A/N: This chapter contains KH3 spoilers! They're pretty minor, just up to about Twilight Town.

Most of the worlds they'd previously visited wouldn't cut it for a permanent residence. Disney Town was obviously out of the picture, despite Aqua joking that they could get ice cream every day. Dwarf Woodlands had a nice, dark forest Vanitas liked to relax in, but not enough human-sized housing. Olympus had seemed like a decent place from what he remembered — there were plenty of people who liked to fight there — but Aqua blushed and quickly gave an excuse not to visit.

"You got any better ideas then?" Vanitas asked as they hovered on their gliders in the Lanes Between. Aqua tapped her armored fingers against the handlebars; even though the fairy clothing protected them from the darkness, she felt better in her full armor. Vanitas figured he would too, but he hadn't learned how to summon it yet.

"There's plenty of worlds we haven't visited," she said. "Besides, I don't think Sora's been to any of the ones I have besides Radiant Garden, and you already said no to that."

That was true. He hadn't admitted that it was because he was probably banned from Scrooge's ice cream shop in that world.

"Guess it won't hurt to wander a bit. Maybe we can find a place with even better ice cream."

Aqua laughed. "We can always make some from your Unversed again. Or your Inversed. Can you make Inversed Prize Pods?"

"Huh, that's not a bad idea. If I just focus on the right emotions and flavors…"

He kept that in the back of his mind as they flew towards a distant star system. At first he found himself missing the speed of the dark corridors, but flying side by side with Aqua, bumping each others' gliders and doing tricks from time to time, made the journey seem short. And the stars… you couldn't see stars like that in the corridors. Most of the bright specks were white or yellow, but a few scattered clusters glowed shades of blue and red.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Aqua said, the lights reflecting in swirling patterns across her helmet and mixing with the cobalt of her armor. He committed the magical scene to memory.

"It's not so bad." He shrugged but grinned under his helmet. "Race you to the next asteroid!"

He revved his glider with the pedal underfoot, crouching instinctively to help pick up speed. Not that it actually did much; there was no air to resist him, no wind billowing around his arms. That feeling was almost as surreal as the spacescape around them. But he didn't let that distract him now; Aqua was already gaining on him.

"Nice try, Van. I've been flying keyblade gliders for years." She spun around to prove her point and kept flying backwards.

"Show off," Vanitas grumbled to himself. She still heard of course; their helmets were magically linked so they could speak in the Lanes Between. Her laugh came echoing back.

Even though he knew he would lose, it was still exhilarating to fly as fast as he could, dodging space junk and gummi blocks in his way. Aqua didn't hold back; she reached the knobby asteroid a good fifteen seconds before he caught up. He eased off the booster to avoid crashing into her.

"Best two out of three?" He asked, but she didn't reply. She was staring around the curve of the asteroid.

"That might have to wait. It looks like we're here."

He edged his glider around to get a better view. Sure enough, there was a world ahead, one that Vanitas was pretty sure he hadn't visited before. Then again, worlds looked much different from the Lances Between than they did from the dark corridors.

"Alright, but next time I want a rematch."

"I'll count on it."

Aqua opened a portal to take them through the barrier to the surface of the world. Nothing quite compared to the time he'd gone from the Realm of Darkness to the world of light, but the portal still wrapped him in warmth as he passed through.

Golden light filtered through a dappled blanket of clouds and set the thin carpet of grass gleaming. Vanitas looked up as the portal sparked out of existence; it had spat them out in front of a wrought-iron gate. Beyond that, an imposing but weathered-looking building loomed. Crows perched on its eaves, cawing at the two newcomers.

"Where are we?" Vanitas asked as he hopped off his glider and dissolved his mask. He couldn't quite tell, but something about this place felt so… familiar.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Aqua shrugged, then looked thoughtfully up at the dilapidated building. "This doesn't look like a castle, though… and it doesn't look like anyone's home."

"Huh… do you think Ventus ever came here?" He asked.

"Why? Do you think he did?"

"I don't know… there's just something familiar about this place. I don't know. I might be imagining it," he said quickly. No point in getting her hopes up. Besides, it wasn't like it mattered if Ventus had been here once; he wouldn't be here now. Sora was the one they were looking for. Unless Sora had been here, but Vanitas didn't think their connection would be strong enough for him to tell.

