I'm Nobody

by free man writer

He didn't have anything when he was born. Just a name and number. But over time, what he had grew. He, with his friends began to understand that there was more to their existence then just their name and number. They will prove that they were meant to be real. To exist. To become something more than just a Nobody. Co-written and created with Jebest4781. Fem Shepard. Now on Ao3.

50. The Dark World

Back at it again with this one folks, not as long of a gap as last time but hopefully, once we get through these next few chapters, we'll get on the grind again with this one like we did when we first started this story.

Let's not dilly-dally and just hop right in.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 50: The Dark World.

Darkness.

Endless Darkness.

This World was not one that was consumed by Darkness but made of it. From the ground, one would stand upon the endless night sky and all the particles seen floating in the air.

And speaking of endless darkness.

Within the dark forest…

'Did I walk by this tree already? Or is this the first time I'm seeing this?'

These were the thoughts of a lone woman walking through the darkened forest, her movements seemingly graceful yet to her, they felt only heavier with each step.

This woman has blue eyes with matching hair that's relatively short. She wears a black and blue, high-collared halter top, two pink intersecting belts over her chest, and blue shorts. She wears a silver badge of a more squarish heart with a tri-prong on the bottom. On her arms are white bell sleeves and tan, fingerless gloves. She also wears a small, segmented piece of armor on each of her upper arms. She wears what appear to be black stockings or socks on her legs which reach to about halfway up her thighs, leaving a small area of bare skin on her upper thighs.

She also wears a small, segmented piece of armor on each of her upper arms. Aqua also bears two strips of blue cloth that drape over either side of her hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around her waist, draped in the same manner. Finally, she wears pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp "hook" on the outer side of each.

This is Aqua, Master of the Keyblade.

She had been traversing the Dark World for… who knows how long. All that Aqua knew from her perspective of time was this world and nothing else.

An endless void of Darkness.

Just as she took another step forward, she felt her ear twitch, picking up on a sound in the distance. She gave pause to her strides, taking a moment to close her eyes, trying to focus on the sound.

"There it is again," Aqua said to herself, concentrating on her hearing.

Recently, she heard something in the darkness. With her being alone for so long, at first she believed this to be a trick of the mind, an attempt to remedy her growing loneliness in this isolated world. Yet after hearing it several times, Aqua began to hope and even pray that something or someone else might be out there. She sought to find the source with her hoping it was another person, who perhaps was lost like she was.

For her to have a chance unlike before. When she last saw a familiar face but couldn't reach him.

"Could it be?..."

She strained her hearing, her face scrunching up in concentration and hope.

'Please, please, please.' She mentally plea-

"Is there someone else out there?"

Aqua's eyes snapped open, gasping. She wildly looked around, trying to pinpoint just where the voice came from.

"Hello?" She called out in turn, being met with silence. "I heard you! Please, I know you're out there."

More silence.

Aqua felt a momentary creeping sensation of dread when…

" I heard you. I'll find you." She heard someone say aloud.

The Keyblade Master laughed, strained but now… now she wasn't alone. Aqua began running, allowing her heart to guide her path. She followed in the general direction that she managed to identify where the voice came from.

Aqua ran through the forest and where most would have trouble traversing such uneven ground, a Keyblade Master like herself moved through it all with grace and poise.

When reaching a clearing, Aqua screeched to a halt and let out a gasp. There stood someone else, a woman that looked a few years older than her, looking off into the dark distance.

"What is this place?" she heard her say.

With a slight tremble in her body, Aqua walked forward.

Coming closer, the Keyblade Master was able to draw the other's attention with her arrival, the woman turning to face her. In the process, she took in her features.

The woman had red hair that was relatively short as hers but a bit frazzled in some areas. Her green eyes were bright and strong, in a fashion. Yet there seemed to be an absence of sorts as it was filled with confusion and loss.

On the right part of her face were these blue-purple cracks along her skin. They barely wrapped around one eye while the rest traveled down her neck. In her mind's eye, Aqua could imagine the glowing cracks would be traveling down to the woman's heart. Though it was possible to notice, given the redhead's attire was mostly burnt and torn up in a fashion.

The last thing about her was what hung around her neck which appeared to be a pair of military dog tags kept together by a beaded chain.

Aqua let out a relieved laugh, the woman tilting her head in her direction.

"Finally," She said to herself. "I'm not alone."

There was a guarded look of wariness to this woman and Aqua was quick to pick up on it.

"Worry not." She kindly said. "I mean you no harm. I'm here to help and maybe you can help me in turn. I'm Aqua."

There was a beat of silence between the pair when the red-haired woman took a brief glance down at the dogtags dangling from her neck.

"...Jane Shepard."

The Keybearer gave her a queer look. "You don't sound sure of that."

Jane scrunched her face up with clear uncertainty. "I… don't recall much of myself."

"Don't recall…" Aqua murmured, now slightly troubled. "What do you mean?"

"That's just it… I don't remember anything." She stressed out, a hand going up to her head. "There's this sharp pain I get every time I think about it. Every time I try to remember… anything about myself." Jane reached up to her dog tags, holding them up slightly with her palm. "All I had were these on my person with that name, Jane Shepard. When I said it aloud, I know I didn't sound too sure but… it does fit. I do feel like this is my name."

Aqua gave her a sympathetic smile, her heart clenching up at the familiar sensation she just experienced. Hearing her speak on how she remembered nothing made her think of her dear friend Ventus. If she was able to be a friend for him, Aqua would be a friend for Shepard.

"I may not understand as to how this happened to you entirely, but it likely came as a result of you winding up here."

"It's because of this place? What even is this place?" Jane asked for what felt like an untold amount of times already.

"Formal introductions are in order, I suppose." Says Aqua. "Welcome to the Realm of Darkness."

Shepard took a moment to focus more on the surroundings.

It was dark enough to live up to its name.

"And what is that?" Shepard points out.

Looking at the general direction Jane faced, Aqua froze in her place.

"N-No." Aqua whispered in disbelief and heartache. "It can't be."

In the distance, a white castle reached the darkened sky with shadows surrounding it. The appearance reshaped the structure into a twisted reflection of its original design.

"You seem familiar to that castle." Jane noted, looking between her and the grand structure.

"I've been there before. The Castle of Dreams." Aqua bowed her head low, a hand over her chest. "To think it somehow appeared here."

The name sounded odd to her, making Shepard snort a little. Composing quickly after, she voices "When?"

"Days ago. But now, I feel like it's been longer." A sorrowed look marred Aqua's face. "To think Cinderella's World fell to this place."

'Cinderella?' Shepard thought. 'Why does that name feel… familiar somehow?'

"I've only been here for… I don't even know how long. But to see Cinderella's home somehow appears here. Oh, what awful state must the outside Worlds be in right now."

"Outside Worlds?" Jane parroted and her new companion could only give her a pained smile.

"Sorry. I don't wish to worry you more than you likely already are. Come on." Aqua gestured to her to follow. "I think that's where we have to go."

Shepard simply nodded, going after the Keyblade Master.

They walked for some time without talking all that much. Whilst most would find silence between each other awkward, neither seemed to care or notice. Just that they kept moving. Suddenly, the pair came to an immediate stop, both now having tensed up.

Why did they stop?

Well, this was due to the ground seemingly shifting. Seeing literal shadows take form from the earth, Aqua got battle-ready. Shepard, however, stood there momentarily as something flashed through her mind.

It first happened when seeing Aqua's weapon.

It was a sword stylized as a skeleton key, in a fashion. It has a smooth, cylindrical grey shaft that tapers outward at both ends. It has a boxy guard made up of two small, light grey boxes and a copper rod. The base of the guard connects to the grip and both sport several small indentations lining them. The grip itself is somewhat unique in that it's squared. In conjunction with the weapon's teeth are in the shape of an "E". Its keychain is made of several simple chain links and the token is akin to the badge Aqua presently wears.

This was Master's Defender, Aqua's current weapon. And most importantly…

"A Keyblade…" Came Shepard's whisper.

And when focusing on the shadows with beady yellow eyes…

"Heartless…"

Hearing her companion's loud mutter, Aqua's gaze momentarily shifts. "You've encountered these before?"

A flash of memories sweeps through Jane's vision. Memories of her being on worlds she did and didn't recognize with people that she… she knew… she knew their faces. And she had fought alongside them. "I have."

Their opponents were the first to act, lunging themselves forward to attack the two women.

Aqua was the first of the pair to defend herself by sidestepping before cleaving the Shadow Heartless. Without ending her movement, she whipped her Keyblade over and cast Fire at another Shadow to destroy it. After which, she jumped at another to continue her assault.

In the meantime, a Heartless came at Shepard, making her throw up her hands. The Heartless managed to scratch her arms, the red-haired woman letting out a hiss of pain as she stumbled back. Jane glanced down at her arms, seeing something troubling.

There were three scratches on her arms that had some blood seeping out but also dark wisps emanating from them, making her experience a different kind of pain. Her head suddenly snapped up at the sound of movement and her eyes widened at the sight of now three Shadows twitching about in front of her when all three jumped at her at once.

Reacting on instinct, Shepard threw her hands forward as a means of defending herself, bracing for the pain that was likely to happen.

Yet it never did. In fact, the Heartless didn't even get close to her. Shepard felt a rush, one alien yet so familiar at the same time, running through her body.

An indigo glow blanketed the redhead, energy rippling off her body. And when focusing on the Heartless, the same was present on them. But unlike where she had moved, they were seemingly frozen.

They twitched and spasmed in the air, trying to free themselves of this force but to no avail.

'Biotics.' Jane's mind flashed on the name.

This ability… she knew this one. It felt so familiar to her. She had used it before. More memories briefly flickered through her mind, moments in her past when she had utilized this power.

Using this again sent a ripple of excited anticipation as she sent the Shadows she had caught flying. And when that happened, Shepard blinked at the distance in which they sailed. Literally out of sight.

Using her Biotics like that felt natural, instinctive really.

However, something felt different this time around. The trait from what Biotics were used for wasn't the same as before. Taking a moment to herself, Shepard flexed her fingers and her Biotics had returned only this time… this time, it felt like there was more to it. She couldn't quite place the reason why.

She wasn't able to contemplate on this for long as she heard Aqua call out her name.

Shepard turned in time, seeing a Neoshadow dashing towards her with its arms reared back, poised for an attack.

Instinctively, the redhead threw up a biotic shield. The attack seemed to bounce off of it momentarily. She used this relative opening to her advantage by using a biotic-fueled punch to send the Heartless flying.

After this occurred, Jane saw more Heartless converging on her spot, now needing to move quickly to evade the oncoming assault. When openings from the Heartless presented themselves, she took them out with retaliatory attacks. She even assisted Aqua for a few occurrences and she in turn.

