Prologue:
In the land of departure, two people were standing in the great hall, facing each other. One was a tall young man with brown hair that reaches to the base of his neck in the back and is styled into rather messy, vertical spikes, bangs that frame his face, and having blue eyes and a tanned skin.
This one was known as Terra. The other was a young boy that wore a black, hooded jacket that he keeps unzipped, with short sleeves, gold buttons, a checkered pattern at the hem, and has silver hair. This one was Riku. The two stay silent for a moment before Terra said:
"Well, look at you." Terra spoke in a proud tone of voice. Riku responded back with:
"Thanks. I finally fulfilled my promise to you."
"You did. Now there's nothing left for me to teach you." Terra paused for one second, starting to approach Riku's position. "You're a true Keyblade Master, not to mention a great leader to those around you." There was another pause as Terra managed to close the gap between himself and the boy in front of him. "You've even found the strength to save your friends."
Riku appreciates it but having recalled that Sora had disappeared after having saved Kairi, he feels like all the strength he has isn't enough to save his friends since one is still missing. This prompts him to shake his head while saying:
"It's not enough."
Terra notices what Riku said, noticing how the boy he bequeathed many years ago was being very humble. This prompted him to give the boy a compassionate smile, placing his hands on Riku's shoulders
"The very fact that you were able to make your way here proves just how strong you are."
Riku was surprised by this. Terra continued:
"That is why I called for you."
As Terra finishes speaking, he moves his hands away from Riku's shoulders, leaving the boy a bit puzzled.
"That's the reason?" Riku asked in a confused tone of voice, catching Terra's attention.
"You expected more?" Terra said with a smile.
"Yes." Riku said within a few seconds. The two stayed silent for a moment before breaking into laughter. During this little moment of laughter, two of Terra's friends approached them. These two were Ventus and Aqua, both respective keyblade wielders like him. Ventus runs at the two, curious to know what's going on.
"Hey, you two, what's so funny?"
"It's a secret." Terra said as he crossed his arms and turned away from his friend. Ventus was momentarily surprised by this but due to his curiosity, he started to say:
"Aww, come on, tell me!"
As Ventus says this, he starts to run after Terra with him starting to laugh. Aqua walked next to Riku, both of them watching this play out. For a brief moment, Riku remembered something like this happening a long time ago with him and Sora.
("Hey, what was that all about?" Young Sora asked with a curious voice.)
("Aw, you know." Young Riku said, keeping his secret with Terra while also acting completely calm.)
("Know what? Why won't you tell me?" Young Sora said as he stomped his foot before continuing to speak. "Who was that guy––somebody you know?")
("Maybe." Young Riku said as he began to walk away.)
("Aw, there you go again! Just tell me." Young Sora said as he followed his best friend.)
("I really can't. I've gotta keep it a secret.")
("Not with me you don't! I'm like the best secret-keeper in the world!" Young Sora said as a retort.)
("Nice try.")
("Aww. Riku!")
Riku thought back of that memory, happy to remember his best friend but something else was more important. He turned towards Aqua to ask her:
"Are you sure about this?"
There was a momentary pause. Riku was concerned since Aqua had been all alone in the realm of darkness for so long. He isn't fully sure that she should enter back into that realm and yet she didn't look phased. She looked determined, happy. She turned towards Riku while saying to the young boy:
"Yes, but don't worry, I'm not alone this time."
As Aqua finishes speaking, she turns towards her two friends and goes to stand right beside them. Riku watched as the three original keyblade wielders stood standing tall, all ready for what's to come next. They each take a glance at one another, the trio prepared for their next journey.
"Yeah."
Ventus said in a motivated tone of voice. They summon their Keyblades at around the same time before lifting them together in unison. As they unite the three keyblades, they begin to glow with different colors before creating a sphere of light. This sphere was creating electricity crackles from a point in space in front of the three large chairs in the hall, where a Corridor of Light appears.
Once this corridor of light appears, the three begin to walk towards the portal. Just as they are close to the corridor of light, the trio turn back to face Riku's direction before each of them press against the spaulder on their arms. A bright light surrounds the trio for the briefest of moments before revealing their Keyblade armor to the newest of Keyblade Masters. Riku was in amazement as he got to witness their Keyblade armor appear on their bodies, not thinking that something like this could've existed.
