"They never learn!" shouted Axel as another wave of Heartless appeared on the solar sailor's main deck.
Yori, it turned out, could pilot or fly anything and was at the helm, Tron acting as her back up whilst Axel and Roxas dealt with the majority of the attack force.
They had it down to an art by now, the two of them, keyblades and chakrams, fire and light, working in a chaotic harmony to dispatch their enemies quickly.
The trouble was, it was exhausting.
When the sailor finally made port, they stoped to recover, passing Hi-Potions between them and resting up before their next encounter.
"Sark will be guarding the MPC," Tron said. "He'll be our main opponent, but I don't know what else we might be up against."
"We'll help you in whatever way we can," Roxas reassured him, noting the tense lines in his face and his shoulders.
Yori placed her hand on his shoulder and Tron relaxed minutely.
"It won't be easy," Tron warned.
Axel looked to Roxas and met his eyes with a cocky smile.
"What is?"
Tron laughed and finally relaxed. "You make a valid point, Axel," he said, then stood. "Shall we?"
They checked their supplies, discussed possible tactics, then headed towards the centre of the system, to face a familiar type of enemy… this time in a different guise.
***
Auron stood before them, defeat written all over his face.
"It's not your fault, you know," Kairi reminded him gently. "You couldn't have stopped them, it was their choice."
Sora was stood next to her but didn't offer any insight of his own. Kairi wondered if he was still following the chain of thought that allowed her to figure it out.
"Even so, I think I'll make this journey on my own. Unless you need a guardian?" his offer made Kairi laugh kindly.
"You know, I think you're the first adult who's offered to accompany us."
"Those so young, however strong, shouldn't be left to travel alone."
Kairi smiled. "I agree with you, but we're not alone."
Something in his expression, in his eyes changed when she said that. A light that had been missing before, his purpose.
"What will you do now?" he asked.
"We'll stick around for a while to train, clear out some of the Heartless while we have the time," Sora said, smiling up at Auron.
"Good." He handed two small objects to them, one for Sora and another for Kairi. "These might be useful on your journey. Good luck."
"Thank you, Auron," Kairi said.
He bowed then took his leave.
***
"Remind you of anyone?" Axel said to Roxas during Sark's monologue. If it wasn't for the shield he was using to keep them at bay, he would have happily set him on fire already.
Roxas laughed, swinging his Keyblades though the air.
Once he'd finished talking, they launched at him before he could re activate his shielding.
The four of them manage to take down Sark quickly, and the MPC raged at them.
"Tron!" he bellowed. "Join with me! Together we can take control of the system, then the world beyond it!"
"I will never join you!" Tron shouted back.
Axel rolled his eyes. "We've heard all this before, always the same rhetoric from a power-mad maniac. We didn't listen that time, either." He spins his chakrams and launches them forwards, flames tearing through the first of the new barriers.
***
Kairi was growing to love the feeling of freedom she experienced, flighting through the air with magic singing around her. Her Keyblade resonating beautifully and taking down their enemies with such a fluid beauty it was almost mesmerising.
The colosseum was easy. There was no pressure, no impending doom, just her and Sora against whatever Heartless were willing to challenge them.
It wasn't without it's dangers or difficulty, but it was a release she'd needed more than she'd realised.
Even Sora's usually grim expression had lightened after they'd won their third cup that day. She was glad that Sora was fighting as he should, he'd dismissed Xemnas' words quickly enough.
"We should check in with Chip and Dale," Sora said once they'd cleaned up and decided to leave it for now. The Moogle had sold them what they needed to restock and there wasn't really any reason to stay any longer.
"Sure," Kairi yawned. "Then get some sleep."
Sora flung his arm around her and together they headed towards their friends and the exit to the world.
***
Giant Sark was not exactly what they were expecting, but didn't really surprise them.
"Yori!" Tron shouted above the noise. "Destroy as many of the panels as you can, Axel and Roxas, take him down. I'll do the rest!"
Roxas made a running jump long the outer wall and smashed his keyblades into Sark's shoulders as Axel took out his knees.
