{wolf-boy and dark heart}

A week had passed by without her even realizing it. She found herself buried in her quest to learn magic, and after two days of dodging fireballs, she found that she actually could manipulate the water around her. A little. She didn't quite believe her own abilities until the third day.

"You want me to fight him?" She didn't sound as surprised as she felt, and when Vanitas pulled his sword from his scabbard, she found herself terrified. She had no idea how he fought, not like she knew Terra's style, and she knew he had to be good. He was the captain, after all.

Vanitas ended up attacking before she unsheathed her sword, and she found herself scrambling to not get hit. He was a blur, moving as fast as Roxas had on the ship… maybe faster. His feet seemed to leave the ground when he moved toward her, and it was all she could do to block his blows. She was growing breathless, and her mind wasn't in the fight at all, allowing Vanitas to easily stuck his blade in her gut.

For all Aqua's determination, she never once thought of the possibility that she might die. She thought about being forced into a blood oath, and she thought about escaping the ship, but dying had never been an option. Her mind was set on living through all of this from the very beginning… and yet, she'd been mortally wounded. For all of her hard work, she had nothing to prove. Her training with Terra, and her travels across the sea, and now two days of gritty practice, all of that for what? Dying at Vanitas's hand?

She didn't remember it too well now, not with all the other magical things that had been forced upon her in the last three days, but she did recall pushing him back, and smashing his helmet with the pummel of her sword as she tried to gain a bit more strength.

Somehow she had healed herself that day… and now she paid for that with constant work, her entire body growing sore from forcing herself to stand on her hands for hours, and cartwheel around the platform while throwing up shields to guard herself. The shields were just ice, but they did their job well enough… even against fire. Though it had taken a day itself to get it right, and her clothes were nearly shredded to bits. No one asked about the bandages around her chest, because they all figured she'd been wounded.

She was tired all the time now, her eyelids heavy and swollen, and she wondered what she looked like. She was careful not to catch her reflection in the water, and as she trained more, she realized she probably appeared to be a completely different person. Would Terra recognize her now? She figured her hair might give her away, but all the same, she needed a break. Even if she could form a stable shield, and freeze the water temporarily, it meant next to nothing. She wasn't going to get where they wanted her to be in such a short amount of time.

Now, after a week on the Isle of Sleep, it seemed Master Xehanort wanted to push Aqua farther.

"I would suggest giving into your Darkness at this point," he rumbled, his queer gold eyes dead set on her face. She was frightened of him more than she cared to admit. "But I am not unintelligent, I understand that will only break you, and you are necessary to complete our task."

Aqua stood rigidly as he pressed a hand to her cheek, a harsh smile curling on his lips. "You were not made for Darkness, my pet, and so I will not force it onto you— if you do this right. You must learn at a faster pace than you are learning now. And so, I will set you to this task, and if you complete it, I will send you on your way. If you fail, I will put your heart to the test, and let the Darkness devour you. Is that clear?"

Her skin was crawling at his touch, and she felt the urge to vomit. But she kept herself as composed as possible, and she slapped his hand away. "Clear as day," she spat.

He smiled again, the curl of his lips allowing his face to pinch in a skeletal manner. His skin clung to the bone, and Aqua could see the shape of his skull beneath the tanned flesh. Xehanort was even more mysterious than Vanitas, and Aqua felt infuriatingly uncomfortable around him. His gaze made her skin crawl, and at the touch of his withered fingers, she recoiled.

"Today you shall take the glamour off Vanitas," said the old Master, his voice rasping as he spoke.

"What?" Aqua and Vanitas snapped in unison. She glanced at him, pushing the distance between them as much as possible. "Master, I don't quite understand what you mean."

Vanitas seemed to be rigid as he turned his head downward. Glamour had not been a word she'd been taught. She did not understand what it was, or how to accomplish such a task.

"Vanitas, your helm." It was a command, one that was weighed heavily by superiority. Aqua could tell the Master had a huge impact on what Vanitas did with his life, just by the way he spoke. He had the air of a Lord, and the voice of a monarch. He was also despicable, and his expressions always made him look vile.

But still, Vanitas did what was bid him. He placed his gloved fingers against the ridge of his helm slipping them under the gap, and he twisted. The helmet gave an audible click, a sound loud enough to be heard over the soft flow of the water, and he pulled the helm from his face.