However, her power wasn't enough. Despite feeling the unusually stronger rush of Biotics, they weren't doing the necessary damage to take out the Heartless in one strike. There was something about them here that made them far stronger than the ones she had encountered in the past.

What she needed was a weapon. Any weapon!

Jane let out a grunt, jumping into a roll as another Neoshadow tried to cleave her head off.

Before she realized it, something appeared in her grasp.

She couldn't recall if she had picked it up during her dodges, rolls and evasion maneuvers.

The weight suddenly appeared in her hand and it felt familiar. The relative texture and shape within her grip.

Her body acted on its own as her arm whipped forward with her finger pulling what she recalled was a trigger.

The barking of a gun came soon after as the bullets flew through the air and struck the intended targets. After several well-placed hits, the Heartless was destroyed.

Aqua had momentarily halted in her fight, head whipping over in Shepard's direction, blinking at seeing the redhead fighting so ferociously. Though her new companion appeared to have no recollection as to who she was, it was clear as day that she remembered how to fight.

Looking at her weapon when having the briefest of moments, Shepard seemed to recall what it was. It was a heavy pistol, custom made and greatly modified; courtesy of a Moogle to help combat against the Heartless.

Yet something was different about it than what the flashes of memory depicted. There was more power to it, more bang for its buck if that's how the phrase goes.

Shaking her head, Shepard wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth so she got back to shooting. The Heartless got struck hard, jolting and jerking violently with every shot and after a few well-placed shots, they were eliminated.

Only to be quickly replaced by more, much to the frustration of the pair.

"They just keep coming." Shepard groused out.

"This is their realm." Aqua stated yet she was troubled.

The Keyblade Master had encountered the Heartless here consistently yet she had always managed to repel them after one or two waves. But this time… this time, it was different.

The way they were moving and attacking felt far more… deadlier.

She had noted that the last few Heartless tried to get at her, they tried for her chest with an almost obsessive zeal.

Over with Shepard, this thought or observation hadn't even occurred as she was focused primarily on just getting rid of these bastards. She was relying on her natural abilities and her memories of battling these creatures that felt like a flowing river that kept appearing in her mind, sometimes replacing her perspective.

These memories showed that these were foes she had faced on numerous occasions and she was seldom ever alone.

There were others with her. Companions, a team… friends.

Were they friends?

They felt like-

"GAH!"

Jane's thoughts were violently interrupted after being hit by an unseen force, sending her flying back and skidding on the ground painfully.

"Shepard!" Aqua called out to her only to also be hit by something she couldn't see.

Both women managed to look up in time to see several rings of purple-black fire appear in the air, descending and converging quickly together around a scalloped blue-bladed sword.

Half a dozen new Heartless appeared, these ones possessing black skin, muscular frames, and a heart-shaped hole in their torsos. They have sharp purple and blue horns that form the outline of a curled heart. They all have small blue bat-like wings on their back, gold-tipped feathered wings on their forearms, and bluish-purple fireballs under their feet, with long tails that appear scaly, and end in a sharp, crescent-shaped blade.

"They're new." Aqua murmured in concern, her eyes flickering over to where Shepard was.

Becoming more determined, Aqua got back to her feet, throwing her Keyblade above her head, casting Curaga on them both.

Jane blinked at feeling all her pain and exhaustion disappear, glancing over at Aqua who gave her an encouraging smile before she launched herself at the nearest Invisible Heartless. Shepard wanted to help her right now but currently, she had to help herself first.

The Invisible Heartless closest to her came charging in and she had to hastily duck, weave and roll out of the way of all the oncoming attacks. She looked back in time to see one of the swords smash into the ground, leaving quite a crater in its wake.

"Lovely." Jane said to herself.

Calling upon her Biotics once more, Shepard charged herself up and unleashed a wave that sent them flying back but not by much.

One had already dove at her, sword first and she jumped at the last second. She managed to land herself right on its shoulders and she wrapped her legs around its neck, pointing her pistol at its face and shooting at it till it disintegrated.

Falling to the ground, she broke her fall with a well-timed roll only for her to have to practically arch her entire back as a sword nearly cut her face open. Shepard retaliated with several shots yet these seemed to be less affected as opposed to the previous Heartless she fought.

The other Invisibles converged on her location and like before, she used a Biotic wave to give her some distance only for her to be shocked at the Heartless all dissipating into dark wisps, turning back into rings of fire that passed through her attack and reappeared unscathed and unbothered.

"Oh, fuck you for that." Was all Jane could say as she jumped back as one Invisible slammed its sword down in front of her. What she did not anticipate was a dark shockwave that exploded from the sword, catching her off guard in the air, and making her sail and flail in the air before crashing down to the ground.

"Ok, that was bullshit." Jane managed out with a pained grunt as she forced herself to stand, facing the remaining Heartless.

Shepard briefly took a look at her gun and internally cursed again. She needed something more than a gun. These Heartless were far more ravenous and aggressive than what she recalled facing.

Despite this thought, she needed to keep fighting. Her hand flew up again and she forced herself to run, trying to flank these Heartless all while shooting at them.

Her shots were doing nothing and these damn bastards were intelligent enough to work around her Biotics. Shepard needed something more, something far more effective, more direct. As these thoughts transpired in her mind, movement could be felt within her hand. Faint clicking could be heard in her ears.

The grip on her pistol had dramatically shifted, becoming more slender yet still fit comfortably in her hand. A moment later, one of the Invisible barreled right to her and she threw her pistol hand up in reflex.

*CLANG*

Shepard felt her arm rattle yet she remained standing.

She hadn't realized that she had closed her eyes during the last attack.

Creaking an eye open, Jane blinked them both open upon seeing there was something else in her hand now.

Her gun became a sword?

Shepard could barely have time to properly look at it as movement in front of her snapped the redhead back into the fight.

The Invisible she had been facing came straight at her once more, its own blade reared back, ready to slice her head off. She threw up her newly transformed Gunblade and sliced at its chest, appearing to wound the Invisible and swung at it once more, decapitating the Heartless this time.

Shepard let out a haggard breath, now grabbing the handle of her new weapon with her other hand and she charged forward.

Using her Biotics once again, the gathered dark energy was used as a powerup to give her a boost, jumping up to slam her blade into another Invisible, her Biotic charged attack cleaving through this one.

She fell to the ground after destroying this one, now breathing far more heavily and turned, ready to face the last Invisible when a large bolt of lightning came from above, encompassing the entire being and destroyed it.

Jane's head snapped in the direction of Aqua, sagging in relief, seeing that it was her who just saved her ass.

"Thanks." She graciously said, the blue-haired woman giving her a small smile as she went over to help up her new friend.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm alive… I guess."

Aqua blinked at that. "You guess?"

"Sorry just…" Shepard held a troubled expression with the Keyblade Master looking at her now in sympathy.

"It's ok, I understand." She softly said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Is it always like this here?" Shepard asked.

The blue-haired woman was silent for a moment, contemplating on her time here, shaking her head.

"This was a first for me. I don't know how long I've been here," Aqua held a face conveying deep concern. "But I had never encountered… Heartless that were as aggressive and dangerous as they were. Nor that variation, in fact. The power they conveyed was frightening."

"Got that right." Jane muttered, rotating her shoulder.

From the recesses of her mind, Shepard felt a pressure in her head, letting out a small grunt. Within her mind, she recalled a blurry memory where she was standing before a desk with an elderly man in bluish-purple robes and a pointed hat sitting behind it.

She couldn't properly make out his face but she could hear his deep voice and…

"The effects of our two galaxies." She quietly said to herself.

"What was that?" Aqua said, turning to her with Jane shaking her head.

"Nothing just… maybe it's another memory but I can't quite make it out."

"Don't force yourself to remember." Aqua advised.

"I'll take that into consideration."

"But the way you were fighting looked so natural." Aqua noted. "Did you remember that, perchance?"

Pondering a little, Jane responds "Yeah, I can definitely admit that. I kept getting these flashes in my mind and it's me fighting all sorts of things, the Heartless being one of the main ones. And I wasn't alone. There were others."

Aqua simply nodded, taking a moment to look around. "Much as I wish to discuss more, let's not dwell here any longer."

"I hear that, sister, let's get outta here."

With things relatively in the clear, the pair began making their way to the Castle of Dreams.

But of course, this World of Darkness could only remain calm so far. After a trek that felt shorter than their last one, the ground began to quake. The force was strong enough to make it crack and crumble. In a matter of seconds, the path collapsed into the dark void, leaving only a few rocky pillars and a large crystalized stream to be present.

Aqua and Jane shared a look before the former jumped first, hopping from pillar to pillar and upon landing on the crystalized stream, she magically slid across the surface to the other side.

Shepard, however, gave off a bewildered look. Sure she could leap onto each of the rocks but doing what came after, like what Aqua just did, seemed a bit much. The Keyblade Master looked back and realized Shepard was still behind. She internally berated herself for just leaving her like that and was about to go back to get her when the ground beneath her feet was about to crumble again, forcing her to jump further away.

"Shepard!"

"I'm ok, just… stay there," Jane called out to her. "And don't do anything drastic."

"Are you sure?"

"No, not really but don't get yourself killed on my account." She quietly said.

"What?"

"Nothing, just… just give me a second."

'How am I going to make it across?' Shepard internally asked, feeling the instability beneath her feet.

Suddenly, in her mind, something flashed.

'Biotic charge.'

Blinking, the red-haired soldier held up her hands, her Biotics flaring up around her.

With this idea present in her thoughts, Shepard leaped onto the rocks while surrounding herself with a biotic field. Pushing herself, she found herself propelled across the area and nearly came crashing into the Keyblade wielder.

"Whoa!"

Aqua almost stumbled back, watching as Shepard landed in front of her before accidentally leaping forward again. The Keybearer managed to stop her from going any further, catching her in the air.

"Jeez, Shepard, careful. You could have hurt yourself." Aqua's tone was rather motherly, eliciting a strange feeling of reminiscent fondness.

"Sorry." Jane grimaced, smiling slightly at her. "And thanks."

"Don't mention it. Come on. Let's get out of here before something else collapses."

With them both on the other side, they continued on with their journey. They quickly exited the forested area and came into the town which led up to the castle.

Looking about, Aqua was saddened to see the place completely lifeless. "I wish I could believe the people got away."

Jane didn't know how to respond to that. Something about all this felt off, wrong even. Why was there a World here?

Shouldn't they have all been restored? At least, that's what she thought.

More questions as to how she could have known these things.

However, she did stop and pulled out her weapon as the Heartless began to appear before them.

Before any more came about, Aqua whipped out her Keyblade and quickly fired off several spells at the enemies surrounding them. In the process, she used her acrobatic skills in her attacks when somersaulting, leaping and spinning about.

