A/N: I'm about to go to work so not a lot of notes this time, but I did want to say thank you for the massive support on the last few chapters! You guys are awesome and I'm so grateful that you've taken the time to read this fic that could come across as a pretty crackish concept. Anyway this isn't the last chapter, not sure how many are left, probably 2-3 depending on some things.
Xehanort was dead. She'd only met him twice. Yet twice was enough for her to believe he'd deserved it.
The boy crying in her arms was proof enough.
Aqua buried her face in Vanitas's neck, hoping that his dark suit was water-resistant. Not that she should care—he'd already seen her cry; he was crying, she could feel the wet drops on her bare shoulder. It reminded her of their last hug, though there had been no tears then. She had comforted him then too, though she hadn't known why he was so upset.
Now, she thought she understood.
She ran a hand through his hair, calming herself as much as him. The repetitive action gave her something to cling to. Something that wasn't turning around and facing Terra, who would surely recognize the hypocrisy of her actions. She'd practically disowned him when she'd thought he killed Vanitas, and now she'd murdered the person he'd trusted.
No, not just murdered. Crushed his heart. Even if he had to die… did she really have to destroy him like that? She didn't know much about the afterlife, but she was pretty sure one's heart had to be intact to reach it. Not that she felt Xehanort deserved an afterlife, after what he'd tried to do to Ven, to the rest of them—but was that a decision she had the authority to make?
She'd known being a Master would mean making difficult decisions, but… she hadn't imagined it would be like this.
"Aqua?" Vanitas whispered, his breath ghosting over her back in a way that made her shiver. "Are you… are you okay? He didn't take your light, did he?"
"No." She shut her eyes. Her nose was still stuffy from crying; she wondered if she'd be disgusted by Vanitas's scent otherwise.
"No, you're not okay, or no, he didn't steal your light?"
"...No." Against her better judgement, she squeezed him tighter. She was supposed to be a Master; she wasn't supposed to need help. She had been trying to comfort him, how had it gotten turned around? Besides, she wasn't even sure she'd forgiven him. She wasn't sure what she felt at all.
"Hey… you're safe, too." He awkwardly patted her back. "He can't hurt you again. And I won't hurt you again, either, Aqua, I—I'm so sorry, I was such an idiot, I thought if I scared you you wouldn't try to escape and he wouldn't find you—"
"Vanitas, no, it's not that." She swallowed. "I get it now, I think. We all… we all have to make hard choices."
He'd made costly decisions too. He couldn't judge her. Maybe that's why she was here, trusting him with this.
"I'm not going to regret this one," she whispered. "Even if I should."
His hand froze on her back. "You mean… not killing me?"
"No!" Her fingers clenched in his hair, drawing out a hiss. "Sorry, I—Vanitas, I don't want to kill you. Please believe that. It's Xehanort. He's the one I don't regret killing."
Her arms shook. Tentatively Vanitas's hand began to trace soothing circles on her back, and she couldn't help thinking how nice it would feel, if they were anywhere else, anyone else, under any other circumstances.
"I've never hated anyone so much," she admitted in a small voice. "I wanted him to suffer. Not just because he hurt me, but—I heard what you said. As I was trying to regain consciousness, what was going to happen to Terra, or—or to you…"
Her words weren't making sense. She couldn't string them together right; she wasn't sure she wanted to. She'd been so, so scared, and angry, and…
"Aqua…"
"I have darkness in me, too," she mumbled into his collarbone. "That's why you couldn't use my light. I never had enough of it. I never deserved to be a Master."
A true Master wouldn't have gotten kidnapped, and choked into unconsciousness twice, and felt so much anger and rage that she remorselessly crushed a heart.
Vanitas pushed her lightly, and she fell back onto her heels. "Aqua, stop."
"It's true—"
"No, it's not." His golden eyes bore into hers. "You're not a Princess, and you're not Ventus. Of course you have some darkness in you."
She blinked at that—Ven didn't have darkness? How was that fair?—but Vanitas kept talking.
"What you did—Void, Aqua, you saved all of us. If Xehanort had taken over Terra's body, or mine, he would've been strong enough to kill us all." He swallowed, shivered, wrapped his arms around himself. "You shouldn't regret that. You're more of a Master than he ever was."
"I… thanks." She wasn't sure it was much of a compliment, since Xehanort had been dark enough to try to murder children, but her face warmed anyway. "Still… I shattered his heart. I can't help thinking I should feel… I don't know. I've never… killed anyone before. I didn't think it would feel like this."
