Accidentally planned a little too far ahead into the story and reached some climaxes that killed my drive to continue writing (again), because in my mind, the story was satisfyingly complete and so there was no more need to flesh it out.
Whoops.
I'm better now though, and I'm excited for when those plot points get revealed.
The entirety of another week had gone by before Robin and the others stepped out from their lab. In that time, Aqua spent much of it continuing to retrain her body. In the Realm of Light, the price of extended exertion resulted in an arguably worse fatigue that settled in the relevant areas. In the Realm of Darkness, exhaustion manifested as an all encompassing tiredness, one whose weight could only be mitigated by naps and prolonged resting— methods she wasn't able to partake in until Robin's arrival.
It was why, or so she wanted to believe, that when Ethel had brought her to a local beach after a hike at the edge of the city's peninsula (and a long walk through a large, paved park replete with trees whose highlight was a massive front yard of flowers), she spent the entirety of their time there simply lazing about on the sand. Between the warm sun, the symphony of voices filtering into her subconscious, and the feel of the sand beneath her hands, fighting the urge to nap was difficult. Ethel didn't seem to mind it any, though she was rather adamant that she put on sunscreen if she intended to nap under the sun without any shade.
Also during that interim, Heartless had appeared two more times. The first was in the middle of a windy night, and Heathcliff had quietly informed her of the affair while she was nestled underneath a blanket, reading a fictional book about a pair of teen pirates who, unlike the rest of their crewmates, were capable of walking on water. On that instance, it was only her and Fred who had gone to deal with the threat. It was a rather sordid affair, being the only one capable of fully damaging the Heartless.
Fred was able to act as a useful distraction with his flame attacks, keeping a decent amount of the smaller creatures off her, but the hard part came from the pair of winged, green Heartless that constantly peppered her with harrying attacks. It took mustering up the mana to augment her leaps enough to latch onto the monsters in order to defeat them, an act that resulted in her passing out in the car ride home. When she'd woken up the next afternoon, suspecting that Heathcliff was the one who had tucked her in, it was to a note from Robin requesting that she experiment with spells similar to her slow fall casting, and try and isolate why it tired her out so much more than her usual fare. To that, her response was 'instant results versus prolonged (alongside the obvious lack of a proper foci)'.
The second time was early on in the day, and was much more easily handled (if no less tiresome). A large amount of Heartless had appeared in the middle of a populated park, and Wanjohi, Ethel, and Fred were able to herd the armored Heartless (both clawed and bearing either single or dual blades for hands) as well as the infestation of ants and humanoid shadows safely from the populace while she dealt with whatever grouping she could manage to pull away. The entire battle took near half an hour, and careful planning from the four of them to make the most of her -za class spells. It was rather unfortunate how much destruction she was forced to unleash on the park between the interactions of all of the elements, but the various news outlets that evening seemed to praise them well for the only damage being natural property and not loss of life.
Aside from those, there was also an interesting day in which Ethel had managed to pry Baymax away from Hiro, stealing both him and herself to 'learn something new'. Skating on solid land was much the same as skating on ice, though learning how to deal with all the cracks and bumps of the sidewalk and crosswalks was fairly difficult for a day one attempt. The whole affair with Baymax and how he so very casually handled the movers and old lady were rather entertaining though, as every time she managed to catch up on a downhill slope and catch a glance of him, he seemed to be in an even more absurd scenario.
By the middle of their second weekend since arriving in the Realm of Light, she was treated to the rare sight of Robin ungracefully falling onto the other sofa next to her. "Busy days?" she asked, wondering why the act felt so familiar to her.
"You could say that," he grumbled out, adjusting the hood of his cloak so it could cover his eyes.
Aqua waited for him to continue, idly starting back from the top of the page for her novel.
Robin let out a long, tired sigh of comfort. "Thanks to Mogrii, we finally have a working prototype for making sure that our hosts can combat the Heartless. We're calling it a Mana Drive, and so far the current product is meant to be installed as an extra battery pack for Baymax. Once it activates, it should form a layer of mana around his body that will allow him to damage the Heartless normally." He stretched out, several cracks sounding out in succession. "Just need to wait for another incursion to happen so we can field test it. If it works, we'll start work on adapting it to the equipment of everybody else. Though..."
She looked over the top of her book, meeting his gaze.
"There is the issue of lacking synthesis materials. We only had enough materials for a few failed prototypes and the successful one, which means trying to scrap together enough parts for new drives is going to be rather painful, unless the Heartless step up their invasions."
