Chapter 10
Date: 4/1/2020
Special Thanks To: YumeTakato, invaderhorizongreen, and CHEESEPUFF fg
Things were… different now. Very different. Different in ways that he didn't entirely understand.
When Terra had said that they were going to start over, he really had meant it. He was putting an increased effort into treating Vanitas not only as a housemate, as a human, but as a friend. He would attempt to start up conversations with him—nothing much, just little "how did you sleep"s and "what do you think of this"es.
It was all… weird. But, a good weird.
At least when he accidentally manifested an Unversed, they weren't sneering. Floods even seemed to get a decent amount of attention. Chirithy was even making attempts to befriend them.
It made keeping to himself difficult, but they all seemed to know that sometimes enough was enough—treating it like a trigger as much as they did when he said he didn't want to talk.
They soon fell into a schedule of sorts—breakfast followed by weightlifting or swimming, quickly followed by keyblade practice, lunch, studying in the library (Vanitas' least favorite part). The Wayfinders would go off and do their own thing while Vanitas went to recuperate, then Aqua and Terra went to make supper, then after Ventus and Vanitas would do dishes, then they more often than not settled by the fire in the living room to chat, while Vanitas would half-doze and very occasionally pitch in his two cents. It was easy to keep to, and offered Vanitas plenty of control over his life to stave off his anxiety.
One morning, a few weeks after becoming something of a Wayfinder himself, a terrible storm broke over the castle and the village below again. Vanitas wondered if it was normal to have these sorts of storms, since it was the second he'd seen, but the rest didn't seem too worried. They just battened down the hatches, and Aqua set up a barrier around the castle that Vanitas hadn't seen the first time. It chased the water away from them, as well as away from the village he assumed.
"Here," Terra said, stopping beside Vanitas where he stared out the window, watching the water cascading down the glass. Vanitas looked up his way, spying the ceramic mug with steam out the top. Terra had a second in his hand and was presenting the one to him.
"What is it."
"Hot chocolate. Ever had it?"
"Probably not. It smells weird."
"I hope that's a good weird. Here, take it." Terra pressed it down into Vanitas' hands. The ceramic was warm, and if not for his gloves it would have burned.
"...Thanks, I guess."
Terra dropped onto the opposite side of the windowsill from Vanitas, lifting one knee to balance his elbow on it. He fell into silence, just watching the rain fall. Vanitas tossed his drink around and watched the murky brown liquid beat against the lip of the mug. He lifted it to his nose and took a deep breath. It smelled sweet. He wasn't a big fan of sweet.
"Careful," Terra warned. "It's hot."
"Yeah, figured that out on my own," Vanitas said over the lip. He lowered it to his lips and tilted his head back just a little to get the taste on his tongue.
Okay ow, yeah. That definitely was hot. He didn't give Terra the satisfaction of being right (then had to remind himself that it probably wasn't that much of a satisfaction anymore) by keeping his wince to himself. The drink was… definitely sweet, and very rich. But even just the little taste he had was going from his tongue to the back of his throat, and was warming him right from his stomach.
This was good.
Terra chuckled to himself when Vanitas tipped his head back and drained as much as he could in one go. It still burned, but it was a kind of burn that he actually enjoyed, that stung with cinnamon but soothed with the richness of cocoa.
"You should savor it," Terra scolded. "Master always said the best way to eat good food was to actually let it sit and enjoy it."
"It's a drink."
Terra scoffed. "Same difference."
"...Whatever."
Terra offered a small smile before he fell into silence again. He swung the leg on the outside of the windowsill again, still watching as the water fell. "You should come join us."
"And what?"
The older wielder shrugged, leaning his head back against the sill. "We're playing games by the fire. We do when it storms like this. It's distracting for Aqua. Bet you've never played command board before."
"No." He'd never had anyone to play with, so. "...Someone put you up to this?" Vanitas glanced his way, then scowled and tried pathetically to knock back his suspicion. Things were different, now.
"No, actually. I just thought you might like to play, instead of spending time alone again. The storm can be fun to watch, but it can get lonely."
Considering all the Floods Vanitas had spent time with last time, that was an understatement. Maybe spending time with them would be nice, as long as he could dip out if he needed. "Sure, I guess."
