Chapter 1: Into the ink
Aqua looked at the person standing before her, unsure whether this person was friend or foe. Although she was tempted to pull out her keyblade to protect herself in case this man was a threat, she stood calm as she didn't want to look aggressive. The man approached her with a curious look.
"Who are you?"
Aqua kept her guard up though hearing the man's voice allowed the keyblade master to keep calm. She sensed no malice behind the voice, allowing her to respond with kindness.
"My name is Aqua."
"I'm Henry. What brings you here to Joey Drew Studios? Did Joey send you?" Henry asked with a curious tone.
"No...my friends and I ended up getting separated. I don't know where they are."
As Aqua says this, she turns towards the inside of the studio, thinking if Ventus and Terra are possibly there somewhere. As she thinks of this as a possibility, she turns towards Henry to ask him,
"What brings you here?"
"Joey wanted me to come here. He wanted to show me something."
"Show you what?" Aqua asked with a skeptical tone of voice.
"I'm not sure..."
Henry crossed his arms with confliction, not sure what he is supposed to find would be a good thing or a bad thing. While he was in deep thought, Aqua started to investigate the area, feeling a strong darkness in the studio.
'There is something here...something dangerous.'
"You should probably turn back. I sense danger ahead." Aqua said, not wanting Henry to get himself hurt. Henry was a bit puzzled by this.
"What do you mean something dangerous?" The man asked in confusion.
"It's just...you should turn back now, while you have the chance."
"Sorry but I can't. Joe wanted me to find something here and I doubt he would send me to get hurt."
"Even so, you shouldn't be here. This place...it's filled with darkness." Aqua said hesitantly, feeling the strong ties this place has to the realm of darkness. She turned towards the studio and continued to go deeper inside, having a strong feeling that Ventus and Terra are here.
As she was going inside, she could hear Henry's footsteps closing in on her. She turned around to see that Henry was following her.
"You shouldn't be here."
"Maybe but I have to know what Joe wants me to see. Plus, if there really is danger ahead, I can't allow a woman to go at it alone."
"I...It's fine, I'm capable of myself."
"I can't allow this. Allow me to join you."
"But—"
"I will still go with you even if you deny my assistance."
Aqua was left in silence for a moment before nodding, accepting Henry's assistance.
"Okay. But stay close."
"Will do."
Henry nodded before following Aqua deep into the studio, the two looked around the large room they were in. Aqua noticed the studio logo.
'Joey Drew Studios.'
She looked at him for a brief moment before turning towards Henry, noticing that he was going into a hallway.
"Henry? Where are you going?"
"..."
"Henry?"
Aqua went to investigate the hallway, wanting to see what's going on with Henry. As she goes into the hallway, she notices that Henry was looking at a desk with a drawing of a character that's head shape resembles cartoonish horns.
"This was my old desk."
"Old desk?" Aqua asked.
"Yeah, I used to work for Joey Drew. I wasted so much time here."
Aqua looked at Henry when he said this, seeing that he was reliving his time there on the desk. She looked back at the desk to see the drawing that was there.
"Did you do that?"
"Yeah, it was my first version. I was really proud of it only for Joey to disapprove."
"Why did he disapprove?" Aqua questioned. Henry paused for a moment before turning towards his back side, noticing that there were more desks in the room near them. He went towards the room to check it out with Aqua following behind him.
"Looks like they knocked out a wall or two after I left. Guess it took a few people to replace me."
"To replace you?"
"Yeah, as the lead animator. Those were the good times...well, until Joey started to have questionable work ethics."
"What do you—?"
Before Aqua could finish her sentence, a couple of shadow heartless appear in the room. Henry was caught off guard by this while the Keyblade Master quickly pulled out her Rainfell Keyblade.
"Step back."
"What are those things?"
"Just...stand back. Let me handle them." As Aqua says this in a sharp voice, she proceeds to take down the heartless without hesitation. While Aqua was holding her own without much effort, one of the shadow heartless slowly made its way towards Henry's direction. The man was unsure on what to exactly make of this since the creature didn't look like a threat.
"What exactly are you? Are you the thing Joey wanted me to see?"
As Henry was questioning this, the shadow heartless looked at him for a second before trying to attack him with its claw. Henry managed to just barely dodge the attack, prompting his fight or flight instincts to kick the shadow heartless in the head.
