Aqua: Heart of Pain

by WavesBlade

AU: Book Four. After being revived, Aqua struggles to come to terms with what her decision ten years ago cost the worlds, the pain and misery it caused those she cared for, and the entire Realm of Light. Unable to find the light again, can she take up her Keyblade, accept her darkness, and wield it's power once more to stop Maleficent, Xehanort, and his mysterious new young ally?

2. Homecoming

Chapter 2: Homecoming

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*knock knock knock*

"Master Aqua, breakfast will be ready soon!" called in Kairi's voice.

Aqua yawned and slowly sat up in her bed, stretching. "Mmmm..."

She stared at the door to her room blankly for a moment before yesterday's events played through her mind and she murmured, "Oh... right, I'm alive again."

She cleared her throat. "I'll be down after I shower."

"Okay!" called in Kairi before the pattering of feet sounded down the hall.

Aqua moved to her dresser and pulled it open, staring silently down at her spare clothing. Left exactly the way they had been. Everything in her room had been. She didn't honestly know if she should be happy or sad at that.

Happy because her friends didn't linger endlessly on the pain they felt.

Sad because her friends hadn't lingered endlessly, and wrote her off as dead.

Truth be told, she had been dead, from a certain point of view. Actually, after that memory rush, she considered being a Heartless a fate worse than death, for herself and for others. She ought to be happy they had tried to move on, but... it left a pain, even after Terra had apologized last night. Speaking of which...

She glanced down and smiled at her wayfinder laying next to her in her bed. She picked it up and held it tightly to her chest. Just holding it, having it again, made her feel like nothing could ever go wrong again.

She knew better though.

She sighed, took a set of clothes out and flapped them overhead, getting as much dust out of them as she could, with a bit of magical help afterwords to make sure. She went to the shower, stripped down, and went inside. She yelped as soon as the water hit her, surprised by how alien the sensation felt. She closed her eyes, took a steam filled breath, and forced herself to relax. Ten years she supposed she hadn't had a shower, unless her Nobody counted, but those were infrequent things, brought on by Olette's nagging more than anything else.

Honestly, one would think even without feelings or memories a Nobody would have a sense of personal hygiene.

She couldn't help but wonder if her body was her Nobody's body restored and recombined with her heart, or just a newly reconstructed one. She didn't honestly know how being... um... what was a good word for it? Restored? Recompleated? Yeah that one. She didn't honestly know how being recompleated worked.

Better to scrub extra hard to make up for lost times to be sure.

And...

As a poor attempt to get the blood and darkness she imagined staining her hands off...

She took in a shuddered breath and suppressed her power, her darkness. She did not want to feel it at the moment.

She took far longer in the shower then she could recall doing before she had first set off from here all those years ago. She left it thirty minutes later, her skin a tempered red and her hands and feet quite wrinkled from a long exposure to water. She brushed her hair slowly, getting back into a rhythm that had been interrupted. She could imagine Ven teasing her about taking so long with her 'girl time' to get herself ready for the day.

Well...

Only if things weren't completely awkward between them. Yesterday had been one thing, them reuniting after all this time.

Today?

That would be another thing entirely, the first day of the rest of their lives. Hopefully she wouldn't screw it up like she had done everything else last time around.

She sighed bitterly, clothed herself, and left for the dinning hall. The sound of laughter and happy voices echoed from the room. She took a quiet peak into the room, standing a bit before the doorway. Yen Sid, Mickey, and Eraqus were no where to be seen. Axel was leaning against the far right wall, eyes on the table, or rather, on Kairi who held Xion's ruined heart inside of her. Terra and Ven sat next to each other eating and elbowing one another playfully in a way that made Aqua wonder if they really were ten years older than she remembered or not. Sora and Riku were mirror images of their masters...

Kairi however sat alone a few seats away from the other apprentices, eating quietly, apprehension on her face. Curious. Aqua tapped into her senses and lightly probed the girl. Guilt, fear, and unease radiated from her in waves. A small step up from all consuming depression, but not what she wanted to see from Kairi. It was especially odd since the girl knew she would be going to see her family today. So why...

Well, one way to find out.

Aqua strode into the room and made a b-line for Kairi, sitting down next to her. "Morning Kairi."

Kairi jumped a little. "Wha... oh, good morning Master Aqua. You... can move really quietly. I didn't hear or sense you coming."

"Uh... seconded!" said Sora.

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "It's called suppressing yourself and not letting your feet clomp on the way in, it's not hard."

Sora grinned at that. "I'm a horrible clomper."

"I'll say, the moment Sora steps foot on the world, his huge goofy shoes scream, 'I'm here Heartless, come and get me!'," joked Riku.

Aqua giggled a little at that. "Besides, were supposed to keep ourselves suppressed and not make a big stink out on a mission if I recall. The people of the world's aren't supposed to know about one another, or that were visitors from another world wielding Keyblades."

There was an awkward silence in the room.

Aqua frowned and glanced at Terra. "Right?"

"Erm...," said Terra, scratching the back of his head.

"That has since changed," came Eraqus's voice as the old master walked into the room, "Much has changed since your apprenticeship ten years ago."

Aqua's eyes turned to follow the man as he sat down a few sets from Terra. "Perhaps you ought to bring me up to speed then."

Eraqus licked his lips. "Aqua... how much are you aware of? Of what's happened the last ten years?"

There was a very heavy silence all of the sudden. She could feel and see everyone in the room tense and stare straight at her.

Aqua's mouth suddenly felt very dry as she lied through her teeth, "I'm... aware of what Kairi and Sora told my Nobody, nothing more. I know what the dark presence in the sky was that was destroying the Realm of Light."

She wouldn't, couldn't, tell them that she had her Heartless's memories. That was her burden to bear. The awkwardness, sadness, and guilt that radiated off her friends was hard enough to deal with without them knowing she knew each and every way her Heartless had ever hurt them. She fought hard to keep a tremor from going down her hand at the notion.

"I have a lot of sins to make up for," she said quietly.

"Aqua...," began Ven.

She stared hard at her friend. "Don't you dare say otherwise."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute.

Eraqus cleared his throat. "As the struggle against the Heartless started in earnest, it became rather impossible to hide who we were from the worlds when we played such an active and visible role in their defense. We had to coordinate with the defenders of the worlds in order to try to hold back the Heartless."

"Did you take people to help defend other worlds?" she asked, unwilling to check through her Heartless's memories for an answer.

Eraqus shook his head. "No, we didn't want to rob worlds of their champions incase they were attacked while we were gone."

Aqua nodded slowly before asking, "Well, with the Heartless threat mostly dealt with, will things be going back to the way they were?"

Eraqus hesitated. "We're... not honestly sure."

"Why?" she asked.

Terra leaned forward. "To be honest Aqua, the three of us have been thinking that rule might have been a mistake to begin with."

Aqua's eyebrows shot up at that and glanced towards her former master. Eraqus, the precept harping master, thought a precept was a mistake?

Damn.

The last ten years HAD changed the man.

Eraqus saw her look and chuckled. "Even an old man like me can learn from past mistakes."

The man grew serious. "The worlds were not prepared at all for the darkness that swept over them. So many of them fell so quickly because they had not a clue what was happening, what the Heartless were, how to defend against them. The Keyblade may be one of the very few ways to truly defeat a Heartless, but, they can at least be driven off by other means if one is properly prepared to face the darkness."

Eraqus looked crestfallen. "But they weren't. The Order of the Keyblade Masters left them in darkness about the darkness. We did not help the worlds learn to defend themselves, taking over that responsibility for ourselves. The worlds were like pampered children, unprepared to face the realities of life because we sheltered them to much."

He hesitated briefly. "They also needed to be made aware of what could happen if a Keyblade Master misused their power, so that they would not trust us blindly and be played for fools. A great number of worlds know that Xehanort is behind what happened."

Aqua stared at him passively for a moment. "And did you warn them about me?"

Eraqus blinked a few times before closing his eyes. "I warned them about what happened if one gave into the darkness, yes."

There was an uneasy tension, only broken when she spoke one single word.

"Good."

They all stared at her. Judging by the looks in most of their eyes, they were surprised. Kairi however looked oddly cross with her.

Aqua cleared her throat. "It's good you warned them, because to be frank, it's true. I walked that line of darkness so tightly and so recklessly that I'm surprised it took me to the final fight with Xehanort to fall off it on the wrong side."

No... that was a lie. She had fallen off the line far before then. Back when she had been extracting the hearts of Maleficent's pig minions was the first true obvious one. There was no excusing what she did there, even if it was to stop Xehanort. That however was a secret she planned taking to her grave. But... in regards to what she had said...

The line between using darkness and succumbing to it could be walked.

Darkness could be controlled.

It could be channeled.

But it was so easy to lose control and succumb to it's temptations that it was probably not worth the effort. She knew she could become a master of darkness unlike anything seen since the Keyblade War. Maleficent and Xehanort both alluded to it, heck, she had ascended in power so quickly during the conflict with Xehanort, she figured she hadn't even been close to her prime yet.

But how many more lives would have to be ruined by her mistakes in the process of chasing that power?

It wasn't worth it.

The memory of Ven's face, twisted in agony by her Heartless...

It wasn't worth it at all.

