"They really should be back by now." Aqua sighs.

"They'll be back, just give them some time." Sora replies, yawning lightly at the end.

Aqua frowns,"It's late. Go get some sleep. I'll stay up and wait for them, I'll wake you when they get here."

"Promise?" Sora grins.

Aqua laughs softly, "I promise."

He laughs, "Okay, okay. I'm going to bed."

He sighs and gets up from sitting out in the garden with Aqua and he goes inside. Aqua watches the stars for awhile longer, then she goes inside and goes to Celius' room to check on him. He's still laying there asleep on the platform and she sighs.

"Don't tell me you plan to stay asleep too.." Aqua mutters, half to herself, regarding someone else.

Celius stirs then, but to Aqua's dismay, he does not wake. She sighs and sits beside him and watches him. She moves a few strands of hair from his face and smiles softly, "My little boy, oh, how much you've grown.."

She smiles and pulls a locket up from under the top of her dress and opens it, and inside is a small picture of Terra and her, obviously younger by a few years, and between them is a small boy with blue and brown tipped hair. All three are smiling for the camera and Aqua smiles as a tear falls down her face.

"Will I ever get this back?" she asks herself, closing the locket.

...

"So it is true!" Mickey exclaims.

Dawn/Xehanort reply, "It's what I told you, Your Majesty, I have returned, and now there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"We will still defeat you!" Mickey growls.

"We shall see." Dawn/Xehanort smirks.

"Your Majesty.." Terra says.

"Yes?" Mickey looks at Terra, interest in his eyes.

"Don't you remember?" Terra asks.

"Remember..?" Mickey was confused.

"Xehanort can't be killed." Terra says flatly.

...

Aqua runs into the castle, into the room Sora is sleeping in. She runs to him and wakes him by shaking him gently, "Sora, Sora, get up."

"Hm, wha..?" Sora asks sleepily, not even opening his eyes.

"Sora, get up." she says, sounding urgent.

He sits up and rubs his eyes, "Aqua? What is it? Are they back yet?"

"No, but something's not right, I can feel it, I need to go to them. Please stay here and watch Celius. Please." Aqua says.

Sora nods, "Bring back my daughter."

"And if I can't find her?" Aqua asks sadly.

Sora frowns, "Try."

She nods, "It won't do any good if we can't get in the castle, but I'll try."

"Thanks." Sora gets out of bed and goes into the room Celius resides in.

Aqua quickly changes into the outfit she used to wear when she was young, fighting alongside Ven and Terra, now made to fit her.

"The magic still works. Good." she summons her Rider and then she's gone.

She soon makes it to The World That Never Was and she lands by trying to attack Dawn/Xehanort, but he moves out of the qay too quick to do damage.

"So you have taken him." she growls.

Dawn/Xehanort smirks, "Wasn't it obvious? Though.. I would have preferred Celius, much stronger."

Aqua clenches her fists and glares, as does Terra, and she says, "You won't turn my son to the darkness as you had with Terra, or with Riku. Celius belongs to the light."

"For now. But things can always change, my dear. Isn't that right, Terra?" Dawn/Xehanort brings his attention to Terra then, who glares, not saying anything in return.

"Let Dawn go!" Mickey growls.

"Hardly, little mouse, I need a body, and he just happens to fit. I may let him go, once I get my own body back from the darkness, no thanks to that damn key bearer." Dawn/Xehanort replies.

"Sora did what was right! You needed to die!" Mickey replies.

"Too bad you didn't stay dead." Aqua comments bitterly.

Dawn/Xehanort chuckles, "Not all things stay at an end, dear girl."

"I know." she says dryly, "It's because of you that Ven died, and then you brought his body back to torture us, but that's no all, you've done so many horrid things, you don't need life."

He laughs, "You poor girl, you think I actually care? All I want is the worlds plunged in darkness!"

"That won't happen!" Terra roars.

"Again, we shall see. Now, alas, this fight must commence on another occasion, I believe I have other matters to attend to, as do you. Oh, and Aqua, tell Celius I send him my regards." Dawn/Xehanort grins then walks into the castle.

"Over my dead body, Xehanort." Aqua growls.

Terra sighs and touches Aqua's shoulder, "Let's just get home, see if maybe Celius has waken."

"But, I promised Sora I'd look for Riku." Aqua looks up at Terra.

"Aqua, Riku's inside that castle, and we're in no shape to go after her alone, not with just the three of us here. We'll have to wait." Mickey says.

Aqua's eyes narrow, "But how much longer can she afford to wait?"

...

Back at the castle Celius stirs again, and his eyes open slightly, then slide back closed. When he opens them again, he's not in the castle, it feels to him like he's in another lifetime, another world existing outside the ones he's known all his life. One made just for him. For him, and for Riku.

"What...?" Celius looks around, finding himself in a garden, "Where am I?"

He hears a little child giggling and he turns around and sees a small girl with brown and violet hair wearing a pale red dress with black flats and she's sitting in the garden making a flower crown.

He looks confused, "Riku?"

The little girl looks up at Celius and smiles, "Celius!"

"Are you...Riku?" he asks.