A/N from April 2021: For those who discovered and followed this story pre-April 2021, I reordered and re-structured the first three chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 contain almost everything you read prior; Chapter 3 is new material. I implore you to just reread or skim, and I'm sorry for the confusion! Anyone else, just keep reading!

Chapter 4 - Interlude 1: Doubt

Roxas let his head loll backward heavily, shifting his weight as he stared out at the orange sky. A few clouds passed lazily above, as if mocking his frustration. "This isn't working."

"Hey now, don't be too upset," Axel said mildly, sitting himself down next to him with a practiced ease and handing out ice-cream bars. "We knew this would be difficult. Got it memorized?" The last phrase sounded more forced than usual.

"Yeah," Roxas responded. "But nothing I have memorized is leading to anything."

It had been months since he'd hesitantly prompted the idea to explore their memories, and hence their connections to Sora, to try to help. At the time, he'd simply wanted to do something besides just sit on his hands. When he'd heard Kairi's idea, he'd suggested his own. After all, he and Xion were a part of Sora. If they could figure out what he did wrong, maybe they could figure out how to right it.

It had sounded better in his head.

To his left, Xion shook her head. "We've got to keep trying. Sora did the same for us."

"Hey, so did I!" Axel said with indignation. She reached around Roxas to shove lightly at him. Roxas ducked backward as Axel returned the favor, knocking her into the girl sitting next to her. As Namine struggled to balance on the ledge, Roxas watched as a blue ice cream bar dropped from her fingers and fell toward the street below them. The taller man winced sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Whoops. Sorry, Namine."

She offered him a small smile. "That's okay." Her face grew pensive. "I'm starting to agree with Roxas, though."

That surprised him. Roxas looked at her guiltily. She'd been so busy during the last year, helping King Mickey and his team record the worlds Sora had been to, discussing leads with Riku, working in Radiant Garden to help Ansem the Wise with the sleeping Kairi. He hadn't meant to put any blame for their current failure on her. She stared over Twilight Town, clenching her dress in her fists. Her eyes seemed to see something he couldn't, and whatever it was was making her worried.

"It's not your fault," Xion reassured her, sending a glare at him. "It's like Axel said, it was always going to take time. We've just got to keep trying." It wasn't the most convincing argument, but Roxas kept his mouth shut as Namine tucked some hair behind an ear.

"I...yeah." Sure enough, she didn't seem convinced.

"Hey, Pence invited us to go to the beach tomorrow," Xion continued, trying to lighten the mood. "Do you want to join us? Taking a break for a day isn't going to harm anyone."

Except it could if we needed that day to find Sora, Roxas thought grimly to himself, but he decided not to share that thought. It was likely the others were thinking it already. Instead, he tried to smile. "Yeah. It'll be fun. You can watch me beat Axel in a frisbee contest again."

His friend scoffed. "You didn't beat me. That mutt knocked me over right when I was rearing up to take you down."

Xion reached over to playfully swat at him again. "Aw, be nice to Pluto. He's a sweetie."

"Only to you. I swear he has it out for me."

Roxas prepared to step in before they got into a shoving match and knocked him off the ledge, but he didn't have to; the clocktower behind them began its loud rings, marking the passing of another hour. The two fell silent and the entire group looked out across the town under them, letting the sound wash over their worries for a moment.

When it stopped, Namine stood up. "Oh, that's okay," she said, stumbling a bit as she stepped backward; she wasn't as used to the clocktower as they were and had only been up a handful of times. "I'm running low on munny, anyway."

"Hey, I don't mind spotting you - "

"Thanks," she interrupted Axel and took another step back. "I think I'm going to go back to the Mansion now, if that's all right." She walked away quickly before the others could respond.

Axel sighed. "All right, any new plans for cheering her up? I'm getting seriously depressed by this."

"Not a one," Roxas replied. "I'm sorry I got frustrated. I'll apologize later. Xion's right, this isn't her fault."

Axel considered him sadly for a moment. "It's not yours either, you know that?"

Roxas didn't respond for a moment. "I guess."

He considered the orange sky, and when he noticed blue droplets dripping off of his untouched ice cream, he sighed and let it join Namine's to fall onto the ground below.

Leaving the Gummi Ship parked above the world, Namine stepped lightly into Radiant Garden. The greenery calmed her, even if the flowers that littered the ground left her wiping tears from her eyes on occasion. She wished Riku were here; he'd understand, even if she couldn't express what she was feeling in words. She supposed he was part of the problem. Even with his own journeys around the worlds, he'd always come back regularly to show her pictures he'd stored on his Gummiphone or to tell her a wry story he'd learned about some of Sora's exploits - or to just put an arm around her shoulder.

