"Vanitas!"

Shouting. Rumbling. The ground was heaving beneath him.

His eyes snapped open to a world in chaos. Gone was the gentle sunlight of his dream; replacing it was a throng of dark nightmares.

As if to mock his dream further, they were trees. Shadows of trees, at least, thin trunks sprouting from the ground. One burst directly beneath his legs. He rolled to the side, keyblade flashing to hand, right as the brittle-looking abomination opened its branches wide.

No, not branches—jaws.

"Van, your Inversed!" Aqua called from the other side of the clearing, which was quickly becoming less and less clear.

Inversed? Did she want him to make some? The stress of being attacked didn't exactly help—

The demented tree reached down next to him, clamping its jaws around a white Flood. Where had that come from?

Two more Floods were trembling in fear, trying to hide behind him. He hastily absorbed them while slicing his blade through the black not-tree. It dissolved into a puff of black smoke as it fell. Was it a type of Heartless, then?

Aqua was destroying them too, the sweeping motions of her blade sending up plumes of darkness as she took out Heartless after Heartless. Like tough weeds, though, more only sprung up in their wake.

"Aqua, what happened? If this was your freaking Wayfinder again—!"

"Don't blame me." She glared through another cloud of dense smoke. "This one's on you."

She didn't get to finish explaining, however, before another claw of a tree struck at her. She threw up a barrier, the impact pushing her back, then finished the Heartless off with a burst of Fire.

He turned his attention to his own battle. Three of the thorned trees had sprouted around him, attempting to form a cage. He spun, intending to slice through them all at once, but he wasn't half the ballerina Aqua was. The move left him off balance, one of the Heartless still standing. Growing? Could trees stand?

It lunged at him, something trees certainly weren't supposed to do. He rolled, landing and casting Fire with his free hand. The dry tree-Heartless-thing went up in flames and smoke.

Three more took its place. Vanitas cursed, summoning his mask as the leftover darkness stung his eyes, and he steadied his stance. If they would hold still for a moment, he could fire off a shotlock—

Aqua had the same idea a second earlier, twirling and shooting light with reckless abandon. How could she keep her balance like that? It didn't seem fair.

Fair or not, it was effective. He found himself unable to tear his eyes away. When her attack wasn't aimed at him, it was beautiful. A destructive kind of beautiful, which was the best kind, in his opinion. Her projectiles vaporized the strange Heartless on contact, so quickly that he barely saw their jaws pass inches in front of his masked face.

He did see something else, though.

"Aqua?" He ripped off his helmet and called, but she kept spinning, blasting out light. Light and… something else. "Aqua, stop!"

She didn't hear, or chose not to listen. The emaciated trees and their gaping maws were almost gone. Half a second later, the clearing was empty again. Aqua spun out of her shotlock, releasing a final burst of light. It was the confirmation of what he'd thought, and of what he'd feared.

At the center of her light hid a shadow of darkness.

He rushed to her side as she dropped to her knees, breathing heavily.

"That took… more out of me… than I expected."

She drank a potion, though he didn't see any cuts on her. She had been a force of destruction in that moment, and those Heartless, while tall and menacing-looking, weren't particularly strong.

Strong enough to freaking eat my Inversed, he remembered. He hadn't felt any emotions return from that, though he had felt the pain. But that wasn't his biggest concern at the moment.

"Do you know why?" Vanitas asked carefully.

Had she been using darkness on purpose, or accident? Either option worried him. The first time she had accidentally used darkness, she had recklessly run away from him. She had blamed his dark suit then, though he still wasn't sure if that had had anything to do with it. But both then and the time after, her darkness had been tied to her anger. She didn't seem angry now, but she had used some darkness.

Darkness hidden among light. A paradox he could barely begin to comprehend.

She shrugged, slowly getting back on her feet.

"We haven't fought Heartless in a while. It could be lack of practice."

"I doubt it. Aqua, did you notice anything weird when you were fighting? Anything that didn't feel right?"

"Why?" She raised her eyebrows. "Did you do something to me?"

"What? No! Aqua, why would I do something?"

"Well, you did attract those Heartless," she said, suspicion lining her voice. As if their time roasting marshmallows had meant nothing. "And you knew something was wrong with me."

So she could tell.

