The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 3

"Do you think she'll make it?"

"I don't know. She's hurt pretty badly."

"Should I go find Merlin, then?"

"I think that would be a good idea."

Aya could hear two voices through the darkness of her closed eyes. She recognized one of them as belonging to Aerith, but she wasn't so sure about the other voice. Groaning, she tries to open her eyes as she gets up. A spark of pain shot through her body, sending her lying back down on something soft.

"Aya, don't strain yourself!"

The teenage girl forces her eyes open to see Aerith's familiar face looking at her. "What… happened?"

"Tifa found you lying unconscious in the basement area," explains the brunette. "What were you doing down there anyways?"

"Tifa?" exclaims Aya weakly.

As if on cue, a brown-haired young woman wearing a white tank top and a black miniskirt comes up from behind Aerith and introduces herself.

"Hi, I'm Tifa," she says. "I saw a beam of light coming from the basement area and when I took the lift down, I saw you lying on one of the rock platforms."

Tifa notices the teenage girl looking down at her hands and then the floor around the bed she was in. "Oh, don't worry. I brought your weapons along, too." She points over to an adjacent wall where the spear and sword was leaning on.

"Thank you," responds Aya. She tries again to sit up, but pain sends her back down on the bed.

"Aya!" chastised Aerith.

"Where am I?" wondered the teenage girl as she looks around her to find that she was in a very unfamiliar room.

"This is Merlin's house," answers Aerith. "Also known as the base of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee."

"Who's Merlin?"

"Oh, you've seen him before. He's out helping Leon take care of some local Heartless."

Aya feels something fibrous and brings up a tuff of white hair in her hand. "I'm guessing this Merlin guy's pretty old."

Tifa giggles at the sound of the girl's subtle disgust at sleeping in a bed with hair other than her own strewn about.

"Sorry about that," apologizes Aerith embarrassingly. "We didn't really have time to clean it up."

"So I see," retorts Aya as she brushes as much hair off the bed as she could.

"I've casted Curaga on you so all you need now is to rest," said Aerith. "I ran into Fairy Godmother earlier and she said that you fainted in the Gummi Ship on the way over. Why didn't you tell me that you weren't supposed to be working so soon?"

"I didn't think it would affect me that much," asserted the teenage girl.

"Hey, you still haven't told us what happened to you in the basement area," spoke up Tifa.

"Maybe later," assures Aya. "I still feel a bit woozy."

"Well then, we'll let you get some rest," said Aerith. "If you need anything, just call for one of us, okay?"

"Okay," affirms Aya. She watches as the two young women leave the house. Once they were gone, she stares up at the ceiling above her as she tries to remember what had happened earlier. "Unknown to its protector…" She places a hand over her heart to feel it beat within her. "Was what he said true? Am I nothing more than a box to keep someone else's heart in?" She closes her eyes and tries to relax a bit more, but her mind was flooded with questions.

"What am I?"

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Elsewhere in Hollow Bastion, a pink-haired man stood gazing out at the people working on the restoration effort. Behind him, a Door to Darkness portal opens up and Drulo steps through.

"And what do I owe to this unexpected visit?" asked the pink-haired man.

"Lumarai," exclaims the blonde. "Ais wants to get the Heart of Light now. Things aren't looking too good."

"Indeed they don't," asserts Lumarai, turning to face his fellow Heartless. "I don't sense Ais' existence anymore."

"What?" exclaims Drulo in surprise. "Did he use the portal to go elsewhere?"

"No, he was defeated. Rather pathetically, if I might add," responded the pink-haired man.

"But I was just with him," argues Drulo.

"You don't go up against the vessel of the Heart of Light and expect to get it so easily," affirms Lumarai. "Ais should've waited a little longer instead of become impatient."

"He had a reason," responded Drulo. "The Chasers are seeking out the Keyblade master. If they use him to sniff out the Heart of Light and Heart of Darkness and succeed, we're all done for."

"I see," understood Lumarai. "And what of them."

"Them?" repeated Drulo. "You mean those mirror clones?"

