Chapter 81

Aqua

Riku scrambled to his feet and ran to Mickey, pulling him away as Aqua charged in to attack. Aqua let out a fierce shout as she pursued and swung her weapon. Goofy jumped in and blocked the strike with his shield. Realizing how strong she was, however, Goofy retreated at the first opening.

Mickey was still in shock. While everyone else was busy putting up a defensive, he simply stared at his old friend in disbelief. "Aqua, what happened to you?" he asked.

Aqua sneered. "I guess the darkness finally got to me," she replied coldly. She threw herself at Mickey, plates of the energy that formed Reflect magic revolving around her. Riku tossed his unresponsive friend out of the line of fire and brought up a Dark Shield to block her attack. "So long down here without hope of escape, barely able to survive with what I let myself have, I figured I'd let go of what was weighing me down, and find where my real strength lay."

Mickey picked himself up, unable to believe what he was hearing. "What was weighing you down? You would never abandon the people you care about! Ven, Terra—"

"Are gone," Aqua interrupted. "And they're not coming back. So, no point chasing shadows, right?" Sora came onto the scene and delivered a combo to her left flank, hoping to knock her down long enough so he and his friends could restrain her, but Aqua held her hand out and called up a spherical barrier on the finisher, then let it burst outward, knocking Sora off balance. She then swung her Keyblade up to hit him, then followed through on a quick combo, sending him sprawling. "And as if you're one to talk, Mickey. Some friend you are, leaving me to rot for twelve years."

Now Mickey was offended as well as shocked. "You know I did everything I could to find you all this time!" Aqua launched herself at him, swinging her Keyblade in a wide arc, the E-shaped teeth aimed to point at Mickey's head. Mickey dove to the left to avoid the blow and retaliated with a shot of Pearl. Unlike the elemental spells, Pearl had the same effect as normal, likely due to being light magic in a dark realm, but it did the job well enough. Aqua was thrown backward, allowing Mickey a moment to clear his head.

What could have happened to Aqua? The last time he had seen her, she was just as strong as ever, maintaining her resolve even when the darkness was playing tricks on her mind. But this Aqua was a complete one-eighty. Had something happened after the Demon Tide swept her away? There was something different about her eyes. Had someone inflicted some kind of curse on her? Maybe she had been possessed, like what had happened to Riku. If so, who could have done such a thing?

Aqua switched her focus from Mickey and ran to attack Riku. However, she was pushed back by a strong gust of wind. Kairi pointed her Keyblade at Aqua, putting all of her effort into maintaining the gale force that kept the mad woman from hurting her friend.

"Aqua! It's me! Remember? Kairi?" she shouted, trying to get through to the blue-haired woman. "The little girl you saved in Radiant Garden? I gave you flowers." She started to feel weak and realized that she was using up all of her mana maintaining the Aerora spell. Unable to do any more, the spell failed and the wind died down. Kairi slumped to her knees.

Once she had rebalanced her footing, Aqua shook her head. "And I should care because?" she scoffed. She lunged at Riku, but the young man was able to match her strikes and parry them effectively, although he had to consciously adjust his Keyblade's angle as the way in which the slashes were done was not quite what he was accustomed to. Soon, they ended up locking blades, each fighter trying to push back against the other.

"Hmph. To think I had been ready to sacrifice my life for you," Aqua taunted.

Riku grunted in irritation. "I've been to your low. But I realized that it wasn't the way," he said. He removed his left hand from the handle of his weapon and launched a small Fire spell at Aqua's stomach, consciously regulating the power level so that it did not come out as an explosive force like the earlier spells had done and therefore deep-fry her. The blast launched her away, sending her tumbling backward. She quickly brought herself to a stop by driving her feet into the ground, but was caught off guard as Riku had decided to launch an offensive. He delivered an upward slash toward her, and she jumped backward to narrowly avoid it, cutting close enough for the tip of the blade to clip a few hairs as it passed her forehead. Aqua raised her Keyblade and blocked his next strike, then thrust herself into a barrier-charged surge that knocked Riku off of his feet. When she slowed down and the barrier discs faded, she spun around and hit Riku in the side.