Aqua noticed this and quickly reacted by charging at heartless with great speed. As she made it near the heartless within a few seconds, she easily took out the shadow heartless with one swing.
Henry was surprised by this since he didn't expect the creature to be suddenly destroyed with a random heart appearing for a second in the air before disappearing.
'W-What is going on?!'
Henry was just shocked by what he was seeing, completely unsure if its real or not. This caused him to be still for a brief moment before Aqua extended a hand. This allowed him to snap out of his tance as he looked at the Keyblade Master. It took him a moment before he accepted Aqua's assistance.
"Th-Thanks."
Aqua nodded at what Henry had said before the two left the room they were in and returned to the larger room with the hallway that Henry and Aqua come from. Once in the large room, Aqua turned towards Henry to tell him,
"You should leave while you have the chance. I don't want you getting yourself hurt."
"I can see that things are dangerous here...but I won't let a woman like yourself go at it alone."
"Wait but—"
"Look, I get it. You are probably strong but maybe this is why Joey sent me. To take these creatures down."
"That can't be right. He wouldn't know about the heartless."
"The...heartless?" Henry questioned since he hadn't heard that name before. Aqua paused to herself, knowing that she needs to be careful with her next words since she doesn't want to break the world order.
"Those are the names of these creatures. They are highly dangerous. That's why I want you to leave while you can."
"I appreciate the concern but I can't let these things get out of the studio and I won't let you go at it alone."
Aqua was unsure on how to take it since she knows that Henry wasn't going to walk away while he has a chance. She closed her eyes for a moment before asking him,
"Do you at least know your way around this place?"
"To a degree. There might have been a few changes while I was gone but I should be able to help navigate around."
"Okay. Just stay close."
Henry nodded at what Aqua had said, a little annoyed that he can't do much right now but he would rather stick with the young woman than let her handle things on her own. It isn't the gentleman way. The two started to explore the studio for less than a minute to see that there was a sign that helped give directions.
'Hm. That might be helpful.'
Henry thought this as he started to read the sign alongside Aqua. As the two were reading this, Henry noticed one of the locations.
"Break room. Pfft. What a joke."
"Hm?"
Aqua looked at Henry a bit confused. The man noticed this, causing him to say,
"S-Sorry about that...let's just put our focus on this." Henry stopped speaking as he pointed at one of the locations.
"Ink Machine?" Aqua questioned.
"This is something new. Something I don't trust at all."
"Hm."
Aqua nodded at Henry before the two started to make their way towards where the ink machine is located. As they started to make their way to the ink machine, they noticed something on the wall.
"Dreams come true...?" Aqua read the wall outloud, feeling very hesitant since she felt sadness and pain when reading this. Henry looked at this and could tell that something more sinister than just some basic looking heartless is lying deeper into the studio. Aqua looked at what seemed to be ink coming down from the ceiling. This made her wary for a moment before feeling Ventus for some reason.
'He must've been here...I hope he and Terra are okay.'
As Aqua thinks this, she starts to have flashbacks of the time she was in the realm of darkness, how alone she was without Terra or Ventus by her side. As she slowly was shaking, she felt someone tap her shoulder.
"You okay there?"
"...Y-Yeah. Sorry. Let's get going."
"Okay."
Henry led the way as both him and Aqua continued down a hallway for a bit before they noticed at the end of it that there was something called Ink Output Schedule. This caused Henry to turn towards the right side, noticing a leaking pipe. As the pipe continued to leak, Henry continued down the hallway before seeing the large room that contained a machine.
'Could this be...the ink machine?'
As Henry questioned this, Aqua joined him as she inspected the place, feeling a hint of Terra's presence.
'Terra was here. But what was he doing here...?'
As she questioned this, she felt something off. She looked behind her to notice that something dark was about to attack them.
"Watch out!"
Aqua quickly grabbed Henry before jumping high up to avoid getting attacked.
"What is going on?!" Henry said as he was confused on why he was high on the air all of a sudden. He looked around for a moment until he spotted what seemed to be an ink creature. This creature was different from the shadow heartless, it looked way more dangerous and completely disturbing.
"What the hell is that?!"
