When Ventus wakes up, it's much easier this time around. There's no harsh sunlight or loud noises. Instead of hard, cold ground he's in a soft bed with blankets to keep him warm.
There is, however, another stranger shuffling around the room. A brunette woman in a light pink dress is playing around with something on the dresser in the corner.
The blond sits up and she turns around.
"Oh, good. You're up. We were afraid you'd be out for a while." She has a soft, monotone voice which brings him a sense of comfort somehow.
"How long was I asleep? Where are the people who found me?"
Who were the people who found me? He wants to ask, but doesn't.
"They're in the main room. Are you hungry? Thirsty?" She asks him, coming over and checking him over.
He recognized that she's trying to make sure he doesn't have a concussion or anything of the sort. He'd seen Aqua do it to Terra plenty of times.
"Yeah. Starving, actually." He flips the blankets off of himself.
He'd slept in the clothes on him, so there was no delay for him to change and the brunette – who introduces herself as Aerith when he offers his own name – leads him to a large, round room. Inside sits the two men who had been there when he'd woken up as well as a black haired girl, who is arguing with one of them violently.
"There has to be something we can do!" The girl screeches, looking beyond angry with tousled hair and red eyes.
"I'd like to think so, but I have no idea what that could be! Quit taking it out on me!" The brunet man screams as Aerith whispers that she'll bring him something to eat and drink.
"I'LL TAKE IT OUT ON WHOEVER I WANT!" She yells again, her voice going shrill and she looks like she might start crying. Again.
The man with the scar snarls something Ventus can't catch all of the way across the room.
The taller blond in the room meets his gaze and nods his head in greeting, seemingly the only person in the room besides himself who isn't affected. Or perhaps he's just got a really good poker face.
"I DON'T CARE! WE SHOULD BE OUT LOOKING FOR SOMETHING! SEND WORD TO THE KING! FIND MASTER SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP! SOMETHING!"
"WE CAN'T JUST GO GALLAVANTING AROUND WITHOUT A PLAN!" The man with the scar snarls again, slamming his hands on to table in front of where he's standing.
"CID HAS SPARE GUMMI SHIPS! SOMEONE COULD GO OUT AND -"
"WHO'S GOING TO GO? YOU?"
"IF I HAVE TO!" She's pacing around in circles.
Aerith comes in as the scarred man is readying to fire back a retort, "Enough! Both of you! We have a guest." Ven is startled by the conviction in her voice, despite the fact that it never changes from its monotone pattern.
She sets the small tray she's holding onto the table and waves him over. Ven, feeling awkward for being the reason the fighting was interrupted, shuffles in his spot a bit before ambling forward and sitting in the seat.
"I'm sorry, it's very simple. It was all we have on hand that wouldn't require cooking and you looked starving."
It's a form of soup in a bowl. Kind of. It's warm and lumpy, but it smells amazing with hints of cinnamon so he takes a small bite.
It's rather good so he continues eating after mumbling a thank you to Aerith; Master Eraqus taught him better than to be rude. He wants to inhale all of it right now, but knows that he'd make himself sick and would waste perfectly good food by throwing it up, so he paces himself.
"Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" The calmer man asks.
Swallowing the bite in his mouth, he answers, "Of course..." He trails off waiting for someone to offer a name.
"Oh, right." Aerith seems to remember that he doesn't know anyone, "These are my friends, Yuffie," the only other girl in the room, "Leon," the man with the scar, "and Cloud," the blond man.
"I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven. It's very nice to meet you all." Which seems to be the wrong thing to say, because Yuffie storms out of the room.
"Pardon her, she's just upset. Do you know why you were in that canyon?"
Ven shakes his head around another bite.
"How do you know Sora?" Leon asks, sounding rather upset from his fight still.
Confused, Ven asks, "Who's Sora?"
"The brunet from the clearing." Cloud supplies.
"I've never seen him before. Is he okay?" Ven asks, worried where this is going.
There's a collective moment of silence before someone speaks up behind them, "He's dead."
Turning around, Ventus finds Riku – or, that's what Ven thinks his name is – standing in the open doorway, looking like he might go on a murdering spree. With him as the first victim.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He does. It's always sad to lose a friend.
But that's the wrong thing to say, too, apparently because Riku's glare deepens and he snarls out, "You should be!"
