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“Roxas…” Xion said, clenching a fist in front of her chest. She’d never seen her boyfriend this angry before, and to be honest, it scared her a little. “…Don’t kill him.”
Roxas took two slow breaths, and smiled, sadly. “Xion, I love you, but… I can’t promise that.” The look on his face, however, was enough to reassure her. Roxas had no intention of hurting Vanitas more than was necessary.
Though what was “necessary” might be more than “not at all”.
Roxas flicked his hood up and stepped through the Dark Corridor, which closed behind him. Sora let out a long, held breath. “Oh… kay… Not exactly how I thought this would go.”
“I’m not entirely certain you thought this through at all, Sora,” Aqua said, a sharp tone in her voice. “Did you really think we could just sit down and talk through this?”
Sora looked at her like she was crazy. “Yes? Why not?”
“The fact that you have to ask that indicates to me that you don’t understand. And I pray that you never will.” With that, Aqua got up and dusted herself off, then left the room.
Ven, in all this time, still hadn’t looked up. Xion looked at him, curiously, and realized that Ven and Roxas did share something other than their face: the set of their shoulders when something was on their mind. She elbowed Lea.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Hey, Sora, we should probably tell the old man about the corridors,” Lea said.
“Uh… yeah, yeah, you’re right,” Sora said, looking back and forth between Ven and the look on Xion’s face. They quietly filed out of the room, leaving Xion alone with Ven.
Xion sat down across from Ventus, and waited. Eventually, Ven said. “Is it that obvious?”
“It’s obvious that something’s bothering you,” Xion answered. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t know what that something is.” She shifted in her seat. “Do you want me to start making guesses, or would you like to tell me?”
Ven looked up at her and smiled faintly. “Those my only options?”
Xion shook her head. “No, if you don’t want to talk about it with me, I understand completely. But… you look like you need someone to talk to. And it seems clear to me that it’s something you can’t talk to Aqua about. Maybe… because it’s about Aqua?”
Ven sighed. “About Aqua, and about Vanitas, yeah.”
Xion nodded. “I figured.”
“She doesn’t understand,” Ven said.
“And you can’t make her understand?” Xion asked.
Ven tensed. “She won’t listen to me.”
“…Did you try?” Xion asked. Ven couldn’t look at her. “I get it. You’re scared that she won’t listen, so you haven’t tried to talk. But, Ven, if you don’t try, she never will. And I think you know that,” she added.
Ven was looking down at his hands again. “…I do,” he said, eventually. “But she feels so strongly about this, I…”
Xion tentatively reached out a hand and put it on his shoulder. “Would you like moral support?” she asked, gently. “I could go with you.”
Ven looked up at her in surprise. “Really? You’d do that?”
She smiled. “Of course. I know we haven’t really talked all that much, but we’re all in this together, right? Someone has to be the first to reach out.”
Ven looked at her, surprised but happy, and Xion had to hold back a giggle, because it was the same look Roxas would give her when she complimented him without warning.
Ven’s mood seemed to fall a little bit. “Well… I suppose now I really don’t have a reason to put this off. Do you mind if we go right now?”
Xion rose to her feet. “Of course not. Lead the way.”
Ven stopped in front of his and Aqua’s room and swallowed. He looked back at Xion, and she nodded, giving him a thumbs up. Gingerly, he knocked on the door.
They could hear heavy footfalls crossing the room until Aqua wrenched the door open. “WHAT – oh, sorry, Ven,” she apologized. “I didn’t realize it was you.”
“You okay, Aqua?” Ven asked, even though she clearly wasn’t. He swallowed. This was going to be a rough talk.
Aqua forced a cheery smile to her face, but Ven could see right through it. “Yeah, I’m fine, Ven. Why?”
Ven sighed. “You don’t look fine. Do you mind if we come in? I think we’re overdue for a talk.”
“We?” Aqua started to ask, then noticed Xion. “Oh, Xion, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were there!”
“It’s okay,” Xion said, waving her hand. “I’m just here because Ven thought I should be involved, is all.” Cute. It was both true, and also not the truth. But, saying she was there to back Ven up if it came to it would’ve put Aqua on edge.