She'd seen his face before, but she was still not used to the odd gold of his eyes. They were not the same as Xehanorts, for their color was softer, muted and more natural. His face was comely enough, but sometimes she found herself comparing it to Terra's. Terra was a handsome man, and she could never deny it. Vanitas was rather plain, his features long and never appealing to her much.

"Focus on his face," Xehanort said. Aqua did just that, taking note of his appearance. He was just plain… and now that she stared closer, he looked rather like Ven and Roxas. The way his nose was rounded, and also the softened point of his chin… the shape of his eyes as well, they were wider than most, and set farther apart.

After a few minutes of staring at each other, Aqua and Vanitas seemed to grow tired of it. Vanitas's eyes flashed away from her face sometimes, and then he looked back with a tired glare. It was silly, but Aqua was focusing as much as she could on her task, and trying to ignore the ache in her legs and arms.

"Now," said Xehanort. "Push all your energy into looking for his true form. Imagine his skin slipping off to reveal his true self."

She wanted to ask what that meant, but she was trapped in her own mind. She tried to do this, to look for a hint of Vanitas's true nature in his face, but the boy only glowered, and rolled his eyes. No, this wasn't right. She could feel something, though, a glimmer of coolness that radiated from his skin, and she tried to pull at it mentally. Her mind plucked at straws, feeling the air around her for clues, for a trace of magic, but she was coming up with only wisps of the 'glamour'. But that was not substantial enough for her to reach for.

She stood for hours trying this. She began to see the wisps as they clung to his skin, faint pink and glowing bright red, melting into a pale orange and yellow. The wisps of magic were growing, and soon she noticed his entire body seemed to be swimming in a mist of oranges and blues, flowing in a swirling motion around his form.

The sun glinted through the cracks in the dome, hitting the magic and sending it shimmering. She wondered where this sight had come from, why she hadn't seen it before, why she was only unlocking this ability now. She had a feeling it was because of Xehanort. He was doing something to her, and she didn't like it.

She was closer to him now, their bodies inching closer through the passing hours. She stared at the glistening particles, her fingers brushing across them. They were palpable now, and her skin prickled at the soft dust-like substance. Her fingers looped around the slim veil of magic, and the dust scattered around her hand, licking her wrist in a thousands of quickly changing specks.

Magic was so strange. It tickled, and tingled, and she felt elated with the power of it. What was glamour, anyway? It seemed to cling to her skin just as it did Vanitas's, and the multicolored dust swayed in the a breeze, falling in a flow, back and forth, floating away and being sucked back in. They were beautiful, and they were prickly, and Aqua felt drunk in the presence of it.

She took the dust in her hand, her fingers closing around the glistening particles, and she stared into Vanitas's eyes. Gold clashed with the vermilions and violets and periwinkles of the shifting dust, and he watched her with an empty stare. The glamour stuck to her skin, and she stepped back.

Her stomach twisted when it tore, the dust scattering all around her. She was blinded by the hot-white blaze that enveloped her, and she stumbled back, Vanitas's screams hitting her ears as she batted away the magic, cringing as the dust dug into her exposed skin, scratching at her face and neck and arms.

When the dust fell away, Vanitas was on his knees, his fingers clawing at his face, which stretched and ripped against his touch. She stared, and listened to his agonized screams as the skin fell away into the river.

Neku visited her during the second week of her humanity, reminding her immediately of the time she had left. She turned to him, her eyes bright, and she shook her head.

I don't care, she thought. I feel so alive, Neku, I don't care if my time is running out!

"Kairi." He looked irritated, his nostrils flaring a bit. She rolled her eyes at him, a silly smile still on her lips. She spun, her skirts swirling at her feet, and she looked at herself in the mirror. Silly Kairi, silly little mermaid, all decked out like a normal human, her hair twisted atop her head in a swirl of crimson braids, and her dress a faint pink, almost orange color. It was tight around her breasts, the bodice laced all the way up her back with white ribbon, and her waist was trimmed with lace that traced her hips.

I look like one of them, she thought sadly. And she truly did. No one thought her to be strange. She was one of them… but not on the inside. On the inside there was something still cold, a lump of ice in her stomach.

"Yes," he said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet. "I look human too, but that doesn't mean I am."

She spun to face him. He was human, though! More so than she would ever be, and she screamed that at him, or at least she tried to. Her lips moved, and she scowled, her fists closing tightly at her sides. He was human. He had feelings!

He chuckled mirthlessly, his eyes flickering to hers. "I have a human body, but I think growing up in a faerie court made me… a monster, to put it simply. I don't feel… anything. When I kill people, I mean. That makes me less human than Riku, or even you."

