'Ven had always wanted to be a hero.'


Fifty-Four: Missing Ache

(Ven didn't think of his family very often, anymore.)

"Mom! Mom, mom, come look at this!"

(Many of his memories were coated in shadow. Poking at them felt a little like poking at an open wound, still raw and bleeding. He loved them, he thought—or at least, he had at one point. But something had broken in him when he found out they weren't coming back for him—that they probably hadn't even intended for him to make it to Daybreak Town at all.)

"What is it, Ven?"

(Not all of his memories were bad, though, and sometimes—sometimes he found himself drifting back to the better ones and wondering what could have been.)

Tiny fingers uncurled to reveal a crumpled yellow flower. Ven bounced on his feet, flashing a gap-toothed, ruddy grin, still too small and too young to really understand the exhausted expression on his mother's face.

"That's very nice, Ven." She must've seen that it wasn't quite the reaction Ven had wanted, because she put her work aside and gestured for Ven to come closer.

He hopped into her lap eagerly, squirming closer and lifting the flower. "It's for you."

"Thank you. Could you hold onto it for me? Just for now."

"Mm-hm. And when we get home, we can give it water and put it in something!"

She must've known that the flower was too crumpled for that to actually work, but she didn't say anything about it, just giving Ven a tired smile and nodding. Her fingers combed through Ven's hair, and he played with the flower, twisting it between his fingers and plucking at the petals.

"Would you like to hear a story, Ven?"

His mom liked telling stories, in quiet moments like these when it was just the two of them. His grandparents didn't always like them, and so they'd taken to telling them in hushed moments, stolen in tiny spans of time when his mom had the energy to spare. Ven had loved them—those stories about great heroes, battling monsters and protecting the innocent—and so he nodded eagerly, practically bouncing on his mother's knee.

She steadied him with a gentle hand on his shoulder, twisting him around so that she was hugging him to her chest. "Well," she said, quiet, "what would you like to hear?"

"The Light Warriors!" Ven kicked backwards, throwing his hands up excitedly.

It drew a quiet, barely-there laugh from his mom. "That's not what they're called, Ven."

"Then what are they called?"

"They don't have names. Not really. They're just people blessed by the Great Light. They've been given pieces of it, placed deep inside their hearts to keep the darkness out."

"And to save people!"

"Yes, they do that. The light they were given gives them the power to fight monsters. They're like—" She paused for several moments, seeming to think it over. "Waypoints, maybe. Guides. They can help lead people through the deepest shadows, or bring them back from the edge of despair, or save a town from some beast that's decided to attack them." Her arms gripped Ven a little tighter.

"Hey, Mom? If they have light inside them, does that mean they glow?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

Excited laughter kicked up from somewhere in the distance. Ven craned his head enough to see some other kids running down the road, their parents trailing after them. He squirmed a little, looking at their expressions, then at his mom's.

His mom suddenly looked very, very tired.

"Hey, Mom? Are you going to tell the story?"

His mother's eyes tracked the small family as they passed.

"Mom?"

Her breath hitched. "Your grandmother doesn't like this story."

"But she's not here."

"I know. I know, but—" She cut herself off, breath shuddering.

Ven was too young to understand, then, the way his mom's expression scrunched, the way she couldn't quite look at Ven or the house, the way her eyes kept flicking to the other family disappearing down the road—but he was still old enough to understand that she was sad. "The—the not-Light Warriors. They make people happy, right?"

His mom didn't say anything; she stroked his hair, but it was an absent-minded motion, fingers untangling knots without much thought. When her voice came, it was whisper-soft, almost like Ven wasn't supposed to hear. "It's just a story."

Maybe it was, but in that moment, Ven thought that maybe he could make it true.


-Move. Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving—

Slash, block, dodge, repeat. Over and over and over again until Ven started to feel like he was going to fall over himself in his haste. The Heartless were relentless, constantly moving closer, closer, closer, and he was desperate to bring to mind everything that he'd learned.

(There was something that sounded like his old teacher hissing in the back of his head: "I taught you better than that.")

Magic spiraled like a supernova in his chest. He swept his Keyblade upwards and released; a spire of light struck the center of one flickering Heartless and cut it in two. Another took its place, and Ven struggled to force back panic. There are so many. Why are there so many? What are they doing in the Clock Tower?

The control room. The control room was right there, he just couldn't get in—not with the Heartless blocking his way. Brain had to be inside—or at least, he hoped Brain was inside. Brain's good at magic. He knows how to fight. He could take out any Heartless.

…Couldn't he?

Pain cut through his side, and Ven bit back a cry. A Cure spell was one the tip of his tongue, but it died when a flickering Heartless went towards him and—

Went through him?

The feeling was strange, a sort of buzzing, static-like sensation that made Ven's hair stand on end. He sucked in his breath, his heart shuddering. It took a moment for him to recollect himself, and in that moment the Heartless were coming back, and he was moving, moving, moving—

What's going on? Why are the Heartless like this?

"Brain!" he shouted, desperate. "Brain, are you okay?"

He needed to get to the control room. He needed to get there, and if he could just—

There. A gap, however brief, between the Heartless. Wind whipped around his feet and he shot forward, sprinting for the control room.

Something slammed into his back. Ven stumbled and righted himself, spinning around.

The shaft of his blade caught on a flickering Heartless. He swept them backwards and readjusted his footing, bracing himself and lifting Missing Ache defensively.

The Heartless hissed and fluttered closer, and he had a moment to brace himself before—

Footsteps, and then another Keyblade singing through the air. The Heartless snapped and sputtered, then disappeared entirely. In their place was a familiar figure, and Ven couldn't help the wave of relief. "Ephemer! Thank goodness!" Safe. He's safe, at least one of them is safe—

Maybe he can help.

Ephemer's stance relaxed as Ven hurried over, but his expression was still worried and vaguely confused. "I didn't expect to see you here, Ven."

The story came spilling out, Ven tripping over himself as he tried to explain: "Well, we were sitting around talking, when suddenly Master Ava appeared—or something that looked an awful lot like her. And—"

And he paused. In his relief to see one of the other Union Leaders, he hadn't noticed that Ephemer had come in with someone else—one of the Dandelions, Ven realized, though Ven didn't know them very well.

Ephemer must've noticed his confusion, because he flashed Ven a small smile and said, "This is my friend."

"Oh." That friend, he guessed—the one that Ephemer and Skuld would go off and see, sometimes. Ven smiled. "It's nice to meet you," he said, because it was nice to finally see this mysterious friend that Ephemer and Skuld kept promising to bring around.

Ephemer's friend gave him a tiny smile and a wave.

"And then what?" Ephemer prompted gently, and right, he'd been in the middle of explaining things.

"And I thought Brain might know something," Ven said, "so I came looking for him."

"He's in the control room?"

Ven nodded. At least, Skuld had said he was heading towards the control room, and even if she hadn't, it was probably a good guess. It reminded him that they needed to make sure he was okay, because he hadn't come out for the fighting at all, and Ven didn't know if that meant he hadn't heard or if something else was going on or—

Or if something bad had happened.

"Not…you."

The words were so quiet that Ven didn't register them at first. It took until he caught sight of something shifting up on top of the gears to realize there was something else there.

Missing Ache snapped up on reflex, his heart thundering in his chest.

The others noticed the shifting, too, lifting their weapons to protect themselves. From the shadows emerged some sort of Heartless, claws scraping against the metal. They were all different sizes, he realized, but there was something vaguely humanoid about them. Ven thought he might've seen them once before, in passing—and it took a bit more scrambling at his memories to figure out what they were.

("A lot of people went 'missing,' towards the end," Skuld said, quiet.

Lauriam had drawn away from them, legs pulled to his chest, and Ven had wondered if he was thinking of his sister.

"Were they…?"

"Not dead," Skuld answered quickly. "Or—not all of them, at least. Some of them—" She took a shuddering breath. "Did we ever tell you what Heartless were?"

Ven shook his head, something like dread pooling in his stomach.

"They were—they were people, once. I found out because my friend and I—we ran into some of them." She folded her arms across her knees, a forlorn expression crossing her face. "People who used to be Keyblade wielders."

"That can happen?" Ven breathed, terrified.

"They're called Darklings," Brain interrupted. He hadn't seemed to be paying much attention, focused more on his book, but now he glanced at them, something almost sad in his expression. "Keyblade wielders that were dragged so far into despair, or anger, or obsession that they gave into it entirely." There was something troubled in his expression, his eyes turning almost distant, like he was repeating a conversation he'd had with someone else. "Keyblade wielders are a lot more susceptible to that sort of thing, it turns out."

"So—so the Heartless we're fighting, they're—"

"Most of them are just projections," Brain explained. "The Darklings—there shouldn't be any here. They should've all been destroyed in the Keyblade War."

Skuld pursed her lips. Ephemer's breath hitched, but he didn't say anything.

"How do you—how do you know?" Ven asked, quiet. "Couldn't one of us…?"

"The Dandelions were chosen with the idea that we'd be strong enough to avoid becoming Darklings," Brain commented dryly. "Besides, you'll know them if you see them. They're about the only Heartless that can talk." He fell quiet for several long moments. "Most Heartless are relatively mindless, but the Darklings—well, they can't exactly make complex plans, but there's something going on up there. They tend to be obsessed with whatever was most important to them when they fell." Brain breathed out slowly. "And for most Keyblade wielders, that was collecting light.")

Ven had thought at the time that it hadn't been fair that so many Keyblade wielders had just been left behind—even if they were Heartless now, they had still be people, once, and there was a terrified part of him that wondered, Would I have just been left behind, if I hadn't been chosen as a Union Leader? Finding himself face to face with Darklings—he couldn't quite erase that part of him that wanted to help, but he also realized why Master Ava might not have wanted them to come along.

The Darklings weren't focused on him; he wasn't sure they'd even noticed him, hidden mostly behind the other two Keyblade wielders. But there was something hungry in their broken expressions, an eerie sort of aura flowing from them that seemed to permeate the entire room.

(There was something strangely familiar about them. They reminded him a little of his teacher—but that was ridiculous. His teacher couldn't have been a Darkling.

…Right?)

It took him a heartbeat too long to realize that the Darklings had moved, one of the Heartless landing behind him, and he had to whip around and lift his Keyblade to defend himself.

There were many, many thoughts that ran through Ven's mind, all in quick succession:

I thought there weren't supposed to be any Darklings here?

What did you mean, "Not you?"

Is this what it would've felt like, if I'd had to fight other Keyblade wielders in the Keyblade War?

And then the Darkling lunged, and Ven didn't have time to think about anything else at all.

Missing Ache swept upwards, catching the Darkling's claws and forcing it backwards. The Darkling was strangely graceful, catching itself easily and prowling around Ven, and he was reminded that this had been a Keyblade wielder like him, once, and probably knew just as much about fighting as he did. Maybe more.

He tensed, Keyblade lifted, waiting for the Heartless to strike back.

It didn't—or at least, not right away. It tilted its head, studying him, and Ven stared at it and tried not to feel uneasy. Maybe I knew it, he thought, back when it was a Keyblade wielder. He dismissed the thought almost immediately, because he'd really only had a lot of contact with one person back before the Keyblade War, and—

Don't think about it.

But as the seconds ticked by, Ven was starting to realize that maybe the Darkling wasn't going to do anything more. It looked almost confused, like Ven was some sort of puzzle it was trying to piece together. Maybe…maybe I could try talking to it? "Um…hello?"

The Darkling came a little closer. Ven leaned away from it, heart pounding behind his ribcage, as it loomed over him. It was taller than him, he realized, lanky and ill-proportioned, long claws stretching cautiously towards his chest.
("Always so quick to make friends with the darkness.")

Missing Ache snapped upwards, forcing the claw away and hitting the Heartless in the head.

The Darkling screeched and leapt backwards, then whipped back towards him with a snarl. Whatever confusion there had been was gone now, replaced with snarling rage, and Ven suddenly found himself on the defensive, backing up as he tried to protect himself. The Darkling swung, strike after strike clashing against his Keyblade, and Ven lost himself in the frantic terror of the fight, blocking and attacking and hoping desperately, desperately that his friends were okay.

The whole world seemed to shift, the gears and ground flickering and glitching, and Ven wobbled, wildly trying to catch himself.

The Darklings' heads snapped up. One of them screeched, leaping unceremoniously away from a flickering patch of ground. They fled almost as abruptly as they'd come; Ven met the eyes of one and tried to ignore the shiver that went down his spine.

Everything buzzed and hummed, and when Ven finally dragged his attention away, he found himself staring at an unstable entryway, the shades of Heartless flickering into and out of existence. He darted towards them, trying desperately to tamp down his distress. "What's happening?"

