Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A teenager with dark tanned skin and a shock of snow-white hair styled back with long bangs stood in front of a couch with his arms crossed, looking with gold-speckled silver eyes into the deep gold ones of a pale-skinned teen with spiky black hair who was laying languidly on said couch, where he had been reading a book that he looked thoroughly uninterested in.

“Vanitas,” said the white-haired teen, devoid of any inflection.

“What do you want, ‘Norty?” Vanitas said with virulent boredom.

Xehanort frowned. “I told you not to call me that.”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Well, I gotta do something to distinguish you from the old guy. Would you rather ‘Junior’?”

“I’d rather Xehanort. And you won’t need to distinguish us, because we’re not going to be here anymore.”

Vanitas sat up with interest. “We’re not? Did the old guy finally give us something to do?” It was about time; Vanitas was sick of being told to just be on so-called standby. Kid Xehanort had disobeyed orders, so it made sense for him to be on standby as punishment, but Vanitas had done nothing to offend the old man, at least that he knew of. Then again, Vanitas was always offending people in some way or another; that’s just who he was. He was pure darkness, so he was rude and mean and people didn’t like him. Par for the course. Vanitas didn’t mind. Really, he didn’t! Who needs friends, anyway?

Xehanort scoffed. “No. We’re leaving. I’m fed up with him.”

Vanitas raised his eyebrows briefly—this was very unexpected—then arranged his face into a smirk. “Well well well. Teenage rebellion striking, huh?”

“No. He’s just being stupid. He left me in that sleeping world for weeks waiting for some kid that didn’t show up, which he only wanted me to talk to for some reason, something about using psychology to bring out darkness,” Xehanort said with a snort as he crashed next to Vanitas on the couch. “Like that would actually work. Kid’s basically all light.”

“I dunno,” Vanitas mused, ignoring how close the other teen was sitting. If it were anyone else he’d stab him in the gut for daring to sit so close to him… well, okay, maybe he’d be okay with the Riku replica too. “That kid does have a fair amount of darkness he hides. But he also has a Princess of Light and the former-vessel-that-conquered-the-darkness on his side. Plus some people sleeping in his heart, including my counterpart, who is pure light. So even if he did fall, it wouldn’t be for long, since they’d all jump in to save him.”

Xehanort scoffed. “Exactly. Plus he has like stupid-strong magic; I scouted him out, saw him training with Merlin. Considering the sleeping realms enhance magic, I’d never be able to fight him when it inevitably came down to that; I’m not nearly powerful enough.” This was news to Vanitas. Previous intel had determined the kid sucked at magic, and Vanitas was pretty sure the whole Organization thought so too. Interesting.

Vanitas shrugged. “Hey, don’t sweat it, you’ll learn. You’re only fifteen after all,” Vanitas said, in a rare show of a semi-comforting attitude. Hence why he said an age younger.

“Sixteen,” the white-haired teen corrected, unphased. Damn, Vanitas had wanted to ruffle his feathers. “And so are you.” Xehanort frowned. “Why did he even bring us here? He’s like eighty-something. Surely there are better options.”

Vanitas sneered. “Well, I’m pure darkness, and he wants darkness…” He narrowed his eyes. “Which makes you make even less sense, actually. You’re still practically half-light,” he accused. It was true. Vanitas could sense it; this kid was from before he became fully enamoured with darkness. He was curious about it, but still very much light. The Riku replica even had more darkness!

Xehanort shrugged. “Who knows what goes on in the senile guy’s mind.”

“You know you’re technically dissing yourself,” Vanitas pointed out with amusement.

“I know. My opinion still stands.” Xehanort sighed in frustration. “This is so stupid. I didn’t ask to be here. Eraqus and I were in the middle of a chess match… I left to use the bathroom, then poof, I was here.”

“Then ask him if you can go back,” Vanitas suggested. Vanitas didn’t understand why Xehanort was so strung out over being away from this Eraqus kid. Vanitas never liked the old version of the guy—he had hidden Ventus from him. Then again, if teenage Xehanort was this different, maybe teenage Eraqus was too.

“Don’t you think I already tried that?” Xehanort growled, staring angrily at Vanitas. “He just laughed! Said I was being childish.” He switched his glare to a random spot on the wall. “Well, I’ll show him childish. I’ll make a plan that’s a thousand times better. You in?”

Vanitas crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “I dunno. What’s the plan?” The answer was yes regardless, as it sounded better than sitting around, but Vanitas liked playing around.

“I don’t have one yet.”
“
Vanitas grinned mischievously and stood up. “Chaotic, nice.” Vanitas thrived in chaos. Going in without a plan definitely was his type of thing. “Not like your older self at all, with his complex and convoluted meticulously-planned schemes… I think I’m gonna like this. Sure, I’ll go along with you, Norty.”

Xehanort stood up too and grinned. “Excellent. I look forward to it.” He held out his hand, and the noirette shook it. Xehanort grinned slyly. “Vani.”

Vanitas hissed. “What did you call me?” Vanitas had half a mind to murder the guy; a cutesy nickname? What, did he think Vanitas would actually go for that?

“Well, if you want to call me Norty, you’re getting a nickname too.” Oh, so it was petty revenge, a teasing thing. Huh. Vanitas was liking this kid even more. Perhaps Vanitas had underestimated the guy.

Vanitas narrowed his eyes. “Fine. I’ll call you Nort, then, better?”

“If I can call you Van.”

Vanitas made a face of mild disgust. “Ugh, whatever, fine,” he agreed unseriously. He wouldn’t use the nickname anyway, now that the other teen seemed okay with it. He only wanted to instigate, not become friendly. Vanitas wasn’t friendly. “Now let’s get out of here.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Kairi glared at the tall man with bright-red long spiky hair that had just entered Merlin’s cottage. “Why are you here?” she asked vehemently.

“HOW are you here?” Sora asked, highly confused. “I saw you die, didn’t I?”

“That’s a good question, Axel,” Riku said, highly suspicious. He stepped slightly in front of Sora. Only the three teens had been on the house’s ground floor when the man arrived, and Riku didn’t trust him. If this even was the same person—dead people typically didn’t come back to life, last Riku had heard.

Axel rolled his eyes. “Relax, I’m not here to fight. And I’m not Axel anymore, I’m Lea, got it memorized? I was recompleted, along with some of the other former-nobodies.”

“Recompleted?” Riku asked warily, hoping that didn’t mean what he thought it meant.

Unfortunately it did. Lea explained, “Yeah, apparently when a heartless and nobody both die, then they become an actual person again, who knew. Anyway, I’m here to learn to use this thing.” He summoned a fiery red keyblade. This did not create the expected result; rather than being surprised, the three kids paled. “What?” Lea asked. “Not the reaction I expected…”

Riku, and no doubt Sora and Kairi too, had been thinking about the implications of the Nobodies being recompleted; the keyblade, which looked similar to Axel’s—no, Lea’s—old fiery chakrams, barely registered.

“Um. Earth to teenagers,” Lea said, waving a hand in front of Riku.

Riku snapped out of his thoughts. “Sorry. Um, the keyblade’s really cool, but the recompletion thing kinda creates a problem.”

Lea frowned and dismissed the keyblade. “Well, sorry I ended up being alive. But I assure you, I won’t be a problem! I’m myself again. Same for Ienzo, Aeleus, and Dilan; they’re at the lab. We’re all nice people again, I promise. They promised to do no more icky experiments, since Xehanort’s no longer around to manipulate them, even though they still want to keep studying the heart for some reason. But not darkness, I swear!”

“I believe you,” Riku said seriously. He didn’t sense in Lea any more darkness than most people had. “The issue is that if you all got recompleted, then Xehanort probably did too.”

Lea visibly paled. “Oh. I didn’t think of that…”

“And there were a lot of other Nobodies too, right? Xigbar, Saïx, Vexen, and a bunch of others. So where are they? It’s a very real possibility that Xehanort found them first, or they found him, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose… aww, fuck. What do we do, then? We should tell someone, right? Who should we tell?”

Riku nodded. “Yen Sid would be the best option. He should be able to teach you the keyblade, too.”

Lea frowned. “I somehow doubt he’d be that willing. He kinda hates Nobodies, right?”

“But you’re not one anymore,” Sora pointed out.

“Yeah, but I doubt it’ll matter to him,” Lea said, and Riku had to agree. The old wizard was dead stubborn in his views on things. Lea continued, “Can’t I learn with you?”

Kairi answered that, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at Lea. “Um. You do realize you tried to kidnap me, right?”

“Yeah but he also saved my life,” Sora pointed out to her. “So that makes up for it, right? We can forgive him.”

Kairi turned her glare to Sora, who cringed. “I will decide who to forgive myself, thank you very much,” the redhead said with vitriol.

“But Kairi! He’s…”

“Wait, how did you even know we were here?” Riku asked curiously, ignoring the small quarrel. Kairi and Sora rarely fought for more than a handful of sentences. He’d explain to them the full details of that incident later—he’d forgotten that they’d never actually gotten the whole story, unaware that at that point Axel had been on their side and had been attempting to keep her safe before Saïx caught them. What a mess that had been.

Lea shrugged. “I’ve been recompleted for a couple weeks. I noticed you three at the market. Then some heartless appeared, and my keyblade just popped out instead of the chakrams, so figured I’d ask you about it.”

“And you thought we’d actually be willing to help?” Kairi asked, still sounding upset.

Lea shrugged. “Well, figured you wouldn’t like it. But Sora seems to like me, and I worked with Riku before, so I thought it was worth a shot.” Riku wondered why Lea wasn’t trying to explain to Kairi exactly why he tried to ‘kidnap’ her nor say that Riku and Naminé had been involved. Didn’t he realize that would resolve things easily?

“You’re right!” Sora said happily, confirming such. “Even if they won’t teach you, I will!” Riku sighed. He wasn’t sure if it was actually fully Sora’s feelings contributing to the amicability towards the redhead, or if Roxas played a part, but Riku could sense that Sora’s decision would remain unchanged regardless. Riku had mixed feelings on the matter, due to the tumultuous nature of his and Axel’s relationship.

“Wait, Riku, you worked with Axel?!” Kairi said, voice high-pitched. “When?! How?!”

Riku cringed. “Ummmm. I’m not sure ‘worked together’ is the right word. More like… collaborated towards the same goal?” How should he explain this? Things had been so complicated and messy. “As to the ‘when’, it started after Sora woke up after the year-long sleep, while I was in… that other body. The short version is, Axel betrayed the Organization, then helped watch over Sora and Naminé .”

Kairi blinked. “Naminé ? You helped Naminé ?” she put her hands to her heart and looked down at them, appearing to calm considerably.

Lea’s eyes softened. “Yeah. She really wanted to meet you. That’s why… well, I guess I went about it the wrong way, but that’s why I first went to you. But then Saïx appeared and realized he could use you to get to Naminé … I’m sorry. I should have explained things, rather than grabbed you like that.”

Kairi laughed slightly. “You think? But… I forgive you. Naminé says you’re a good guy.”

Lea blinked in slight confusion. “Th-that easy, huh?”

Kairi smiled. “That easy.”

“Wait a second,” Sora interjected. “Kairi, you can talk to Naminé ?”

Kairi shook her head. “Not really. But I can feel her heart. I can feel the trust she has for you, Axel—I mean, Lea.”

Riku was surprised too; he hadn’t realized Naminé was still separate like that. Was she in Kairi’s heart the same way Kairi had temporarily been in Sora’s? Was Roxas like that in Sora’s? Could the two actually be separated again, be their own persons? Riku found himself again questioning if he’d made the right decision by capturing Roxas; at the time he thought it was the only way, that what Ansem the Wise said was the truth, but the more he learnt about Nobodies the more he realized how wrong the man had been about them.

“I wish they could have their own bodies,” Sora said sadly, his hands to his heart the same way Kairi had done.

“Well, you could always have Ienzo take a look,” Lea suggested.

Sora’s head shot up to look at Lea. “Ienzo? Who’s he?”

“Former Nobody like me. He was an apprentice of Ansem the Wise, and continuing their work—not the stuff with Xehanort, just the more general, non-darkness stuff! Anyway. He’ll be in the castle.”

“The castle here?” Kairi asked. “Wait… Ienzo… I’ve heard that name… oh! Is he the cute guy with the blue hair?”

“Kairi!” Riku and Sora said at once in shock and slight jealousy, then looked at each other and laughed at the simultaneous reaction.

Kairi’s face turned red. “I didn’t mean it like that!” she insisted.

Sora raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Kairi’s face reddened more. “Okay, fine, maybe I did. Can’t always help who you find objectively hot. But you don’t have to worry, promise! You two are the only boys for me.” She reached towards Sora and Riku, pulling them into a hug.

Lea blinked at the interaction. “Am I gonna be some sort of fourth wheel?”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“THIS is your home world?” Vanitas proclaimed, looking around at the ruins.

Teenage Xehanort frowned. “Well, it was. Kinda. Technically I was born on the Destiny Islands, but I left when young and that place has everyone who wants to destroy us constantly visiting anyway. Here’s where I trained and where old me snatched me from; it feels more like a home to me than anywhere. Plus it’s abandoned… didn’t expect it to look like this, though; it hasn’t been THAT long, has it? Maybe there was some sort of fight?”

“Wait, backtracking a bit,” Vanitas butted in. “Destiny Islands? What’s with that place? Basically everyone ends up being connected to those somehow!” Literally. Even Vanitas was connected to it, even if only through Ventus.

Xehanort shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe that’s where the name comes from. Don’t really care though.”

“Well then what DO you care about? I get that we need a base. We have one now, if we can find a building that’s not in horrible disrepair. But what’s the end goal?” Not like Vanitas really cared, but it’d probably be good to have one.

Xehanort frowned and crossed his arms. “All I want is to go home. I want to see Eraqus.”

Vanitas tilted his head in curiosity. From the amount this Xehanort talked about him, they seemed close, but that was far from the case with the current-day one. “That’s the guy who trained Ventus and them, right? What’s his relation to you?”

“He’s my best friend,” Xehanort said immediately.

This just confused Vanitas. “But you kill him.” He might not have the best understanding of what friends were, but Vanitas was sure they didn’t kill each other. Maybe they had a fight and stopped being such.

Xehanort’s eyes grew wide and smoldered with a mixture of anger and shock. “I WHAT?”

Vanitas cringed. Right, the kid didn’t know that, and now he’d have to explain. What a bother. “Yup. Apparently you have a falling out or something?” The noirette shrugged. “Dunno the full details. You got in a fight to the death about twelve years ago. He was trying to prevent your older self’s plan or something.”

“Okay, I have a plan now: we kill him. No one kills Eraqus and gets away with it.”

Vanitas was having trouble comprehending this. Revenge was understandable of course, but… “He’s you. That’s… that’s messed up; I’m like pure darkness and wouldn’t even do that.” Especially not for someone else. Vanitas didn’t understand how someone could feel so strongly about someone else that they’d want revenge for them. Revenge for someone hurting himself, sure, but not someone else.

Xehanort shrugged. “Well, that’s the plan. You in or not?”

Vanitas thought for a moment. Well, he’d come this far; he wasn’t gonna back out now regardless of plan. “You know what, sure. It’s chaotic, it’s convoluted… my kind of thing. Plus, I got a lot of issues with the guy too. So, sure, let’s kill your older self.”

“You plan to do this alone?” came a voice in the shadows. “You’ll never make it.”

Xehanort and Vanitas jumped, automatically drawing their keyblades and facing the person. Vanitas was surprised he hadn’t noticed the observer; he practically lived in the shadows, being darkness himself.

Riku—the younger, still-edgy replica, not the original one—crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You should know my presence by now.”

“Are you here to retrieve us?” Vanitas asked, not lowering his keyblade. Xehanort, who had started to lower his, raised it again. It was weird they’d send the replica; old Xehanort still didn’t seem to fully trust him.

“Well, that depends on why exactly you plan to kill the old guy,” Riku replied. “They did ask me to find you. Didn’t say what I should do after.” He shrugged. “I never asked to be involved with them; all I really care about is protecting Naminé.”

“Naminé?” Vanitas asked. He hadn’t been told about any Naminé.

