I liked it until the end.

Kinda qualifies as a downer ending really.

I also can't take it seriously. The fact that Sora/Xehanort was set up as this great love, only for him to get over him and end up with someone else only half a year afterwards is what's the joke.

I may be being too critical, as a girl I was with on and off for years apparently got over me and fell for another after less than a year, but...

This story just struck a nerve.

I think the ending didn't even make much sense besides, for reasons I don't even want to get into, as time travel is screwy as hell, but...

this was so amazing, why do I always falls for these hero/villain (but both morally ambiguous in their love) ships

this was so amazing, why do I always falls for these hero/villain (but both morally ambiguous in their love) ships

ihateyouihateyouihateyou you know that one fic that makes you ship it, hard? it's this one. daaaamn

idontknowbecauseitseasyontheeyes?

At first I was pretty weirded out by the ship and I only clicked on it because I was curious but holy fuck this is actually pretty good and it hurt me ;-;

Good job man

OMG YOU FINISHED THIS! Do NOT delete This! Please!

I ship this' like holy crap, even though there's nothing holy about it, this is one of two of my only crack pairings. You're one of the only people that I know of that ships this very deserving cracktp.

Jyea Tuna gurl good ideas cummin over here gurl. Tyrones gotta block dat cray Sonya but hes too scared gurl. Sonyas gonna jack him UP wif dat jumbo jihgler shes got!

u no i luvs me sum snorts gurl. but i cant find any booty in dis fic! where da kairis at? where da nim&nims at? where dem booties for sopa? snorts dont got a booty for sopa! hes snorts gurl! hes snorts! ma boi cant be gettin no booty from da snorts! i jus dont no wut to believs in anymore gurl! i needs to see sopa get his booty on wif kairis or nims!

Taddeys! Thadeus, bak up boi, bak up. I tink jor ex, Somya mite hav bugged jur fone, lik fo reel! Juno I aint lyin, my boi tyrone tinks so 2.

Jawjea, I no! Somya jus wite cray-cray. Maan, y ju always affa da crayzee booties?

Now, watchu weedin dere? Dis look lik a nice censabel numba. Ja romance! Ju were allwiis a sofie, wernja boi!

Apathetic is absolutely the saddest state of being for Sora to be in. : (

Damn . . . Sora's . . . Sora's reasoning on this whole clean-slate-or-no-one-to-miss-it thing is pretty flippin' solid.

You handled the whole feeling of having a piece of Xehanort's heart within him quite well I think. :)

Kairi saved him! 8D Yes of course! Her light! That makes such perfect sense! X3 Way to go, Kairi. (A curse to Sora's trance-like state though, as I'd've loved to see them fighting beforehand as well.)

Gah, Sora doesn't even remember Xehanort's "betrayal" at all! : D That makes me really happy, actually.

"His heart harbored Xehanort's in a more literal sense." Oh my gosh this line. Yesssss. I think this right here actually makes me almost want to ship the pairing. XD Almost.

Oh all, this death scene. : ( Sora's kneeling on the ground next to a dying body, and all I can think about is the small reflection that has to what happened with Goofy. The suddenness was the same too. But here, at least they got to exchange some final words. And there, of course, it turned out Goofy wasn't dead, which was wonderful, but shit they didn't know that at the time! Ugh.

"Don't you dare! Don't leave me!" This. I can so see Sora saying this. Mostly, again, because it reminds me of the scene with Goofy. You know, denial and all that. But it's not just that; I can't place exactly why, but aside from the spirit of the words even just the exact wording seems like something that would come out of Sora's mouth right now. I dunno. I can't back it up with exactly perfect reasoning, but I do really like the line.

Using Slow magic to give them more time together was an awesome idea. : )

Oh wow. D: And . . . and after all this time, Xehanort was harboring the concern that Sora's love might be a lie too. The irony is biting and poetic.

"He bitterly laughed. He closed his eyes, 'Does that even fit if I...'" This is perfect as it is for getting the point across, and it hit me like a truck with both the shock that Sora would think that and the knowledge that yes, yes he would. I love when minimalist writing like this works that way (always so powerful!), but I have to admit the remainder of the paragraph was very enjoyable to read too. Great job here. :)

The disappointed tone with which Xehanort points out that Sora isn't forcing him to take the potion, oh man, this tugged my heart strings so hard they may have snapped. : (

"Unhappiness to more lived than one." : )

Xehanort wants Sora to hook up with Riku? That's . . . noble of him, I suppose. I kind of feel like this was a horribly insensitive moment to bring it up, but, well, it's not as though he'll get another chance so . . . yeah. Just another harsh reality of death I suppose.

