Summary: With a start Aqua pried her eyes open, but the brightness was too harsh, too unfamiliar, and she quickly pressed her eyelids back together, throwing her arm over her head to shield her eyes further with her sleeves. Still, it had been enough to send her mind reeling and the reeling intensified when she suddenly felt someone's light approaching her.

It wasn't some ordinary person's light, though. It was bright and strong, strong enough to soothe the soreness in her muscles and bright enough to further nourish the light that had just been reignited inside of her. In addition to that, it was strangely familiar. Stronger than she had ever seen it, with a barely detectable trace of darkness wedged deep inside of it, but part of it was so distinctly... Ven.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Disney/Square Enix.

Please enjoy!

It had been hours, maybe days since the last heartless had attacked.

It made Aqua nervous. Usually, every now and then at least a small shadow heartless popped up out of nowhere, acting as a constant reminder of where she was – as if she needed to be reminded of that. But everything had been quiet for a while and she wasn't sure whether she simply wandered into a less populated place... or something worse was waiting ahead.

Yet, she followed the dimly lit path in front of her and after what felt like another couple of hours, the scenery slowly changed. The dirt tracks had turned into rough sand and a dark gray ocean had started to appear along the horizon.

Tranquility started to wash over her at the sight of her element and she hurried her steps, eager to get closer to the waves before she saw a figure in the distance. A figure clad in a black cloak.

Aqua stopped immediately, gauging the situation.

The figure in front of her seemed to move very subtly and smoothly, not jerky and aggravated as the heartless tended to move. And while she felt darkness inside the figure, she also felt a faint light, something the heartless distinctly lacked. Her heart sped up as she started walking again.

Another being from the Realm of Light?!

The figure was quite tall and their back faced Aqua as they sat on one of the rocks that were situated on the beach. Aqua slowly stepped to his side, eying him before she spoke up.

"Who are you?"

A soft grunt escaped the figure before they turned to Aqua, their face concealed by their hood.

"Why, hello," a male voice answered her. "It's not often I get visitors."

Not often? How long had he been here?

"Please, call me Aqua. Why are you sitting here all alone in the Realm of Darkness? How did you end up here?"

"Well...," he replied, turning his head back to the ocean. There was a source of light in the distance, glowing in a faint, cold blue that illuminated the beach.

"I can tell you this is my second time on these shores. But unfortunately much like the first, I do not remember who I am or whence I came. Everything was washed away in whatever currents carried me here."

"That's too bad," Aqua answered with a hint of regret as she dropped her glance. She, too, turned to the light now – any light helped in the perpetual darkness, no matter how cold it was – and sat down on the sand.

"I know I've been here a long time, wandering through the endless hours, unable to escape..."

She drifted off, hugging her legs to her upper body. Maybe sitting down hadn't been the best idea after all as the cold now started to creep into her bones.

"You wish to return to your own world?"

Aqua closed her eyes and suppressed a tired sigh before she nodded.

"It's my friends. I promised I'd be there for them."

"Your friends? Somewhere in the scraps of memory I have left, you remind me of a boy I once knew. He is very much like you – true to his friends, and kind. This boy travels to many worlds and fights to keep the light safe."

She shortly glanced at him and a frown crossed her forehead as she repeated his words.

"'Keep the light safe?' I've been away too long. Did something happen out there? Are the worlds in danger?"

"Sad to say, they nearly fell to darkness more than once. But at every turn that boy arrived with Keyblade in hand to save the day."

"Huh?" Boy? Keyblade?

Her heart skipped a beat and she couldn't suppress the hopeful smile that made the corners of her mouth curl upwards as she leaned towards her companion.

"Wait a sec. Is his name Terra or Ven?"

A few seconds passed with her heart beating rapidly in her chest before the figure next to her slowly shook his head.

"Neither of those, I'm afraid."

The little bit of hope she had managed to gather dissolved and with that, her body felt incredibly tired again. Sighing, she drew her legs back to her chest. wrapped her arms tightly around them and rested her head on her arms, her eyes turned to the ocean but not focusing on it.