Terra shot him a smile—somewhat nervous, but mostly genuine. Vanitas didn't smile back, but he also didn't frown or scowl, which was kind of the same thing. "Cool. Aqua's getting everything set up in the sitting room. Come on." He stood, running a hand through his hair, then dropped his hand and held it to Vanitas. It was the same hand they shook with; the other filled with the white mug still half full.
Vanitas hesitated just for a second, waiting for a shoe to drop even though the first hadn't yet. He breathed back in, then took the offered hand. If he waited for the shoe to drop, he thought he'd be waiting for a while. Things were different, he just had to remember.
Terra yanked him up a little quickly but eased him back down gently. Vanitas shoved him off right after, then followed him into the sitting room.
Ven grinned and waved him over, the spot next to him open. Vanitas wondered how deliberate that was when Terra dropped into the seat maybe just a little too close to Aqua.
"Ever played, Van?"
"Nope."
The rules made absolutely no sense on tabletop. He didn't get how to get GP, and he didn't really get what the point was in the first place. Ven kept getting those question mark cards, Joker's Fortune, and it was driving Vanitas fucking nuts. He threw his own character twice, and Ven's once. Chirithy happily retrieved it, scolding Vanitas, and stood back on Ven's shoulders to watch the shenanigans.
Vanitas lost something awful. Ventus won by a long shot—apparently that was nothing abnormal. They all said "good game" and shook hands for reasons Vanitas didn't understand, but all three extended hands to him without hesitation and he shook back, and it made him feel like part of this and he liked that.
Aqua stood and stretched, smiled at them, and excused herself. She ruffled Vanitas' hair very gently, so he only batted her hand away and glared. She wished them good night and ducked away.
"It's pretty early, isn't it?" Vanitas asked, leaning over toward Ven. Ven laughed and shrugged, glancing toward the window. The castle shook with a soft clap of thunder.
"It makes her nervous," Terra said. "All this noise and rain. Sleeping through it helps." He didn't look entirely certain, but Vanitas supposed that made sense.
The castle shook with another clap of thunder, this one much louder. Vanitas winced—his desert home had never had storms like these. And the last one he'd been in here hadn't had the noises, just lots of rain. "Is this, like… normal?"
"The storm?"
Vanitas nodded. A Scrapper appeared on the seat beside him, and soon after a Yellow Mustard dropped into his lap.
Terra looked back out the window for a long minute. A flash of lightning lit up the sill. Ven jumped. "...I mean, it's stronger than usual. The last time that this happened was, what—a month before our Mark of Mastery exam? Three weeks? It wasn't so strong, though."
"But are they common?" His stomach knotted up, for reasons he couldn't explain.
"...Not really. Not up here. Even that one was… abnormal."
Ven made a little noise at the back of his throat, leaning back into the couch. Chirithy patted his head, then slid down the cushion to settle between them.
"I'm sure it's nothing," Terra said, looking long out the window, as if searching for the answer to a question he refused to ask. "I'm gonna go check on Aqua."
"...Bye," Ven said softly. He was left alone with Chirithy and Vanitas.
After a few seconds, Ven leaned toward Vanitas and mumbled, "the night that Destiny Islands fell to darkness, there was a huge storm."
Vanitas had to physically fight back the sick in his stomach as echoes of Sora's fear settled there, and for once he had to remind himself that the darkness was okay. The lingering memory of Sora's feelings and emotions was too strong for him to just ignore.
Sora had been very, very scared that day.
"Yeah, I remember."
Ven swallowed a loud gulp and pulled Chirithy into his lap. The Yellow Mustard snuggled into Vanitas' lap, and he was getting better so he didn't shove it away yet.
"I'm sure it's nothing," Ven mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. He looked over at Vanitas, and stretched his crossed knee over to poke him. "Wanna do something?"
"Nah," Vanitas said without explanation. He did like spending time with the Wayfinders, actually. They were entertaining, and not as draining as they used to be. But being trapped someplace all day with the rain was bugging the hell out of his head. There was a reason he had been alone on the windowsill before.
It didn't seem to bother Ven, who just shrugged. The light half stood then and stretched, eyeing the board game before them until he definitely decided to put it away in the morning. "Okay. Then I'm gonna go read if you need me."
