Ventus and Velle landed inside of a vast castle with brick walls. They began to explore it in silence. Neither knew what the other was upset about but neither wanted to discuss it. Ventus walked ahead a little and looked around, he sighed.
"Still no sign of Terra…" Ventus muttered.
"What about in there?" Velle pointed at a large wooden door, Ventus shrugged and pulled at it. They walked inside and took in what looked to be a bedroom. In the bed, asleep, was a beautiful blonde princess. Ventus walked up and examined her carefully so as to not wake her up.
"Huh?" Ventus was surprised as he took in the beauty of the sleeping princess.
"Stop! You get away from her!" A voice shouted. They turned around to see three old women dressed in different colors. Ventus scratched his head and walked up to the women.
"Oh I'm sorry!" He said bashfully, Velle could have sworn she saw Ventus throw her a sneaky smirk but she ignored it. "I've just never seen someone so beautiful." Velle felt a pang of jealousy, perhaps a fraction of what Ventus was currently feeling. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned, Terra wasn't here so why should they stick around.
The older woman dressed in red stepped forward, "Who are you?"
"I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven!" Ventus grinned, Velle grumbled to herself in the corner. Now he didn't want to introduce her because there was a pretty girl in the room, asleep or not.
"I'm Velle, maybe you three can help us?" Velle asked, stepping forward.
"Oh! You don't seem bad, dears." The woman dressed in green spoke. She turned to Ventus, "I'm sure you have a pure heart, just like our precious Aurora."
"Can you tell me why she's sleeping?" Ventus asked, noticing the sun was still out through the window. Velle felt herself roll her eyes at his interest.
"Long ago Maleficent cursed her, now she's stolen her heart!" The woman dressed in red explained sadly.
Ventus crossed his arms over his chest, "Hm… Well, then...Why don't I go get it back for her?" He offered.
"That's impossible dear, Maleficent's home is at the Forbidden Mountain, it's unsafe." The lady dressed in green warned.
Ventus shook his head and smiled, "I'm not afraid. We can't just leave Aurora like this. We can help, you gotta believe me. Come on, let's go get her heart."
"You know, you're absolutely right. The Forbidden Mountain is just through the forest. Come along, after all we wouldn't want you to get lost. I'm Flora, and these are my sisters Fauna and Merryweather and...we are the good fairies!"
"It's nice to meet you." Velle smiled at the women. With that the two keyblade wielders followed the fairies out of the castle.
Ventus noticed Velle being oddly quiet and he turned to her, "Something wrong?" He asked.
"Nope," She said quickly, walking a little faster.
"You sure?" Ventus asked as if he didn't believe her.
"Positive." She replied curtly. Merryweather and Fauna exchanged looks of concern.
"You two stay here, we're going to go just ahead to make sure the coast is clear." Flora explained, excusing the fairies from the keyblader's one sided argument. After a moment of silence Ventus decided to speak up.
"You seem like you're mad at me." he said finally.
"Why would I be mad at you?" Velle snapped, irritated that he wouldn't drop the subject.
"Is it because of that guy?" Ventus asked with a shrug.
"No," Velle said, not looking at him. She was embarrassed to say that she was mad that Ventus called a girl beautiful. He'd never said those things about her, if she wasn't confused about their relationship before she definitely was now.
"Come on, Velle, talk to me!" Ventus whined.
She turned and glared at the boy, "How about you get your head out of the clouds and think Ventus! Everything doesn't have to be handed to you on a silver platter!" Velle snapped, she stormed off ahead to meet the fairies.
"Silver platter? What's that supposed to mean?" A clueless Ventus called after her.
"Oh Velle! Ventus! There you dears are, we were about to head back to get you." Fauna said turning to face the fuming violet haired girl. "Is something wrong?"
Velle flared her nostrils and looked at Ventus from the corner of her eye, "No."
Fauna seemed to understand not to press it and smiled sadly at the girl, "Well then, come along we should get started." They walked forward to find themselves up against a wall of green fire.
"Looks like we're stuck," Ventus said with a shrug.
"This must be Maleficent's doing!" Flora deduced. Silence fell on the group as they thought.
Fauna gasped, "I know!" She floated over to the flames and tapped her wand on it once, suddenly the flames dispersed and a clear road lay ahead. She turned to them with a pleased smile, "Shall we?"
Ventus nodded, "Yup!" They took a few steps forward and Velle stopped. "Something else wrong?" Ventus scoffed.
Velle ignored him, "How did you do that Fauna?" She joined Fauna at the head of the group.
"Oh, it was just a bit of magic," Fauna chirped, she flicked her wand playfully.
"That sure was something, do you um...do you think you could teach me some?" Velle asked hopefully with her hands clasped in front of her.
"Oh me too!" Ventus joined, purposely bumping Velle to the side lightly.
"Oh my, of course!" Fauna replied. The two joined her side and Fauna held her wand out and ready. "This one is called Stop, I think that it could be very useful to you in your travels. For a moment in time this spell will stop your opponent, suspending their animation. The stronger you grow the longer the spell will last." She turned to her sister fairies "Merryweather would you kindly?" She queried.
The sister in blue nodded happily and stood in front of Fauna, she held her wand up and began to cast a spell. "Stop!" Fauna roared in a powerful voice that neither Keyblade wielder expected. Merryweather froze in place, "In a moment the spell will wear off and she will be able to attack again. Would either of you like to try when it does?"
"Please!" Velle squealed.
"Yeah, me too!" Ventus cheered. When the magic wore off they both attempted the spell.
"Sheesh Velle, stop showing off already. I get it you're good at magic." Ventus grunted.
