Disclaimer: I do not own ANY part of Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape, or form. I own NOTHING!

Chapter 2

The Leaving Song

Syringes filled with bright green fluid. The harsh, shrill hum of fluorescent light overhead made her wince. A man in a lab coat with eyes the same color green as the fluid squinted at her. Another man strapped her down onto the cold metal of the examining table. Needles plunged into both her arms and each side of her neck.

She kicked. She screamed. But it was too late. It was already in her.

Above her, she could see that the other man who strapped her down wasn't a man at all. She knew that face. She knew those blue eyes. She knew that blue hair. It was…her.

FLASH

Kairi was unconscious, lying unknowingly on the sand. The tide was coming in, sweeping more and more of her away with each ebb and flow. She was dissolving as if she were made of little more than air itself.

She ran, the sand of the beach unbearably thick, slowly but surely turning into quicksand. She was sinking. She continually had to haul her legs out of the muck and mire.

When she reached Kairi, she screamed for her to wake, but no sound came out. Her lungs were too full of muddy sand. She shook her, and she suddenly turned into Sora. She shook Sora, and he turned into Ven. She shook Ven, and he turned into Terra.

FLASH

The wayfinders were broken. Their pieces scattered along the lavender cobblestone that marked The Land of Departure's entrance. The glass cut her fingers. Crawling around on all fours, she tried in vain to find all the pieces and put them back together.

Xehanort knelt next to her. She extended the shattered pieces to him, tears swelling in her eyes.

"Please…"

He slapped the pieces out of her hands, shoved her onto her back, and plunged his Keyblade into her heart.

Darkness erupted from inside her, spreading from her heart to all her other limbs, its tentacles wrapping around her head, threatening to take her eyes.

Nearby, Terra and Ven stood watching. Instinctively, she reached for them. But their eyes were yellow - Xehanort's yellow.

FLASH

There was so much blood she didn't know where it was coming from. It spilled from his head. It stained his pale robes. It even dripped from the throne beneath him.

The Master gazed through the giant, circular stained glass window behind her. "I failed. I had the chance to stop him and I couldn't do it." His eyes cut to her. "But I will not fail again."

She didn't know what he was talking about she nodded as if she did. His ravings were incoherent, but she wanted to give him peace. He deserved that much.

Master Eraqus lunged out of his throne. Madness and blood were in his eyes as he desperately grabbed hold of her.

Violently, he shook her. "You must bring him back!"

As consciousness returned, her first thoughts were of Ven. They were murky thoughts, far from fully formed, but they were enough to breadcrumb her away from the vicious cycle of magic-induced nightmares.

You must bring him back!

Fueled by incoherent panic, she shot upright, but the movement was too much. As quickly as she'd shot up, the magic shoved her back down.

"Ven," she whimpered, fighting with everything she had to stay awake and sort out what had been a dream and what was real.

Terra's magic was still in her. It lingered, weighing her down, keeping her pinned. All her muscles refused to cooperate. They still obeyed his magic. Any signals from her brain were politely ignored.

What had happened? Where was she? Where were the others?

Her eyelids were heavy. Fog lingered behind her eyes. Everything was still blurry and muffled, but she could make out some of the shapes and colors of her room.

"I'm…here…"

She had never been so relieved to hear his voice in her entire life. Tears gathered in her eyes and leaked down her cheeks.

Blinking away the last of the fog, she could see Ven hovering over her, holding her hand.

His sweet face was tear-streaked. His eyes were puffy and red. But he seemed as relieved as she was. There was a small smile on his lips as he squeezed her hand.

He's okay...and his eyes are blue...

Relief and lucidity continued to wash over her in waves, but confusion took root too, paralyzing her. All she could do was lie there and hold Ven's hand. Her brain was still muddled and the magic was too present for her to do much else, but even so, something inside her was still crying for action. Muscles jerked and twitched, insisting there was something she needed to do. She just couldn't quite place what yet.

She was in her room with Ven. They hadn't killed her. They hadn't taken her or Ven away. But…why?

Even with Ven's help, she failed several times before she was finally able to lift her head, but once she successfully sat upright (or as upright as she was currently capable of), she saw Terra's old wooden Keyblade at Ven's side on the floor.

