The Boy Who Fell Through the World

"Always a beginning but never an ending. Names wither and are forgotten but the stories are all the same." He wrote in the book before him. "Raindrops filling the cup but how long before that cup overflows and shatters from the weight?"

The figures were drawn on three separate pages.

"The earth, strong in body, sturdy and solitary as the distant mountains." His hand trailed over the drawing of a young man covered in bronze armor and next to it was a drawing of a young man without the armor with brunette hair and a face of unwavering determination, holding a long and heavy key shaped sword.

"The sea," The page was turned to show a young woman in armor of blue and silver with an additional drawing of her without the armor, with eyes and hair the color of a blue ocean. "Forever stretching across the world, connected to each and every land in harmony."

He flipped the page over again, now showing a boy with an armor of silver and emerald color. "And finally, the wind. Light and free, a wayward breeze that reaches out and touches all. All three connecting and drawing strength from each other."

He flipped the page again, showing a strange world with a massive tree in the center.

"A journey to the end of the world and beyond. Those who lack the strength, their bodies crumbling and their minds collapsing into madness. But those who endure, feel the weight of everything they seek to protect."

He flipped a page and the next one showed the blue woman, kneeling before the ruins of a monastery floating in the sky.

"The protector, the warrior, and the mystic. Shield, sword, and staff once together but now broken, clawing up from the dark depths to reach the light again." The man said softly. "This is the power of the one who holds the very key to everything in their hands. Call it what you want, the power of the King, the power of the Queen or just simply the power of the Heart. The name is less important than being able to hold onto this power and avoid falling into the temptation of using this power for harmful intentions."

"Ven…Ven…It's time to wake up."

He knew that voice.

How could he not recognize it?

He did not know how he was hearing it now after dreaming so long. For ten long years, he had dreamed of an island, a boy with his two friends like him. A stoic but strong best friend and a girl…

The girl who was the boy's…destiny.

He saw the boy traveling to places, meeting new faces as he tried to find his two friends.

He remembered the boy picking up the dark key shaped sword and then…

"SORA!"

And just like that, the dream had ended, and he was floating in a dark void.

"Ven, you have to wake up."

That voice again…

"Ven…"

It was her…

"Ven!"

But how-

"WAKE UP VEN!"

And just like that, for the first time in ten years, Ventus opened his eyes. "…Aq…ua…"

He was in a white room of some kind and lining the walls were the same symbol that he, his friends and master wore to show their status as Keyblade Wielders.

"Where…am I?"

The last thing he remembered was being with his friends in the Graveyard, facing down Master Xehanort and Vanitas.

So how did he end up here?

And where Terra and Aqua?

He groaned as he struggled to get up, his body having spent over a decade in a coma made it hard. Luckily the room's magic has preserved his body while he slept so he didn't need to worry about his muscles atrophying but they still ached as he moved. He managed to stand up, stumbling a few steps forward.

It was hard but he managed to steady himself and slowly he stumbled to the door.

He grasped the door handle, turning it slowly.

"Terra…Aqua…" He muttered. "I'm coming…"

And with that, he opened the door.

"Who is there?" A voice, sounding like a boy called out.

Terra froze, recognizing that voice while Neo stepped forward and took a good look at the source of the voice as they stood in a clearing.

'Huh, a cute boy.' Neo mused, seeing it was a boy, probably around Little Red's Age or even around the same age as that Oscar kid she stole the Lamp from.

And where those fairies hovering around his head?

"Ven?!" Terra shouted in pure shock.

It couldn't be…

Ven was supposed to be asleep back in the Land of Departure.

But even though he did not have eyes, Terra could still 'see' clearly, and his vision could not be fooled.

Neo in the meantime just raised an eyebrow at the newcomer.

She had to admit, he was kind of cute. His body build was better than that Oscar kid and from the looks of it he was a fighter that relied more on speed than power. He had golden blond spiky hair, blue eyes with the front concentrating the spikes on the right side of his head as if windswept, and the back was smoother and more feathered. He wore a jacket that was white on the right side and black on the left side, reminiscent of the Yin and Yang symbol.