Shepard called upon her one weapon, a strange sensation in being able to summon it to her hand. She immediately shifted it into its blade form and quickly sliced and slashed through the Heartless.

Mercifully, it was a shorter and easier encounter as opposed to before.

With the last Heartless vanquished, the two women proceeded further to the castle.

Along the way, Shepard noticed Aqua's saddened look. "What's wrong?"

"I just realized something." Aqua's gaze was momentarily distant. "I took it for granted. I thought I had nothing in life to lose."

In the Keyblade Master's mind, images flashed of her friends, her mentor and the people she had befriended since leaving the Land of Departure.

Looking around the town, Aqua continues. "Here as well. Everyone in this world was safe when not knowing of the greater dangers beyond their home. So much life… There's no deeper sadness than discovering all that you knew is gone. The grief in being here is too much to fathom."

Shepard frowned as she was processing this. As she did, fragmented images flashed through her head. Moments, people, places. It was hard to know at this time. But focusing on them more gave this odd feeling in her chest. It was truly strange for her. Not remembering her past. Not remembering who she really was. Would she also take such things for granted as well?

Now all she could really feel was the loneliness and yearning pain with this… emptiness she couldn't describe. What was that hollowness?

With this thought crossing her mind, Jane had a flash of memory.

A child… Actually, it was her… crying in the desolate ruins of her home on… what was that world called? Mindoir? Yes, it was after Mindoir was invaded. She was crying for her mother.

"I know what you mean." Shepard softly murmured. "I don't fully remember their faces but when I try to, I have this pain here," She places a hand on her chest. "And I wish to see them clearly. Whoever they were, I know, I can tell, they were important to me."

Silence befell the pair, gazing ahead at the castle with the ambient air of darkness gently blowing between them.

"I'm sorry." Says Aqua, breaking the silence. "I know I can't keep on wishing for the past."

"You and me both." Shepard scrunched her face up. "But… we can at least keep moving forward, yeah?"

Aqua stared at her new friend for a moment, smiling a second later. "Yeah. That we can do."

The two walked once more as they traversed through the empty streets.

Despite the place being the Realm of Darkness, light was present for some peculiar reason. After all, the street lamps were on in lighting their way to the Castle of Dreams.

Upon reaching the gate which led to the long bridge up to the castle, something happened.

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

From the castle's clock tower, the bells loudly rang. And from that, the hands began spinning from midnight to five o'clock. And with the bells continuing to ring, the ground began breaking apart.

Aqua and Jane immediately turned back and ran so they wouldn't plummet to their doom. They pushed themselves as hard as they could to get back to the gate. Making it past the archway, they looked back and saw the large chasm separating them from the Castle of Dreams.

"Now what?" Was Shepard's frustrated query.

"The road collapsed when the clock advanced. If only I'd make it in time."

Jane scratched her head a little before looking about to hopefully find an alternative means of reaching the castle. In the process, she found a set of gears simply floating there.

"Those weren't there before."

Noticing this odd addition, Aqua looked back to the clocktower. "That's strange."

"What is?"

"Time in this place. It's… unnatural. In the realm of light, do days or years pass with each step we take here?" Aqua questions aloud. "Master Eraqus theorized the Realm of Darkness lies outside of Time's reach."

That sounded troubling to hear. "If so, why bring it up?"

"There is no time in this place, only… the clock."

Aqua walked over to the floating gears and held out her Keyblade. With a slash, the gears began spinning before shooting towards the clock tower. Both Jane and Aqua watched as the hands began moving back, changing from five o'clock to four.

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

In the process, the bridge began to repair itself but only so much.

"Huh, would you look at that?" Came Jane's response amazed at what she had just seen.

Pondering a little, Aqua voiced her thoughts. "The bridge would be repaired if it gets set back to midnight."

"So we need to find four more gears to restore the bridge to what it once was. Sounds simple enough." Shepard surmised.

Heading back into the town, the pair began searching for the floating gears. In the process, they ended up coming across a number of Heartless skirmishes. It seemed random at first, but the pair believed the residents of this realm were intending to stop their advancements.

Shepard and Aqua had to fight their way through the town and navigate their way in the oddest of places. Eventually, the pair found the gears being located near a fountain, the roof of a house, far off in a batch of floating debris and underground in the central part of the town. And each time they came across the floating gears, the pair struck them and each gear returned to the castle's clock tower.

One by one, the gears wound back the clock by an hour and in the end, it returned to midnight.

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

"I'm a little curious, but is there something significant about why it had to be midnight?" Shepard asks, referring to the clock tower.

Thinking about it, Aqua remembered when she was back in this world before it fell to darkness. "The only thing that comes to mind is Cinderella having to leave the ball at midnight as her Fairy Godmother's spell would wear off."

That only served to add more questions for Shepard but she knew now wasn't the time to get the full context of that sentence.

"That's strange." Jane muttered before shaking her head. "Anyways, the bridge should be fixed by now. We should head on back."

Making their way back to the gate leading to the bridge, they halted when a large mass of Shadow Heartless suddenly sprouted from the ground. It moved in a serpentine-like fashion as it twirled about. What was more unusual about this cluster of Shadows were the red eyes they bore instead of the typical yellow.

They even possessed red, pulsing veins on their arms with their already sharp claws looking sharper and deadlier.

"Ok, that's different." Shepard noted warily.

"Things must be worse than I thought." Aqua said in dismay, calling upon her Keyblade once more. "What the outside Worlds must be like right now-"

"Has to be the least of our concerns right now." Shepard quickly interjected. "First, let's survive this place so we can at least find a way out of here."

No point in arguing with that statement.

Rather than attack the pair outright, the Shadows all did something unexpected. They began converging together, setting the pair on edge as more Shadows appeared, joining in the growing mound of Darkness. They felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand on edge when the cluster of Heartless began to spin in the style of a tornado, rising like a pillar from the ground.

"Have you ever seen them do something like that before?" Jane nervously asked.

"N-No." Aqua stammered out.

The swirling mass of Shadows, this Demon Tower, shot forward.

Almost immediately, Aqua and Shepard threw up their respective defensive measures. With them being so close, the actions relatively blanketed each other for a stronger might. It was quickly put to the test as the Heartless slammed into it and caused it to crack momentarily.

As a momentary result of the combined might of the barrier Aqua and Shepard created caused the swirling tide to scatter into dozens of smaller Shadows that surrounded them.

"Quick, take them out!" Shouts Jane, immediately firing upon the Shadows.

Aqua did so, rushing in and slashing any Heartless near her while Jane gave her support. Feeling her power build up, Aqua lightly jumped into the air, hovering in place before thrusting her Keyblade upwards. She began spinning gracefully as a ballerina would, her body emanating a white-blue aura. Water, ice and wind swirled around her in a dance of power with spheres of light joining in the fray.

She made an arching sweep around Jane, the redhead looking on in awe at the display of power that soon vaporized the Heartless surrounding them.

More Heartless appeared but the Keyblade Master didn't relent.

Focusing on the congregated Shadows, Aqua leaped into the air with magic gathering at the tip of her Keyblade. At a sudden moment, she fired upon them with her Prism Rain Shotlock with a plethora of rainbow-colored projectiles. It wasn't on a single blast but several.

She kept at this assault, seeing more Heartless replacing the ones she had vanquished.

Needing an extra boost, Aqua concentrated on her magic to surround herself. Before long, a bright blue aura blankets her form to signify her Spellweaver Formchange.

Her attacks were stronger, which showed when she rapidly spun her Keyblade into the swirling mass and cleaved through a number of Shadows.

Shepard now found herself gaping at the display of power, shaking her head at her now lack of contribution to the battle. Moving forward, she felt her Biotics flowing freely once more, empowering her movements and strikes as she cut through the seemingly endless wave of Heartless.

The attention was then turned to the swirling mass of Shadows, the duo now launching into powerful attacks, clearly damaging the Demon Tower with the way it kept jerking and jolting from all the attacks it was receiving.

"Keep at it." Shepard shouted out, unleashing a Biotic wave that staggered the spiraling mass with Aqua sweeping in to launch a plethora of Blizzagas that froze and burst off chunks of the tower.

Rather than appearing to be defeated, it seemed the damage was too much for the Demon Tower and it ended up retreating as it dissolved into the ground.

Both Jane and Aqua looked at the spot and their surroundings in case their one opponent would launch a surprise attack. However, that didn't seem to be the case after several moments came and went.

With this moment of reprisal, Jane and Aqua more or less relaxed.

"You okay?" The latter asked the former.

"Could be better. But still standing."

Taking a moment to catch their breath, they nodded at each other, turning their attention to the Castle of Dreams.

"Alright, we best keep moving." Aqua declared, Jane simply nodding and following her.

The two women walked across the reassembled bridge and made it to the other side. While Jane went a bit further, Aqua took a moment to look back to the town now so far away. A remorseful and sorrow-filled look came over her as she recalled how bright and vibrant this place once was when she first came to it.

"Not even memories are safe from the darkness."

Jane frowned as she focused on herself on that one predicament.

She can't remember much of who she is. Only flashes and glimpses of her past that came in the heat of battle. It was disconcerting.

Useful would be a term she'd use somewhat loosely to describe the memories coming in. She wished she could focus on them at least without having to fight for her life.

Over with Aqua, she was looking up at the clocktower, lamenting to herself. "What I wouldn't give to really turn back time." Her gaze shifts to the unique sky above. "To spend one more night beneath the stars with my best friends." Without realizing it, her hand reached out as if trying to grab something. She yanks back when finally noticing her action. "I'm doing it again."

"Aqua?"

Aqua turned around and gasped. Curious, Jane followed the line of sight and saw a tall young man with brown hair walking down the stairs of the front entrance of the castle with a dazed look on his face.

When taking a better look at him, Jane saw the man wore two intersecting straps over his chest, though red ones were rather different, dropping much lower down and almost resembling crisscrossed suspenders. He wore a skintight, grey and black, high-collared shirt, showing his muscular frame. His tan pants were rather baggy in appearance while wearing an obi-sash with a gold heart-shaped badge on it to somewhat be a buckle. While he wore a plain black wristband on his right arm, his left was armored with segmented sections of gold and copper coloring. Finally, his armored boots are dark brown and gold, which relatively matched his armored arm.

"It can't be." Aqua rushed up to him. "What are you doing here? You should be in the Realm of Light." She gasps once more. "Oh no! Did you not make it out? Don't tell me. Has the Realm of Light… Terra, why won't you say anything to me?"

The bluenette reached out to touch him, but her hand went through him as particles of light swirled around where her hand went.

As this went on, Jane momentarily had several memories flash through her mind. Images of people and individuals she was talking to. Just as quickly as this memory appeared, she shook them away, seeing this "Terra" turn into light particles.

