Hi everyone! Here's a new chapter already. I'm on a roll thanks to my good ol' friend Sora! The tablet, I mean. I can work on this even when I'm supposed to be packing at my job! :3

Anyway, usual disclaimers: I give an appreciative nod toward Nomura and all the rest of the Disney/Square Enix team for their characters and worlds while claiming the Ribbon for my own. Please read and review and hopefully, chapter 36 will be finished today and uploaded tomorrow! Have a lovely day, everyone!

Part Thirty-Five: Dreamscapes

It was a thousand memories that didn't belong to me. It was a thousand moments between two people that were not me, love that belonged to them but I was somehow being allowed into their hearts anyway. I saw through her eyes, felt through his heart as the images flashed and churned in front of me.

I briefly became them. I began to feel what they had... and slowly, the memories of being Xion began to fade as I –

I felt the hand before I saw him.

"Aqua? Is he alright?" He said softly and I could almost feel him glance down at the boy sleeping fitfully in my arms. Our little boy moaned softly at the sound of Ven's voice but didn't stir further.

There'd been a day not too long ago that he would have jumped up and charged at Ven at the sound of his voice. Ven would have caught him and tossed Sora up to the ceiling in a physical demonstration of his love. But now he just slept. Moaned when he got too cold and was in too much pain.

I shook my head slowly. I could feel tears trickling down my cheeks as Ven kneeled down beside the sleeping six year old and pulled him into his arms.

"He's getting worse..."

The strike of wood against wood, the energetic eyes of a little boy battling a nearly grown man. "C'mon, Ven! Come at me!" Sora shouted at me, making me laugh as he charged at me, his wooden sword swinging wildly in his hand as he ran.

It didn't come as too big of a surprise when he tripped over his shoelaces and slammed into the ground. The sword tumbled and spun out of his hand, flung several feet away. I gave him a worried smile when he looked over at me, silently asking me what had happened.

"You alright, lil buddy?" I asked.

Sora gave me a determined nod as he stood and wiped his mouth, obviously trying to be brave for me and not cry. But even so, tears started trickling down his cheeks along with the blood on his knees. His knees were covered in it and from the look of it… Ouch. The raw skin made me wince in sympathy, though I couldn't feel it. That was one bad scrape there.

My heart twisted in my chest as I bent down on one knee and opened my arms. Poor baby, being so brave... Sora toddled a few steps before charging into a run and just about throwing himself into me, burying his face into my chest and whimpering pathetically as he cried in pain.

I started stroking his hair, quietly separating the matted brown locks with my fingers.

"I won't tell Aqua if you won't."

A soft sniffle and then a pair of wet blue eyes looked up at me before a little smile flickered across his face.

"Promise?"

He was completely still, weakened by the fever. Like he had been trained all of his life to do this, Sora was crouched at Ven's side, carefully dribbling cold water onto his face as Ven shivered and moaned with how cold he was. The boy was talking to him, soothing him.

"Ven, me 'n Aqua went berry picking and she..."

Despite his being sick, Ven was hanging onto the little boy's every word, laughing appropriately at the right places and making soft comments whenever Sora paused for breath. A few times, he even had the strength to reach up and start stroking Sora's hair, the little ritual that they'd developed together soon after we had found him.

Tears trickled down my face as I watched them and I knew I had to do something. Ven would die soon if we couldn't bring the fever down. But all of our herbs were gone and there wasn't a place to get more of them that wasn't a long journey away. Even if I left right now, the trip would still take two days complete. Ven would die in that time. There was nothing I could do. But I had to do something, I had to, I had to... The thought came suddenly, striking like a bolt of lightning.

There was something I could do. Something to save Ven.

I had to make the deal. I had to give him my protection.

Ven... forgive me...

Blood trickled down my wrist as the scrap of blue fabric slid down my wrist. It had been tied there without my permission, without me knowing about it. Sora stared at me with frightened eyes as he looked at the blood on his hands. I watched him, unable to completely process what had happened. It couldn't be real. It just couldn't be.

Sora's hands, they were covered in it, covered in Aqua's...

"She asked me to... Ven, I didn't know what it would do... I didn't know, I didn't know!" was his frightened answer to my unsaid question.

The little boy's eyes filled with tears with the realization of what he had helped do suddenly hit him. He began to scream, tear at his hands in order to try to get Aqua's blood off of him. My fever was gone now. Aqua's charm had taken it away. Once again, she had protected me… while I had done nothing to save her.

The sobs stuck in my throat as I pressed my lips to the rough charm sewn by our adopted son and given to me by the woman I loved. I stained my mouth with the blood from the eye that had been given up in order to create the ultimate protection.

Her name ripped through my lips as I screamed.