"I don't know but hold on."
Aqua landed on top of the ink machine before setting Henry down, allowing him to quickly get up to analyze what is going on. Aqua and Henry looked at the inky creature, both of them on their guard before noticing the entire room go dark for some reason.
"What is going..."
"Reflecta!"
"Huh?"
Just as he looked at the keyblade master to ask what she even said, a barrier was created around him and the blue haired young woman.
'What is this? A barrier?'
As Henry was confused by this barrier, Aqua got her guard up as something dark hit strongly at her barrier. This frightened Henry since he doesn't know what kind of threat they are dealing with while Aqua was trying to keep it together.
She was still scared of the darkness but seeing that Henry will die if she doesn't act, she quickly pushed away the fear in her heart to prepare for the fight ahead.
"Don't worry Henry, I will protect you."
"I..." Henry hesitated to speak. 'I should be the one protecting you...but considering the enemy we are dealing with.'
He slapped himself which caught Aqua's attention.
"Sorry for acting weak. You did warn me after all that this was going to be dangerous, so I'll just have to be brave from here on out."
Aqua was surprised by this but that surprised facial expression would eventually turn into one of determination, seeing that she also needs to be brave from here on out as well.
"Okay, just get ready to run." Aqua said as she prepared her keyblade for battle.
"Understood." Henry said with a serious tone, understanding that their opponent is much stronger than expected. The two wait until the barrier is destroyed from the ink like hand, prompting Aqua to quickly act.
"Run to safety!"
Terra walked around the studio in search of a way to activate the lever, seeing that his keyblade won't be able to do the trick. As the Keyblade Wielder was walking around this new and unfamiliar world, he felt unease since he sensed a strong darkness nearby.
'This place is too close to the realm of darkness. I don't like it.' As Terra was thinking this, he entered a room where he was completely shocked.
"What the...?"
Terra looked in shock and some horror as he saw someone that was a tall anthropomorphic wolf wearing white overalls and black boots though this wolf had its chest ripped out with a tool sticking out its chest area.
"Who would do such a thing?"
As Terra questioned this, he recognized this tool as one of the six he needed to get if he wanted to activate the lever, having figured that the objects have a meaning after having tried everything to activate the lever.
As he grabs the tool, he turns around only to be spooked by a random cardboard of a cartoon character. He was tempted to attack the cardboard since his instincts were saying to attack.
As he managed to have self-control, Terra looked at the door to his right, seeing that it opened on its own. This made him keep his Earthshaker keyblade on his hand, prepared to use it should he end up encountering any heartless.
He walked around a bit, looking for the other five objects. As he was walking around, he started to wonder where Ventus and Aqua were located.
'Why were we separated?'
Terra questioned this though what he questioned more was whether he would encounter anyone from this world, even if it was an enemy.
As he was wondering this, he arrived at a room where he found a plusie version of the cartoon cardboard he had been seeing around the hallways for the past few minutes. As he managed to get this second object, he turned around and continued to roam the halls only to find himself in a room where a giant machine was located.
'This must be the Ink Machine.' Terra thought, figuring since it is the only thing that looks unique. He was unsure on what to think about the machine itself but one thing he sensed was a strong darkness in this very room.
This made him look around with caution before preparing to summon back his armor in the case he was attacked. Just as he was about to summon his armor, he noticed another of the four objects left he was looking for. He grabbed it and prepared to leave the room. As he was leaving, he heard a voice,
"You will be a failure."
"Who said that?"
Terra turned sharply as he had his keyblade ready for battle. He looked around the room for a bit as he tried to figure out who was the person that spoke to him early. After seeing that nobody was around, he lowered his guard and began to leave the room fully.
Just as he was about to leave for a second time, he was able to spot another object that he was looking for in a box on the ground to his right side. He leans over to grab this object before continuing on around the studio in search of the other three remaining objects.
As he left the room, he roamed the hallways once again, noticing that the cardboard of the cartoon character was starting to appear more, making the keyblade wielder be on edge. As he was going into one of the familiar hallways, he noticed that one of the doors that was locked had opened.
Terra was suspicious of this though he was curious to know what was inside the room. He opened the door to see that there were stairs leading down to something.
'I wonder where this leads.'
