A/N: Chapter 7 is up! Sorry for the delay. This chapter was a little tricky to write, but i finally finished it! Expect Chapter 8 somewhere between the end of this week or next week. And, now, on to the story...

We're back where we started… I thought. Cosmos and Chaos sent me a psychic nod.

I turned around to see Riku being helped by Sora. Kairi was on the other side of him, making sure he could keep his balance.

"He shouldn't have come along; he's still recovering." I heard Terra whisper to Aqua. She didn't respond. "Aqua, what is it?"

She is the creator of this place, Cosmos said.

And the reason Ven is in that room, Chaos finished.

I wasn't surprised by this news. "Shall we head in?" The others nodded, and in we marched.

We didn't even make it ten feet in the door when Aqua started walking towards a room. "Everyone, in here." We followed.

The room we walked into was not what I was expecting, at all. It had a very warm feeling to it. The walls were painted auburn orange. The furniture, which consisted of a bed/sofa type deal, a few arm chairs, some beanbag chairs, and a table, was a dark red, outlined in gold. It reminded me of leaves in the fall, or some royal chamber; I hadn't decided which one. There was a fireplace in the center of the room. Pictures of different worlds hung on the walls. We had to descend a few steps to enter the room.

"This," Aqua began, "is the Room of Recovery—"

How lame… Chaos and I thought. Cosmos psychically smacked us in the head.

"—and also my room. Well, was, anyway..." She stopped abruptly. Everyone was giving her a funny look. "What?"

"This doesn't remind me of you, at all…" Terra said. Aqua raised her eyebrow, in a slightly annoyed way. "No offense, of course!" He was trying to save his butt. "You were saying?"

She didn't look hurt, which was a good sigh. "As I was saying, this is the Room of Recovery, and my former room. Here, one's wounds heal faster than normal. Usually about five times the normal speed. How do you feel, Riku?"

We all turned our attention towards Riku. Sora let go and he stood on his own, rubbing his right hand. "We were only in her for a minute…" He looked very surprised. "How—"

"Magic," Aqua cut him off. "I specialize in magic. So, naturally, my old room is enchanted with magic. Though, I must say, the fireplace is new…anyway, this is also a safe room. No one can enter or exit unless they have the power to control a Keyblade." Everyone nodded. "Also, this room moves around—"

"Moves around?" Sora interrupted. "What do you mean it 'moves around'?"

Aqua summoned her Keyblade and held it up; Terra's eyes widened when he saw it. "I'm the one who created this place." Everyone looked shocked. "This use to be the Land of Departure where our master resided and we trained. When our master was…" I could tell she was struggling with her words.

"Aqua?" Terra spoke softly. She didn't want to meet his eyes. "Master Eraqus—"

"He isn't dead," I blurted out, unexpectedly. Both Terra and Aqua looked at me in disbelief. "What?"

"What do you mean, he isn't dead?" Aqua asked, hopefully. Terra gave me the same look.

"I can't exactly explain it…" Chaos and Cosmos were yelling at me; apparently I wasn't supposed to tell them that. Whoops… "But, I can sense him. I don't know where he is, but he's still alive."

"But then—"

"Eraqus simply lost his connection to this world. That doesn't mean he's dead."

Aqua had tears in her eyes, but she whipped them away and sighed. "That's a relief…" She was trying to keep it together. I probably shouldn't have said anything, but now I could see a gleam of hope in her eyes "Now, where was I…? Oh, yeah! This room moves around. To locate this room, use your Keyblade…"

My attention faded. I was looking at Terra, noticing the look of guilt on his face. The visions I had the night before started going through my mind: Terra and Aqua competing in the Master Qualification Exam; Terra descending into darkness; Ventus fighting Vanitas; the X-Blade. Soon, my head began to hurt and I started remembering all I saw. Enough thinking. Chaos snapped me out of my trance. We don't want your head exploding. That'd be one hell of a mess… Though, your brain is kinda small…

Shut up, you jerk, Cosmos scolded. You can be such an ass sometimes…

I sighed and focused back on Aqua, in time for her to say, "We'll need to split up in groups."

"Wait, why?" I asked. "You created this world, so don't you know where he is. Can't you just make the room appear?"

She shook her head, sadly. "I cannot. My connection to this world has become so faint; I don't have any way to locate Ven's room." I felt really bad for asking, but then Aqua had a mood swing and smiled. "We're so very close to finding him. So, let's split up and head out before Vanitas finds him!"

We decided that three groups would be the best: Riku and the king made up one team; Aqua, Sora, and Kairi made another; that left me and Terra. I was thrilled with joy, let me tell you... And from the look of it, he wasn't too fond of teaming up with me.

Outside the Room of Recovery (which is still a lame name…) Aqua said a few more words, "Remember: if you find yourselves in trouble, use your Keyblades to find the Room of Recovery. Now, let's do this!"

And off we went. We headed down the hallway and stopped at a stair well. We climbed up and at the second floor Aqua, Sora, and Kairi took off. At the third floor, Riku and the king left. At the fourth floor, it was me and Terra.

