Midnight

"Welcome to the Realm of Darkness."

Neo had to take a moment to compose herself after arriving in the Realm of Darkness.

It sure was dark enough to live up to its name.

Right now she and Aqua had arrived in a dark cavern, so dark she couldn't see the ceiling. Neo wasn't one to admit to being afraid of the dark, having been through worse, but she did feel unnerved about being here even if she had volunteered to come here.

"Hey," She turned and looked at Aqua with a small but reassuring smile. "It'll be all right. Just stay close…and keep the hood off so I know I haven't lost you."

Neo rolled her eyes as Aqua walked past but quickly followed after her. They walked for some time before coming to an immediate stop.

Why did they stop?

The answer came in the form of the shaking ground and right in front of them rose a giant black hulking monster with a heart shaped hole in its chest. Neo's eyes widened as she stood a step back, clutching her Hush.

This monster was no Grimm.

She remembered Aqua telling her about the monsters that lived her that were also the same ones that destroyed Remnant.

The Heartless.

'Darkside.' A voice whispered in Aqua's mind.

She could feel it was a lot worse just by looking at it. Aqua however was not afraid and stepped forward, summoning her Keyblade. Looking up, she narrowed her eyes as the Heartless raised its fist and brought it down. Aqua sidestepped the fist and jumped up; using her Bladecharge style and slashed at its head once it was in range.

Her blade cut into its face and seemingly damaged it very badly as it let out an unearthly howl that seemed to shake the entire realm. It tried to grab her but she jumped back, aiming her Keyblade at its face.

"Fire!"

A fireball slammed into the Darkside's face, blinding it temporarily. Aqua landed on the ground perfectly, looking up to see the Darkside was gathering dark energy in its face and from it fired balls of dark red energy at Aqua who quickly used Reflega to block and send its attacks back. The Darkside slammed its fists into the ground and from them came a swirl of dark energy, creating smaller shadow like monsters with antenna on their heads.

'Shadows.'

The new Heartless surrounded Aqua but that was then Neo jumped in, her feet landing on the head of one Shadow and she somersaulted to the right, spinning and slashing Hush as a sharp blade emerged from the top of the parasol, cutting through the Shadow Heartless easily. Neo knew that standing around and watching would get her killed and even if she couldn't help out against the bigger Heartless she could take care of the smaller fries. This allowed Aqua to look back up at the Darkside as it slammed its fists into the ground, releasing a wave of darkness that traveled towards her.

Aqua slashed through it with her Bladecharge, dissipating the wave and then used Time Splicer, disappearing and reappearing around the Heartless that was frozen in time and delivering over a dozen slashes before the spell ended. The Heartless roared in pain as Aqua appeared in front of its face and delivered a vertical slash, cutting through its head. Aqua landed back on the ground and watched as the Darkside fell over on its back, dissolving a second later. Aqua then turned around to see Neo mopping up the last of the shadows with relative ease.

"Good work." She said to Neo who just nodded back.

At least they were close enough that Aqua could rely on her in the midst of battle. Aqua had her own misgivings about bringing Neo along but knew there was no time to be picky. Not if they wanted to save her world so she could return.

Before she could say they needed to move, the ground shook again.

Aqua and Neo looked up and much to their dismay, three more Darksides appeared, all of them glaring down at the two. Neo nervously looked back between the three monsters, feeling that now was a good time to start running but the three Heartless had completely cut them off. Aqua remained composed, carefully moving her eyes to make sure nothing the monsters did went unseen by her.

Before they could attack however…

There was a whooshing sound and up above came down two spinning Keyblades that slashed through the Darksides before they could react, destroying them easily.

"Terra, Ven…" Aqua smiled, recognizing the Keyblades. "You're still helping…"

She stared up for a second longer before looking at Neo. "Let's go."

Xxx

If there was one thing that Aqua knew about the Realm of Darkness it was that time had no meaning here.

She wasn't sure how long they might be here, only that the only time here was their own perceptions. They had emerged out of the cave and into a dark forest.

And up ahead…

"It can't be." Aqua gasped quietly.

Neo looked ahead and off in the distance saw a grand white castle. She had seen her share of grand architecture before, heck Beacon Academy itself looked more like a castle out of a fairy tale than an actual school but even then this white castle had something different about it.

It even had a clock tower.

Not even the Schnee family could say that they owned something as grand as this.

"Why is Cinderella's world...here in the darkness?" She heard Aqua whisper.

Cinderella?

As in…Cinder?

She tugged on Aqua's sleeve, earning her attention as she pointed at the castle in the distance.

