You smiled at me and said,
"Don't get me wrong, I love you,
But does that mean I have to meet your father?"

"And, here we are, back at the training yard where you arrived."

Terra and Nova spent hours walking and their conversation was light and friendly. Both of them knew it was getting late, but neither wanted to part from each other for the night, feeling very comfortable in each other's presence.

"So, do you plan on staying in this world for a while?" Terra asked, anxious she would be leaving sooner than he would like.

Nova took a moment to think of her answer and finally pulled away and sat on the bench nearby with Terra following closely. Sighing, she turned to look at Terra and finally responded.

"I've been traveling for a while now so I think I could stay here for a while. Besides, it looks as though you and Aqua could benefit from having another person help with your Mark of Mastery exam. It may be different now than when I took the exam, but it can't hurt, right?"

Nova elbowed Terra in his ribs and he chuckled.

"Yeah, Master Eraqus has been busy trying to train both of us and he even took on training Ven, too. I'm sure he remembers you and will be okay with you staying here."

Nova tore away from Terra's penetrating gaze to look up at the stars, biting her lip in contemplation.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I left quite an impression on him with your toy trainset wrapped around my feet."

"So, you'll stay?" Terra pressed, not paying attention to her joke.

He stared at Nova's profile, hopeful of her answer.

"I am a little rusty with my keyblade…"

Nova smiled at Terra and he beamed from ear to ear. Standing up, both of them decided to go inside and find Ventus and Aqua. As they both walked into the foyer, they noticed Aqua helping Ventus with his keyblade techniques.

"Don't worry, Ven. You just have to work on your stance, that's all."

Ventus nodded his head and shifted his feet a little to match hers before Terra distracted them both from Aqua's instruction.

"How's it going, you two?"

Aqua and Ventus both turned to Terra and noticed the brunette to his side. Aqua, having already been introduced, waved and greeted Nova once again. When Ventus neared, Nova stuck her hand out and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Nova. It's nice to meet you, Ventus."

Ventus glanced at Terra and Aqua uncertainly but putting his wariness aside, he extended his hand to grasp Nova's.

With a small smile, he nodded and said, "It's nice to meet you, too."

"Well, since it looks like the two of you are training. I won't hold you up any more than I already have, so once again it was nice to meet you and have a good night." Nova said with a smile stretching across her face.

"I'll walk with you, Nova," Terra quickly said before she could run off.

Nova turned to him and said, "It's alright, Terra. I am going to go find Master Eraqus and let him know I'm here. It's been a while since I last saw him so I want to go catch up. Thanks for the tour earlier."

With a smile and a wave, Nova sprinted from the foyer as Terra's eyes followed her until she was out of sight. With a disappointed sigh, he turned back to his friends and decided to put in a little training with them before crashing for the night.

In you and I there's a new land
Angels in flight

When Nova came to Master Eraqus' office, she took a deep breath and knocked softly on the door before opening it slowly. When she entered, she noticed he was sitting beneath the large floor to ceiling windows and even had one of them opened to let some fresh air into the room. She noticed his arched form sitting on the bench beneath the entire length of those tall windows. He seemed to be studying something with intense concentration because he never even looked her way, most likely not even hearing her knock earlier.

"Master Eraqus, it is good to see you again."

Master Eraqus quickly looked up from his chess board to find Nova smiling back at him, standing near the rotating sphere in the middle of his office.

"Well, if it isn't Nova. How did your traveling go?"

Nova's eyes shifted from his to take in the large office that had hardly changed from when she was here briefly the last time, before they were teleported to Yen Sid's tower. Off to her right, she saw a calendar hanging on the wall with a few dates circled in red. However on closer inspection, she noticed it was a few months behind and took a mental note of the year.

"I traveled to hundreds of worlds and experienced many things. Eventually, I found myself growing lonely so, instead of just traversing the stars like King Mickey taught me to do, I closed my eyes and let my heart guide my way. I arrived here a few hours ago, but I met Terra and he gave me a tour."

Master Eraqus was standing at this point and nodded with his hands clasped behind his back. "It has been around eight years or so since you left, hasn't it?"

Nova glanced back to the calendar briefly but focused her gaze on the man before her again.

"Yeah, I believe so. When I'm traveling, time seems to be a little different on each world but I see the date on the calendar and I'd say it's been roughly that long," Nova stated while pointing to her right at the wall.

Master Eraqus briefly glanced at the calendar but grimaced when he noticed the wrong month was displayed and turned back to Nova.

"Well, as you can see, I've been a little busy I can't even keep up with the date myself," he chuckled before continuing. "Since I started teaching Ventus with Terra and Aqua, I've had less time to keep up on trivial things like that."

Nova nodded and relaxed her stance.

"Actually, that's what I came to talk to you about. I was wondering if I could stay here for a while since I'm a little tired of constantly traveling. I figured that since I'm also a keyblade master, I could help train them to help lighten your work duties as a tradeoff."

Master Eraqus stared at Nova, saw her look of determination and nodded hastily. He could feel the power she possessed and knew that it would be a good idea to try and spread out his training with his three pupils a bit. Besides, he also knew that Nova was lonely and this would give her a good chance to make some friends.

"I would appreciate your help, Nova. We can start discussing their training tomorrow so let me show you to a room you can stay in."

Nova nodded and followed him out of his office to her new room, ready to start her new responsibilities.