Talk about uncomfortable silence. Why Aqua teamed us up was beyond me. We walked through the white hallways; the only noise was our footsteps echoing off the walls. We passed door after door, opening and closing them; nothing but empty rooms.

"Nothing on this floor." I tried to sound upbeat and happy. It wasn't working all that well. Terra wasn't fooled.

"Let's keep going."

We kept walking through the hallway till we came to a door at the end. Terra opened it and his eyes widened. "No way…"

We walked in and I couldn't believe where we were.

"Is this…?"

"The Enchanted Dominion," Terra stated.

"Isn't this where Aurora is from?"

Terre gritted his teeth. "…and Maleficent." There was anger in his voice. If a cold wind were to have blown through, that would have made the moment.

We walked in and were greeted by the strangest of creatures in a meadow. They were blue and black with red eyes and about three feet high. They reminded me of piranhas. Terra summoned his Keyblade as soon as he saw them. "Unversed…"

I summoned my blades. I knew exactly what to do. "There's about twenty of them. We each take about ten or so?"

But Terra didn't respond. There was anger in his eyes; anger that I'd never seen before. It was like he was reliving a bad dream. He rushed in, hacking and slashing like crazy. One after another, the "Unversed" just disappeared. It never even occurred to me to help; Terra had every one of them whipped.

Once he was finished, he released his Keyblade. I released mine and then, somewhat hesitant, walked over to him. "That was—"

"Insane?"

"Wild."

Terra gave me one of those "your point" looks. And I knew what I was about to say would either put me on his "you're okay" side, or his "I'm gonna beat your ass" side. "Eraqus's heart is no longer mended with yours."

His eyes flashed a vibrant blue. I wasn't sure what it meant, but I was hoping it was something good. When his eyes met with mine, I could tell he was feeling guilty about something. "What do you mean?"

His memories must have faded, I thought. I could feel Chaos and Cosmos telling me not to tell him, but I felt like I needed to. If Terra's heart wasn't set on saving Ven, then there was no way we would succeed. "Eraqus's heart was separated from yours when Chaos and Cosmos reunited your heart with your body. I'm not sure where it is…" Truthfully, I had an idea, but I didn't want to get his hopes up. "But I can tell that he is still alive. And possibly reunited with his body…or another vessel."

"But, he is alive?" Terra asked, almost in disbelief. I nodded. He sighed, and I could see a lot of tension, stress, guilt, and worry leave. "Now, let's focus on finding Ven."

We started running through the meadow and lake, ending up at a bridge that connected to a castle. The castle was beautiful. Definitely Sleeping Beauty's castle, I said to myself.

We were halfway across the bridge when Terra stopped running. "What's the matter?"

I could tell he was somewhat shaken up, even though he was hiding it very well. "This isn't possible…"

"You've been here before, haven't you?" He nodded. "What happened here?"

"If this is my memory of that time, you're about to find out."

I was going to ask what he meant, but then I saw it…err, well, her. From the other side of the bridge, connecting to the castle, a woman walking towards us. She looked very familiar, and when she was close enough I realized why. Walking towards us was none other than Maleficent, looking as evil as ever (if that is even possible).

"Maleficent," we both said. I could hear the hatred in Terra's voice. And I knew his heart had to have been troubled.

"Ten years ago," Terra began, "I came here looking for Master Xehanort under Master Eraqus's orders. I first arrived at that meadow with the lake and battled a group of Unversed called Floods, just like those creatures we saw. After that, I started towards this bridge and met her. To make it short, she tricked me into taking Princess Aurora's heart." His voice wasn't shaky, but rather agitated. "She manipulated the darkness within me to help her."

I was quite for a few seconds trying to taking in everything he had told me. "Did you…" I wasn't sure how to phrase this. "You never got over it, did you?"

He shook his head. "How could I? I did something so terrible to her."

"Aurora is a Princess of Heart, one that bears no darkness within. I'm pretty sure she's forgiven you. She might not have even known her heart was taken."

"But, how? What I did…"

"What you did was wrong, don't be mistaken. However, it isn't entirely your fault. Back then, you couldn't control the Darkness, could you?" He shook his head. "Now, you have full control over it, right?" He nodded. "A Princess of Heart has no darkness within their selves. Resentment, revenge, anger. What would those do for her? If you were to ask her now, I bet you she'd have already forgiven you. All you need to do now is forgive yourself."

Terra looked down, trying to digest what I had said. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out when I became Doctor Phil… The hell did that come from?

Well, you are the one with the most patients in your family. And, besides, how many family fights have you had to get in between and break up? Cosmos asked. I thought about what she said, which made sense, and then wondered how she knew about that when…

You like roast beef dipped in white chocolate? Chaos randomly stated. You are freaking weird…

Are you two scanning my brain or something?

Well… Cosmos tried to play innocent.

Yep. Chaos just didn't care. You like fried dill pickles, too? You ain't half bad.

I mumbled a "Thanks?", and then focused back on the task at hand: Maleficent.