Sark roared, the MCP's incessant rants going unheeded or listened to by those fighting him. He tried to go for Tron but Roxas shoved Oathkeeper through his back and tears through whatever flesh is made of there.
Sark fell to his knees, where Axel was waiting with fire in his eyes and hands.
He hovered in the air, subdued momentarily and Roxas turned to see Tron hurl his disk towards the MCP, it smashed with a sharp piercing sound and the air seemed to scream.
Tron grabbed it back and throws it again at the panel Yori had just smashed.
The screaming amplified and Sark disintegrated.
It was over, finally.
Axel collapsed at his side, chest heaving as he caught his breath. Roxas put a hand on his shoulder and kept watch as Yori called up a control panel and starts, what he assumed is the system recovery.
The aftermath of battles always seemed so odd to Roxas. Where once there was frantic movement and a fight for life…. there was then stillness and a sense of unrealness.
She turned to them a few minutes later, Tron now at her side.
"We cannot thank you enough," she said. "But we know you have a much bigger battle of your own. I'm opening up a connection point for you so you can get back to your world," Yori explained.
"We'll send updates to you as soon as we can," Tron said. "And we'll start rebuilding our world in the meantime. Go, my friends, and take these." He walks towards them and hands them accessories that fluctuate with power.
"Thank you," Roxas told them, "Thank you."
Tron hugged them both, taking them by surprise and Yori laughed, waving from her panel as they head out.
"Are you okay?" Roxas asked as they got to the other panel that will take them back to the castle.
"Yeah… I just… I guess I'm not used to us being on the right side."
Roxas tilted his head and squinted at him. "We've been on the right side for months," he says.
"I know." Axel scratched the back of his head. "But we've just helped save a whole world and I don't know… it's just… humbling, I guess."
Roxas took his hand and squeezed it.
"I know."
Axel looked softer than he should, matched to the people of this world as they were, but somehow it doesn't make him any less…. him. And
Roxas wished he could remember more from Ventus, would like to remember more about the friend he once made a lifetime ago.
***
Aqua's head was spinning as some of the missing pieces fell into place. Knowing Xehanort was behind their Mark of Mastery ceremony, that he drove Terra and herself out into the world to trap Ventus…
She was almost certain that he'd deliberately chosen Terra as his vessel. It all seemed to fit into a horrible, tragic chain of events.
She stood at the sound of the doorway being unlocked with a keyblade and greeted Axel and Roxas when they walked inside.
"Are your friends alright?" she asked.
"They're fine. They have a lot of work ahead of them but we helped save the day," Axel told her. He looked bemused about it all and Aqua smiled at him.
"Good. Do you need to rest or do you have time for me to go through some of this with you?"
"We have time," Roxas said at once. "Show us what you have."
"I think we can be certain that Xehanort chose Ventus on purpose, I don't know where he originally found him, but he split his heart in two and left him to die on Xehanort's original world. Then, from what I can gather, he left him with his old friend to raise.
"He deliberately set Terra up, forcing us both out into the world, knowing Ventus would go after Terra, his brother in everything but blood. All because he wanted this X-Blade to obtain Kingdom hearts and remake the worlds." She knew that she sounded as sad as she felt. Betrayed by a man who wanted power and control.
"Split his heart?" Roxas asked. "I know that Sora turned the dark Keyblade on himself but that ejected me and Kairi, created Naminé… I didn't know you could do that."
Aqua shook her head and handed over the report.
"You shouldn't be able to but it's a power Masters sometimes use, according to this." She squeezed her eyes shut. "There's something else, but I don't know whether or not Xehanort knew this would happen."
"What do you mean?" Asked Axel, accepting the report from Roxas and reading it.
"The last time I saw Terra, the last battle we fought against the darkness possessing him, he ended it by piercing his heart with Xehanort's Keyblade in order to eject him." She paused, making sure she had their attention. "It didn't work as he expected, I know, but it makes me think that perhaps Xehanort didn't expect Terra to do that. He never understood how much strength Terra had inside him… he only ever wanted to use his power for good."
