- Chapter 20 -

Two Awakenings

Radiant Garden, Shopping Plaza

Zephyr and Tiger sat on the bench in the town's shopping plaza, Zephyr having bought them bars of sea-salt ice cream from Scrooge McDuck, who had been kind enough to give them a discount since he was an ally of Sora's.

"Nice place, huh, boy?" Zephyr said to Tiger, who gave a contented mew in response.

At that moment, seemingly out of nowhere, Rusty slowly walked up to them and sniffed Zephyr curiously. While briefly surprised, Zephyr smiled and scratched the little fox behind the ears. Rather than snap at him or pull away, Rusty closed his eyes and leaned his head into the touch.

"Huh," came the voice of Kyra as she strode up to them. "Normally, it takes awhile before he's comfortable with people touching him."

Zephyr smiled. "Guess I must be a real hot-shot then." Kyra let out a small chuckle in response as she took a seat next to Zephyr.

"So, your name's Zephyr, right?" Kyra asked. Zephyr nodded. "What's your story?"

"It's a long one," Zephyr replied.

Kyra shrugged. "I have time."

Zephyr took that in stride and informed Kyra of his hometown, his Order, everything he could. Kyra was quite impressed by the end of it.

"By the way, thanks," Kyra said, smiling at him. Zephyr raised an eyebrow.

"For what?"

"You're the one who saved West and brought her to Sora and his pals, right?" Zephyr nodded. "Thank you for bringing her back to us."

Zephyr smiled. "It was nothing."

"Of course, just between you and me, I still don't trust Riku." Kyra said, her voice taking a venomous tone at the mention of Sora's best friend.

Zephyr looked at her curiously, gesturing for her to continue.

"He worked for Maleficent two years ago, and dragged West along for the ride. West was stranded in the dark realm for two years because he screwed everything up. I said I'd give him a chance, and I meant it. But it doesn't change the fact that trouble always follows him."

"That was two years ago," Zephyr said. "Riku has spent this whole time regretting what he did. He did fall to the darkness, but he came back before it was too late. He helped put an end to Organization XIII. I'd say he's atoned."

Kyra looked uncertain. "You could be right." she admitted.

Zephyr stood. "It was nice talking to you, but I gotta report back to my bosses," he said, patting Kyra on the shoulder. "See ya later." He reached down and patted Rusty on the head, before opening a corridor of darkness and vanishing into it along with Tiger.

Kyra just sat there with Rusty, contemplating what Zephyr had said, while unaware that a mysterious figure dressed in a hooded black coat, standing on a nearby rooftop, had witnessed the whole exchange...

Castle Oblivion

The Highwind docked on the barren white ground before Castle Oblivion, and the group filed out one by one, standing before the large castle.

"Gawrsh, this place looks familiar, doesn't it, Sora?" Goofy asked.

Sora nodded, and then suddenly clutched his head, groaning in pain as a flood of memories came back. His arrival here, his first meeting with Naminé, fighting Axel and Marluxia... everything came back all at once.

"Sora, what's wrong?!" Kairi demanded. "Are you okay?!"

Sora took a deep breath, and the pain abated. He looked up, and nodded, seeing Donald and Goofy rub their heads, having apparently had the same thing happen to them.

"I remember now," he said, turning to Riku. "You told me that I've been to Castle Oblivion before, but it's only just now that the memories came back."

Riku nodded. "Two of the Organization's members, Marluxia and Larxene, tried to use Naminé's power over memories to make you their weapon against Xemnas, but Naminé turned on them."

"Hey, I helped with that, y'know!" Lea cut in. Riku glanced at him briefly before continuing.

"After you, Donald, and Goofy beat Marluxia, Naminé had the three of you put to sleep for a year so she could repair your memories, but she couldn't do that without making you forget everything that happened in Castle Oblivion."

"Naminé is Kairi's Nobody, right?" Sï'Lea asked, remembering what the others had told her. Riku nodded.

"She, along with my Nobody Roxas, are two of the 'ones who are hurting' King Mickey mentioned in that letter," Sora said. "I have no idea how we're gonna do it, but they deserve as much as Kairi and I do to be their own people."

"We'll worry about that later," Aqua cut in impatiently. "Right now, let's get Ven."

The others nodded, and pushed the massive doors of the castle open, finding themselves in an all-white hall.

"Could use a splash of color, if you ask me," Nixe said flatly. Hikari shrugged at that.

"Follow me," Aqua said. She led the group through several white halls and eventually to a hallway lined on both walls with Mark of Mastery emblems, ending with a wall that more a particularly large emblem.

"A dead end?" West asked.

Aqua smiled. "Not exactly." She walked up to the large emblem and summoned the silver, boxy Keyblade she had used in the Realm of Darkness.

"The Master's Defender?" Sï'Lea asked.

Aqua nodded. "Master Eraqus left it to me before he... died." A sad look crossed her face, but she shook it off and plunged the Keyblade into the dead center of the emblem on the wall. The emblem lit up, and the wall split in two and slid open to reveal a small rectangular door with a Mark of Mastery emblem on it.

"This is it," Hikari said. "This is the Chamber of Waking."