He didn't expect an answer, and he didn't get one; everything settled slowly, shaky ground growing solid under his feet, and Ven took a moment to try and steady his breathing.

"We don't know what's waiting for us in there," Ephemer murmured.

Ven tried to stop his shaking hands. Going into the control room felt strangely daunting, after everything. "I hope Brain's okay."

"Let's find out." Ephemer pointed his Keyblade at the lock, and Ven's ears rang, still feeling too tense to focus on anything else. He needed to make sure his friend was okay, he needed to find out what was going on, he needed—

The door opened, and Ven was through it in a flash.

The inside of the control room was…surprisingly in one piece, for how much chaos was going on outside. And on the other side of the room, sitting in his chair, was—

"Brain!"

Brain started, pushing away from the computer. "Ephemer, Ven."

Ven gave him a shaky, relieved grin—but when Brain turned to face them, he had a troubled look on his face, and Ven got the distinct feeling he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.


-"Mom! Mom, hey!"

"Hush, Ven," his mom hissed, motioning for him to be quiet.

Ven had still been very young, then, and it hadn't really dawned on him that being quiet was important, sometimes. "Look! I made this for you." He lifted the drawing proudly.

"That's—that's very nice, Ven, but right now—"

"What are you two doing?"

Ven's mom went stiff. "Mother."

Ven peered around her, beaming, presenting the drawing to his grandmother. "Look what I made!"

His grandmother scrutinized the picture. "That's what you're wasting time on now, hmm?"

Ven's smile dimmed a little.

His grandmother stepped closer and grabbed his chin, and he forced himself not to jump. "You know our role in this town, don't you?"

He thought he remembered being told it, before—but it was hard to remember some of the things his grandmother talked about, sometimes. They just weren't interesting—not like his mom's stories—and he looked away for help.

His mother clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white.

His grandmother made a disapproving noise. "Our family founded this place. That means we all have to work a bit harder to keep things running."

"Oh." Ven curled in on himself. "I just—I wanted to make Mom happier."

"Ven," his mother hissed.

"Then she should've made better choices," his grandmother said matter of factly. Ven didn't know what to say to that—and he didn't have time, really, because his grandmother continued, "Perhaps you'll gain some leadership ability as you grow older. In the meantime, you and your mother can help clean up the house."

His grandmother left, and Ven was left standing there, feeling slightly dumbfounded.

His mom let out a slow, shaky breath, slowly unclenching her hands and smoothing them across her dress.

"Mom…?"

"Don't." She seemed to make an effort to steady herself. "Just—just go do your chores."

Ven stared at her a moment then, hesitantly, extended his drawing towards her.

His mom's expression broke, and for a moment, she looked like she would take it. Then she snatched her hand back and took a slow, deep breath. She left, shoulders straight and footsteps clipped.

(In the back of his mind, something that sounded like his mentor hissed, "You had such a lonely childhood, didn't you? I'm so glad we could find each other.")


-"Do you think they'll be okay?"

Ven wasn't sure he'd meant to ask the question, but it had slipped out without him really thinking about it. He kept staring at the portal, watching as it glitched and flickered.

Brain—back at his computer—paused. "They should be," he said after a moment. "Both of them are experienced Keyblade wielders. Besides, they'll have each other's backs."

"Even if they run into more weird Heartless?"

"You guys managed fine out here, didn't you?"

Ven guessed that was true, but it didn't stop him from being nervous. He sat, pulling his knees to his chest and folding his arms across them. For a couple of moments, the only sound was Brain typing on the computer. "The new world," Ven whispered. "It's what Ephemer used as a portal between here and—and the other Daybreak Town. Isn't it?"

Brain hesitated. "Yeah," he said, quiet.

"So—so why's it—how did Ephemer use it to…?"

"I don't know." A touch of frustration entered Brain's voice. "There's a lot we probably won't know until the two of them come back."

"But the Heartless are coming from there."

"As far as I can tell."

"And—and the Darklings, too?"

"Darklings?"

It dawned on Ven that they hadn't actually told Brain what had happened. "Outside of the control room—there were Darklings. That's what kept us out for so long."

Brain studied him with an unreadable expression. "I'd guess so," he said finally, and there was something in his voice that Ven didn't understand.

"Do—do you think we'll have to fight more of them?" He could feel Brain's eyes on him, and he continued, "It's—I don't really want to fight other Keyblade wielders. I know they aren't Keyblade wielders anymore, but it's…"

"Different?"

"Yeah."

Brain sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I don't know," he admitted. "It's possible."

Ven winced, pulling his legs a little closer.

"…If you really wanted, I could probably teach you a binding spell."

"Binding spell?" Ven repeated, perking up a little.

Brain hummed an acknowledgement. "So you didn't have to actually fight them." He gestured for Ven to come closer, and he hopped to his feet and hurried over.

Brain summoned his Keyblade; his eyes darted about the room for a moment before they landed on one of the books on the table. "The idea," he said, "is that it traps the target and keeps them from moving. It would give you enough time to get away without fighting them."

"But—but wouldn't other people still be in danger?"

"Potentially. But if you're not destroying the Darklings, then that'll happen anyways." Brain pursed his lips. "Theoretically, you could bind your target too or in something, but that can occasionally be messy."

"Messy…?"

"If you don't have enough control, you could end up accidentally destroying both."

Ven winced.

"So we're not going to try that." Brain's voice turned gentle. "Just the basic binding spell. Got it?"

Ven nodded, Missing Ache flashing into his hands.

"Alright. Same as any other spell. You need to picture the target being held still and funnel it through your Keyblade. Chains work best, generally."

Ven nodded, narrowing his eyes in concentration. Magic flooded his chest and his Keyblade flashed.

Nothing happened.

"How do I know if it worked?"

"Go see if you can lift the book."

Ven gave him a skeptical look, but trotted across the room and tried to pick the book off the table. It felt strangely like it was glued in place; no matter how hard Ven pulled, he couldn't get it to budge. "It's staying!"

Brain dipped his head, a tiny smile twitching on his lips.

Ven grinned back, then darted forward and hugged Brain. "Thanks."

Brain huffed a quiet laugh and returned the hug. "Well, you're going to need all the tools you can get, right? Especially if we're dealing with this."

"Brain? Ven?"

"Skuld!" Ven pulled away from Brain, turning towards her.

"About time," Brain commented dryly. "Where have you been?"

"I've—been around."

"Around," Brain repeated incredulously. "Don't suppose you saw Lauriam around, too?"

Skuld shook her head. "Not Ephemer, either."

Brain's breath hissed between his teeth. "Well," he said, careful, "I have seen Ephemer, but before I tell you were he is, you have to promise not to go after him."

Skuld narrowed her eyes at him.

Brain sighed. "Just give me a moment to explain."


-Just sitting and waiting in the control room was strange. It felt like there were things that they should be doing—making missions, checking on projects around Daybreak Town, even just chatting with the other Dandelions—but none of them seemed to be able to make themselves leave.

None except Skuld, at least, who had left and returned several times already, seemingly designating herself as the one to check in on the Dandelions. Ven guessed that she was probably looking for something to distract herself; sitting here with his thoughts made him jittery, nervous energy bouncing through his legs and making him drum his fingers against the table he sat on.

Brain hadn't left the computers; he alternated between looking at them and looking at the portal, eyes shadowed. He hadn't said much of anything for a while, and Ven wasn't sure whether he wanted to break the silence or not.

"I brought food," Skuld called. She slipped into the control room, awkwardly juggling what looked like an assortment of…baked goods?

"You have cookies?" Ven asked, hopping off the table.

"Well—we need to eat something."

Brain laughed, but broke off to catch one when Skuld threw it to him. "Wonder what Lauriam would say to this?"

"Well, he's not here, so it doesn't matter." There was an undercurrent of worry in Skuld's voice, though, and Ven found himself feeling similarly.

Ven fidgeted, glancing at the screens. It looked like it was starting to get dark out in Daybreak Town, and he felt his stomach drop. "He promised he'd be back later."

"Do you know what he was doing?" Skuld asked.

"He was—he wanted to look for the missing Keyblade wielders."

Brain pursed his lips. "Hopefully we haven't added to that amount," he mumbled, turning back to the screens.

"Most of the Dandelions are okay," Skuld interjected quickly. "Shaken, but okay. I've been trying to keep everyone up to date about what's going on." She paused, expression falling a little. "But I didn't see any sign of Lauriam."

"I can go look for him," Ven said. "He's—I haven't done much to help today."

"There's not much to do," Brain pointed out. "Besides, it'd make sense if you were—" He paused, seeming to search for the words. "If you were unsettled," he decided on finally.

"Yeah, but—I want to find him."

"Well. No one's stopping you if you want to go out. Just saying you don't need to beat yourself up for hanging out here." Brain gave him a rueful smile. "Besides, it made it less lonely."

"What about me?" Skuld asked, but she was smiling slightly.

"You are a menace at the best of times." He gave her an amused look. "Maybe I should send you with Ven."

Skuld snorted with laughter, but she looked tired, and Ven found himself saying, "I can go on my own. You've—you've done a lot today already. And I know you're worried."

Skuld sighed and gave Ven a tired smiled. "Just stay safe, okay?"
"Okay."

"Tell Lauriam he needs to come up here and be anxious with the rest of us," Brain added. He stood, then grimaced, pressing a hand against his back.

Skuld snorted. "Maybe you should go with Ven. You've been sitting too long."

Brain rolled his eyes. "See if you can find him quickly."

Despite himself, Ven smiled and laughed, then hurried out of the control room.


-Daybreak Town was eerily quiet. Trekking through the streets was spooky, almost; it felt like he was wandering through a ghost town, all the lights off, nobody in the streets. Every now and again, a streetlight or a bush would flicker into and out of existence, and Ven would jump, then keep hurrying onward.

It was strange to see Daybreak Town like this now. While the Dandelions were only a fraction of the original wielders, they had worked to make this place still feel like a home, and Ven was used to seeing people working on projects or out chatting with each other or practicing for missions. Even at the quietest times, there was always some sign of life. Now it felt like everything was holding its breath, hiding and waiting for whatever was going to happen.

It didn't feel quite like home anymore, and Ven was terrified at the idea that they might lose that forever.

"Lauriam," he called, quiet, and hated how his voice fell through the still air. "Lauriam!" He couldn't help the edge of panic in his voice, and he moved a little faster, heartbeat pounding against his ribcage.

Something skittered through the shadows, and Ven yelped, Missing Ache flashing into his hands on instinct. Nothing emerged from between the buildings, and Ven moved quicker, footsteps pounding too loud against the cobblestones.

(Terrified thoughts flashed through Ven's head. What if something had happened to Lauriam? What if he'd been attacked by Heartless, or something strange had happened with the glitches, or he was lying injured somewhere? What if he was going to look and look and look and not find any sign of him, like Lauriam had done for his sister?)

("Who's there?" someone asked, and he barely had time to turn around before—)

Another flash in the shadows.

Ven whipped around, Missing Ache lifted defensively.

Two yellow eyes gleamed.

Ven stared back at them, heart in his throat.

The yellow eyes tilted sideways, and Ven got the impression that the creature (the Heartless?) was studying him curiously. It reminded him eerily of how the Darklings had reacted, back in the Clock Tower.

"St-stay back." Ven took a couple of stumbling steps backwards, silently pulling at his magic and desperately trying to remember the binding spell Brain had taught him.

Quiet chittering came from the shadows. They shifted slightly, and Ven took a deep breath, bracing himself for a fight.

"Ven?"

"Lauriam!" He whipped around, voice shaky with relief.

The creature in the shadows skittered out of sight.

Lauriam stepped out of the darkness, eyebrows furrowed in worry. "What are you—oof!"

Ven wrapped him tightly in a hug, shaking and crying despite himself. "You're okay. You're okay, you're okay, you're okay—"

"I'm okay," Lauriam agreed, returning the hug. "Are you okay?"

"I—no." Ven hugged him tighter. "Everything's turning all glitchy and there are Heartless everywhere and I don't know what's happening and—" He pulled away a little, glancing up at Lauriam with wet eyes, "And you promised we'd do something later."

It was a silly thing to say, really—but it was an easier thing for Ven to latch onto than anything else that had happened.

Lauriam's expression broke. "I—I did, didn't I?" His shoulders slumped, a hand running over his face. "I'm sorry, Ven. I didn't even think—I lost track of time."

"It's okay," Ven said, even if it didn't feel okay. "What were you doing?"

"I was looking for my sister."

"But she's not here." Ven wished that he could shove the words back into his mouth the moment he said them. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"I know." Lauriam rested a hand on Ven's head and sighed. "You were just worried."