That isn't true. She looked at him, trying desperately to get him to understand that it wasn't, that he was human if he believed he was, and that it didn't matter… in her heart she had a twinge of doubt, but she could not think such a thing.

He knew though.

"They call me Joshua's dog," Neku said in a dead tone. "Because I rarely question his orders. I just do them, and sometimes that involves killing someone. A faerie, or a human, or a monster— do you see now? I only learned that I don't have to listen to him all the time a year ago. Before that, I was a pawn in a game that I couldn't comprehend. And now I still can't feel anything when I slit a man's throat, or drop poison in a little Lord's goblet."

Why was he telling her this, then? She looked around her chamber, which was barren compared to Queen Aerith's, and she found herself wondering if Neku was trying to tell her something. She felt an itch in her throat, the need to snap that if he was so emotionless, then why did he feel so guilty now?

"I'm telling you because I don't believe you are going to survive this." Neku looked at her, his expression twisting. "Joshua would say something vague right about now, but I think he's an asshole the way he handles things. If you keep going like this, you're going to get your soul ripped out. It's not worth any of this. It's not worth feeling human, because humanity is not specific. You can be happy in a human body, but you won't understand what you've been given until you're gone."

Kairi had no response. She stared at Neku, and he stared back, solemn, and guilty, and human. She understood that he was trying to help her, trying to make up for his own mistakes, but she didn't understand how she could feel human. What was this? How could she possibly prove herself to have an ounce of humanity? She suddenly felt scared, and stupid for her rash decision. No matter how happy she was now, it would be over soon.

She needed to go. She didn't know how Neku had gotten into her chamber, but she had to go meet Aerith, and she couldn't keep a queen waiting. She wished she could ask him more about himself, but she had a feeling this was all she would get.

"If you want to try and be more human," Neku said, walking toward the window. "I think you should take a stab at broadening your world."

Her world? She didn't understand… her world was being human, and being with Sora… what else could she do? She didn't understand. How could that work?

"Just think about it," he said, climbing onto the perch as a knock startled her. Kairi looked at her door, and then at Neku… but he was gone.

Neku wasn't a completely magical being… he was just a boy who had an ability he could not explain. So his comings and goings made little sense to Kairi, who wished for an answer to his oddities. She ran to her door, swinging it open to greet Sora with a smile. He smiled back brightly, and he held out his arm to her.

He has no idea, she thought miserably as he led her outside the castle, Aerith trailing behind. Neku thinks I should give it all up, and be content with being a mermaid… perhaps he's right. Sora doesn't understand what I am. He won't accept me— Ven couldn't even accept me.

She was hopeless. Even as he chatted to her with all of his amicable nature, she found herself drowning. She had been so happy before Neku had reminded her of the two weeks she had left until she was gone… a month had been so little time to recognize her own humanity. Joshua must have known this, and Neku as well. He'd warned her from the very beginning not to make a deal with the faerie king…

Her soul was lost. Kairi's shoulders tensed as sadness welled in her eyes, her throat constricting painfully, and she bit her lip. Was this true sorrow? It felt just as bad as the sadness she had felt as a mermaid— painful and difficult to bear. Sora was so kind, but he could never understand. Sora had mentioned the day before that Ven had sent him a letter from one of the Isles, mentioning something about Prince Terra's friend who had found herself on a pirate ship. The reason she'd become human was all the way across the sea! This had been an awful idea, she realized now. She had been stupid and blind from the very beginning!

"Kairi?" Sora asked faintly, his fingers traveling to her cheeks. He did not touch her, but his hand hovered before her vision as tears flooded her eyes. She'd never cried before. Her chest ached, and her lips trembled, and her eyelashes kept sticking together. She was finding it hard to breathe.

She smiled at him with her trembling lips, swallowing the tears. She would not cry. She was stronger than this… she could be human! She had to try. If only I could tell you…

"Sora!"

They both spun around, her tears drying in her eyes, and she smiled wider as Riku came stumbling toward them. She waved at him, and moved forward, but she stopped the moment he fell to his knees. Kairi blinked, and she gathered her skirts, quickly running to his side. Sora made it to him before she did.

"Riku?" Sora held his friend's arm, tentatively pulling him to his feet. "What happened to you?!"

