A/N: It's good to be back with some more of this fic :) If you're following this because you like Vanqua and didn't already notice, I posted another Vanqua fic a couple weeks ago. It's a oneshot titled "Bound by Sleep" if you want to check it out!

"Would be nice if your little tracker charm actually worked," Vanitas grumbled from where they hid behind a large rock.

On the other side, kids fought with powers he'd never seen before. Furious attacks that shattered the earth. Magical blasts that carved craters deep enough, someone could die just by falling in.

The enemies weren't Unversed, or Heartless, or any other creatures of the dark. These were humans. Humans that cried. Humans that bled.

Somewhere in the middle of the carnage, he had to find himself by himself. Aqua wasn't going to be any help.

I can't… Her nausea nearly made them retch. He summoned his helmet to cover their face, blocking out at least some of the stench of sweat and blood.

"This isn't right." Her voice was strained, nearly choking in their throat. "Keyblade wielders… they're not meant to fight like this."

He struggled to keep her grief from flooding him. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. He knew that, but what was he supposed to do? The X-Blade didn't give him the power to stop them from being idiots.

They'd dismissed the X-Blade for now, not wanting to attract dangerous attention. Instead they wielded Vanitas's Void Gear in their left hand and Aqua's Stormfall in their right. Vanitas just hoped she'd fight, if it came to that.

Of course I'll fight. Her internal voice somehow managed to sound determined and resigned at the same time. I was willing to fight you. I just…

Oh. Oh. He finally picked out the emotions leaking from her side of their heart. She wasn't just grieving for the dying wielders.

She was tormented with the knowledge that had things been different, she would have killed and died over the light, too.

"Master Xehanort was trying to recreate the Keyblade War," Vanitas whispered. "So yeah. This is what he put us through, just on a smaller scale."

"And the Masters are doing it to their apprentices again… or before." Her frown tweaked their lips.

Vanitas nodded, their eyes tracking one wielder who fled from a pack of three. He died with a bolt of light to the chest, only for the three teammates to immediately turn on each other.

"At least we had practice," Vanitas grudgingly said. "Looks like we're going to need it."

"Right." Their right hand tightened around her keyblade. "We won't find Ven by hiding."

That was all the discussion they needed. Moving as one in both body and mind, they slipped onto the battlefield.

Kingdom Hearts illuminated them like a searchlight. They hoped they were just being paranoid, but it felt like it was calling to them. Waiting for them to channel its light. Its power.

"No," they grunted while blocking a blast of Bizzaga with Void Gear. It shattered to snow around them, giving them a brief moment of cover.

But that meant they couldn't see, either. What if it had been Ven who'd targeted them?

The thought made them sick. If Ven had originally survived, he must have killed.

Vanitas must have killed. He didn't remember it.

Whatever. They were going to have to kill again. He accepted it. Aqua accepted it.

They still froze in shock when Stormfall pierced their first victim's ribs.

"You," Purple gasped out, her eyes wide. "Guess you… crushed me... after all."

"No, I—I didn't mean—" They tried to reach for her, forgetting that Void Gear was in their other hand. Shakily they thrust it towards the sky instead. "H-heal!"

Too little, too late. Purple's heart floated towards the sky, her corpse sliding off of Stormfall with a thud.

So small. Smaller than Ven. Her lifeless purple eyes reflected the glare of Kingdom Hearts above, before she shattered into motes of light that joined it.

Kingdom Hearts' light hadn't saved her.

Blasts of magic detonated around them, forcing them out of their shock. The light wouldn't save them, either. It just stared and stared, an ambivalent witness to the horrors committed in its name.

Survive now, philosophise later, one of them said. Maybe both of them. There was no dark or light, to divide them anymore. Nothing but the chaos of the battlefield.

They forced themself to stumble away before any more keyblade wielders could engage them directly. They had to find Ven, now.