Riku got a wistful look in his eye. “Yeah. She was Kairi’s Nobody. Worked for the Organization for a bit, but by force, so ran away. She returned to Kairi, but I recently learned that she developed a heart, and it still remains separate but inside Kairi. If only there were a way to get her out of there…”

“That’s just like Ventus,” Vanitas said quietly. Ventus was in Sora’s heart.

“He’s one of the lost keyblade wielders, isn’t he?” Xehanort asked. Vanitas blinked in surprise. Huh. It seemed he honestly hadn’t been told very much, which would be yet another reason to be pissed at his older self. Vanitas was certainly pissed he’d been kept in the dark a lot, too, both now and twelve years ago.

“Yeah…” Vanitas said wistfully. “He’s my other half. Old Xehanort split the original; I was made by the darkness that was in him, and Ventus is the light part. Your old self tried to use that to make the X-Blade, but failed. Hence why he’s using this new plan for it.” Vanitas had no clue what the guy’s obsession with the X-blade was, honestly.

“Do you know where he is now?”

“What do you think ‘lost’ means?” Vanitas snapped. “Hmph. Well, I don’t know where his body is, since Aqua hid it somewhere before she vanished, but I actually do know where his heart is—inside Sora.”

“Sora,” Xehanort said darkly. “Ugh. He’s the kid my old self wanted me to taunt in the sleeping realms, but he never showed up! Three weeks I waited there. Three weeks!”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “And you’re mad at Sora for that?”

Xehanort bit his lip, then sighed, deflating a bit. “No, I guess not.” He then shifted back to anger. “But I sure as hell am pissed at my old self over it! Like, come on, even if he had showed up it was a stupid plan. Psychology? Really? Pfft. That’s crap. Wouldn’t have worked.”

Vanitas raised his eyebrows and whistled. “Wow. You are the total opposite of your old self.”

“Even more reason for him to die.” Xehanort turned to Riku. “So, you in, or do we need to kill you? Because we need to keep this secret.”

Riku pursed his lips as he thought for a moment before saying, “One condition: we rescue Naminé.”

“And Ventus,” Vanitas quickly added, uncharacteristically sheepish. It was somewhat embarrassing he felt so strongly about rescuing someone, other half or not. Vanitas was supposed to not care about people, right? He’d always been told he was an uncaring asshole. Well, maybe it wasn’t actually caring; it’s not like he’d keep the kid around long after. He wanted to merge, needed to. They were two parts of a whole, so that’s how it should be… right? Then again, the one who told him that had been Old Xehanort, who was a manipulative bastard…

Young Xehanort sighed. “Fine, we’ll rescue them.”

“First,” Riku said. It sounded non-negotiable. Vanitas understood the sentiment. Plus it made logical sense, as they’d need time to figure out how to destroy Xehanort’s old self anyway.

“Okay, fine. We retrieve your people, then we get revenge for all the shit my old self did,” Xehanort agreed. “That’ll be easier anyway. Now, let’s figure out a plan...”

Chapter Text

Sora strolled down the Radiant Garden streets, far away from the main area cataloging what was still in ruins and what was needed to fix it. The castle was finished and so were the shops, main roadways, and houses in the central area, but these outskirts still needed a lot of work. Some of the buildings would probably need to be torn down; they could replace them with gardens. Aerith was really pushing home-grown foods for the community—currently, it was nearly all imported from off-world, which got costly, which was not a great thing for a place still recovering. Sora sighed, scribbling a note on the ledger he had. Another building to be destroyed.

Today was not a good day for Sora; many of the houses in this area were of similar design to those in the Destiny Islands neighborhood in which he had lived, painfully reminding him of how he’d been kicked out of his home by his mother, disowned simply because he liked both girls and boys—specifically, Riku and Kairi, whom he was dating. They were a trio. Sora smiled as he thought of them, of his lights.

Sora neared a shadowy building, heading into the small alley between it and another to assess the yard. He realized the sun had already nearly set; how had so much time passed? He’d have to return tomorrow to finish the work. He didn’t want to return tomorrow. Perhaps he could do a few more now; it’d get too dark to finish cataloging them soon, but the more he did now the less he’d have to do tomorrow. Maybe Riku or Kairi could also—

Sora let out a scream as someone suddenly grabbed him from behind, though it was muffled thanks to something on his mouth. He dropped the ledger; his eyes grew fuzzy and his mind slowed, and Sora realized a cloth had been pressed onto his face, soaked in a sweet-smelling liquid. It tasted sweet, too; his mouth had opened when he screamed. Sora’s world faded to black…

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Is he wearing a dress?”

“Interesting… blackmail material, maybe?”

“It would be, except that he was wearing it public, so pretty sure he doesn’t care.”

“No, it’s a tunic, you two dunderheads. Lots of guys around here wear them. Besides, both of you used to wear weird half-skirts, so I don’t think you have any right to comment on his choice of clothing.”

“That was part of the darkness outfit! That YOU designed, mind you!”

“I did no such thing.”

“Fine, but you will!”

Sora slowly rose to consciousness, trying to identify the voices. There were three of them, and two seemed slightly familiar… one was definitely Riku, but it sounded a bit higher and rougher, like he had a few years prior. Another sounded like… himself? But deeper. Sora opened his eyes, but it was dark wherever they were… no, he was blindfolded? Something was in his mouth, too; it felt like fabric, gagging him. He was also tied to something. A chair? Ropes were around his ankles, and his hands were tied behind him, around the back of the chair. Sora tried to summon his keyblade, but couldn’t get a grip on it and it fell to the floor.

“A keyblade won’t help you,” the voice Sora didn’t recognize said with a chuckle. “Ropes cannot be unlocked with keys.”

“Mmm mmm mmm?” Sora said, attempting to ask ‘who are you’.

“Ugh. Why is he gagged again?” The voice that sounded like Sora’s but darker asked.

“I dunno, you’re the one who did it,” came the voice that sounded like Riku’s. Why did these people sound like him and Riku? Did the Organization make copies? Sora vaguely remembered Riku saying they’d done that once. But wait, the Organization was gone, right?

“At your request! What’s it, some fantasy you have?”

“Um, eww. I like Naminé, remember?”

A scoff. “Yeah? Well, maybe some feelings lingered from—”

“Don’t. You. Dare. Say. It.”

“Mmm mm mmm mmmm!” Sora tried to say ‘what do you want?’

The gag was torn from Sora’s mouth; Sora coughed a little in response. Next the blindfold was removed, again quite violently. He found himself staring at someone who looked nearly identical to him, albeit with black hair, golden eyes, and a slightly paler complexion, as though he’d never gotten any sunlight. Sora’s brain short-circuited as he stared at the person, unsure how to process everything. He was in a dim, dusty room, illuminated by a single fading electric light. There was a musty smell. A basement? Next to the Sora-lookalike was a Riku-lookalike. Not his Riku; this one was too young, shorter and with much too long hair tied in a low ponytail. It definitely was a Riku, though. The final person, standing to the side, looked scarily like Xehanort, with the dark skin and white hair, although he was a teenager so that was impossible. Then again, maybe this was his recompleted form? But no, he wouldn’t return so young, would he? Sora had no clue how it all worked.

“Well? Gonna say something?” the Sora-lookalike asked, appearing irritated.

“Huh?” Sora said, still processing.

“I think we broke him,” his lookalike said to the Riku-lookalike. “Maybe he IS into that stuff.” He turned to Sora. “So. You’re trapped, you gotta listen to us, got it?”

Wait. Sora could have smacked himself. He knew keyblade-less magic! What use was all of Merlin’s awesome magic training if he didn’t actually use it when it mattered? Sora had learned some object manipulation things just the prior day. What was the spell? Oh, yeah. Sora muttered it under his breath; the ropes around him untied themselves and shot at his lookalike, wrapping themselves around him while Sora leapt back—tripping over the chair in the process. “Aww, fuck,” Sora muttered as he stood up; he saw his lookalike melt into darkness and out of the ropes, then appear behind him, slamming him in the back with… a keyblade?

The Riku-lookalike rebound the ropes around Sora, reinforcing them with some type of darkness as he tied him back to the chair. “Why the fuck didn’t you say he could use magic like that?” the silverette yelled at the white-haired man.

The man shrugged. “All intelligence reports stated the opposite. Blame Saïx.”

Sora gasped. “You’re with the Organization!” he realized upon hearing the name. He tried the spell again, but the ropes held fast. He tried a small fire spell, then a light one, but it resisted both.

“Aww, Norty, you screwed up,” the black-haired Sora said in a teasing voice.

“Hey! You…”

Sora listened to the three argue for a bit, totally baffled. He knew some of the Organization members were unhinged, and that it was overall very disorganized, but this was on an entirely different level. His and Riku’s lookalikes looked seconds away from fighting each other; they both had their keyblades out. Wait. Keyblades? The Organization could use keyblades? Sora was so confused. Then, he remembered he needed to escape… but how? Wait. Sora could have smacked himself again. Duh! Merlin was always telling him to be clever, to think smart, that magic had many purposes, especially certain magic that Sora was quite fond of. Thankfully he used this one so much he didn’t need words… as his body changed, Sora easily slipped out of the darkness ropes.

“Hey, where’d the kid go?” Sora’s lookalike asked a second later, noticing it quicker than expected.

“Fuck! You let him escape?! How!?” yelled the white-haired teen.

“Well, there wasn’t a cat around before, was there?” noted Riku’s lookalike. “And when you asked that it froze mid-step and is now staring at us, so it's probably not a normal cat.”

“He can do that too?!” Sora’s lookalike said loudly, and Sora snapped out of his surprise and started running.

“Stopra.” The spell landed a direct hit on Sora, and he found himself frozen as the white-haired teen stepped over to him… once in his visual, Sora noted he too had a keyblade. Since when did so many people, let alone bad guys, have them?

Something was thrown over Sora right before the stop spell wore off. A cage? No… a laundry basket. A pretty sturdy one, too, seeing as his lookalike was now sitting on it. Sora examined the holes between the wire mesh. Could he change into something small enough? A snake would be perfect, but he still had trouble with smaller animals like that; ironic, since usually people got those first. What’s the smallest he could go? A squirrel? Hmm. There might be just enough room to squeeze through. And if not, he could chew through. Right… oh. Wait. He couldn’t quite yet do what Merlin did, changing directly between different species—he had to be human first… oh. Wait a minute. Sora was being stupid, again. He summoned his keyblade, which appeared as a smaller version that he held in his teeth, and began slashing at the basket, wrapping it in fire magic to weaken the metal as he struck it.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Riku’s lookalike grumbled. “If I ever see Saïx again, I’m gonna kill him.”

“Well, if he’s with Xehanort, you might have to,” Sora’s lookalike pointed out.

“Hmph. I just want Naminé back. It’s this one who wants to kill the old guy.”

Sora froze, then dismissed the keyblade so he could talk. “Wait, you want to kill Xehanort?” he asked in shock. “But aren’t you with the Organization? And what do you want with Naminé?”

“Oh, good! You finally ready to listen?” Sora’s lookalike exclaimed.

“Wait, he can talk as a cat? How?” the Riku lookalike asked.

“Quiet,” the Sora lookalike snapped. “Just chalk it up to magic. Let’s get to the point.” He turned to Sora. “So, again, ready to listen?”

Sora debated. He was awfully curious. “If you release me,” he decided.

The three briefly debated, then removed the basket. Sora changed back into his human self, immediately using a sleep spell on the three. He bound them together with the rope, which he changed into metal with another spell for extra security, and then used a counterspell to wake them. The three looked briefly confused, then angry.

Sora crossed his arms, standing over them. “Okay. So, you three are going to explain what the fuck is going on, right now, or else.”

“Or else what?” Sora’s lookalike sneered.

Sora debated. “Or else you’ll be hurt,” he decided. “And if that doesn’t work, you’ll die.” He wouldn’t actually kill them, but they didn’t know that.

Riku’s lookalike scoffed. “You? Torture and kill us for information? Please.”

Sora put on his best sneer, trying to sell it. “Oh, really?” He wiggled his fingers, coaxing some of the metal rope around the lookalike’s neck and then tightened it momentarily.

Riku’s lookalike coughed when Sora released the rope, then looked at Sora in wide-eyed disbelief. “F-fuck. Y-you’re serious.”

Sora’s lookalike smirked at Sora with a malicious grin that could only be described as ‘evil’. “Well well well. Seems you’re more like us than anticipated. Nice.”

Sora frowned and shot the noirette a glare. “I’m nothing like you.” He drew his keyblade, pointing it at the boy. “Now, talk.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku felt Kairi’s hands around his shoulders as he cried, seated on the couch in Merlin’s house that liked to change colors. Today it was sky blue… the color of Sora’s eyes. Normally Riku hid his tears, but he just couldn’t help it at the moment—this was Sora, one of his lights, his boyfriend, and he was missing. Missing! They’d searched Radiant Garden for him, yet the only hint they found was the dropped ledger Sora had been using to catalog buildings. Something had happened to him; had he been captured? Had Xehanort made his move? He couldn’t lose Sora again. Everyone else was still out looking, but Riku had broken down upon finding that ledger, fallen into a panic, so Leon sent him back with Kairi.

The door opened, and in walked Sora, albeit tepidly, and only stepping in a little. “Okay, don’t freak out,” he began. “But—”

“Sora!” Riku yelled, vaulting over the coffee table and over to the brunette, pulling him into a hug and holding him tightly, tears dripping into his spiky hair. “I was so worried…”

“Riku, I wasn’t gone that long,” Sora mumbled into Riku’s chest.

“Oh, man, he has it bad,” someone drawled from behind Sora.

“Ugh. You’re supposed to be my original, I expected better than this.”

Riku slowly looked up, freezing as he saw the three figures behind Sora, only one of which he recognized: that one, who had just spoken, being himself, although younger—based on his words, the replica the Organization had developed, whom Riku had encountered before in Castle Oblivion; the second looked like a black-haired, golden-eyed Sora that reeked of pure darkness; and the third looked disturbingly like a teenage Xehanort, albeit with silver eyes instead of gold—did the guy have a kid? That was a disturbing thought.

Riku pulled Sora inside and drew his keyblade, pointing it at the three. The three all drew keyblades in response. What…? Keyblades…? Even his replica…? Riku’s brain lagged, trying to understand it.

“Whoa, whoa, Riku, wait!” Sora said, stepping in front of him. “It’s okay! They want to help us beat Xehanort! The old one from this time period.”

Riku lowered his keyblade a fraction, processing that as Sora got the three to dismiss their own keyblades entirely. He had so many questions. Riku settled on, to start, “This time period?”

“Yup! This Xehanort is from like eighty years ago, and not a big fan of the current one. You of course already know this is your replica, and this is Vanitas!” Sora flung an arm around the shoulders of the raven-haired version of himself.

“I told you, no touching!” Vanitas grumbled, shoving Sora off. Riku resisted the urge to chuckle; Santa himself had lectured Sora about personal space, but apparently the brunette still hadn't learned that lesson.

“Let’s all sit down for this,” Sora suggested. He strolled over to the couch, plopping down next to a shocked Kairi and putting his arm around her. Riku cautiously followed, keyblade still out and keeping a close eye on the three unexpected visitors as he sat next to his girlfriend, arm around her shoulders on top of Sora’s.

The house provided three armchairs for the new arrivals. Xehanort (what. the. fuck.) sat on a lime green one, Riku’s replica took a red one; and Vanitas—

“There is no fucking way I’m sitting in a neon-pink armchair,” the noirette complained.

Xehanort rolled his eyes. “Get over it. It’s just a chair.”

“Then you sit in it,” Vanitas snapped.

Xehanort gave him a smug look. “Nope. Already comfortable.”

Vanitas turned to Riku’s replica.

“Don’t even think about it,” the silverette said.

Vanitas shrugged. “Fine.” He walked over to Riku’s replica’s oversized armchair and squeezed in next to him; somehow, they both fit. Riku hadn’t realized how much he’d physically grown in the past couple years, and of course Vanitas was very thin because he looked exactly like Sora (again, what. the. fuck.).

Riku’s replica shoved Vanitas and scowled, but didn’t fully push him off.

Riku tried to process this as the three continued bickering. A teenage Xehanort, Riku’s replica, and what appeared to be an incarnation of pure darkness with his boyfriend’s face were joking around and teasing each other like typical teenagers. What was going on? Was this some sort of strange fever dream?

