Aqua opened her eyes. The darkness of the room washed over and filled her with an emptiness she hadn't felt before. She stood straight up, yet her wrists were circled by shackles, and chained to a hoop halfway down the side of the wall. The weakness she felt made itself known.

'Where am I?...'

Aqua scanned the room veiled in darkness, and squinted her ice blue eyes to try and get them to adjust them faster. Dirt covered walls enclosed the bare area, and along the ceiling's perimeter, small, metal spikes pointed inward, and six-legged insects crawled among them. In the center, Aqua noticed a small square-shaped door sealed shut.

'How is anyone supposed to get through that?'

Then, the ceiling door swung open, and an older, white haired man stuck his head through the opening. Aqua and the mysterious man exchanged eye contact, and his eyes grew wide. Without a word, he turned away and shut the door. Feet scurried above Aqua's head, and she heard two deep voices.

"She's awake! When the hell is this thing supposed to happen? She wasn't supposed to wake up until after it was over," said the first man.

"It shouldn't be more than a few hours now. We will keep her here until it is time, and proceed once the line has been activated. Nothing has changed."

That voice sounded vaguely familiar… but Aqua couldn't place it in her dreary haze. Her arms felt as though they'd been the rope in their own game of tug-o-war and like her whole body was made of lead.

Suddenly, the earth began to shake. Cracks filled the ground Aqua was standing on, and they stretched from beneath her feet to every corner of the dungeon. Above her the ceiling illuminated in the shape of a web, and the light was shed onto her face.

Screams flooded Aqua's once quiet chamber. The earth continued to shift, and the shrieks grew louder and more frantic. She could only imagine what the horror outside actually contained. 'I need out.'

She tugged at the chains on her arms, but with eachtired creak of the hoop, she realized it was useless. The keyblade wielder opened her mouth to scream out in frustration, but not a sound escaped.

Then, an unknown force took over.

A surge of energy ran rampant through her entire being, she felt her skin on fire, and her insides glowed radiantly. Her entire essence seemed to be changing. But it was too much, and she slipped into unconsciousness as visions formed on the back of her eyelids.

-x-

Aqua found herself in a spaceless void. A blonde young woman appeared in front of her, and in her hands was a weapon. It had one wooden end that came to a fine point, and the other side carried… 'an axe, maybe?'Aqua felt an indescribable connection with her, as if they had known eachother forever.

Aqua found herself and her girl to be in a crypt, and around them, more pieces began to make themselves clear. Disfigured monsters surrounded the blonde as she fought them off, weapon in hand. They bared demonic faces that carried long, sharp teeth, and pointy ears.

Female warriors appeared, varying in age, shape and size, who fought off the monsters as well. Aqua had never seen them before, yet the bond she felt with the original girl was shared with these women as well.

Aqua's attention turned back to her, who showed off incredible strength for a woman of her stature. Her height didn't tower high above five feet, and she didn't bulge with muscles. In fact, her build resembled more of an ice skater rather than a warrior who could fight off grotesque creatures.

The vision continued, and Aqua watched as one girl went down after another. A tall brunette stabbed through the chest by a monster's claw, a chubby red-head pierced through the neck. She looked in awe, but was unable to move through the vision to help the women.

Almost as quickly as it began, her vision started to clear. As each moment left, another warrior went with it. The sounds surrounding her dungeon came into focus again. The familiar friend left Aqua's mind and she opened her eyes.

-x-

When she returned to the world, the ground still shook and the earth continued to collapse. But Aqua felt different. Something surged inside of her and she felt strength and power like never before.

The earth ceased its shaking. Still, people ran around in the chaos above and Aqua knew this was her only chance to escape.

Her heart raced, and a sensation burned in the pit of her stomach. She balled up her fists in a fury. With a quick tug, Aqua snapped the chains from the wall, and they clanked to the floor.

'Escape now, questions later.'

Above her, the trap door had collapsed in. If she could just reach up to the swinging door…

She traced the wall with her hands, desperate for any leverage she could get, but returned with nothing. She cried out and threw her fist at the wall, and the brick caved in.

Aqua looked to it, shocked again by her sudden hit of strength,yet excited to have figured out her next step. She planted her left foot, took hold of the hanging door, and effortlessly brought herself through the door and out of her prison.

-x-

She crashed into the door in front of her, exposing herself to her first breath of fresh air. She had been kept below a building, among the shore. Across the small body of water was a town ablaze in a crimson flame. The surrounding area seemed lifeless, and the smell of burnt skin cascaded over the area. Aqua turned to face the castle behind her, and although it was melting away, she recognized the white and gold coloring.

The Land of Departure.

It had been years since she had referred to this place as home. What once held her midnight breakdowns, sleepovers, and endless traini-

Aqua took off in a sprint towards the castle.

She wandered through the rubble, and the few people who remained scurried frantically from the flames. The wielder rounded the corner to the castle's front, forced herself through the thinning crowd, with the sounds of bones crunching beneath her feet as she fled to the colossal double doors. They swung open as if to embrace her, but her former home had become her personal hell.

Aqua ran into the center of the abandoned, wrecked castle, turned left into the throne room where she first met Sora and she headed towards the training dojo down the hallway.

She broke into the room and a wave of heat passed over her; she covered her mouth with her sleeve and tried to see through the smoke. The swords that once filled the walls had been taken in the initial chaos. She moved to a dimly lit corner, and threw open a cabinet that had been shoved between the wall and a weight rack.

She was shuffling through its remnants, praying, when she spotted them. Her keychains. They dangled in a row right where she had left them. She picked up the cluster and twirled them in her fingers. Every one of them were right where she had left them so many years ago.

'Thanks, Riku…'

Keychains in hand, she ran from the room, back down the hallway and out of the building, and as soon as her feet hit the pavement, she snapped on her keychains, ignited her Keyblade Glider, and threw it towards the sky. The burning castle became a candle's flame as her trusted Glider pulled her to safety and she realized this was the last she'd see of her former home. But she didn't look back.