"Like what?"
She wished he was in her arms again, where he couldn't stare into her eyes. If he looked long enough, she was sure he would find darkness swirling beneath them. What else could explain how empty she felt?
"Like… nothing. It was so easy." Her arms wrapped around her knees. "I think that's what scares me."
"I guess I wouldn't know," he mumbled. "I've never killed anyone. But I did want to."
Aqua dug her fingernails into her knee, frowning at the tiny crescents they left behind. It was easier than looking back at him, bonding over a mutual desire to destroy.
"I thought you might understand," she said softly, then asked what she really wanted to know. "So you think I did the right thing?"
"I think it doesn't matter what I think. You're a better person than I could ever hope to be, Aqua. You know right from wrong. If you don't feel guilty, it's for a good reason."
She didn't know about that. After today, she hardly felt like she could understand her heart, much less trust it.
"If it makes you feel better though, I think Xehanort got exactly what he deserved. Do you know what he did to me and Ventus?"
Brief flashes of words came back to her. Just like he'd never shatter a kid's heart, right?
"What did he do?" She asked, afraid she already knew the answer.
His gaze flickered downwards. He suddenly seemed smaller than ever, and then he took a deep breath, looked at her with his face set in determination.
"You already know I'm Void, and you know I'm Vanitas. I guess you might as well know that I'm Ven."
His voice wavered on the name. Ven, not Ventus. She'd never heard him call her friend by his nickname. It sounded too soft coming from his lips.
"You're—that's what you meant?" She gasped at the realization. It didn't make any sense, but neither had the rest of this day. After all, she hadn't thought people could transplant their dying hearts into other vessels, either.
"Yeah. The Ventus you know now is the other half of our heart."
She remembered how Ven had looked when Xehanort first brought him to the Land of Departure. His blank, glassy eyes. The way he'd collapsed when Terra had tried to ask him about himself.
"But… you look nothing alike." She wasn't sure what prompted her to say that. Maybe she just didn't want to believe it was true, even though the facts she knew seemed to line up.
He scowled like that hit a sore spot and touched his cheek. "He kept our face. I don't know why I look like this."
"It's okay. I mean, I still believe you," she said quickly, swallowing the part of her that wanted to deny it. Besides, she remembered Vanitas's handwriting, how it had looked so familiar—well, now she realized why. It was the spitting image of Ven's.
"And it's not a bad thing," she found herself rambling at his uneasy silence. "You don't look bad. I mean—you're—ugh."
"Handsome?" He asked with a shadow of a grin.
She dropped her forehead onto her knees, hiding her read face. She'd walked right into that one. Unfortunately, that compliment she'd given him was still true. Not that it mattered. Her heart was conflicted enough without dragging thoughts like that into the mix.
"Don't go getting a big head about it," she muttered into her knees. But she couldn't help a grin when he laughed.
"Hey, you said it, not me."
She had half a mind to tell him to shut up and tell her what he meant about Xehanort splitting him and Ven—but then again, he sounded happier now. And she didn't feel as bad either. There would be plenty of time for answers later, once they… well, she wasn't entirely sure what they would do with Vanitas. Take him back to the Land of Departure, she guessed. With Xehanort gone, he probably didn't have anywhere else to go.
"Technically you said it now." She smirked, lifting her head a little.
"But you didn't deny it." He mirrored her expression.
She rolled her eyes and looked away—only to see what Terra and Cinderella had gotten up to while she and Vanitas had been talking.
"What?" Vanitas's eyes followed the line of her sight, and he laughed.
"Looks like someone thinks your friend's handsome."
XXX
Terra couldn't believe it. He'd apparently had the power to see the future after all—and it had been completely useless.
He'd watched Vanitas strike, but had no idea that he would end up fighting alongside him. He'd seen Aqua fall to her knees, but not Xehanort strangling her beforehand. And he'd seen Cinderella face a terrible darkness, but never expected that it would be his own.
His throat clenched at the realization. He could've hurt her, even if Xehanort's heart hadn't. Her arms still bore tiny burn marks where his darkness had touched her skin. Yet she still remained in his arms, even after Xehanort's heart was… well, gone.
"Terra… what… what just happened?" Cinderella asked, turning back to face him.
It was a question he was still asking himself. He hadn't known that what Aqua had done was possible. Shattering a heart like that...
