Vanitas? Is that you?
Ventus? Sheesh, took you long enough. I've been yelling at you for ages.
I was asleep again. I can only stay conscious for a little while. What do you want?
You warned me that something was wrong with Aqua once. Are you connected to her too? Can you tell me how to get the darkness out of her heart?
I don't think it works like that… There's definitely still something wrong. You're not doing a very good job of this.
Yeah, says the guy who passed out and left her alone in the first place. I'm the best you've got right now.
Unfortunately. Sigh.
Did you really just say "sigh"?
I can only project words, not sounds, okay? Give me a break.
Fine, whatever. So can you help me at all?
As far as Aqua goes… not really. There's something keeping me out, blocking our connection. Something more than just her own darkness.
Well that's reassuring.
What do you want me to do, lie and say she's fine? This is all the help I can give you for now.
Ugh. Why did I spend so much time trying to find you?
Because you love me, duh. Don't worry, I've sent help to Aqua before. You're getting close. I might be able to do something again. See ya later, bro.
I never told you you could call me 'bro'! Hey! Get back here! Getting close to what?
Yawn. Sorry bro. Falling asleep again. Good luck out there.
XXX
"Van! Van, wake up!"
Rude. He felt like he'd just fallen asleep. Powering his Wayfinder these past few days had been exhausting.
"If you're waking me up this early, we better be in the middle of a Heartless attack," he grumbled, flopping over onto his stomach.
Aqua laughed—so they weren't in the middle of a Heartless attack. "Really, Van! You have to see this!"
"Blegh." He rolled again, so he was facing up. Aqua's face hovered over him. "This better be good."
She didn't waste time explaining. She grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet, dragging him out from under the rock overhang.
He yawned and blinked sleep from his eyes. There had been fog before, hadn't there? Regular fog, not creepy dark fog. Aqua had created a small barrier to keep it out while he fell asleep, since he hadn't been able to keep going any longer. The Wayfinder had drained him so much he would've passed out anywhere, probably even in the middle of the Dark Wind itself.
Regardless, the fog was gone now, like a curtain pulled back to expose the outside world. A few feet from their camp, the ground fell away, and a jagged cliff led down to a field of arching stones. That wasn't what drew his attention, though.
"Void's Abyss," he swore to himself. "Is that the sun?"
"I thought you'd want to see," Aqua replied smugly. "There's something else, too—focus on the horizon."
He squinted, shielding his eyes from the blinding glare of the orb hovering at the edge of the sky. It was much fainter than any sun in the Realm of Light, probably more equivalent to the light of the moon. Still, after so long with nothing but the dark realm's ambient glow, this sun felt like a firebrand on his retinas.
He forced his gaze to focus below it. The ground was shifting, shining, reflecting the light from above…
"The ocean," he breathed. He imagined he could hear it even from here, about a half-day's journey away. "Is that… do you think it's…?"
"The edge." She nodded.
"The edge of the Realm of Darkness…"
It felt too good to be true. Sure, they had been searching for what felt like a lifetime, but had he ever really expected to find it?
Yes. He had. He just hadn't been able to anticipate this feeling—the hope that welled in him, the joy, the excitement. The sense of finality, of accomplishing the purpose of his existence. Like what he'd experienced while forging the X-Blade, but magnified tenfold.
The emotions wanted to form an Inversed. Instead he fed them into his Wayfinder, which had remained clutched in his hand while he'd slept. Ever since Aqua had told him that her spell strengthened the porcelain so it wouldn't break, he had hardly let it go. She seemed to think that was funny, but he didn't care.
The ray of light exploded outward, straight towards the ocean.
"You're awake enough now, then?" Aqua asked with a laugh.
"Awake enough to let you eat my dust."
He grinned, took off at a sprint, and leapt over the side of the cliff. As the wind whooshed past him, he barely heard Aqua call him an arrogant cheater. Then she was falling beside him.