She was standing about six feet away. I could just feel the darkness radiating off of her. Chaos was complaining. Bitch gives us darkness users a bad name. Hope one of you shove a Keyblade up her ass sideways… I was trying not to smile as Cosmos was laughing.

"And who might you be?" She asked. Her voice was shriller than I thought it was. "Why aren't you two asleep like everyone else?"

"We are visitors, just passing through." Terra was just seconds away from summoning her Keyblade if she were to strike at us.

"I see…" Her ugly mug making a strange expression, like she could sense the darkness coming from us. "You, boy." She was pointing her rod at me. The orb on top began to glow. "Why do I—"

She never got to finish her sentence. Terra stabbed her in the heart with his Keyblade. Only the tip entered, but when he pulled it out a dark liquid began flooding out. At first, I thought it was blood; I was wrong. Coming out of her chest, where her heart was, was the darkness she had been using to empower herself. She fell to her knees and then fell forward on her face. Slowly, she dissolved.

I looked at Terra, who seemed proud of what he had done. The smirk on his face told me so. When our eyes met, the smirk left and he straightened up his posture. "No point in reliving past events," was all he said.

I nodded in understanding and we pressed forward towards the castle.

We were in such a hurry, I didn't even have time to site see. I can tell you one thing, though: the castle looked just like it did in the movie. Before I knew it we were running up stairs and, when we finally stopped running, we ended up in front of a large wooden door.

"Good…thing…I'm…in…shape…" I wheezed. I hadn't run like that since freshman PE. I looked at Terra, who was just fine. "So…now what?" I was finally catching my breath.

"We go in." And, together, we pushed the door open and walked in.

Imagine my surprise as the Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora, is, well, sleeping on a bed about twenty feet away from us. Now, imagine my surprise as a crow is sitting on a ledge with a black clock in its feet. Multiply that by the size of the castle, because that black clock transformed before our very eyes into Maleficent.

"But, you struck her down on the bridge…" I whispered. Terra didn't say anything. He kept his attention on the evil witch.

Bitch just doesn't die… Chaos was complaining.

Then why don't YOU do something about it, Cosmos piped up. Chaos mumbled something to the effect of "stupid memories" under his breath.

"Memories…?" Then it struck me. "She's nothing but a memory."

He glanced over at me; our eyes locked for a few seconds, and then he turned his attention back toward Maleficent. "What do you mean?"

"Castle Oblivion has the ability to take one's memories and make them real." I was trying my best to gather my thoughts and explain, praying that what I was going to say would make sense. "When we entered the room, your memories of what happened that day overwhelmed you and brought Maleficent back."

"So, what do I need to do?"

"Forgive yourself."

Terra was quiet. He closed his eyes and took a deep sigh. Maleficent, now fully reformed, walked towards us. "Your deaths shall be instant!" She was pissed.

She pointed her rod at Terra, a dark ball of energy forming at the tip. I put my hand on Terra's shoulder, and then pulled him back as I summoned Chaos to deflected the blast. Terra looked surprised, at first, but soon regained his usual "tough guy" look.

"I'll handle her," I said, summoning Cosmos. "You come to terms with what you've done." Terra was going to protest, but I beat him to it. "If you don't learn to forgive yourself, you're not going to be able to save Ven." Terra nodded, closed his eyes, again, and took a deep breath, trying to relax himself.

She lunged forward, powering up another energy blast. I swung Chaos at her, hitting the tip of the rod and breaking it the orb on top. She cried in anger. I stabbed her with Cosmos, right in the chest. She fell to the floor. That was a little too easy… But it wasn't long till she got back up. Her eyes started glowing green and I had a feeling I knew what was about to come next.

But, suddenly, she stopped moving. It was as if time was completely frozen around her. I turned to look at Terra, who wasn't there. "Terra…?"

"Princess Aurora…" he said. I turned back around to see him kneeling next Aurora. "I…I'm sorry."

Aurora's eyes opened and she sat up. She placed a hand on Terra's shoulder. "Terra," she said gently. A light surrounded her. Maleficent didn't budge. "What is it you want most?"

"…to be forgiven…"

"I never blamed you."

"…Xander was right?" He sounded so disappointed when he said that.

She looked up at me, then back to Terra and nodded. "You must forgive yourself to keep going forward."

Terra stood up. "Thank you, princess." He turned around, walked past me, summoned his Keyblade, and pointed it at Maleficent. "Never again." A beam of light shot out and surrounded her. Then the whole place began to glow like crazy. The light was so bright I had to close my eyes. When it finally dimmed down, I noticed we were no longer in the tower. We were in an all white room: no windows, no decorations, no furniture, and two doors.

Terra walked over to me, his eyes telling me all I needed to know. "Let's go."

We walked through (what I figured was) the north door. As soon as we opened the door, we saw some very familiar faces.

But it wasn't a happy moment.

"Is this all you've got?"

The voice sent a chill down my spine. We rushed into the room to see our worst fears conformed.

"Vanitas!"