Aqua let out a huff. "I know that tone. You don't speak like that unless you came up with a plan that I'm not going to like. Those usually involve me surrounded by Heartless and you picking off only enough to keep me from being completely overwhelmed."
Robin let out a chuckle and slowly sat up. "That's because my plan is going to involve you surrounded by Heartless and me picking off just enough to keep you from being completely overwhelmed," he repeated. Robin leaned forward and steepled his fingers, staring at her intently. "Aqua, I can open paths to and from the Realm of Darkness."
It took her a moment to realize what he was implying. Her gut reaction was to deny him wholeheartedly, but once she stopped to think about it, it made sense. "Just so we're on the same page here, you're not implying we go back there, right?"
He shook his head. "Aqua, I've done very little in the way of expending magical energy for near two weeks now. All the testing that Aiko and Hiro needed from me only required first class spells, just enough to latch on to a magical signature and isolate it from the rest of their readings. At this point, I have enough energy to open a door wide enough and long enough for us to force a small horde like when I pulled back my aura."
Her grip on the book tightened. To willingly invite the Heartless into the Realm of Light... what sort of repercussions would such an act entail? Would that make the invasion of the Heartless here stronger? Or, by some cosmic blessing, would the portal that Robin would create be connected to the closest part of the Realm of Darkness to this realm, thereby easing the strength of future invasions?
"Aqua?"
"Hm?"
Robin didn't blink for several moments, searching her expression for... something. "Are you okay with this?" he finally asked.
She let out a slow breath. "I can't say I'm pleased with it, but we need materials, right?" Robin nodded. "Then, as the ones who can actually damage the Heartless, it falls to us to gather them. If doing so means doing something reckless, then we'll just have to make sure it's as safe as we can make it." She smiled softly. "And if it's a plan that you made, I trust you'll make it as safe as can be. Two years we were together, and we never suffered any major incidents that we couldn't fix with a good night's rest."
He chuckled. "Or however long those 'rests' actually took."
"Or however long those rests actually took," she parroted, sharing in the laughter.
Robin took less than a single day before he came back to her with the location of where he wanted to set things up. Ethel, the only one willing to drive them to a potentially dangerous location, was less than pleased when she found out exactly where he wanted to handle it, but had given in once he explained his reasoning.
That didn't mean either of them were pleased about it, though.
/ - /
Aqua glanced at Ethel, another niggle of concern coursing through her at the native's presence. Originally it was just going to be the two of them dealing with this, but somehow Heathcliff had found and managed to stop them from leaving just as Ethel had started the engine. 'An extra pair of hands would do well to mitigate any undesirable results from your endeavors,' he had explained, requesting that they follow him towards another vehicle in that solemn tone he always had.
"Aqua, I'll be fine," Ethel said, letting out an annoyed breath. "Rocky terrain like this is a pain, but I've worked in worse."
"That's not what we're worried about," Robin answered. A massive runic circle, easily the height of some of the sixteen wheelers she'd seen driving through the city, floated before him, sigils occasionally morphing into others here and there. "Well, staying on your feet is a concern, but that's more a side point."
"Well I'm here, so deal with it." Ethel plopped down onto the ground, her left leg rolling out as she did so. "Really, if you just told me what this whole project of yours entailed, I'd be able to help out more."
Robin glanced at her. Aqua glanced away. Neither of them had been forthcoming about the true details of their plan, and she was rapidly feeling like that was a mistake. "Aqua, I need to make sure I have this right. If you wouldn't mind?"
Oh, she very much did mind, but Robin did have to focus. It was one thing to make a connection to 'anywhere safe', it was another to do so with the other end being 'somewhere filled with malice, within a realm of antithesis.' Better to start the healing process quick, rather than drag it out. "We plan on summoning a horde of Heartless."
"Oi!"
Aqua threw an apologetic smile towards Robin's direction. "The materials that they need to continue work on the Mana Drives—"
"Only the majority!" Robin shouted.
"— come from Heartless, and since we used up all of the stockpile Robin and I had—"
"Which was basically nothing!"
Aqua huffed. "Shouldn't you be making sure that corridor will work the way we want it to?!"
Robin collapsed the circle he was working on, wrapping the band around his wrist. The act was nothing more than a bout of showmanship, a (successful) attempt to show off his skill. "Just wrapped it up." He tapped the side of his nose, grinning impishly at the pun. "Just need to set the bait." He gestured towards her.
Aqua huffed once again. "Have I mentioned I hate this plan?"
