It's been almost a week since Senna's arrival, and so far, she's found herself a routine that has worked so far. She begins the day by watching the sunset before joining everyone for breakfast, and then while they are in their morning lessons, she'll do her morning meditation for about an hour. It helped immensely in making sure her emotions were mostly in control for the day, of course, there were those few moments in between when her grief starts to take control, but it's slowly getting easier to manage. Then after Lunch, she would join in the magic lessons, but only as an observer, she wanted to see where each of their levels was before she would even consider trying her hand out at giving a lesson herself as Master Eraqus had requested. Tomorrow would be the real deal and she was silently freaking out on the inside about having to give lessons.

Hence where she was now standing off to the side along with Eraqus, observing the trio practicing their magic outside on the training grounds. It was obvious Aqua was quite talented in the art of magic, every spell she cast was a hard hitter and each one was done in quick succession. Senna was confident that anything that she could teach her, she would readily take to easily. Ven defiantly went beyond the basics, but nowhere near Aqua's level. He seemed to have a preference for Aero magic to increase his already rapid movements. Then there was Terra and Master Eraqus was not exaggerating when he said that he was more of a physical attacker. No doubt out of the three he could do the most damage in so little time, but it was obvious his slow movement and his mediocre magic skills were the biggest drawbacks when it came to his attack style.

"All right that is enough for now" Master Eraqus announces as he steps forward to end the session.

He looks over each of them momentarily before continuing.

"Now as a reminder, I will be unavailable most of the day tomorrow as I have important matters to discuss with Yen Sid as well as Xehanort."

Ven immediately tensed up at the mention of Xehanort, which was something that did not escape Senna's eyes.

"If you so choose to take the day for leisure or continue with your daily regiments, I only ask that all of you take a magic lesson from Senna, you all would benefit greatly as Summoners have a deeper connection to Magic." Master Eraqus said as he looked specifically at Terra, who looked a bit sheepish.

Once they were dismissed, everyone just dispersed to do their own thing until their next afternoon lesson. Senna headed to the library that was located in the castle if she wasn't outside when they did the more physical part of their training, she was always in the library. She was always an avid reader since she was young, it gave her an escape from the reality of being an outcast among her people even if it was just for a brief moment. She enjoyed almost any kind of genre, except for horror novels she was too squeamish for stuff like that.

Though this time, she had a more educational book she was interested in, so she made sure to stop by her room and grabbed her notepad. There were much more books on constellations than she thought, so she just grabbed the first one that grabbed her attention, went ahead and sat down at the desk, and immediately got immersed.

(Aqua's room)

Aqua sat on the floor in the middle of her room with her legs crossed and her hands folded together in the middle. Her eyes were closed, as she let out a deep breath. A conversation with Senna the other day, when they started talking about different ways to meditate, got her completely interested in trying some new stuff. She mentioned that one of the elders taught about improving one's senses through meditation by not getting attached to any of your thoughts just let them be and soon you'll be more aware of your surroundings. Senna's enthusiasm for mediation really shined through during that conversation, and it made Aqua happy to see her slowly coming out of her shell.

Aqua become so immersed, she could hear the gentleness of the wind blowing her window curtain, it was almost like every sound around her dialed up a bit now that she was more concentrated on her senses. She then heard a pair of footsteps that she knew were heading toward her room because of how loud each step was the closer they got, and she knew exactly whose they were.

"Come on in Terra"

Aqua opened her eyes and turned her head towards the opening door and smiled at the confused look on Terra's face.

"How on earth did you do that, I didn't even get a chance to knock."

Aqua quickly got up from the floor "Well, I was trying out a new meditation that makes focuses on one's senses, it was something that Senna and I had talked about earlier in the week. I wanted to give it a try."

"Seems like she's opening up a bit more, she and Ven are always star gazing or playing with that Chocobo of hers."

"Yeah, she's getting there. When she smiles, it's more genuine, though I still catch her having such a faraway look as well."

Terra just nods "Still it's probably a big step for her, and now she'll be giving us magic lessons."

"More like the lessons are for you," Aqua said teasingly, causing Terra to get flustered.

"I just don't have the skill for it like you, or even Ven."

"Maybe Senna might be a better teacher for you than either Master or I."

Aqua tried to personally help Terra out with his magic, but he kept getting more and more frustrated which in turn got her frustrated with how little progress they were making. It ended up in a fight between the two and spent a couple of days not talking to one another.

Terra just sighed "Yeah we'll see."

"So, what was it that you came all the way here for, figured you would've been napping."