Donald cast Blizzara at Aqua, seemingly encasing her in ice, but the ice was shattered as she willed the barrier she had cast to explode outward. Donald's eyes widened in surprise. It's like that barrier doesn't even use up any of her energy, he thought to himself. By now, Sora would be running around waiting for his mana to recharge… He cast a barrage of Fira spells until he ran out of energy, but Aqua managed to hold up a barrier that continued to protect her from the pyrotechnic onslaught. Donald quacked in fright as the hostile Keybearer threw her Keyblade at him, nailing him in the face and knocking him on his butt.

Sora handed an Ether to Kairi and helped her to her feet while they watched the fighting to on. Kairi drank the Ether to restore her strength.

"What could have happened to her?" Kairi asked, a mix of concern and horror in her voice.

Sora shook his head. "I don't know. But…" he trailed off, some part of him knowing that something beyond what was already clear was quite amiss. "Does something about her seem… I dunno, off?"

Kairi looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, aside from the obvious. Watching her fight, does something strike you as strange?" he clarified.

Kairi crossed her arms and turned her attention back to Aqua, who had returned to targeting Mickey, the mouse barely holding his own as he did not have the will to hurt someone who had once been his friend. She studied her use of magic, her body language, and her overall appearance, using what she had seen of her in Mickey's photo for reference of her current physical state. Her gaze fell upon Aqua's Keyblade, focusing on the way she swung it.

"I saw her fight when I was little, but something's different. Wasn't she right-handed?" she commented.

Sora continued to watch Aqua and realized that, contrary to what Kairi claimed, she was currently holding and swinging her Keyblade with her left hand. He had not paid much attention to that detail at first, and certainly had not seen anything wrong with it as he had never seen her fight before. However, reflecting on her appearance in the photo, he realized that she would have been holding her Wayfinder in her right hand. So then, why was the Aqua in front of them a southpaw, like a mirrored copy of herself?

Now that he was reflecting on his prior knowledge of Aqua, he was starting to notice something about her hair, and he recalled the photo to make sure things had not changed too much with her physical condition. Things had not, but even if they had, her hairline was still in the same place as he remembered, slightly right of center, rather than on the left where this Aqua had it.

"Now that I think about it, her hair was swept to the left," he explained, "not to the right. It was even like that in the photo."

Kairi nodded. "You're right. Everything else looks about the same because it's all symmetrical, but I'm kind of surprised Mickey didn't notice. But what does this mean? It's like she's been mirrored."

A crazy idea came to Sora's mind. He looked at her face, taking note of the unnatural state of her eyes: blank, cloudy white, as if they were dealing with something that looked like Aqua but could not fully disguise the fact that it was only a soulless replica. "Or something came out of a mirror." He raised his Keyblade and entered a battle stance. "That's not Aqua!" He ran into the fray.

Mickey could only manage to guard against and dodge his opponent's attacks, but he could not hold out much longer against this assault. It was not long before he missed a beat and his opponent knocked him down with a Blizzard spell.

"Well, I guess you weren't prepared for the darkness after all," 'Aqua' mocked. "You should have stayed up in the sun." She raised her weapon and aimed it to delivering a killing blow.

However, Sora struck her hard with his Keyblade, causing her to fly into a rock surface. The rock visibly cracked on impact. 'Aqua' gritted her teeth in anger.

Mickey stared in shock. "Sora? What are you doing?" he asked.

Sora turned to look at him only long enough to answer. "That's not Aqua! Some kind of mirror doppelganger!"

Mickey took a moment to collect his thoughts and understand what Sora had said. That was not Aqua? It was some twisted imitation? His sorrow and horror began to turn to anger at the thought of Aqua's face and name being used by something that did not care for what she stood for. He pushed himself to his feet and picked his Keyblade up. Whatever this manikin was, he would put an end to its wickedness. He would find the real Aqua, but first, this thing had to pay.

Mirror-Aqua picked herself back up and charged in to engage against Sora. The brown-haired Keyblade wielder was not holding back any longer, so he was now giving her trouble. She managed to throw him down with a barrier surge. She charged in for a counterattack, but realized that Mickey was leaping toward her, spinning so that his Keyblade would come down on her as it came around. A second before he would have hit, she vanished in the blink of an eye. Mickey landed and looked around frantically, trying to locate his enemy.

"Where'd she go?" he asked, fury building in his voice.

