It was the strangest sight he had seen in a while. He could see the hero of light being struck by his father as he hid in the shadows. He had promised his brothers that he would always stick close as their shadows afterall.
After being freed from being Xehanort's vessel and apprentice he was now free… to be whatever he pleased. Vanitas slightly flinched when he heard the all too familiar shatter of glass against Soras's scalp and the heavy thud of a body falling. Having seen enough from soras abuse, vanitas melded out of the shadows of the nearby palm tree and slowly and quietly approached behind sora's father. Just as Sora's father was going to kick Soras unconscious form vanitas kicked Sora's father firmly planted foot from the heel catching him off guard making him fall hard on his chin first onto the wet sanding tiles of the floor.
"Hey old man, haven't you heard? Pick on someone… your own size!"
'Gods' thought vanitas 'That sounded so cliche.'
Soras' father picked himself up from the floor holding and rubbing his bruised chin. He looks at vanitias surprised as he looked like a complete duplicate of sora with the obvious slight differences.
"Who're you?!
Another kid of that bitch!" glowers sora's father.
He picks up the neck of the shattered bottle and lunges at Vanitas who side steps effortlessly.
He jumps back from the man a good six feet away from him. Clouds of darkness extend from under vanitas as he summons his unverse. They jump around nervously jumping and attacking sora's father. vanitas takes the opportunity of the distraction and grabs sora by the waist. He runs to another section of the plane leaving trails of soras blood dripping behind in his escape.
-o-
Sora is put down roughly against the palm tree, his body limp like elastic. Vanitas slapped Sora's face trying to wake him but determined that he was out cold good.
Vanitas grumbles with a couple of choice words as he checks on Soras breathing and physical condition.
Sora had sustained a nice big bruise on the back of his head that was still bleeding although sluggishly now and a couple of scrapes along his arms and legs that were bleeding.
'Did they ever design clothes for safety?' thinks vanitas agitatedly.
He determines that sora will be fine and pops out a potion from his inventory and spills it all over sora's head. Some of the potion spills but a majority heals the big bruise on Sora's head and scrapes on his body stemming the blood flow and ceiling the wounds shut.
The stress lines and pained look on sora's face reced slightly as the pain slowly ebbs away.
Vanitas catches himself smiling at his light half. He smacks himself with both leathered hands. becoming angry with himself.
"Get a grip! If this idiot hadn't gotten himself in danger I wouldn't hafta be here and babysitting the sap!"
Vanitas crouches in front of sora.
"I'm not like you. I'm darkness and you are light" vanitas says as he points from himself to sora. "I am a protector for you and our other sap of a brother when you are at your times of absolute needs… now that I have no master I am free to do as I please and so should you. You have already saved those worthless 'friends' of yours and their worlds countless times, you don't need the approval of someone like Yen Sid to be a 'Master'" Vanitas spits out the last word.
Vanitas groans as he disheveles his hair. "Why is it so easy to talk to you?" Vanitas gets up and shuffles sora's hair and surprised it to be soft as Chocobo hair. Interested in the recent events he decides to keep a closer eye on sora.
Vanitas melts back under the shade of a palm tree observing him from the shadows.
-o-
Sora groans as he wakes up to a mild headache. He blinks his eyes wearily trying to stave off some of the dizziness. He looks around wondering where he was presently. He wishes he had a glass of water.
He felt a heavier weight in his hand with a familiar circular circumference. He drank from the cup greedily, his adam apple bobbing up and down from each gulp. He almost threw it back up from drinking it too fast. He crouches on the ground on all fours waiting for the nausea to pass.
"I thought I had seen my dad…" He says slowly to himself and rubs the back of his head to find no lump behind there. "Huh, must've been a dream"
Sora picks himself up and looks at his surroundings. He walks forward and almost trips in the deep trench of sand.
Looking around he realizes that the disheveled sand is the starting point of the sand drawn compass that his copy had drawn for him to follow beforehand. He hadn't realized how deep he had drawn it until he almost fell in it.
Sora looks behind himself to see the pathway to the library (now labeled shelter), not far ways off. He sighs as he ruffles his hair. He feels a sting and removes his hands to see a minimal amount of wet blood and flakes of dried blood and skin on his fingers.