The last time Vanitas had found Ven reading, it had been early as hell while Ven avoided sleeping. He put on his best worried face, saying, "...you are going to be sleeping, though." He meant to frame it as a question, but it came out as a command. Oh well; since Ven was him way back when, he supposed he knew what was good for Ven.
"Huh? Oh—" Ven suddenly remembered their late night conversation. He waved his hand and offered a huge, toothy grin. "Yeah. I know. With Terra feeling ready to retake his Mark of Mastery soon, I realize how far behind I was, aha! So I've gotta, you know, study a little bit. Hey, you know, maybe you should join me sometime. You're pretty handy with your blade; I bet you'd be a great Master!"
Vanitas laughed until he realized Ven was being serious. "Yeah, I, uh…" Vanitas frowned hard and shook his head. "I doubt if the old jackass will let someone as dark as me be a Master. I don't think that's what I wanna do, anyway." Vanitas honestly had no real plans for his future anyway; he had always thought he had no future.
A thought for a later day.
"His name is Master Yen Sid."
"I know what I said."
Ven rolled his eyes, although there was something of a mischievous smile on his face. "Maybe if you give it some time. Night, Van."
"Night, Ven."
The rain continued late into the next morning and day. The wind picked up but thunder and lightning died down. An Archraven and Axe Flapper somehow found their ways outside and attempted to fly in the blustery wind, ultimately plummeting to their unfortunate and untimely near deaths if Vanitas and Ven hadn't been watching their misfortune, and so he was able to reabsorb them in time.
Vanitas hadn't realized how boring this damn castle was until he was stuck here. He lifted weights and swam, and all four of them sparred, but they could only do that for so long before it got impossibly boring.
And once that stupid fire book had been read, that was pretty much all he wanted out of the library. He'd made it about two pages into the Dandelions book before it got too confusing to follow.
"Maybe you should go study with Ven," Aqua said from her place at the stove, where she was making some kind of frosting to go with the cake baking in the oven. There were three different other baked goods around the kitchen—clear signs she, too, was bored out of her mind. "MIght make it make more sense if you're confused."
"Meh."
"Well, don't just sit there and whine then, if you refuse to do anything about it." Aqua tossed him affectionate eyes, though. He didn't offer any more than a bored look back. "What's Terra doing?"
"Lifting again, I think. I'm sick of training for the day. An' I already cleaned the stupid bathrooms and the sitting room."
Aqua laughed under her breath, humming, "Vani-ella Vani-ella—" very very softly.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, nothing. What about this room?"
"Waiting 'til you're done. Nnnnnnn." Vanitas thunked his head on the table and gave in to the need. A Buckle Bruiser appeared behind him and looked around as if waiting for command. It made a little noise, but Vanitas ignored it.
"Uhhh… Vanitas?"
He grunted. "It won't do anything."
Aqua sighed, eyeing the huge Unversed, then shook her head and turned back to the stove. "Well maybe later you and I can clean the pool. It'll keep us both entertained. We'll have s'mores sometime, too."
Vanitas lifted his head to look at her, glaring just a little. What the fuck was a s'mores? It sounded… bizarre. "We'll have what?"
"I forget how secretly sheltered you were. You'll see later. I promise you'll like them. C'mere and taste this for me, see if it's missing anything."
Vanitas slowly stood and stretched stiff muscles, doing as asked. The Unversed followed at an even slower pace, uncertain but apparently determined to try whatever it was that Vanitas did.
The storm died in the night, and Vanitas was able to nudge his window open just a fraction to let more cool rain-damp air in. The Blue Sea Salt seemed happy to get a little extra cold companionship, dancing about in the air before it settled on its place on the shelf and snowed for Vanitas.
Come morning, though, he regretted that. The rain returned with a vengeance, this time wind, thunder, lightning, and even hail lighting up the sky. Vanitas begrudgingly stripped the wet sheets off of his bed and carried them down to the laundry room. It had been long enough since he'd last done laundry, he supposed.
He dropped everything off in the laundry room and went to fetch everyone else's. It was easier doing it all at once, and it wasted less water and time. And it kept him busy, which was the best part of it all.