"Should've known..."

"How long has it been since I met him? At least a year now, perhaps more... Back then, my heart was clouded with vengeance. I did terrible things... both to him and his friends. I brought unhappiness to more lives than one."

The man continued his tale and although she rather wanted to get lost in her own thoughts, Aqua turned back to him and listened. It was nice to listen to something else than her own voice or illusions and something about this stranger's voice felt very soothing.

"I felt something must be done. Was that why? A means of clearing my conscience? Or perhaps, out of a sort of scholarly instinct? While the boy slept his long sleep, I hid the results of my research inside him, transplanting the data to where it might best serve a purpose. In fact, I would like to believe… Maybe he can set things right. A boy like him who touches so many hearts – he could open the right door, and save all those people whose lives I managed to ruin. So many are still waiting for their new beginning, their birth by sleep. Even me, and even you."

Something changed in her. A tiny flicker of hope started glimmering inside of her again and the ground felt a little less cold as she let go of her legs and turned her entire upper body to the man beside her. She looked up at him in anticipation; she didn't know why, but she knew that it was of utmost importance to know –

"What's this boy's name?"

"His name is… Sora."

The flicker turned into a burning flame and its warmth spread through her body, quenching the cold that had enveloped her. It fueled the light inside her heart that had grown weaker and weaker the longer she had stayed in the Dark Realm on her own, but now it had finally returned to its original glow.

It was strong, beautiful, overwhelming, and she couldn't hold back a tiny sob and the tears that rolled down her cheeks as she turned back to face the light across the ocean.

"Sora," she repeated with a smile before closing her eyes. A heavy weight materialized in her right hand and to her surprise, Master's Defender had appeared, pulsating in her hand. Confused as to what was happening, she quietly rose from her sitting position and let the Keyblade guide her. She grasped the hilt with both of her hands and lifted the Keyblade until it pointed at the light in the distance. Light started to glow at the tip of the blade and immense power started to emanate from the blade, forcing Aqua to push against it and stand her ground, much like she had to when she transformed the Land of Departure.

"Stand back," she shouted over her shoulder at her companion, though she didn't dare to take her eyes off of the Keyblade, "I don't know what's about to–!"

Her words got cut off as the light that Master's Defender emitted engulfed her and after another pulse of power through her entire being, she lost consciousness.

The first sense that returned to Aqua was her hearing.

She heard the waves of the ocean ripple against the beach, slow and rhythmic, lapping at the sand and retreating back into the deep waters. From the opposite direction, the sound of streaming water splashing down reached her ears, only interrupted by the occasional screech of a sea gull.

A soft breeze blew against her skin, gently rocking her fringe and tickling her nose with a salinity high enough that made her twitch and roll her head to the side so her cheek rested on the smooth sand beneath her. A small sigh escaped her lips when a soft ray of warmth touched her face and different colors started dancing behind her eyelid.

… Something was not right about that picture.

There was no waterfall at the shore she had just reached. No animals lived in the Realm of Darkness, the wind was cold and harsh and the sand felt moist and rough.

And most of all, the light was as cold as the sand and didn't make you see more than murky colors.

With a start Aqua pried her eyes open, but the brightness was too harsh, too unfamiliar, and she quickly pressed her eyelids back together, throwing her arm over her head to shield her eyes further with her sleeves. Still, it had been enough to send her mind reeling and the reeling intensified when she suddenly felt someone's light approaching her.

It wasn't some ordinary person's light, though. It was bright and strong, strong enough to soothe the soreness in her muscles and bright enough to further nourish the light that had just been reignited inside of her. In addition to that, it was strangely familiar. Stronger than she had ever seen it, with a barely detectable trace of darkness wedged deep inside of it, but part of it was so distinctly... Ven.

"Whoa, take it easy!" A male voice answered her. One, that was so close to but ultimately different from Ven's.

Her heart sank again.

"Are you okay? Do you want to sit up?"

She nodded tiredly and a pair of hands carefully supported her back while she got into a sitting position and only let go of her when she seemed stable enough on her own.