Unfortunately, Ven had found the damned thing shortly after Xehanort brought him here, and imprinted on it for some unfathomable reason. He trained with it, but sometimes he just wanted it as one wants a security blanket. Now must be one of those times.

Aqua thought about crushing it to splinters countless times but couldn't bear to take anything that gave Ven comfort away…even if it was his.

The sight of Terra's old toy brought everything back with a jolt of savage clarity, but her body was still catching up. It felt like she was trying to move through hot tar. Simply lifting her head and sitting up was as difficult as lifting a ship.

"Are they gone?" she asked. "Did they leave?"

"Yeah."

"Did they say anything to you?"

Ven shook his head.

Aqua flattened her palms against her bedding, using her arms like props to keep her body upright. "How long was I out?"

"Hours."

Damn.

What now? What were they supposed to do? What could they do? Kairi and Sora were likely on their way to the labs. They could even be in the labs already, being poked and prodded. She had no way of knowing, but she could feel that they were gone. Xehanort wanted them out of her reach. And for some reason, Xehanort clearly didn't want her dead…yet.

Her head was spinning again and not just because of the lingering magic.

Another wave of paralysis hit, causing her to drag her heavy knees to her chest and fold in on herself. She didn't know how long she stayed like that, her brain bashing itself against her skull again and again as it tried to find a miraculous solution that didn't exist.

Their options were limited. They could stay here, pretend nothing happened, and just wait for Xehanort to come back (and he would be back), or she could try to intervene.

Leaving had its risks. Staying had its risks. But staying and waiting felt a lot like being a pawn, and she just couldn't stomach that. Compliance was no longer an option. She couldn't do it. Not anymore.

"I need you to listen to me very carefully, Ven." Aqua unfolded and placed a hand over his.

He blinked, but his eyes were surprisingly clear. Present.

"They are going to take Kairi and Sora away," she said slowly.

"Sora and…Kairi?" His concern was evident in every wrinkle on his face and inflection of his voice.

"Mm." She nodded, her eyes threatening to flutter closed again. "They may have taken them already. We might be too late, but we still have to try to help them."

Ven gave a very firm nod of agreement that cemented her resolve. It was all the reassurance she needed.

Traveling with Ven - while not easy - was not impossible. Luckily, he had started accompanying her on some of her easier missions. The Master agreed that it would likely aid in his recovery. He had relearned how to use his glider, and on good days, he could keep up and follow as long as they didn't do too much or go too far.

The biggest obstacle would be the monsters.

Xehanort's new world was unstable. It was a hodgepodge of all three realms like he wanted, but the Realm of Darkness was a parasite. It spread every day, spitting out yellow-eyed Heartless and engulfing any city or village in the neighboring realms unfortunate enough to be too close.

The Realm of In Between (or Ream of Twilight as some called it) had a similar problem. It didn't spread, but in addition to Heartless, it had its own monster problem - ghostly white things called Nobodies.

Unfortunately, both Heartless and Nobodies leaked into the Realm of Light. Some areas were simply worse than others depending on how close they were to each realm.

Since they were going to Twilight Town, Aqua was more concerned with the Nobodies. Twilight Town was Realm Between territory. Nobodies were more likely here, but Heartless were almost everywhere now too.

Ven wasn't incapable of defending himself. He remembered a surprising amount of original training thanks to muscle memory, but he tired easily and there was always the risk of him getting lost in his own head. When that happened, he'd just…stop.

They'd arrived without incident, and the town itself wasn't difficult to navigate. They'd visited not too long ago, which helped. But, like always, there were plenty of the Overlords' Seekers and Guardians around.

In places like Twilight Town, their primary objective was to keep the streets clean of monsters (they didn't want all of their citizens dead), but Aqua could have some kind of bounty on her head by now, which still made them dangerous - more dangerous rather. Both branches of the supposed peacekeepers were as corrupt as the Overlords who deployed them.

She kept her head low whenever they were forced to cross their paths. They regarded them like any of the other citizens, which told her that they weren't on her trail yet - at least not here.

But they would be, and they had to get to the other side of town before that happened.