Aqua and Ventus both turn in unison at the portal to start entering it, both of them eager to go into the realm of darkness in search of Sora. Terra looks at Riku to give the young boy one final look before following his friends into the corridor of light, prepared to face whatever the realm of darkness will throw at them. As the three all go into the portal, Riku smiles at the trio while saying,
"Good luck."
As Riku says this, the portal closes before him, leaving him to be all alone in the great hall of the land of departure.
Henry sees a lever next to a door gate and pulls it to let the doors open slowly to reveal a new room.
He enters the room to see a throne chair in the middle with mechanical gears as a stairway up to them, along with tv screens showing cartoon clips of bendy and the other characters on repeat.
Making his way up to the throne, he notices an audio recorder next to the chair and pushes the play button to hear Joey's voice.
"It's simply awe-inspiring what one can accomplish with their own hands! A lump of clay can turn to meaning…if you strangle it with enough enthusiasm. Look what we've built! We created life itself, Henry! Not just on the silver screen, but in the hearts of those we've entertained with our fancy moving pictures! But…when the tickets stopped selling…when the next big thing came along…only the monsters remained…shadows of the past."
Henry looked around the room, until he noticed a film reel on the seat of the chair and picked it up while the recorder was still playing.
"But you can save them Henry! You can peel it all away! You see, there's only one thing Bendy has never known: He was there for his beginning…but he's never seen…The End."
"The End" Henry said after the recording, while flipping the reel around to see the title of the reel.
But it wasn't until he looked up to see the monstrous Bendy appearing behind the throne and to see that it's right hand was starting to grow bigger than normally. This also affected his other hand and it covered its face and hid behind the throne, but not for long.
'What is...?'
Henry paused as he saw a large set of horns started to appear behind the throne, as two large clawed hands grabbed the chair from behind to reveal the true form of Bendy.
'This isn't good!'
With its large set of sharp teeth being shown, it gave a monstrous roar and moved its hand to push Henry with an amount of force to break into a wall that led himself in another room that looked like a maze.
"hk!"
Henry landed with his entire body hurting, the throw being extremely violent but not enough to keep him down.
He got up, still a little bit stunned, and looked around to see his surroundings until the monstrous Bendy came out of the walls and charged right towards Henry.
Luckily for Henry, he was flexible enough to escape the charge from Bendy, as it went through the walls to disappear.
'Oh that's not good.'
He looked around for a bit before deciding to run, trying to avoid Bendy from getting him. As he was running around, he noticed a door gate with four lights that were not flashed on.
He was skeptical while not realizing that right next to him was a lever. After a few seconds of thinking, he turned towards the lever. Thinking that this might be important, he moved the lever which caused one light from the door to light up.
'Interesting.'
Seeing this allowed him to know what he needed to do. Just as he was going to go search for the other switches, he noticed Bendy teleport from a wall and completely start charging itself towards his location.
'Oh shit!'
He jumped out of the way just in the nick of time, dodging Bendy's attack as the giant beast went through the wall behind him. Henry went around as he looked for all of these switches.
It wasn't easy with Bendy on his tail, trying to charge and harm Henry, but he found each lever in different areas and turned them on to see that all the lights above the door gate had lit up.
With caution, Henry made his way to the hallway to realize that each light was a door gate that needed to be opened and he was glad to switch them all without being injured by Bendy. He found himself in another room, with each corner having a large pipe and a wheel that connected to all the pipes.
'What is this place?'
Henry thought this before noticing a wheel across the room. He made his way towards the wheel and turned it, causing ink to start flowing through the pipes. This prompted Bendy to appear through the walls.
'Oh come the hell on.'
Henry ran around the room as he avoided all of Bendy's attacks, knowing that he has no chance against the ink demon. During this 'fight', he quickly made his way behind one of the pipes just as Bendy sensed his movement.
This prompted the ink demon to charge towards him to only end up breaking the pipe and get stunned in the process. Henry took note of the moment and did the same action with the other pipes, figuring that this was probably the best action to take.
After repeating these motions with the other pipes, he made it to the last pipe with Bendy charged at it. Once the ink demon had destroyed the fourth and last pipe filled with ink, it caused a power outage to the room, causing it to go pitch black.
'Crap! Crap! Crap! What's going on?!'
Henry couldn't see for a bit, causing some fear to enter his heart until he found a small light towards another door gate. Without any hesitation, he made his way through it and realized he came back to the throne room.