"He's not really here." Jane surmises.

Her friend shuddered, head lowered in sorrow.

"So what are you, a memory among these shadows? Are you here to… try and tell me not to lose heart?" Aqua sadly questions just as "Terra" fades away in motes of light. She turns away and faces back to the town where she and Jane once were. "The world keeps our thoughts alive. But where did the people who lived here go, once their world was taken away? At least they're not here. So, they haven't fallen to darkness. I'll take what solace I can from that."

Before Aqua ascended the flight of stairs into the castle…

"So… who was that?" Asks Shepard. "You said the name Terra."

"Oh… sorry." Aqua faces her companion. "Terra is one of my closest friends."

Jane tilted her head at that. "Really? Just friends?"

"Yeah, him and Ventus." Aqua forlornly said. "They were both…" She looked away, biting her lip as she had another memory of her own replay in her mind, this one being a particularly painful one. "We should go."

Upon entering the castle, Aqua expected to enter the ballroom she remembered from her time in Cinderella's world.

Instead, she and Jane suddenly found themselves in a forest that was vastly different from the one they first met earlier.

"Another world that was lost to the darkness?" Aqua sadly wonders.

"How can you tell?"

"This is the Dwarf Woodlands." Aqua explained. "I met a young girl here named Snow White who was living in a cottage with seven dwarves."

"...Snow White… and seven dwarves…" Jane mutters out, cradling her head a little. 'It feels like I've heard it before.' She thought before asking Aqua. "What else can you tell me of this place?"

"Snow's stepmother was the queen who sought to kill her out of envy because of her beauty."

"She sounds pleasant." Was Jane's sarcastic response.

"She grew so envious that she-" Once more Aqua gasped aloud, spotting something not too far from them. "Is that…?"

Shepard looked ahead, seeing a glass coffin of some kind and Aqua immediately rushed over to it. She placed her hands on the glass, seeing who was inside and she felt her heart wrench at the sight.

"Ven!?" She cried out.

Looking into the glass coffin, Jane froze when seeing the young man's face.

'Why… Why does he look so… familiar?'

A name… there was a name in her mind… What was the name?

"R… Ro…Ro…" Jane flinched, letting out an audible grunt, throwing a hand up to her head.

"Shepard?"

The red-haired woman grunted, leaning on the glass coffin for support.

As she did so, a moment later, Ven's body turned into wisps of light and he too vanished the same as Terra did.

"No!" Aqua cried out in dismay. "Ven!"

"Another trick of this Realm." Shepard managed out, feeling her head aching. It subsided slowly yet the discomfort remained. "Who was that?"

"Ventus." The Keybearers face fell. "My other friend. I should have known this was another illusion." She sank to her knees in front of the coffin, resting her forehead against it. "Oh Ven, I'm so sorry I failed you too. I promised to wake you up but here I am, trapped here while you still manage to reach out somehow. What kind of friend am I?"

"Hey, hey." Shepard quickly said, holding out her hand to the Keyblade Master. "None of that now. You're still here and still fighting. You'll fulfill your promise to your friends just as soon as you get out of here."

Aqua stared at her companion, feeling her heart shift with renewed strength as she reached out and grabbed Jane's hand.

"Thank you Shepard." She earnestly said. The redhead simply patted her shoulder when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.

She turned with Aqua copying her action and the two blinked at what they saw.

There was a large mirror floating in front of them.

"It's a mirror." Aqua mutters. "A mirror belonging to the Evil Queen who tried to kill Snow White. A magical one."

Walking up to it, Aqua inspects it. The moment she reached out her hand, the reflective surface rippled ever so slightly where her reflection acted different from her own. In fact, it reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"What?!"

The bluenette struggled against the hold and felt Jane grab onto her for assistance. Shepard pulled with all her might, however, the pull from the other side was too strong and Aqua's reflection dragged them both into the mirror.

Their visions blurred, a swirling display of Darkness that made the pair shut their eyes when they felt solid ground beneath them.

Instinctively, Shepard sensed a presence right next to her and reached out, grabbing Aqua's wrist. She felt the woman tense up only to slacken upon realizing who was likely holding her.

The duo opened their eyes, first taking a glance at each other to make sure they were fine before seeing where they were.

The Keyblade Master blinked, completely bewildered as to where she was wherein Shepard's eyes widened, another flood of memories flowing through her.

"This is…" Shepard stepped forward, looking around.

Though it was dilapidated, the endless abyss of the Dark World surrounding them, to Shepard, she knew this place.

"Jane?" Aqua tentatively asked, seeing her reaction to this new area. "Do you know where we are?"

"The Citadel Atrium." The words flowed out of her mouth naturally.

As soon as she said this, she flinched, letting out a gasp. The woman stumbled back, not hearing Aqua call out to her. She felt Aqua's arms on her shoulder and back, keeping her steady whilst her head felt like it was pulsing with the tidal wave of memories.

"-sion of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres aren't trained, but chosen-"

"-an ideal. A symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the-"

"-bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace. Both our first, and last, line-"

"You are the first human Spectre, commander."

"Spectre…" Shepard said to herself.

"What?" Aqua muttered. "Jane, are you alright? What's happening?"

"Spectre," Shepard spoke with more confidence this time, despite the sense of uncertainty. "I am… or maybe I was, a Spectre."

Aqua was unsure as to what to say so she went with what made sense.

"And what is a Spectre?"

"Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel." Was Shepard's automatic response. "It's a position within Citadel Space."

"Citadel Space?"

"It's where we are… or maybe it's a memory or illusion of it." Shepard said with a frown.

"Was this a place that fell to Darkness?"

"No." Jane stated with certainty. "No, this is… maybe it's a distorted reflection of it."

The Keyblade Master was silent, looking around. The entire area was foreign to her yet elements from other areas were easy to spot. Dilapidated walls, multiple holes and cracked portions of the floor that if one were to fall in, would likely fall endlessly until the Darkness consumed them.

Other than that, this place was unlike any other World Aqua had ever visited. She couldn't quite pinpoint the type of World this was but if she were to best describe this place, it would be a futuristic and science-esque World.

But on the note of this World apparently having not fallen into Darkness…

"Then… was Cinderella's castle truly there? Or was it just my memory of it?"

"Honestly, I don't think we should ask too many questions." Jane stated. "This whole World is a place of Darkness, right? Maybe asking all these questions is what it wants. Sowing doubt and wariness into us so we're more caught off guard and it can take advantage of that."

"...Then how should we proceed?"

Shepard adopted a sheepish expression that surprised the Keybearer.

"Well, my memories are still hazy but one thing I've seen appear constantly is I'm seldom alone in these situations. And when I'm with those other people, I always see that we just sorta bum rush, actions first, think later."

Aqua stared at the Spectre before snorting and giggling.

Shepard appeared unbothered, shrugging unapologetically. "Hey, it's the best I could come up with."

The Keyblade Master held a genuine and kind smile at Shepard, grateful to be no longer alone in this dreary World.

"Come on, let's look around this place." She said, walking forward. "Since this is a place familiar to you, perhaps we could find a clue as to what to do or where to go next. Maybe even help you recover more of your lost memory."

Just as she said this, Aqua turned forward and gasped. Shepard blinked, head jerking back when the duo were surrounded by three giant mirrors. They swirled around the pair rapidly before launching off into various locations of this Atrium.

The pair shared a look, turning back to the mirror they had just come from.

Approaching it, the immediate take away from it was the lack of their reflection.

"What do you think that was all about?" Jane asked, seeing Aqua cross her arms and turn back to where the three mirrors flew off to.

"I bet those other mirrors are likely a clue. We might find something in them." She surmised.

"Which one to hit first?" Shepard queried.

"Whatever one we come across first." Was Aqua's plain response.

Choosing a random direction, Shepard led Aqua along.

Even though she wouldn't exactly remember the Citadel all that well, Shepard's body memory seemingly did.

Along the way to finding the nearest mirror, various Heartless made their appearance and came at them from various locations.

Shadows were the most common, but another kind appeared when shooting out of the water within the Citadel Atrium. Dark and spherical in appearance with a small blue jagged mouth with aqua-colored cracks along its form. It appeared very fluid on various placements, having the name Water Core come to mind.

And these weren't the only elementally charged Heartless the pair came across.

At one point, a Heartless appeared but it appeared it was on fire. Fire Core was aptly named for this.

These new variants attack the duo en masse yet they could only barely slow them down, the ladies working now more in tandem to keep the Heartless back.

They eventually fought down to a place that Shepard called the Wards and it was here that she had another flash of memories.

It was here that she was once again with those companions she had been seeing in her head. There were four if she recalled correctly. Two other humans and one dinosaur-looking alien and another alien with a crested head, primarily blue armor and blue markings on his face.

They were all facing another pair that she also knew.

One was… what was her species called? It began with a Q… Qua… quarry…Quarians! Yes, Quarians and next to her was…

The blond hair and blue eyes. She had just seen his face and this hazy memory was clearer, unlike the previous ones.

That face was the same one that she had seen just moments ago in that glass coffin.

Aqua called out to him, calling him Ven. But to Shepard, she knew him by a different name and a different set of clothing.

Her memory saw him all in black, black shoes, gloves, cloak, everything.

And his name was just at the tip of her tongue. But just as she was about to get it, Aqua said something that broke her out of her thoughts.

Her companion was pointing ahead and Shepard followed her direction, spotting one of the giant mirrors. The pair approached it, not seeing their reflections but another World on the other side.

"So," Shepard glanced up at the first mirror they got to. "What now?"

Aqua stared at it for a few seconds before hesitantly lifting her hand up, reaching out to the glass surface. She paused for a moment until she shook her head and placed her hand upon it.

Making contact with the mirror, everything seemed to warp around them.

Next thing they saw was a bleak, desolate world.

"Oh dear." Were Aqua's first words, eyes widening at the place and feeling a sense of devastation. "What happened here? Where are we?"

"...Eden Prime." Shepard muttered, eyes wide with more memories surging through her mind.

She let out a cry, falling to her knees.

"Shepard!" Aqua was instantly by her side, holding her shoulders. "Hang on."

"Kinda… can't do… anything about this." Shepard gritted out, teeth grinding against each other.

She fell onto all fours, her fingers digging into the dirt as the memories were a tsunami, almost overwhelming her. Aqua was close to fretting and panicking, a feeling of helplessness as she couldn't do anything to help her new friend.

After a few seconds but what felt like hours, the pain in Shepard's head subsided, the woman gasping slightly as the agony vanished as quickly as it arrived.

"That was unpleasant." Were her first words, getting a strangled chuckle.

"Are you ok?" Aqua asked, her hands hovering over Jane's body, ready to assist should she need to.