"Well, I guess we just stick to the original plan, then. Search for Sora and see if this would be a good world to stay in."

"I vote we check away from the creepy building, then," Vanitas said, spinning on his heel to face the forest.

The woods weren't quite as dark as the ones in the Dwarf Woodlands, but they still felt cozy to him. The warm sunset light spotted the ground in patches. Despite knowing he shouldn't have been here before, it still felt familiar. Like he'd looked at those spots of light and found pictures in them before.

"That one looks almost like a train," he murmured to himself, stepping through the glowing beam.

"Hmm?" Aqua glanced at him, and he shook his head.

"Nothing." He could've told her, she wouldn't have made fun of him – but where were these strange thoughts coming from? It scared him a little – what if Ventus had been here, and thought these things, and somehow the memories had gotten mixed up inside him? They already hadn't evenly shared the memories when they'd split, and –

He stopped short.

"Van?" Aqua stopped too, giving him the full force of her concern. "Is there something you can feel or smell here that I can't? Should we leave?"

"No, it's not – I didn't smell anything. I just – I remember." His eyes were wide as he met hers. "I know where we are. This is Twilight Town."

"Twilight Town?" She tilted her head. "I've never heard of it. Did Master Xehanort have you spread Unversed here?"

He laughed. "Just the opposite, actually. This is where the old man found me. This is – well, was my home."

He took a deep breath, and the musky scent of leaves took him back to that time. When he was just a regular kid. When he was still Ven.

"This was your world?" Aqua asked, looking surprised. "Really?"

"What, surprised I wasn't born under a rock? Or in the Keyblade Graveyard?" He grinned to show he was joking.

"No, I – I just forget you… had a childhood." Her face turned pink, and not just from the sunset's glow. "Sorry."

"Don't be." He shrugged. "I forget too. Didn't even recognize this place at first. But now I remember sneaking out into these woods when I was little. My mom hated that, said I was going to get myself kidnapped. I didn't. I think this was where a stranger passed on the keyblade to me, though. Must've been a real idiot." He laughed, wishing he could remember the boy better. All he could remember was his stupid-looking pink hair.

"Funny. I didn't know these memories were still there." He looked up through the branches, wondering if the pink-tinted sky had sparked the connection. "Sorry. You can tell me to shut up."

"I wasn't thinking that at all," Aqua said, twining her fingers with his. "You rarely tell me anything about your past; I was just surprised. Please, keep going."

Was she just saying that? Or did she really want to know? It was true; he didn't talk about his past. It made him feel exposed, even more than when he literally let out his emotions. He was surprised that memory had spilled out at all, but maybe that was just a testament to how far he'd come. It was okay to share these things with Aqua. She was safe.

"Well, uh…" He wasn't sure what to say now. The memories were still hazy, just like most of the ones before the split were. The only one that wanted to stand out now was…

He winced, shoving that back down. Memories of Xehanort didn't deserve to be mixed with the good memories he had here.

"You don't have to," Aqua said quickly. "I just thought you might want to talk about it. It's fine."

"You worry too much, Aqua." Vanitas forced a laugh. "All my memories aren't happy ones, that's all. Let's just make some better ones, okay?"

"...Yeah. You're right," she replied, though her voice was reluctant. Eventually she'd get answers out of him; he didn't doubt that. Right now though he just squeezed her hand in thanks.

They trekked through the woods until noises up ahead broke their silence.

"Heartless?" Aqua asked, letting go of his hand and summoning Stormfall. He called Void Gear and charged ahead. In the center of a clearing was a mass of Large Bodies, Soldiers, and Shadows — nothing too exciting. What were they doing here, though? There were never Heartless in these woods before, unless those memories were stuck inside Ventus.

"Get out of here, losers," he said, stabbing his blade into the back of a Large Body. The stupid fat thing lumbered around and charged him, but he cartwheeled aside.

Aqua quickly joined him in taking out the Heartless. A few strikes and magic spells later, all that was left was a scattering of munny, HP orbs, and synthesis items. They scooped up their prizes, careful to pick up all the munny especially. If they could ever agree on which world to stay in, they'd need the munny to afford a place to live. In that way the Heartless were a necessary evil, he guessed.

