placed it in one of the pockets of his coat, along with the Wayfinder. He then opened the Lanes Between and summoned his glider. He suddenly knew what he needed to do.

"Goodbye," he whispered to the empty room as he flew through the open portal.

Chapter 12 -- Chapter 13.5
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