Chapter 3: The Dark Realm!
As the quintet was travelling through the Lanes Between nobody noticed a dark portal appear in front of us until it was too late.
The group was falling… falling… falling… *SMASH*! As the Keyblade wielders gained their bearings they noticed something: this was a terrible place. The place they had landed in was completely dark, there were pillars and cross-roads of darkness, however there was no light source and in the distance: A blue haired figure was sitting on a beach.
The gang was about to move when a creepy cackling voice was heard. "HAHAHAHAAAAA! Welcome to HEEEEEELL!" Around the quintet dark lightning crashed. A dark figure stepped out of the shadows. He was in a red and black jump-suit with a mask that covered his face, his outfit was much like Riku's except it was black and red and his skirt (tee hee) was black and the suit lacked the empty Heartless Sigel. "It seems we have company."
As the figure removed its mask everyone gasped in shock. "WTF, I mean that, you, you look a lot like me." Sora told to boy with a look of pure panic. It was true, the boy looked a lot like Sora except with Black hair and yellow eyes.
"Ahh, so you noticed. Vanitas, at your service. I may look like you, but did you know your friend there." He pointed at Roxas. "Looks a lot like a boy called Ventus, right idiot he was! Well, now those introductions are over, let's see how powerful the new Keyblade Master REALLY IS!" Vanitas screamed summoning his Void Gear Keyblade and creating a barrier between Sora and the others.
Sora himself summoned his Kingdom Key and put readied himself into a fighting stance. "Let's fight." Sora agreed.
Sora vs. Vanitas.
Starting the battle Vanitas surrounded himself in a ball of darkness sending clones of himself after Sora who continuously dodge rolled out of the way. When Vanitas finished he teleported above Sora and attempted to attack from above saying "Too slow." only to miss as Sora simply stepped to the side. When Vanitas landed he tried focusing on Sora to use his shot lock attack.
However since focusing takes time he didn't see Sora activate his solo Trinity Command which allowed him to rapidly attack Vanitas before flying straight forwards into him. With the abilities Sora had activated he managed the attack three times before it ended.
Vanitas, now really low on health, dove into the ground and attacked Sora from beneath, however Sora only took minor damage. The next thing Vanitas did was rush at Sora so fast that Sora didn't see him until he was inches in front of him. The two look a-likes clashed together in a battle for supremacy. "Give up Sora." Vanitas taunted.
"NEVER!" Sora yelled. However due to the strain of the task Sora was losing strength fast. That's when it happened: Sora shone with pure light until it died down revealing a completely new person: this person had blonde spiky hair and blue eyes, his outfit was a cross between Roxas's and Sora's.
The person was holding the Kingdom Key with a reverse grip. So, swinging backwards caused Vanitas to fly straight into the invisible wall. "Say goodbye Vanitas." The boy snarled, while pointing Sora's Keyblade at Vanitas.
"Goodbye, Ven." Vanitas said softly before bursting out into flakes of darkness.
End fight.
After Vanitas's demise Ventus went back to his place in Sora to allow Sora control again. "Damn, what a head-rush." Sora groaned clutching at his pulsing head.
"SORA!" The rest of the Keyblade gang yelled as one while running towards him.
"Are you Ok…"
"Are you hurt…"
"Who was that guy…"
""Why did you look like that…" were heard all at once.
This caused Sora's already spinning head to grow even worse. "Damn guys keep your voices dow-" Sora never finished his sentence as his face decided to see how the ground was doing.
"Don't worry about a thing I'll get him right in a jiffy." Mark said in an upper class English voice while raising his Keyblade and saying. "Heal." A pink flower in bloom appeared over Sora's head, and opening up it restored him to full health.
Slowly Sora sat up groggily. "Thanks guys." A round of 'your welcome' was heard from the other Keybladers. "Help me up Roxas?" Sora asked holding out his left hand to Roxas who grasped it and pulled Sora onto his feet. "C'mon guys, let's find a way out." Sora suggested.
"There isn't a way out of here. You're stuck here." A woman's voice spoke from behind the group.
Pivoting around the Keybladers summoned their Keyblades and pointed them at the intruder and asked in unison. "Who are you?"
The blue haired woman didn't seem perturbed by Keyblades being pointed at her so she answered in one word, a word that could very easily change the fate of the entire worlds. "Aqua." In her mind Aqua remembered a quote from an old TV show that She, Terra and Ven used to watch called Doctor Who: "The truth is singular. Lies are words, words, words."
