This was meant to be posted on Saturday, but FFNet was down when it came to uploading. But anyway, welcome for this new story!
This is the prologue, so it's shorter than the length of the actual chapters.
Disclaimer : I do not own KH nor its characters, as you may have guessed ;)
Note : this fic will feature a darker Aqua than in canon. I mean, she spent 10 years in the darkness, so not only she is unfazed by pretty much everything but she mostly is just morally exhausted (and she will have plenty of reasons to be angry in this story)
One step after another. Walking was as much a reflex as breathing was to her, now. Aqua let out a sigh. She had lost count of the time ages ago, but she knew she had been there for a long time. A very long time.
She had met this man, not so long ago. Oh, perhaps it was long ago, actually, but if she took her arrival here as an origin, the meeting with the man still was pretty recent. Hard to tell for sure.
Her eyes caught a strange light, and she stopped. She had seen such a light before. It almost looked like a portal. Was the Realm of Darkness playing with her mind? That wouldn't be a first. The last portal of light she saw smelled of sea. She could hear the waves. She could feel the breeze on her face. Oh, what a sweet dream it had been! She had rushed to it, seeing in it a way out. But the Realm of Darkness was pretty protective and not ready to let her out. She managed to put her right foot on the sand, before the darkness swallowed her back. She still could feel the cold fingers of the Darkside closing down on her ankle, pulling her back. And worst of all - she could still feel Master Keeper in her hand… She had summoned it to defend herself, but when the portal closed, the only way to get her hand back was to drop the weapon. Since then, she couldn't summon it.
Now defenseless, weaponless, she spent a whole day (was it really a day? Hard to tell) crying and screaming of frustration.
So when that portal appeared, she was reluctant to go closer. To get fooled, again. To be reminded how she would spend the rest of her days here. Soon, it would close, and her plain, boring, walking life would resume. She wouldn't be tricked again.
"Aqua!"
That voice! It was so distant, she couldn't recognize it. But someone called her. Someone from the other side of the portal.
A hand appeared, a gloved hand stretching out, reaching for her. Whoever it was, they knew better than to step into this place.
"Aqua!"
Whose voice was that? Could she trust it? Wasn't it all just a trick once again?
"Aqua!"
Was it a trick? She suddenly didn't care. Because it could as well be real. If it was a trick, she would keep walking. It was okay. She was used to it. But if it was real…
She ran to that hand, and grabbed it. She could feel they were pulling her out, out of this place.
And she also felt the Darksides. Always, always there to stop her. They wrapped once again their fingers around her ankles. Around her hips. The dream would soon fade away, but she wasn't ready to let go. And the hand was holding her strongly, too. Some magic spells were shot from the other side - a firaga missed her head of an inch - targeting the heartless. Slowly, their grip got lose, while the hand was pulling stronger. Her heart throbbed with hope.
And then, suddenly, they let go. The hand pulled her through the portal. She landed into arms that stopped her from falling.
She was out.
She was free.
She wouldn't go back to that horrible place again.
She took a small step back, to have a look at her saviours.
Many of the faces were unfamiliar ones. Her heart almost exploded when she realised she knew some of them, though.
These silver hair she would not forget.
These spiky hair either.
The boy with the spiky hair, the one who took her out, the one who saved her, was the one to speak.
"Welcome back, Aqua."
And suddenly she wanted to go back.
If you wish to read more, be sure to let me know by leaving a review, okay ? Q_Q Reviews are the best support you can provide to an author, and it won't cost you much to you~*