His gaze flickered over to her, but she had her back to him as she clung to Vanitas. Surprising as that was, he was more shocked by how tenderly the boy hugged her back. Maybe Xehanort had lied about Vanitas's nature on top of everything else.
Rage still burned under his skin at how badly he'd been tricked, and how badly his friends had almost been hurt because of it. But that rage was what had almost doomed him in the first place… what was he supposed to do with it, if he couldn't let it out?
Too many questions. Better to focus on the one answer he knew.
"Xehanort's gone. He can't hurt us now." Terra looked away, and his eyes fell on the keyblade lying on the ground. Bright white, decorated with little towers, a shoe hanging from its keychain. His brow furrowed. That was the keyblade Cinderella had held, right? But did that mean he'd…?
Of course it did. There was only one way she would've been able to summon a keyblade on her own. Master Eraqus was going to have him scrubbing floors for weeks for this.
"I'm sorry I used it without asking," Cinderella blurted. "I didn't mean to. One second I was holding the keychain you gave me, and the next Ven was falling—"
"Ven!" His hands clamped on her upper arms. "Is he okay? Is he—?"
"He's fine," she said quickly, placing her bare hands over his armored ones and loosening his grip. Right. He let go and disengaged his armor. That left him in his tattered formal clothes, but at least his armor wouldn't scrape her.
"He is? Really? Because Xehanort dropped him and—"
"I caught him." Her face pinked. "I'm not sure how, but your… keyblade was in my hand, and I used some sort of spell. It stopped him from falling all the way. He's probably still frozen down there, though…"
She frowned, not noticing Terra staring in awe.
"You caught him," he echoed.
More red flooded her face; she bit her lip. "Um, well, the keyblade did. I think it knew what it was doing more than I did."
As if to prove her point, it suddenly flashed from the ground to her hand, drawing a startled gasp out of her.
Right then Terra didn't care how the keyblade had chosen her, or how she'd used magic. She'd saved his best friend. Light, he could kiss her right now.
...What? His face burned at the thought, but he hid it by pulling her into a tight hug.
"Thank you," he breathed into her hair, which had fallen out of its handkerchief somewhere along the way. "I can never repay you for this."
"Terra, you don't owe me anything."
She stabbed the white keyblade into the ground before returning the hug. Where her hands brushed skin through the tears in his clothes, scratches healed. The extra magic from becoming a keyblade wielder seemed to have strengthened her natural Cure.
"Cinderella, I owe you everything. You saved Ven's life. You saved my life. Anything I can give you, anything you want. It's yours."
It was a ridiculous offer—what could he give her? He wasn't a real knight. He wasn't a Keyblade Master. He didn't even have that much munny, really. He was just… Terra.
Just Terra, the boy she'd risked her life for.
She lifted her head, making him pull back slightly. "No. I don't want anything because you feel like you owe me."
"Then how about because I want to?" He asked, searching her eyes. Maybe she knew he didn't have much to give. Maybe she didn't want anything to do with him, after going through an ordeal like this. He wouldn't blame her.
"Terra…" She looked down, lacing her fingers in front of her. "What I want… I don't think I'm allowed to ask for."
He frowned. "Why not? You're a keyblade wielder now. I can tell you anything, everything. You want to know about other worlds? Or—"
"No, it's not—wait, what? I'm not a—I'm not what you are." Her eyes flickered to the keyblade sticking out of the dirt. "It's yours, isn't it? I just borrowed it. I don't know how I even…"
"You summoned it. It is yours, now. And, uh, that's probably my fault." Terra ran a hand through his hair, smiling hesitantly. "I gave you the keychain. I didn't say the Words, but with light like yours, I bet the keyblade thought you were an obvious choice."
"You think it… chose me?"
He nodded. "Masters can pass down the chance to wield the keyblade, but in the end it comes down to the strength of the candidate's heart. Just like the Words say."
Her head tilted. Of course, she didn't know what Words he was talking about. But he could fix that.
He drew her keyblade—Stroke of Midnight, the name whispered to his heart—and held it lengthwise across his hands.
"In your hand, take this key," he began in his most official voice. "So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be."
He looked up to find her eyes watering. Slowly her fingers clasped around the keyblade's handle.
He cleared his throat and continued the rite.
"And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above…"
He swallowed, his voice going low at the knowledge of the words that came next.
"...So long as you champion the ones you love."
He felt his mouth go dry as her eyes held his. Loose strands of her hair wisped around her face. Her clothes were disheveled and smeared with dirt too, but he was smarter than when they'd first met.
