Way to the Dawn
"…qu….A…a…"
She slowly opened her eyes, feeling a light shining down on her.
"Aqua…"
She felt water underneath her as she sat up and looked around, seeing nothing but blue sky and water. An endless sea and sky that seemed to reach out into infinity.
"Aqua."
She looked in front of her, seeing a familiar face. "…Chirithy?"
"Hello, Aqua." The small furry creature greeted pleasantly.
"How…Where…" Aqua brought a hand to her head. "What happened?"
"You passed out after nearly being swallowed by darkness. You used all your power to escape and pull your friend with you." Chirithy explained. "It's a harrowing experience but you managed to endure and escape."
"Right…We were in the Realm of Darkness. I was saving Neo when she fell into the dark water…" Aqua slowly recalled as she stood up. "What is this place?"
"The Final World…A sort of limbo for hearts that have not yet been fully claimed by death." Chirithy answered. "You came pretty close but luckily someone is working to keep you alive."
"I…died?" Aqua slowly spoke with a shocked look on her face.
"No but you came pretty close. You delved so deep into the dark water to save your friend that it almost looked like you would drown in there and your heart would fall into the deepest, darkest depths." Chirithy answered. "But you made it back and you'll survive."
"How do you know?" Aqua asked.
"Because I know you and the bonds you forge and treasure. Though you are not in the Realm of Light, the bonds you have made there and in the other world have tethered you there enough you managed to fight back against the darkness." Chirithy answered. "Even now you are recovering."
"I see…" Aqua took a deep breath and sighed. "I suppose that is a relief…"
"Why shouldn't it be?"
Aqua looked sadly at Chirithy. "I wonder if I am worth it, worthy to be allowed to live after all the mistakes I have done."
"Mistakes?" Chirithy tilted his head.
"I could protect my friends, in fact my willingness to obey my master's instructions drove my friends away and led them to their fate…And now I have seen the fate of one of them I see how badly they and the rest of the worlds paid the price for my mistakes." Aqua looked down at the saddened reflection on the water staring back up at her. "Terra…he's…His heart is trapped, his body lost…I sent him back to the Realm of Light to save him but now I wonder if I should have…"
"You would have abandoned him?" Chirithy questioned.
"How could I chose one life over the countless lives that had been endangered?" Aqua looked back at Chirity. "How many suffered because I couldn't save my friend?"
"You offered compassion and love for your friends, you chose to act what you knew best in your heart. Is that not what Keyblade Wielders do? Their true power comes from the Heart." Chirithy reminded. "Do you doubt your heart?"
Aqua just looked at Chirithy, placing a hand over her chest. "I just...wish things could have been different."
"So do many people at many points in their lives. We all cannot control the outcomes of trying times when the heart is tested." Chirithy stated. "You chose mercy; you chose to save your friend no matter what state he was in. It was what you do in these times that truly define what lies in your heart. As long as you believe and continue to hope, then perhaps one day you can make things right."
Aqua just stared at Chirithy. "…I hope so."
"Do not despair, Aqua. You have much more to do before it can be said you have done all you could." Chirithy comforted as the world around them began to fade. "We will meet again."
Aqua just watched as everything around her turned to bright light…
Xxx
"I am glad you are all right."
Aqua slowly opened her eyes and looked up to see Ansem, the good one kneeling next to her. "Ansem…"
"You seemed to have been struck by a small fever, Aqua. I feared you would not make." Ansem brought a damp cloth to Aqua's forehead. "When was the last time you rested?"
Aqua sighed softly from the damp cloth on her head. "…I can't recall."
"You can only go for so long without rest, even with the power of the Keyblade." Ansem advised. "What pushes you so far?"
Aqua stared up the ceiling of the cave Ansem had apparently taken her to. "…Trying to make things right, make up for my mistakes and make sure it was not all in vain."
"Hmm…" Ansem hummed in a melancholy tone. "We are kindred then."
Aqua glanced over at the man.
"I have made my share of mistakes, ruined many lives in the process to the point I believe my presence in this world was my punishment." Ansem explained. "You saw one of my mistakes earlier when that man came."
"You said you found him in Radiant Garden ten years ago." Aqua recalled.
Ansem nodded. "I did alongside the very same armor and Keyblade you now have. He had no memory of his past, other than the name 'Xehanort'. I took him in; made him an apprentice and we studied the heart. Our research was meant to search for ways to combat the darkness but I failed to realize the depth of his ambition."
"I see…You wouldn't be the first to not see him for what he is." Aqua mumbled as she looked back up at the ceiling. "He's fooled a lot of people."
"I see…You know him." Ansem observed.
"I knew the person he used to be." Aqua corrected. "I was the reason he lost his memory in the first place."
