Vanitas typically slept on edge, ready to fight should any threat approach. Even the nightmares didn't trap him enough to dampen his sense of real danger.

So when Aqua's breath grew rapid, it only took him seconds to awaken.

He leapt to his feet, keyblade flashing to hand, sure that the evil wind had returned. But his Fire was still there, illuminating the sandy corridor, and no sewer-worthy stench assaulted his nose.

Still, something was wrong. He dismissed his keyblade and knelt by Aqua's side. She trembled with shivers and quick, shallow breaths; her suit felt ice cold when he shook her shoulders.

He frowned. Clearly her pleasant dreams hadn't lasted. Even there, her friends couldn't protect her.

"Get up, Aqua. You're having stupid nightmares too." He shook her again, but she didn't seem to feel it. She usually slept a little heavier than him, but touch was sure to jolt her awake. "Aqua?"

Her eyelids flickered in the clutch of dreams. Nightmares were annoying, sure, but not particularly dangerous. He could ignore her and go back to sleep… but something still felt wrong.

Suddenly her shoulder blazed hot; he jerked his hand back with a shout. She groaned, uncurling and spreading her limbs wide, her ragged skirt flaring out around her hips.

Was this what it meant to be sick? He had vague memories, from when he and Ventus were one, of physical sickness. He breathed a sigh of relief. Probably just a regular fever, from the germs she'd been so paranoid about before. Not the dark mist. That was over, done.

His darker version of Curaga likely wasn't the best to use on her, not after today's darkness. But his non-dark magic might not be strong enough.

"Ugh, fine," he muttered to himself, and hesitantly reached down to his emotions. Ironically, it was his Nervousness about creating Unversed that took form as a Scrapper. A normal Scrapper, thank the Void, dark blue with red eyes.

He summoned Void Gear and stabbed it through the chest.

"Nngh…" He always hated that, the pain and emotion both flooding him instantly. As the Unversed dissipated, a few D-Link crystals scattered to the ground, but no items or HP orbs. "Seriously?"

Aqua moaned again, her face already glistening with sweat. Fine. He would try again. Couldn't have his only friend dying of something as stupid as germs.

Frustration manifested in a Thornbite by accident. Stupid; Thornbites never dropped Potions or Panaceas. He still sliced it in half, hoping for a few HP orbs at least. To his relief, the green spheres bounced out of the dissolving Unversed; he quickly scooped them up and crushed them against Aqua's blazing arm.

"What?" He felt the soothing energy flow through him. "No! Not me, her! Agh!"

If some of the healing power had made it into her, she didn't show it. She shuddered violently as she flashed cold again.

By this point, Vanitas wasn't so sure it was a normal sickness. Still, even if it was somehow darkness-induced, she needed a healing item.

He hated making Vile Phials; they tended to manifest mostly out of Disgust, and when that Disgust returned, it often made him sick to his stomach. But that was just a feeling. Aqua was sick for real, and Vile Phials were his best shot at getting some useful items.

Thinking back to the smell of the dark wind, Vanitas pulled Disgust to the surface, enough for three of the bottle-shaped Unversed. Clenching his eyes shut, he braced himself and destroyed the Vile Phials with a pure wave of darkness.

Two spilled a High-Potion each, and the last a Curaga command. He gulped down one of the High-Potions before the pain and nausea could hit him fully. He hated to accept it, but gone were the days when he could handle hordes of fledgling emotions flooding back into him with hardly a flinch. Without the daily practice of numbing himself to that pain, he had grown too weak, sensitive. Pathetic.

But now wasn't the time to wallow in self-pity. He scooped up the other High-Potion, pulled out the stopper, and knelt again at Aqua's side.

Sweat coated her again. Her hair was matted with it now, but her teeth still chattered violently.

"Hold still," he commanded, not that she could hear.

Was she unconscious? This sickness thing was more serious than he'd thought.

Her teeth still chattered, impossible to pour the Potion through. He grasped her jaw firmly with his left hand. Though the force of her shivers vibrated his arm, he could hold her mouth open enough to dribble in most of the Hi-Potion. Some splashed onto her cheeks and chin, sinking through the skin and relaxing her taught muscles. But would it cure the sickness?

Moments passed—and her shaking turned to stillness. Her jaw trembled slightly, her forehead still glistened with sweat, but her skin felt normal to the touch.

"Aqua?" he asked hopefully. Her steady breathing was the only response. He shook her shoulder, forgetting to be gentle—and realized that her temperature was already falling again. The Hi-Potion's effect had only been temporary. "No, dang it! Stop being sick!"