Aqua was pushing Ven too hard. He probably needed a break, but they couldn't stop. They were on borrowed time. They were so close, and she didn't want to risk waiting around in town. She felt so naked and vulnerable here, which was odd. Twilight Town had always been a comforting place. It always felt like a warm summer afternoon with a belly full of ice cream. But not anymore. It felt threatening now, but she supposed she would feel that way regardless of where she was. Every step she forced them to take was a further act of defiance.

The orange cobblestones receded and morphed into strands of emerald turf. They had made it to the forest on the outskirts of town, but the woods were full of Nobodies. They sprung to life as soon as their feet hit the rich, green grass.

The Nobodies were low-rank, but there were still a lot of them. They came springing out of the dark, popping out from under the shadows made by the thick trees. Long, white limbs clawed away at their skin, slicing at any piece of them they could before their Keyblades reduced them to a puff of sparkling chalky dust.

Ven held out for a while, but they had been going for too long. That on top of the stress became too much.

He stopped.

Somewhere within all the fighting, he dropped his Keyblade and fell to his knees.

Aqua cursed under her breath as she cut through yet another Dusk.

Individually, this particular breed of Nobody could be done away with quickly enough. They were more of a nuisance than anything. But the numbers were the problem, especially now that Ven was down.

It was like a switch flipped. Suddenly, it was like she didn't exist to them. They honed in on Ven with an aggression they hadn't demonstrated prior.

"Hold on, Ven!" she cried as she rushed toward him, fire forming in her palm. "I'm coming!"

Out of nowhere, a sharp pain cut across the back of her leg. The first strike only caused her to stumble, but before she could recover, there was another quick succession of slices cutting away at the back of both her legs.

With a wail, Aqua was forced to her knees and quickly realized that a higher-ranked Nobody with razor-sharp, wing-like appendages called an Assassin had emerged from the ground. They were sneaky pests that preferred to hide underground and attack you from behind.

She pulled herself back to her feet despite the pain's powerful objections. Angry, she blasted fire a the ground around her, hoping it would connect with wherever the Assassin burrowed to, but she couldn't tell if the spell hit or not.

Her feet kept moving. She refused to be still long enough to risk being cut down again.

A flicker of white shot up by her ankle, only a few inches from the bottom of her foot. It didn't hit her, but the jolt was still enough for her to hop backward.

Desperate to get to Ven, she resorted to carelessly stabbing Rainfell into the ground again and again until an effective blow landed.

Finally, after digging into the earth for what felt like the hundredth time, she felt her Keyblade shudder against the Nobody's squishy head. It lodged deep into it and the ground itself before the resistance finally stopped and she saw the long-awaited puff of white smoke, signaling defeat.

"Ven!" she cried again as she hauled Rainfell out of the ground, taking chunks of rich orange earth and moss with her.

By the time she reached him, he was buried under a pile of writhing Dusks. She couldn't even see him anymore. All she could do was swing her Keyblade around in a frenzy to heave them off. If she used magic, she'd risk hitting Ven somewhere in the mass.

"Get. Off. Of. Him!" Each word was accompanied by another blow blasting more and more Nobodies off of him.

Aqua used magic to heal him as soon as she was able to touch him, but he remained unconscious. She didn't know if it was because of the Dusks or simply because Ven had reached his limit. Regardless, she hoisted him onto her back and resumed the journey out of the woods.

The back of her legs burned. She could feel the warmth of her blood soaking into her stockings, but she couldn't stop to heal herself. If they stayed still for too long, more Nobodies could show up, and since she now knew these woods were capable of holding high-rank Nobodies, she wasn't willing to risk it.

When the abandoned mansion's tall iron gate came into view, she got a second wind. The boost in adrenaline was just enough to push her up the path.

"We're almost there." She adjusted Ven on her back with a wince. "Just a little further."

Aqua managed to ignore the pain in her legs as she busted through the gate and even made it through the dilapidated courtyard filled with crumbling white columns, but as soon as they got through the door and crossed the mansion's threshold, she collapsed to her knees.

"Sorry," she mumbled as Ven fell over next to her. She doubted he felt or heard anything, though.