They cartwheeled around a blast of rock, dove into the shadows beneath a massive laser, and kicked aside a boy who thought he could sneak up on them. They tried to save their blades for blocking, reinforcing them with a Barrier, but sometimes there was no way through but to fight.

So they fought. Each wielder's tearstained, dirt-streaked face stayed frozen in their mind. They had to force themself to look at each one—any of them could have been Ven. But once Stormfall and Void Gear batted them aside, they didn't look back.

What if he's…

He's not dead. We're still here.

Do we know that?

No. Yes. Maybe. They didn't know anything but exhaustion, though their status as forger of the X-Blade granted them enhanced endurance. Their reflexes were more agile than Aqua's or Vanitas's had been on their own, their skin quicker to heal beneath their dark suit.

It wasn't dying they were afraid of.

This isn't working. We need a plan.

Yeah? Let's hear it.

They grit their teeth, throwing up a Barrier just in time to stop a kid's Aeorga from sweeping them off into a trench.

We can't fight them all.

We need them to—

"STOP!" they shouted while pointing both keyblades towards the sky.

Blinding light enveloped them, arcing upward and shooting out in crossing black-and-white rings. As the rings expanded over the battlefield, children froze. It didn't matter if they were in the middle of casting spells, or clashing blades. An eerie silence took the place of blasts and screams.

They could breathe. They could think.

(They didn't want to think.)

Their Stopza wouldn't last forever. They summoned a burst of Aeroga, which gathered up the keyblades that had already fallen. With the wind and blades beneath their feet, they surged over crevices, around newly-formed mountains, searching, searching, searching—

There!

At the opposite side of the plains, a frozen Ven gaped up at Master Ava, her keyblade poised to strike. Their hiss blended with the rush of wind.

"He's mine."

They dropped Void Gear and Stormfall, scooped Ven off his feet, and slung him over their shoulder.

They didn't stop. The Graveyard was an unbroken plain before them. The wind propelled them forward, forward, until their stamina finally gave out.

They crashed to the ground in a heap of clanging blades and tangled limbs. Ven quickly pushed himself off of them, his breath coming in sharp gasps.

"Stay—stay back." His voice wavered as he held a sharp, unfamiliar keyblade in his backhanded stance.

They snorted and got to their feet, brushing dirt off the cloth hanging from their waist.

"You think I'm scared of a puny thing like that? Besides, if we wanted you to die, we would've let Ava finish the job."

Ven's brow furrowed, but his stance relaxed.

"Then… why did you save me? You're not from my Union. Even if you were… I don't think that matters anymore."

He frowned up at the sky. Kingdom hearts still shone in the distance, so far yet so close. They swore they could still feel its gravity.

They. They. Now that the battle was over, their goal accomplished, shouldn't their thoughts sift apart?

Vanitas… Aqua…

They'd saved Ven. But had they lost themselves?

"Um, Aqua? That's your name, right?" Ven spoke up again. "I remember you now. I never ended up finding Master Ava after all, and I couldn't find you again, either… but I guess it's a good thing I didn't, ha ha. She doesn't seem to like me very much."

"No one can afford to like each other anymore, it looks like." Vanitas-and-Aqua frowned.

"But you saved me anyway." Ven smiled a little. "Thank you. I thought I was a goner."

Their hand squeezed his shoulder, somewhere between tight enough to reassure and too tight to be comfortable.

"The world needs you, Ventus." Their eyes bored into his, and they swore they caught a flash of gold. "I—we need you. So whatever happens, don't fight. Okay?"

"O...kay?" His head tilted. "I'm just a nobody, but… if you say so."

"You're not nobody."

Was it Aqua, concerned for her friend? Was it Vanitas, afraid that Ventus's self-loathing would one day become his? They didn't know.

They shuddered and shut their eyes. All they saw was darkness.

"I—I have to go." They summoned the X-Blade. Its energy buzzed through them, healing the worst of their exhaustion, but it didn't make their thoughts any clearer. "Remember. Don't fight. Stay alive."

