A small break started after finals and the party, this gave everyone time to take Raven out to see the whole island. They had planned it as a camping trip, since it would take a couple of days to hike to some of the best places.
Raven wasn't completely sure about it all but it meant that they wouldn't be interacting with other people very much. All she knew about the trip was that at the end of it all they would camp on a special beach for a couple days before coming home for the rest of the break from college.
"How you holding up?" Vanitas asked walking beside her through the woods.
She shrugged, "It's odd that feels amazing to me. Like I never went camping before let alone into the woods." She explained.
It was true, her heart raced with both excitement and fear as they walked through the woods. She got to see all kinds of little creatures she had never seem before but she was also getting bitten by bugs. Besides all of that her sense were on overdrive from taking in the new sights, colors, smells and sounds that were created by the woodland.
He smiled softly before looking up at the tree tops. "We did this a lot in high school, because it was the easiest way to get away from our parents to do crazy things. One time we climbed a rock formation, the girls told us it would be a bad idea. They were right, Sora managed to fall and break his arm, but only because he tried to show off to Kairi."
Raven giggled some, "He sure loves her." She stated looking ahead of them at the two.
Sora was making goofy faces while holding the red head's hand. Kairi laughed and told him to stop because his face will get stuck.
Raven tried to remember if Xiro did anything like that to make her laugh, but there were still holes in her memories. She refused to ask Namine to help piece them back together, though she also had an uneasy feeling about getting any more memories back.
"Raven, come look at this!" Roxas called from off the path.
She gave a confused look before heading to where the young man was. He stood in the middle of a clearing full of flowers. The most amazing part about the clearing was that it was a perfect circle, and the flowers were arranged in a fashion that gave you room to walk through without treading on them.
"These have been here for a long time." Terra explained joining them.
Raven tilted her head some, before kneeling down to take in the scent of the flowers. It was a sweet and gentle smell that wasn't too strong. Staring at them she felt like she had seen and smelt them before.
A flash of being in a room with vases of these flowers went by.
"Since you can't go outside, we thought it would make you feel better to have some flowers in your room."
She shook her head some, only for a small headache to form. She didn't understand the memory, she never had a room full of flowers.
"Are you okay?" Riku asked checking on her.
She nodded, "Yeah, just zoned out."
"This used to a garden for a family that lived a little further back into the woods." Aqua said picking a couple of the flowers and tucking them into the small braids in Raven's hair.
This peaked her interest. "What happened to the family?" She asked looking at the blue haired woman beside her.
Aqua's eyes grew a little sad, "They were all murdered one night during a big storm. Of course no one knew about it because of how far away they lived from town. But some family friends got worried when they hadn't heard from them in a couple of weeks, so they went to check on them. The house was in ruins and blood was everywhere. They never found the bodies."
Chills ran down Raven's back. The story sounded like a plot from a horror movie.
"We can check it out at the end of the trip." Vanitas threw in helping her up.
"Why can't we see it now?" She questioned since now she really wanted to see it.
He shrugged as his reply while his amber eyes drifted across their friends.
Namine had circled the clearing several times with her art book in hand, along with a pencil. Everyone noticed and watched a moment, Namine hardly noticed while she quickly drew in her book.
"Should we camp here?" Sora asked suddenly making the blonde woman jump.
"Maybe, we'll get to." Vanitas smirked to Raven.
XXXXXXXXX
Everyone agreed to stay in the clearing for the rest of the afternoon. The boys went to work on putting up the tents, while the girls went to look for fire wood. Raven cheated by having the Heartless help out.
"Raven, we didn't need three fallen trees." Riku stated with a hand on his waist.
Six large bodies stood behind her, a pair each holding fairly large fallen trees on their shoulders. They seemed happy to help them out, though Riku telling them they didn't need it seemed to upset them.
"We can use them to sit on around the fire." Ventus countered walking up to Riku and Raven. "That way we don't have to sit on the ground."
A thoughtful look passed over Riku's face before he nodded in agreement. With Raven's help they got the Large Bodies to place the logs in the perfect place, before several more were summoned to clean up the branches and bark.
"Sometimes having the Heartless around is useful." Namine noted as her and Kairi came back with some branches to use as fire wood.
"We got a great way to start the fire now." Roxas smiled taking the bark from the logs to use as kindling.
Raven beamed at the fact her friends liked that the Heartless were useful when they weren't taking hearts.
A Red Nocturne appeared when there was trouble starting the fire, and blasted a fire ball into the make shift pit. A few sparks flew out causing everyone to scream and run for cover but they couldn't complain because the fire was started and that meant dinner wasn't far off.
"Thank you." Raven said hugging the small Heartless.
"Vanitas, why don't you do that with your Unversed?" Ven asked looking at the dark hair male.
Vanitas snarled at the blonde, while everyone laughed. Raven did want to really know why he didn't though, the Heartless seemed to like helping her out when she asked for it.
"Why don't you?" Raven asked softly looking at him.
She was sitting beside him and the glow of the fire brought out the red in her hair and eyes, somehow making her lovelier in the night.