Ven flinches at the sheer amount of venom in his voice.
"Riku!" Aerith chastises him.
Riku just sneers at him before crossing the room and exiting out the door Yuffie had stormed through.
"Where are you going?" Leon asks, voice carrying through the open door and into the hallways.
"FOR A WALK, IS THAT ALRIGHT WITH YOU?!" Is the hateful response.
Ven sinks in his chair. Had he done something? Had he hurt Sora?
"Don't listen to Riku. We know you had nothing to do with what happened to Sora."
"What happened?" Ven wants to kick himself the second the question is out of his mouth.
"Sora released his heart. Or, that's what Riku told us. We don't know why." Leon sits down at the table and leans his elbows on it.
"Oh." Ventus pushes away his mostly eaten warm not-soup, no longer hungry.
Why was Riku blaming him, then?
"What's the last thing you remember before waking up in the Canyon?" Leon asks, breaking him out of his thoughts.
Ventus knows he can't tell any off-worlders – or technically, other-worlders because he is the off-worlder – about the X-Blade or the Keyblades in general. He probably shouldn't mention Xehanort or the Unversed.
"What were those shadow things?" He asks instead of answering.
His question shocks the other occupants of the room. Even the so-far stoic Cloud.
"Those were Heartless. Have they not…" Leon trails off, lacing his hands together and resting his chin on them.
"What are 'Heartless'?" Ven folds his legs up onto the chair.
"Where to start?"
Aerith lets out a small laugh, devoid of any real humor, "Sora would probably be the best to explain that."
"Probably." Cloud mentions from his place against the wall.
"A Heartless is the result of a person's heart being swallowed by darkness. Their heart becomes a Heartless and their body becomes a Nobody. You didn't see one of those, don't be too confused. How haven't you run into them before? They've been around for years."
Ventus shrugs, not really sure himself. He'd faced plenty of Unversed before, but the first time he'd ever seen a Heartless was in the clearing.
"You avoided my question."
"Which one?"
"What do you remember last? Before the canyon?" Leon is looking at him a bit suspiciously.
"Well," He decides to go with the truth. Mostly, "I was looking for my best friend Terra. Aqua was worried about me and was following both of us, trying to convince me to leave the search to her and to go home. I couldn't do that. We all met up and…" Ven groans as a headache slams into him and he starts seeing memories.
Memories of himself and Aqua staring him down. Were these Vanitas' memories? Panic rushes through him and he brings his hands up, digging the balls of his hands into his eyes.
He can't…he didn't fuse with Vanitas! He didn't! He made sure! He tore his heart in two to make sure this wouldn't happen!
Hey, can you hear me?!
That voice, so young.
Are you sad?
Why would it ask that?
Sure, if it'll make you feel better.
What was the kid agreeing to? That wasn't him, so who was it?
What was being asked?
Can I stay here? With you? His own voice rings back to him, providing the question.
He'd stayed with someone? When had he done that?
"Ventus!" His head snaps up to find three concerned stares.
"You okay? You weren't responding for a bit." Aerith asks, looking concerned.
Was he okay?
"Can I go get some fresh air?" He asks, feeling shaken.
When did that happen? He asks himself.
"Don't go too far from the castle and you should be fine." Cloud tells him.
"Do you need someone to accompany you?"
Ventus shakes his head, standing from his chair after unfolding his legs.
As he gets to the door he remembers to ask, "Where am I?"
Not seeming shocked at the question at all, Aerith tells him, "You're in Hallow Bastion."
He leaves out the door he'd seen Riku leave through after a nod of thanks. His mind continues to go around in circles as he lets himself walk around on auto.
"He's hiding something." Cloud intones the second Ventus is out of earshot.
"How can you know that?" Aerith glares at the blond.
Leon agrees, but he'll see where this is going.
"He wasn't telling the truth. At least not all of it."
"What are you thinking?" Leon asks, looking up and back at the blond.
"Not sure yet." Cloud murmurs, "But I'm concerned about his lack of knowledge about Heartless. Most people at least know what they are on sight. Maybe not the name, but the image."
"He also didn't seem all that perturbed by them. Like he's seen something similar."
"If he's seen them, he's lying about it."
"Why would he do that?" Aerith asks, looking genuinely curious.
"Maybe he doesn't want to be brought into it?" Leon questions, standing up and facing Cloud.
