Lea missed the dark corridors. Sure, they were apparently full of evil that might try to invade the Realm of Light if he so much as tried to open one, but they were also flaming convenient. Especially when you needed to navigate a castle that was literally created to keep you wandering around in oblivion.
Not that he'd done much wandering. No, he'd left Aqua alone like Mickey had said, but he couldn't resist hanging around in a nearby room for her to come out, on the off chance she'd change her mind about letting him see the Chamber of Waking.
No, bad Lea, he told himself. That girl's got enough problems without you bugging her. Besides, how would you feel if Roxas was snoozing somewhere and a bunch of people wanted to spy on him?
He shook his head. Curiosity about the Chamber of Waking was one reason he'd stuck around, but not the only one. In spite of their week or so together, Aqua was still a walking mystery. Riku and Mickey had filled him in on some parts that she hadn't deigned to explain, but he still felt like he was walking blind. How had she gotten trapped in the Realm of Darkness in the first place? Why did Mickey and Riku seem to instinctively trust and help her find her friend, in spite of her obvious issues? They hadn't been so immediately understanding when he'd joined their side. Maybe it was because she was a girl.
That didn't bother him much. He wasn't jealous of her anymore… really. Aqua seemed like a girl after his own now-existent heart. Lost a friend, ready to do anything to save him.
That was what worried him. And that thought was what pinned him to this room, pacing the pale floor. By now he'd accepted the strange phenomenon that he would end up becoming friends—or at least acquaintances—with any keyblader, and Aqua was no exception. Issues aside, he was pretty sure she had a good heart. He didn't want to see her go down the same path he had.
At the same time, could he blame her for leaning that way? Apparently this Vanitas was even more to her than a friend. A double dose of complicated.
She's sure been in there a while, he realized, glancing at the closed door. He'd given Aqua some time. That was all Mickey had said, right?
Decision made, he opened the door and traveled his memorized route through the few rooms back to the Chamber of Waking.
"Hey, Aqua, are you alrigh—? Flaming pants!"
If he'd been any less panicked, he might have slapped himself for still using that pseudo-curse, even with no kids around. But he had bigger problems to worry about.
Aqua lay on the floor, shrouded by a cloud of darkness. He rushed to her side and summoned his keyblade, for all the good that would do him without cards.
"Is this some kind of Heartless?" he asked, not that she could answer.
It looked almost like a spread-out Possessor, only there were no Possessor Heartless in Castle Oblivion. Besides, it had no face. Just a regular cloud of darkness, then.
Well, Lea wasn't about to just stand there and let her marinate in it. After dismissing his keyblade, he hauled her up over his shoulder and jogged off to find Mickey and Riku.
XXX
Aqua bolted upright. Something was wrong. Of that, her heart was certain. But what could possibly be wrong? She was in bed, surrounded by the warmth of her blankets and illuminated by the pale moonlight sneaking through her window.
It's not white, she realized, staring at her navy comforter. But of course it wasn't. Why should it be? It had always been blue.
It's night, but suddenly I'm so awake… What had woken her? That unnaturally wrong feeling? Whatever it was, it was gone now, but her mind still wouldn't go back to sleep.
It's… it's the night before my Mark of Mastery Exam, isn't it?
Yes, that was it. Of course she couldn't sleep with that anticipation flowing through her.
Throwing off her blankets, she set off for a short walk through the castle. Wandering the peaceful place at night always seemed to calm her. Her nightgown was loose and soft, gently brushing her bare legs with each step. It was good not to have that oppressive suit on for once.
Suit? She shook her head; her mind was leaving her. It must be the stress.
There was no reason to worry. She had prepared as well as she could. All the library's records of past Masters' Exams were crammed into her head, not to mention many more spells than she'd thought she could memorize. She and Terra—and even Ven, though he wouldn't be taking the Exam—had sparred as often as they could in the past month.
She was ready. They both were.
Smiling to herself, she let her feet lead her towards the castle's front doors. Some fresh night air would do her well, and the sky had looked clear from her window. The stars would be lovely.
As she approached the large doors, however, footsteps and a voice stopped her.
"Aqua, just where do you think you are going?"
She clapped a hand over her heart and spun, knowing who spoke before she saw him.
"Master! You startled me. I was just going for a walk. I know it's late, but I needed to clear my mind before the Exam tomorrow."
Her Master's dark eyes glinted coldly. His arms uncrossed, hand stretching to his side to summon his familiar E-shaped blade.
"That won't be necessary."
Her eyes widened.
"Master, what's going on?" Did they have to postpone the Exam? Was something threatening the Land of Departure? Why else would Master Eraqus be awake and armed?
"I believe you know exactly what is going on, Aqua." He held Master Keeper straight ahead, so that the blade divided her view of him in half. "Or should I say… traitor."
Aqua gasped, taking a step back.
"Master! Are you sleepwalking? You must be having a nightmare!"
"The only nightmare I see here is you. And to think I considered you a daughter…" A tear ran down his face, following the groove of his scar.
It was all the warning he gave before lunging into action.
"Master Eraqus!" She leapt back, reluctantly summoning her own blade. Rainfell. But that weapon—she didn't have it anymore. The one she wielded was in her Master's hands, bent on her destruction. "Please! Wake up!"
"Look at yourself!" he snapped. "You have given into the darkness, Aqua! It is my duty—and my curse—to put an end to you!"
Her eyes widened; her mouth froze mid-protest. She barely threw up a Barrier in time to repel his attack.
Look at myself?
She didn't have to look. She felt it before she saw it—the suffocating tightness. The ribbed texture of veins.
Still, she glanced down.
Her nightgown had disappeared. Replacing it was a woven cage of all-too-familiar blue and magenta veins. Her dark suit.