"W-What?-"
"Hey! So did ya find what you were looking for?" asks the familiar voice who had guided him earlier.
Sora looks up and sees his younger scrawny self beaming at him with a smile.
"Er… I… I don't know. I think I saw dad."
Soras younger self pales and looks at him in shock.
"YOU SAW DAD!?"
Sora blinks and nods solemnly as he shows his bloody hand.
"I'm pretty sure I did, I sure did not inflect these wounds on myself."
Younger sora bites his thumb nail in distress.
"This might be bad, we have to know why he's here or better yet try to figure out how to get you home faster"
"What do you think I've been doing?" snaps Sora, looking at the shock of the younger one's face he relaxes his shoulders and closes his eyes with a sigh. "No, no, I mean yes I mean I'm sorry for snapping at you." Sora looks away sheepishly holding his hands up in peace.
"I agree I have to find a way out of here ASAP…" Sora continues "I saw someone earlier, a person's strong heart and they had said some strange things. They said I had great strength and other confusing gibberish"
His younger self shuffles his feet with his hands behind his back and kicks the sand slightly.
"but You do and we'll figure out a way to get you out of here. I think this has much to do with dad as much it has to do with you, er... us."
Sora stretches his arms high and cracks his back with a grunt.
"Well, no use worrying about it right now without any clues. I'd better get some rest and try to figure this out tomorrow."
Sora heads to the library as the world dipped into midnight.
His younger self watches as his present self walks ahead, unable to move within the parameter of his surroundings his shouts of a warning went unheard as someone trailed behind the faint trail of watery and diluted blood.
-o-
Riku bit his thumb nail in silent frustration as he glared at cid and his dumb computer. He felt he could swing his blade any moment and smash cid and his computer to bits.
It's been a year of dreams of him, searching and more endless searching. He looked everywhere for Sora and he wasn't going to give up on him now either.
"Como'n cid! Throw us a bone or something why dont'cha?!"
The statement from yuffie brings riku out of his daze and pays back attention to cid and the group quite not from the traverse town world.
Cid grunts in frustration. He slams his cigarette down on the wooden table crushing the half lit. He gets up and turns around, his arms across his chest.
"What'cha think I've been doing this whole time 'ere?!
Shoo, scram all of yer' I hear'at new'er cafe been bustling. How about you explore ol' traverse town while I work on this, eh?"
At the distrusting look of the group cid adds:
"I think I got somethin' but I outta check it out thoroughly before I give yall false hope."
"I want to stay in case something happens! What if you need me? Or worse you're in danger." argues Riku firmly.
"Listen son, there ain't much you can do currently. You've done your part now go on and relax and explore why dont'cha?"
Cid flexes his muscles showing off his muscular arms.
"Don't take my guns for granted just cuz ima bit old son, besides - Don't take this Cetra gal over here lightly. she's no flower girl when she wants to be and don't forget good old leon." says cid as he slams his hand on leons back.
Aerith blushes madly as she looks away saying 'oh cid!'
The room bursts into humorous laughter from the group.
-o-
Riku begrudgingly decided to take a break from his seemingly endless search for the hero of light, exploring a traverse town with Yuffie.
They walk through the second district, Yuffie inciting Riku to common. Yuffie glorifies over a new set of oriental decorative shurikens and bargaining with the shopkeeper to lower the price.
Somehow, Yuffie haggled with the shopkeeper and they met halfway on the price. Seeing yuffie like this kind of impressed him.
Riku laid down at the bricks of the fountain plaza, resting and waiting for Yuffie to finish up her shopping spree.
It was nice to hear the sounds of the people, the water dripping furiously from the fountain, and the tweets and chirps of nature residing in this lazy town.
It was almost too peaceful.
His rest was disturbed by a trio of teens.
"Hey, you!"
Riku sighs and cracks open one eye, eyeing the trio critically up then down. He lifts himself up, leaning on the sides of his arms.
"Oh, it's you three."
Hyner, pence, and olette look at Riku in confusion.
"I don't think we met but The names Hyner, nice to meetcha'!"
"I'm pence" the other fat boy beside him points to himself with his thumb.
"And I'm Ollete! Say, the towns hosting a free movie in the main plaza across new cafe!"
