DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Disney and Square Enix, so all characters, places, and plot points belong to them.

Hello, everyone! Finally, at long last, a new chapter! I had to rewrite this whole thing from scratch, which, while frustrating, hopefully led to a better chapter than what it was originally.

Here's your nice, long chapter in return for your nice, long wait!

Ven, for once in his life, was at complete peace with the universe. He had somehow managed to remember to put on his pajamas when he went back to sleep the night before, it wasn't too hot nor too cold, and he was having one of the best dreams he'd ever had. In the dream, he was riding on the rainbows of space that flew through the skies with the Wings of Tomorrow, flying towards the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Cupcake.

Unfortunately, his peace was short-lived, for he was abruptly awoken by Terra's all-too-familiar battle cry.

"AAAAAAAAGGGHHHUUOOOOAAAOOOORAAAAAAGGHHHH!" he shrieked. Ventus woke up with a jolt, groaning in disdain and exasperation. He could faintly hear Terra yell something about a storm calling for their greatness and Aqua yell something in response.

Suddenly, the door to his bedroom burst open, revealing Terra, who was wearing his regular shirt and pajama pants. His trademark pants were wrapped around his neck like a scarf, one of the legs draped over his messy hair. "VENTUS!" he yelled as he opened the door. He quickly leaped onto Ven's bed, shaking him around by the shoulders to wake him up. "WAKE UP, VENTUS! YOU MUST AWAKEN BEFORE THE CEREMONY BEGINS! HUZZAH!" he added, jumping back onto the ground.

"...Yeah, uh, o-okay…" Ven replied groggily, his head spinning from being shaken around so much so early in the morning. "Can you leave now?" As soon as he finished his sentence, he heard Aqua let out a cry of frustration, which sounded alarmingly similar to Terra's previous war-cry.

"TEEERRRRAAAAAA!" she yelled, her voice coming closer by the second. A look of panic spread across Terra's face, as though a monster was hunting him down. He quickly grabbed Ven, who was sitting and trying to remove the 'sleep scales' from his eyes, and dragged him into a nearby closet. Unfortunately, in his rush to get them in the closet, they both soon became tangled in Ven's clothes that were hanging up.

Ven's face was also promptly squished against the wall of his closet, feeling that he was too tired to have to put up with this, but accepting the fact that life just hated him sometimes.

It was at that moment when Aqua burst into the room, wearing a blue nightgown and brandishing her Keyblade, her hair just as messed up as Terra's and Ven's. And accompanying all this was a glare that could kill if given the opportunity.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Aqua yelled, presumably at Terra.

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific." Terra replied stiffly, trying not to make a complete fool of himself in a closet.

"You know what I'm talking about!" she snapped, "How is it that I give my music box to you for one night and you manage to change the song it plays completely?!" Aqua demanded, fury burning in her eyes.

"All I did was make it better for sleeping!" Terra protested, his anger beginning to rise.

"Listening to "A Song of Storm and Fire" at twice its original speed is not good for sleeping!"

"Of course it is! Much better than listening to Ilia's theme at half its original speed!"

"It was supposed to be relaxing!" Aqua yelled.

"What does relaxing have to do with sleep?!" Terra demanded.

"Wha—but—what?! What do you think sleep is supposed to be like?!"

"AN EPIC, HEART—POUNDING JOURNEY TO THE DEPTHS OF THE SOUL!" he exclaimed.

"WHAT?!"

"Um, excuse me," Ventus interrupted, "but could you take this argument somewhere else? Preferably, somewhere that isn't my bedroom closet."

Aqua suddenly seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, um, right. Terra, we'd better leave. Mark of Mastery today and all that." She said awkwardly. Terra looked confused.

"But we have not yet resolved our scuffle! What kind of warriors are we if we cannot resolve something as small as this in the morning?" he asked, trying to detach himself from the various clothes he had entangled himself in.

"We can solve it later! During the exam maybe." Aqua offered, earning a smile from Terra.

"Sounds good to me! Come, Ventus! WE SHALL MEET IN THE HALL OF BREAKFAST!" he shouted, finally free from the closet and running out the door.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," Ventus grumbled. "…Just as soon as I can figure out how to get out of here."

After a hectic breakfast involving a dissolved bottle cap, a wrench, and a can opener, Ven and Aqua spent the next few hours listening to Terra ramble about various different things. ("And thus the light of day shall guide the wind of the night towards the fires of victory!") But finally, it was time for the long-awaited Mark of Mastery Exam.

