I was running. Running without purpose. Trying to get away from something that wasn't there. But I could feel its presence all around me. It was so tainted; so impure. I turned around to make out the figure that just materialized behind me. When I turned around, I had the shock of my life. The tainted impure figure was…
It was me.
I gasped and opened my eyes to find that it was all a nightmare. My heart raced and I felt some sweat on my forehead. I sat up and noticed something about me. First off, my hair wasn't in a ponytail anymore. My left arm and right leg were bandaged. My cheek was patched up too. I lifted my shirt a little to find that my stomach and lower back and a bit above my chest were bandaged as well.
"Who did this?" I asked to myself. I looked around for anyone and found something strange. I wasn't in the Badlands anymore. There were houses of every shape and size. Nope, nothing like the Badlands.
"Where am I?" I asked to no one again. I expected no one to answer, so when I heard someone say "The Radiant Gardens" above my head, I jumped.
I looked up to see Vanitas snickering from the top of the house. He jumped down and took off his mask.
"Van!" I said happily.
"Don't try to get up." He instructed, reading my exact thoughts.
"Why not?" I asked, very well knowing the answer. When he raised his eyebrow I added lamely, "Can't I walk over to a friend that I haven't seen in so long?"
"You could," He said while rolling his eyes. "But you're too hurt." He handed me a potion. "Drink this." I did as instructed and felt better already. I had told him that he should've learned healing spells.
"Thanks Van." I told him.
"Just be glad I got there in time." He said. "This is what happens when someone who didn't finish their training tries to fight Heartless." Is that what those things are called?
"I didn't even do anything!" I argued. "Those things attacked ME for no reason."
"They'll kinda do that." I had to admit, those 'Heartless' things had a good strategy. I'm just glad to be out of there alive. I thought back to the time where I had fought them. What was wrong with my darkness? It had never been this way before. Maybe I had called it wrong. Or maybe…
"Did my darkness…" I started.
"Overpower you?" Van finished. "Yea it did."
"I had never had trouble with it before…"
"You've never used that much of it at one time." I hugged my knees tighter. I need to control it more. Maybe this is another reason why the Master sent me on this mission. Either way, I have to get stronger. I got up and immediately felt the pain of leaning on my right leg and some of my left. Van helped me gain my balance.
"Who bandaged me?" His eyes widened for a split second before casually looking away.
"Why do you ask?" He said.
"Just wondering." I actually was. Whoever did this did a really thorough job.
"…Me" I must have lost my hearing for a second. Did he just say he did it? No, no, that's impossible.
"Who did you say again?" I asked.
"I did." He said once more. I blinked twice. You have got to be kidding me. My face got hot and it was probably red. I glanced at him. His face was the slightest shade of pink. I narrowed my eyes.
"What did you see?" I asked bluntly. He smirked and backed away from me a bit.
"Nothing at all." He told me. "Not like there's anything there to see." My face felt hotter as he snickered. Before I could summon my Keyblade and attack him, he put his mask back on and jumped back up on a building.
"Where do you think you're going?" I yelled.
"I need to head back." He said as I dismissed my Keyblade.
"So soon?" I whined glumly.
"I'll see you again." He crossed his arms in a sly way. "Or are you so weak that you need me all the time?" I stamped my foot.
"No way!" I yelled again as he left, hearing him laugh.
"Jerk…" I mumbled to myself. When I took a step, I noticed something beside me. It was three of my favorite kind rice balls wrapped in plastic and a note. When I read the note, I couldn't help but smile.
"Don't choke- Vanitas." I rolled my eyes and unwrapped the first one and putting the other two in one of my loose side pockets so they wouldn't be crushed. When I threw the bandages away, I walked through the town, feeling something that I felt had been missing from my life. The world had a warm aura that had never been shown to me in my world. It kind of made me envious.
"Argh! I'm so hungry I could die..." My thoughts were interrupted as I looked up to see two boys walking in my direction. One of the boys had red spiked hair. The other one had blue hair.