"In time, I will be." Shepard grunted, trying to stand, letting out a sigh as Aqua was quick to help her up. "Thanks, Aqua."

She could only smile weakly in response.

"Take a moment." She advised, helping guide Jane over to a nearby rock to sit on.

The Spectre murmured a small thanks, leaning her elbow on her knee, massaging her face with her hand.

Aqua bit her lip, unsure as to what to do before reaching for her items pouch and pulling out a Potion.

"Here," She softly said, holding it out for the redhead. "Maybe this will help?"

Jane cracked an eye open, seeing the Potion. She took one look at it, then at Aqua, smiling in appreciation before taking the item out of her hand. Recalling how she had seen it be used in her memory, Shepard gently tossed it up into the air with it dispersing into a green energy that fell over her body.

The exhaustion she had felt from that memory attack was reduced and she felt a lot more rejuvenated now.

"Ah~ there's that pick me up. Thanks, Aqua."

Aqua simply nodded, smiling back at her, glad to see that it worked.

Rolling her neck, Jane stood back up but had a hand on Aqua's shoulder for support to make sure she didn't get hit with any vertigo. Sensing that she was fine, the Keyblade Master received a thumbs up and she nodded in turn.

They turned to face this reflection of Eden Prime. Aqua's expression was one of solemn determination yet her eyes were filled with worry and confusion. What sort of place was this that Shepard had been to in the past?

It was horrible.

She could hear echoing screams and wails in the distance.

Before the Keyblade Master could say or do anything, Jane suddenly walked forward, appearing to be on autopilot before stopping at a particular spot, staring right down at it.

"Shepard?" Aqua tentatively asked.

Looking down at the ground, Jane merely stood as she saw a phantom.

It was that of a body, of a soldier. Someone she knew, brief as it was and from time to time, thought back to him despite having only just getting some of these memories back.

"Jenkins…" She whispered out.

He was too anxious to act, given Eden Prime was his home.

So why didn't she stop him sooner from running off?

Why didn't she prevent Jenkins from dying?

"Jenkins?" Aqua parroted. "Is that-"

"Someone I let down." Shepard quietly said. "He was young."

Aqua was able to pick up on the implication rather quickly, eyes widening as she realized what Shepard had meant.

"Oh… oh no, Shepard, I'm sorry-"

"I'm a soldier." Jane now held a firm yet far-off tone. "This just comes with the job. Sometimes… sometimes not everyone gets to make it back home."

This only gave Aqua more things to question about her recently made friend. Just who was Shepard and what kind of place did she come from to have hardened her so much?

"Come on," Shepard's voice held an edge to it that Aqua had not heard before. "Let's not stick around here."

The blue-haired Keybearer could only nod in silence, following after Jane while adopting a more tense demeanor walking through this place.

"Over there," Shepard pointed ahead. "There's a place that's familiar. It was a dig site."

"Of what?"

Shepard was silent for several moments. "Something old. Something that… I don't know. But it's makin' knots in my stomach. So likely, something important. Be on guard."

Aqua wordlessly nodded. She followed in Shepard's cue to call forth their weapons to be on guard for anything that they may run into.

Passing the dig site, which had another set of memories playing out in Shepard's head, they encountered some more Heartless. They were quickly beaten back, not much of a problem this time around.

But that didn't mean they were allowed to lower their defenses. This was still the Realm of Darkness.

Running through the science camp, the pair halt when seeing various bodies lying dead upon odd devices. It was a gruesome sight for Aqua to witness.

"Wh-what?" She paled at the sight. "What is this? What could have done this?"

"This was done by… something ancient." Jane's voice was low, disturbed but not like Aqua was. She had, of course, seen this before, more memories coming back. But that didn't change how vile of sight this was and the perpetrators behind them.

They were an ancient evil that had been floating about in the back of her mind when these waves of memories started.

Aqua suddenly gasped, throwing her hands up to her mouth, eyes watering at the sight of the spires shooting up, impaling the bodies now.

"Shepard!" She cried out. "What's happening?!"

"Nothing good." Shepard's eyes sharpened as she had her new pistol quickly morphed into its gun mode. "Get ready."

The Keyblade Master hesitates but complies as she resummons Master's Defender into her hand.

As the impaling spires lowered the corpses back down, something happened to them.

For the briefest of moments, Shepard saw the familiar and terrifying visage of what they initially turned into. They were identified as Husks. Yet when her vision returned, she saw something that resembled them but was Darker.

The bodies had now transformed into something else entirely. Shrouds of shadows encompassed their bodies. They appeared to be covered in this dark, ethereal fire with a white light in the center of their faces and seemed to be more ferocious with these sharp-clawed hands of theirs.

They gazed ahead, their sole eyes locking onto the two women and with no warning, these new forms of Heartless charged forward at shocking speeds.

Thrown off momentarily, Shepard barely had the chance to throw up her Gunblade, gritting her teeth as her arms rattled at the impact. Thankfully, Aqua was right beside her, firing a Blizzaga at this new Heartless, freezing it instantly.

Shepard stepped back, making a full horizontal swing of her sword, shattering this transformed Husk Heartless into pieces.

The other Heartless pounced on them and Aqua immediately took hold of Shepard and jumped back to a safer location.

She then instantly went into focusing her power on the tip of her Keyblade, concentrating on the new Heartless before performing her Prism Rain Shotlock. The light projectiles bombarded the Heartless, taking out several yet a few remained, charging forward like blood-thirsty beasts.

Shepard used her Biotics to give her a boost in physical power, the dark energy coating her gun blade.

She swung her blade, cutting one Heartless before swinging her weapon down, cutting into the next. What she did not expect was this unusual feeling of pressure that she gave off that appeared to affect this Husk Heartless.

The Heartless lurched before seemingly slamming down, ripples around its body, being pressed down into the ground.

Shepard recoiled slightly, that strange sensation disappearing as fast as it appeared, the pressure vanishing around the Heartless. It was definitely hurt as it tried to force itself to stand only for Jane's instincts to kick back in and she stabbed its head with her Gunblade.

It perished into wisps a moment later.

She let out a breath, pulling her blade that had been embedded in the ground, looking down at her hand.

"What was that?" She asked herself.

"Shepard?"

She turned to Aqua, seeing her look of concern. "Are you alright?"

"I… think so." Was her response yet it was easy to pick up on her uncertainty. "It's just that I did something and it came out of nowhere."

"Yes, I saw that too. Have you never done something like that before?"

Shepard shook her head, wincing slightly at a pang in her head. "It's difficult to explain. Where I come from, stuff like this is not common and was a recent trend from what I'm remembering."

Aqua had a disturbed look in her eyes, glancing over at where the Spires were moments before.

"I can say the same for myself." She quietly said. "What I just saw happen… I had never seen anything horrid in my life. What kind of sick and vile display was that?"

"I don't know entirely." Shepard admitted, frowning as the memory of these spires replayed in her head. "Let's not stay here any longer than we need to."

Her friend could only nod in silent agreement and Shepard took the lead again, running with Aqua to their next destination.

Heading to the spaceport nearby, the perspective of the Spectre shifted briefly, running down the same path but with different companions and seeing a different kind of enemy.

"Are those robots?" Aqua warily asked.

Their names quickly popped into Shepard's mind. "Sort of. They're AI called Geth."

And like before, these robotic foes changed.

These Geth, they were like the unique Husks they fought against earlier. Their bodies were surrounded by the black, ethereal flames. The "flashlight" head was far more appropriate with them here. Though, unlike the darkened Husks, these wielded rifles.

Aqua threw up a Barrier around the pair as soon as these transformed Geth shot at them. Once the bullets struck her shield, it burst apart, sending back the shots at the Heartless.

Shepard grinned at this, running forward, firing at the Heartless and once getting close, switched her weapon into her Gunblade mode and sliced through several of them.

Aqua came in to help take out the rest and the pair resumed their journey through this illusory memory.

Passing by yet another familiar area, Shepard stopped, spotting a body lying on the ground that made her companion wince.

Another phantom was present.

The Spectre stared at the body of a Turian whom she knew only for a brief period but his death also weighed on her mind.

His name was Nihlus.

He was supposed to supervise her, but he went off on his own. It ended up costing him his life.

What could've happened if he stayed with her and stayed on mission? Would he still be alive? Would his death be prolonged? What could she have learned from him?

So many what-ifs.

"What happened to him?" Aqua muttered with a crestfallen face at the sight of the body.

Shepard silently stared at him for a few seconds before answering, "He was betrayed" and kept walking.

Aqua could only gaze upon the body, closing her eyes in a mournful wish that he found peace in the next life and followed after Shepard.

She would've progressed further but halts when hearing a sound in the air. It was like a foghorn set on maximum. Looking at the source, she froze on seeing a large crustacean-like thing in the air.

Aqua jerked her head at the sight of this massive being, eyes widening in slight fright and jaw-dropping. "What… is that?"

Looking up to the sky, Shepard spoke. "A Reaper… named Sovereign."

The Keyblade Master turned her head to the Spectre, startled by the dark tone Shepard now carried.

"It's dead, in case you're wondering." She tacked on, her eyes glaring at the Reaper that was soon out of sight. "But… but the fight isn't over."

"What do you mean?"

"They're still coming. The Reapers will arrive as they always do no matter what." Shepard felt a pressure in her head, more memories flooding back now. "I was with," Jane made a face of discomfort. "I was with others. My team and I learned the truth about them. I don't have it all just yet but I know that Sovereign was merely the vanguard for what's to come."

Aqua stared at the Spectre for a while, her heart feeling a swell of empathy.

She carries so many burdens and responsibilities on her shoulders.

'Just like me.' Were Aqua's thoughts.

Reaching the spaceport took some time and effort to get rid of more Heartless. In the process, Shepard got more memory flashes of perhaps some other issues occurring but pushed on to the task at hand.

In the end, they saw just a large empty space. And Jane felt that it was really strange when another flash went across her vision where a lack of a glowing pillar of sorts was absent. Instead, the magic floating mirror was in its place.

"Well… what now?" Shepard turned to Aqua. "Do we touch it or something? Go through it? Or break it?"

Aqua shrugged apologetically. "Maybe yes to all of those things or no. This Realm abides by its own rules."

"Yeah, I've noticed."

Aqua took a moment to take a step closer to the mirror. For a moment she blinked, gasping slightly at the sight of the reflection changing to a particular memory of hers.

It was when she came home, to see the Land of Departure shrouded by endless Darkness.

Then it shifted to seeing Terra once again, only this time as he was when an evil Keyblade Master had taken hold of him.

Another was the state Ventus was left in at the fight in the Keyblade graveyard.

"Is this what it means to face your demons?" Aqua briefly wonders as her hand graces the mirror's surface.