Terra made his way down the stairs slowly, trying to stay cautious in case he finds some big threat nearby. As he arrived on the lower level, he saw that it was an abandoned room with empty chairs and two tables.
One of them was empty and the other contained a few odd objects with a couple of books nearby. Terra slowly approached this table to see that there was a black book on one side of the table. He grabbed the book with a critical look.
'The illusion of living...from Joey Drew.'
Terra set the other objects he had grabbed onto the empty table before taking a moment to read a bit of the book, curious to know what this Joey Drew was thinking when writing this kind of book. As he read through the first few pages, the only thing that came to his mind was,
'Whoever this Joey Drew is...he's got to be corrupted by darkness.'
Terra closed the book and set it next to the other objects that he had to acquire, wanting a moment to think to himself. He had seen a few signs saying that this world's name is called Joey Drew Studios, making him think,
'This place is filled with darkness. I must be careful from here on out...no, I have to look for Aqua and Ven.'
Terra quickly was about to leave the room only for his instincts telling him that he needs to grab all of the six objects if he wishes to move forward. He takes a moment before he quickly grabs the objects.
As he gathers them on his left hand, he summons his keyblade again on his right hand before making his way back upstairs. Once on the floor he had appeared in, he noticed that one of the closed doors had suddenly had the lights turned on.
"Hm?"
Terra was curious about this, prompting him to approach the door only to be slightly surprised by the light suddenly going out when he was close by. This caused him to quickly kick the door down to see what turned off the light only to see that nobody was inside.
"Someone was here. Someone with darkness in their heart."
As Terra had said this to himself, he noticed an odd disk on the ground, prompting him to inspect it for a moment before concluding that this was one of the six objects he was looking for. Once grabbing the disk, he looked around the room once more before leaving.
'Okay, one more object to go through.'
As left the room, he explored the studio a little more until he ended up in a room where the wall says, Dreams come true. This shook Terra to his very core, feeling that whoever wrote this wasn't happy and was suffering.
This made the keyblade wielder understand one thing about this world, it's a nightmare. The Keyblade wielder shook his head as he regained focus on finding the last object. He walked around for a bit before finding a room with a couple of chairs and a few tables that contained some cartoon drawings.
'What is this place?' Terra questioned as he looked around, trying to find the last remaining object. He looked and looked until he finally spotted the last remaining object underneath a table.
As he grabbed an ink bottle, he counted to make sure that he had the right six objects before turning back towards the room the lever was located in. As he was about to leave the room he was in, a shadow heartless appeared in front of him.
"I was wondering where one of you was." Terra said with a little relief in his voice, somehow happy to see a shadow heartless in front of him. He waited for a moment until the shadow heartless jumped right in front of him, trying to attack him.
Terra waited for the right moment before easily eliminating the shadow heartless. As this happened, he sensed a powerful darkness nearby which prompted him to quickly start moving towards the lever room. Once he arrived at the lever room, he set the items on the right pillars. After doing this, he waited to see if something was going to happen.
'...okay, was something supposed to happen?'
Terra looked a little dumbfounded as nothing happened for a minute until he heard what sounded like water flowing around the tubes.
'Okay, I guess that's what is supposed to happen.'
Terra looked at the lever to see that next to it the words "Ready" were glowing, showing that the lever was ready to be pulled. Without hesitation, the Keyblade wielder approached the lever and pulled it.
Once this happened, he sensed a strong darkness nearby. This caused him to get his guard up, thanks to the increase in darkness. He slowly left the room he was in, knowing that whatever was nearby him was a threat. He walked around slowly until he turned towards his left side to see a familiar person with spiky hair.
'Wait, is that...?'
"Ven!"
Terra shouted in hopes that the person that was in the far off distance of the hallway was indeed his friend and that he heard him. The person looked at his location for a moment before turning around, running.
Terra noticed this before turning towards his back side, having sensed a powerful darkness behind him. Once he turned around, he saw some inky blob right behind him.
"No you don't!"
With one swing of his keyblade, he managed to deflect off the inky blob's attack. As he successfully did this, he jumped back to avoid dealing with the inky blob.
Once he gained some distance from him, he started to run towards the hallway he saw what could've been Ventus, knowing that this inky blob has the advantage at the moment. As he was getting closer to the other side of the hallway, he suddenly stopped when he saw someone in front of him.