Her hands couldn't get to her seething legs quick enough. She blanketed them in several layers of magic from the back of her knee all the way down to her ankles' tendons. It wasn't until she pulled her hands away and saw them covered in blood that she realized how ripped to shreds she'd been.

As the magic continued to seep into her, she glanced around the space. The mansion's interior was just as broken down as always. It was nothing but rust, shattered statues, crushed glass, and cobwebs. The intense warmth and orange hues of Twilight Town were so intense that the mansion itself had seemed to absorb it despite the wreckage.

Legs still tingling from the magic, she rose to her feet and hauled Ven back onto her back.

It had been a while since she'd been here. She couldn't quite remember which rooms were which or which rooms were whose. All she could remember was that DiZ's hidden room was somewhere upstairs, so she'd figured she'd start there.

"Aqua?"

Riku emerged a the top of the stairwell, leaning against the railing. Clad in a black coat, he still had that black blindfold over his eyes.

Aqua was relieved to see him, but the relief didn't last long. She was immediately unsettled by how expectant his expression was. He wasn't surprised to see them.

She smiled weakly. "Hi, Riku."

"It's good to see you," he said with a smile of his own. He genuinely meant it, but Riku was smart. She could tell he was trying to get a read on them and the situation. "Naminé said you'd come."

Aqua's heart dropped. How much did he know? Did he know his best friends were probably lab rats by now?

Her eyes favored the busted banister nearby. "What else did she say?"

"Nothing. Said it wasn't her place to explain. She only said you were coming."

She wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. A part of her wished Naminé had told him. Her heart broke at the mere thought of having to do so herself. Aqua knew how much Sora and Kairi meant to Riku. How she could ever break this news to him? It could destroy what was left of him.

He leaped down the stairs toward them. "You guys are hurt…"

"We're fine, but I don't have much time." Aqua shifted Ven's position on her back, his arm dangling lifelessly over her shoulder. "Is DiZ here?"

Riku's mouth curved downward subtly. "What happened?"

"...It's bad."

In the mansion's dim dining room, surrounding a busted table, she told them everything. In fact, she probably told them more than was necessary, but none of them had said a word.

DiZ was in deep thought, his hand gliding back and forth over his cloth-covered chin. Standing nearby, unable to sit, Riku was somewhere lost between disbelief and raw horror. Naminé, who had gravitated to the corner divan with Ven, was blanketed in nothing but somber knowing.

The silence that followed was unbearable, so she broke it herself.

"I'm not here to get all of you roped into this. It's my mess."

As the former sage king of what was now Hollow Bastion, Aqua knew DiZ had his own plans for the Overlords. He wanted revenge, but since his exile, he had taken a cold, calculated approach. He had been working patiently for a long time, too long for her to come around and spoil it all.

Aqua and Eraqus knew he played both sides, but it wasn't their place to meddle. DiZ never did anything outright malevolent himself (although many of the Overlord's current research and practices in the labs originated with DiZ). At the end of the day, he wanted to protect the realms as much as they did. But there were few lengths he wasn't willing to go to in his search for vengeance, which meant that he still helped the Overlords if it brought him closer to his ultimate goal.

He bargained with them, made himself useful. He did whatever it took to keep the Overlords happy so they wouldn't turn on him or come sniffing around his mansion. Obviously, this strategy worked—at least for now.

"I just need a safe place for Ven," she continued, casting her gaze back to the still unconscious boy in question. "I doubt they'll come looking for him. He's pretty worthless to them at this point and not much of a threat. But if he could stay here? If Naminé could use her powers to hide him…"

Naminé was a seer. Like Riku, she had served the Overlords in Hollow Bastion a while. But while Riku was there by choice, Naminé had been taken because of her powers as a seer, and the Overlords were obsessed with seers.

Seers didn't exist in the old world. They were something that came about when the war ended and the realms merged. They came to life with other new forms of magic. However, their powers were nothing like the magic Aqua controlled. They could see the future, even see into people. Their powers were unique and terrifying.

Naminé was another reason DiZ was able to do what he did. The Overlord's Seer Sages couldn't see her. As a seer, she was immune to other seers' abilities (and vice versa).