He looked around again as he heard a wicked chuckle. "Well, someone's ready to play," the voice that sounded like Aqua taunted. Everyone gripped their weapons, waiting for the doppelganger to reappear. She appeared several feet to Kairi's right and started walking in plain view of everyone. When Kairi ran to attack, she vanished again. Mirror-Aqua reappeared behind Goofy, but this time she charged at him in a barrier surge, sending him flying, then vanished again. Sora, Mickey and Riku kept their ears open, listening for her reappearance. She appeared behind Sora and launched into a barrier surge, but Sora cast Reflect, causing her to bounce around him harmlessly. She vanished at the end of the attack. The same thing happened with Riku, with the young man choosing Reflect over Dark Shield due to the fact that Dark Shield only worked in front of him, and then Kairi.

Sora heard Mirror-Aqua reappear behind him and cast Reflect again. However, this time, the phantom was wrapped in a red aura rather than barrier discs, and she broke through Sora's defensive spell, much to his surprise, and sent him sprawling.

"Sora!" Kairi shouted, concerned. She made a run to his aid, but Mirror-Aqua appeared in front of her, a sinister smirk on her face. The facsimile began to spin around, cold air radiating from her body. Kairi ran as a funnel of icy wind enveloped the phantom. When the spell burst out into a radial ice blast, Kairi had barely managed to avoid getting caught in the freezing field, but she was still knocked off of her feet by a powerful burst of wind that had been expelled from the field.

Riku teleported behind Mirror-Aqua and launched a series of Dark Fire orbs at her. However, she vanished just before they would have connected, and then reappeared behind Riku, launching into a scarlet surge. Riku, however, jumped out of the way of the unblockable attack. He cast Thunder to strike her before she vanished, and saw that a bolt of lightning connected and caused her to fall to the ground even while the red aura was still active. Unfortunately, she was able to retaliate, launching a fireball that sent him flying upward before hitting a stalactite and falling to the ground.

Goofy spun toward Mirror-Aqua, but the fiend was able to dodge his attack with a quick teleportation. Donald launched Fire and Blizzard spells at her, forcing her to jump around both in and out of plane to dodge. She rematerialized directly in front of Donald and swatted him aside. Mickey lunged at her, swinging his Keyblade for a back attack. However, Mirror-Aqua spun around and caught the teeth of his weapon in the teeth of her own. In the same swift moment, she spun around again and released his weapon to throw him at Goofy, causing both to tumble to the ground.

Mirror-Aqua ran toward Mickey, a bloodthirsty smile on her face. "You're finished!" she shouted. And it seemed as though she would be right, as everyone else was too dazed and far away to get back up and come to Mickey's defense.

To everyone's surprise, even that of the phantom, the same voice rang out in protest. "Get away from them!"

They heard a clang as the phantom's Keyblade met something of a similar material. They looked up at Mirror-Aqua and found themselves seeing double. They were all confused, but Kairi had a good idea of what had just happened. For she was in a position where she could see the newcomer's blue eyes, which glared into the empty white eyes in determination and anger.

Mirror-Aqua gritted her teeth. "You…" She pushed herself away from her double, and all around them focused their gaze on the newcomer. They could tell that she held a weapon identical to the phantom's, but in her right hand rather than her left. Sora and Kairi, from different angles, also noticed that her hairline was in the right place.

"Aqua," Kairi breathed, realizing just who had come to save them.

Aqua—the real Aqua—flicked her Keyblade down to her side, holding it in her combat-ready stance, standing up straight with her legs together and her feet spread apart at an acute angle. Her mirror clone took the same pose, but backward, so that it truly looked as though Aqua was standing in front of a mirror that was ten feet away from her.

"I thought I was rid of you," Aqua said.

"You can't get rid of yourself," the phantom taunted. "I'm the side of yourself that you don't want to see, but you can't hide from." With that, the phantom vanished. Moments later, she reappeared and entered a Barrier Surge, but Aqua called up her barrier to defend against the attack. The phantom tried the same trick from different angles in rapid succession, but the barrier remained while the assault persisted.

