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The next chapter for you! I'm also very glad for your comments, so don't be shy and if you like it, let me know.
Enjoy!
III
"Yeah, it's me," said Sora with a bright smile on his face.
When Aqua had seen him last time, he was a small boy, but all these years didn't change him much. There still was so much light in him. But on the other hand, Aqua saw how similar he was to Vanitas at that moment, and this confused her a little, but she decided to leave this matter for a better time.
Right beside him stood the second boy, which was Riku. She also recognized him, even though he had changed much more; he was tall and muscular, with short hair and determination on his face. His eyes lost their childish sincerity and were serious and wary. He had to have gone through a lot.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, coming closer.
"We were looking for you, Master Aqua," said Riku. "Me and Mickey went to the Realm of Darkness many times to search."
Aqua was taken aback by his words, she never thought that someone could be searching for her.
"Yes, we were looking for Terra and Ventus too, but Master Yen Sid said that only you would know where they are," added Sora with enthusiasm, but after that, his appearance changed, he became more serious and placed his hand on his chest.
"We didn't achieve much, but a few days ago I felt that something left my heart, some part that had been there almost all my life. I didn't understand what happened but after that, our friend told us that Castle Oblivion disappeared, so we came here to check it out. We were thinking that there must be some connection."
"There is." They heard a new voice and saw Ven who stood at the door of the castle. "You are Sora, right?" he asked as he also came closer.
Sora nodded.
"I'm Ventus, but call me Ven."
After these words, Ventus stretched his hand towards Sora, who shook it without hesitation.
"So it was your heart I had felt."
"Indeed, you save me. You gave my heart shelter when it needed it the most."
Hearing that Sora's smile widened and he placed his hands on the back of his head.
"No problem."
"Yeah, it's very touching and all, but can someone tell me who is that worst copy of me?" asked Vanitas, who stood a little in the back and still held the Keyblade in hand.
The two boys looked at him as if they had only now seen him. His weapon visibly alarmed them, but it was Riku who spoke first:
"And you are?"
"Not your fucking business," barked Vanitas in reply.
"Van! Language, please," said Aqua, which made him roll his eyes. "His name is Vanitas and he is Ven's brother," she added, simplifying everything as much as she could.
Fortunately, he wasn't going to correct her. To be honest, many times he had called himself Ven's brother, so it wasn't exactly a lie.
"I didn't know he had one," said Sora, still more excited than disturbed. "I'm Sora and I don't have any idea why we look so alike."
Vanitas shrugged.
"I can't care less. What is more important, why were you looking for her?"
"We are searching for the seven lights, seven Keyblade wielders, to help us finally defeat Xehanort."
"What? He lives?" Vanitas asked angrily.
"Yes, and he is gathering his allies," added Riku. Hearing that Vanitas looked at Aqua.
"You didn't kill him?"
Aqua took a deep breath and shook her head.
"Never said I did. I hoped that he was destroyed, but I didn't see it with my own eyes."
"Bloody brilliant," Vanitas cursed, and a second later he opened a dark corridor right behind him.
Before Aqua could say or do something, he disappeared in it, and after a moment later the path was gone.
"Where did he go?" asked Sora.
Suddenly Aqua felt a sharp pain somewhere in her chest.
"Probably he went back to his master," she said through a squeezed throat.
"You mean…"
"Yes. I think we have many things to discuss, please let me invite you to the castle," she added with the most neutral tone as she could muster, even though she wanted to scream.
The boys agreed and all of them went inside and toward the library.
Sora and Riku told them everything they knew about Xehanort and the remnants of Organization XIII and what they already did to stop them. Aqua listened to it carefully and tried not to think about Vanitas and his sudden departure. She would think about it later.
"So with me and Aqua, you have all seven people you need?" asked Ven.
"Yes, us four, King Mickey, Kairi, and Axel," listed Riku.
"Kairi? Is it possible that she has red hair and was living with her grandmother in Radiant Garden?" asked Aqua.
"It's definitely her," said Sora. "You know her?"
"We met one time and I cast a protective spell on her because I felt that she was in some kind of danger."
Riku pondered and scratched his chin.
"Maybe your spell worked because Kairi came to Destiny Islands under unexplained circumstances."
"And now she is a Keyblade wielder; it can't be a coincidence," added excited Sora.
"You are right. We all are connected," Aqua agreed.
Sora grinned and nodded, but after a moment he looked at Ven.
"But what's with you brother? Is he safe?"
Aqua saw that Ven's expression hardened.
"He can take care of himself," he replied through clenched teeth.
Riku noticed his nervousness and watching them suspiciously, asked:
"Do we need to know something about him?"
Ven looked at Aqua and sighed.