"This plan is the one that works."
"But I hate being bait."
"But you're so good at it!"
She made a face at him. "Oh yeah? How about the next time we need to draw in a bunch of Light aligned enemies we use you as bait? See how you like it!"
Robin delicately placed a hand on his chest, fingers taut. "As a tactician whose skills have been sorely untested for several years, I shall relish the challenge."
"Time out!" The two of them turned to look at Ethel, now standing. "I get the 'why' of this, but what's the 'how'?"
"Robin, please don't," Aqua pleaded.
"But Aqua! I haven't had the chance to brag in months! You stopped entertaining my spiels once you could replicate my Arc class spells!"
Ethel let out a piercing whistle. "Guys! Please! Explain!"
Robin sighed. "The gist of it is that I can make a connection to the place the Heartless come from. Aqua, by virtue of being a very special little somebody," he waggled his fingers towards her, "is able to draw the attention of Heartless like a flame does to moths. We've done this sort of thing before, when we needed— eh, materials, that the Heartless sometimes carry with them. I keep the horde at a manageable level, Aqua does her Heartless slaying deal and takes care of the bulk of the work. Once we have enough materials, I close off the portal and we take a break."
Ethel turned to look at something. Aqua followed her gaze. "And exactly how long are you expecting this to take?"
"Considering we're in a public space— illegally," Robin muttered the last part under his breath, "we can only spend a few hours before we need to leave. Hopefully we can get enough Heartless that we don't need to try this again." Robin mumbled something under his breath, something Aqua knew she wouldn't like or agree to. "Speaking of which! Aqua, holding this spell's getting a bit tiresome. You mind getting ready?"
She did actually, but she would do it regardless. Aqua nodded, moving to the center of the clearing. At Ethel's suggestion, they had made their way into an isolated part of the woods. It was a quiet, spacious place, and were it daytime, instead of having a few powerful lamps active (courtesy of Heathcliff), she would have taken the time to enjoy herself. In the dark of night, it all made for a very claustrophobic atmosphere, being in an unfamiliar wood with terrain she couldn't clearly see.
Aqua took a deep breath, centering her emotions. The warmth of the sun; the wind blowing through her hair and caressing her skin; the voices of strangers passing over her, trace words filtering through her subconscious. At once the magic began coursing through her body, the majority gathering at her chest. "Light!" It was not the grandeur of Trinity Limit, nor the fulfilling satisfaction that her joint casting with Mickey had caused her, but the modified Faith spell filled her with something all the same.
It was warmth. It was peace. It was contentment.
Aqua let out a slow breath. The weight of her armguards. The way the straps attached to her sigil passed down from Master Eraqus felt on her skin. The way the gentle breeze slipped through the fabric of her half skirt. The unfamiliar pressure that Mogrii's creation caused on her ankle, and the way the magics within it felt so protective.
She was Aqua the Keyblade Master. She was content. She was ready.
In one smooth motion, Aqua slammed her palm onto her armguard and summoned a faux keyblade, the familiar sliminess washing over her body and encasing her in an unyielding shield that felt like a second skin. The path to the Realm of Darkness opened not a moment later, growing in size until it mimicked the circle Robin had created earlier. "If you have to take a step back, don't be afraid to let Robin or I know," she told Ethel. "We're used to this sort of thing."
"As if I'd let some civvie show me up." The joking lilt was hard to place at first, but as the days passed, Aqua had grown more and more used to picking up on that hint of levity. "But thanks," Ethel whispered, stopping in place beside her.
"Oh, huh, I can feel when something's moving through the portal." Robin idly spoke.
Aqua huffed in amusement, adjusting her grip.
"Alright, first wave's coming through! Aqua, feel free to use some Light based magics!"
Pace yourself, she thought to herself. As much as she wanted to let loose with all of her spells, they were meant to be here for a long amount of time. If she blew through all her mana immediately and they weren't lucky with any ether drops, the expedition might as well end then and there.
The first wave of Heartless, which was less single horde and more prolonged grouping, was one she took her time with, utilizing simple strikes of her blade and first level orbs of ice and water to deal with them. The second wave, she began weaving misdirects into her blocks, using the bodies of the armed and clawed soldiers against each other to create unnecessary breathing spaces. The third wave had come as a much larger force than she was anticipating, and by accident the horde had got to the point that Ethel needed to run diversionary tactics against them.