No power in the world was.

"Perhaps it's wrong and cruel of me to say this Aqua, but, from what I remember I'm surprised to hear you say that," said Eraqus softly.

Aqua blinked a few times and pulled out of her thoughts, turning her head to appraise Eraqus, she was not angry, no, he had every right to say it. "Master... I'm not willfully blind nor stupid, not anymore. Coming back from the dead, in a sense, to the worlds ten years later and hearing just what my actions did is a wake up call unlike any other."

Eraqus nodded, but said nothing else.

Aqua spoke softly, "I used the darkness, knowing the dangers, knowing and struggling with its temptations. For a time, I used it right, as it should be used, in service and defense of the light, doing what the light cannot do, but it didn't matter in the end. I gave in when it mattered most. I succumbed, it's as simple and awful as that."

It was oddly funny to her, in a way. It was easy to talk about her failure at the Keyblade Graveyard. Compared to the pain her Heartless caused, her succumbing to her own temptation for revenge was nothing. Even if one caused the other in the end.

There was silence in the room for a time. Ven and Terra stared at her awkwardly, wanting to speak, but unable to. She could feel they wanted to tell her it wasn't her fault, but they knew it was true. They had admitted last night that she had made a grave mistake, and grave was a very light word to use to describe it and the aftermath that followed.

Eraqus stared contemplatively at her for a time before speaking again, "You show wisdom, learning from past mistakes. We could use such wisdom, and your insight into the darkness, to better brace the worlds and help re-define the precepts if need be. The last ten years was not the first time darkness swept over the worlds, I doubt it will be the last. They need to be prepared."

"As you wish," murmured Aqua.

It was the right thing to do, to help people learn to defend themselves. Loath as she was to speak of or use the darkness to help them... but... that was a topic for another day.

"But, I believe I promised my apprentice to go with her to see her family," said Aqua, shooting Kairi a quick smile.

Kairi smiled weakly back, but said nothing.

Odd, why did she seem apprehensive all the sudden to go see them?

"Glad to hear your family came back," said Sora with a wistful tone.

"Thanks," said Kairi before pausing, "Sora... what about your and Riku's families? Shouldn't your world have been restored to?"

Sora and Riku both froze, a completely blank on their faces, both of them saying, "Oh..."

Kairi giggled a little. "Boys... always so clueless."

Sora and Riku glanced at Terra, who had a soft, but amused look on his face. "Go."

Sora and Riku scrambled out of the mess hall, running at top speed. Aqua could feel the hopeful eagerness emanating from both of them. She shook her head, happy for the two, and ate quickly, not wanting to keep Kairi waiting.

She finished and rose to her feet. "Shall we Kairi?"

Kairi bit her lip a little nervously before standing up. "Okay..."

Aqua pursed her lips and made for the door, Kairi following suite, she waited until they were a bit down the hall before she decided to speak, "Kairi, is something wrong? I'd think you'd be happy to go see your family, but, I don't sense that you are."

Kairi stopped walking, and Aqua turned to face the girl who had her head bowed. "Well?"

"I... got them all killed, twice," Kairi murmured, "Are they really going to want to see me?"

Aqua's eyebrows furrowed. "Twice?"

"Eraqus tried to lie to me, but I know. I know I... I was what lured... um... the Leader of the Heartless to Traverse Town," said Kairi, "I got everyone in that world killed when I awakened my Keyblade... my light and Keyblade drew them to Traverse Town..."

"Kairi... that's not your fault," said Aqua, "You had no control when your Keyblade would awaken, and..."

Aqua closed her eyes. "You don't need to skirt the issue, you know full well what 'the Leader of the Heartless' was."

"Your Heartless," murmured Kairi, not meeting her eyes.

Aqua sighed and walked forward, kneeling down in front of Kairi. "It's not your fault Kairi. If anything, it's mine. I chose you to be a Keybearer, and it was my Heartless that destroyed that world."

"Well, what about the second time? At the World That Never Was, they...," began Kairi.

"They made the choice to stand their ground Kairi," said Aqua, "They could have retreated at any time. But they held out for as long as they could, stopping the population of the World That Never Was from interfering to give us a fighting chance to reach Xehanort."

She put her hands on Kairi's shoulders. "They won't hate you Kairi, they love you. They wouldn't have given up their lives if they didn't, especially not knowing about recompleation. Okay?"

"Okay...," murmured Kairi.

Aqua stood up and held out her hand. "Come on, let's go."

Kairi sniffled a little and took it. Aqua was tempted to just make a Dark Corridor and go, but she had something special planned for Kairi, to get her mind off her worries. They left the keep and summoned their gliders...

Before Aqua deadpanned. "Your glider... is a raft?"

Kairi's face burned with embarrassment. "Erm... yes?"

Aqua smiled a little at that. "Keyblades work in mysterious ways."

"Wish I had your glider," muttered Kairi.

"Well, to be fair, you can dive off your glider really easy if you need to ditch it," said Aqua.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Maybe, but I have to stand the entire trip on these things, I'd rather make a Dark Corridor than use my glider."

"Well, we can do that next time, I want to show you something," said Aqua.

Kairi gave her a curious look, but Aqua merely held a finger up to her lips before mounting her glider, Kairi doing the same. They shot off into the sky, and into the Lanes Between. She felt it the moment they entered the space between worlds, Kairi's surprise, and then delight, to see all the stars, all the worlds, as they were so long ago, before the darkness consumed them.

Aqua remembered the first time she had gone into the Lanes Between without her armor, seeing that sight unhindered by her Keyblade Armor. It was a beautiful sight to take in and...

Aqua yelped when Kairi bumped her glider into Aqua's, grinning and then taking off at full speed. Ohhhh, so that's how it was huh? Race time! Aqua full-throttled her glider and took off in hot pursuit, bumping and jostling with Kairi as they went for fun. She remembered herself, Terra and Ven doing this in their training years. Glad to see it being passed on.

They arrived at Radiant Garden about half an hour later and touched down in an alleyway. Aqua could feel Kairi was still a little anxious, but she seemed more relaxed after their fun trip through the Lanes Between.

"Erm...," said Kairi, "I... don't actually know where Leon and Yuffie, or anyone else, lived in Radiant Garden."

"Can you feel their presence?" asked Aqua.

Kairi closed her eyes, a soft white glow surrounding her body for a moment before a smile took her face and the light faded. "Yeah."

Aqua let Kairi take the lead and followed behind her quietly, down the streets heading towards the castle area. No one paid them any head at first. Though, as they passed down the streets, a few people gave Kairi's Organization Cloak a hesitant look, and were wide eye staring at Aqua. She chose not to react to them, figuring they were probably a few recompleated Nobodies who recognized them...

On the other end of the spectrum, it was possible they recognized Aqua from her Heartless eating their heart's ten years ago...

Oh boy...

She hadn't even given that a thought. How would people who had encountered her Heartless react to her? Well... no one had started screaming at the sight of her or running away yet, so, small favors she supposed. She figured THAT reaction was going to happen at some point.

Kairi drew her attention when she snorted and said, "Well that figures."

Aqua followed Kairi's gaze to see a small tavern labeled 7th Heaven. "Hmm...?"

"I think Tifa told me once she named the bar in Traverse Town after her old one," said Kairi, a grin spreading across her face.

Aqua followed the girl in and glanced around as they stood in the entrance. The tavern didn't seem to different from any other. Tables, chairs, a bar at the back with a barkeep. On that note, she recognized two people from Kairi's group back in the World That Never Was.

"Tifa! Cid!" said Kairi with glee, running towards the bar.

The woman, Tifa if Aqua had to guess, was a long haired brunette in black leather clothes with fighting gloves on. The woman had a hardened face, but it lit up at the sight of Kairi, at least until she scowled.

"No running in the bar Kairi! Told you that a hundred times," said Tifa, appearing to be trying to suppress a wide smile.

Kairi rolled her eyes and sat down next to the other person Aqua recognized. He was a older blond haired man, with a white shirt, a huge brown belt, blue pants, and a cigarette in his mouth. Cid she assumed. Aqua moved to sit down next to Kairi at the bar.

"Weren't expecting you for another few hours at lunch kiddo," said Cid.

"Yeah well, how long did you expect me to wait after hearing you all were alive!?" exclaimed Kairi.

"No yelling in the bar either missy," said Tifa.

Kairi stuck her tongue out at her; Tifa rolled her eyes before laughing and smiling at the girl, leaning over the bar to give her a brief but tight hug, "Good to see you made it out of that alive Kairi. You give that old bastard a thumping for us?"

Kairi's face hardened for a moment. "In the end, yes."

Tifa gave her a curious look before shaking her head. "Well, Leon and Yuffie won't be here for a bit."

"What about the others?" said Kairi eagerly.

Tifa hesitated. "Well... we invited Cloud and Aerith, but, I don't know if they're going to come or not."

"Why not?" asked Kairi.

Tifa bit her lips. "Erm..."

"Aerith's a bit... off," said Tifa.

"Oh just get it out," said Cid with chagrin.

Tifa sighed. "She isn't doing so well after getting her heart back after, well, acting like she did as a Nobody. She's... struggling I guess is the word I'd use, to figure out who she is. The old happy hopeful Aerith doesn't mix well with how cold she was as a Nobody."

