Jaune pointed. "Shion is named after these flowers."

Purple petals. Yellow stamen. Thousands of them.

Aqua and Qrow followed him towards sunset, cutting a field of these beautiful little plants. The sun vanished, and Qrow set down a table and chair.

"Thank you," Aqua nodded.

"Thank Rufus. It's his stuff." He gestured across the field, to the Inn.

"It's kinda weird that an Innkeep has an art studio," Jaune said.

Aqua laid out her drawing pad. "We've all got our hobbies. And mine… Is stargazing."

She looked up. The first few pinpricks of light were visible.

Qrow popped a squat and kept his eyes on the tree line.

Jaune stood beside Aqua and looked up. She glanced at him, at the flower in his hand, then back to the sky.

"So how do you start?" he asked. "There are so many of them."

"Well… If I recognize any constellations at a glance, then I'll start there. But I probably won't."

"I could help with that," Qrow grumbled.

"Not likely. Your world moved."

Jaune recoiled. "What?"

"You'll see."

The sky hued to black. Qrow looked up and mumbled, "That's disconcerting."

"So…" Jaune asked.

Aqua brushed a hair aside and put pencil to paper. "So. Second star on the right, and straight on 'till morning."

In the darkness, she noticed Jaune and Qrow's eyes glowing. Subtle, but it set them apart from the common people.

Aqua tilted her chin to Jaune. "You were telling me about the flowers?"

"Oh. Yeah. I didn't wanna distract you."

"I can kind of listen."

Glowbugs leaped from the flowers and illuminated the clearing.

Jaune looked into his hand. "The flowers… The name means, 'I won't forget you.'"

He looked sad.

Qrow looked at him, then Aqua, and asked, "So now that the secret's up… You're from another world. What's it like there, without Grimm?"

She didn't want to pour her heart out. The Land of Departure- Castle Oblivion- no longer served as a home. Now its only value was as a secret. Even thinking about the truth felt like betraying it.

So she answered a different question. "That dark place that Jaune rescued me from? I was trapped there for a long time. Your world is falling into that darkness. Enough for Jaune to slip through and bring me back."

She leaned back from her constellation sketch. This one did look familiar. She knew her trigonometry tables, but needed to write them out anyway.

Jaune peered over her shoulder and commented, "This looks really advanced. You sure know a lot."

"I grew up in a castle, with a lot of time to study." She shut her eyes and silently scolded herself for letting the castle slip through her lips.

Qrow turned away from the tree line. "Castle? You royalty?"

She pointed into the sky.

"See those three bright stars? They make an equilateral triangle. That one closest to the nebula is Olympus Coliseum. That over there is Enchanted Dominion. And there's... Radiant Gardens."

Terra was somewhere on that world.

"Which puts us…" She put her head down and scribbled out a star lane map. "Right where I thought."

"And that helps us… How?" Qrow asked.

"Well… I know where Remnant is. And I have a pretty good idea about where it was. Or where it wasn't at least. I know Remnant moved a long way to get here. Which really narrows what could have moved it. I think I know what ritual sent your world here."

"Ritual?" Jaune asked.

It wasn't a pleasant topic. Aqua shook her head. "We're out here to make a map to your teammates. I can figure out where they're likely to turn up. That will narrow down our search."

A light turned on nearby. They all turned to the Inn, where Rufus had lit a lamp and set up an easel.

Aqua turned back to her drawings. "My turn to ask questions. So how do you two kill Heartless if you don't have Keyblades or magic?"

"You watched me," Jaune answered.

"I do it like him, but better," Qrow agreed.

"That explains why yours have bones. Heartless can't be killed with conventional weapons. They just return to the darkness, and learn, and reform."

"Guess we'll have to keep killing them," Jaune said.

"That's called job security," Qrow quipped.

Aqua frowned at his back. Then asked, "Jaune, do you remember the Novashadows we fought on the way here? They had red emblems on their chests."

"Oh. Yeah?"

"Is that normal?"

"Grimm always have spirals on their bones."

"Spirals or symbols? Those Novashadows had emblems on them. Like… Manufacturers marks."

"I didn't notice. I wasn't paying much attention."

Aqua frowned again.

"Sorry," Jaune shrugged.

She shook her head. Ventus had been like this. Maybe If Master Eraqus had scolded him more, he'd be standing here beside her. She took a breath. Master Eraqus was gone. Now Master Aqua had to step up.

She steeled her voice. "Jaune, next time you're covering my back, I want you to do it right." She looked up from her papers, to check his reaction. She'd never given someone instructions before.

Oh. Yes she had. Terra. And that had ended their friendship. She swallowed, wondered if she'd pushed him away again.

Jaune nodded, embarrassed. "Yeah. I will."

Aqua took another breath, resumed drawing. "Mister Branwen?"

"Qrow," he corrected. "And I think it's my turn to ask questions. You said Ritual. Did someone do this to us?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Can you give me any details?"

"Like what?"

"Like a name."

She looked at Qrow's back. He kept guard, staring into the darkness. The way Terra used to. She looked at Jaune, and could imagine Ventus in his place, twirling a dandelion in his fingers and finding meaning in the flower.

"Well, every world has a Heart, just like a person. And every Heart is protected by a lock. Keyblades can manipulate those locks safely. But if you don't have a Keyblade, and you really want access to the Heart of a world..."

