DISCLAIMER: I do not own Square Enix, Disney, or any of their products, including characters, names of places, etc. All rights go to their respective owners.

It was dark out. No one knew exactly what time it was, since clocks hadn't properly been invented yet. After all, this was the era that thought coming up with your own logic was far superior to following any standards of common sense, such as they were.

Currently, a certain spikey blonde-haired individual was trying in vain to sleep properly, experiencing a dream unlike most others.

Ventus very suddenly awoke after the dream he had just been having with a feeling of dissatisfaction. He remembered the dream very clearly: he had been presumably kidnapped by his teacher's friend, left on an island, and then had his soul fused with a newborn soul with some serious issues. He sat up, thinking about the dream with great intensity.

That sure was a vivid dream, he thought, it was like it was something that had already happened. But I don't remember it ever happening… unless I just did one of those things where I—

He very suddenly stopped that train of thought when he saw what he was wearing. Feeling extremely discontent with himself, he switched his focus on this newfound issue. Which was: he was still wearing his regular clothes.

"Aw, seriously?! I went to sleep wearing my shoes again!" he complained. "And my armor! Jeez, there's no wonder I had such a weird dream! You know, I really gotta stop doing this. I get so distracted with the concept of sleep that I forget to put on my pajamas! Which is a real shame, since they're so cozy. But hey, what's done is done, right? And besides," he added, "It's not too late to go switch right now. Then I can go back to sleep." Satisfied with this idea, and still recuperating from the dream, he continued with this train of thought before he could forget. "Yeah, yeah! And then I won't have to worry about any more creepy soul-bondings after that! And I'll get to be all warm and cozy until Terra wakes me up with a battle cry again. Then he'll probably be freaking out about something, and—hey, what was that?" he said, turning his attention to the large window that was right beside his bed. He had just seen, or thought he saw, a small light zip by.

He was right: he had just seen a shooting star. After seeing a few more of them, he realized something that took over any other priorities he might have had: there was a meteor shower occurring right before his eyes.

Letting out a shout of excitement, he jumped off his bed with newfound energy and rushed down the miniature castle he was in.

For the first time since he woke up, he was completely focused on this singular task. He was going to march down there, and watch the meteor shower until it finished, no matter how long he had to stay up to do so.

He was filled with motivation. He was completely intent on succeeding in his mission. Because at that point, that's what it was: a mission. His goal. It was his destiny. It was the will of Hitsuzen that he go down those stairs, and across those fields, jumping over those small bodies of water, until he reached the perfect spot to witness the one, the only, the true epic epicness that was—

"Hey, look! Training pendulum things!"

Well, maybe he wasn't quite as focused as he thought.

He rushed over to the nearest pendulum-like training ring and summoned his Keyblade. Unlike all of the other Keyblade wielders he knew, Ventus wielded his Keyblade with a reverse grip, something that made him feel very special. He ferociously unleashed a three-hit combo on the first pendulum-ring before moving on to the next one, which had four rings hanging from it. Ventus smirked. "Heh. I bet you want a taste of this, too, huh?" he mocked, not caring about the fact that he was, in fact, speaking to an inanimate object.

He started attacking the second set of pendulum-rings in a similar fashion, although this soon proved more difficult once the rings started spinning and whacking him on the head. "Owww! Dude, that hurt!" he complained. It was then that he used one of the most impressive, athletic, skilled maneuvers to ever be used during a fight against pendulums.

He sidestepped.

That was it, really.

He landed a few more hits on the pendulum-rings and was going to continue attacking them, when he heard a signature 'FWASH' sound, signaling the abrupt, inexplicable spawning of a treasure chest nearby. Immediately his face lit up at the thought of treasure, and began searching frantically for it. Eventually, he found it on top of a small cliff. He tapped it with the Keyblade, allowing it to open. From it, a small, spinning ball of light arose. Ventus waited until it was above his head to place his hands around it, letting out a short tune of victory. "DA NA NA NAAAAAAA!" he exclaimed, feeling extremely content with himself, even though he had no idea what had just picked up.