He didn't need to see her in a shimmering dress to know she was beautiful.
"I, so, uh. Yeah." He swallowed, waiting for her to take the keyblade. But instead she stepped closer, pinning the blade between them.
"I like the sound of that." She smiled up at him. "I did tell you I might have to become a knight someday."
"Uh. I guess you did." He vaguely remembered the conversation, but under the shine of her smile and the closeness of… all of her, his thoughts were going a little bit fuzzy.
"No more borders around, or below, or above…" She repeated the phrase from the rite. "Does that mean I could go with you? Anywhere?"
He nodded, not trusting his mouth to speak coherently.
"And… would you want me to?"
"Yes," he said immediately. Did she really have to ask?
Her face lit up. She threw her arms around his neck, crushing Stroke of Midnight against his stomach. He winced when some of the spiked towers near the hilt dug into his ribs, but she didn't seem to notice.
"I love you," she said breathlessly. "I love you Terra. I was so afraid you were going to die and I wouldn't get to tell you—"
She might have still been talking, but his brain had shut down at some point after the second I love you.
She loved him. Light, she actually loved him.
The joy he felt at those three words was enough to confirm what he'd forced himself to ignore for too long.
His hands moved to pull the keyblade from between them and toss it aside. "Cinderella."
He placed his hands on her waist and gently pushed her back. Her face was bright pink when he bent down to lean his forehead against hers. He heard her breath hitch.
"I've, uh, never done this before, but... I love you too."
Her smile was the most beautiful thing in the worlds. Why she thought he was deserving of it, he didn't know. He'd screwed up in front of her so many times. He still hadn't gained complete control of his darkness.
But she loved him anyway.
"Well. You'd never been to a ball before either, and that seemed to turn out alright," she said with the same wryness she'd turned on him the first time they met. He found his heart beating a little faster, and he grinned.
"Heh. I guess it did."
She chuckled, and her warm breath spread across his face.
"So Terra, on your world, does the knight ever kiss the princess, or does she have to—"
He sealed his lips over hers.
XXX
"So that's why you guys never came back for me. I see how it is."
Ven tried to keep a scowl on his face when Terra and Cinderella broke apart, both flushing bright red.
"Uh, we—we were just—" Terra spluttered like he'd been caught stealing the last scoop of ice cream. Man, it was tough not to laugh. He couldn't wait to tease him about this later. Not my girlfriend, suuuuure.
"Wait, what in the light is that?" Terra disentangled one of his hands from Cinderella's hair to point at the giant pumpkin Unversed Ven was riding on this side of.
"This guy?" He patted the side of the grinning pumpkin. "I don't really know, but he picked me up when I was still half-frozen." He shook his free arm and leg stiffly before hopping off the side of the Unversed. "Thanks, buddy."
"Buddy?" Vanitas asked from where he was sitting by Aqua. What were those two doing so close together? Last Ven had seen, she'd looked ready to stab his dark half if he breathed wrong.
That was still a weird thought. Dark half. While laying there frozen and useless, though, he'd had plenty of time to replay the vision-memory, and he couldn't deny it: Vanitas had once been a part of him.
So Ven grinned at his other half. "He didn't try to kill me, and he carried me up the cliff. So. Buddy." He patted the Unversed again, and it bounced on its vine-wheels.
"You—you can't just—!" Vanitas sputtered, but Aqua calmed him with a hand on his shoulder.
"The Unversed are made of your emotions. If you really wanted to hurt Ven, it wouldn't have helped him, would it?"
Vanitas absorbed the Unversed, then muttered something under his breath that made Aqua laugh. Okay, now that was even weirder. How long had Ven been frozen?
"You know, I'm glad everyone's getting along, but uh, where's Xehanort?"
Aqua froze up like he'd shot her with Blizzard. Vanitas squeezed her hand. Cinderella turned back towards Terra and bit her lip.
"You didn't let him get away, did you?" Ven asked with wide eyes. He'd been terrified, so sure he was going to die when he hit the ground. And that wasn't even the worst thing Xehanort had done. If he was still out there—
"No," Aqua said, standing and almost-stepping towards him. Vanitas still clung to her hand, but that didn't seem to be what was holding her back. "I… I killed him."
"Oh." Ven blinked. She'd taken down another Master? That was… wow. Of course she was a Master herself; he shouldn't be so surprised. "So he's gone? Like, for good?"
