Lost Honor

Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, and Leon met with Ansem's five apprentices in the castle, awaiting his return. They talked about everything that had happened up until that point. "I can't say I blame Terra all that much," Cloud said. "It's a struggle to hold on to your sense of self when other influences are trying to push their way through. It must have taken him all he had just to go on existing."
    "His undying loyalty to his friends is admirable," Yuffie added. She turned to Ansem's five apprentices and asked, "What about you? Why did you do... whatever it is you did?"
    "I couldn't back down from a scientific challenge," Even said.
    "I was still a little kid. Death scared me," Ienzo admitted.
    "I was planning to get the X-blade away from Xehanort the whole time and promised to share it with Dilan and Aeleus," Braig said, to which Tifa promptly responded by decking him with her right-cross. He should have seen it coming, but he hadn't expected it, not having met her before.
    "You idiot!" she screamed at him. "Agreeing to do this out of boredom would have been a better excuse! What do you guys need with a Keyblade anyway?! You have your own unique weapons that suit you perfectly!" Dilan and Aeleus looked ashamed of themselves while Braig continued looking stunned.
    She then turned on Even and Ienzo. "And you two! I expected better from a couple of scientists. I thought you'd be smarter than that." Though there might have been more to it than they admitted, they couldn't look her in the eye. After all, they had been deceived all the same.
    "I take full responsibility for tricking everyone and getting them to do this," Braig spoke up, rubbing his jaw. "Damn, girl. That hurt." He half-expected her to try to hit him again, but she didn't. Instead she stormed off in her usual Hurricane Tifa way.
    "Let her go," Leon advised Aerith, who looked like she was about to follow her.
    Aeleus was the first one to speak up. "The Keyblade...I didn't really..." He sighed. "He told me how powerful it must be, so I thought that...You have to understand. I didn't want it for the power. I just thought it could help us protect this place, that's all. The darkness in my heart was born from from my loss of honor for ever doubting Ansem the Wise. My promise to look out for Ienzo was all I had left after that, and I couldn't even do that in the end."
    "Aww. He's just a big teddy bear," Yuffie remarked.
    "You're a good person, Aeleus," Aerith said. "All of you are, despite everything. I truly believe that."
    Am I really a good person? Even asked himself. He had been told in the past that his bedside manner - no, his demeanor as a whole - was cold as ice. He was always putting up walls between himself and other people, and he liked to be alone most of the time. There were times he enjoyed the company of others, but he had a tendency to say mean things or to belittle them. And then there was the work he had done leading up to Ansem's banishment and becoming a Nobody with the power of ice and a shield. In the eyes of the Keyblade wielders, he was then categorically a bad person - or non-person. At least they'd gotten Ansem back and he'd forgiven them. They'd even managed to get Terra, Braig, and Isa back on their side. All that was left now was to help the Keyblade Wielders stop the thirteen forms of Xehanort for the war to be over. But at what cost? he thought. He decided to accompany Dilan and Braig out for a drink. Libations were easier for them to swallow than pride.
    That evening, Ienzo had a nightmare. He was in the room downstairs faced with his guilt over betraying Ansem. His Nobody, Zexion, stood before him giving a speech similar to the one he had given Riku. "You refused to give up on the forbidden experiment. It didn't do you any good, did it. You belong to the darkness now..." Ienzo watched in horror as Zexion became possessed by Xehanort until he turned into Ansem Seeker of Darkness, Xehanort's Heartless. "Your heart is mine," he said, taking out his Keyblade and stabbing Ienzo in the chest with it. It may have only been a dream, an illusion from his memories, but Ienzo still passed out from the fear of reliving it.
    Still in the nightmare, Ienzo opened his eyes to someone nudging him awake. He was shocked to see his younger self standing over him, accompanied by a white Mage Heartless. "What...what is that?" Ienzo asked his younger self.
    "It's our heart," his child self replied. "Take better care of it this time."
    He shouldn't have been surprised that his younger self didn't fear the Heartless; after all, he hadn't been afraid of the Unversed either. "I will." Ienzo reached out for the Heartless and held it to his chest just as the Seeker of Darkness reappeared. The younger Ienzo hid behind his future self. It's time to stand up for myself, the elder one thought. I have to stop reliving my past mistakes and start acting like a true apprentice. "You're a phony," he said to SoD. "How dare you take Ansem's name in vain. Leave our home and never return!" The three of them together started to glow and attacked SoD with a bright light, obliterating him. Ienzo woke up, a little surprised at himself. He wondered if he was really capable of something like that. "It's just a memory," he said to himself. "It can't hurt me anymore."