"Here," She felt some kind of garment hit the crown of her head, "this will keep the sunlight away until your eyes adjust."

With shaking hands, she pulled what felt like a jacket over her head completely, trying to block out as much light as possible as she leaned forward to brace her upper body against her propped up legs. Only when her surroundings seemed to become considerably darker, she dared to open her eyes slowly. They burned and teared up, but she managed to open them against the dim interior of the jacket. She took a breath, about to thank the stranger, but it irritated her throat and she fell into a coughing fit.

Someone patted her back as she convulsed and when her body grew too tired to continue heaving, she felt something hard and stringy being placed into her hands.

"Water," the voice – Aqua decided that it must have been the voice of a teenage boy – told her.

She weakly nodded in appreciation before she carefully lifted the bowl to her lips and took a small gulp. It hurt as the water passed her throat, but the coolness soon started to soothe the burning pain and she started to drink the water a little more greedily. After quenching her thirst for the time being, she placed the coconut next to her before she dared to move the jacket a little. Immediately, everything turned harsher and brighter and she squinted her eyes close again.

"Thank you," Aqua finally managed to utter, her voice barely above a whisper.

"It's nothing!" The teen answered her and she could nearly feel the grin that spread on his lips. "How are you feeling?"

"... awful," she answered truthfully and turned her head around, opening her eyes again. Colors started to seep into her vision. "But I'll manage. Where am I?"

"You're on Destiny Islands! I was on my way back to my friends when I found an abandoned Keyblade in the sand. I picked it up and it started glowing, guiding me to the keyhole of this world. Before I knew it, it unlocked the keyhole and opened a passage to the Realm of Darkness. There I found you, lying unconscious on the ground, and Ansem the Wise who knelt beside you."

"Ansem the Wise? Is that the name of the man that was with me? Where is he?"

She slowly tugged on the jacket on her head again, allowing her eyes to accommodate to the increasing intensity of the light.

"Yes, that's his name. He is alright, he's just sleeping. He helped me carry you into the shadow of this tree, but the Realm of Darkness has tired him out a lot."

"I see," she muttered and after a moment of consideration, she tugged the jacket off of her head. She still had to squint her eyes a little, but at least she could now look into the eyes of her savior.

His eyes were deep blue, a shade that achingly looked like the perfect blend between the shades of Terra and Ven, and this trend continued in his hair that was caramel colored, too light for Terra's brown and too dark for Ven's blond. While definitely adolescent, he seemed slightly younger than herself, around Ven's age when she last saw him.

Everything about him seemed strangely familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"My name is Aqua," she finally broke the silence that spread between them and laced her fingers together in her lap, "you mind telling me your name?"

"Ah, sorry!" He uttered with a crooked grin and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment before puffing out his chest and pointing at it with his thumb.

"I'm Sora!"

Aqua's smile faltered and the beating of her heart increased.It wasn't possible... was it?

"Sora," Aqua bit her lip and unlaced her hands to dig them into the sand, balling her fists in it, "do you – do you know a boy named Riku?"

"Riku?" Sora repeated with a startled expression and for a second Aqua hoped that her mind was playing her tricks –

"Of course I know him, he's my best friend!"

It wasn't. She definitely had seen this boy before.

He was a small child back then, maybe four years old, with unruly brown hair and big eyes. But she recognized him. His brown hair had lightened and his skin tanned, probably with exposure to the sun. His eyes had become narrower and richer in color and his jaw, once round and smooth had now sharpened, though not yet having developed the angle of a grown man.

He couldn't be. But he was.

"How old are you, Sora?"

She saw the confusion spread across his face once again.

"I'm about to turn 17 in a few weeks."

Seventeen. He had been a mere child when she last met him, shortly before she fell into the Realm of Darkness. She had spent thirteen years in the Realm of Darkness.

It had been thirteen years since she had saved Terra with her armor, but ultimately sent someone way darker back into the wold. It also had been thirteen years since she had hidden Ven's body in the Land of Departure, ultimately condemning him to stay trapped until she returned to free him.

