It was the loneliness that Aqua hated the most. The constant danger, the bleak atmosphere, even the monsters…all those things might've been bearable if she had someone to face them with. But as far as she could tell, there was no one else. This was a place that people weren't meant to be. The darkness was enough to make that clear. It was suffocating, permeating every inch of the landscape. It had been overwhelming at first, but she'd nearly gotten used to its constant presence by now. She wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not.
It was hard to say how much time she'd spent here. Everything blurred together after a while. It could've been months, or it could've been years. She didn't seem to need food or water – otherwise she would never have lasted this long. Between that and the absence of any means of timekeeping, all she could say was that it felt like a very long time…and yet she herself had hardly changed. The last time she'd caught a glimpse of herself – a reflection in a still pool of water – she'd looked no different than always. The only differences were her tangled hair, her torn clothes, and the scars beneath them.
The monsters, whatever they were, were everywhere. Although many of them were weak, their sheer numbers meant that they could never be taken lightly. There were places where they were less likely to be found, but nowhere was truly safe. Aqua had become accustomed to constant vigilance and light sleep. It was exhausting, and she wondered sometimes if there was any point to it all. As strong as she was, it would take only a small mistake – a single moment of carelessness – for them to overtake her.
But she had shaped the castle from the ruins of her home, and only she could find the way through it. Without her, no one could reach Ven, and he would never, ever wake up. And however hard she'd had to fight, she had no doubt that Terra was fighting too. She wasn't sure what had happened to him after she'd sent him back to the realm of light, but she hoped he would have the strength to reclaim himself. Perhaps he already had, but Aqua dared not place her hopes too high.
She clung to those memories of her friends as tightly as she could. They were all she had left. In this hostile place, they sustained her, a light in the endless darkness. She hoped that wherever they were, they still thought of her.
When she finally did encounter someone else, his words brought her more joy than she'd felt since arriving here. The boy she'd met, in what felt like another lifetime, had done what she and her friends had not. It hurt to think that he'd been pulled into their mess, but perhaps it had been inevitable. If there was hope out there for Terra and Ven, and for herself, then she had to hold onto it. As long as she had something to look forward to, she had no choice but to survive.
It was easy to forget in a place like this, but Aqua had never truly been alone. This stranger had reminded her of that. Someday, when all this was over and she could see her friends again, she would have to thank them.