Being Put Back Together

Chapter 1

"Shit." A brunette haired man muttered to himself as he ran down a long hallway. All he could think about was getting to his comrade in time to save her. After Xehanort had told him that Vanitas had taken her to do what he pleased he quickly ran off to find her. Most people would have thought he was crazy for running from a battle, but he cared for her and was willing to do anything to get her out safely.

Just a little ways in front of him, Terra saw a young man with black spiky hair and yellow eyes heading his way. The man didn't look happy, but he wasn't angry either. He just seemed warn out, the few bruises on his body told Terra everything. He quickly snapped and grabbed Vanitas, picking him up by the neck. "You little scumbag, I'm going to kill you." Terra growled as he lifted the man up and tightened his grip.

Vanitas just smiled at him a little as if this just became his favorite game, "And just how are you going to do that and why?" he asked, with a bit of taunting in his voice.

Terra took Vanitas and slammed him against the wall as he said one word in a low threatening tone "Aqua."

"Oh, now that name brings back some memories." Vanitas smiled even wider.

Terra let his anger take control of him and he through Vanitas against the wall. Vanitas stood up unharmed as if the impact didn't phase him one bit. "It's all over now you punk ass kid!" Terra yelled as a flash of light brought forth a keyblade to his hand and he charged for the younger man. Vanitas quickly drew a small knife and through it at Terra for a distraction as he called on his own keyblade.

They're keyblades clashed for a few minutes before he kicked the older man in the stomach and slowly backed away, laughing sadistically. "You can go see her if you want. I'm done with her, but she may not be in the best mood right now. She vowed to kill me, and she sounded pretty serious."

"I'll do it for her." Terra yelled as he threw his keyblade at Vanitas, but Vanitas had already stepped into a portal of darkness and disappeared. "Dammit." he said to himself as he stood up and ran his hand over his stomach.

Before anything else could happen, Terra started running at top speed down to the last door at the end of the hallway. His eyes widened at the sight of the blue haired girl in the room. She was dressed, but her top was completely ripped in half. Her hair was a mess and her body was covered with bruises and blood spots, some hers, some Vanitas's. When she looked up at him, her eyes were filled with shock and brimming with tears. He really couldn't really blame her after what she'd just been through.

"Terra?" She asked, her voice shaking as she dropped the cloth she was using to wipe away the blood that had ran down her leg.

He nodded as he ran over to her and knelt beside her. "I'm here now it's going to be okay." He whispered in comfort as he pulled the girl closer to him.

Aqua's mind snapped as the words hit her ears, as if he had expected her to be like some robot who could just erase the memory and go on living normally. "It's not going to be okay!" She yelled at him. "You have no idea what I've been through!" she continued on the point of hysterics.

"I know, I could never truly understand what you've been through. But no matter what I'm going to try and make this better for you as much as I can." He told her as he lifted her into his arms and threw his keyblade out, changing it into a glider.

He quickly jumped onto it, still holding onto Aqua who was now in tears. Throughout the whole ride to the Land of Departure, Terra stayed quiet in fear of only making everything worse for her.

Once they touched ground, he put Aqua back on her feet but always kept an arm wrapped around her. Their youngest teammate Ven quickly ran out to greet them. "I'm so glad you're back I was worried about you guys." He said. Then he gasped as he got a good look at Aqua. "What happened to her?" he asked worried.

"She was attacked by Vanitas." Terra said, sugar-coating the truth.

Aqua just shook her head and took a couple of steps forward, "That's not what happened. I was rapped by Vanitas, there's a difference."

"I'll go get Master." Ven said as he turned to run for help.

"No!" Both Terra and Aqua yelled out in protest. Ven just stopped in his tracks and turned to them, giving them a confused look.

"He doesn't have to know." Terra said sternly.

Aqua nodded in agreement, "It's better this way." Ven studied them with a hard look for a minute, as if he was about to go against their will because he had the better judgment. Then his eyes finally softened in understanding and he calmly walked away.

"You better go get cleaned up." Terra suggested. "Master will start asking questions if he sees you like this."

She nodded at him and then asked, "What are you going to do?"

He just gave her a warm smile as he led her to the bath house. "I'm going to get you a new pair of clothes and trash these." he simply stated as he pulled at one of the torn edges of her shirt.

"I'd like that." she said with true sincerity once they were in the bathhouse. Terra started sweating a bit from all the hot steam but Aqua seemed almost comfortable as she undressed and handed him her clothing to be discarded. She carefully stepped into the hot water and winced in pain as she sat down, causing him to clench his fists in anger.

He gently cleared his voice before saying, "I'm going to get rid of these and bring you some fresh clothes." It took all his effort to keep his voice calm and level.

"Okay, thank you." Aqua said in between little gasps of pain as she got used to the hot water on her sore spots.

Terra quickly left the bathhouse and threw her clothes in the closet garbage can, then quickly ran up to her room. He took his time getting her clothes from her closet, he wasn't in that much of a hurry to get back to her, he was afraid being around her like this would make him go out and kill Vanitas. As he turned to leave the room he saw picture frames lining Aqua's dresser. She looked so happy in all of them, being with him and the rest of her friends, she was so carefree then. Terra quickly bit his bottom lip and clenched his fists tightly around Aqua's clothes to keep from loosing it completely. Just get these clothes to Aqua. He kept telling himself as he left the room.

Authors Note: I finally finished the first chapter to the sequel to "Torn Apart." This was requested and thought up by Month4. I hope you enjoyed it so far!