That wasn't entirely it, but he thought he preferred Lauriam believing that rather than anything else, and so he hugged Lauriam again, hiding his face against his chest.

Lauriam sighed. "Let's go back to the Clock Tower. You need to get some sleep." Quieter, he added, "We probably both need sleep."

Ven nodded against him, but it took a moment to let go. It felt a little easier to deal with whatever terrifying things were going on with Lauriam there—but that didn't mean he was anxious to face the quiet streets of Daybreak Town again. They headed back towards the Clock Tower, Ven clasping Lauriam's hand tightly, and he tried not to think about everything that was going on.

That was hard, though, when Lauriam seemed so distracted. The older Union Leader kept looking out at the streets, eyes shadowed, his free hand flexing like he was thinking about summoning his Keyblade.

"Did you—did you find anything?" Ven asked, quick and quiet, something a little desperate and nervous in his voice.

"Hmm?"

"About Strelitzia, I mean."

"Oh." Lauriam looked towards him and let out his breath slowly. "I—I might have, yes."

Then he was keeping him from looking, Ven realized, and he tried to ignore the guilt that bubbled in his stomach. "You—you don't have to come back with me, if you want to keep looking. I just wanted to know where you were." He pulled the words from his throat reluctantly, and his voice still shook, even if he tried to keep it steady.

"Ven." Lauriam's voice was strained, and he paused, stepping in front of Ven and resting his hands on his shoulders. "I'm—" He broke off, eyes darting about as if he were searching for the words. "Of course I'm worried about my sister," he said finally. "This is the first hint I've had towards—anything, really. Or one of the few. But I'm worried about you, too." He gave Ven a small smile. "I love you too, you know. You're like my little brother, and I don't want you to be distressed, either."

Ven fidgeted a little. "You're really okay with going back?"

Lauriam gave him a rueful look. "It probably won't help for me to search all night, anyways. I can go out again in the morning."

"Can I help?"

Lauriam hesitated.

"Please."

After a beat Lauriam caved. "Alright," he agreed. "For a little while, at least."

Ven gave him a tentative smile. It dropped after a moment, and he found himself looking back out at a silent Daybreak Town. "Do you think things will be better in the morning?"

Lauriam didn't answer right away. "We've gotten through a lot," he said, quiet. "I'm sure we can get through whatever this is, too."

Ven hoped so. The idea that he could lose the family and home he'd found for himself terrified him, and he—

He didn't want to think about that anymore, really.

He grabbed Lauriam's hand and tugged him along, making Lauriam laugh quietly. "What'd you find?" he asked. "About Strelitzia."

"Well—do you remember what Skuld was saying, about seeing these—specters of her family?" When Ven nodded, he continued, "I saw one of Strelitzia."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm. It was in an abandoned building, over that way." He pointed. "I can show you tomorrow."

(There was someone lying on the floor, but all he could make out were blurred colors, red and orange and white.)

"I think," Lauriam continued, quiet, "I think it might help me to at least figure out what happened to her."

"Don't go back."

Lauriam faltered, giving him a confused look. "What?"

It took Ven a moment to realize he'd said anything at all. He blinked, lifting his free hand to his mouth, eyebrows furrowing. "I—I don't know why I said that."

"It's alright," Lauriam said, sounding bemused. "It's probably a distressing thing, I'm sure." He paused, then asked, "Are you sure you want to come tomorrow?"

Ven nodded and tried to ignore the strange surge of terror in his chest.


-There was a disconcerting familiarity to the darkness that surrounded him. Ven wandered through it, trying to ignore the feeling of something writhing around his feet. "Hello?" His voice fell through the dead air, and it felt like he was out in Daybreak Town again, with no one to come and find him. "Lauriam? Skuld?" No one responded, but he thought something shifted in the shadows. "Ephemer?" He glanced nervously into the darkness, fingers flexing. "Brain?"

A pair of yellow eyes blinked open, and then another, and then another, and Ven found himself stumbling backwards through the shadows. Voices, broken and fractured, rolled over themselves in a torrent, rising in intensity until they washed over him, variations of, "You you it's you found you," echoing over and over each other until they were so loud Ven couldn't hear anything else.

He'd started running before he'd even had the chance to register what was happening, sprinting through the darkness. It took a moment for him to realize that he was back in Daybreak Town—but the buildings were different, now, everything flickering and crumbling. The cobblestones wobbled and broke under his feet, and he pushed himself faster, trying to stay one step ahead of the crumbling road. When he glanced behind him, the tide of Heartless was following at his heels.

He wondered if they were the Dandelions, or something else that had crawled through the portal. He wondered if—

"Lauriam!" His voice rose in panic. "Skuld! Ephemer! Brain! Where are you?"

His friends didn't respond, and he didn't know where the Clock Tower was, and the Heartless were so close, he needed to get away, he needed to get to safety—

And then he found himself stumbling into a familiar dark building.

Ven slowed. It felt a little like he'd stepped out of one nightmare and into another.

Someone was standing across the room. They were hidden in the shadows, but he thought he could make out—a white dress, maybe? "Hello?" he asked tentatively.

The figure shifted.

Ven took a couple of stumbling steps forward. "Please help. There are Heartless after me, and my friends are missing, and I don't know what…to do…" He trailed off, eyebrows furrowed. "You look…familiar…"

The figure started to turn. Something like panic surged in Ven's stomach, and there was a sudden, desperate part of him that was begging him to turn away—

(Stop looking, Ventus.)

The Heartless caught up to him, and he found himself dragged under in a surge of darkness.

He'd expected to wake up right away. He didn't, gasping and spluttering, darkness filling his mouth and throat and choking him. He had the horrible, panicked thought that maybe he wouldn't wake up at all, right up until the darkness pulled away and left him lying on a stained glass platform. He choked and coughed, rolling over and taking several deep, desperate breaths.

"You aren't going to like what you find."

That voice. Ven's head snapped up, and he found himself staring at the shadowy form of his mentor.

He couldn't see their eyes, but he could sense that his mentor was studying him.

"What do you—what do you mean?"

"Stop looking for the girl."

"What girl? Lauriam's sister?"

His mentor didn't respond.

"Why would you say that?" Ven snapped, pushing himself to his feet. "Lauriam misses her!"

"And everything will fall apart if you go looking for her, won't it?"

Ven flinched.

His mentor made a low, rumbling sound that might've been a laugh. "Though I suppose it is little concern of mine anymore. It is more a favor to you."

Ven wasn't sure what to make of that, and so he said instead, "You're—I know you're not really here. You're gone. You—you fell with the others. You're just saying my own worries back at me."

"Is that any way to speak to your friend?"

Ven swallowed and tried to ignore the uneasy feeling in his chest. "Are you a Darkling?"

Another bout of laughter.

Ven didn't know what to do with that, either, but he continued, "It's just—there are Darklings here. And they used to be Keyblade wielders, and they can talk and still kind of think, so I wondered if maybe—maybe you were one."

"No, Ventus. I'm not a Darkling. Though they are certainly useful. They will do anything to get to a strong enough source of light, you know." His mentor lifted what Ven thought might've been their arm, and for a moment, he felt something tugging at his chest. He gasped, his whole body jerking forward, and—

And there was something hovering in front of him—a small sphere of light, floating out of his chest.

His mentor shied away from it, a little. "Bright light like yours—it's powerful, when used correctly. It is particularly good at guiding others towards you."

"Like a waypoint," Ven whispered, carefully memorized stories pulled to the forefront.

"Yes." His mentor backed up a little. "Light and Darkness will always both attract and repel each other. It is an inevitable thing. I have had to be very careful, Ventus, to keep ours from mixing. It is—a hard thing, sometimes." There was something almost greedy in their voice, and it made Ven shiver. He reached for that sphere of light, swiping it back into himself almost instinctively.

His mentor pulled away, shrinking into the shadows. "Do not worry about the Darklings. I will shield you from them, just as I did before."

"What—"

But then they were gone, leaving Ven alone on that stained glass platform.


-Ven started awake with a stuttering gasp. It took a moment for him to realize he was in his room, blanket tucked carefully around his shoulders. Lauriam was sleeping beside him, arm wrapped around his back and holding him close.

Ven released a shuddering breath and curled a little tighter. It was just a dream.

Lauriam stirred. "Ven?" he asked, sounding groggy.

"Hi, Lauriam," he whispered.

"You're awake early."

"I—oh."

"…Nightmares?" Ven nodded, and Lauriam pulled him a little closer. "It's alright. I've got you."

He wondered if Lauriam had done this for Strelitzia before. He decided it didn't matter. "Hey, Lauriam?" he asked. "Do we—do we have to go back to the abandoned building?" When Lauriam didn't answer right away, he continued, "Maybe we could find clues somewhere else."

"What's got you so worried about that place?"

Ven didn't know, entirely, but—he had a guess. "There's an abandoned building in my nightmares." He wanted to explain more than that, but he didn't feel like he could, the words dying in his throat.

"Oh." Lauriam seemed to contemplate that a moment before continuing gently, "You really don't have to go, Ven. I'll be okay on my own."

"No. I—I want to help."

He could practically sense Lauriam's uncertainty, but he sighed in defeat. "Alright."

Ven half expected to see people out in the early morning, but everything was strangely quiet. He tried not to think about it too much, trailing closely behind Lauriam. A slow, uncertain realization settled over Ven as he realized he knew where they were going. This is where—I went searching here last time, didn't I? And this is where Master Ava told me—

("Pick it up.")

"We should—we should go back."

Lauriam slowed. "Ven…"

"We could go talk to the others. They could—they could help us find other clues."

"Stop looking." He didn't know where the words were coming from, really; they felt like an echo of his nightmares, desperate and terrified, and once they'd started he couldn't get them to stop. "You aren't going to like what you find."

"What are you—"

"She's not going to be there, and you're just going to be sad, and you have us now so it should be—it should be okay, and if you keep looking you're going to—"

"Ven," Lauriam said sharply.

"I didn't know."

Lauriam stiffened a little. "Didn't know what?" he asked, carefully.

It felt like whatever had gripped Ven had let him go, and now he just stared at Lauriam, shaking and vaguely terrified for reasons he couldn't explain. "I don't…know." He wobbled a little.

Lauriam's angry expression didn't entirely fade, but it did soften a little. "I know I have the four of you," he said, "but she's my family, too. I can't just give up on her."

But she's gone, Ven thought, and didn't know why and he hated it. "I'm sorry."

"I know you're scared—but maybe, if you can't handle this, you should head back."

The shadows shifted. Ven snapped towards them, tensing.

"Ven…?"

His eyes narrowed a little as he searched. For a moment, there wasn't anything, and then—

There. A humanoid figure with gleaming yellow eyes, watching him from the shadows.

Ven darted towards it without really thinking.

"Ven! Ven, wait!"

The Darkling narrowed its eyes, then shot off, scrambling over buildings and scurrying across the cobblestones. Ven darted after it, scrambling to keep up, eyes trying to track the Darkling as it catapulted itself from one roof to another. He stepped into an eerily quiet market place, skidding to a halt and trying to figure out where the Darkling had gone.

Something clicked against the rooftops overhead.

Ven stilled.

The Darkling watched him, perched on top of one of the buildings.

Missing Ache flashed into his hand, and he braced himself, drawing his Keyblade back.

The Darkling crept down the side of the building, claws scraping against the stone. It landed awkwardly on top of a stall, the top nearly caving in underneath it.

Ven jumped backwards, bringing Missing Ache up defensively.

The Darkling's eyes gleamed. It was still just watching him, but it wasn't…doing anything.

Ven lowered his Keyblade slowly. "Why do you keep doing this? Why are you just watching me?"

The Darkling made a curious trilling noise, claws flexing.

"Did you—did you just want to talk? Maybe you don't want to fight at all." Ven paused. "But you attacked the others…"

The Darkling hit the ground. It slowly stretched from its crouch, claws stretching out slowly.

(Something burned in Ven's chest. A voice whispered, Get back.)

The whole world looked darker for half a moment; it felt almost like something was pulling against his skin, and he winced, breath hissing between his teeth.

The Darkling recoiled. Its calm curiosity shifted to something angry, its jagged jaws twisting into a snarl, and it lunged before Ven had a chance to react.

"Stay away from him!" A Keyblade flew through the air and hit the Darkling in the side of its head. It wailed, sent crashing into one of the market stalls.

Ven shook himself out of his stupor, lifting Missing Ache and desperately calling, "Bind!" The magic flooded through him; his Keyblade flashed. He closed his eyes and imagined, for a moment, that the Darkling was chained to the stall.

The Darkling screeched, kicking and thrashing, and Ven winced a little as the magic burned through his arms.

"Are you alright?" Lauriam asked, hurrying up to him.

"I—I'm fine. I'm…" His voice trailed away.

