Terra | Digital Dive App | In Progress
Mar. 22nd, 2012 01:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Name and personal journal: JeniOctavia |
jenioctavia
Contact: AIM | JeniOctavia
Player's Age: 28
Character/Series: Terra (テラ) | Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Character Type: Main (1 of 3)
Tamer Class: Soul
Character appearance:

Character age: Unstated (18 for in-game)
Digimon partner(s)/Spirit/Evolution Line: (“Iwa” 岩) Black Guilmon > SkullKnightmon > DarkKnightmon > Craniummon
Character history:
The tale of Kingdom Hearts is about a boy named Sora, who by the tides of fate and chance became a hero by taking up the legendary weapon known as the Keyblade.
But this is not his story.
This is Terra’s story.
The Beginning
Fourteen years before Sora ever summoned the Keyblade for the first time, Terra was training in a world known as the Land of Departure under the tutelage of Master Eraqus. With his friend Aqua, they were both hard at work to become titled Keyblade Masters, like their master and many others before them. The great Keyblade War many decades before had left very few Keyblade Wielders left in the universe, and at the time Terra and Aqua were the only ones training towards their mastery exam.
It was at this time that another master, Master Xehanort visited the Land of Departure, bringing with him a young boy named Ventus. There seemed to be something wrong with him, though what, Terra couldn’t tell. He kept his head down, gaze on the floor, and hardly spoke. When Terra asked what his name was, he quietly replied “Ventus”. The more questions Terra asked, though, the more distressed Ventus became, eventually crying out in pain and collapsing to the floor unconscious.
Master Eraqus and the other man returned to the area they had left just as this happened and demanded to know what they had done to him. Terra panicked, swearing that he didn’t do anything except ask him questions. Eraqus said that Ventus couldn’t answer any questions because he couldn’t remember anything.
Ventus stayed in a coma for days, but eventually Aqua, who had been watching over him the most cried out that he was awake. It took a little more time for him to be completely alright, but soon enough he was training with them as though he had always been there. And Master Eraqus preferred it that way, not even bothering to tell Ventus that he came from somewhere else, using his lacking memories as a reason to do so.
Four years later, after even more intense training, the night before their Mark of Mastery exam was proving to be a restless one, even for Ven who wasn’t skilled enough to participate yet. Of course he was just as excited to see his friends take their test as he was to someday be able to take it himself.
Terra found Ven and Aqua outside after a meteor shower had come and gone, talking about how the stars in the sky were all different worlds. Aqua then presented her two friends with good luck charms she had made called Wayfinders. They were little more than metal charms attached to strings, but she claimed they were based off a star-shaped fruit that was in one of the many worlds beyond theirs. The fruit was said to represent an unbreakable connection between friends. Ven seemed a little disappointed that they weren’t real because they were “technically supposed to be made with seashells”, but Aqua admitted that she had put a little magic of her own on the charms.
That would be the last night they would spend together under the same sky.
The next day they prepared for the exam, with Master Xehanort watching over while Master Eraqus prepped them on the details of the exam. The first test was attacking several orbs of light, but just as they started darkness came out of seemingly nowhere and surrounded the orbs, causing them to act erratically. Eraqus let the test continue as planned, and Ventus jumped in to help dispel the orbs.
The second test was a sparring match between Terra and Aqua, and it was during this match that Aqua gained an advantage over Terra. This frustrated him enough to the point where it tapped previously unknown darkness in his heart, causing it to manifest on his hand. He shook it off and continued the match, but the damage was done. Eraqus had seen the darkness and in turn disqualified Terra for mastery. Aqua, however, had kept her cool the entire match and was granted mastery, which only further disappointed him. He asked for some time alone and left his friends, wondering where the darkness had come from.
While he sat outside on the steps to the training hall, he thought aloud about the darkness in his heart, claiming to himself that he was strong enough to hold it back. Master Xehanort overheard his musings and agreed that Terra was indeed strong. He stated that the darkness was nothing to fear, but that Terra would never be a master in Eraqus’ eyes.. When Terra demanded to know what it was that he failed to learn, Master Xehanort actually argued that he was “fine as he was” and that darkness could not be destroyed, only channeled. Terra thanked him for the information just as a bell started ringing, calling the students back to the main hall.
Terra arrived with Aqua, but not Ven, and found Master Eraqus speaking to someone through a portal of some sort. He told his students that it was his friend Yen Sid, a once-Keyblade master who watched over the tides of light and darkness, and that he had informed Eraqus that the Princesses of Light were in danger.
In danger not only from the forces of darkness, but a new threat - the Unversed. They were creatures that fed on negativity, emotions that had taken on monster form and were terrorizing worlds. He didn’t want to think that Master Xehanort had anything to do with them, but admitted that when he tried to pass on the information to him, his words were met with deaf ears. It surprised and troubled Terra to learn that Master Xehanort had already left the Land of Departure.
Aqua and Terra with tasked with getting the situation under control. Eraqus unlocked the Lanes Between and gave them leave to go through them, using their Keyblade Armor to protect themselves. They were also told that order must be kept, requiring them to keep quiet in any world they went to about the fact that they came from another place. He also told Terra that he considered this mission to be a ‘second chance’ to get his mastery mark. He reminded Terra that he mustn’t be afraid of losing, and that by focusing on his task, and ignoring his fear as opposed to focusing on his obsession power and giving in to it, he would find the key to becoming a master.
Terra swore he would not fail his master again, and left the hall. As he was leaving, Ven came running after him, calling his name. Terra didn’t stay to listen to what Ven wanted to tell him, ruffling his hair affectionately and telling him “It’s okay” before summoning his armor and his glider and taking off.
Enchanted Dominion
The first place he arrived was a green meadow near a river, and almost immediately after landing Unversed made an appearance. He easily dispatched most of them, but one quickly ran away, allowing him to give chase. He chased it all the way up to a bridge leading to a very large and beautiful castle. And on that bridge a woman in black stood, staring up at the castle.
He approached her, and she asked why he wasn’t asleep, stating that someone named Flora had cast a spell to put everyone in the castle to a deep, deep sleep. He asked who she was, and she answered that her name was Maleficent, and that “all in the kingdom” should know who she was. She then asked Terra who he was, and he responded in kind and asked if she knew anything about the monsters that he had spotted. Maleficent simply stated that she had no interest in creatures that were so base, to which Terra actually agreed that they were just that - base.
He then said that he was looking for someone, but Maleficent claimed she’d never heard of Master Xehanort, asking if he was an outsider like Terra, then backtracked and said that she did remember someone leaving the castle. Terra asked what he was doing there, but Maleficent couldn’t answer. She said that he couldn’t have been from her world, and then said if Terra was curious he could go to the castle and see for himself.
Just as Terra was about to run off, she said one more time that the person she saw may have spoken, saying something about ‘imprisoning the light’, but that “the light” could be so many things. She asked if he could have meant Princess Aurora. He wondered about that silently, and headed inside.
Inside he found an empty, quiet castle, with no inhabitants and no sign of anyone except for Unversed. He headed upstairs to the second floor and found a door blocked by magic that he was unable to unlock with his keyblade. Inside, a beautiful blonde woman slept, unable to wake. He sensed a great light from within her, though, and it reminded him of something he couldn’t quite put his finger on right then. Maleficent appeared behind him out of nowhere and told him that Aurora’s heart was filled with pure light, not a touch of darkness.
A heart that she needed.
He asked her what she needed a heart for, and she asked him to imagine a “most glorious future”, where the seven purest hearts came together to grant the wielder the power to rule all worlds. When he demanded to know what she meant, she asked him if the key he held was called a Keyblade, prompting him to go on the defensive and demand to know where she heard that name from.
She still avoided his questions, saying that it had the power to obtain the hearts she needed. Angrily he told her to stop playing games with him and tell him where Master Xehanort was. She simply scoffed at him and said that if he wanted to learn more, he would need to retrieve the heart of Aurora - something he would never do. Of his own free will, anyway.
Maleficent used the darkness within Terra’s heart to control him, forcing him to give in to it. He tried to resist, trying to recall Master Eraqus’ training and force it back down, but Maleficent’s power was too great over him, and when he came to his senses again he realized he had done something terrible.
He had stolen some one’s heart.
He could no longer sense the light within Aurora, and demanded to know what Maleficent had done - what he had done.
Of course she only teased him, saying that she hadn’t pulled some invisible strings to make him do anything, that she had simply whispered to the darkness he held inside. He was distraught, but Maleficent did keep up her end of the deal, by telling him that Master Xehanort had disappeared into the darkness. But now she knew that the Keyblade really was needed to gather hearts, and she asked Terra to join her in collecting the rest of the hearts so they could rule the worlds together.
Terra rejected her offer, saying he was a peace keeper, not a tyrant. She tormented him further, saying that he was off to a poor start and that the darkness could not be held back by force or strength, reminding him that he was looking for someone and leaving with an echoing laugh in the air.
Outside, Unversed were trying to bring down the castle. He went to take care of them quickly, then returned to Aurora’s chamber. Though she slept without her light, he apologized to her anyway, saying that once he learned to stand up to the darkness in his heart he would get her light back. He left the castle with more questions than answers, but more worlds that he could hopefully find some of those answers in.
Castle of Dreams
In the next world he came across a girl in a torn dress, crying on a bench. Like Aurora, he could sense something different in her, but at that moment he couldn’t tell if it was light or not. He asked her what was wrong and she told him that her friends had made her a beautiful dress, but that her stepmother and stepsisters had ruined it out of jealousy. She had been looking forward to going to a ball, but there was no way she could with her dress in that condition.
He tried to comfort her, and tell her to stay strong, but it was at that moment that Unversed appeared and forced him to fight them away from the girl. She continued to cry, though, saying she just wanted to give up and that there was nothing left to believe in. A glow appeared where she was sitting and with it a voice, saying that strength of heart was important, but that there was something else she needed. A woman appeared with the glow - the girl’s Fairy Godmother. She said that if the girl had lost all her faith, she couldn’t be there, and she dried the girl’s tears saying that she couldn’t go to the ball looking a mess.
Terra watched in amazement as the Fairy Godmother waved her wand and spoke simple magic words, and transformed the girl’s torn dress into a beautiful one and a pumpkin into a carriage. Seeing her transformed and happy, Terra was finally able to sense the light in her.
The Fairy Godmother told her she only had until midnight for the ball before everything would turn back the way it was, and with a hug and a wave she sent the girl off. Terra addressed her then, asking what she had done to the girl to make her heart suddenly so bright. The Fairy Godmother asked who he was first, and he answered, to which she asked “Terra, do you believe in your heart that dreams can come true?”
Terra said that he did, but that he also believed one had to make an effort to make those dreams come true. The Fairy Godmother agreed, yet countered that “just believing” was often harder than it seemed, easier said than done. She said that the girl, Cinderella, believed her dreams her dreams could come true, but that she needed a little help seeing that she was right. Terra understood then that what made her truly shine was faith in her heart that anything was possible, and seeing that come true.
He asked her where Cinderella had gone, and was told that she had gone to the royal ball at the palace, at the Castle of Dreams, and that he should go and watch her dance so that he could believe that dreams could come true as well.
He agreed and left for the castle, only to find poor Cinderella surrounded by Unversed. He dispatched them easily and told her stay put so he could get rid of any that might have been inside. She asked if she could go with him instead, wanting to get to the ball before midnight. Terra was uncertain as he so rarely protected other people during his training, but agreed and told her to stay behind him where she wouldn’t get hurt. She simply smiled and agreed. He asked if she was worried, but she simply laughed quietly and said “Weren’t you the one who told me to stay strong?” Flustered, he muttered that he had, and asked her if she was ready to go.
It wasn’t easy, escorting her through hordes of Unversed, but he did so without any harm coming to her and was able to take her directly to the ballroom where the prince of the castle was waiting. Once there she thanked him and got his name, and he watched as the prince took her to the dance floor where they danced together beautifully. Just as Terra was about to leave, he noticed Unversed on the balcony above and, after asking for directions from the Grand Duke, rushed off to take care of a rather large one that seemed to have power over music. It nearly blasted him away, but Terra was able to shield himself in light and drop down to the floor below. The guards of the palace were nowhere to be found, leaving Terra to deal with the threat on his own. Luckily the Grand Duke, the prince, Cinderella and the guests were able to get somewhere safe while he made short work of the Symphony Master Unversed.
With the threat gone, the Grand Duke thanked Terra for his work, but moaned that the guests had just started to enjoy themselves and that the ball was ruined. Terra said to not give up hope just yet, glancing over to where Cinderella and the prince were standing close together, talking happily with one another with hands held.
Terra asked the Grand Duke if they had always had a problem with monsters there - a question he’d never really gotten an answer to in the previous world - and the Grand Duke admitted that no, they hadn’t. In fact the problems had started when a boy in a mask arrived in their area, and that the Unversed obeyed the boy’s every command according to some reports.
Unfortunately no one had seen the boy since then, which led Terra to yet another dead end and more questions. He was unable to ask any more for the clock struck twelve, and Cinderella ran off with the Grand Duke chasing after her and the prince left behind, confused.
Terra watched them leave from the stairs, and looked down just in time to see Aqua standing in the fourier. He called out to her and headed down the stairs so they could speak. When he got there Aqua told him that Ven had run away from home, news that shocked him. She said that she thought Ven had left to find Terra, but Terra had no idea why he would have done that. Except... that Ven had tried to talk to him before he left, and Terra had ignored him. A fact that he was now regretting.
Aqua asked if he had found Master Xehanort, to which Terra said that no, he hadn’t, but he was apparently searching for pure hearts filled with light, and that his search hadn’t taken him to that world. Aqua said she would stay and see if she could find more clues, and Terra informed her that the prince was in the ball room, and he might be worth asking questions of.
Before they parted ways, though, he called out to her again and asked if she still had the same dream. She said she did, and he told her that Cinderella had made him realize how powerful it was just to believe no matter how impossible things were. That a powerful enough dream would be enough to light the darkness. He asked Aqua to give Cinderella his thanks. She said that she would, and Terra left the castle, his mind on the masked boy he’d been told about and Master Xehanort’s disappearance.
