Sora woke up the next morning, feeling both oddly refreshed and also very… it wasn't depressed, but it felt like a piece of his heart had been torn from him.

And not because it actually had.

He blinked the crust out of his eyes and stumbled over to the mirror. Right, blonde. Groggily, he touched the glowing white paopu stone above the mirror, stripping the spell. His throat hitched for a moment as his vocal chords resettled.

"Everyone okay?" he asked the air, in his own voice.

'The boys are sleeping,' Xion replied. 'I can hear Ventus snoring from next door.'

"That loud?" Sora asked, not bothering to wonder how she also knew Roxas was asleep too. Sometimes he was just thatdense.

Sora changed into clothes, and looked at his sleeping shirt. "When he's up, can you ask him how he got covered in blue fur?"

"You're… up?" Lea asked, confused. "Figured you'd be out for the count at least another day or two." He swept his hand to the other side of the table.

Riku's and Kairi's seats at breakfast were empty.

Sora gaped for a second, pointing to his own cheek. "Axel?" he asked, looking at the young man with indigo markings on his face.

"Figured it was easier for everybody. It's just Kairi's eyeshadow, but it gets the point across. Lea was up until dawn working on something, so I tagged in." Axel smiled. "After all, all the cool kids are doing it," he said, pointing to Sora's chestnut-brown hair.

"Aren't you tired?"

"Mentally? No, I slept almost the whole day yesterday. But this body wants a warm bed, stat. When Riku and Kairi have been given their own breakfasts, I'll go nap it off."

"I can do it," Sora insisted.

Axel let his spoon fall into his porridge. "You sure, kid?"

"I'm just a bit sore, that's all."

"Yeah, well, wake me if you need me. Lea and I are going to run this body ragged before we even turn thirty."

Axel laughed, picked up his spoon, then let it down again. "Yeah. Way more tired than hungry. Wake me for lunch, I'm crashing."

"Where's Donald and Master Yen Sid?" Sora asked as a parting shot as Axel hobbled exhausted to the door.

"Conference call," Axel supplied, before elaborating. "Putting together a rescue operation for Ven. No assignments today, just recoup. Think they've wrangled in a couple former Org goons to help us, 'least half the Radiant Garden restoration committee, and Mulan, last I overheard."

"Thanks, Axel."

Axel just waved him off smugly. "Yeah, yeah. We owe you."

"You mean Ventus, right?"

"Have you spent more years with Ven in you or not?" Axel asked, and Sora started counting. "Ugh, wow, you're dense," he added, laughing under his breath.

"With!" Sora finally exclaimed, having not heard, or blissfully ignored the light dig on his intelligence.

"Then yeah, we're helping you, kid."

Sora walked with the floating platters to Riku's room first. He went to knock, but the door swung open on its own.

"Hey!" he shouted at the door. "I was gonna ask first," he pouted. "Haven't you heard of privacy?"

"You're one to talk," came a weak voice. "And I could hear you thunking on the stairs. I told it to open. Doing okay, Sora?"

"Better than you are," Sora replied, entering Riku's quarters. Everything was meticulously arranged, with Way to the Dawn displayed on pegs on the far wall.

"You don't dismiss your keyblade?" Sora asked, as he pulled up a chair next to Riku.

"Pick it up," Riku laughed.

"It's wood," Sora replied, holding the very ornate toy in his hands. It was unusually light. "A prop?"

Riku nodded. "Some moogles made it for me. A peace offering, I think, when I found out they were selling them."

Sora put the keyblade back on its pegs, and sat down next to Riku's bed. "Need anything?"

"Ice," he replied. The platter made a pained metal-on-metal noise.

"Think the castle's got that for you," Sora said. "Anything I can do?"

Riku just smiled. "I think I'm okay, really. Everything just… feels funny. My body's all heavy but my heart… it feels light." Riku pulled an arm out from under the covers, and gingerly touched his chest. "I can't remember the last time I felt like this. Sure you're doing okay?"

"It feels… a bit empty," Sora admitted, touching his own heart. "I'll get used to it. Your heart is yours. I shouldn't have held it that long."