They hung in the air, and for that moment he met her eyes. The blue shone brightly, and it felt real, not a mask skimming over gold.
Then his boots hit the ground. The shock waves coursed up through his knees, but he was already running, weaving through twisted arches of stone, leaping over blue-streaked boulders. His former fatigue was left behind as he practically flew over the landscape, like he was one with the ray of light he held.
Aqua didn't trail far behind—though her speed was no match for his, she did have longer legs and magic-boosted jumps. Few Heartless interrupted their race; this close to the Realm of Light, it took more energy for them to appear. Still, the few Neoshadows that did pop up slowed him down, and she gained on him by Doubleflighting over a low-hanging arch.
Two could play at that game. As he crested another boulder, he leapt and shot a burst of Aeroga beneath his feet. The wind propelled him forward, past a bewildered Aqua, to the top of another contorted rock formation. He cast the spell again, timing it well enough to keep his forward momentum.
No "practically" about it now—he flew. The wind in his face, his spikes of hair blown back, his skirt fluttering like the makeshift end of a cape.
It was the feeling of freedom.
Of course, it couldn't last forever. He could only shove the exhaustion aside for so long. So, against the protests of his pride, he paused the race.
Aqua nearly crashed into him as he stopped; she had quickly picked up on his Aeroga trick to regain lost ground. She slowed her descent with the spell as his Wayfinder's light faded, returning his emotions in a rush.
"Giving up already?" she taunted.
"That won't work on me this time," he replied with a smile, casting Cure over himself. Would Esuna have been better for fatigue? He still got their exact effects confused sometimes, even though he had drastically improved in both elements. "I know I could beat you. I just want to save some of my energy for when we get there."
She just smirked. Odd how natural that expression was coming too look on her face.
"Of course you did."
He couldn't see the ocean from this angle anymore, but he felt it in the distance, pulling on him. The faraway sun cast long shadows from the boulders, which they fought back with their streaks of blue luminescence. He reclined in one such shadow, catching his breath.
That wind, the power of it… maybe he was just imagining things because of his dream, but while flying like that, he'd felt a little closer to his other half.
Was he actually getting closer to Ventus? Aqua said she'd left him in the Land of Departure. That was a word in the Realm Between, which separated the Light from Darkness. He usually lumped it in with the Realm of Light, though. Anything outside of this endless wasteland was good enough for him.
"Are you ready?" Aqua asked, shifting her weight from her heels to her toes.
"Someone's patient today," he mumbled sarcastically.
Arms crossed, he closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. The air smelled cleaner here, even to his dampened nose.
"Don't you feel the same way? Ready to be rid of this awful place?"
He was. Wasn't he? Aqua had improved a little over the past few days, likely because she no longer felt the strain of powering her Wayfinder. That light instead went to fighting her darkness. It certainly wasn't a perfect or permanent solution; she had still erupted at him a few times, but he had grown a thicker skin. He tried to understand, rather than reacting to whichever emotions reared their heads. Combined with idle conversation about anything from favorite ice cream flavors to which Heartless were most annoying, the past few days had been more pleasant than any Vanitas could remember.
What would happen when all of this was over? Would it become nothing more than a happy dream?
He twirled his Wayfinder in the air on one finger. That was what he held on to, when those fears took him. Even if things changed, Aqua wouldn't abandon him. She wasn't like Xehanort, ready to throw away a tool once it outlived its use.
That reassurance, though planted firmly in his mind, was harder to keep in his heart.
"…Van?" She asked again, when he stayed silent.
"Yeah." He caught the Wayfinder back in his hand. "Let's go."
Whatever came after this, he was ready to find out.
XXX
Vanitas could see it now—the dark ocean, splitting the land from the sky, expanding to fill the horizon. Firm stone gave way to soft sand beneath his boots. The dim sunlight washed over it all, and in a strange perversion of nature, bathed them in coldness.
They were here. They were finally, finally here.