The moment this occurred, the mirror lit up and Aqua was gone, much to Shepard's confused startlement. She called out her name in vain only to soon realize she had her own problems to deal with.

The next thing Aqua noticed was herself in an odd void of sorts. She soon remembered this place when she visited the Evil Queen's castle and was pulled into her Magic Mirror. Turning about, she tried to find a means of exiting this place. But at that moment, she found out she wasn't alone.

This other person was like a complete copy of herself, even with how they wielded their weapon. The only difference about them was the slight discoloration of their eyes. Instead of being blue, they were amber.

"Only your heart is hollow enough to be a demon's." She heard the Amber-eyed Aqua say. "Fall to the Darkness as you should."

Aqua, ever defiant, called out her Keyblade and readied herself for battle. "That's not true! My heart is strong! I'll prove it!"

And with that, Aqua fought her Phantom.

The idea of fighting herself was jarring, but Aqua pushed such thoughts aside as they'd only hinder her at this time.

The Phantom acted first, summoning six giant ice crystals that immediately sailed towards Aqua, forcing her to dodge by cartwheeling out of the way. However, the speed of the enemy's spells was too fast, forcing Aqua to block with a Barrier. The phantom soon teleported and struck Aqua's blindside just when the defensive measure came down. After the hit was met, Aqua flailed a little but recovered and retaliated with attacks of her own.

As the battle continued, Aqua was surprised her phantom self was creating illusionary copies of herself. She remembered trying to do something similar when training for her Master's exam but hadn't proceeded further. It made her regret not doing so.

"Is there any point in continuing this fight?" The reflection Aqua goaded. "You struggle for a meaningless cause. Against an inevitable outcome. Trying to deny that what is already there, in your heart. Just surrender to it."

Aqua said nothing in return, instead fighting through the litany of spells her Phantom and the illusions sent at her.

She rushed forward, trying to strike at the copy only for her to disappear in a swirl of dark wisps. Undeterred, Aqua went after the illusionary copies, but they too disappeared.

"No one can save you. And no one wants to." Phantom Aqua's voice echoed out.

The many copies reappeared and made their move to strike her at once.

"Thunder!" Shouts Aqua, summoning bolts of lightning down upon the copies and dispelling them. She then cast Blizzard at the one that remained when quickly knowing it was the central Phantom. Rushing in, the Keyblade Master let out a flurry of hits onto her opponent, but it wasn't for long as the Phantom teleported away and reappeared to strike back.

This went back and forth for what felt like forever. It was frustrating for Aqua on her opponents maneuvering as they kept up this dance of death.

Their Keyblades soon locked as they looked into each other's eyes.

"Just let go of everything and fade into the dark."

"Never!" Aqua shouts back. She shoved the Phantom away. "I'll never submit! I'll never fade!"

At that moment, Aqua thought back to the Keyblade Graveyard in seeing Ventus being possessed by Vanitas. Then to Radiant Garden to see Terra possessed by Master Xehanort. How in the end, she had lost her friends and yet… yet she was still here. And that meant she could still fight.

"I won't give up, no matter what!"

Quickly rushing forward with everything she had, Aqua broke through the Phantom's defenses and slashed through her.

At that moment, everything began to brighten up as Aqua was engulfed in light.

When everything died down, Aqua opened her eyes and found herself no longer in the illusionary landscape of Eden Prime but back in the Wards of the Citadel Atrium.

Not to mention Shepard was there as well.

Both women were panting, somewhat winded but Aqua ignored that, simply relieved to see her new friend was still with her. They were both momentarily startled by the sound of glass shattering, briefly turning to see the mirror they had found to get into "Eden Prime" had now been shattered but the Keybearer turned back to the more important matter at hand.

"Shepard? What happened?" She asked straight away.

"You tell me. After you touched the mirror, I found myself in a void and fought… myself." Jane scratched her head on that. "All she talked about was some cryptic stuff and shit like that before I fended it off. After I beat it, everything went bright and I wound back here." Jane answers. "Though what was that about?"

"I'm not sure. But you had the same experience as I had." Looking back at the floating mirror, Aqua saw it was heavily cracked. The moment she touched it, the broken mirror crumbled into wisps of darkness. "Terra, Ven… and now my own phantom. Your own phantom. What could it all mean?"

"Maybe it's this place messing with us." Shepard guessed.

"Maybe…" She glanced at the redhead. "What did your copy say to you?"

Shepard's face held an intensity to it that Aqua had not seen before, one of deep conflict and uncertainty.

"It's that I left the people I cared for when I was needed most. That all my efforts will be for nothing," Shepard then locked eyes with Aqua. "That when my team will need me, I'll fail and they'll fall before my eyes."

Aqua didn't know how to respond for a moment before she scrunched up her face and shook her head.

"No. All that was said was this realm trying to break our spirit. Whatever happened in the past may have been at our hands but we're still here, right? We can still keep fighting."

Shepard blinked at the Keybearer before a grin broke out, one filled with amused mirth.

"Where'd ya hear that kind of statement?" She teased.

"A newfound friend is helping me keep my head on straight and my heart remain strong." Aqua teased back, holding out her hand.

Shepard snorted, clapping her own hand in turn before the pair faced the atrium they stood in again.

"We're back here again." Aqua remarked. "I guess we completed whatever it was we had to on Eden Prime. I think."

"Guess that means we're stuck here for a while." Jane mused, rubbing her chin contemplatively. "My best guess is that chances are we won't be able to proceed until we find those other mirrors."

"And most likely, we'll be facing a phantom copy of ourselves again. Perhaps in all of them." Aqua added on. "Going on with self-doubts and fears and weakening our resolve."

Jane frowned at the ramifications of that. "Lovely." Shaking her head, she moves. "We should go. Time to find the next mirror."

Exiting the Wards, the pair navigated further along on their search for the next mirror.

More Heartless were in their way but Jane and Aqua were able to persevere.

With how things got navigated on the tussles, they found themselves at the human embassy where the next mirror floated aimlessly within the confined space.

Upon making contact with the reflective surface, the two found themselves in another place.

Aqua had to blink a few times as she saw a night sky that she had never seen before and a moment later, realized she was on a ship of some kind.

But not just any.

Rushing over to the edge, Aqua gaped at just what she saw, being on an old-timey ship that was sailing along the currents of the cosmos.

"This place," She heard Shepard speak up, this time her tone being far more fond. "It's… the Etherium. We're on the R.L.S. Legacy."

For a moment, Aqua could only look on in wonder as to where they were. When she took a moment to think about it, this World feels far more in line to the kind of World that she was more used to compared to the previous one of Eden Prime.

She wondered why that was.

"Time to navigate the ship." Jane declared.

"Do you remember the layout?"

Shepard shrugged. "More or less. Mostly instinct. Whatever else pops in my head would be helpful."

Things seemed relatively quick on their search, given they weren't going beyond the ship. That is, unless the ship was going somewhere and they had to wait for an eventual arrival.

They didn't want to take that chance.

Checking the captain's quarters was first before making their way down. When making it to where the lifeboats were located, they saw the magic mirror.

"Is it really that easy?" Aqua tentatively asked, hearing Shepard scoff at such a notion.

"In our line of work, it never is. Let's get this over with." Jane declared, moving forward with her hand outstretched.

Making contact with this mirror, everything shifted.

When her senses returned to her, Jane found herself in a dark, warped copy of the Armax Arsenal Arena located in the Silversun Strip on the Citadel.

"Here we go again." The Spectre grumbled, already having her Gunblade out.

As this was uttered, Shepard had to duck away from a biotic blast and went into cover.

"Was gonna say it's been too long but that joke leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

She jumped out from her cover, firing rapidly at her copy who threw up a Biotic shield, absorbing the bullets.

Her phantom self-looked very similar to her in almost every way. However, instead of the glowing blue-purple cracks along the side of her face, they were harsh red as her eyes bore a similar color that was figuratively glaring a hole straight at her.

Jane narrowed her eyes at her copy, rolling her shoulders when she had her Biotics flowing around her left hand whilst her right hand held her transformed Gunblade.

"Let's dance, you cheap knockoff."

Shepard charged forward just as her Phantom unleashed a Biotic shockwave with tinges of Darkness within the attack.

"Wouldn't you be the knockoff? After all, the genuine article would remember so much more and prove it to boot."

"Oh great, my own brand of humor used against me." Shepard mocked. "How original."

"And how would you know that?"

Shepard used her Biotics to give her a boost over the Biotic wave but let out a barely restrained grunt, finding herself propelled higher than anticipated. In fact, there was a moment of weightlessness to her entire body, actually floating in the air momentarily.

She didn't understand what was going on but she wanted to go down.

Which appeared to be the right and wrong trick as now she was falling.

"Ah, shit!" Shepard cried out, flailing slightly before landing in front of her copy, yet she wasn't affected by the impact.

"What in the-WHOA!" Shepard threw herself onto her back and rolled away as the Copy went on the offensive.

All the while, the Phantom continued to throw more taunts and insults at her. "Why are you even here? Saving the galaxy from the inevitable? Every route you take leads to the same conclusion: death."

Jane flinched at that, her eyes darkening now.

"All that effort, all those times you lead the charge. And what did it amount to? It will all be for nothing. You know that."

"Shut up!" The Spectre shouted back, her Biotics pulsing around her in a new sensation.

She didn't know where this feeling had come from but she didn't care as she was quick to focus it on her Phantom, sending out a swirling sphere from her hand. The sphere was akin to that of a black hole and it spun around in the air, gathering mass as it drew closer to the replica who stood there, waiting for it to get close in before she threw up both hands.

Darkness exploded from Mirror-Shepards hands, surrounding the black hole before it was consumed entirely.

"The greatest choices take the greatest will. You were tested on this time and time again and what did that cost us?"

"Will you shut up already? Nothing you say works?"

"Really?" Shepard's replica vanished before her eyes.

Jane tensed up, looking around rapidly for her to reappear and she did so, right to her left. She threw up her Biotics yet the Copy punched through them, landing a decisive hit that sent her sprawling on the ground.

"Why so angry?" The Phantom continually goaded. "We both know everything I say is true."

"I don't know, alright!" Jane blurts out. "I'm just trying to put everything together."

"Oh yes, Humpty Dumpty on the Wall had a great fall. But unlike the nursery rhyme, you won't be whole again. There will always be cracks that will never be mended."

Shepard found herself incensed at these words and let out a defiant roar that unleashed a tidal wave of Biotics that rippled in a way that wasn't familiar to the Spectre but that wasn't even remotely on her mind.

All that mattered was shutting this fake up.

Her Phantom was caught off guard by this sudden attack yet recovered quickly enough to throw up her hand in time to block Shepard's Gunblade… with one of her own.

"Ok, fuck you for that." Jane snarled, pushing her replica back and attacking her with renewed ferocity.