Not that that wasn’t inevitable, Ven supposed, but better to start the conversation in good faith.
Aqua sat down on the edge of her bed, and Ven sat down on his, moving the privacy screen so they could talk. Xion filed in awkwardly behind Ven, sitting higher up on his bed. “What’s this about, Ven?” Aqua asked, with a soft smile.
Ven took a deep breath; it’s necessary when you’re about to jump right into the deep end. “I think you’re being unfair to Vanitas.”
The temperature in the room dropped by ten degrees. “Excuse me?” Aqua said, quietly. There was a hard edge in her voice that hadn’t been there previously.
Ven resisted the urge to cringe. “Aqua, I know you heard me.”
“Oh, I did,” Aqua said, still quiet and cold. “I just didn’t believe it. Being unfair to Vanitas?”
Ven swallowed, and nodded. “I know he’s… difficult, but–”
“Difficult?” Aqua snorted. “I suppose that’s a word for it. If not the one that I would use.”
“–but even so, I don’t think you’re giving him a fair chance,” Ven continued, determined. “Remember what Kairi said, when we put him back in a body? He’s not going to change if we don’t give him the opportunity.”
Aqua laughed, humourlessly. “Ven, have you not been paying attention? He’s not going to change! He’s horrible! Have you not heard the things he…” she trailed off, realizing something. “No, actually, you haven’t, have you? He avoids you.”
Ven nodded, slowly. “And yeah, I’ve kind of been avoiding him. But I’ve heard enough, Aqua. Enough to know that what I just saw in the common room is nothing new. And it’s not just Vanitas being difficult.”
Aqua’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like your tone, Ven. I think I’m treating him with all due consideration, considering who he is. Considering what he is. If anything, I’ve been more lenient than I should be.”
“More lenient than you should be?” Ven asked, incredulous. “Aqua, I don’t know how you could be less!”
“I’m letting him live, aren’t I?” Aqua said, quietly.
There was an icy feeling inching its way across Ven’s chest. The worst part wasn’t what Aqua was saying, although that was bothering him quite a lot. The worst part was that he had heard this before.
“Forgive me… but you must exist no more.”
This ran deeper than Ven had thought. He took a deep breath, trying to shake off the fear. “If you don’t give him the room to change, he never will. The way Naminé tells it, he only recently realized he even could change. But if you keep treating him the same way, he’ll respond to it the same way. Hostility in reaction to hostility. What he did, he did because Xehanort gave him a choice of ‘do my bidding or be disposed of’. He saw what happened to me when I couldn’t do what Xehanort wanted. We’ve never seen him when he’s not backed into a corner, fighting for his life! Everything he did, he did because he had no choice!”
Aqua stared at him. “Oh, that’s not true, Ven,” she said, with a smug undercurrent in her voice. “There is one thing he did purely out of malice. In Neverland, when he tried to kill me, he baited me into fighting him. He stole Terra’s wooden Keyblade, the one you left with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys? Stole it, and snapped it in two to make me fight him.” A small, satisfied smile grew on her face.
Ven stilled. The icy feeling in his chest was still there, but something else rose up, too. Rage, the kind he’d never truly felt before. It burned hot, bright, and intense, and he could barely think straight.
And it wasn’t directed at Vanitas.
“…And instead of telling me this,” Ven said slowly, calmly, barely keeping his voice in check, “you waited. You waited, to use it as ammunition, in an argument?”
Aqua’s smile slowly faded, as if she hadn’t realized the full implications of what she’d just done.
Ven broke eye contact with her, turning away towards the door. “Sometimes, Aqua, you really are–” He cut himself off, shaking his head. “I need to step out. We’re not done talking, but I need to cool off. I’ll be back in a bit, and hopefully you’ll be ready to talk to me like an adult.” He opened the door and walked out, catching a glimpse of Aqua reaching towards him, regret on her face, mouth opened in supplication, but he closed the door behind him and walked away.
He needed a second of privacy, a place to get away for a couple of minutes, to burn off the emotions tearing him apart. Idly, he wondered if this was what Vanitas had felt like all the time, way back when. So much anger and pain and sorrow and betrayal, with no healthy outlet.