Seeing another shooting star pass by overhead was enough to remind him of the reason he came out there in the first place. "THAT'S RIGHT!" he yelled, "I need to get to that meteor shower!"

And thus, he went on a long and tedious journey to find the perfect place to watch the stars from. He had to run about, what, twenty feet? That's a long distance. Don't try to pretend that it isn't.

Upon reaching the cliff, he laid down on the grass and watched the stars fly by, one after the other. He very frequently expressed how beautiful he thought they were once five or six had gone by. Eventually, as the shower began to end, he started to fall asleep, until the realm of dreams encompassed him.

This didn't last for very long, however, as he was soon woken up very suddenly by someone slapping him. Really hard.

He jolted upward, his mind feeling hazy and sleep-deprived. "Terra...?!" he wondered aloud, feeling that only Terra would bother to slap him in order to wake him up.

"N-No, it's me." Came the feminine, familiar voice of the one who slapped him. Ventus turned around. Standing over him was a girl that was a few years older than him, had shoulder-length blue hair and wore a collared shirt, shorts, and sash around her waist that looked both really cool and really impractical at the same time. It was one of his best friends, Aqua.

"What the heck, Aqua?! Why'd you hit me?!" he demanded, not used to such blatant acts of violence from his friend before he had done anything. Aqua herself had an expression of shock on her face.

"I… I don't know. I just suddenly had this feeling like I should reference a moment that hasn't even happened yet." She explained, sounding as confused as Ventus felt. Ventus sighed. Aqua was always doing stuff like that. It was as if she just had some inner sense of the future or something. It compelled her to do some strange things sometimes.

"Well, okay. Whatever you say, Aqua." He said, trying his best to shrug it off. The two of them went to the edge of the cliff and sat down, looking at the stars. A few moments passed, which was enough time for Ventus to come up with a new topic. "Hey, do you ever wonder what stars are? Where that light comes from? I think we learned about it in class a few times, but I kept getting distracted." Aqua gave him a look of exasperation.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me. Well, allow me to give you a quick review. Stars are-"

"Stars are the most brilliant invention of mankind, Ventus!" a new voice interrupted. Both Ventus and Aqua jerked in surprise and turned around. Sanding behind them was none other than Terra, who had shoulder-length brown hair, wore a grey shirt with red X-shaped straps and tan-colored pants that poofed out a ton, although in a different manor than Ventus's.

"Terra? What are you doing here?" Aqua asked, still calming down from the initial shock of Terra appearing out of nowhere. Both Terra and Ventus ignored Aqua's question.

"Invention of… mankind…?" Ventus repeated, feeling confused. Terra came over to them, wrapping his arm around Ventus's shoulders.

"That's right, Ven!" he exclaimed, pointing upward at the stars. "Each of those stars up there represent a different dimension entirely, and the light is the pride of a thousand honorable warriors' hearts, shining down on us like a million lanterns!"

Aqua gave Terra a dumbstruck look. Ven, on the other hand, just looked confused and fascinated with this new piece of information.

"I… don't think I get it." He said, raising an eyebrow. Terra stopped pointing at the sky.

"To put it simply, they're just like you and me, Ven!" he explained. This did nothing to help Ven understand anything. Aqua continued staring at the two in disbelief.

"Uh, what does THAT mean?" he asked, removing Terra's arm from his shoulders. Terra gave him an extremely sunshiny smile.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out someday!" he said happily. This did nothing but anger Ven, who stood up and gave him a glare.

"I don't want to figure it out someday, I wanna know now!" he demanded, getting fed up with the way Terra taught things. Terra gave him a serious look.

"Well, you're too young to know right now." He said firmly. Ven was starting to reach his limit of self-control at this point.

"How?! How am I too "young"?! This is very basic material!" he shouted. Aqua, who had been staring dumbfounded this whole time, finally decided to speak up.

"Regardless of how old you have to be to know what stars are, I'm still stuck at 'the most brilliant invention of mankind.'" She said. Terra turned his attention to Aqua and nodded in a sort of 'knowing' sense.