"You're strong, Sora, you'll be just fine."

Sora made sure Kairi could eat her own breakfast, and made his way to Yen Sid's personal office on the top of the tower.

"…yeah, I'll come. Where 'n when?"

Sora squinted. It took a moment, but he recognized the slightly muffled voice as Demyx's. Or Demy, now. Or whatever his actual name was. Lea didn't say if Demy was his real name or just a loving nickname for the lazy musician.

"Myde, we appreciate the support. Can you tell us what you know about the castle? Lea supplied us with some information, and we'll ask Kairi later if she has any memory of it from Namine."

"Thing's a maze, and it's never the same twice."

"We've gathered that."

"You can mess with the layout with magicked cards, though. It's how most of us traveled in it. Each of us only knew how to make one or two types, though. Xemnas didn't want us all to have free passage alone."

Silence.

"Sora, you can enter, you know," Yen Sid said, voice raised.

"Oooooh, Sora! Busted!" Donald added with a little glee.

Sora blushed, and pushed open the heavy wooden door. Donald and Yen Sid were cramped together on one side of his desk, Donald taking meticulous notes in a journal. Both were speaking to a magicked projection of Not-Demyx-So-Probably-Myde in jeans and a loose, thick coat, tuning his sitar while they chatted.

"You must be somewhere pretty cold," Sora said, trying to wheedle his way into the conversation.

"Arandelle. Place is a friggin'…" Myde started, getting a glare from Yen Sid. "Anyway. I was here to practice my magic. Place is practically overflowing with mana. I'm staying way away from people, don't worry about me meddling," he added. "This is the first, last, and only favor you're getting," he said, his attention facing Sora. "Got it memorized?"

"Lea put you up to this?" Donald asked.

"Axel did, duh. I guess I owe short, smiley, and oblivious a solid since he turned me human again. Even if he wasn't trying to."

Donald half-quacked and half snorted.

"We owe you," Yen Sid said, trying to steer the conversation back. "Do you know anyone else who might be able to assist? Preferably someone who doesn't need to be shown the worlds outside their borders already. I'm trying to minimize exposing worlds to outside interference."

Myde plucked a string, and continued to tighten the knob until satisfied. "Other than us former-Org losers? There's this kid in Twilight Town- er, not kid, but about Sora's age. Monkey tail. He fell from a planet called Terra. Met him a couple times, dude is quick, sharp, and packs a punch." Myde rubbed his cheek, possibly remembering this person clobbering him. "Name is Zidane. Hangs out with a living construct named Vivi. Two of them for sure could assist. Oh, yeah, Vivi is a hell- ahem- an extremely talented mage."

"Noted," Yen Sid said. "Anything else?"

Myde shook his head. "Nah, just buzz me when you need me. I can throw together some sample cards."

"That would be appreciated, Myde."

The musician gave a dopey smile, and ended the feed.

"Well, Sora, it looks like we have one more lead. Why don't you ask one of your freeloaders and Axel to go there when both of you aren't sleep deprived?"

"Wait, why Axel and someone besides me?" Sora asked quizzically.

"Didn't the Nobodies base themselves there?" Yen Sid asked, hoping that Sora would connect a few dots himself without a book's worth of exposition.

"Oh, yeah, right, Roxas or Xion would know the area way better than I do," Sora replied, mildly embarassed.

'If you're looking for Zidane… I know him,' Xion admitted. 'I can help, but I don't want to come out.'

"Don't want to come out? Why not?" Sora asked the air, before quickly adding, "Xion says she knows him."

"Good, because I don't know how much more crazy I can take," Donald huffed.

"Xion?" Sora asked the air when he got no reply. He had half a mind to find a comfy chair to sit in and go ask her directly.

'You- well, you're a boy.'

Sora stomped back to his room, grabbing a towel from the bathroom along the way. He shut his door with a soft click and took off his clothes, wrapping himself in the towel, before facing his mirror. He held the towel ends with one hand and pointed up to the paopu fruit stones strung up above it.