“Stop arguing over chairs and start explaining!” Kairi suddenly loudly screeched, with quite a lot of vitriol in her voice, causing the whole room to become silent.

So Vanitas, Riku’s replica, and teenage Xehanort explained.

Once they were finished, Riku stared at the three. “You’re all replicas?” he asked.

“THAT’S what you gathered from all that?” Vanitas said, face contorted into an expression that was probably some form of disbelief.

Riku’s replica actually pouted. “We’re not replicas. We’re using replica bodies. Our hearts are real hearts.”

“Yeah,” Vanitas said, surprising Riku by defending the replica. “You know he’s sensitive to that.” No, actually, Riku didn’t know, as this was the first time they actually had talked amicably, but he wisely said nothing; Vanitas was probably trying to start an argument. He seemed to thrive on chaos.

Xehanort cocked his head in curiosity, actually realizing why Riku was interested. “You’re looking for a way to release Naminé and Ventus too, aren’t you?”

Sora nodded. “And Roxas,” he added. “I, uh, didn’t actually know about Ventus until today, remember?”

Suddenly, the door opened, and in walked Leon and Cloud. The two men froze, taking in the new additions to the group.

Cloud found his voice first. “I see you found Sora.”

“Why are there two sets of Riku and Sora?” Leon asked blankly.

“Do NOT call me Sora,” Vanitas growled. “I’m Vanitas, pure manifestation of darkness, unlike the ball of blinding light over there.”

Xehanort immediately said to the boy, “Vani, you might want to find a nicer introduction; darkness scares—”

“What did I say about calling me that?!” Vanitas bristled.

“Hey, calm down!” Sora said firmly to them. “You can address nicknames later. Stay focused.” Riku blinked, completely thrown by Sora being the one to tell people to focus. Usually it was the other way around.

“And stand up,” Kairi suggested, though she made no move to do so herself, nor did Sora and Riku. “Introductions means shaking hands… uh, or not,” she said as the three glared at her, although they did stand.

Riku’s replica sighed. “I’m, well. I’m Riku. I’m a replica the Organization developed a while ago. But I’m not with them anymore!” he assured them, waving his hands in front of him.

“I’m in a similar situation,” Xehanort said, clearly being more careful with his words. “I wasn’t developed as a replica, but I’m using a replica body, since my heart was transported through time, also by the Organization. Which I also want no part of. In fact, I’d like to destroy them.”

“Time travel,” Leon said faintly. “And replicas. And the Organization is back?”

“Wait. You never gave your name,” Cloud said to Xehanort.

Xehanort actually blushed slightly and looked down, clearly nervous. “I’m, uh…” his voice reduced to a barely-decipherable mumble. “Xehanort.”

“What was that?” Leon said sharply.

“Xehanort,” the white-haired teen said, still quiet but loud enough to be heard.

Leon and Cloud tensed, but managed not to do anything in reaction. They stared at the group for a long while. “Okay…” Leon finally said. “I’m going to bring everyone else here, and you’re going to explain.”

Vanitas sighed loudly. “Seriously? We just did that! Twice!”

“We’re also trying to keep things a secret, here,” Riku’s replica pointed out. “If Old Norty finds out what we’re planning, we’re gonna either be very dead or he’s going to use that possession thing he does to control us.”

Riku raised an eyebrow, stifling a laugh. “‘Old Norty’?”

“We need some way to differentiate them! And Mister Teenage Angst refuses to take a nickname, so the old guy gets it instead.”

“What did you just call me?” Xehanort bristled, glaring at the silverette.

“We need something different to call the Rikus too,” Kairi added in, giggling.

“Riku Junior,” Vanitas concluded, gesturing towards the replica. “RJ for short.”

“No way in hell,” Riku’s replica spat. “And why do I get to be the ‘junior’, anyway?”

“Uh, because you’re like a foot shorter and, technically, not even two years old, duh.”

Riku’s replica had no answer to that.

“How about R2?” Sora suggested. “Short for Riku 2.”

“I’m not a freaking droid,” came the reply.

“Hmm…” Sora mused, then turned to Vanitas. “Oh! What do you think, Vani?”

“Not you too!” Vanitas growled, though it sounded close to a whine as he sunk into the back of the armchair with his hands in his hair. “Why do people keep calling me that?!”

Kairi listed the names. “Okay. So for nicknames, we have R2, Vani, and Norty, correct?” she said teasingly.

“NO!” all three said at once.

“Actually, I kinda like R2,” Vanitas mused, looking at the boy next to him.

Xehanort nodded. “I agree. It’s kinda catchy.”

Riku’s replica groaned; a very faint blush formed on his cheeks. “Fine, whatever. I’ll go by R2, happy?”

Riku chuckled to himself. It actually wasn’t that bad a nickname, and he suspected the copy of his younger self secretly thought so too. He had been a big fan of any and all space-related films as a kid, due to his fascination with other worlds, so his replica most likely inherited that too… It was kinda weird, having someone out there who literally shared most of his memories—and now they’d be working together.

Chapter Text

Of course, the Radiant Garden crew hadn’t been the only people requiring notification that teenage Xehanort, R2, and Vanitas had switched sides. Well, in a way. They all had their own reasons, so it wasn’t really switching sides as much as it was simply working towards a common goal. Then again, Riku thought, technically the ‘sides’ were light and dark, right? But you can’t split things so evenly. So many people weren’t in either. Riku himself walked the path in the middle, the path to dawn. Plus those three were keyblade wielders… Riku hadn’t realized that people harboring so much darkness could be such. Actually, come to think of it, Vanitas was the only truly dark one there. R2 was just like Riku darkness-level-wise, and teenage Xehanort, although there was a strong darkness within him, somehow had more light at the moment, which seemed bizarre. Old Xehanort must have pulled him from a time before darkness had taken him over—which clearly had not been smart on his part.

The group intentionally arrived a little late; they’d told Mickey (who’d bring Donald and Goofy surely) and Yen Sid they needed to urgently meet, and they didn’t want any of the four to see the three ‘dark’ keyblade wielders before being prepped and freak out. First, Sora and Riku would enter with Lea, whom the masters also didn't know about yet; then, Kairi would enter with the dark trio, as Riku had mentally been referring to them as. They figured Kairi being alone with them would lend some trust to it when they were revealed, especially because she and apparently Naminé had decided to put their full trust in them. Riku figured that must be a Princess of Heart thing, intrinsically knowing whom to trust. Or a Naminé thing. Riku was still wrapping his head around the fact that Naminé actually had survived and apparently she and Kairi could communicate through heart-feelings or something. Sora claimed he could feel Roxas, too. They needed to get them replica bodies asap.

Riku knocked on the door and entered the office—as expected, Mickey, Yen Sid, Donald, and Goofy were there. Sora and Lea followed him in; the four audibly gasped when they saw the latter.

“What is the meaning of this?” Yen Sid asked right away. “That is a Nobody!”

“Yeah!” Donald added. “He’s with the Organization!” he took out his staff.

“Donald!” Mickey chided. “He’s here with Riku and Sora. We should get the whole story first.”

“Gawrsh, Sora, are you wearing a dress?” Goofy asked, apparently thinking that was the more pressing matter. Riku tried not to roll his eyes at that, else it’d be taken as rolling his eyes at the other subject. Besides, the answer was clearly yes, Sora was indeed wearing a pretty blue knee-length sleeveless pleated dress that fit him quite well.

“Yuffie put it on me,” Sora explained quickly. “She was… persistent about it. I, er, forgot to take it off before coming here.” Right, ‘forgotten’—despite his protests otherwise, Riku suspected Sora actually enjoyed wearing feminine fashions, as such had been happening more and more since leaving the Islands. Not that Riku minded—the opposite, actually.

“Okay, firstly, I’m no longer a Nobody,” Lea said, ignoring the dress conversation. “Secondly, you do remember me saving your lives, right?”

“You kidnapped Kairi!” Donald accused.

Sora quickly corrected that. “That was a… misunderstanding, more or less. He actually was working with Naminé and Riku at that point… but that’s a long story. Just know that things have been cleared up. But we’re not here to explain all that.” He turned to Lea, beaming. “Lea, show them!”

Lea grinned too, and held out his hand; a fiery keyblade formed in it. The room audibly gasped; even Yen Sid had an expression of shock on his face.

“What?” the old wizard gasped. “But a keyblade comes from the heart; Nobodies—”

“Told you, not a Nobody anymore.”

“Plus Nobodies can develop hearts,” Sora chimed in. “Roxas, Naminé, and… uh…” he scrunched up his face as though trying to remember something. “Roxas and Naminé did!” he repeated.

“Explain,” Yen Sid commanded Lea, back to his usual stoic demeanor, though seemed to be frowning slightly. “What do you mean by ‘not a Nobody’?”

Lea took a deep breath. “Well, apparently when a Nobody and their respective Heartless both perish, they are ‘recompleted’, or so Ienzo—his Nobody was known as Zexion—says. Meaning, we turn back into who we were before we were split. I’m sure you can extrapolate what else that means.”

Donald and Goofy looked confused, but Mickey and Yen Sid both gasped. “Xehanort,” they said simultaneously.

Lea nodded. “Bingo. And as to the others, some of the former Organization are working back at the labs, doing regular sanctioned research, but there’s a number that are missing. Chances are they’re with the new Organization… but I’ll leave that to the other unexpected guests to explain.”

“New Organization?” Mickey asked worriedly.

Yen Sid narrowed his eyes. “Others?”

“I’ll get them!” Sora volunteered, bouncing out the door.

“They’re with Kairi, outside,” Riku explained. “Please be calm. I promise you they don’t mean any harm; they’re truly… well, maybe not quite on our side, more like their own separate group with their own agendas, but they’re definitely against the Organization and wish to work with us. Please have an open mind. Promise you won’t attack before hearing things out.”

“Gosh, Riku, you’re acting like Xehanort himself is going to be there,” Mickey said jokingly.

Riku cringed in response. “Er. Not exactly… Um. Well.” How did he put this…

Lea solved that. “So apparently time travel is a thing.”

Yen Sid gasped and visibly paled. Yup, as Riku had suspected, the wizard could immediately tell who entered his tower. Yen Sid looked at Riku warily. “You are sure these three won’t attack us upon entry?”

“Providing you don’t attack them,” Riku said honestly. If they were attacked, those three would undoubtedly attack back.

Yen Sid simply nodded in response, expression returning to careful stoicism.

The door creaked open and Sora appeared, followed by Kairi. Riku nodded to Kairi, letting her know it was safe. Kairi turned around. “Come on in.”

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy simply looked slightly puzzled, but Yen Sid paled as he stared at Xehanort, who looked away nervously. Right, they had been friends…

“Well, I recognize Riku’s replica,” Mickey said, “But not the other two… but you both seem familiar somehow…” he gestured to Vanitas. “Well, aside from looking like Sora, I mean.”

“You’re used to seeing me in a dark suit and mask,” Vanitas said. Currently he wore black jeans and a black hoodie.

Mickey squinted slightly at the boy, thinking, then gasped. “Vanitas!?” When the noirette nodded, Mickey said sharply, “How are you alive? Why do you want to work with us? You’re—”

“Pure darkness, yeah, I know. It’s just a matter of mutual interests. Dunno if you know this already or not, but Ventus is kinda hiding in Sora’s heart right now. I want him out. Sora wants both Ventus and Roxas out. Simple.”

“What do you want with Ventus?” Mickey asked, eyes narrowed.

“Well, he’s my second half, isn’t he?”

“But you tried to kill him before.”

Vanitas shrugged. “Well, yeah. Xehanort kinda convinced me that was necessary. Turns out he was just using me…” Vanitas looked a little sad, then snapped back into his tough demeanor. “So I ran away before he could use me again. Now I want Ventus back. But not to merge. I just want him safe, and he isn’t safe if he’s asleep somewhere.” He seemed very firm on this stance, to Riku’s surprise. For an incarnation of darkness, he seemed awfully concerned for Ventus. Was it an act? Well, if it was, they could deal with that when the time came.

Mickey nodded, seeming to accept that explanation, for now at least. “You said Ventus is in Sora’s heart,” Mickey recounted. “What do you mean?”

“It’s the same thing my heart did,” Kairi supplied. “You know, after the Islands fell. Apparently Ventus’s heart took refuge inside Sora’s.”

Mickey nodded. “I see.” He turned to R2. “So, Riku—er, is that what you want to be called, or did you want us to call you something else?”

R2 actually blushed slightly. “Well, the others have been calling me R2, as in Riku 2. If I think of something better I’ll let you know, but for now that's fine.”

Mickey nodded. “Gotcha. So, then, why are ya here?”

“Same reason as Vani, but with Naminé.”

“I told you not to call me that!” Vanitas hissed.

Riku rolled his eyes. “The more you complain the more he’ll use it. Just let it run its course.”

Vanitas glared at Riku. “How would you know that?”

Riku raised an eyebrow at Vanitas. “Seriously? His initial personality was…” Riku didn’t want to say copied, as he knew how R2 felt about that. He settled on, “Similar to mine.”

“Boys,” Yen Sid said firmly, seeming to have snapped out of his shock. Everyone quieted. “So, you two want to separate Ventus and Naminé from Sora and Kairi respectively,” he summarized; seems he had been paying attention after all. He turned to Xehanort. “Then what is your reason for being here, Xehanort… and how are you here in this form? Lea mentioned something about time travel.”

Xehanort turned to look at the wizard and blinked at him. He sounded uncharacteristically nervous compared to how he’d been reacting prior. “Yeah… um. Sorry, Yennie.”—Yen Sid actually slightly blushed at that term of endearment; well, they’d been friends, and the Xehanort there was a teen, so a familiar nickname being used technically shouldn't be that unexpected—“Wait, you’re a Master now. Master Yen? Right. Um, sorry, it’s just really weird to see you… old. Er. Sorry, that’s rude.”

“Just get to the answer,” Yen Sid ordered, unamused.

“R-right. Time travel. I don’t know the full details, but apparently it’s possible to pull hearts through time if there’s a vessel waiting? And if they die or whatever they return to their own time with no memories of the future. So, old me has been doing that. He has replica bodies for the hearts. He’s doing that to fill out the Organization’s ranks.”

“I see… and they are all versions of himself?”

Xehanort shook his head. “No. There are Nobodies in it too. I don’t know all their names. But he’s been putting copies of his heart in them to make them extra loyal or something, because apparently half the previous group he made betrayed him? I dunno the details. Bastard didn’t tell me much.” It seemed he had returned to his former angsty attitude.

“I see…” Yen Sid replied. “You don’t seem very fond of your older self,” he commented.

Xehanort scoffed. “Is anyone?”

Yen Sid pondered that, then smiled slightly. “Well, your older self is certainly quite fond of himself.” Did he just make a joke? Riku was shocked, and glancing around the room it seemed like all but the new people were various degrees of surprised too, and that was just because they’d never met the wizard before now.

Xehanort scoffed. “That’s ‘cuz he’s some sort of egotistical, controlling, heartless maniac. He didn’t even ask if I wanted to come here. I was minding my own business, playing chess with Eri, and then bam, I’m seventy-something years in the future face-to-face with an ancient version of myself who is assuming I would agree to do whatever he says, the bastard. And what’s with all this evil crap? Like, sure, darkness is pretty fascinating, but to be fully dark? Nah. I want to control it and show people it isn’t so bad! Like this kid here.” He gestured to Riku. “But old me? He did the opposite. Just, totally fucked it all up. Hence, why I’m gonna kill him.”

Mickey gasped, and Yen Sid’s eyebrows looked like they wanted to rise into his hair. “And why would you want to do that?” the latter asked.

Xehanort shrugged. “I heard about Eri. I mean, Eraqus. So, revenge is in order.”

Yen Sid seemed unsure what to say to that, so Mickey did. “Gosh, I don’t know if revenge is the best thing. You look like you haven’t fallen fully to darkness yet—but if you kill someone, even in revenge…”

“Don’t care,” Xehanort said adamantly. “Anyone who hurts my bo—best friend gets it paid back tenfold. Since he killed Eri, he dies, even if he’s my older self.” Riku blinked in surprise, catching the slip-up. No wonder he was so protective and bent on getting revenge.

Sora whispered in Riku’s ear, “Kinda reminds you of us, doesn’t it?” Riku blushed in response. The three had drifted to the back, letting the others interact as they’d heard the general story before.