The Darkling was still in the stall—but it looked almost like there was some sort of invisible barrier keeping it there. Its claws seemed caught in the wood, and it snarled at him, twisting and twitching, but Ven's attention kept being drawn to its eyes.

Lauriam moved towards it.

"Don't hurt it."

Lauriam paused. "It's a Heartless."

"It used to be a Keyblade wielder."

Lauriam hesitated for half a heartbeat. He glanced at the Darkling, still frozen in place.

"It—it'll be trapped there for a while. Brain taught me how to do it."

Lauriam waited a moment longer, then dismissed his Keyblade and hurried back towards Ven. "Let's go," he said, "before the spell wears off."

Ven nodded and let himself be herded away.

"Why did you run off like that?" Lauriam asked, his voice bordering on distressed.

"I—I saw the Darkling. I wanted to—"

"You can't just take off on your own. Not at a time like this. What if something had happened to you?"

Despite himself, Ven couldn't help but feel a little upset. "I was okay! I'm a Union Leader, too, you know."

Lauriam's expression broke. He sighed, shoulders slumping. "I know. I'm sorry. I know you can take care of yourself. I'm just—" He broke off, not quite looking at Ven.

"Lauriam?"

"When we were meant to leave," Lauriam said, quiet, "just before the Keyblade War, I didn't go looking for my sister because I thought she would be okay on her own."

"…Oh."

"I don't want the same thing to happen to you." He took a steadying breath. "But you're right, I'm not being fair."

"It's—it's okay." Ven paused, fiddling with his fingers. "It's, um—I also ran off because—"

"Because it was too much for you?"

Ven nodded.

Lauriam chuckled, but it mostly sounded sad. "I figured as much." Gently, he asked, "Do you want to go back to the Clock Tower and let Brain know what's going on? And then I'll come find you later. We can keep looking after I've gone through the building. Okay?"

The compromise made something in Ven's chest lighten a little. "Okay." He paused, then added, "I really am sorry about—about what I said before. I don't know why I—"

"You were scared. It happens, sometimes."

That didn't feel quite right, but Ven didn't know what else to say, so he just nodded.

Lauriam gave him a small smile and pushed him towards the Clock Tower. "Stay safe, okay?"

"Yeah. You, too." He hesitated for just a moment before racing back through Daybreak Town.


-"So," Brain commented dryly, "when you left the control room yesterday, I assumed you'd come back with Lauriam and let us know you were okay. Not run after Darklings."

Ven winced. "You saw that?"

Brain gestured at the computer screens.

"Oh. Right."

"Skuld went out looking for you two," he added, "so don't be too surprised if she comes back with Lauriam before too long."

Ven rubbed his arm. "I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to—I was just worried about Lauriam. We were looking for his sister."

Brain's expression softened a little. "I know," he said, and Ven had the distinct impression that he'd been worried about the both of them, too. "It's alright. Just maybe check in and let us know you're both alive next time."

Ven gave him a shaky smile, but it dropped quickly. "Ephemer and his friend aren't back yet, are they?"

Brain shook his head, expression shadowed. "Haven't seen any sign of them."

"Do you—do you think we should go after them?"

Brain hesitated. "Maybe," he said finally, "though I think Skuld has first dibs on that."

Ven nodded, fidgeting nervously. "Hey," Ven murmured, "why do you think the Darklings are here, anyways? Why do they—" Why do they keep looking at me weird?

Brain was quiet for several moments. "I think," he said, carefully, "that they're probably attracted to the light here."

"Light?"

"The Dandelions. We were chosen for the light in our hearts, after all."

"Right." He knew that—he did—but he couldn't help thinking about the dream his mentor had been in. "But how did they—how did they figure it out?"

"Could've just been attracted to a lot of light," Brain said. After a few quiet moments, he admitted, "Or they could've been led here."

"Led?"

"It's just a possibility. But it'd explain how they were able to find the pathway." Brain took a look at Ven's expression and sighed. "Don't worry about it too much, Ven. We'll know more when—"

The portal flickered.

Brain snapped towards it.

Ven tensed, half-ready to summon Missing Ache.

A familiar figure stepped out of the portal, and Ven found himself relaxing. "Ephemer!"

"Hey!" he said with a laugh, catching Ven as he tackled him.

"Glad to see you back in one piece," Brain said. "But you're missing someone."

"My friend wanted to do some more investigating." Ephemer pulled Ven away from him and gave them both a tired look. "I think we probably have a lot to talk about."


-(A data world. They were trapped in the data Daybreak Town. The portal Ephemer had created—it had led them here. He didn't know entirely how it worked—he didn't know if any of them did—but it was…more than he'd expected to be dealing with.)


-Missing Ache felt like a strangely apt name for his Keyblade, sometimes.

Even when he'd come to Daybreak Town, Ven had been lonely, desperately trying to figure out how to make friends with the other Keyblade wielders. But he'd never been quick enough, strong enough, good enough, and—well. It didn't matter. His mentor had promised to make it better, and they were here for him. So. He hoped that maybe it was enough.

But he still liked to imagine, sometimes.

It was why he found himself sitting on the rooftops, staring at the other Keyblade wielders as they hurried through Daybreak Town. He tried to imagine what it would be like to interact with them—if they would make jokes with him, or check on him when he hurt himself, or talk to him about their days.

"What are you doing up here, Ven?"

Ven jumped. "Oh. Um. Just people watching."

He couldn't see his friend—they never liked coming out of hiding, and he guessed that maybe they were just shy—but he could sense them hovering somewhere behind him. "What for?"

"Um. It's—uh. I just…like it." He wasn't quite sure he wanted to admit that he was lonely to his only friend—they were here with him, after all. Instead, he folded his arms across the tops of his knees and whispered, "When I was little, I used to want to have siblings."

His friend was very quiet.

"I thought that maybe people just went into the woods and found them or something, so I begged and begged my mom to take me looking for one."

"Why?"

"Oh. Uh, well—other kids had siblings, and—and it gave them someone to play with. I figured it would mean I'd have someone that I could always be friends with. We could do stuff together, because no one else really did stuff with me." He hurried to add, "Th-that's just because they were busy! They had a lot of important stuff to take care of."

"…Well. I suppose it's good you have at least found a friend now, isn't it?"

Ven found himself smiling. "Yeah," he agreed, "it is."

(There was some future part of him that looked back on the conversation and wanted to scream. They're not your friend. They aren't you friend, they aren't, get away from them—

"But Ventus," his mentor hissed, "I have done so much for you. Surely you wouldn't throw me away so easily?")


-"What do you think Brain wants to talk to us about?"

Skuld trailed behind Ven, a strangely troubled look on her face. When he spoke, she lifted her head and gave him a tight smile. "I don't know."

"It's got to be something important." Ven turned, walking backwards so that he could look at her. "Maybe he's figured out how to get us back to the real Daybreak Town."

"Maybe."

Ven slowed. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Skuld's attention snapped towards him. She took a breath and seemed to try and force herself to focus on him. "I'm alright, Ven. Just thinking."

"What about?"

"Everything, I guess."

That didn't seem like a very good answer to Ven, but she still seemed so distracted that he didn't think he'd be able to get a better one out of her.

They were almost at the hill, anyways, and when he turned, he caught sight of two familiar figures waiting for them. He glanced back at Skuld for a heartbeat, then hurried forward, waving. "Hey, guys! What's up?"

He'd expected a happier reaction, but the first thing Ephemer did was turn to Brain and whisper, almost too quiet for Ven to hear, "You brought them both?"

Ven slowed, skidding to a hesitant halt. Behind him, he heard Skuld doing the same; he could practically feel the tension radiating off her, and it made him suddenly a little nervous.

Brain gave a very pointed look at his Chirithy, and Ven noticed for the first time that the little Dream Eater was sitting in his lap.

Chirithy looked unrepentant. "I didn't have much of a choice, you know." They leapt into the air and disappeared; Brain glanced at the place where they'd been with mild annoyance.

Ven wasn't sure that he liked the strange, uncomfortable atmosphere that had settled over them. "Hey, did you see? It was snowing!"

"But you didn't call us out here to talk about the weather, did you?"

Ven snapped towards Skuld. She was staring at Brain with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, shoulders tensed.

Brain sighed. "You're right," he admitted, "I didn't." He paused, then looked like he steeled himself, shoulders rolling backwards and his head lifting. "There's something I want to ask you." He gave them a look Ven couldn't quite decipher. "Who told you that you were chosen to be a Union Leader?"

Ven blinked, thrown.

"Master Ava," Skuld answered instantly, and it started Ven out of his thoughts enough that he could answer in kind.

"Yeah, same here."

Brain's expression broke, turning to something troubled and reluctant. Ven glanced between him and Ephemer, trying to put the pieces together.

Ephemer murmured, "Brain, maybe we should talk to them separately."

What? He glanced at Skuld, but she looked just as lost. It made Ven feel nervous and jittery; he wanted to ask what was wrong, but Brain continued, almost reluctant, "Where were you when she told you?"

"We were right here." Skuld's answer came just as quickly as the last had, but her voice was tense, edging just on the edge of anger.

Ven hesitated for several long moments. It was strange that Brain was asking these questions now, and not when they'd first met, but maybe…maybe it had something to do with why they were trapped? Maybe Master Ava did something. It took him a moment to realize the others were still waiting on his answer, and he responded, "For me, it was…" He hesitated, thinking back. He'd met Master Ava in an old abandoned building, but when she'd actually talked to him about becoming a Union Leader, it was… "Near the Clock Tower."

(There was something scratching just at the back of his mind; something about the abandoned building that made his mind shy away from it.)

"…Interesting."

Skuld made a frustrated sounding noise. "What is this?" she snapped, stepping past Ven and standing in front of him almost protectively. "Some kind of interrogation?"

Both Brain and Ephemer started. Brain shifted a little, giving Skuld an unreadable look and glancing aside, which only seemed to make her more frustrated.

Ephemer made a placating motion, an awkward grin twitching on his lips. "It's not like that, Skuld."

Ven glanced between the two of him, and the pieces slowly fit into place. "Are we being suspected of something?" he asked, quiet. He wanted to ask what they were being suspected of, but he didn't have any idea about what it could be.

Skuld planted her hands on her hips and gave Brain a pointed look.

Brain met her eyes for a moment, then seemed to relent, shoulders sagging. "Ventus," he said, and Ven started. (He hadn't used his full name since…since they'd met, he thought. It made something uneasy twist in his chest.) "Skuld. Let me explain." He reached into his coat, fishing for something. "You see, Master Ava entrusted me with something." After a beat he pulled out—

A book?

Ven didn't recognized it right away, but apparently Skuld did, because she gasped, "Is that the Book of Prophecies?!"

What? Ven's eyes went wide, and he whipped his head around to stare at Brain. The idea that Brain had been entrusted with something like that was something that was hard for him to entirely comprehend—but then, so was a lot of the stuff they'd been dealing with lately. If Brain had known that something bad was coming—maybe it made sense that he'd been given the Book. Maybe that means he can figure out how to fix things. If he looks in the Book, then—

But why doesn't he seem happy?

"That's right." Brain's voice snapped him back to the present. His friend looked troubled for a moment, like he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to continue. "And inside it…Master Ava tucked away a note listing the names of the five new Union Leaders. The name of the one originally meant to receive the Book is circled."

Ven tilted his head.

"Originally?" Skuld asked. "It wasn't you?"

Brain sat heavily. "Nope." His hand rested on top of the Book, expression distant. His voice was very quiet when he continued, "I guessed as much when she gave me this."

Ven…wasn't sure what to do with that. Is that what he wanted to talk to us about? What's in the Book of Prophecies? …Was it supposed to go to one of us?

The idea that maybe him or Skuld might've been meant to have the Book was an almost exciting one, but— But then why ask us about where Master Ava made us Union Leaders? Did—did he see something in the Book about us? Is that the problem…?

"Master Ava wanted to defy fate and change the future," Brain continued, "so she gave it to me instead." Brain took a steadying breath. "But something else is off…" His hand hit the back of the Book, a frustrated expression crossing his face, and his voice was strained and angry as he continued, "The list of Union Leaders itself."

A terrible sort of suspicion started to form in the back of Ven's mind.

"One of the names doesn't match up." Brain caught Ven's eye. "Lauriam's sister, Strelitzia, was supposed to be a Union Leader."

Ven reeled. Strelitzia was…but he's been looking for her all this time. She was supposed to be here.

…I might have known her.

(He might not have been interested in knowing me.)

Ven shook his head, trying to shake the thoughts away, but his chest had grown tighter. Why isn't Lauriam here? Shouldn't he know? I need to tell him. We should go find him, he should be here—

(Why do I want to run away so badly?)