"Oh yeah, I was wanting to ask you if Master has mentioned when you and I will be taking out the Mark of Mastery exam"

Aqua just shakes her head "No, all he says that it will happen soon hasn't given a specific day yet."

"I still can't believe our dream of becoming Keyblade masters is getting close, remember when we were children and how far off it seemed."

Aqua just nodded remembering when Terra and she had first been brought to the castle when after Master Eraqus had personally chosen them to be the next generation of keyblade wielders.

"It's hard to believe, as children it seems like it can never go fast enough, and now it seems time can't slow down."

The two just silently reminisced, about how far each of them has come since they came here,

Terra began to turn around "You up for a quick snack, Ven might end up eating all the strawberry cake if we're not quick enough.

"No thanks, I think I'm going to relax in the hot springs for a while, maybe with some scented candles."

"You are such a girl" Terra teasingly said, not understanding the appeal of scented candles.

Aqua responded by throwing one of her smaller pillows at him.

"Hey," Terra complained.

"Be a man and take it"

Terra laughs and starts walking away, while Aqua smiles and shakes her head.

As Aqua started to head towards the hot springs, she saw the library doors slightly open, like they were meant to be closed but were forgotten about. She figured it had to of been either Master Eraqus or Senna, neither Ven nor Terra would actively seek out a book unless it was required reading. Both would rather listen if a story was being told out loud. Though she tried to at least read a short novel from time to time during breaks and before bed, otherwise she didn't have much time due to the vigorous training schedule.

She quietly walked in and saw Senna sitting at one of the desks, completely immersed in whatever book she was reading. She was also taking vigorous notes as she read.

"Hey Senna," Aqua said walking up to her.

Senna looked up from the book and smiled when she saw her.

"Oh hey, Aqua."

Aqua looked down a bit trying to see what she was reading "So what are you reading."

"Oh, this is a book about constellations. Since Ven and I have been star gazing lately, I wanted to learn more about constellations and see if Ven and I could find some next time we're out. This book not only shows you how to find them but also the myths behind them. A lot of them have origins in the Greek gods themselves, it's so incredibly fascinating. Like Gemini, Castor one of the twin brothers was killed and his twin Polydeuces had asked Zeus himself to share his immortality with them. So, Zeus put them in the sky where they remained inseparable."

No one can't say that she isn't passionate about the stuff that she is interested in, it was quite commendable.

Senna suddenly stopped and Aqua was immediately concerned when she saw the look on her face.

"I'm so sorry I got carried away."

Aqua was relieved that it wasn't anything serious, but it didn't lessen the concern that Senna appears to have this perception of being a burden to those around. From what Senna was willing to share so far, she was a victim of bullying back in her home world to what extent she didn't know.

"Don't apologize, it's fascinating stuff like you said, how the stars make a pattern and how each one has a story. I don't think I even need to tell you, Ven will be eager to hear all the stories behind the stars."

Senna went right back to writing something in her notebook "I hope he doesn't mind long stories because some of them can get a bit confusing admittingly."

"So, I'm heading over to the hot springs for a while, would care to join me and maybe have some girl time"

Senna's head whipped up with her eyes going wide "You guys have a hot spring."

"Did we not tell you or show you when we gave you the tour?" Aqua asked pretty sure that they did, but maybe they forgot."

"I must have been still so out of it at the time, but yeah that is a great idea."

Senna quickly closed her notebook and put a marker in the book she was reading "Let's go."

(Hot Springs)

Aqua sighed in bliss as he entered the hot water, she could already feel some of the tension from her muscles loosening up. Senna was redoing her hair before she got in. Aqua didn't expect her hair to be as long as it was, her purple hair went past her shoulders, it was the way she put it up in her hair with that red ribbon that made it appear shorter than what it was.

"I don't think you're supposed to be wearing jewelry when in a hot spring," Aqua said noticing that Senna was still wearing a bracelet that had little stars and moon charms on it and a teardrop-shaped necklace.

Senna just waves at her as she lowers herself in "It's all good, I specifically charmed these with a protection spell so they won't damage by the water."

"Is there any significance to them?" Aqua asked curiously.

Senna stared down the bracelet with fondness "Well this bracelet was made by my mother when I was still a child, said it would bring me luck."

"The necklace was something I inherited from when she passed away when I was still a young child." She said as he touched the necklace.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

Senna just shrugs "No need to apologize, she was really sick for a long time so it wasn't unexpected. I've had years to come to peace with it, and she's never far from my heart anyways, so she's still around just in a different way."