"He isn't my brother, not really, however, he calls me that. He is literally part of me. The dark one. Many years ago master Xehanort had split my heart into two parts. Extracted all the darkness from it and created the one we know as Vanitas."
"He was created from darkness?"
Ven nodded.
"But he isn't completely evil," added Aqua. "He helped us."
"So why did he leave?" asked Riku.
Aqua clenched her fists.
"I… I'm not sure."
"Get real, Aqua. He went back to him, to Xehanort. You can think good about him, but I'm afraid he will always choose his side."
Aqua felt like her heart sank when she heard Ven's words. Words that she was afraid of the most. Words that she couldn't deny even though she didn't want anything more.
"I don't believe that."
"You aren't objective in this matter."
"You neither," she replied.
She saw the confusion on the faces of Sora and Riku. They watched them with growing uneasiness. She shouldn't quarrel with Ven in front of their guests.
"He was our enemy," Aqua started to explain. "We fought with him. But many things have changed, he has changed, I know it. The only thing I don't know: if he can defy Xehanort's influence."
She saw a frown on Riku's face and at that moment she understood that he had similar experiences. He, the same as Terra, had some amount of darkness in his heart, so probably he knew how tempting that was. That power and strength could corrupt even the purest heart.
She thought about Vanitas. His heart wasn't pure at all, so it probably didn't take much darkness to change his mind.
Sora and Riku had left right after supper and had invited them the next day to the Mysterious Tower where they would meet with Master Yen Sid. Aqua remembered the old wizard very well, and she was fond of talking to him again.
Ven was strangely quiet when they stayed alone and went to his room very quickly. Maybe he was still angry with her and her faith in Vanitas.
Aqua didn't have the patience to convince him more, so she went to her office and came back to the work she had left there. But she had a problem with focusing on her task, she still was going back with her thoughts to Van and his actions. Why did he leave? What was his goal? Did he really want to join his old master? After all they went through together, could he abandon her?
She couldn't believe it, she knew him better than anyone, so she was sure he had some plan. Anger had spoken through Ven but she should be the composed one here. She couldn't allow her emotions to take the wheel, even though going after Vanitas was the thing that she wished to do the most.
That night she didn't sleep well and woke up very early. She had been ready to go long before Ven left his room.
She met him in the kitchen and noticed deep sadness on his face. He couldn't be worrying about Vanitas so the reason for it had to be different.
"Aqua…" he began right after that. "I wanted to apologize to you."
She looked at him with curiosity; she didn't expect an apology.
"I can't say that I understand your feelings, but I'm trying very hard to accept them. But yesterday, I had forgotten about it; I only felt anger that he had gotten away, that he had done exactly what I was afraid he would do in that situation. And now I know that you will feel betrayed, that you will suffer because of him, and it makes me even angrier. So I want to apologize to you for what I said, but I can't undo my words even if they harm you. You are wrong about him."
Aqua looked at him for a few seconds. She almost forgot that he wasn't her little, childish Ven anymore, he also grew up living in Sora's heart.
So she placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled a little.
"In that case, you must accept that I think that it is you who is wrong. I understand the differences between you, and I know how hard it is to go over them, but I think they blind you. But in the end, it doesn't matter, one way or another, one of us is wrong and I think that sooner than later we will get the answer."
Ven only nodded and after that, they ate breakfast without discussing this topic anymore.
The Mysterious Tower hadn't changed a bit and looked exactly like Aqua remembered it. Still, the building had that specific aura of magic that had called her in the past.
They entered the Tower and climbed up the rounded staircase. In Yen Sid's office, they met Sora and his friends. Aqua greeted King Mickey and recognized Kairi, the girl she had met once in Radiant Garden, and who was now a beautiful woman.
She also met Lea, alias Axel, who surprisingly was a friend of Ven. He was funny and very confused that everyone knew each other.
"With Aqua, Riku, and Mickey as Keyblade Masters, and with the rest of you, we have all seven Guardians of Light," began Master Yen Sid. "I regret that not everyone could join us, but I believe they will soon," saying that the old wizard looked at Aqua and Ven.
They nodded simultaneously.
"Leave it to us, we will bring Terra back home."
Master Yen Sid also nodded and looked at the rest of the group.
"We don't know the progress Master Xehanort has made, but we know his purpose, gathering Seekers of Darkness and leading to a clash between light and dark. Everything to forge the X-blade."
"We have to stop him!" said Sora with passion and Ven nodded with agreement.
"We will, but we need to act with caution. We can't lose any of you, and your power of waking still isn't fully restored, Sora."
Sora clenched his fists and his optimism visibly decreased.
"Don't worry Sora, we are with you, always," said Goofy, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Sora thanked him and said with more confidence.
"I will do it, I will find it. And then we will defeat Xehanort and Organisation XIII once for all."