"Ventus," he said, pointing at the one glowing green. "Roxas, though the two of you share the same spell, it's the thought," he continued, pointing to the yellow one, skipping the blue and pointed at white. "Curse breaker. Mine. So what's blue?"

'…me.' The voice was meek. 'You… you didn't actually, did you?'

"Hey, it's a lot less awkward than being half dolphin. Lower half dolphin. And don't get me started on being a lion."

Sora reached up and touched the blue cursed stone with his free hand. His hair grew a little- just enough to fall down around his ears and touch his neck, and darkened to black, and he felt his throat tighten as his vocal chords constricted. The rest of him shifted subtly (and in some places not as), the last thing he felt was his Adam's Apple disappear into his neck. Gingerly, he touched it.

He knew what the curse did in theory, but this was the first time he'd actually activated it.

Sora spoke, in a close approximation of Xion's voice, surprising even him for a moment. "Do you want to come out or not?"

'Isn't this.. embarrassing?'

"Not if it helps a friend." Sora grinned, and it was almost comical, seeing his dopey smile in the mirror on a sort-of Xion's face.

'Put on some clothes, and then I'll come out. But only because you're insisting.'

Xion took a few breaths of treacle-tart scented castle air, sitting on Sora's bed. Slowly, she shifted, just letting herself be accustomed to the real world. She flexed her toes in her boots, and leaned forward to finally stand up, to look at herself in the mirror. She had Sora's freckled and sun-splotched skin, and it felt like her body was a little too… square… for her. Like she was putting on a costume.

"It's this or never surfacing at all, I guess," she told the mirror. "Thank you, Sora."

Xion spent the morning practicing in the courtyard alone, drawing her keyblade and gracefully smacking some targets around. She heard a quacking scream, and turned around, looking up. Donald was up on a parapet, terrified.

Xion laughed, and lowered her hood. "Doooooonald!" she cried upwards. The duck stopped panicking and looked down, curiously. He jumped from the roof and gently glided down to ground level, riding on Aero.

"Apologies for the shock. Don't keep your hood up like that!" Donald chided.

Xion knelt to eye level. "Thanks for cursing Sora," she said, holding out a hand.

"I'll curse him some more for good measure," Donald griped under his breath. "Nearly gave me a heart attack…"

Xion just laughed. "Could use a sparring partner. Or lunch," she added, flopping on the grass.

"You could also use a few lessons in alchemy. Heaven knows I've been trying to drill it in Sora's thick skull."

Xion murmured in agreement. "Could do with less sweating," she added, sitting upright. "I'll take you up on it, once we go talk to Zidane."

Xion knocked on Axel's door. "Lunch, get up sleepyhead."

"Mph, Namine?" Axel asked half-asleep. "Er, um, I mean Kairi. Sorry. I'm awake."

"Wrong again," Xion yelled at the door.

"Oh no, ohhhhhh nononono…" Axel whined. "I'm going back to sleep."

"What, something wrong?" Xion asked, a bit hurt.

Silence.

"Maybe," Axel answered from the other side of the door.

"Don't lie to me, you avoided Roxas the past two days on purpose once he surfaced," Xion chided.

"Maybe," Axel repeated.

"And now you're trying to avoid me."

"…maybe."

"Axel, I will come in there and smack you upside the head. Repeatedly."

"Fine. I deserve it anyway." Axel sounded defeated. Small.

Xion cracked the door open, and then walked in, flicking her fingers to light the sconces with Fire as she did.

"Talk." she demanded. Axel sat up, adjusting to the light, his long hair wild.

"Sora is a teenager." Axel said with bite.

"What does that have to do with being friends?" Xion asked him.

"Lea is almost twice his age. It's weird."

"You're afraid?" Xion asked. "Of doing something wrong?"

"Mhmmm."

Xion reached to put a hand on Axel, who shrunk away from her touch.

"You're afraid of touching us. Not Sora or Ventus, but us." Xion pressed fingers to her neck, smiling softly. "People without hearts."

Axel just nodded quietly. "You're housed in a kid. I'm housed in an adult."

"So? Lea is fine dealing with Sora and everyone else."