Mark, who simply adored Doctor Who realised what the woman was doing so he decided to make it easier to answer in one word. "Who was you master?"
"Eraqus."
"Home world?" Now Mark
knew that it was rare for a world had a one word name, so he allowed more than one word.
"The Land of Departure."
"Are you a master?"
"Yes."
"Do you work for Xehanort, or anyone of an evil disposition?"
"NEVER!" The sheer conviction in the woman's tone was enough for the rest of the other to believe her. "My turn." She then asked the wielders the same questions Mark had asked her. And since we know the answers already I won't have to list them. After the questions were asked Aqua looked directly and tearfully into Sora's and asked. "You're Sora?" To which Sora gave her a look that said Have you no common sense? "Right, right. I've heard stories from a man who forgot his name about the heroics of Sora, the most powerful Keyblade wielder since the original Master Nomura himself."
Aqua looked off into the mid-distance but was literally shaken out of it by Xion who was, as I said, shaking her and almost shouting. "Hello, Master Aqua. Earth to Master Aqua. What's the plan?"
Quickly shaking out of her reverie Aqua announced, "Right, onto business, the plan, right." Aqua said in dramatic style while holding up her finger in a eureka pose. "We get out of here. We go to my home, rescue Ventus, lock the worlds, retrieve Terra, defeat Xehanort, go to my home, have a nice cup of tea, and enjoy our life." Aqua finished smiling smugly.
"W-w-w-wait, why have we got to get Terra, we don't even know a Terra." Roxas and Sora said in synch.
"Because we do." Aqua replied as if it were obvious.
"Why?"
"Because he's my friend." Aqua replied hotly.
"Alright, I suppose I see what you mean. We're not going back to yours again."
"Why not?"
"If we enjoy life: I wanna know where the bathroom is, I wanna be allowed to smoke and I don't wanna risk leaving too early."
"Okay." Aqua conceded. "We leave here, we rescue Ven, we save the worlds, rescue Terra, we defeat Xehanort. Go the Destiny Islands, have a nice cold pint and enjoy our life. How's that for a fat sack of munny?" Aqua replied grinning.
"Yeah girl!" The others replied high-fiving her.
With their Shaun of the Dead-esqueplan made the gang started drawing up plans to escape. Somewhere through the planning a bunch of Neo-shadows and Dark balls decided to crash their 'party'
After defeating the pure-blooded heartless, and with their plan made the gang went to the Dark Margin (The beach that RIku and Sora went on after KH II, for those who don't know) and focused.
Aqua focused on her time with Ven.
Aqua's memories
Aqua and Ven laughing after a magic training session. "I love these training sessions." Ventus had told her to which she smiled wistfully.
Scene change
Terra and herself cheering up Ventus after he lost a wooden sword spar with Terra, which Terra gave his wooden 'Keyblade' with Terra engraved on its handle, to Ven.
Scene change
Aqua comforting Ven whenever he had nightmares of whatever.
Scene change
Aqua, Terra and Ventus training for the Mark of Mastery exam the next day where she showed her friends how to use a shot-lock.
Scene change
Aqua laughing at Terra's and Ventus's antics before saying. "You two would make the weirdest brothers." Before laughing at them.
"Sometimes, you are such a girl." Terra had said to her.
To which she replied slightly hotly "Hey, what do you mean'sometimes'?"
Scene change
Aqua, Ven and Terra fighting the Trinity Armour in Radiant Garden. Aqua looked over at Ven and smiled at the effectiveness of which he attacked: he was being unpredictable, one moment he was attacking, and a few seconds later he was laying a Mine Square around him.
Scene change.
Catching Ven in the Keyblade Graveyard after being frozen by Xehanort. She didn't know why, perhaps it was the danger of the situation but she whispered in his ear. "I love you Ven."
End memories.
Aqua thought about those moments with the man she saw as a big brother and the man she had grown to love. Suddenly a huge white flash appeared before her eyes.
~Ten minutes earlier~
While Aqua thought about Ventus, Sora was thinking about Kairi.
Sora's memories.
The day where Kairi first came to the island. The hyperactive 7 year old boy walked towards the red-headed girl and said "Hi, I'm Sora. The moody one is Riku." Sora smiled.
Kairi's reaction was similar to Sora's as she said. "I'm Kairi."
Scene change.
Sora's dad taking Sora, Riku and Kairi to the island on which they loved to play for the first time.