Now he was asleep, lying on a cot below the castle behind her, as unable to provide comfort for her as Kairi was. There was a certain irony in that, she supposed. She'd had to put Sora to sleep to fix the memories she'd unchained from him, and now the two people who understood her best were asleep in turn. Before he left, Riku had suggested talking to Roxas instead, but Namine had refused. She missed her Somebody, but at least she knew Kairi was okay. Roxas didn't have that luxury.

Stopping in the middle of the field, she sat herself down, picking at the grass. Technically, she wasn't supposed to be on this world at all. Recently, she'd been dividing her time between helping Roxas and Xion search their memories and working with Ansem the Wise, Even, and Ienzo within Kairi's memories, but with the new inclusion of Riku's dreams, they had decided to see what would happen without her interference. Ansem the Wise had gently suggested that she spend some time in Twilight Town rather than linger.

She hadn't thought to mention that Twilight Town didn't hold many good memories for her. After a long debate about where to live - Xion had suggested the Play Island on Destiny Islands, Aqua had welcomed them to come to the Land of Departure, and Ollette, when she'd heard the conversation, had offered to convert the Secret Place into a proper, if cramped, living quarters - the other former Organization members had taken rooms in the Old Mansion. Namine was given her old room on the second floor, but after one night staring at the white walls, eyes unable to close, she'd snuck out to sleep in her Gummi Ship. She thought Roxas suspected, but he hadn't said anything. The only one she had confided in was Riku.

She shuffled on the grass, reaching out to touch a flower that sat a few feet away. Its yellow petals were soft. Maybe she'd make a bouquet to bring down to the lab.

The sound of voices filled the air behind her and she turned slowly. Walking down the steps to her right were three familiar figures.

" - world do you think we should try next, Your Majesty?"

"Gosh, I'm really not sure, Goofy. I - " King Mickey paused as he noticed her. He smiled widely. "Namine!"

She smiled back as they approached her, standing up and brushing grass from her white dress. "It's good to see you again, King Mickey, Donald, Goofy."

"Aw, you know you can just call me Mickey," the king answered over his teammates' greetings. "I didn't expect to see you here. If you need to see Ansem the Wise, we just finished meeting with him."

She shook her head. "Not today. I'm just enjoying the nice weather at the moment."

From the way his eyes crinkled, she knew he saw through her small lie, but he didn't say anything.

"We just got back from visiting Olympus!" Goofy exclaimed. For some reason, this made Donald scowl and Mickey chuckle.

"It was great to meet everyone there. Sora sure has some great friends," the latter said.

Donald spoke up, tapping his foot and crossing his arms. "Sure, real good friends. Phil made the king an honorary hero as soon as we said he was the king, even though he made Sora and us work for it. He has double standards!"

"Aw, Donald, the king deserves that title, don't you think?" Goofy said in a good-natured voice.

"Gosh, you guys," the one in question said with embarrassment.

Before Donald could speak up again - his foot-tapping was becoming more furious, and the flowers under it were no longer recognizable - Namine spoke up. "What worlds do you have left, now?"

"Gawrsh, that's the problem," Goofy said, rubbing the back of his head.

"We've only been able to think of a few," Mickey explained. "Deep Jungle seems to have completely disappeared from the World Map, and we're not sure if Monstro returned to Prankster's Paradise after Sora helped restore it."

"And the Timeless River!" Donald added, his foot-tapping starting again. Namine held back a chuckle.

"Merlin says we shouldn't go back there, though," Goofy added. "There's another world that was sleeping that Sora and Riku visited, too, but Master Yen Sid says we can't get back to that one, either. He thinks it's another world now." He shrugged.

After a moment, Mickey's ears, which had begun to droop, rose up again. "We figure we can look into some of the worlds Ventus visited eleven years ago. If he's been in Sora's heart for so long, maybe they might hold a clue."

Namine nodded; it was a sound idea, even if, deep inside her heart, she felt a growing sense of unease. They'd visited so many worlds already, and none of them had offered even a hint at what had happened to him. Just like with Roxas and Xion, their mission wasn't working.

Still, she tried to smile. "That sounds like a good plan. Are you going already?"

"Yep!" Donald quacked.

"Good luck, then," she said, trying to keep a quiver out of her voice. She watched as they bade her goodbye and walked past her, toward the main square.

They were still trying, at least. Namine steeled herself as she knelt down and started to collect flowers. Yellow. That would brighten up the laboratory. She'd just have to keep on trying, too. If Aqua's team could dive into the Realm of Darkness so readily, the least she could do was help out in the Realm of Light.

"Aeroga!" Ventus called out, pointing his Keyblade into the air and watching with satisfaction as a few dozen Heartless flew upward in a spiral. A few disintegrated as they hit each other in the lofty wind; the others landed heavily on the ground, no match for Terra's quick thrusts that finished the job.