"I—I'm not—"
"Not darkness?" Eraqus scoffed and rushed forward in an aura of light.
Since when could her Master sound so cruel?
Her blade caught his, driving him back, buying her another few seconds of life.
"No words will fool me, Aqua. I have seen what you've done."
"What I've—?" She gasped and cast another barrier, blocking another barrage of blows. Despite it all, she couldn't bring herself to strike back, though a part of her itched to. To lash out. To release…
The darkness inside me. The realization made her falter. Her stance slipped.
At that moment her Master, her father, struck. That iron blade—the blade she bore, in a life she didn't remember—pierced her chest.
She couldn't scream. She couldn't breathe.
"Do not pretend you can still feel," Eraqus whispered, his eyes barely showing a flash of pity. "You have unleashed a monster. The boy you call Vanitas. You joined with him…"
The blade jerked back out of her flesh, leaving a wound she couldn't heal. She collapsed to her knees. Her mouth moved wordlessly, bile bubbling in her throat as she tried and failed to cast Curaga.
"And you both destroyed Terra and Ventus," he finished, her blood still dripping from his blade.
Vanitas? I don't know a…
Van! No! He would never do that! Not anymore…
Doubt-laced agony sang her into oblivion.
XXX
"What did you do to her?" Riku demanded as Lea swept the dishes off the kitchen table. The sound of shattering ceramics filled the room, but he laid Aqua down as gently as he could.
"Nothing. Sheesh, have a little faith in me," Lea replied, but his heart wasn't in the retort. Worry paled his face. "I found her on the ground, surrounded by some dark cloud. I don't know what happened. I swear, we leave her alone for one minute…"
"Don't talk about her like that. She's a Keyblade Master," Riku defended her calmly as he rummaged through his cards for a Potion.
If only Lea could get his old deck back, maybe he'd be of some use too. Right now he felt about as useful as Demyx.
"And so are you, right? So do something!" Fire flared up around his arms.
Riku found time to shoot him a glare that said, what does it look like I'm doing? before the Potion materialized. He tilted back Aqua's head and dribbled the green liquid down her throat.
"Since when do you care about her so much?" Riku asked, digging around for a Cure card once he realized the Potion hadn't done much. Lea blinked in surprise at the question.
"Since I've got a heart to care with? What, do you think I'm just gonna sit around and let a girl go off and die on me?"
"That's not what I meant." Riku shook his head as he checked Aqua's pulse and breathing.
Her eyelids were twitching, so that hardly seemed necessary. She was obviously alive, but the question was, how long would she stay that way? And would she be the same afterwards?
Aqua, if you turn into a Heartless… He remembered watching as that horrifying transformation happen to a different blue-haired friend. He wished he didn't have that memorized.
"Then maybe you should say what you mean," Lea snapped.
"No time. We need to get the King. This much darkness is going to take more than a Potion to fix."
"You go, then. I'll keep an eye on her."
Riku raised an eyebrow, but he didn't argue. He took off into the hallway, leaving Lea with a shuddering unconscious girl.
He thinks I have a crush on her, doesn't he? Probably did overhear me asking her on a date…
Well, she was certainly nice to look at, even with the haunted look that darkened her face so much of the time. And she was nicer to him than the others were. No baggage of knowing him as Axel. Maybe there could have been something between them, eventually. But that wasn't why he cared.
Lying there helplessly… she reminded him of Roxas, of all those times he'd fallen unconscious, when nothing had been able to wake him. Not knowing if he ever would awaken.
"Hold on, Aqua." He squeezed her hand, which felt cold even through his gloves. "You're gonna wake up. That Vanitas guy is counting on you."
At that thought, he let go of her hand.
"And whoever he is, I bet he'll kill me if I let you go off and die…"
XXX
"Aww, Ven, you're too sweet," Aqua laughed and ruffled her friend's hair, only to pause with her hand still squishing his honey-brown spikes.
What had he said? Why had she been laughing?
He grinned and laughed back before plopping down on the grassy hill. Where was she? She hadn't seen grass in ages. Right?
"Nngh…" Pain flashed through her head like fireworks.
Something… something was wrong. These innocent blue skies, dotted with puffy clouds… the warm summer breeze ruffling her hair…. It was all so, so bright suddenly…
"Aqua?" Ven asked, head tilted adorably. "You okay?"
"I'm… fine, Ven." She squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment, then blinked them open. "We were going to look at the clouds, weren't we?"
We were?
"Yeah! You always find the best pictures in them!"
Gingerly she sat down, as if afraid the grass would stretch up and swallow her. It took far longer than it should have to convince her body to lie back, that there was nothing to fear from this perfect summer day. Her muscles remained tense; her skin was mottled with goosebumps in spite of the heat.
Maybe I'm sick? she wondered as a shiver took her.
"Look, Aqua! That one looks like a spaceship!" Ven pointed at a fluffy cloud that was flat on bottom and rounded on top.
"I don't think spaceships look like that," she said without thinking. "I think they're more spherical."
"Huh?"
"...Nevermind," she forced a smile. Where had that come from? It wasn't like she'd ever seen a spaceship before. And it was rude to correct someone like that, anyway.
"Well what do you see?" Ven asked eagerly.
The clouds drifted overhead like carefree cotton balls. She squinted at them suspiciously.
"All I see are clouds, Ven."
"Aww, come on Aqua! You're not even trying!"
She sighed, fighting back… annoyance? But why would she be annoyed with Ven? He was one of her best friends. She was just so on edge, all because… why? Because the sun was a little bright today? She should have welcomed a sun so bright, after so long…
The thought drifted away on the breeze, like another cloud she couldn't pin down. Shielding the glare from her eyes with one hand, she looked up again. This time, she did see something. Not a shape, however—black-gray clouds, crackling with blue lightning.