Kairi, standing with her arm around Sora, giggled quietly and whispered, “Think it was just those two, or was there a third?”

“Oh, gods, don’t want to think about that,” Riku whispered, catching onto what she was implying.

“I wonder if there’s a photo of the three,” Kairi mused. “Maybe the other two were hot too.”

“Kairi!” Riku hissed.

“Wait, who’s hot?” Sora wondered, a little too loudly.

“Would you three stop gossiping and pay attention?” Vanitas shouted at them.

“But we’ve heard it all before,” Sora whined. Riku sighed. Sora was getting bored. Not good.

“So? This is our fourth time explaining all this!”

“At least you get to do something! Listening is boring and tiring!”

“Well then why don’t you explain things instead!” Vanitas asserted.

“And then,” R2 interrupted loudly, arms crossed, “We’re just going to have you complaining about being bored, Vanitas. Seriously, you two are like mirror images, and not just with looks.”

“Why does he look like me, anyway?” Sora wondered suddenly.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Ugh. You can blame Ventus for that. I didn’t have an actual appearance until he touched your heart.”

Sora looked confused. “How can someone not have an actual appearance?”

“We are getting off track again,” Yen Sid said tersely. “Why don’t we backtrack a bit to who is currently in the Organization. Is there still thirteen?”

“Nah,” Vanitas answered. “The three of us dropped out, and they wanted Sora for their last one, so—”

“WHAT?” Riku interrupted. Multiple others in the room echoed similar sentiments. Sora? In the Organization? Was the old guy crazy?

“Oh, right,” Xehanort said. “Did I not mention that? They infiltrated the Mark of Mastery exam thing. If Sora went through it, he’d have become a vessel, or at least that was what the theory was. I was stationed there… it was a stupid plot that wouldn’t have worked but yeah. Good thing you didn’t take it I guess, even if it was hell waiting there for weeks for a no-show.” He shrugged. “That was basically my breaking point.”

“Why would he want me as a vessel?” Sora questioned.

Xehanort shrugged again. “He wants another keyblade wielder, and you’re the best choice of the lot of you: Riku’s immune to darkness now or something, Kairi has no darkness whatsoever, Mickey’s too experienced to fall to his tricks, and he doesn’t know about Lea.”

“Plus he’d also get Ventus and Roxas,” R2 pointed out. “A three-for-one deal. Too tempting for him to resist.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Meanwhile, in a pure-white room in a castle that did not technically exist, multiple figures gathered, seated in variously-heighted stone chairs. In the highest one sat, hunched-over, a very old, very bald man named Xehanort. He looked over the group in front of him: Ansem, his heartless that he’d pulled from the past; Xemnas, his Nobody that he’d pulled from the past; Terra, possessed by a younger version of himself and again pulled from the past; and the Nobodies Xigbar, Larxene, Marluxia, Saïx, Luxord, Demyx, and Vexen…

“Why are those two here?” Saïx asked, nodding to Demyx and Vexen. “I thought they were merely reserve members.”

“And where’s the hothead teens?” Larxene asked, in reference to Xehanort’s teenage self, the replica of Riku, and Vanitas.

Xemnas answered, “We do not know where those three presently are.”

“That is the purpose of this meeting,” Xehanort informed the group. “Three of our Darknesses are missing. We must find them.”

“They’re probably just dicking off somewhere,” Xigbar said dismissively, waving a hand.

“Or they’ve defected,” Marluxia suggested.

“Yes, you would know all about defecting,” Vexen said icily. It was a known fact that he had not forgiven Marluxia and Larxene for that, as it had been what got him killed in the past.

“There is no possible way they have defected,” Xehanort said adamantly.

“Are you certain?” Ansem asked. “You never got around to putting your heart in any of them.”

Xehanort narrowed his eyes at Ansem. “One of them is myself, albeit much younger. He already has my heart.” And as to the other two… well. He had enough control over them. The replica had been designed for the Organization, and Vanitas was his loyal apprentice. The Nobodies were the ones who needed the hearts, so that they didn’t try to rebel again. Nevertheless, he’d be sure to actually put bits of his heart in the two when they returned; that way he could track them, which would be especially needed if they went missing again.

“No, he has a younger version of your heart,” Xemnas said. “From before you fully turned to darkness, correct?”

Xehanort frowned. “Nonsense. I was plenty dark at that age.” Wasn’t he? Yes. Of course he was; he had always been dark.

“You know, he did still have silver eyes,” Xigbar pointed out.

“Silence!” Xehanort called. “None of them would have defected. But they are missing. We must find them, before the Lights capture them; if you spot them while on your other missions, please tell them to report in.”

“Seriously?” Xigbar said. “You seriously think they’ll just follow orders like that?”

Xehanort frowned. “Of course. Why wouldn’t they?”

Xigbar laughed at that. “Um, hello? They’re teenagers?”

Chapter Text

“Hey, ‘Zo, what’s up?” Lea called, raising a hand in greeting as he entered the scientist’s lab with Sora, Vanitas, Riku, R2, Xehanort, and Kairi in tow.

“I have told you multiple times not to call me such,” Ienzo said contritely as he peered through a microscope; he hadn’t bothered to look up when Lea entered the room. “Now, please leave me be. I have work to do.”

“Really? But I brought friends to meet you!”

“Friends?” Ienzo said skeptically, finally looking up. Then, he froze briefly before standing straight rather than bent over the table. “Lea. What is the meaning of this? Why are all these people here?” he asked contritely.

“Well, they have a little project for you,” Lea said cryptically.

“Lea, quit the theatrics and just get to the point,” Riku said with a sigh. “Or do we need to introduce ourselves?”

“Hmph. No need to be so serious,” Lea said, rolling his eyes.

“Riku is right,” Ienzo told Lea. “Please get to the point of your visit, and explain who these people are. I recognize Sora, Kairi, and… why are there two Rikus?”

R2 glared at Ienzo. “Seriously? You’re seriously asking that? You’re the guy who created me!”

Ienzo looked surprised. “You’re the replica? But I thought you were destroyed!”

“Well, I wasn’t.”

“My goodness. And you’re actually friends with the original, too?”

“...No. We’re just working together towards the same goal.”

“I see, I see,” Ienzo said, then noticed someone behind him. “Oh, my. Does Sora have a replica now, too?”

“Like hell he has,” Vanitas growled. “I’m Vanitas, a being of pure darkness!”

“I see… and the last new person, that would be…? Oh, you look a lot like Xehanort. Would you happen to be his son? I was unaware he had one.”

“Actually, I am him,” Xehanort responded.

Ienzo paused momentarily, processing that. “Surely you jest,” he concluded.

“Nope. Time travel’s apparently a thing.”

“Well, then,” Ienzo said. “I apologize, but I have no desire to join any new evil Organizations. All I wish is to do my research in peace.”

“Oh, no, that’s not why we’re here,” Xehanort quickly told the bluenette. “We quit the New Organization Thirteen. We’re on the side of Light, kinda. Well, working alongside them. We want to kill my adult self and release Sora’s heart-guests and Naminé . That’s where you come in. We need replicas.”

Ienzo stared at him for a moment. “I believe a more detailed explanation is required. Might we move this to the nearby lounge? Aeleus and Dilan should hear this too; Lea, please retrieve them. I believe they are in the kitchen baking cookies.”

Lea looked at Ienzo blankly. “Baking… cookies…? Those two…?”

“And what’s wrong with baking cookies?” Riku asked, narrowing his eyes. Was he implying guys can’t like baking? Sora liked baking. So Riku defended with, “Guys can like baking cookies, too!” Even if they were super macho guys.

“Hey, chill, I didn’t say they can’t,” Lea said, holding up his hands.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“And that’s the gist of it,” Riku finished as he snatched a butter cookie off the plate on the table. Aeleus and Dilan—the somebodies of Lexaeus and Xaldin, respectively—were surprisingly good at baking cookies. There was something slightly off about them, but it was a good off.

Vanitas was looking at the cookies with suspicion. He had eaten half of one, and seemed to be examining the remainder. “You put something in these,” he accused.

Xehanort was studying his, too. “Yes, these are definitely made with weed,” he concluded, then popped the entire cookie in his mouth, barely managing to fit it.

“Weed? What’s that?” Sora asked through a mouthful of cookie.

“Not for you,” Riku said, taking the rest of Sora’s cookie from his hand and putting it down on a napkin along with his half-eaten one.

“Weed? Seriously? Give me one of those!” R2 declared, practically lying across the table as he reached for one. Earlier he had said he didn’t want a cookie. Riku looked at him in disbelief. He hoped R2 had picked that enthusiasm for drugs up somewhere else, and it hadn’t been part of his younger self’s personality.

“Aeleus!” Dilan chided. “I told you to save that batch for later, not bring it out here!”

“I apologize,” Aeleus said. “I must have mixed up the trays. I shall remedy that.” He stood up, grabbed the plate, and left the room.

“Wait, isn’t that the stuff the caterpillar was smoking?” Kairi realized. She reached for the napkin Riku had placed his and Sora’s cookies on.

“No,” Riku said, grabbing it and holding it away from the redhead and Sora, who had decided he wanted to try to snatch them too.

“Aww, come on, Riku!” Sora complained, while Kairi made an adorable annoyed growl.

“Everyone,” Ienzo said quietly, yet commanding enough for the room to stop. “Please, let us return to the topic at hand.” He stood up. “Sora, let us go to my lab, so I can examine your heart.”

“Okay,” Sora agreed, standing too, along with everyone else.

Ienzo looked around the room. “If you don’t mind, I’d like everyone else to wait here. I don’t want the lab to be too crowded, as these procedures could be delicate.”

Sora asked, slightly sheepishly, “Can Riku and Kairi go with me, at least?” He seemed nervous; he probably didn’t want to do this alone. Sora had always been queasy around medical stuff.

“Well, if you’re okay with that,” Ienzo said.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay with that?” Sora wondered, seeming confused.

“Don’t you need to examine me too, anyway?” Kairi asked.

“Well, you will need to have your shirt off for this,” Ienzo explained simply. “Some people find that uncomfortable, so I thought perhaps you each might want to be examined separately.”

Sora blushed. “Oh. That’s okay. We’ve seen each other na—shirtless before,” he explained.

Riku blushed too, hoping no one caught that Sora had been about to say ‘naked’, or at least didn’t read into it too much. The three of them might be in a relationship, but they hadn’t yet gone quite as far intimacy-wise as people might think that implied! The three were just extremely casual about changing and bathing around each other, especially now that Merlin’s house decided they should share a room—plus, there had been that incident in Wonderland, where the Cheshire cat had helped Sora change back into human from a squirrel form but in the process ‘forgot’ to give Sora back his clothes.

“I see,” Ienzo said clinically. “In that case, let us go to the lab. Xehanort, you said you have some documents on replicas?”

Xehanort nodded. “Yes.” He took a stack of papers from his magical pocket, and handed them to Ienzo.

“Perfect. Now, let us go.” Ienzo walked out of the room, and Sora, Riku, and Kairi followed.

Once they were in the lab next door, Ienzo had Sora and Kairi sit down on separate examination tables. Sora removed his shirt, and both boys tried not to blush as Kairi removed her entire dress and bra, leaving her in just her underwear.

“Kairi, does all that really need to be off?” Riku asked.

“Yes,” Ienzo answered. “I need to attach pads to many places, including areas where a bra would be.”

Kairi rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, you two. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

Ienzo gathered a handful of wires with small replaceable pads attached to the ends that became sticky when a plastic film was peeled off.

“Will it hurt?” Sora asked nervously.

“Not at all,” Ienzo told him, as he began sticking various wires onto Sora.

Sora wiggled slightly. “It’s cold!” he complained.

“Sora, please try to sit still,” Ienzo implored. “I have to put these on specific spots.”

“Sorry,” Sora muttered. He tried to stay more still, though still flinched slightly at every little sensor pad that was stuck on.

“There, that was the last one,” Ienzo said as he turned to Kairi and attached a set of wires to her as well. Then, he turned to the nearby computer and various other devices. “Now, let’s see what’s going on…”

Riku put a hand on Sora’s shoulder to comfort him; Sora looked nervous. “You okay?” Riku asked.

“Huh?” Sora replied, then blinked a couple times. “Uh, yeah. Just, what if we actually can’t get them out?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Ienzo said, then made a surprised exclamation. “Oh! Astounding!” Ienzo suddenly declared, looking excitedly at the data displayed on the screen.

“Sorry, but what’s astounding?” Riku asked, when Ienzo didn’t say anything more, apparently too excited by what he’d found.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Ienzo apologized. “Sora, it appears that Ansem the Wise left some data in you when your memories were being reconstructed. On a cursory glance, it appears that it contains information on the other three hearts residing in yours. Now, I won’t know if it contains anything new until I take a closer look, but if it does, it could greatly accelerate the speed at which we free them!”

“So we can free them?” Sora asked excitedly.

“Oh, most definitely. Naminé, too. Of course, first we will need to create the replicas, which will surely take some time, but that is definitely possible thanks to the information provided by the three renegades and the fact that Xehanort and R2 are in replica bodies themselves, which I’m sure they’ll allow me to examine as they wish for Naminé to be out of Kairi.”

“Hold on,” Riku said, noticing something. “You said there are three hearts in Sora’s? We only know about Roxas and Ventus.”

“Wait, there’s a third one?!” Sora exclaimed. “Who?!”

Ienzo shook his head. “I don’t know; I’d have to examine the data more. That is, if the information is even there. All I can tell is that she joined with you around the same time Roxas did.”

“She?” Kairi asked, surprised.

Ienzo nodded. “Yes. The third heart is female.”

Riku scrunched his brow in confusion. Something was tickling the corner of his mind. He almost felt like he knew who was being talked about… but, that was impossible. He would definitely remember if he’d met a girl around that time who’d joined with Sora, or Naminé would have told him. Riku and/or Naminé had been watching the pod almost 24/7.

“Why does everyone’s hearts want to be in mine all the time?” Sora wondered. “Even Kairi’s went there for a while…”

“Well, maybe you just have the brightest heart of all,” Riku said, well aware how cheesy that sounded.

“Aww, Riku!” Sora proclaimed in joy, jumping up to tackle him in a hug… which pulled on the wires still attached to him, causing one of the machines to noisily topple over, to which Sora replied “Oops.”

Ienzo sighed in exasperation but didn’t react otherwise. “I suppose I should have predicted something like this would happen."

Sora began untangling the wires, in which he was now thoroughly entangled.

Lea came dashing in. “I heard a crash! Is everything okay?!”

Kairi, still on the table and still in nothing but her underwear, rolled her eyes. “Yes, everything’s fine. Sora just... well, I’m sure you can tell what happened.”

“Right, sorry,” Lea said, apparently not noticing Kairi’s state of undress. “So, while I’m here, did you learn anything about Roxas?”

“Yes!” Sora grinned and leapt up, still wrapped in wires and causing the machine to topple over again.

“Sora!” Riku called, catching the boy as he began to fall too. “Let me untangle you first!”

Sora blushed as Riku lowered him to the floor to try to untangle him without falling. “Right, sorry…” Sora said, appearing distracted for a moment before remembering what he was about to say. “So, Lea! Basically, Ienzo can get Roxas out! And Ventus! And there’s some mystery girl in there, too!”

“Naminé can be freed too,” Kairi added.

Lea then noticed Kairi, who was removing the pads on her own body. “Oh, shit!” he said, turning away. “Sorry, Kairi, I didn’t realize; I’ll be going now, then.” Lea dashed out of the room.

Kairi giggled, putting her hand over her mouth as she did so. “I was wondering when he’d notice,” she said with amusement. Riku was once again impressed with how uncaring she was with people seeing her body; Riku possessed nowhere near such confidence.

“Okay,” Sora said, jumping up. “Now, let’s go tell the others!”

As Sora moved to dart out the door, Kairi grabbed his wrist. “Hold up! Put your shirt back on first!”

Sora blushed and backtracked to where he’d left his shirt. Riku chuckled as he watched the scene in amusement. Could he feel more affection for the two?

Chapter Text

Riku climbed the stairs, heading to the bedroom he shared with Sora and Kairi. Today was a free day, so they’d let Sora sleep in, but if no one woke him there was a good chance he’d just stay in bed all day. His depression had seemed to be improving, but Sora was good at hiding things, and free days often came with too much opportunity for introspection that could lead to spiraling thoughts.