"So what do you say, Are ya coming?" Hyner smiles as he hands a flyer to Riku who takes it from his hands slowly.
Riku looks down at the flyer and sees a character with striking resemblance to sora.
"Uh, maybe… yeah sure"
"That's the spirit!" hayner taps rikus shoulder with his fist. "Catch'a later!"
Hayner scours the plaza for more unsuspecting paterons. olette and pence not far behind yelling at him to 'wait up!'
Riku touches his shoulder that was tapped by hyner. He folds and pockets the flyer in his jacket pocket and smiles.
-o-
Ventus dodge rolls out of the way of a flame core flying like a rocket headed towards aqua.
"Aqua! Watch out!" yells ventus running over to aqua only to be pounded by an earth core.
Aqua grunts as she shoots up in the air and lets out a wide range attack via ice via keyblade. She grunts as she steps towards the flame core dowsing it with a waterga and slamming her foe with a powerful combo attack depleting the heartless of its remaining health.
She takes a deep breath but steps away quickly as a sand type earth core erupts from the ground and spits out sand like ammo at the trio.
"Watch out! The heartless are abnormally strong in strength and quantity!"
Yells Aqua.
Ventus struggles as he pushes his keyblade horizontally against the sheer weight of the earth grunts in pain and agitation as he calls out for his friends.
"I got your back ven!"
Ventus hears the heavy slam of the earth core against a wall of rock. The sheer force of the hit by the weapon completely depletes the heartless remaining health.
Ventus heaves in much needed breaths.
He takes the offered golden armored hands help to get up. He wipes the dust and sand out of his crew cut hair.
"Thanks terra! I thought I was a goner!"
The armored terra retracts his whip-form keyblade back to its original form.
"Are you alright?" Terra asks, his armor clicking as he turns his body towards ventus and aqua.
"We're fine, have you found anything on your portion of the map?" asks aqua.
Terra shakes his head. He notes the minor scratches and bruises on both aqua and ventus and suggests they take a potion to fully recover before they proceed to their last destination.
Aqua and ventus look at each other a little worriedly thinking on the same line while they took out their potions.
Aqua starts first.
"Terra, we know that you have been through a lot and-"
"Aqua, not now. I'm strong, and I'm here. For the both of you." says terra firmly.
Terra takes off his helmet revealing his soft blue eyes reliving aqua and ventus of their suspicions.
"See, no xnort trade marks" Terra smirks.
Aqua and ventus look at terra in admiration, support, and love.
Shortly after the great battle the trio shortly decided they needed much 'they' time and R&R which meant more training for Ventus and family reunion between the three.
Aqua, staying in the realm of darkness so long and having long experiences within the world decided to experiment if producing life is possible in the land of darkness.
Ventus is searching for his dark and light counterparts desperate for any clues or information for them. Refusing to believe both are permanently gone.
Terra had become in more or less of a word - tolerant if not more overbearing. His love and appreciation for his young brother and lover had grown exponentially skyrocketed. It was overwhelming most of the time but they knew it was love from deep within his heart.
"So, that leaves us one last place to investigate. Common guys, the faster we finish this the faster we can head home for the day."
Terra starts to trot up the pathway to the end of the trail, Ventus, and aqua not far behind. They beat the occasional cluster of heartless on the way.
Ventus fighting a water core uses his blizzard. It seemed that the ice magic was more useful than most of his command magics. Unbeknownst to him, a fluttering releases a thunder type spin attack hitting Ventus directly. The water surrounding him only serves as a recurring current and shocks Ventus continuously.
'Damn! After all that training! After all that time! I'm still weak!'
Ventus lets out a pained cry as he throws his keyblade like a boomerang releasing a trail of concentrated power so light and pure it was blinding. The key blade spins around like a shooting star around the parameter of its owner hitting multiple pureblood heartless high to low. Ventus grunts when he hears it clatter against the grey rock but somehow feels proud he had been able to release a new and powerful attack.
He hears the running footsteps of his friends and the yell of his name. The familiar sound of darkness poofing after defeat muffled and distorted as darkness claimed him.
-0-
He could hear his name being called, it was very badly muffled like he was underwater.
He felt cold and the darkness was swallowing him like an endless unforgiving ocean sucking him in their underwater currents.