Dwarf Woodlands
In the next world, Terra stumbled across a magic mirror, one that saw and knew all. A woman was speaking to the magic mirror when he arrived, so he hid behind a column and watched curiously, wondering if he could use the mirror to help in his search. As they talked, though, the mirror spoke of a beautiful maiden who was fairer than the queen, and possessed a heart of light. Unfortunately Terra made the stupid mistake of speaking his thoughts on Master Xehanort possibly being there aloud, alerting the queen to his presence.
Cover blown, he decided to simply demand to know if the queen knew of Master Xehanort, but as with Maleficent the queen stated that the name was of no consequence to her. Already tired of playing games with people like her, Terra figured he wasn’t going to get any answers there and turned to leave. But also like Maleficent, the queen could sense the darkness in Terra’s heart and decided to use that to her advantage. She offered him a deal - complete a task, and she would ask her magic mirror instead.
The queen wanted the maiden, Snow White, dead, and to make sure Terra didn’t fail she also wanted him to bring back her heart. Terra was confused, wanting to know if the queen was after the hearts of light as well, but the queen dismissed his concern and said that the only thing she cared about was taking her life. She didn’t care about Snow White’s light, she had more than enough of it, and claimed that her own radiance was all the light the kingdom needed. Terra was more than skeptical, but asked where he could find the girl anyway. He was given instructions to go outside the castle and look in a glade of wild flowers.
He didn’t want to repeat what had happened with Aurora, but he thought that Snow White was probably his best lead to Master Xehanort right then. With nothing else to go on, he went looking for her but did so with no intentions of taking her heart like the queen wanted.
True to the queen’s words, there was a girl with raven hair and pale skin picking flowers in the glade, and just like with Aurora he could sense the light in her heart, strong and true. He approached her, and was surprised to find that she wasn’t startled by him at all. He asked if the name Xehanort meant anything to her, but she hadn’t heard it before, once more leaving Terra at a dead end.
Before he could decide his next move, Unversed appeared behind Snow White, but when he summoned his keyblade to fight them she inadvertently became frightened of him first, and the monsters second. She ran off out of fear despite Terra’s warning to not go off into the forest alone. He dealt with the Unversed as quickly as he could manage, but by the time he was done Snow White was long gone.
With no other option he returned to the castle to see if he could ask the mirror himself. The queen was in the chamber again, and as soon as he entered she demanded to know why he had returned without Snow White’s heart. He stated that he chose to ignore her request, and that he didn’t see radiance from her, he just saw dark clouds of jealousy. The queen was angered by his words and attempted to sic the magic mirror on him. Unfortunately for her the mirror stated that it had no such power, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer and threw a powerful potion on the mirror, causing it to explode with power and swallow Terra in a flash of light.
The spirit of the mirror went mad with the power and attacked him ruthlessly, multiplying and confusing Terra in the featureless void. He fought back, though, and eventually was able to to defeat the spirit and escape from the mirror, much to the queen’s anger. Terra one again demanded to know where he could find Master Xehanort, and this time the queen had no choice but to grant his request.
“Beyond both light and dark he dwells, where war was waged upon the fells,” was all the mirror could tell him. It wasn’t as helpful as he wanted, but it was more than he had to go on before. He just had to figure out ‘where war was waged’. He begrudgingly thanked them for the information and left, heading back outside. As he walked through the courtyard, he recalled that Master Eraqus had gotten the information from Master Yen Sid, so he thought maybe it was time to pay him a visit.
Myserious Tower
As Terra came across the tower where Yen Sid resided, he stumbled on a short mouse with a keyblade running out of the doors. He was also holding a strange glowing object that flashed shortly after he came out, and with a word he took off like a shooting star in to the sky. Terra wasn’t sure what to make of it, and simply continued in to the tower to talk to Yen Sid.
Unfortunately... Yen Sid was somehow even less helpful than the magic mirror. Though Terra said he wished to ask for advice from someone wiser than himself, Yen Sid claimed that he was no longer a master and that he doffed that title. Terra didn’t understand, countering that he had passed one of his pupils on the way in, but all Yen Sid could say that was that he “sought guidance” there as well. His name was apparently King Mickey, and he went on to say that as a king he was good and kind, but impetuous, and that he had left with an object whose power he did not fully understand. He wanted to use the star shard in his current quest, and like Terra wanted to use his keyblade to set things right as well.
Terra still didn’t understand, and brought up the the masked boy controlling the Unversed and Master Xehanort being missing. Yen Sid told him that to arrive at the truth he may have to think differently, and to consider them one in the same problem, but when Terra asked if Master Xehanort had something to do with the Unversed, Yen Sid back tracked over his own words and said “I must not make assumptions.”
Again, not exactly helpful.
All he could really do was send Terra back on his quest to find Master Xehanort.
As he was traveling the lanes between, though, Xehanort contacted Terra and asked that the young man come see him at once. He followed the connection to a world that was a barren wasteland of rock and dust.
Badlands
Terra landed and immediately confronted Xehanort on the things he had heard and seen, saying that he didn’t understand why he was doing it. Xehanort seemed remorseful, and claimed that he was trying to safeguard the light from a monster he had unleashed. He said that the name of the boy in the mask was Vanitas, and that he was a creature of pure darkness, one of his making.
Terra asked if Vanitas had come from Xehanort, but he replied that no, he had come from Ventus. Vanitas was the darkness that was inside Ventus. Xehanort said that it had been an accident, that during training he succumbed to darkness to the point that the only way to save him was to remove it completely, and created Vanitas in the process. Doing so had also damaged Ven’s heart, which was why he had been left in Master Eraqus’ care since Xehanort didn’t want him to stay with the person who had caused him harm.
Terra saw what he perceived as grief from Xehanort and told him that he shouldn’t blame himself since Ven had only gotten better since coming to the Land of Departure four years ago. Terra asked why Vanitas was running free in the worlds, and Xehanort admitted he tried to contain him but he still managed to escape. Vanitas apparently used a keyblade of darkness to control the Unversed, but he couldn’t control his own darkness, causing Xehanort to call him an abomination without any hope of salvation. He asked Terra to lend him his strength in order to right his wrong, defeat Vanitas and get rid of the Unversed. It was a task Terra was more than willing to take on... if he knew where to find Vanitas.
The only clue Xehanort could give was that his darkness was drawn to the light that he sought to disrupt and destroy. Find the light, he would likely find Vanitas. His next target would likely be the city of light - Radiant Garden. With this in mind, Terra swore he would find Vanitas, not just to save the worlds but to protect the light of his friends.
It didn’t take long for Unversed to show up after Terra arrived in Radiant Garden. Shortly after getting rid of the ones that attacked him, he looked around and spotted Master Xehanort walking around and wondered if the old man had found something else worth investigating. As he tried to follow, though, a fairly large Unversed went zipping by him, prompting him to turn around and follow it instead.
It led him through most of Radiant Garden to the water treatment facility at the back of the city where he found, to his surprise, that Ven and Aqua were there as well. They didn’t have much time to talk, though, because several large Unversed were coming together and forming an even bigger one. With teamwork, they were able to take it down, and even happily praised one another for their good work.
Ven also gave them lifetime passes to Disney Town that he had gotten from someone in Radiant Garden he had rescued, though he seemed a bit downcast when he admitted that the person who gave them to him also said to “take two grown ups”. It earned a bit of a laugh from Aqua and Terra when they realized Ven meant them.
The casual talk didn’t last long, though, as Aqua realized that they needed to get Ven home. Ven said that she didn’t need to worry and claimed that the boy in the mask was history, and would never bad mouth Terra again. Terra panicked at that moment, grabbing Ven’s shoulder and demanding to know if he had really seen the boy in the mask. Ven stutteringly answered that he had, furthering Terra’s worry and concern. He told Ven to let Aqua take him home, but when Ven argued that he wanted to go with them Terra said that they had a too dangerous a task ahead of them for Ven to come along.
That confused Aqua, because it didn’t sound like what Master Eraqus had told them to do, but when she called him on it he said that he wanted to take a different path and fight the darkness. Aqua wasn’t so sure he should put himself so close to the darkness, stating that she had seen some of the things he’d done in other worlds. Ven was hurt at Aqua’s accusations towards Terra but when he tried to argue that Terra would never do something bad, Terra cut in and demanded to know if Aqua had been spying on him on their master’s orders.
Aqua couldn’t give a straight answer. She wanted to say it was because he was looking out for Terra, but even that much had been hard to say honestly. In that moment a rift came between the three friends. Terra turned to walk away, and though Ven tried to stop him, Terra barked for him to stay put, angrily saying that he was on his own now. Aqua tried to say that Master Eraqus had no reason to distrust him, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Terra parted from them and headed further in to Radiant Garden, feeling as though Master Xehanort was the only one he could still count on.
As he wandered alone, a man approached him and called him by name, saying that he had Master Xehanort prisoner. Terra was ill convinced that Xehanort would let anyone capture him, but the man insisted and said to come to beneath the outer gardens to see for himself before he lost his patience. There was no way it could be true, but... there was no harm in looking and giving the man what he wanted.
He arrived at the area but found it empty. Or so he thought. He turned around to see Xehanort chained to a pipe, barely conscious but alive. The man, Braig, tormented Terra and said that he wanted the keyblade for the power it possessed. Terra argued that keyblades were picky about their owners, but Braig countered that if he defeated Terra that would make him better than a potential Keyblade Master and that it wouldn’t matter.
But Braig didn’t want to fight fair, either. He knew the keyblade was too powerful, and warned that if Terra tried anything he would kill Master Xehanort, which led to Terra being at a severe disadvantage against Braig’s sniper rifle. Xehanort called out to him after he fell, reminding him of the shame his master and fellow students would feel if he failed against someone like Braig. He told Terra to forget about him and use his keyblade. Terra finally did and stood, ready to fight and effectively ending Braig’s bluff.
He struck Braig down and blasted him with a powerful amount of darkness, scarring his face and sending him running. He freed Xehanort and marveled and feared at how much power was in the darkness. Xehanort tried to tell him that he had taken another step forward, but Terra wasn’t so sure, afraid that he had been consumed by anger and hatred. Xehanort reassured him that he channeled it, but Terra was convinced that he succumbed to it instead, just like when he had stolen Princess Aurora’s heart.
He could never return home after that. He was a failure.
“Then don’t,” Xehanort reasoned, extending his hand in an offer to Terra. An offer to become his pupil. He reasoned that Master Eraqus was so afraid of darkness that he had succumbed as well, but not to darkness - to light. His light shone so bright that he forgot light begat darkness, blinding himself to Terra’s potential. Ven and Aqua as well had hearts that shone so bright they cast shadows on Terra’s heart. Xehanort ranted that Eraqus was a fool, failing to see that there had to be a balance that needed to be maintained.
He said that Terra was the pupil who showed the true mark of mastery, and that he should have been given the chance, not Aqua, but he claimed that Xehanort feared him and his power. He asked again for Terra to join him so that they could protect the worlds by wielding light and dark in equal shares. He urged Terra to go in to the worlds and stop the forces that upset the balance and put an end to Vanitas, going so far as to call him “Master Terra”.
Terra was naturally surprised at the title, but after a moment he bowed respectfully and accepted it. Terra left the area and returned to the gardens only to be stopped by Ven who, once more, asked if he could go with Terra. Terra said he couldn’t. Ven dejectedly asked why he couldn’t, to which he answered that he knew when he really needed Ven, he would be there. Ven laughed and agreed that he would because they were friends. Terra thanked him, activated his armor and left Radiant Garden.
Disney Town
The next world was the place Ven had gotten tickets for, and once again upon arrival Terra saw Unversed, this time on a racing track. He went to stop them and was nearly run over by another racer. A voice called out to him just in time for him to get out of the way, and after the racer was gone he went to introduce himself to the person. It was Queen Minnie, and with her were Chip and Dale, the coordinators of the race track. They chastised him for running out on the track, and did so even more when he claimed that the rules didn’t apply to fighting the Unversed.
He met Pete, AKA “Captain Dark”, the racer that nearly plowed him over and was harassed by him and his rather big ego. Terra didn’t much care but needed a way to defeat the Unversed on the track without “cheating”. The only way? To race.
Terra was less than amused, but agreed to it, and in the end not only took down the Unversed but Pete as well. Pete was irritated and left in a huff, but it was hardly of any consequence to Terra, especially since he’d tried to cheat his way through the race. Unversed taken care of, he left to the next world since there were no clues towards Vanitas there.
Olympus Colosseum
The next world he arrived in found a young boy in a toga being attacked by Unversed. He was trying to take them on himself but wasn’t strong enough to do so. Terra stepped in and helped get rid of them, speaking to the boy after. The boy praised him for his strength and asked if he was there to enter the games, explaining that they were a tournament to see who was strongest.
Terra thought it might be a good idea to test his own strength and went in to the colosseum to check the standings and possibly enter. He was approached by none other than Hades, the lord of the underworld. Like so many before he noticed the darkness inside Terra and concluded that he was trying to get rid of it, or at the very least learn to balance it. That was apparently something Hades thought was a bad idea, and argued that darkness was inside everyone and that trying to squash it was only going to make things more difficult for him. But if he “played nice” with it he could easily conquer it and become the most powerful fighter at the colosseum.
Terra’s curiosity was piqued, and the answer seemed simple enough. Just join the games, something he was planning on doing anyway. Hades took his information and sent him on his way in to the games. As he fought, though, he resisted the darkness in his heart more than he embraced it, which did not factor in to Hades’ plan. So Hades siced another fighter on him - this one actually possessed by darkness. Terra still emerged victorious, but the fighter attacked him again despite the match being over. Terra cried out for him to stop, but the boy only stared back at him with blank eyes as he swung his sword about.
As they traded blows, the boy, Zack managed to speak, saying that it wasn’t him doing it, it was someone else. Terra recalled being controlled the same way by Maleficent, and Hades appeared and taunted him, telling him this was the power he could have if he just opened up to it. That only made Terra angry at being played, and when Zack begged him to help set his heart free Terra became furious. It wasn’t fair to put someone else in that position, especially a young boy, (and really he was just getting sick and tired of everyone trying to play him)and while he wanted Hades to pay he had to focus on freeing Zack first.
Luckily he was able to, but by the time he was done Hades was gone. Terra checked on Zack, finding him to be alright if not a little beat up and miffed that he’d been controlled, complaining a bit before Terra pulled him to his feet. He looked Terra over closely and declared that he was exactly what he thought a hero looked like - not what he actually looked like, but something else about him. Terra insisted he wasn’t a hero, but Zack insisted that the cheers of the colosseum said otherwise.