'I came back here...'
He knew what he had to do. Running up towards the throne, he took the film reel and placed it in the projector.
'This better freaking work!'
As Henry does this, he turns around to notice that Bendy was about to grab him.
'Shit! I'm done for!'
As Henry thinks this and Bendy prepares to grab him, the projector turns on. This caught Bendy's attention, causing the ink demon to look at the projection with interest. When "The End" title appeared, the ink demon screeched in terror and noticed all the tv screens showing that title.
'Yes! It's working!'
Henry thought this as he begins to feel hopeful that he will make it through alive. Although weakened, Bendy still tried to reach Henry but a bright light appeared behind that started to burn the monster even more until it disintegrated for good. Has the light become too bright for Henry to take, he covered his eyes with uncertainty on what'll happen next.
After a moment, he opened his eyes to notice that he was no longer in the dark and inky lair of the monster, but rather in a decent living room. Henry looked around and was experiencing deja vu of the place he was in.
He looked around to notice on the wall a cork bulletin board of letters from past workers he knew and other important papers. He looked at this for a while until he heard whistling of a familiar tune in the kitchen area.
He slowly walked into the kitchen area to see Joey Drew near the sink washing dishes. When Joey heard his footsteps, he began to speak while he was still washing dishes.
"Henry? So soon? I didn't expect you for another hour yet. Now you are just trying to impress me. But I know…I know… you have questions. You always do! The only important question is this: Who are we Henry?" Joey said as he placed a fist down on the countertop by the sink.
Henry wanted to speak but he was interrupted with Joey still continuing to talk.
"I thought I knew who I was…but… the success starved me. Nothing left but lines on a page. In the end, we followed two different roads of our own making. You, a loving family… me… a crooked empire. And my road burned. I let our creations become my life."
Henry was staring at the tile floor for a moment, taking in what Joey was telling him until he noticed Joey turning around from the sink and walking towards the countertable to face Henry.
"The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, old friend…pushing me to do the right thing. You should have pushed a little harder."
Henry felt his heart in his throat when Joey said that, since he knew he could have helped him even more with the studio. But like Joey said, he was on a different road compared to Joey and he couldn't say anything about it, until Joey cleared his throat to get Henry's attention.
"Henry. Come visit the old workshop… there's something I want to show you."
Joey raised his hand towards the door that Henry looked at as well and walked his way towards the door and opened it to reveal he was back at the studio where he stood at the very beginning with one saying before entering in.
"Alright Joey, I'm here. Let's see if we can find what you wanted me to see."
Terra, Aqua, and Ventus all three arrive at the realm of darkness, still in their keyblade armor. As they walk out of the corridor of light, the trio all turn around to make sure that the gateway from between the realm of light and realm of darkness closes before starting their investigation.
They started by walking forward, exploring the realm of darkness with Ventus trying to use his strong connection between himself and Sora in hopes of finding the spiky brown-haired boy, Terra was keeping guard in case any powerful heartless appear, and lastly Aqua used her knowledge of the realm of darkness to guide the three of them.
During their search for anything that could help the three in finding Sora, Aqua looks around the realm of darkness, starting to have flashbacks of all the struggles she dealt with for the past decade.
She remembered how hard things got, how lonely it was facing off the heartless on a constant basis. Heck, she doesn't even recall the last time she fell asleep since being put in the realm of darkness. She couldn't help but feel the consuming fear that sparked in her heart since leaving the realm of darkness.
'All...alone...' Underneath the helmet of the keyblade master, her eyes held nothing but pain and isolation as she relieved all this.
"Aqua? Hey, Aqua?"
"Hm?" Aqua snapped out of her trance she was in after Ventus' voice was able to reach her mind. She turned towards her friend, noticing that he had his armor suit except the helmet.
"Are you alright, Aqua?" Ventus asked in a concerned tone.
"Yes...wait, Ven! You should keep your helmet on!" Aqua exclaimed, having taken the focus away from her towards her friend. Ventus noticed this and just calmly responded while having a friendly facial expression,
"Hm? Oh it'll be alright, right Terra?"
Terra turned towards his friends, having noticed the question directed towards him. Aqua looked at him and noticed that he wasn't wearing his helmet either.
