Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts and related games and characters.
I wish I did.

A/N: I hope people liked the last one, cause here's another!

Also; ERAQUS IS SOOOO OOC. Forgive me D:

Aqua stared at herself in the mirror. The right side was a little shorter... she flicked her knife and a piece of hair went flying. There. Aqua pushed herself back from the wash table and admired her reflection.
Her unnaturally blue hair, once almost as long as she was tall, was chin length now, chopped as evenly as Aqua could with a knife (not that evenly) and she was wearing the clothes that Terra and Zack had gotten her were soft and fit surprisingly well, although the trousers chafed a bit. The strip of cloth Aqua had wrapped around her chest to flatten it chaffed a considerable bit more, but she could stand it.
Aqua turned her attention to the armor laid out on the bed. It was silver and standard issue, breastplate, gauntlets, boots and a helmet all marked the Guard's emblem, a heart-like symbol with a cross on the bottom.
After Aqua had put it on, she felt at least 15 pounds heavier. Was she going to have to lug all this armor around all day, every day? Then she remembered; this was the light armor.
With a slight sigh, Aqua walked out into the office. Eraqus turned and smiled at her. "Ah, Aqua!" He nodded as her surveyed her "You look quite different. No one who didn't know you already will ever recognize you, and I don't think that'll be a problem."
"Thank you sir." Aqua replied. "It was my aim."
"Hmmmm… one more thing. You're gonna need a different name." He seemed lost in thought, "and new papers... Come in!" He said it almost randomly, but the door opened and Terra was standing there.
Aqua was impressesed. This Eraqus was quite an interesting person.
"Master," Terra began, and then saw Aqua. His mouth stayed open. Then he looked at Eraqus, then back at Aqua, Eraqus, Aqua. "Is that..?"
Eraqus nodded happily.
"I don't look that different, do I?" Aqua asked.
"Yes-well, no, but-" Terra stuttered.
"Are you... blushing?"
"No! What makes you say that?"
"Well, your face is red, for one"
"No fighting boys. Terra, close the door," instructed Eraqus. Terra did so. "Now, Terra, I am instructing you and Mr. Fair to take care of Aqua here. Make sure she learns the ropes. Keep her safe from prying eyes."
Terra blushed harder (Aqua was quite confused at the reason here.) "If I may ask sir, why?"
"Because you already know about her. I won't have to tell anyone else and risk exposing her anymore. Besides, you and Mr. Fair have been... in need of some discipline."
"Master." It was almost like a whine.
"Now, shoo. Get Aqua a sword."
"Yes master." Terra turned to Aqua "Come on."
They left Eraqus's office, Aqua behind Terra, and began heading purposefully towards the stairs at the back of the barracks and some unknown destination. Loping around to Terra's side, Aqua glanced up at his face.
"Weren't counting on having to bring me along, huh?" She asked.
"Wuh?" Terra lifted from his thoughts "Oh. Well, yeh, but it's not a bad thing."
"Hah, I'll try my best to stay off your nerves."
"It's no problem, really." Terra waved her off "You'll be a welcome change to Zack."
Aqua didn't believe him, but let it go. She would try not to bother them too much.
Terra and Aqua were climbing the stairs now. A moment later, they emerged into a large courtyard. Night was falling and even though the training dummies set up in circles and lines were shrouded in shadow, Aqua could see huge sword slashes in their burlap stomachs. In the center of the courtyard, there was a large well and opposite the stairwell there was a pair of double doors, most likely leading into the castle. On the left wall was a small shack, open on one side and expelling a soft fiery glow. On the left wall was a long horse stable filled with horses.
Terra immediately led Aqua over to the small shed, despite her glances at the horse stable. She had never owned a horse (too expensive) but Aqua loved them anyway.
"Come on," Terra pushed Aqua away from the horses and into the shack.
