The older D'Vitaes and Master Eraqus sat in a living room at his palace. Aqua made tea and brought it in. Trisha said, "Student? You're more like a slave Aqua."

Aqua glared at her mother.

"Don't make that face. It looks ugly. And you can't afford to look any uglier." The woman shook her head in disbelief. "You used to be so pretty. You've really let yourself deteriorate. The face. The clothes. The terrible haircut. Have you been cutting it yourself? Sweetie if you can't even afford a decent haircut, are you really living like a human being? And your skin used to be so white. Now it's all sunburnt and splotchy. And you've put on weight, haven't you? If you returned home, no one would recognize you. You might as well stay here."

Aqua covered her mouth with her hands to keep from screaming expletives. Master Eraqus jumped in to her defense. "How rude!" he declared. "If you came here just to spout insults, you can leave."

Trisha scoffed. "And you, can't you afford a maid? This place is a dump. I wouldn't even let my dog sleep here."

Rio commented, "Is this how my precious little sister has been living for the past year? I'm going to cry. I'm seriously going to cry." He started crying. "I wanted to come find you, but Mother didn't let me. She sabotaged any effort I made. And you've been suffering here in this pig sty with this weird old man. I'm so sorry."

"See why I ran away from them?" Aqua told Master Eraqus.

Eraqus jumped out of his seat. "You're a runaway?!"

"You didn't know?!" she asked him, genuinely shocked (although she never told him).

Aqua's mother commented, "Eraqus is as dumb as a bag a bricks. He wouldn't know something even if you told him."

Aqua saw this as an opportunity. She asked, "Mom, how do you know my master?"

"Don't call him your master," Trisha demanded. "He doesn't deserve the title." She giggled in ironic laughter. "Why are you even living like this? Stop being stupid. Come home and I'll forgive you for this little act of rebellion. I'll find some way to explain it. And I'll fix you up all nice and pretty again." Her laughter died down into a desperate plea. She was struggling not to cry. "And we'll forget this ever happened? Okay? You'll go back to high school and be the most elegant and respected girl. You'll go to college to study law and politics and graduate sigma cum laude." Trisha's voice was trembling. So was her entire body. Her eyes were wild and watery. "You'll go on to become a powerful politician and business woman and expand our company's influence all over the worlds. You'll marry a nice respectable man and have a nice respectable family. And you'll be happy. That's the plan, right?"

"No," Aqua told her. "I want to be a keyblade master so—"

"No you don't!" Trisha interrupted. "You just want to piss me off! And you want to piss me off because you don't understand that everything I do is for your best interest!"

Aqua shot back, "Everything you do is so that you can live vicariously through me! You had my whole life planned out! I don't want that life! So I chose my own, because only I know what's best for me!"

"No you don't," replied her mother, dismissively. "You're only sixteen! You don't know anything! I'm the only one who knows what is best for you." She reached out to touch Aqua. "You can't survive without me."

"But I've been living on my own for over a year. I can take care of myself."

Viciously, Trisha retorted, "Are you really taking care of yourself? You really are stupid if you don't realize what a wretched state you're in."

Aqua told her mother, "I'm not in a wretched state. In fact, I'm happy. I'm very happy that I'm learning to become a keyblade master. I'm happy that I can follow my dream."

"Then you can stay here and rot. I'm not going to drag you back home because, frankly, I don't want a daughter that is disgusting, disobedient and disrespectful. If you aren't going to do what I say, then stay here. I don't care. I'll forget about you. You'll be nothing more than a name I faintly remember. And I'm completely fine with that."

Rio jumped in, shouting, "Mom, this is insane! She's your daughter!"

Again, Aqua hadn't expected her mother's words to hurt her so badly. "I don't want that Mom. I want you to understand that—"

Trisha was firm. "No. If you want my approval of this sort of lifestyle, you won't get it."

So Aqua decided to use the last resort. "Mom, didn't you study to become a keyblade master here once?"

Trisha made an intense leer of disgust toward Eraqus. "What did you tell her?"

He said, "I told her nothing. I didn't even know that she was your daughter." He looked at Aqua. "Although now that you are side-by-side, I see the resemblance. She's your spitting image, Trisha." He gasped because he realized that was probably the reason why he was so attracted to Aqua.

Rio asked, "Mother, what does she mean?"

"Nothing."

Aqua explained, "Mom trained to be a keyblade master alongside Master Eraqus when she was my age. In this very world. In this very same place."

Trisha pounded the table in front of her. "I worked harder than this fool in front of me! I was a prodigy! Master said so! Yet he didn't award me with the Mark of Mastery! He gave it to Eraqus, and then Xehanort instead! Neither of them deserved it! I did!"

Eraqus said, "Trisha, how could you be a keyblade master when you bear so much darkness inside your heart? Back then the darkness was small, but now I see that the darkness has grown. It is so thick that it prevents you from loving your own daughter. How can a person like you use the keyblade for good?"

She stood up and pointed to Eraqus. She was livid. Her face was red. Her fingertips were trembling. She was crying. "Don't lecture me, you lazy, useless buffoon! You're a liar! You said you loved me! So why didn't you leave with me? Why did you stay here?"

Eraqus calmly looked her in the eyes and answered, "I made my choice, Trisha."