He'd almost gone running back when Skuld's voice stopped him: "What? So Master Ava swapped out one of the leaders too?"

"I don't think so," Brain answered reluctantly, and Ven tried to figure out the implications of what that meant. "If Master Ava had planned to switch out a Union Leader," Brain flipped through the Book and paused, pulling out a slip of paper, "she wouldn't have given me this note in the first place."

(If Master Ava hadn't switched the leaders, then it meant something else had happened. But what? He remembered Master Ava telling him he was going to be a Union Leader, and he didn't think Skuld would do anything bad, and they were the only two that seemed to be on trial.)

(I don't want to know, I don't want to know, I don't want to know—)

"As for Strelitzia," Brain continued, looking at the list, "it might be easy to suspect Master Ava might be involved in her disappearance… but I don't believe she is." His voice went very quiet as he continued, "She's not that kind of person."

Skuld's voice turned gentle as she said, "Maybe a replacement was chosen after Strelitzia went missing."

"That doesn't add up either." Brain's voice was rough, and there was a part of Ven that wanted to tell him to stop. "Strelitzia was last seen just before the start of the Keyblade War…desperately trying to get her friend to join the Dandelions. We can assume this is because she heard from Master Ava that she was chosen to be a Union Leader and that the war was coming. If Master Ava wanted to switch her out for someone else, even on such short notice, she would have told someone." He walked between Ven and Skuld, looking lost in thought, and his voice was troubled and uncertain as he continued, "It would make sense to tell me at least… seeing as she trusted me both with the Book and the list of names that was about to change."

"That makes sense," Skuld answered, her voice still gentle, but there was something worried there, too, and she exchanged an uncertain glance with Ven. "Is Lauriam's name on there?"

Ven whipped towards Brain, a part of him gratefully latching onto the idea. Maybe Lauriam had decided to come along to find his sister; maybe that's all that was going on, and they could still potentially find her and things would be okay. Maybe—

"Yeah," Ephemer said, and Ven felt that hope shatter, "it is. We'll discuss this with him later, after we know more. He has a lot on his plate right now looking into Strelitzia's disappearance."

Ven sucked in a breath. Strelitzia should've been here. He shouldn't have been—but how did she disappear? If she was supposed to be a Union Leader…

"We asked you those questions earlier," Brain continued, and Ven felt very suddenly like he was on the precipice of something,"to determine whether or not the replacement knew about any of this."

There was a strange, slow realization settling over him. It felt like Ven was watching a disaster happen in slow motion, unable to do anything to stop it at all.

"Ephemer and I agreed that even though we know the truth, we don't want anything to change between us."

(Between the two of them—Skuld had fallen into her role easily. She had known what was in the rulebook—had time to read through it. She had seemed ready to be a leader from the moment she'd gotten here. And Ven…)

"That's right. And I think we got the answer we were looking for. Like Brain said, nothing changes—we're still a team. We'll keep working together to try to figure this whole thing out."

(I don't want to know. Please, I don't want to know.)

Brain turned, and Ven had a brief, hopeful, selfish moment where he thought that maybe he'd go to Skuld. But his footsteps led him unerringly towards Ven, and he found himself rooted to the spot, his eyes going wider and wider until Brain had reached him.

Brain's hand landed on his shoulder. "Ventus," he said, his voice and expression gentle. "You're name isn't on the list."

Ven reeled. His ears rang, and for a moment he could barely think, everything blurring into a confused cacophony. "But…" (That couldn't be right. That couldn't be right, that couldn't be right, because if that was right, then he had taken—) "Master Ava really did tell me I was a Union Leader. It's true."

A steadying hand rested on his back, and he realized, somewhere, that his legs had become unsteady.

"We believe you, Ven." Brain squeezed his shoulder, but Ven could barely hear him over the ringing in his ears.

(The others were talking, he realized, but it sounded like it was coming from a distance. His mind was trying to process everything, clutching at strands. He wasn't—Master Ava had chosen him. He belonged here. He was—this was his family, be belonged with them, he didn't—)

"…who did Ven talk to?"

"…Why were we chosen as Dandelions?"

"To keep light alive, right?"

(But—but he'd always wondered why he'd been chosen. It had never made sense, not when his mentor had—

His mentor.)

"And what else might want to come along for the ride?"

(He remembered—he'd had a conversation with them, near to when the Keyblade War had happened. It was the last conversation he'd had, and some of it was fuzzy, but—he thought he remembered begging them to make him stronger.)

"…Darkness."

Ven jolted.

"Darkness can hide anywhere," Brain continued, quiet. "Even inside someone."

Darkness…? His mentor had—they had said they weren't a Darkling, but they were always hidden in the shadows, weren't they? I kept having dreams about them. But—are they really still here? Did they just—did they hide inside me? All of this time…?

His breathing came a little harder. His arms shook, and he tried to steady himself, but the whole world was swimming, because they couldn't still be here, he didn't want them to be, he—

"Ventus."

Ven started at Brain's voice, turning to face him. (It felt so alien to hear Brain use his full name, and he wondered if his friend was doing it to make dealing with this conversation easier, or if there was a part of him that didn't consider him a friend anymore, despite what he said.)

Brain asked, "Did you notice anything strange when you met with Master Ava?"

Ven found that he couldn't keep looking at him, his eyes sliding towards the ground. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't— "Um…I don't know…"

Ephemer prompted gently, "What did she say to you?"

"She said she wanted me to become one of the new Union Leaders…" He didn't know what he was supposed to say, and he placed one shaking hand on his head and hoped it would steady his swaying. "Then she gave me a rulebook…and told me to go to the battleground when everything was over, and the others would be waiting there." It was true. It was true, it was true, he had talked to her, there had to be some mistake—

"I recall you saying that when we first met," Brain said, quiet. "Anything else?"

They don't believe me, he thought, and he tried not to think about how that stung. He closed his eyes and took a moment to just try and breathe. "I remember…she told me to come to this old abandoned house."

"Wait," Ephemer said, startled. "Didn't you say you met at the tower?"

"We met at the house first. Then walked to the tower while we talked."

"Can you tell us more about what happened?" Brain asked, and he seemed to make an effort to soften his expression and voice.

It didn't do much of anything, really. Ven still couldn't help but feel like the world was cracking under his feet, everything thrown into disarray. "Okay…"

Thinking back to that day was—it was hard. There was always a part of him that shied away from thinking about that day. It made his head hurt and his heart pound against his ribcage, and most of the time, he preferred to think of the tower, and not the building. But—he didn't know what to do, really. He didn't know how to make this better. "That day, I went to the abandoned house like Master Ava said…"

(Thinking back made his head feel like it was splitting. Everything felt strangely fuzzy, like he was looking at things through a cloud. He—he thought he could see—)

"I think…"

(There was something there. There was someone there, but he couldn't see them, and it reminded him of—)

(Of his nightmares.)

"…that's when Master Ava showed up, and we left the house together. On the way to the tower, she told me I was one of the new Union Leaders."

"You 'think' that's when she came?" Brain interjected sharply. "You're not sure?"

(Stop looking, Ventus.)

Ven's head snapped up; as much as he wanted to keep his voice steady, it came out broken and frightened: "I can't remember what happened before we left the house. But…I think we left as soon as she got there."

Brain watched him a moment, his expression turning from something angry and troubled to something that was just sad. When he spoke again, it sounded more like he was speaking to himself than to any of them. "The person who came to the house…was it really Master Ava?"

"Huh?"

For a moment, Ven wasn't on that hill. For a moment, he was back in the abandoned building. It's the same as my nightmares, he realized, and it made his chest seize. When he turned, he thought he saw—

Something.

(You never needed to be aware of this. Stop searching for answers you don't want.)

Everything felt very fuzzy, suddenly, his head aching, the world blurring. He clutched at his head, shaking. Distantly, he thought he could hear his friends talking.

There's—there's a memory there. There's something that's missing, if I could just—

It had to have been Master Ava. It had to have been.

He scrambled at his memories, trying to pull them closer, trying to see them clearly once, just once

(Don't look. Don't look, don't look, don't—)

"I'm sorry," he breathed, and he didn't know what he was apologizing for. "I'm sorry, if I can just—"

(He was standing in the abandoned building. His limbs felt like they'd been locked in place, but he needed to turn, he needed to see what was happening, but—)

(she's dead she's dead it's your fault you did this this was your doing.)

Everything hurt, suddenly, the world flickering and buzzing like static. No, he thought, desperate. No, no, no, I have to figure out—I have to prove that it's not—

(He could—he thought he could make out a face, almost. If he could just turn—)

(Stop looking)

No! He reached, and then—

(it was too much too much too much there was darkness and he was screaming and the other person wasn't and he didn't know what to do he didn't want this he didn't he didn't—)

Something snapped, and he found himself tumbling over and over again, dropping into darkness.


-"Ven. Ventus."

Someone shook him lightly. Ven made a groggy sort of groan, shifting a little.

"Ven. You need to get up."

I know that voice. But it's not…who is it?

"Ven," the speaker hissed, slightly more urgent now. "Your grandparents won't be happy if they find out you slept in this long."

"Mom…?"

The world came into focus slowly, blurred colors forming into a dresser, some colored drawings on the wall, a couple of toys on the floor. His fingers twitched, and he spread them across a soft blanket. He tilted his head just a little, squinting in the sunlight that spilled from his window and across his floor.

"It's late, Ven," his mom said, quiet, and when he turned, he saw her as he last remembered her—pale eyes and hair, thin fingers twisting in her skirt, dark circles hung perpetually beneath her eyes.

He sat up slowly. "I—why aren't I in the Clock Tower?"

"Clock Tower?"

"In Daybreak Town." He paused, giving her a long, uncertain look. "You sent me there."

His mother's expression contorted, then smoothed again, and she bent to scoop up some clothes left near the wall. "You need to get up and get dressed."

"Mom—"

"Please, Ven. Just—you need to help out around the house."

The whole world seemed strangely off-kilter. He should—he'd been in Daybreak Town, hadn't he? Or just outside of it. He was with— "My friends."

His mom stilled.

"Skuld and Ephemer and Brain. And—and Lauriam. Where are they?"

His mom pursed her lips. "I've never seen them around."

"They aren't—they aren't here, they were in Daybreak Town." Ven pushed himself out of bed, finally, his feet hitting the floor with a solid thud. "Or they weren't. But then, why am I…?"

He started as clothes were shoved into his arms.

His mom patted the top of them, then gave him a long look. Her expression softened just a little. "Don't let your grandparents see you," she murmured. "If they do—just tell them you were helping me clean."

It was something they'd done, before, when he'd woken up late—but it wasn't something that he'd had to do since going to Daybreak Town, and it threw him enough that he didn't even react as he was ushered out the door. What's…happening? I shouldn't be here. Daybreak Town was—I was doing something. I was doing something important. But I don't remember what—

(Stop looking, Ventus. You don't really want to know.)

Ven moved mostly on autopilot, taking the bundle of clothes to the washroom and dropping them there. There was a part of him that thought that maybe he was supposed to do them, but his mom had never said that, and he needed to find out what was going on. He trotted down the hallway, keeping a cautious eye out for his grandparents, and crept out the door.

Everything was the same as it had been the last time he'd seen it—the same rough stone wall, the same fields, the same path leading towards the town in the distance. He ran a hand over the old wooden boards of his childhood home, wincing as a splinter worked its way into his finger.

He still had no idea how he got back here.

"Bought time you were up."

Ven started.

His aunt glanced down at him from the roof, and for one disconcerting moment, it felt like he was staring at someone else, back at Daybreak Town.

Ven blinked rapidly and tried to force the image away. "Um. Morning. Do, uh—how do I ask this?" He paused, cupping his chin. "When did I—get here?"

His aunt huffed a laugh. "You mean 'when were you born'?"

"No. When did I get back from Daybreak Town?" Ven fidgeted a little. "Did I—did I tell you—"

"Kid, what are you talking about?"

"I—huh?"

His aunt gave him a long, scrutinizing look. Then she turned away with a sigh. "Just run along, alright? I'm sure you could be helping out somewhere."

That answered nothing, and Ven gave a small huff of annoyance. Fine. I'll go looking on my own. He turned, heading out towards the fields.

"Ven. Ven, hey—"

He ignored his aunt shouting behind him, trailing through the grass. He didn't know what he was looking for, exactly. Just…something that might tell him what was going on. Someone who could maybe explain things to him.

(Wouldn't you prefer to stay here, Ven? It's peaceful. It's easier.)

Dandelions brushed against his leg. He sneezed, and blinked, and realized he was staring out at a whole field of them. Dandelions. Like— He shook his head. They're just plants.

It didn't stop him from running through them, half hoping that they'd lead him somewhere important.