"I didn't mean to. I was having a good dream; I must have created the Inversed subconsciously." That used to happen with Unversed and nightmares before he had learned to control them.

She still stared at him calculatingly, trying to measure the honesty in his voice. He bristled under that gaze. Had he done nothing but save her sorry butt over and over again? So what if she happened to be the one saving the day this time. He had proven himself time after time. She would have fallen to the Dark Wind if it weren't for him.

"Aqua, what's wrong with you? You're not like this." Not anymore, at least. She sounded all too much like she had before their time in the tunnels.

"Nothing's wrong," she replied defensively.

The wisps of darkness rising from her shoulders told a different story.

"Aqua, I'm serious! Look at–!"

She picked that moment to stumble forward, then fall to her knees, then to her face.

"Aqua!" He knelt by her. When he clutched her shoulder, it felt cold as ice. "No! Not again! Cure! Cure!"

Though weaker than his pitiful Curaga, it was faster. It calmed the beginning of her shivers and bought him a little bit of time.

Why? Why? He didn't believe it was germs any more. He could get germs just as easily as her, and he wasn't sick. With that darkness rising from her…

Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead. She groaned loudly, clenching her fists. He didn't know what would happen if he didn't heal her quickly, but he didn't want to find out. Why hadn't he made her teach him healing magic sooner?

His Curaga panel was still equipped; he gripped her arms and started the process. The painfully slow process. Magic the consistency of green slime sweated from his palms, mixing with her sweat that had somehow managed to diffuse through her suit.

"You're going to be fine," he told her, though it was more for his own benefit. "You're strong, Aqua. You're the strongest person I know."

The glow faded into her. Her skin, milky white for a moment, gained a little more life. His spell seemed to be working faster this time; maybe it was the practice. He hoped it wasn't his imagination. Her lips parted as her fever slunk away like a wounded animal.

"I… am?" she whispered.

"Yes." He smiled; a Mandrake Inversed nearly sprung out in his relief. "Now, use that strength and stop being sick."

She chuckled weakly, eyes opening.

"Fine. Only because you ordered me to."

Part of him wanted to laugh too, just glad that his spell had worked again, but he didn't waste time.

"Aqua, what happened?" There was something wrong with her, whether she would admit it or not. That something could be a matter of her life or death.

She winced, placing her hand over her heart.

"I don't know, Van. I was fighting Heartless, using magic, and then… it felt off somehow. I can't describe it. Then after that you were talking to me, and…"

"And?"

She blushed.

"And… I just felt so sure it was your fault. I don't know where it came from. I spoke on impulse, and it wasn't fair to you at all. I'm sorry."

That was all well and good for her to say, but inside, something shifted. He had come to trust and rely on Aqua's friendship these past couple of weeks. She had helped heal his schism, tame his Unversed again, adjust to the light in his heart. She hadn't given up on him. Why would she now?

"No problem." He shrugged. "Forget about it."

But he would remember.

XXX

He let her sleep this time, keeping watch over their camp in the flickering light of the Fira. Too many things didn't make sense. The strange Inversed-eating Heartless. Aqua's darkness leaking out. She was right; he didn't want to stay in the Realm of Darkness. Regardless of what he'd said before, this place wasn't safe for them.

It wasn't safe for her.

He watched her chest rise and fall. She was breathing evenly, no sign of sickness. He kept expecting it to strike at any moment. That worried him more than any Heartless threat.

Despite the danger, he hadn't brought himself to tell her that she'd been using darkness. He hadn't had any proof after she'd fallen unconscious, and he wasn't sure she could shoulder any more burdens at this point. Using darkness wasn't safe for her; he could tell that much.

As he kept his vigil, he tried to organize some of the facts in his mind.

The first episode of her sickness had been after they first encountered the Dark Wind. She had been exposed to it longer than he had. But then they had fought it off again, and she hadn't fallen sick that time. Then she used her own darkness fighting off Heartless, and she did get sick again.

Was there any kind of pattern? He assumed it was the darkness, mostly because he couldn't think of any other cause, but her suit should be keeping her safe from that.

He had to find out. How else could he protect her? His mind ran circles, only succeeding in making him more tired. He couldn't have gotten much sleep before that Heartless attack.

Yawning, he stared into the fire, wishing he had more marshmallows. He did have a Crystal Soda left over from earlier; he popped off the bottle gap and took a deep swig. Mmm. Sweet and fizzy. A tingle of energy washed over him, helping him stay awake.