The shack was, in fact, a smithy and an armory combined. A huge forge set along the back walls glowed with coals, a scarred anvil set in front of it. The walls were lined with weapons, armor and metallic paraphernalia of all kinds. A man was working the smithy, pumping the bellow to heat up a bar of metal in the forge.
"Braig!" Terra shouted and the man turned. Aqua's eyes were dragged to the scar and eye path adorning the side of his face.
"Terra," he greeted them warmly. "Is this a new recruit?"
"Yep. Sh- erm, he needs a weapon."
"Well," Braig gestured "help yourselves."
So the search began.
Terra took Aqua to the left wall and carefully selected a sword.
"Here," he handed it to her, holding the blade "It's blunt."
Carefully, she took it by the handle and the second Terra let go there was a loud resounding clang as the sword hit the floor.
Terra closed his eyes and suppressed a groan as Braig snickered and Aqua struggled to pick up the sword.
"Ok," Terra took the sword and set it back up on the rack with a single hand.
A single hand. Aqua couldn't even lift the thing with both hands, despite all the cooking, cleaning and farm work she did back at home. How strong was Terra anyway? He looked quite muscular.
"Let's try another, then" Terra scanned the wall.
The search continued.
An hour later, it was still going on. Braig had finished what he was doing and was sitting on his anvil, watching the two guardspeople moving towards the fraying ends of their nerves.
The broadsword was too heavy.
The knife was too light.
The long sword was too long.
The short sword was too short.
The morning star was too brutal.
The crossbow was too unpredictable.
The gloves just felt wrong.
With the rejection of the spear, Terra finally broke.
"Why don't you just kick people, because it's obvious there is nothing here for you."
Aqua just glared at him from tired eyes. She was just as frustrated as Terra, but she was just better at hiding it. "Maybe I should." She turned and was about to leave when across the room, she saw a long thin sword, a little longer then arms length and with a round blade tapering to a point and a guarded hilt.
"What's that?"
"Foil. Fencing foil. For fencing." Explained Braig, yawning.
Aqua picked it off its stand and swung it experimentally.
The foil was neither too light nor to heavy, to long nor too short. It felt... alright in Aqua's hands. Not perfect, but good enough.
"Can I use this one?" She asked Terra.
"Why? That's for a 'gentleman's fight.' It won't work very in a real street fight."
"Is there rule that says I can't use this one?" Aqua repeated.
Terra thought for a moment, biting his lip. Finally, he relented "No."
"This one please!" She handed the foil to Braig.
"Sure," he grinned "What's the name, kid?"
Oh no. She hadn't been prepared for that one. Fear whipped Aqua mind of all the days she had spent preparing for any question she might have been asked. What's the name, what's the name? But it was gone, lost to sheer panic of being in the watch for less than three hours.
"Uhhh," Think, Aqua, Think! "Kai. My name is Kai."
"Well, come back tomorrow morning, Kai. I'll have her ready for you then."
"Thank you." They left Braig to his hammering.
As soon as they got out into the courtyard, Terra grabbed Aqua by the arm, powerful fingers biting into her skin. "What was that?" He hissed, "Did you have absolutely no plan?"
"I did too," growled Aqua in reply "I just... panicked."
Terra released her arm. There were light marks where his fingers had been. "Panicked? At which point did you think it was a good idea to join the guard?"
"The point when I realized panicking was a reaction I needed to rectify."
She was rewarded with a tired sigh.
They walked the last few steps to the stair case in silence.
"So," said Aqua as they finally entered the barracks. "Where's my bed?"
Terra pointed to an unoccupied bunk.
"How do you know?"
"It's empty." Terra headed to the bunk opposite, under one belonging to Zack.
"But I can't-"
"Learn." Terra collapsed in his bunk, armor and all, and began to snore.
Now that you mention it, Aqua thought, I am pretty tired. She had been waking all day and it was late. Pausing only to remove her new armor and set down her bag, Aqua crawled into the proffered bunk and slept.