Scene change
10 year old Sora sitting next to Kairi on the tree while Riku was facing Tidus, Wakka and Selphie in a 3 on 1 battle. Sora said to Kairi. "How are you adjusting Kairi?"
"It's hard, but with people like you and RIku, I know that I'll adjust." Kairi replied. Sora just smiled at her.
Scene change
14 year old Sora had just returned the raft supplies he collected to Kairi. For his effort she had given him a HI-Potion which he had to use while fighting Tidus, Wakka, Selphie and Riku all at once. (It's an AU, I'll do what I want.) He won and by the time the day had ended he had reached level 11.
Scene change.
Sora was racing Riku again, he didn't know if he was ahead or not since he had taken off across the low water while Riku jumped across the coconut trees. The stakes were captaincy of the raft, the name of the raft and sharing a paupu with Kairi.
At the end of the race Sora had narrowly beaten Riku making their rival score: RIku: 20, Sora: 21. However, he was disheartened to hear that the paupu thing was a joke.
Scene change.
Kairi and 15 year old Sora ran towards each other on the balcony of The Hall of Empty Melodies in The World that Never Was. There reunion was bitter-sweet, but short lived as Sora still needed to defeat Saix, Luxord and Xemnas.
Scene change.
Sora grinning stupidly at Kairi while standing on all fours and said "We're back."
Kairi grinned and replied holding her hand out. "You're home."
Sora, still grinning slapped his lucky charm holding hand into hers giving her charm back.
Scene change.
"You're back!" Kairi's voice shouted before tackling Sora to the ground and kissing him on Yen-Sid's office floor.
End memories.
Suddenly a bright flash appeared before his eyes and said in awe "The Door to the light."
However, before they could step through a roar sounded, it was deep and intimidating. 'shit' Aqua thought. She had heard that roar before it could only be… Suddenly a large pureblood Heartless with Red Eyes leapt onto the beach. Yes, The Hunter of Dark was back. "He's mine!" Aqua yelled summoning her Keyblade which had changed its design: The Master Keeper. And rushed at The Hunter of Dark with a look of pure rage on her face.
Aqua vs. The Hunter of Dark (HOD)
Still running at the monster in front of her, Aqua leapt high into the air, gathered all her strength and slammed straight down. Now this enemy had evolved over the two years since it was last defeated. It had stolen the health of many of its fellow heartless not to mention the defence it had amounted over the years.
But when an almost insane woman with a freaking Keyblade attempts to attack it from above then the HOD knew it was toast.
Having been lost in its reflective thoughts for the amount of time it did the HOD didn't notice until it was too late that Aqua had slammed into it.
~A few seconds ago~
Aqua, who was in the air looked down at the HOD with a look of pure contempt. She didn't know why she hated this creature, she just did. Upon noticing that the HOD was not really paying attention she dove at slammed into it causing its health bar to diminish greatly.
Now really pissed off the HOD teleported out of sight and focused on Aqua with red filling its vision. A few seconds later, it leapt from its hiding place and attacked Aqua. However the attack never connected as Aqua Cart wheeled out of the way just in time to avoids its attack.
Aqua sneered at the HOD and, raising her Keyblade she shouted. "FIRAGA BURST!" Above her a great ball of fire appeared above her head which sent Firaga balls raining down upon the HOD causing it to ignite. Shaking off the attack with only a bit of damage The HOD ran towards Aqua intent on killing her however when it got near her the ground seemed to explode from eight different points around it.
The shrapnel combined with the explosions tore straight through the HOD's body ripping it to shreds. The beast let out one more unearthly roar as it collapsed to the ground dead.
~A few seconds ago~
Aqua looked as the HOD died smirking. When it did die Aqua felt like a great weight had lifted from her mind restoring her to the way her mind was a couple of years ago when she was with Ventus and Terra.
End Fight.
Stepping away from the fight scene Aqua was immediately congratulated by her new friends.
After the congratulations were made Aqua, determined stepped into the door where she was quickly followed by the rest of the gang. The gang found themselves at a large castle of a blue colour. It had turrets and windows sticking out in weird angles. The background was dominates in light which was ruined by the storm clouds in the foreground.
Aqua, tearing up slightly said "Welcome to The Land of Departure."
End Chapter.
Right, I'm going to end it there because it is a great way to introduce the next world and The Land of Departure isn't the Realm of Darkness is it?
Current Party: Sora, Roxas, Xion, Mark, Phillipa and Aqua