"But he doesn't… aurgh." Axel curled up, hilarious given his lanky body, and laid his head in his hands.

"Axel." Xion was quiet, but firm.

Axel just breathed out heavy, sighing.

"We're friends. You don't need to be afraid of letting us back in."

"I lost you. And Roxas. I fucked up."

"You saved Sora. Which means you saved us too."

"When Rox actually surfaced two days ago… I felt like a dog that actually got his own tail. I didn't know what to do. So I hid."

"Hey, Ven? Roxas? Sora?" Xion asked aloud. "We can hold Axel's and Lea's hand, right?"

Xion could practically hear and see Roxas rolling his eyes inside Sora's heart. 'God, you're corny.'

'If it makes you feel better,' Ventus added. 'I'm just along for the ride.'

'You think I'm ever going to say no to cheering up a friend?' Sora added.

'…you sap.' Xion wasn't sure if that last jab was Ventus, Roxas, or both of them at once.

"It's unanimous, Axel."

Axel sighed and reached out a hand. Xion gripped it in both of hers pulling him closer. Axel awkwardly took his free hand, wrapping it around her back.

"This is so weird," he muttered. "So, so weird."

"Not having a pulse isn't weird?" Xion jabbed, adjusting to hug him back.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Whatever, princess. And yes, I'll say that one to Sora's face too. I've saved him so many times he's practically a damsel."

'I heard that!' Sora whined inside.

"Doesn't make it less true," Xion muttered.

"What, he complain?" Axel asked, halfway between laughing and crying, squeezing Xion tight enough to hurt, as if letting go would make him lose her again. Forget her.

"He's the whiny princess," Xion said in agreement. "So, can you stop being a butthead now?"

"I don't think I ever will," Axel admitted, letting go, using the sheet to dry off his face, completely smudging his markings. "But I won't try and avoid you, that's for sure. I don't think you'd let me. But, if I'm a little cagey about touching you, let me be, okay?"

Xion laughed. "Come on, pretty boy. Fix your makeup and lets get some lunch. Master Yen Sid has an assignment for us."

Axel lazily waved a hand, opening up a corridor of darkness.

"Isn't that a royally bad idea?" Xion asked, peering into the abyss.

"Nah, I do it all the time. When I'm too lazy to take the stairs, even. Lea can too, but it takes him a lot more effort."

"But he's a Keyblade wielder."

"So? So are you 'n Rox. A little darkness is kinda normal, dontcha think? Everyone's got greed, anger, jealousy. 'S what makes you more than just a Dusk," he said, poking his own chest for emphasis. "Just don't let it control you. Don't go looking for 'balance' or some shit either. Just recognize it, and move on. Now, shall we, madame, or do you want to spend all day in a Gummi Ship flying there?"

Xion took Axel's elbow, and he jumped a little under her touch. "What?" she asked. "Be a gentle-Nobody then."

Axel just rolled his eyes, and the two let themselves be swallowed by the darkness.

"Ah, bad times, the horrible memories," Axel deadpanned, exiting the corridor out to the abandoned mansion in Twilight Town.

"Maybe wearing our organization coats here was a terrible idea," Xion commented as they walked out of the woods and towards the city proper. "People are staring."

Axel gave Xion side eye, and guided her over to a mouthwatering-inducing café. A duck that looked much like Donald was overseeing the operations and acting as maitre'd.

"Well, hello old friend," Axel bellowed dryly, getting the old duck's attention. "There wouldn't be an open table for four in about an hour would there?"

Okay, now everyone was staring. "Ah, Lea! Wait, what's with your face, boy?"

"No worries, sir! Figured people would get more startled seeing me in regular clothes and panicking. I know my Nobody wasn't well liked around here." Axel was loud again. Xion considered this. He probably did have a reputation preceding him, and his hair was a dead giveaway regardless.

"You don't have to-" the duck replied in a thick Scottish brogue, probably trying to tell Axel to stop shouting, but Axel winked at him. "If you stop making a scene you can have a table in an hour. But it's only because I owe you one for saving my tailfeathers on Radiant Garden."