Too bad he couldn't pass the time by practicing with Inversed. He had enough positivity from the tasty drink to create a few, but they might draw more of the strange Heartless. If those things even were Heartless. They needed a name. Their tops looked like jaws, or maybe claws. Treeclaws? No, that was stupid. Trees were too cool to be Heartless anyway. The way they moved was kind of like a snaking vine, maybe a tentacle…?

Tentaclaw. That name would do. He nodded in satisfaction.

So he couldn't make Inversed, because the Tentaclaws could come back and eat them. Maybe he could practice something else useful.

He plucked his command deck from its safe place in his belt, then rummaged through it. So many dark attacks. Curaga and Aeroga were the only normal magic he had equipped. Another hidden slot in his belt held his unequipped commands. He spread those out on the ground in front of him, noting their variety. Most of these he had never used, and why would he? Most of them weren't based in darkness.

He wasn't confined to that now. Xehanort couldn't force him to use only darkness, and he had had his pride beaten down enough to admit that there might be a better way. Still, as he removed some of his dark commands from his deck, he felt as if he were betraying a part of himself.

He did it anyway. Now, the question was, what commands should he use? Light ones weren't an option; even if he had any, he doubted he would be able to use them. Inversed were different from light magic, since they were powered by emotion rather than pure magic.

Ventus was strong in the Aero element, which was the reason Vanitas usually avoided it, but recent experiences had shown him the foolishness in that. It was effective against the Dark Wind, and he seemed naturally able to use it without charging it with darkness. Might as well use every advantage he could get. He slapped in Tornado and Windcutter.

With the few slots he had left, he put in the normal forms of Thundaga, Firaga, and Blizzaga. Hopefully Aqua would be able to help him learn to use those better soon. Just having the command equipped would do a lot for his skill, but he would still need practice and instruction. Instruction wasn't something he could get while she was asleep, but practice, maybe…

Curaga would be the quietest, but he didn't think he could improve much on that without her help. Firaga didn't seem safe to practice on dry trees, and Thundaga was way too loud, so he settled on Blizzaga. It was the easiest of the three for him to use without darkness, anyway.

Still, it might be a little loud… He stood, brushed the splinters from his log-chair off his butt, and crept a little ways into the forest. Not far. He could still see Aqua lying there in the glow of the Fira between the trees.

He stared down a tree and summoned his keyblade, holding it near his head in a taunting stance.

"Alright. Go!"

A chunk of ice burst from the tip of his blade, shot forward, and impaled itself in the tree's trunk. It wasn't very big, or very fast. Not compared to its dark counterpart, anyway. He waited for his command to reload, thinking of how best to try again. Maybe if he kept the spell attached to his keyblade for a moment, let the ice crystals grow before launching them…

He tried again. This time, the ice was larger, but it also fell to the ground before he could shoot it. A growl rose in the back of his throat, but he wasn't ready to give up yet.

He tried to lose himself in his practice, but it was mostly a distraction from bigger worries. What would a stronger Blizzaga do against the Dark Wind, if it somehow found them again up here? How were they going to find their way out without his sense of smell or using Aqua's Wayfinder? Did she still blame him for the earlier Heartless attack? It wasn't his fault he'd had a decent dream for the first time in his life.

Thinking of Aqua, he turned away from the ice-crusted tree and peered through the woods to check on her. He hadn't heard anything, but the Fira was blazing higher than it had before.

Much too high. If it grew any taller, it might catch the branches above. Was Aqua having nightmares?

He dashed back through the skeletal trees to check on her. The distorted firelight had thrown him off, but he could soon see that she wasn't there.

"Aqua?"

The Fira flickered fitfully in reply. How was it still here? When she slept, it sometimes reacted to her emotions, like it was connected to her. That meant she had to be nearby, right? "Aqua!"

Not this again! The one time he slacked on guard duty…!

He wouldn't panic this time. He hadn't been gone long; she couldn't have gotten far. Maybe he could look for footprints in the ground those Tentaclaws had broken up. He knelt down, trailing his fingers through the loosened dirt, but saw no tracks. Of course, Heartless wouldn't leave footprints…

Rustling. Behind him.

He turned around just in time to see a Tentaclaw's maw envelop him.