He stopped into the bathroom on the way. Cleaned up a little, took another long look in the mirror. His eyes were still red. A little smile drifted over his face, and then another Blue Sea Salt found its way out and hovered around his head. He shoved it out of his way, but didn't disintegrate it.
He liked having red eyes.
Aqua was already awake, but she was always up early. She thanked him when he came by, and said he didn't have to do that but they really appreciated that he did. She was humming that tune from yesterday under her breath. Vanitas didn't know if that was a joke or not.
Terra was stirring, and just waved him in. The Blue Sea Salt followed Vanitas in and promptly dropped the temperature of the room an unnecessary amount of degrees, which had Vanitas smirking when they left as Terra snapped at him to get out and take his damn pot with him.
Ventus was still passed out with a book over his face. When he got going, Ventus could sleep like the dead. Vanitas kicked all of the laundry not in Ventus' hamper into a pile for him to take care of (he had been very adamant that he was cleaning no one's room but his own), then collected what little had successfully made it into the bin and headed out.
Honestly, Vanitas expected to be more like Ven. Able to pass out and sleep for days if necessary. He supposed that his time in the Graveyard had set habits firmly in place. He hoped he could break them at some point but, well… not yet. Maybe later he'd be able to sleep to and past noon.
Once they were awake, Ven and Terra went to worriedly batten down the hatches over Master Eraqus' memorial, bringing with them a tarp and their keyblades to seal it with magic. Aqua made breakfast and as always, Vanitas cleaned up, so they made that their chore and took to it with heart. Vanitas was willing to bet they'd be at it all morning. He hoped they finished up before he finished laundry; it'd be easier to do it all at once.
In the meantime, he went to lift weights again. He tried to keep up with it, at least bench pressing his preferred weight to keep himself active even on days he really didn't want to. Aqua followed him down, but stepped out of the other restroom fully in her swimming suit, a modest one piece that nearly matched her hair, with a pink ribbon wrapped around one strap midshoulder. She told him the obvious, and dipped past him toward the pool.
She liked swimming, he didn't know how to. They had their preferences. It just meant that if she wasn't following him into the weight room, he couldn't do anything big. Fine by him. He grabbed a jump rope and a couple five pound handbells, set his water to the side, and started warming up.
The weather awoke even the deeper parts of the castle. There was a small window to his back to let in cool air, so he could see the way the water rushed past like a faucet, but the room shook with each clap of thunder. Terra had said it didn't normally get this bad, so part of him wondered if this castle was prepared to withstand bad storms like these. He wondered if Aqua's barrier was still up. How long it would last. It was a little spooky to think about.
The artificial lights above him flickered on and off for a second, but they'd been doing that all day.
His heart was beating a bit faster, and he felt warm, so he decided he was done. He stretched his arms behind his back, before going to the bench to add his desired weight. Seventy pounds was a little light for him, but with no one to spot him he didn't want to push it. Aqua had once caught him doing more than she thought he should be (she was right) on his own, and had practically ripped him a new one.
He considered calling on a Wild Bruiser, but decided to just leave it. He could live without terribly sore muscles for the day.
He worked his muscles sore on different equipment as the sky blackened and the storm raged outside. He was halfway through his workout on the leg press when everything switched out and the room went black.
A Mandrake popped up beside him and hopped up onto the leg press with him. He was in resting position looking into the darkness with eyes that could sort of see. The storm blocked out the sun, so the light from the window did next to nothing for him.
Was that supposed to happen? Besides the castle, he'd never been anywhere that ran on power for any large length of time. He'd stepped into the ship in Deep Space, but even that had just been for a breather and to wreak a little havoc, and spent a little time in Monstropolis, but that was all, and none of them had been hit by a storm. The last storm, this hadn't happened, and it hadn't happened outside of one, either.
He pulled his legs off of the press and swung them around to sit up. The room was pitch black, and his eyes were only a little better in darkness so even they weren't helping him much. He could see the shapes and impressions of different equipment, but that was really all. And he didn't fancy tripping over anything and taking himself out.
A Sonic Blaster appeared at his side and clicked at him. It switched on its light and illuminated around the room, up towards the ceiling, and finally toward the door.
There didn't look to be anything wrong with the lights, they just weren't on. The crack beneath the door showed no light, so Vanitas could only assume that the lights were out in the hallway, which meant either this section of the castle was down, or the whole castle was.
