Aqua had forgotten how long it had been. Since she had last seen Mickey.
She had almost given up when he suddenly came to her, helping her regain the will to keep going.
When she had nearly given up hope... he had saved her from falling into the darkness.
He had reminded her that she needed to keep going.
For a moment, she had thought that he was another illusion... she had seen an illusion of her friends before. Even an illusion of herself. One who had accused her heart becoming hollow. She had to fight the illusion to keep moving. To prove that her heart was still strong.
But this was real. This was actually him.
He had helped her back onto the path again and ran by her side throughout the Dark Realm for a while. He even helped her fight off the creatures that kept attacking her.
He revealed that the creatures were called 'Heartless', beings of darkness. Together, they had fought against them and pushed on.
But then she was suddenly separated from her friend, as she was from Ven and Terra. It was during an ambush attack from several Heartless when Mickey began to tell her about something. They had little time to react as they fought the dark creatures. They were actually doing well until one caught Mickey by surprise, knocking him away from Aqua.
Aqua had rushed to help him, but he had fallen into a portal that had appeared and vanished, forcing Aqua to fight the rest by herself. She prevailed, but when the fight was over, she could not find Mickey. No matter where she looked, she could not find him.
She was alone again...
However, Mickey's words stayed in her heart. It helped her keep going on throughout the Realm of Darkness.
When she had headed on the path that led back to the Castle of Dreams... she had run into another one of those large Heartless, a 'Darkside', as Mickey had called them. She had called forth her Master's Keyblade, preparing for battle as it had attacked her.
She dove to the side as it brought its fist down, slamming it into the ground. She attacked its arm while it was on the ground, causing it to recoil.
The Darkside summoned an orb from its hollow chest and shot it at her, but she deflected it back at the gargantuan Heartless.
As it shot a large orb from its hand, she made sure to avoid it. She attacked the Darkside's arms to weaken it, which had worked.
Just as it seemed like she was winning, several more, at least a dozen, had materialized. Aqua was cornered...
She took a step back, staring up at the towering Heartless. She couldn't fight this many off...
But then, she had remembered her friends. Even though she came across illusions of them, it still reminded her of their friendship, and why she still continued to fight in this realm.
She pulled out her Wayfinder and gazed at it, thinking of Terra and Ventus. Aqua held the Wayfinder close to her chest for a moment, then looked up with a determined expression. Then she had charged forward with Keyblade in hand.
Each of the Darksides had summoned an orb in their hands and sent it up to the sky, each of them combining to form a gigantic version of the energy ball. Aqua avoided the blasts as best as she could. She slammed the Keyblade into the legs and arms to weaken them.
The giant orb shot out bolts, which Aqua had to jump and dodge-roll to avoid. She did get hit by one, forcing her to use Cure.
The Darksides were relentless as they kept attacking her. Eventually, one attack was so powerful, it had sent Aqua flying up into the air.
She had lost her grip on Master Eraqus's Keyblade as she found herself slowly floating away.
Even her Wayfinder slipped out of her grasp as she slowly felt herself drift off. She tried to reach out to it, but exhaustion got the best of her.
As her eyes slowly drifted closed, she could see... a light?
Then she fell unconcious.
Sora walked along the shore of the island on his home world. He had stopped there during his training trip to take a break.
He looked out at the ocean as he watched the waves wash up on the beach. He missed watching sights like this...
However, he saw a glint out of the corner of his eye. The spiky haired teen rose an eyebrow as he turned his head and saw something wash up on the beach.
"What's that?" he wondered.
Curiously, Sora walked over to get a closer look. To his surprise, it was a Keyblade. It had a copper and gray color scheme with a gray, box-like guard surrounding the grip. The teeth were in the shape of an 'E' and the keychain resembled some sort of shape.
Sora bent down and picked the Keyblade up out of the sand to examine it.
"A Keyblade...? But... where did it come from?" he questioned out loud before looking out at the ocean.
Why would a Keyblade appear like this on the beach? How did it get here?
It was then he noticed something out in the water. He squinted his eyes to try and get a better look. The teen could make out a shape, but he wasn't sure what kind...
He set the Keyblade back down before running out into the water.
Sora rose an eyebrow as he found a blue, star shaped object floating there. It almost reminded him of the lucky charm Kairi made...
He reached down to pick it up, but froze as he saw something else in the water.
Aqua slowly regained conciousness as a light hit her face. She slowly opened up her eyes and found herself in... water? How did she get there...?
She was also floating upwards towards the surface.
The blue haired girl looked up and her blue eyes widened in shock as her heart nearly stopped. Someone was standing above the water reaching out to her... a boy with brown spiky hair...
Unable to believe what was happening, she reached up to the gloved hand, which gently took hers.
She then felt herself get pulled towards the surface and gasped for air once she was out of the water.
She looked around with shock. She could see light... She was back on the island... where she had met those two boys... she could see trees, water... a bright blue sky... she could feel warmth...
Tears nearly came to her eyes when she realized it. She was finally out of the Dark Realm...
The spiky haired teen crouched down to her with a concerned look on his face. "Are you okay?"
Aqua looked at him and shakily nodded. "Thank you..."
He gave her a smile, then handed her the Wayfinder. "Is this yours?"
She silently nodded in reply as she gratefully took it.
"Who are you?" the boy asked her gently.
"My name... my name is Aqua."
"I'm Sora!"