"Because they get greedy and fail to listen because they want to do everything in their power to ruin the area they are in." He explained crossing his arms, "the only one that really listens is the one that I keep as a pet."
Raven frowned a little bit thinking about the Flood Vanitas kept in the apartment, it hardly got outside to get sunlight. But she didn't know how the temper of the very Flood, she thought about.
Drags suddenly appeared pulling on her shirt, pointing towards the woods.
"Drags?" She asked looking over her shoulder.
"Haven't seen him in a while." Sora stated as Raven got up.
Before anyone could say anything else, the Shadow Heartless ran off into the woods, lost in the shadows of the night. A panic filled Raven's chest when he took off and she rushed off after him.
"Raven!" Riku and Vanitas called after her.
She didn't stop or respond to her friends calls. She chased after her most important friend. Drags had been there for as long as she could recall, long before Xiro came around. If he was acting weird there was something really going on. He hadn't liked the idea of her going on this trip, but she did any way because she wanted to see the island.
"Drags!" She called stopping to look around for a moment.
There was no sign of him in the area but she could hear him running around.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"
Raven froze at the sound of the scream.
"Who was that?" She asked spinning around trying to locate it.
There was several more screams, each one sounded different from the other, like several people were yelling in pain.
"My friends?" She questioned before Drags appeared again to tug on her jeans. "Drags!"
Before she could scoop him up into her arms, he rushed off on her again. She cursed as she went after him.
He ran past an old iron gate which lead into an over-grown garden.
She stopped for a moment. It felt familiar to her somehow, something she couldn't place. She could barely make out anything in the yard because of how dark it was without a light.
Another scream came from inside the building.
The need to help overwhelmed her body. Without another thought she ran towards the house, only to find no way inside. The door was locked, windows were boarded up so she could look inside. She tried to kick down the door, only to hurt her foot in the process.
"Dammit!" She yelled trying to open the door again.
"CHU!" Drags called from around the corner.
Raven followed his calls around the back until she found a cellar window that was broken. She caught a glimpse of Drags crawling down into the basement.
"Drags, this is so unlike you!" She snapped getting on her knees.
She crawled into the opening, nearly getting stuck on at the butt, though she managed to get through with little trouble after that.
"Drags!" She called looking around but it was too dark to make out anything really.
The screams came from above.
Dread filled her stomach when she realized they were screams of fear and death. They were familiar, echoing in the back of her mind. Stirring up forgotten memories.
"What's going on?" She asked herself softly before finding the stairs to get to the first floor.
Once she stepped onto the main level, everything became quiet. Goosebumps formed on her arms as she walked through the house. Everything felt familiar like she had walked these halls before.
The floorboards creaked under her step, but it wasn't from age – no, they always made these sounds. Memories of walking down these halls really started to fill her mind.
"This way! Mom's in the music room!"
Raven found herself in the music room, the window wasn't as boarded up as the rest so some moonlight fell onto a grand piano in the middle of the room. It was covered in dust but still looked as beautiful as ever.
"Mom used to play this all the time." Raven noted to herself running her hand along the top. She opened the key cover and sat on the bench. "She taught me how to play…. I wonder if I still can."
Instincts took over and she started to play twinkle twinkle little star. The piano was out of tune but it wasn't horrible. Something wet falls onto her hands and the keys.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks, her heart felt like lead. Every inch of her body was fighting to keep moving.
"Dove!"
A ghost of a girl with long black hair and purple eyes ran past the open door. She laughed and danced around before another girl with shorter hair pasted by. Raven couldn't see her eyes. She was walking passed the room. She was pale and seemed to fight to breath.
"Raven, Xiro is here to play!" Dove sang.
The real Raven stepped out of the music room. She was starting to recall everything that happened in this house. Her mother and father were happily in love and loved her and her sister. They took great care of the two of them but because stressed and worried when Raven's illness set in.
"I had a heart illness." She remembered putting a hand on her heart. "That's why I chose to join the Darkness."
She found a set of stairs going to the upstairs. It didn't take long for Raven to come to her old room.
She gasped at the sight of the ruined room. The walls were covered in dried blood, along with the floor. The bed in pieces along with the dressers and deep cuts everywhere else.
"I did this." She whispered.
The memory of a man with long silver hair telling her that the Darkness was the only way to live; her caving to the Darkness. How everything changed within her, how her family meant nothing as they pleaded for her to call off the Heartless.
Xiro was there and he was the first to lose his heart to her. It hadn't been a Heartless that took his heart either, Raven had reached into his chest and pulled it out without causing actual harm to his body.
"Raven!" Her mother cried out from the doorway.
Her head started to pound as the memories poured in. From Xiro's heart her metal fans formed. Then she used them to cut down her parents before Dove came to stop her. Somehow managing to overpowering her, but Raven took her sister's heart next and crushed it in her hand. Like it was nothing but a ball of dirt.