Sora gestured to the door. "After you, Aqua."

Aqua pushed open the door, and the group entered to find themselves in a circular room similar to the Chamber of Repose in Radiant Garden, but covered with Mark of Mastery emblems rather than Nobody ones, and a white throne in the center of the room.

And in that throne was Ven, still fast asleep as he had been for the past twelve years.

"Ven!" Aqua exclaimed as she ran over to him, gently stroking his cheek, but getting no reaction.

"Okay," Nixe said at that moment. "Now that we've got Ven's body, how to we get his heart out of Sora's?"

A few moments of silence passed, until Mickey said what was on everyone's minds at that moment:

"I don't know."

Max piped up. "Yeah, I guess we were so focused on finding Ven that we didn't really think about what to do when we did."

"Are you kidding me?!" Donald squawked. "We came all this way for nothing?!"

Sora said nothing, but put a hand over his chest, seemingly lost in thought. After a moment, he nodded and walked over until he stood right in front of Ven.

"Sora, what's going on?" Riku asked.

Sora couldn't quite explain it himself. Something inside of him had just told him to stand before Ven's body and wait. The voice of Ven's heart, perhaps. Much to the group's surprise, Ven began to move. He raised his arm, and Wayward Wind appeared in his hand.

The tip of Ven's Keyblade began to glow, and a beam of light shot out, aimed at Sora's heart. Realizing what was happening, Sora spread his arms as the beam hit him in the chest.

"Sora!" Kairi and Hikari both screamed. After a brief exchange of glances, they dashed forward, but Riku and Aqua stood before them.

"What are you doing?!" Kairi demanded.

"Kairi, relax," Sï'Lea said. "Just watch."

Kairi looked, and as the beam faded, a small, glowing orb came out of Sora's chest; she instantly realized it was Ventus' heart. The orb floated before Ven for a moment or two before phasing into his chest, his Keyblade dissipating afterwards.

Aqua's own heart was beating so fast that she thought it would burst out as Ven let out a soft grown and slowly opened his eyes. Blinking against the light, he turned to Aqua and smiled.

"Hi," he said softly. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Aqua let out a happy cry as she grabbed Ven, bodily lifting him off of the throne and into a tight hug. Sï'Lea ran over to them and put her arms around them both, all three laughing.

"You're back!" Aqua cried, tears of joy dripping from her eyes. "Oh Ven, I missed you so much!"

"Welcome back, kid!" Sï'Lea added. "Long time no see!"

The others looked on, happy smiles on their faces.

"Y'know," Sora said, putting one arm around Riku and the other around Kairi, "it's moments like this that make all this fighting worthwhile."

"You can say that again." said Hikari.

After a moment, Sï'Lea pulled away, and Aqua put Ven back down on his feet. Almost immediately, Ven's knees buckled, and he grabbed the arm of the throne for support; after twelve years of being asleep, his muscles had atophied somewhat.

Sora and Aqua ran over to him, each grabbing one of his arms and draping it over their shoulders.

"Take it easy, Ven," Aqua said. "We'll help until you get steadied."

Ven smiled. "Thanks," he turned to Sora. "Before we go on, can you summon your Keyblade?"

Sora raised his free hand, and in a flash, his Keyblade appeared in his hand. "Yeah, why?"

Ven looked at him as the group exited the chamber and made their way to the exit. "Well, see, the main reason you got the Keyblade in the first place is because my heart was in yours. I was sure that if I ever got my body back, you'd lose that power, but you didn't."

Sora was silent for a minute, then smiled. "Even if I did lose my Keyblade, I'd bring you back anyway."

Ven smiled back. "You really are a good person, Sora. And you have no idea how good it feels to be back in my own body again."

The World That Never Was, The Castle

Once again, Master Xehanort stood before the comatose Vanitas, waiting for any change in his condition. It wasn't long before he got results.

The fingers of Vanitas' right hand twitched, spreading out wide before balling into a fist. His eyes opened, revealing the demonic yellow irises they were hiding, and he sat up, rubbing his head, before turning to look at Xehanort, who smiled triumphantly.

"Welcome back to us, Vanitas," Master Xehanort said.

A wicked grin spread across Vanitas' face, and he broke into a light chuckle, which quickly evolved into malevolent laughter. Xehanort joined in, and as the laughing fit tapered off, Vanitas stood, looking Xehanort right in the eye, and uttered his first words in years:

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

Author's Note:

Ven's back! YAY! And Vanitas is back, too? Oh, NO!

Aww, who am I kidding? Vanitas may be pure evil, but damn if he isn't cool.

Parts of Zephyr and Kyra's conversation were inspired by PrismRain13's works, while the scene where Ven comes back was partially inspired by Kristen Verne's fic Kingdom Hearts 3: Final Stand. All credit goes to the original owners.

Ven's line, "Sorry to keep you waiting," is the first line of dialogue said in Kid Icarus: Uprising, while Vanitas' "Kept you waiting, huh?" is a recurring phrase in the Metal Gear series.

Okay, I know I've said this before, but next chapter is when we finally get to the Disney worlds. And if we don't, may lightning strike me down.

Please R&R. Until next chapter!