"Oh. It's alright for now." He said in a calm tone as he looked around, trying to see if any heartless will appear. Aqua was unsure about this though her mind was mostly focused on what had happened during her long stay in the realm of darkness. Despite having a confident stance of going back with Terra and Ven by her side, she didn't expect to feel this fear in her heart.
The Keyblade Master was thankful that her facial expression wasn't being shown since the helmet was preventing Ventus from seeing the fear in her eyes. She closed her eyes while thinking of all the best moments she has with Ventus and Aqua, especially during their keyblade training under Master Eraqus. These memories allowed her to have a calm mind, prompting her to think to herself:
'Seems like...I still have a long way to go before I can face the darkness...but at least I won't be alone.'
Aqua smiled underneath the helmet before completely taking off her entire keyblade armor.
"Aqua?"
"Don't worry Ven, I think we will be fine without this for now."
"You sure?" The boy asked with a curious and some little concern.
"It'll be okay."
"Alright."
As Ventus said this, he along with Terra took off their keyblade armor, causing the two to also return back into regular attire just like Aqua. As the two boys did this, they turned towards Aqua to see that something was troubling their friend.
"Aqua, are you okay?" Terra asked, having noticed that something was causing Aqua distress.
"Y-Yes, don't worry about me. We should focus on finding Sora."
As Aqua finished speaking, she started to follow her original footsteps from before when she was first in the realm of darkness. Ventus and Terra looked at each other with concern, both knowing that something is wrong with their friend.
"What can we do, Terra?"
"For now leave her be. We can't do much aside from being her support."
Terra walks forward to catch up with Aqua, leaving Ventus worried for Aqua. He looked at the ground for a moment as he wanted to do something to help one of his dear friends.
'I have to help Aqua...I will help her!'
Ventus smiled with confidence as he knows that he can do something to make sure Aqua can feel safe. Just as he was about to catch up, he heard an odd laughter.
"Hahahaha."
"Huh? What was that?"
Ventus turned around but all he saw were some weird things glowing in blue and a few darkside type heartless off in the distance.
"...that was weird."
"Hey! Ven! Don't be too far behind!"
"Oh! Sorry!"
Ven quickly caught up towards his two friends. While he did that, Terra turned around as he walked beside Aqua. As he was doing that, he turned towards Aqua as she had something to ask Terra.
"You were the one to give the initiation to Riku, weren't you?"
"Hehe...yeah. How did you know that?" Terra asked with curiosity while looking back on that memory fondly.
"I managed to meet those two, Sora and Riku, when they were young. I saw within Riku's heart that someone had passed down the keyblade to him. I figured it was you. How does it feel that he is now a keyblade master now?"
"It feels very prideful."
Aqua turned to see Terra's facial expression, seeing just how proud he felt when thinking of the boy he passed down the keyblade to. This made her happy as she wants her friends to have this feeling of happiness. As she smiled, Terra's smile slowly faded away as he started to think about their master. This caused him to break the moment of silence by asking,
"Do you think Master Eraqus is doing well...?"
"...I want to believe so."
The atmosphere once again turned melancholy as Aqua was reminded of what she was told many years ago regarding how their master was taken down. Terra was remembering how he helped Xehanort strike down his master.
He clenched his fist with anger, knowing that he still has a long way to go to redeem himself from the damage he caused to Ventus, Aqua, and for sure to Master Eraqus.
These thoughts also brought some moments when he was under Ansem the seeker of darkness' control as the guardian.
He remembers those times vaguely but he knows he had encountered Sora and Riku on a number of occasions.
'I have to make up to everyone...I just have to.'
Terra closed his eyes briefly as he knows that the first step to redemption will have to be for him to forgive himself. He thought of this for a moment until he noticed that Ventus had caught up with him and Aqua. He quickly changed into a more calm and passive tone to address to Ventus,
"What took you so long?"
"Sorry, I thought I heard someone..." Ventus answered as he isn't sure himself who's voice he heard laughing.
"Who?" Aqua asked as she joined in on the conversation.
"I'm not sure."
While Ventus was trying to figure out who was the voice that he heard, the three keyblade wielders all noticed a couple of darkside type heartless appear around them. Without any hesitation, the three put back their keyblade armor while also pulling out their keyblades, preparing themselves for a fight.
"I was wondering when they would appear." Ventus said as he was expecting them to appear just as they arrived at the realm of darkness. Terra and Aqua both turned towards Ventus' position for a moment before looking back at their specific Darkside heartless.