"Oh calm down you crybaby." The blue-haired one said. "You shouldn't have wasted your money on all that ice cream you bought yesterday."
"But it was SO good!" Redhead whined rather loudly. His stomach growled loudly. "I need food. Just the tiniest bit."
"Quit complaining." Blue told him. Ironically, his stomach started to growl quietly as well.
"Well, well, well," Red said. "It looks like someone's hungry too." He smirked.
Blue rolled his eyes. "But I'm not complaining about it, unlike you." I giggled. The redhead must have heard me because he looked my way, surprised.
"Oh!" I said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop."
"Loudmouth Lea." Blue mumbled. He turned to me. "It's alright. Lea here's too loud for his own good."
"Here you go again Isa, always trying to embarrass me in front a cute girl." This dude is real blunt with things, isn't he?
"Don't laugh at him." Isa told me. "It'll get to his already swelled head." I smiled. They must have been best friends. They acted like brothers. I could tell that this fight was going to last forever, but Lea's stomach growled even louder this time.
"Death by starvation!" He moaned.
"Drama queen…" Isa said as he rolled his eyes once more. I looked in my pocket to see my two spare rice balls. I'm not hungry anymore, I thought. Better give this to people in need. I took them out of my pocket and held them out to the boys.
"Here" I said. Isa's eyes slightly widened while Lea looked at them as if he had never seen food before in his life.
"You don't have to…" Isa began.
"It's okay." I told them. "I already had one so I'm fine." They took it and thanked me.
"She's a saint I tell you." Lea said to Isa. "Thank you so much! With this, I can live."
"You're over exaggerating again." He took something out of his pocket. "Thank you again. Here's for your troubles." He handed me two lifetime passes to a place called Disney Town.
"Be sure to take a friend." Lea added. I took them gratefully.
"Thank you. And I know exactly who I'm going to take." The thought of Van immediately formed in my head.
"Lucky guy to make you blush like that," Lea said.
"Oh…" I stammered. "I didn't even realize-" My words were cut short by the sound of something falling. The three of us looked up to a bomb from above being dropped.
"Look out!" I yelled as I tackled us all out of the way. The force of the explosion made us fly back a bit more than expected. Lea and Isa were behind me. I quickly got up.
"You okay!?" I heard Lea yell and footsteps.
"Stay back!" I called to them. I found out that it was a giant Unversed floating in the air. It continued to drop bombs all over the place. I jumped into the air and split all of them in half before they hit the ground. When I turned back to Lea and Isa, their mouths were hanging wide open. Lea had two Frisbees in his hands, ready for a battle. But I doubt he could hold his own against an Unversed. Especially one of this size.
"Get out of here!" I could tell they were about to object, but seeing as I could hold my own against it, they reluctantly retreated. I turned back to the bomb Unversed.
"Okay." I said as I took my stance. "You've got my attention." It shook violently and opened up its hatch to drop a bomb bigger than the rest.
"Blizzaga!" I yelled, freezing the bomb and rendering it useless. What really threw me off was that it flew out to the opposite of the boys' direction. You've got to be kidding me! I thought. Well, I wasn't letting that thing get away. I raced to catch up with it on top of some houses until I heard a scream. I looked down to see a little girl running from some Unversed. When I looked back up, the Unversed that I was chasing had disappeared.
"You have got to be kidding me…" I groaned as I jumped down to save the girl who then tripped and fell down. I slashed away the Unversed at her feet and continued with the rest. After they were all defeated, I turned around to face the girl and kneeled to meet her height.
"You ok?" I asked the girl who was still on the floor, looking at me surprised. She quickly nodded, stood up, and straightened her dress. I slightly raised an eyebrow at the girl. She wore a black and white dress with a black shoe and a white shoe. To top it off, the girl wore a half-black half-white ribbon in her hair, which was jet-black. Her skin was mocha, like mine, but she had a black diamond mark on her left cheek.