A storm.
"Ven!" Aqua leapt to her feet. "Get inside, now!"
"C'mon, Aqua! I can handle a little rain." He rose and summoned his keyblade. Knees bent, blade held in his familiar backhanded grip, he stared down the approaching storm as if it were an Unversed he could fight.
Unversed? What was that?
"Ven, you'll get hurt. I can't let that happen again." Again? "Agh—!"
Pain pain flashing like the lightning, like she'd been struck but inside her head—
Ven falling from the sky, crashing towards her—
Ven frozen in a chunk of ice, seething with rage—
Ven with eyes that burned gold—
"I'm not a kid, Aqua! I'm as strong as you!" he yelled over the roar of the approaching storm.
"That isn't what I meant!" Sshe protested. "You are strong, but—"
"But what?" He sneered. The shadow of the clouds loomed closer. "But I'm not like Terra or Van? You'd let them fight with you!"
For a moment everything froze. The wind, the sound, the sneer still on her friend's lips.
"Van… who is Van?"
"Don't play dumb, Aqua." His voice grew cold. Cold as the air swirling over their hill, setting the grass in motion like a thousand tiny, groping tentacles. "I know you love him more than me. More than us."
"Ven… I don't know what you're talking about."
But she did. Almost. Maybe. A face framed by spikes of black hair danced at the edge of her memory.
The black clouds completely covered them now. The only light came in blue flashes, sporadically casting sharp shadows across Ven's face.
"Fine, be that way." He snorted, though she could barely hear it over the howling cyclone surrounding them. "I can still show you I'm stronger!"
He leapt at her, swinging his blade in a wide arc from overhead.
With no time to summon Rainfell, Aqua cartwheeled away—and was blown sideways by a malevolent burst of wind. The grass reached up to strangle her wrists and ankles, pinning her to the ground.
"Ven, what's gotten into you? This isn't who you are!" she shouted, but the wind carried her voice away.
"Do you even know who I am?" he hissed, looming over her sprawled, struggling form. "Or did you always think I was still that broken little boy. The one you saw come to this world five years ago."
She gasped. He knew? He remembered?
He laughed—a cackle that would have been more fitting coming from a demon. With the blue lightning framing him, and the dark wind swirling around as if obeying his command, maybe he was. A demon wearing her friend's skin.
Ven, with a sword made of two keys in his hand—
"Of course I know," Ven knelt beside her. "I know that you and Terra lied to me. Pretended that you knew me. Pretended we had always been friends."
At the snarled word, he stabbed his winglike keyblade into the ground beside her head. She flinched back, and he laughed.
"Ven… Ventus… what's happened to you?" Her voice trembled.
"I've grown up, Aqua." He took a deep breath, and the storm itself seemed to fill him. "And I've outgrown my need for you."
With one swift tug, he removed his blade from the ground, and he plunged it deep in her chest.
XXX
Riku, Mickey, and Lea all recoiled from the bloodcurdling scream that escaped Aqua's lips. Her fingers clawed at the sheets of her bed—Lea had moved her to somewhere safer than the kitchen table—and she nearly kicked Mickey in the face.
"It's no use," the mouse King said. The magical glow faded from his hands as he backed away. "My spells can't cast out this darkness."
"Why not?" Lea demanded. "What's wrong with her?"
"It's her own darkness," Mickey explained. "It feels, well, almost like when somebody becomes a Heartless. Her heart's too strong for it to go that far, I think, but it's still attacking her somehow."
"What the heck? That doesn't make any sense!"
"It does, actually," Riku murmured, almost to himself. Lea restrained his frustration enough to listen. "Even after Ansem was gone, I wasn't completely free. His darkness had made mine… restless. It did things like this a few times. It's why I wore the blindfold…"
He shifted uncomfortably, trying to let his hair fall into his face. His shorter haircut made that impossible, but Lea still got the same trying-to-hide vibe from the younger man that he used to from Isa.
Isa… Lea didn't want to think about his old friend right now. He was too late to save him. Better to focus on the ones still alive.
"So how'd you get rid of it?" Lea asked, trying to keep his voice civil. Though he and Riku bickered often enough, he had a lot of respect for the Keyblade Master who had risen out of the darkness. Not that he would ever admit that out loud.
Realizing his hair wasn't enough of a cover, Riku looked away.
"...DiZ's device exploded. I still don't know why that brought me back to normal."
"...And I don't suppose we have another one of those things lying around that we could blow up, do we?" Lea asked.
Mickey shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid not."
"Figures…" Lea sighed and crossed his arms. Aqua's scream still echoed in his ears, though now she was lying a little more peacefully. That was how it had been before: a few moments of rest, then she would start flailing around like she either wanted to kill something or was getting killed. And then the screams.
Though he knew it wouldn't do much, he cast another Cure spell on her. She hissed as if the green glow were poison.
"That won't help," Riku told him, making him want to punch something.
"I know that, okay! But what am I supposed to do, stand here and do nothing?" He clenched his fists and pictured the white wall with a new hole in it. Stupid heart, making him all emotional like this. He was never going to be able to convince Riku he didn't have a crush on her at this rate.
I just hate feeling so… so powerless…
Like when Isa fell, turned into a Heartless right before his eyes. Like when Roxas walked away, damning himself to destruction. Like when… that girl...
Something about… who…?
He didn't know where the memory—or delusion, more likely—of a young girl came from. It quickly vanished, leaving him only more irritated and confused.
"There is something we can do, I think," Mickey spoke up. His white-gloved fingers were clasped together anxiously. "If Riku's willing, that is."
