AN/ I'd initially only posted this to tumblr and AO3 because I wasn't feeling Super Proud of it or anything, and didn't want to go through the process of uploading it here, but then everyone on tumblr really loved it, and I thought I should share, so, hello! Here it is.
This path was different than all the others in the Realm of Darkness. Or it felt different. And Aqua swore there was (laughably) some source of light in the distance. She doubted it was anything special, but she still headed towards it.
To her surprise, as she neared it, she started to hear… voices. She slowed her pace a little, listening.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yeah. I'll go—"
"What? Are you kidding Riku, you're hurt! Stay here. I'll go."
"And what if it's a Heartless?"
"Oh, come on, it'd have to be a pretty big Heartless to take me down! I'll be fine."
Then there was the unmistakable sound of a Keyblade being summoned. Aqua came to a dead halt in surprise. Either she was hallucinating, or someone else really was here—someone with a Keyblade. Someone like her.
And before she could do anything else, a boy came into view. He stopped at the sight of her, and immediately lowered his Keyblade. Aqua blinked a few times, looking the boy up and down. He looked… familiar. She just wasn't sure where… from…
"Uh… hi!" The boy said. His smile seemed a little confused, but it was pleasant enough.
"What is it?" the other boy called, from wherever he was.
"It's a girl!" the one in front of her called over his shoulder. He turned back to Aqua, banishing his Keyblade—it had definitely been a Keyblade. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, and now he studied her with worry. "I wasn't gonna hurt you. That was only out because I thought you were a Heartless."
"I…" Aqua swallowed a few times to get her mouth working. Even so, her voice still cracked from lack of use. "I'm sorry. I've just… I've been here a very long time…" Perhaps that did not answer his question, but she could not find any other words to say. And it didn't seem like a good idea to tell him she feared he was only a hallucination.
The boy frowned at her. "Uh, well…"
"Was that a Keyblade?" she asked, before he could continue any further.
"What? Oh, yeah—"
"Don't summon it!" Aqua reached out her hands to stop him, eyes wide. He looked quite a bit startled, not that she could blame him, after she'd yelled like that. But, still: "Heartless are drawn to it, so unless you want them coming down in hordes…" It had taken her too long to realize why she was being attacked so frequently. Of course, not having her Keyblade out didn't guarantee she wouldn't be attacked, but it did make it less likely.
"Ohhhh, right. I knew that." The boy smiled, sheepishly.
"Sora, can you convince her to come down here?" the other boy called. "I can't see, and I don't think I can move."
"Yeah!"
"Is he hurt?" Aqua asked the boy in front of her—had the other boy said his name was Sora? That name sounded familiar…
"Wh—oh. Yeah." The boy—Sora—nodded. "I would've Cured him, but I'm waaay low on magic right now. We just got out of this crazy battle, so until I recharge—"
"It's not that bad!" the other boy called. "I'm more exhausted than anything."
Sora sent Aqua a look that suggested he didn't believe that in the slightest, then rolled his eyes and shook his head. "This way," he told her, leading her with a wave of his hand. Then he spoke to the other boy: "I'm pretty sure I saw Xemnas catch you with one of those laser blades." The way they spoke to each other reminded Aqua of Terra and Ven. Boys, she thought, with an eyeroll of her own.
"He got you, too, at least once!" the other boy protested. They were nearing him, now. Clearly they hadn't been that far—Aqua blinked at the sight of the horizon before her. It was a beach. She was now standing on a beach. The black sand felt very strange beneath her feet, compared to the rest of the ground she'd been walking on for… who knew how long. The waves were just as dark as the sand, but they were certainly waves.
"Yeah, but I'm not bleeding all over the place," Sora argued, with a smug grin down at his friend.
Aqua considered Sora a moment. "Actually, yes you are," she said, stopping him. It didn't appear to be anything serious, but there was at least a scratch on his cheek, and plenty more on his arms, and perhaps his legs as well. Aqua didn't hesitate before casting a Curaga on him, and his eyes widened in surprise. Aqua hardly noticed—she'd cast plenty of Cures in her life to know they left you a little tingly as they worked, and Ven and Terra had always had the same reaction. She nodded in satisfaction as she watched Sora's wounds close up. If she'd had any doubts they weren't more than hallucinations, those were gone now.
"Whoa, hey!" Sora jumped. He didn't even glance at his closing wounds. "You didn't need to do that! Riku definitely needed it more than I did." Aqua wondered now if his surprise was not from the effects of the Cure, but the feel of how strong it was. He certainly seemed worried that she'd wasted it.