"I'm sure they've already seen me and my intentions. I'm probably under too much scrutiny by now, but with Ven being Ven, I doubt they'll notice if he is suddenly off the radar. Xehanort always kind of gave the impression that they had trouble keeping tabs on him anyway." In truth, Aqua didn't completely understand the Seer Sages' or even Naminé's powers. She was just hoping for the best.

DiZ glanced at Naminé to confirm the validity of this.

Naminé gave a gentle nod. "He should be safe here. I've also noticed Ven's thoughts and pathways are different. I'll try my best to blot out the part where you brought him here."

"Can you do that?" Aqua asked, apprehensive.

"Mm." She laced her fingers together in her lap. "I can't hide everything you've done from them since you're being watched so closely, but I can take Ven's pieces away. As long as they haven't already seen them. Think of it as first come, first served."

Aqua nodded, then a heavy silence fell over them.

"What are you planning to do, Aqua?" DiZ asked calmly but pointedly.

"I'm going after Sora and Kairi," she answered as if it were obvious.

Riku stepped forward. "I'm going too."

"I forbid it!" DiZ snapped, his fingers digging into the chair's armrests.

"But -" Riku took another beseeching step forward.

"Naminé hiding Ventus is risky enough. I'm not getting more involved in this than I already am." DiZ's voice was once again flat and matter-of-fact as he turned his attention back to the busted table in the center of the room.

Aqua reached out and touched Riku's arm. "You don't have to come with me. But if you could give me a map of all their major labs? If you could just give me some insight? I'll take any information you have that might be useful."

Riku knew things. He had been a Seeker. Ansem saw his potential and recruited him at a young and vulnerable age (as was protocol). He got the power of the Keyblade from Terra and was well on his way to taking Ansem's place as Overlord. Until he woke up. He absconded but didn't go back to the islands. There was too much shame and guilt. So he ended up here with DiZ. What exactly he wanted in the form of redemption or penance, Aqua couldn't say.

Despite all he'd done, Kairi and Sora missed Riku. They talked about him every she saw them. They never stopped looking for him, but Riku didn't want to be found. Not by them and Aqua - despite the guilt - felt it wasn't her place to divulge his whereabouts. It was between them. The best she could do was insist that he was fine and would return once he was ready.

Pain was all over Riku's face now. The muscles around his mouth were tight, his pale brow scrunched together, and his hands knotted at his sides.

"I'll tell you everything I know."

"Resources, we can provide," DiZ agreed as he rose to his feet and strolled around the table. "Come."

DiZ and Riku took her up to the library, pulled back the dusty curtains, and spread countless maps out onto a large ombre table.

The maps reminded her of the ones she and the Master had been working on, but this one was different. There was much more detail, which wasn't surprising. DiZ had his technology, his research. And Riku was probably running everywhere doing recon. Not to mention everything Naminé was able to give them.

But it was similar to her maps in that it was always changing, covered in marks and scribbles showing where the Realm of Darkness had spread, areas where Nobodies and Heartless were particularly active.

"High-priority research is done in Hollow Bastion," Riku explained, pointing to its spot on the map. "But they have little labs, training centers, and prisons everywhere, even in the most inhospitable parts of the Dark Realm."

Aqua placed her hands on the table and leaned toward the map. "If you had to guess, where do you think they would have sent them?"

Riku scratched at his head. "Hard to say. I don't know how much of a priority they were…or weren't. I'd say they either took them straight to Hollow Bastion or somewhere off the grid where it would be harder for us to find them, especially if they were already suspecting you might come after them."

As Aqua looked at all the spots labs could be hidden, there was a moment of hesitation. Hopelessness crawled up her spine and threatened to lodge itself into her nape, right against her brainstem.

"Finding them now will be like finding a needle in a haystack. This endeavor will be challenging to say the least." DiZ placed a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Aqua, I know you have been through a lot, but I must insist that you really think about what you are about to do."

"What's the alternative?" she asked, lowly but sincerely. Her eyes remained glued to the map. "I can't stay here because that endangers all of you. I feel too much guilt to just go back home and do nothing while Sora and Kairi suffer. And even if I did go back home, best-case scenario, I hold out until Ven is healthy enough for Xehanort's scheming. Then they'll come for him, and I will die before I let them take him away from me." Her hands clenched at her sides. "No matter how you cut it, I'm on borrowed time. At least this way, we might still have a chance... I'm not going down without a fight."