Half a second passed after the last dash before the phantom appeared again for another attack. However, this time she was wrapped in the red aura rather than the barrier discs. Aqua was prepared for this attack, apparently having seen it before, and willed her barrier to explode outward right before impact. Mirror-Aqua was launched backward through the air by the kinetic blast, and Aqua wasted no time in charging after her. She attacked with her Keyblade while her enemy was dazed. However, the phantom soon regained her bearings and began to retaliate. Fortunately, Aqua's fierce barrage of strikes was unrelenting, forcing the phantom to match her strikes perfectly to avoid taking damage. Of course, when a left-handed swordswoman clashed with a right-handed one who had the same fighting style, it was difficult to match up, and the phantom took several blows before being blasted into a rock. Mirror-Aqua tried to get back up, but was promptly hit with a Firaga spell that burst into a raging firestorm on impact.

Aqua landed nimbly on the ground, but remained tense, as she doubted that the battle was finished quite yet. True enough, she heard a chuckle echo from all around the cavern.

"Now, that is the ferocity that you claim to lack," the echoing voice taunted. "You see, if that wasn't true, I wouldn't be here."

Aqua scowled angrily. "You have no place in my heart!" she shouted back.

The phantom voice laughed again. "Oh, I see plenty of room. After all…" The phantom silently materialized behind Aqua.

Sora gasped. "Look out!" he shouted in warning. Aqua turned around to see her smirking doppelganger, whose flesh had begun to glow with scarlet symbols.

"Only your heart is hollow enough to be a demon's," the phantom concluded before swinging her weapon, which now emitted a fiery red aura.

Aqua blocked the attack and pushed back against the imitation Keyblade, then fired another Firaga spell at her foe. "That's not true! My heart is strong! And I will never become you. I am stronger than you can ever be!" She threw herself at her enemy and dealt powerful attacks. At the end of her combo, her Keyblade began to glow red and she launched her doppelganger into the air. She then pointed her Keyblade at the phantom, unleashing a massive fire spell, which hit its target with such a huge explosion that Jiminy resolved to describe it in his journal as "burning with the rage of a thousand suns" and decided that it was only barely a hyperbole. Sora, Riku, Mickey, and Donald's jaws all dropped at the scene, while Kairi and Goofy were slightly better-composed due to having less experience with magic and the powerful spell not seeming as unbelievable to them.

"Firaza," Mickey identified the spell, its suffix proving that it was indeed a tier above Firaga. "I can't believe she did it so freely, especially after using up some of her mana already."

"Well, this place does seem to boost the power of Black Magic," Jiminy pointed out. "It made something like that enormous and it probably had an impact on her magic training."

Mickey shook his head. "But still…"

Mirror-Aqua crashed to the ground, her hair and clothes ablaze. Despite the injuries that should have crippled if not obliterated her, she still managed to push herself to her feet, albeit with much difficulty. Symbols glowed upon her skin even brighter than before. Donald tilted his head as he studied the symbols. There seemed to be twelve unique designs, and they all reminded him of a type of calendar.

Mirror-Aqua charged at Aqua, clearly stumbling from pain. Sora was quick to notice that, unlike any of the real Keyblade wielders, she could not use the Cure spell. At first, this seemed odd, as even some Heartless were capable of using healing magic. He supposed that this only proved what the real Aqua was saying: the phantom was not her, just a twisted parody mocking her appearance and lacking everything that made her the person that she was.

The phantom clashed blades with Aqua once again. "You can't be rid of me!" she shouted into the original's face. "Every time you look in the mirror, you see what you truly are!"

Aqua, having had enough of this fake, pushed her opponent back, then caught the teeth of its weapon in the teeth of her own, and twisted it hard. The E at the end of the phantom's Keyblade broke off, followed by the rest of the shaft shattering. The handle of the fabricated Keyblade, which had never been real and was only a ghostly illusion like its owner, disintegrated in the phantom's hand. Mirror-Aqua gasped in horror before the real Aqua thrust her Keyblade through her chest. The phantom whined in pain as minuscule shards of glass rose from the hole in its chest. The symbols on its arms, legs and back began to fade.

"You. Are not. Me," Aqua told her doppelganger sternly.

The scarlet symbols vanished, with the one on Mirror-Aqua's forehead being the last to disappear. She slumped, unmoving, held up only by Aqua's Keyblade. Her body turned into a glassy, reflective surface like aluminum glass before disintegrating into dust. Something fell from the phantom's remains, but nobody paid attention.