Eventually he happened upon one of the closets of cleaning supplies, in and out of which he could swear he had seen brooms walking under their own power. There didn’t seem to be any present, so he shut himself inside and locked the door with his Keyblade. He’d never tried this before, but it seemed like it should work.
He cast Silence on the room around him, and screamed.
He screamed and screamed until his voice was raw and hoarse, until the tears could start. He screamed until his throat hurt more than his heart. He screamed until there was nothing left, nothing but tears and emptiness.
The door closed and Aqua slowly lowered her hand, tears misting in the corners of her eyes.
She’d fucked up.
Badly.
And she couldn’t see a way to make it right.
On the one hand was her brother, asking her simply to be the person she always tried to be.
On the other hand was the person who’d tried, and partially succeeded, to rip her family apart.
There are some things that can never be forgiven.
Hopefully what she’d just done wasn’t one of them.
“You aren’t wrong, exactly. But I think you know you aren’t right, either.”
Aqua jerked up in surprise, having forgotten that Xion was also in the room. “I… I know. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t have,” Xion said. “And I know you’re going to apologize as soon as Ven gets back. But that’s not what I was talking about. You’re refusing to listen to Ven.”
Aqua shook her head. “Xion, I can’t just… let go of what Vanitas did.”
“So you’re determined to hate him, no matter what he does going forwards?” Xion asked, quietly.
“I…”
“You know, I think part of the problem is that Vanitas can’t let go of what he did, either,” Xion said.
“Huh? I… don’t understand.”
Xion sighed, and leaned back against the wall. “No one passes through something like what he did without… scars. We get changed by our experiences. We get used to certain things being ‘normal’. So it’s hard to change how we behave after a drastic change in circumstances. It’s hard for someone who was created to be a weapon to adjust to just being… a person, who people want around just because, regardless of whether they’re useful or not.”
Aqua frowned. “We don’t all want Vanitas around, though. Or, I don’t.”
“I wasn’t talking about Vanitas,” Xion said softly. “I meant me.”
Aqua’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
Xion stared at the floor. “‘Xion’… is something of a cruel joke,” she said, quietly. “In the Organization, they took their names as Somebodies, added in an ‘x’, and scrambled them. ‘Sora’ became ‘Roxas’, ‘Lea’ became ‘Axel’, ‘Braig’ became ‘Xigbar’. ‘Xion’ is…” she breathed out, slowly. “I was designated as Replica No. i. The imaginary number. Take ‘n’, ‘o’, and ‘i’, add an ‘x’, and…” She trailed off. “Number XIV of Organization XIII. ‘Xion’. A weapon designed to steal the power of Number XIII, take it for itself, and become a perfect copy of Sora, the Keyblade Master. Well, master of the Keyblade,” she amended. “Everyone thought there was only the one, at the time.” She took a deep breath in. “So what do you do with a weapon that doesn’t work?”
“I…”
“Toss it out. Get rid of it. Put it on the junk heap,” Xion said. There was an emotionless drone to her voice. “If it’s worthless, if it can’t do what it was designed to do, if it’s useless, why keep it?” She swallowed, hard. “That was my reality for the first year of my life. Roxas and Axel were the only shining points. They covered for me, helped me. Not that it mattered, in the end.”
“If it mattered to you, it mattered,” Aqua said, simply.
Xion graced her with a smile. “Thank you. My point, though, is that even now, after a year of friendship with people who actually care about me, after a year of being in love with my best friend, after a year of having an actual parent looking after me as best she can, I still worry sometimes that I’ll be tossed aside. That if I can’t pull my weight, I’ll be left in the dust. I know,” she said, holding up a hand to forestall Aqua’s immediate protest, “I know none of you would ever do that. But that fear was my reality for a very long time. At the time, it was necessary. It’s not now. But it’s too ingrained in me to just be put aside. Maybe, hopefully, given enough time, I’ll overcome it if I work on it. But I can’t be different immediately. What I need is what I have: an environment where I don’t have to be constantly on edge, where I have the room to grow.”
There was silence for a second or two. “That last bit was also about Vanitas, by the way,” Xion added, a little ruefully.
“I got that,” Aqua said, quietly. “So what you’re saying is that he’s being…”
“A complete and total jackass,” Xion supplied.