Terra and Aqua were standing up straight and tall before their teacher, Master Eraqus, eagerly awaiting their master's instructions. Ven was standing off to the side, feeling a bit anxious but otherwise bored. There just wasn't anything fun going on yet. Listening to their teacher rant on and on about things that didn't apply to Ven at all was about as fun as watching paint dry on the moon.

"Ah, my young students!" Eraqus began. "Today is truly the most righteous day of your lives! For today you shall prove whether you are truly worthy of the Light! My best friend and bitter rival, Xehanort, has come to watch you as well, so try not to embarrass him, will you?" he added, giving Terra a look.

"Speaking of which, Eraqus," Xehanort started, "what exactly are you going to test them with? Magically produced mountains of death? Horrid monsters beyond all form and description trying to absorb the very fabric of their being? Evil pancaked syrup?!" he eagerly awaited Eraqus's response.

"Even better!" Eraqus exclaimed, grinning brightly. "I'm going to send… GIANT GLOWING ORBS OF LIGHT THAT DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT THEM!"

There was a brief moment of silence between the two. Terra and Aqua were beginning to make small talk in an attempt to not lose their minds waiting for the test to start.

"…Really? That's it? You are so pathetic, Eraqus." Xehanort commented, wondering how Eraqus became a Master in the first place.

"Well, in all fairness, I doubted Terra was capable enough to handle anything else from the beginning," Eraqus explained. "I mean, he is just a tiny bit of a spaz." Thankfully, Terra was too immersed in his conversation with Aqua to notice just how much his teacher was insulting him.

Out of what seemed to Ven like nowhere, several giant orbs of light were summoned behind Aqua and Terra, quickly snapping them out of their conversation.

Xehanort, however, was extremely displeased with the whole thing, so he decided: why not sabotage the whole test? That would most CERTAINLY be entertaining!

And thus, using the most villainous hand gesture possible, he lit the orbs up with darkness! Suddenly, they began to move, and Xehanort was most pleased with himself.

He let out a phenomenally evil chuckle, one that Eraqus was far too used to at this point to deem it suspicious, and the orbs of light started circling around Terra and Aqua.

"Blimey, Aqua!" Terra exclaimed, briefly taking on a subtle English accent, "Can you believe we're finally here?! Now is the time for us to become masters! Now is the time to defeat these measly circles and prove ourselves worthy of the title of "Master"! Do you feel the adrenaline?! The suspense?! It's such an honor to be here at this moment, in which-HOLY CRAP, VEN, LOOK OUT!" he exclaimed suddenly, seeing one of the orbs fly towards Ventus, who was busy spacing out.

A slap from the orb that knocked him to the ground was all he needed to snap his attention back to reality. He gave an epic frown and started stabbing the orb repeatedly with his Keyblade.

"All clear!" he shouted. Aqua didn't buy it for one second, though.

"Ven, it's dangerous here! Now go wait in your room and let us adults handle this!" she commanded.

Something in Ven's mind suddenly snapped.

"Oh, sure, let the kid run from danger! Never mind the fact that the kid in question has been training to fight for over four years, now! WELL SCREW THAT, AQUA, I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!" he shrieked, suddenly tackling several of the orbs, destroying them all with swift blows and repetitive stabbing to prove his point.

Panting, he gave a quick glare at Aqua, who replied with a quick "Point taken."

As Terra, Aqua, and Ventus continued to beat the spheres into oblivion, Xehanort let out an extremely audible laugh, one that was just as evil as his chuckle. Eraqus gave him a look.

"Xe-Xe, why do you keep laughing like that? This is an important moment for the kiddies! Don't distract them by reminding them of our unending rivalry and eternal friendship by laughing like a crazy person!" he scolded.

"DON'T CALL ME XE-XE!" he shouted, "AND I CAN LAUGH HOWEVER AND WHENEVER I WANT! YOU CAN'T ORDER ME AROUND! YOU'RE NOT EVEN MY REAL BROTHER!"

"Does that mean I can be your fake brother, instead?" Eraqus asked hopefully.

"NO!" Xehanort screamed back.