The collar of the jacket was red and pleated while underneath he wore what appeared to be a grey vest with a button and several white, angular patterns on it. He wore a third layer under this, in the form of a plain, high-necked, black shirt. He also had a chunk of dull green and grey blue armor on his midsection that appears to be under his vest, and another piece of armor on his left shoulder. He wore baggy pants colored grey, black and white. He also wore an ornate, dull green and grey blue piece of armor on his upper-left arm, along with a black and white checkered wristband with white edges.

Like Aqua, he wore two crisscrossing straps on his chest, on which he wore a silver Keyblade Master emblem. His boots were rather odd when compared to Aqua's and Terra's, as they resembled an armored version of normal street shoes in shades of dark bluish grey, dull green, and red.

"Terra?!" The boy called out upon seeing Terra, his lips curling up into a happy and excited smile. "TERRA!"

He shot forward, seemingly leaving a blast of wind behind him and moving with such speed that Neo could barely blink as she registered him in one spot and then rushing up and catching Terra in a hug that made the suit of living armor stagger back.

"Terra, it is you!" He cried happily. "I knew I'd find you!"

"Ven?" Terra managed to hug the boy back. "How are…How did you…How are you here? I thought you were asleep in the Land of Departure."

"He was."

Neo and Terra looked behind the boy named Ven, seeing three miniature…girls flying at them and hovering around the boy, two of them having little wings but only one had a pair sprouting from her back. "Until we helped him."

Now Neo was feeling the weird vibe again.

They were small…almost like fairies.

Or pixies.

One wore a short skirt with a wave like pattern down the side and like Neo she had heterochromia with the eye on the right green and the other being blue and had short brunette hair. She wore a white sleeveless top with a pink hoodie and golden bracelets on her forearms. She had a red braid traveling down her ankle that had a hair clip resembling bird wings.

The second one wore a tank top similar to something Split-Ends(Yang suddenly felt angry) would wear as it showed off her midriff and navel with bikini bottom straps. She wore an orange skirt over a pair of biker shorts with a matching-colored scarf around her neck with long loose ends that resembled wings wore white shoes with blue socks. She had blond hair in a ponytail adorned with colorful beads, and held by a blue bandana. Thankfully unlike Split-Ends(Yang's eyes flashed red) her eyes were green and not lilac or Neo would that thought she was looking at a pixie version of Little Red's equally annoying sister.

The final one had red eyes and short, silver hair. She wore a black tank top with visible shoulder straps under a black shawl that covered her left shoulder. She wore black shorts with a skull belt buckle with an extra red belt under it, black thigh high stockings and black boots. To complete the look, she had black, bat-like wings on her back.

Huh…

Neo didn't think there was such a thing as an emo fairy, but she can admit to being wrong about such things.

"Who are these?" Terra asked.

"We are…" The three fairies struck a pose in mid-air. "The Gullwings!"

"They're fairies who found me outside the temple. Someone named DiZ sent them to find me just after I woke up." Ventus explained. "They were then told to help me find you and Aqua."

"And let me tell you," The silver haired red eyed fairy drawled. "It wasn't easy, so we better be getting paid with a lot of treasure."

"Treasure?" Terra asked.

"We don't do these jobs for free. We're treasure hunters and we expect to be paid with a lot." The brunette explained, pointing at Terra. "So, you better pay up or we'll take any treasure you have on you."

Suddenly Neo was starting to like these three.

"Whoa guys, we still have to find Aqua." Ven pointed out, causing the fairies to look at him. "Remember? You said help me find my friends and then you get a lot of treasure."

The three paused and looked at each other.

"He has a point." The fairy with the black wings admitted.

"So, she's not your friend?" The brunette fairy pointed to Neo who just waved at them.

"Never seen her before." Ven shrugged before looking at Neo. "Hi, my name is Ventus. Are you a friend of Terra?"

"Neo and more like acquaintances at the moment." Neo said honestly, preforming a curtsy to Ven. "But I wouldn't say 'no' to being friends with someone who is looking for treasure."

"Okay," Ven then gestured to the fairies. "Like they said, they are the Gullwings. There's Yuna,"

"Hi!" The brunette fairy waved a hand while striking a pose.

"Rikku."

"Sup?" The blond hairy waved a hand.

"And Paine."