Zack lamented that he didn’t get to fight Terra fair and square, but Terra simply bonked him on the arm and said he would get his chance some day.
Deep Space
As he was heading to the next world, he was lost in thought on his glider and holding his Wayfinder charm in his hand. There were Unversed showing up in the lanes between even, causing him more concern about what Vanitas was doing and where he was. And that would have been fine to deal with...
… if he hadn’t gotten abducted by aliens right after.
No. Really. Terra got abducted by aliens.
Not only that, he was assumed to be a stow away and thrown in their prison block.
Terra was not having a good time. At all.
Luckily it wasn’t hard to get out of his jail as his keyblade was capable of unlocking anything, but as soon as he got out he found Unversed attacking the ship workers. Again, not hard for him to get rid of, but by doing so he caught the attention of another alien that was locked up. He claimed he was being locked up on ridiculous charges, that he had created a creature the Intergalactic Council feared. He asked Terra for help and despite his better judgement (which seemed to be a frequent problem in Terra’s life) he went ahead and helped the alien out of his cell so they could rescue his experiment.
He introduced himself as Dr. Jumba Jookiba and said that the name of his creature was Experiment 626. Jumba took him to where 626 was being held in another room, kept under a glass dome. Jumba rambled on about how powerful 626 was, admitting that he was created to destroy everything rather than help anything. Once more, Terra had been played. He was getting tired of this crap.
626 was let out of his confinement by Jumba and leaped on to Terra, stealing his Wayfinder and jumping on to the ceiling. Terra begged for it back, crying out that his friend had given it to him. Jumba found this humorous and fell on the ground laughing, saying that the concept of friendship was lost on 626. It may not have been though, because 626 dropped the Wayfinder and ran off.
Terra held the Wayfinder in his hand and mused aloud about how when he listened to his heart rather than his mind, he really didn’t know himself at all, and that he missed his friends more than he was willing to admit. He asked Jumba if he was really sure about his experiment and whether or not he understood friendship or maybe even wanted friends. Jumba scoffed, and unleashed another experiment, 221 on Terra.
Terra defeated him and 626 returned, yelling something in gibberish at them. Terra wondered if maybe he wanted to know what friends were, and though Jumba argued that there was no way he could, Terra approached and offered his name, which 626 repeated. He said he couldn’t explain friendship, but that 626 would know it when he felt it. Jumba was less than amused and wanted to fix 626. An alarm sounded finally announcing their jail break, and Terra took that as a sign to get off the ship and back in to the lanes between, but not before making a silent promise to Ven and Aqua that he would find a way to make things right.
Neverland
The next world had him coming across a couple of pirates being attacked by Unversed. He chased them off, but was met with irritation and lacking gratitude from the pirate leader, Captain Hook who claimed they had the situation under control.
Yeah. Sure. That’s why they ran when Terra started taking care of the Unversed.
Terra stated he had no interest in Hook’s treasure when the man insinuated he did, and asked if he had seen a masked boy instead. As usual though he was met with a flippant “doesn’t ring any bells”. As Hook and Smee walked away he barked an order and mentioned something about light, which caught Terra’s attention. He asked what he was talking about and Hook told him after a pause that the chest contained light and that a boy was trying to steal it.
But if it wasn’t Vanitas, who was it?
There was no answer to that, but he offered to help protect the light and asked the name of the boy who was trying to come after the light. The boy was named Peter Pan, and Hook wanted the chest to be taken to a place called Skull Rock for safe keeping. They took it there, and Hook and Smee went off while leaving Terra to guard the treasure for the time being.
Peter Pan showed up as expected, and Terra attempted to protect the treasure from him. When he asked what Peter wanted with the light he was met with confusion. His two friends grabbed the chest in the meantime and tried to make off with it, forcing Terra to give chase. One of them tripped and knocked the chest over, spilling it’s contents on the ground.
Well, it was shiny, and bright, but the treasure most certainly wasn’t light. It was pirate treasure. Hook had lied.
Was anyone surprised at this point?
Terra apologized for attacking Peter, but Peter brushed it off as no big deal and even and complemented Terra on his skills in fighting, then asked which way Hook had gone. Terra explained that he had overheard Hook and Smee talking before they left, discussing something about a shooting star they were going to go find. Peter panicked thinking his friend Tinkerbell was in trouble and took off, leaving his other friends behind to guard the treasure. Terra went to leave, but just as he got outside the boys cried out that there was a monster attacking them.
He ran in and found hundreds of Unversed in the cave. As soon as they were gone, Hook returned and called out to him. Terra told the boys to go hide as he told the captain that everything was going fine. He entered holding a lantern with something shining inside of it. Terra asked what it was and Hook answered that it was Tinkerbell, and gloated that he could defeat Peter Pan once and for all, even though he foolishly gave the lantern over to Terra and turned his back on him while doing so.
Not smart, Hook. Not smart.
Terra released Tinkerbell and she promptly kicked Hook in the face. He jumped up and demanded to know what he was doing, to which Terra snarked that he didn’t give it much thought and just ‘followed his heart’. Hook was furious and swore that it was mutiny and tried to attack Terra, but a strange crocodile that was ticking showed up and Hook ran off scared.
Tinkerbell zipped around above his head, causing bits of fairy dust to shine and fall all over, reminding Terra of the night he and his friends had spent under the stars together. His reverie was broken when the boys cried out that the treasure was gone. Terra asked them if they really wanted the jewels and gold that badly, but they answered they weren’t actually in to that stuff, it was just that Peter was counting on them to protect it.
Terra had a thought, and suggested that they put the things that really mattered to them in the chest and instead make that the treasure. They were excited by the idea and took the chest away to do just that. Terra wondered aloud what he would put in there, and left Neverland quietly.
Destiny Islands
As he traveled in the lanes between a sudden warm light appeared in front of him, calling him to it. When he went through he appeared on the beach of a small island at sunset. The rolling waves brought an odd, star shaped fruit to his feet which he picked up and looked at, remembering what Aqua had said about the tree with star shaped fruit. He looked up and found the tree near by, realizing that he had found the world she had talked about.
He went to go look at the tree, and as he walked he wondered to himself if he, Aqua and Ven would ever get the chance to be a team again. The things that once held them together were pushing them away by that point, but the light had led him to that island with the fruit that made unbreakable bonds between friends, though he had no idea why he was there or what he had to do.
Two little boys went running by him, calling out to one another as they raced. They stopped at the tree and sat on the thick branch that had grown low over the ground. Terra watched them for a minute and turned away, only to stop when he realized there was light coming from the one with silver-white hair, named Riku according to his friend. He wondered if he had perhaps been brought there to meet that boy.
He didn’t bother him, though, and simply walked back down to the beach. The boys took off again, but this time when the brown haired one just passed by, Riku stopped and asked him if he was from the outside world. Surprised, Terra asked why he would ask that, and the boy answered calmly that no one lived on the island they were on, and that he didn’t recognize him from the main land either.
Terra was equally surprised by his intelligence and praised him for it. Terra asked what he was doing there and Riku explained that the island was mostly used for playing on, and that his friend’s dad had taken them out there on a boat because they weren’t old enough to row out there on their own yet.
Terra mused that it must have been hard to be stuck in one place all the time. Riku said he’d heard of another kid that had managed to leave for good once, and as Terra stared at him he had a flash of something odd - a man with white hair that turned towards him, and changed again in to an older version of the boy he was speaking to. It was gone almost as fast as it appeared, and the boy asked him how he got there. Terra asked if there was some reason he was so interested in the outside world. He answered that he wanted to be strong one day, like the kid who left, and he figured he must have been very strong by now if he had made it off the islands and to the outside world. He said that he knew it was out there somewhere, the strength he needed.
“Strength for what?”
“To protect the things that matter! You know, like my friends.”
Riku smiled at Terra and Terra smiled back, telling him after a pause that there was a much bigger world outside his small one. He summoned his keyblade and knelt down, holding it out to the boy.
“In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, it’s wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend. No ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, below or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.”
Riku lifted his small hand and wrapped his fingers around the handle, completing the rite of passage that Terra had spoken. Riku’s friend called out to him from the dock, waving for him frantically and telling him to hurry up. Riku turned and waved back as Terra whispered for him to keep what they had done a secret, otherwise all the magic would wear off. Riku nodded, Terra ruffled his hair playfully, and he ran off to meet his friend. He asked Riku what the conversation was about, but Riku played aloof and refused to tell him, frustrating his friend to no end. He swore to keep it a secret, though, and did so even as his friend begged him to tell.
Watching this, Terra remembered that he still had things to protect, namely his own friends, and left Destiny Islands to go look for them.
Badlands
While in the lanes between, Terra saw a light above him moving forward and wondered if it was Ven, but before he could chase after it he was called back to the ruined wasteland by Master Xehanort. He got there and Xehanort told him that there was terrible news - Ventus had learned the truth of his origins, and that Master Eraqus had been lying to him. He was going to confront him and force the truth out of Eraqus, a battle he would surely lose if someone didn’t stop him.
Terra rushed off back to the Land of Departure, hoping he wasn’t too late to save Ven.
The Land of Departure
Terra arrived just as Eraqus launched himself at Ven. He jumped in to the battle and blocked Eraqus’ keyblade from striking Ven, demanding to know if his master had gone mad, attacking his own pupil like that. Eraqus commanded Terra to step aside, but Terra refused, only angering and upsetting Eraqus further. He cried out that none of his attempts to reach Terra worked, and with a heavy heart he said that if he would not yield, he would share Ven’s fate.
Eraqus shed a tear then, and charged at Terra, the two of them trading blows even as Ven begged them to stop. Eraqus jumped back and hurled a blast of light at them both, knocking them away and rendering Ven unconscious. Eraqus charged up another attack, as Terra tried to focus his power so he could save Ven, swearing that he would not let him hurt his friend even if that meant fighting his own master. He opened up a portal to the lanes between behind him and threw Ven inside it, unknowingly connecting it to Destiny Islands where his subconscious thought he might safest.
He faced down Eraqus one on one then, channeling the darkness against his light. He struck Eraqus down and almost instantly regretted it, asking what he had done as he walked towards his weakened master, saying that all he wanted to do was protect Ven. Eraquas relented and said that Terra was right, and that he had failed his student, that maybe he was the one to blame for the darkness inside Terra. He went on, lamenting that he had done worse even by attacking Ven and Terra, even saying that there was darkness in his own heart...
Only to be cut down by Master Xehanort just as he admitted it.
His keyblade clattered to the ground and he fell forward as Terra cried out and tried to catch him, but he vanished in to light in Terra’s arms. He broke down in to tears, sobbing for the father figure he had never meant to hurt.
Xehanort approached him, asking why he bothered himself with remorse for someone who tried to hurt his friend. Terra demanded to know why he struck Eraqus down, but Xehanort only mocked him by saying that he was impressed with Terra’s progress most of the time, but other times he fell short. He barked that he needed to give himself over to the darkness, to let his hate take him there, but Terra still didn’t understand what he meant and what he wanted, so Xehanort said he would make him see.
He said to come to the place “where all keyblade wielders leave their mark on fate” - the Keyblade Graveyard, and summoned his own keyblade while yelling that his friends would meet their end there, and that the last light within Terra would finally die.
And just to make things worse for him, he summoned a mass of darkness that began to tear Terra’s home to pieces, saying that he wouldn’t need a home anymore. Xehanort teleported away before Terra could stop him, and the Land of Departure began to break apart as the darkness overtook it. Terra could only watch it happen, not even his power enough to undo what Xehanort had done. With one last promise to not let the man hurt his friends, he took off for the place he had said to meet.
The Keyblade Graveyard
Terra returned to the place he had been meeting with Xehanort in previously, realizing now that it was the fabled Keyblade Graveyard, the place where the Keyblade War had taken place so long ago. The land had been ravaged by the battle and was little more than a dead world left behind as a reminder of what had happened.
He stood on a cliff looking over the land pensively, eventually summoning his keyblade and swearing that what he did, he did for friendship. He walked through the barren land finding little more than groups of Unversed, not a single other soul alive where he went. Eventually he came to a crossroads, a path not made of up of actual roads but of thousands upon thousands of discarded keyblades, their ends buried in the ground and no power to be felt from them.
Standing at the center of the paths these keyblades made, he heard footsteps and looked over to see Aqua approaching. Downcast, she said that she had been told their master had been struck down. Terra regretfully admitted that he was stupid and had helped Xehanort do it. Aqua was naturally shocked, but he went on to say that Eraqus had tried to hurt Ven, and that he only fought because he wanted to protect him, but that he had been tricked and Xehanort had set the whole thing up all so he could awaken the darkness inside him.
He admitted that Aqua was right, as was Eraqus. He did need to be watched because he had gone astray. But he also swore that he wouldn’t go astray anymore. Aqua didn’t agree, saying the darkness was nothing but hatred and rage, and that he would go astray again because Xehanort was feeding the dark fires within him by making him fight.
“Tell me... how does that honor our master’s memory, Terra?”
Terra didn’t have a chance to answer because Ven finally approached them, explaining fearfully that Master Xehanort wanted to use him to make some sort of χ-blade (chi-blade), and that was why Eraqus tried to destroy him for it. He said he didn’t know exactly what it was, but that it still scared him to even think about it. Terra and Aqua both tried to reassure him that they wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. He started to say something regarding having to fight Vanitas, something that he wanted them to do, but Terra interrupted saying that nothing could tear them apart and that he would always take care of Ven.
But Ven pushed them away, and said that he was asking them as a friend to just put an end to him. That was not something they wanted to do, but they had no time to argue as the wind started blowing, Vanitas and Xehanort appearing on the scene. Xehnort gestured to the keyblades and claimed that they had once been full of power, and that they had lost it when they had lost their masters during the Keyblade War where wielders of light and dark clashed and gave up their lives in search of one ultimate Key.
The χ-blade.
And that χ-blade would soon belong to Xehanort. Or so he said, as he pointed at Ven from across the path.