"MASTER!" Terra screamed at an equal volume. There was a slightly crazed look on his face, product of his extended battle. "WE HAVE DEFEATED THE SPHERES OF DOOMY-DOOM! PLEASE GIVE US OUR NEXT INSTRUCTIONS! SIR!"

Eraqus face-palmed.

"Uh, right. As the next part of your RIGHTEOUS test, I want you and Aqua to fight to the death!"

"Excuse me, Master," Aqua interrupted, "but somehow I don't think that's a good idea. If one of us wins, we'll be met with guilt over killing one our frien-teammates. Killing one of our teammates. In front of children. Yeah. Think of the children!"

"What's this I hear about children?" Ven retorted, having paid attention to nothing from that conversation except "think of the children." Eraqus ignored him.

"Oh, fine, then. Just fight until you knock the other out, I guess." he grudgingly replied. Dang it, he thought to himself, I was hoping to finally kill Terra. Guess I'll have to wait for another opportunity, then.

And thus, Terra and Aqua fought.

"You go, Aqua! Get 'er, Terra! KICK EACH OTHER INTO THE DARK WORLD OF SPOILED CUPCAKES!" Ven cheered, not really caring who won.

Their fight was intense; Terra let out the occasional battle-cry, threw many attacks that Aqua cartwheeled around and threw some blows of her own, but most importantly, they were evenly matched. Most of their blows didn't even hit each other.

Terra was soon becoming frustrated; how was he supposed to prove himself worthy to the vast multi-verse if he couldn't win against his best friend?

Then his left forearm spontaneously burst into dark, swirly flames.

"AAAGGHHHH! AAAHHHHHHHGGGG! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! OH, DEAR, SWEET LORD, SOMEONE GET A PILE OF SAND! MAGNESIUM BURN, MAGNESIUM BURN!" he shrieked at the top of his lungs.

While Eraqus was wondering how in the world Terra knew what magnesium was, Ven grabbed a random bucket of sand out of nowhere and dumped it over his arm, Terra letting out screams of horror the whole time.

"Okay... okay, I think I'm better, now..." Terra gasped, trying not to panic more than he needed to.

"No, wait, I'm not done!" Ven replied, "I still need to chant a holy speech in order to complete this task! Cupcakes, biscuits, chocolate, too, reds are roses..."

Terra tried really, really hard not to stare at Ven in disturbed curiosity. It was made slightly easier when Aqua started attacking him again.

"Terra! It's time to end this!" Aqua exclaimed.

"I agree with you entirely, Aqua!" Terra replied enthusiastically.

"...syrup, ice cream, huge buffet, blues are violets, scream 'hurray!'" Ven chanted.

"We have deliberated and reached a decision." Eraqus announced.

"No, you deliberated, and I ate pancakes." Xehanort corrected.

"Shut up, you."

The battle had finished, and Terra and Aqua were now standing before Eraqus once again, Ven having finished his 'holy chant' and now extremely anxious. Or, he would have been, if his mind wasn't suddenly filled with pancake fantasies as soon as Xehanort had said the word.

Eraqus eventually declared that the fight was over, that he had changed the rules, but really, it was just lasting too long and neither had knocked the other out yet.

"The point is," Eraqus continued, "I have considered your fighting capabilities and overall skill level as well as intelligence, and I have decided that Aqua... HAS BECOME THE NEW KEYBLADE MASTER!" he paused, noticing that Terra was looking at him with big, hopeful puppy eyes. "As for you, Terra, you could not control the darkness inside of you, so you don't get to be a master." He refrained from adding an "In your face!" to avoid making a complete fool of himself. He was, of course, not Terra, so making a fool of himself was not something he did regularly.

Terra looked as though he just died a little inside. In reality, he died a lot inside. Aqua, while not dead, was pretty outraged.

"With all due respect, Master, that has nothing to do with fighting capabilities, overall skill, or intelligence." she declared. "You can tell from our fight just now that we're perfectly matched! Shouldn't we both be masters?"

Terra gave Aqua a look of bewilderment and gratitude. In all the years they'd known each other, Aqua never stood up for him on any occasion. Her newly-found compassion made him blush ever so slightly, but it was gone as soon as Eraqus started talking again.

"Hey, I'm the master, here! I make the decisions!" he retorted.

"Actually, you just made me a master, so technically, I can make Terra a master if I so choose!" she shot back.