"Ah, yes. 'Tis the hearts of mankind that creates all those other worlds out there," he explained, then suddenly clenched his fist in a very enthusiastic fashion. "The hearts filled with firey passion! The hearts destined to become all that they can be! THE HEARTS THAT WILL TRIUMPH OVER ALL AND UNLEASH THE ONE, TRUE HEART TO ALL WORLDS: KINGDOM HEARTS!"

Ven and Aqua just stared.

"Uh… okay…?" was all Aqua could say. After a few moments of confusion on Ven's part, his eyes lit up.

"Wow…! I didn't know that!" he said, causing Aqua to facepalm in irritation.

"Anyways…" she began, trying her best to change the topic, "I got something for us." This immediately caught Ventus's attention.

"Ooooh, really? What?" he asked, filled with intrigue. Terra, however, was still reminiscing on the stars being filled with a firey passion.

Aqua then held up three matching, star-shaped trinkets in different colors; one was blue, one was green, and the other was orange. She smiled.

"I made us all good luck charms!" she announced. She tossed the green one at Ven, who caught in in an amazing display of reflexes. She then threw the orange one at Terra, who didn't see it coming in the slightest, and as such got hit on the head with it.

"Ow! What was that?" he wondered aloud, finally turning around and picking the trinket off the ground. He stared at the charm with great intensity. "…What is this? Some kind of necklace?" he asked, trying really hard to figure out what the purpose for a good luck charm was. Ven was staring as his trinket, too, only for a completely different reason. His eyes were wide with excitement and admiration.

"…I get one, too?" he asked, feeling very special at the moment. He lifted it up and started spinning around, away from the ledge as to not fall off. "YAAAAAAYYY! I get to have a cute little star thing! And would you look at that! It comes in my favorite color!" he exclaimed, acting somewhat immature for his age.

Terra was still fiddling with his, trying to see if there was some special ability attached to it.

"…So, what does it do, exactly?" he asked, not taking his eyes away from it. Aqua, finally given an opportunity to explain things for once, smiled as she began explaining the history behind them.

"Well, you see, Terra, one of those worlds out there has trees that bear star-shaped fruit," she explained, "and if you and your friends where good luck charms shaped like them, then you'll always come back to each other safely!" she paused. A realization dawned on her. "Oh… crap."

"What is it?" Ven asked.

"I… think you're actually supposed to make them out of seashells. These are made from stained glass." She said, feeling like she had seriously just messed up. Terra finally looked at Aqua and away from his pendant. He was about to say something when Ven spoke first.

"So… does that mean it's not actually a good luck charm?" he asked, suddenly feeling a lot less enthusiastic. Aqua considered this for a few moments.

"Actually, they might be some kind of magical soul-link." She said, recalling how she experimented her magic on them earlier.

Ventus froze.

Terra just looked confused.

"So, basically, I have to wear a flawed, magical piece of jewelry as a soul-link between you and Ven?" he asked, giving her a look of disbelief. "I… don't think I'm comfortable with that."

"Oh? And why not?" Aqua replied.

"Well, first of all, this trinket looks very… feminine." He began. A spark of anger rose within Aqua.

"What's wrong with things that are feminine?" she demanded.

"It's not necessarily that it's wrong, it's just… not me." He explained, trying his best not to upset her too much. "Plus, the thought of sharing souls with a girl and a kid is just so much no!"

"It's supposed to be symbolic! Why do you think they're called 'Wayfinders'?"

"It's not symbolic if it's literal!"

"Literal…?" came the shaky response from Ven, who had been frozen in place the whole time. "A literal soul-link…? As in, our souls are fusing because we're holding these trinkets…?" he started shaking with the memory of fusing his heart with a newborn Sora.

Seeing the state of fright he was in, Aqua started trying desperately to calm him down.

"What?! No, no, it's not like that! I mean that in times of need, we can lend each other some of our magical power even if we're dimensions away! It's not nearly as creepy as you two are trying to make it out to be!" she explained quickly. Ventus let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank God! Okay, I feel better now." He said, assuring everyone he was alright. Terra was happy, too. He nodded his head in approval.