By the fifth, Aqua had settled into a proper rhythm of things. Some careful footsteps here, a Magnera there; exterminating the groupings was as simple as either casting or throwing a blade laced -ga class spell. By the eighth, all conscious thought had stopped, and all Aqua focused on was the motions. Backstep here, cartwheel over there; turn her body to let a slash be deflected by her armor (and ponder what exactly that pleased feeling meant), all before flinging out her ice blade towards a Magnera'd grouping and letting the ensuing explosion of Thundara deal with them.
When one grouping was destroyed, Ethel would grab the attention while she made her way towards the detonation site, absorbing the health orbs (and wasn't that a surprise to discover that it was only her or Robin whose kills could generate them) to restore her stamina, as well as wondering why the particles of darkness that remaining after their passing seemed to be drawn to her. By group ten, the Heartless weren't paying as much attention to her, and after another Faith spell destabilized her armor to the point she could feel the chill evening air on parts of her body, Aqua called a pause to the collection once she dealt with the remaining horde.
Ethel panted as she fell on her rump, tearing her helmet away and revealing her tousled hair slick with sweat. "I can't... believe... you barely look winded!"
She was, wasn't she? Aqua sat down beside Ethel, swiping her hand up in front of her face to dismiss her helmet before moving into a set of stretches. "I'm used to this sort of thing."
"Back... before you... guys got here?"
"Something like that," Robin answered, moving to help her out. "How's the new enchantments helping you?"
"New enchantments?" Aqua blinked. "You changed something? How? When?" she stressed.
"You tend to leave your pauldron behind when you're doing your morning exercises. I took the liberty of adding some things when I had a free day."
Aqua frowned, hoping he could feel some sort of irritation through her back as he helped her stretch forward. "I thought you had to be in physical contact with me to make the suit?"
"Make the suit, yes," he answered. "If we wanted it to be a proper fit—" Aqua blushed when she thought she heard Ethel scoff out 'more like form fitting'— "then I need to be in direct contact with you to help guide the suit along. But just tweaking some stuff after the fact without changing the overall design?" Even without seeing him, she knew he was shrugging. "By the way, why'd you call out a break? We normally go for much longer than this."
"Faith disrupted my armor," she stated. Now that she thought about it, a similar thing had happened back in the Realm of Darkness. An accidental discharge of a simple Pearl had knocked Robin out for the better part of a waking cycle, and they had to wait it out the old fashioned way in order for him to recover. Aqua frowned and looked her armor over. Saying her armor looked burned wouldn't have been an incorrect statement, but she felt no pain from where the ribbons of light had passed along her body. In fact, with the almost shimmering vapor clinging to her body over the second skin of Fell magic, she almost felt invincible.
Almost.
The breeze on her exposed skin worried her enough to not try and entertain any thoughts of continued fighting. "Robin—"
"Already on it." The scent of Fell magic washed over her. The dark of night after a bright, sunny day. The silence that falls after a busy event ended. The pleasured pride that comes after realizing somebody else's effect don't stack up to yours.
Aqua let out a slow breath as the Fell-flavored Cure blanketed her body. There were other emotions and sensations mixed within, sure, but those severe, questionable ones she knew could be explained away as aftereffects of participating in a kill-or-be-killed war. No, far better for her to focus on the positive aspects of Grima's presence.
"I think we forgot we had an audience," Robin whispered in her ear.
Aqua instinctively leaned back into his grip, eyes closed as she basked in his— their— presence.
"I think you should be the one to explain what just happened." Did she just imagine it, or had the familiar rumble of Grima sounded like it was purring as they spoke?
Aqua cleared her throat and straightened her back, hoping the blush on her face wasn't as obvious as it felt.
"So..." Ethel eyed them warily. Specifically, she looked at Robin with not-quite-distrust and a fair amount of fear. "Either of you want to explain what that was about?"
"Considering I had my eyes closed, what did you see?" Aqua asked, wishing she had access to her clothes to smooth out whatever wrinkles were there, imagined or otherwise.
Ethel pressed her lips together. "Robin put his hands on you. That ethereal flower and four bells that sometimes appear whenever you heal yourself showed up, but instead of a soft pink and green, there were these bolts of purple streaking through them. Once the bells disappeared, your armor started repairing itself, like nanotech filling up the holes."
Aqua nodded. "Robin's magic stems from a different source than mine," she explained. "I won't lie and say that his doesn't have origins vaguely similar to that of the Heartless, but it's different enough that the only overlap between the two is some passing similarities." Aqua looked down at her hands, a rueful smile forming, even as she met Ethel's gaze. "Still, it isn't quite all that pleasant to be around when its cast, is it?"