Aqua approached the lapping waves reverently, as if it were a deity that might ascend at any moment, leaving them alone again. She fell to her knees in the surf.
"We made it… we… we actually made it…"
He sat beside her, legs stretched out in the water. His suit kept him dry, but it still felt colder than he expected.
"We did, didn't we?" he breathed.
Tears streamed down her face. He hoped those were the weird good-tears, like he'd cried upon receiving his Wayfinder. He couldn't imagine why she would be sad.
"It's beautiful."
"Yeah," he agreed. It was no forest, but the slight push and pull of the waves was comfortable enough. So long as she didn't expect him to go any farther out in it.
For a few moments, they just sat there, staring towards the horizon. Neither wanted to be the first to bring up the question that now dawned on them:
What in the Void's empty name were they supposed to do now?
"Are you still tired?" Aqua finally asked. "Because we could rest for a little while, if that would help. Before…"
"Yeah." He nodded. Before whatever they were going to do.
She unfolded her legs from under her, sticking them out in the waves.
"It feels like years since I've been to the beach. There was one in the Land of Departure, if you went out past the forest a ways."
"I know."
He'd watched her and her friends play there a few times. From a safe distance, of course. That had been one of their stranger activities, he thought. Why would they wear even less clothing than usual to go swimming? Did most people like the feeling of water on their bare skin? Maybe not all clothes worked as well in water as his suit; he wouldn't know.
"You… did Master Xehanort take you there when you came to visit?" she asked.
"Yeah," he lied quickly, but his red face betrayed him. Stupid mask, never being there when he needed it. Though he guessed it would be just as obvious if he summoned his mask every time he got embarrassed. "…Well, I took the liberty of exploring by myself."
It was a good enough lie; she seemed to accept it at least. That might've been because she was staring at the water rather than his flushing face.
"It was my favorite place, you know. My home world didn't have a beach, or much water at all really, so Terra taught me how to swim there." She smiled.
After all of his attempts to drag a happy memory out of her, she had finally done it of her own accord, all because of a big pit of water. And because of Terra, of course. He tried not to scowl.
"And you thought that was fun?" he asked, managing to keep his face flat.
"Of course. I love swimming." She stood, splashing him a little in the process. "And since we're here…"
"You're kidding." He scrambled to his feet as she waded in deeper. "Aqua, this isn't your beach! We're still in the Realm of Darkness, there could be—there could be Heartless in there!"
She paused thoughtfully, but then she said, "I don't think so. We're close to the Realm of Light here, and we haven't seen any Heartless in a while. I don't think they can make it out here."
"I'd rather not find out." He crossed his arms. All that water looked like a perfect hiding place for a Heartless. Or anything else.
"We'll be careful. Besides, we'll have to come this way eventually."
Her words skimmed the surface of his fear: that this ocean might be the way out. Its murky depths could somehow hold the key to the Light.
"Well we're not going to do it by swimming," he pointed out, taking a cautious step forward. The water swishing around his ankles suddenly felt more menacing than it had looked from the shore.
"Of course not, but that doesn't have to stop us from having fun now, does it?" She smiled.
"If you count being soggy and salty as 'fun,'" he muttered, inching towards her.
The waves tugged unnaturally at his feet. Not that this water was much different than that of the Realm of Light; it was just that any liquid pulling on him felt unnatural.
"You… don't like swimming?" She barely seemed able to comprehend the thought.
Was it possible to dislike something he'd never done? He thought so.
She was waist-deep now; he had to splash through up to his knees to get close enough to talk without yelling. His boots weren't quite watertight, and he shivered when the liquid rushed in and chilled his toes.
"It sounds stupid," he replied firmly, if not tactfully.
She blinked, and then realization dawned on her face.
"You've never been swimming before, have you?"
"…No," he admitted, and he nodded.
