Episode 3: Reflecting and Redecorating:

The Land of Departure – Throne Room

August 3, 2015

Why don't they just pick a design and get on with this? Vanitas wondered as he leaned against the wall behind the thrones while Terra, Ventus, and Aqua stood holding a blueprint of the castle against the back of one of the chairs and scribbling in things they wanted to change. With Aqua now ruler of the Land of Departure after Master Eraqus' death at the hands of Xehanort over a decade ago, she and her two friends had decided to do a little redecorating. Out of attachment to their home and respect for their dead mentor, they weren't going to change the place very much. But with twice as many active Key bearers now as there were back when they'd last been here, they felt that they needed to tweak the castle's interior a tiny bit in order to accommodate the increased traffic.

Despite the group hug that morning, Vanitas was just waiting for the moment when they decided that he was too dangerous to leave alive. Waiting to be declared an enemy of the Order. With Yen Sid dead, Aqua and Mickey were now the highest ranked out of all the Keyblade Wielders in the known worlds. While Keyblade Wielders in the past hadn't operated in a formal hierarchy for several thousand years, there were so many Keyblade Wielders now that someone had to step and take charge in terms of leadership and establishing a home base where they could meet, train, and share information. As the Master with the most seniority out of all of them, that someone had been Aqua.

To his continued surprise, however, none of Eraqus's three former apprentices treated him like the monster he'd pretended to be all those years ago. After a day of partying in Radiant Garden with the rest of the Coalition, they'd invited him back to the Land of Departure. To their home, that he'd played a part in destroying. Despite his every Xehanort-ingrained instinct telling him not to expose his weakness, he'd been coaxed into spilling the entire story of his life with Xehanort over dinner last night. The trio had initially been wary around him, as to be expected. He did help Xehanort cause all their problems, after all.

But after they heard about what his life with Xehanort was like, their wariness practically vanished. Now they actually… pitied him. Although the old man had always taught him to never accept pity from anyone, for the first time in his life, he actually felt happy. Here he was, a being of pure darkness, and they accepted him anyway. That wasn't to say that they'd completely forgiven him yet though. But while it would be a while before they completely forgave all his crimes, it felt good to have people actually giving him the chance to be more than Xehanort's pawn.

He looked up from his musings when Ven called his name, asking him to come over to where the trio were standing. Begrudgingly, Vanitas walked over and listened to Ven explaining their plan for reconfiguring the sleeping quarters. He was genuinely surprised when Ven asked what floor he wanted his room to be on.

"Are you serious?" he asked cautiously. "You're giving me my own bedroom?" While he would enjoy actually having a roof over his head, (Xehanort always expected him to sleep outdoors, completely exposed to the elements) he had figured he'd be on his own as far as food and housing was concerned. Being in the spotlight was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ven asked. "Just because we haven't completely gotten over all the bad blood between us doesn't mean we're just going to kick you out to wander the universe looking for a place to live." And here they come with the sappy optimism as usual, Vanitas thought to himself. It could always be worse though. I could be back in the Graveyard stuck creating and killing Unversed in an endless cycle of pain. Compared to life with Xehanort, being treated like a decent living being for once in my short, miserable life is worth living with a bunch of saps.

A small smile crept its way across his face as he returned his attention to the outside world. As he animatedly discussed his ideas for his own personal living space, an unfamiliar feeling of warmth worked its way into his dark heart. After all these years, he had finally gotten the one thing he wanted more than forging the X – Blade: acceptance. It would take a while for him to break the habits that his training with Xehanort had beaten into him, and in the years to come he would always retain some snarky and sarcastic tendencies. But right now, stripped of the power to summon Unversed, he was finally free to be more than just a weapon in Xehanort's arsenal. He was his own person now.

Once everyone's decisions on the size and locations of their bedrooms had been decided, Aqua backed away from the throne, and a beam of light shot out from the Master's Defender, piercing the glowing Keyhole hidden on the back of the chair. With a low rumble, the castle began to shake, and a flash of light emanated from the Keyhole. When the light faded, the throne room looked exactly the same. However, when the group walked through the doorway leading to the castle's sleeping quarters, they found the first tower looking quite different.

Instead of a corridor snaking its way around the tower, the doorway opened up into a multi-level, open air chamber. In the center of the room, a large, glittering chandelier hung down from the ceiling, giving the room an open feel as the chain stretched up past three balconies on the upper floors. On the opposite side of the room, a doorway identical to the one they'd just walked through, leading to the outer tower that housed Master Eraqus' study, and now included an armory and a command center with a holographic computer display for visual aid when bringing everyone up to speed on a crisis.

Ventus enthusiastically raced up to where his room was on the top floor, in the exact same place it was before and untouched by the passing of time. Terra and Aqua headed to their rooms on opposite sides of the central area, leaving Vanitas to wander head upstairs to where his own room was located on the top floor, across from Ven's. Although the world altering mechanism could preserve furniture and objects, it couldn't create them from scratch. And so Vanitas opened the door to an empty room devoid of any comfort or warmth.