The room was heavy. Suddenly, neither of them could look at her.

Aqua stepped toward DiZ, forcing him to meet her gaze. "But if you can come up with a better plan, if there is another path I could take…" Her voice trailed off, growing weak as she cradled her hands over her heart. "Please, tell me. I would love another option."

DiZ took in a long, deep breath as he finally gained the courage to look at her. Solemn, he could only say: "I am sorry."

The thick sound of pastels on paper filled the much-too-white room as Aqua tried again and again to gain the courage to leave.

She began to doubt if she could.

Ven was so content and drawing with Naminé. There was a simple, child-like joy to it that reminded her of how much had been stolen from him and how young he technically was.

Sitting at the head of the long table, he drew picture after picture and showed each one to Aqua with pride, and each time she praised him.

The ticking of the white coo-coo clock on the equally white wall was becoming unbearable. Every click and tink of the gears was a torturous reminder that she had to move. She had to leave. Her time was running out. Every second that passed was a second closer to capture or death. Every minute, her odds of success dwindled further and further away. Time was an ally to the Seer Sages. Not her. She had to go and she had to go now, but her heart wouldn't let her.

"He'll be safe." Naminé placed a warm hand on top of hers. "I'll do everything in my power to protect him. I promise."

Aqua glanced at her and couldn't keep her eyes from going to all the drawings plastered on the walls. She knew they were visions, a language only Naminé could translate, and she found herself wanting to beg for one of those pictures. She wanted to know what was to become of them. She wanted proof that Ven would be okay once she left. She wanted to know what would happen if she didn't come back. She wanted to know what was at the end of this path she'd chosen.

There was so much that she needed before she'd be truly comfortable leaving, but she also knew that Naminé could fill a notebook full of visions and futures and it still wouldn't be enough. Nothing could make this easier.

While he was still sketching away (and while she still had the courage), she got up and knelt beside him. She placed her hand on his head.

"I know it's kind of a lonely place, but you'll be safe." She tousled his hair. "And I promise, I'll be back before you know it."

He wasn't quite there anymore. He was somewhere else, lost between every stroke of pastel and crinkle in the paper, but maybe that was for the best. Maybe he didn't need to know. Maybe that would make the separation easier.

Aqua hovered a while, stroking the back of his head and committing everything about him to memory: the edges of his smile, the crinkle in his brow, the curve of his cheekbones, the exact hue of blue hiding in his eyes.

After running her fingers through his blond hair once more, she finally stood upright and turned her attention to Naminé.

"Thank you, Naminé." Something inside Aqua knew that this was the safest place for Ven. Naminé would keep her promise. And this was the greatest kindness she could give him. It might even be the last, but she couldn't dwell on that.

Naminé beamed, a warm light Aqua wouldn't have thought could come from a seer radiated out of her. "You're welcome."

When she left the room, she didn't say goodbye. Goodbye felt permanent, and she didn't want this to be any more permanent than it already was.

Outside the mansion, Aqua used some of the busted rubble as a table and spread one of the maps from Riku and DiZ out along its surface.

Her strategy at this point was to go to the nearest lab and simply work her way out. It seemed as good a plan as any. Using one of the crayons she'd taken from Naminé, she knelt to the ground and mapped out her first route.

The crayon glided along the map's grainy surface until a shadow loomed over her, blocking the afternoon sunlight like an eclipse. Peeking up, she saw Riku.

"I'm coming with you," he stated matter-of-factly, a black coat identical to his - which she assumed was for her - tossed carelessly over his shoulder.

Aqua sighed heavily and leaned back on her haunches. "You shouldn't."

"Remember when you said you felt guilty to stay and wait?"

She nodded.

"Well, I am too." His voice was firm. Uncompromising. "I can't not help Sora and Kairi."

Aqua thought seriously about arguing with him, about pointing out all the reasons this would be a horrible move for him and maybe even the others. But that would make her a hypocrite. So she let him sit next to her on the ground and inspect the route she'd marked on the map.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!