"Hello there, Terra."
"X-Xehanort..." Terra said for a moment, shocked to see the man that betrayed him all those years ago and made him into a vessel for his own purposes. Just as Terra stopped on his tracks, he instantly felt the inky blob trying to attack him from a distance.
He quickly turned around to deflect off the attack before turning towards Xehanort to try and attack him only to see that he was gone.
"What...?"
The keyblade wielder was caught off guard by this but before he could even process what had happened, he received a powerful hit to his backside.
"Hk!"
Terra was sent flying across the hallway with the keyblade wielder crashing onto the wall with extreme amount of strength. As he landed back on the ground, he slowly got up with some fear in his heart.
'Was that...really Xehanort?'
Terra questioned this since he wasn't ready to confront the old Keyblade Master once again, even if it was from a figment of his imagination. He looked at the inky blob approaching him at rapid speed.
This made the keyblade wielder quickly put his guard up, seeing that whatever this inky blob was, it was surely much tougher than the heartless. He got himself into his fighting stance as he prepared himself for battle.
"Hm? Dreams come true..."
Ventus said as he was confused by what he was reading, completely not trusting the person that wrote this. As Ventus was preparing to leave the room, he suddenly felt a powerful surge of darkness nearby him.
This caused his instincts to take over for a second, causing his Wayward wind keyblade to come out. Ventus looked around for a moment before sensing Terra.
'Terra was here! I need to find him!'
Ventus started to run around for a moment, wanting to find where his friend was located. As he looked around, he noticed a large room with some odd looking ink falling down from the ceiling.
Ventus was stunned for a brief moment before shaking his head, regaining his focus in looking for his best friend. He turned around and started to go through a few hallways before sensing something off in one direction while also sensing Terra's presence in a different area. He was going to go towards Terra's presence only to hear something.
"Run. Run like the coward you are."
'Who was that?'
Ventus thought hesitantly for a moment before turning towards the hallway where he felt Terra's presence.
'I have to get to Terra.'
Just as he was going to go into the hallway where he felt Terra's presence, he stopped himself in place as he felt the darkness increase in the other hallway.
'This darkness...if it's here with me and Terra...my friend is in danger!'
Ventus turned around and went towards the location where he felt the darkness strongly. As he was closing in, he got spooked when he suddenly saw what looked like a devil cartoon cardboard head pop in from the end of the hallway.
As Ventus's body stopped on its tracks for the briefest of moments, he prepared his keyblade for battle. He waited for a moment before seeing that nobody was coming out to attack him, prompting the boy to lower his guard as he slowly moved to the end of the hallway.
Once arriving at the end of the hallway, he noticed that the cartoon cardboard was laying on the wall while nobody was there.
"That's weird."
Ventus took a moment to feel the area for a bit, somehow managing to lose the scene of darkness he was feeling a moment ago. He looked inside the room for a moment only to find a large turn handle.
"Hm? What's this supposed to do?"
Ventus put away his keyblade as he moved the turn handle towards the left side, wanting to see what would happen if he turned the wheel. He put away his keyblade and began to turn the wheel. As he did this, nothing happened which left the boy a bit puzzled.
'Okay...now what?'
Ventus was confused already since he hadn't found anyone with a strong sense of darkness while also the turn handle did nothing.
'...I'll just go find Terra.'
As Ventus had this in mind and was about to act on it, he heard the pipe on the top of the wall to his right side starting to make an odd sound. He looked at the pipe with a critical eye before noticing that it was starting to leak some black ink. The ink leaked around enough to start surrounding the ground.
'...oops.'
Ventas rubbed the back of his head as he felt responsible for this. The keyblade wielder began to leave the room and make his way towards the other side of the hallway where he sensed Terra. As he was in that hallway, he felt the dark presence once again.
"Who goes there?" Ventus shouted at the direction he felt the darkness while summoning his keyblade. He kept his guard up for a moment before lowering it, thinking that he was probably starting to get paranoid. The second he had his guard down, a familiar dark mask suddenly appeared right in front of him.
"..."
Ventus was silent as he was stunned by this, not expecting someone who had been defeated to be here.
"V-Vanitas!"
"..."