"Actually, you can't, because he's not your apprentice and you can't make him as such, because I still hold jurisdiction over him. So there." he snapped, feeling extremely prideful when he saw that Aqua didn't have a response to that. He paused. "I'm leaving now. You're all dismissed."

Aqua gave Terra an apologetic look.

"Sorry, Terra. You tried. But there's always next time-"

"Hey, guys!" Ven exclaimed, running over to them. "I just noticed that Eraqus and his bitter rival just left. I... kinda spaced out about pancakes the whole time. Sorry about that. What'd I miss?"

Aqua was suddenly very angry.

"You idiot! While you were daydreaming about pancakes, Terra here was being told that he doesn't have what it takes to be a Keyblade Master!" she shouted. Ven gave her a defiant look.

"Well, excuuuse me, but thinking about pancakes is a lot more entertaining than-wait, Terra got told WHAT?!" he exclaimed. Terra sighed.

"Friends, as much as I appreciate your outrage, I'm afraid I require... isolation! For the time being." he added. And with that, he left.

Xehanort walked down a corridor towards a mysterious figure wearing a black, one-piece suit with a half-skirt attached, as well as a helmet that covered his face.

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago." the mysterious figure remarked. "How long can it take to come back from one measly test?

"It's barely been five minutes, Vanitas." he replied.

"Oh... well, see, I knew that, but I was trying to, uh, test your sense of time. Because you're so old and all. Yeah. That's it." Vanitas stuttered.

"Yeah, you suck. Now tell me, what do you make of Ventus?" Xehanort asked.

"Dude, I've been standing behind a wall a hundred feet away from the testing area the whole time. I couldn't see anything from here." he pointed out.

"You were supposed to monitor the whole thing from one of your corridors of darkness!"

"...Yeah... but they would have noticed a giant black hole in the wall. Also, I forgot." he added, a bit shamefully. Xehanort gave him a glare. "But I can still make it up to you! I'll go spy on Ventus right now!"

"Good. And make it snappy!" he demanded.

"Yes, sir!" Vanitas replied, quickly opening a dark corridor and walking through it.

He barely got twelve feet into the corridor when he stopped. "...What was I supposed to be doing, again?" he wondered aloud. "...Eh, whatever. I guess I'll just go and give creepy messages to that Ventus guy the Master's so obsessed with. Yeah. Let's go do that."

He made a point to keep reminding himself of that as he continued to walk down the corridor towards Ven's room.

Ventus was in his room, following Terra's example and seeking isolation from the others. Hey, if it worked for Terra, then by default, it would work for Ven, too. Or at least, that was the logic he was following for now.

In reality, he was just bored because Aqua didn't want to have conversations with anyone because she was busy with something vague. Which left Ven with no one to hang out with. Even Master Eraqus had gone off to who-knows-where, and in any case, he never much liked the master. He had terrible taste in muffins.

So, he just lay there, swinging his old, wooden Keyblade back and forth, imagining that it was a butterfly. He would have used his own, rather than his old practice blade, but it had originally belonged to Terra, so that made it easier to see as a butterfly.

He jolted upwards, snapping out of his daydream, and letting out a yelp as he heard bells ring out far away. Oh, it's just the lunch bell, he thought, calming himself down a bit. He dragged himself out of bed and was about to leave him room when he heard a FWOOSH sound.

He spun around, wondering if the angels had finally come for him, to see a black hole open itself on his bedroom wall. A mysterious figure emerged from it, stumbling as he came.

"Ugh, jeez. That is the last time I take a mile walk through a shadow rave party. Friggin' bugs tried to burn me as a witch… oh." He looked up, finally noticing Ven, who was giving him a look of alarm. "Ahem. Hey, there." He said awkwardly.

"WHO ARE YOU." Ven demanded. "HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE. ARE YOU TRYING TO TAKE ME TO THE AFTERLIFE?!"

"Whoa, whoa! Chill, you blonde pinecone! Do you want what little security this castle has to ruin your bedroom?!" the mysterious figure exclaimed. Ventus blinked.

"Well, no, but…"

"Good. That means we can actually have a conversation."

"Uh, okay. About what?" Ven asked, quickly becoming used to the fact that a complete stranger had just waltzed into his room through a magic hole in the wall.

"Terra." The stranger declared.

"Terra?"

"Yes, Terra."

"What about Terra?" Ven asked.

"He's evil."

"Who, Terra?"

"Yes, Terra!"

