The darkness was cold. Not the creeping, suffocating kind Helios had grown used to in battle—no, this cold was comforting. The kind that drew him to sleep and carved its way into memory.
He opened his eyes.
And Nightfall stood before him.
The sky shimmered in hues of violet and deep blue, stars blinking softly above the sharp mountain ridges. The bustling metropolitan city characterized by twilight skies, where the setting sun casts a warm glow, bathing the buildings and streets in shades of orange and pink. As evening approaches, hues of deep blue blend with fading golden light, setting a serene yet melancholic ambiance over the cityscape, and the familiar weight of home pressed against his chest.
For a brief, fragile moment, Helios felt peace.
Then he remembered.
Nightfall had fallen to darkness, and the city was lost. This is where his parents had died.
He stood outside the gates of his childhood home, the apartment where his parents once lived.
Helios took a breath, steeling himself. He summoned Equilibrium in its normal form, the familiar weight of the keyblade grounding him, telling him this was a dream. But still, even knowing that he couldn't let it go. 'Not this time,' he told himself. 'I know what's coming. I can stop it.'
He ran.
The streets were just as he remembered—tall, polished, flooded with moonlight. His younger self's voice echoed in the distance, the self that lacked his memories of the past. He turned the corner, just as the memory dictated, and saw them: his parents, protecting his younger self as they hid and snuck through the chaos of the burning city.
"He's coming," Helios whispered. "You need to leave. Now."
His parents looked up, startled. Their eyes met his, and something shifted.
They saw him.
Not the child.
Him.
Older. Wounded. Burdened.
"Helios?" his mother breathed.
He nodded. "I came back. I know how this ends. But we can change it. Together. I can save you."
His father looked unconvinced, gaze shifting toward the sky as the first tremor hit. Dust and debris fell from a nearby building.
"The Heartless," Helios said, voice sharp. "He opens the breach at the plaza. The Darkside comes first. We have five minutes."
Without waiting, he turned and ran again, down an alleyway, vaulting the banister to land in the foyer. Magic flared in his palm.
Freezing Gale.
Wind and ice exploded forward, just as the first tear of darkness opened.
The shadow clawed its way out of the abyss, massive and lumbering—a Darkside, black as void and twice as cruel. Its glowing yellow eyes focused on him.
Helios didn't flinch.
"You die here," he hissed.
He dashed forward. Equilibrium became Bríon na Lú, his spear of light. It blurred in arcs of gold, piercing shadow limbs and launching Helios into the air. The Darkside swung down with crushing weight, but Helios teleported, reappearing above it and driving his spear into the creature's skull.
A pulse of energy.
The Darkside crumbled.
He landed, panting.
"I did it," he whispered. "I did it."
Then the sky screamed.
Another rift opened. Two more Darksides emerged. Then another. A wave of Neoshadows poured out behind them like a tidal flood of teeth and talons.
"No..."
His parents were at his side now, eyes wide.
"We can still do this!" Helios shouted. "I can hold them! Run in that direction, don't go toward where the citizens are running to, the cathedral!"
His father nodded. His mother squeezed his arm. "Don't die, my beautiful boy."
They vanished into the chaos.
Helios faced the swarm.
Slánú na nDoimhneacht unfurled in his hand. The whip-sword screamed into life, its segments glowing with furious darkness. He spun, slicing through Neoshadows, casting Drain, Blizzaga, Thundaga in rapid succession. His body was a storm of magic and steel.
He cut down the second Darkside.
He turned for the third—
A scream tore through the night.
His mother.
He moved.
Faster than light.
He found her in the square, crushed under the fist of the third Darkside. Her body glowed faintly, flickering.
"NO!"
He rushed in, magic surging.
Cura. Curaga. Life.
Too late.
She faded.
He stared, unblinking.
A heartbeat later, a shadow spear tore through his father's chest.
Helios screamed. His voice cracked the air.
Equilibrium pulsed in both forms at once. Light and shadow merged, and he roared into the sky, obliterating the attackers.
But the world had already begun to fall.
The towers collapsed. The stars dimmed. The crystal buildings and roads cracked, and the heavens themselves wept black.
Nightfall was dying.
And despite everything he had done—despite all the power he had now—nothing changed.
The loop started again.
He woke at the gate.
And again, and again, and again.
Each time, he saved his mother.
Only to lose his father then his mother followed after.
Each time, he hid them in a new area.
He could only watch it swallowed by darkness and heartless.
Each time, he fought the darkness.
Only to be consumed.
He couldn't change it.
He couldn't stop it.
Nightfall always ended.
The earth broke. Light shattered.
Helios hit the ground screaming. Again.
He rose.
Again.
A flicker of movement. He cast Drain reflexively, drawing from the endless dark around him.
And yet his heart cracked more with each loop.
He knew it was a dream now. A memory turned prison. And still—he kept trying. Kept fighting. Kept hoping.
But the result was always the same.
Death.
Flames.
Failure.
He fell to his knees in the ashes, the weight of failure sinking deep.
Then—
A faint voice echoed in the dark.
"Enough."
It wasn't his mother.
Or his father.
It was... Kurai?
The nightmare wavered.
Darkness bent unnaturally. A figure appeared.
"Tch. You really do have a martyr complex," Kurai muttered, walking through the ash, arms crossed.
Helios blinked. "You're not… part of the dream?"
"I never dream. It seems the connection of our heart called to me. You called to me.."
She crouched, her voice cold, but not cruel.
"It's over. This isn't real. You're making yourself suffer more than anyone ever could. You need to stop."
He looked up. Tears clung to his face, but he didn't wipe them.
"I couldn't save them."
"No. You couldn't," she said. "But you must know that doesn't mean you weren't loved. Or that your strength was wasted. We have a dream to achieve. Are you just gonna continue to wast time here?"
The world continued to crumble around them.
She held out her hand.
"Wake up, Helios. Come back with me."
He took it.
And the fire faded.
And light, at last, began to rise.