He said nothing. His face was smeared with dirt and blood, and Kairi found herself pushing his hair from his eyes as Sora stood to call for help. He was staring at her, his eyes shadowed by grief and rage and pain, and she saw the wound across his chest… something had sliced through his jerkin and mail and smallclothes, and beneath the leather blood had bubbled and spilled over. Kairi placed her hands on his chest, her mind on a spell that could easily fix it, but he slapped her hand away.

She looked away sadly. It wasn't like she could sing it anyway.

When she moved to stand up, Riku grabbed her wrist, his face pale beneath the grime and gore. She noticed his glamour was gone— he looked like the faerie he was.

He pulled her closer, his split lip brushing against her ear as he hissed, "Do not trust Neku."

Roxas sat placidly on a rail as Beat babbled about faeries, and how awful they were… Roxas couldn't remember the fae that had cursed him, not truly, but he did recall the beauty of her face. She had smiled at him, he remembered, as she took Ven by the arm, and tilted his head back, and pried his mouth open.

He remembered her kiss as well. It had been soft, and innocent, like a mother's kiss. She'd pressed her pale lips to his forehead, her skin as cold as winter and as soft as silk, and she murmured gently, "Oh, if only you had not gotten in the way…"

It was a hazy memory. He could not remember the exact details of it, but he remembered the agony as it all sunk in. She had called him a wolf-boy. And then he became one.

Still, he did not hate faeries. He could barely remember the fae who had done this to him, and he'd never crossed paths with another. With the stories the crew told, it was apparent they were all vile, but Roxas couldn't bring himself to despise a whole race simply because of one girl's misdeed.

Axel hopped up beside him, ignoring Beat and staring out onto the dock. "Damn," he said. "I missed dry land."

"I did too," Roxas agreed. He remembered his home a little. It had been very big, and there had been a garden… but there had been water, like a river, and there was more stone and trees than flowers. He remembered swimming with Ven, laughing and splashing through the waist high water.

"We'll be heading out soon." Axel pulled his flagon from around his waist and popped the stopper. "Gods, I need some adventure. I don't think we've raided anyone in weeks."

"We haven't." Roxas glanced behind him at the sunset, and he shifted uncomfortably. He needed to leave, but the captain was not back yet. He really did not want to leave Xigbar in charge. "Which is probably a good thing. I feel enough guilt from the nighttime escapades; raiding just makes me feel like a monster."

"Welcome to the crew. Got it memorized?"

Roxas chuckled as his friend took a swig from the leather flagon, and Beat wandered off to go do his chores. Roxas had felt a little better this week, knowing Naminé had left with Ven… but only a little. He missed her company in spite of himself, and he remembered how she seemed to be the only thing on the ship that wasn't tainted. She was as sweet as a child.

"I want to die," he said softly, slipping from the rail. Axel stared at him, taken aback by his declaration.

He sighed through his nose and jumped down as well. "We all do." His jaw clenched, and he glanced away from Roxas's face. "That doesn't mean we can, or that we have to if the curse is broken. We're pretty young— we have a lot of life left."

"I don't." Roxas could feel his skin moving already, and his muscles tense. He began to walk towards the passage to the lower decks. "I've been cursed twice, Axel, and I already tried to die once. I'll do it again if I ever have the chance."

"What about your brother?"

Roxas paused. Oh, he thought about Ven. He thought about Ven all the time, wondering how guilty he felt about leaving Roxas behind. But still, he made the resolve a long time ago that if either of them was going to live longer, it would be Ven. He had too much charisma, too much potential… he was the one who could fly, and laugh despite his sorrow, and he was the one who had a chance for life. Roxas had been dead for a long, long time… his body was just an animated corpse now, with some feelings that he faked, and some hopes that would never come alive.

"Ven's braver than me," Roxas murmured. "He doesn't need to die with me again."

As they moved, Roxas spotted Aqua on the dock, and he paused. "Hey, is that…?"

"Vanitas." Axel grinned and shook his head. "Man, she must have whooped his ass. Finally."

Roxas tried to respond, but only a scream came out. He clamped his hand over his mouth, hissing through his teeth as his nails elongated, and his skin tore around his fingers. He felt Axel's hand on his shoulder, and a growl rumbled in his throat. He struggled, his bones snapping beneath his skin, and he began to howl, his head pounding as his skin warped and pinched and pulled.

He screamed again, just as he heard her voice in his head.

Roxas, whispered the girl with golden hair. He could almost see her face through his blinding pain. Your life is too precious to throw away. Remember.