"Terra's not evil, though." Ven pointed out. Vanitas sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Well, maybe he's not evil right now, but he's going to be. In fact, he's probably going on his merry way right now, leaving this world and into another, slowly embracing the darkness that's growing in his heart, and there's nothing you or your swirly hair can do about it." He said, trying to sound as ominous as possible. "By the time you catch up to him, he'll be a different person… one who's evil." He added, putting extra emphasis on the word 'evil'.

"Nah, he still wouldn't be evil." Ven replied dismissively. This irked Vanitas greatly.

"W-why not?!" he demanded.

"Because he's wonderful. A little easily manipulated, I guess, but really, he's the greatest!" Ven said, smiling at the thought of Terra's wonderful big brother attitude. Ven couldn't see it, but Vanitas had a puzzled look on his face.

"How do you know he's easily manipulated?" he asked.

"Because there was this one time, when I couldn't reach the asparagus eggs from the shelf, and Terra was busy training, so I had to cleverly weasel him into getting it for me. He never realized he had stopped training!" he giggled a little at the thought, once again admiring just how tall Terra was. Vanitas, thinking on a similar wavelength, frowned a little in distaste.

"Ah, yeah, I hate trying to grab things from a shelf. It's like whoever designed kitchens had some vendetta against short people. Do you know how humiliating it is to be so powerful, yet you can't get a simple box of baking powder from your own cupboard? It's a nightmare!" he remarked. Ven laughed a little.

"Ha, yeah. Being short kind of sucks sometimes. It's great for fighting—"

"—Especially since it makes you harder to hit—"

"—But by the end of the day…" Ven trailed off before starting again, Vanitas joining him as they said in unison,

"…You still need to ask a tall person to help you reach the biscuits."

They stared at each other for a moment, Ven a little surprised, but happy that he found someone who thought so similarly to him, and Vanitas feeling like a complete moron for acting friendly with the enemy. He also felt like he had completely derailed from his initial intention when he came here, but he couldn't remember what it was.

Then it hit him.

"B-but anyways, you be sure to keep an eye on Terra. He still going to turn to the dark si—"

RING, RING, RING, RING…

"Oh, that's the lunch bell! I've gotta go eat!" Ven exclaimed. Vanitas's interest was sparked as well, knowing that he could really go for some lunch right now. After all, Xehanort never fed him anything, so most of his diet consisted of stolen junk food and Pepsis.

"Ooooh, food? I WANNA EAT THE FOOD—no. No, no, no. I, uh, actually have to leave now. Bye." He said awkwardly before opening another hole in the wall and disappearing through it.

Ventus decided it was probably best to shrug the whole thing off and head to the cafeteria.

Terra sat outside on the bottom of the castle staircase, thinking. It wasn't often that he had to re-think the inner workings of his heart, and he found it to be much more difficult than he had initially thought. For instance, he vaguely understood that "darkness" was something that sat around in people's hearts, but he wasn't entirely sure what it did. But presumably, his heart had darkness in it. What did that mean, anyways? He was an expert on honor, glory, and making pie, and he was fairly certain none of those things had to do with darkness.

All of this deep inner monologue-ing was giving him a headache. Maybe darkness is the cause of headaches, he thought. He thought back to the magnesium fire on his arm from earlier. Where had that come from, anyway?

It was at that moment that Terra realized that he was really bad at putting things together. He had been thinking for over ten minutes now, and he actually understood less of why he was unworthy than before. He just knew that he was angry at the thought of being unworthy of anything.

"I wonder if I should see a counselor…" he wondered out loud.

"You're fine as you are," a voice replied unexpectedly, "What would you need a counselor for?"

Terra quickly stood up and turned around, relaxing when he saw Master Xehanort.

"Oh, Master Xehanort. I didn't hear you there. Such is the result of your stealthy, covert operations Master Eraqus had told me about!" he replied, trying to smile and sound normal.

"Answer the question, meathead." Came Xehanort's reply.

"Oh, um… I've been re-thinking the inner workings of my heart lately," he started, deciding to be honest, "and I've realized that there's a lot about it I don't understand. Darkness, for example. I was thinking a counselor could help me with figuring out what it does and why it's presumably bad."

"Wow, you're dense."

"…Excuse me?"

"You think a counselor can help you understand your heart, but a counselor wouldn't know you. How would they know any more about your heart than you do?" Xehanort explained.