Despite herself, Aqua huffed out a chuckle. “That, yes. He’s being like that because he hasn’t gotten comfortable enough to lower his guard?”
“It’s easier to push people away than confront the problem head on,” Xion agreed. “He’s never had people like Sora in his life before. He’s being an ass as a reaction to that. He doesn’t know what else to do.”
The door opened, and Ventus walked into the room. He and Aqua stared at each other for a moment, and a flash of fear ran though Aqua.
“Ven, I… I’m sorry. Both for not telling you sooner, and for telling you now, like this,” Aqua said, hoping and praying he could tell how much she meant it.
Slowly, Ven nodded. “I forgive you, Aqua, but… I think I’m still going to be mad at you for a while.”
“I… understand,” Aqua said, subdued, casting her eyes downwards. To her surprise, Ven stepped forwards, and enveloped her in a tight hug. “Ven?”
“I won’t be angry forever,” he whispered. “We’re still family. I promise.”
Aqua sniffed, and hugged him back. In the back of the room, Xion smiled. “Ven, Aqua, do you think you two’re ready to talk about Vanitas?” she asked.
The hug loosened enough for them to look at each other, and both slowly nodded. “Whatever you need to say, I want to listen,” Aqua said.
Ven grimaced. “I don’t think it’s going to be things you want to hear.”
Aqua shook her head. “Then that’s my problem. Please, Ven. I’d rather hear a painful truth than make you feel you can’t trust me.” A sad smile crossed Xion’s face.
“All right,” Ven said, pulling back away. He took a deep breath. “Aqua, the way you talk to, and about, Vanitas… it scares me.” He held up a hand, and her “why” died in her throat. “It scares me because it’s exactly how Master Eraqus was acting back when I found out about the χ–blade. It scares me because… because getting Terra back doesn’t mean he’ll stop having darkness in him. And if this is any indication, that isn’t something you can accept. I…” tears started to drip down his cheeks again. “I’m scared that you’re going to become just like the Master was.”
Slowly, Aqua reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “It was never about the darkness, Ven. It’s about Vanitas as a person. I… hate him, for what he did to us. For what he did… to me. You understand why I consider Terra to be a different case, right?”
“I do,” Ven said, slowly. “But seeing you full of hatred… it feels wrong, Aqua. This isn’t who you are.”
“…No.” Aqua said, quietly. “No, it is. Until and unless I work to be better.”
“You’re only human,” Xion said, softly. “You both are. …all three of you are,” she added. “Vanitas, too.”
Aqua bit her bottom lip. “It’s up to me… to choose what kind of Master I want to be,” she murmured.
Ven sighed. “There’s more,” he said.
Aqua nodded. “Then, please continue.”
“Vanitas isn’t me,” Ven said. “But… he could have been. If Xehanort had pulled the light out of me, instead of the darkness, then… then “Ventus” would have been his apprentice. Would have been your enemy. Your attitude, your hatred, scares me because if the coin flip had happened a different way, they would be directed at me. And I know you’re going to say it’s impossible, that you could never hate me,” he said, quickly, “but Vanitas is me, Aqua! He’s me that was stuck with Xehanort. I keep speaking out to support him because I could have been him, if things were just slightly different. And no matter what else he’s done, Vanitas deserves a second chance. He never got a first one.”
“I… see your point,” Aqua admitted. “You two are so dissimilar, though. I don’t think of him as being… you.”
“Usually, I don’t see him like that, either,” Ven agreed. “And I don’t think he sees me like that at all. But it’s the truth. I… don’t think I’d be all that different from him if I was in his place.”
Aqua considered this for a while. “Ven, there’s something I still don’t think I understand,” she said. “Why would… me sounding like the Master scare you? Master Eraqus was–”
“He was like a father to us,” Ven agreed. “But you didn’t seem him on that last day, Aqua. When Terra intervened to save me from him. He didn’t even bother to give Terra the benefit of the doubt, or let him talk. He just… assumed that Terra stopping him from… k-killing me… meant that Terra had joined the darkness. Terra pushed me though the Lanes Between, I-I didn’t see them fight, but… The Master looked like he was willing to kill Terra, too.” A tear leaked down his cheek, and Aqua pulled him into another hug.