Angered by this but driven to stop him, the trio activated their armor and set themselves to attack. Ven tried to go first but Terra stopped him, charging ahead after Xehanort and Vanitas. Xehanort lifted the ground between them and sent Terra skidding. He then rose himself and Vanitas up even higher and sent a mass of keyblades chasing after the three of them.
While Vanitas went chasing after Aqua and Ven, Terra tried to confront Xehanort but was stopped when he nearly got knocked down by the rush of keyblades and was nearly impaled by them as he fell. Luckily Aqua managed to shoot a barrier spell at him which in turn lifted him up with the keyblades back to where Xehanort was. He didn’t have a very graceful landing, though, and while he was trying to get back up Ven attempted to attack Xehanort from behind.
Xehanort was faster than the much younger keyblade wielder and quickly side stepped out of the way, appearing behind him and grabbing him by his helmet. Terra tried to save him but the keyblades came down on him once again, sending him far below with a painful crash. Xehanort rose his hand and sent an orb of power in to the sky, parting the clouds and revealing a massive glowing heart in the sky.
Angered, injured and struggling to breathe, Terra ripped his helmet off and stared up in to the sky. Knowing he needed to get back to Xehanort to stop whatever his final plan was he realized his glider and shot up to the plateau he was on, finally confronting him. Once there Xehanort taunted him, praising him and saying he knew it was a journey Terra could make, the journey over the unseen wall between light and dark.
Terra ignored his praises and angrily demanded to know what Xehanort had done to Ven. Xehanort said he had done him a favor by freeing the darkness inside him, which only angered Terra more. He roared Xehanort’s name and charged at him, engaging both him and Vanitas in battle. Eventually Xehanort ordered Vanitas to take “what Ven owed him” and to take Aqua’s life as he went against Terra one on one, preventing him from going after Vanitas.
He taunted Terra further, saying that he was powerless to save his friends and telling him to savor that rage and hatred that was building inside him. Terra angrily swore that Xehanort would pay, screaming “Was my teacher--... no, my father not enough for you?!” and bellowing for him to leave his friends alone as the power of his darkness surrounded him. This only urged Xehanort on, though, telling him to let his whole heart blacken with anger.
Terra attacked him again and this time he effectively beat him in to the ground. Not a second after defeating him though, something exploded near by. Xehanort pointed at it saying that the χ-blade had been created, causing Terra to call out for Ven, but when he tried to go after him Xehanort said that it was time for the “final union”.
And then he turned his own keyblade on himself.
He pierced his own chest with it and released his heart in to the air, fanatically saying that he was discarding his old and brittle body, swearing that he would survive and would do so through Terra. Terra could only stare in horror at this.
The heart came flying at him, and Terra frantically activated his armor in hopes of blocking it and keeping from entering his body...
Character personality:
On the outside and at first blush, Terra appears to be a young man of a calm, collected nature. He is somewhat quiet, though not overly so. He is outwardly thoughtful, often pondering things verbally rather than inwardly, and while he is the trio’s powerhouse and heavy hitter is he maintains a somewhat naive intelligence that’s weakened only by his lack of experience outside of the Land of Departure before the events of the game.
But beneath the exterior personality lies a troubled, often angry teen who struggles with self doubt and a heart that both fears and wishes to give in to the darkness inside. He holds the bonds with his friends and master in higher regard than anyone else around him, but this causes as much problems as it does solve them. It is his desire to protect them and keep them safe that not only drives him forward but drives him to make decisions that don’t always turn out well in the end for himself to the point where he doesn’t always realize what he’s done wrong until the damage has already been done.
He trusts a bit too easily, even when he knows he probably shouldn’t, which unfortunately makes him rather easy to manipulate. He may not necessarily do something bad on his own free will, as shown when Maleficent had to tap in to the darkness inside him in order to get him to take Princess Aurora’s heart from her. But he’s also capable of turning manipulation around on darker hearts and can go so far as to go along with a bad plan if only to find another way to protect people in danger or get information that he needs, as in the case with Snow White where he agreed to the Queen’s plan to get information from her magic mirror and was able to keep Snow White from getting her heart stolen.
Unfortunately this doesn’t stop Master Xehanort from bringing down the ultimate manipulation on him, so much so that he doesn’t realize what’s truly going on until the very end when Xehanort actually reveals his entire plan to him after using Terra to fight Master Eraqus and strike him down in his moment of weakness - something Terra regrets deeply and even wept over after seeing his master fall before him thanks to his own actions.
Because of this, though, Terra’s wavering sense of justice is only balanced by his desire to fix the things he’s broken, to the point where he swears that what he does is for his friends, the ones he feels he’s wronged the most with his actions. He is not a bad person by any stretch of the imagination, even if his inner darkness may make this difficult for others to see. He is simply misguided, troubled and easily led astray by his desire for power and fear of failure. It his connection to his friends that keeps him grounded the most, though, and should he lose that for good it wouldn’t be far for him to slip in to that darkness for good.
Xehanort Possession
Terra at the end of Birth by Sleep becomes possessed by Master Xehanort’s heart. His point of arrival in the Digital World, happens mere seconds before the full possession takes place, causing a mere fragment of Master Xehanort’s heart to actually reach Terra, thus making him enter with both his own heart and that small bit.
At first this will have no consequence to him, so much so that he’ll simply assume that he avoided possession entirely and that he’s safe from it. However as time goes on Xehanort’s presence will grow. At it’s mildest, it will potentially subconsciously influence some of Terra’s less than good decisions. At it’s worst, however, in moments of emotional weakness or extreme, furious anger he may very well fall to Xehanort entirely and be taken over.
His appearance will change with his brown hair going stark white and his eyes turning yellow. His personality will become closer to Master Xehanort’s, though due to it not being a full possession Terra’s true personality may still break through from time to time, even enough to warn people to stay away from him.
He will be driven to hearts of purity, hearts of light that he may be able to corrupt and use to make the possession more complete. He will become cunning and terribly callous, to the point of disregarding friends as no more than things he can manipulate to his own ends. He will do what he pleases, destroying whatever stands in his way and even striking down people he once cared about. The more the possession takes over, though, the more manipulative he will become, so much so that people who have no idea who he is may be at risk for falling in to his carefully crafted traps.
Digimon partner personality:
Terra’s partner, Iwa, is a genre savvy, sarcastic and tomboyish female Black Guilmon. Young and rather immature at her best moments, she would almost be impulsive and dangerous to herself and others if she actually had the tenacity to give more than two shits about anything other than video games, TV and table top.
That’s right. Terra’s partner is a lazy, bratty, female nerd.
Most of her personality is watered down by the simple, inescapable fact that she’s just plain lazy/ She doesn’t care. She doesn’t want to care. Nevermind that she lives in the Digital World, where apocalypses can happen in the blink of an eye and be reset a week later and fights happen every other day on the clock. She still thinks most things outside of her little escapist fantasies are boring. She’d much rather play video games or a round of Dungeons & Dramon with her cousin Mugen than out fighting with her partner or protecting the world or whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing. She tends to meet most things with a dry wit, and those who she sees as being less than perceptive or intelligent she may be prone to trolling or at the very least teasing with rather mean and harsh words.
But the laziness aside she actually does have a hidden side she rarely tries to let out. She actually can (and does) care about people and digimon beside herself, the biggest example being her two cousins Mugen (
sliceswithawing ‘s partner) and Finn (
duomaxwell ‘s partner). She silently considers them closer to brothers than cousins due to how much time they’ve all spent together over the years, and the fact that her own immediate family is distant at best, and sadly verbally abusive at the worst. They’ve treated her very poorly, and her own brother considers her a failure and a waste of space and has said as much to her face, which is likely what gave rise to her ‘I give no shits’ attitude about most people and how she behaves.
She harasses and teases Mugen when they’re not mutually enjoying something, and views Finn’s laid back attitude with quite a bit of disdain, but if anyone were to ever threaten them the temper that she’s been squashing down for years will erupt full force. That said, at first she’s not likely to get along with Terra completely, even if in some ways they are very similar, but over time the way he treats his own friends with familial-like affection and how protective he is over them will endear him to her to the point where she very well may wish to have a big brother that was more like him.
Not that she’d ever say it out loud willingly.
Character abilities:
Abilities and Keyblade Log
Sample RP:
An explosion of light rocked the barren wasteland that was the Keyblade Graveyard.
“There! You see!” Master Xehanort pointed at it. Terra glared at the man, reluctant to look away. He was afraid. Not of Master Xehanort using the distraction to attack him again, but afraid of what he was going to see. Slowly his eyes pulled away from the old man and he looked, gasping when he saw the massive column of light shooting up in to the sky.
“The χ-blade has been forged!” Master Xehanort cried out as he rose behind Terra, a sick note of glee in his gravely voice.
“VEN!” Terra screamed out, darting forward. He had to save his friend!
“And now...” Master Xehanort said. Those two simple words made Terra freeze in his tracks. What was he going to do next? What horrible plan did he have in store now that his precious χ-blade had been created?
“It is time for the final union!”
“What?!”
Terra wheeled around just in time to see Master Xehanort with his own keyblade to his chest, the tip piercing his body and light erupting from the wound.
“At last our moment is here...” he said, spreading his arms wide as the keyblade vanished, his heart rising from his body while surrounded by a bright glow. “Out with the old and brittle vessel, and in with a younger, stronger new one!”
Terra could only stare in horror abject, wide eyed horror, his own heart feeling as though it had sunk to his feet, freezing him in place. His voice left him, nothing but frightened noises emerging from his slack lips. What was that mad man doing?!
“I swore I would survive! And be there to see what awaited beyond the Keyblade War!” Master Xehanort continued to gleefully cry out, looking at Terra again once the heart was high above him, “It is is your darkness that will be the arc that SUSTAINS ME!”
With that final bellow, he waved his hand and sent his glowing heart flying at Terra.
He was going to possess him! He was going to force his heart in to Terra’s body and renew himself, younger and stronger than ever!
Terra panicked. There was no way to dodge it, not enough time to get away. But he did have his armor. He lifted his hand and slapped the switch on his arm, realizing his Keyblade Armor in a flash. The heart was still coming for him, though, and beneath his helmet he closed his eyes, waiting for it to hit.
But nothing came.
Slowly he opened one eye, then the other, and stared in confusion at his surroundings. He was surrounded by... giant chess pieces?! What.
“What.”
This couldn’t be the Keyblade Graveyard anymore. But if it wasn’t then where was he, and why was he standing on a giant chess board surrounded by pieces that were bigger than him?
Well. Some of them. The pawns were apparently shorter than he was. But that didn’t mean much when they were already so much larger than one would figure a chess board to be.
He could only blink and stare, lowering his keyblade to his side while turning his head slowly, sunlight from above glinting off his armor and helm. Save for his own breathing, all was silent on the board and nothing seemed to be moving, but he had the distinct feeling he was being stared at anyway.
Upon closer inspection he realized the reason for it. They had eyes. They were alive.
“Uhh...” he mumbled, his own quiet voice actually sounding loud due to the silence over the board. Suddenly there as an ever louder clank, causing him to look up at the source of it. What appeared to be a rather statuesque suit of black armor caused the other pieces to part for her as she approached Terra, staring down at him silently. She was surprisingly tall, a full two or three heads more than him, and even though she didn’t speak she gave off an aura that honestly kind of intimidated the strong keyblade wielder.
Another clank, and the white side parted, and a much shorter piece approached from behind him. The king and queen. And he was standing in between them being observed as though they were silently debating just what to do with him. Clearly he had interrupted something.
“Uhm,” he started again, clearing his throat while trying to figure out what to say. “I should go.”
That was weak.
Though neither side spoke a certain ominous feeling settled over the area as the king and queen looked at one another and began moving arms around in gestures. The queen pointed to what was clearly a prison near by off the board, while the king seemed to be insisting that Terra stay right here he was, likely to try and fight for his side.
Terra could only stare. He was being argued over, like a damn pet with bickering owners. One minute it he had been cowering away from Master Xehanort after losing his friends, and the next he was on a giant chess board being fought over! He had no idea where he was, why he was there, or what was happening and frankly that coupled with the battle he’d just been through... he was starting to get a damn headache.
“Excuse me!” he barked out, trying to get their attention. They didn’t seem to be listening to him anymore, their silent argument continuing. He sighed, rubbing a gloved hand against his armor, not really sure what to do.
“Pst!”
The sound got his attention, but his gaze had to wander about before they located where it was coming from. A black creature was hiding behind a nearby pillar, motioning him over with a claw. He blinked a few times, looked up at the arguing king and queen, then back at the one beckoning him over. Slowly and as quietly as his own noisy armor would allow him to move, he backed his way off the board and to the pillar.
“New here, yeah?” the creature asked in a slightly bored tone, the voice deep but still female sounding. Terra raised an eyebrow and reached up to remove his helmet.
“Yeah. And you are?”
“Iwa,” she answered and motioned with her claw again, starting to walk away from the board. Terra looked back over his shoulder, but he somehow hadn’t been missed in his departure. What else could he do? He followed her as she quietly led him down a path in to what appeared to be a town, though it was notably decorated and laid out much like the giant chess board he’d shown up on.
“What is this place?”
“Geez... damn noobs...” Iwa muttered under her breath, though she didn’t elaborate when Terra muttered ‘huh?’ in confusion. “This? Is Chess Kingdom. The world is called the Digital World, and you are a long, long way from Kansas, Toto.”
Terra, of course, had no idea who Toto was or where Kansas was, but he gathered enough from the first part of that for it to sound familiar. Another world. One he had gotten yanked to unwillingly. Maybe King Mickey or Yen Sid had something to do with this. But if they had... where were his friends, and why had been abandoned? He didn’t say anything, so she continued.
“You got a name, tall dark and brooding?”
“Terra.”
“Huh. I thought that was a girl’s name.”
“Wh-- no, it isn’t!”
“Whatever. So I guess I’m your partner, and I’ve got a lot of explaining to do. Think your muscle-bound brain can handle it?”
Terra sighed and dragged his hand through his hair with a strained noise. He wanted to find Ven and Aqua, but he needed to know what was going on first.
“Yeah. Tell me everything, Iwa.”
Sample D-Comm Network Post:
--know what I’m doing, I’m not completely incompetent.
No, just mostly.
Would it kill you be a little nicer to me, Iwa? You’re the one who said we’re partners.
... it’s on.