"That's usually what 'dead' means." Vanitas rolled his eyes.
Aqua nodded. "I hope you can understand. I had to stop him, no matter the cost."
"Huh? Aqua, of course I get it! Xehanort was evil." He guessed she didn't know what his old Master had done to him, or the terrifying plans he'd heard in his memory. "He was going to destroy all the worlds, did you know that? He wanted me and Vanitas to be some kind of—"
"X-Blade," Vanitas interrupted, crossing his fingers for the X. "Super powerful weapon. Supposed to open Kingdom Hearts to start another Keyblade War. You remember now?"
"Well… I didn't remember all of that. Just that it must be something awful."
Mostly he remembered the emotions he'd felt in his memory—so much fear. Just thinking about the X-Blade had scared him to death. And a Keyblade War… why would anyone want that?
"I know Xehanort had to die, but I didn't think…" Aqua's eyes flickered over to Terra. "I'm sorry. I guess I was afraid you two wouldn't understand."
"Aqua," Terra stepped forward, Cinderella following behind. "We were all willing to do what you did. You just happened to do it first. You saved our lives."
Tears sprung to her eyes. Vanitas stood and punched her lightly in the arm.
"What did I tell you? Your friends might be idiots, but they're not that stupid."
"Hey!" Ven and Terra said in unison, but Vanitas just grinned, daring them to challenge him.
Terra let out a long breath through his nose. "Watch your step, Vanitas. I still don't trust you."
Vanitas rubbed the back of his neck, beneath the weird metal part of his helmet that remained even though his mask was gone. "Fair enough. I… didn't really expect to live long enough for that to matter."
There was an awkward silence at that. Then Aqua squeezed his hand.
"We're going to work on that. Both the trusting and the living."
Terra raised an eyebrow at Ven, silently asking, So how did this happen? Or maybe, You really expect me to trust him?
In response to the first possibility, Ven shrugged. As for the second…
"He's a part of me," he said quietly. "He didn't lie about that."
Terra's eyes widened, and Ven stared down at the ground. Terra wouldn't think less of him because of his connection to Vanitas, right? It wasn't like he asked to be split apart… It did make him wonder what he was like before, though. He knew he had their original face, but only a few memories. Did Vanitas have the rest of them?
"You believe me now?" Vanitas dropped Aqua's hand and stepped closer to Ven.
"Well, yeah. We saw the same vision, right?"
"Memory," he corrected.
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I had a lot of time to think about it while I was frozen down there." He grinned crookedly, but Vanitas didn't smile at the joke. Ven wondered if his darker half could smile at all. "I thought about what you said, too. About, uh, wanting to be human."
Vanitas grimaced at the ground. "I'm guessing you're not going to offer your half of our heart back."
Ven blinked. Was that supposed to be a joke? Maybe their sense of humor had been split, too. "Uh, no."
"His half—?"
Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Yes, Terra, his half. We used to be Xehanort's apprentice; the old geezer ripped us in two. I already told Aqua. Keep up."
"Right, Xehanort said that… not that I should believe him," Terra huffed. "I don't know what to believe anymore. I'd like to hear the truth from you guys."
"We can catch each other up on later," Aqua promised. "I still don't know everything, either."
"I think I'm starting to get it though." Ven placed a hand over his chest, frowning. "That's why you wanted to fight. You wanted my heart back."
He'd never felt like half of a heart. Not that he had any memories of being whole to compare it to… but maybe Vanitas did.
"Yeah," he admitted quietly. "Plus our union would've forged the X-Blade. We could've taken out Xehanort easy with that."
"I don't get it." Ven's brow scrunched as he stared at Vanitas. "If you wanted Xehanort gone, why did you work with him? And why were you spreading the Unversed everywhere?"
"I didn't know what Xehanort did to us until I fought you. I think the memory was stuck inside you, somehow. Anyway, it's not like I had a choice. You're not the first person he's frozen and chucked off a cliff."
Another awkward silence. Ven hadn't really wanted to feel bad for his other half, but it was getting hard not to. The four of them besides Vanitas exchanged stares, seeming to come to the same conclusion.
"...You do know that's not normal, right?" Ven asked, and Vanitas bristled.
"I do now," he spat. "But not all of us got a Master who actually cares, or friends who would protect you, or—" His mouth snapped shut, and his face flushed.
"What?"
"...Or light," he admitted. His hands clenched so tightly they shook. "You never knew how lucky you were. Your friends loved you so freaking much! I could always feel it! And you just—you didn't even remember I existed!"
