"Aqua. Aqua!"
"Father?" He was the only one who called her Aqua. She sat up in bed, rubbing at her eyes.
"No." It was Terra. Something soft came through the bed curtains. "Wear this. Hurry."
"Centurion Terra, how did you just address me?" She did put the thing on over her nightgown, even though it was a bathing robe. She had to wear something.
"Apologies. I needed you to wake quickly. Men and women forget titles in their sleep, but not their names." His voice was clipped.
"And what, Centurion, are you doing in my bedchamber?" She opened the bed curtains, and stopped. Not just Terra, but five of his men were there, all in armor, with hands on their swords. "What is the meaning of this?" Aqua demanded, but her voice was not as loud as it had been.
"The palace is aflame. Come with us." And he marched toward the door without looking back.
Aqua coughed. There was something rough-tasting in the air. She followed, and the other guards fell in behind. "Where are you taking me?"
"The garden."
Well, that made sense, it was behind walls and yet outside the building itself. "Where are my maids?"
"I found none. Fled, or joined the bucket line, or hiding. It doesn't matter."
"It certainly does," Aqua said, looking at the six large men around her, but she did not say it loudly. The man could not conjure maids out of the ground, and it was, after all, an emergency.
The garden was close by Aqua's suite, it did not take long to get there. "Send a man to my father," Aqua said, "and tell him I am safe. He will be worried."
"I cannot."
"I'm sure five men can guard me from smoke as well as six, Centurion."
"I cannot. Your Majesty."
Aqua did not freeze, she only slowed. The world lurched oddly. "Centurion Terra. How did you just address me?"
Terra held out his hand, and in a flash of light he was holding a keyblade, great and golden, with six tines. The Empire Key. Aqua stared at its pommel, where no chain or medallion hung, proof that its master was dead. "Your father is dead, my Empress." He knelt to her, as did all his men, and he held out the keyblade hilt first.
"How?"
"By magic, your Majesty." His eyes dropped. "And also by suicide. He called down fire upon himself."
Tears ran down Aqua's face. But she was a princess, and her voice did not shake. "Put that weapon away. I cannot use it."
"As you wish, your Majesty." Terra vanished the keyblade and stood up. His men looked at each other, and Aqua realized that by giving him a keyblade to keep, she'd made him a Chaser. That was what a Chaser was, someone who kept one of the thirteen – no, fourteen, now – keyblades of the past Emperors. Chaser of Heartless, it meant, who could go after the creatures while the Emperor stayed in the city and governed. All the better, then. She hadn't liked Terra before; now his face would remind her. . .
Aqua turned away. Her voice was steady and clear; if none of the guards could see her eyes it would be as though she wasn't crying. "Why would my father do this? Are you sure it was he?"
"I saw him cast the spell myself, Majesty. I was there, but not quite in time. I could not stop him."
"But why?"
"There has been treason, your Majesty," Terra said, his voice bitter. "The eastern warding-gates have been unlocked, and the streets are filled with Heartless. Chaser Reks is missing."
"We were betrayed by a Chaser?"
"Or he was killed, and his keyblade taken." Neither sounded likely. Chasers were chosen for their dedication and loyalty, and they carried the most powerful weapons in the world. "There are only four other Chasers in the city, and Rasler is pinned down on the north wall, cut off from the palace. Chaser Prime Basch says he can't secure the palace, much less the city, until the other eight keys return. Tomorrow."
Aqua's chin came up, though she was still looking away. "You may inform Chaser Prime that this is unacceptable. We must hold the Imperial Palace."
"Damn it, Aqua, if he says it can't be done, it can't be done!" Now Aqua looked, glaring wrathfully – and tearfully – into his eyes. "Your Majesty," Terra amended. "Forgive my impertinence. But I implore you to accept the truth. The palace will fall. I've ordered my men to gather your critical ministers and officers and rally here." The phrasing shook Aqua – her ministers and officers. She was the Empress. She didn't let the shock touch her face. "Basch will hold as long as he can, and he'll probably stretch it to give Rasler time to get back to us, but he expects to fall back to us and guard our retreat out of the city within the hour."
"What about my people?" Ven was out there somewhere.
"Some of them will be able to escape the Heartless until we return. It will only be twelve hours. If we lose you, the Empire falls, and none of them escape."
He was right. The Imperial family weren't just political leaders, they were the centers of the Empire's power – mighty mages and wielders of the chained keyblades called the Empire Keys. The first eight or nine nobles in the succession lived in the city. But Aqua just kept looking at the city, and the tree Ven always came down. . .