What? … oh. Uh. My name is Terra. I’m looking for some people. Their names are Aqua and Ventus-- well, Ven. He goes by Ven.
Do you always ramble like this?
… [ a sharp sigh ] I need to find them. They might be in trouble. Any information is appreciated. Thanks.
[ before any more bickering can be heard, Terra shuts the comm off ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Contact: AIM | JeniOctavia
Player's Age: 28
Character/Series: Terra (テラ) | Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Character Type: Main (1 of 3)
Tamer Class: Soul
Character appearance:

Character age: Unstated (18 for in-game)
Digimon partner(s)/Spirit/Evolution Line: (“Iwa” 岩) Black Guilmon > SkullKnightmon > DarkKnightmon > Craniummon
Character history:
The tale of Kingdom Hearts is about a boy named Sora, who by the tides of fate and chance became a hero by taking up the legendary weapon known as the Keyblade.
But this is not his story.
This is Terra’s story.
The Beginning
Fourteen years before Sora ever summoned the Keyblade for the first time, Terra was training in a world known as the Land of Departure under the tutelage of Master Eraqus. With his friend Aqua, they were both hard at work to become titled Keyblade Masters, like their master and many others before them. The great Keyblade War many decades before had left very few Keyblade Wielders left in the universe, and at the time Terra and Aqua were the only ones training towards their mastery exam.
It was at this time that another master, Master Xehanort visited the Land of Departure, bringing with him a young boy named Ventus. There seemed to be something wrong with him, though what, Terra couldn’t tell. He kept his head down, gaze on the floor, and hardly spoke. When Terra asked what his name was, he quietly replied “Ventus”. The more questions Terra asked, though, the more distressed Ventus became, eventually crying out in pain and collapsing to the floor unconscious.
Master Eraqus and the other man returned to the area they had left just as this happened and demanded to know what they had done to him. Terra panicked, swearing that he didn’t do anything except ask him questions. Eraqus said that Ventus couldn’t answer any questions because he couldn’t remember anything.
Ventus stayed in a coma for days, but eventually Aqua, who had been watching over him the most cried out that he was awake. It took a little more time for him to be completely alright, but soon enough he was training with them as though he had always been there. And Master Eraqus preferred it that way, not even bothering to tell Ventus that he came from somewhere else, using his lacking memories as a reason to do so.
Four years later, after even more intense training, the night before their Mark of Mastery exam was proving to be a restless one, even for Ven who wasn’t skilled enough to participate yet. Of course he was just as excited to see his friends take their test as he was to someday be able to take it himself.
Terra found Ven and Aqua outside after a meteor shower had come and gone, talking about how the stars in the sky were all different worlds. Aqua then presented her two friends with good luck charms she had made called Wayfinders. They were little more than metal charms attached to strings, but she claimed they were based off a star-shaped fruit that was in one of the many worlds beyond theirs. The fruit was said to represent an unbreakable connection between friends. Ven seemed a little disappointed that they weren’t real because they were “technically supposed to be made with seashells”, but Aqua admitted that she had put a little magic of her own on the charms.
That would be the last night they would spend together under the same sky.
The next day they prepared for the exam, with Master Xehanort watching over while Master Eraqus prepped them on the details of the exam. The first test was attacking several orbs of light, but just as they started darkness came out of seemingly nowhere and surrounded the orbs, causing them to act erratically. Eraqus let the test continue as planned, and Ventus jumped in to help dispel the orbs.
The second test was a sparring match between Terra and Aqua, and it was during this match that Aqua gained an advantage over Terra. This frustrated him enough to the point where it tapped previously unknown darkness in his heart, causing it to manifest on his hand. He shook it off and continued the match, but the damage was done. Eraqus had seen the darkness and in turn disqualified Terra for mastery. Aqua, however, had kept her cool the entire match and was granted mastery, which only further disappointed him. He asked for some time alone and left his friends, wondering where the darkness had come from.
While he sat outside on the steps to the training hall, he thought aloud about the darkness in his heart, claiming to himself that he was strong enough to hold it back. Master Xehanort overheard his musings and agreed that Terra was indeed strong. He stated that the darkness was nothing to fear, but that Terra would never be a master in Eraqus’ eyes.. When Terra demanded to know what it was that he failed to learn, Master Xehanort actually argued that he was “fine as he was” and that darkness could not be destroyed, only channeled. Terra thanked him for the information just as a bell started ringing, calling the students back to the main hall.
Terra arrived with Aqua, but not Ven, and found Master Eraqus speaking to someone through a portal of some sort. He told his students that it was his friend Yen Sid, a once-Keyblade master who watched over the tides of light and darkness, and that he had informed Eraqus that the Princesses of Light were in danger.
In danger not only from the forces of darkness, but a new threat - the Unversed. They were creatures that fed on negativity, emotions that had taken on monster form and were terrorizing worlds. He didn’t want to think that Master Xehanort had anything to do with them, but admitted that when he tried to pass on the information to him, his words were met with deaf ears. It surprised and troubled Terra to learn that Master Xehanort had already left the Land of Departure.
Aqua and Terra with tasked with getting the situation under control. Eraqus unlocked the Lanes Between and gave them leave to go through them, using their Keyblade Armor to protect themselves. They were also told that order must be kept, requiring them to keep quiet in any world they went to about the fact that they came from another place. He also told Terra that he considered this mission to be a ‘second chance’ to get his mastery mark. He reminded Terra that he mustn’t be afraid of losing, and that by focusing on his task, and ignoring his fear as opposed to focusing on his obsession power and giving in to it, he would find the key to becoming a master.
Terra swore he would not fail his master again, and left the hall. As he was leaving, Ven came running after him, calling his name. Terra didn’t stay to listen to what Ven wanted to tell him, ruffling his hair affectionately and telling him “It’s okay” before summoning his armor and his glider and taking off.
Enchanted Dominion
The first place he arrived was a green meadow near a river, and almost immediately after landing Unversed made an appearance. He easily dispatched most of them, but one quickly ran away, allowing him to give chase. He chased it all the way up to a bridge leading to a very large and beautiful castle. And on that bridge a woman in black stood, staring up at the castle.
He approached her, and she asked why he wasn’t asleep, stating that someone named Flora had cast a spell to put everyone in the castle to a deep, deep sleep. He asked who she was, and she answered that her name was Maleficent, and that “all in the kingdom” should know who she was. She then asked Terra who he was, and he responded in kind and asked if she knew anything about the monsters that he had spotted. Maleficent simply stated that she had no interest in creatures that were so base, to which Terra actually agreed that they were just that - base.
He then said that he was looking for someone, but Maleficent claimed she’d never heard of Master Xehanort, asking if he was an outsider like Terra, then backtracked and said that she did remember someone leaving the castle. Terra asked what he was doing there, but Maleficent couldn’t answer. She said that he couldn’t have been from her world, and then said if Terra was curious he could go to the castle and see for himself.
Just as Terra was about to run off, she said one more time that the person she saw may have spoken, saying something about ‘imprisoning the light’, but that “the light” could be so many things. She asked if he could have meant Princess Aurora. He wondered about that silently, and headed inside.
Inside he found an empty, quiet castle, with no inhabitants and no sign of anyone except for Unversed. He headed upstairs to the second floor and found a door blocked by magic that he was unable to unlock with his keyblade. Inside, a beautiful blonde woman slept, unable to wake. He sensed a great light from within her, though, and it reminded him of something he couldn’t quite put his finger on right then. Maleficent appeared behind him out of nowhere and told him that Aurora’s heart was filled with pure light, not a touch of darkness.
A heart that she needed.
He asked her what she needed a heart for, and she asked him to imagine a “most glorious future”, where the seven purest hearts came together to grant the wielder the power to rule all worlds. When he demanded to know what she meant, she asked him if the key he held was called a Keyblade, prompting him to go on the defensive and demand to know where she heard that name from.
She still avoided his questions, saying that it had the power to obtain the hearts she needed. Angrily he told her to stop playing games with him and tell him where Master Xehanort was. She simply scoffed at him and said that if he wanted to learn more, he would need to retrieve the heart of Aurora - something he would never do. Of his own free will, anyway.
Maleficent used the darkness within Terra’s heart to control him, forcing him to give in to it. He tried to resist, trying to recall Master Eraqus’ training and force it back down, but Maleficent’s power was too great over him, and when he came to his senses again he realized he had done something terrible.
He had stolen some one’s heart.
He could no longer sense the light within Aurora, and demanded to know what Maleficent had done - what he had done.
Of course she only teased him, saying that she hadn’t pulled some invisible strings to make him do anything, that she had simply whispered to the darkness he held inside. He was distraught, but Maleficent did keep up her end of the deal, by telling him that Master Xehanort had disappeared into the darkness. But now she knew that the Keyblade really was needed to gather hearts, and she asked Terra to join her in collecting the rest of the hearts so they could rule the worlds together.
Terra rejected her offer, saying he was a peace keeper, not a tyrant. She tormented him further, saying that he was off to a poor start and that the darkness could not be held back by force or strength, reminding him that he was looking for someone and leaving with an echoing laugh in the air.
Outside, Unversed were trying to bring down the castle. He went to take care of them quickly, then returned to Aurora’s chamber. Though she slept without her light, he apologized to her anyway, saying that once he learned to stand up to the darkness in his heart he would get her light back. He left the castle with more questions than answers, but more worlds that he could hopefully find some of those answers in.
Castle of Dreams
In the next world he came across a girl in a torn dress, crying on a bench. Like Aurora, he could sense something different in her, but at that moment he couldn’t tell if it was light or not. He asked her what was wrong and she told him that her friends had made her a beautiful dress, but that her stepmother and stepsisters had ruined it out of jealousy. She had been looking forward to going to a ball, but there was no way she could with her dress in that condition.
He tried to comfort her, and tell her to stay strong, but it was at that moment that Unversed appeared and forced him to fight them away from the girl. She continued to cry, though, saying she just wanted to give up and that there was nothing left to believe in. A glow appeared where she was sitting and with it a voice, saying that strength of heart was important, but that there was something else she needed. A woman appeared with the glow - the girl’s Fairy Godmother. She said that if the girl had lost all her faith, she couldn’t be there, and she dried the girl’s tears saying that she couldn’t go to the ball looking a mess.
Terra watched in amazement as the Fairy Godmother waved her wand and spoke simple magic words, and transformed the girl’s torn dress into a beautiful one and a pumpkin into a carriage. Seeing her transformed and happy, Terra was finally able to sense the light in her.
The Fairy Godmother told her she only had until midnight for the ball before everything would turn back the way it was, and with a hug and a wave she sent the girl off. Terra addressed her then, asking what she had done to the girl to make her heart suddenly so bright. The Fairy Godmother asked who he was first, and he answered, to which she asked “Terra, do you believe in your heart that dreams can come true?”
Terra said that he did, but that he also believed one had to make an effort to make those dreams come true. The Fairy Godmother agreed, yet countered that “just believing” was often harder than it seemed, easier said than done. She said that the girl, Cinderella, believed her dreams her dreams could come true, but that she needed a little help seeing that she was right. Terra understood then that what made her truly shine was faith in her heart that anything was possible, and seeing that come true.
He asked her where Cinderella had gone, and was told that she had gone to the royal ball at the palace, at the Castle of Dreams, and that he should go and watch her dance so that he could believe that dreams could come true as well.
He agreed and left for the castle, only to find poor Cinderella surrounded by Unversed. He dispatched them easily and told her stay put so he could get rid of any that might have been inside. She asked if she could go with him instead, wanting to get to the ball before midnight. Terra was uncertain as he so rarely protected other people during his training, but agreed and told her to stay behind him where she wouldn’t get hurt. She simply smiled and agreed. He asked if she was worried, but she simply laughed quietly and said “Weren’t you the one who told me to stay strong?” Flustered, he muttered that he had, and asked her if she was ready to go.
It wasn’t easy, escorting her through hordes of Unversed, but he did so without any harm coming to her and was able to take her directly to the ballroom where the prince of the castle was waiting. Once there she thanked him and got his name, and he watched as the prince took her to the dance floor where they danced together beautifully. Just as Terra was about to leave, he noticed Unversed on the balcony above and, after asking for directions from the Grand Duke, rushed off to take care of a rather large one that seemed to have power over music. It nearly blasted him away, but Terra was able to shield himself in light and drop down to the floor below. The guards of the palace were nowhere to be found, leaving Terra to deal with the threat on his own. Luckily the Grand Duke, the prince, Cinderella and the guests were able to get somewhere safe while he made short work of the Symphony Master Unversed.
With the threat gone, the Grand Duke thanked Terra for his work, but moaned that the guests had just started to enjoy themselves and that the ball was ruined. Terra said to not give up hope just yet, glancing over to where Cinderella and the prince were standing close together, talking happily with one another with hands held.
Terra asked the Grand Duke if they had always had a problem with monsters there - a question he’d never really gotten an answer to in the previous world - and the Grand Duke admitted that no, they hadn’t. In fact the problems had started when a boy in a mask arrived in their area, and that the Unversed obeyed the boy’s every command according to some reports.
Unfortunately no one had seen the boy since then, which led Terra to yet another dead end and more questions. He was unable to ask any more for the clock struck twelve, and Cinderella ran off with the Grand Duke chasing after her and the prince left behind, confused.
Terra watched them leave from the stairs, and looked down just in time to see Aqua standing in the fourier. He called out to her and headed down the stairs so they could speak. When he got there Aqua told him that Ven had run away from home, news that shocked him. She said that she thought Ven had left to find Terra, but Terra had no idea why he would have done that. Except... that Ven had tried to talk to him before he left, and Terra had ignored him. A fact that he was now regretting.
Aqua asked if he had found Master Xehanort, to which Terra said that no, he hadn’t, but he was apparently searching for pure hearts filled with light, and that his search hadn’t taken him to that world. Aqua said she would stay and see if she could find more clues, and Terra informed her that the prince was in the ball room, and he might be worth asking questions of.
Before they parted ways, though, he called out to her again and asked if she still had the same dream. She said she did, and he told her that Cinderella had made him realize how powerful it was just to believe no matter how impossible things were. That a powerful enough dream would be enough to light the darkness. He asked Aqua to give Cinderella his thanks. She said that she would, and Terra left the castle, his mind on the masked boy he’d been told about and Master Xehanort’s disappearance.
