Thank you so much to all who reviewed/alerted/favourited! I really appreciate it.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy belongs to their rightful owners.

Chapter 3

Starry Night

Ventus felt his back meeting soft grass as they landed, a little dizzy from the sudden use of teleport. Why did Aqua always have to use it without a warning first? It would have saved him from so many scares and surprises if she did.

The blond boy opened his eyes – not that he could remember closing them in the first place – and found himself staring up at the starry sky above him. Funny how clearer they seemed here compared to home.

Most likely because there were no city lights to tone them down as far as he could see.

"Everyone okay?" Terra asked. Did he sound worried? Ven wasn't sure, but he knew Terra didn't sound like that, not normally. He could hear Aqua mutter a yes from somewhere beside him, and found himself doing the same, despite the feeling that not everything was okay. It wouldn't be strange though; they had just watched their home city burn down and left it behind. No one would be perfectly okay with that.

Ventus sat up, glanced around in the dark night surrounding them. Pale moonlight gave it all a weak glow, made him able to see that they had landed in some fields between high mountains and what could seem like a forest.

"Where are we?" the words fell out of his mouth before he could stop them, filling the otherwise silent night with his voice.

"I took us somewhere behind the mountains surrounding Land of Departure. My goal was somewhere further away, but something seemed to disturb the magic and it wouldn't take us there," the blue haired woman explained, rising to her feet. She, too, sounded worried, just like Terra. He couldn't blame them, not when everything inside him told him to run as fast as he could back to their home and make sure things was alright.

We don't need you here, you just bring us trouble!

The blond boy clenched his fists, struggled to stop the guilt from rising inside his chest. Maybe it was for the better that they left; at least the enemy would pull back once they realised their targets weren't there anymore.

"What now? Do we go home, or head somewhere else?" Terra questioned as he and Ven stood up from the ground.

"We can't go home; Master told us to leave," Aqua answered. The brown haired male looked at her through the darkness. He didn't say anything, just watched her with an unreadable glance, his eyes the only thing visible in the weak light.

"They said it was our fault, the town folks I mean, and that everything happened because someone was looking for us." All eyes landed on the youngest member of the trio, glued to him as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Aqua looked him over for a second, before smiling sadly.

"That explains why they didn't seem to trust us," she muttered while she walked over to her younger friend and coming to a stop right in front of him. When Aqua, Terra and the Master had arrived at the Market earlier, people had shouted cruel things and thrown rocks at the young boy. The blue haired woman hadn't seen anything hit him, but it was likely something had. Nothing could be seen from where she stood, but the dark was thick and stopped her from getting all the details. She decided not to question him as he avoided meeting her eyes. It bothered him, that was clear as a sunny day, probably more than he would let on, and knowing Ven, he most likely wouldn't tell them everything that was on his mind.

"I wonder what they want with us. What could be so important that they would burn down an entire city just to find us?" Terra questioned, turning around to face the mountains behind them. Aqua rested her eyes on his back for a minute.

"Should we try to find out? Why they are after us and why they so recklessly attacked Land of Departure?" she said, waiting for her childhood friend to give a sign of agreement or reject. When it didn't happen, she decided he was too lost in thoughts and turned her attention to the blond boy again.

Ven's eyes met hers, and she found herself staring into a pool of hope mixed with the familiar light he possessed. It caught the blue haired woman off guard and caused her to take a step back, which in turn gained them Terra's full attention as she collided with his back.

"We could go search for the others as well!" Ventus said, smiling widely in the pale moonlight, "we can't go home and find out who attacked home could take a while, so why not?"

Terra and Aqua looked at each other, before breaking out in soft smiles.

"Of course we can. If those who did this were from that lab, the others would probably be in just as much danger as we," the young woman said, her fists tightening upon the memory of their past.

"But where do we start? We don't have any leads at all," Terra stated. Ventus put his arms behind his head as he thought it over, tried to remember anything from the geography lessons they had had over the years.

"Without access to Land of Departure, we are stuck here on the North Continent," he pointed out, knowing very well that even in top shape, there was no way Aqua nor Terra could take them as far away as the South Continent or the West Continent with their teleport or warp.

"Twilight Town has a port as well, but from here that city is rather far away. We could use the Glider forms of our Keyblades, thought," Terra commented.