"I wouldn't say that, exactly," affirms the pink-haired man. "They are different from us in some ways."

"Enough to be different," asserts the blonde. "If I could, I'd go and destroy my copy-cat right now."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now," warned Lumarai. "We're the only ones left now so we've got to be a bit more careful, especially around them. By the way, have you found the vessel of the Heart of Darkness?"

"No," answered Drulo. "It's…"

"Like finding a shadow in darkness," Lumarai finishes with a smile.

Drulo chokes on his words as he hears them come out of the scythe-wielding killer. He always hated how the man was able to read his mind like a book.

"Don't worry about it," assures Lumarai. "I think I have an idea where the Heart of Darkness may be."

"Really?" responded the blonde.

Lumarai crosses his arms before he continues. "Do you know a place called Twilight Town...?"

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Aya awakens some time later back in Merlin's house. She felt a little better, but instead of getting out of bed to look for the others, she decides to lie there and stare up at the ceiling to become deep in thought. She recalls the reports that she found in the castle's library and takes them out of her pockets to read them over again.

"Xehanort."

Aya's own memories didn't recall anyone by that name, but her heart recognized it very well. She wonders if she could find this Xehanort person and talk to him. From what she could see, this Xehanort used to live in Hollow Bastion's castle. She figures she probably ran into him while she was here and just didn't know what he looked like.

"Maybe I'll just ask Aerith and the others if they know a Xehanort," the teenage girl spoke aloud. She then glances over the other report and several words stuck out significantly. "Nobodies… Organization 13… Castle Oblivion…"

She tries to remember what she read in the Ansem Reports Sora had. "When the heart is lost, it turns into a Heartless and the body and soul left behind becomes a Nobody. If that's so, then where does the heart go when a Heartless is destroyed?"

She places a hand over her heart and recalls images of her friends. "Ale, Relena, Emyd; where did your hearts go? What's going to happen if I meet your guys' Nobodies?"

Tears began to well up in the girl's red-orange eyes. "I don't think I'll be able to destroy your Nobodies. It's too much for me."

Just then, the door of the house opened up and in stepped an old man wearing a blue robe and donning a floppy conical hat. A long white beard cascades down his face and almost reaches the end of his robe. Small spectacles enhance his eyes as a wand lay held in one hand.

"Oh, so we meet again, I see."

Aya quickly blinks away the tears and sits up on the bed. "Merlin?"

"That's right," affirms the man with a smile. "And, if memory serves me right, you must be Aya."

The teenage girl gives a nod of affirmation in response.

"Oh ho ho, so it is," chuckles Merlin. "Aerith asked me to check up on you so let's have a look here."

The comical wizard walks over to the girl and gives her a look-over. "Hmm, everything seems intact. You don't look as bad as Aerith said you were."

"I heal pretty quickly," Aya says with a meek smile.

"Most apparently so," agrees Merlin. "Well, if you're all right then I can give you the okay to work."

"Merlin?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you do me a favor?"

"What is it, Aya?"

Aya tries as best as she could to put her thoughts in the least embarrassing word as possible. "Could you tell Aerith and the others that I can't work?"

"I don't think I understand," responded the wizard.

Breathing a solemn sigh, Aya hops off the bed and hands Merlin the reports. "Give these to Leon for me. There's someplace I need to go to so I can't help everyone. I'm sorry."

"Oh, I'm sure Leon and the others will understand," assures Merlin with a smile as he accepts the reports. "I'll be sure to give them the message."

"Thanks a lot, Merlin," replies Aya as she began to head for the door.

"Uh, just one question," spoke up the wizard as Aya places her hand on the door handle. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere far," answers the girl. "I don't know if I'll be back or if I'll see any of you guys again."

"I'm sure we'll all meet again," exclaims Merlin optimistically.

Aya turns to face the man with a smile and nods in affirmation. "Yeah, we'll meet again. Goodbye, Merlin."

"Goodbye, Aya," the wizard bids farewell.

With that said, Aya opens the door and disappears behind it.

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A/N: And the plot thickens. I bet a lot of you people are going to guess very wrong on who's the Heart of Darkness vessel.