"Oh, right." Aqua seemed to remember Neo was here. "That is called the Castle of Dreams. I visited it once before. If it's here…then its world must have been destroyed and the remains dragged here by the Heartless."

Neo raised an eyebrow as she looked at the castle and back at Aqua, pulling out her Scroll. So odds are, we'll find the remains of my world here too?

"Pretty likely." Aqua nodded.

Neo wasn't sure what to think of that.

She knew she wasn't the kindest living soul on Remnant but destroying it like this and dragging the remains into a dark realm? She was sure even she wouldn't go that far.

Not too sure about Salem or Cinder.

"Come on. I think that's where we have to go." Aqua gestured for her to follow.

Frowning, Neo put her Scroll away and followed Aqua towards the white castle. Along the way, they were stopped as more Shadow Heartless appeared around them. Aqua immediately summoned her Keyblade while Neo held out her new Hush, ready for battle.

It wasn't much of a battle.

While the Heartless were potentially more dangerous than the Grimm in some way, it seemed that like the Grimm they had classes or ranks of strength and these guys were pretty weak, even if they had numbers on their side. Luckily both Aqua and Neo were exceptionally agile as they dashed around the swarm surrounding them, slashing and striking them down easily. As soon as the last shadow faded, they looked at each other and nodded, continuing on their path towards the Castle of Dreams. As they continued walking they encountered a few more Shadow Heartless that were quickly disposed of but they were not the only obstacles in their way.

After the second batch of Heartless were dealt with, the path in front of them suddenly cracked open and collapsed into the dark void that was the Realm of Darkness, leaving only a few rocks and a root. Aqua and Neo shared a look before Aqua jumped first, hopping from rock to rock and sliding along the root until she reached the other side and was followed quickly by Neo. Once on the other side, the two continued their journey, coming into the town that lied before the castle. Aqua looked sadly around the town, seeing it was completely lifeless with no one left.

"I wish I could believe the people got away." Aqua said sadly as they entered the town.

Neo looked at Aqua for a second, before looking ahead. It was easier to focus on the task at hand than feeling sorry for the people who died here.

Aqua suddenly stopped and summoned her Keyblade. "Something about this place... It looks like worse things are stirring!"

Aqua and Neo had to fight off some more Heartless, this time it was the Shadows along with another kind of Heartless that had wings, resembling a mix between an umbrella and a bat. These ones required a little more work as Aqua jumped up, summoning orbs of light around to destroy the Heartless that surrounded her.

Neo on the other hand, worked slightly harder with her aerobatic combat skills, somersaulting, jumping and spinning as she slashed at the flying Heartless as they swooped at her. As the Shadows swarmed her, Neo shattered, having left a decoy through her Semblance and was pleased to see that even the Heartless could be fooled. They made quick work of the remaining Heartless and proceeded towards the castle.

As they did, Aqua had a saddened look on her face that made her stop and Neo looked at her. What is it?

"I just realized something." Aqua answered absently. "I took it for granted. I thought I had nothing in life to lose."

Her mind flashed back to her friends and the people she had met, becoming connected with them.

Aqua then looked around the desolate town. "Here, too. Everyone in this world thought that they were safe. Not just the people...but the dog waiting for his owner...the cat curled up in her nook... So much life. Trees and flowers... There's no deeper sadness than discovering all that you knew is gone. The grief in this place is too much to fathom."

Neo frowned as she looked away, not wanting to emphasize with Aqua. It reminded her all too much of how lonely and miserable her life had been, before she met Roman and after she had lost him. That pain was too much to bear and the only she could cope was trying to avenge him by hunting down the people she had blamed for his death: Cinder and Little Red.

'Just you and me, Neo. Us against the world. We'll always come out on top, doing whatever we have to do. Lie, cheat, steal and survive.'

Neo realized she had taken her time with Roman for granted too like Aqua did with hers. After having lived such a miserable life on the thumb of her parents, she had only one thing and she thought she would never lose him. And when she did, she was lost again, left alone with no one to help her.

Nothing but pain, loneliness and grief.

If she had only managed to knock Little Red off that airship…

No, Cinder would have still left them for dead.

'You should never have threatened me.'

She should have killed that fire bitch when she had the chance.

She should have convinced Roman to drop their deal with Cinder and just run.

Run to Vacuo just like that Tukson guy wanted to.

Roman talked a big game but the truth is the reason he went along with Cinder was because he was scared.

Scared of her.

Scared of the people who she worked with.

And after having met Cinder's boss, Neo could understand why he was scared. She had been pretty scared but she kept her mouth shut(metaphorically and literally) and waited for the chance to have her revenge and force Cinder to keep her end of their deal.

And she did…

Just before she tried to kill both her and Little Red.