Thirteen years.

"H-Hey, it's okay! It'll be okay."

Aqua glanced up at a pair of concerned eyes. Only now did she realize that she had curled up into a tight ball, clutching her knees with a painful force to her chest as sobs wrecked her body and tears streamed down her face freely. Sora knelt in front of her, his arms halfway stretched out towards her, but he was unsure how to proceed. Finally, he settled on shrugging off his jacket once again and now draping it over Aqua's shoulders before he timidly placed a hand one one of them. She shook her head.

"I've been gone for thirteen years." She buried her head in her hands. "I failed them again. I failed them before and now I failed them again..."

"My friend blamed himself a lot for failing us," Sora suddenly started and moved to sit down next to Aqua, their shoulders touching. "A lot happened back then. He fell into darkness, but he pulled himself out of it. He didn't forgive himself for the longest time even though we did. We never even blamed him. But he blamed himself, and that's what kept him from healing. Don't keep yourself from healing."

As discreetly as she could, Aqua dried her eyes on her sleeves before she turned her head towards Sora, seeing that he had turned his head away to give her that privacy and she was very thankful for that.

"Did he heal by now?"

"He still has his odd moments," Sora answered truthfully, with a small grin, "but yeah, he did. He does need a constant reminder that we trust and love him, though. And your friends surely love you, too."

Aqua sighed and rested her forehead on her crossed arms.

"Ven is trapped in our old home land and Terra... he succumbed to the darkness. I saved him from falling into the Realm of Darkness, but I have no idea whether he returned to the light or not."

"Then we'll just have to help you rescue both of them! If Riku returned from the darkness, why wouldn't Terra be able to do it?"

At that mention, Aqua's head shot up and she turned to Sora with wide eyes.

"Riku succumbed to the darkness?"

"And overcame it on his own. Mostly."

Aqua turned away again and let her gaze fall to the sand in front of her. Was it destiny that Terra's inheritor succumbed to darkness just as Terra had? But then again – if Riku could overcome it... wasn't Terra able to do it, too?

She buried her head in her arms again. Back before she fell into the Dark Realm, she would have immediately answered Yes, of course!, without a second of doubt. But now? She didn't know where he was or if he was even alive anymore.

She balled one hand into a fist and dropped the other one down to her pocket, tracing the edge of the wayfinder that rested in it with her fingers.

No, she knew. Terra was strong, he wasn't dead. He either defeated the darkness or was still fighting. There was no other possibility.

"Aqua?"

The young woman looked up again.

"I mean it. You're not alone in this." Sora crossed his arms dramatically and grinned at her. "I'm with you. And I've got powerful friends that will help, too. Kairi, Lea, Riku's even a Keyblade Master! And so is King Mickey. We can't fail with so many friends on our side!"

"Riku is a Keyblade Master?" Aqua placed her hand over her heart in surprise and Sora nodded away cheerfully.

"Yeah! He passed with flying colors!"

The corners of her lips curled up slightly as she regarded the teen.

"And Mickey is alright, too?"

"We'd be in deep trouble without His Majesty and Master Yen Sid, that's for sure!"

A small chuckle escaped Aqua and Sora clapped his hands in excitement.

"There we go! We can't start our journey with a sad face, you know?"

To avoid a happy sob, Aqua refrained from answering Sora, simply flashing him another smile before she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, reveling in the light that shone so brightly in that boy's heart.

That's when she remembered Ansem's words.

A boy like him who touches so many hearts.

She gasped. That was why his light was so unnaturally strong and so awfully familiar. His heart had touched Ven's heart. It was Ven's light that shone so brightly from within him!

This was where Ven's heart chose to rest. And maybe many other hearts, too.

Without a warning, the young woman enveloped Sora in a tight hug. She felt a telltale heat spread into the cheek that was pressed against her collar bone and felt his arms awkwardly flail behind her back, unsure how to handle the situation, but she only hugged him tighter.

He gave her so much hope. For herself, for Terra, for Ven, for the worlds.

"Thank you, Sora. For everything."