“Actually…” she said, softly, “I… did see a part of it.”
“Huh?” Ven asked. “How?”
“Castle Oblivion,” Aqua said, “when we went to find your body. It showed me… that day, from your perspective. Everything right up until Terra jumped in to save you.”
“Why… why didn’t it show that part?” Ven asked, confused.
Aqua smiled, sadly. “Because it was only doing it to get me to fight. So when the Master attacked you, I… I did exactly what Terra did. Only… I didn’t even bother trying to talk to him first.” Her arms tightened around Ven. “I have no right to criticize Terra when I reacted exactly the same way. My reaction might have been worse, in fact; you make it sound like Terra tried to diffuse the situation. I just… reacted.” She took a deep breath. “I’m realizing that I’m… kind of bad at not taking bait. In the Castle, back in Neverland, and now, rising to Vanitas’s taunting.”
“Well, that’s something you can work on, right?” Xion said, smiling.
Aqua nodded, smiling as well. “Absolutely.”
Slowly, Ven smiled, too. “Glad to hear it. I’ve missed you, Aqua.”
She hugged him again. “I’m sorry I was gone so long, Ven.”
Lea and Sora had reported in to Yen Sid, who was slightly alarmed to hear that Roxas had discovered and used a breach in his defenses, and then split up as Sora wanted to talk things over with Kairi and Riku. Lea found himself sitting back in the common room when Xion walked in.
“Hey, they’re not back yet. How are you doing?” he asked.
Xion sat down next to him, and leaned into him, shaking a little. “Whoa, you all right?” he asked.
Xion shook her head. “I had to talk about some… painful things, to get Aqua to listen to Ven,” she said, “Do you mind if–!” Before she could finish the sentence, Lea swept her into a massive bear hug.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Hey, what are friends for?” Lea asked, smiling. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Xion pursed her lips. “… yeah, sure. Do you mind if I lay down?”
“Of course not,” Lea said, letting her out of the hug. “I’ve been told my lap makes an excellent pillow.”
Xion snorted. “By who?”
Lea shrugged. “I dunno, people. Now, what’s up?”
Xion lowered herself down on the couch, propping her head on Lea’s thigh. “There’s some similarity between me and Vanitas,” she said.
“How so?” Lea asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.
“Created to be used as weapons and it didn’t matter if we were people or not as long as we could do the job,” Xion said, in a droning monotone that instantly alarmed Lea. “And if we couldn’t do the job, to be disposed of.”
“Hey,” Lea said, stroking her head. “That’s not the way things are anymore. You’re stuck with us.”
He felt a wet spot on his leg. “I… I hate being useless,” Xion whimpered, so quiet he almost couldn’t hear her.
“You are not useless,” Lea said, lifting her up and hugging her again. “How important you are to us has nothing to do with Keyblades, or fighting, or any of that.”
“But I can’t do anything, Lea. I’m just waiting. For something that might not even–”
“Your Keyblade’s gonna come back. I promise,” Lea said. “And bullshit you can’t do anything. Look what you just did for Aqua and Ven.”
Xion sniffed. “It doesn’t feel like anything.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Lea said, patting her head again. “But it is. And it’s very important. Don’t want to fall apart because we can’t talk to each other. And we can’t put all of that stuff on Naminé, right?”
As he’d hoped, she giggled. “Right. Thanks, Lea.”
“What are friends for?”
“…mind if I keep lying here? You’re right, your lap is really comfortable.”
Lea snorted. “Yeah, go right ahead.”
Vanitas paused in front of the door, fist raised to knock. The meeting with the old sorcerer hadn’t been too hard, but this was something he had to do himself, without Roxas.
“Fuck it,” he muttered to himself, and knocked on the door.
“One sec, what’s… Oh.” Aqua said, opening the door. They stood in silence for a second.
“I… wanted to say that I… regret the way I’ve been speaking to you since I got back. What I did to you and Ventus thirteen years ago… I refuse to apologize for that. I did what I had to do to survive. I… do think it would have been… better… if hurting you and your friends wasn’t necessary for that, but it was. But, much as we might both hate it, we’re on the same side now. So… I’ll try to tone it down, at least. That’s all,” Vanitas said, not meeting her eyes.