"Willing to do what?" He looked up.
"Well, you've got the power to awaken sleeping hearts now, don'tcha? Her heart's dreaming in there, but right now, it's all nightmares 'cause of the darkness."
Lea clutched his forehead. None of that sleeping stuff made any flaming sense. He remembered all this talk from when they saved Sora last time, and it was just as confusing now as it was then. Why couldn't he just hit something and make it go away?
"You think that'll work?" Riku asked hopefully.
Heh, Lea wasn't the only one who was concerned. He was sure the silver-haired boy was a big softie under all his aloof emo master-ness.
"I can't say for sure," Mickey admitted. "If it does, it'll be real dangerous."
"But it's all we've got, isn't it?" Lea asked, uncrossing his arms to rest his hands on his hips. Aqua was murmuring and starting to toss again.
"I'll do it." Riku didn't even hesitate. His aqua eyes flashed with determination.
"Heh, now I get why you were making fun of me. You like—"
"Shut up, Lea," he deadpanned.
Right. They didn't have time for banter, but it would've been nice to lighten the mood just a little bit. All this was so much harder with a heart… even if it turned out he'd been growing one or whatever before, everything felt more vivid now.
Riku turned to the king.
"Mickey, tell me what I need to do."
XXX
"You're—you're not Terra," Aqua whispered in horror, backing against a shop's wall. Who was this silver-haired imitation approaching her?
"Oh, but I am." He smiled, if it could be called a smile. It was the leer of a predator.
He slowly drew closer. Where were the citizens of Radiant Garden? All was silent, empty, except for this man.
(She had the awful feeling that he was empty, too.)
"Or rather," he continued, "I am Terra as he was always meant to be."
She didn't want to listen to him, but there were no other sounds. No birds, no wind. She couldn't even hear herself breathing.
Maybe because she wasn't.
"Look at me, Aqua," he growled when her eyes darted for an escape. "I thought you wanted to find me."
"Not you, you monster," she hissed. "Tell me what you've done with Terra!"
He chuckled darkly and sauntered toward her. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
This monster wasn't him. She knew that with all her heart—because she'd fought him before. She'd made the mistake of going easy on him once, and it had doomed the World.
This time, she would fight to win.
She straightened and held out her arm to summon her blade. But where it should've been, her hand tightened around empty air.
"What—?"
Panic gripped her. Her keyblade had never done this before. Why wouldn't it come?
Not-Terra grinned.
"Tell me, who is worthy of the Mark now, Master Aqua?"
She gritted her teeth against the barb. She'd listened to the taunts before, those other times she didn't remember. And she had died. Not this time.
"Fire!" she shouted, and a Fission Firaga exploded from her outstretched palms.
That was something even Not-Terra hadn't predicted. He flew back and crashed against one of Radiant Garden's walls, which crumbled on top of him in a stroke of luck.
Sorry about that, Restoration Committee, the brief lucid thought flashed through her mind before the present once again took over.
She stood from a safe distance, squinting as the dust cleared. A leg protruded from the rubble, but that was all she could see of him.
"A… Aqua…" A soft, broken voice.
Her breath hitched. Had she shaken the darkness that had hold over him? Had she freed the real Terra?
She took half a step forward before reason took over. It was a ploy, it had to be. There was no way this monster would be defeated so easily. After all, it hadn't been before.
Before… Those memories, or fantasies, mingled with the here and now. They couldn't both have happened, could they? Was she seeing the future, the past, or neither?
She cried out in pain triggered by the confusing thoughts. Those explosions in her head. Blue lightning. Storms and darkness. Two different blades, two different deaths. Her chest screamed with remembered agony.
"Not… again!" With a shout, she cast an Aeroga strong enough to blast the debris away. It had the secondary effect of tossing Not-Terra back a few yards.
"A-Aqua! What's gotten into you?"
"Don't play games with me, Xehanort," she remembered his name. "You will not hold my friend any longer! I'm strong enough to do what I couldn't before!"
"Do what—?" He braced a hand against the ground and tried to sit up, but faked falling back. "Please, you have to help me…"
"I helped you one time too many," she murmured. Suddenly her keyblade—Master Keeper—flashed to her hand. Whatever force had held it back had released her. "And the World suffered for it."
"That—that wasn't me… I wasn't…"
She strode forward, keyblade outstretched. Her Master's stance. The Master that this monster had killed.
I can do it this time, she repeated to herself. I can… put an end to him.
His eyes were closed. He still lay on his back, helpless. Or pretending to be. He would expect her to hesitate, to try to talk to her oldest friend.
She would do neither of those things.
"Aqua—"
She stabbed the teeth of Master Keeper into his heart. At the last second, with his last gasp of breath, he opened his eyes.
They were blue. He had been telling the truth.
"You… monster…" his last words hissed out, before his body evaporated into a cloud of lights.
Aqua gaped, knelt, tried to catch even one last speck of her friend. Each mote of light slipped through her fingers. Like the tears slipping from her face, soaking the ground where he had once laid.
She had… what had she done…?
"Terra… you're right…"
XXX
"Alright." Riku took a deep breath.
Mickey had given him what instructions he could. He was ready. As ready as he ever would be, at least. Diving into Sora's heart was one thing; they were best friends. But he still barely knew Aqua. She had kept herself aloof, for all of her obvious pain. Riku had tried to give her time to adjust, but clearly that hadn't been enough.
I knew what she was going through. I should have tried harder to help her…
The thought haunted him as he took her hand. It was all up to his heart now. He could only hope that it was strong enough to survive this journey twice.
"Yo, you gonna do your Key-Master thing or not?" Lea finally called. "Or you just wanna stand there and hold her hand?"