The different colored Vanitas didn't say anything, all it did was float in the air near Ventus's position for a moment before starting to leave the keyblade wielder's position.
"Wait...!"
Ventus prepares to leave to follow this Vanitas remnant only to hear Terra's voice.
"Ven!"
"Huh?"
Ventus turned towards the voice for a moment, seeing that it looked like Terra.
'Terra!'
Ventus was about to go towards his friend's location only to suddenly stop himself, thinking that he should probably go after Vanitas.
'I need to find out what Vanitas is doing here. I can't let him hurt Terra or Aqua again!'
With a new goal in mind, Ventus started to follow Vanitas around. As he was running around a couple of hallways following Vanitas, he noticed that he was different than before. Aside from having a different color attire to his usual red and black, he had a white and black attire.
He was also way quieter than before. Vanitas would say something or provoke Ventus but right now, he was just flying around like a ghost. As Ventus was chasing Vanitas around for a brief moment, he eventually noticed that this Vanitas had the universe symbol on his helmet. This confused the boy but before he could even ask, he noticed that he was sinking.
"What...?"
Ventus looked down to his feet, noticing that the ink was starting to swallow him up. The Keyblade Wielder tried to escape yet his struggles would be in vain. Just as the ink was about to swallow him up, the Vanitas remnant looked at him for a second before disappearing in thin air.
Ventus opened his eyes, surprised to find himself in some odd room where the ink was coming down from the ceiling.
'Where...am I?'
As Ventus was questioning this, he tried to walk around but figured that he should get rid of the ink since it made it difficult to move around.
He noticed a valve nearby, prompting the keyblade wielder to figure that if the last valve he messed with caused the ink to leak out, then it might take it back.
He made his way towards the valve slowly before turning it towards the left side.
As he did this, he turned towards the ground to see that this worked since the ink was slowly starting to disappear. Once the ink was gone, the keyblade wielder took this chance to both think about what had happened while also looking for a way out.
'Why does Vanitas have an unversed symbol? Why is he even back? Where is Aqua? Terra? I hope that they are okay.'
Ventus pulled out his wayfinder as he recalled the struggles each of his friends had gone through prior to arriving to this world, knowing that Aqua and Terra had suffered all the while he was asleep for over a decade.
'I promise that I will protect you. Aqua. Terra. I won't let anybody hurt either of you.'
With this promise engraved in his heart, he pulled out his keyblade and began to search around the new area, hoping to find someone friendly. As he walked around the hallways, he noticed that the place had suddenly gotten bigger.
'This is a weird place.'
As Ventus thought this, he heard a bottle suddenly roll near him. This caused him to get his guard up immediately since he doesn't trust this place. As he had himself in his fighting form, he waited for a moment as he heard footsteps getting slightly louder and louder with each step. After a moment of waiting, a tall anthropomorphic wolf wearing white overalls and black boots slowly walked around the corner.
"Hm? Who are you?" The Keyblade Wielder asked as he lowered his guard down, feeling no darkness with this creature. The anthropomorphic wolf just stood silent, not responding to Ventus's question.
This left the boy uncertain now if the wolf in front of him was a threat or just very quiet. The keyblade wielder looked around for a moment before noticing a poster of a character that shares the same features as the wolf in front of him.
The wolf noticed this as well and quickly approached the poster to grab it. As he does this, he turns towards the boy while pointing at the poster. Ventus was confused for a moment before slowly understanding what the wolf was trying to tell him.
"Is that you?"
The wolf nodded at Ventus's question, prompting the keyblade wielder to fully read the poster. As he was reading the poster, he noticed a name.
"Boris...is that your name?" The boy asked with a curious look. The wolf nodded, confirming its name to the keyblade wielder. "Boris the wolf...that's a cool name."
Boris stood silent as he heard the compliment. His response to this was just a simple nod, alerting Ventus that Boris doesn't talk. He stood silent for a moment before asking Boris the wolf,
"Can you help me find my friends? We got separated."
Borris stood silent for a moment before nodding at Ventus, showing that he is willing to help find the boy's friends.
"Really? Thanks!" Ventus said with a smile on his face. Boris turned towards the hallway he came from before signaling the boy to follow him. The keyblade wielder noticed this, prompting him to follow Boris.