All that time and effort, putting up with Cinder and helping her get into Atlas, stealing that Lamp and for what?

She should have realized it.

Cinder was incapable of showing appreciation to anyone and disposed of her 'allies' when she had the chance. When Jinn showed them what Little Red and her friends were planning, Neo had seen Emerald, Cinder's number one stool, or perhaps former stool with them and it was clear she was jumping ship and siding with them against both her bosses. Neo hadn't given it much thought because all she cared about was avenging Roman.

That was all that mattered to her.

Not Cinder's ego.

Not Salem's bid for world domination.

Not Little Red and her friends trying to be heroes.

Nothing else.

'Leave the thinking to me, Neo and we'll always come out on top.'

That's right.

She had always let Roman do the thinking for them both.

Maybe that's why things went so wrong.

When she teamed up with Cinder to get their revenge on Little Red, she had let her do the thinking for them like she did with Roman. She did because the truth is Neo didn't care about thinking, she only cared about having the freedom to do what she wanted, whenever she wanted. Ever since she was a little girl, locked up in her home she wanted freedom.

Freedom to do what she wanted.

To do look however she wanted.

And everything else.

And maybe that was her mistake.

She treated their partnership like she did with Roman, even when Cinder had the utter gall to take credit for all their work when in reality Neo did all the heavy lifting from getting them into Atlas and stealing the Lamp while Cinder was getting her fiery ass kicked to the surprise of no one.

She couldn't do anything by herself.

Hell, she couldn't even kill her and Little Red right.

Bitch had to even gloat before she made sure they were both dead.

So what was left for her?

With this new partnership with Aqua, the so-called Keyblade Wielder from another world, would it be the same?

Would Neo let someone else do all the thinking for her?

Aqua wasn't like Roman or Cinder.

For one, she was a supposed hero as a Keyblade Wielder sounded much like a Huntress, only with magic. Maybe if she had come a bit earlier Neo could have somehow sic'd her on Cinder and could have watched the 'great and powerful' Fall Maiden try and see if she'd have better luck than the other four new Maidens that they had faced.

The thought almost made Neo smile.

Still, even if Aqua was a goodie-two-shoe, she still stuck around and saved Neo from those four who wanted her dead. She even allowed her to come with her on this crazy mission into another realm to try and save their world so Aqua at least trusted her a bit. She also knew Aqua was smart and knew that Neo was out of her element here so it was unlikely Neo would try and betray her. And Aqua was the only one who knew what they were doing so Neo had to follow her if they had any hopes of getting out of this.

So this time, Neo had to let someone else do the thinking for her again, not because she had the habit of treating all her partnerships as the same but it was their only chance for survival.

Still, Neo had some serious thinking to do and she didn't like it.

Aqua shook her head. "I'm sorry. I know I can't keep on wishing for the past."

Neo was all too relieved when they started walking again. Just as they reached the castle gate that showed the bridge leading up to the castle did something happen.

The hands on the castle's clock began spinning from midnight and turned from midnight to five 'o clock. The bells of the clock tower began to chime and immediately the bridge began breaking apart. Aqua and Neo immediately turned and ran, reaching the gate and watched as the bridge broke apart and fell down into the dark void, cutting them off from reaching the castle.

Now what? Neo signed with her Scroll.

"The road collapsed when the clock advanced. If only I'd made it in time..." Aqua looked at the edge of the bridge, finding a set of gears floating there. "But there is no time in this place, only...the clock."

She walked over to the gears and held out her Keyblade. With one slash, the gears began spinning and glowing before shooting up towards the clock tower. Neo and Aqua watched as the hands began moving backwards, changing from 5:00 to 4:00.

"I knew it." Aqua turned to Neo. "There are four more gears left. Find the other ones and we'll reverse the hands on the clock and restore the bridge."

Neo shrugged and nodded, allowing Aqua to lead the way.

And so, Neo and Aqua searched through the Castle Town, searching for the clock gears that would help restore the pathway to the castle. Along the way, they ended up battling Heartless that seemed to sense their intent and tried to stop them. They had to fight their way through the town, fining the gears in several places like on the roof of one house, near a fountain, climbing their way up floating pieces of debris to reach the third one and actually going underground to find the final one.

With each slash from either the Master Defender or Hush, the gears returned to the clock tower and the hands rewound.

3:00

2:00

1:00

And then with one final slash, 12:00.

The bells rung at midnight and the pathway leading up to the castle was restored. Aqua and Neo made their way back to the gate, seeing the bridge was fully restored. However just as they reached the gate, Aqua held out her hand to stop Neo.

"Something's wrong." She answered her teammate's unasked question.