"Well, they're experts in psychology, which is related to the heart in some fashion, and given how little I know about my own heart, I figured—" Terra tried to explain, but was then interrupted by Xehanort.

"Well, you figured wrong!" he snapped, "The darkness cannot be destroyed…"

"I wasn't suggesting that it could," Terra pointed out.

"…It can only be channeled!" Xehanort finished, paying almost no attention to Terra, who gave him a befuddled look.

"I don't suppose it was something from my classes that I've failed to learn?" he wondered.

"Terra, I could go on for hours about all the things you didn't learn from class, but that's not why I'm here. I'm here to tell you that—"

RING, RING, RING, RING…

Upon hearing the bell, Terra automatically looked towards the castle, feeling as though the bells were calling him to a destiny far greater than himself, an epic journey to be fulfilled, a battle in which he would be the sole victor. He got this impression from many things, but he especially felt it from the bells. His mind set on this newfound opportunity for glory, he completely forgot about Master Xehanort and began running up the stairs, going towards the sound of the bell.

"…and once the entire dimension is effectively turned into a desolate wasteland, it is your duty that you—"

RING, RING, RING, RING…

"…I'm not the only one who heard that, right?" Aqua asked, just to make sure she hadn't gone insane from listening to Eraqus give her extremely convoluted orders for so long. Thankfully, her suspicions were proven wrong when Eraqus noticed the sound, too, and turned his attention to a glowing gemstone on the wall.

Terra suddenly rushed to her side, panting from running so long, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"WHAT HAPPENED?! HAS THERE BEEN A DEMON INVASION?! A LOSS OF ALL NONEXISTENT ELECTRICITY?! AN EXTREMELY POINTLESS SCUFFLE?!" he shrieked. Aqua sighed.

"I don't know," came her intelligent answer.

"Well, you should start knowing!" he retorted.

As Aqua got in a debate with Terra about the possibility of someone inexplicably gaining knowledge, Eraqus approached the glowing gemstone and saw that his other friend, Yen Sid, had called him.

"Eraqus." Was all he said.

"This really isn't a good time, Yen," he said in an exasperated tone, "I'm kind of busy instructing the new Keyblade Master of things that will hopefully be useful at the end of this game. If you have something to say, say it now before you take too long and I slowly lose what little sanity I have left."

There was a long pause. Terra's and Aqua's bickering could be heard in the background, getting more heated as time dragged on.

"…You must inform them of the plot." Yen Sid said.

"That would be a lot easier if I knew what the plot was, Yenny."

"… … I will explain… … … … everything." He replied slowly.

While Yen Sid took roughly three hours to explain the very small amount of information he wanted Eraqus to pass on to Aqua and Terra, Ven was busy running around the castle, trying to remember where the cafeteria was and why they never had a lunch bell before.

At the same time, Vanitas was trying really, really hard to avoid another Heartless rave party.

"If I have to listen to one more gothic disco song about baking cake, I swear to God, I will freaking lose my mind." He complained.

Then he heard it.

"First you try measure all the flour, flour,

Then you try put it into a bowl, a bowl,

Then you try measure all the sugar, sugar…"

"AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Vanitas screamed.

"Okay, you two…" Eraqus began, rubbing his temples as he approached them, "…Stop fighting and listen to some exposition."

Terra and Aqua, who had practically gotten into a wrestling match, quickly stopped trying to attack each other and stood before Eraqus once again.

"Alright… so, my buddy Yen Sid just called and told me that the Princesses of Heart are in danger. And not just from the evil forces of evil darkness, but also from something that's almost exactly the same, but different."

"What does that mean?" Aqua asked.

"I don't know; he didn't specify because I told him not to take up too much time."

"But, Master, it's been almost three hours," Terra pointed out.

"Yeah… for something as important as this, I'm surprised it didn't take eight. He's not exactly known for being the quickest-spoken man in the multiverse." He explained. "Anyhow, since you two are Keyblade wielders, I want you to defeat the not-quite-dark-forces, called the "Unversed", before they can do something bad to the Princesses of Heart. Also, I tried to tell Xehanort about this, but he didn't answer my calls. He never answers my calls…

"Now, since I opened the Gateways to the other worlds, you can go through them with your magic armor. Now, go! And make sure you don't die." He turned his attention to Terra. "And if you can complete this task, Terra, I might consider making you a Master, okay?"