"So it is true. The rumors of warriors wielding key shaped swords engaging in a great battle and Xehanort appeared in the aftermath of that battle." Ansem said, remembering the rumors and tales he had heard. "You are one of those warriors."
Aqua nodded. "I guess so…"
"That armor and Keyblade…Xehanort, or the Nobody he became had kept the armor and Keyblade in a chamber he had built down where we had been conducting those experiments." Ansem spoke. "I know because after I was banished I worked hard to uncover all of the Organization's secrets."
"Nobody?" Aqua looked back at Ansem. "What do you mean?"
"I suppose you would not know." Ansem leaned back against the wall. "A Nobody is created when a Heart gives into darkness and leaves the body behind…"
Aqua was silent all through the explanation Ansem gave. The Heartless could steal hearts, corrupting them and creating more Heartless but for every Heartless that is created, a Nobody which is born from the body they leave behind is born. Aqua had spent several minutes after Ansem had told her about Nobodies, pondering what she had learned.
'If that man we encountered was Xehanort's Heartless…' Aqua's eyes widened. 'Then the man in the chamber was the body, Terra's body it left behind. But was it Xehanort's Nobody or Terra's Nobody? Or maybe both?'
Now she understood what she had sensed from the man they had encountered in that chamber. If it was the Nobody made by Terra's body and possessed by Xehanort then it was indeed what was left of Terra after he had been possessed while his Heart was trapped in the monster guardian Xehanort's Heartless controlled!
'This empty feeling was because there was no heart left in him.' Aqua thought as few tears slipped down her cheeks. 'Oh Terra, why have you had to suffer like this? Why couldn't I save you that day?'
She brought a hand to her face, wiping away the tears but she couldn't keep the grief in.
Everything she had endured up to this moment was making its way out and she couldn't stop it.
Or maybe she didn't want to stop it.
Ansem allowed Aqua her time to properly process her pain before she finally calmed down enough to look at him. "Where's Neo?"
He gestured further down the cave and Aqua looked to see Neo, seemingly back to normal and still resting. "I have done what I can for her. As far as I can tell, her heart did not become a Heartless or her body would have vanished."
"That's good." Aqua sighed in relief.
At least she saved someone.
"That power you wielded was different than anything I have seen before." Ansem noted as he looked back at Aqua. "It seemed like you were channeling the powers of several others."
Aqua looked at her hand, engaging her Aura and watching as it glowed around her hand for a brief second. "It came from her world…She calls it Aura."
"Aura?"
"Supposedly it's the power of the soul." Aqua explained with a small smile on her face, seemingly happy from paying Ansem back with a little surprise of her own after he told her what Nobodies are.
She launched into a brief explanation of the world Neo had come from, along with the power of Aura and the Semblance which is seemingly a personal kind of power that Aura grants with Neo's Semblance being some sort of physical illusion.
"Fascinating." Ansem brought a hand to his chin. "In our studies the soul is the mind, giving the body life and determines whether they are alive or dead. The force that wills the body to live and drives it to survive. Those with exceptionally strong wills are able to survive with only their mind, lacking their heart or body. But we never considered the possibility of the soul manifesting a power like this."
"Neither did I until I met Neo and people from her world." Aqua took the cloth off her head and sat up. "I guess there are powers out there even a Keyblade Wielder does not know."
"That is why we study and strive to learn more about the worlds we are born into." Ansem stated with a small smile.
"…Yeah." Aqua looked down at her lap.
"So what will you do now?" Ansem questioned.
Aqua glanced back at Neo…
Xxx
After resting enough, Aqua returned to the dark beach where she and Neo had fought dark Ansem, the Heartless of Xehanort. Ansem had taken the time to explain to her what had happened while she had been gone. Specifically the details of Xehanort and Ansem's other apprentices delving into the darkness, how the Heartless began invading other worlds with Radiant Garden being the first and the Heartless were led by Maleficent of all people. Aqua remembered meeting Maleficent back in the past of Neo's world who had taunted her about the fate of the worlds since she, Terra and Ven had last been together. Maleficent had gathered people of hearts as dark as hers to try and track down the Princesses of Heart to use them to open the door to Kingdom Hearts but had been defeated by Sora who helped restore the worlds the Heartless had destroyed as well as defeating Xehanort's Heartless at the time which she knew about since she had been there.
But if that was true, why did his Heartless appear before her and Ansem here?
In the meantime, the Nobodies of Xehanort and Ansem's apprentices had been at work, using Sora to gather the hearts of the Heartless he had slain into creating a copy of Kingdom Hearts to supposedly regain their lost hearts but Ansem suspected that Xehanort's Nobody, Xemnas had a deeper and darker goal in mine.
Having encountered what was likely Xemnas herself and knowing all too well of Xehanort's ambitions, Aqua agreed.