"Are you two ready?" Aqua asked, wanting to make sure her two friends are prepared to face the heartless. Ventus and Terra smiled underneath their respective helmets before responding in unison,
"Yes!"
"Then let's do this!"
The three keyblade wielders waited for a moment until the heartless attacked first, allowing the three of them to jump on their respective heartless' hand. This allowed the three to charge at the head of the darkside heartless, all three confident in their strength. As they were getting closer and closer, Ventus was the fastest to reach his darkside heartless opponent. Once close enough he landed a strong hit on the heartless' top of the head.
"Got ya!"
Ventus was confident that his attack was strong enough to do the job only to realize that he probably did minimal damage at best.
"Watch out Ven!" Terra shouted as he noticed the darkside heartless preparing to attack his friend while his guard was down. Ventus heard Terra and was just barely able to dodge the darkside heartless' attack by changing his keyblade into a glider, allowing for a quick getaway ride.
'That was too close!' The boy thought to himself, realizing that he shouldn't be careless.
"Careful Ven, they are much stronger than they look." Aqua says while she began to land a barrage of attacks on the head of the darkside heartless she was facing, giving it everything she had in her. As each hit landed, she realized immediately that these heartless are way more powerful than before. This prompted her to point her keyblade directly at the heartless head as she prepared to fire the most powerful ice magic ability.
"Blizzaga!"
As she shouted this, the keyblade obeyed her wish and fired the most powerful of ice magic directed towards the darkside heartless she was facing currently. The ice attack managed to land a strong hit on the darkside heartless, surprising the keyblade master as she saw that her attack had frozen the heartless. This was a momentary surprise as the keyblade master found this as her opportunity to destroy the heartless with one powerful blow.
She spinned around before finally managing to hit the top of the heartless one last time, knowing that this heavy attack would do the trick. The second the keyblade landed on the ice, this managed to crack the ice completely which caused the heartless to be destroyed. As the heartless was destroyed by this, a heart appeared for the briefest of moments before disappearing, confirming that Aqua had fully defeated the heartless.
As it happened, she turned her attention towards the next darkside heartless as it tried to attack her while her back was turned. As she dodged the attack, she looked at the heartless with conviction in her eyes, knowing that she needs to end this quickly before more starts appearing. She charges in and dodges another attack before landing a couple of hits on the large heartless' body.
While she was doing this, Terra focused closely on his opponent as it tried to punch the keyblade wielder in mid-air. The Keyblade Wielder just looked at the heartless with an intimidating aura before countering the heartless' punch with one swing of his keyblade at full force. Doing this caused both the heartless and Terra to be pushing each other back with darkside heartless using all of its force in its fist while Terra's strength came from his keyblade.
This stayed for a moment before Terra's immeasurable will overpowered the heartless' fist, allowing the keyblade wielder to take his opportunity to close the gap and head straight towards the darkside's head. As he got closer and closer, Terra prepared his keyblade to swing with everything he had at it, not noticing that his keyblade was starting to create a very powerful fiery aura around it.
Once he was close to the head, he did not hesitate to swing his keyblade directly at the head of the darkside heartless. With the force of Terra's strength, the power of the keyblade, and the addition of fire, the darkside heartless was taken out in one extremely powerful hit. Terra floated for a moment before landing on the ground, prepared to face off the next darkside heartless in his way. He looked around and noticed that there were three more left, two already being taken care of by Aqua and Ventus.
'Seems like this one is mine as well.'
Terra looked at the darkside heartless with a serious look within his helmet before charging towards his new opponent, confident that his strength will be enough to swiftly end this fight. As Terra began his fight, Ventus continued to use his vehicle to go around the darkside heartless he was facing off, trying to see what his opponent's weak point could be. As he did this, the heartless did its best to try and knock Ventus out of his vehicle.
'Woah! Th-That was close! I need to do something about this quickly!'
As Ventus thought this, the darkside heartless began to fire some projectiles from it's empty stomach shape of a heart.
The Keyblade Wielder saw this and quickly reacted by summoning back his keyblade, causing him to fall. While he was falling towards the ground, using his keyblade he deflected away each projectile sent towards him.
The second his feet touched the ground, the boy did not hesitate to charge at the large heartless boss.
While he was closing in, some of the projectiles started to move a bit faster with a few even spreading themselves into even smaller projectiles. Despite how difficult it looks, Ventus smiled underneath his helmet as he was completely confident that he could defeat the large heartless in front of him.