Axel walked away smug, whispering to Xion.

"And now, we can move freely, and wear normal clothes next time."

Axel and Xion found the monkey-tailed boy easily enough, performing tricks by the open air theater. Axel dropped a hundred munny in his hat at the end of the performance, to his stunned silence. Not at the amount- it was more than what most tipped but nothing outrageous- but at the two people in black jackets. His eyes went out of focus for just a moment, before blinking out the fog.

"Xion. Why'd I forget you?" he asked.

"I just have one of those faces," she joked. "Wanna catch up over food? Our treat?"

"As long as it's not a sales pitch," Zidane replied, eyes rolled. "Can barely make ends meet as is with two mouths to feed."

"Nah, it's a job."

"Legal?"

"Breaking and entering," Axel cut in. "But on King Mickey's orders."

The young street performer twirled a bowling pin he used for juggling in his tail. "You're on Their side now?"

Axel took a wet wipe out of his pocket, running it over a cheek, and grinned.

"No way," Zidane said, surprised. "So, you're telling me I get to break and enter legally."

"And anything you find inside is yours, except healing potions," Axel added. "Place is crawling with Nobodies. The un-intelligent kind. Heartless too, probably."

"Anything?" Zidane asked, shifting. "So what's the catch, other than wherever this is being stupid dangerous?"

"That is the catch," Axel added, wiping off the other marking. If he was going to have one off, he'd remove them both. "We've been trying to find someone trapped in there in stasis for a decade. We'll take any sword arm we can. Or knife, in your case."

Zidane's eyes narrowed. "I'm assuming you need someone to break that spell, too."

"I never said thaaaaaat," Axel sing-songed. "But your short friend would get paid for helping too. I've got a table for four at Scrooge's bistro if you want to hear more," he added, tossing in another hundred to Zidane's tips.

Axel offered his elbow to Xion, who took it gingerly as he led her away sauntering.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side," she hissed. "You played him like a violin."

"Lea's got the book smarts," Axel said with a grin, tapping his temple with his free hand. "But I know how to fuck with people. Once a thief, always a thief. Dude may have honorable reasons for it, but you dangle munny at someone like that and they'll come knocking."

"Hey Xion, your turn."

Axel stood, gesturing strangely with his arms.

"You want… me… to make a corridor back?" Xion asked incredulously. "I… this is still Sora's body, Axel. I'm not sure I want to take that risk."

"Then ask him?"

"No. Because he'll say yes just to try something new."

'I'm right here!' she heard whine. 'But, yeah, I would say yes.'

"See? Or wait, you can't hear him."

"No, but I could tell by how you're carrying yourself. Lea and I have these kinds of arguments all the time."

"And how do you two solve them?"

"Well, except for really, really big stuff… whoever's in charge decides. And whoever's not, doesn't get to just force themselves up and override. Fair's fair."

"Now is this really, really big, or is this just the scientist Lea curious what would happen?" Xion crossed her arms, staring Axel down.

Axel just swished a hand and opened up the corridor. "Answers your question, princess?" he asked. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Xion grinned, taking his elbow again. "Fair's fair."

"I still got one of the best thieves and mages to risk their collective tails for us," Axel sulked as they stepped into the murk.

"And I have that person wrapped around my finger. Like those bacon wrapped dates. Ugh, I'm never going to be able to eat food like that again… it's ruined me!"

"You do know Scrooge is Donald's uncle right? Use your finger-wrapping and have him score you another rez."

Ventus shifted uneasily in an extremely uncomfortable thick, magicked harness.

"Everyone doing okay?" he asked the air. Donald and Goofy each put a hand on his back, while Lea and Kairi summoned their keyblades. A small army had amassed at Castle Oblivion, coordinated, and raring for a fight. Zidane was at the door, working with his small friend Vivi to break the locks, both mechanical and magical. Three weeks had passed, and the four of them within Sora- host included- had gotten used to coordinating sharing their body, and the heart space.

And if things today went as planned, they'd soon be down to three.