"Oh...," murmured Kairi sadly.

"Cloud's trying to help her come to terms with it, they both started working in the Castle Gardens," said Tifa.

Kairi snorted. "Cloud? Work with flowers?!"

Tifa smiled sadly. "He... cares for her Kairi, he'll do what it takes to help her."

Aqua studied the woman's face for a moment. It was easy to see the suppressed envy and jealousy. The woman didn't appear to want to feel that way, but she had a hunch Tifa liked this 'Cloud' guy.

"What about Barret? Where's he at?" said Kairi.

Tifa turned away and walked to her glass shelf, starting to wash them silently.

"Tifa?" asked Kairi.

"Kiddo, Barret ain't from this world," said Cid, "He didn't wake up here with the rest of us after our Nobodies bit it."

Kairi froze for a moment before a sad look crossed her face. "Oh... that means no one else who wasn't from here is here either... so Arthur, Rapunzel, Hiro, everyone else is just... gone."

Cid raised a fist and hit his own chest with it, over his heart. "They're still with us where it counts kiddo. 'sides, you got that Keyblade thing and can make corridors, right? You can go track those numbskulls down if you want to."

Kairi smiled a little. "Yeah, I guess I can, might be hard though. I don't know where most of them are from."

"Barret said he was from a place called Midgar," said Tifa softly.

Kairi nodded. "I think Arthur said something about 'England' or 'Camelot'?"

"Sounds right," said Tifa.

Kairi thought for a moment before sighing. "Though, I had tons of friends in the Guardian's of Traverse Town, don't know if I can really track them all down. Maybe... it's for the best we all just move on..."

Aqua put a hand on Kairi's shoulder. "You're duties as a Keybearer will bring you to many world's Kairi, especially if the precepts are changed. You'll see plenty of your friends again, don't worry."

Kairi gave her a small smile before turning towards Tifa. "Orange juice please."

Tifa got her a glass and set it down before turning to eye Aqua. "I suppose we ought to thank you for helping Kairi against Xehanort, though, I'm surprised you stayed afterwords."

Aqua slowly shook her head. "I didn't 'stay'. My Nobody died and I was reborn as you were."

Tifa's eyes went wide. "Your Nobody DIED?!"

Cid sharply turned towards Aqua. "Damn. That Nobody was no joke, the hell happened?"

"Xehanort happened, or my Nobody was an idiot, take your pick, I don't care to describe it as anything else," said Aqua dryly.

Tifa nodded slowly before growing curious. "So you're her huh? Kairi's actual 'Master Aqua'? She droned on and on about you for years."

"T-tifa!" stammered Kairi, chocking a bit on her juice, her face turning a beat red.

Aqua's eyes furrowed. That was a curious statement. She turned to give Kairi a questioning look.

"E-erm... well...," stammered Kairi, "I..."

The girl bowed her embarrassed face. "We all needed something to hang onto those ten years, something to give us hope. The promise you made me was what I clung to in order to help me keep going."

Aqua stared silently at her before turning away, saying nothing. Ten years she made that girl wait for her... and when she 'came', it was her Heartless that ripped apart her world and killed her friends and family. The next time, it her Heartless than almost ripped her heart out. If Kairi wasn't here to probably take the action the wrong way, Aqua would have considered asking Tifa for her advice on what alcohol a beginner should drink.

Light knows she still might.

"I'm sorry I made you wait so long," said Aqua softly.

"It's alright, you didn't have a choice in the...," began Kairi.

"I did, and you know it," Aqua cut off.

Kairi went silent.

Aqua decided to divert the subject, "Kairi, did you not have a grandmother here as well?"

Kairi's eyes went wide. "Oh! Grandma!"

Kairi stood up and practically yanked Aqua off her chair. "C'mon, I want you to meet Grandma! She never even got a chance to thank you last time around."

Aqua barely got to give Tifa and Cid a goodbye, both of them giving the two of them amused glances. Aqua followed Kairi to a tiny little cottage at the edge of the town, overlooking a great maw like area. It was a quiet little place, a small fence with flowers painted on them surrounding it. There was a tiny little vegetable garden to the right of the cottage. Tending to the garden was an elderly woman. She had puffy gray hair, an old, sagging, but nice face. She wore a purple dress, with a white apron over it.

Kairi couldn't contain herself, she let go of Aqua and bolted for the woman, crying out, "Grandma!"

The elderly woman froze for a moment before standing up and glancing her way. "That voice..."

The elderly woman barely had time to react before Kairi had her in a fierce hug. "Grandma... I missed you so much..."

"Good heavens... Kairi... is that you?" said the elderly woman in disbelief.

Kairi sniffled a little and looked down at her Grandma's face. "It's me Grandma..."

"You... you've grown so much!" exclaimed the elderly woman, looking her over.

Kairi giggled a little. "Well, ten years will do that."

The elderly woman's face lit up. "So you weren't taken with the rest of us then! Thank goodness..."

Kairi smiled a little. "Yeah, I survived. A Keyblade Master named Terra saved me and then took me to Leon and Yuffie, they adopted me when we ended up in Traverse Town."

The elderly woman stared at her for a moment before motioning to the steps. "Let's sit down, I want you to tell me everything that I've missed."

Aqua moved to lean against the fence, watching the girl reunite with her grandmother, a soft smile on her face.

"Well well well, fancy meeting you here bluebird," came a familiar voice.

Aqua turned her head and spotted, to her surprise, Braig standing there. "You..."

He was as she remembered him ten years ago. He had white buttoned clothes, white gloves, with a red scarf. He had smooth black hair and eyes. Apparently, being recompleated undid the damage she had done to his eye.

"I believe you have something of mine ten years overdue," said Braig, arms crossed.

Aqua frowned briefly, glancing at Kairi who was to absorbed talking to her Grandmother to notice, before turning to Braig. "We'll talk elsewhere."

Aqua and Braig walked down the street and down an alleyway before stopping and facing one another. She thought back to what Braig's Nobody, Xigbar had said in Twilight Town, and then back to the battle at the Keyblade Graveyard, when she had gotten him to turn on Xehanort...

Oh shit...

She had promised him a Keyblade, promised to do the inheritance ceremony on him...

"Well? I'm waiting," said Braig, "Don't you get cold feet on our deal. I didn't have to help out Xion and Kairi, but I did as a show of good faith. I aint holding you stabbing me with your Keyblade against you. I could have, and I COULD have helped Xehanort, but I choose to keep up my end of the bargain."

"I'm aware," muttered Aqua.

Oh... was she really going to do this? For THIS man? She stared at him, her lips pursed, unsure of what to do. If the others ever found out about this... oh man she'd never hear the end of it. Probably get herself in a world of trouble too. But...

Braig, and Xigbar, had both helped her out. Both helped to make a difference, if not directly, then by not helping Xehanort.

Considering she had betrayed him at the Keyblade Graveyard, even if Xehanort drove her to do it... she did owe him.

But...

"If I EVER hear of you misusing the power of the Keyblade Braig," said Aqua in a harsh tone, "I will come for you. Are we clear?"

Braig shrugged. "Yeah yeah yeah, don't worry, I ain't gonna go 'all Xehanort' on the worlds. I'm going to collect my Keyblade, find some nice little backwater world to hide in, and wait for this whole thing to blow over."

Aqua's eyebrows furrowed. "Whole thing?"

Braig grinned. "You still got a mess to clean up bluebird. This time though, I'm keeping my neck out of it."

Mess...?

Oh, Maleficent, right...

Crap, she hadn't even thought of Maleficent and her monsters since the memory rush.

"Not interested in doing the right thing and helping out?" mocked Aqua.

"Me? Act the hero? Pff, as if," said Braig, "Do your little Keyblade thingy so we can get this over with and I'll be on my way."

Aqua sighed and summoned her Keyblade, reversing her grip and holding it out to him. "In your hand, take this Key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, it's wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love."

Braig greedily grabed the Keyblade and waited a few moments. "That it?"

Aqua nodded. "Yes. It might take some time for the Keyblade to manifest, if it deems you worthy."

Braig frowned. "If?"

"Keyblades chose their Masters, they aren't just simple weapons or tools," said Aqua.

"You ain't trying to double-cross me are you?" asked Braig, giving her a skeptical look.

Aqua scowled. "It's how the Keyblade works, take it or leave it.

"Fine fine fine," said Braig, "I'll take your word for it."

Aqua banished her Keyblade and turned around. "I don't expect we'll be seeing eachother again then."

"Who knows bluebird, who knows," said Braig.

She paused briefly at a 'warp' sound, turning her head to see Braig go off into a Dark Corridor. "Knowing my luck, that decision is going to come back to bite me."

"Or help me, either or," she muttered.

She walked back to Kairi's Grandmother's house and resumed watching Kairi and her grandmother talk with one another. Though, her mind was on another matter. Maleficent and her monsters. Now that she wasn't in the middle of a memory rush, she paused to actually give them some thought. What in the world WE'RE those things? From her Nobody's memories, the creatures seemed to be mixtures Heartless and Nobody's somehow mixed together. Yet, if that was the case, shouldn't they just reform as whole people?

Apparently not...