Ven would never have expected the hurt on his other half's face. He came closer, wondering if he would accept a hug or if that would make things worse. Better not risk it yet.
"I hated you for it." Vanitas quieted again. "I wanted you to hurt. Like I did."
Terra looked like he might interject at that, but Cinderella squeezed his arm and he looked away. Thankfully they were angled behind Vanitas, so he didn't notice.
"I don't hate you," Ven said, and was surprised to find that he meant it. What Vanitas had done was wrong, but… that could've so easily been him. What if Xehanort had kept him, and sent Vanitas to Master Eraqus? Would he have done the same thing?
Would he have even survived?
"You—" Vanitas looked ready to snarl again before confusion swept over his face. "Wait, you don't? But—I attacked you and your friends—"
"I'm not saying I forgive you," he clarified quickly, raising his hands.
Vanitas deflated a little. It was almost funny; he'd looked so scary before. Now he just reminded Ven of himself.
Aqua stepped forward to put a hand on his shoulder. "We can get there, Vanitas. Do you want to fix your mistakes?"
He looked up at her earnestly. "Can I? I'm not like all of you. Ven's not going to give my light back. I'm not going to take yours either."
"I don't think that you need light to want to change," Cinderella said, startling Vanitas. He seemed to have forgotten that she and Terra were there.
He shook his head. "You're a Princess. All you are is light. How would you know?"
"Well, I know that I can make mistakes. I'm not better than you simply because I have a heart of light."
"She's right," Ven agreed. "If you're all dark, then I'm all light too, right? And I've done lots of things I wasn't supposed to." Like leaving home to chase Terra. Not that he regretted that, so maybe it wasn't the best example. "If I can do stuff like that, then you've gotta be able to change!"
Vanitas snorted. "Excuse me if I don't believe you. You've never done anything as wrong as what I did." His eyes fell. "I kidnapped Aqua. I tried to scare her on purpose, even when I didn't have to. I sent the Unversed to destroy Cinderella's house. I lured Terra into Xehanort's trap, and he almost got his body stolen. I attacked every one of you."
He took a deep breath as darkness wisped from him. Was that a Flood's head trying to form out of it? It receded back into Vanitas's chest before Ven could tell for sure. His hand covered the spot on his chest, like he could plug up the hole where the Unversed had been.
"So don't pretend whatever stupid mistakes you made were like that."
Ven looked at the ground. When he put it that way, it was easy to think he shouldn't be forgiven. But hadn't he helped fight Xehanort, too? Didn't that count for something?
"Mine were," Terra whispered before Ven could voice his thoughts. "I stole a girl's heart. Er—literally."
He coughed and ducked his head when Cinderella looked at him in confusion.
"Uh. I guess I never told you about that."
"You can tell me later," Cinderella said quietly.
"It's okay," Ven reassured her and Aqua anyway. "I got it back. Everything's fine."
Terra sighed heavily. "Maybe it is fine now, but it wasn't then. I really messed up… but it means I get what you're going through, Vanitas." He looked up to hold Vanitas's curious gaze. "You don't know if you can change. You think maybe because you have darkness, you're stuck like this. Maybe you think you'll to screw up no matter how hard you try."
"Shut up," Vanitas hissed quietly, swiping the back of his hand over his eyes. "You don't… you don't know..."
"You're afraid," Terra continued. Ven was surprised to see him crouch down next to Vanitas. "I was afraid too. It's okay."
"Why are you even talking to me?" Vanitas asked. "You don't trust me. Why would you help me?"
"I know what's it like. I just don't want you to feel like there's no one to turn to."
"Terra…" Aqua frowned in sympathy. Had Ven and her made him feel that way? Was that why he'd left the Land of Departure without saying goodbye? Ven hoped he knew better by now. They wouldn't leave him, no matter what.
Terra shrugged. "Plus Aqua cares about you. So I don't think we're getting rid of you anytime soon."
Ven could tell that Terra's smile was forced, but hopefully Vanitas wouldn't know that. It must be hard for Terra to trust him after everything Xehanort did—but he made a good point. Ven couldn't understand what it was like to have darkness, the way Terra did. He really hoped they could help each other.
Vanitas stared at the four of them, searching for something in their faces. Ven didn't know what, but he seemed to find it, because he laughed. Laughed. It sounded like a pressure valve releasing.
"We'll see," he said. "We'll see."