His feet carried him farther and farther away from home, and he tried not to think too hard about the last time this had happened—when his mom had sent him away, and he'd settled into the back of a cart and watched as everything he'd known had faded into the distance. His chest ached with the thought, and he pushed it away, trekking further.

It took a while for Ven to realize that the world was growing darker the further he went from the house. A cold wind raised goosebumps along his arms. The dandelions whipped in the breeze. Ven found himself slowing almost instinctually, his chest growing tight.

"What are you doing out here, Ventus?"

And then he stopped entirely.

His grandmother stood in the field, her hands folded in front of her and her eyes narrowed. Ven thought it was a little strange, since his grandmother so rarely came out into the fields—but maybe she'd seen him leave and had come to fetch him.

It didn't matter. She was here now, and she was staring at him with that same disapproving look that she always gave him when he did something wrong. He found himself straightening instinctively. "I—I was just—looking for something."

"Well, you certainly aren't going to find it out here. Too many weeds."

There was an undercurrent to her voice that Ven didn't like, and he found himself responding, slightly petulant, "We had dandelions back at Daybreak Town, too."

"I'm sure you did."

That was…different, he realized. His mom and his aunt had tried to brush off anything he'd said about Daybreak Town, but… "Do you know why I'm here?"

His grandmother gave him an unreadable look.

Ven took a hesitant half-step forward. "It's just—I was in Daybreak Town with my friends. And we were—we were talking about something. Something important." His head throbbed, just a little, and he winced, one hand going to it.

(There was something there. Through blurry shadows, he thought he could see—)

"I was—I was trying to figure something out. I was trying to…find someone…?" Ven scrunched up his expression. "I have to go back." He half-turned, almost intent to run back out into the field.

"You were always a special one, weren't you?"

It should've been a compliment, he thought, but she said the words with such disdain that Ven found himself freezing.

"Your mother filled your head with all these stories—stories of people with hearts filled with light, who could pull off incredibly feats of heroism. It seemed to make you believe you could be like them." His grandmother snorted, face curling. "You did have a spark, I suppose, but it was always so small and weak it didn't seem worth worrying about. But that was always the thing, wasn't it? You were never good enough."

Ven turned, slowly, and tried to ignore the way it felt like his chest was collapsing in on itself.

"Do you want to know why you were sent to Daybreak Town?" She didn't give him the chance to answer. "It's because you weren't wanted here."

He'd known it, really. He'd figured it out a long time ago. But it still felt a little like a punch to the gut. "My mom—she—"

"Oh, she tried. She really did. And I suppose in her own way, she did love you. It was just never enough." His grandmother narrowed her eyes at him. "You were never supposed to come back, you know. The fact that you made it there at all is a small miracle—let alone survived long enough to return."

"But—but I—" Ven took a stumbling step forward. Missing Ache flashed into his hands, and he lifted it, half-desperate. "Look."

His grandmother's expression didn't change.

"I—I have a Keyblade. See? I'm—I am strong. I was made a Union Leader."

"But you weren't supposed to be one, were you?"

Ven's head felt like it was splitting. For a moment, he thought he saw—

(a white dress stained with red)

"That's right," Ven breathed, eyes going wide. "I was—we were talking about what happened to—"

His grandmother gave a derisive snort. "You don't really want to know, do you?"

What?

His confusion must've shown on his face, because his grandmother continued, "What happened to that girl."

"I—she's Lauriam's sister."

"And that's one of your 'friends,' is it?" She shook her head. "Well, they certainly didn't want much to do with you after finding out you weren't a Union Leader, did they?"

Ven reeled. "I—they love me."

"They love who they think you are." His grandmother turned away. "Stop looking for answers you don't want, Ventus, or you'll just break apart what's left."

"Wait—but I can't—what happened—"

He took a step and found himself being swallowed by shadows.

Ven gasped, stuttering to a halt. Something dark and cold slithered across his skin, wrapping around him and dripping down the back of his jacket. "You poor thing." The darkness hugged him tighter. "All you ever wanted was a family who loved you."

It was a familiar voice—he'd heard it many times, after he'd first come to Daybreak Town. "I—it was supposed to work. If I proved myself—it was supposed to make them like me."

"Oh, child. They were never going to love you."

He winced as his mentor's voice hissed in his ear. "But—"

"No, Ven. That wasn't our deal." He couldn't see his mentor's eyes, but he thought he could imagine them, staring into his. "But you can't keep looking, Ventus. Just go back to sleep. Enjoy your fantasy. Everything will be alright."

Something in Ven steeled. "No," he said. "No, it won't. Everything's wrong now, and I need to fix it. You—I wasn't supposed to be a Union Leader. Lauriam's sister was supposed to be here. And you—you know something." He blinked in the pitch-black, then continued, quiet, "I know what you are, now. You're Darkness."

There was a breathy, smoky sort of laughter that whispered through his ears. "I suppose, if you want to use terms like that."

"Tell me what happened. Tell me how I got here." His breath hitched. "I can't go back there, and—and I need to know."

"…You're truly not going to stop looking until you find out, are you?" The darkness tugged against his back, and Ven gasped, jerking at the touch. "Very well."

Warm sunlight filtered across his back. He blinked, sunspots blotting his vision for a moment.

"If I got stronger, th-then—then would they want me back?"

"…Perhaps."

That's—that's me. Me and—them.

"Can—can you—how do I do that? Please."

"…I can probably arrange something."

His vision cleared slowly, everything coalescing into something he could understand.

He was staring at himself, he realized—a version of him that had just realized he had nothing, and was being given that hope back in the same instant. "You could do that?"

"I remember this place," he whispered, unable to tear his eyes from his past self. "I remember—this is when you said you could help me be stronger. So that people would love me." The darkness crawled over Ven's shoulder and oozed across his chest. "But I don't remember this part."

"Watch," the voice of his mentor hissed in his ear, and so he did, holding his breath.

"I can." The past version of the mentor—his first friend, or so he'd thought—was gentle, but sad. "I am friends with the Master. I'm sure I could put in a good word for you with him."

"Woah," his past self breathed; his voice sounded so genuinely awestruck, and all Ven wanted to do was to shake him and tell him to run away, don't agree to—

Agree to what?

"But Ven," and here his mentor's voice was so kind, so soft, and it made Ven want to throw up, "I can't do something like this without a price."

His past self faltered. "Wh—why not? Aren't we—we're friends, aren't we?"

"We are. But this is a big favor. It will take a lot to convince the Foretellers to reach out to someone such as you."

"Oh." He watched as the other Ven's shoulders hunched, lifting near his ears.

"Don't worry. I will still do it. All I ask for is a favor in return. An exchange between friends."

"That's all?" Ven asked, sounding vaguely tentative.

Don't do it. Don't agree to it.

He was starting to get an inkling of what that favor was, now.

"That's all," his mentor agreed. "The favor is simple. I simply wish to come with you."

"You—you just want to stay with me?" The past version of himself perked up, and Ven couldn't quite remember this part, but he could remember the feeling—the feeling of hope, of relief, of happiness that all his friend wanted was to continue to be with him.

"Of course," the past version of his mentor insisted. "You are my friend, Ventus. I would like to stay with you for as long as I can."

"Don't do it," Ven breathed, staring at his past self as he stretched out a hand. "No, no, don't—"

He was running before he had a chance to stop himself, sprinting across the field, hand outstretched—

And he passed right through the ghost of his past, sliding through the dirt.

His mentor wreathed around him. "It's only a memory," they murmured. "You can't change the past."

That didn't mean he couldn't try, and he shot back to his feet, reaching for his specter's shoulders. "Stop!" His hands passed through. (His younger self had already clasped hands with the shadowy figure.) "You don't know what you're agreeing to!"

"Very good," came the hissing whisper of the memory. "It may be a few days—but I promise you, your opportunity will come."

"O—okay."

"It's not worth it!" Ven hurried after his past self as he turned away. "They're not going to help you! They're lying! Please, please, stop, they're the one who—"

(He can't say it. He can't say it, can't say it, can't make it real—)

"That seems a little ungrateful, doesn't it?" the Darkness hissed, and Ven snapped around, ready to summon Missing Ache. "I did help you, Ventus. I helped both of us." They surged closer, and Ven froze, feeling suddenly overwhelmed as the shadows expanded outwards. "Do you think you would have survived if I had not chosen you? You were not chosen as a Dandelion. You were too weak; you would not have lived through the Keyblade War."

"I—"

"You wanted a family that would love you. I gave them to you."

"But you—you—you hurt Lauriam's sister."

"Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made." His mentor's voice suddenly went gentle, and it made something inside Ven freeze. "It did not have to be her. No one really needed to die at all; we simply needed to be able to sneak in with the other Dandelions. I did this for you, Ven."

He felt like he was going to be sick.

"Lauriam seemed like an ideal candidate," his mentor continued. "He had proven that he was kind and gentle enough for someone like you—but he did not have the room in his heart for a second sibling. It was fortunate, then, that there was an opportunity to remove his sister from the equation and put you in a place where it would be easy to bond with him. His grieving heart latched onto you—your age and kindness and insecurities made that easy. It was not hard for you to take her place."

"I'm—I'm not—he loves me because I'm me. Not because I remind him of his sister."

"Oh, Ven. It is easy to believe that, I'm sure. It hurts less. But he would never have been able to love you with his sister still there."

"That's not true."

"You've had the same fears, haven't you?"

He had. He had, he had, but— "I didn't want this."

"Didn't you?"

The shadows parted, and for a moment, he saw— "Lauriam?"

The older Union Leader was staring at him, eyebrows pinched in worry. "Ven? Is everything alright?"

No. No, it wasn't, and he desperately, desperately wanted to have Lauriam tell him it would be okay, but—

(But he was the reason his sister was—)

"I did something horrible."

Lauriam's concerned look deepened, and he turned towards him, looking like he was going to come closer.

And then the shadows closed around him.

"Lauriam!" Ven ran towards him, but when his fingers touched where Lauriam had been, they hit a wall, not a person.

"They have to be here. This is the only place we haven't checked."

"Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me."

Ven's breath hitched. He—he recognized this. He knew where this place was. He knew that voice. He'd had nightmares of this place countless times, over and over and over, ever since he became a Union Leader. They were always so jumbled and hard to remember when he was awake, filled with static.

No, he thought, desperate. No, no, no, it's just a nightmare, it's not real, this couldn't really be happening—

(But he knew it was. He thought that maybe he'd known ever since he'd come here.)

"Hello! Is anyone here? Hello?"

"I'm here," Ven breathed, but he knew she wouldn't hear him, he knew it. "Run. Run. Strelitzia, you need to run—"

"I guess I was wrong."

"Well, it was worth a shot. I'll head back to Fountain Square."

"Okay. I'll keep searching."

"Don't make me do it," Ven whispered, and his voice broke. "I don't want to turn around. Don't make me turn around. Please, I've seen enough—"

"But that's what you came here for, isn't it?" his mentor hissed, and his legs moved, dragging him around, even though a part of him wanted to fight and kick and scream.

Strelitzia—looked a lot like her brother, he realized, now that he could see her properly. The same general shape to the eyes, the face—the same sort of gentle expression. Ven saw her and felt like he was caught, voice stuck in his throat.

And then the moment was broken. Something flashed from the shadows, so quick that he couldn't quite tell what it was—whether it was the specter of his Keyblade or something his mentor had done or something else. Strelitzia looked like she didn't realize what had happened right away; her expression slowly shifted towards confused shock, one hand reaching towards the bloody wound on her chest.

And then she was falling, and Ven wanted to dart towards her but he couldn't, bound by a memory that he didn't want.

He was—screaming, he realized. He screamed, and he screamed, and he screamed, until his throat was raw and he felt like he was going to be sick.

But his memory stayed silent—his past self didn't react as the Darkness ordered him to pick up Strelitzia's rulebook. (That book still rested inside his jacket. It felt like it burned now, too hot against his chest.)

He moved. His legs carried him past the dying girl, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to turn around and help her or to run as far away as he could.

The shadows shifted when they neared the door. The dark form of his mentor became Master Ava, and Ven felt whatever hope he'd had leave him. "This whole time," he whispered. "The whole time, it was you. You were just—tricking me."

The memory faded. Ven collapsed, finally, whatever strings that had been holding him up cut.

The Darkness wrapped around him. It felt almost like a hug. "You never had the constitution for this sort of thing," his mentor whispered, "so I helped you avoid having to see it. That way, you could enjoy your new life without guilt."

It was hard to tell anymore what was his mentor's manipulations and what was truth, but strangely, Ven thought they were genuine—or, at least, that they genuinely believed they had been doing something kind for Ven.