"Get away from here." I told her. "It's not safe. There's an even bigger one that drops bombs all over the place on the loose." The girl looked surprised and she pointed somewhere overhead. I turned my head and saw nothing.
"I think it went that way." She said. My eyes widened.
"You saw it?" I asked urgently. "And it headed there?!" She nodded. I broke into a sprint but not before thanking the girl. I followed the Unversed to see where it was going. It looked like it was headed to what looked like a battlefield, so I used wind magic to pick up some speed and beat it to there. I was a good couple of yards before my blood ran cold because of what I saw.
Terra. Terra with Aqua and Ventus running to him. If Van was right, then it would be best for me to keep my distance if they were all together. But Aqua and Terra looked very surprised to see him.
"Ven!" They yelled.
"Terra! Aqua!" He called back. The sound of bombs dropping got closer and closer. I didn't even have the chance to look up before the wind from an explosion sent me flying and landing on my butt before the three of them.
"OW!" I yelled, not yet realizing that I was right in front of them.
"Yami?" The three said. So much for keeping my distance. A second later, they all were in their battle stances. I looked to see three other giant Unversed fusing together with the one I was chasing. I quickly got into my battle stance.
The Unversed shot fireball bombs into the sky, which rained down on us. Aqua dodged gracefully as she and Terra struck a hard blow to it. I froze one of the arms while Ventus finished it off. Now for the rest of the parts. It went to the center and shot a huge beam all around the battle field in circles. Aqua and Ventus got close enough to destroy one of the legs. The body and last leg created another beam that was even harder to dodge than the first. I used firaga to burn the last leg while Terra used brute force. Now for the body, which started to shoot out blue beams. When it paused for another move, we all came in.
"Terra!" Aqua called out.
"Ven! Now!" Terra instructed.
"C'mon Yami!" Ven yelled to me.
"Ok! Let's go!" I said. We all jumped. Aqua and I slashed it first while Terra and Ventus hit it diagonally. We turned back around to see if it was about to attack again. It fell at my feet and started to fizzle out. Soon, it disappeared completely. The all ran up to me, considering that I was in the center.
"Got 'im." Terra said, clearly satisfied.
"We make a good team." Aqua praised.
"Yea." I cheered.
"Sure do" Ventus said. He suddenly looked like he remembered something. "Oh yeah! I got you these tickets." He took out three lifetime passes to Disney Town.
"For what?" Terra asked. I took my two out.
"You have them two Yami." Aqua realized.
"Lifetime passes to Disney Town." He said. His face suddenly got a bit serious. "He said to- He said to take two grownups." Aqua and Terra looked surprised.
"You mean us?" She asked. She looked to Terra, and they both started laughing.
"Listen to me Ven…" She started. "We need to get you home-"
"It's okay Aqua." He announced, rather pleased about something. "Trust me, that guy in the mask is history. He'll never bad-mouth Terra again." Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a sec. guy in a mask? He doesn't mean…no there are millions of guys in masks out there… I hope.
Terra's eyes widened and he grabbed Ventus's shoulder. "You saw the boy in the mask?" He rather demanded an answer.
"Y-yes?" Ventus answered, not sure of what he did wrong. Terra glared into space.
"Vanitas..." He said. I raised an eyebrow.
"Well," I stated as a matter-of-factly, "That can't be true, because the Vanitas I know would never bad-mouth anyone."
"You know him?!" They both yelled.
"Yea. I do. And I don't appreciate you two talking about my friend like that."
"Your friend?!" Terra yelled. He looked at me as if I were crazy.
"Listen, Yami." Ventus said. "I don't think you know him well enough. He tried…to destroy me."
"What!?" Aqua yelled. Well, this is news to her. I rolled my eyes. That was a horrible lie.
"Now you're trying to lie? What the heck did he ever do to you?"
"I told you! He tried to destroy me!"
"And I told you! You're a liar!" I yelled. "I know Van. He would never try to hurt anyone unless in training or if he had to."