"That's right. Ven didn't know how to swim either, though I thought that was likely due to his memory loss…"
"It wasn't," he said without thinking. Then, at the question in her eyes and against his better judgement, he elaborated. "My… our… mom… she was going to take us to the beach. In the summer. But then Xehanort came, and…"
"…Oh." Thankfully, she didn't force him to finish. "I know nothing I can say will truly fix… well, anything, but… I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you lost so much."
He shrugged it off. What did it matter? It was so long ago. His mom probably didn't even miss him anymore.
At one point, when he had recently split from Ventus, he had thought of going to see her. But he'd quickly realized that Ventus's mom wouldn't want to see a monster claiming to be her son.
"I never you remembered, either," she added, eyes downcast. "But it makes sense. Ven didn't remember anything. Do you, then…?"
"Yeah," he admitted bitterly. "I remember everything. For all the good it's done me."
She finally retreated from the deeper part of the ocean, splashing over to place her hand on his shoulder.
"I may not be able to do much, but I can at least do something, if it would help. Would you like me to teach you how to swim?"
He looked out at the ocean, dark and foreboding. The light gleaming over it seemed like a trap to entice him towards the depths, where the water could attack him. There was a reason he'd named his first Unversed Floods, and it wasn't just for their blue color. Vast amounts of water were some of the most intimidating things he could imagine.
He wanted to reject her offer. But if she could do it, and if Terra could do it, then there was no way he was going to wimp out.
"That… could be fun." He put on a grimace that might pass as a smile, if she squinted hard enough.
"I'm sure you'll like it once you get the hang of it," she promised, taking his hand and leading him out into the deeper water.
He tried to ignore the feeling that he was sinking through that horrible quicksand again as she pulled him all the way out to his shoulders. Thankfully, the tide felt weaker here farther from shore, and there were no large waves like on other beaches that he'd seen.
"…Sure," he sighed.
Like she had when teaching him magic, Aqua quickly went into Master Mode—also known as Lecture Mode.
"Let's start by having you practice floating. You'll want to lie on your back, like this…" She suddenly went horizontal, bobbing on top of the water. "Breathe in deeply; it will help you be more buoyant."
Vanitas just stared at her. Was this some kind of freaky water magic? He didn't think she'd cast a spell, but people didn't just float. They were heavier than the water, obviously. Though boats could float, and they were filled with heavy things… Maybe boats were powered by water magic too.
Sighing, he went along with the crazy trust-fall exercise. He summoned his mask first, though. It wasn't fully watertight, but it would keep him from drowning if he happened to sink down too quickly.
As he started to lean back, water leaked in through the back of his helmet, and he panicked. His legs spasmed, seemingly of their own accord, and he plunged below the surface.
No no no NO NO NO
So dark, so cold, running down the back of his neck, dripping onto his face—
And then Aqua's arms were pulling him up, to safety. He dissolved his mask so he could gasp for breath, though realistically he knew he'd had plenty of air. The water would've taken minutes to flood in, not seconds.
She watched him with concern.
"Are you alright?"
Get ahold of yourself, idiot!
"I'm f-fine," he spluttered.
"Do you want to try again? I won't force you."
Let some stupid water get the best of him? No way.
"I'm fine. Show me again."
She did. It still looked like magic—no, more surreal than magic. When it was his turn to try again, she held her arms under him first, supporting him until he could float on his own. Maybe he was just more dense than her, but it took him several tries before he could do it. Even then, he had to hold in a deep breath to keep from feeling like he would sink.
"Now you're getting it! Now, let's try something that should be fairly simple…"
Of course, she had to phrase it like that, so that when he failed he'd feel like an even bigger idiot. She floated on her back again, but this time the slowly waved her arms and legs, so she moved backwards through the water.
"Doesn't look too bad," he said with a nod. He could do this.
Inhaling deeply—his nose already felt clogged with salt—he leaned back. However, when he flailed his limbs back and forth, he just splashed uselessly without moving anywhere. He quickly righted himself, planting his soggy boots in the sand.