Ven's eyes widened as they again cast Aeroga over the fallen keyblades.

"Wait! What am I supposed to do out here—!"

If he said anything else, it was lost to the wind as they fled on a tide of steel.

XXX

Up, up, up. So high his vision was lost to the clouds. Kingdom Hearts' light reflected inside of them, leaving him trapped in a prison of light.

Strelitzia. He had to get to Kingdom Hearts before Stretlitza.

His first leap had only taken him so far, but by using both Ends of the Earth and the keyblade of heart as anchors, he scaled the vines, crossed the cloudline, and finally pulled himself onto a platform created by the biggest flower he'd ever seen. Its pink petals seemed to drink in the ethereal light.

At its center, where the petals converged, an orange-haired girl pointed her scythelike keyblade at the moon. She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of his approaching footsteps.

"I don't recognize you." Her voice was carefully neutral, but her grip tightened on her weapon.

"That makes two of us." Terra tried to take up his stance, but with two keyblades in his hands, he felt off-balance. Or maybe that was just the petals shifting under his feet. "Step aside."

Her pigtails shifted in the breeze. Her keyblade stayed steady, a thin trail of light connecting it to the moon above.

What was this girl's plan? Light couldn't destroy light, could it?

"Why?" she asked after a long moment. She was probably just trying to buy time.

Terra approached, each footstep sending up puffs of pollen.

"I need to save a friend." He didn't need to waste time telling the whole story. "Step aside.'"

"Whatever you think the light will help you do, you're wrong." Her voice stayed firm as the beam shooting into the sky. "I've seen this all before. It will destroy you."

She looked away, up to the heart-shaped moon.

"It will destroy everyone…"

"I won't let it." He held the keyblade of heart parallel to the ground. "The strongest keyblade wielder can remake the world."

Braig told him that Xehanort had said that. Could he trust him?

Could he afford not to? He'd already come this far.

"And you think that's you."

Terra could only see a sliver of the girl's face, but it was enough to see her lips twitch.

"That's what they all think," she said.

"I have the key to prove it! The hearts of the Princesses won't let me fail!"

She shook her head. She wouldn't even look at the Keyblade of Heart.

"Go back. Fight the Darklings." Her white cloak billowed in the wind and glowed with the power she channeled. "Resist the call of the Light."

He growled in frustration.

"What am I supposed to do? First they tell me not to use darkness, and now light is bad too?" He shook his head. "You know what I think? I think you're just afraid I could make better use of Kingdom Hearts than any of you!"

Strelitzia sighed.

"Then you know nothing. You want to make this a contest of strength, just like the Keyblade Wars of the past?"

"I just want Aqua back!"

He clashed his blades together, letting the scrape of metal on metal drown out his pounding heart. He didn't want to fight. He especially didn't want to strike a fellow warrior while her back was turned.

Maybe he didn't need to. He had the Key, after all.

Following Strelitzia's example, he thrust the Keyblade of Heart towards the sky.

XXX

Braig whistled.

"Man, if I were just any old dude, I'd have hit the jackpot."

He crouched on the white marble floor, where the X-Blade had been tossed aside like a worn out toy. A few feet away lay its current owner.

He stood and nudged the girl with his foot. No response.

Well. He really didn't want to stick around this weird castle long enough to find out what had knocked them unconscious. For all he knew, it could be the same thing that was tying knots in the timeline.

Whatever had been screwed up, it seemed fine now. Probably. He could remember the heart Aqua had joined with now, at least.

"This no interference clause is really grinding my gears," he muttered as he kicked the X-Blade back towards Aqua's-slash-Vanitas's hand.

They instinctively tightened their fingers around it. Good.

They let out a tiny grunt when Braig hefted them over his shoulder, but that was their only reaction. Hopefully he'd have them back at the Keyblade Graveyard before they even realized he was here.

"Alright, little Queen." He patted their back. "Time to get you back on the board."