"Extra strength given from one's comrades when a fight gets tough? I like it! Such is the result of your passion, Aqua!" he exclaimed. Aqua smiled.

"Aw, thanks, Terra—"

"Alright! From this day forward," he interrupted as he lifted the trinket above his head, "I will carry with me this Wayfinder made from Aqua's inner flame, this incredibly feminine yet very well-painted star made out of stained glass, this one true link to my friends' inner magical power! I will carry it to the ends of the Earth if I must, because this right here is a work of art, and art lights the fires within! I will—!"

"Okay, that's enough, Terra." Aqua interrupted, happy that Terra had respect for her inventions but annoyed at how long he was carrying on about it. Ven laughed.

"Ha-ha, yeah, Terra sure does like talking, doesn't he? But you know, as long as our souls aren't fusing, I'll be glad to carry it around all the time, too!" he said happily. Terra gave him a slightly disapproving look but didn't say anything about it. Instead, he turned his attention to Aqua and said,

"By the way, don't you and I have our Mark of Mastery Exam tomorrow?" That got Aqua panicking. She jolted upwards, that realization finally hitting her full force.

"OH, CRAP!" she exclaimed.

"Such language, Aqua." Ventus teased.

"Shut up, Ven, this fanfiction is rated K+, no one's going to care! And it's not a curse word!"

"I was just teasing…"

"In any case," Terra said, "I think if we're going to take a test to prove ourselves to be true warriors, then we'd best spar against each other like true warriors!" he declared.

"For one of the first times in my life, I agree with you, Terra. Which of us is fighting who first?" she asked. Ven started jumping up and down, waving his hand up in the air.

"Oh! Oh! I wanna fight Terra!" he exclaimed. Terra agreed wholeheartedly with Ven, and the three went to a clearing to start sparring.

Ven attacked first. One would assume that Ventus had an advantage over Terra, seeing as he was much quicker, smaller, and therefor harder to hit. But Terra had something going for him aside from his much more powerful attacks: he had the Information Bar on his side.

That's right. The Information Bar.

Now, many of you are probably wondering: what exactly is the Information Bar and how does Terra have access to it? Well, the answer is simple. Sort of.

The Information Bar, while not a physical entity of any sort and therefor wasn't really a "bar" at all, was essentially guidance lines that suddenly popped into Terra's head. He didn't think of it as a person since it wasn't necessarily telepathy in the traditional sense, but he knew it wasn't himself who was thinking up all the random information being given to him.

Sometimes, he liked to think of it as his inner soul giving him advice, but he never thought too much about it and generally obeyed whatever the Information Bar told him to.

How he has access to the Information Bar at all is a mystery to everyone.

Currently, the Information Bar was telling him to simply block Ventus's attacks. As usual, he did just that, although not before landing a few attacks on Ven himself.

Ventus, getting annoyed that Terra was just blocking and not doing much else, decided to get on his case about it. "Hey, Terra! Don't go easy on me, you hear? If you're going to try and win, then you need to go more on the offensive!" he shouted.

"B-But… the Information Box told me to!" he protested. Ven rolled his eyes.

"Again with that? Did you ever once think to ignore the Information Box?" he asked. Terra froze in place.

"You know… I never even considered it." He replied, pondering this new concept. He didn't have much time to think about it, however, since Ven started attacking again.

After a long, drawn-out battle, Terra finally managed to beat Ven, who complained about losing but didn't ask for a rematch. Aqua approached them.

"Well, Terra, that technique works well enough if you're fighting one-on-one. But you forgot all about the other technique that works fighting one-on-one and in a crowd." She said. Terra and Ven both looked at her with a confused expression.

"You mean, Auto-Reticle?" Ven asked.

"I think she's talking about Z-Targeting." Terra suggested.

"Argh, no! I'm talking about Shotlock! You know, that really cool, charge attack that you use a green reticle for?!" she explained, frustrated that neither of her friends knew what she was talking about. "Come on, you guys! We've been learning this stuff for years! How is it that you don't know?!"

