The air in the room grew heavy the moment Aqua raised her keyblade. She pointed it downward, the silver light of Stormfall shining in the dimness of Helios's chamber. A soft, crystalline glow spread outward, forming a translucent barrier that sealed off the room from the rest of the mansion. The hum of magic vibrated through the walls.
"No one will disturb us now," Aqua said quietly, her voice calm but taut with tension.
Skuld sat at Helios's bedside, her hands trembling slightly as she cupped them over his chest. His breathing was shallow, uneven, as though every breath he drew was stolen. Circe's spell had become undone as Aqua examined him. His skin was pale and clammy, and though Circe's time trick had left him looking deceptively whole on the surface, the truth had been plain to see by both Aqua and Skuld: inside, his heart was being torn apart by the residue of Baldr's darkness.
"Are you ready?" Aqua asked, kneeling beside her.
Skuld nodded, though her voice wavered. "I'll… I'll hold the darkness steady. Just tell me when to push it back."
"Good." Aqua raised her keyblade and touched its tip lightly against Helios's sternum. "Then let's begin."
The barrier around the room pulsed as their magic flared.
At first, their work seemed simple. Skuld closed her eyes, summoning her light, weaving it into tendrils that slipped into Helios's body like streams of clear water. She guided it carefully, pressing it into the places where the dark corruption coiled like nests of serpents. The light pressed against the writhing shadows, containing them, hemming them in, preventing them from spreading deeper.
Then Aqua stepped in. She moved her keyblade in steady arcs, whispering the incantation. A green aura blossomed at the blade's tip and spilled into Helios's body. Curaga's light flooded his veins, knitting broken flesh, mending torn pathways of magic, trying to restore what had been shredded apart.
The moment the Curaga touched the darkness, the corruption stirred.
It was no inert infection — it screamed as if trying to escape.
A violent pulse coursed through Helios's body, his back arching off the bed as black veins lit up beneath his skin, writhing like living things. His hands clawed at the sheets, a strangled sound escaping his throat.
Skuld gasped. "It's fighting back!"
"Hold steady!" Aqua barked. Her blue eyes narrowed with sharp focus. "Don't let it escape or spread!"
The light Skuld controlled faltered, flickering, but she grit her teeth and poured more strength into it. Sweat broke across her forehead as she forced the radiant streams to press back against the black tendrils.
Aqua swept her keyblade in another arc, pushing more healing light into him. The darkness recoiled violently, lashing against their combined magic, trying to tear itself free. The barrier around the room shuddered with each pulse of the clash.
Helios was no longer truly conscious. He floated.
Darkness pressed on all sides, cold and suffocating. But woven through it came threads of light — soft and persistent — pulling him upward.
Yet the darkness was not faceless. It had a voice.
"Do you see now?"
The world around him shifted, forming into memories that weren't his. A boy in Scala ad Caelum — white-haired, wide-eyed — stood in a classroom. He could feel what the boy felt: the fear of others, the longing for safety, the way he clung to the light of his sister's heart just to keep breathing.
"Hoder was everything," the voice whispered. "And when she fell… it was because of me. Because the darkness in me wanted it so."
Helios staggered through the memory, watching Baldr rush into the Enchanted Dominion, seeing the moment of Hoder's death. The scream, the emptiness, the rage. And then… the blackout. When Baldr awoke again, his friends were dead, and the darkness inside him was stronger than ever.
The vision shifted again. Helios saw Baldr, older now, standing before his classmates with a strange coldness in his eyes. He led them into the Underworld, smiling faintly as they fell, one by one. Their cries echoed in Helios's ears, blending with his own memories of Nightfall, of his parents' last words.
"No…" Helios muttered weakly, his voice echoing in the void. "These… aren't mine…"
But the darkness pressed closer, snarling in Baldr's voice.
"You understand, don't you? To lose everything, to be consumed until there's nothing left but rage? You and I are the same. You are only standing where I fell because your darkness is not yet strong enough."
The vision shifted one last time — Scala ad Caelum aflame, Baldr cutting down wielder after wielder, his eyes empty gold. Chains wrapped around him at the last, Odin's spell restraining him, but even as he fell to Xehanort's blade, his voice rang out:
"We are the same!"
The darkness surged at Helios, wrapping around him like shackles. His chest burned where Aqua's and Skuld's magic battled it on the outside, but within his mind it felt like being dragged into an endless abyss.
Back in the room, Aqua's expression tightened. "It's worse than I thought. The darkness is integrated into him — it's not just residue. It has echoes of memories. Will. It's alive inside of him."
Skuld's face blanched, but she forced herself to keep her light steady. "Then… can we still purge it?"
"We can," Aqua said firmly, though strain colored her voice. "But not today. His body is still weak so we can't push him too hard. Not in one attempt. If we force it, we'll tear his heart apart."
Skuld bit her lip. "Then what do we do?"
Aqua lowered her keyblade slightly, still channeling a steady stream of Curaga into Helios's battered frame. The glow was no longer to heal him entirely, but to stabilize him, to mend what they could while slowly removing the corruption piece by piece.
"We hold him together," Aqua said finally. "Piece by piece. This would go faster is we had more time, more strength, more healers, if possible. For now… the best we can do is stop it from spreading further while slowly curing him."
Her voice dropped, softer. "This is going to take everything I have."