Her eyebrows furrowed in thought, mulling it over. A heart, plus a body equals a person...

A heart...

Oh!

The Heartless, they are not just a heart. A Heartless was a sleeping heart consumed by darkness. Alright, so, taking that into consideration, she would have expected them to just be dark creatures, Heartless in control of a body. She wondered why they gave off that awful sensation then. These 'things', felt like something else entirely... something worse. She contemplated paying Maleficent a visit...

Then again, the Witch seemed fairly hostile back in the World That Never Was. She doubted their old time spent together seeking power and answers in darkness and knowledge mattered much anymore. Showing up at her castle only to be surrounded by the Witch and who knows how many of her monsters didn't seem like a good idea. Not to mention, she didn't honestly know if Maleficent still resided in her old castle or not. Regardless, she needed to talk to the others about these creatures, see if they had encountered them and had any observations to give.

Aqua sighed and rubbed her nose, muttering to herself, "Figures things can't just go back to normal."

Hell... what did normal even mean anymore to her? She hadn't had a normal day in her life since before Xehanort had damaged her heart and cracked her control over her darkness all those years ago...

She shook her head and tried her best to stop brooding. She didn't want Kairi to catch her doing it and ruin the girl's happiness. Speaking of which...

"...then Eraqus made me climb up the entire Mount Olympus," said Kairi.

"Good heavens, in your... Keyblade Armor you said it was?" replied Kairi's Grandmother.

Kairi nodded. "Yeah, it was tough."

Aqua's eyebrows furrowed. Climbing a mountain in Keyblade Armor? Guess Eraqus had a more rigorous training regime these days. Not quite what Aqua would have put the girl through. In fact...

Aqua played the battle against Xehanort inside of Kingdom Hearts over in her mind again. While it was obvious Kairi knew how to wield a weapon, Aqua figured she had probably been taught how to wield a sword, her skill with a Keyblade... she hated to admit it, but Kairi's form was kind of sloppy. She had incredible power, to much power for someone her age honestly, but... Xehanort had been right when he mocked Kairi, the girl lacked in technique and Keyblade-ship, by a great deal. She had promised the girl ten years ago to train her, and while Aqua could admit she herself wasn't the best with a Keyblade, Terra held that spot over her, she could at least guide Kairi with that. It was the least she could do to pay the girl back all she owed her. Maybe give her some magic tips. Speaking of magic... she didn't recall seeing Kairi ever using magic, only her light. She wondered if the girl had received any training in it. Yen Sid ought to have been able to teach her. Then again, only so much could be squeezed into one month of training, not to mention having to go on missions to safeguard the worlds...

Honestly she ought to stop speculating and just ask Kairi what training she's had when they got back to the Land of Departure. She resumed passively watching Kairi tell her tale to her Grandmother, keeping an ear open to see if there was anything important she needed to hear about. Aqua kept a tight control of her emotions as Kairi began detailing her trials at the hands of Aqua's Heartless. It was... difficult... to not have the memories of what Kairi described flash through her mind. The images... of her Heartless putting her hands inside of Kairi's chest to torture her heart...

Aqua closed her eyes and took a quiet breath, letting it out slowly, before opening them. Kairi's Grandmother wasn't doing much better than Aqua was. Aqua wasn't one for lying or misleading if she didn't have to, but, she wondered if giving the old woman the full story was the right thing to do. Straining her poor old heart didn't seem like a good idea...

Aqua paid more attention when Kairi started detailing her time inside of Xion as a captive heart. The concept of being inside of someone else, a prisoner, unable to do anything, slowly being drained away of power, life, and memory... it was a terrifying prospect. Aqua wondered if that would have been something similar to what would have happened if Xehanort had won at the Keyblade Graveyard and took over her body. She listened, as Kairi guilty described blaming Xion for her troubles, wishing she had trusted the girl to begin with. Aqua couldn't blame her, she'd probably have done the same thing as Kairi did if she had found herself in the same situation.

Aqua listened passively for a time until Kairi did something that took her by surprise. She lied, and she didn't do a very good job about it either.

"...and after that... hybrid monster thing... attacked Xion, it knocked her out and I took control. I beat it, took the witch by surprise and knocked her off-balance, then I... and... I um... made a portal and took Xion back to her room right away," stammered Kairi, not meeting her Grandmother's eyes.

Aqua raised an eyebrow at that. If the girl wanted that to be half way believable, she needed to put a bit more effort into it. Judging by the look on Kairi's Grandmother's face, she didn't believe it either, but she didn't call her out on it. It was something she'd need to ask Kairi about when they were alone. Aqua continued to listen as Kairi unraveled the last of Xion's story, tearing up a bit, but doing surprisingly well at not crying. She listened passively until Kairi finally got to the end of the battle against Xehanort inside of Kingdom Hearts.

The fact that Maleficent could attempt to take over the artificial Kingdom Hearts put Aqua ill at ease. After hearing about Xion/Kairi's encounter with Maleficent, and the fact that the woman launched a full scale invasion of the World That Never Was, it was more than apparent the witch was no longer content to sit and wait in her castle. She was on the move, hungering for power, converting any in her path into her 'Ascended'.

It was the method of conversion that was most troubling to her. Kairi said these 'Ascended' took the hearts out of their victims, much like the Heartless did. However, what they did afterwords was not the same. They... they split the heart open, wrapped it in the darkness that spilled out, and shoved it back inside the body before it could disperse and form a Nobody. It was so much worse than she had originally thought. What Maleficent was doing... it was unnatural, abhorrent, wrong. Evil didn't begin to describe the sensation the creatures gave off.

Forget her earlier thoughts. According to Kairi, Maleficent was invading and converting entire worlds. She was just as much of a threat as Aqua's own Heartless had been. The Witch needed to be dealt with, quickly. Aqua figured she'd give Kairi the rest of the day. Then she needed to test out her own strength, to see where she stood. If she needed to train to get stronger and re-hone her skills, she would. Then she'd go after the Witch and put a stop to this.

Alone.

What Kairi had described...

She'd never risk her friends against these things. The mere thought of Terra or Ven's hearts being split open and consumed by darkness, turned into one of those things...

It was a horrifying one.

"Master Aqua?" came Kairi's voice.

Aqua glanced up to see both Kairi and her Grandmother standing before her. "Oh, um, yes?"

The girl's Grandmother gave her a warm smile. "I never got a chance to thank you for saving my granddaughter when she was a child."

Aqua smiled softly. "It's one of the few things I can look back to with pride from that time."

Kairi frowned, but said nothing.

Her Grandmother on the other hand chuckled. "You're still young Aqua. So let me tell you young'in, life is a pathway of mistakes, even extreme ones, and learning from them. Have faith in yourself and the light, even if you use the darkness, and you'll end up alright."

"Well, if you call living long enough to be permanently hunched over alright," said the old woman with a chuckle.

Aqua stared at the old woman for a moment before closing her eyes and sighing. "I suppose."

The old woman cleared her throat. "As a Keybearer... how much spare time would Kairi have to come visit her dear old grandmother?"

"G-grandma!" exclaimed Kairi, embarrassed.

Aqua opened her eyes and smiled a little. "Well, I don't know how it is now, but, back when I was an apprentice Keybearer, before this whole mess happened, we used to get brief breaks for recovery after every successful mission or training exercise, and of course on the weekends unless there was an emergency. She'd be able to visit during those times if it hasn't changed."

The old woman smiled and turned to Kairi. "Hear that? I want you visiting at least once every other week."

"Yes Grandma," said Kairi.

"I think its about lunch time, ready to go see the rest of your family?" suggested Aqua.

Kairi nodded before glancing at her Grandmother. "Wanna come?"

The old woman slowly shook her head. "I'm afraid a bar is no place for an old thing like me. I'm sure I'll have the chance to meet your adoptive parents another time. Besides... you've given me a lot I need to think about."

Kairi looked a bit uncertain, but gave her Grandma a hug and left all the same. "Alright, see you later Grandma."

"Bye Kairi," said the old woman.

Aqua waited until they had walked a ways down the street halting Kairi with a grip on her shoulder. "Kairi. You lied."

The girl paused. "Huh?"

"When you were telling your Grandmother about when you and Xion first encountered Maleficent's 'Ascended'. You lied, and poorly," said Aqua, keeping her voice plan.

Kairi froze up, looking a little panicked.

"Kairi, would you care to tell me what actually happened?" inquired Aqua, crossing her arms over her chest and giving the girl a stern look.

Kairi's face paled. "I... I can't..."

Aqua sighed, pulled Kairi into the same alleyway she had talked to Braig in, and knelt down in front of her. "Kairi, you don't need to be scared, just tell me what happened."

Kairi gulped. "I... didn't have a choice Master Aqua. Xion would have died if I didn't! She and I would have been turned into one of those things! I... I didn't... I'm sorry..."

Aqua put her hands on the girl's shoulders, starting to grow a bit concerned. "Kairi, what did you do?"

"I... I absorbed the Cornerstone of Light," she whispered, "I didn't have a choice!"

Aqua blinked a few times. "The what?"

Kairi blanked. "The... Cornerstone?"

Aqua frowned. "I... have no clue what that is Kairi."

"Oh...," deadpanned Kairi, "I guess you weren't listening for that part."