"There's a rhythm to it," Aqua explained, still floating. "Watch again. See how I only push on the water, not pull. I leave my arms out as I raise them over my head, see?"
He didn't quite see. But he huffed and tried again anyway.
He didn't count how many failed attempts he made. The number would have been horribly embarrassing, so he chose to focus on the fact that he did, eventually, figure it out. Not that he found it as wonderful as Aqua seemed to. She was graceful as an angelfish in the water. He was more of an awkward upside-down turtle.
While he practiced his swimming, she dove in and out of the water around him, doing flips beneath the surface and accidentally spraying him a few times. He couldn't figure out why she would voluntarily put herself under the water's power, but he could appreciate the beauty of her performance.
He righted himself, looking for where she would surface next. When she did, he had his arms ready to shove forward a giant splash.
"Hey!" She laughed.
Then as he expected, she retaliated. He tried to dodge to the side as she swept another wave towards him. He wasn't fast enough in the water though. The wave swept over his face, stinging his nose and flattening his remaining spikes of hair. How had he let her talk him into practicing without his mask?
He spat out the brine and counterattacked with a vengeance. His splash wasn't nearly as impressive, though; it barely caught the side of her head. Maybe she was using water magic.
Their splashing quickly escalated into all-out war, with water flying on both sides. Now she was definitely using magic. A tsunami crashed down over his head.
"Hey, that's cheating!" At least he'd summoned his mask by then.
He countered with an Aero-boosted wave of his own. She laughed as the water sprayed her, mostly turned to mist by his magic.
"See, I told you this would be fun!" she called.
"Oh, I'll show you fun," he muttered.
Was this fun? She had tried to explain fun to him, once. Food was fun. He thought that their earlier race might have even been fun. But this? Getting soaking wet and feeling salt sting his eyes?
…Okay, maybe it was a little fun. At least, it was until one of her waves completely knocked him over, sending him backwards, head-over-heels, into the water.
His helmet hit the sand, and he his sense of direction jumbled. Which way was up? Brine leaked in through his mask's cracks; some found its way into his mouth. He coughed, rolling in the sand, arms and legs flailing like he could beat the water into letting him go.
Aqua grabbed him, of course. She always was there both to witness his weakness and save him from it. When he didn't move upon resurfacing, she carried him like a useless princess back to shore. A soggy, wet, pathetic princess.
"Put me down," he gurgled, but either he wasn't loud enough, or she didn't care about his pride. She didn't set him down until they were back on solid (sandy) ground.
He flung off his helmet, gasping again. Why was the water so terrifying? Why could it send him into a panic so instinctual that his mind felt like it could only watch in horror? He could keep his head fighting Heartless, heck, even fighting the Dark Wind. He was just lucky the weird voice didn't have a counterpart called the Dark Ocean.
"I'm sorry, Van, I got carried away…" She leaned over him, face concerned.
"Not your fault. I started it. Shouldn't dish out what I can't take." He shrugged, which felt odd while lying on the sand.
"Regardless… we don't have to swim anymore. Maybe we should figure out how to get out of here."
"Right," he replied, glad for a change of subject.
Sitting up, he clasped his hand over his Wayfinder. For a moment he'd been afraid it had been lost in the water and commotion; touching it relaxed him. He pushed out the thoughts of water, focused on positive emotions, and funneled them towards it.
The beam of light shot towards the water—and then arced straight into it.
"Of course." He bit back a curse. "Go under the water. Why not! Might as well go bury myself while I'm at it!"
"You don't… happen to have any submarine Inversed, do you?" Aqua asked weakly.
He shook his head.
"Fresh out." He doubted he could summon enough positivity towards the suffocating water to come up with a new one.
"It must be in layers," she mused. "The Realms. Maybe they don't blend into each other seamlessly, but stack on top of each other… Perhaps this is a weak point in the fabric of the universe. A place where, if we dove deep enough, we would surface in the Realm of Light."
"That's a great theory and all, but I'm not about to test it."