"Hey." The bat winged fairy simply said with a dull look on her face.

"And they helped me find you." Ven finished with a grateful smile.

"But how are you here?" Terra questioned. "I mean, Aqua never had the chance to wake you back up."

"But she did."

Terra and Neo just stared at him before Neo spoke. "Come again?"

"Aqua did wake me up. I saw her…I heard her calling out to me and then…I was waking up in this strange white room. I had fight my out before I ran into the Gullwings."

"Wait, can you start over, Ven?" Terra requested. "How did you wake up?"

"Well, I guess it started back when we fought Vanitas…"

Ven remembered it all too well.

The battle in his heart for control.

Vanitas attempting with merge with him and complete the X-blade.

Ventus refusing, preparing to sacrifice himself to defeat Vanitas once and for all.

They fought and shattered the glass mural platform that represented their union.

With his strength, the strength giving to him by his friends, Ventus met Vanitas in one last struggle…

"VEN!"

Funny.

That sounded like Aqua.

Ven had no time to think or look as overpowered Vanitas, striking him down.

Vanitas had a shell-shocked look on his face, his hand letting go of the incomplete X-blade. He cried out, trying to grab onto the X-blade with a look of fear on his face.

Actual fear.

A fear of dying.

It was no use.

He lost the strength and fell as the X-blade was engulfed by light and shattered into bits of glowing dust.

At the same time, Ven's own Keyblade disappeared, not because he dismissed it.

But because of the price he was about to pay.

As Vanitas fell, he looked up and saw someone above Ventus…

Someone reaching out to him.

"VEN!"

Ven looked up, his eyes widening. "Aqua!"

Aqua was slowly falling towards him, reaching out with her hand.

Just Vanitas' form was engulfed by light in the same manner as the X-blade before vanishing, he reached and small shadow shot out.

The shadow was weak and small, seemingly dying as it shot out and touched Aqua who didn't notice, her focus entirely on Ven.

Vanitas was gone and there was a flash of light, recreating the glass mural showing only Ventus this time. Ven landed on it, looking up with a tranquil look on his face.

"VEN!"

He looked up, smiling as Aqua landed in front of him and rushed towards him. "Aqua…"

His eyes closed and he fell back, his form dissolving into light like Vanitas and the X-blade did.

"VEEEEEENNNNNNNN!"

The next thing Ven knew he was falling somewhere but he felt no fear.

"This place…" He managed to open his eyes, seeing nothing but darkness but felt no fear. "I've been here. So warm…I remember now. This is your heart."

"Ven."

He looked next to him, seeing Aqua reaching out to touch his hand. "Aqua? How are…You here?"

"It's a very long story, Ven." Aqua answered, wrapping her arms around him in a deep hug. "I'm here now."

"Aqua, you can't follow…You need to go back." Ven said, trying to push her away.

"Not this time." Aqua shook her head. "I promised I would wake you up."

"Aqua…" Ven closed his eyes as they fell into the depths of someone's heart.

"I don't remember much, aside from knowing Aqua somehow followed my heart while it slept." Ven brought a hand to his chest. "I just know when she had the chance…She freed my heart and guided me back to my body."

Terra was stunned to say the least.

Aqua couldn't have followed Ven's heart…

Unless…

"Vanitas…" Terra muttered, making Van look at him. "That's what he said."

"Vanitas? What about Vanitas?" Ven asked, becoming alert now. "I thought I destroyed him."

"You did…Or at least you almost did. Vanitas appeared here not too long ago, claiming Aqua saved him at the last second." Terra answered. "I didn't believe him…But if Aqua had appeared in your heart…She must have found a way in all that time."

"I don't understand." Ventus said with a confused look. "Aqua would never help Vanitas."

"No, she wouldn't but she tried to save you and he came along for the ride." Terra realized, now understanding what had happened.

Aqua didn't intentionally bring Vanitas back like Terra had feared.

She had tried to bring Ven back, but Vanitas must have latched on at the last second.

"Terra, where is Aqua?" Ven asked. "What happened?"

"It's a long story, kid." Neo finally cut in with a dry look on her face. "And sounds like a crazy one but I guess that's par for the course."

"Huh?"