That couldn't be good.
He stood and collected his water bottle and the little plant Unversed, headed toward the door. Once he was out in the hallway, another Sonic Blaster appeared and lit up the floor. The other one looked to the ceiling again. Once again, nothing wrong with the lights. They just weren't on.
"Wonder what this is all about?"
The Mandrake clicked and crooned at him; it had no idea either. It put its leaves around his head and swung up to stand on his shoulders and watch the world go by; Vanitas begrudgingly allowed it.
They walked along for a few more seconds as they neared the door to the pool. Vanitas had expected to hear more splashes; it wasn't exactly soundproof, and he didn't think Aqua would need light to swim. Though there were fewer windows in this room than there were in the weight room… maybe poking his head in wouldn't be the worst.
A Prize Pod popped up beside the Mandrake on his head and floated over to the door, tapping on it before phasing through. Vanitas gripped the handle and followed at a much more physical pace.
There was still no sound, and it was pitch black. Vanitas' vision didn't even let him see his hand in front of his face. A Sonic Blaster shone its light down on him, which at least made him no longer as blind, although he couldn't see much further into the dark.
"...Aqua? Are you still in here?"
There was a gasp, and Vanitas knew the answer to the question. A brief flash of light, but Vanitas couldn't tell what it was, and then someone stole Vanitas' age old idea and froze the pool over with a silent Blizzard spell.
Vanitas' stomach fell. Something felt very, very wrong. A Scrapper made itself known, clicking its nonexistent tongue.
Then, Aqua was in the Sonic Blaster's light very suddenly, looking furious. Stormfall was out and very quickly coming for Vanitas' head.
With a yelp, Vanitas fell away just in time for Stormfall to get buried in the brick wall. The other Sonic Blaster flashed back on its light and hovered up to watch where Aqua went.
"Aqua? What's going on?" Vanitas had hardly done anything wrong in the past couple of weeks, at least not wrong enough for this! Why was she attacking him?!
"You, creatures of the dark!" Aqua spat, her blade out and pointed toward Vanitas. "You cannot steal my heart. I'll show you the Light!" With that, she moved again, so quickly that the Sonic Blaster lost track of her.
Vanitas pulled out Void Gear just in time to catch Stormfall. The hit was hard enough that Vanitas' arm shook, and after a second Aqua tossed it to the side.
But the moment there, Vanitas blocking while Aqua bored all her weight into him, gave Vanitas just enough time to look up into her eyes and realize she looked very, very different.
There was some kind of terror behind her eyes, some kind of helplessness and fear that Vanitas had never seen before. And it hit him like a ton of bricks when he realized she probably looked like he did, that night in the sitting room when he very suddenly wasn't there anymore.
"Tell us, so we don't do it again. Like, we can't turn the lights off on Aqua, and don't ever use a sleeping spell on me."
She was having a flashback. Vanitas wasn't sure how he fit into it, but she was seeing him probably the same way he had seen all three of them. But where he had cowered and hid away because he knew what happened when Xehanort got mad, Aqua fought tooth and nail because she knew what happened when you stopped fighting in the Realm of Darkness.
Aqua pulled Stormfall away, just long enough to change her angle and swing from beneath, throwing Void Gear up and out of the way. Vanitas kept his grip on it, but Aqua's blade came for his stomach in the next second. Vanitas quickly backed and flipped out of the way, putting distance between them.
She did not lessen up.
Vanitas quickly squeezed out more Sonic Blasters in the hopes of lighting up the room. It would either wake Aqua up, or it would give Vanitas the light to dodge and attack as necessary. It felt wrong, somehow, as he calculated to himself the best way to overpower her, but she wasn't thinking of him as a friend just then, so he couldn't afford to think of her as one. Her flashback was making her powerful and desperate, which was putting a lot of strength behind each adrenaline-fueled blow.
If he wasn't careful, she would kill him. She hadn't even hesitated on that first swing.
"Aqua! Wake up!"
"I'll show you the light! Ice Barrage!"
Huge ice crystals formed beneath Vanitas' feet and all around the room. Before he had the sense to react to them, Vanitas was launched into the air. He didn't have the second to be relieved that this room, like most community rooms in the castle, had a high ceiling. Aqua cast Firaga Burst in the next second.