Dwarf Woodlands
In the next world, Terra stumbled across a magic mirror, one that saw and knew all. A woman was speaking to the magic mirror when he arrived, so he hid behind a column and watched curiously, wondering if he could use the mirror to help in his search. As they talked, though, the mirror spoke of a beautiful maiden who was fairer than the queen, and possessed a heart of light. Unfortunately Terra made the stupid mistake of speaking his thoughts on Master Xehanort possibly being there aloud, alerting the queen to his presence.
Cover blown, he decided to simply demand to know if the queen knew of Master Xehanort, but as with Maleficent the queen stated that the name was of no consequence to her. Already tired of playing games with people like her, Terra figured he wasn’t going to get any answers there and turned to leave. But also like Maleficent, the queen could sense the darkness in Terra’s heart and decided to use that to her advantage. She offered him a deal - complete a task, and she would ask her magic mirror instead.
The queen wanted the maiden, Snow White, dead, and to make sure Terra didn’t fail she also wanted him to bring back her heart. Terra was confused, wanting to know if the queen was after the hearts of light as well, but the queen dismissed his concern and said that the only thing she cared about was taking her life. She didn’t care about Snow White’s light, she had more than enough of it, and claimed that her own radiance was all the light the kingdom needed. Terra was more than skeptical, but asked where he could find the girl anyway. He was given instructions to go outside the castle and look in a glade of wild flowers.
He didn’t want to repeat what had happened with Aurora, but he thought that Snow White was probably his best lead to Master Xehanort right then. With nothing else to go on, he went looking for her but did so with no intentions of taking her heart like the queen wanted.
True to the queen’s words, there was a girl with raven hair and pale skin picking flowers in the glade, and just like with Aurora he could sense the light in her heart, strong and true. He approached her, and was surprised to find that she wasn’t startled by him at all. He asked if the name Xehanort meant anything to her, but she hadn’t heard it before, once more leaving Terra at a dead end.
Before he could decide his next move, Unversed appeared behind Snow White, but when he summoned his keyblade to fight them she inadvertently became frightened of him first, and the monsters second. She ran off out of fear despite Terra’s warning to not go off into the forest alone. He dealt with the Unversed as quickly as he could manage, but by the time he was done Snow White was long gone.
With no other option he returned to the castle to see if he could ask the mirror himself. The queen was in the chamber again, and as soon as he entered she demanded to know why he had returned without Snow White’s heart. He stated that he chose to ignore her request, and that he didn’t see radiance from her, he just saw dark clouds of jealousy. The queen was angered by his words and attempted to sic the magic mirror on him. Unfortunately for her the mirror stated that it had no such power, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer and threw a powerful potion on the mirror, causing it to explode with power and swallow Terra in a flash of light.
The spirit of the mirror went mad with the power and attacked him ruthlessly, multiplying and confusing Terra in the featureless void. He fought back, though, and eventually was able to to defeat the spirit and escape from the mirror, much to the queen’s anger. Terra one again demanded to know where he could find Master Xehanort, and this time the queen had no choice but to grant his request.
“Beyond both light and dark he dwells, where war was waged upon the fells,” was all the mirror could tell him. It wasn’t as helpful as he wanted, but it was more than he had to go on before. He just had to figure out ‘where war was waged’. He begrudgingly thanked them for the information and left, heading back outside. As he walked through the courtyard, he recalled that Master Eraqus had gotten the information from Master Yen Sid, so he thought maybe it was time to pay him a visit.
Myserious Tower
As Terra came across the tower where Yen Sid resided, he stumbled on a short mouse with a keyblade running out of the doors. He was also holding a strange glowing object that flashed shortly after he came out, and with a word he took off like a shooting star in to the sky. Terra wasn’t sure what to make of it, and simply continued in to the tower to talk to Yen Sid.
Unfortunately... Yen Sid was somehow even less helpful than the magic mirror. Though Terra said he wished to ask for advice from someone wiser than himself, Yen Sid claimed that he was no longer a master and that he doffed that title. Terra didn’t understand, countering that he had passed one of his pupils on the way in, but all Yen Sid could say that was that he “sought guidance” there as well. His name was apparently King Mickey, and he went on to say that as a king he was good and kind, but impetuous, and that he had left with an object whose power he did not fully understand. He wanted to use the star shard in his current quest, and like Terra wanted to use his keyblade to set things right as well.
Terra still didn’t understand, and brought up the the masked boy controlling the Unversed and Master Xehanort being missing. Yen Sid told him that to arrive at the truth he may have to think differently, and to consider them one in the same problem, but when Terra asked if Master Xehanort had something to do with the Unversed, Yen Sid back tracked over his own words and said “I must not make assumptions.”
Again, not exactly helpful.
All he could really do was send Terra back on his quest to find Master Xehanort.
As he was traveling the lanes between, though, Xehanort contacted Terra and asked that the young man come see him at once. He followed the connection to a world that was a barren wasteland of rock and dust.
Badlands
Terra landed and immediately confronted Xehanort on the things he had heard and seen, saying that he didn’t understand why he was doing it. Xehanort seemed remorseful, and claimed that he was trying to safeguard the light from a monster he had unleashed. He said that the name of the boy in the mask was Vanitas, and that he was a creature of pure darkness, one of his making.
Terra asked if Vanitas had come from Xehanort, but he replied that no, he had come from Ventus. Vanitas was the darkness that was inside Ventus. Xehanort said that it had been an accident, that during training he succumbed to darkness to the point that the only way to save him was to remove it completely, and created Vanitas in the process. Doing so had also damaged Ven’s heart, which was why he had been left in Master Eraqus’ care since Xehanort didn’t want him to stay with the person who had caused him harm.
Terra saw what he perceived as grief from Xehanort and told him that he shouldn’t blame himself since Ven had only gotten better since coming to the Land of Departure four years ago. Terra asked why Vanitas was running free in the worlds, and Xehanort admitted he tried to contain him but he still managed to escape. Vanitas apparently used a keyblade of darkness to control the Unversed, but he couldn’t control his own darkness, causing Xehanort to call him an abomination without any hope of salvation. He asked Terra to lend him his strength in order to right his wrong, defeat Vanitas and get rid of the Unversed. It was a task Terra was more than willing to take on... if he knew where to find Vanitas.
The only clue Xehanort could give was that his darkness was drawn to the light that he sought to disrupt and destroy. Find the light, he would likely find Vanitas. His next target would likely be the city of light - Radiant Garden. With this in mind, Terra swore he would find Vanitas, not just to save the worlds but to protect the light of his friends.
It didn’t take long for Unversed to show up after Terra arrived in Radiant Garden. Shortly after getting rid of the ones that attacked him, he looked around and spotted Master Xehanort walking around and wondered if the old man had found something else worth investigating. As he tried to follow, though, a fairly large Unversed went zipping by him, prompting him to turn around and follow it instead.
It led him through most of Radiant Garden to the water treatment facility at the back of the city where he found, to his surprise, that Ven and Aqua were there as well. They didn’t have much time to talk, though, because several large Unversed were coming together and forming an even bigger one. With teamwork, they were able to take it down, and even happily praised one another for their good work.
Ven also gave them lifetime passes to Disney Town that he had gotten from someone in Radiant Garden he had rescued, though he seemed a bit downcast when he admitted that the person who gave them to him also said to “take two grown ups”. It earned a bit of a laugh from Aqua and Terra when they realized Ven meant them.
The casual talk didn’t last long, though, as Aqua realized that they needed to get Ven home. Ven said that she didn’t need to worry and claimed that the boy in the mask was history, and would never bad mouth Terra again. Terra panicked at that moment, grabbing Ven’s shoulder and demanding to know if he had really seen the boy in the mask. Ven stutteringly answered that he had, furthering Terra’s worry and concern. He told Ven to let Aqua take him home, but when Ven argued that he wanted to go with them Terra said that they had a too dangerous a task ahead of them for Ven to come along.
That confused Aqua, because it didn’t sound like what Master Eraqus had told them to do, but when she called him on it he said that he wanted to take a different path and fight the darkness. Aqua wasn’t so sure he should put himself so close to the darkness, stating that she had seen some of the things he’d done in other worlds. Ven was hurt at Aqua’s accusations towards Terra but when he tried to argue that Terra would never do something bad, Terra cut in and demanded to know if Aqua had been spying on him on their master’s orders.
Aqua couldn’t give a straight answer. She wanted to say it was because he was looking out for Terra, but even that much had been hard to say honestly. In that moment a rift came between the three friends. Terra turned to walk away, and though Ven tried to stop him, Terra barked for him to stay put, angrily saying that he was on his own now. Aqua tried to say that Master Eraqus had no reason to distrust him, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Terra parted from them and headed further in to Radiant Garden, feeling as though Master Xehanort was the only one he could still count on.
As he wandered alone, a man approached him and called him by name, saying that he had Master Xehanort prisoner. Terra was ill convinced that Xehanort would let anyone capture him, but the man insisted and said to come to beneath the outer gardens to see for himself before he lost his patience. There was no way it could be true, but... there was no harm in looking and giving the man what he wanted.
He arrived at the area but found it empty. Or so he thought. He turned around to see Xehanort chained to a pipe, barely conscious but alive. The man, Braig, tormented Terra and said that he wanted the keyblade for the power it possessed. Terra argued that keyblades were picky about their owners, but Braig countered that if he defeated Terra that would make him better than a potential Keyblade Master and that it wouldn’t matter.
But Braig didn’t want to fight fair, either. He knew the keyblade was too powerful, and warned that if Terra tried anything he would kill Master Xehanort, which led to Terra being at a severe disadvantage against Braig’s sniper rifle. Xehanort called out to him after he fell, reminding him of the shame his master and fellow students would feel if he failed against someone like Braig. He told Terra to forget about him and use his keyblade. Terra finally did and stood, ready to fight and effectively ending Braig’s bluff.
He struck Braig down and blasted him with a powerful amount of darkness, scarring his face and sending him running. He freed Xehanort and marveled and feared at how much power was in the darkness. Xehanort tried to tell him that he had taken another step forward, but Terra wasn’t so sure, afraid that he had been consumed by anger and hatred. Xehanort reassured him that he channeled it, but Terra was convinced that he succumbed to it instead, just like when he had stolen Princess Aurora’s heart.
He could never return home after that. He was a failure.
“Then don’t,” Xehanort reasoned, extending his hand in an offer to Terra. An offer to become his pupil. He reasoned that Master Eraqus was so afraid of darkness that he had succumbed as well, but not to darkness - to light. His light shone so bright that he forgot light begat darkness, blinding himself to Terra’s potential. Ven and Aqua as well had hearts that shone so bright they cast shadows on Terra’s heart. Xehanort ranted that Eraqus was a fool, failing to see that there had to be a balance that needed to be maintained.
He said that Terra was the pupil who showed the true mark of mastery, and that he should have been given the chance, not Aqua, but he claimed that Xehanort feared him and his power. He asked again for Terra to join him so that they could protect the worlds by wielding light and dark in equal shares. He urged Terra to go in to the worlds and stop the forces that upset the balance and put an end to Vanitas, going so far as to call him “Master Terra”.
Terra was naturally surprised at the title, but after a moment he bowed respectfully and accepted it. Terra left the area and returned to the gardens only to be stopped by Ven who, once more, asked if he could go with Terra. Terra said he couldn’t. Ven dejectedly asked why he couldn’t, to which he answered that he knew when he really needed Ven, he would be there. Ven laughed and agreed that he would because they were friends. Terra thanked him, activated his armor and left Radiant Garden.
Disney Town
The next world was the place Ven had gotten tickets for, and once again upon arrival Terra saw Unversed, this time on a racing track. He went to stop them and was nearly run over by another racer. A voice called out to him just in time for him to get out of the way, and after the racer was gone he went to introduce himself to the person. It was Queen Minnie, and with her were Chip and Dale, the coordinators of the race track. They chastised him for running out on the track, and did so even more when he claimed that the rules didn’t apply to fighting the Unversed.
He met Pete, AKA “Captain Dark”, the racer that nearly plowed him over and was harassed by him and his rather big ego. Terra didn’t much care but needed a way to defeat the Unversed on the track without “cheating”. The only way? To race.
Terra was less than amused, but agreed to it, and in the end not only took down the Unversed but Pete as well. Pete was irritated and left in a huff, but it was hardly of any consequence to Terra, especially since he’d tried to cheat his way through the race. Unversed taken care of, he left to the next world since there were no clues towards Vanitas there.
Olympus Colosseum
The next world he arrived in found a young boy in a toga being attacked by Unversed. He was trying to take them on himself but wasn’t strong enough to do so. Terra stepped in and helped get rid of them, speaking to the boy after. The boy praised him for his strength and asked if he was there to enter the games, explaining that they were a tournament to see who was strongest.
Terra thought it might be a good idea to test his own strength and went in to the colosseum to check the standings and possibly enter. He was approached by none other than Hades, the lord of the underworld. Like so many before he noticed the darkness inside Terra and concluded that he was trying to get rid of it, or at the very least learn to balance it. That was apparently something Hades thought was a bad idea, and argued that darkness was inside everyone and that trying to squash it was only going to make things more difficult for him. But if he “played nice” with it he could easily conquer it and become the most powerful fighter at the colosseum.
Terra’s curiosity was piqued, and the answer seemed simple enough. Just join the games, something he was planning on doing anyway. Hades took his information and sent him on his way in to the games. As he fought, though, he resisted the darkness in his heart more than he embraced it, which did not factor in to Hades’ plan. So Hades siced another fighter on him - this one actually possessed by darkness. Terra still emerged victorious, but the fighter attacked him again despite the match being over. Terra cried out for him to stop, but the boy only stared back at him with blank eyes as he swung his sword about.
As they traded blows, the boy, Zack managed to speak, saying that it wasn’t him doing it, it was someone else. Terra recalled being controlled the same way by Maleficent, and Hades appeared and taunted him, telling him this was the power he could have if he just opened up to it. That only made Terra angry at being played, and when Zack begged him to help set his heart free Terra became furious. It wasn’t fair to put someone else in that position, especially a young boy, (and really he was just getting sick and tired of everyone trying to play him)and while he wanted Hades to pay he had to focus on freeing Zack first.