"So... what is it?" asked Aqua, a bit curious and skeptical as to why Kairi had been afraid to tell her.

"It is... it was, an artifact of light that protected Disney Castle, Mickey's home, from darkness," said Kairi, "When I first went there, I had this... urge, or instinct, to try to take it's light into me, it really messed with me, but I pulled myself away from it. When Xion was dying, I didn't have anywhere else to turn, the Princesses were all separated, I didn't think only one of them could save her. So, I went there, put my hand on the Cornerstone, and it shattered, it's light swirled around me and entered my heart."

Aqua worked over what she had told her. "Hmm... Kairi. You should tell Mickey when we get back."

"B-but!" began Kairi.

"Kairi, he'll understand, they all will. You need to tell him so he can check in on his home and make sure it's alright, and maybe re-organize things there to keep it better defended," said Aqua.

"But... Mickey doesn't go there anymore, I was told he hasn't since Minnie died defending their world from the Heartless," murmured Kairi.

Aqua closed her eyes at that. Another couple of lives she had ruined with her failure...

Aqua sighed, opened her eyes, and stood up. "Well, that's Mickey's decision, if he wants to stick by it after you tell him, then it's his choice."

She held out a finger. "But you're still telling him and the others."

"Yes Master Aqua," murmured Kairi.

"Now, lets get going," she said, motioning out the alleyway.

Kairi nodded and left.

Aqua paused briefly to mutter, "I'm a hypocrite in keeping things from my friends, but, better she not make the same mistakes I did."

She followed Kairi back towards 7th Heaven. "This city is a lot bigger than I thought it was the first time I came here."

Kairi glanced back briefly. "I guess. I don't remember a lot of this place, just the path back to Grandma's, and to the flower garden near the castle, but... it doesn't make it any less special to me. It's a whole lot better than Traverse Town, though, that place kind of grows on you."

She frowned briefly. "There was a lot of memories in that world..."

Kairi shook her head and resumed walking.

"Conflabbit! I come back here after ten years and the house is still as messy as I left it!" came a gruff voice, "Don't know why I expected different.

Aqua turned her head briefly to see a older man with a long beard and blue robes using a wand and magic to flap out carpet out of a small house. The man sighed, rubbed his eyes, and then opened them, pausing at the sight of Aqua. He froze up for a moment before he narrowed his eyes.

"Now you stay away you blasted Heartless!" said the man, taking a step back and raising his wand, energy starting to engulf it.

"Wait a sec...," began Aqua, raising her hands.

"Merlin stop!" exclaimed Kairi, rushing between the two of them.

"Oh my, is that you Kairi?" said Merlin with surprise, "What in the world are you doing defending this Heartless?"

Kairi scowled. "Does she look like a Heartless?"

Merlin frowned and slightly lowered his wand. "Well, she looks roughly the same. Clothes are a bit off, hair's shorter..."

The man glanced at Aqua's eyes for a moment, holding them and then relaxing. "None of that cruelty coming off her though. Strange... you look just like it..."

Aqua said nothing.

Kairi nervously glanced back at Aqua. "Umm, this is Merlin, he was the head Mage of the Guardian's of Traverse Town."

Merlin tilted his head, but did not draw any closer.

Kairi turned back to him. "Merlin... where were you the night Traverse Town fell? I didn't hear or see you anywhere."

Merlin scowled. "Fighting of-course, at least until it became unwinnable. I was teleporting around trying to keep some semblance of order. Not that it lasted long. I returned to the First District to help Cid and... well..."

His eyes flickered to Aqua. "A certain Heartless came and took his heart. The power of that thing was... unbelievable. I had to use all my strength magic to flee the world before it could take mine too."

Kairi looked a little relieved. "So you survived... that's good."

"By the skin of my teeth deary," said Merlin, "But my goodness was I surprised when this world came back, and I found Cid and everyone else here alive and well."

"Erm... well, if you defeat someone's Heartless, or release their heart from a Heartless that ate it, and their Nobody dies, the origional person is reborn," explained Kairi.

Merlin pulled on his beard a little. "Ah, so that explains it I suppose."

His eyes flickered to Aqua again. "So that Heartless..."

"Was mine," said Aqua quietly.

"Hmph," said Merlin dismissively, "You had to have a lot of darkness in you to spawn something as foul as that."

"Merlin!" exclaimed Kairi.

"Don't you Merlin me," said the old wizard, "Who is this anyway?"

"This," Kairi said with a very thin voice, "Is Master Aqua."

Merlin paused. "Master Aqua? As in the Keybearer you were always going on about? Your Master Aqua is some dark heathen?"

Kairi glared daggers at him. "Merlin!"

"It's fine Kairi," muttered Aqua, turning away and starting down the street, "I was expecting that reaction at some point."

"A-aqua wait!" said Kairi, running to catch up to her.

"He... he didn't mean...," began Kairi.

"I said its fine," said Aqua passively, "Don't cross your family and friends on my behalf."

"He's just a grumpy old fart," said Kairi, "Not to mention a mage, I don't really like those cowards anyway."

Aqua paused at that, and turned her head, raising an eyebrow. "Kairi, you are aware I'M a mage, right? Magic is my specialization, or at least it was before I focused on darkness anyway."

Kairi winced, an utterly awkward look crossing her face. "Uh... umm..."

Aqua crossed her arms. "Kairi... do you even know how to use magic?"

"Erm... no?" she said sheepishly.

Aqua deadpanned. "Not even cure?"

"I can heal myself with the light," said Kairi defensively.

Aqua slowly shook her head, amused. "We have a lot of work to do with you Kairi."

She started walking. "Why don't you like mages?"

"I don't like people standing in the back using spells while everyone else does the fighting upfront," said Kairi grumpily.

Aqua was half tempted to scoff and call her out for such a limited viewpoint, but..., "You know that some people really aren't suited for physical combat, right? Could you imagine that um, Merlin guy, using a sword to try to fight the Heartless?"

"He could at least try," muttered Kairi bitterly.

Aqua stopped outside of 7th Heaven and turned to Kairi, frowning. "Kairi, this is more than just a dislike, isn't it?"

Kairi said nothing for a moment before she started quietly, "I... didn't really have a lot of childhood friends when I was younger in Traverse Town, most kids thought I was weird for wanting to train all the time at so young an age. But I had two friends particular that didn't care. The first was Anne, she was so fearless and fun. The second..."

Kairi made a face. "Was Elsa. She was really gifted in ice magic, didn't speak or do much though."

Kairi closed her eyes. "We.. were really stupid, thought we were invincible. Thought we could take on the world, with nothing but Elsa's magic and the daggers we um... stole, only thing we could use back then. We were about seven years old at the time when it happened."

Aqua had a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach.

"We were tired of being told to stay indoors, or always be with an adult, so we went out on our own. We had heard news on the Guardians of Traverse Town radio that there was trouble in one of the outer districts, so, we made our way there, right in the middle of a bad Heartless infestation," said Kairi quietly, "It... Anna... there were so many of them, and we weren't even in the main part of the battle, just a little group of them off to the side, a few Shadows and a Neoshadow."

Kairi began to speak, her voice painfully dry, "I was trying to fight all the shadows myself, Anna took the Neoshadow head on, and Elsa just stood back and threw little icicles at them. The... the Neoshadow got Anna. It knocked her to the ground, and when no one was there to cover her, it... it took her heart."

Seven years old... seven years old and they got it in their heads to try and fight Heartless?! A child that young shouldn't have even been near a shadow, let alone a Neoshadow.

"What were you three thinking?" whispered Aqua in disbelief.

"We... we just wanted to help," said Kairi, "We were so tired of not being able to do anything. We tried our hardest, and if Elsa had just been there to help Anna instead of hanging back and flinging spells..."

"She would have lost her heart as well, or lost her heart in place of Anna," cut in Aqua, "By the light Kairi, a seven year old against a Neoshadow, that should never have happened."

"Maybe, but," said Kairi, "I saw plenty of Guardians lose their hearts out on patrol because they had a mage instead of someone at their side to stop them from getting surrounded, or to cover their back."

"A mage can do that just as effectively," said Aqua.

"Then why did so many people die?!" demanded Kairi bitterly.

Aqua's face softened. "Mage or not, a lack of trained people to properly cover one another will get people killed. Tell me, how big were these 'patrols' in Traverse Town?"

"One or two people, three if was an outer district and there was someone to spare," murmured Kairi, "A given patrol generally covered a set of ten districts, and the Guardians had to cover hundreds of districts throughout Traverse Town."

"That's not nearly enough people, especially spread so thin," said Aqua with a slow shake of her head, "Even as a Keybearer, back when I was an apprentice, I rarely had any solo missions, well, save for my last one where everything went wrong."

She wondered briefly how things would have went had Terra or Ven been with her, as a guiding light, rather as objects to protect...

She shook the thought off. "The point is Kairi, I know you want something or someone to blame when something horrible happens, but putting it on those who are fighting just as hard as you, thinking them cowards, isn't right."

Kairi didn't respond, she simply bowed her head. "..."

Aqua cracked a weak smile. "Personally, I threw everything under the 'my own fault' or 'Xehanor's Fault' category."

Kairi scoffed a little, but said nothing.