"Let's keep away from spells and Gliders; they are both risky if someone is looking for us." The trio was left in a heavy silence as all three lost themselves in thoughts, until Ventus spoke up.

"Radiant Garden," he said, gaining the attention of both his older friends, "it is up north and not that far away, so as long as we follow the Northern Star we should be fine," the young blond pointed up at the sky above them, easily finding the star he talked about. Terra tired to fix his gaze on the spot Ventus separated from the rest of the starry sky. How the hell did that kid tell one star apart from the rest? They all looked similar to him, and to Aqua as well, considering the look her face wore as she too tried to find the star. After a short while, she turned her look toward their friend.

"But, Ven, following a star would only allow us to travel at night. I agree Radiant Garden is probably the best place we could go, but it is safer to travel that road in daylight due to the dangers of the forest surrounding it," she fixed her glance on them both, taking in all the details she could see in the dark night. The road to Radiant Garden was dangerous at night, and even with their weapons and magic, she wasn't sure if they could make it. But the blond seemed to flow over with ideas.

"If we follow the star tonight, we could reach the edge of the forest before the night is over. From there we can travel at day, using the old road," he explained, his entire being filled with eager. They couldn't deny it; it was after all a good plan.

*~^:^~*

Terra stared off into the fires in front of him, trying to warm bodyparts that had grown cold during their travel from the plains to the edge of the forest. Ven's plan about following the Northern Star had turned out to be flawless, even though the boy was the only one who knew which star they followed. It hadn't been a problem to begin with, as the boy was happy to lead the way and making sure they followed him, but as the hours moved past them – the night had just started when they left Land of Departure, so it wasn't that late – Ventus became more and more exhausted.

It wasn't until he almost fell asleep while walking that his friends realised just how tired he really was, leading to an overprotective Aqua asking a worried Terra if he could give their young friend a piggyback ride the rest of the road, something the tall brunet agreed to do. It wasn't an unusual thing; each time the boy fell asleep outside of his bedroom, it was usually Terra who carried him back to his bed, mostly due to Aqua being busy and the Master being the Master. But following the correct star was hard when Ven wasn't awake to point it out anymore. It was pure luck that they ended up at the edge of the forest at all.

The fire was Aqua's creation; she had called forth a small one while they walked and kept it hovering over her hands until they reached a place they could rest for the night. It would keep them warm during the night and also keeping animals away from their little camp, and for some reason the blond boy had kept away from it too, even going as far as to lie down just outside the light circle once they woke him up after reaching the edge of the forest. Ventus, who hated the darkness and loved the light. Something was up, and the brunet knew Aqua would drag it out of him the next morning.

Terra turned his blue eyes toward the young woman next to him, whose gaze was just as fixed on the fire as his.

"Ven tried to avoid speaking of the city," she suddenly commented, moving her eyes from the fire to the sleeping form on the other side of it. "What he said explained the cold attitude they had, but he didn't want to talk about it." The brunet looked at her, before returning to staring into the fire.

"So you realised too, huh? That's why you didn't push him, right?" he tried to keep his voice low, just in case the blond boy wasn't asleep after all and decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Aqua didn't need to answer for him to know. Ven might accuse them of being able to read minds, but sometimes it didn't seem too far away from the truth.

"It's been ten years; if they were people from that lab, wouldn't they have searched through Land of Departure long time ago? It just seems a little off," he continued, causing the blue haired woman to fix her gaze on him.

"You're right, it does. Could they be after something else? Something we don't know about?"

"Maybe."

Silence surrounded them, allowed the soft breeze travel over them as it headed toward the forest behind them. The cold that followed the moon rested upon them like a blanket, made them shiver slightly. It would just become colder up north, even if the different right now between Land of Departure and this place was zero.

Aqua rose to her feet, left the little circle of light her fire had created. Terra was about to follow her with his eyes when he felt something rest against his back. The brunet froze, but relaxed again once he realised it was his childhood friend. She felt small against him, so tiny against his huge back. Almost fragile and breakable, something he knew Aqua was not.

It felt good, having her like that. A precious moment he didn't want to lose. They used to sit like this all the time, he remembered, back when they had just gotten to Land of Departure. Only those two and the starry sky above them.

The young woman's back shook slightly against his and the warmth of the fire embraced them both as they allowed themselves to face the past events of the day.