Luckily he was able to, but by the time he was done Hades was gone. Terra checked on Zack, finding him to be alright if not a little beat up and miffed that he’d been controlled, complaining a bit before Terra pulled him to his feet. He looked Terra over closely and declared that he was exactly what he thought a hero looked like - not what he actually looked like, but something else about him. Terra insisted he wasn’t a hero, but Zack insisted that the cheers of the colosseum said otherwise.
Zack lamented that he didn’t get to fight Terra fair and square, but Terra simply bonked him on the arm and said he would get his chance some day.
Deep Space
As he was heading to the next world, he was lost in thought on his glider and holding his Wayfinder charm in his hand. There were Unversed showing up in the lanes between even, causing him more concern about what Vanitas was doing and where he was. And that would have been fine to deal with...
… if he hadn’t gotten abducted by aliens right after.
No. Really. Terra got abducted by aliens.
Not only that, he was assumed to be a stow away and thrown in their prison block.
Terra was not having a good time. At all.
Luckily it wasn’t hard to get out of his jail as his keyblade was capable of unlocking anything, but as soon as he got out he found Unversed attacking the ship workers. Again, not hard for him to get rid of, but by doing so he caught the attention of another alien that was locked up. He claimed he was being locked up on ridiculous charges, that he had created a creature the Intergalactic Council feared. He asked Terra for help and despite his better judgement (which seemed to be a frequent problem in Terra’s life) he went ahead and helped the alien out of his cell so they could rescue his experiment.
He introduced himself as Dr. Jumba Jookiba and said that the name of his creature was Experiment 626. Jumba took him to where 626 was being held in another room, kept under a glass dome. Jumba rambled on about how powerful 626 was, admitting that he was created to destroy everything rather than help anything. Once more, Terra had been played. He was getting tired of this crap.
626 was let out of his confinement by Jumba and leaped on to Terra, stealing his Wayfinder and jumping on to the ceiling. Terra begged for it back, crying out that his friend had given it to him. Jumba found this humorous and fell on the ground laughing, saying that the concept of friendship was lost on 626. It may not have been though, because 626 dropped the Wayfinder and ran off.
Terra held the Wayfinder in his hand and mused aloud about how when he listened to his heart rather than his mind, he really didn’t know himself at all, and that he missed his friends more than he was willing to admit. He asked Jumba if he was really sure about his experiment and whether or not he understood friendship or maybe even wanted friends. Jumba scoffed, and unleashed another experiment, 221 on Terra.
Terra defeated him and 626 returned, yelling something in gibberish at them. Terra wondered if maybe he wanted to know what friends were, and though Jumba argued that there was no way he could, Terra approached and offered his name, which 626 repeated. He said he couldn’t explain friendship, but that 626 would know it when he felt it. Jumba was less than amused and wanted to fix 626. An alarm sounded finally announcing their jail break, and Terra took that as a sign to get off the ship and back in to the lanes between, but not before making a silent promise to Ven and Aqua that he would find a way to make things right.
Neverland
The next world had him coming across a couple of pirates being attacked by Unversed. He chased them off, but was met with irritation and lacking gratitude from the pirate leader, Captain Hook who claimed they had the situation under control.
Yeah. Sure. That’s why they ran when Terra started taking care of the Unversed.
Terra stated he had no interest in Hook’s treasure when the man insinuated he did, and asked if he had seen a masked boy instead. As usual though he was met with a flippant “doesn’t ring any bells”. As Hook and Smee walked away he barked an order and mentioned something about light, which caught Terra’s attention. He asked what he was talking about and Hook told him after a pause that the chest contained light and that a boy was trying to steal it.
But if it wasn’t Vanitas, who was it?
There was no answer to that, but he offered to help protect the light and asked the name of the boy who was trying to come after the light. The boy was named Peter Pan, and Hook wanted the chest to be taken to a place called Skull Rock for safe keeping. They took it there, and Hook and Smee went off while leaving Terra to guard the treasure for the time being.
Peter Pan showed up as expected, and Terra attempted to protect the treasure from him. When he asked what Peter wanted with the light he was met with confusion. His two friends grabbed the chest in the meantime and tried to make off with it, forcing Terra to give chase. One of them tripped and knocked the chest over, spilling it’s contents on the ground.
Well, it was shiny, and bright, but the treasure most certainly wasn’t light. It was pirate treasure. Hook had lied.
Was anyone surprised at this point?
Terra apologized for attacking Peter, but Peter brushed it off as no big deal and even and complemented Terra on his skills in fighting, then asked which way Hook had gone. Terra explained that he had overheard Hook and Smee talking before they left, discussing something about a shooting star they were going to go find. Peter panicked thinking his friend Tinkerbell was in trouble and took off, leaving his other friends behind to guard the treasure. Terra went to leave, but just as he got outside the boys cried out that there was a monster attacking them.
He ran in and found hundreds of Unversed in the cave. As soon as they were gone, Hook returned and called out to him. Terra told the boys to go hide as he told the captain that everything was going fine. He entered holding a lantern with something shining inside of it. Terra asked what it was and Hook answered that it was Tinkerbell, and gloated that he could defeat Peter Pan once and for all, even though he foolishly gave the lantern over to Terra and turned his back on him while doing so.
Not smart, Hook. Not smart.
Terra released Tinkerbell and she promptly kicked Hook in the face. He jumped up and demanded to know what he was doing, to which Terra snarked that he didn’t give it much thought and just ‘followed his heart’. Hook was furious and swore that it was mutiny and tried to attack Terra, but a strange crocodile that was ticking showed up and Hook ran off scared.
Tinkerbell zipped around above his head, causing bits of fairy dust to shine and fall all over, reminding Terra of the night he and his friends had spent under the stars together. His reverie was broken when the boys cried out that the treasure was gone. Terra asked them if they really wanted the jewels and gold that badly, but they answered they weren’t actually in to that stuff, it was just that Peter was counting on them to protect it.
Terra had a thought, and suggested that they put the things that really mattered to them in the chest and instead make that the treasure. They were excited by the idea and took the chest away to do just that. Terra wondered aloud what he would put in there, and left Neverland quietly.
Destiny Islands
As he traveled in the lanes between a sudden warm light appeared in front of him, calling him to it. When he went through he appeared on the beach of a small island at sunset. The rolling waves brought an odd, star shaped fruit to his feet which he picked up and looked at, remembering what Aqua had said about the tree with star shaped fruit. He looked up and found the tree near by, realizing that he had found the world she had talked about.
He went to go look at the tree, and as he walked he wondered to himself if he, Aqua and Ven would ever get the chance to be a team again. The things that once held them together were pushing them away by that point, but the light had led him to that island with the fruit that made unbreakable bonds between friends, though he had no idea why he was there or what he had to do.
Two little boys went running by him, calling out to one another as they raced. They stopped at the tree and sat on the thick branch that had grown low over the ground. Terra watched them for a minute and turned away, only to stop when he realized there was light coming from the one with silver-white hair, named Riku according to his friend. He wondered if he had perhaps been brought there to meet that boy.
He didn’t bother him, though, and simply walked back down to the beach. The boys took off again, but this time when the brown haired one just passed by, Riku stopped and asked him if he was from the outside world. Surprised, Terra asked why he would ask that, and the boy answered calmly that no one lived on the island they were on, and that he didn’t recognize him from the main land either.
Terra was equally surprised by his intelligence and praised him for it. Terra asked what he was doing there and Riku explained that the island was mostly used for playing on, and that his friend’s dad had taken them out there on a boat because they weren’t old enough to row out there on their own yet.
Terra mused that it must have been hard to be stuck in one place all the time. Riku said he’d heard of another kid that had managed to leave for good once, and as Terra stared at him he had a flash of something odd - a man with white hair that turned towards him, and changed again in to an older version of the boy he was speaking to. It was gone almost as fast as it appeared, and the boy asked him how he got there. Terra asked if there was some reason he was so interested in the outside world. He answered that he wanted to be strong one day, like the kid who left, and he figured he must have been very strong by now if he had made it off the islands and to the outside world. He said that he knew it was out there somewhere, the strength he needed.
“Strength for what?”
“To protect the things that matter! You know, like my friends.”
Riku smiled at Terra and Terra smiled back, telling him after a pause that there was a much bigger world outside his small one. He summoned his keyblade and knelt down, holding it out to the boy.
“In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, it’s wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend. No ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, below or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.”
Riku lifted his small hand and wrapped his fingers around the handle, completing the rite of passage that Terra had spoken. Riku’s friend called out to him from the dock, waving for him frantically and telling him to hurry up. Riku turned and waved back as Terra whispered for him to keep what they had done a secret, otherwise all the magic would wear off. Riku nodded, Terra ruffled his hair playfully, and he ran off to meet his friend. He asked Riku what the conversation was about, but Riku played aloof and refused to tell him, frustrating his friend to no end. He swore to keep it a secret, though, and did so even as his friend begged him to tell.
Watching this, Terra remembered that he still had things to protect, namely his own friends, and left Destiny Islands to go look for them.
Badlands
While in the lanes between, Terra saw a light above him moving forward and wondered if it was Ven, but before he could chase after it he was called back to the ruined wasteland by Master Xehanort. He got there and Xehanort told him that there was terrible news - Ventus had learned the truth of his origins, and that Master Eraqus had been lying to him. He was going to confront him and force the truth out of Eraqus, a battle he would surely lose if someone didn’t stop him.
Terra rushed off back to the Land of Departure, hoping he wasn’t too late to save Ven.
The Land of Departure
Terra arrived just as Eraqus launched himself at Ven. He jumped in to the battle and blocked Eraqus’ keyblade from striking Ven, demanding to know if his master had gone mad, attacking his own pupil like that. Eraqus commanded Terra to step aside, but Terra refused, only angering and upsetting Eraqus further. He cried out that none of his attempts to reach Terra worked, and with a heavy heart he said that if he would not yield, he would share Ven’s fate.
Eraqus shed a tear then, and charged at Terra, the two of them trading blows even as Ven begged them to stop. Eraqus jumped back and hurled a blast of light at them both, knocking them away and rendering Ven unconscious. Eraqus charged up another attack, as Terra tried to focus his power so he could save Ven, swearing that he would not let him hurt his friend even if that meant fighting his own master. He opened up a portal to the lanes between behind him and threw Ven inside it, unknowingly connecting it to Destiny Islands where his subconscious thought he might safest.
He faced down Eraqus one on one then, channeling the darkness against his light. He struck Eraqus down and almost instantly regretted it, asking what he had done as he walked towards his weakened master, saying that all he wanted to do was protect Ven. Eraquas relented and said that Terra was right, and that he had failed his student, that maybe he was the one to blame for the darkness inside Terra. He went on, lamenting that he had done worse even by attacking Ven and Terra, even saying that there was darkness in his own heart...
Only to be cut down by Master Xehanort just as he admitted it.
His keyblade clattered to the ground and he fell forward as Terra cried out and tried to catch him, but he vanished in to light in Terra’s arms. He broke down in to tears, sobbing for the father figure he had never meant to hurt.
Xehanort approached him, asking why he bothered himself with remorse for someone who tried to hurt his friend. Terra demanded to know why he struck Eraqus down, but Xehanort only mocked him by saying that he was impressed with Terra’s progress most of the time, but other times he fell short. He barked that he needed to give himself over to the darkness, to let his hate take him there, but Terra still didn’t understand what he meant and what he wanted, so Xehanort said he would make him see.
He said to come to the place “where all keyblade wielders leave their mark on fate” - the Keyblade Graveyard, and summoned his own keyblade while yelling that his friends would meet their end there, and that the last light within Terra would finally die.
And just to make things worse for him, he summoned a mass of darkness that began to tear Terra’s home to pieces, saying that he wouldn’t need a home anymore. Xehanort teleported away before Terra could stop him, and the Land of Departure began to break apart as the darkness overtook it. Terra could only watch it happen, not even his power enough to undo what Xehanort had done. With one last promise to not let the man hurt his friends, he took off for the place he had said to meet.
The Keyblade Graveyard
Terra returned to the place he had been meeting with Xehanort in previously, realizing now that it was the fabled Keyblade Graveyard, the place where the Keyblade War had taken place so long ago. The land had been ravaged by the battle and was little more than a dead world left behind as a reminder of what had happened.
He stood on a cliff looking over the land pensively, eventually summoning his keyblade and swearing that what he did, he did for friendship. He walked through the barren land finding little more than groups of Unversed, not a single other soul alive where he went. Eventually he came to a crossroads, a path not made of up of actual roads but of thousands upon thousands of discarded keyblades, their ends buried in the ground and no power to be felt from them.
Standing at the center of the paths these keyblades made, he heard footsteps and looked over to see Aqua approaching. Downcast, she said that she had been told their master had been struck down. Terra regretfully admitted that he was stupid and had helped Xehanort do it. Aqua was naturally shocked, but he went on to say that Eraqus had tried to hurt Ven, and that he only fought because he wanted to protect him, but that he had been tricked and Xehanort had set the whole thing up all so he could awaken the darkness inside him.
He admitted that Aqua was right, as was Eraqus. He did need to be watched because he had gone astray. But he also swore that he wouldn’t go astray anymore. Aqua didn’t agree, saying the darkness was nothing but hatred and rage, and that he would go astray again because Xehanort was feeding the dark fires within him by making him fight.
“Tell me... how does that honor our master’s memory, Terra?”
Terra didn’t have a chance to answer because Ven finally approached them, explaining fearfully that Master Xehanort wanted to use him to make some sort of χ-blade (chi-blade), and that was why Eraqus tried to destroy him for it. He said he didn’t know exactly what it was, but that it still scared him to even think about it. Terra and Aqua both tried to reassure him that they wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. He started to say something regarding having to fight Vanitas, something that he wanted them to do, but Terra interrupted saying that nothing could tear them apart and that he would always take care of Ven.
But Ven pushed them away, and said that he was asking them as a friend to just put an end to him. That was not something they wanted to do, but they had no time to argue as the wind started blowing, Vanitas and Xehanort appearing on the scene. Xehnort gestured to the keyblades and claimed that they had once been full of power, and that they had lost it when they had lost their masters during the Keyblade War where wielders of light and dark clashed and gave up their lives in search of one ultimate Key.
The χ-blade.
And that χ-blade would soon belong to Xehanort. Or so he said, as he pointed at Ven from across the path.