"Nothing's a challenge anymore after the Heartless in the Realm of Darkness," he commented, dismissing his blade. "I'm gonna lose my edge if this is all we're up against. How am I supposed to get ready to kick Xehanort's butt?"

"We should get the other keyblade wielders to spar with us when we find them," Aqua said. They were about to keep walking when Vanitas noticed something else a little ways from where the Heartless had spawned — a pile of fruit.

"Weird. None of this grows around here." He frowned and picked up an apple, shrugged, and bit into it. Only then did something pop out from behind the fruit.

"Gah!" He dropped the apple, staring at the gray rat that had just appeared.

"Van?" Aqua jogged over. "Oh!"

The rat stood up on two legs, shaking its fist at Vanitas, almost like — could this thing understand them?

"Uh. Is this your food?" He asked. He'd be mad if some stranger came up and started stealing his food, too.

"Van, it's a rat, it can't—"

But the rat nodded its head vigorously. Vanitas crossed his arms and smirked at Aqua.

"Hah. See, I bet the Heartless were giving him a hard time."

Aqua just stared at him like he'd lost it. "Van. Why would the Heartless want anything to do with a rat?"

"Rats have hearts too, don't they?" He shrugged. "Maybe they make Heartless too. I mean, Ventus met some mice that definitely had hearts. I left some tiny Unversed for him to fight when he got shrunk there." He grinned at the memory. The Castle of Dreams had certainly been an interesting world, even if it had been the only one where he'd been spotted creating the Unversed. He wouldn't have minded living there if it wasn't so bright.

Aqua just sighed and shook her head, but Vanitas was already crouching down to talk to the rat.

"Sorry for eating your food, little guy. You might want to move it, though. I don't think the Heartless will stay gone for long."

"A rat. Seriously, it takes you weeks to make friends with any of the humans we know, but he'll just up and talk to a rat in the middle of the woods," Aqua muttered but couldn't hold back a laugh. "Maybe it's just a boy thing…"

"Hey. Be nice to him, he's had a rough day," Vanitas grinned, knowing it would annoy her more. "You think we could keep him?"

The look on her face was priceless. You would've thought he'd asked if he could let some Unversed out to terrorize children.

"Van, we don't even have a place to live, much less to keep a rat. Besides, he's probably feral, you can't just take a rat out of the woods and make it a— a pet."

"Sheesh Aqua, I'm just kidding." He punched her lightly. "He'd be more of a minion than a pet."

She made a face at him, but it was nothing compared to the face that the rat was now making. He looked aghast, like Vanitas had insulted his honor. Guess the rat thought he was above being a minion.

"Nah, you're right. I'm sure he's got a better home here than we do." Vanitas smiled down at the rodent. "Be careful, little guy."

He waved at the rat before walking away with Aqua, who was still laughing to herself.

"I bet you didn't know, but Ven tried to get us to keep a rat once, too," she told him. "He and Terra caught it in the castle. It bit both of them as soon as they tried to put it in a cage, though. Terra's bite got infected; he had to sit out of lessons for a whole week."

Vanitas snorted in laughter, resisting his usual reflex to balk at being compared to Ventus.

"I bet I wouldn't have gotten bit. You just gotta be—" He cut off, yelping as something scurried up his leg. He spun, trying to smack the creature off.

"Van!" Aqua lunged to whack the rat — he was sure that was who it was — off his head. But before she could, Vanitas was stumbling back. "Hold still!"

"I'm trying!" He said, a note of panic entering his voice. Something else was moving his body. Was this it? Had he gotten possessed by Xehanort when he wasn't looking?

Then against his will he was bending down and scooping the pile of fruit into his jacket. That didn't seem like the kind of priority Xehanort would have, but still he fought against his own muscles to break free.

"It's the rat!" Aqua said, trying to smack something off of his head. Again he was forced to duck.

"What the heck, Aqua, you said rats can't understand, now you're telling me a rat's possessed me?" Well, at least he had control of his mouth. That was something.

Finally she managed to snatch the rat off his head. He cried out as it held onto his hair, ripping out a few strands as Aqua pulled him free.