Vanitas reached out and hooked a hand on the crystals, slicing his hand open on a jagged downward piece in the process. He ignored that in favor of swinging around behind the crystal as a ball of fire burned in the air and launched tendrils of flame around. The ice crystals melted, but he didn't roast alive.
Fuck, he hadn't even had the chance to attack between all of hers, and he was fucking exhausted. But he didn't know how to wake her up! They hadn't been able to wake him up until he had been able to calm, but Aqua was proving that she was getting more hostile, not less. What the hell was he supposed to do?!
Aqua brandished Stormfall again. He had rounded a corner of the pool by then, approaching his chittering Unversed and the door, which seemed even more important. She didn't seem to care about that. She took off barefoot across the ice covered pool to approach him, swinging once again. He dodged out of the way, hoping to get to the door and trap her in until Terra or Ven were able to come in, or the lights flashed back on, or the flashback passed. He didn't know what else to do.
She swung once, twice, three times. He backed away each time, ducking his head to the side or thrusting backwards with quick steps. He didn't even want to turn around to run, because she would catch up with him in her adrenaline or throw magic, and he wouldn't see and would probably get struck down.
This was getting worse and worse by the second, and the storm outside was probably silencing the noise from their battle, so Terra and Ven probably wouldn't be coming to try to calm her down. He was trapped in with her, and her mind was very far from her body right then.
"Blizzaga!" Aqua cast right at him. He dodged to the side, but the ice froze some of the water on the tiles, and in the next second Vanitas stepped back onto it, and his heel was suddenly level with his knee and he was falling.
He hit the tile hard, trying to catch himself but the tile was murder on his arms. His head smashed into the floor so hard it bounced, and his world went white.
"You're weak, boy. Weak and pathetic. You're lucky I haven't disposed of you for something else."
His head was screaming with noise, and it took him a moment to realize that for once it wasn't pain or memories causing it. A Hareraiser was clinging to his arm, the rest of the Unversed attempting to wake him with their voices. He blinked hard, trying to force stability to shaky vision. It couldn't happen soon enough.
Aqua apparently was taking advantage of her opponent's weakness, dashing forward to attack. Vanitas very forcefully remembered what was going on and why laying down was probably the worst possible thing he could be doing. He rolled back over his head to put a little distance between them then swung around to get his feet beneath him. He stumbled back for a second, feeling his Scrapper's claws close around his arm to hold him steady. He was dizzy as fuck, vision swimming. He must have hit the ground a lot harder than he thought.
That couldn't be good.
The door wasn't far from his back, and when he turned his head just a fraction he could clearly see it. He was a few seconds from getting away from this woman bent on his destruction, if he could just get around her, and maybe focus long enough to walk straight. Okay, that definitely couldn't be good.
"Get over here and meet your maker," Aqua said lowly, avoiding the ice patch with quick feet. She brought back Stormfall and brought it down toward him. A Sonic Blaster got in the way and was instantly destroyed, but it gave Vanitas enough time to escape her.
He didn't know if his maker counted as Ventus or Xehanort, or some other being, but in two of those cases, no thank you, and the end result of the last would still be his death.
"Aqua, wake up!"
Aqua ignored him and went around, cutting off his path from the door like she knew exactly what he was thinking. She was trying to corner him and cut off all paths of thinking. If his head wasn't spinning so much, he might be able to think of a quick way out, but he had nothing but his companions.
Stormfall went rushing for Vanitas, so Vanitas called on Void Gear again. He hadn't even realized it had dissipated when he whited out until he squeezed his fist and felt it wasn't there.
The teeth of Stormfall and Void Gear clashed in sparks, digging into one another. Aqua pressed down on Vanitas, determined to cut through him, and Vanitas saw as much hatred as he felt from her. If he didn't think fast, or if something didn't change, she really would take his life and she'd be happy to do it.
Vanitas' knee suddenly dove from its wobbly stance, but he used Aqua's surprise to his advantage and rolled beneath her arm and out of the way. The Mandrake and Hareraiser followed him, hissing and growling all the way.
"Get back here, coward!"