Riku shot him a glare, but didn't bother with a retort. Any other day of the week he'd exchange insults with the redhead—it was a kind of game they had—but not now.
He concentrated, closed his eyes, and disappeared.
XXX
She remembered this time. More than before. Three deaths. Hers. His.
How could she have forgotten? Why should she remember? Why should she be reborn again and again, just to suffer another agony?
And how many more were yet to come?
She shivered under the black sky of the Realm of Darkness. Her dark suit covered her from neck to toe, but this time it didn't keep out the cold. She felt naked, standing there among the looming monoliths. Rocks scarred with blue, like the lightning from two nightmares ago.
"I'm not so sure I like the color blue anymore," she murmured.
At her words, she saw a ripple of rainbow light at the edge of her vision. A few strands of hair that hung in front of her eyes had shifted—blue had become black.
"That's not what I…" She sighed. What did it matter what she looked like in the middle of a nightmare?
"Could that be all this is?" she hoped. "A nightmare from this twisted Realm…?"
It all felt so real. The cold chilling her to the bone. The smell of death and decay. The rock she huddled against, trying to shelter from the nonexistent wind.
"Or maybe I accidentally used a card in Castle Oblivion…?" She wasn't sure how she would have done that, but the rooms there felt real, despite being illusions.
"Nice guess," a new voice appeared from the shadows.
"Van!" she called as his face appeared, followed by the rest of him, slinking out from behind a darker rock. "You… no. Stay back."
"What?" He scowled, placing a hand over his heart as if hurt. "I thought we were friends."
"I've seen a lot of friends try to hurt me lately," she mumbled. "And I've… I've hurt them too…"
He snorted. "I'd like to see you try to hurt me."
"I did before," she said, still shivering. She hugged her knees tight, and her skirt flared out, a bright swatch of magenta against the gray ground.
"But you wouldn't now."
The way he said it, so obviously, so trusting, made her smile. Made her forget.
"No. I wouldn't."
He took that as an invitation to sit down beside her. Then, maybe because he could tell she was cold, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She leaned into his embrace without thinking; he was so warm.
"Thank you…" she mumbled.
"Heh. Don't thank me."
As he spoke, he grew even warmer, if that were possible. Yet somehow, none of that heat seemed to sink through her. She could feel it on her skin, but deep down, in her blood, she was still freezing.
"I should be thanking you," he said.
"What for?" she asked, eyebrows drawn together. His usual smirk grew.
"For giving me your light, obviously."
She didn't think it could, but her blood ran even colder.
"My—what?"
He held her tighter. His touch burned, like he was made of fire.
"Your light, idiot. Why else do you think I'd keep you around?"
Something in her, something she thought had been shattered too many times to break, turned to dust.
"You… you've been taking it all this time…"
He chuckled darkly.
"Took you long enough." His hand caressed her face gently, but her skin erupted in pain at the contact. When she gasped and tried to pull free, he gripped her chin. "No backing out now, sweetheart."
"No…" Tears gathered in her eyes before spilling over. She was surprised they could flow without turning to ice. "Van… not you too…"
"Come on, Aqua, don't tell me you're surprised." He scowled. "And quit calling me that. My name's Vanitas."
He still hadn't let go. Fire and ice were consuming her, the heat being drawn from her veins into his skin. She struggled and tried to summon Master Keeper, but again it wouldn't come. She should have been stronger than him, but his grip didn't budge. Panic flowed with the ice in her veins.
"What's wrong? I thought this was what you wanted. To be with me again."
He almost sounded sincere, if not for the gleeful gleam in his golden eyes. They seemed to glow with the light that he sucked from her.
"Y-you…" Her teeth chattered. "You d-don't care what I want…"
"Ouch. Of course I care. I've got light now, remember? Isn't that supposed to make me good?"
His words were spinning her in circles. It didn't matter, anyway. She was going numb, inside and out. Her heartbeat had slowed to a crawl. The searing heat on her skin was a stark counterpoint to the emptiness inside.
She opened her mouth to beg, though her pride screamed against it and her mind protested that it wouldn't do any good. This Vanitas was not her friend, just like the Master hadn't been, and Ven hadn't been, and Terra…
She squeezed her eyes shut, words dying on cracked lips. This would be a fourth death, the third for her. The pain was unbearable, but her heartbreak rivaled it. Why struggle? Dying a third time, or a thousand times, would be worth it to take her away from this nightmare.
"Do it, then," she gasped out. "Take it. Kill me."
Vanitas's grip slackened.
"What?"
She met his eyes. They were definitely glowing now. Burning with the light she'd poured into him.
"Kill me," she repeated, trying to keep her voice strong in spite of her crystallizing lungs.
Even if she died, another nightmare would replace this one. She didn't care. Her broken mind had to run out of ideas soon. What could it show her that would be worse than what she'd already seen?
Vanitas recovered from his surprise and smirked. "Your wish is my command."
His hand blazed against her face; what remained of her warmth spiraled away.
"Aqua!"
Ice crystallized around her legs. They went dead as if they'd been severed.
"Master Aqua! Don't give up!"
That voice. She barely registered it; she was fading out of consciousness. More pieces of her slipped away as ice claimed her.
"If you die again—!"
"Shut up," Vanitas muttered upwards. Could he hear the voice too? "It's too late. Give her these last moments in peace."
"Let her go, Sora!"
"Sora…?" Aqua murmured. Frost crept over her middle, but the voice had distracted Vanitas enough to slow the transfer of light. "I met a Sora, once… he looked a lot like you…"
"Both of you shut up!" Vanitas spat.