Aqua woke up slowly. She blinked and yawned before she realized something was wrong. The bed felt strange- hard (not that her normal bed was soft- it was a burlap bag stuffed with hay. This just felt like floating burlap). Her legs chaffed, her arms were sore, and her chest just hurt. There a slight breeze on the back of her neck. Her hair!

Aqua slapped her hand to the back of her neck before she remembered.
Right. The guard, the disguise, Eraqus letting her in so easily, Terra.
What? Terra? What was that? Why was he included in this list?
Aqua scowled. That was the least of her worries right now. What time was it anyway? She cracked open one eye. The only light was candle light. There were no windows in the barracks. Unhelpful. Aqua decided to wait until someone else woke up. She closed her eyes again and was about to drift back into sleep when she heard a rustling in the bunk across from her. That was Terra's, right?
Sneakily, Aqua cracked open her eye, then snapped it shut again. At what point in the night had Terra gotten up and decided to take off his shirt?
She was blushing now. Why? They had known each other for less than a day. It boggled the mind. She cracked open her eye anyway.
Across the way, Terra yawned widely, and ran a hand through his messy brown hair, before blindly stuffing his hand into the open bag under the bed, yanking out a grey tunic and sniffing it. Apparently, it passed the test, because Terra pulled it on and laced up the neck. Then her picked up his still sheathed sword and jabbed it into the bottom of the upper bunk, square into Zack's lower back.
With a muffled "ouch!" Zack woke up and rolled off the bunk to glare at Terra.
Grinning in response, Terra crossed over to Aqua's bunk and shook her shoulder.
"Psst. Aqua. It's time to wake up."
She blinked, pretending to be sleepy. "Wah?"
"Oh, so you jab me, but shake her," hissed Zack as he pulled on his own shirt and buckled on his armor.
"Shut up," retorted Terra, and turned back to Aqua. "Come on, we gotta relieve the night watch."
Aqua sat up and shook her head. "Do what?"
"I'll explain when you get your armor on."
She did, and then followed Terra as he climbed the stairs to the courtyard.
"We have a night watch who defends the castle and walks the beat at night. In the day, when the day guard is out... guarding, the night watch sleeps in the barracks. Every morning, a couple people go out and tell the night watch to come in and wakes up the guard. Vice versa for the evening. You came at one of those times."
"Is Zack wakening people up?"
"He got the fun job." Terra grinned a surprisingly evil grin, "There are so many ways to wake people up, you wouldn't believe."
Aqua snorted at the pictures that entered her mind.
"Oh," Terra added, as they passed the Blacksmith's shop. "We can come back and get your sword when we finish."
Making small talk, the two guardspeople went through the large double doors at the end of the courtyard, into a mundane hallway, and turned left into another small hallway ending in a set of stairs leading up and opening to the top of the wall.
Ooh-ing, Aqua glanced over the railing on both sides, seeing the courtyard they had just been in on one side and the moat on the other.
"Come on," Terra led her to the base of a tower. There was a small machine set up in the center of the walkway.
Terra reached into a sack by the side of the machine, pulled out a match, struck it on the railing, lit a pile of tinder in a small cavity on the back, closed the door, spun the machine so it faced the tower opposite them, and clicked a handle so the shutter opened and shut and the light flashed.
Short long short pause short pause long pause short short pause short long short pause short stop.
There was a momentary pause before flashes of light were returned.
Long long long pause long short long.
"What is that?" Asked Aqua, amazed.
"Oh, it's a form of code we use to communicate with the rest of the castle. It's really helpful; we don't have to use runners at all."
Terra flashed a message back:
Long short pause short pause short long long pause pause short long short pause short pause long short long short pause long short long pause short short long pause short short pause long pause pause short short short pause short long pause long short long long pause pause short short short short pause short pause short long short short pause long long long.
In reply:
Short short short short pause short pause short long short short pause short long short short pause long long long
"What'd they say?"
"'Hello.' Come on; let's go get your sword."

The forge was empty, unsurprising since they had kept Braig up so late. Leaning against the anvil was the sword, sharpened to a needle point. A piece of paper with a hole in it was attached to a string tied around the hilt. It read 'Kai.' Next to the sword was a sheath and belt, ready for Aqua to don and use.
"All right," she grinned, sheathing her new sword, "When do we get too meet out some justice?"
"Don't get cocky," Terra replied, "We are not letting you out on the streets your first day."
"Aw." Aqua looked crest fallen.
"You need training. Wait here, I'm getting Zack."
He hurried off and Aqua took a seat on the central well and waited. About a minute later, Terra re-appeared, dragging Zack behind him, much to the young man's wild protests that he had no idea how to fence.
"You've been to competitions, yeh?"
"But it's not like I actually know how!"
"Who do you propose I ask?"
Zack opened his mouth for a moment, closed it, opened it, and finally closed it again, defeated.
"Besides, this is only temporary until we can find some sort of fencing teacher for her- him." Terra quickly corrected himself as a pair of guardsmen exited the stair case besides them. "Oh, and his name is Kai."
"Got it," Zack brushed himself off and walked over to Aqua. "You ready for some training?"

Aqua collapsed into the bed, groaning. Everything hurt.
Across the way Terra smiled. "Zack's a good trainer, huh?"
"Are you kidding me? He made me fight him when there are perfectly good training dummies to train on!"
"At least he used a wooden sword."
"A wooden replica of his sword! Do you have any idea how much that thing weighs?"
Terra just snickered in response.
"Am I gonna have to train again with Zack tomorrow?" Aqua moaned.
"Not all day." Replied Terra "We can't go wasting valuable resources like Zack on you all day, every day. Commander Eraqus will give you an easy assignment to do in the morning, and then you'll get more training in the afternoon."
"Thank gods," sighed Aqua and fell asleep.

A/N: That is morse code they are signaling with, (Or as close as I could get with a google image) so you can figure it out if that's the sort of thing you like.

Ummmm... I was gonna say something else but I forgot.

Sorry if this is kinda late, it's that big-test-end-of-school-year time.

Thanks for the review/ favorites/ subscriptions guys!