He was about to head off in search of the kitchen when Ven came in with a sleeping back over his shoulder.

"Here," he said as he handed Vanitas the bag. "That way you don't have to sleep on the bare floor until you get a bed. Sorry I didn't think of this earlier. I didn't exactly get a chance to really take everything in the last time I was here."

"And here I was beginning to think I was being left to my own devices," Vanitas replied sarcastically. But despite his snarky attitude, he appreciated the thought.

"Are you ever going to take that thing off?" Ven asked, referring to the muscle-like armor he wore at all times. "I know you can just dismiss the suit anytime you want, but don't you think you should change your clothes or something?" Despite his efforts to hide it, Vanitas' cheeks turned a slight shade of red at the second question. He could only hope that Ven wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, he did. "Wait a minute…" his other half began as he noticed his blushing. "Do you really not have any clothes?"

"No, Ven," he replied sarcastically. "I've just been wearing the same set of clothes under this thing for all four years of my existence." Had Ven been as literal-minded as he'd been after he'd lost his memories all those years ago, he wouldn't have noticed the sarcasm. Unluckily for Vanitas, Ven was a lot more perceptive than his darker half gave him credit for, and burst out cackling like a Hyena from the Pride Lands. "Don't laugh!" Vanitas snapped. "It's NOT funny!"

"Yes it is," Ven clutched his stomach from laughing so hard. "You're telling me that you wore that muscle suit for four years straight, and Xehanort never once bothered to buy you a pair of clothes." Ven gasped for breath from the hilarity of it. It was just so absurd it seemed unbelievable. But Vanitas' ever reddening cheeks told him everything he needed to know.

"Well Xehanort wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to budgeting finances," Vanitas retorted over Ven's continued laughter. "Construction materials for Dark City and the Castle That Never Was didn't pay for themselves, you know. He could have focused on building his new base first but no, he had to spend all his Munny on one hundred twenty black coats for his precious Organization, forcing me to beg, steal, and seduce just to put food in my mouth."

"Alright," Ven gasped as he finally stopped laughing. "Alright. We've still got a few hours left until Terra attempts to cook dinner, so let's head over to Twilight Town and get you some clothes."

"I don't exactly have Munny overflowing from my nonexistent pockets, you know," Vanitas replied.

"Don't worry about it," Ven said as they walked downstairs. "Master Eraqus kept a stockpile of Munny for expenses. Getting you your first clothes counts as expenses." They reached the first floor to find Terra and Aqua lying on the couch locked in one long kiss. Yeesh, Vanitas thought to himself. Ven told me they liked each other for years but I didn't expect them to be catching up for lost time so fast. We've been back here for only a day and they're one torn piece of clothing away from going at it like rabbits.

"Umm…" Ven said nervously. "We're heading to Twilight Town to do some shopping. We'll be back before dinner." Aqua silently flashed them a thumbs up.

"Hurry," Vanitas commented as they turned to the door to the Throne Room. "Let's get out of here before they start ripping each other's clothes off." I am so going to have to be the one to give him The Talk later, Vanitas thought to himself as he led his other half towards the door. That way he doesn't walk in on them by accident out of either curiosity or for a midnight chat.

"But why would they be ripping their clothes off?" Ven asked innocently. Between Terra and Aqua burying their feelings for each other and only being eleven when he lost his memories, he had no idea what Vanitas was talking about. "And why is that a bad thing?"

"VEN!" Terra and Aqua both shrieked in embarrassment as the duo fled the room.

Ven and Vanitas' conversation at the end was a funny little thing I came up with. As I was planning this chapter I was thinking of what Vanitas' non-dark suit attire should look like. Then I realized that unlike Riku, he's only ever seen in a dark suit. The conversation about clothes and Xehanort's budgeting was the result when I realized "what does Vanitas wear under that suit? Does he even wear anything at all?" Same goes for Vanitas' comments about Xehanort blowing the budget on black coats. Given how many the Organization probably has, he has to get them all from somewhere. Same goes for the materials used to build the Castle That Never Was.

For those wondering why Vanitas can't create Unversed anymore, in The Xehanort War, the Unversed are more than just living emotions. Basically, in TXW, Sora finds out that Kingdom Hearts is made of light and darkness, just like regular hearts. The unversed are the embodiment of the Darkness in Kingdom Hearts. Since Vanitas is pure darkness, he's powerfully enough to bring them out of Kingdom Hearts and into the Realm of Light. But Sora locked Kingdom Hearts with the X – Blade at the end of TXW, cutting off that connection.

And yes, Vanitas's line about begging, stealing, and seducing has a lot of dark implications about Vanitas' life with Xehanort. It made sense to me that Xehanort, being a master of manipulating people, would teach his apprentice to use every tool at his disposal to get what he needed.

Up next: a few familiar Disney Faces deal with the side effects of Sora sealing Kingdom Hearts.