Riku froze at the landing; the door to their room was open, although it was dark. Riku nervously peeked in, seeing Vanitas standing over Sora, who was still curled under the covers. Riku’s first instinct was to attack, then he remembered the noirette was on their side and Sora trusted him. He should observe first.

“Hey, I said get up,” Vanitas said, sounding annoyed and poking Sora.

“Don’t wanna,” Sora mumbled, clutching the covers tighter and curling into himself.

“What’s wrong with you?” Vanitas poked Sora again. “Get up. Yesterday you said you had someplace to show us today. I wanna know what it is.”

“Don’t feel like it,” Sora mumbled.

“Too bad. I wanna see it.”

“Vanitas,” Riku said as he turned on the light—Vanitas always forgot to, as he didn’t need light to see, being ‘darkness incarnate’ or whatever it was he called himself—and entered the room.

“What?” the noirette snapped, turning to Riku and giving him a dark look.

Riku raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, unphased; Vanitas was rude by default, so no reason to get angry. “You tell me. Why are you poking Sora?”

“Because he won’t get up!” Vanitas said indignantly. “Why won’t he get up? I don’t understand,” he said, surprisingly sounding a bit distressed. “He said he wanted to show us something, but now he’s like that. Is he sick? Did I upset him somehow? He’s been all annoyingly bubbly since visiting the lab a few days ago, but now he’s not. Why?”

Riku shook his head and sighed. “You didn’t do anything. Here, I got it.” Riku stepped over to Sora, putting his hand gently on the brunette’s shoulder. “Hey, Sora,” he said quietly. “Come on. I need you to sit up, can you do that? For me?”

Sora mumbled something indistinct, but he did sit up slowly, and then gave Riku a withering look. “Can’t you just let me sleep?”

Riku sighed. “Sora. It’s almost noon. You told people you’d take them to do some things, remember? You need to follow through on that.”

Sora looked at his lap. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He didn’t make an attempt to move.

“When was the last time you ate?” Riku asked gently. Riku had been away the previous day, meeting with Mickey at Disney Castle about plans for the whole Xehanort-issue, so hadn’t been around to monitor that.

“Umm. I dunno,” Sora mumbled.

Riku turned to Vanitas. “Did you see him eat yesterday?”

Vanitas raised his eyebrows. “Me? You expect me to keep tabs on him? Can’t he figure out on his own when he’s hungry?”

Riku didn’t answer. “Just tell me if you remember seeing him eating or not.”

Vanitas frowned. “I didn’t, but I wasn’t here most of the day. R2 and I were shopping for new clothes.”

Riku blinked at that, momentarily stunned. “You convinced him to go clothes shopping?” Riku asked. If his replica was anything like himself—well, his younger self, at least—he hated shopping with a passion.

Vanitas turned away slightly and—hid a blush? “I told him we could get ice-cream if he agreed to go. He only had like three outfits.” Vanitas himself was wearing black jeans decorated with too many chains to be safe, a dark purple v-neck, and a black choker. R2 tended to wear similar things, probably imitating Vanitas’s style. “And why’s that matter anyway?” Vanitas snapped.

“I, uh, didn’t really peg you as someone who liked fashion,” Riku admitted sheepishly.

Vanitas glared at Riku. “I don’t!” he snapped, though the blush deepened. “Anyway, I’m outta here, tell me when the kid’s awake.” Vanitas turned on his heel and left the room.

Riku frowned. “But he is awa—ugh. Seriously, Sora?” Riku turned towards Sora to see him buried under the covers once again. Today was going to be a long day…

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas paced on the ground floor of Merlin’s apartment, waiting for Riku to get Sora showered and eating something. This didn’t make sense. All the intel said that Sora was this happy-go-lucky, bright-as-the-sun kid, nearly pure light like Ventus was—and he had been since Vanitas had arrived there the previous week, up until today! Yet, today he’d done a complete 180. Why was the brunette acting so depressed? Vanitas was the one that was supposed to be full of negative emotions, yet today Sora was the one feeling worse off. Vanitas was so confused! Hadn’t the old guy said the plan for that test the kid didn’t take had been to make him feel sad and invite darkness? Yet apparently that hadn’t been necessary, because the kid was already ten times as “sad” as the old guy thought he could make him. And the darkness! It was hidden behind a wall, true, but it was there. How didn’t Riku sense it? Well, Vanitas had been pure darkness from birth, whereas Riku had only recently learned to control it, so perhaps that was why only Vanitas could tell. Vanitas was absolutely certain the Organization had no idea Sora had more darkness hidden away than either of Vanitas’s companions—hell, it was probably greater than half of them in the old guy’s club. It was bound to burst out someday, probably in some cloak resembling a heartless. Maybe it already had in the past, if it was bound so tightly. Sora definitely must know it’s there, too, as that was a conscious wall of suppressed negative emotion, although apparently not enough to block out today’s depressed mood.

Yesterday the kid had seemed very happy. He had enthusiastically told Xehanort, R2, and Vanitas about some place he wanted to show them in Radiant Garden that contained something called Tron, and that he’d take them today, being a free day. Vanitas had acted huffy over it—he wasn’t supposed to like people, wasn’t supposed to be friendly—but he was curious so he'd decided to go. The kid better not bail out after getting Vanitas so excited over it.

It had been nearly a week since Vanitas and the other two had rebelled. It was astounding how quickly the three had been accepted by Sora and his gang, to the point they’d been invited to stay at Merlin’s. One of them was literally the big bad guy, albeit his teenage form! Yet there they were. Tomorrow, they’d start training together with Sora, Riku, and Kairi to learn how to fight as a team. Oh, and Lea, who apparently used to be an enemy too. The concept of such corroboration was foreign to Vanitas, who was so used to being on his own. He was, truthfully, loathe as he was to admit it, a little nervous about that. Most of the week had been adjusting to being here and doing various things. They obviously had to prepare a lot before attempting to kill Old Xehanort—hence the training—so they started working on making replicas and freeing the trapped hearts first.

Vanitas sighed and halted his pacing. Riku and Sora were taking so long! He should probably go notify Xehanort, R2, Kairi, and Lea; they were outside training—Kairi was teaching them all a spell for keeping world-order and the rules for such—but they’d started itching for a break so had sent Vanitas to get Sora, who had told them he had something cool to show them in the afternoon. They were hoping he’d happily agree to take them earlier than planned, as he’d been so excited the previous day, yet clearly that had been a lost hope.

Something suddenly caught Vanitas’s eye: a book on a table to the side of the computer. Typically he’d dismiss it as a silly children’s book, due to the picture of a bear and kid on it, but something drew him towards it. There was a faint glow of magic about it. Mysterious. As he approached, Vanitas noticed the kid pictured was actually Sora. Curiosity piqued, he slowly opened the book.

With a flash of light, Vanitas found himself standing on a quaint little forest path in front of a very large tree, in which laid a tiny little door and, far above it, a window and a balcony. A broken sign out front said “Trespassers will”—the only ending to that would be a threat, Vanitas assumed. Whomever lived here must not like people. Well, that wasn’t Vanitas’s problem; he wasn’t a people person anyway… or whatever lived here.

Vanitas also realized that despite his lack of shoes, his socks weren’t getting dirty, and despite the lack of jacket, the wind in the trees didn’t cause a chill. In fact, there seemed to be no temperature here at all, which was somewhat disquieting. Vanitas sat directly on the ground to think; it wasn’t like he’d get dirty from it.

Where was the way out of this place? Vanitas looked around, yet saw nothing indicative of an exit. Strange. If there was no exit, how had he entered? Was he trapped here? Vanitas wasn’t sure how he felt being trapped in such an unsettling place. Not that he was doing much outside of here, but things had started to get interesting, so he kinda would like to go back… Well, maybe whoever lived here would know how to get back, or he could beat it out of them…

“Oh, w-why hello th-th-there, Sora!” stammered a tiny voice from behind Vanitas.

Vanitas leapt up and spun towards the voice, summoning his keyblade. How had someone managed to get behind him? Vanitas then lowered his blade slightly in confusion; he didn’t see anyone there, or sense any human presence.

“D-d-down here!” stuttered the voice, and Vanitas looked down to see… a tiny pig walking on two legs and wearing a green striped shirt? “Oh, I d-do hope you don’t p-p-plan to hurt anyone w-with that, Sora,” the pig said nervously. “At least, n-not before the p-p-p-picnic.”

Vanitas dismissed his keyblade. Whatever this pig was, it had no dark presence; no wonder he hadn’t sensed it. Vanitas sensed people via their darkness, which all living beings had with the exception of Ventus and the Princesses of Light… but surely this creature was not a Princess of Light?

“Oh, g-g-good,” the pig said, rubbing its hands together. “You w-w-will be attending the p-picnic, yes?”

“What picnic?” Vanitas asked automatically, then mentally berated himself for not outright declining as he should have.

“Wh-why, the picnic we’re h-having t-t-today! All our fr-fr-friends will b-b-be there!”

Vanitas blinked a few times, thrown off by that. “Um. I think you have the wrong person. I don’t know anyone here.”

The pig looked at Vanitas in shock. “But of c-c-course you d-do, S-sora! I’m P-p-piglet, and then th-there’s our other fr-fr-friends, R-rabbit and Eeyore and P-pooh and—”

“I’m sorry, but you have the wrong person. I’m Vanitas, not Sora," Vanitas said, then blinked, surprised at himself. Since when did he apologize? There must be some strange magic at work here.

“Oh m-m-my!” the pig—Piglet—exclaimed. “S-sora, have you f-f-forgotten us again? Oh, n-n-no worries, I-I’m s-sure you’ll r-r-remember!”

“I just told you, I’m not Sora,” Vanitas growled, desperately trying to keep in character. He was supposed to be rude, not pleasant! That's just who he was… right? Right. Xehanort had been telling him that since birth. All he was was negativity and darkness.

“Oh, so y-y-you’ve f-forgotten your a-actual n-name, too?”

“No, I’m—”

“Th-that’s okay, Sora! I-I’m sure if w-w-we say it enough, y-y-you’ll remember, S-s-sora!”

Vanitas sighed in resignation. “Whatever,” he told the pig. He’d find his way out of here… somehow. Then it won’t matter who they think he is.

“Oh!” Piglet proclaimed, hopping up. “Th-that’s right! I n-need to get working on th-the s-s-s-sandwiches! C-could you g-g-go to Pooh Bear’s house? He f-f-forgets things, so n-n-needs someone to r-r-remind him. M-m-make sure he d-doesn’t f-f-forget the h-honey!”

“Uh, no, I—” before Vanitas could say anything the pig dashed into the house and slammed the door. “I guess I’m going to find this ‘Pooh Bear’ thing,” he mumbled. He didn’t have to go to the picnic, but might as well; it was free food after all. Plus, maybe the people there would know how to get out.

After some wandering around, Vanitas came across another tree with a door, this one more normal-sized. In front was a log with a fire pit in front, and on that log sat a yellow bear about half his size wearing a red shirt. The bear was staring into empty space.

“Are you Pooh Bear?” Vanitas asked.

The bear gave a start and looked up. “Oh! Why hello there, Sora! It has been so very long of a time since we last met. Are you here for the picnic? I think that was today… or was it tomorrow…?”

“It’s today,” Vanitas said quickly, ignoring that this darkness-free thing also thought he was Sora. “I’m here because Piglet wanted me to remind you to bring the honey.”

“Oh! Why of course. Would you mind helping me with it, Sora?” the bear said as he hopped off the log. “Everyone so very much enjoys honey, but I cannot carry so very many jars myself, and for reasons I don’t know Rabbit refuses to let me borrow his wheelbarrow.”

“Uh. Sure,” Vanitas agreed, wondering if he had fallen asleep and was in some sort of bizarre fever dream.

Pooh Bear led Vanitas into the treehouse, which seemed much bigger inside than one would think upon first glance. Huh. Vanitas observed as the bear searched the house looking for honey. Eventually, he sat down on the small bed, getting bored of watching the bear tossing empty honey pots all around. Piglet hadn’t been kidding about the bear being forgetful!

“Oh, bother,” the bear eventually said, and sat down on the floor right in the middle of the house, a forlorn look on his face. “I do believe that I must have eaten all the honey. Now there won’t be any for the picnic.”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Can’t you just get more?”

The bear’s eyes lit up and he smiled brightly. “I can if you help me, Sora!”

“Help you? How?” Vanitas demanded, glad he remembered to sound rude—not that the bear even noticed the tone. Was he getting rusty, or were these strange creatures just that oblivious?

“Oh, the tree is only a little ways over. I’m just a touch too short to get to the honey myself, but seeing as you helped me before, I’m sure we can collect plenty of honey!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku held Sora’s hand as he led him down the stairs to the first floor. Sora seemed to be feeling better, but it was always so difficult to tell now… the prior week and up to yesterday he’d seemed so happy and Riku and Kairi were confident he was improving, yet then today happened. A day like this hadn’t happened in a while; the books Riku had read said relapses could occur at any time, but still. He hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly. Had it been triggered by the stress of the sudden change in their situation, inviting the former-enemies into their group and starting to prepare for another huge conflict? But, that’d been a week prior; could it be a delayed reaction, or was this recurrence just a random happening?

Riku gave Sora’s hand a squeeze once they’d gotten to the ground floor, and Sora looked up at him fondly. The two shared a brief chaste kiss; Sora tasted like pancake syrup. After Riku had helped Sora shower and get changed (into one of Kairi’s outfits, a light violet sundress over black leggings; Riku's suspicion that Sora enjoyed wearing such more than he'd previously let on had proven true. Once Sora had realized no one around Radiant Garden cared, he'd started borrowing the girls' clothes somewhat regularly), they’d made chocolate-chip pancakes from scratch for 'brunch', as Sora had recently discovered that cooking helped him feel a bit better. Sora held a plate of them as a peace-offering for Vanitas, as they’d taken so long and he’d supposedly been waiting. Hopefully Vanitas liked pancakes.

Yet Vanitas wasn’t on the ground floor as expected.

“Huh. Guess he headed out already,” Riku commented, then frowned as he noted something. “Or went upstairs, maybe; his shoes and jacket are still here.”

Sora, however, was looking towards the computer. Had someone left it on? Riku followed Sora’s gaze, realizing he wasn’t staring at the computer, rather at something on a small table next to it: an open book with a slight glow to it. Sora seemed to be trying not to laugh.

“Sora? You okay?” Riku asked.

“Y-yeah,” Sora said, collecting himself. “I think Vanitas went into the book… aww, man, we should probably rescue him.”

Riku blinked. “Rescue him? Shit. Is it dangerous?”

Sora couldn’t help breaking into full-bodied laughter. “No, no, the opposite. It’s a world inside a children’s book, filled with living stuffed animals living in a cute little forest.”

Riku began laughing too, imagining the ‘denizen of darkness’ in such a place. “Y-yeah, we probably do need to ‘rescue’ him, then.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas sat on a picnic blanket, surrounded by various woodland creatures: Pooh, Piglet, a hyperactive tiger named Tigger, an egotistical owl named Owl, a depressed donkey named Eeyore, a mother kangaroo named Kanga and her highly excitable kid named Roo, a grumpy gopher named Gopher, and a neurotic rabbit named Rabbit. As expected, all of them thought Vanitas was actually Sora.

“So, Sora, do tell us what you have been up to since we last met,” Owl asked amicably.

Vanitas thought about that. Should he tell them about his own deeds, or pretend to be Sora? Vanitas chose the former; it’d be fun disturbing them. “I tried to kill my brother, but failed completely.”

“Oh, that’s okay, dear,” Kanga said gently. “Everyone makes mistakes; if you can’t do something the first time, you’ll just have to try again.”

Vanitas blinked. Not the expected reaction. He continued, “Well, I can’t do that. Afterwards I was trapped in darkness for a long time. A madman broke me out, but I rebelled against him and joined forces with his enemies, who don’t want me to kill my brother.”

“Oh my. That sounds like quite the difficult situation,” Rabbit said, seeming unphased.

“Yes indeed,” Owl concurred.

“Oh, I do hope you had friends around to help with that,” Pooh said with concern.