Vanitas turned in his step to catch Stormfall on Void Gear again. The Mandrake rushed past him, while the Hareraiser grabbed his knee with its ear and stood its ground.
Behind them, the door opened. A Sonic Blaster turned its light to the door directly. Then, two gasps sounded, and there was the sound of keyblades being unsheathed.
Terra's voice came through first, and with it Vanitas' stomach went to his toes. "What did you do?!"
"Nothing!" Vanitas insisted. Here he had been hoping for help, and now he would be attacked on three sides?
And so soon after making friends? It would figure.
"Van, what happened?" At least Ven didn't sound like he thought Vanitas was totally at fault.
"I don't know! The lights switched off and I came in and she started attacking me!"
"She—Terra, look! Faith!" Ven raised his blade to the air and lit up the room with light magic. "I think she's having a flashback!"
Now able to properly see, if it wasn't a little blurry, Vanitas took several steps backwards and lined himself up near Terra and Ven. Ven stepped forward, shooting nervous looks between Aqua and Vanitas, before finally making a choice and turning his blade on Aqua.
"Friends of yours?" Aqua asked with a laugh. "They'll only be struck down too!"
"Aqua, wake up! It's Terra, and Ven, and Van! We're your friends!"
"My friends aren't stuck here! They're safe in the light! RAGING STORM!" Aqua lifted her blade to the sky, fire rippling first down its teeth, then around and down her in three columns. She rushed.
Ven and Vanitas both put up their blades, prepared to take the ultimate tier attack. Ven took a step forward, his blade brimming with green Cure magic—they didn't stand a chance of blocking all of it.
Aqua cut through them like butter, the fire and her blade sending them in different directions. Ven hit the wall hard and Van smacked into Terra. Terra's arms closed around him, and for once getting away from touching hands wasn't the priority.
Aqua ignored Ven and instead followed Vanitas and Terra, saying something about darkness again.
Terra steered Vanitas around beside him and raised his blade as Aqua came for them. "Stopga!" he cried, his blade lighting up with purple light. Aqua came to a stop and for a moment, silence fell. He turned his head to look at Vanitas. "You've gotta go."
"I've been trying to, but—what?"
"She's honing into your Darkness. She ignored Ven completely and came for you. The only way we'll be able to wake her is if you get to your room or something and leave this to us. Quick, the magic is fading fast!"
"I—yeah." Terra was probably right. She did keep saying stuff about the darkness, so it would make sense that she was able to sense darkness and followed that. He made to move around her, but then the magic faded.
"You won't get away so easily—!"
"Aqua—get out, Van—you have to wake up!"
Stormfall came swinging for his face quickly, coating in magic not yet cast. Before he could bring up Void Gear again, though, the Hareraiser mounted his shoulder and leapt in front of him, curling its ears in front. While they weren't as good at blocking as Shoegazers, their ears still acted as excellent shields.
Although they couldn't act as much more than a distraction when they didn't have ground.
The Unversed went flying into the wall, and its ears couldn't protect it from that. It dissipated in a puff of smoke and returned to Vanitas' heart with a wince on his part. But its block and death was distraction plenty. Borrowing Ven's help for a second let him finally reach the door and yank it open, flinging himself off the surprise battlefield and into the black hallway. He slammed closed the door behind him and pressed his back against the wall next to it, trying and failing to catch his breath.
The Unversed phased through the wall immediately after, each looking as worse for wear as he felt. The Sonic Blasters lit up the hallway while the Mandrake spun its leaves and hovered up toward his arms, latching on to worm its way up to his shoulder. It nervously nosed him, silently asking if he was alright.
He didn't know how to answer, because something deep in his heart felt very very wrong.
There was a deep metallic thud on the other side of the wall. Aqua probably faintly sensed his presence and was still gunning for his life. He jumped away from the wall, and the Mandrake hissed at it, daring Aqua to come through.
It probably wouldn't be the worst idea to get out of here and tuck himself away in his room. It would be easier if Aqua wasn't faced with any darkness.
I hope that everyone is taking care and staying entertained in this tough time. Please take care to quarantine safely and avoid meeting with other people as much as possible. I know it's hard but for the safety of everyone... do your part and stay home. Get hella acquainted with fic instead!
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Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day :)