Angered by this but driven to stop him, the trio activated their armor and set themselves to attack. Ven tried to go first but Terra stopped him, charging ahead after Xehanort and Vanitas. Xehanort lifted the ground between them and sent Terra skidding. He then rose himself and Vanitas up even higher and sent a mass of keyblades chasing after the three of them.
While Vanitas went chasing after Aqua and Ven, Terra tried to confront Xehanort but was stopped when he nearly got knocked down by the rush of keyblades and was nearly impaled by them as he fell. Luckily Aqua managed to shoot a barrier spell at him which in turn lifted him up with the keyblades back to where Xehanort was. He didn’t have a very graceful landing, though, and while he was trying to get back up Ven attempted to attack Xehanort from behind.
Xehanort was faster than the much younger keyblade wielder and quickly side stepped out of the way, appearing behind him and grabbing him by his helmet. Terra tried to save him but the keyblades came down on him once again, sending him far below with a painful crash. Xehanort rose his hand and sent an orb of power in to the sky, parting the clouds and revealing a massive glowing heart in the sky.
Angered, injured and struggling to breathe, Terra ripped his helmet off and stared up in to the sky. Knowing he needed to get back to Xehanort to stop whatever his final plan was he realized his glider and shot up to the plateau he was on, finally confronting him. Once there Xehanort taunted him, praising him and saying he knew it was a journey Terra could make, the journey over the unseen wall between light and dark.
Terra ignored his praises and angrily demanded to know what Xehanort had done to Ven. Xehanort said he had done him a favor by freeing the darkness inside him, which only angered Terra more. He roared Xehanort’s name and charged at him, engaging both him and Vanitas in battle. Eventually Xehanort ordered Vanitas to take “what Ven owed him” and to take Aqua’s life as he went against Terra one on one, preventing him from going after Vanitas.
He taunted Terra further, saying that he was powerless to save his friends and telling him to savor that rage and hatred that was building inside him. Terra angrily swore that Xehanort would pay, screaming “Was my teacher--... no, my father not enough for you?!” and bellowing for him to leave his friends alone as the power of his darkness surrounded him. This only urged Xehanort on, though, telling him to let his whole heart blacken with anger.
Terra attacked him again and this time he effectively beat him in to the ground. Not a second after defeating him though, something exploded near by. Xehanort pointed at it saying that the χ-blade had been created, causing Terra to call out for Ven, but when he tried to go after him Xehanort said that it was time for the “final union”.
And then he turned his own keyblade on himself.
He pierced his own chest with it and released his heart in to the air, fanatically saying that he was discarding his old and brittle body, swearing that he would survive and would do so through Terra. Terra could only stare in horror at this.
The heart came flying at him, and Terra frantically activated his armor in hopes of blocking it and keeping from entering his body...
Character personality:
On the outside and at first blush, Terra appears to be a young man of a calm, collected nature. He is somewhat quiet, though not overly so. He is outwardly thoughtful, often pondering things verbally rather than inwardly, and while he is the trio’s powerhouse and heavy hitter is he maintains a somewhat naive intelligence that’s weakened only by his lack of experience outside of the Land of Departure before the events of the game.
But beneath the exterior personality lies a troubled, often angry teen who struggles with self doubt and a heart that both fears and wishes to give in to the darkness inside. He holds the bonds with his friends and master in higher regard than anyone else around him, but this causes as much problems as it does solve them. It is his desire to protect them and keep them safe that not only drives him forward but drives him to make decisions that don’t always turn out well in the end for himself to the point where he doesn’t always realize what he’s done wrong until the damage has already been done.
He trusts a bit too easily, even when he knows he probably shouldn’t, which unfortunately makes him rather easy to manipulate. He may not necessarily do something bad on his own free will, as shown when Maleficent had to tap in to the darkness inside him in order to get him to take Princess Aurora’s heart from her. But he’s also capable of turning manipulation around on darker hearts and can go so far as to go along with a bad plan if only to find another way to protect people in danger or get information that he needs, as in the case with Snow White where he agreed to the Queen’s plan to get information from her magic mirror and was able to keep Snow White from getting her heart stolen.
Unfortunately this doesn’t stop Master Xehanort from bringing down the ultimate manipulation on him, so much so that he doesn’t realize what’s truly going on until the very end when Xehanort actually reveals his entire plan to him after using Terra to fight Master Eraqus and strike him down in his moment of weakness - something Terra regrets deeply and even wept over after seeing his master fall before him thanks to his own actions.
Because of this, though, Terra’s wavering sense of justice is only balanced by his desire to fix the things he’s broken, to the point where he swears that what he does is for his friends, the ones he feels he’s wronged the most with his actions. He is not a bad person by any stretch of the imagination, even if his inner darkness may make this difficult for others to see. He is simply misguided, troubled and easily led astray by his desire for power and fear of failure. It his connection to his friends that keeps him grounded the most, though, and should he lose that for good it wouldn’t be far for him to slip in to that darkness for good.
Xehanort Possession
Terra at the end of Birth by Sleep becomes possessed by Master Xehanort’s heart. His point of arrival in the Digital World, happens mere seconds before the full possession takes place, causing a mere fragment of Master Xehanort’s heart to actually reach Terra, thus making him enter with both his own heart and that small bit.
At first this will have no consequence to him, so much so that he’ll simply assume that he avoided possession entirely and that he’s safe from it. However as time goes on Xehanort’s presence will grow. At it’s mildest, it will potentially subconsciously influence some of Terra’s less than good decisions. At it’s worst, however, in moments of emotional weakness or extreme, furious anger he may very well fall to Xehanort entirely and be taken over.
His appearance will change with his brown hair going stark white and his eyes turning yellow. His personality will become closer to Master Xehanort’s, though due to it not being a full possession Terra’s true personality may still break through from time to time, even enough to warn people to stay away from him.
He will be driven to hearts of purity, hearts of light that he may be able to corrupt and use to make the possession more complete. He will become cunning and terribly callous, to the point of disregarding friends as no more than things he can manipulate to his own ends. He will do what he pleases, destroying whatever stands in his way and even striking down people he once cared about. The more the possession takes over, though, the more manipulative he will become, so much so that people who have no idea who he is may be at risk for falling in to his carefully crafted traps.
Digimon partner personality:
Terra’s partner, Iwa, is a genre savvy, sarcastic and tomboyish female Black Guilmon. Young and rather immature at her best moments, she would almost be impulsive and dangerous to herself and others if she actually had the tenacity to give more than two shits about anything other than video games, TV and table top.
That’s right. Terra’s partner is a lazy, bratty, female nerd.
Most of her personality is watered down by the simple, inescapable fact that she’s just plain lazy/ She doesn’t care. She doesn’t want to care. Nevermind that she lives in the Digital World, where apocalypses can happen in the blink of an eye and be reset a week later and fights happen every other day on the clock. She still thinks most things outside of her little escapist fantasies are boring. She’d much rather play video games or a round of Dungeons & Dramon with her cousin Mugen than out fighting with her partner or protecting the world or whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing. She tends to meet most things with a dry wit, and those who she sees as being less than perceptive or intelligent she may be prone to trolling or at the very least teasing with rather mean and harsh words.
But the laziness aside she actually does have a hidden side she rarely tries to let out. She actually can (and does) care about people and digimon beside herself, the biggest example being her two cousins Mugen (
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She harasses and teases Mugen when they’re not mutually enjoying something, and views Finn’s laid back attitude with quite a bit of disdain, but if anyone were to ever threaten them the temper that she’s been squashing down for years will erupt full force. That said, at first she’s not likely to get along with Terra completely, even if in some ways they are very similar, but over time the way he treats his own friends with familial-like affection and how protective he is over them will endear him to her to the point where she very well may wish to have a big brother that was more like him.
Not that she’d ever say it out loud willingly.
Character abilities:
Abilities and Keyblade Log
Sample RP:
An explosion of light rocked the barren wasteland that was the Keyblade Graveyard.
“There! You see!” Master Xehanort pointed at it. Terra glared at the man, reluctant to look away. He was afraid. Not of Master Xehanort using the distraction to attack him again, but afraid of what he was going to see. Slowly his eyes pulled away from the old man and he looked, gasping when he saw the massive column of light shooting up in to the sky.
“The χ-blade has been forged!” Master Xehanort cried out as he rose behind Terra, a sick note of glee in his gravely voice.
“VEN!” Terra screamed out, darting forward. He had to save his friend!
“And now...” Master Xehanort said. Those two simple words made Terra freeze in his tracks. What was he going to do next? What horrible plan did he have in store now that his precious χ-blade had been created?
“It is time for the final union!”
“What?!”
Terra wheeled around just in time to see Master Xehanort with his own keyblade to his chest, the tip piercing his body and light erupting from the wound.
“At last our moment is here...” he said, spreading his arms wide as the keyblade vanished, his heart rising from his body while surrounded by a bright glow. “Out with the old and brittle vessel, and in with a younger, stronger new one!”
Terra could only stare in horror abject, wide eyed horror, his own heart feeling as though it had sunk to his feet, freezing him in place. His voice left him, nothing but frightened noises emerging from his slack lips. What was that mad man doing?!
“I swore I would survive! And be there to see what awaited beyond the Keyblade War!” Master Xehanort continued to gleefully cry out, looking at Terra again once the heart was high above him, “It is is your darkness that will be the arc that SUSTAINS ME!”
With that final bellow, he waved his hand and sent his glowing heart flying at Terra.
He was going to possess him! He was going to force his heart in to Terra’s body and renew himself, younger and stronger than ever!
Terra panicked. There was no way to dodge it, not enough time to get away. But he did have his armor. He lifted his hand and slapped the switch on his arm, realizing his Keyblade Armor in a flash. The heart was still coming for him, though, and beneath his helmet he closed his eyes, waiting for it to hit.
But nothing came.
Slowly he opened one eye, then the other, and stared in confusion at his surroundings. He was surrounded by... giant chess pieces?! What.
“What.”
This couldn’t be the Keyblade Graveyard anymore. But if it wasn’t then where was he, and why was he standing on a giant chess board surrounded by pieces that were bigger than him?
Well. Some of them. The pawns were apparently shorter than he was. But that didn’t mean much when they were already so much larger than one would figure a chess board to be.
He could only blink and stare, lowering his keyblade to his side while turning his head slowly, sunlight from above glinting off his armor and helm. Save for his own breathing, all was silent on the board and nothing seemed to be moving, but he had the distinct feeling he was being stared at anyway.
Upon closer inspection he realized the reason for it. They had eyes. They were alive.
“Uhh...” he mumbled, his own quiet voice actually sounding loud due to the silence over the board. Suddenly there as an ever louder clank, causing him to look up at the source of it. What appeared to be a rather statuesque suit of black armor caused the other pieces to part for her as she approached Terra, staring down at him silently. She was surprisingly tall, a full two or three heads more than him, and even though she didn’t speak she gave off an aura that honestly kind of intimidated the strong keyblade wielder.
Another clank, and the white side parted, and a much shorter piece approached from behind him. The king and queen. And he was standing in between them being observed as though they were silently debating just what to do with him. Clearly he had interrupted something.
“Uhm,” he started again, clearing his throat while trying to figure out what to say. “I should go.”
That was weak.
Though neither side spoke a certain ominous feeling settled over the area as the king and queen looked at one another and began moving arms around in gestures. The queen pointed to what was clearly a prison near by off the board, while the king seemed to be insisting that Terra stay right here he was, likely to try and fight for his side.
Terra could only stare. He was being argued over, like a damn pet with bickering owners. One minute it he had been cowering away from Master Xehanort after losing his friends, and the next he was on a giant chess board being fought over! He had no idea where he was, why he was there, or what was happening and frankly that coupled with the battle he’d just been through... he was starting to get a damn headache.
“Excuse me!” he barked out, trying to get their attention. They didn’t seem to be listening to him anymore, their silent argument continuing. He sighed, rubbing a gloved hand against his armor, not really sure what to do.
“Pst!”
The sound got his attention, but his gaze had to wander about before they located where it was coming from. A black creature was hiding behind a nearby pillar, motioning him over with a claw. He blinked a few times, looked up at the arguing king and queen, then back at the one beckoning him over. Slowly and as quietly as his own noisy armor would allow him to move, he backed his way off the board and to the pillar.
“New here, yeah?” the creature asked in a slightly bored tone, the voice deep but still female sounding. Terra raised an eyebrow and reached up to remove his helmet.
“Yeah. And you are?”
“Iwa,” she answered and motioned with her claw again, starting to walk away from the board. Terra looked back over his shoulder, but he somehow hadn’t been missed in his departure. What else could he do? He followed her as she quietly led him down a path in to what appeared to be a town, though it was notably decorated and laid out much like the giant chess board he’d shown up on.
“What is this place?”
“Geez... damn noobs...” Iwa muttered under her breath, though she didn’t elaborate when Terra muttered ‘huh?’ in confusion. “This? Is Chess Kingdom. The world is called the Digital World, and you are a long, long way from Kansas, Toto.”
Terra, of course, had no idea who Toto was or where Kansas was, but he gathered enough from the first part of that for it to sound familiar. Another world. One he had gotten yanked to unwillingly. Maybe King Mickey or Yen Sid had something to do with this. But if they had... where were his friends, and why had been abandoned? He didn’t say anything, so she continued.
“You got a name, tall dark and brooding?”
“Terra.”
“Huh. I thought that was a girl’s name.”
“Wh-- no, it isn’t!”
“Whatever. So I guess I’m your partner, and I’ve got a lot of explaining to do. Think your muscle-bound brain can handle it?”
Terra sighed and dragged his hand through his hair with a strained noise. He wanted to find Ven and Aqua, but he needed to know what was going on first.
“Yeah. Tell me everything, Iwa.”
Sample D-Comm Network Post:
--know what I’m doing, I’m not completely incompetent.
No, just mostly.
Would it kill you be a little nicer to me, Iwa? You’re the one who said we’re partners.
... it’s on.
What? … oh. Uh. My name is Terra. I’m looking for some people. Their names are Aqua and Ventus-- well, Ven. He goes by Ven.
Do you always ramble like this?
… [ a sharp sigh ] I need to find them. They might be in trouble. Any information is appreciated. Thanks.
[ before any more bickering can be heard, Terra shuts the comm off ]