"Ow." Vanitas rubbed his head and glared at the rat, which Aqua held with a Bind spell. "What was that for, huh? I was just joking about making you my minion. You didn't have to go and make me yours."

The rat's eyes — the only part of him not bound fast by the spell — drifted downward. Almost like he was actually sorry.

"What did you want, anyway? Someone to pick up all this food for you?" He spread his jacket, displaying the fruit that was still tucked there. "You could've asked."

"It can't talk," Aqua repeated, understandably exasperated. He hadn't expected his joke to end with getting paraded around like some kind of meat puppet. That had to have been scary for her, too.

"Well… fine. Whatever. But you can't do that again," Vanitas told the rat. "Or else we'll hang you out for the Heartless."

The bind spell began to weaken, enough for the rat to nod frantically. Aqua still looked vaguely shell-shocked.

"Alright… so the rat can understand things. Maybe he's not too different from Jaq… except Jaq wore clothes, and he could talk..."

"Okay little guy, I think you're freaking out my girlfriend. Go on, time to scram," Vanitas reluctantly said. The bind spell broke and the rat squirmed out of Aqua's grip, but he still stared up at Vanitas expectantly.

"I'm not freaked out, I'm – alright, I am a little freaked out," she admitted. "He was controlling you by pulling your hair. I know quite a bit about outworld fauna, but I haven't heard of any animals that could do that before. This can't be an ordinary rat."

The rat put his tiny fists on its hips, lifted his head, and smirked knowingly. His wordless gestures reminded Vanitas of his Inversed.

"Is it a good idea to leave him here then?" He asked. "I lived in this world before, and I don't think there were any rats like him here either. You think he's from another world?"

The rat nodded again, scampering closer to Vanitas. He stepped back, not wanting to risk becoming a meat puppet again.

"Okay, right, you can answer yes-no questions. So…"

"Do you mean us any harm?" Aqua asked, crouching down a little – not too close, though.

The rat raised his arms and shook his head so quickly his brain had to be rattling around in his little skull.

"I guess he did just want me to pick up some fruit." Vanitas rubbed the metal piece covering his chin. "Right?"

He grinned and nodded, his tail standing up happily. Then he pointed between the fruit Vanitas was carrying and deeper into the woods.

"You want me to take this to your house or something?"

Another vigorous nod. Vanitas and Aqua made eye contact.

"Can't hurt, right?" He asked. It wasn't like the Norts would use a rat in some kind of master trap. At least, he didn't think they would.

"Probably not," Aqua admitted, though her gaze warned him to stay on guard, just in case. He smirked back just enough to reassure her. They hadn't made it all the way through the Realm of Darkness without knowing how to be careful. Maybe that was overkill for dealing with a strange rat, but old habits died hard.

"Alright, little buddy. Hop on, but no touching the hair."

XXX

"Sora!"

He jumped at the rather irritated, accented voice called as he, Donald, and Goofy strolled into the Tram Common. He'd just gotten here, who needed him already? Was Twilight Town in trouble?

"Huh?" Donald perked up, recognizing that voice a split second faster than Sora. "Uncle Scrooge?"

"Uncle Scrooge!" Sora grinned, running up to the squat duck who was standing near the entrance of a new, fancy-looking restaurant. Scrooge tapped his webbed foot impatiently, his beak curved into a frown. Sora frowned back in sympathy.

"What's wrong, Uncle Scrooge? I thought you were back in Radiant Garden," Sora said as Donald and Goofy caught up.

"Ach, don't play innocent with me, lad! Surely you can guess why I had to relocate," Scrooge huffed. "Yer lucky I'd begun looking at expanding me properties, or I'da been ruined!"

"Huh?" Goofy asked. "But we thought your business was booming! Did somethin' happen?"

"You bet yer bagpipes it did!" He scowled and poked his cane at Sora's chest. "And it's all yer fault!"

"Hey!" He raised his hands, stepping back. "Geez, Scrooge, I thought we were friends! What did I do?"

"What did you– what did you do?" By now the duck looked more furious than Sora had ever seen him – enough to attract the attention of the restaurant patrons who were eating out in the cool evening air. "Why, ye ransacked me ice cream shop just last week! Just because ye were in some kinna disguise dinna mean ye can fool a shrewd duck like meself!"