Aqua dismissed her Keyblade and breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion. She turned to walk away.

"Aqua!" Mickey called.

Aqua turned around suddenly, remembering that there had been other people there before she fought the phantom. She finally saw the six individuals who were presently approaching her. The torn coats they wore looked like the one she had seen the day before, but she doubted that they were connected. She vaguely recognized the anthropomorphic duck and dog. The silver-haired young man seemed vaguely familiar, though she could not place where she had seen him. The other boy looked quite a bit like Ventus, though she thought she almost recognized him from something else. The girl was unfamiliar to her, though all of them seemed to know who she was. Lastly, her eyes fell upon someone whom she had never thought she would see again.

"Mickey?" she identified. The mouse nodded in confirmation. She shook her head and rested her forehead in her palm. "This is… Is this a hallucination? Or are you really here?"

Mickey nodded again. "I'm real, Aqua. I'm here. We all are," he affirmed in a comforting tone.

However, Aqua still appeared uncertain. Riku came to the conclusion that, in spite of her resolve, the dark realm had been playing with her emotions and feeding on her despair, and it appeared as though the mirror clone was not the only trick it pulled. Though, considering the condition her body was in, it was no surprise that she was having trouble keeping her mind together.

Riku, Sora and Kairi took a few steps toward Aqua, figuring that she would not expect illusions of them, particularly grown-up versions of them. "Hello. I'm Riku," the silver-haired boy introduced himself. Aqua's eye twitched as the name registered, as if she did remember him.

"Kairi," the redhead added. Aqua's lip quivered into a small smile briefly as a memory came to her.

"I'm Sora," the boy with spiky brown hair said, raising his arm the same way he remembered doing when he had first introduced himself twelve years ago. "You met us when we were kids, remember?"

Aqua's eyes widened as everything came back to her. The conversation from the previous day rose up most prominently, but she also recalled her first encounter with the two boys, and also the afternoon when she and Mickey protected Kairi from the Unversed. It really was them, she knew without a doubt. She let out a small chuckle as tears trailed down her face.

"It really is you," she said, overjoyed. She turned to Riku, remembering that the last she had seen or heard of him he was trying to close the door in spite of the Heartless chasing after him. "You're safe…" Riku nodded. "You're all here." She pulled the three of them into a heartfelt embrace.

After a moment she gasped and let go, backing away, a look of worry on her face. "But what are you doing here? It's not safe! Has something happened?" she asked in a panic.

Riku held up his hand, bidding for her to calm down. "Nothing like that," he replied. "We came to find you. To get you out of here."

Aqua looked between each of the teens, having trouble believing what Riku had said. "For… me?"

Sora, Kairi and Mickey nodded. "You've been down here far too long," Sora said. "It's time for you to come back to the light."

Aqua took a long moment to process everything. They had come to get her out. And they seemed sure that they had a way out. She smiled, relief washing over her. "Thank you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw a sparkling rock sitting on the ground in the spot where Mirror-Aqua had been destroyed. Curious, he walked over to it and picked it up. It appeared to be a bright blue crystal in the shape of a teardrop. In the middle, he could see a white symbol that resembled a stylized "M", quickly recognizing it as the same symbol that had glowed on the phantom's forehead.

"I wonder what this is," he said, holding the crystal up for his friends to see.

Aqua shrugged. "No idea," she replied.

Sora shrugged and slipped the stone into his pocket, then walked back to rejoin his companions.

Aqua looked at Mickey and saw that he was averting her gaze nervously. "Is something wrong, Mickey?" she asked.

Mickey hesitated to answer for a moment. "Aqua… I'm sorry I didn't come back for you sooner," he said sadly. "I—"

Aqua shook her head. "No need to apologize," she insisted. "You did everything you could, and you're here now. Thank you." She looked around to everyone present, finally recognizing the duck and dog as Donald and Goofy, having met them twice briefly. "Please, tell me what happened while I was down here. I heard that the worlds were threatened twice?"

"I see," Aqua said after the party had told her what she had missed. "I remember Mickey giving me a rundown of the Heartless invasion before, but my head's still foggy. I barely remember much of what he said."

"Gosh, I'm sorry. This place must have been rougher on you than I thought," Mickey said sympathetically.