"Aqua," Roxas said softly, sounding like Ven and not all at the same time. "This is more than we ever thought we'd be able to find. The records we already have and everything you know. It means we have a better chance at stopping him."
She took a deep breath and nodded at him.
"And no, I don't think he wanted that to happen. It probably gave him some ideas - once he realised there were two of him, but it won't have been the original plan," Axel said. "And it means it's not Terra we're fighting. You could see it as finishing what he started."
His suggestion sounded more reasonable the longer she thought about it.
"But it still means he's gone." They had, she knew, also hoped it wasn't the case.
Neither denied that, there wasn't any real sign that he was left alive anywhere. 'Oh, Terra, I am so sorry.'
Roxas reached his hand out to hers on the table and covered it.
"You're not alone, Aqua."
She smiled at him, trying to be hopeful. "I know. It's just been such a long time." She looked down at his hand and squinted. "Your bangles. I meant to say something earlier, but where did you find them?"
"They were a gift from Kairi. She said she bought them in a world called Traverse Town, but no one has seen it since Xehanort was defeated by Sora and those who lived on that world mostly moved to this one," said Axel.
"They're both very rare and very powerful, they've been keeping you hidden for all this time. That's why neither the book or the Organisation have been able to find you."
They stared at her, then at each other.
"Kairi didn't know," Axel explained.
Aqua smiled softly. "No, I don't think many people here will even know of magic like that."
***
Naminé fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as Riku lowered her head down onto the pillow. He had set up a bed in her room, at her request, and she hoped he too was sleeping.
"Hello, Naminé,"
She blinked her eyes open, but not, she knew, awake.
"Ventus."
He came to sit down beside her in a world she had never seen, gentle slopes in places, the ruins of a grand palace perhaps. There were waterfalls and beautiful mosaic paths all over. It smelt clean and fresh.
"You know this world, only by a different name," He told her. "This is what your prison and my refuge used to look like."
"Castle Oblivion?"
Ventus nodded. "It was once called the Land of Departure, a place for Keyblade wielders to be trained into Masters. Aqua sealed it safely, using what our Master had told us."
"Which is why Xemnas and the others couldn't find you."
He smiled. "They wouldn't ever have been able to."
"Where are you now?"
"Gone. I gave my heart and what I had left to Roxas, my true other. I don't know what happened to Vanitas, I'm sorry."
Naminé turned and looked at him closely. He looked so very real here. So sad and young…. but tired, so tired.
"And the rest of you?"
Ventus regarded her carefully. "You are a witch of memories and dreams, one of the only ones I can talk to before I truly fade away into whatever is after this life." He shook his head. "I was trying to find Terra but he's somewhere I can't reach."
"Why now?"
His smile was so very sad and the heart Naminé pretended she didn't have ached with it.
"Because your work on this world is finished and I'm not sure I'll be able to follow you any further. And because I know you have questions and someone… someone should have the answers." He stood. "Follow me."
He lead her through the hills, following paths and passing training grounds.
The path they were on lead them to the main building.
"My earliest memories used to be of this place, until I recovered a few of them while sleeping." They went inside, pushing apart the heavy doors.
Ventus showed her the main hall, the echo of the chair that he had spent so many years in, then up into the living spaces. Aqua's, Terra's… his.
His bedroom.
A space he had made his own. Pictures of him and his friends, books… memories. Something she nor Roxas have never had.
He sat on his bed and patted the space next to him, pushing open the windows.
"It is easier for me to give my memories to you, for you to then to keep them or give them to Roxas… or Sora. It doesn't matter."
"It does matter, Ventus."
"Please call me Ven"
"Okay, Ven. It does matter. But you can share with me whatever you wish."
Naminé didn't rush him, didn't want to spoil his time in a place he hadn't really seen in years. She knew that his memories and her power had made this place and wanted for him to be able to keep it alive for as long as he needed.
When he was ready he held out his hand to her.
She took it.
***