Even if it weren't underwater, the light arced all the way out in the middle of the ocean. Way too far to swim. He wrapped his arms around himself, as if he could squeeze the water out of his suit that way. Rather than drying him, the surreal sunlight only served to make him colder.
"Then… it appears we're at an impasse." Her voice cracked.
Was that it? After all their fighting, destroying thousands of Heartless, crossing thousands of miles, were they really going to be imprisoned by a glorified puddle? He thought about braving it, swimming with all his might, letting himself sink below the waves…
The panic nearly overtook him again just thinking about it. He couldn't. Maybe he was weak for it, but he couldn't. Maybe if Aqua took the time to teach him here for weeks, months maybe… Maybe by then he could do it. If she was right and there weren't Heartless out there in the deep.
He pulled his knees to his chest.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "I guess we are."
Aqua stared at the Wayfinder, still glowing at his side. As if the beam would change its mind if he only powered it long enough.
"What… what happens now?"
"…I don't know." Admitting it was like opening a gate to the darkness in his heart. The darkness that Aqua's light, and then his own, had pushed down for so long.
Despair. Deep, suffocating despair.
He saw it reflected in her eyes. Reflected along with his gold. Her color spell flickered, as if to remind them both that regardless of what they pretended, the darkness would always be there waiting. So long as they were trapped here.
"Is it time, Van?" she asked in a whisper.
"Time… for what?"
She closed her eyes.
"Time to give in to the darkness. You said it when we first met—no being of light survives here. I thought we could be the exceptions, but if this is as far as we can go… I just don't know. Without a goal to strive for—I don't know how long I'll be able to hold on."
Just give in. For a moment, the thought sounded pretty nice. Emptiness. Peace.
But he knew darkness. He'd been its hands; he'd told its lies. Darkness was not peace. It never had been, and never would be.
"No," he breathed. "No, Aqua. So long as we're together, we have a reason to hold on."
He could hardly believe something so sappy had fallen so easily out of his mouth. She just took it in stride.
"That could be enough. If by holding on, I'm protecting you…" A smile found its way to her face. "I may have failed Terra and Ven, but I don't have to fail you too."
"You won't." He said it, he even believed it.
How he could believe something he knew was false, he wasn't sure. She would fail him. The darkness would take her, eventually.
When it did, they would go together. That thought, at least, made it easier to bear.
He stared back towards the ocean, where his guiding light betrayed him. The beam of light… hadn't it been farther out before?
"Aqua, do you see that?" He shook her arm.
"See…" She gasped.
The ray was getting shorter. He saw it move, leisurely, as if it were just skimming the water's surface. They sat there, watching it, until it was close enough to swim to. Then Aqua stood.
"Wait! Aqua, you don't know what it is!" He grabbed her arm again when she still looked ready to chase after the light. "There could be some Heartless eating it, or…!"
He could see it now, just barely. Something bobbing on top of the waves, then rolling under them, tossed about yet still moving in a smooth line towards them. When it rose to the surface, his Wayfinder's light illuminated the green object.
Aqua saw it too. At that point, he couldn't stop her from running to it. He followed behind, crashing through the water with much less grace.
His Wayfinder stopped glowing when she scooped the item from the water. Tears filled her eyes.
"Ven… oh, Ven…"
It was Ventus's Wayfinder. Aqua held up her blue charm next to the green, as if to confirm that they were the same. Vanitas found himself holding his up as well. Next to the two original Wayfinders, composed of stained glass and metal rather than cracked pottery, his looked like a crude forgery. That didn't make it any less real to him, though.
"Oh, Ven, what happened to you…?" Aqua cried, her tears mixing with the salt water. "Van… would you have felt it if something bad happened to him?"
"I don't know." He frowned.
Ventus had just talked to him today, in his dream. He sure hadn't sounded like he was in trouble.
Wait—his dream. He wanted to smack his forehead for his stupidity.