Aqua sighed. "I've barely been able to get sleep with the Heartless showing up at every corner," she admitted. "And edible meals are really hard to come by. Even then, they taste worse than Terra's cooking."

Sora flashed a cheeky grin. "Well, when we get back to the Realm of Light, you can eat all the food you want!" he promised.

"Tell me, have you been able to find Terra? Or wake Ven up?" Aqua asked, even though she knew what answer to expect.

Everyone shook their heads regretfully. "Still nothing," Mickey replied.

Aqua sighed, having figured he would say that. "What about Xehanort? Has he been up to anything?"

"Actually, the Ansem and Xemnas we told you about were Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody," Riku explained. "We beat both of them, but we still haven't heard anything implying he's returned, even though we found that most of the other Organization XIII members that we beat have regained their human forms."

"That is strange," Aqua mused. "I guess I can only hope for so much. I suppose I should do what I can when we get back." She looked at Sora, Riku and Kairi, remembering what they were like when she met them so long ago, when they were such sweet and adorable children. She smiled as she reflected upon that and compared it to what she was looking at now. "You have all grown so much. Riku, I'm sure that Terra was right to pick you to be a Keybearer. And Sora, I hear that you also have a Keyblade." She giggled. "You've done so much, helped so many people. And to think I chose against blessing you with the power because I figured that one Keyblade was enough for any friendship."

Sora, Riku and Kairi laughed. The three of them all summoned their Keyblades simultaneously. Aqua took a step back in surprise as she saw that Kairi also had a Keyblade of her own.

"Where did you…?" Aqua asked, too amazed to finish the question.

Kairi shrugged. "I'm not really too sure," she admitted. "I actually used it during a battle in the Organization's castle, but I only recently learned that it was my own Keyblade, and around that same time I learned to summon it on my own."

Aqua laughed. "Wow, I really have a lot to catch up on." Everyone else joined in, glad to see her enjoying herself.

However, Aqua stopped suddenly and tensed up. Her Keyblade, which had a smooth, thin gray shaft with a flat "E" shape attached to the end on one side, a boxy guard with a squared handle and a frame made up of three copper rods and two light grey blocks, and a chain with a token resembling the sigil on Aqua's breast attached, appeared in her hand. "We have incoming!" she warned.

As soon as she said that, Darkballs and Neoshadows appeared from all around them. The seven warriors fought the Heartless off, irritated that they could not catch a break from these things.

After Aqua vanquished a Neoshadow with a Blizzaga spell, she stopped dead, her eyes widened in horror as she heard several heavy quakes running through the earth beneath. When the regular thumps ceased, she turned around and saw a pair of glowing red dots shining out of the pitch darkness.

"Look out!" she shouted before an enormous beast leapt out of the shadows. Sora gasped in fright as it swiped him with its front paw, the chain attached to its leg lashing out and striking Goofy in the process.

Riku cast Dark Firaga at the beast, but it barely flinched from the attack. Donald cast Thundaga, but the monster still did not falter and it promptly barreled him over. Mickey came in for the assist, but he was swatted aside with its tail. Aqua appeared more experienced with the monster, dodging many of its attacks and dealing several blows to its flank and stomach. However, she was soon knocked down as the monster struck her in the back with its hind leg.

"Stopra!" Kairi shouted, but the time magic had no effect. "Blizzara! Thundara!" The spells still failed to do damage to the beast. She decided to try a stronger spell. "Firaga!" A huge fireball was launched into the beast's face. However, she did not have the time to see if her spell had any effect as she screamed in pain and fell to her knees.

"Kairi!" Sora shouted when he heard her cry. As he picked himself up and turned to see what was wrong, he gasped in horror as he saw her hand on fire, the flesh on her arm appearing to be burning off, blisters growing out of it.

Before Sora could come to her aid, the monster scooped her up into its mouth and ran off. The party could only stare in horror as the monster vanished into the darkness.

I got you, didn't I?

...

...

Sorry.

If you guys figured out that I had been planning this stuff for awhile, particularly long before E3 this year, I suppose you might have guessed that it was a fakeout. Brownie points if you noticed the itty-bitty clues I left that teased that something was off before the twist was explained, though I had no way of knowing if you would pick up on the inconsistencies if you visualized the fight as it played out.