Naminé pulled herself from the dream, her arms flying out. Ven caught her with ease, his hands clasping around hers, and he smiled.

"What did you see this time?" he asked, lifting her from the chair. She spotted Hanekoma sitting near the fire, assessing her behind his dark spectacles.

"You," she blurted, her fingers digging into his hands. "And Roxas. What the queen did to you."

Ven's face seemed to darken at this, and he looked at Hanekoma. The barkeep shrugged and stood up. "Try again," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "But this time, try to pay attention to where you are."

"I've done that," she said. She looked down at her bare feet, and she recalled the little boys, only eight years old, who had been dragged out of bed and cursed by a queen who had no reason to target them. "It's just a chamber… big enough for two boys, but not entirely extravagant. I don't… I'm not sure what you want me to see."

"Scoot, windy, lemme talk to the girl." Hanekoma playfully nudged Ven out of the way, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Okay, what you've got to do is separate yourself from the rest of the memory. Right now you are tapping into the subconscious of people in the event, but you have to subtract yourself from everything— even your own mind."

This had started the night she'd arrived. Hanekoma had sat her in front of the fire before she went to bed, and handed her a strange concoction… it was mashed roots and flower petals and it tasted bitter. He made her swallow it all, and when she did she felt heavy. Soon after she fell asleep.

The dreams had been much more vivid, and she was beginning to control where they went. She saw Vanitas's calmer side, and she realized how human he had once been. He laughed sometimes in these memories, and joked, and smiled. He looked every ounce of the boy he was. And yet, she always sensed something darker in those smiles and laughs than he let on.

"You never said how I could do this," she said quietly as he walked toward the bar. Everyone was long asleep, and Ventus was only staying up to keep an eye on her. He said tomorrow they'd go into town and maybe he'd fly her around some more. He was teaching her about the world, too. About the things she didn't understand, the plants and things she'd never seen in her tower.

"You're just special." Hanekoma shrugged again, and he returned with a pestle in hand. It appeared he had already mashed up the roots and other… things while she'd been sleeping. He held out the bowl, and she stared at it.

She didn't understand what she was doing here. Ven said it was where he went when he had nowhere else to go, but it seemed like Hanekoma knew exactly why she was here, and he was exploiting it. Still, she felt as if she had no other choice but to take the mortar in her dainty hands, and bring it to her lips.

The mashed substance was more of a paste than anything else. She wrinkled her nose as the speckled grey concoction slid through her lips, hitting her tongue in a clash of acidity and dulcetness. She threw her head back, downing the thick grey paste in one go. Hanekoma immediately took the mortar back, and by the time Ven was at her side, she was loosing balance.

Her vision swam, and she felt Ven's arm around her as she toppled over…

She hated this. She had no want or need to harm a child, but here she was, slipping into a nursery like a common pixie. She found that oft, she was the one who ended up doing the dirty work, not her servants. Perhaps it was better that way.

They were sleeping, and took no notice to her. Her intentions were dark, and she felt guilty standing over the boy's bedside. So small, she thought. What am I doing?

Stop, a voice that sounded softer than her own, and lighter. Stop thinking. Subtract yourself.

That was silly. She had work to do now. Her long fingers landed on the boy's face, and she gently brushed his hair from his eyes. He wrinkled his nose and rolled onto his side.

Ven, she thought distantly… oh, this was Ven! He opened his eyes, and for a moment she thought he would scream… but he seemed to be in a trance, his eyes foggy with sleep and awe. He sat up when she beckoned him to, and slid from his bed.

She set down the box she'd been holding, and opened it. Inside was a heart, still beating as if it were in its owner's chest…

She held it out to him, and he stepped back. She shook her head and reached for him, but he turned—

"Naminé!"

She opened her eyes, blinking up at Ven. She was bleary eyed, and she frowned. "I…" she slurred as he pulled her to her feet. "I didn't finish…"

"Hide her," Hanekoma hissed, pushing the duo toward the stairwell. "Do not come down until I say it's okay!"

"What…?" She clung to Ven as he pulled her up the stairs, dragging her into darkness.

Hey, guys, this is my first update of this story since I 'finished' White Knight. I hope more people will review this now? Like, please?

Once Upon a Time is back as well, which means more inspiration for this! Hurray!

Um, I think this chapter is pretty straight forward? Not much to really explain here. Xion was left out so I could add Roxas for like five seconds, but she'll be back next chapter.

Cool? Cool. Review, please! I BEG OF YOU.