He was worried, really worried. Ven knew for a fact that he didn't have the same sort of connection to the Graveyard that Vanitas did, the senses linked with the air, the ground, every rock and every mountain. And yet he had started feeling something, something not at all comforting. The Graveyard felt lively with voidance, a voidance much like the heartless creatures that they'd been introduced to a few years prior, or maybe a nobody. Beings without essence and created from darkness. He could feel something empty, something missing, but not from the world itself. Missing from whatever was there on the world.
They were still following whatever path Vanitas had picked up, the two practically power walking along with no real idea of where they were on the world. Ven had never travelled this way when he'd visited the place all those years ago.
"Guys!" jumping slightly, the blonde snapped his head around as the shared souls paused in their stride. His concern ebbed some, his bright blue gaze falling on four of their comrades as they jogged towards the two. Roxas, Axel, Riku and Sora were quickly making their way over.
"I'm guessin' that you didn't find anything?" Vanitas asked with his usual attitude, Ventus subtly shaking his head at his almost rude but default-setting kind of sentence. Glancing towards the others, he could see the irritated twitch in Riku's features, the silverette still seemingly finding it hard to hang around with the problem-child of the older Keyblade Masters.
"No, but there's definitely something wrong," Roxas answered, appearing to save Riku from saying something that was most likely a bad thing to spout, judging from the expression and the fact that he was still almost glaring at Ven's darker half.
"You can feel it too?" Vanitas replied to the other blonde, Ven focusing on the conversation once again just in time to watch the former Organization members nod in affirmation, the two sharing a look for a moment before returning their gazes to them.
"Both of us felt it around the same time, like a portal was opened," Axel explained with a shrug, his arms being crossed over his chest. It couldn't be a coincidence, the exact same feeling having been sensed, and not only that-,
"Isn't that what you said?" Ven turned to his darker half, noting the frown that had spread across the others' face. A knowing look mixed with it as he stared at the ground. The Keybearer could see the thought gravitating in his head, seeping through his skin and creasing his brow further.
"Empty," he then muttered more to himself than to any of the others. The blonde watched him closely, his own brow furrowing slightly in question. It looked as though he were onto something, his thought process taking him somewhere he knew. Truth be told, he found it endearing whenever the other soul tried thinking hard enough to have that kind of expression.
"What?" Sora asked after a moment, Ven noting that all eyes were on the distracted ravenette. Vanitas lifted his gaze, glancing between each of them as if only then realizing that he had everyone's attention.
"It feels like a void," he explained, his tone sounding somewhat reluctant and dubious, even to his own words and realization, "That's what it was. The feeling of a portal, it was a portal, just not one of yours or even one of mine," the darker soul shrugged after having gestured to the Nobodies and then himself.
"Huh?" Sora tilted his head, still appearing to have no idea what his lookalike was talking about. In truth, Ven was somewhat behind on trying to understand as well. He'd never heard of a void before, besides the actual void of nothingness, the description of a void, bare of everything and anything.
"Remember that guy that took Sarafina?" Ven flickered his gaze towards his own lookalike, the attention having shifted to the other, "I didn't say anything before but there was something wrong with him, he felt completely empty. Emptier than a Nobody," that sounded incredibly ominous, "He has to be a Void, right?" Ven crossed his arms loosely, his eyes returning to Vanitas.
"Something like a Nobody, but created from the shell of a Strong Heart," the darker soul muttered, distracted and talking to himself again before lifting his golden irises to the rest of them, "Imagine a heart, now imagine the outer casing of a heart being peeled away and given its own body," that was vivid and disturbing. He must have been an experiment, right? How could a hearts shell be removed?
"That sounds like some Frankenstein stuff," Riku grumbled out loud, Ven internally agreeing with the statement without hesitation. Glancing towards Vanitas, he could see the gloom sitting behind his bright eyes, the almost understanding and knowing atmosphere surrounding him. Did he feel as though he related to the other guy? The Void?
"They were dangerous. They didn't feel. They were basically living weapons," the tone, Ven had hit the nail on the head; he felt as though he could relate, "They could be taught though. They were self-aware and could be raised, trained. They're sort of like a child, I guess, but lack empathy and that appealing child-like happiness," it didn't sound as if it appealed to Vanitas when he'd said it…
"How d'you know all this?" Riku finally asked, far less irritated with the darker soul and seemingly more interested in what he had to say than being agitated by him.
"Xehanort," Vanitas growled softly, the name having been gritted out through a clenched jaw, "He was researching this stuff. Told me about it during one of his distracted mutterings," clearly, just the thought of the man still got under the ravenettes' skin. Though that didn't surprise Ven in the least, "He didn't actually say it all to me, but I was there and just listening. Sounded interesting," he added, sort of babbling.
"So what do we do? How do we fight a Void?" Axel asked as he took a step in the direction that he and Vanitas had been going, the group starting to make their way along the invisible path, the ravenette taking lead as he picked up on whatever he had originally been feeling.
"We won't be able to fight him until we figure out where the Heart is. There are only two ways to take him down, that I'm aware of anyway," the darker soul sighed, the distant glint in his eye giving away that he was swapping between deep thought and informing, "Find the heart that the shell came from and lock it, the shell should return. Or, if there's no heart… then we have to crack the shell," Ven frowned at the way his tone had sounded towards the end, picking up the pace to be at the others side.
"That would kill him, wouldn't it," the blonde asked hesitantly, his own voice sounding halfway forced. He didn't like the thought or the fact that if they couldn't find the heart, they wouldn't be able to fight him. He hadn't seen him, he only knew what Roxas had described and that wasn't much.
"Yeah," Vanitas confirmed, his stride slowing with Ventus walking just slightly ahead without noticing, "And I'm pretty sure that none of you want a death on your hands, human or not," the ravenette grumbled. They knew for a fact that none of them would even consider it, they were far from being murderers.
With a soft sigh through his nose, the blonde let his gaze lift from the path as a ledge got closer and closer, Ventus being about to turn the corner just near the very edge… But then he slowed down, eyes gradually widening as the air slowly left his lungs, heart beginning to hammer in his chest.
"First things first, we locate Sarafina," the silverette spoke up from behind them, Ventus swallowing harshly and thickly.
"Think I found her," he croaked quietly, consecutive hums in question being heard from behind him. Ven slowly lifted his arm, a finger being pointed over the ledge towards the centre of a mass gathering of black, smoky, twitching creatures. A sea of what looked like Heartless, spread a mile around a small circle, two black coats, one smaller than the other, standing in the centre around Sarafina.
"Holy shit," Vanitas uttered sharply after a while of silence, shock appearing to have silenced the entire group up until then. It was crazy, all of the Heartless, or what he thought could be Heartless. He wasn't sure. It felt like they were, but then there was that same feeling of emptiness that had been explained to them.
"You can say that again," Riku breathed out, voice sounding forced, Ven noting that his focus was centred at the centre of the sea of shifting creatures, to where Sara was sat with the two others.
"Holy shit?" with a somewhat deadpanned stare, Ven turned his gaze to Vanitas, blinking blankly at him with a sigh.
"I was kidding!" Riku then growled before the blonde could say anything to shut them up.
"Well don't say 'you can say that again', genius," Vanitas argued childishly, arms crossing tightly over his chest. This was getting them nowhere. They needed to leave already or at least wait for Terra and Aqua.
"Guys, not the time!" he snapped abruptly, just as Roxas did, the two sounding almost radio-like.