At this, Terra's face beamed and he gave a confident smile.

"YES, MASTER!" he exclaimed, running off immediately. Eraqus sighed.

Aqua started to follow Terra, only to see Ven rush by in a blur of blonde and grey.

"THE CAFETERIA IS DEFINITELY IN THIS DIRECTION! I CAN FEEL IT!" he yelled as he ran by.

"Well, that was weird." Aqua remarked.

"Hey, Aqua, do me a favor." Eraqus said suddenly.

"You mean aside from the one where you want me to demolish my home world?" she replied sarcastically.

"Yes. If Terra does too many stupid things, especially involving darkness, bring him back to me, pronto."

"Sure thing, Master-dude."

Eraqus gave her a look.

"…That sounded weird." she said awkwardly.

As Ven ran down the corridor, hoping that maybe this time he had found the right one to the cafeteria, he found himself running outside, stumbling down a staircase.

Just my luck, he thought bitterly. Then he realized that he actually was lucky when he found Terra standing in the middle of the stone pavement.

"TERRAAAA!" he yelled, catching Terra's attention right before he reached the clearing and plowed right into him. Terra, who had a strong build and knew how to keep his balance, managed to keep himself steady while Ven recoiled from the impact and landed on the floor. He quickly stood back up, his face panicked.

"I-i-it was horrible—and I-I couldn't find—so m-many hallways—" he sputtered, trying to make sense of all the insanity he had just gone through trying to find the food. He stopped talking when Terra ruffled his already messy hair and smiled.

"It's okay, Ven," he said, trying to be comforting despite having no idea what Ven was talking about. "Don't worry about whatever it is you're worrying about; I'll be back in a bit."

That confused Ventus greatly.

"Wait, you're going somewhere-?" he started, but he couldn't continue because he was busy being astonished by what was happening before his eyes.

Terra punched the orb on his shoulder pad and was suddenly covered in light. Undergoing a transformation sequence similar to that of the ones shown in Sailor Moon, he came out of the sequence covered in elaborate, form-fitting armor. Opening a giant wormhole in the sky with his Keyblade, he tossed the said Keyblade about a hundred feet in the air, and when it came back, it was an elaborate motorcycle of sorts. He jumped on it and drove it into the huge wormhole in the sky.

Ven just stared for a while.

"…Whoa…" he said. "That was so… awesome! I have got to try that!"

Slamming his palm onto his own shoulder pad, he, too, underwent a transformation sequence. When he was finished, he took the time to admire just how amazing he looked in his newfound armor.

He then twirled in place and, with the skills of a ballerina, spun his Keyblade around and threw it like a baton into the air. When it came back, it was the most awesome-looking air board he had ever laid eyes on. He jumped, spun around like Sonic the Hedgehog, and landed on the air board with amazing grace. He, too, disappeared into the vortex.

"VEN, GET BACK HERE!" Aqua yelled, convinced that Ven was going to do something stupid as she watched him fly into the wormhole. Eraqus shared her outrage.

"THAT MORON HAD BETTER GET BACK HERE BEFORE I KILL HIM!" he shouted. "Aqua, get him back here before he hurts himself!" he commanded, convinced that Aqua was the only one out of his three pupils with any sort of capability.

"Right!" she agreed, also convinced that a young one like Ven was helpless in the outside dimension.

After going under yet another transformation sequence, turning her Keyblade into a flying bike of some kind, she flew after her two best friends.

Little did they all know what they were getting into.

Author's Notes: THIRTEEN PAGES. MY GOD. THIS TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE.

Also, I feel I should mention that I don't really ship the canon versions of Terra and Aqua. But then again, these aren't the canon versions of Terra and Aqua. Plus, the amount of shippy moments between these two is going to be so small, it almost doesn't count as a pairing. So, that's why the description says "No pairings". If you do ship Terra and Aqua, then great! If you don't, then that's fine, too.

But, on another note, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It's phenomenally long, but I had fun writing it, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it! :)

EDIT: Also, I just re-read this entire story, and I have to say, as proud as I am of how it turned out... it just doesn't seem right for it to end here on chapter 3. So, in order to satisfy my ABSOLUTE NEED for there to be a "Next" button at the bottom of this page, I'm going to try to start on the fourth chapter as soon as I have the time. So the fourth chapter MIGHT come out sooner than this one did. I'll do my best! :D