To his right, Aqua stood at attention, aiming what Ven knew to be a Shotluck at a small swarm in the distance. The pellets burst through a handful with ease, but he cast a fire spell at the rest for good measure. He looked around carefully and quickly, then let his Keyblade fall away and took off his helmet.

"Nice one, Aqua!"

She took hers off as well, breathing slightly heavily but smiling. "You're doing really well, Ven." Terra took a moment longer to ensure that they'd gotten rid of any more Shadows before joining them, running a gauntlet through his sweaty hair.

"Do you want to take a break? That was the third swarm we've seen in a short time, and my magic needs to recover."

Aqua and Ven nodded and settled down, letting their armor fall away completely as Terra brought out a few items of food and passed them around. Ven sighed and relaxed, looking around curiously, like he had so many times since they'd gone through the portal.

The Realm of Darkness wasn't what he'd expected it to be.

Riku had described it as being vast and empty except for armies of Heartless. That was true, he supposed as he swept Wayward Wind through another Shadow - but it wasn't like they fought every minute. There were days where they didn't see a single one.

Mickey had called it a maze, saying one could get lost there. That was true, he thought as he watched Aqua look anxiously around their surroundings - but then she'd nod firmly and lead them down a different path with confidence.

Aqua had...not talked about it. That was the one thing that Ven had expected.

"I wonder how long we've been here," Terra said after a long silence filled the stale air - a growing recurrence that Ven hadn't been able to rectify yet. He'd tried to sound off-hand, but Ven could hear the tension in his voice.

"Time doesn't exist the same way in the Realm of Darkness," Aqua responded quietly. "Who knows?" She shivered; despite the smile she'd offered earlier, she'd been doing that with more frequency the longer they explored.

Ven tried to lighten the mood as he bit off a bit of bread and watched several crumbs fall to the ground. "Wouldn't it be funny if the others already found Sora by the time we got back?"

Aqua paused for a moment as Terra snorted. "I almost hope that's the case."

It really was difficult to gauge how long they'd been down there. They didn't get tired, Ven had noticed; they took breaks occasionally, and ate the food that Terra had packed, but Ven wasn't convinced they were necessary in the same way they were in the Realm of Light. They seemed like afterthoughts, meant to help them envision a form of normalcy.

Normalcy felt good down here.

A small pop filled the air. They looked up, but not in worry; they'd all gotten used to Chirithy appearing randomly without warning. The grey-striped cat stood close to Ven, watching them all carefully. Ven ripped off a piece of his bread and passed it over. He wasn't sure the being needed to eat - it never asked for anything - but he watched its small mouth nibble quietly on the food all the same.

"Find anything, Chirithy?" Aqua asked kindly. It often seemed skittish around anyone other than Ven, but she had quickly worked her way into its trust. Ven noticed that it still shied away from the much-larger Terra, though.

With a sigh, it shook its head. "Not a thing. Just Heartless, Heartless, Heartless." It took another nibble.

When Chirithy first appeared in the Land of Departure, Ven had been surprised - but not confused. It felt like a memory of a long-forgotten friend - and that's what it explained itself as. Aqua and Terra had been more hesitant to accept it, but they trusted Ventus, and Ven trusted it.

"So the first time I summoned a Keyblade must have been pretty cool, right?" he asked nonchalantly.

Chirithy snorted. "You'll have to try better than that."

Ven pouted. The creature was from his past - from before he'd become apprenticed to Master Eraqus, or even to Xehanort - but it refused to share anything with him about that. It always said something about memories being powerful and some being better forgotten.

He didn't want to forget. He wanted to know who he was.

However, he didn't complain when Chirithy crawled onto his lap. His heart knew better than he did, and he knew he'd remember when the time was right.

The dark landscape pulsed with an eerie energy as the group fell into silence again. Tall rock formations and gritty ground surrounded them; it was pretty in a sense, although he'd never admit that to the others. Ven looked at the crumbs that had fallen and wondered if they'd stay there, where they'd landed, forever. There was nowhere else for them to go, after all.

"So, what next?" Terra asked eventually.

"We continue."

"Aqua…"

"We'll find something," she responded, trying to sound determined, but a sliver of fear fell through her voice.

Ven shook his head. The problem, they'd soon realized, was that they didn't have a goal. When they first formulated this plan - to enter the Realm of Darkness - they'd had one idea: that if Sora had fallen into the Realm, maybe they could find him. So far, however, they'd seen nothing of the boy, and Chirithy's scouting missions had proven equally fruitless. They didn't even know if Sora had been in here.

But I do know he'll come back, Ven thought to himself. Shifting Chirithy aside, he stood up with the others and donned his armor once again. Of that one simple thought, he was sure.

A/N: There will be regular interludes in this fic, inspired by how the interludes in KH3 work - i.e. letting the player follow different avenues of the story other than just what Sora sees. In this case, interludes will appear for characters other than the Destiny Trio, when relevant. Please tell me what you think so far!