"Oh don't give up Ventus, dear. All you have to do is believe and all your dreams will come true. Try again, won't you?" Flora urged.
"I'm not showing off Ven, and I'm not just good at magic. Do we need to spar again so I can show you?" Velle growled.
"Oh my!" Fauna exclaimed.
"I didn't mean that Velle, you know that," Ventus backed down weakly, not wanting to fight with her.
"Oh…" Velle said softly, "Well then, sorry I snapped…" she mumbled. The fairy sisters giggled at the two.
"Come along, we must waste any more time." Flora ordered.
The five ventured into a castle and as they walked through the halls they reached a clearing. Cautiously Ventus and Velle looked ahead, Ventus turned to Velle.
"Well they ain't guarding nothing," Ventus said.
"Careful, they're Maleficent's." Flora warned.
Velle observed the guards and snorted, "They don't look that tough, we can take 'em."
"Let's go," Ventus agreed. They ran out into the clearing. "Ten-shun! No sleeping on the job!" Ventus taunted. He summoned his keyblade and Velle did the same. They each attacked one of the guards and knocked them out, suddenly more ran into the room.
"Come on, Ven, let's get these goons!" Velle shouted. One by one they attacked the guards, the fairy sisters casting spells of aid. Finally the room had cleared out and Ventus and Velle panted with exhaustion. "Phew!"
"Hey look!" Ventus exclaimed, he walked forward a bit and into view came a glowing orb engulfed in green flames. Ventus looked at his keyblade, in his heart he knew what the glowing orb was. The glowing orb was the beautiful Princess Aurora's heart. He listened to what his heart told him to do, slowly he lifted his keyblade and pointed it at the fire. It started to glow and shot a beam out dispersing the fire in seconds, the glowing orb floated forward a bit and then picked up speed as it began its journey back to Aurora. Suddenly the room turned white and they all witnessed Aurora talking to a young man about meeting with him later.
"Huh? What was that?" Ventus asked, thoroughly confused.
"That was Aurora's memory! She must have gotten her heart back!" Flora exclaimed happily.
Ventus grinned, "So her dream came true!"
Flora nodded, "Yes, not long ago. Dreams are very strong beliefs. Aurora's led her to her true love."
Fauna held her hand up to her chest, "I see you hold strong beliefs too, don't you dears?"
"I see that you both have a strong light, be careful because there are people out there who wish to dim your light." Flora added.
"It may be none of our business, but you too seem as though you care deeply for each other. We noticed you bickering, is what you're angry about worth closing the chapter of Ventus and Velle?" Fauna asked sweetly.
Velle blushed "What do you mean by a chapter?"
"I mean your friendship, is it worth losing your friendship over?"
Ventus also blushed, he scrunched up his face and swallowed his pride, "No." Velle looked at him shocked, "Well is it?" Ventus snapped, not out of anger but of fear of losing Velle.
"No," Velle grumbled quickly.
Fauna smiled, "Then don't let it."
"Alright, hurry! We can't stay here!" Merryweather reminded. They ran off into the castle and suddenly Velle stopped them. Standing in the middle of the clearing was an ominous witch.
"Someone has released Aurora's heart. Tell me children, was it one of you?" The witch asked in a tautly voice.
"Maleficent!" Flora announced.
"Only 'cause you stole it in the first place!" Ventus snapped, summoning his keyblade. He pounced on the witch but she disappeared in a flash of green fire.
"A keyblade! You must be Ventus, which means that you are Vellum!" Maleficent cawed.
"Huh? How do you know about us and the keyblade!" Ventus demanded.
Suddenly Velle felt something pull her roughly away from the fairies, "Velle!" They shouted. It was too late, holding tightly onto her arm was Vanitas.
"I said it's time to go, Velle." he growled, "Now, stop running."
"Velle!" Ventus shouted, "Let her go!" he demanded, but Vanitas summoned a dark corridor and shoved Velle inside.
"See you in a bit, Venty-wenty!" Vanitas taunted before entering the portal as well. Ventus ran to it, but just as he reached it, it vanished.
"No!" He screamed.
"Ah!" Velle winced, she fell to the ground in the darkness of the corridor in pain.
Vanitas entered and looked at her on the ground, "Tch, here." He unzipped the black coat he was wearing and threw it at her.
"What is this?" Velle managed between the sudden pain.
"It'll protect you, hurry up and put it on, and put this over your eyes to shield them too." Vanitas tossed her a blindfold, "Or do you like pain?" he whispered dangerously in her ear when she didn't move. Even with the agonizing pain Velle blushed at his toneand quickly threw the coat on and zipped it up. "Pull the hood on too." He snapped. She did as he said and the pain slowly dulled until it was gone.
"What was that?" Velle asked, hugging herself tightly.
"Beings of light can't handle the dark corridors, you need protection." Vanitas explained with an attitude.
"Kind of like my armor and the Lanes Between," Velle mumbled.
"Yeah, whatever. Come on we've got somewhere to be." Vanitas snapped.
Velle didn't move "What are you doing? What makes you think I'm going anywhere with you!" She snorted.
Vanitas let out a cold laugh, "Where else do you think you're going?"
Velle turned around trying to sense any escape in the vast nothing and darkness, he was right she didn't know where she would go. "Where's Ventus?" She asked after a moment.
"Who cares?" Vanitas grabbed her arm and tried to pull her down the corridor but she didn't move.
"Where is he?" She demanded.
Vanitas sucked his teeth, "Right where we left him, I just took you. Can you move now?"
Velle regarded the masked boy warily but slowly started to move her feet as he led her down the hall and up to another portal.