Sora… yes, she knew him, didn't she? A little boy. But there was another boy, too…
"Riku?"
"Yeah, it's me. Hold on, I'm going to get you out of here."
Hold on? How could she hold on? Half of her body was gone, consumed by ice. The other half burned as if she were being held at the center of a Fission Firaga.
"Like hell you are," Vanitas growled. His nails dug into her face through his suit; the fire erupted at each point. Ice surged up to her neck. Her lungs were frozen for good now; she couldn't have spoken even if she'd been able to find the words.
"No—!"
It's okay, she wished she could tell the voice. Let me die. It's easier this way.
In spite of the thought, she wished she had the power to scream as ice consumed her face, cut off her view of Vanitas's flaming gold eyes. Even when she had been his enemy before, they had never been so frightening.
It's easier this way…
XXX
"She's giving up, Mickey. Hold on. I'm having to dive in deeper."
Lea shivered at how Riku's disembodied voice floated around them. He was almost glad Xehanort had cut off their communication during the Mark of Mastery Exam. It was downright creepy this way.
Mickey's brow furrowed. "You can't go much deeper, Riku. This may be your last chance."
Lea's grip tightened on the footboard of Aqua's bed.
"Man, I hate this. You sure I can't go in too?"
Mickey nodded. "We could only go in the World That Never Was because it was only half asleep. Aqua's heart right now's all the way asleep."
"What is it with all my friends and passing out like this…?"
Mickey patted his elbow, as if that would be comforting. "Riku can do it, Lea. Yen Sid made him a Master for a reason."
"Yeah, well, Aqua's supposed to be a Master too, isn't she?"
"Well…" Mickey frowned. "Aqua's been through a lot. I don't know for sure what all happened to her in the Realm of Darkness, but… she's not the same. Gosh, I was there for a couple weeks, but she was there for years. I can't blame her."
"Huh." He wondered if it was worse than losing a heart.Not that he should compare tragic backstories, but that might give him a clue to what was going on with her.
Why did he care so much? It wasn't like he knew her that well. He didn't know if she would even consider him a friend.
Is this just what it means to have a heart?
He thought about Sora. He'd jumped into the dream to save him, but that was different. He was Roxas's Somebody; Lea needed him. What if it had been Riku? Or even Mickey? Would he have been ready to risk his new life to rescue them?
He didn't know. But… he might have. If he saw them suffering like this.
For the first time since recovering his heart, Lea realized that he might not be so awful after all.
XXX
Just… a little farther…. Riku pressed his arms to his sides and kept his body straight, streamlined. The wind whipped at him as he fell, and he was glad not for the first time that he'd cut his hair. He needed his sight now. The pinprick of light he fell towards was growing smaller and smaller, the enclosing darkness trying to snuff it out.
Come on…
He wasn't afraid of the darkness. Not anymore. Still, he hadn't felt it this close since Ansem had lurked in his heart. Whatever the Realm of Darkness had done to Aqua was bad news.
I wish Sora were here… Why hadn't he passed his Exam? Then they could have been working to save Aqua and her friends together. His light would've been able to reach Aqua's heart, Riku was sure of it.
But Sora wasn't here. All Aqua had was him.
And that was just going to have to be good enough.
XXX
"What… where am I now?" Aqua asked before stumbling to her knees.
The pain hadn't completely faded after her last death; she winced at what felt like thousands of tiny needles stabbing her legs. Her insides were still cold and empty, and her face still burned where she remembered Vanitas's touch. Before she'd only felt echoes of her past deaths—and her past guilt—but now… had that last nightmare been more real somehow?
Or were they all real? Had the darkness killed her, and this was what real hell was? She had imagined the Realm of Darkness as hell, but she had survived it. Maybe whatever deity was out there felt that place would be too good for her.
She fought back the pain enough to stand again and look around.
…There wasn't much to look at. She stood on a polished pane of glass, an island in the darkness. It almost felt familiar. Had this been where she'd had her Awakening, all those years ago, and first accessed the power to wield the keyblade?
If it was, then something was wrong. The circular pillar was completely blank. The glass was a dark, cloudy black that distorted her reflection. Had she ever changed her hair back to blue? She couldn't tell in the dark mirror. At least she could make out that her eyes weren't gold.
Or, well, they weren't… until they were. She gasped and leapt back, but to her surprise her reflection didn't follow. Instead it stretched out and peeled up from the black glass.
"It's just another nightmare," Aqua tried to tell herself. "It's… just…"
Her reflection rose until it could stand upright. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and nowhere else to look.
Aqua watched as its flesh filled in, rippling and widening into a three-dimensional form. Like her, it was clad in a dark suit. Unlike her—she hoped—the copy had golden eyes and black hair. Its lips twisted into a chilling grin that Aqua hadn't thought her face could create.
Aqua summoned her keyblade—Stormfall this time. Thank goodness, it actually came.
Her reflection just chuckled.
"You're always so quick to fight. Why can't we have a civil conversation?"
Aqua blinked, but didn't lower her weapon.
"You're not real. You're just a trick of my mind."
The copy paced in front of her, hands clasped behind her back.
"You have part of it right. I am a part of our mind. But that doesn't mean I'm not real."
Aqua's head pounded. How many people would try to taunt her? The Master, Ven, Terra, Vanitas, and now herself?
"I'm tired of these mind games!"
Her reflection shrugged, still pacing circles around her. Aqua hated how she had to keep shifting to keep her in her sights.
"You can't escape them. Not as long as you have a mind left to play with."
"Why is this all happening?" she demanded, even though she didn't expect a straight answer. No one else had given her one.
"Because you're falling apart, Aqua." It was strange to hear her own voice calling her by name. "Look around. The darkness is eating away at your heart."