She wondered herself what Xehanort was up to this time but she had no way of knowing for sure while trapped here. So she made a plan…
First she came back here to see if anything changed. If Xehanort's Heartless found her and Ansem then someone else will have come looking for them. She knew for sure that someone else, hopefully King Mickey was looking for her and she wanted to confirm that before making any other decisions.
And sure enough she found something there that let her know someone else had been here.
For when she arrived, she found something embedded in the sand.
A Keyblade.
It was a falchion-esque sword, with a red, purple and blue blade shaped like a demonic wing. Its handle bears the same eye she had seen Xehanort's Keyblade and the Keyblades of the Foretellers, and the Keyblade's guard is composed of one angelic wing and one demonic wing. Also, a dark angelic wing has been added to the top of the blade to act as the teeth of the key. Its token was the Heartless Emblem, but without the spiked bars crossing it.
"Someone was here." Aqua muttered as she walked up to the Keyblade that was embedded in the ground, slowly reaching out to its handle.
"Do you want it?"
Aqua froze, glancing around for the source of the voice. "It's you…I heard your voice down in the dark waters."
"Yep."
"…Thank you but can you show yourself?" Aqua asked.
"Sorry, but I can't."
"Why not?"
"I only have enough strength for one last task and I want to save it."
"One last task?" Aqua looked to the Keyblade. "Will you need this?"
"It wouldn't have mattered if I kept it or not. The results would be the same. You can have it if you want."
"Who left it here?" Aqua asked.
"People who came here, searching…Their Keyblades were damaged in battle with the Heartless. They had to leave but one of them left this behind which I repaired. You can take it or give it to someone who might need it."
Aqua stared at the Keyblade, reaching out and slowly grasping the handle.
Xxx
Neo finally awoke, groaning as she opened her eyes and felt very sore. "…Ugh…"
"I see you are awake."
She looked over and saw Ansem sitting nearby against the wall of a cave. "Where…are we?"
"I had taken the liberty of moving us after the battle. I had feared they would come back and with you and Aqua so drained from your earlier battle that you would not survive another one."
Neo sighed as she sat back; feeling her Aura washing over her and healing any less than wounds she might have suffered. "What happened?"
"You fell into the dark waters of this place. It was fortunate Aqua saved you in time or you heart would have been so filled with darkness you would have either become a Heartless or…simply faded away." Ansem calmly answered.
Neo just stared at Ansem. "Say what?"
"You do remember the battle with the man who stole my name?" Ansem asked.
Neo did indeed recall that battle.
The man with the golden yellow eyes.
Not amber like Cinder's that glowed when she used the Maiden power.
Actual golden eyes.
Neo didn't think that was possible but then again, Little Red had Silver Eyes and she was a goodie-goodie.
She had to chuckle at that. 'So Golden Eyes are bad and Silver Eyes are good. Roman would be laughing his head off if he could see this.'
"You find something about this amusing?" Ansem slowly questioned.
"Just finding something ironic in this whole thing." Neo waved off his question. "Where's Aqua?"
"She returned to the beach to look for signs that others had come in search of us aside from the man from earlier." Ansem answered.
Neo looked at the cave entrance with a frown. "How long has she been gone?"
"Not long. I believe she will return shortly." Ansem relaxed against the wall again. "Are you anxious?"
"I just think we should be moving since it's clear this place is not safe anymore…Not that it ever was likely safe." Neo retorted, bringing a hand to her chest for some reason.
She felt different somehow.
For some strange reason she felt less angry, even if she still reserved her feelings of resentment for Little Red and her friends and especially for Cinder. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt such warmth and they were in a literal world of darkness, colder and crueler than Remnant of all places.
What happened to her?
Did Aqua do something to her when she saved her?
"Ansem, Neo."
Both turned to the entrance of the cave, seeing Aqua standing there with a solemn yet relieved expression on her face.
"About time." Neo got up and slowly approached the Keyblade Master. "You find anyone?"
"Something like that." Aqua answered, confusing both Neo and Ansem who walked up to them. "Before we get into that, how are you feeling?"
Neo shrugged. "About as good as I can be, I guess."
"Do you remember what happened?" Aqua asked.
"I remember fighting that bastard…and he fired a blast at me which knocked me into the water. I remember making a big splash before I blacked out." Neo slowly recalled. "The old man told me you saved me."
Ansem raised an eyebrow at Neo calling him an old man but remained silent.
"And you feel all right? Nothing else?" Aqua slowly asked.
"What's with the questions?" Neo frowned. "I said I am good as I can be."
"Neo, that wasn't ordinary water you fell into. That water…It was pure darkness and it had infested your heart when I found you." Aqua brought a hand to her chest. "If if wasn't for my Semblance, I am not sure I could have purified your heart and got us out of there."