“Nope. I was alone,” Vanitas told them, realizing his plan to disturb them had miserably failed and actually a bit disturbed himself at their complete lack of negative reaction from what he said. Were they not only immune to darkness, but immune to negativity itself? Was that even possible? How could they not be horrified at what Vanitas was telling them?!

“Well, I sure know how that is,” Eeyore said forlornly. “Being alone is sad. I suppose it’s good that you found people to be friends with.” Okay, so at least one of them wasn't disturbingly happy. Still, the donkey didn't seem phased by the murder bit either. Did they have some sort of failsafe built in, preventing them from acknowledging anything too traumatic?

“Friends?” Vanitas asked, confused. He didn't have friends… did he?

“But of course!” Tigger said. “If they’re your former enemenies, they muse be friends!”

“And if they do become enemies again, you can always count on us!” Owl assured him.

“I can?” Vanitas asked, highly confused.

“But of course, Sora!” Pooh declared. “We’re friends forever, remember?”

Vanitas, feeling extremely awkward, was unsure how to respond to that.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“So, this is the 100-Acre Woods?” Riku asked. He’d heard Sora talk about the place before, but hadn’t known it was in a storybook. Something felt off about it, too. Either there was no darkness at all in this place, or Riku’s sense of it had been blocked off… no, he could still sense his own and Sora’s, and even the scent of Vanitas’s darkness somewhere in the distance—a distance that was usually impossible because of other interference, but there was none… Was this truly a place that contained no darkness? Well, it was a magical world in a children’s book; perhaps a child had dreamed it up, which could have had a role in causing it to form without such. Children usually had very little darkness compared to teens and adults.

“Yup!” Sora replied as he walked across a log as though it were a balance-beam, which was in front of a tree with a door in it.

“I can see why Vanitas might have trouble here,” Riku acknowledged with amusement, although he felt a little sympathetic too. Riku found himself actually feeling a little uncomfortable with the lack of darkness, having grown so used to feeling it everywhere; he couldn’t imagine how uncomfortable it would make Vanitas feel, having lived entwined with darkness his entire life.

Sora chuckled. “Yeah. Wait until you meet the animals that live here!” Sora said, then frowned. “Hopefully Vanitas hasn’t hurt them… I mean, I know he physically won’t, but they’re extremely innocent, so.”

Sora didn’t have to finish the thought for Riku to understand: it’d be easy for Vanitas to say something unwittingly that the residents of this world would be traumatized by. “Yeah; we probably should find him quickly then,” Riku pointed out.

“But where?” Sora wondered. “There’s two directions.”

“Two?” Riku asked, confused. Well, the path went two ways, Riku supposed, but Sora often ignored paths.

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know,” Sora said. “This world is a bit strange. It’s in a book, so you can only go certain directions and there’s barriers if you try to stray. Try walking past those bushes behind you.”

Riku turned, then took a few steps towards the bushes. He tried to push through them, but they were unmoving. Reaching over them, Riku felt an invisible barrier that would prevent jumping over them too. “We really are in a book, then,” Riku muttered to himself. Strange.

“Yup! Now, let’s go find Vani!” Sora declared, heading in the wrong direction.

“Sora, this way,” Riku said, and at Sora’s confused expression said, “I can sense his darkness. At least, I assume it’s his, because it’s a lot and the only darkness around other than our own.”

“Got it,” Sora said, and hurried to follow Riku.

Sora grabbed Riku’s hand as they walked, passing by other tree homes, gardens, burrows with signs, a stick tent, and other such things that must be where the woodland animals lived. Eventually they came across a hill with a large tree, under which was a large picnic blanket with a large group of living stuffed animals talking to one not-stuffed human—Vanitas. The noirette looked uncomfortable and annoyed, as expected… no, wait, not annoyed, rather disturbed? It wasn’t that bad for him being around such light beings, was it?

The bear was the first one to notice the two approaching; he stood up and walked over to them. “Why hello, second Sora!” he said happily. Second Sora? “And person-I-don’t-know.”

“Hello, Pooh!” Sora greeted them. “This is Riku!”

“Hello, Riku,” Pooh said, holding his paw out. “It is very nice to meet you.”

Riku shook the bear’s paw. “Likewise, Pooh.”

“Oh thank the gods you’re here,” Vanitas said as he noticed the two, sounding immensely relieved as he jumped up and over to the boys. He clutched the front of Sora's shirt with desperation. "They're demons! Demons!" he proclaimed.

"Um. What?" Sora asked, not even bothering to remove Vanitas in his clear shock. Riku, too, was thoroughly shocked at the level of panic the noirette displayed.

"We need to get out of here! Lock them up again!"

"Okay, Vanitas, back up a second," Riku said, placing his hands on Vanitas's shoulders and easing him off Sora. "What is going on?"

Vanitas took a deep breath, then said in a rush, “They think I’m Sora, and when I told them I tried to kill my brother they acted the same as if I’d said I’d failed a test or something. Like, they were trying to console me about it. Even telling them about being trapped in darkness got no sane reaction. What are they? Why are they like this? They have no darkness, but they don’t even flinch when dark things are mentioned! Even the Princesses of Light get disturbed at stuff! Why are these things not disturbed by anything!?”

“Hey, they’re not ‘things’!” Sora countered. “And, er, I dunno why they’re not disturbed. I guess they’re meant to be permanently innocent or something? This is a children’s book, after all.”

“It’s creepy!” Vanitas whined.

Riku had to admit that was a little creepy, but then again, children were often unphased by things too—or rather, didn’t understand things enough to be phased. These animals were most likely the same: they didn’t comprehend the killing part, but did understand failing, so tried encouraging him as you’d do when someone failed something more normal.

Riku chuckled. “Didn’t take you as someone who’d get creeped out so easily,” he quipped.

Vanitas blinked, narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms, and turned away. “I’m not,” he said petulantly, through possibly a blush, but Riku sensed teasing about that might get him killed.

A small mound of earth appeared in the middle of the three boys and bear, and out popped a gopher. “Are you going to be mosying around away from everyone, or are you going to join the picnic? We’d all like to meet the new people, after all.”

“Right!” Sora said, hopping over to the group and greeting them all. Pooh followed.

Vanitas watched Sora with a frown, but didn’t move. He looked confused.

Riku looked at the noirette. “Something wrong?” he asked.

“Yeah. Why’s he all happy again? I don’t understand.”

Riku bit his lip. How much should he say? Vanitas did seem genuinely concerned over Sora, even if he wouldn’t admit it. “Well, he’s probably hiding his emotions,” Riku told him. “He doesn’t like to make others worry or bother people. We keep telling him it’s better to actually let people know when he’s feeling bad, which he does more now, but he still hides a lot.”

“Huh. Well, that would explain that huge well of darkness in him,” Vanitas mused.

“The what?” Riku asked sharply. Had he heard right?

“Yeah, you really didn’t notice? He’s got this giant mass of darkness hidden behind a wall of light. Since it’s been consciously created, it’s probably from shoving everything away. Dark emotions often create darkness when left to simmer like that.”

Riku pondered that. He knew darkness could prey on dark emotions, but he hadn’t realized they could actually create darkness themselves. “What’ll happen if it gets released?” Riku asked, nervous. “Do we need to worry about that?”

Vanitas shrugged. “Maybe? My prediction is that it’ll manifest as some sort of cloak of wild dark magic that’ll rage until it burns out; I haven’t ever seen that happen in person, but Xehanort made me read a lot of books on darkness, and some stuff like that was in there. That’ll keep happening every time the well builds up too much for the dam to hold back. But again, it’s only theory; there's no guarantee that's what will actually happen."

“And if it does happen?” Riku asked, immensely worried. “You said it’s wild and burns out. What’s that mean? He’ll go on a rampage? And how long will it last?”

Vanitas shrugged. “I mean, we won’t actually know until it happens, but the books say that the form usually only lasts a few minutes, and pictures of it looked similar to a heartless. It's feral and uncontrollable; he’ll be at its mercy until it wears off, probably attacking anything that moves.”

“Okay… and what about afterwards?”

“Again, won’t know until it happens. It’s different for everyone; some pass out, others are fine enough to keep fighting normally. Some remember it, some don’t.”

“I see… Hey, would you happen to still have that book?” Riku wondered, although he realized it was a long shot.

Vanitas scoffed. “Seriously? Why would I keep anything from him?” He said it with enough vitriol that Riku had no problem believing Vanitas meant it when he’d said he was done with Xehanort. Not that Riku had still doubted… well, okay, he had still doubted. Could you blame him? Vanitas had been an enemy up until a week ago!

“Hey, what are you two doing?” Sora called loudly to the two boys. “Come on, the food is getting cold!”

Vanitas shuffled nervously, muttering something about how that was impossible in this weird place.

“Hey, I think it’s strange here, too,” Riku said in solidarity. “But Sora likes it, so let’s endure it for him, okay?”

Vanitas scowled at Riku. “Why should I care about him?” he spat, although it didn’t sound like his heart was in it.

“Well, he’s the one who knows how to get out of here,” Riku pointed out.

Vanitas pondered that for a moment. “I guess that’s true…” He looked towards the picnic, still seeming nervous.

“Come on, it’ll be fine,” Riku said, walking forwards a little, turning, and holding out his hand out to the noirette. “You’re not alone this time.”

Vanitas bit his lip, staring at Riku’s hand. Just as Riku was about to lower it—he hadn’t expected the boy to actually take his hand, after all—Vanitas slowly reached out and took the hand, stiffly allowing himself to be led back to the picnic.

Chapter Text

Yuffie, fists on her hips, frowned at Sora as he entered the kitchen with Riku.

“Uh, Yuffie, everything okay?” Sora asked nervously, squeezing Riku’s hand tighter. Riku understood why; that look of Yuffie’s meant something would happen. So much for their free afternoon.

Tifa, who had been in the kitchen with Yuffie, giggled. “Yuffie, I think you’re scaring him.”

Yuffie huffed and crossed her arms. “Well, he should be scared. How can he claim to be into fashion if he’s dressed like that?”

“Hey!” Sora protested. “You literally forced me into this outfit earlier,” he accused. An outfit that looked pretty good on him, Riku thought. He would have never before thought Sora could actually pull off a black denim miniskirt, red crop top, and black leather short-sleeve jacket, but that was the current situation. Sora completely rocked the look. Of course, Sora looked good in almost anything…

“No no no, not the outfit! The shoes!” Yuffie energetically explained.

Sora frowned. “I only have one pair of shoes,” he pointed out.

Yuffie ignored the comment. "Seriously, black and yellow sneakers!? No, that won’t do! And where are the accessories? You need to accessorize!”

“I’m wearing accessories,” Sora argued, rocking back and forth slightly on his heels. Sora had been pretty high-energy today, Riku noticed; they had just finished showering with Kairi, during which Sora had been very eagerly intimate, after sparring, during which Sora had been a whirlwind of energy. He got like that on occasion, but Riku hadn’t seen him quite this hyperactive since before the Islands fell. He wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing; hadn’t the school given him medicine for such? Or was that just for being distracted? The school didn’t like either of those things. Well, either way, this mood was better than the depression, Riku figured.

Yuffie scoffed. “Yeah, a hodgepodge of battle-oriented things. Where’s the fashionable ones? You need those.”

Sora shifted back slightly, looking nervous. “You’re not going to pierce my bellybutton like you did to Kairi, are you?”

Yuffie frowned, putting her fists on her hips. “Why shouldn’t I?”

Sora’s face became bright red. “L-look, I don’t mind the clothing, but I don’t want piercings.”

“But your ears are pierced,” Yuffie pointed out, gesturing to the pair of Mage’s Earrings Sora had on, which Merlin had given him to help with his magic.

“So are everyone’s!” Sora pointed out. It was true; some of the better battle accessories were earrings, and you had to have your ears pierced for those.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. “Fine, no more piercings. You definitely need better shoes though. Let’s go!”

“W-wait!” Sora yelled, as Yuffie dragged him out of the kitchen.

Kairi arrived just as the ninja did so. “Should I be concerned?” she asked, as the front door could be heard slamming shut from the floor below.

Riku sighed. “Apparently he needs shoes and accessories.”

Kairi’s eyes gleamed with excitement, though they had an edge as well. “And going without me?! Oh no they don’t!” she declared, then dashed off, long ponytail swishing behind her with the force of her turn.

"I'll keep an eye on them," Tifa assured Riku before following the three.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Vani! Good timing!” Sora called as he hopped up to Vanitas, who supressed a groan as he paused his walk down Radiant Garden’s main street. He was a bit miffed that the cutesy nickname stuck, as well as irritated at the current physical proximity of the brunette, but it was Sora, so Vanitas didn’t argue as he would with others. Not that he had developed a soft spot for the brunette! Nope, not at all. Maybe it was just his connection to Ventus causing the feeling of kinship? Vanitas went with that, ignoring the part of his brain telling him that Sora was definitely the one causing the strange feeling of happiness upon his approach, not Ventus… Wait, happiness? No, that couldn’t be right. Vanitas didn’t feel happiness; he was pure negativity.

“What do you want?” Vanitas asked the grinning boy, making sure to sound annoyed at the intrusion, but instead of answering Sora grabbed Vanitas by the wrist and dragged him along to wherever he, Kairi, Tifa, and Yuffie were going. Well, whatever; Vanitas hadn’t been doing anything important anyway. Plus, if R2 could be believed, it'd be fruitless anyway, as allegedly when Sora got like this a few days ago with him the brunette had literally bound R2 with some spell when he tried to protest. Besides, this manic attitude was better than Sora being all mopey, and unlike most of the days since the previous week's creepy book incident, where he had been acting happy when he wasn't, the happiness seemed true… wait, since when could Vanitas read Sora so well that he could sense his emotions? Maybe it was just due to being able to sense darkness and negativity. Yeah, must be that; he certainly was not sensing positive emotions. Sora’s darkness was a bit atypical; Vanitas must just be thrown off by that or something.

“So, uh, where are we going?” Vanitas wondered.

“Shoe shopping!” Sora proclaimed. “Initially I didn’t want to either, but Yuffie insisted, and she was right, these shoes match almost nothing I own except the magical clothing!”

“Yes, it’s a true fashion disaster, definitely must be corrected immediately,” Vanitas said with an eye roll.

Sora didn’t catch the sarcasm. “Exactly! So happy you understand! Hey, we should get you some, too! I mean, the black boots do kinda match everything you wear, but still, variety is the spice of life, right?”

Vanitas felt like he was in a whirlwind with the speed Sora was speaking and the energy he was emitting. Vanitas had seen Sora happy and excited before, yes, but this was on a level he’d never thought possible. Hyper, that was the term! He was often restless, having trouble sitting still even when feeling depressed, but never had Vanitas seen this level of such. Was he high? Maybe he was high. Vanitas had heard rumors that Merlin had strange mind-altering foliage growing in his forest.

Kairi and Yuffie were now talking too, but Vanitas was too lost in his thoughts to process their conversation. The two girls were both almost equally high-energy, and it was like the two were feeling into each others’ hyperness, but at least they were speaking somewhat normally at the moment. Neither they nor Tifa seemed concerned about Sora’s attitude though, so maybe Vanitas had simply coincidentally missed it whenever he got like this in the past.

“We’re here!” Yuffie suddenly declared.

Tifa bid them farewell and left for the nearby apothecary, as she saw Aerith entering it, and the rest of them entered the accessory shop. Or rather, Vanitas, Yuffie, and Sora did; Kairi was nowhere in sight. She must have left while Vanitas was spacing out. Figures she wouldn't say goodbye to him; Kairi didn't seem to like Vanitas much. Not that Vanitas cared! Nope, didn’t care at all. He was used to people snubbing him.

Vanitas had never been in an accessory shop before. It was… strange. And… exciting? What was this feeling Vanitas was having? Everything was so shiny and pretty. The accessories were displayed along every wall, and there were glass cases in the center with the more expensive ones. Vanitas flitted around the edges, examining things.

“See anything you like?” Sora asked from behind Vanitas, who had sensed the boy coming, thus easily dodged Sora's attempt at flinging an arm around him.

Actually, Vanitas did see something he liked, although he wasn’t sure what it was. It was small and circular, bronze and black with tiny purple gems.

Sora noticed Vanitas staring. “A phantom earring?” he asked. “Huh. Didn’t know they made those in earring form; I’ve only ever seen them as regular rings. Looks basically the same though, just smaller.”

“Earring?” Vanitas didn’t know what that meant.