Her teeth began to chatter, quiet but sharp, like flint on steel.

"Not ssso sssimple…"

Vanitas froze, blood colder than hers. That voice—!

He shook his head, black hair flying into his eyes. No. His paranoia was just catching up to him. Right?

"You're going to be fine, Aqua," he said, more for his benefit than hers. "I'll kill you if you aren't."

Mind racing for a new plan, his eyes caught sight of the fallen Curaga command. He dived towards it, flinging out his arms as he skidded across the sand.

Cure was his worst element. Xehanort felt that pain was an effective teaching tool and hadn't wanted it too easily diluted. Besides, Potions were more reliable and (usually) easier to come by.

"Come on…" His fingers fumbled the Curaga command; it slipped back into the sand. Cursing, he scooped it back up, tossed Dark Splicer out of his deck, and slapped in the replacement. His usual Curaga wasn't particularly strong, but with the command installed, its power might be boosted enough to work.

"Curaga!" He shouted, hands vicegripping her shoulders. Sluggishly a green glow—more like a thick, goopy syrup—diffused from his palms, through her suit, into her skin. He swore goosebumps bubbled up under her suit even as her fever skyrocketed.

"Don't even think about it," he threatened the fever, pumping out more of the green syrup with a vengeance. Was it just a vain hope, or was her temperature dropping again?

He didn't realize he was holding his breath until her temperature stabilized at a natural warmth, her breathing evened, her goosebumps retracted. Her taught muscles, stiff with the exertion of her internal battle, finally slackened.

"Va… Van?" Aqua barely breathed, and her eyelids twitched open.

Before he realized what he was doing, his arms had flung themselves around her. The green glow was still fading from his palms when he pulled them back, shoving himself away like he would catch her sickness. If he was trying to hug her, maybe he already had.

"If you ever get sick again, I'll kill you," he vowed, but his gaze dodged hers.

"I'm sorry."

"What the—don't apologize! It isn't your fault!" He scrambled to his feet, kicking up sand.

"You had to—" she coughed out the sand he'd disturbed, "—save my life. Again."

She scowled, but it looked more thoughtful than angry.

"At least, I assume you saved my life. It must have been serious, for you to worry so much and for me to feel so drained…" She rubbed her forehead. "What exactly was wrong with me?"

"You were hot and cold, back and forth." He didn't want to describe much more than that. Especially not the part where she might have sounded like the… He didn't want to think about it. No use worrying her more when it was probably just his mind playing tricks on him anyway.

"But you're fine now. Right?" he pressed.

She nodded. "Just a… little dizzy. But I'll shake it off."

"Good." He held out a hand to pull her to her feet. He was a little surprised when she actually accepted it. "Let's get out of here. I like darkness as much as the next guy, but this place is…"

Well, this place was basically hell.

Aqua seemed to get the unsaid sentiment. She nodded. "Lead the way."

He was glad to finally feel a little more in control again, with his nose leading them away from the direction of the dark wind. She wobbled a little as they walked, leaning against the tan stone of the wall occasionally. He wasn't that much better. Panic and Anxiety still clawed below the surface, both from Aqua's sickness and the evil they were leaving behind. It made him want to sprint away as fast as his feet would take him, but Aqua wouldn't last long at that pace.

Eventually, they reached a chamber with three branching corridors and stalactites dripping sand from above. He scrunched his face and took a whiff of the musty air. And another… and another.

He let out a groan.

"Seriously, again?"

Aqua frowned in worry. "Is your nose…?"

"Not working." He huffed. "What's the point of being a heart of darkness if I can't keep my awesome smelling skills?"

Thankfully, Aqua didn't point out that he may not be entirely darkness anymore. That was a small mercy, but the thought brought up a fear he hadn't considered: was he losing his sense of smell because he was growing less dark? That may have been what Aqua wanted, but she didn't understand the cost. If he couldn't navigate them through the realm of darkness, they'd never escape.

She'd have no reason to stay with him.

"It's…" Aqua swallowed. "It's going to be okay. As soon as we can find our way to the top, I'm sure your nose will start working again."

He wasn't so confident. He nodded anyway.

"Now we just have to figure out how to do that."

He paced back and forth, mind racing. There had to be a way out. Give up on that hope, and he'd give up on everything.

"The tunnels could take us in any direction. We have no idea which ones are safe, forget which ones will get us above ground."