Aqua started to respond, then bit her tongue. “…All right,” she said eventually. “I… suppose I haven’t been dealing with you in good faith, either. If you’re going to make an effort, I will, too.”
Vanitas nodded, and turned to leave.
“Vanitas?” Aqua called after him.
He turned back, questioning.
“I still hate you,” she offered, and smiled.
Vanitas grinned back. “I still fucking hate you, too, Aqua.”
One down, one to go.
Finding Ventus was significantly harder, but eventually Vanitas tracked him down to a balcony high up on the tower. He opened the door slowly, and Ventus didn’t react when he stepped out. There was no reaction at all, in fact, until Vanitas sat down beside him.
“I don’t know how to feel about you,” Ventus said. “You’re not me, but you were, once.”
“I thought I knew how to feel about you,” Vanitas said. “The weakling that couldn’t cut it. The reason I was where I was. I used to think that being able to put up with the – with Xehanort meant I was better than you. But…”
“But?” Ventus asked, glancing over at him.
Vanitas was staring at his hands. “Now I can feel something other than pain. So I don’t know how to feel about you. Things are more complicated than they used to be.”
Ventus looked back away. “Can I ask you something? Something personal?”
Vanitas rolled his eyes. “What do you do if I say ‘no’, Ventus?”
Ventus shrugged. “I just don’t ask.”
Vanitas considered this for a second. “All right, fine. Ask.”
“Were you going to try to kill Xehanort with the χ–blade?”
Vanitas looked up at him. “Yes,” he said, finally. “I thought it was the only thing that could stand up to him.”
“What were you planning on doing after?” Ventus asked, curious.
It was Vanitas’s turn to shrug. “I wasn’t. I couldn’t afford to think of an after.”
Ventus pursed his lips. “Were you ever… jealous, of what I had?”
Vanitas glared at him. “Excuse me?”
“I…”
“No, never mind. No, I wasn’t, because I managed to convince myself that your Light little family was what made you weak. What made me stronger. I didn’t need anyone.”
“You didn’t have anyone,” Ventus said, quietly.
Vanitas glared at him again. “Yeah, you want to make something of it?”
“Huh? No, I…”
“You what, Ventus?”
“I… I feel…”
“Oh, do you feel sorry for me?” Vanitas mocked. “I don’t need your pity, Ventus. I am what I am. I’m me. No one else. Not you, not Xehanort’s puppet. Just me.”
To his surprise, Ventus was nodding. “Good. That’s a good attitude to have. But… you might not need pity, but some people find it nice to know that others feel bad, knowing that they feel bad. In sympathy. It’s nice to know that others care for your wellbeing.”
“What, and you care for mine?” Vanitas scoffed.
“Yes,” Ventus said, simply.
Vanitas stared at him. “Wha… why?!”
“Because, even though we aren’t the same person anymore, we’ve got a lot in common. Do you remember anything from before the original ‘us’ was Xehanort’s apprentice?”
Vanitas blinked. “…no,” he admitted, begrudgingly.
“Neither do I. We both have a hole in our past. The same hole, actually,” Ven said. “That, and… you don’t have anyone else to care about you. And I find that sad. Not pathetic,” he hurriedly added as Vanitas’s face darkened, “just… Everyone needs someone.”
Vanitas sat back with a huff. “Not sure if I believe that. But, fine. Not like I can stop you.”
“Wait, you mean it?” Ventus asked, sounding surprised.
“What, did you say all that thinking it wouldn’t get you anywhere? What kind of idiot…” Vanitas trailed off. “I guess you are that kind of idiot, actually,” he muttered.
Ventus shrugged. “You never get anywhere if you don’t at least try.”
“Whatever. Guess it’s to be expected from a weakling like you,” Vanitas said, with only a slight trace of venom.
Ventus shook his head. “You keep calling me that, but you lost to me the only time we ever fought. So what does that make you?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.
“I… uh…” Vanitas said, caught flat-footed.
“Oh, I know,” Ventus said, with a hint of nastiness that Vanitas didn’t expect him capable of, “it makes you a loser.”