His body sinks to the floor like dead weight. He's scared, alone, and panicking. He starts to scream terras and Aquas names but water floods into his lungs instead.
His body feels so heavy like lead and he starts to lose awareness.
He hears his name again, the same muffled tone but more panicked.
He suddenly feels a warmness all around him. He opens the slits of his eyes and sees a huge glowing black rock with intricate ancient runes glowing a transitioning red, purple, and blue. The whole design of the runes was a carving outline of sora with red eyes glowing like lava and his heart alike.
In a blink of his eyes, he saw a huge black arm with red cracks reach out for him.
Ventus screams inhaling the flakey soot-like water.
He sees the huge sora-rock monster opening and closing its maw as if it were saying something
The last thing Ventus thinks before he loses awareness is how warm and gentle the huge hand is in contrast to the cold chilly air on the surface.
-o-
Terra and Aqua fight the pureblood heartless in rapid succession and meet up a Ventus's' fallen body. They call out Ventus' name and shake him in an effort to wake him.
Terra shakes him hard and screams his name. Aqua pulls terra back behind her. She pats Ventus cheeks a couple of times loudly announcing his name. She lays the side of her head against the ventus's chest so it would be looking down his body and places two fingers on his jugular vein on his neck.
"He's not breathing terra! Call the gummi ship - we're going back to the realm of light. There's not much I can offer but I'm going to start CPR. There is a defibrillator inside the gummi ship. Grab it as fast as you can"
Aqua dives her hands-on Ventus's chest as she compressed thirty times counting out loud. She grabs the bottom of Ventus's neck with both hands and tilts his head back and closes his nose with her index fingers. She breathes in two large breathes for Ventus and watches as his chest fills with the air she gave him.
She watches in anticipation waiting for his chest to rise on his own.
To her disappointment, it did not.
She repeated the process twice more before she looked up at the hard thud of terras knees on the ground setting up the AED.
"Ok, stand back terra."
Aqua tears off Ventus's top clothes off and attaches the vertical pads a little left to the middle of his chest and the other the bottom left portion of his breast. She attaches the defibrillators and presses the button of the machine and stands back to let the machine send out the calculated shocks.
Nothing happens as it shocks vent through Ventus the first time. No dramatic convulsing like a movie or anything like that.
The machine announces that it is making a second attempt of shocking.
This time something happens.
Ventus inhales a sharp breath and then coughs and sputters. Aqua helps roll Ventus to his side as he coughs up bounds and bounds of seawater. Terra and Aqua look in shock. Terra pats Ventus's back harshly until they were sure he expelled all the soot-like water out of his lungs.
After they were sure Ventus was done coughing up the water they lay him back into a supine position and cover him with a self-heating blanket. They sigh in relief as they watch the steady rise and fall of Ventus's chest. They tap his cheeks to wake him a little.
Ventus opens the slits of his eyes, his eyes are glazed. Aqua shines a penlight into Ventus's eyes. The pupils mildly retract.
"He's got a mild concussion. Help me get him on the ship terra."
Ventus struggles against terras bridal style, muttering nonsense and squirming to get out of his grip.
"S... Sora… ln L...lake. Rock…" mutters Ventus as he looks longingly behind terra at the last pathway they were supposed to explore.
Aqua pets Ventus hair as terra places Ventus on her thighs as a makeshift pillow. "Shh ven, it's going to be alright. Just rest." She places a kiss on his forehead. Ven slowly shuts his eyes and soft puffs of breathing is heard throughout the cabin - the tall tales of sleep.
Terra takes the wheel of the gummi ship and heads for the queen and the king's castle.
-o-
Hello friends and happy angst.
I apologize for the long wait, a lot of things have been going on lately.
A lot concerning hospitals, sickness, and so on - but your not here to listen to another one of those stories.
All I will ask for are prayers for my grandma to be well soon.
That action says more than words ever will.
I want to say thank you for the (one) comments and careful criticism.
yes, I have problems with my POV's but I do plan to re-write this in the far future.
also thank you for reading my silent readers.
Read and review with careful criticism, happy reading, and stay safe my friends.
also hey, happy belated holidays and new year.
Let's make it a great one, eh?