And that something appeared in the form of a mass of Shadow Heartless sprouting from the ground, taking the form of a serpent of sorts without a head and the Heartless that made up this monster had red eyes instead of yellow. Neo held out Hush in front of her, completely shocked by the creature in front of them.

"Thunder!" Aqua shouted, summoning bolts of lightning that hit the monster.

It rushed at her and she defended herself and Neo with a barrier that caused the giant monster to scatter into dozens of smaller Shadows that surrounded them.

"Quick take them out!" Aqua shouted, immediately starting to slash at the surrounding shadows.

Neo did so, slashing and kicking any Heartless near her while staying close to Aqua. After a few seconds of fighting Aqua noticed the Shadows were not just surrounding them but also piling up on each other, realizing what that meant.

"Neo! We have to get clear of them!" She shouted.

Neo nodded and cast an illusion of herself and Aqua as the Shadows shot up, taking their giant serpent form again. The illusions shattered and Aqua and Neo appeared several feet away. The Shadow monster pursued them as Aqua activated her Shotlock, using her Rainbow Prism to blast away at the monster as it came closer. Neo and Aqua jumped aside as the monster charged at them again.

Neo would jump in to help but she wasn't sure it was a good idea to get near that monster with just her Hush. She was a close range combatant and had no guns built into her weapon. Not smart possibly but she fought better with melee weapons than guns.

Maybe if she got out of this alive, she'd consider upgrading her weapon.

The serpent, or Demon Tower slammed into Aqua again but she defended with her Barrier again as well, causing the Tower split back down into the dozens of Shadows it was made of. Neo jumped forward, slashing as many Heartless as she could. If she couldn't attack the monster in its tower form she'd settle for attacking the little monsters when they were all scattered and tiny.

Tinier than she is, she just realized.

"Thunder!" Aqua shouted, summoning more bolts of lightning down on the beast and it seemed to finally have enough as it dissolved into the ground.

Aqua and Neo carefully stared at the ground, not sure if it was gone or waiting to launch another attack but after a moment or so passed, it seemed like it was gone.

Aqua sighed and looked over at Neo. "You okay?"

Neo nodded, exhaling softly as she typed. That was different, even from the Grimm.

"Well, this Realm is where the Heartless come from. We're bound to see a lot of monsters." Aqua replied.

Great.

Aqua didn't need Neo to speak to hear the sarcasm in the one word she typed. Even though Neo couldn't speak she not only could type but she was good at conveying her thoughts through her facial looks and body language. She supposed when one has no voice they had to learn how to communicate differently than everyone else.

Perhaps she could consider learning a few just for the occasion.

"All right, we better keep moving." Aqua suggested, pointing to the castle up ahead.

They walked across the newly assembled bridge and reached the other side.

Once they were on the other side of the bridge Aqua stopped and looked back at the town. "Not even memories...are safe from the darkness."

Neo followed her gaze, looking at the remains of the town.

"What I wouldn't give to really turn back time... To spend one more night beneath the stars with my best friends. I'm doing it again."

Okay, please don't stop.

Neo didn't want to have another moment of self-reflection or she might start having the same and cause her to doubt their partnership here. To her relief Aqua turned around but gasped. Neo turned around and both watched a young man walking down the stairs of the front entrance to the castle with a dazed look on his face.

"It can't be." Aqua rushed up to the young man. "What are you doing here? You should be in the realm of light. Oh no! Did you not make it out? Don't tell me. Has the Realm of Light— Why won't you say anything to me?"

The whole time Aqua was speaking to him the man was about as talkative as Neo.

"So what are you, a memory among these shadows? Are you here to...try and tell me not to lose heart?" Aqua asked sadly, looking back at the town. "The world keeps our thoughts alive. But where did the people who lived here go, once their world was taken away? At least they're not here. So, they haven't fallen to darkness. I'll take what solace I can from that."

She noticed Neo waving her hand and pointed at the young man.

"Oh, sorry." Aqua gestured to the man. "Neo, this is Terra. Or what looks like Terra. One of my closest friends."

Neo looked the man over…

A small part of her mind couldn't but say…Hubba-hubba.

Some piece of eye candy.

"But it's not really him." Aqua continued sadly. "Possibly some kind of illusion. I don't know who or what is projecting it or if Terra isn't somehow reaching out to me, asking me not to give up. Either way, we need to keep moving."

She reached out with her hand and it passed through him and just like that he vanished, leaving a saddened Aqua. Neo could actually relate as even if she wanted to, she would never use her Semblance to conjure an image even if she missed him so much.

"Let's go." She heard Aqua say and followed her up into the castle.