Badlands: Ven

The three of them walked through the remains of the Keyblade Graveyard. They all had memories from here. None of them were pleasant.

Ven, however, had another whole set of memories in addition to the ones of the fateful battle that separated him and his friends for over ten years.

Sometime during that ten year span, Ven became aware of just about everything that then-Master Xehanort had done to his heart. He wasn't really angry or upset about it. The memories didn't plague him or give him nightmares. He just knew that one day, Xehanort decided to split Ven's heart in two in order to meet his own ends. And it had backfired. He had accepted that it had happened and lumped it together with everything else that he wanted to rid the Worlds of Xehanort for.

Still, the Badlands weren't a pleasant place to be.

"I don't think we're going to find anything here," he said, looking around.

"We have to try," Aqua urged. "Any information will be helpful."

"I just don't like being around here," Ven said.

"None of us do," Terra agreed.

Ven sighed. He supposed he didn't have much room to talk. Aqua and Terra had bad memories from here as well. Terra had literally lost his heart to Xehanort and Aqua had been forced to watch the loss of her two friends. However, while Ven couldn't say much because of Terra, he was pretty sure that having his heart split into two was worth not wanting to be here.

Oh, maybe he was a bit angry about that.

It was probably because they were here. Where it had happened. Where Xehanort had forced Ven to clash with Heartless again and again and again… and when that didn't work, he thought splitting Ven's heart in two as a means of cultivating the light and the darkness separately so they could clash and form the χ-blade was a good idea.

Ven had nearly died. Xehanort had nearly left him for dead. But then Sora had rescued Ven and he was able to go live with Master Eraqus and meet Terra and Aqua. But Ven had always been sad. He'd been sad for so long and he wasn't able to piece it together until recently.

He'd been sad because of Vanitas. Vanitas never had anything good happen to him. The separation of the two parts of Ven's heart had been hard on them both. Ven had recovered because he'd found Sora, and Aqua, and Terra, and Master Eraqus. Vanitas had only had Master Xehanort. And… well…

It certainly didn't help that they were poking around nearly exactly where Xehanort had split Ven's heart in two.

"Ugh," Ven muttered.

"What is it?" Aqua asked.

"It's nothing," Ven mumbled.

"Doesn't sound like nothing," Terra said.

"It's just…" Ven frowned. "I'm angry."

He didn't wait for either of them to ask, though he knew they would.

"Xehanort just ruined everything. This is where he stabbed his Keyblade into my chest and split my heart in two! Sure, my heart's whole again and I don't really have to worry about darkness plaguing my heart—but that's not the point! He was never considerate for anyone else and he basically ruined all of our lives! We each lost over ten years one way or another. Everything's different now! And while I can't complain about all the new friends we've made and the fact that there are so many Keyblade Wielders to practice with and learn from and all become Masters together, I just can't help but be angry that he ruined our lives."

As he was ranting, he felt the power building up inside of him. Angry power, but a righteous angry power. With a shout, he let loose the excess energy and power.

Pillars of light exploded out of him. He let loose three rounds of those, his frustration lessening every time.

"And it doesn't seem to matter how many times we kill him, he keeps coming back! Why can't we be rid of him! Him and his stupid darkness! It makes me sick to think about the pain and anger and hurt that he's caused! There are so many of us and one of him, why can't we just win and get it over with already!"

The light continued spiraling out of him. He didn't care if it would make him tired, he just wanted to let it all out, right then and there…

"Ven!" Aqua shouted.

Growling, he let out another pillar, and then looked at her.

Both she and Terra had their Keyblades out, probably to block the light that he was pumping out into the area. Ven let his arms rest by his sides.

"I… I'm sorry…" he stammered. "I let myself get carried away."

"Ven," Terra said. "We understand. While we all have different bones to pick with Xehanort, we all have bones. I'm not devaluing what you went through, but I want you to know you don't have to carry that burden alone." He put a hand over his own heart. "Trust me. I'll help you carry that burden."

Aqua came up and put a hand on Ven's shoulder. "Me too. I wish I knew how to get rid of him for good, but we've got some good leads. And that's why we're here, trying to piece together anything he could have done to ensure his survival. Because, the next time we have to fight him, I'd like it to be our last."

Ven nodded. "I would, too."

"I think I'm with Ven though," Terra said. "I don't think we'll find anything here. The fact that this place is covered in so many scars of war is going to prevent us from finding anything useful. I think Xehanort intended it to be that way."

Aqua sighed. "He would."

"He sure did like this place though," Ven said. "He brought me here to train enough. Always summoning Heartless to make me fight them. I hardly even knew what they were! The Heartless weren't popular back when I was…" He stopped, having only a vague concept of how old he had been then. He couldn't even think of the year without thinking too much. He sighed. "Back when I was training with him," he settled for.

"Master Eraqus always had us fight orbs of light," Aqua murmured.

"I know," Ven said. "I trained with you guys, too, you know."

Terra laughed. "Yeah, I remember."

"Do you know if he came here by himself?" Aqua asked.

Ven shrugged. "How should I know? Just 'cause he was my master for a while doesn't mean I went everywhere with him. Plus, there's several years after he dropped me off with you guys and who knows how many years before."

"He tried his entire life to become both immortal and all-powerful," Terra said.

"And he's still trying," Aqua said.

"We will stop him," Ven vowed.

Aqua and Terra both nodded.

Then came the laughter.

