thelast-cetra:

^{A frenzied energy claimed her, and Aerith felt her muscles tighten in reflex. The Heartless that plagued Hollow Bastion no longer grew to magnificent heights. They were small shadows, small reminders that the world was not entirely light and that a balance must remain. But this world, it was not balanced. It was skewed and twisted, its sky forever dark and its people forever in fear.} 

^{No doubt it had Heartless the size of skyscrapers. No doubt it had a darkness that bred them.}

^{There was no wisdom in staying to fight. Aerith realised it as the rolling of tectonic plates beneath her feet forced all her concentration on staying upright. Perhaps if she had been alone— perhaps if she had been younger and more foolhardy— it would be a risk worth taking. But with a child in her company who wore nothing but a thin, white dress and forlorn shadows on her face, it was too much.}

^{Hand outstretched to find Naminé’s, she pivoted— only briefly— to glance in the direction of felled trees and an echoing roar before tugging on her companion. Let’s move, it said. Let’s run.}

         _{Never had she seen a Heartless larger than a building, if only because Twilight Town had a tendency to be rather peaceful, and she had spent much of her time around Nobodies. Yet she knew that they existed, deep in realms of darkness where people cowered in fear because they had yet to be saved, but she had never imagined that they could cause the ground to shake and tremble.}

         _{Staring with wide eyes as trees fell, she wavered in place, knowing that she would lose her balance if they did not move. While she was hardly dressed for running, she certainly wasn’t dressed or equipped for fighting, and not a monster as big as the one she could vaguely see, a shadow, a shape against the night sky.}

                  _{A hand tugged on hers and it sprung her into action as she turned around, hair whipping outwards as she began to run, knowing that it was their only chance. Naminé did not know of Aerith’s capabilities in battle, but she knew that her own were nonexistent, and until she could open a portal they were likely stuck there, in that dark and almost dead world.}

                                    _{A world where darkness was about to take over.}

         _{It was more terrifying altogether than anything that the Nobody had ever known, and as her feet stumbled and tripped over the uneven ground and roots and branches, she knew that more than ever she could not stop running. Could not stop or pause, for if she did then that would surely be her end—}

                           _{And she was not ready. Not even as more trees fell and crashed and the ground seemed to be alive beneath them with its rumbling and shaking.}