She didn't want to take her eyes off of the copy—for all she knew, it was a trick—but she saw the movement from the corner of her eye. The edges of the circular platform were beginning to crumble away, like charcoal to ash.
"You mean, this is… my heart?" Aqua placed her hand over her chest, where her heart should be. Then she shook her head. "No. I've been fighting the darkness!"
"No, the darkness has been fighting you." The copy stopped in front of her.
"But the Dark Wind is gone!" she protested. "Van freed me!"
"From the Wind, yes." Her reflection smiled. "From yourself… not so much."
She summoned a keyblade that resembled Stormfall, if it had absorbed all the shadows around them. The inky black shade looked wrong on her beloved weapon.
"Get out of my heart!" Aqua shouted, swiping the real Stormfall to the side and assuming her battle stance.
The other her scoffed. "You can't get rid of me any more than you can get rid of yourself. Ourself."
She stepped in closer, and Aqua held Stormfall between them.
"What are you?" she found herself asking, though she feared she knew the answer. The question made her black-haired reflection smile.
"I am you." She mimicked Aqua's pose, as if to prove her point. "The parts of you that you've been holding back. Your fear, your anger, your guilt… it's time you released it. Released me."
"I will not." Aqua readied a spell from her command deck, and her blade began to hum with its energy. "I will defeat you, and release myself!"
She let the spell loose—a Mega Flare that blinded her in the darkness. The heat seared her through her suit, bringing back echoes of Vanitas's acidic touch. She shivered and blinked back the spots from her eyes.
As she did, the copy leapt from the flames, readying a spell of her own. Aqua hastily threw up a barrier that sent the Thundaga Shot ricocheting into the void. She wasn't as lucky with the next attack—the reflection fired off a shotlock that shattered her magical shield. She flew backwards with the recoil, but her mirror image wasn't done. Dark comets honed in on her, dozens of them diving into her chest and back.
Aqua cried out as the dark orbs didn't disappear, but seemed to sink into her, gnawing at her heart. How was the nightmare doing this? How was she so strong?
She cast Curaga and climbed to her feet, then threw herself to the glassy floor again as a Triple Blizzaga went hurtling over her head.
She's using all my spells against me, Aqua realized. Even that dark shotlock, she processed, had been a version of her Lightbloom. How am I supposed to fight someone who's just as strong as I am?
But if the reflection was just as strong as her, then the inverse had to be true as well—she was as strong as this copy.
She sprung up and immediately cartwheeled to the side, dodging the flurry of spells that were targeting her. The copy didn't let up for a moment. If Aqua was going to win, she had to get on the offensive.
Mega Flare wasn't going to work; it left her too vulnerable. She mentally scrolled through her commands and whipped up an Ice Barrage. With Stormfall pointed at the ground beneath her copy's feet, she fired.
Ice sprouted from the ground and propelled the copy into the air. A solid hit, but not one that would last. The copy righted herself in midair and floated down as gently as if cushioned by a breeze.
"You'll have to try harder than that," she taunted. "Or is this the best you can do?"
Ignoring the attempt at distraction, Aqua fired off a Triple Blizzaga of her own, but the copy threw up a barrier with time to spare.
"I'm disappointed in you," she frowned. It was the same look Aqua would give Ven when she found out he'd snuck an extra cookie before dinner. "I thought your light would put up more of a fight than this."
"Shut up!" Aqua shouted, running to close the distance between them. Her reflection leapt back, towards the edge that was crumbling to ash.
"Why? Does the truth hurt?" The copy continued. "I'm your darkness. So if I'm stronger… then you've already lost."
Roaring, Aqua jumped and brought her keyblade down from above. With a smirk, the reflection cartwheeled to the side.
Aqua's eyes widened as she realized too late what she'd done—the copy's quick movement had accelerated the platform's disintegration. Where she had planned to drive her blade into the dark version of herself, there was only nothingness.
She barely had time to curse—which only made the reflection laugh—before she tumbled into the abyss.
How long of a drop would it be? Would she keep falling forever? Would this nightmare ever end?
She didn't find out. Miraculously, a rope of light shot down from above, pulling her towards it with some kind of magnetic force.
Collision Magnet, she realized. But why would her reflection use that? Aqua had already lost.
Then she was yanked up, back over the crumbling edge, onto the platform. She skidded across the glass as the force released her.
"Get out! This is between her and me!" her reflection shouted.
Aqua blinked, pushing herself up with her arms. Was that…
"Riku!" She smiled, seeing his blade locked against her reflection's.
"Aqua, you have to fight this! I can hold the nightmares off, but this is your heart!" He grit his teeth as the dark copy swept him back. "You're the only one who can stop it!"
"What do I do?" she asked, still kneeling, but gripping her keyblade with renewed determination.
She wasn't alone. She didn't know how, or why, but she wasn't alone. A deep breath filled her lungs, clearing her mind and driving back the pain.
"Find your light," Riku said before ironically sliding into the darkness. Not falling from the platform, but becoming one with shadow to dodge her reflection's strike. "There's more to you than the darkness. You have to remember who you are."
"I am who she is," Dark Aqua said with her hand over her heart. That motion was so like herself that Aqua cringed. "We abandoned our friends. We were too weak to save them. Too weak to save ourself."
It wasn't true. Aqua had tried to save them. She was still trying to save them. Only… she had given up, there in Castle Oblivion…
"That's right!" her reflection called, as if reading Aqua's thoughts. Maybe she was. "Van is dead! We were too late!"
Aqua remembered. Remembered Drizzle fading, taking with him the last of her hopes. The darkness closing in, promising her rest from the pain of believing. The promise of blissful emptiness.