"It's alright," she told him, as she bent down next to his friend. She had plenty more in her for another Cure or two.
A quick examination was all she did of Sora's friend before casting a Curaga on him as well. He jolted, as if in surprise, as well. Aqua ignored it. She could sense where her magic was spent, and therefore pinpoint where his biggest wound was before laying eyes on it. She pushed aside his arm and his shirt so she could see it properly, and was relieved to see it was already closing up most of the way. She still cast another Cure on the boy, though, to help it along.
"Uh. Thanks…" he stammered.
"Whooooa!" Sora sounded absolutely taken aback with amazement. "How'd you do that? I can only manage one Curaga that strong before needing a few minutes to recharge, and that was, what? Two? Three?"
Aqua stared up at him, forgetting for a moment that her talents were special—even more than most. She'd been able to chain-cast large spells for as long as she could remember. "It's… uh… practice," she said. "Lots of practice."
"Anyway, did Sora ask you for a name?" Sora's friend asked. "Or did he forget?"
"Uh, whoops."
Sora's friend rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but I'm Riku, and the dunce is Sora."
"My bad," Sora said, more firmly.
Aqua blinked at Riku, thinking that that name, too, sounded familiar. As did Riku's face—though her immediate thought after that was how badly he seemed to need a haircut. She shook that thought out of her mind, and introduced herself, as well.
"I'm.. I'm Aqua."
"Aqua!?"
Sora's eyes lit up, and a grin broke across his face like sunshine—and Aqua'd only ever used that to describe one person before, one boy. For a second, she even swore she saw Ven shining behind Sora's blue eyes, shining right in front of her…
But then the recognition fell from Sora's face, and he blinked a few times, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"Uhm, sorry," he apologized. "I'm sorry. I just. I… all of a sudden it felt like I knew that name. Knew you. Feeling's gone now." He looked past her at Riku, and shrugged.
"I'm not so sure where you think you heard it, but… I do recognize her," Riku said. He drew his words out as if he was not certain of them. "Remember? I mean, it's been ten years, maybe more, but… you visited us." He directed this bit at Aqua, squinting at her.
"Did she?" Sora asked.
"We were five. Maybe you don't remember."
Aqua'd already been sitting, and she was quite grateful for it. The news knocked the air out of her lungs. Ten years, maybe more. "Has it… has it been that long?" she whispered.
"Hmm?"
Aqua saw them turn to look at her out of the corner of her eyes, but she did not look at them, did not look away from the horizon.
"Have you been here that long?" Riku asked. He sounded caught between horror and sympathy, as if he'd walked these paths in the past, as if he understood.
"I… I don't know," Aqua replied, with a shake of her head. "I couldn't put anything so… specific on it. It's just been… ages…" In so many ways, it felt like just yesterday when she was fighting Terra, fighting Xehanort—but in so many ways, it also felt like an eternity.
Sora sat down next to her. She started a little at the feel of his hand on her shoulder, and he immediately pulled his hand away. "Have you really been here that long…?"
Something in his voice made her heart tug. When she looked at him, and saw the worry on her face, her first instinct was to force a smile onto her lips. To reassure him. "Like I said, I'm not so sure. But it's- it's nothing, really. At least I have company, now." The thought of him being worried made her stomach churn. Perhaps it was because he was so much like Ven.
Yes, he'd always been so much like Ven. She remembered now.
"Company is nice," Riku agreed. He looked out to the ocean, shifting and resting an arm on his knee. "But how are we getting home?"
"I thought you were cool with staying here," Sora teased.
Riku shot him a dirty look, and Aqua only barely resisted rolling her eyes again.
"Well… I feel bad about staying here," Riku said. "I know Kairi's safe, and the King is safe, but… They've got to be worried about us."
Sora nodded. "Yeah, they probably are. Hey, Aqua, you have any idea how to get back."
"If I did, I wouldn't still be here," she replied.
"Oh. Right. Sorry."
"No, don't be…" Aqua looked between the two of them. "How did… How did you two get here?"
"Uh, hmm…" Sora sent a questioning look around her at Riku, but was talking before Riku could say anything. "Well, we were in an in-between realm, I think, and then there was this portal, and it… let us out here." He looked pretty satisfied with that explanation. Riku didn't protest, so it had to be fairly accurate.
"What about you?" Riku asked.
Aqua swallowed around a lump in her throat. "I… I did it to save Terra," she said. She remembered bits of the battle, and the exact moments of sacrificing herself for Terra with extreme clarity. But only bits. Only the bits she'd thought and rethought during her endless hours of wandering this realm. "He was falling, and… there wasn't time to save both of us," she finished.