"That's a really good way to think about it," Aqua said as she lifted her head to look at the ceilings

The two just sat in silence enjoying the heart of the water, however, Aqua couldn't help but notice that Senna would occasionally glance at her, looking like there was something she wanted to say but couldn't.

"You ok, if there's something you want to ask go right ahead, I don't bite," Aqua said teasingly hoping to make her feel more comfortable if there was something she was curious about.

Senna just faced palmed "Is it that obvious? Well, there was something I was curious about I just don't want to ask in case it was too personal."

"It's ok, go ahead. I'll answer the best I can" Aqua said trying to reassure her.

Senna just sighed "Well I was wondering about your hair color, is there a reason why it's blue? Is it Naturally or dyed?"

Aqua couldn't help but chuckle a little "Oh was that all, I thought it was going to be something about my collections in my room."

Senna raise her eyebrows a bit, but Aqua quickly answered her before she could now question that.

"Well, my mother was something of a scientist in addition to being a keyblade wielder, I'm not exactly sure about all the details but she was part of an experiment while she was unknowingly pregnant with me. The blue hair is a side effect of that experiment."

Senn touched her purple hair as she contemplated the look on her face.

"Is that why you asked because of your hair" Aqua stated.

Senna nodded "Yes, I don't know why I was born with purple hair and red eyes. People can be cruel if there's anything remotely different about you in which they don't understand."

There was a pain on Senna's face, that Aqua couldn't quite relate to. It wasn't that she didn't have her share of troubles, but it seemed Senna was dealing with stuff that went much deeper.

"Every time I asked my parents, it was always a superficial answer one that I knew wasn't true at all. Meeting you last week, was the first time I ever met someone who had an unusual hair color like myself, it was a relief if you know what I mean."

Aqua nodded and smiled "Of course, unique is a good thing. Be pretty boring if everyone was like everyone else."

"Exactly, I think that's why I love reading as much as I do. It allows me to have that escape from reality and be able to connect with characters from the stories who feel just as isolated as I felt. Just getting lost in another world, and see where their journeys take th-."

Senna once again stopped mid sentenced "I'm so sorry, I'm talking too much."

"No don't be sorry, I feel like I'm understanding you a bit better. Talking about stuff like this helps build a connection between one another, I can't say I might not be able to relate to everything but I would like to hear some of your stories from home whether good or bad."

Senna just raised her eyebrows a bit "Are you sure."

Aqua just nodded.

"Where do I begin, there's a lot of stories."

(Nighttime)

Senna sat at her vanity desk, taking out her ribbon and letting her hair down for the night. It was a great day; she felt each day she got closer to each of the trio and now she's starting to feel comfortable with being able to call them her friends. There was a real genuine interest in wanting to know her and her interests with no deliberate malicious intentions.

She quickly finished brushing her hair and went over to her oversized bed and settled in under the covers for the night.

When she started to drift off, she saw a light that just got brighter and brighter.

She immediately opened her eyes, but instead of the window, she would wake up to, instead, she was at the edge of a very familiar forest, surrounded by various shrubs with a waterfall right behind her. She knew exactly where she was, this was the land of familiars. How she got here she did not know, as Senna did not perform the ritual that would normally send one's spirit to this world. She looked down and saw she was still in her nightgown.

"Hello"

She was worried, this place was always filled with various creatures, but there was none to be found.

Suddenly she heard a noise coming from in the forest, and Senna immediately took off in that direction. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the most welcome sight. All of her familiars were right there. The three small fairies, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine, the wolf-like beast named Red, the humanoid Esper named Seraph, and the dragon Bahamut.

"Guys you are all right," Senna said with relief in her voice.

They did not react to her presence; it was like they couldn't hear her, causing her to be confused.

"Soon the calm will come to an end."

Senna turned around when she heard an unfamiliar male voice and saw standing in front of her a hooded figure all dressed up in a black cloak.

"Who are you, what did you do," Senna asked, trying not to sound intimidated, but she knew she was failing.

Could he be the one responsible for the attack on my people?

"It's not what I did, it's what you didn't do. You left your people in their direr of need"

Senna couldn't help but take a step back at that accusation.

"That wasn't my choice, my father forced me to leave."

"Yet you still obliged to that decision, because even your own father knew you weren't strong enough to fight alongside them. While you were hiding, your entire village was destroyed children included but yet you survive."

Senna just looked at the ground in shame knowing he was right for being the daughter and granddaughter of high summoners, she didn't have the confidence to be able to successfully do the things that they did.

Suddenly he started moving closer, which caused Senna to start taking steps back.

"Yet your power goes beyond any of their comprehension, only your power is strong enough to break the seal."