Qrow finished, "You smash the lock."

"Right. So somebody got murdered. That's for sure. Someone that everybody cared about."

"And this ritual," Qrow asked. "Does it happen on top of a tower?"

No. But what an oddly specific question to ask. Aqua looked at Qrow again. Then at Jaune, where she read that he had a very precise idea in his mind about the event in question.

Jaune asked, "Someone killed-"

He licked his lips, spent a long time staring at the flower. "Someone destroyed Vale, for What exactly?"

Aqua set down her pencil. "I don't know. But if they accessed the heart of the world, they would have a lot of power. For a little while anyway. Before they turned it to darkness. But that would have happened by now. Your world is broken, but the heart hasn't fallen. So I don't know."

Jaune was pacing angrily. "But that person is Evil, right? There's no question?"

In a cynical tone, Qrow grumbled, "That would make things simple and clean."

Aqua shied, "Evil… Is a strong label, Jaune. Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse to hate someone?"

Jaune looked up from his flower. "And what's wrong with that? Hating someone who's Evil?"

Aqua picked up her pencil and resumed drawing. And from memory, she recited, "If only it were all so simple. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

"During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn't change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil."

Qrow cast a smirk. "You've got a way with words, Aqua."

"It's from a book. I didn't write it."

She didn't believe it, either. She used to. But now, her heart sided with Jaune. Xehanort was a force of Evil, not a person. She could show him no love. Not like she had for her friends.

But could she bring herself to hate her enemies? For a moment, she let her heart tell her. Who had she met that she could truly hate?

Master Eraqus, who she'd trusted to raise her. Who she'd trusted to raise her friends.

Her hands tensed and made jagged lines among those guided by smoother emotions.

And her hate, now released, grew.

She hated Ventus, for his disobedience.

She hated Terra, for his steady and premeditated descent into darkness. She remembered their last friendly meeting, at Cinderella's ball. She wanted to reach out and stop him from leaving. She wanted to reach out and strike him.

She hated herself for letting everything that mattered slip away.

The pencil tip snapped. Aqua sighed and reached for the sharpener.

Qrow grumbled, "Good and evil aren't useful terms, Jaune. Go with whatever keeps you going. Protect your family and friends."

Aqua couldn't spend her whole night on her problems. She had to focus. Glancing over to Jaune, she noticed that he'd balled his fists. In his hatred, he'd forgotten the flower in his grip. His hand relaxed, and he looked at the destruction he'd caused.

He caught her watching him. "Hey, Aqua? How long were you in that place I rescued you from?"

How long, indeed? Ten, years. She still couldn't believe it. "Too long."

"And what kept you going?"

She placed a hand on her Wayfinder, and remembered long moments in the darkness, when she would clutch this charm and count the passage of time in heartbeats.

Terra.

Ventus.

626.

Zack.

Levity tickled her dimples. She owed Zack a date. A celebration. But she couldn't feel his heart anymore. That had faded at some point. And now she could only wonder. Had he forgotten her? Her smile faded.

To Jaune, she said, "My friends are still fighting. They're depending on me."

Jaune nodded. "You remind me of someone," he grinned.

"Yeah," she said. "You too."

Aqua leaned back from her work. "There. I can almost guarantee anyone who fell off of Remnant will pass through Olympus Coliseum. IF they survive."

"They did," Qrow and Jaune said in unison.

"Good," Aqua nodded. "I can take us there on my glider after I've slept."

Footsteps. They turned to see Rufus carrying a tray to them. He had a canvas tucked under his arm.

"You've all had a long day! Mister Branwen, you almost died, remember? And Miss Aqua, I've made a room for you."

"Oh. Thank you."

Rufus set the tray down and distributed tea.

"I'll stay up till about one," Qrow offered. "Jaune, you take over after that. I'll catch shut-eye 'till you and Aqua head out."

Rufus turned to Aqua. "Are you… Leaving?"

Aqua huddled to her tea and blew on it. "There are more Huntsmen trapped in the darkness. We're going to see if we can bring them back. Though… We also need to think about stopping this world from falling into The End."

Qrow shook his head. "You get four huntsmen to agree on something, it gets done. Bring that team back and they'll help you save Remnant."

Rufus smiled. "Oh, bless you, Miss Aqua! There aren't many people who stop to help a struggling town."

"He's not wrong," Qrow whispered to his tea.

Aqua admitted, "Something else is bothering me. Remnant is leaning into The End. I don't understand why."

Jaune shrugged. "Well, someone broke our magic heart lock or something, right?"

Aqua shook her head. "This world's Heart hasn't fallen to darkness. So… What's pulling us in? Who's manufacturing Heartless? Why did someone try to reach the heart of the world?"

Rufus asked, "Could it have something to do with the large chains in the sky?"

Everyone looked at him.

Aqua asked, "The what?"

"The giant, ultraviolet chains in the sky."

Aqua looked up, didn't see.

Qrow chuckled, "Faunus can see ultraviolet."

"Really?" Aqua and Jaune asked.

Rufus pulled the canvas from under his arm. "Here. I sketched it."

Everyone's jaws dropped. He was a damn good artist.

He'd drawn Aqua at an easel, painting the night sky. Colossal chains pulled taught towards The End. Though… Aqua was the focus.

She blushed into her tea.