Scrooge's accent thickened as he got fired up, until it was almost impossible for Sora to understand. He'd just gotten back from being roasted by Yen Sid and Mickey and Donald and Goofy, he really didn't need Uncle Scrooge yelling at him too! Especially when he had no clue what he'd apparently done.

"Look, Scrooge – Scrooge!" He held out his hands, hoping to calm the duck before he bothered the restaurant's customers too much. "I don't know what you're talking about, but we've been in Olympus for the last few weeks. Right, Donald?"

He grinned at his friend, hoping he'd back him up.

"Sora's right, Uncle Scrooge. We're training to get our half-pint here back to a full pint!"

"Hey!" Sora shoved his shoulder. "I'm already more of a pint then you are!"

Donald just laughed, and pretty soon Goofy joined in.

"Guys…"

Even Scrooge chuckled. Well, at least he didn't look so mad anymore. Now he was just confused.

"Well, if ye weren't in Radiant Garden, who was ransacking me shop? He looked jus' like ye, Sora."

"Just like me?" He crossed his arms, drumming his fingers against his forearm, before perking up. "You think it could've been Roxas?"

"Axel would know if Roxas was in Radiant Garden," Donald pointed out. "He would've called you by now."

"Huh… I guess you're right." Sora sighed, but pulled out his new gummiphone just in case. He poked at the screen a few times before Donald huffed and snatched it.

"You've got to turn it on first."

"Oh. Heh, right. I knew that."

With Donald's help, he checked his "text messages," but saw nothing from Axel – er, Lea.

"Aww…"

"So ye don't know who was making monsters in me shop?" Scrooge asked one last time. Sora shook his head.

"Sorry, Uncle Scrooge. I don't know anyone who looks like me or who can make monsters. Unless the Organization's already making replicas like Riku and Ienzo said might happen…"

"That's right – apparently they got Even's old research from the World That Never Was," Goofy said. "Gawrsh, you think they could be that fast?"

"Well… Kairi did say that a lot of the Organization's back already… I don't know anything about replicas though." The gummiphone was hard enough for him to understand; why would he know about making new people? "All the Organization members she saw were ones we knew about from before, like Saix and Xigbar." He frowned, remembering what Xigbar had mentioned in Olympus. The hearts joined to his… was one of those hearts the mysterious doppelganger who'd attacked Scrooge?

"Hmm." Donald tapped his foot. "You better be careful Sora. After what those guys did to you last time–"

"I know, I know!" Sora replied, a little too defensively. They didn't have to keep bringing that up though; he knew he'd been too weak. He was just trying his best; what else could he do? No one had warned him that the Organization would be in the Realm of Sleep, and–

"Uh, Sora?" Goofy tapped his shoulder, startling him out of this thoughts.

"What?"

Goofy pointed behind him, and he turned around. Walking up from around the corner of the buildings was–

...Himself?

XXX

"You live there?" Vanitas said, gaping as the restaurant came into view around the corner. He didn't remember anywhere that fancy when he'd lived here, but it had been… what, sixteen years? Something like that. It made sense that a few new places would have cropped up since then.

The rat smiled and nodded from his shoulder. He'd kept his end of the deal and hadn't so much as sniffed Vanitas's hair on the whole trek here. Maybe he could end up being a friend after all.

Aqua gasped softly and stopped in her tracks.

"What?" Vanitas stopped too. "I know the sunset's pretty, but–"

And then he felt it. His heart sped up, just the way it had earlier in Castle Oblivion. He nearly dropped the fruit; Aqua quickly wrapped an arm around his back to steady him. But that feeling – he hadn't expected to feel it here of all places, but he knew he hadn't imagined it.

"It's Ventus," he said, looking up to Aqua, who was staring at someone across the street. He followed her line of sight to…

"Whoa," he gasped too. The guy across the street was standing next to a giant dog and duck, but that wasn't why he stood out.

"That's him." Even from the back of his brunette head, Vanitas knew. "That's Sora."

His heartbeat calmed at the realization, though he was still a little unsteady. This was it – the moment he'd been both looking forward to and dreading. How would Sora react to having a copy? To finding out Ventus's heart was inside of him?

"Are you ready to go see him?" Aqua asked, still with her arm around him. His eyes flickered over to the boy on the other side of the street, who had turned to stare at him, mouth agape.