Ven spun around angrily. He knew that laugh. "Speak of the…"

None other than a Xehanort Remnant stood behind them. He was grinning rather evilly. Ven growled and pulled out his Keyblade. Aqua and Terra already had theirs out. The Xehanort Remnant summoned two blades made out of darkness. It didn't even look like he was holding them, they just became extensions of his arms.

He grinned.

"We meet again, or perhaps anew? For I am reborn."

"What?" Aqua asked.

"I can be destroyed, but I will come back."

Someone must have gotten rid of the last Remnant. Ven didn't know who, but clearly that was what had happened if he was talking about being reborn. Right?

Not that it mattered, for the Remnant was back again.

The Remnant flew towards them, his feet barely touching the ground. He struck at Aqua first. She gasped and blocked it. Her Keyblade clashed against his blades, but he broke through her block and she hissed as one of his blades slid across her hands.

"Cura!" she shouted.

Ven felt the healing affects as well, but knew not to let that distract him. He harnessed the energy and sent out a couple of pillars of light—right towards the Xehanort Remnant. The first one caught the Remnant off guard and he staggered for a bit. He got his blades up to block the second one and the light of the pillars clashed with the darkness of his blades almost beautifully. Almost.

Terra took that opportunity to come up behind the Xehanort Remnant and slash with his Keyblade. Unfortunately, the Xehanort Remnant turned right around and sent Terra flying backwards with a shot of Dark Firaga.

"Terra!" Ven shouted.

"I'm fine, Ven, don't lose your focus!" Terra replied.

Aqua was throwing Blizzard magic after Blizzard magic at the Remnant. Ven recognized what she was doing. He started throwing Thunder magic. The magic allowed him to stay off to the side and out of the way so he didn't have to get up close and personal. Terra saw what the other two were doing and started throwing Fire magic.

Aqua dropped into Diamond Dust first. But Ven wasn't too far behind her dropping into Thunder Bolt. It took Terra a minute, but then he was into Firestorm.

Now they could get up close and personal and not have such a risk of getting injured. The Command Styles did not make them invincible, but it did make them harder to hit. They would need to take turns though, not wanting to get hit in the backlash of their own attacks.

On top of Aqua's highly precise Blizzard magic, she was also using an awful lot of Thunder.

"Is she…" Ven mused to himself. But he knew the answer to that question. She was going for Ghost Drive from the looks of things. Well, if she was going to do that, then Ven was going to go for Wingblade. He supposed he could go into Cyclone, but Wingblade was much more fun.

During Ven's turn to land attacks on the Remnant, he focused not only on Thunder-based attacks, but also reprisal and edge-based attacks. Terra probably saw what Ven and Aqua were doing and would probably go for something himself. Probably.

It would be the smart thing to do.

Aqua got into Ghost Drive first. Ven was slightly surprised when Terra made it into Rockbreaker before Ven managed Wingblade, but he wasn't going to care. Between Aqua's fast-paced Ghost Drive where sometimes she moved too fast for Ven to keep up with, Terra's brute-force Rockbreaker, and Ven's highly-lethal Wingblade that functioned not only offensively but defensively because there were just so many blades, they got the Remnant pretty good.

But not good enough.

Ven was just about to pull the finisher when the Remnant surrounded himself in a ball of darkness that deflected everything. Ven's light-blades bounced off, something he'd never seen happen before. Glance off slightly and not do the right amount of damage, yes—but bounce off entirely? No.

Terra growled.

"Everybody move out of the way," he shouted.

There wasn't anywhere to move, really. There were some rocks to hide behind, so Ven settled on those. Good thing, too, because the ball-shield of darkness expanded outward as Terra had probably anticipated it doing. Ven threw up a barrier just to be safe. The darkness furled around the barrier, trying to get in, but Ven's barrier was thankfully too strong for it.

Terra swore.

"Terra!" Aqua shouted.

Ven peaked out from behind the rock, reinforcing his barrier as he did so. Terra's barrier had not been strong enough. Ven looked up just in time to see Aqua cartwheel over and put her barrier up around them both, but Ven knew they both got some of the blast of darkness—which was still everywhere.

"Curaga!" Ven shouted. He took a breath. His magic was a bit low. He didn't have any ethers, so he could only hope that he didn't need magic for a bit.

The darkness dissipated. Ven located the Remnant. Eerily, the Remnant was already looking at Ven and grinning. It was not a nice grin. He didn't even look the least bit battered from the battle; tired, yes, overly battered, no.

"Every time I am destroyed, I come back with more vengeance and more power. And as soon as I have a vessel, there will be no stopping me." At these words, he looked between the three of them, smugly.

"You're wrong," Ven said, standing up straight and brandishing his Keyblade.

The Xehanort Remnant looked at Ven once again, frowning this time.

"As long as there are enough people on the side of the light to stand and fight you," Ven continued. "We will. You cannot destroy us all. Because unlike you, who has to keep making himself come back—there are always just people on our side to fight you."

"Ven!" Aqua hissed. "Don't make yourself an easy target."

"You disappoint me," the Remnant said. "You have always disappointed me. The boy too broken to do anything I wanted him for."

"You never wanted anything for the good of me!" Ven retorted. "Everything you ever wanted me or any part of my heart for was your own purpose and nothing more. I was never good enough for you. The best thing that ever happened to me was you dropping me off with Master Eraqus where I met Terra and Aqua."

Ven told himself that he didn't believe the part about him being broken, because it wasn't true. The Remnant was wrong. He stood his ground, reminding himself that he had Terra and Aqua and they loved him. However, it didn't matter much, because the Xehanort Remnant simply laughed before forming a dark corridor around himself and disappearing.