"Appreciate the gesture," Ventus said. "But Sora's busy inside right now. He and the others are trying to channel extra magic. Xion figured out how to break through my dream-castle so maybe they can use the same technique to blast a safe way down to where my body is."

"Sorry, Ven, a'hyuck," Goofy apologized, removing his hand and shifting his stance on his shield. "Just thought I'd provide some encouragement is all"

"Thanks, but the comment was actually directed inwards. I know you're doing your best. Sora trusts you two with his life."

Donald puffed out his chest at that. "We won't let him down, promise! Or you, Ven."

Ven just smiled sadly and nodded. Behind them were several former organization members, Riku, Kairi, Merlin, Mulan, and half the Radiant Garden guard. Squall looked sharply ahead at the castle, resting his hands on the angled hilt of his gunblade. Myde was lazily tuning his sitar again, strumming it to check the strength of his water golems.

Ventus inhaled and reached into the void with Sora to summon forth Stitch. He couldn't do it for Aqua, not yet. Lea was still working on the mathematics, and Ventus the heart. He could feel her, vaguely, as he pushed into the darkness to call for Stitch.

Someday, hopefully soon, he'd get to her.

"Ven?" The alien asked curiously, looking at their surroundings. "Today is siege?"

"Yup."

Stitch nodded solemnly, a difficult face to pull on someone so cute, before pulling himself up Ventus's back and settling on his shoulders. He gingerly gripped on with four limbs to shoulders and neck, and drew two blasters with his free hands.

"All right, we're clear to go," Zidane shouted at Ventus. "Just follow your heart, and we'll attach and follow your tether. Don't break too many laws of physics, yeah?"

"No promises," Ventus replied, drawing his Keyblade, feeling Stitch grip his neck hard enough to possibly draw blood, and descended into the madness the castle had become.

Ventus's job was not to fight- not unless absolutely necessary and cornered. His job was to bust through the non-Euclidean architecture, letting Xion and Sora inside steer his way.

The way the two of them decided to handle that metaphor was by building a giant wheel inside the castle in Sora's heart.

'Well, hey, if it's a manifestation of how we imagine stuff, doesn't it make sense to make it a literal compass?' Sora had asked a week before, as the four of them met for s'mores and cocoa around a bonfire in the town square while Sora's body slept.

'That's extraordinarily stupid,' Roxas commented. 'I love it.'

Sora grinned and pounded his chest for that. 'Coming from you, that's a high compliment.'

'You know, in here we could probably bottle and drink your optimism,' Xion giggled.

'Four glasses of the finest serotonin, coming up!' Sora cried, materializing four glass bottles of soda.

'You're only saying that because you've actually started paying attention to Lea's science lessons,' Ventus snickered, taking a bottle.

'Yeah, because you whine if I don't,' Sora pouted.

'A little formal education never hurt anybody,' Xion added.

'Didn't hurt nobody,' Sora joked back.

Roxas was about to correct Sora's use of a double negative, deciding against it and taking a bottle himself. It was hard to tell if it was just the eager boy's stupidity talking or a flash of brilliance in wordplay.

Sometimes it was both at once.

So then, at the moment when Ventus descended, Sora and Xion helmed their 'ship' inside the castle of his heart, one on compass and the other on wheel. Roxas, meanwhile, sat, relaxed but focused, channeling their magic as a living conduit between the heart and the world outside. They needed every ounce of advantage they could muster.

Xion was even wearing a tricorn pirate hat for the occasion, as she barked orders to Sora, struggling with the wheel. It was… like puppeteering his own body despite actually having no control of it at all.

'This is impossible!'

"You're unfocused," Ventus cried from the world outside. "We did this to divide and conquer, not fight over your body," he added, smacking headlong into a wall as Sora slammed on the controls.

"I move, and focus on breaking masonry to tear down this architecture-from-Hades, and you focus on pointing me towards my body," he continued, Stitch providing cover fire from his perch. "We can't stay in one room for long. I can't fight and focus. You need a lighter touch. Guide me, don't force me."