Aqua sighed and nudged her towards the door. "Go on, your family is waiting for you."

Kairi paused briefly at the door, took a deep breath, let it out, and went inside, Aqua following inside. She glanced towards the bar, seeing the one's she remembered to be 'Nexol' and 'Xuffiey' from the Organization, or, Leon and Yuffie as their true names were according to Kairi.

Yuffie was a young woman with black hair, violet eyes, a black headband, a short black leather vest and shorts. Her arms and some of her legs were bare, and she had a rather large pair of gray boots that went almost up to her knees with equally long socks. She had a shuriken leaning against the bar next to her chair.

Leon was a young man with short brown hair, blue eyes, and a fur collar short sleeved jacket with a strange red lion symbol on each shoulder. He had a white undershirt, black globes, black pants with a rather unusual amount of buckles on them. He had a silver necklace on, the same symbol as the other two red lion ones. Strapped to his back was a sword, though... it looked rather unusual, it's handle was angle strange, and it almost looked like... it had a built in revolver to it? Strange...

The two of them were talking quietly with Cid and Tifa. Or well, they were until...

Kairi latched onto Yuffie from behind with a tight hug. "Mom!"

Yuffie gave a yelp of surprise and glanced back, a wide grin on her face. "Heya squirt!"

Yuffie squirmed in Kairi's grasp, managing to turn herself around on her stool to hug her back. "Yeeesh, when did you get such a grip?"

Kairi didn't respond at first, just burying her face into Yuffie's shoulder, before she pulled away and glared at her with such force Aqua began to sweat a little. "Why didn't you and the other's bail out when things got bad?!"

"Good to see you to," muttered Yuffie.

Leon turned his seat and crossed his arms. "You needed all the time you could get to storm the castle, we... or... our Nobodies I guess, gave it to you."

Yuffie scowled. "I still say it was us, I got all my memories as Xuffiey, I can't really tell the difference."

Leon shrugged.

"You should have ran," said Kairi furiously, "What if this whole 'reborn as a whole person' thing didn't happen?! I'd... I'd have lost all of you..."

Kairi started to choke a little. "I couldn't bear that..."

Yuffie pulled her into a hug. "Hey hey squirt, what happened to your 'no tears in public rule' huh?"

Kairi bristled a little. "S-shut up!"

Yuffie grinned. "Heh heh heh."

Leon reached over and gave Kairi's shoulder a gentle squeeze before pulling back. "It' was good to hear you made it out of that alive from Axel."

"Yeah, shoulda seen Leon here when we all first woke up, threw such a fit about heading back to the castle to check on you," said Yuffie.

"I did not!" said Leon, indignified.

Yuffie stuck out her tongue. "Unfortunately for him, we can't make Dark Corridors anymore, dunno why. Kind of annoying to be honest, those things were useful."

Kairi giggled a little at their antics, relaxing a bit. "It's probably because you're not Nobody's anymore, and you don't use darkness."

Yuffie shrugged. "Oh well. Guess were stuck in Radiant Garden then. Better than Traverse Town I suppose."

Leon nodded. "It's... strange being back here after all this time."

"I'll say," said Cid, butting into the conversation, "We're a few months late on the world being restored, but it's still as if almost nothing changed from the day it fell."

Tifa nodded. "Mhm. Though, a bunch of people being found suddenly in random spots all over the world after being reborn did cause quite a scene."

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Not our fault, can't control where my body plopped down."

"At least you weren't reborn face first in one of the fountains," muttered Tifa.

"Well, not all of us need baths," teased Yuffie.

Tifa huffed. "You're one to talk."

"Hey!" exclaimed Yuffie.

Tifa rolled her eyes.

Yuffie turned to Kairi. "Say, since you got your Keyblade thingy, don't suppose you could do me a favor and head back to Traverse Town and pick up a few things from home, er, our old home?"

Kairi went silent for a moment. "It's gone mom."

Yuffie blinked a few times. "Huh?"

"Traverse Town, our Traverse Town, is gone. There's a new really small one, but, our hundreds of districts one is just... gone," said Kairi quietly.

Yuffie made a face. "You're kidding me, after all the work we put into that place? Pfe."

Leon shook his head. "Probably for the best. To many bad memories in that place."

No one said anything for a moment before Leon motioned to the stool next to Yuffie. "Have a seat Kairi."

He glanced back at Aqua. "You as well, unless you prefer to simply stand there and watch us talk."

Aqua smiled at the jab before moving to sit next to Kairi.

Leon stared at Aqua for a moment. "I always figured that if you were real that you were... indisposed in some way."

Aqua's eyes furrowed. "Real...?"

Kairi scoffed. "They thought you were some imaginary friend of mine when I was younger."

Aqua snorted. "If only."

Leon motioned for Tifa to get him a drink before continuing, "Though, I never expected the truth of it. We never knew of Nobody's, or humanoid Heartless."

Aqua said nothing.

"We ain't knockin you for it or anything," said Yuffie quickly, "People arn't people anymore when they're Heartless, and we were told you we're an amnesiac Nobody."

Aqua shrugged. "It's fine."

"So squirt," said Yuffie, turning to Kairi, "You still set on goin with her and being a Keybearer?"

"Of course," said Kairi.

Yuffie pouted a little. "We aint hardly gonna be able to see you anymore."

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Yes you are, my Grandma's already nagged me into visiting every other week."

Yuffie grinned. "That's my kind of Grandma!"

"Must have been quite a shock for her to see you all grown up," said Tifa, leaning on the counter.

Kairi shrugged. "I guess. She got over it pretty quick."

"Got over it? Or you didn't even give a chance to react to it?" teased Tifa.

Kairi scowled. "I gave her plenty of chances! We spent a few hours catching up, or well, me filling her in on my life."

"So... you talked and she had no chance to speak," said Tifa, amused.

"Sounds bout right," said Cid.

"Mhm," said Leon.

Kairi huffed, but said nothing as the four others started laughing. Aqua watched, amused at the light group teasing. Perhaps if it was like this now, growing up couldn't have been all bad for the girl. Aqua watched silently as the five others continued to talk, joke, and just enjoy one another's company. She kept quiet, not speaking unless spoken to. This gathering was for Kairi, not for herself. Tifa made food inbetween serving other customers and talking, putting a plateful before everyone.

"So, Aqua, what do you drink? We probably have some stocked here," said Tifa.

Aqua blinked a few times. "Just water."

Tifa raised an eyebrow. "Just water? C'mon now, you're kidding, right? Do you drink any kind of beer?"

"No," said Aqua.

"Wine at least?" said Tifa in disbelief.

"Nope," said Aqua, "Just water."

"I think water is code for 'give me a Heaven's Special'," said Yuffie.

"Uh... unless you're willing to clean up the puke and find her someplace to sleep it off, no, not for her first drink," said Tifa, amused, "Alright Miss Water, water it is."

"Your friend's no fun," whispered Yuffie to Kairi, who rolled her eyes back.

Aqua glanced over at her, bemused. "Anyone with magic should not drink, period. It's asking for trouble."

"Tch, like I said, no fun," said Yuffie with a pout.

Aqua merely chuckled and took the glass of water Tifa offered.

"Better no fun then a bad influence," teased Kairi.

Yuffie looked at her with mock hurt. "Bad influence! I was a great mom! I taught you all kinds of awesome things! How to pick locks, how to pickpocket, how to make a clean getaway..."

"M-mom!" stammered Kairi.

"I think you've made her case for her," said Aqua with amusement.

Yuffie put an arm around Kairi's shoulders. "Hey! I taught my little ninja all the perfect skills! Not my fault she wanted to be Leon's little swordslady instead. When's the last time you even used the Shuriken I made for you and... wait... oh MAAAAAN!"

Yuffie groaned. "It's probably in your room back in the Traverse Town that doesn't exist anymore! Aww, I put so much effort into making that..."

"Sorry mom," said Kairi sheepishly.

"Guess I'll just have to make you a new one so you can show off all your super ninja skills to your friend here," teased Yuffie, "I remember the first time you used a Shuriken, boy oh boy, you nearly took your own arm off, Aerith threw a fit having to heal that."

Kairi's face turned beat red. "M-mom! Stop!"

"Yuffie, do you intend to keep embarrassing her the entire time?" said Leon with amusement.

"Mmm... yes?" said Yuffie.

"You're horrible mom!" said Kairi with exasperation.

Yuffie just laughed.

"Ugh... where's Cloud? I could use someone at least half-way serious right now," said Kairi.

"Off with his flower lady," said Yuffie.

"Hey, what about me?" said Leon.

"Your as much of a goofball as mom is," said Kairi, "You just time it better instead of being like that all the time."

Kairi frowned for a moment before standing up. "So, Cloud and Aerith are in the flower garden's then?"

"Yeah, it's by the castle if you want to go see them," said Tifa.

"Alright, I'll be back in a bit," said Kairi.

She glanced at Aqua.

Aqua motioned to the door. "Go see your friends, today is for you Kairi, take as much time as you want."

Kairi smiled at that before leaving.

The moment Kairi was out the door, Aqua felt every eye from the girl's family and friends turn towards her.