“Yeah, like I have on,” Sora said, gesturing to his ears, each which had a little metal decoration that featured a little dragon and magic wand. “These actually give you stat boosts. Mine are meant to help with magic, and that one increases strength. It’s only a very small amount, but even a little boost can be an advantage in battle.”

Vanitas was only half paying attention by the end of Sora’s explanation, instead focused on how the item was attached. “Does that… go straight through your ear?!” he asked in surprise. How had he not noticed that before? Vanitas had assumed it had been magically glued on, but closer examination showed that there was a sharp spike holding it there.

Sora nodded. “Yeah, it’s pierced. Hmm.” He eyed an earring that was light blue with blue and purple accents. “I might actually get a set of these… they’ll boost my magic quite a bit more than the ones Merlin gave me…”

“But… doesn’t that hurt?” Vanitas asked incredulously, amazed at how casual the brunette was treating it. “To put it through your ear,” he clarified when Sora looked puzzled at the question. Was the kid masochistic? But wait, lots of those they knew had such too… were they all such?

Sora shook his head. “Not at all… Well, actually, I guess it did initially and for a little bit afterwards, but then it stopped.”

“I see… And you have to stab yourself again whenever you change them?”

Sora shook his head and laughed a little. “Oh, no! If you keep the earring in for a bit, the skin heals around it, and the hole becomes permanent.”

“Interesting…” Vanitas mused. In that case, maybe he should get one; they did look cool. Just one, though, to start. That way if it destroyed his ear, he’d still have the other.

Yuffie sprung up behind them. “They can pierce it here for you!” she told Vanitas—had she read his mind, or was he that obvious? Yuffie didn’t acknowledge Vanitas’s surprise and contined with, “But, Sora—we’re supposed to be getting you fun accessories to match your clothing, not practical stuff.”

“Practical stuff can look good and match too!” Sora protested.

“Well, then, in that case…” Yuffie’s eyes sparkled dangerously as she grabbed Sora’s wrist to lead him further into the shop. “I found something that will look great and give a stat boost!” Vanitas followed them to a case filled with little curved pieces of metal with baubles on the ends.

“What the heck are those?” Vanitas asked. Were they also earrings? They must be; Vanitas didn’t know how they’d stay on anywhere unless they went through something. They were an odd shape for ears though…

“Yuffie!” Sora said with a small squeak. “I told you, I’m not getting my bellybutton pierced!”

Vanitas gave a start. “Bellybutton? People DO that?” He was shocked. Ears were one thing, but… wow. Vanitas briefly wondered what else people got pierced, then decided he'd rather not think about it.

“Yeah, like this!” Yuffie said, pulling up her top slightly to show that she had one right through the skin above the bellybutton, a simple one embedded with a blue gem. She put her shirt down. “But, Sora, these are special ones! Like the earrings, over there, they’re modified versions of other accessories, so give abilities and stat boosts! Besides, that type of outfit just begs for a bellybutton ring.”

Sora looked at them, biting his lip slightly. Vanitas pondered that, too. He wouldn’t get one, as he was a little queasy thinking about it and if he activated his dark suit it would probably interfere as the suit was so form-fitting, but Sora’s current outfit was bare around that area. Hmm. Maybe Yuffie had a point. “I think you should do it,” Vanitas declared.

Sora turned to him, wide-eyed. “Seriously?! Why?!”

Vanitas shrugged. “It’ll look good, and give stat boosts, right? What’s the downside?” Other than having something stabbed through him, but Sora didn't seem phased by that bit.

Sora frowned in thought. “I guess there isn’t one…”

“Oh! I found the perfect one!” Yuffie declared, pointing.

Sora’s eyes shot up. “Is that based on a crystal regalia?! Shit, that’s gotta be super expensive.” At the end of the curved barbell there was a small purple-blue heart with a crown, formed of many crystalline curves.

“But it gives the Magic Hastega ability,” Yuffie pointed out. “And you’re sitting on a lot of munny from the tournament you won, right?”

Sora nodded. “True...”

“The colors match the sorcerer’s earring you were eyeing earlier, too,” Vanitas pointed out.

Sora’s eyes lit up, practically sparkling. “Which gives Magic Haste! Shit, if I wear two of those and this, I’ll be able to cast twice as fast, if not faster! Okay, yes. I’ll get it.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku was browsing through Merlin’s library when Kairi came in to join him, much earlier than expected. Riku turned towards her, frowning. “I thought you were going to join Sora and Yuffie shopping? Did you already finish?” It’d been an hour, but usually shopping trips weren’t quite this short for them, especially when buying both clothing and accessories as Sora tended to get distracted by everything. Plus, it appeared as though Kairi had gotten her hair cut short; it was now a cute bob rather than past her shoulders.

Kairi sighed in disgruntlement. “I was, but then Sora invited Vanitas so I bailed. Not sure if he even noticed I left, actually. So I went to get my hair cut instead.”

“It looks good,” Riku told her truthfully, then he looked at Kairi curiously. “What’s your deal with Vanitas, anyway? I mean, I get that he used to be the enemy, but he really isn’t that bad, you know.”

Kairi plopped down on one of the library’s couches. “I know; I can tell he doesn’t have any ill intent. I don’t have anything particularly against him that I can think of. He’s just… abrasive, I guess. I don’t know. Might be some instinctual reaction because I’m all light and he’s all dark, too. But Sora keeps wanting to invite him everywhere…”

As Riku pondered this a thought sprung to his mind. “Kairi, are you… jealous?”

Kairi looked up at Riku in surprise. “Jealous?” She giggled. “Riku, that’s silly. I don’t get jealous.”

Riku raised his eyebrows. “Really. So you were never jealous about Sora and I, before we all figured out that all three of us could be together?”

Kairi blushed. “But that was different! I know Sora doesn’t have romantic feelings for him.”

Riku shrugged as he sat down next to Kairi. “Hey, jealousy isn’t always logical. Sora’s suddenly spending a lot of time with someone new. I’d be lying if I said I weren’t a bit jealous, too.”

Kairi rolled her eyes. “Riku, you were jealous of Donald and Goofy.”

Riku laughed. “Like I said, jealousy isn’t always logical.”

Kairi shimmied over to Riku and leaned into his side, cuddling up to him; Riku automatically wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

The two chatted for a while about various things, and then drifted off to sleep.

Riku woke to a shout, opening his eyes to find Sora standing in front of him. Kairi grumbled and sat up; she’d fallen into Riku’s lap.

“Sora? Everything okay?” Riku asked automatically, always on-edge in case of emergency, then realized Sora was grinning—he had only been trying to wake them, not notifying them of something urgent. Riku’s eyes drifted over his boyfriend, who was still wearing Yuffie’s crop top, jacket, and miniskirt. Sora had definitely accessorized: new earrings, some sort of black lace choker necklace that matched his current outfit, about a dozen glittering bangle bracelets in a rainbow of sparkling colors on one wrist that definitely did not match, on the other wrist a studded black wristband that did, and black leather ankle boots with a slight heel decorated with silver studs that matched the wristband. Riku’s eyes then fell to Sora’s stomach—specifically, bellybutton, which was surprisingly adorned with an accessory too.

A snicker sounded from Sora’s side, and Riku turned to see Vanitas, who said, “Could you be more obvious?”

Riku blushed. “Hey! He’s my boyfriend, I’m allowed to appreciate his looks!”

“Kairi! You got your hair cut!” Sora declared as he realized. “So that’s where you disappeared to. It looks good.”

“Glad you noticed I was gone,” Kairi muttered under her breath; only Riku could hear her due to how close they were sitting.

“What’d you say?” Sora asked, looking confused.

Kairi shook her head to clear her dark mood and giggled instead. “I see you did get your bellybutton pierced, after all,” she said to Sora, clearly trying to distract Sora from asking further.

It worked, and Sora blushed. “Shut up. I had no choice; it’s actually a battle accessory that gives Magic Hastera.”

Riku whistled. “Whoa. Seriously? How much did that even cost?” That was one of the strongest abilities possible to put on an accessory, and would not have been cheap. “...You know what, I don’t think I want to know,” he quickly decided. It probably would have been most of Sora’s share of their winnings from the Olympus Coliseum tournament.

“Vanitas!” Kairi said joyously. “You got your ear pierced!”

This time Vanitas blushed. Riku was baffled; he never expected to see such an expression on the noirette! “It’s also a battle accessory! It just happens to look cool too, that’s all. I definitely did not buy it based on looks,” Vanitas protested. Riku had a strong feeling that was a lie.

“Hey, nothing wrong with wanting to look good!” Sora said, slinging an arm around Vanitas, who abruptly shoved him off, though not violently. Sora pouted slightly as Riku chuckled.

Sora spun around and flopped onto the couch next to Riku, who slid his arm around Sora’s shoulders.

“Have you seen R2 or Xehanort around?” Vanitas asked suddenly. “I need to talk to them.”

“Gonna show them your new earring?” Sora asked teasingly.

“N-no! I told you, it’s just for battle.”

“I think R2 said something about exploring the outskirts of town earlier,” Riku said, rescuing Vanitas from Sora’s teasing. "Xehanort is probably with him." It still felt surreal saying the name without vitriol.

“...Thanks,” Vanitas said, to everyone else’s total shock, then turned and abruptly left the library.

“Did he just say ‘thanks’?” Riku asked in confirmation as he slid his arm down Sora’s side to wrap around the brunette’s waist, slipping under the jacket, stomach doing a small flip as he realized his hand was resting on bare skin.

Sora beamed. “Yep! I taught him that!” He giggled and wiggled slightly. “Riku, that tickles!” Riku had started gently stroking Sora’s side.

“Oh, Sorry,” Riku said, stopping. Speaking of tickling, Kairi’s newly-cut hair tickled Riku’s arm, which was slung around her shoulders. It was a little strange, seeing the redhead with such short hair, but it suited her.

Sora pouted playfully and crossed his arms. “Hey, I didn’t say stop! It felt… ngh…” Sora made a small sound of pleasure and heavily leaned into Riku’s side as Riku began slowly rubbing small circles with his thumb.

Maybe I should get my hair cut, too,” Riku mused. “It’s getting annoyingly long.”

“What? No!” Sora protested, reaching up to grab Riku’s hair. “I like it long!”

Riku cringed and gently untangled Sora’s hand from his hair as it was clutching it so hard it hurt. “It gets in the way though,” Riku explained to the brunette.

“Then braid it or something,” Kairi suggested. “I like it long, too.”

Riku sighed. “Fine, I won’t cut it,” he conceded.

Sora snuggled into Riku again, and Riku continued stroking his side. Kairi giggled, cuddling into Riku more too, and also made a happy murmur as Riku did the same with her, although over her dress. Too bad she wasn’t wearing a shirt, or he’d reach under it too. Instead, Riku leaned down as Kairi leaned up, and gave her a soft kiss on the lips, which she practically purred into.

Once the kiss broke, Sora wiggled a little and brought a hand up to tug on Riku’s collar. Riku turned and Sora leaned up, kissing Riku much harder, who returned the favor eagerly. Somewhere along the lines Sora’s hand had come to rest on Riku’s inner thigh, dangerously close to his crotch.

Kairi moved to get up, and Riku turned to her, asking coyly, “And where do you think you’re going?”

“I almost forgot that I volunteered to help Aerith cook dinner,” Kairi explained.

“Do you want our help?” Sora asked chipperly.

Kairi shook her head. “Nope, I got it!” She then gave each boy a peck on the lips and left the library.

Riku vaguely wondered what they were going to make, as it was a little early to start dinner compared to usual, but the thought went out the window when Sora flipped to straddle Riku’s lap with his hands on his shoulders, eyes half-lidded and eyeing Riku hungirly before bringing their lips together in a slow and sensual kiss. Riku’s hands migrated to just above Sora’s hips, thumbs slipping slightly under the waistband of his denim skirt.

“Wanna head to the bedroom?” Riku asked, realizing where this would be heading. Too bad Kairi had to make dinner.

Sora shook his head. “We can do it here,” he said as his hands wove into Riku’s hair again, probably to remind Riku of one of the reasons he should not cut it: Sora loved playing with Riku’s hair, especially when being intimate.

Riku rolled his eyes and sighed. “Sora, we can’t do it here; anyone could walk by and see,” he pointed out, trying to keep his head clear, which was becoming increasingly difficult with Sora’s lips still within kissing distance and his fingers playing with Riku's hair.

Sora met Riku’s eyes, then thrust his hand backwards, directly at the library’s entrance, which was just an archway. He muttered some strange words and a door appeared, closing off the library. Sora then summoned his keyblade and a beam of light shot out of it; as it hit the door a small click of a lock could be heard, indicating the two were fully locked in. “There, no one can bother us now,” Sora said, grinning lasciviously.

Riku raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure that’s exactly what keyblades are for,” he said with amusement.

“Just shut up and kiss me,” Sora demanded before firmly pressing their lips together again.

Chapter Text

“There it is!” Kairi declared excitedly, pointing to a world outside the GummiShip window.

“You sure that’s the one?” Riku checked as he fiddled a little with his low ponytail, which felt weird. At his partners' request he'd used a yellow ribbon tied in a bow. He’d never had his hair tied back before, but Kairi and Sora insisted on him doing that instead of cutting it, so Riku figured he could get used to it.

Kairi nodded. “Yup! Looks pretty enough.”

“Definitely,” Sora agreed from the captain’s chair as he prepared to land. He, unlike the other two, wore his full magical clothing, which was a mostly-black outfit full of straps and zippers that the fairies had given him close to a year prior. It was looking like it might be getting a little small, so they’d probably have to go ask the fairies for new clothing soon. Well, definitely would, seeing as Riku had already fully grown out of his, which had been gifted to him two years prior while Sora had been asleep; he’d tried it on before this trip to find that only the white-and-yellow sleeveless jacket/vest thing fit, and only just barely. Riku hadn’t realized he’d grown that much. So this trip he wore that jacket over a plain black non-magical t-shirt and faded blue jeans. Plus, Kairi didn’t have any magical clothes at all; today she wore beige shorts with a brown belt and a loose rich purple crop top that clearly had been forced upon her by Yuffie and showed off her navel piercing, which had a pink gem that matched her ever-present necklace. Attached to her belt was a small purse adorned with a dragonfly patch that looked like it could only hold a small wallet, but actually had been enchanted to hold a significant amount more, just like Sora and Riku’s magical pockets. Not that Sora even used those anymore—Merlin had taught him magic to access that magical storage space whenever he wanted, pockets or not. Merlin had tried teaching that to everyone else, but no one had managed it except Vanitas, who actually had already known how to do it, although in a different manner involving darkness. Riku wondered if that method would work for him; he’d have to ask about it sometime.

“Riku, what do you think?” Kairi asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, definitely a pretty world,” he concurred honestly. Indeed, it appeared to be quite a beautiful world; it featured a castle in the middle of a quaint town on a small island, with a bridge connecting it to a beautiful forest. It was one of the nicest-looking worlds Riku had ever seen; he had to give kudos to the teenage Xehanort for recommending it as a good date spot. Riku, Kairi, and Sora hadn’t been on a proper date since getting together, at least not a big one. They often visited Twilight Town or places around Radiant Garden for smaller food-related dates (mostly involving ice-cream), but there was something different about taking a long trip together. It was a few days of them being alone, no one to interrupt them and no having to plan around training and restoration work. It was just them, free to relax and do whatever they wanted.

Well, that was the hope, at least. Before ‘approving’ their trip, Yen Sid had warned them about keeping their guard up as Organization members may be around, but what reason did they have for being in a world like this? Their goal was to gather darkness, and this place basically screamed light. Of course, they might have another plot brewing that the former-Organization teens hadn’t been told about, as it seemed the old Xehanort had kept them out of the loop an extensive amount. Still, it was highly unlikely there would be trouble here, of all places.

Riku hoped he hadn’t just jinxed things.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Yup, he had jinxed things, Riku concluded, as he struck down one of the shadow heartless that had greeted the trio immediately after they exited their GummiShip.

“Why are they here?” Sora whined after summoning an electric wave that took out the remaining four shadows.

“I don’t know,” Riku said. “Guess we’ll have to go figure it out.”

Kairi made a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a grumble. “Seriously? So much for having a peaceful vacation!”