'Then give me your eyes,' Sora said, letting go of the wheel. It spun wildly before freezing in place. Sora flopped on the floor and closed his own, breathing deeply. In the real world, now, he saw what Ventus did. Not a warped filter through the heart, but truly saw as one. The room had a busted open ceiling, with pieces of Wonderland hanging suspended on nothing, and scorch marks on the walls. Five large Nobodies were closing in quickly.

"Take 'em," Ventus demanded. "Just point me where to go."

And suddenly, Sora was his eyes. Metaphorically speaking, he was back in his heart-Twilight Town based Oblivion, listening to Xion tell him to head left, but he was also his eyes back in reality, or whatever warped fragmented excuse for it this castle was.

He flicked his eyes, his real eyes, and Ventus plowed through the spot in the wall.

"Okay!" He panted, sliding into a facsimile of the Beast's castle. "Okay. This works way better. When you know where I have to be, just blink twice."

Ventus blew through a floor. He knew they were getting close when the facades of other worlds were fading from the rooms, and the cards Ienzo, Lea, Myde, and Aeleus had provided to aid in laying the foundations for the paths he was forming stopped working.

And suddenly, he floated in white.

The room was so silent, it actually hurt his ears, the only sounds he could hear were heartbeats and Stitch's blasters powering down.

"Ven's body," Stitch commented, thankfully breaking the static of the place. "Whole room is cursed."

"Stop…za," Ventus replied, feeling the magic crackle below him. "You can loosen your grip now, I don't think anything can follow us here. Cleanup crew shouldn't be that far behind. I hope."

"Unf," Stitch agreed, carefully loosening himself. "Ven bleed."

"Curaga," Ventus hissed, and the wounds cleaned up immediately.

"Sorry."

"If you weren't latched on, you would have flown off," Ventus reassured him.

"So, what now?"

"We wait," Ventus replied, looking at his sleeping body held in a magic curse. "And then I go home."

It was hard to tell how much or little time had passed in the room, but eventually, Ventus felt a tug on his harness. Riku rappelled down the line, attached on a carabiner.

"Shit," he cursed low, floating in nothingness of white next to Ventus and Stitch. "Aqua set up some serious magic."

"Thank goodness, this silence is killer."

"That's what happens in frozen time," Riku replied. "Not even sound moves. The vision of your body is just an echo, too. Light wouldn't move to reach your eye."

"I'm down there, though, I'm sure of it."

"I believe you," Riku replied. "But until that spell is broken we can't be sure what state you're actually in. We just need to wait for the mages."

Donald, Lea, Vivi, Merlin, and Aerith floated over the spell, quietly deciding how to break it open. Eventually, Lea swam in the air to Ventus.

"We don't think we can crack this," he admitted.

"So… this was a waste?" Ventus cried out.

"Didn't say that. I said we. I think this spell can only be broken by two people. Aqua herself, and you. Try swimming towards it. If anything goes sour, we'll all pull you back up."

'Wait, don't.'

"Sora says no," Ventus articulated.

'Not what I meant,' Sora whined. 'Take my eyes back first. If the curse responds to you, I can't help.'

Ventus felt his eyes burn, and slowly blinked out the pain, making sure he was the one in charge.

'We're right here with you,' Sora reminded him. 'Just… inside.'

Ventus clutched at his chest. "Okay. I'm diving."

It felt like everything and nothing. But Ventus knew this feeling well, from sleeping within Sora. He knew how to sleep like this, but also how to wake.

An eternity and a day later, Ventus's feet obeyed a laughable facsimile of gravity, touching marble flooring. There was no light and no sound but the heartbeat in his own ears.

There was no time.

He reached out, and grabbed rubber. A hand stopped in time. His hand.

Ventus knew he had no way to pull on his cord to bring his body back up. He'd have to do what he needed right there in the middle of frozen eternity.

Ventus drew his Keyblade, and pressed it into his body's hand, holding it around the blades handle to keep it there.

"Like I'm locking a worlds keyhole," he tried to say, though there was no moving air to generate the sound.

He turned his body's arm, which turned the keyblade aimed right at Sora's heart.

And time moved forward.