"Way to look on the bright side," Aqua grumbled.

"Hey, I'm just talking it out. Something you taught me. You got any 'brighter' ideas?"

Her hand instinctively went to her hip, rubbing her star-shaped charm. That didn't worry him too much; they'd already determined that even Heartless had better sense than to come down here. Of course, that was before the evil voice.

"We need to find a way…" She gasped, eyes lighting. "Find a way. Wayfinder!"

"Please tell me that's a real idea and you're not just making up words."

She unlooped her charm from her belt and held it up for him to see. "This charm—it's called a Wayfinder."

He blinked, unimpressed. While he might not be worried about the thing attracting hordes of Heartless, that didn't mean he didn't hate it.

"I've never thought of it this way—I don't know for sure if it will even work—"

"Well that's reassuring."

"—But it's worth trying, isn't it?" Aqua asked.

"Trying what?" he countered. "Lighting it up with the power of friendship? Hoping it leads us out with some magical rainbows? For all you know it could make that—that voice show up again."

That was enough to make her stop and think, but then she replied, "Light… light is stronger than darkness. Always." Her voice wavered, as if she were trying to convince herself as much as him. "If attempting this attracts it, maybe it will give us power to defeat it."

He was a little offended by her "light-beats-darkness" comment, but so far in their case it had proven true. Aqua had always beaten Vanitas, until she was weakened by a horde of Heartless, anyway. Blaming his losses on their type matchups might be better for his pride. Maybe.

He crossed his arms. "And if not?"

Her blue eyes fixed on his, finding her confidence again.

"The worst case scenario is we die." Her voice cracked, just barely, on the last word. "A number of other things could kill us down here before that voice."

It was a fair point. The latter half, anyway. He wasn't convinced death was the worst the Realm of Darkness had to offer. He'd scared Aqua with the thought that the dark voice could be the souls of people who'd died down here, and now the thought came back to haunt him. Anything that might lead them out of the underground and away from that was a risk worth taking.

"Fine," he grudgingly agreed. "But if you get us both killed, I get to say I told you so."

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't, Van."

Her small smile brightened the room, but not as much as the star charm—Wayfinder, she called it—that glowed in her palms. A gasp of surprise left her mouth, as if she hadn't meant to start yet. At first that caused him a twinge of worry, but then her eyes closed in concentration. Bright magic began to pour from her fingertips, threads weaving around the Wayfinder's glassy surface.

He whistled, for once not hiding that he was impressed. "Figured that out pretty fast."

"I—didn't figure out much. It called to my magic, somehow—" She grunted.

For such an innocent-looking object, the charm seemed to take a lot out of her. It better not need too much magic. If Aqua ran out, he sure didn't have any light to contribute.

Except… he pushed away the thought of the tiny white Flood. He had no idea how he'd done that, and even if he did, he didn't want to repeat it, or let Aqua know it had existed. Not only would it add more evidence to her argument, it was also just plain embarrassing.

Aqua gasped as the last bit of magic wisped from her fingers. The Wayfinder pulsed with a blue glow, but nothing else happened. That figured. After all their arguing, the charm turned out to be a useless trinket anyway.

"Stop holding your breath—" he said right before the Wayfinder released a sparkling beam.

The thin ray of light nearly shot straight through Vanitas. He threw himself towards the wall just in time to save his stomach.

He hadn't been far off with the "magic rainbows" joke. Rainbows, white beams, same difference. It was all light.

Aqua laughed, a quiet, disbelieving sound that rose in volume and pitch as she flung her arms around Vanitas. Was she ever going to clarify the no touching rule?

"It worked! Van, it worked! We're getting out of here! We're finally—"

She gasped, and he suddenly found himself supporting her weight.

"Van… what…?"

His stomached dropped as he felt her suit begin to grow cold again.

"You just used all your magic, and you're still recovering. What did you expect?"

He didn't tell her about the chill leaking through her suit. If she was still conscious, she was fine. No point spoiling her victory. Besides, it really could just be that she used her magic too fast.

"Sorry." She grimaced, gaining her footing again. Why did she suddenly find the need to apologize so much over stupid things? She never did for her jabs at his darkness.

"Stop apologizing. You're not that heavy." Well, she was pretty heavy, but he was strong.

She frowned at his comment, but it didn't last long before a satisfied smile replaced it. She looped her Wayfinder around her belt; the sparkle-beam wavered for a moment as the strap interrupted it, but then it stabilized.

"You can save the backhanded compliments for later. Now, we're getting out of here."