The Copy said nothing, simply deflecting the Spectre's blade though each one staggered her back until she began to get direct strikes that soon led to Shepard performing a spinning slash that cut through her Phantom's chest.

Seeing her reflection vanish and not sensing any incoming attack, Shepard sighed, falling to her knee.

Defeating her other self-proved much more difficult than last time. She didn't have to look up at the light that surrounded her as she was blinded by it regardless of whether she looked at it or not.

Once again, Jane found herself back in the illusionary Citadel with Aqua panting up a storm right next to her.

"So… how much of a bitch was it this time?" Was her casually strained question.

"It… It was… strenuous." Aqua stated, rubbing the side of her stomach.

With no prompt needed, the Keyblade Master pulled out an Ether with two Hi-Potions. She tossed all three in the air, the ethereal, restorative energies of the items washing over the pair.

Shepard sighed in relief, feeling a great deal of her exhaustion wash away as she stood back up.

"Thanks, Aqua."

The blue-haired woman simply smiled and nodded, returning her attention to the Atrium they returned to.

"Three mirrors," She muttered.

"And we finished two." Shepard added in. "So let's get the last one over with."

With that said, the pair of women went forward, moving through the Atrium. Heartless encounters were expected and brushed aside as they appeared until reaching their final mirror.

Finding the last mirror was rather interesting due to its location.

They found it in The Council Chambers.

"This place…" Shepard murmured.

"What do you remember about it?" Aqua curiously asked.

It took her a moment, letting the memories flow through her as opposed to before when they came in like a tidal wave.

"I was made a Spectre here… and there was a fight against a foe I had been pursuing."

As Shepard said this, the redhead gazed ahead, spotting their objective, something Aqua saw a moment later.

At the dead center of the space was the last magic mirror.

"Alright, here we go." Shepard murmured, moving forward.

Aqua was right next to her as the pair got right in front of the mirror, the reflective surface already making ripples as they drew closer.

They were ready to be transported away, yet, instead of winding up in another location after making contact with the mirror, something else happened.

The moment they touched the reflective surface, Aqua and Jane were blasted back. They both hit the ground hard but recovered a second later, now guarded and on edge after that unexpected outcome.

Both already had their weapons at the ready, eyes on the last mirror watching as their Phantom selves emerged, their shadows emanating dark auras.

Shepard held a defiant look as she glared at her phantom, the replica staring back with red eyes that had wisps coming off from the corners.

Aqua held firm, grasping her Master's Keyblade tightly, her expression stoic and focused as her copy drew near.

The women had a brief moment where they glanced at each other, giving quick smiles of appreciation and resolve, at least grateful that this time they'd be fighting together. They both tensed up as their replicas made the first move, Phantom Shepard sending a Biotic Wave that Phantom Aqua empowered with her Magic.

"Ah shit." Shepard gritted out, hastily using her Biotics to create a barrier.

Taking inspiration from what their copies did, Aqua emulated their actions by reinforcing Shepards Biotic shield with an additional Barrier overlaid on the shield. Shepard grunted slightly at the impact of the attack but her defenses held strong, shooting Aqua an appreciative grin.

Aqua smiled back before focusing on their opponents, seeing the attack and defense from both sides having dropped. She was the first to move, jumping forward in the air, a loud clashing of metal being heard as she clashed her Keyblade with her Phantom that intercepted her.

Shepard was quick to rush into help, shooting at her copy before jumping up to kick Aqua's copy in the gut. This caused the phantom to jerk, allowing for Aqua to deliver a swift blow to its body, making it sail back.

Though damaged, the replica easily righted itself in the air, performing a graceful landing on the ground, throwing her Keyblade up and firing off a torrent of Blizzaga spells. Aqua responded with an alternate use of the Firaga spell, conjuring three layers of fireballs all linked together in a strand of fire. The balls of fire rapidly spun around her, flames flashing around her as the Blizzaga attacks melted around the Keyblade Master.

As the flames, steam and ice subsided, Aqua's eyes widened as her Phantom was a few inches away, the blue-haired Master throwing her Keyblade up at the last second to block her replica's attack. She felt her arms rattling with every blow exchanged between them, jumping back to get some breathing room yet her copy disappeared in a puff of dark mist, reappearing right behind her.

Aqua was suddenly encompassed by a field of Biotics that pulled her away from her Phantom only for her to be unceremoniously dropped. Thankfully, she landed on her feet, turning her head to see Shepard having been tackled by her copy.

She wanted to go help but her replica was quick to pounce on her.

The Keyblade Master let out a momentary sound of strangled frustration. She had hoped they could at least take on their copies together but their mirror images were appearing to be more intelligent then they appeared, making sure to keep them separated.

As these Keybearers dueled, the two Spectres continued their tussle.

"Get off!" Jane growled out, managing to kick her copy back.

Her clone rolled onto one knee, her body flowing with dark Biotics. Her eyes drifted over to the sight of the two Aquas battling out and she 'hmphed' with a dark smirk.

"You think she's good enough to assist you now?" The Phantom goaded with the real Shepard scoffing.

"I don't know. You tell me with yours. She's not helping you either."

"Oh, but she is, and you know it." The Copy shot back, throwing her arms up and a familiar rifle formed. Despite its odd appearance, the model was practically unmistakable.

'That's an M-8-'

"Shit!" Jane dove to the side to nearby cover as her replica fired at her.

The Spectre cursed at herself, slapping the side of her head, berating her memories for coming in like that. She moved to go around the cover, the bullets from the replica sailing over her.

She called out her pistol and jumped out into a run, firing at her copy only for her to hastily angle her body to avoid the stream of fire that her clone sent her way. The Spectre let out a small cry of pain, one of the bullets grazing her arm.

The Spectre responded with a blind Biotic attack, jolting her out of her pained stupor at the unusual action she just pulled off. Her Biotics came out as though her entire body was a shotgun and it caused her copy to suddenly flail up into the air, as if gravity had vanished.

"What the hell?" Shepard murmured, looking at her hand when her body jerked at bullets being fired at her again.

Despite floating about in the air, her replica had the wherewithal to right herself and fire at the original.

Shepard got to nearby cover, briefly looking at her new injury, wincing at it before shaking it off and looking back at her Phantom that fell to the ground, landing on her feet.

She briefly eyed the M-8 Avenger rifle her copy carried, eyes narrowing at it.

'If she's supposed to be my reflection…' Jane dodged another hail of bullets from her phantom before firing off her own weapon. 'Do I have more options of guns to… summon?'

Looking down at her pistol, a focused frown marred her features, concentrating on the gun when there was a flash in her hands and now she held her own modified M-8 Avenger rifle.

"Whoa~ ho, ho, ho, Hoooo," Jane exclaimed in amazement. "Now that's awesome."

She immediately aimed her rifle at her copy and fired at it, now making her mirror image duck for cover.

"Don't like it so much now, huh?" Shepard taunted.

She held out her left hand and the Spectre grinned at the sight of her pistol appearing.

"Sweet." She said, holding up both her guns now, firing them at her replica who had conjured a Biotic barrier in response.

The Clone rushed forward, her barrier moving with her when she performed something that stunned Shepard.

Darkness coalesced around both her arms, encompassing them up to her elbows until she threw them forward and unleashed a dozen energy beams that flew through the air and directed themselves at the Spectre.

"Shit." She groused out, aiming her weapons at these attacks and firing at them when she heard movement in front of her, eyes snapping forward to see her replica right in front of her now.

Shepard could only throw her arms forward using her guns as a makeshift shield when she was struck by a Biotic infused punch. Jane was sent careening back, crashing through a bench, her body now aching with pain.

"Ow~" She bemoaned, managing to sit up despite her body's protests.

'Okay, dual wielding guns is not a good idea for now.' She thought, dismissing one of her weapons to focus on the other. 'Aim is shit if I'm splitting my focus on two at the same time.'

She then took a moment to inspect her body, surprised that she wasn't as damaged as she would have assumed herself to be.

'Huh, that's different.' Was her internal thoughts.

From what she had gotten from her memories, she was a tough cookie but not to the extent of surviving a blow like that one. She's fairly certain that a bone or something would have been strained or broken because she flew through the air for a good few seconds before crashing into a metallic bench.

"You should've allowed the Darkness to take you." Jane snapped back to her opponent, seeing her copy drawing near. "It would have been easier if you had just stayed down and faded away into memory."

Shepard raised a brow, not believing what she was hearing. With a scoff, Jane forced herself to stand, glaring defiantly at her Phantom. "Sorry, but that's something I can't do. Would love to, really, but I've got this nagging feeling now in the back of my head that I would leave a lot of people disappointed and I still have a job to do that's outside this realm. And you're in my way."

Her Copy said nothing, instead allowing Darkness to swarm around her.

"Aw, come on." Shepard said to herself. "At least give me some advantage."

Suddenly, Aqua skidded to a halt right behind her, her back bumping against hers.

"Sorry." Was the Keyblade Masters immediate greeting, getting a strained chuckle from the Spectre.

"No need for that." Jane assured her. "Hard not to see you're a bit preoccupied."

Just like with the Shepard Phantom, Aqua's Phantom was emulating the calling of Darkness around her, creating a swirl of dark energy.

"Ok, this could be going better," Jane muttered out, Aqua grunting in agreement.

The Spectre took a moment to look back and forth at the two Phantoms that surrounded the pair when an idea popped into her mind.

"Wanna trade dance partners?"

There was a pause from the Keybearer when…

"It'll be a refreshing take." Was all Aqua said as they went after the others' phantom.

Shepard spun round whilst Aqua backflipped over her, the two women running towards their companions' phantoms.

"This will change nothing." Aqua's copy said, unleashing a torrent of Watera missiles that Shepard dodged with ducks, weaves, rolls and Biotic deflections.

"Let's agree to disagree." She retorted, lunging forward, aiming the butt of her rifle at Phantom Aqua's face with her opponent holding up her Keyblade to block it.

Shepard didn't let up, instead grabbing the Phantom's wrist and pulled her in for a Judo throw, slamming her on the ground. Without giving it thought, Jane threw her hand forward, her Biotics forming around her hand and-

*THUUUUM BVVVV*

Suddenly, a pressure that rippled around the Phantom Aqua was visible and she was now being pushed into the ground, her body actually starting to form an indent on it. Once more, Shepard found herself recoiling at this display of hers, the pressure around the Phantom Aqua subsiding, allowing her to disappear in a puff of Darkness while Jane looked at her hand.

"The hell?" She muttered. "Was that… was that m-SHIT!"

Jane was forced out of her moment of shock as Phantom Aqua was right on top of her, Keyblade raised high to strike her down. Holding up her rifle, it shifted into the same Gunblade mode as her pistol would have but this time, the sword was a tad longer and thicker than before.