"Well we can't leave him hanging like that." Vanitas forced a grin. His heart started pounding again, but this time from normal anxiety. A Mandrake wanted to jump out of his skin.

"It's going to be okay," Aqua said, picking up on his mood even without the Unversed manifestation. "From what Lea and Riku said, everyone likes Sora, and Sora likes everyone. You've got nothing to worry about."

"I'm not–"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence. Sora was already running up to meet them.

Sora's eyes – blue eyes – were wide. His spiky hair was a normal brown, not dark like his own. Other than that, they could have been twins, even more identical than him and Ventus. His hair was a bit shorter – Vanitas hadn't had a haircut since being back from the Realm of Darkness; he was suddenly aware of how his bangs fell in front of his eyes. Maybe he should keep it that way.

"Huh." He smirked to his nervousness. "You know, everyone said you looked just like me. I thought you'd be a little more attractive."

Aqua smacked him lightly, making the rat wobble on his shoulder. Vanitas laughed to release his tension; he'd never imagined meeting his doppleganger like this. He let the fruit spill out onto the top of an abandoned box. The rat would just have to deal with it; he didn't want to be weighed down in case he needed to… what? Run? Fight?

"Oh come on, now my own clone is roasting me? Rude." Sora pouted. "Guess I should expect that from you, Vanitas."

"Ventus." He smiled as his tension drained away. He might not know Sora, but Ventus he could deal with. "So I was right. Not that I doubted it."

He gasped, hand hovering over his mouth. "I don't – where did that come from? Who are you? Why do you look like me?" Sora demanded. "And why did you trash Scrooge's ice cream shop?"

"What?" He started before realizing what the other boy was talking about. Aqua was right about not being able to stop rumors; there was no other way Sora would know about that.

"Oh Van," Aqua said, noticing the angry top-hatted duck who was stomping his way towards them. "You never told him what really happened, did you?"

"I was going to." Vanitas hid a wince and took a step behind Aqua. "I just… uh…"

"I know it was an accident, but you should still apologize," she said. "I'm sure Sora can wait a few minutes while you sort things out."

"I'm pretty used to waiting." Sora flashed a grin. "Just – don't take too long, okay? I'm confused enough already!"

The boy certainly had Ventus's bright energy. Layered with Vanitas's own face, it was pretty disconcerting. Maybe it would be good to have a moment to pull himself together–

"Ach! That's him alright!" Scrooge huffed, jabbing him in the side with his cane. Or not.

"Hey, it was an accident!" He spilled out quickly, raising his arms and nearly knocking the rat off his shoulder again. It scrambled into the hood of his jacket to stay on. "It's uh – it's a long story, but I really like your ice cream shop, I wouldn't be stupid enough to try and wreck it."

"Well ye should'a thought that afore ye let those monsters loose!" He shook the cane, glaring through his tiny glasses.

"I told you, I didn't mean to. That's what accident means," Vanitas repeated in exasperation. "Look, Scrooge, I'm really sorry. If you need help fixing things, my Inversed are good workers. Would that make it up to you?" He normally wouldn't have offered, but he didn't want to be on the bad side of one of the best ice cream makers he knew, especially if they ended up living in Radiant Garden after all.

Scrooge drummed his fingers against his cane. "Hmmm… the ice cream shop is nearly fixed by now. I could use some help around here though, particularly with my little chef missing – aye!"

His bill parted in a smile as the rat climbed back up onto Vanitas's shoulder.

"Why, ye found me little chef!"

"Chef?" Vanitas asked. "The rat is a… okay, sure." He shook his head. He'd already met his doppelganger who held his brother's heart, and he'd been chewed out by a duck who could apparently travel between worlds. The fact that the rat could cook was hardly the most surprising part of his day.

"Well, I… guess I hafta thank ye, then." Scrooge shuffled his feet. "I'll still be takin' ye up on that offer, though. Ye did cost me thousands o' munny in property damage."

Vanitas winced. He was supposed to be saving up munny for a place to live, not getting himself in debt to a business tycoon. Hopefully Aqua would forgive him for that.

"But we'll settle that later. Come inside, all o' ye. It sounds like there's a lot to talk about."