Flashback
Castle Oblivion

When Ventus opened the door, he was greeted with the sight of another white room. "Why is it all white here?"

If this was the Land of Departure, he surely would have remembered a place like this.

So where was he and how did he end up here?

Ventus shook his head, deciding it didn't matter and did the only thing he thought he could do. He summoned his Keyblade and then activated his armor, covering his body in black and green armor before pointing his Keyblade forward. A beam of light shot out from the tip of his Keyblade and created a portal to the Lanes Between. Once the portal was made, Ven's Keyblade transformed into its glider form, which was a hoverboard and he hopped on.

As soon as he was on his board, he shot into the glider and was gone.

"No way…."

Terra had spent the last half hour telling Ven everything that had happened since they had last seen each other.

From Aqua landing in the EverAfter, her arriving in a world called Remnant, meeting Neo and finding a way back to where she found Terra to coming back and saving the EverAfter and Remnant from disaster.

"After that, Aqua realized the only way to truly make sure this world and Remnant were saved was to bind her Heart to the wizard called Ozma until she arrived at the point in time that coincided with when we fought in the graveyard." Terra finally finished his tale. "She's using a power only a Keyblade Master can wield called the Power of Waking which was she used to wake me up and brought my Heart into my armor."

Ven was sitting on a stump, silently absorbing everything he had been told. "I was asleep for over ten years…Your Heart is trapped in that armor while Xehanort still has your body…And Aqua's traveling through time on this other world? Do we know how long she has to do this?"

That Terra did not know but he knew it would be for a long time and he wasn't sure how to tell Ven about it.

"From what we saw," Sadly, Neo had no restriction. "She'll be doing it for thousands of years."

"Thousands of years?!" Ven jumped to his feet. "Traveling that long?!"

"Yup." Neo shrugged. "Them's the breaks."

Terra threw a 'look' at Neo who just shrugged at him.

"Is there anything we can do?" Ven asked anxiously. "We can't just leave her on her own."

"We can but not at the moment. If we try to go to where Aqua is now, we'll be in the same time period as her but when she disappears, we would be left behind and we can't travel forward like she can. So we would be trapped in the time period." Terra answered. "We can't follow her through Remnant's history…But we might meet her in when the time in Remnant matches up with when she left to find me."

"But you said I was asleep for ten years." Ven pointed out. "Would I even be allowed?"

"Not sure. We'll have to talk to Penny. Right now, I want to know how you managed to find us." Terra changed the subject.

"Oh well."

Flashback
Lanes Between

After leaving that strange castle, Ventus set off into the Lanes Between wandering for a bit before he came upon a familiar world.

The Keyblade Graveyard.

Deciding it was the best place to start, Ven entered the world where he had last seen his friends. The portal he emerged from was over the Badlands. He landed on a cliff, dismissing his armor and Keyblade a second later. Ventus took a moment to compose himself as the memories of what happened here ten years ago flashed in his mind.

While it may have actually been ten years ago, it was a mere day ago in his mind.

The memories of the fight, being frozen by Xehanort, watching as Aqua was struck down, fighting Vanitas before the dark being tried to forcefully merge back with him to forge the X-blade…

And after that, he remembered falling and hearing Aqua's voice.

Why did he hear her voice before fell asleep and again just before he woke up?

"What happened to us?" Ven wondered to himself as he made his way to the Graveyard.

Until he felt something…

He stopped and spun around, seeing a sphere of dark energy with a familiar symbol on it.

"An Unversed!" Ventus summoned his Keyblade and rushed towards it.

As he approached the sphere, it suddenly took shape, becoming a portal that was purple in coloration and has fragments of black rocklike material floating around it.

A very familiar shape.

"Vanitas!?" Ventus stopped, freezing in shock as the form of Vanitas landed before him.

Only it was different.

Vanitas' appearance was black and white instead of the familiar red and black Ven had remembered. It wore a black and white bodysuit, white boots with black soles, a white waist-flap that was torn, black tips and is held in place by three grey straps, and a smooth, black helmet that bears the Unversed insignia.

"Wait, you're not Vanitas. You're an Unversed." Ven realized before taking a fighting stance. "Whatever, you're still bad news."

With that, Ven and the Unversed prepared to fight.