"So... we're kind of in the dark here," said Yuffie, "I remember hearing in the World That Never Was that Xehanort was behind the Heartless Apocolypse, mind going into detail on that?"

Aqua frowned for a moment before turning to Tifa. "What's a good beginer's alcohol?"

Tifa scoffed. "What happened to no drinking?"

Aqua shrugged. "I feel like I'm going to need one."

Tifa nodded and turned to mix a quick drink, plopping it down. "On the house."

Aqua eyed it before taking a gulp. She immediantly made a distasteful face and started coughing.

Tifa seemed amused by her reaction. "Ah, brings back memories of my first drink."

Aqua stared down at her drink for a moment before speaking, "Xigbar said that Xehanort was the one primarily responsible for the Heartless Apocalypse. I suppose that's true, without him it would never have happened. But, it ignores the responsibility I had in it as well. I could have killed him, but I didn't, I wanted him to suffer, and made a horrible mistake. Even beyond that, how I dealt with what Xehanort tried to do to me directly created my Heartless and started the whole mess. I won't deny or hide it."

"Umm...," began Yuffie uneasily, "What... did Xehanort try to do? And how did you deal with it."

Aqua took another sip of her drink, licking her lips afterwords. What an awful taste... do people really like drinking this stuff?

"He tried to merge his heart with mine. Rather than let that happen, I ripped our hearts apart and tore them out of my body," answered Aqua, "Removing Xehanort's was intentional, removing mine was not. I lost my heart and created my Heartless."

"And then everything else happened afterwords," murmured Leon.

"If you want to put it like that, pretty much," said Aqua.

"Hmph, I'm giving you the curtasy to asume you'd rather not talk about it," said Leon, eyebrow raised.

Aqua said nothing in response, merely taking another reluctant sip of her drink. When no one else said anything else, she hesitatingly tapped into her darkness to probe the emotions of those around her. Leon was to guarded to make anything out with a light probe. Yuffie gave off a lingering happiness to see Kairi, but a bit of awkwardness towards Aqua. Tifa seemed a bit confused and uncertain towards her. Cid had a slight hostile feeling, but gave no voice or sign of it. If she had to guess, he wasn't happy that her Heartless had directly killed him. Aqua was honestly surprised there wasn't any open hostility, was it because of Kairi? Or did they not hold what happened against her?

"Do you not care?" she whispered softly.

"Aqua," said Leon with a sigh.

She turned her head.

"The past is the past, so long as you promise to keep Kairi safe, I don't give a damn about much else," said Leon.

There were murmurs of agreement from the others.

"I will," said Aqua softly, "But, you all need to keep yourself safe as well. I don't think Kairi could survive losing you all a third time, she barely survived the second time."

Yuffie's eyebrows furrowed. "The heck does that mean?"

Aqua went silent for a moment before speaking softly, "She thought she had lost all of you, and me as well. According to Sora, she had stopped eating or drinking a few days ago. She... when I walked into her room, she had just... shut down. It's the only way I could really describe it. Don't put her through that again, because I don't know if I could pull her out of that state a second time."

Yuffie opened and closed her mouth a few times before simply staying silent.

"So much for the tough kid act," muttered Cid, sighing afterwords.

Tifa crossed her arms, an unhappy look on her face. "Never thought Kairi would be one to have that kind of break down."

Leon sipped his drink, a frown on his face. "No one, no matter how tough they can try to act, can handle that much repeated loss and come out okay. Last ten years have been enough of it as it is."

He muttered under his breath before clearing his throat. "I don't expect to much trouble here in Radiant Garden. We'll keep ourselves okay, if she's off in other world's as a Keybearer she'll be in more danger than we are, don't let her worry about us and keep her focused."

Aqua nodded and stayed silent this time. She faintly listened to them speak, but mostly, she just sipped her drink and stared down at it. She paused when she felt a burst of light off in the distance, followed by an extreme amount of rage from Kairi. Aqua was out the door in an instant and rushing down the street towards the castle. When she came to the gardens, she was rather surprised to see Kairi, Keyblades drawn, standing over a downed Xaldin in a guard uniform. Or rather, she guessed whoever Xaldin had been before he became a Nobody. Oh boy...

They weren't alone. Another who she recognized from the Organization, Lexaeus, was also in a guard uniform and had his sword drawn. He was trying to get past another man with a huge sword. If she recalled right... that was Cloud. Aerith was there as well, though, she was simply watching from a distance, a hint of a frown on her face.

"You bastard!" seethed Kairi, raising up Two-Became One into the air, tip pointed down to skewer.

"Kairi!" barked Aqua, "Stop! All of you stop!"

Kairi froze and glanced back at her. "He killed Larxene!"

Aqua frowned at her. "His Nobody did. Not him."

"I don't care, he...," began Kairi.

"Banish your Keyblades, and step away from him. Now," said Aqua, trying her hardest to call out the tone Eraqus used for her and the others when they were in trouble, serious trouble.

Kairi froze for a moment, uncertainty washing over her face, before she banished her Keyblades and slowly moved away from 'Xaldin'.

"Heal him," ordered Aqua.

Kairi quietly did so with a flash of light.

'Xaldin' groaned and rose to his feet, scowling at Kairi. "Do you always greet people with the sharp end of your Keyblade?"

Kairi glared at him. "Only scum like..."

"Kairi!" barked Aqua, making the girl flinch, "Apologize for attacking him, now."

For a moment, she thought Kairi might refuse; there was a hard glint in her eyes, and boiling fury, but she muttered out a half-assed, "Sorry."

Aqua glanced at Cloud and 'Lexaeus'. "Put away your swords."

The two men eyed each other, slowly strapping the weapons across their backs, watching to see if the other refused to do so. The two men seperated, Cloud heading over to Aerith, and 'Lexaeus' moving over to look 'Xaldin' over.

"You alright Dilan?" asked 'Lexaeus'.

Dilan scoffed. "Been through worse Aeleus."

Aqua took a few steps forward and did a partial bow. "My apologies, she shouldn't have attacked you like that."

Kairi loudly ground her teeth and grumbled something under her breath.

Dilan frowned, looking Aqua over. "Whole in heart and body are you? Hmph. Considering your Nobody first greeted me in a similar manner to the brat, I'm surprised you have an inkling of respect in you."

Aqua frowned right back at him. "I think, it's for the best, none of us are held accountable for what our former Nobodies did. Otherwise, I might let her finish what she started."

Dilan scowled and began to say something before Aeleus clamped a hand on his shoulder. "We're not here to cause a scene. Just get back to doing our rounds."

Kairi snickered as they left, before going silent as Aqua glared at her. "Kairi, I hope you said goodbye to your friends and family, because we're leaving, now."

"But...," began Kairi.

"No buts," said Aqua, walking up to Kairi, "You ought to know better than to just attack someone like that!"

Kairi glared at her. "Yeah? Bet if Xehanort was right in front of you that you'd drop him with a second thought."

Aqua turned and aimed a hand, forming a Dark Corridor back to the Land of Departure. "Go."

"Didn't answer the question," muttered Kairi as she walked to the portal, "Probably because we both know the answer."

Aqua held her tongue, and simply watched her go through it. "Tsk..."

She glanced over at Cloud and Aerith, the both of them watching her silently, gave them a brief nod, and followed Kairi through the portal out to the steps leading into the keep. Kairi was already half way up them.

"Kairi," said Aqua, making the girl pause.

"I shouldn't have had to apologize to that bastard," hissed Kairi.

Aqua walked up to her. "For what it's worth, you are right, I wouldn't even give Xehanort a chance to speak. But that's beside the point, you should be better than me."

Kairi scoffed. "Do you hear yourself?"

"Do you want me to give out a punishment?" countered Aqua.

Kairi grumbled and resumed ascending the steps. Aqua knew she really ought to hand out some kind of punishment or discipline, extra chores for a year is what she assumed Eraqus would have done at the bare minimum. Letting the girl off scot-free was horrible for her to do as a master and set a poor example. But... after what Kairi had been through recently, she didn't want to. Not to mention Kairi had rightly called her out for being a hypocrite...

Aqua sighed and followed the girl up and into the throne room, noting a full gathering around the thrones, and made her way over with Kairi in time to hear a downcast Sora say, "...just not there. I'm telling you Master Terra, we know where it was. We could feel where our world was, it's just... not there."

Terra briefly turned his head to nod at Aqua before refocusing on Sora. "Then it's possible your world still resides in sleep."

Sora grew frustrated. "But why? So many worlds were already restored! Why not ours?"

"Sora, the bulk of the worlds that were restored I'd imagine were because my Heartless was the one who directly consumed them. Once it fell, those worlds were free," said Aqua, "Did Xehanort's Heartless ever directly consume a world's heart?"

Riku shook his head. "No, he always had his little Heartless lackeys do it. Don't know why, he might have been able to challenge your Heartless if he did."

"I doubt it, she had a huge head start before Xehanort even stepped into the playing field," said Ven, "Xehanort would have just been racing a losing race."

Yen Sid nodded, pulling at his beard. "Odd as it is to say, but the strategic choice was wise on his part. If he had made himself a threat, he would have been destroyed by the stronger Heartless far sooner, and those worlds would have either been feed into it, or restored only to be consumed again."