"Trying hard not to force it," oh wow, yes, this makes so much sense and gosh I just feel like Sora's so brave for that and /ughhhh/.

Roxas' initial reaction was awkward, but very real, I think, and suiting for him. I could kind of see myself falling into the same situation, if I managed to work up the courage to approach at all (which is unlikely).

I love this ending scene with Sora's speech to Xehanort. It wraps everything up so nicely, but even aside from that I just like the way he talks. He's very mature about it. I totally respect that he's honest about what's going on with Riku (with whom, by the way, I feel he's had reasonable progress for this time frame, considering everything leading up to it). The way he brought up what Xehanort had showed him served as a great tribute to the man's last words. In general, it just left me with a sense that not only had Sora learned a lot from Xehanort, but even that he's now in a position to teach others what he's learned, and really what more can you ask from life? It reminds me of a very close friend of mine, who went through his share of horrible situations and emerged with such an outlook. It's definitely a trait I'm envious of, and I think makes for a wonderful ending.

"Goodbye apathy."

I'm not saying I'm against crack, but eh, after everything that's happened I still don't think I'd ship this. I didn't really get what I came here for either, since this fic didn't put a lot of emphasis on the older Xehanort. I guess that dream will just have to haunt me for the rest of my life. T_T But I'm still glad I read. Although a lot of moments were too sappy for my tastes, there were a lot of highlights that absolutely blew me away as well, and that more than made up for it. Besides, I can tell from some other reviews that there were plenty of people who liked the "sappy" parts, so I'm not dissing those portions; if anything I'm dissing my own tastes, lol. XP But yeah, this was a cool fic, and it was neat to hear about your own progression in your author's notes about how your own journey with this pairing evolved. The funnest stories are always the ones that are a discovery in and of themselves. : )

'Til next time!

Well, it definitely has a sadder ending than any fic of yours so far, as least from my point of view (still haven't read your Smash fics though; I swear, someday), but that's not to say I don't like the story. Heck, I'm impressed; discounting drabbles, I rarely find tragedies successful. And really, I just like how much this story made me /think/! I'm being taught (-ish) by another friend right now how to really think. I think you two would get along well, or at the least that he'd like this fic. But for sure, yeah, this story got my brain moving. I was never nearly as confident on these conclusions as I may have sounded. I actually spent a full day reading this fic to come up with the answers I did, and I guess I'm still not one hundred certain about them (and, really, wouldn't want to be), but I'm more than satisfied with my conclusions.

Actually, this is interesting . . . When I was in middle school, I was approached by a boy who told me I had like, special powers. Like, element controlling powers. And he did too, and before long he found other kids who did. We were a small group of around five who this boy said were only born once every three thousand years or something, and we had to train together and hone our skills to protect the Earth from an impending doom. I didn't believe a lick of it of course, especially once I noticed all the kids this boy picked out had a trait in common that I was sure was the real reason he chose us. But I did play along. And I did /want/ to believe it. I mean, who wouldn't want to believe you could bend the elements and were destined to be a hero? Especially at that age, when that concept was the cool thing I saw on TV all the time and the responsibilities had yet to really register to me. But eventually high school was just around the corner, and on the last day of eighth grade I said goodbye to him. I decided it was time to grow up and wanted nothing else to do with the group. :/ Sometimes I wonder if my life would have been much different if I'd stayed with them and we'd become friends.