"Van…is Vanitas…" Terra said, putting two and two together. I smirked.
"Yep."
"But that doesn't make any sense… he's an abomination of darkness…"
"What!?" I took a step toward Terra, summoning my Keyblade. "Don't you ever talk about my friend like that ever again!"
In return, he summoned his Keyblade as well. Aqua and Ventus gasped.
"Yami, just listen for a second!" He said. "I don't want to fight you. The Master said-"
"I couldn't care less what your Master or any Master said about him! And if he's an abomination of darkness, then you're an abomination of light!"
"Abomination of light?" Ventus interjected. "But there's no such thing."
I dismissed my Keyblade. "Then the same for darkness. You can be extremely powerful if you use darkness properly."
"You said something about that before Yami." Aqua said. "I think it's sweet that you're trying to give darkness a chance too, but it can't be helped. It's its nature to try to swallow all light and-"
"Exactly what I'd expect some light loving goodie-goodies to say."
"Light loving?" Terra said.
"Goodie-goodies?" Ventus finished. Aqua looked concerned for my well-being. She stepped forward and gently placed her hand on my shoulder.
"Yami." She said calmly. "Someone's putting lies in your head. Darkness can never be tamed."
"That's right!" Ventus told me. I glared at him.
"I couldn't care less about what you three have to say." I said, keeping my voice low. "You're all one-sided about one thing or another and you lie. You're no friends of mine." When I looked at Aqua, she looked completely devastated. Ventus and Terra looked at me in disbelief. I sprinted away.
"Yami!" The three of them called. I spun around.
"Just don't!" I yelled. "I'll show you than darkness CAN be tamed and that you're lying about Van!" and with that, I ran away again.
I can't believe those three! I thought as I slowed to a walk when I was far away from them. I bet Ventus's never even met Van before. I turned the corner to almost crash into Vanitas.
"Calm down there." He said calmly. "What's that in your hand?" I looked at my hand to realize that in my fit of anger, I had forgotten to put my Disney Town pass back in my pocket. I handed one to him.
"I take it you're angry?" I gave him an 'oh really?' look.
"Those three hypocrites are bad-mouthing you and darkness!"
"Those as in…"
"Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. They said you bad-mouthed Terra and tried to destroy Ventus. What do they even have against you?"
He didn't answer early and his voice didn't sound like he was telling a lie. But when he said, "I have no idea." My heart skipped a beat.
"Yes you do." I said without realizing it. He answered about a second too late. His voice wasn't hesitant, but his time was, as if he were trying to decide to tell the truth or not.
"You know why… don't you?" I asked, my voice quieter than usual.
"How would you know that I was lying?" He asked, the tiniest bit defensive.
"Because you didn't answer my second question and you hesitated." He wouldn't lie unless he really needed to, which was never. He never lies to me.
"Did you… were they telling the truth?" I couldn't see his expression with his mask on, but his silence was more than enough. I backed away but he grabbed my wrist.
"Hold on a sec-"
"You really did." I said in disbelief. "They were telling the truth about everything and you lied." He took off his mask and I looked at him straight in the eyes. "Why?" There was more silence as he refused to catch my gaze.
"I…can't tell you."
"You lied…" I whispered, my voice barely audible. I don't think it was even that serious, but tears welled up in my eyes. I guess it was because I had known and trusted him for so long… what happened? I just felt so betrayed that it hurt a lot more than I thought. He placed his free hand on my cheek and finally caught my gaze. He looked slightly confused.
"Why are you crying?" I looked away angrily. He's so hard-headed!
"Who the hell says I'm crying?" I said harshly, still not looking at his face. I can't trust him anymore, and I really can't show weakness around him. Before my tears could escape, I quickly turned to walk away- I've been doing that a lot lately- but I had forgotten that he had my wrist.
"You idiot!" I yelled. What I didn't expect was for him to pull me back extremely close to him and kiss me. It was as if my whole body was frozen and I couldn't move at all. The weird part was that I wasn't trying to struggle. I kissed him back as I slowly closed my eyes.