"GO AWAY" Senna screamed as she closed as she put her hands up, and unleashed an air attack.

When she opened her eyes, she was shocked. While the man in black was gone, a majority of the trees were destroyed due to the strong gust of wind she unleashed and none of her familiars were nowhere to be found.

Suddenly the bright light came again, and this time when she opened her eyes she was back in her room at the castle. She immediately sat up and put a hand over her heavy beating heart trying to get her breathing to calm down. She then got up and walked over to her vanity desk to look in the mirror. Senna was surprised by how much sweat and tears were on her face, she quickly ran her fingers through her hair. Was this her guilt trying to manifest herself in her dreams and not allowing her to be able to summon any of her familiars besides Nugget? If so, she had no idea what the next steps were because that man wasn't wrong. Why was she the one to survive when everyone else had to perish, why couldn't she be stronger to have been able to stay and help the fight? Senna's hand fists into a ball as so many why's entered her mind. She allowed herself to bang her desk with her fist and just let some of the tears fall. She knew that meditation would not help, she would be just way too distracted to even clear her mind right now.

Senna couldn't go back to sleep after that dream, so she just ended up reading some more books as at least getting lost in someone else's story did partially help keep her mind focused on something else. Then training each of the trio will defiantly be a great distraction, despite her misgivings about teaching herself.

If she looked tired during breakfast then thankfully no one had commented on it, they decided that since Terra was the less skillful of the trio he would do his lessons solo with her, while Ven and Aqua would do theirs later. So now here she was outside, watching rather painfully as Terra attempts to use a blizzard spell. It wasn't very big and when it barely did any damage to the training dummy.

Terra was frustrated "I hate magic, it takes up too much time casting spells."

"We need to at least improve the basics; you can easily get the advantage in battle when you use sleep or when you can get them stunned."

Terra huffs "Not to be rude, but my physical power is more than enough when trouble comes. Besides Cure and the occasional fire spell, I don't see the point of magic. I can keep up with anyone with sheer force alone."

Suddenly an idea came to Senna's mind realizing that Terra's physical prowess could be an advantage.

"You know, depending on the type of magic you can combine that with your physical power to deal even greater damage."

Terra looked at her skeptical, causing Senna to giggle before getting in front of him.

"Here let me show you."

Senna took her staff and let out a few mine spells toward the dummies. Once they set off and she started feeling the magic within her powering up, she then slammed her staff on the ground where three large earth crystals from the ground sent the remaining dummies up in the air.

She then turned around and couldn't help but smile when she saw Terra's shocked expression, it was kind of cute.

"This is what we call a Command Style when you're using certain types of attack the magic within you allows you to perform style changes to finish off enemies instead of finishing them with your weapon of choice. What I just did was called Rockbreaker, and I was able to call forth that by using mine related spells."

Terra looked very interested "So what if I use fire spells, then would I use a Fire command style."

"Exactly, they allow you to deal extra damage but you have to use the spells multiple times before you can use the style change. Physical attacks can also unleash a command style, but that's now why we are here. I know magic isn't your forte, but even just mastering the basics you can still do much with it. Plus, some spells once melded together I think will suit you very well since you are a heavy attacker."

"Melding?" Terra asks.

Senna just shakes her head "Sorry I'm getting ahead of myself, that will be a lesson for another day. Let's just keep it at the basics for now"

I suppose I know what I'll teach Aqua and Ven today.

Terra nodded "All right, let's give it another shot.

So, in the next hour and a half, there were finally progressing at a decent level. Terra was getting the hang of Fire, Thunder, and Gravity which Senna believes because they were the elements close to his personality, but not in a bad way. While a lot of the time he had a stoic expression, his actions and words show a compassionate young man who is determined to make his dream of becoming a keyblade master a reality. It wasn't hard for her to tell he had the capabilities of making a great leader, just by the way he is with Ven during their training, and Ven in turn admires him with all his heart.

"All right here it goes," Terra said as he summoned a mine spell.

He did this a few more times before he then successfully performed a Rockbreaker.

"You did it," Senna said excitedly as she raised her fists in the air at the accomplishment.

Terra turned around and smiled at her "Well because I had a good teacher."

"Oh, please I just gave you the advice, you did all the hard work," she said trying to downplay it.

"No really, I learned a lot that is more to magic than meets the eye and how useful it can be with physical attacks."

Senna slightly nods in agreement "Exactly and you don't have to be a master in magic just like how Aqua doesn't have to be an expert in physical attacks. It's honestly really all about trying to cover your weaknesses."