'I was able to defeat Vanitas and his unversed, I can defeat you!'
With this in mind, he closed the gap between himself and the darkside heartless, he used all his strength to jump high enough to land a couple of hits on the darkside heartless' head. As he did this for a moment, he pointed his keyblade directly at the heartless' head before saying,
"Time to finish this! Thundaga!"
The second he finished speaking, a powerful thunderbolt came from thin air to hit the darkside heartless' head with extreme force. This magic was strong enough to destroy the darkside heartless, allowing Ventus to take the win. As Ventus finished his fight with his heartless, Terra had also managed to defeat his heartless by using some of his skills during his time as Lingering Will.
He dodged a few of the projectiles thrown towards him before making his keyblade into a whip at first. He used this whip to knock away all of the projectiles the darkside heartless threw at him before switching his keyblade into a cannon. Once he did that, the powerful projectile rapidly went towards the heartless, destroying it in the process.
As the heartless disappeared with a heart appearing for a moment only to disappear in thin air, Ventus witnessed everything, looking amazed at how his friend took care of the darkside heartless underneath his helmet. This prompted him to say to his best friend in an excited tone of voice,
"Wow! That was so cool, Terra!"
Terra looked at Ventus and just simply gave a smile at his friend before the two turned towards the remaining heartless, seeing that Aqua was struggling against this one. The Keyblade Master was doing her best to not only just avoid the darkside heartless' attacks but also avoiding the powerful version of the shadow type heartless. She dodged each attack with everything she had but just as she was about to charge at the main heartless until she suddenly stopped.
"N-No..."
Aqua slowly walked back in fear, not being able to encounter what she was seeing once again, not having realized that many of the shadow type heartless and the darkside heartless were preparing to attack her all together. Ventus and Terra both noticed this, prompting the two to quickly act by charging towards the heartless, wanting to prevent them from hurting their friend. Terra tried to pull out another trick from Lingering Will only to realize that he used up all of his magic power.
'What? Why do I have a limit?'
Terra was confused by this yet he moved this thoughts to the side in order for his mind to put all its focus saving Aqua. Ventus quickly managed to get close enough to Aqua's position to throw his keyblade, stopping a couple of the shadow type heartless.
"Aqua!" Ventus shouted, worried for his friend.
"Snap out of it!" Terra shouted as he didn't want his friend to get hurt.
"..."
Aqua continued to be stunned as she saw the thing she feared the most, her darker self.
"Still afraid of the darkness, are we? Despite the fact that you have your 'friends' with you?"
The dark incarnation of Aqua spoke to the real one, leaving the keyblade master stunned as she didn't know what to do. While she continued to take more insults from her dark incarnation, she was barely able to hear her friends speak.
"Aqua! Watch out!"
"Huh?"
Aqua managed to snap out of her trance just in the nick of time, managing to barely dodge the darkside's attack. As she does this, she lands on her feet, allowing her to process what's going on.
While she did that, Ventus summoned back his keyblade in order to start taking on the shadow type heartless nearby his position with Terra joining in, giving him some assistance.
Aqua noticed this and realized that she needed to get herself together since her friends are putting themselves at risk because she was stunned for a moment. She looked at the darkside heartless with a determined facial expression.
"I won't fall here!"
With her declaration shouted, she charged directly towards danger, allowing her to knock out a couple of the shadow type heartless with a few powerful swings from her keyblade.
She swung and swung, managing to knock out a handful of heartless out of the way. Eventually the shadow heartless kept appearing, pushing the keyblade master back as they tried to overwhelm her with the sheer numbers.
Ventus and Terra noticed this, inspiring the two to keep pushing themselves beyond their limits to give their friend an opening towards the darkside heartless.
'Thanks, Terra, Ven.'
Aqua looks at them with an appreciative facial expression underneath her helmet before turning towards the darkside heartless. She dodged the projectiles directed towards her before jumping highly towards the head of the darkside heartless. Once she closed in, with everything she had within her power, her keyblade started to power up as a blue like aura was glowing around.
Aqua took notice of this, remembering this from her fight to free Ventus from Vanitas during their battle against Xehanort and Vanitas. She took this opportunity to swing her keyblade with everything she had, managing to land the finishing blow. The second that her keyblade hit the heartless' top of the head with all of her power, destroying the remaining darkside heartless.
