Sora, escorted by a confused dog-man and angry duck, made his way to Hayner, Pence, and Olette's hangout, an unconscious Aqua in his arms. Judging by the looks of random residents, this would probably be the last time Sora could visit Twilight Town; but Ven's absolute glee at having reunited with Aqua didn't really leave room for any other emotions.
Sora laid the unconscious women in a chair before taking a picture of Aqua with his gummi phone and handing it to Jiminy. "Can you make sure Yen Sid and the King get the picture?" Sora asked the insect, who affirmed his ability.
"Goofy, stay with her till she wakes up. I probably shouldn't be the first person she sees," Sora continued before the duck made some exasperated sounds and movements that Sora took to be questioning. "The Keyblade has a lot of powers, you wouldn't understand," he responded automatically before stepping out of the hangout and leaning on a nearby wall.
Just as Sora was starting to zone out, the gummi phone went off. After several minutes of effort, Sora managed to answer it, the screen lighting up to show Riku's face balancing confusion, concern, and annoyance in equal measure. "How did you find Aqua? Wasn't she in the world of darkness?" Riku asked the moment he realized Sora picked up.
Sora put on an honest if tired smile. "I was thinking about trying to help, and wandered into the world of darkness. It was a little annoying to figure out how to use Roxas's power to get back, but not too hard when I put my mind to it."
Riku grabbed the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. "After all these years I really should just expect things to simply happen around you shouldn't I? Are you still in Twilight Town?" Sora gave a quick nod of affirmation. "Alright, the king and I should be there in about a day. Stay in town, stay near Aqua, and please try to avoid getting into trouble, okay?"
"I can promise two of those" the younger Islander responded, making the elder groan as the screen went black.
Sora felt guilty about lying to Riku and using Roxas as an excuse. Combine that with all the Darkness Sora took in, and his concern about Vanitas…all of those things were truly starting to wear on the boy in a way that his other selves couldn't do much to mitigate. The charade would fall apart soon. It had to for Ven; but then everyone would know just how little Sora had done…
Sora was snapped out of his musings by his companions telling him Aqua was waking up. When Sora entered the room, Aqua was panicking about the fact that she couldn't summon a Keyblade, but at the sight of Sora, she took a clearly untrained boxing stance.
"I know I look and sound like Vanitas but I'm not him. Ven has said good things about you, so you should probably be the one to hold on to this," Sora said, calling 'Masters Defender' to hand. He presented it to Aqua who took the weapon, quickly calming some with it in her hand. "You should probably dismiss that. I don't think either of us want to deal with Heartless right now," the youth said, threading his fingers together behind his head.
After a moment the sword vanished from Aqua's hand. "You said you know Ventus. How?" the bluenet demanded, making Sora sigh.
"He visited my world a long time ago and we forged a bond. After everything that happened twelve years ago, Ventus's heart somehow ended up resting and recovering in mine. Over the last two years we've been looking for his body and a way to put his heart back in among other things." Aqua nodded before Sora spoke up. "Anything to do with Terra is better explained by someone who has a better understanding of hearts than I do."
Aqua's face fell at that. "What about Xehanort?" asked Aqua.
It was Sora's turn to frown. "Still alive, sadly. Despite the efforts of just about everyone I know over the last two years." The keyblade master's expression completely fell upon hearing that. She stumbled into a chair, leaving Sora to scramble and try and improve the woman's mood. "The King and some of my other friends will be here in a few hours, then we can wake up Ven, then we can find a way to end this once and for all." The islander said doing his best to mimic Ven's mannerisms.
As the two simply sat Sora finally invited his guards back in, both apparently having had interactions with Aqua in the past. No one saw the inky blackness darting from shadow to shadow eventually taking rest in Sora's.
Eventually, The King and Riku arrived and it was quickly decided that Sora, Riku, and Aqua would take one ship to the Land of Departure as the king and his servants would take another. It was clear that The King did not want to face whatever past he held with Aqua.
The two gummi ships landed, and the four keyblade wielders made their way to a structure, all whites and grays and towers at odd angles. "Castle Oblivion… Not exactly thrilled to be here again…" Riku said under his breath, making Sora raise an eyebrow.
Still, as Aqua called her keyblade the building began to take on color and unfold, the mass hiding in Sora's shadow darted out into a nearby patch of shade. Finally the doors opened and Aqua guided those present to an unconscious youth sitting on a small throne.
"Alright Ven, it's finally time," Sora said before piercing himself with the Kingdom Key, drawing out the ragged yet restored heart of Ventus and sending it to its proper vessel. But just as the false light began to open his eyes, disaster struck as a shadow leaped from around a corner and into Aqua.
A moment later a hand pierced out of her and Aqua shrieked in pain as another hand emerged. Pulling itself from Aqua's form was the doppelganger of Sora and the darkness ripped Ventus, Vanitas stepped out of the long suffering master who collapsed behind him.
"I must say having a body of my own feels much better that I remembered," Vanitas spoke, a sadistic glee in his voice. "Dear brother its so nice to see you open your eyes after more than a decade," he taunted, slowly making his way to the throne Ventus sat in.
"I won't fuse with you!" Ven said defiantly.
His shadow sighed. "The old man's idiocy is a thorn is everyone's side, brother. As it stands, both of us are much more useful as we are."
Just then Riku charged in with a slash only for Vanitas to vanish and reappear right behind Sora. "Seven lights and twelve darknesses. Time to complete that number," Vanitas said, then drove his hand into his doppelganger's back.
The sound Sora made was inhuman. It was as though the concepts of agony and anguish had been given voice, and yet Vanitas grinned. "This…now THIS is darkness! Sora to think you've been holding back on me for so long!" His tone was positively giddy before finally pulling his hand out of Sora, triumphantly holding an extremely damaged heart. He placed it in his own chest.
"Give her back…!" Sora said weakly as Vanitas warped to the chamber door.
"Sorry Sora, if you want your friends back, you're going to need to come to the graveyard in the next month," said the living darkness as he created more Unversed than Ventus or Aqua (who had struggled to her feet) had ever seen.
Sora turned on his heel and bellowed three words at the army. "GIVE IT BACK!" He summoned Oath-keeper to one hand and Oblivion to the other. Vanitas quickly jumped through a portal of darkness as his Unversed charged.
What happened next could only be called a slaughter, as rare was the force that could endure three masters and two apprentices of the keyblade, especially when Roxas removed three quarters of the force himself.
When the battle was over the five lights were panting and struggling to stay on their feet. Riku was the first to break the silence. "Shouldn't we go after him and take back that light he pulled out of Sora?"
The youth in question tried to think of anything missing but felt nothing. He took a breath before speaking. "We have a month to train and shouldn't waste it. If Vanitas was being honest, we may be able to get Terra and… the other one who may be missing back. Aqua, there are two other students who need to be trained named Kairi and Ax.. and Lea. Ven, you should go with her. Riku, Mickey, I'm sure Yen Sid has something for you," Sora said before starting to walk off.
"And what are you going to do to get stronger?" Riku asked.
"Same thing I've done every time," Sora replied.
Riku nodded. "I'm going to tag along. We never did go on an adventure together. And we both know you're going to ditch any other guard we give you."