"Don't blame me!" Ventus protested, "It's not my fault we have to act ignorant for the sake of the tutorial!"

"For the sake of what now?" Terra asked.

"Ignore him. Here, let me show you all what I mean." And thus, Aqua targeted Ven with the Shotlock technique, waiting for it to charge all the way, and then unleashed the most terrifying, unimaginable horror to ever come from a charged attack in the history of video gaming.

She sent… floating bubbles after him.

That's right, bubbles. Oh, the horror.

"Oh, no! Not the Bubble Attack! I can't stand the Bubble Attack! NOOOOOOOOOO!" Ven screamed, leaving everyone to wonder if he was actually scared of the bubbles or if he was just pretending. Nevertheless, both Aqua and Terra facepalmed at his reaction.

"Alright, guys! It's time we finally wrapped this up!" Terra exclaimed, deciding to ignore Ventus for the moment.

"Why?" Aqua asked. "It can't possibly be that late."

"Don't you understand, Aqua?!" Terra shouted, shaking Aqua around by the shoulders. "If we don't finish this with an epic free-for-all, then all of this will have been worthless!" letting go of Aqua, he suddenly let out a yawn. "Plus, I'm getting tired."

Ven considered this for a moment.

"Actually, speaking of which, I went to sleep last night with my armor and stuff on. But that was 'cause I got distracted by sleep. So why are you two still wearing your regular clothes? I thought I was the only one who did stupid stuff like that." He said. There was a few moments of silence. No one seemed to have an answer to that.

"..Um, that aside," Aqua said, finally breaking the silence, "let's just do as Terra suggests and have a free-for-all."

"Wait, you're taking suggestions from Terra?" Ven asked, dumbstruck. "What is the world coming to?"

"Ven?" she inquired.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Fine."

And with that, they all had a wild free-for-all. It was hazardous, to put it lightly. Terra kept smashing up the surrounding area in an attempt to hit his quicker, more agile opponents. There were bubbles everywhere, courtesy of Aqua's Shotlock, and things got blown around even more than before because Ven kept spamming his Wind spell. By the end of it, it looked as though a hurricane had hit the place, and all the water on the ground (from the bubbles) hinted at a possible flood.

They were all also extremely tired. Not only was it nearing one in the morning, but all the fighting had worn them out.

What was truly phenomenal was that their Wayfinders were in perfect condition despite the ferocious battle that had taken place.

"Jeez, Aqua, what are these thing made out of?!" Ven exclaimed, staring at his Wayfinder in disbelief. "I got hit with more of those bubbles and rocks than I can count, and yet this thing doesn't have a scratch!"

"I already told you, they're made out of stained glass!" she replied. Terra was also staring at his Wayfinder with an absurd amount of pride.

"This is WONDERFUL!" he shouted, "I had no idea anyone was capable of crafting such excellence, such invincibility, such-!"

"We get it, Terra!" Aqua interrupted. "Now how about we all go back to sleep? We have to get up early for that Exam tomorrow!"

"You're absolutely right, Aqua! I will go to sleep with the utmost ferocity, to prove that I am, in fact, worthy of the Mark of—" he was interrupted once again, this time by a sudden light appearing on the ground in front of them, marked by two smaller, rotating lights. Ven's face lit up.

"Oh, that's right! We don't want to lose our progress! Hang on, I'll go save real quick!" he said.

For those of you wondering what he meant by "saving", Ventus was referring to the lights. For whatever reason, Ven always considered these inexplicable lights as "Save Points", which he deemed kept track of all their progress. No one knew how he came up with that or why he was so insistent on "saving" as frequently as he did. Like Terra's Information Bar, his friends had learned to accept it and not question it too much. "Okay, done! Now let's go back." He said. And with that, the three of them went back to their respective rooms in order to get enough rest for the next day. Because on that day was: The Mark of Mastery Exam.

Authors Notes: Chapter 2 is finally done! We get to meet Terra and Aqua, and we are introduced to massive fourth-wall breaking. Also, kudos to anyone who gets all the references in this chapter!