She gritted her teeth at the power behind the Keyblade's strike but managed to hold firm and push her opponent back.

Over with Aqua, when she had engaged the Phantom Shepard, she had hoped to have some kind of advantage yet the replica surprised her with a display of Biotics amped up by the Darkness, getting a direct blow that had her on the ground.

"Hurts, doesn't it? When you are up against someone who completely outmatches you?" Phantom Shepard asks as she slowly approaches.

Aqua just glared at her one opponent.

"You have no idea what I've come up against." Aqua rebuked, getting back to her feet.

"No, but I know you've never faced someone like me." The Shepard-Copy taunted. "And it's clear you're not used to fighting someone with the intent to kill."

The Keyblade Master didn't have a chance to retort as the Shadow Spectre moved in for her next attack.

Aqua jumped back just as the Phantom drew in close and rushed forward only for her to angle her body back as she was shot at again.

"Clearly you're not used to the idea of needing to take a life when necessary."

"Because I know the value of one."

"Do you?" Phantom Shepard goaded.

"Yes," Aqua growled back. "And that doesn't make me weak."

The Keyblade Masters body flashed and she blurred from the copy's perspective.

The Phantom blinked and then was sent hurtling through the air by a power light infused slash from the Keybearer, the replica releasing an inhuman cry of pain.

Back with the first human Spectre, Shepard was facing a litany of new problems.

Literally, as she was facing various Aqua's that kept her on her toes, not knowing which was the real Phantom and which was a mirage.

Dealing with the various illusions, Jane was having issues with her phantom opponent. Her quick actions were able to help deal with shooting down the illusions but not enough as two more replaced each one. She was starting to grow tired as she realized her weaponry was draining her as they originated from her biotic reserves.

She can't keep "reloading" without repercussions.

Glancing over at Aqua, she saw that her companion was holding her ground but this whole fight was taking up too much time and depleting their energy.

They needed to end this already and they needed an upper hand or a hail mary to take down the phantoms.

Fighting them separately was fine at first, but it was proving to be a mistake. They needed to be taken down together so Jane and Aqua can prevail.

Her mind was a whirl with thoughts, trying to come up with something, anything that could be done to just end this fight already.

And then…

The now familiar pressure that she had been experiencing since meeting here appeared once more.

A memory surfaced.

But this one was distinct as she could see it so clearly as opposed to prior memories. Something from her younger years back on the planet Mindoir. She was staying there with… with her brother… she had a brother.

And this memory was one of the last few pleasant ones before everything went to hell that day.

She was watching a cartoon with her brother of some fight going on where they were practically cheering for the protagonist to win. It was that of an old animation from the 21st century of humanity's calendar. She could vaguely make out the details, recalling a young teen on the screen with spiky-blond hair, blue eyes and an orange jumpsuit.

But what came to her mind particularly was what the character was doing. What was in his hand.

It was a sphere of blue energy that was spiraling over his palm and when it struck its target, it was a devastating blow to whomever it was on the receiving end.

And just like that, Jane focused back on the present.

With this idea in mind, Shepard went to work as she kept evading her opponent.

She knew her body and her Biotics were shifting and changing, a fuzzy memory of an elderly fellow in blue-wizard robes briefly flashing through her mind. So in knowing that, it was time to start testing just what she could do with these changes.

Recalling the details of that energy sphere from that old anime from her childhood, Shepard held up her hand.

Focusing her unique biotics into her hand, she channeled them to compact, condense and swirl. Jane laughed in disbelief, almost not believing she had done it but here it was.

And almost immediately, the power behind it was beginning to strain her arm, her limb starting to shake.

She grit her teeth, knowing she only had a few seconds for this.

The biotic aura surged to life around her, allowing Jane to do what was needed.

Using a Biotic Charge, Jane practically flew across the Council Chamber, throwing her arm forward. Phantom Aqua threw up her Keyblade in defense yet when her biotic sphere impacted the fake Keyblade, the power behind it shattered the weapon, flinging aside the replica's arm and driving the sphere directly in the chest with her one biotic move.

The moment it made contact, the phantom was practically blasted away like a rocket. She flew through the air, body already disputing but there was enough left of the Copy for it to slam right into Phantom Shepard.

The Copy of the Spectre let out an audible *woof* of air and Aqua saw her chance to end this fight.

With this opening, Aqua went into her Spellweaver Formchange, performing an elegant dance that went into striking the phantoms in rapid succession. Magic weaved into these attacks, further buffeting the Phantom Spectre who could do nothing but take this barrage at full force.

Moments later, Aqua switched to her Blade charge Formchange, which had a large ethereal blade blanket over her Master's Defender Keyblade. She swiftly spun it around in her hands, forming a circle. The glowing blade cut through the Phantoms and went in relentlessly.

Jane charged in and used whatever strength she had left to assist her partner in finishing them off.

"Aqua!"

Glancing over, the Keyblade Master saw Shepard leaping towards her with her biotics flaring and an outstretched hand. Aqua reacted in turn in reaching out as her light flaring as well.

Light and Biotics swirled together, unleashing a shockwave. It harmed the two phantoms in the process. Neither of them were able to recover quickly enough as they were assaulted by a barrage of sword strikes from both fighters.

Biotic spheres then formed around the pair and were quickly struck to send them flying into the phantoms. With them stunned, Jane and Aqua reared back their respective weapons with light and biotics building up at their tips. In a combined Shotlock-like move, they unleashed the contained power where a large pillar of energy went out to practically obliterate whatever came in its path.

As the light died down, Shepard and Aqua saw the phantoms were no longer there. In fact, they realized they were the only ones left in the Council Chamber.

The only thing that remotely felt out of place was the floating magic mirror that appeared cracked.

The pair took a moment to catch their breath, sitting side by side as the creeping exhaustion settled in. All was quiet and whatever instincts they would have relied on to detect any additional danger was silent.

After an undetermined amount of time, the duo got back up to their feet, glancing over the mirror where their phantoms came from.

"Never would have thought I'd become my own worst enemy." Says Aqua as she stared at her reflection in the broken mirror. "Who would've thought I'd finally realize that after falling into the shadows."

"You never tend to think about it when seeing yourself in the mirror each day." Jane adds in. "All you'd think are your flaws, your doubts, your despair."

"Perhaps that's what this was." The Keyblade Master muttered. "This Realm, this World… it's taking all that and making us confront it. With those phantoms, it's as though all of that gained a voice of their own."

"Didn't realize mine was so snarky." Jane murmured, looking over at Aqua, frowning at her expression of uncertainty as her hand now rested on the mirror, the Spectre seeing a glossiness in her eyes through her reflection.

"She's the weakness in my heart." Aqua quietly whispered, referring to her phantom. "All the parts of myself I never confronted when I first left my home."

Shepard said nothing as Aqua went on, a slight crack in her voice now. "Have the uncountable hours in the shadows whittled away the courage I never really had?" She now placed her hand over her chest, shaking slightly. "I'm losing this fight. The darkness has found the cracks in my heart." Gazing back in the mirror, Aqua voices a passing thought. "Is this… the last apparition before it takes me over?"

Shepard frowned at that, reaching forward to place a hand on Aqua's shoulder. "Hey, remember what I said earlier. You're not alone in this. We're in this together now."

"But will it be enough for me?" Aqua worriedly asked, looking at her friend. "What if what we did here accomplishes nothing? What if the Darkness manages to win?"

Jane was silent for a moment, wracking her brain to come up with an appropriate response.

"I can't say that everything will be alright cuz you and I both know that's not always the case." She earnestly said. "What I can tell you… is that it's braver to face your demons and weaknesses than to just run from or ignore them all together. And you faced yours, and you know what that tells me?"

Aqua awaited for an answer.

"That you're like me, like everyone else out there, making the attempt to get over what's in your way, internal or external." Shepard gave her a reassuring smile. "You think it's too late in mending the mistakes you've made, but it only will be if you don't act on time. The first step isn't about overcoming them, but to accept them instead of being ignorant. You just need to accept both the good and the bad. It's the only true way to become better and move forward."

Aqua wasn't sure as to how to respond at first until she let out an uncharacteristic laugh, wiping a tear away.

"Where did that come from?" She couldn't help but ask.

Shepard appeared to have a natural way with words but even this was rather special.

"I dunno," Jane freely admitted. "It just kinda came naturally from me."

"From the Heart?"

Shepard snorted. "Yeah, from the… heart…"

The Spectre suddenly grew silent, a look of troubled uncertainty coming over her.

"Shepard?" Aqua said, easily picking up on her shift in demeanor.

'What was that?' Jane internally asked herself, not hearing her name being called. 'The… Heart… the…'

Her hand was now on her chest.

Now that she thought about it… why did everything feel… off?

Why was she feeling…

Feeling…

Jane jolted slightly, and shook her head rapidly.

"Shepard?" Now Aqua was worried. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to come up with a response. "I don't know. And… I don't know if I will be."

"What do you mean?"

"I…" Shepard waved it off. "Forget it, not now. Let's get out of this place already."

"Are you sure?" Aqua asked, anxiously leaning forward.

Shepard shook her head. "No but it's best we leave this place already lest we tempt more copies of ourselves crawling out of the woodwork."

Aqua couldn't fault that bit of logic, despite desiring to confirm Shepard's wellbeing. Still, they needed to leave from here.

Touching the mirror together, the two found themselves in yet another Dark Location, this time being surrounded by what appears to be a forest of thorny trees and vines.

"Any idea where we are now?" Shepard asked, hands flexing as she readied to call upon her weapon in case of any Heartless or other foes showing up.

"Won't know unless we move forward." Aqua declared.

Walking through the endless path of this dark forest, the Spectre suddenly slowed down.

'What is this?' She thought to herself. 'An echo?'

Concentrating, Shepard was able to discern something far off in the distance.

Voices.

Two voices specifically.

Neither of them belonged to Aqua but to someone else. And they called out her name.

"Shepard!"

The Spectre stopped in her tracks, turning away from Aqua to look behind her to the abyss at her back. For a fleeting moment, she didn't see them but she heard them once more, calling out to her and feeling as though they were trying to reach her.

And despite not seeing their faces…

"R-Roxas? Xion?"

AN

And scene.

We're back folks and now, it's high time we pick up with Shepard and yes, for those of you who have guessed and wondered, she has indeed linked up with Aqua.

And as you can see, we're using Fragmentary Passage but this one is altered to better suit our narrative.

And as for the changes, well, you'll find out in due time but feel free to take guesses as to what they would be.

Other than that, please check out the artwork that serves as the cover poster for these chapters that covers Shepards time in the Dark World on my DeviantArt account.

Until next time folks, two more chapters till we start hitting ME and KH 2!

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.