"They're all—I'm going to lose them," he whispered numbly, because he wasn't sure what to focus on anymore, and all he could think of was the fact that none of this had actually mattered, because with Darkness here, they would die, anyways.

"You won't," Darkness soothed. "We have sent a waypoint into the future. Your friends will survive."

"But the Dandelions won't."

"Sacrifices must be made," Darkness repeated, and Ven wanted to scream or cry or do something.

(He wanted Lauriam.)

The Darkness hugged him closer. "There, you see? I am your friend, Ventus. I only want what's best for both of us."


-Waking up didn't really feel like waking up.

It felt a little like he was still in a dream. Everything looked right, but it felt like there was something just slightly off, in the way it often did in dreams. Like if he looked in a mirror his eyes would be wrong, or he'd open a book and the words would look funny, or he'd leave the room and the hallways would lead to all the wrong places. When he blinked, he half-expected to actually wake up, this time, and he'd go to breakfast and listen to Skuld and Ephemer tease each other and Brain talk about whatever his next project would be and Lauriam—

Lauriam.

Ven sucked in a shuddering breath and blinked rapidly. The world didn't change.

His fingers ran over soft bedsheets, and it took him a moment to really register that he was in his room. His friends had brought him back, probably. He wondered what they thought; he wondered if they had any idea that he hadn't just replaced Strelitzia, that he'd been the reason for—

(Don't think about it.)

(How do you stop?)

He sat up slowly. "I—she's gone." His fingers curled tightly into his comforter. "I wasn't ever supposed to be here."

It made sense, when he thought about it. He'd always wondered why he'd been chosen, when he didn't feel like a Union Leader at all. He'd never done well in rankings, never really been able to manage leadership responsibilities well, never had the same confidence the others had.

He guessed now he understood why he'd been so different.

Drip. Drip. The world blurred, his blankets and hands and clothes all swirling together until he couldn't separate them from each other. He rubbed the back of one hand, wiping away water. "Why did you tell me?" His voice cracked. "I didn't want to know." He wasn't really sure who he was talking to anymore; if he was talking to his mentor or Brain or himself.

He sucked in a breath and choked on it. He lifted a shaking hand and pressed it to his mouth; his body bent, hunched over his bed, and he exhaled a sob. He tried to steady himself a moment and failed, and he hugged himself and just cried. "What am I supposed to do?" The words came out garbled, his breath hitching. "How am I supposed to tell them?"

He didn't know. He didn't know, he didn't know, he didn't know, and he was—

Terrified.

(For a moment, he wasn't in his room; he was standing back in that dark room, staring at a dying girl. He wondered if she'd been scared, too.)

Lauriam doesn't know.

The thought nearly made him curl in on himself. Lauriam hadn't been on the hill to hear what Brain had said; he still thought that maybe his sister was out there, somewhere. At the very least, he didn't know that Ven was the reason she was—

(Gone.)

"I—I need to tell him."

(He'll hate you.)

"He needs to know. I need to be the one to—he needs to know."

He didn't move right away. He sat there crying, hands curled into his bedsheets. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to do this. If he did this, Lauriam wouldn't—

But he needed to know.

It felt like something was gnawing the inside of his stomach. His feet hit the floor, his blanket still tugged over his shoulders. A part of him wanted to curl back up under the covers and hope that when he woke up again, the world wouldn't be falling apart and Lauriam could still hope that his sister was coming back and everything would go back to normal.

(And it struck him, then, that the problems with Daybreak Town were probably his fault, too; he was the reason Darkness had even gotten in, after all. If he hadn't been here, then maybe his friends would've been alright.)

Ven took a breath and let the blanket fall away. He put his shoes on slowly, feeling almost numb. A distant sort of exhaustion settled over his mind, and it was enough to get him to the door and out into the hallway.

(There was something like the voice of his mentor hissing in the back of his mind, Telling them will change nothing. It would be better for you to run and hide.)

The walk to the Foretellers' Chambers had never felt so long. He wasn't sure where he'd find Lauriam, exactly—but he thought he could probably find someone in the Foretellers' Chambers, and even if they couldn't point him towards Lauriam, he could at least tell—someone.

(Lauriam will never be able to forgive you for this.)

But as he got closer, he realized he might not need to go looking; raised voices came from the Foretellers' Chambers, Brain's and Skuld's and Ephemer's and Lauriam's.

"What plan?"

"Darkness's plan. Fear, doubt, anger… It's purposefully messing with our hearts and making us turn on each other."

"Lauriam, please!"

They're fighting, he realized, and it felt like he was going to be sick all over again. They're fighting over me.

"I don't understand…"

Lauriam. He sounded…broken. Confused. Angry, maybe, but a worn sort of anger that didn't have anything left to cling to. It was so different from how he normally sounded that it made Ven's heart twist.

"Please." Skuld, then, quiet and strained. "Just listen."

"Tell me what happened to my sister…"

(You don't have to tell them. This can stay a secret between us. They know that you weren't supposed to be here, but they don't know that you had anything to do with Strelitzia's disappearance. Just let them keep believing what they want to. You won't have to lose their love.

It was a terribly tempting thought, and it made his footsteps falter for half a moment. But then he was staring at a dying Strelitzia, and listening to Lauriam as he talked about her, and watching as his friend looked desperately for someone who he knew wasn't coming back, and the guilt felt like it was eating him alive.)

Stepping into the doorway felt like stepping off a cliff. The others looked towards him, varying levels of surprise and worry crossing their faces. The only one that didn't react was Lauriam; he was on his knees, turned away from the door and hunched in on himself.

"I…it's my fault." The words wobbled and broke, but his footsteps remained steady as he entered the room, his eyes glued to Lauriam's back.

(This is a mistake, Ventus.)

Skuld asked, voice just on the edge of panic, "Ven? What are you—"

"Explain yourself, Ven." Lauriam pushed himself up slowly. His voice was calm, level, almost gentle. It made Ven think for half a moment that maybe things would be okay.

He didn't think it would last. "I'm sorry, Lauriam…I'm responsible for what happened to her."

The others' voices rose before he'd even entirely finished, lifting in panic:

"Ven, don't!"

"That's not true!"

Lauriam straightened. Ven stared at him as he turned, then snapped his eyes shut, shoulders hunched.

There was silence for several moments, save for the sound of unsteady footfalls. (And Ven wondered what had happened—if the four of them had fought over him, or if Lauriam had gotten hurt some other way.)

"Ven."

That was…a lot closer than he expected it to be. Ven's eyes snapped open. Lauriam's voice and expression were deceptively calm, and for a brief moment, Ven found himself thinking that things would be okay. This was still Lauriam, after all, and Lauriam—he loved him, didn't he?

Lauriam extended his hands, and at first Ven thought that maybe he was going to hug him; that he was going to pull him close like he had last time and tell him that it's okay, it's alright, it's not your fault

And then he didn't.

Lauriam gripped the front of Ven's shirt, twisting into the fabric until his knuckles turned white. Lauriam's expression contorted, turning into something halfway desperate. "What did you do to Strelitzia?"

He'd—

Killed her. Or gotten her killed. It didn't make a difference, in the end. But when he tried to say it, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He stared back at Lauriam, eyes wide, and everything he'd wanted to say fell apart.

(Fight. Fight, protect yourself.)

Pain split through Ven's head. He hissed, resting a hand against it.

He couldn't focus. The only thing he could think was, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know.

Someone was shouting his name, he thought. In his peripherals he thought he could see Ephemer. He was saying something, too, but Ven's ears suddenly felt like they were ringing.

Lauriam's expression turned into something angrier, and suddenly he was being dragged closer, feet lifted off the ground. He gasped, half-panicked, as Lauriam hissed, "Ven. Answer me."

(What are you doing, Ventus? If you don't do something, neither of us will get out of this.)

It felt like the words were echoing through his head, bouncing against the back of his skull and making it feel too full. Ven's fingers tightened against his head and tried to ignore the rising feeling of panic bubbling in his throat.

"Stop it!" Through the ringing in his ears, Ven thought he could hear Brain. "This isn't you."

"Stay out of this!" Lauriam roared, and the panic grew, because Ven suddenly realized that Lauriam was much, much angrier than he'd thought he'd been. He swung his hand back with enough force that it dislodged Brain, and Ven wobbled as he found himself suddenly freed. Small sparks flashed around Lauriam's palm, and it dawned on Ven slowly that he was going to attack him. It seemed like such a foreign idea that Ven didn't really know what to do; he stared, head still throbbing, the ghost of a memory murmuring, You didn't want to do it. It's not your fault. We'll love you regardless of what you did or didn't do.

"Answer me!" Lauriam shouted, and his Keyblade moved, too quick, too slow, too impossible for Ven to figure out how he was supposed to react.

(…Very well. I will keep us safe.)

The world blurred, everything suddenly cracking apart. His head felt like it was splitting, his heart hammering too hard against the back of his ribcage. A distant part of him recognized that he was falling, his hands hitting hard against the floor, but everything suddenly sounded like it was under water, the sensations dulled.

(We need to fight, Ventus.)

What's—what's happening?

(The situation has gotten out of hand.)

You're—Darkness. You're still here. You—

He felt like he was burning. His body felt too full, and he gasped, back arcing, forehead resting against the ground.

(We need to fight.)

No! Don't—don't hurt them! Please, I can't—

(They are trying to hurt us.)

It felt like his back was cracking open, his skin stretched too thin, his bones creaking under the pressure. Someone was screaming, he realized, and it took too long to realize that it was him.

(I apologize, Ventus. I would have let you keep them if I could. But I must put our safety first. You understand.)

No. No, no, no, no— The others—the others were still fighting, they didn't know, they didn't know, he brought Darkness right to them—

He coughed and gasped; something crawled up his throat and choked him, thick and sticky. The world was blurring in and out, his friends fracturing into copies, and he curled his fingers against the ground. They needed to know—he needed to warn them, he couldn't be the reason all of them died, he couldn't— "It…" The Darkness pulled at his back, and he hunched over, trying desperately, desperately to get the words out, because he wasn't the only one who had been there when Strelitzia had died. "It wasn't me…"

(Fine. I will fight them myself.)

Panic flooded Ven's chest, and he summoned whatever energy he could to shout, "It wasn't me!"

And then there was just pain. The whole world blotted out into a sharp ringing noise and bright light as something ripped away from his back. Distantly, he was aware of the fact that he was falling, and a part of him thought, No. No, no, I can't, I need to protect them—I can't hurt them anymore. I don't want to hurt them anymore, please—

But everything had faded before he'd even hit the floor.


-It felt a little like Ven was floating. He wasn't sure where he was, exactly; all of the sensations were blurred and dulled, smothered by darkness. He tried to breathe, and it felt like he was choking.

The darkness wrapped around him tighter. "Hush, now. I will keep us safe."

Ven tried to protest, but the darkness filled his throat and choked him.

"It's alright. Just let me handle things, like you did before."

Ven lifted a hand to claw at his mouth.

"They must go away. I won't let them hurt you."

Ven wanted to summon his Keyblade, but he couldn't. He couldn't think, he could barely move, he couldn't do anything—

(No wonder you weren't chosen as a Union Leader.)

"Shh, shh. It's okay."

Ven squirmed and fought, twisting wildly, heart pulsing with panic panic panic—

"Ven, honey, it's alright."

"…Mom?"

The darkness pulled away slowly, and he sucked in a desperate, gasping breath. He was—he was in a field, he realized, one of the ones near his old home. Warm sunlight filtered across his face and back. A cool breeze picked at his clothes. There was a distant ache, and he almost thought he could hear the sounds of shouting and the clash of metal—but it was quieter, now, in a place he couldn't really reach.

Gentle arms tugged him closer, and when he looked up, he saw his mom, giving him a tiny, soft smile. "I've got you, Ven. It's okay."

Ven's breath hitched. "Mom!" He threw himself at her, arms wrapping tightly around her waist, and she pulled him closer, rubbing her hand against his back as he sobbed. "Everything's gone wrong," he breathed. "I did something bad, and now—"

"I know, I know. It's okay. You don't have to fight now."

(Everything was coming to him from a distance, but he almost thought he could hear voices. Familiar ones, tense and worried.)

"I don't want to be here anymore. I want to—I want to go home."

His mom stilled.

"I was never supposed to be here in the first place," he continued, quiet. "I was—I was never good enough."

His mom was quiet for several moments. She shifted a little, sitting and pulling him into her lap. "Ven," she murmured, "this is only a dream. I don't think you really want to come back here."

"What else am I supposed to do?" He looked up at her, squirming away a little. "Everything's falling apart, and it's my fault! I wasn't supposed to—I'm not a Union Leader! I'm not strong! I—I made friends with the wrong person, and they hurt someone, and I took her place, and—and the others hate me now. They know I wasn't supposed to be there."