"Did he make it out okay?" Sora asked. He regarded her with a very eager look, like he was dying to know the answer, despite not knowing Terra.
"I think so," Aqua told him. "I just hope…" But she stopped there, not wanting to mention Xehanort, not to two boys she'd only just met. Perhaps it'd come up if they were really trapped here forever. For now, though…
Something bumped against her foot. She straitened, startled, and slowly bent down to reach the offending object. "What's this…?"
It was a bottle, and there appeared to be a letter in it. She looked between the two boys. Riku shrugged. Sora studied it with interest.
"Should I—" she began.
"You picked it up," Sora answered. "Go for it."
Aqua shifted and uncorked the bottle, shaking the letter out into her hand. She unrolled it carefully, then read it. It was a nice little poem.
"It's from… someone named Kairi?" she said, after studying the paper for a while. She thought she remembered that name, just as she had remembered Sora and Riku's. It was hard to put the memories into anything concrete, though. And she didn't really have a chance to, either.
"Kairi!?" Sora lit up again, with even more excitement then last time. "Can I see it?" He was reaching to pull it out of her hands before he'd finished asking. He settled down a little so he could read it—though he was still sitting on his knees and looked about ready to leap up again at any moment. "Thinking of you, wherever you are…" he began, then trailed off, as he continued reading the rest silently.
Then there was a burst of light. Aqua put a hand to her face to shield her eyes.
"Light…" Riku said, as if he fully expected it.
"A door to light…" Sora agreed, and then he was bouncing to his feet. "Hey, Aqua, come on, I think we just found a way out of here." He held a hand out to her. She used it to pull herself to her feet, and for the first time in all her years walking here, she staggered. Light. Door. Home.
"Hey, we got you," Riku said. Then he was supporting her from the other side. "Come on."
They dragged her forward, and light engulfed her.
The next thing Aqua registered was water. She was underwater. She spluttered and swam to the surface, just as Riku did the same. Sora was already upright, waving to someone on the shore.
"We're coming!" he called, hands cupped around his mouth so the sound would carry. Then he turned to Aqua. "Hey, Aqua, can you swim?"
The answer was, yes, she could, except she could hardly feel her limbs right now.
"Here, just grab her," Riku said, hooking an arm through Aqua's. "It's alright," he told her. "We're out of there now. It's okay."
They carried her to the shore—and then Sora dropped her face first in the sand. Aqua coughed, but with Riku's help she righted herself. "Sora!" Riku scolded.
"Whoops! Sorry." Sora hardly sounded worried. "Hey guys! Whoa!"
"Aqua…?"
She turned to who had called.
"Mickey?"
"It is you!" Mickey jumped, then laughed, then tackled her with a hug. Aqua laughed along with him in bewilderment, hugging him back until he hopped out of her lap. Mickey looked her over, grinning, as if caught between relief and disbelief, though Aqua understood those feelings quite well. Especially right now.
"It's nice to see ya again," Mickey said. "Nice to know you're okay."
She nodded. "Nice to see you, too," was all she could make herself say.
"Hey, Sora, who's…?" The owner of that voice was Kairi—it had to be Kairi. Aqua remembered her now, all red hair and a presence of light that rivaled Ven's. Aqua could also faintly sense a spell she'd cast forever ago emanating from the necklace around Kairi's neck. She laughed in disbelief.
"That's Aqua!" Sora replied, pushing Donald and Goofy off of him. (Aqua remembered them, as well—though they would be hard to forget). "She bumped into us while we were in the, uh, Realm of Darkness, right Riku? We couldn't leave her behind! Now get over here, Kairi!" He held his arms out to her, and she laughed and joined the hug.
"Realm of Darkness…?" Mickey said, under his breath.
"Yeah," Riku answered. "It was—"
"Riku! Get your butt over here, too!" Kairi called.
Riku groaned. "Can it—"
"You have 'til three before I come drag you! One…"
Riku sent an exasperated look at Mickey and Aqua, but he still trotted over to join the puddle of a hug that was surrounding Sora. Aqua watched, a smile cracking on her lips, and a warmth pounding in her chest.
This wasn't home, but this wasn't the Realm of Darkness, either. Her feet ached after walking for so long, and it was nice to sit here, and not move. Plus, the sunset was beautiful—the sun. She hadn't seen that in forever. She hadn't seen a proper skyline, either, and had feared that she never would again.
"Hey, Aqua? Are you okay?" Mickey asked.
Aqua reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"Yeah," she said. "I'm… I'm great."