"Your Semblance?" Neo asked with a raised eyebrow.
Aqua summoned a pink star glyph under her feet and a bright glow appeared in Neo's chest where her heart, her physical heart was. "Yes…I managed to use it to purge the darkness from your heart to save you."
Neo brought a hand to her chest, feeling something warm settling over her. "That light…That was you."
"Yes." Aqua nodded with a smile.
"…Does this mean you've turned me all goodie-goodie?" Neo lowered her hand.
"Excuse me?"
"No offense but the hero thing isn't exactly my thing. And if you've filled my heart with light does that mean I'm going to want to be a hero and be all nice and stuff after you've purged me of my wicked ways?" Neo asked blandly.
Aqua stared in surprise before sighing and shaking her head with a small smile. "No, it doesn't work that way, Neo. I save people, I don't convert them."
"Good to know." Neo sighed in relief.
"But there is something you can have if you want that can better prepare you if we face off against that man again." Aqua continued, earning her attention again. "As good as you are, if we face off against Ansem, the evil one again or someone else sent by Xehanort it's likely I won't be able to save you again if it comes to that."
Neo frowned but couldn't disagree.
"That said…" Aqua held out her and summoned a Keyblade.
Not her Keyblade but a completely different one.
Neo and Ansem stared at the new one with Ansem finding it familiar. It looked almost exactly like Riku's Soul Eater sword but Soul Eater was a sword forged from the darkness, not an actual Keyblade.
Or maybe it could have transformed since the last time he had seen Riku.
"I found this on the dark beach. Someone was looking for us and left this behind as a gift." Aqua explained as she held it out to Neo. "It's yours if you want it."
Neo stared at the Keyblade that was shaped like a demonic black wing. "I thought a Keyblade chose their owners."
"They do but the owner of this one left it behind for some reason." Aqua clarified. "Without a master of its own now, it is pretty much up for grabs…If you think your heart is strong enough for it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Neo frowned.
"Like you said, a Keyblade choses its wielder and its wielder must possess a particularly strong heart." Aqua replied. "Maybe I am making a mistake trusting you here but you've stuck with me since we met on the island and even if your reasons haven't been noble you still risked your life coming with me here and facing off against everything that we have encountered. Even if the Keyblade rejects you, I am still glad you came with me and helped me, especially since you didn't have to or only did to avoid the Maidens back on the island."
Neo looked at Aqua in surprise that she was actually praising her. No one aside from Roman had ever praised her.
Not her parents.
Not her 'coworkers'.
Certainly not Cinder.
Neo stared down at the Keyblade being offered to her. "How do you know I won't just run off with it and do what I want with it? I might even use it to kill."
"It's a risk I am willing to take, Neo. That's the point of being a Keyblade Wielder, we take risks based on what our hearts tell us." Aqua answered. "Now, do you want to try your hand at it?"
Neo was stunned to see how much Aqua was willing to trust her. Did their adventures together really make Aqua trust her enough? Was she even trustworthy at this point? She had teamed up with Cinder to take revenge on Little Red and her team but that had been different.
In Neo's eyes, Little Red had been playing hero, not actually being one. She had come onto the airship she and Roman had been on with no plans to take either of them alive, just to take back control of the ship and it hadn't mattered if she and Roman had died, given how Red had sent her flying off the ship into a pack of flying Gryphons. Not to mention she had been completely oblivious to Neo's reasons for attacking her, even though they had been staring her in the face the whole time. Red had been trained to fight and kill her enemies and she had every reason to believe that Red would have let her fall into the void even if Cinder hadn't double-crossed her.
And then there was Cinder…
The fiery witch she should have killed long ago, who tried to murder her just for blackmailing her into keep up her end of the deal she had made to Neo. It amazing how easily she forgot how petty Cinder was and treated everyone like pawns instead of partners. Neo hated how she allowed herself to be so easily duped by Cinder of all people and vowed if she ever had the chance to kill her she would take it.
And now, Aqua…
Granted, Aqua was as goodie-goodie as Little Red but she seemed smarter and wiser than both Red and Cinder and even gave her credit where credit was due which was a point in Neo's book. She even risked her own life to save her, something no one aside from Roman would have done for her. Maybe Aqua was the true partner she had been missing since Roman died and that she had expected Cinder to be when they agreed to work together.
Seeing she had nothing left to lose, even if the Keyblade rejected her, Neo slowly reached out and grasped the hilt of the Keyblade. Aqua let go and both stared at the Keyblade, waiting for it to disappear and reappear back in Aqua's hand.
It didn't.
Neo stared with widened eyes as she realized that this Keyblade accepted her. "Wow…So it likes me?"
"I guess so…Oh, I should mention its name." Aqua recalled. "It's called The Way to the Dawn."