"Maybe… maybe it would be better just to give up…" she found herself whispering.
"What?" Riku shouted.
His distraction opened a window for the Dark Aqua to strike, catching him across the chest with the blunt shaft of her blade. He managed to land on his feet, but he was winded. His Dark Firaga was a little more than a distraction so he could call to Aqua.
"You don't mean that! Fight it, Master Aqua!"
Master Aqua. What a joke. How could she be a Master, with all of this darkness lurking in her heart? When she wasn't strong enough to destroy it?
She crawled away from the edge, which was crumbling ever closer. If this truly was her heart, they didn't have much time. The battlefield grew smaller and smaller. Riku stood between her and her reflection, casting up a dark barrier similar to her own reflective spell.
Dark… what…?
"Let her give up," the reflection sneered. "She's worthless. Just a shadow of what she used to be."
"You know, I used to think like that," Riku replied, then spun and caught the copy with Deep Freeze.
Ice encased her, reminding Aqua of the crystals that had devoured her in the last nightmare. The memory paralyzed her as if it was happening all over again.
"Sometimes I still do," he admitted.
"You… do…?" Aqua whispered.
He blasted the ice apart with another Dark Firaga. There it was again—another dark spell. And there he went on fighting, like it didn't matter. How did it not consume him?
"How…?"
"How do I fight it?" Riku asked over his shoulder. Dark Aqua was recovering, and he quickly had to return to exchanging blows, but he still found the energy to speak. "I remember the people I care about. The ones who made me who I am."
"We have lost them all," Dark Aqua hissed. "Who are we without them?"
"You haven't lost them all," he said as his blade pulsed with darkness. "I'm still here."
With that, he unleashed two powerful, sweeping strikes. The first was charged with his dark aura, but the second—Aqua gasped. The second burned with pure light. It sliced cleanly through her reflection's barrier, striking her to the ground.
"Now, Aqua!"
Aqua still hadn't made her way to her feet. She used her keyblade as a crutch and climbed up from her hands and knees, then staggered over to Riku's side. The pain of her previous deaths assaulted her, nearly sending her back to the ground, but he caught her with an arm under her shoulder.
"I… I can't…" She hissed against the agony. Her reflection chuckled from the ground.
"Still not strong enough, even with your friend. Why are you still trying?"
Why… why was she?
Terra… and Ven… there was still a chance for them. A small one, yes, but a chance… if she could do something, anything for them…
"They're gone," Dark Aqua said bluntly. "You can't even save yourself. What makes you think you can save them?"
"That's what I thought too," Riku said to Aqua. "But she's wrong. We'll find a way."
Aqua wasn't so sure. She wasn't sure of anything anymore. What if this Riku wasn't even real, was just some figment of hope conjured by her dying mind? Was this just two halves of herself putting up one last fight before the darkness consumed her once and for all?
She stood over her reflection, supported by Riku, Stormfall dangling limply from her arm.
"Riku, I… I mean it. I can't. I'm too weak…"
She could feel his tension, the arguments he wanted to voice. But he didn't.
"Then forget it. I'll get us out." He pointed his blade skywards, and a beam of light cut through the void. "Hold on tight."
"I'll still be here," Dark Aqua said with a laugh. "You haven't killed me because you can't. I'll always be here!"
Aqua looked into those gold eyes, and couldn't help feeling that she was right.
Riku held her tightly, and then gravity flipped. Down was up, and up was down. They were falling into the black sky.
The last thing she saw was her gold-eyed reflection melting back into the floor as it crumbled away.
XXX
Lea screamed like a girl when Riku appeared in a sudden flash of light. He tried to disguise it with a cough, but he soon realized it didn't matter—Mickey and Riku were focused on more important things than his embarrassing scream.
"How is she?" Riku asked, standing over Aqua's bedside. Her chest rose and fell evenly; her muscles had finally relaxed.
"Shouldn't you know better than us?" Lea asked. "She seems fine enough now. Like she's just sleeping."
"Good… I wasn't sure if it worked." Riku shook his head. "We couldn't defeat her darkness. It was different from the time I dove into Sora's heart. I think I snapped her out of it for now, but I can't promise it won't happen again."
"If it does, we'll catch it sooner this time," Mickey said. "We can help her like Naminé and I helped you."
"I hope so…"
"How did they help you?" Lea asked. "Besides making you blind, anyway."
Riku's face reddened. Was that still a sore subject? People with hearts were such a minefield.
"...Mickey always believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. And Naminé gave me the courage to face the darkness. She helped me realize that I could do it, and that I could be better because of it."
"Wow." Lea nodded. "Nice monologue. You have that memorized?"
"What—!" he snapped for a second, before regaining his calm. "Go pick on someone who cares, Axel."
"It's Lea!"
Mickey just laughed. "Come on, fellas. Let's let Aqua get her rest."
Lea frowned at that. "The last time we tried to do that, she got taken over by the darkness. I say we keep a better eye on her this time."
"Is that your way of volunteering?" Riku asked.
"Actually, I thought we could both do it." He smiled.
He had picked on Riku too much lately. Maybe if they were alone together for long enough he could swallow his pride and apologize.
"...Only if you promise not to be a complete moron," the silver-haired boy replied.
"Hey, I'm never a complete moron. Only eighty percent at worst."
That finally got Riku to laugh. Good, he still looked pale as death after coming out of the dream. Maybe Lea should be glad that he couldn't do that job.
"Alright, I'll bring ya some dinner," Mickey said with a grin. "You fellas be nice to each other."
Lea grinned back until Mickey left, shutting the door behind him. Then he sat on the floor next to Aqua's bed. "Sooo, you and Naminé…?"
Riku blushed.
"Shut up."