"So what, we have to find and kill some little Soldier Emblem Heartless or whatever it was that took our world?!" exclaimed Sora, "There's gotta be thousands of those things lurking out there!"

"Not to mention, Xehanort would have probably kept any Heartless that took a world safely hidden," muttered Riku furiously.

"So it's hopeless then unless we get lucky?" whispered Sora.

Yen Sid slowly shook his head. "Not necessarily. There are other ways to wake a sleeping world, though, such methods have not been used in many generations of Keybearers."

"Really? What?" asked Sora eagerly.

Yen Sid closed his eyes. "I do not wish to get up hope prematurely, I would need to research and look into the old ways, and how to preform them."

Sora studied the old wizard for a moment before nodding. "Alright, we'll be ready when you figure it out."

Aqua held her tongue. She had a hunch she knew what he was talking about. He was talking about going into the dreaming worlds themselves and waking them manually. She could admit though, she held little knowledge on how to do so. Truth be told, all she knew about dreams was from Xehanort's books. He said that darkness held both them, and nightmares. Delving into dreams, not as a dreamer, but an outside force, could be dangerous.

"Alright, dismissed then, take the rest of the day to yourselves," said Terra.

Before the ground could disperse, Aqua cleared her throat. "Mickey, Kairi has something she needs to tell you."

The Mouse blinked a few times before glancing at Kairi. "What is it?"

Kairi gave Aqua an unhappy look, but she merely motioned for her to speak. "I... when I was inside of Xion... when we first encountered Maleficent's 'Ascended'..."

"Maleficent's what?" said Ven.

"Umm... didn't Axel mention it when he was telling you what happened?" said Kairi.

"Erm...," said Axel, "I just gave em a run down and said a bunch of creepy crawlys took over the castle before you used Kingdom Hearts to blow it up."

Kairi deadpanned. "Note to self, Axel isn't very thorough or descriptive."

"Hey! I resent that!" said Axel.

Terra leaned forward on his chair. "What is an 'Ascended' and what does Maleficent have to do with them? I haven't heard of her in almost ten years."

"A monster," said Kairi instantly and viciously, "That witch, she somehow 'merged' Nobodies and Heartless together."

The room was silent for a moment before everyone who hadn't seen or heard of them before exploded in exclamations and questions.

Terra raised a hand for silence before narrowing his eyes at Kairi and spoke one word with a severity Aqua wasn't used to hearing from him, "Explain."

"It's like... someone took parts of a Heartless, part of a Nobody, and stitched them together. They don't look like something... 'new'. They looked like amalgamations, abominations, horrible forced mergings. It's even worse how they grow in numbers. Heartless just take a heart and drown it in darkness. Ascended take a heart, split it open, drown it in darkness, and then shove it back in the body."

Aurora paled. "That's... they split a heart open?!"

Kairi nodded. "They give off the is the most awful sensation, and it hurts just to be close to them. They make your stomach twist, and coming into contact with them, even just swiping my Keyblade against it, hurt me."

"Eh?" said Axel, "None of the others in the Organization that came across them mentioned the pain part."

"That's because they are not Princesses of Heart, are not in-tune with the matters of the heart as we are," said Aurora, "Kairi... if I'm right, it's not your pain. It's their pain you feel."

Kairi blinked a few times. "Huh?"

Aqua nodded slowly. "My Nobody came pretty close to Maleficent in the World That Never Was. She never felt any pain by proximity."

"I don't even want to think of it," said Aurora, raising an arm to her mouth, as if to stop from throwing up, "A heart, ripped open, placed back in the body, and forced to act."

"It's... probably like Xion if I had to guess," said Axel softly, "You said it hurt her a lot to act and stop you from killing Larxene when her heart... is so messed up, right?"

Kairi nodded, starting to look as pale as Aurora. "Oh gosh..."

The girl closed her eyes, took a ragged breath, and let it out. "These things... their attacks, it felt like they attacked the heart directly."

"Felt?" said Ven, slightly alarmed.

"Well... as I was saying when I began. Xion fought them, I had to give her full access to my strength in order to beat even a normal one of them. Then, Maleficent sent a bigger one she called Pete, a kind of a large mouse like Mickey..."

"PETE?" said Mickey, startled, jumping off his throne, "She turned Pete into one of those things?"

"You... know, er, knew him?" said Kairi.

Mickey frowned intently. "Gosh... yeah I knew him. He kinda got banished from Disney Castle, but golly... I never ever would have wished that on him."

"I wish he hadn't either, he beat Xion in one punch. Damaged her heart so badly it started to die and had to tack onto mine just to hang on," said Kairi, "I took over Xion's body and managed to flee. But... Xion was dying, and by extension, I was to. She... we... would have turned into one of those things if I didn't do something. The Princesses weren't gathered in one place, I didn't have a choice," said Kairi.

Terra's eyes furrowed. "Kairi... what did you do?"

"I... went to Disney Castle and absorbed the Cornerstone of Light to survive," said Kairi quietly.

There was compleate and utter silence from the room as it's inhabitents regarded her.

"The Cornerstone is gone?" whispered Mickey, shocked.

Kairi nodded, but stayed quiet.

"Mickey, you should contact Goofy and see if things are all right," said Yen Sid.

Mickey nodded and started to go around the thrones for the communication devices embedded in the wall behind them before pausing, "Kairi, I don't blame you for it."

Kairi looked a bit relieved.

Mickey went up to the wall and tapped the purple gem, fiddling with it to choose the right world to comminicate with. "Goofy? You there?"

There was silence for a moment before an overjoyed voice rang out. "Gawrsh, is that you Mickey? We haven't heard from you in years!"

Mickey winced and scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry about that. Is... everything okay over there?"

"Well... Mickey, your not gonna belive it, but, the Cornerstone's gone! It was shattered!" said Goofy, "We woulda contacted you about it but erm... something else came up."

Mickey's ears perked. "Something else? Is everything alright?"

"Well... she didn't want me to say anything, but I don't think it's right to keep something like this from ya," said Goofy, his voice lowring, "It's Minnie, she just showed up here a few days ago out of nowhere!"

Mickey froze.

"Weird thing is, she was wearing a weird black cloak," continued Goofy.

"Uh... that's Mixenin," said Axel.

"Whose Mixenin, and whose that speaking? Don recognize the voice," said Goofy.

"Umm...," said Kairi, stepping forward, "Mickey... Minnie's Nobody worked as the cheif healer in the Nobody's Organization."

Mickey turned to look at her silently, saying nothing, an odd blank look on his face.

"When we were storming the Castle That Never Was and I ran into her, I kinda told her to go back to Disney Castle," said Kairi.

"Minnie... is alive?" squeaked out Mickey.

"Well, her Nobody is," said Kairi.

"I don't care if it's her Nobody!" exclaimed Mickey, a huge happy smile on his face, "Axel told us Nobody's can regrow their hearts! Minnie's alive! She's... she's..."

He turned to Terra. "I... I gotta go."

Terra gave him a warm smile. "Take as much time as you need. We'll be alright without you. Besides, without the Cornerstone, your world is going to need you."

Mickey nodded. "Yeah."

Ven walked over and clapped a hand on the mouse's shoulder. "Give her our regards!"

Mickey nodded and, with an rampant eagerness, started rushing for the stairs out of the throne room.

"Mickey! Wait a second," said Kairi.

Mickey paused and turned to her, looking unusually impatient. "What?"

"I um... I think I ought to warn you," said Kairi quietly, "She's... really bitter."

The happyness evaporated from his face with an unfortunate swiftness. "She blames me, doesn't she?"

Kairi opened and closed her mouth a few times before speaking, "I... don't know if it's just because she can't feel or not. But..."

Mickey shook his head and turned back around, walking to the stairs. "It's fine. Thank's for the warning, but, she has every right to blame me. I wasn't there when she needed me."

The room watched the mouse leave in silence before Goofy's loud voice called in, "Is anyone still there? Hello?"

Sora smiled a little and walked over to the device, speaking quietly into it.

Eraqus walked over to Kairi. "So, you absorbed the Cornerstone, do you feel different, strange?"

She shrugged. "Not really, I just feel stronger."

Eraqus gave her a skeptical look. "Nothing else is different?"

Kairi shrugged. "Well, my heart's felt overly warm since I took in the Cornerstone's power, but that's about it."

Eraqus crossed his arms. "I'll need to discuss this with Aurora and Yen Sid. Forgive us, but, we'd prefer if you stayed here for the next few days. We may wish to test this and see if there are any... side effects."

Kairi frowned. "What the heck am I supposed to do stuck here?"

Aqua chose that moment to speak up, "Why, train your magic of course."

Kairi grimaced. "Oh please no..."

Aqua gave her a cheeky grin. "Well, I did promise you that I would teach and train you after all. Be careful what you wish for."

There was a chorus of laughter.

Terra nodded. "Would be good for the girl, and besides. We all have a lot we need to discuss over the next few days. But, that can wait for tomarrow. Dinner will be in a few hours, do what you will until then."

Kairi was gone out of the throne room in a flash, more than eager to not be the center of attention anymore. Aqua took her leave as well, retreating to her room. She sat down on her bed and sighed, laying down and staring up at the celing, losing herself in her thoughts over the days events, and her own past...