Okay . . . I don't think Xehanort's plan would work. I'm gonna preface with that. He said himself that changing the past is impossible, so I do not believe his dying is possible, or at least not that it would bring about the end of his future self, whom we have seen is very much alive. Something would mess it up, somehow. But, that said, since Xehanort seems to believe this to be a workable solution . . . why doesn't he kill himself? I know, I know, easier said than done, but he's apparently intent on dying and he didn't even try. It's even open to interpretation whether or not he contemplated suicide. He just . . . automatically decided to have the enemy kill him. Which . . . in addition to carrying more risk, being more complex, and taking more time (during which the one person who's happiness he's basing this decision off of is suffering), was executed poorly. I mean, asking the enemy to kill you? Of course they're going to think something's up. Even without Xehanort's mastermind rep that'd be questionable grounds. He should have just barged in swingin' his Keyblade and left himself open to attack. No explanation necessary, buddy; they'd've fought back. Now I admit, a lot of wisdom comes with age. I can't expect Young Xehanort to plan as well as Master Xehanort. But I feel like if I can poke holes in this idea, it must be really subpar. This brings me to one of two conclusions: either Xehanort is trying to be noble but not actually entirely ready to die (which is /completely/ understandable, and I'm sure the position most of us would be in were we in his shoes), or he /has/ already developed some master planning skills and this chapter actually goes entirely according to his secret plan and we're in for a majorly mind-blowing twist soon. I'm not sure which, but I know it's one of these.

Hm . . . though I do have to wonder what would happen if Young Xehanort did die right now, and that did change the past and eliminate Master Xehanort. I mean, of course a lot would change. Most of the series. But, Xehanort's doing this for Sora, so what about the changes for him specifically? Aside from the possibility of never having any conflict with darkness destroying the worlds and thusly just growing up as a normal kid on Destiny Islands . . . would he even be himself? A lot of Sora's development was influenced at a very early age (like, birth if not earlier) by Ventus' heart, which never would have found its way to Sora were Ventus not training under Master Xehanort. So . . . yeah. What would Sora even be like? Makes me wonder.

I love that Mickey and Aqua are hanging out! X3 I've always wanted to see more of them together. They're both such accomplished Keyblade Masters . . .

Lol! The thought of Ventus trying to pull age-based rank attempts is pretty funny. A) because he looks way younger, and B) because pulling age-based rank attempts is something adults don't tend to do. XD It's like . . . double the irony. XP

"He's Xehanort! He's gonna come up with something we won't." Hells yeah he will! X3 Xehanort's awesome like that. Er, Master Xehanort, at any rate. Not so sure about the form Riku's referring to. Again, pretty torn on which theory to go with.

Why would Riku decide to wait? He has a better chance of winning a two v. one battle than a seven v. thirteen one, as well as /zero/ chance of forming the χ-blade this way. Not to mention the way Xehanort baited him at the end there, damn. Eh . . . Riku's a careful guy though . . . I bet he's just playing it safe. Still suspecting Xehanort's arrangement is a trap he's not ready to fall into. Better just to go back to their previous plan. It's not what I would do, but, well, I'm not as brave as Riku, so there's a lot of things he's done that I wouldn't and he's a much better person for it.

Love the way you wrote Sora's flashback about the Norting. :3 The way he saw it, I can even understand now how it might be possible for Sora to not know was was Norted. Except for the cloak . . . you'd think he'd put two and two together with that one. Well, maybe not. Sora's pretty one-track minded, and his mind's definitely elsewhere right now. He might just assume they're preparing to Nort him too, and that's why the change of outfit . . .

Speaking of Sora's mind, excellent point about his intuitive judgement. :) I think the only time he's been on the wrong side when it /wasn't/ a major plot twist or point or whatever would be accepting the ticket from Hades. Don't quote me on that, but it's all that pops into my head right off the bat.

Alright, glad to see the story's resolution is on the horizon! : ) I see you've posted the last chapter already, but I have to go to work so I guess I'll have to wait to read it. D: Oh well. Such is life. It'll still be here. Excited to see what it says. :3

I'm crying...
I'm not kidding I'm actually crying right now that was terribly sad. I think it was that little reunion Sora had with Xehanort's grave at the end that set it off.
This was such a great story, I got tingles whenever I saw that it was updated. Thank you for writing this, it had a serious impact on me. Only one other story has ever made me feel like this.
(This is also my cracktp don't feel bad I've shipped this since 3D came out... that's several years. XD Yes, all the fluff, and more if possible.)

jyea boi dont be hatin on da snorts! hatin on da snorts is hatin on sopa n gooey n ronald word

i dont hate on da snorts boi but where all dem gurls booties? sopa needs kairs booty u no wut im sayin? sopa gotta have da booty

boi lissen

lissen boi

sopa needs da kairi booty

u no wut im sayin?