There was silence. Then, a sound came bubbling up from inside Vanitas. It wasn’t choked, or forced, but it was a sound he’d never genuinely made before.
“Are you… laughing?” Ventus asked, incredulous.
“I… I… yeah, I am,” Vanitas choked out between peals of laughter. “That… that was funny. I thought that was funny! I… Humour wasn’t something I could feel before!” Slowly, realizing the true import of what he was seeing here, Ventus smiled along. Eventually, Vanitas’s laughter came to a stop.
“A weakling and a loser, huh? Guess it’s better than nothing,” he said. “I still don’t like you, Ventus.”
Ventus nodded. “I still don’t like you, either,” he agreed. “But, we can work on that. We might never like each other, but that’s okay, as long as we try to get along.”
“Gross,” Vanitas commented. He stood up, stretching his legs.
“Hang on,” Ventus said. “Before you go. You still can’t summon your Keyblade, right? Because of the eyes?”
Warily, Vanitas nodded. “How did you know it was the eyes?”
“Because I’ve had nightmares about them,” Ventus said simply. “But I have something that might help.” He held out a small charm to Vanitas. It was silver, with wings surrounding a bright red heart. Oddly, it looked like it had been damaged at some point, like a piece was missing. “This Keychain is supposed to symbolize the memories I lost. Or rather, the memories we lost. It also doesn’t have any teal eyes on it.”
Vanitas frowned. “Your point?”
“Take it,” Ventus said. “Use it. Wayward Wind’s all I need.”
For what felt like the fiftieth time that day, Vanitas was struck speechless. “Hey, hurry it up, my arm’s getting tired,” Ventus said in a tone that could only be called teasing.
“I… can’t look at Void Gear to put it on. Would you… mind…?” Vanitas almost whispered, embarrassed.
“Sure,” Ven said, grinning, and stood up. Vanitas screwed his eyes shut, and summoned his Keyblade. “Done,” Ventus said, and Vanitas opened his eyes.
His Keyblade had transformed, the Keychain now dangling from the end. It was the same silvery-grey as the Keychain, broken wings and all, save for the broken red heart on the teeth. The new Keyblade didn’t look like it was in the best shape; but then again, Vanitas supposed, neither was he.
He banished Lost Memory and resummoned it a couple of times, making sure the Keychain would stay in place. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up,” he said. “Ventus… thank you.”
Ventus’s eyes widened. “What did you say?” he asked, but Vanitas was shaking his head.
“Once was all you get. If you weren’t listening, it’s not my problem.” He turned, and walked to the door, but stopped, looked back at Ventus, and smiled. It was small, miniscule compared to Sora’s, but it was a smile. And it looked right on his face. “Later, weakling.”
Ven beamed back. “See you around, loser.”
Vanitas’s smile widened as he shut the door.
An indeterminate amount of time ago…
A man in a black coat blinked in surprise. He hadn’t expected to see through the Gazing Eyes of Void Gear again, not after Vanitas’s initial death. And with the loss of the Gazing Eye of Way to the Dawn, he now had no eyes on the Guardians of Light.
“Well, not that that matters. Luxu did as I’m going to ask him to,” he muttered to himself. “Old Norty’s still got the Keyblade with no name. It’ll have to be enough.”
He pushed off on his desk and the wheeled chair brought him over to a small book lying open on another desk. “Now, let’s see,” he murmured. “I think… page three hundred and ninety-four, for this one. Yeah. Right before Aqua and Vanitas’s fight in Radiant Garden, and right after the Dissidia.”
He had to wonder if writing a book of prophecies out of chronological order was a dick move. It probably was, but it didn’t matter. It would be too easy if everything was laid out as it actually happened. The real dick move would be writing four chapters of it in a completely different book, then a prologue in a third book, then going back to the original book for the last chapter.
“Well, I’d put it all together before the last chapter came out, anyway,” he mused to himself. “Some of the chapters would be summaries only, though, can’t be bothered to do the whole thing again. Might lose some important characterization details, and have to ditch the resolution to some character arcs, but whatever.”
Regardless, it was coming along nicely. The Master of Masters sat back with a satisfied smile.
“Can’t wait to see what happens next…”