"I hardly doubt that," said another voice next to the door.
Everyone turned around and Aqua felt her heart start to beat faster when she saw Vanitas leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed and a vicious smile on his lips.
"You!" yelled Sora. "What are you doing here?"
"Mainly I'm listening to this bullshit you are talking about."
"Stop that!" barked Ven coming closer.
"But it's true, you don't have any chance against Xehanort, not now. He is too strong and too clever for you. If you go now to him, it will be carnage."
The last words made everyone speechless.
"You are Vanitas, the dark being created by Xehanort itself, right?" asked Yen Sid.
"The one and the only."
"So why are you here? Did you abandon your master?"
The smile on Vanitas' face stretched.
"More or less, but he doesn't know about it... yet. You are lucky because, as much as I would like to watch the catastrophe he could make, now I want you to win this war, so you can count on my help."
"You want to spy for us?" asked Riku who first understood Vanitas' train of thought.
"Exactly, and with that maybe, just maybe, you will manage to be a treat for him."
"And we have to believe you just like that?" asked Mickey, who watched Vanitas with wary eyes. "How can we know that you are not a Xehanort spy?"
Vanitas shrugged.
"Do I look like I care about it?" he asked rhetorically then he went back to the topic. "For now Xehanort has with him ten allies. He needs three more to complete whatever he wants to do. He was talking about some time-travel shit, but it was too fucking crazy for me to remember. Nonetheless, he needs to wait for the rest of them. How long? I don't know, I didn't have a chance to look at his schedule. But he also needs you in his plans so he will be going to tell you somehow when he will be ready. So the only chance for you is to strike first when he won't expect that."
"It's not so simple, even if we attack now, he can easily run away. With the power of the Dark Corridors, he is hard to catch," said Riku, who was the most composed in Vanitas' presence.
"Right, and even if you manage to keep him in place somehow, he would destroy you with ease."
"So what can we do?" asked Sora.
"Hit at his allies. They are not so powerful and a few of them are quite stupid to be trapped."
"And where can we find these assholes?" asked Lea, ready to fight at any time.
The last question made a smile on Vanitas' face stretched even more. Now he looked like a predator ready to hunt.
"That is the part where you need me. I will give them to you on a silver plate. You only have to wait for my signal."
"I don't like it, you could lead us right into a trap," said Mickey with a frown.
Vanitas crouched next to him, so their eyes were on the same level.
"Listen, ratty, I don't care if you like it or not. If you want, please go to him now, and he will make himself a hat with these funny ears." With these words, Vanitas snapped him in his left ear.
"Get your hands off him," yelled Donald and stood between Vanitas and Mickey with wand in hand ready to protect his king.
Vanitas only laughed darkly.
"What a zoo! If I wanted I could burn you and eat you for dinner, duck. As I see you all are a pathetic bunch of idiots, I wonder why Xehanort has so much interest in you."
"How dare you!" screamed Donald.
Vanitas stood up and went to the door.
"Do what you want, if you want to die, be my guest," saying that he left the room, leaving everyone in deep confusion.
First from the shock woke Aqua, and without another word, she went after him.
"Van, wait!" She caught up to him before he entered the Dark Corridor.
He turned around and looked at her with visible irritation.
"What? Spare me your lecturing, I don't have time for it".
Aqua stopped, seriously taken aback by his angry words.
"I'm not here to lecture you."
"So why didn't you say something there? I didn't sign up for bubbling with these idiots!"
She wasn't sure if she correctly understood the source of his anger, but it seemed he was angry because she didn't vouch for him in front of others.
Under other circumstances, it could be funny, because then she thought that if she said something it would only worsen everything.
She sighed and came closer to him. Despite his harsh words, she managed to smile.
"I'm very glad that you came. I was afraid that Xehanort could harm you."
Vanitas was a little surprised by her words but quickly regained his usual attitude.
"I'm smarter than him, and moreover, he believes that I'm one of his most loyal men. I can't wait to see his face when he realises his mistake."
There was so much cruelty in Vanitas' voice, but still Aqua had to fight the urge to embrace him. She was right after all, he hadn't betrayed them, he only had other methods of action.
"Be careful," she said at least.
Vanitas snorted but also smiled mischievously.
"You know that I won't."
After that, he stepped closer and kissed her without hesitation; deeply, eagerly, as if he knew, he wouldn't have another opportunity for it for a very long time.
She didn't have time to answer properly, as he broke the contact and stepped into the corridor.
"Wait for my signal," he added and disappeared into the darkness.
Aqua stood there for a while, still feeling his lips on her own, and she had a hard time fighting the tears. But after a moment she clenched her fists and turned around.
There was no time for sorrow, they had a war to win.