"You aren't responsible for someone else's actions," his mother chided gently. Before he could respond to that, she asked, "Why do you think they hate you?"

(There was something that sounded like fighting, now. The air rushed across his back. He stirred, almost, but he couldn't quite make out what was going on.)

"Because—it was a lie. Everyone was—I'm not the one Master Ava picked." Ven swallowed tightly. "Lauriam's angry."

"Lauriam?"

"He's—he's one of my friends." He stumbled over the word 'friends,' voice dying. "Or he—he was. I—he's been looking for his sister, but I'm the reason that she—she's the one I replaced."

"He's grieving. When we grieve, we sometimes say and do things we don't mean."

Ven knew that—he'd seen it happen, with Skuld and Brain and Ephemer and even himself. "But this is different. He's—he's never going to forgive me for this."

"Are you sure? Weren't your friends willing to protect you, even when Lauriam was angry?" His mom gave him a gentle smile. "Look a little closer, Ven. Listen."

Ven furrowed his eyebrows, because most of what he could hear were just the sounds of his mom talking and birds chirping. But if he listened a little harder, he thought he could hear—

(Voices. They were a little louder, now, and he thought he could just make out the words:

"You hijacked Ven and attacked Lauriam's sister. And now you're gonna pay for it!"

"We are many, and we are one. But to be one requires will. Through him, we could divide into pure darkness and pure light…willful and distinct. It was a sacrifice that needed to be made."

"So…Ven didn't attack Strelitzia. You did. Is that right?"

They were—they were fighting for him, he realized. They were fighting against his former friend to protect him, even after everything.)

"They love you, Ven."

"They're still—why?"

"You spent a year together with them. Did you think all those memories would go away?"

(For just a moment, Ven wasn't in the Foretellers' Chambers, or in the field, but somewhere in the past. For just a moment, he was in the kitchen, laughing as Ephemer tried to help bake cookies and the others threw flour at each other. For a moment, he was out in Daybreak Town, catching fireflies and splashing the others with water from the fountain. For a moment, he was curled up under the meeting table, listening as Skuld told stories.

For a moment, it felt like he was home.)

"I love them, too," Ven breathed. "I—they're my family."

Darkness swirled at the other side of the field. Ven stiffened and found himself staring at the shadowy form of his mentor. They weren't really here, he knew—but he couldn't help tensing anyways, staring at someone he'd once thought was his friend. "I—what do I do?"

"What do you want to do?"

(A distant part of him registered that he was moving, if only slightly, his head tilting and eyes cracking open. His vision was blurred, but he thought he could see the other Union Leaders fighting against his mentor, weapons and magic flying in a desperate attempt to keep them back.

…They were losing.)

"I—I want to save my friends. I want them to be okay."

"Then you can."

"But—but I was never strong enough. I was never—"

"Ven." His mom laid gentle hands on his shoulders, turning him towards her. She waited until he'd looked up at her before she continued, "Do you remember all those stories I told you? About the Light Warriors."

"That's not what they're called."

"Yes, but it's what you always called them, isn't it?" she responded with a laugh. "They were great heroes who did everything they could to protect others. You wanted to be like them so badly. But let me tell you a secret." Her voice lowered. "The real people those stories were based on weren't always brave and good and strong. Sometimes, they were just as scared and uncertain as you are now."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm." Her expression softened, and for a moment, it felt a little like he was talking to Lauriam, not his mother. "You're stronger than you think, Ven. You've proved over and over again that you're clever and kind and determined. If you want to save them—you can."

It was everything he'd always wanted to hear from his mom—and it was also something he knew he never would've gotten, really. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you," he whispered. "I'm sorry I couldn't make you love me."

"Don't be sorry. Besides, you've found people who do."

"Yeah," Ven agreed, giving her a wobbly smile. He took a shuddering breath and stepped away. "I—I love you."

She didn't say anything back—but that was okay. He didn't really expect her to, anymore.

His smile broadened anyways, eyes wet. And then he turned and started running towards the shadows at the edge of the field. I'm coming, he thought. I'm coming. I'm going to—I'm going to help.

Something snarled and whipped overhead. The whole world turned dark, the shadows swirling together, coalescing into a familiar figure.

(There was a distant impression that this was happening in the real world, too; that his mentor was hovering over his body like it was some sort of puppet to be used for their own means.)

Ven swallowed, staring up at the shadows. When his mentor spoke, it felt like they were talking to him, not his friends: "I am formless. You cannot destroy me."

The voice was like a thunder crack. It boomed and echoed, and for a moment, Ven felt himself get caught in it, the wind whipping into a frenzy around him. Shadows burst like lightning strikes, Darklings landing, half-crouched, in positions around him, hissing and snarling. It felt like they were stalking him, almost, prowling back and forth and waiting until the darkness swallowed him.

He gave a panicked look to the Darklings, and then, slowly, turned back towards his mentor. They hovered overhead, nearly blotting out everything, and for one terrifying moment, Ven almost caved. He'd never been able to stand up to his mentor even before he realized what they were, after all.

But that was before. He might not have been chosen as a Union Leader, but he'd still made the position his own.

Ven took a steadying breath. You aren't going to control me anymore. He glanced at the Darklings. Maybe I can't beat you. But—maybe I don't have to.

I know a spell to trap you, after all.

He reached for his magic, stretching deep, deep inside him, clutching at that thing beside his heart that sparked and sang with energy. Maybe it was the talk of stories with his mother, or maybe it was the memory of his mentor mentioning his light, or maybe it was just that he was staring down shadows, but he felt his magic burn, blinding bright like sunlight, expanding behind his ribcage and glowing underneath his skin. He shouted, everything glowing white, something like fire in his throat and burning through his skin, the world growing brighter, brighter, until there was no room for the darkness at all.

When the light faded, he was standing in the Foretellers' Chambers again, staring at the stunned faces of his friends. Something in his chest twisted when he saw them, and a part of him wanted to throw himself at them right there; to hug them and have them tell him things were going to be alright and that they were going to figure this out together.

But then the shadows shifted in the air towards the back, and the moment passed. This was his monster, after all, even if he hadn't asked for them—and he was going to do whatever it took to stop them. So he steadied himself and moved past his friends, eyes fixed firmly on the shadows.

"If you're pure darkness," he said, watching as his mentor recollected themself slowly, "then that makes me pure light." The words came with practiced ease, born from memories of stories his mother had told him over and over again. They were the words of a hero—of the sort of person Ven had always wanted to be.

(And maybe he wasn't that person, really. In the end, he was just a scared boy who didn't really belong with the heroes he'd surrounded himself with.

But that was alright. He knew the words. He could pretend to be a hero for a little while, for the people he loved.)

"If you used me to shape yourself," Ven continued, staring up at the swirling, indistinct form of someone he'd once thought a friend, "then I can reshape you again."

The shadows whipped around the room, making the lights flicker.

He…knew what he had to do, when he thought about it. Darkness had spent so long hiding inside him that it felt like they were a part of him. If they needed something tangible they could fight—then he knew how to make that happen.

Ven took a moment to steady himself, because—he was scared, really. He didn't know what would happen. He…might not survive this, he realized. And even if he did—he might never be the same again. Whoever he was now—he couldn't be that person any longer.

"I'll give you a new form," he continued, quiet, and ignored how his eyes stung, "that we can defeat."

The familiar, comforting weight of Missing Ache settled into his palms. His friends shouted behind him, but there was no time to stop and listen. If he hesitated for too long, he might lose his nerve, or they might stop him, and he couldn't afford that. He took a breath and went to move—

And then someone was gripping his arm.

Ven stalled, and glanced back in time to see a concerned, terrified face. "Lauriam…"

"I can't lose you, too," Lauriam whispered, his voice just on the edge of breaking.

It was almost enough to make Ven break, too. Almost. He gave his friend a sad sort of smile and hoped that he'd forgive him. "Everything's going to be alright."

Lauriam's grip relaxed just slightly—and Ven took advantage of it immediately, Missing Ache spinning to force the other Union Leader to let go. He pretended not to see Lauriam's terrified face as he ripped free, his friend's fingers grasping at something that wasn't there anymore. With a burst of magic Ven sent himself flying towards the shadows, desperately bringing to mind Brain's binding spell.

(It had been meant for the Darklings. He hoped it would work on Darkness, too.)

His mentor seemed ready to meet him, the shadows flaring like they were ready to attack. Darkness licked at his cheeks and snapped at his hands, and Ven winced but reached anyways, stretching out one desperate hand to grip them. It didn't work entirely, his hand sliding into a murky, shadowy mass, rather than latching onto something solid—but that was alright. It would be good enough.

"What are you doing, Ventus?" his mentor hissed.

He didn't answer; his body still sparked with magic, small bits and pieces snapping away, but it took surprisingly little focus to cast the binding spell. In his mind's eye, he imagined the shadowy form of his mentor wrapped in chains, dragging them into himself and latching them there.

His mentor seemed to realize what he was doing and pulled, tugging as hard as they could to get away from the spell. "You think you would trap me?" they hissed. "You would use yourself as a vessel—"

He was—probably supposed to say something, he thought. The heroes he'd heard about might've. But he wasn't them, really, and he couldn't think of anything to say.

The cold, sticky feeling of darkness sank into his skin and crawled over his arms. He could feel his mentor fighting, but he could also feel the brush of other sensations—anger and fear and desperation. He remembered something his mentor had said, about struggling to keep their light and dark from mixing. He wondered if that's what was happening, now.

It was a terrifying thought. Ven's eyes burned, and his chest shuddered, but he didn't let go, squeezing tighter and focusing on the spell.

"We were friends."

Ven hesitated—but only for a moment. He took a breath and tightened his grip on the spell.

And then it took hold.

It felt like something had wrapped around his heart, coiling like chains. A loud screeching sound rang through his skull, so loud that everything else seemed to blur away. He had the vague sense of darkness and light swirling around him, but more pressing was the burning feeling, the way his heart felt like it was collapsing in on itself, the way everything felt like it was too much too much too much—

And just as quickly it was gone. The pain faded, and the whole world went very, very quiet. Distantly he recognized he was falling; someone, he thought, was shouting his name. There was—something warm wrapping around him, he thought. Something wet on his face. His eyes opened, but he couldn't make much out beyond hazy images. He tried to smile, anyways.

Everything was fading now. The images blurred and turned black. The warmth around his shoulders faded. The sound of his name, repeated over and over and over, dimmed.

It wasn't quite as scary as he'd thought it would be.


-…Hey. Do you think we ever could've actually been friends? If things had been different.

…Why would you ask that, now? After everything?

I don't know. I just—maybe I wish we could've. …I don't know if we could be anymore, though.

Well, it's not like we'd have much of a choice, at this point.

I—I guess that's true.

…You're really okay with destroying yourself for them?

I—I don't really want to. But if it's for them—if it keeps them safe—then it's okay.

And…you don't regret it?

I—regret not having more time, maybe. And how we got here in the first place. And how everything ended. But I can't regret everything else. It wasn't for a long time, but—I had a home, for a little while. It was nice. I think maybe I can live with the regrets, for that.

…I don't think I will ever understand you.

…Is fading scary?

I don't know. It hasn't happened to me before.

Oh. Okay. It's a first for both of us, then. …We'll—we'll go together, then?

…Yes. I guess we will.


So I…I don't actually know how I got this finished so quickly? It doesn't feel like it's 60-some pages, and yet… (On that note: this was supposed to be the shortest finale chapter. This…this does not bode well for me.)

As for the chapter itself: all of the finale chapters are basically going to be expanding on and providing resolutions to the stuff we got in the backstory chapters. Ven's is probably where that's most obvious, because ALL of his stuff relates to Darkness and Strelitzia. I definitely wanted to play up the family angle, because we didn't get into that as much in his backstory chapter, and…that's basically what he wanted! He just wanted people who loved him. Hopefully you all liked how I handled this.

Also, thank you Lacan Shinn for reviewing last chapter! For the review response: I'm glad you thought I handled the chapter well! I'm also glad you think the chapter worked well with the canon storyline, since I was…definitely a little bit worried about that. For the first question: while I did have at least BbS in mind, splitting it into four different chapters was mostly meant to give me a chance to dive deeper into each characters' thoughts and stories. (Since technically ALL of them share the protagonist role, it felt appropriate to give each of them a major chance to stand out.) I wasn't specifically doing this to reference Roxas's last days, though. Also, a correction: there are four finale chapters plus an epilogue. The last chapter is shared between Ephemer and Skuld, since a lot of their finale scenes are together. (That said, I'll still be getting into a lot of their individual thoughts on the things that are going on, so that one's going to be…very long.)