"Princess! Something went wrong, the streets are knee-deep in Neoshadows and they'll be over the walls in a minute and did you know your house is on fire?"
There he was, sitting on the branch just as he always had – well, he looked frightened and tense, but aside from that the same. Terra and his guards just stared for a second, long enough for Aqua to answer first.
"I'd noticed, yes. What are you doing here?"
"I came to protect you!" Aqua gave a pointed glance to the armored soldiers around her. Ven just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and how're the guys in the pretty sixty pound armor gonna get you over the wall? 'Cause the gate's got so many Heartless in front of it they'll just pile up and pour over the top as soon as the Chasers stop fighting. Maybe they can get away – whatsisname with Honorbound is pretty good – but I don't think they can get you out before the walls go."
"The palace guard is coming with important government officials," Aqua began.
"No way," Ven said. "Dozens of hearts and no keyblades? They'd swarm you under. And you still can't get over the wall." Ven pulled at his hair. "I don't even know if any of my friends are okay. What the hell were those shiny sword-monkeys doing, anyway? You call this place the thousand year empire, you say this city will last forever, you hang kids off Cruce in the name of His Majesty's peace, and then you let the friggin' Heartless in? What are you people even for?"
Aqua flinched. The power of the Empire came in return for exactly the obligation Ven accused them of failing. But Terra laughed, bitterly. "The thousand year empire is just a line we give the street rabble. The world never was like that. We've been hanging on by our fingernails for three hundred years." He looked at Ven. "I think you're right, rat-boy. In fact, since none of my men are showing up, I think the Heartless are already inside the compound somewhere." Magic flickered in the distance, underlighting the clouds in red and white flashes. "Are you loyal to the princess, rat-boy?"
"Always," Ven said instantly. And then, "What, you still think I come here to get in her pants?" He said it as though it were the most revolting idea possible, and also as if Aqua had ever in her life worn pants. She gave him a royal look, which he ignored. "In the middle of a Heartless swarm?"
Terra ignored his sarcasm. "And you can get back over the wall?"
"I can get myself back over. And probably I can help the princess over. But there ain't no steel-covered sword monkey gonna climb it."
Terra smiled like a wolf, then pulled his spiked helmet on. "I can go anywhere you can, rat-boy, armor or no." He turned to his men. "You can try to keep up, or take off your armor and follow, or try to make your own ways," he said frankly. "Her Majesty can't wait for you. It's rough luck on you any way, and I won't give any orders, but you'll stay alive longer if you're all together."
The five guards looked at each other, and started pulling each other's armor off. Aqua probably should have realized it before, but peeling sixty pounds of steel off yourself was not a speedy process. "We'll be right behind you, Centurion, Majesty," one of them said. And perhaps they would, if the Heartless were not as fast as Ven and Terra feared.
Ven held down a hand toward Aqua. "Come on, Princess. We've gotta go." She took it, and he pulled her up into the tree.
Ven's route in and out of the castle relied on a branch of the pear tree that brushed against the wall near the top. Ven and Aqua barely had to jump; Terra took a ridiculous flying leap almost from the trunk, where the branch was thick enough for him and his armor, and caught the edge. He pulled himself up without help.
They went along the wall a short ways to a tower. ("This door should be locked," Terra muttered in passing, and Ven smirked.) There was a rope coiled outside a narrow window, tied to a spike pounded into the wooden floor, apparently both new for Aqua's sake. Ven could apparently wriggle through, and Aqua thought she might as well, but Terra in armor had no hope. He gave it a look, and the Empire Key appeared in his hand. He simply hacked the wall apart until the opening was large enough. "There are Heartless at the bottom," he said. "I must go first." He threw the keyblade down like the hammer of a god, and was climbing down after it before he'd finished talking. Maybe the rope wouldn't have held him long, but then again, he slowed himself on rope and wall only enough to not break a leg at the bottom, and landed in the middle of the Heartless with a crash of armor and an arc of swinging gold.
Ven was next. He'd looked very strange, seeing Terra holding proof that the Emperor was dead, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, as he started down the rope, he flashed Aqua a sad grin. "Make a wish, princess," he said. Aqua realized that there was a break in the clouds over his shoulder, and through it shone a single star, the first she'd seen in weeks. Behind her, war magic flashed, then stopped, and screams began rising from the palace. Somewhere inside were nine hundred and twenty-six paper cranes, burning.