What are you doing!? I realized. I tore my arm from his grasp and ran away, not looking back. When I was far enough away from him, I jumped on the top of a random building. I don't think he followed, so I sat down with my knees hugging my chest and my head buried in my arms.
"What's happening?" I asked myself. The light-lovers were right and my closest friend lied and tried to kill one of them? He's not the Vanitas that I knew years ago. I had thought that we were friends, but now what?
"Are you alright?" My thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice. I looked up to see that same little girl that I had rescued earlier, but this time, there was a boy with her. He looked about a year older than her, with green hair, purple eyes arms folded, and a serious expression on his face. Well, as serious as an adorable five-year old could get. He had an orange hoodie with black shorts and shoes.
"You're that girl from before." I said. She nodded and sat beside me.
"I never thanked you for saving me." She said smiling. "Thank you very much."
"It was no big deal."
"Maybe not for you, but it was for us." The boy said. "She can't defend herself very well, so who knows what would've happened?"
"Hey!" The girl yelled. "I can protect myself!"
"Not from where I stood." I said smiling.
"No fair! You two are ganging up on me." The boy cracked a smile while I laughed. The little girl noticed and smiled again.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Yami." I told her.
"Well, I'm Migaru and this is my friend Tsubasa." She gestured to the boy, who looked down to his shoes. "And I'm glad I could make you feel better." I gave her a warm smile and ruffled her head.
"You know, you really did. Thanks Migaru."
"It was no big deal." There was something about this girl, something that no one in any of those worlds had ever had. She had pure darkness. This wasn't the kind of darkness that I had seen before. This one wasn't corrupt at all. It was friendly and inviting, like light.
"Ok then Migaru." I said, holding out my hand. "Let's be friends from now on."
"Sure!" She chimed and took my hand. As soon as they touched, an extremely bright light shone. It gave me a weird feeling- well, other than completely surprised. When it faded, I blinked twice.
"What just happened?" Tsubasa asked. I noticed that he had taken a couple of steps toward us
"I don't know…but it sure did make me feel weird." Migaru said, looking a bit dazed.
"You too?" That was weird. But it made me think. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus really were wrong. There is such a thing as pure darkness. I stood up.
"Where are you going?" They both asked.
"I need to finish what I started."I said. "I'm on a mission to find people like…like you Migaru. I want to find out how many there actually are." I took a couple of steps away from them.
"Wait!" Migaru called. "Will you come back to tell me?" I thought about this for a second. I couldn't see any harm in that.
"No problem." I said. But Migaru didn't look convinced. I sighed and summoned my Keyblade. Tsubasa jumped, but Migaru looked at it in amazement.
"Let's make a deal." I turned the handle side to her.
"In your hand, take this key." I told her. "So long as you have the makings, even the simple act of taking…its wielder you shall one day be. You shall never fear, as long as its presence is always near." She slowly put her hand on it.
"Now what?" She asked me.
"When you can get something that looks kind of like mine, we'll find each other. Let's hope that you get a lot stronger then."
"Promise?"
"Promise." I turned to Tsubasa and put my finger to his forehead. A twinkle of light appeared. Something that I had learned from Aqua.
"What did you do?" He asked.
"I cast a spell on you. You'll need to be strong too. This will just help you protect the ones you love." I glanced at Migaru and giggled. He may not know it yet, but it's as clear as day and night to me. I just wonder how everything will unfold. I pressed the button on my shoulder and summoned my armor.
"Remember!" Migaru said as I hopped on to my board. "I'll see you again! I promise I'll get stronger."
"Remember to learn the basics first." I called back. "Choose what you find the most comfortable." She nodded in excitement. I summoned a portal and went off.
I now know what my next step is, I thought as I went through into space. I'll use both light AND darkness to the best of my ability. I'll prove no matter what that both can be tamed. Just you guys wait. But what about Vanitas?