"Hang on, hang on. Heartless were harmless?" the fiery redhead quirked a brow in question, glancing swiftly between Vanitas and Ventus. He seemed dubious of the information, not that it bothered the former at all. As far as the others knew, the Heartless were the enemy; they didn't know anything else about them, "How?" Axel added after a moment, still in disbelief.
"She created them from her own being, from her heart," expectedly, he saw a few eyes flicker towards him, blinking at the ravenette and drawing a heavy sigh from his chest, "Yes, like Vanitas," even Ventus sounded a little exasperated by the fact that they immediately pictured Vanitas and his Unversed.
"Wouldn't you want a friend if you were a five-year-old stuck in a place filled with darkness?" the darker soul muttered pointedly as he lifted his golden gaze to them, eyeing each of them with a firm stare and noting the way two or three actually shrunk slightly from him. At first, granted, the Unversed were his weapons, his expendable creatures that returned to piece him together after their destruction. After they reluctantly accepted him though… the Unversed were a constant thing in his life.
He tended to have a Flood sitting in his lap whenever he was chilling with Ven.
"We need to save her," the silverette commented in the silence, Vanitas letting his gaze fall to him as the other focused around the rock towards Sarafina. He didn't seem the least bit bothered by everything he'd taken in, "I don't care about anything else right now," as he'd thought, Riku wanted nothing more than her safety.
"She's our friend and she needs our help," Sora joined in, his victorious grin already reaching his lips with a fist being held in front of him. His brunette copy was already pumped and ready for battle. Funnily enough, Vanitas had ideas.
"Good, because I have a really good bad plan," he smirked, eyeing the group and noting the confusion growing between them at his word choice.
"Good bad?" Sora replied, smile gone and replaced with a perplexed stare that he shared with the others before it fell back on Vanitas. This was going to be really fun.
"I hate this plan," Ven heard Sora complain quietly from over his shoulder, the two having wanted to stick close enough that they wouldn't lose each other in the sea of shifting shadow creatures. He'd been worried at first, but upon entering the outer layers of mixed monsters and not being noticed, he figured that Vanitas had actually thought it out pretty well.
"Well, it's working," he shrugged, his hushed tone not catching any attention from the things around them. They simply swayed and made noises that over-lapped their own, actually helping them towards not being noticed.
"We look like idiots!" Sora hissed quietly, Ven agreeing with him on that one. Despite the fact that the plan was working, they looked ridiculous wearing large Shadow costumes made from Vanitas' own abilities. He felt as though he'd planned this for a Halloween or something.
Wading through the mass of dark creatures, they were going unseen and unnoticed since they were wearing Heartless costumes and looked perfectly like one of their own, even having the sort of sway to their bodies because the suits were so awkward to walk in. Ventus internally huffed with pure exasperation. Vanitas had a decent plan, but the execution was terrible.
"Don't get distracted, Sora," the blonde mentioned curtly, not wanting to lose to his own opinion of the plan. He agreed with the brunette that they looked imbecilic, "We have a job to do," he lowered his head slightly, trying to ignore it as he shifted between a few creatures and still seemed to go unnoticed as they were all fixated on Xander.
"I take it back, there are two things I don't like about this plan," Sora muttered more to himself, probably thinking about the suits and the fact they were weren't fighting at the moment, or that Terra and Aqua were volunteered to fight Xander if things got out of hand. Ven though…
"Yeah," he sighed, not liking the part that Vanitas had left out, having whispered to Ven that he would take on the Void if the boy decided to join in and fight them. He knew for a fact that if Vanitas wanted to fight something alone, there would be guaranteed injuries for anyone involved with that fight. Vanitas was protecting them from the boy.
"Trust Vanitas to come up with a plan like this. I bet he's just messing with us," Sora complained further, drawing a soft and somewhat strained chuckle from the blonde Key-master.
Without warning, Vanitas sucked in a raspy breath and sneezed violently, head being thrown forward where he sat cross-legged against the large rock. He'd shocked the others, his lids parting as he reached the back of his hand to his nose.
"Think those idiots are talkin' about me," he muttered with a deep sniff, rubbing at the base of his nose with his sleeve. He glanced up to the others, noting the surprised stares he received from the sneeze.
"How d'you know?" Roxas asked uncertainly, quirking a brow at him and seeming a tad thrown off along with everyone else. It wasn't as if Vanitas got ill or could even get sick. He was immune to pretty much everything.
"A strong hunch," he sniffed again, giving his nose one last rub before he climbed to his feet and shifted towards the edge of the rock to watch the two. It took him a long moment to find them, but he did, seeing the slightly misshapen Shadows slowly inching their way towards the centre of the black and blue sea of creatures.
"Be ready for the signal," Terra mentioned from a few feet behind him, Vanitas letting a smirk grace his lips while trying to fend off another sneeze, less violent than before it seemed as it tickled the back of his nose.
"You mean to be ready to see the two jumping around, swinging their Keyblades and acting like idiots?" the ravenette replied sarcastically, fully expecting that to actually happen since Sora wasn't exactly the stealthiest of them. He really should have made Roxas go with Ven, "Yeah, I'm ready. Got my camera and everything," he grinned, lifting his hand and materializing a black camera out of his darkness.
That immediately drew an exasperated growl from the brunette man, the master reaching a hand to his face to pinch the bridge of his nose with a deep sigh.