Trisha pointed to herself and, her chest shuddering with sobs, told Aqua, "After the fifth time I took the Mark of Mastery Exam and failed, I gave up. I hated the keyblade! I hated my master and Xehanort and this entire world! The only person I loved was this idiot! Yet when I told him that I wanted to have nothing more to do with this sort of life, he told me to go on without him." She shook her head so fast that her hair fell out of its updo. "He would rather stay here alone, in this sorry excuse for a castle, than be with me." She forced a prideful smile. "Well the joke is on you, Eraqus! I became a successful career woman. And the company that I've helped to create will long outlive me! What have you done?"

Eraqus answered, "I've been happy."

Trisha's skin turned ghostly white. Stunned, she sat down and looked straight ahead. She kept quiet.

A heavy silence choked everyone in the room.

After a long moment, Trisha took a deep breath, turned to Aqua, and said, "You're going to end up just like me if you keep going down this path. I know what's best for you, Aqua. Believe it or not, I want you to be happy."

Aqua shook her head. "I won't repeat your mistakes, Mom. I'm definitely going to earn the Mark of Mastery."

"No you aren't," her mother told her. "You're going to fail, and then you're going to feel empty. You're going to realize that you've wasted your youth chasing ridiculous dreams."

Aqua shook her head. "Mom you didn't waste your youth." She clasped her mother's hands in her hands. "And you eventually fulfilled your dream, right? In his journal, Master wrote that you said you wanted to use the power of the keyblade to give back to those in need. You may not have become a keyblade master, but you're achieving that dream with the charity work that you do. Doesn't that count for something? And remember how much Dad loved you?"

Rio piped in, "Bless his departed soul."

Aqua concluded, "Even though he's in heaven, I'm sure Dad still loves you. And I love you. And Rio loves you. So forget about how this lazy, useless guy," Aqua pointed to Eraqus, "broke your heart all those years ago. You've made a family that loves you. And you were happy, right?"

Trisha sniffled. "Yes. But now everything is ruined. Your dad's gone, you ran away, and Rio hates me…"

Rio piped in, "I don't hate you, Mother. I was mad that you weren't searching for Aqua, and that you were acting like the victim. But I don't hate you. I just want to fix our family. That's all I want."

Aqua added, "And we can fix our family. Believe it or not, I want you to be happy Mom." Aqua hugged her mother.

Trisha returned the embrace for a long while. Finally, she slid out of Aqua's arms, took Aqua's hand and pleaded, "Aqua, please, I'm begging you. Give this up and come home."

Aqua bit her lower lip. She took a deep breath, and exhaled. She slowly shook her head. "Sorry Mom," she answered. "I'm staying here."

"Okay then," Trisha said. Letting go of Aqua's hand, she stood up and dusted herself off. "You're dead to me."

Those words tore Aqua apart. It hurt so much that she dropped to her knees. Meanwhile, Trisha fixed her hair and said, "Come on Rio, let's go."

Rio glared at his mother. "Even though I don't want her to live like this, I want my sister to be happy. I'm willing to make compromise because I don't want to split up the family. Dad wouldn't have wanted to split up the family. We are family, Mother. So please don't say that to her."

Trisha smiled at him. "Then you're dead to me too. Goodbye." And, with the click-clack sound of high-heeled shoes, she strutted away.

Rio grabbed at his chest, as if she had physically shot him with her words.

However, a serene silence filled the room this time, as if the heaviness marched away to the beat of the high-heels.

"I'm so sorry Rio," Aqua apologized.

Rio shook his head. "It's been a long time coming. I've been arguing with her for over a year because I wanted to find you and she didn't want me to find you." He chuckled. "To think that we met up at McRonalds. Destiny is weird, huh? Haha…"

Aqua could tell that he was forcing himself to be brave. She knew that their mother's rejection had devastated him. So she hugged him. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

He returned the hug, and said, "I'll give Mother some space. Maybe in time she'll calm down…" He sighed. "Aqua, I'm serious when I say that I missed you. I'm serious when I say that I was worried. Why didn't you tell me where you were?"

"I was afraid you'd try to drag me back. You always were a mama's boy. You do anything she says." She squeezed him tightly. "I'm actually shocked that you stood up for me. I'm really happy that you stood up for me."

He released her and ruffled her hair. "That's because I love you, Sis. Nothing will ever change that. So don't ever run away from me again, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

Rio stroked her cheek. "Are you seriously fine here?"

She nodded. "I promise that I'm happy and safe. I want to stay."

Rio glanced at Master Eraqus. "You sure?"

Aqua nodded. "I'm positive."

"Alright, well, I guess I'm okay with that," he said. "But I haven't seen you in so long! I want to know all about what you've been doing, so let's have some brother-sister bonding time. First, I'm taking you to a spa. Then we'll go shopping for clothes. Then we'll-"

"Rio. You don't need to spoil me."

"Yes I do." He pressed his forehead against her forehead. "So we're going tomorrow."

"Okay." She smiled.

"Good." He hugged her again. "Bye Sis."

"Bye."

With that, Rio left.

Now that the ordeal was over, Aqua took a huge deep breath. Upon exhaling, she turned to Master Eraqus and said, "Sorry about that."

He asked, "You took my old journal? I was looking for it."

Aqua changed the subject. "Thank you for being supportive of me," she said.

"You're welcome. But seriously, Aqua, did you read my old journal?"

Aqua gave him a puppy dog look, and replied, "You asked me out on a date. So who is the real criminal here?"

"I-i-it wasn't a date, Aqua. It was simply a master and student attending a social event together." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, please return my journal to me at once."

"Of course."