More and more tears poured down Raven's cheeks as she felt the horror of what she had done. She killed her own family and best friend. Only because she was scared of death, she had been dying when she let the Darkness in.
"How could I?!" She cried hugging her chest.
The pain in her head grew more and more intense as more memories of her past flooded through. Her parents managed to get a wheelchair for her, so they could take her into the garden for small walks.
Her mother sleeping on her floor when she went through a bad period. Xiro reading books and playing board games with her. Dove making flower crowns for her every day when the weather was nice. Her father giving her baths when her mother was too tired.
She let out a loud scream of pain, but it wasn't only pain that was in the scream. It was filled with every ounce of power she had in her being. The house started to shake so violently that she couldn't stay on her feet.
The windows shattered and the floorboards fell out of place.
Finally her body gave out, unable to hold it all in.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Raven!" Everyone called looking around for Raven.
No one had reacted in time when Raven took off after Drags. Now they couldn't find her, everyone was worried about her.
"Where could she have gone?" Aqua asked looking at Terra.
"I have no idea." He replied unsure of how to really answer his girlfriend.
The sound of something collapsing caught everyone's attention.
"That old house!" Sora yelled further ahead.
Everyone went running towards it and found it in ruins. Dust clearing from how recent it had happened. Vanitas was the first to jump into the rubble, throwing everything aside, trying to find the young woman they were worried about.
"RAVEN!" He shouted at the top of his lungs trying to get some sign of where she was.
Slowly debris started to move about, until slowly two large Defenders appeared from under the fallen house, under them was Raven.
"Is she okay?!" Ventus shouted from the safety of the yard.
Riku quickly came to join Vanitas, only for the Defenders to swing their giant shields at the two of them. Sending them flying into the wall that surrounded the preexisting house.
"Riku!" Sora called coming over to his friend, Keyblade in hand.
Riku sat up and looked at the Heartless that were forming in the garden. "Something is wrong with Raven."
"How can you be sure?" Namine asked looking at all the different Heartless.
Vanitas got on his feet holding his shoulder, "because, the Unversed did this with me once. When my heart became unsure if it wanted to be in the Darkness or not. They're trying to keep her on their side but at the same time want to let her pick her own path."
A Corridor of Darkness appeared on the other side of the yard. Out of it stepped Raven's sister and Xiro, her sister looking guilty, while Xiro wore a smug look.
"You!" Riku shouted pointing at the sister.
She flinched at his voice, knowing he was referring to her. Her purple eyes looked up from the ground to his pale eyes. "I'm sorry."
Sora looked between the woman and his best friend. "What's going on?"
Xiro kicked the woman's legs out from under her and took her long hair into his hand. "This bitch manipulated Raven's favorite Heartless to this very place. So she could remember her blood filled start."
Everyone froze.
"I'm sorry, I tried to get around it." She whispered holding Riku's gaze. "Someone save my sister, if the Darkness leaves her…. She'll die."
Xiro let out a growl and threw her face into the dirt. "You stupid woman! She knows that, Raven will never leave the one source of life she has left!"
Vanitas let out a laugh, "You really don't know Raven then." He stated giving a cold cocky look.
Xiro's eyes went narrow, "I would know her! I was her childhood best friend!" He snapped glaring at the dark haired Guardian. "What do you know about her?!"
"She's got a heart of gold, sure she doesn't think things through when she acts out her emotions but when she realizes her mistakes she apologizes. She cares about how we see her and how others see her. She tries to be the best she can, even though she's on the side of Darkness." Vanitas explained.
"She's like any normal young woman, worried about her first date with a new guy and thanks everyone for the gifts they give her. She worried about not giving enough when she's given so much." Aqua added.
"She hasn't changed." Raven's sister smiled as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Xiro cursed at her and went to put his foot in her side, but a flying Keyblade sent him crashing to the ground.
"Don't touch her!" Sora snapped as he and Roxas guarded the unknown woman.
Namine and Kairi watched in worry before their eyes drifted over to Raven.
"Raven!" They cried out getting everyone's attention.
Their attention turned to Heartless Guardian, who still laid on the ground but a dark aura covered her body. It did not look like a good sign, but even Xiro looked worried when he saw what was going on.
"This isn't supposed to happen." He whispered watching closely as Raven's fingers twitched.
Ever so slowly she got up to her feet. Her face covered by her hair almost like the girl from 'The Ring' movie.
"Raven?" Her sister whispered.
Suddenly her head jerked up towards the sky with that motion the moon and stars vanished from sight, along with anything outside the walls of the garden. More Heartless formed along the walls and outside of them.
"What the hell is going on?!" Terra yelled looking around.
Then an ocean formed outside of the wall, several formations of rocks also appeared but not much else was around. Trying to take in the new sight but it was nearly impossible because they couldn't figure out where they were.
"Where are we?" Kairi asked with fear in her blue eyes.
"The World of Darkness." Raven's sister answered as Sora and Roxas helped her up. "My sister has always been powerful. She got that from our father but her weak health prevented her from learning that for herself. Now, the Darkness is taking advantage of her heritage."