"I'm still placing money on hiding something." The blond shrugs, saying it's no big deal.
"Perhaps. Perhaps it's both." Leon cocks his head to the side and closes his eyes, letting himself think.
When he opens his eyes back up, Cloud looks as if he's seen a ghost. And he hadn't looked like that when he'd faced Sephiroth, so Leon is instantly on guard.
Leon turns around and what he sees shocks him. He thinks his face has to look just like Clouds'.
Riku doesn't know what's gotten into him. He's always had something to be angry about but he's never had this hard of a time controlling it. But hearing that Ventus had no idea who Sora even was had sent his rage flying to the surface.
He was ashamed of how he had snapped at Ventus, but…
Sora had killed himself to release Ventus' heart. And the blond had no idea who Sora even was. Sora had left him behind again for someone he didn't know.
Sora had left him. Again.
The anger had washed away almost an hour ago and had left him with a crippling sadness. How was he supposed to go on if Sora was dead? How was he supposed to go on without the brunet by his side?
He can feel the darkness inside him stirring, as if waiting for him to give in.
He won't. He can't. Sora would be disappointed in him if he gave in again. Or he would be if he were alive still.
He's making his way back towards the Hallow Bastion Castle, about halfway up the stairs, when he sees Ventus running down the stairs and onto the platform ahead of Riku. He doesn't stop when he nears the edge and a spark of panic rushes through Riku when the blond jumps up onto the ledge, nearly tipping over and falling down the near hundred foot gap between the ledge and the city below.
Riku rushes forward and grabs Ventus' shirt as he's righting himself on the ledge and pulls him down. The blond lets out a squeak – or something similar – and he falls back onto the safety of solid ground beside Riku on the right side of the railing.
"What is wrong with you?! You could have fallen off! That's over a hundred foot drop, you idiot!" Riku finds himself yelling at the blond.
The first thing that had run through his head was that Sora's sacrifice was going to be for nothing after all. That thought scared him more than Ansem ever had. To live in a world where there was no Sora for absolutely no good reason sounded like Riku's personal hell.
The blond looks scared of him so Riku tries to calm himself.
"The others…in the castle…they said this place was called Hallow Bastion. Is that right?" The blond looks out over the railing at the view supplied from the little terrace.
"Yeah, what about it?" Riku finds that he can't really reign in the anger and resentment he feels.
"But it looks just like…" he hears the blond trail off.
Confused, Riku looks out at the view as well, trying to see whatever Ventus is staring at.
"It looks like where?" Riku asks.
"I visited a place called Radiant Garden a while back…it looked just like this place only…lighter…I guess that'd be the best way to describe the difference."
"This is Radiant Garden. A few years back it got overrun by darkness so they renamed it." Riku has to force the words to come out neutral, but they end up coming out strained.
"That can't be right, I was just here!" Ventus looks distressed and Riku feels bad for him. He's probably as disoriented as he was when he found himself outside of Destiny Islands for the first time.
"I don't know how that's possible, but it's the truth."
They spend a few minutes in silence before Ventus turns to look at him.
"Was this your home? Before the darkness got it?"
"No."
"Where are you from? And the others?"
"I don't know about the others but I'm not from around here."
"Where are you from?" Ventus asks again and it makes Riku rather upset.
He hadn't answered for a reason. He didn't want to think about the island. Or the fact that he was going to have to bring Sora back. Dead.
Kairi's going to be devastated, Riku thinks to himself, I'm going to have to tell Sora's mom that I failed.
"I'm from another world." He blurts out, not particularly thinking about it.
Ventus' silence makes him think about what he said.
"Damnit," he mutters to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to fend off a headache.
"You know about other worlds?" Ventus asks, sounding astonished and a bit wary.
"Of course I know about other worlds," he looks up, "How do you know about other worlds?"
"I travelled to a few of them while looking for my friend Terra."
"How did you get between worlds?" Riku's curiosity can't take a back seat here.
Ventus shrugs, looking suddenly uncomfortable with the topic.
"Don't avoid the subject."
"Well," Ven looks to be debating something before nodding – probably to himself – and continuing, "I used my Glider to travel the Lanes Between."
"Riku!" Both boys turn to find Aerith running down the steps, looking slightly frantic.
"What's wrong?"
Panting, she stops before them, "You have to come quick; it's Sora!"