She then walked past him to try and clean up the unrecognizable dummies, and as she did, she pats him on his shoulder as a job well done, but she didn't expect him to wince.

"Are you all right."

Terra holds his shoulder "Yeah just some bruises from training with Aqua, sometimes she'll accidentally put a blizzard into her attack before I fall over."

"Here take off your shirt and let me see."

Terra blushed the moment she said that.

"It's not necessary, Aqua's already used Curaga on most of them."

Senna just ignores him as she rummages through her bag "Physically yes, but from the way you winced it's obvious that the muscles are still sore. Now just sit down and let me take a look please."

Terra's face continued to get red, but he sat down on the ground and began to take off his top starting with the piece of armor. That was something Senna had wanted to ask, each of them had a piece of armor somewhere on their person, but something else always came up.

"Found it," Senna said lifting a bottle of lotion out of the bag.

She turned around and couldn't help but blush when she saw Terra's upper body. It was no surprise he was such a strong physical attacker; his muscles were well-endowed from all his workouts. If she was being honest, out of all the years of healing injuries no one had quite a six-pack like he does.

Senna quickly shakes her head getting back to the task "Well it looks like most of the bruises are gone, but even that one is healing. Do you mind if I touch?"

"S-Sure" Terra replied awkwardly

"All I'm going to do is infuse some of this medicinal cream in my Curaga, so it might be a bit cold at first. I'm going to massage it for a few minutes." She explained as she poured her magic into her hand and then with a wave of her left hand the cream flowed into her right hand.

Terra tensed up a bit when he felt the cold from the cream she warned him about, but immediately relaxed when the tension in his muscles went away.

"How did you do that, is this like a summoner thing," Terra asked astonished by how quickly his muscles went back to normal after a week of tension.

Senna shook her head chuckling "Well not quite, this is actually something I came up with. A few years ago, my father was in an accident, nothing major though. Something I realized when he came back from the healers, while Curaga does restore your physical injuries like nothing had happened, it doesn't take into account the inward injuries. It's easier when you have so much adrenaline, but eventually, it catches up to you when things slow down. So, I figured why couldn't I use the cream that is supposed to help with muscle pain and Curaga to speed up the process?"

"You're quite the genius with Magic" Terra stated.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far."

Terra turned his head a bit so he could look back at her "You need to give yourself more credit, the way you demonstrated those Command Styles and just the way you talk in general about magic. Sounds like you were a top student."

"I suppose I was, in fact, I was the youngest summoner in history to complete my training by the age of 13 whereas most finished by 19."

Terra's eyes widened "Wow that's quite an achievement, but why do you sound so sad about it."

"It's not that I'm not proud of that fact I really am, but it was more so how both adults and children treated me. The adults didn't know what to do with me, can you imagine that everything that you worked for was easily outdone by a child, and then there are the children who struggled or were not as advanced, who took their jealousy out on me? It sorts of made me feel so bad about being proud of those achievements because I never wanted to give off the impression that I thought it was better than everyone else."

"Well if you ask me, sounds like a lot of those adults couldn't keep their own jealousy in check instead of nurturing your talent, children though I can have sympathy for I think we've all been there."

Senna just shrugged a bit as she finished up "See that's the thing, I know you and I have been taught that negative emotions like Jealousy bring one closer to darkness, but at the same time isn't that what makes us human? I mean if we didn't have emotions like that, then that would mean we would all be perfect, and I can assure you perfect I am not."

Terra was surprised by that comment, he never thought about it like that before. Master has always taught them that darkness needs to be tucked away to the deepest corners and destroyed. That negative emotions were something that needed to be controlled and never expressed unless the darkness overtakes you.

Aqua and Ven were on their way back to the training grounds.

"I can't wait to see what Senna is going to teach us, you probably won't need much teaching you're amazing when it comes to Magic."

Aqua chuckles and ruffles Ven's Hair "I don't know everything Ven, there's always something new to learn."

Suddenly the two stopped in their tracks when they saw Terra sitting on the grass shirtless with Senna kneeling right behind him with her hand on his shoulder.

Aqua was surprised, to say the least, this wasn't what she expected when they agreed to let Terra have some solo training.

"What's going on," Ven asked confused.

Seeing Terra and Senna talking and smiling like that brought a smile to Aqua's face, even if she was confused about what was happening.

Aqua grabbed Ven by his shoulders and turned him around "Come on Ven lets leave them alone, I'll tell you when you're older."

"Why, I want to know now"

Aqua turned her head back and smiled again before shaking her head as she lead Ven away.