"Actually, I think Ventus is just fine. Let me see that."
She reluctantly passed the Wayfinder over by its cord, though her eyes were full of curiosity.
"He said he might be able to send help," Vanitas told her. "I guess I was just expecting something a little more, y'know, helpful."
"He talked to you again?"
He nodded. Now, if only he knew what exactly this stupid charm was supposed to do… His Wayfinder was attracted to it, the same way it was to Aqua's. Had the ray supposedly leading out of the Realm of Darkness been stringing them along to this stupid piece of glass the whole time?
The water washed against his shins as he closed his eyes, trying to sense any kind of magic from the charm. There was something there alright, something his nose could pick up over the smell of brine. A burning, bleach-like scent of light.
"Ugh. You can still make me sick from a realm away," he muttered, hopefully too quietly for Aqua to hear. Then a little louder, "You have any idea why he'd give us this?"
She shook her head. "Once, his and Terra's keyblades came to my rescue, when I had to fight off a horde of Darksides. But I don't think this is meant for that purpose."
He imagined them throwing the charm at a flood of Heartless, using it like a light grenade. The thought almost made him laugh. Instead, he just shook the green Wayfinder by its cord.
"Couldn't he have thought to send an instruction manual?"
Aqua did laugh at that. "Maybe… it's just his way of sending us hope. Letting us know that he's okay."
"Sounds kind of stupid, if you ask me. I could've told you he's fine."
"Well, I still appreciate it. May I have it back?" she asked, holding out her hand.
He shrugged and placed the useless piece of junk in her palm. For a moment, their hands overlapped, the Wayfinder sandwiched between. First, all he felt was sudden warmth.
Then he saw the glow. Aqua gasped, nearly dropping the charm, but he held her hand tighter. Something magical was happening, something they shouldn't interrupt.
A few feet away, where the water grew deeper, a line of light sliced through the air. It was as if someone had cut through the fabric of the Realms with a keyblade. It wasn't like the cold orb hanging in the sky—this light bathed him in warmth, a warmth that grew as the rift twisted, expanding into a blinding portal.
"He did it," Vanitas breathed. "Even while he's passed out, that idiot knows how to throw his light around."
His grin betrayed the truth behind his insult. Jealous as he might be of his other half, Vanitas would've hugged him right then if he could.
"A door to the light," Aqua said in awe, staring at it so long she should've gone blind.
To be fair, he should have too. He shook his head, trying to clear the spots from his eyes.
"What are we standing here for? Get your butt through that door!" He dragged her towards it, the charm still clutched between their linked hands.
He heard her gasp. It was his only warning.
Her legs gave out, the whole of her weight dragging him towards the waist-deep water. He barely managed to lean into her, catching her weight on his shoulder before they could both fall. Her head limply leaned against his, and when their cheeks touched, hers was cold as ice. A shiver wracked her body.
"No, Aqua, not now!"
He couldn't carry her through the deeper water, not all the way to the door. If he slipped and fell…
With a glance over his shoulder, he made a decision. He turned and ran back towards shore, Aqua's shudders threatening to knock him off balance. Not just shudders—seizures sent her limbs flailing erratically. The sickness had never been this bad before. It had been so long since she'd had an episode. Why now? Why when they were so close?
He dropped her on the sand, less gently than he meant to. He winced and knelt beside her.
"Esuna!"
The diamonds of light fell around her. The seizure stopped immediately. Had it finally worked? Had he finally mastered a healing spell?
She sat up so fast, he blinked and nearly missed it. Just as quickly, her arm shot out.
"Aqu—!"
Her hand squeezed around his neck, choking off his cry. What—?
Her eyes flashed open, afire with a darkness he'd never seen in her before. Her color spell slid away, and the gold that had lurked there now prowled openly.
No, Aqua! AQUA!
He clawed at her hand, eyes wide and frantic, but her lips just twisted into a cruel smile.
" Hello, Vanitassss. We told you you would ssssee ussss."