"No... no it isn't."
/ - /
Aqua let out a slow, tired breath. In the end, they had been there for almost five hours. By some Light blessed miracle, the worst that had shown up was a massive surge of those humanoids shadows. Immediately they'd both shouted for Ethel to retreat, and after having spared only a single moment to deactivate her armor, a high powered Faith had washed completely over her body and drew the attention of all the Heartless. That particular endeavor had gone on for nearly half an hour, and resulted in Robin shutting the portal for the final time in order to assist her; oddly enough with only normal magics, instead of any of his—
Muffled by the door, Robin asked, "Can I come in?"
Aqua sat up and double checked her pyjamas. Truthfully, between all those days in the Realm of Darkness where she'd pulled off parts of her outfit to bundle up as a pillow (or borrowed Robin's cloak for the same purpose), she didn't really mind not being fully decent around Robin, but trying to adjust back to standard propriety could never hurt. "It's open," she responded.
Robin stepped through, his coat still on even over his sleepwear.
Aqua tilted her head slightly. "You're not still working on something, are you?"
"Define working."
She sighed.
"Do you mind if I sit down?"
"Not with that coat on, you aren't," she answered immediately. Robin simply placed it around her shoulders before sitting next to her. Jerk.
"Back during one of our breaks today, you ended up saying something."
Aqua gave an ambivalent hum as she tugged Robin's coat tighter around her. Was it (probably) dirty? Yes. Did it feel nice and protective having such a heavy (both physically and magically) thing around herself? Also yes.
"You said 'my magic wasn't all that pleasant to be around.'"
"That's because I'm Light aligned, Robin. Your magic is— Fell. Not quite Dark, but close enough that it feels like an anathema to most." Aqua looked at Robin after he said nothing for a few moments. His face was far more pensive than it usually was. Normally when she asked or said something confusing, Robin looked as if he was trying to figure out how to formulate a response in a way that would fix the confusion or misunderstanding, but this time... it seemed as if it was a personal problem? "Robin?" she asked hesitantly.
"What do you mean by 'unpleasant'?" Robin's voice was even as he spoke, as if he were a mediator and not a personal participant. Maybe that's what he really was.
Without hesitation, "Having been in the Dark Realm for supposedly ten years, seeing somebody with a human form throw around magic that oozed Darkness was terrifying. It's like..." Aqua pointed at her wardrobe, the doors firmly closed. "Remember when you were younger, and you were scared of the dark? It was the things you couldn't see that terrified you. The unknown; monsters in the night that went bump."
She patted the lapels of Robin's coat. "When I think of magic, I think of the emotions associated with it. I think of my father and everything he taught me. I think of experiments I did when I was younger and all the spell variations I stumbled upon. But when I think of your magic..." Aqua pursed her lips, pausing briefly to reflect on her thoughts. "There's this underlying unease, like I'm walking through a fresh graveyard, or my instincts warning me there's a predator stalking me as I'm walking through the woods."
"I'm used to it now, though!" she said suddenly, turning to look at him. Robin was still staring down at the ground, though at least he was cupping his chin. "After spending almost two years together, and that's just counting my meaningful sleep cycles, your magic doesn't bother me as much anymore."
"As much?" he asked, raising a brow.
Aqua flushed. "I'm still... My father was very adamant about not straying from the Light. Towards the end he became a little... zealous about those ideals, and between you and what happened with Terra, I'm slowly teaching myself that not all Darkness is bad."
"...heh." Robin shook his head. "It's not the concept that's inherently good or evil, it's the person behind it." Robin stood up, looking slightly more at peace than before. "Speaking about Terra, don't worry, Aqua. We'll figure out a way to get off this world that isn't through the Realm of Darkness. If we butter Mogrii up enough, I'm sure we'll get some method or other." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, smiling gently. It turned toothy a second later, his grip becoming just a little too tight. "And for the record, my coat has cleaning magics in it, so right now it's probably the cleanest thing on your bed."
She squirmed under his grip, struggling not to laugh at how offended he looked.
"Good night, Aqua."
"Good night, Robin." Really, that man. Aqua let out content breath as she laid back down, Robin's coat covering her like a blanket. It was weighty. It smelt of books and faintly of candles. That ashy smell she constantly smelt in the Realm of Darkness was no longer there, and instead, a faint salty brine took its place. Perhaps it was wrong of her to think of him— them— as such, but really, there was no other word for it. "My protector..."
Next chapter will be out December 27th.