Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I just want Aqua safe. :'(
He called them Heartless.
Name gives little meaning, darkness is darkness.
Sometimes Aqua will ponder, on the shores when whispers of shadows ease. Heartless manifest still... Therefore there are those without such in the outside world. By the mounting hoards she worries of it getting worse.
What of Sora?
Had he not fixed the dilemma?
Maybe she instills too much faith in a child.
Still.
Faith is not nothing.
Clutching her wayfinder Aqua shuffles onto the next topic: where her search will lead today.
She turns her head, gazing forlornly at the shoreline.
Today.
Time.
What a foreign concept.
Digging her hands into the sand she closes her eyes, and sighs. Gently, as if the sound could rouse the evil always lurking at her back. Centering her mind to relax.
Relax.
Blue lowlight caressed her cheek. Can exhaustion amount to weight? She swears her muscles were sinking lower into the sands without an effort from herself. Nevermind the dark thoughts always lingering in the corners of her mind. These waves provide shelter. Darkness will not enter the Shores of Nightfall... which is what she fondly names this place. The moon forever sits on the shoreline; a never-ending promise of tomorrow. An illusion of hope she can almost put her finger on.
Relax.
And she began to drift. So suddenly that she could pretend the current would take her away. It's ebb and flow countering any invasive thoughts. Further... further... soon she could dream. Of a world with—
"Hey? Are you... alive?"
Aqua jolted upright.
"Don't know what I expected." Shaking his head, Lea side-eyed the heartless clawing at their bars left and right. They looked familiar... Shadows, Neoshadows, Darkballs, Large Bodys. But their eyes multiplied in places they shouldn't. Arms that didn't match their bodies, and he looked away.
This long white hall appeared to be their prison. Beneath Ansem's lab in Radiant Garden Lea's heard stories of some Chamber of Repose. A place frequented by their leader Xemnas. Curiosity and lack of consequences led him down to check it out.
"We can open portals to travel between the worlds!?" Giddy, Lea clenched his hands, leaning eagerly forward. "I haven't been able to look for new worlds in ages!"
Kairi rolled her eyes, still baffled that this man once terrified her— and if he apologizes for doing so one more time she might have to give him a reason to fear her. "So-ra," she spelled out, "Sora opened a portal." She swung at one of their training dummies within Merlins loft. "I asked Yin Sid; we can do it too. I don't... know how. But! He said we'd need armour, or a vessel when we do."
"Still better than dark portals. Those things are starting to take their toll..."
Kairi swung once more, concerned, yet knowing he wouldn't listen if she asked him to stop.
The moogles down in the shopping district agreed to meld an armour for him, but only with the correct materials provided.
He should just go to the abandoned castle... but that place gives him the creeps.
"Hm?" A door at the far end seemed to be where the hall led. It slid open automatically at his approach. He leaned in head first to peer inside.
"There we go!" He enthused. Inside the spacious room with a chair at its center, sat an armour ready and waiting upon the ground! Blue and slightly scuffed, but he's not one to complain. The moogles will figure it out. And... a keyblade?
He lifted it experimentally. The remnant power within reminded him of Kairi's; full of light. He turned it in his hand, handling it with a small toss into the air. It's strong.
Lea shrugged. "No time like the present." And he attempted to open a portal with it. Portals directly from one world to another require no armour, but it's about making one first. A portal of light.
His hand shook under the effort.
"C'mon!" Lea gritted his teeth. Open the door, any door! The biggest bump in his training was channeling magic through his keyblade. He could engulf the keyblade in flames, sure, but shooting a fireball with it alone? Blew up in his hand.
Kairi laughing at his singed hair did wonders for his self confidence.
His arm tingled. Does that mean its opening? A spark rippled off the wall straight ahead where he pointed. An angry purple swirled, growing outward in its place and he realized something about channeling his power wasn't working.
The darkness bled from that singular point, developing a shadow puddle against the wall, like a napkin absorbing a mess too big. Soon it seeped down to the floor, pulsating, angry, and this should probably stop!
"No dark portal!" Lea clasped the blade with both hands, pulling away. "Light! Light portal!" He struggled, yet the keyblade had plans of its own, and stubbornly remained in place. "I'm a good guy now!"
The pooling shadows inflated from the ground, spreading from a singular point, and sprawling out. Slowly it took humanoid shape, oozing as it was, Lea could only watch. Mounting horror kicked in his fight or flight early, and to be rooted on the spot by this cursed keyblade edged him closer by the second to dropping dead on the spot.
Lifting from the center of this dreadful dark portal ink-spot was a light. The darkness clung like spiderwebs with claws as this tiny star shaped beam shot upwards. And when the last tendril snapped, the darkness shattered into dust, engulfing the entire room in light.
Lea squinted till it faded. Any hold the keyblade had ceased, and his entire body slouched in relief. So wielding a light keyblade doesn't default his power to light. Great. Guess his plans of borrowing Kairi's keyblade would have ended in failure then.
Inhaling, he lifted his head... and there lay a woman. Sleeping. Peaceful. He admired her tranquility a moment before rubbing his temples.
What.
What the hell?
She came from the murky other side of... whatever that was - if it was a portal or not. That keyblade gave him a thousand nightmares for what he expected to be Xehanort reincarnate.
Steeling himself upright Lea counted his blessings. It could be worse.
He stepped closer to observe. She's not some mangled heartless.
It could be worse.
The mantra ran circles in his head till he realized.
What if it is... worse?
She's not moving.
His eyes widened.
Oh god, she's not moving.
Is she breathing?
Inevitably, as he hovered overhead, the question had to be asked.
"Hey? Are you... alive?"
A/N
I probably need a beta if anyone's interested.
I've written quite a bit, got a whole plot knocking around in my noggin, but once I had Aqua safe I kinda lost motivation. But! I will try to complete this before January, when we find out what actually happened to our poor Aqua. At the very least, I want Ventus and Xion safe too, and well, everyone wants Ventus to have a run-in with Lea, heheh.