As she succeeded in this, Aqua saw a large heart appear in front of her for the briefest of moments before disappearing. The remaining shadow type heartless all were finished off by Terra and Ventus, the two keyblade wielders combining their strength to pull this off as the pair did notice during the fight that the heartless here are a lot aggressive and strong compared to them in the realm of light.
As Ventus and Terra looked around to make sure that there aren't any more heartless nearby, Aqua manages to land safely but as she did that, the three of them suddenly reverted into their usual attire without their doing. The trio were confused for a moment with Aqua worried that she might get stunned again, Terra and Ventus both change their focus towards Aqua as they are worried for her sake.
"Aqua, are you alright?" Ventus asked in his concerned tone of voice.
"Y-Yes. Don't worry Ven, I was just surprised, that's all." Aqua spoke in her gentle tone, wanting to reassure not only Ventus but also Terra. Terra crossed his arms and closed his eyes, unsure on whether Aqua was being sincere or not but regardless, he knows that they should focus on finding Sora or anything about the boy's whereabouts.
"We should get moving before more of them appear." Terra said, breaking the silence. Aqua and Ventus both looked at him, noticing the serious tone he had when speaking. They both simply nodded as they agreed. Just as the wayfinder trio was about to start making their way deeper into the realm of darkness, they noticed a small orb appear in front of them.
Terra and Aqua were the only ones to be on the alert, prompting the two to pull out their keyblades once again all the while Ventus just stood still. He didn't sense any malice from the small orb, causing him to slowly move closer to it while asking:
"What's that?" The boy asked innocently as he was curious to know what the orb was.
"Ven, don't touch the orb!" Aqua shouted but it was too late, the boy had tapped the orb gently which caused the small orb of light to brighten all around the wayfinder trio.
"Aqua! Terra!" Ventus shouted as he wasn't sure what was going on since he couldn't see anything.
"Ven!" Both Terra and Aqua responded as they attempted to close in on their friend's location, afraid that whatever the bright light is doing, it's nothing good. The trio waited for a moment before the bright light stopped, causing them to notice that something was wrong.
"Where are...wait, Aqua? Terra? Where are you?" Ventus shouted as he noticed that he was on his own in some unknown location with odd black goo leaking from the ceiling.
"What is that stuff...?" Ventus asked as he was disturbed by it though something else had his attention. He noticed that something odd was written on the wall. "Hm? Dreams come true..."
The keyblade wielder was left unsure on what that is supposed to mean. While he was in this odd place trying to see where he could start his search for his two friends, Terra opened his eyes as he was finally able to see himself.
"What happened...? Ven? Aqua?" Terra asked as he started to realize that he was all alone in some unknown room. He observed this room closely only to notice a lever that was on low pressure. He looked closely at the lever before looking up to see that the sign says "Ink Machine. Mind Power". This caused the keyblade wielder to cross his arms as he is now trying to figure out what world he was sent to now.
'Ink Machine...hm. Is that what that black goo is? Ink?' Terra thinks this as he noticed some black goo in some spots of the room he was sent to. He goes to try the lever only for it not to work at all.
'Okay...that's weird.'
The keyblade wielder looked at the lever closely before looking around, noticing the pedestals with some symbols. He paused for a moment before figuring that the symbols represent something he might need to find. As he goes to leave the room, he closes his eyes as he feels a strange darkness in the odd and suspicious place he's in.
'Where am I? In a world of darkness?...whatever the answer is, I hope you two are alright, Aqua, Ven.'
With that in mind, Terra goes around to search for the items in the symbols on the pedestals. While Terra did this, Aqua opened her eyes as she saw that she was in a hallway with a door behind her, some black goo dripping down the ceiling, and a sign above her saying "Welcome".
"Where...wait..." Aqua had a moment of pause as she realized that once again her and her two closest friends were separated. "Terra? Ven?"
She prepares to look around to find her missing friends only to be on her guard when she hears the door open behind her. She pulls out her keyblade and prepares for a fight, worried that something dangerous will come out the door that was behind her. She waits a moment until she notices a man enter through the place with the door closing behind him.
"Who...are you?"
Author's note:
Yeah, making another Kingdom Hearts crossover story with a friend, we were going to post this last month but we chose to wait until the day that Bendy and the Ink Machine was released.