“Well, if we take them out quickly enough, we’ll still have a few days,” Sora reasoned. “It’s just heartless, after all. There’s probably a larger one spawning them, that’s all. Let’s go find it.”

“Then we can extend the vacation another day to make up for it!” Kairi decided, back to her usual cheerful demeanor.

“But we don’t have a way to contact them about that,” Riku reminded her, recalling the incident in the Pride Lands.

“We have the GummiShip,” Kairi said, rolling her eyes. “We took one of Cid’s, so we won’t lose power this time.” When Riku and Sora had taken a Disney GummiShip, which literally ran on happy emotions, they had completely run out of power. Kairi being on the ship had previously prevented that, and it undoubtedly would again, but they wanted to be safe. Cid’s ran on a combination of solar-powered electricity and a weird high-viscosity fuel that looked a bit like neon-blue flubber.

“Right,” Riku said with a small blush. He had forgotten about that. “Let’s go do that now.”

Sora shook his head rapidly. “No! Let’s take care of these first. I don’t want them worrying and sending backup. It’s just some shadows, no big deal.”

“I guess that’s true,” Riku conceded. “But we ARE contacting them this time!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Phew!” Kairi collapsed spread-eagle in the grass by a small lake, once the trio had finished defeating the heartless in the area, at least as far as they could tell. “It is definitely time for a break!” she declared. “One of you packed lunch, right?”

Riku looked at Sora, hoping he had remembered, and Sora looked at Riku in return, probably thinking the same. Riku had thought Kairi had offered to bring it, but she wasn’t likely to forget that—or even offer—so maybe he’d imagined that. Both boys immediately began rustling through their pockets to find something.

“All I have are some candies,” Sora said, holding them out in his hand. “Not very good ones, either.”

“I have a few granola bars,” Riku supplied. “We can eat these and then head to the town for something more substantial; the map says it should be nearby.”

Kairi giggled as she sat up, smiling teasingly. “Don’t worry, I'm just messing with you. I packed some things. You two are so predictable.”

“Hey!” Riku declared. He usually was much more responsible; Sora had just distracted him that morning.

Sora did not protest, rather shrugged and said with a laugh, “Yeah, putting me in charge of stuff never ends well.”

“That’s not true,” Riku quickly corrected. Sora had meant it as a joke, but he often joked about things that he seriously believed; Sora tended to hide his low self-esteem in that manner. It was possible this joke was only a joke, an exaggeration, and he didn’t actually feel that way, as it’d be with most people. However, it was also very possible Sora truly believed it, in which case it had to be addressed. Better safe than sorry.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Riku, not this again. I know it’s not true; it was a hypo-barley.”

“Hyperbole,” Riku corrected. “And I don’t think—”

“Just drop it,” Sora snapped. “I’m fine, okay? I’m perfectly fine, no need to worry.”

Riku blinked. Right, that totally sounded believable. It also had not been what Riku was asking. “Sora, that’s not—”

“Just stop!”

“Will both of you stop it?!” Kairi screeched, and a couple birds in the nearby trees flew away. “We’re supposed to be enjoying a vacation!”

“Right, Sorry,” Riku said with a blush. “Sorry, Sora.”

“It’s okay,” Sora said immediately, arms suddenly around Riku’s waist. “I know you just care about me. I really am feeling better though.”

“You—”

“If you ask me ‘you’re sure?’ again I’m gonna stab you with my keyblade,” Sora growled into Riku’s chest, though it had a playful tone to it.

“I’m gonna stab both of you with my keyblade if you don’t get over here and eat lunch right now,” Kairi threatened, and Riku had no reason to believe the redhead wasn’t serious about that.

Riku and Sora hurried over to the blanket and picnic-basket Kairi had pulled out while they were arguing. Riku didn’t think he’d ever get over his wonder regarding magical pockets and bags. The boys helped Kairi unpack the lunch, which appeared to be home-made by the interesting looks of the items, consisting of a buffet of things that one usually wouldn’t pair together: sushi, mini sandwiches, quesadillas, fruit salad, chips with onion dip, onigiri, potato salad, cans of iced coffee, egg rolls, chocolate pancakes, and mini quiches. Individually the things would probably taste good despite the questionable looks, Riku desperately hoped.

“It looks delicious,” Sora told Kairi, although he eyed the array with trepidation, apparently thinking the same as Riku. “Did you make all of this, Kairi?”

Kairi beamed. “Yup! You’re always cooking things for us, so I figured I’d return the favor!”

“Thanks, Kairi,” Sora said, and Riku echoed his sentiments, hoping they wouldn’t end up poisoned, as had actually happened once when Kairi attempted to cook. Sora grabbed a spoon and started with a bite of fruit salad, which appeared to be the safest thing aside from the coffee. Riku watched with bated breath.

“Well, how is it?” Kairi asked in anticipation.

Sora looked like he was trying not to gag as he swallowed it. “Kairi, is there, er, both oranges and mayonnaise in here?” he asked.

Kairi nodded, still smiling proudly.

“And, er, why is it spicy?”

Kairi scrunched her brow in confusion. “Spicy? It shouldn’t be spicy.”

Sora stuck the spoon back in the fruit salad and picked up a rice ball, which should be safe. “Riku, you try stuff too,” Sora instructed quietly.

Riku tried not to hide his nervousness as he picked up a quiche. Quiche was just egg and veggies in a shell, so how bad could it be? Other than the shell being burned to nearly black, but if Riku avoided that bit it should be fine…

“Kairi, what’s in this?” Sora asked, holding up the onigiri; it appeared there was something slimy in the center.

“That’s the filling!” Kairi told him.

“Yeah I get that it’s a filling, but what specifically is it?”

“Um… grape pudding?”

“Why is that a question?” Riku wondered. “And what even is grape pudding?”

“I invented it!” Kairi said pridefully.

“Right… well, it’s definitely interesting,” Sora told her. “I’m gonna try something else. Don’t want to get too full before I’ve tried it all, you know?” he said, clearly trying not to hurt Kairi’s feelings by verbally rejecting everything after one bite.

Riku used the same excuse when he put his quiche down, which for some reason contained cabbage and pickles. The two boys sampled bits of everything, eventually concluding that none of it was edible except for the coffee. Even the chocolate pancakes had somehow ended up sour; had there been lemon juice in them? Kairi, on the other hand, was excitedly eating it all. Her extremely questionable taste buds had been a recurring theme throughout their lives: Riku regrettably remembered the time Kairi tried making spaghetti-sardine cookies. She had been 13 at the time.

While Kairi wasn’t looking, Riku snuck Sora a few granola bars to eat later. They were chocolate-chip, so hopefully the brunette would actually eat them. If they were going to fight more, Sora would need to have more than just iced coffee and a few bites of the strange foods Riku hoped didn’t return with a vengeance later.

Thankfully before Kairi could wonder why the boys weren’t eating more a group of Nobodies appeared. Riku had never expected to be thankful for Nobodies appearing, but he had never expected to eat sushi with pop-rocks in it, either. Riku wondered if that had been intentional or if his girlfriend had mistaken them for roe.

During the fairly quick, simple battle, the picnic spread ‘accidentally’ was simultaneously hit by a dark firaga from Riku and whatever thunder wave thing Sora had used to defeat the last few.

“Aww, man, all the food is ruined!” Kairi complained, then her tone changed to worry as she turned to Sora, who was panting, hands on his knees. “Hey, you okay, Sora?” she asked with concern as she rushed over to him.

Riku hurried over to Sora, too, putting a hand on the brunette’s back. “Did something hit you?” Riku asked, upon which Kairi used a cure spell just in case.

Sora shook his head, then stood up, blushing. “I’m fine, you two, no need to be so concerned. Used a bit too much mana, that’s all; not used to casting so much in a row.” Oh, right; Sora’s new accessories meant he could cast twice as fast, meaning he could do more spells in battle, which was a huge mana drain.

“You should be more careful about that,” Riku warned. Sora had been consecutively using some pretty large spells. “Maybe stick to more basic magic for now; such powerful spells aren’t needed against these small fries.”

“I can handle it; I’m not weak,” Sora protested.

“No one said you were,” Kairi replied quickly. “In fact, you’re the opposite of weak! Neither of us can do anything close to those spells you can do; hell, it’s because of you we won that coliseum tournament!”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sora said dismissively.

“It’s not a guess, it’s the truth,” Riku told him. “Seriously. Why do you think your magic is so bad?”

Sora nibbled his lip a little. “Well, I guess it’s not, but Donald always said it was, and I don’t think Yen Sid is very impressed…”

“Yen Sid hasn’t even seen your new magic yet, and Donald told you good job last time,” Riku pointed out.

“But that was only my cat transformation. I guess I haven’t fought any battles with him recently, but he always said to leave the magic to him because I suck...” Sora said forlornly. Riku hoped those weren't the exact words, although he honestly wouldn't put it past the duck to say something so rude.

“That was before you started training with Merlin,” Kairi pointed out. “I’m sure Donald will be impressed once he sees you in action.”

“Yeah, Merlin doesn’t make just anyone his apprentice you know,” Riku told Sora. “He trained Yen Sid so I think his word trumps Donald’s views on the matter.”

Sora gave a small smile. “I guess that’s true.”

“No guessing!” Kairi chided, though her tone was playful. She put her finger on Sora’s nose, and the boy looked at it cross-eyed. “It is true. Your magic really is better than even Donald’s now!”

“O-okay, Kairi,” Sora stammered, and Riku chuckled at the display.

“WAAAAAAHHHHH!” A loud voice sounded from nearby.

The trio summoned their keyblades and swerved towards it to find an extremely attractive man in his mid-twenties with short brown hair, brown pants and boots, a long white shirt with sleeves rolled up under a green vest, and a belt with a small satchel attached. Following him was a younger girl, probably around Riku’s age, in a long lilac dress with impossibly long golden hair she held in her arms along with a frying pan being chased by what appeared to be a giant dandelion-like plant consisting of a small black body and a puffy white afro, like a dandelion ready to blow its seeds into the wind. It also had a fluffy yellow collar, glowing round eyes, four small leaves for feet, and long razor-sharp leaves for arms.

“Is that a heartless?” Sora wondered.

“Does it matter? It’s attacking them!” Kairi pointed out, dashing towards them.

Riku and Sora followed. As they approached, they saw that the dandelion puff indeed had a heartless symbol under its collar. Following it were a few smaller heartless that looked like seeds donning flat flower hats with miniature leaves for arms.

Kairi, Riku, and Sora stood between the people and the heartless, all of which froze in surprise.

“It’s so fluffy,” Kairi swooned. “I feel bad having to fight it.”

“I know! I just want to hug it,” Sora agreed. “Maybe we can tame it?”

“We are not keeping a heartless as a pet,” Riku growled out. If he didn’t stop the two now, he had no doubt they would try such. Besides, they already had a pet squirrel.

Thankfully at that moment the thing attacked, forcing them to fight it. Riku couldn’t believe that in the span of not even half an hour he’d been thankful for both Nobodies—which they had to address being there, as it meant the Organization was around too—and Heartless attacking them.

The Heartless turned out to be quite weak—or maybe it was just that Sora’s fire tornado was insanely strong. Either way, it took maybe a minute, if that, for them to fall.

“Whoa,” the man said, looking at the scorched ground in awe.

“Oh!” the girl said cheerfully, clapping her hands together. “That’s amazing!” She turned to the trio and began speaking rapidly. “Thank you so much for saving us! Are you headed to the city too? That’s where we’re going! You see, I want to see the lanterns tonight, since it’s my birthday and I want to see them in person rather than just watching from my tower. I’m sure it’ll be so much fun! But we’re having an awful lot of trouble getting there with all these strange creatures all over. Flynn says they’re not usually around but I wouldn’t know since this is my first time outside my tower. Anyway, so if you’re heading there anyway we’d love for you to go with us! Not just for protection, which would be great to have even though I’m pretty sure we can handle things, just not as fast as you can, but also because you seem like very nice people and it’ll be fun travelling with more people!”

“Um,” Riku said intelligently, blinking as he tried to process the rush of words.

“Sure, we’ll go with you!” Sora declared, apparently having no issue with the onslaught.

The man finally collected his wits and gave the group a dashing smile. “Well then, if Goldilocks here wants you to go with us, I’m cool with it too. Name’s Flynn, Flynn Rider,” he introduced, holding out his hand.

“Riku,” Riku said, shaking the hand. He tried not to blush, but by the man’s slight chuckle, apparently he failed.

“Your name is Goldilocks?” Sora asked the girl.

She giggled. “No, my name’s Rapunzel.”

“Well then, nice to meet you, Rapunzel! I’m Sora!”

“And I’m Kairi,” Kairi said, blushing slightly and looking at the girl with open admiration.

“Is something on my face?” Rapunzel asked innocently.

Kairi blinked, then shook her head, blushing harder. “Oh, um, no. You’re just very pretty,” Kairi told her.

Rapunzel practically glowed. “Really? No one’s ever called me pretty before! I’m so happy!”

“Do I have competition?” Flynn muttered to Riku, eyeing the exchange. He seemed more amused than concerned though.

Riku too looked at the two girls in mild surprise. “I… huh. I actually don’t know.” Riku bit down some jealousy, unsure if it was misplaced or valid.

The group proceeded to head towards the city, chatting amicably along the way. Rapunzel turned out to be ultra-friendly with everyone, just like Sora and Kairi tended to be, so Riku quickly realized he’d had no reason to be jealous. They learned that Rapunzel had been locked in a tower her entire life, as she had magic hair that could heal anything, even prevent aging. Her mother claimed people would kidnap her and use her for their own evil plots, so she had to be protected that way. Riku felt a pang of sadness about that; it must be a very lonely life living in a tower with no one but her mother. No wonder the girl was so happy to be interacting with other people! She didn’t seem disturbed about her situation though, oddly enough. Much happier than one would expect; that kind of isolation had a tendency to take a large toll on people. Then again, it was all she ever knew, so maybe that was why she wasn’t affected.

Unfortunately, the peace did not last long. Soon the group encountered a strange giant flower, white and pointed, closed into a bud; remembering the heartless that looked like a giant dandelion, Riku warned the others not to touch it. Sora investigated it via a very tiny aero spell; if it was a heartless, surely that would wake it, but if it were an actual flower it wouldn’t be destroyed.

It was neither. Riku suppressed a groan as the flower rapidly spun around, unfolding to reveal a large Nobody vaguely resembling a flower and holding a scythe. Great.

“Go; we’ll meet you in the city!” Riku told Rapunzel and Flynn. The former prepared her frying pan, looking like she wanted to help, but thankfully Flynn had more sense, grabbing her hand and running.

The Nobody was joined by two others. They were a lot tougher than the ones they had fought earlier; Sora immediately tried using a concentrated laser spell straight through the center of one, which would normally one-shot a weaker enemy, but the thing withstood it. However, these enemies weren’t nearly as powerful as some of the ones the trio had fought in the Olympus Coliseum, so it didn’t take too long for them all to be defeated, although it did take a lot of dodging and strategic hits rather than running right in as their strikes were fast and those scythes looked like they’d be devastating if they landed a hit with them.

Finally, all three of the things had dissolved, indicating defeat.

Someone was clapping slowly; Riku turned to see a man with long, bright-pink hair wearing a black cloak. “Very well done. That magic is certainly impressive, Sora; much better than you had the first time we met.”

“First time?” Sora repeated, scrunching his brow in confusion. He looked towards Kairi, then Riku, on each side of him. “Do either of you know him?”

Riku narrowed his eyes, trying to think. Did he know this person? He was clearly a member of the Organization, but Riku didn't think they’d ever met…

Kairi, however, did appear to know him. She was shaking, looking terrified. “Y-you… you’re…” she stammered. “I… you’re the one who…”

“Ah, yes, you’re the Princess that Naminé merged with,” the man acknowledged, then laughed a little. “Yes, you would recognize me, wouldn’t you?”

“You were from Castle Oblivion!” Riku realized. Riku hadn’t personally met the man, but if he knew Namine, that was the logical conclusion. Everyone there but Axel had been defeated, but as recompletion was a thing, and Zexion/Ienzo and Vexen/Even had returned, it made sense for the others to be back too.

“Hmm. You figured that out quicker than expected,” the man said with a frown. “Yes, you would be correct. My name is Marluxia, and I was in charge of Castle Oblivion’s operations.”

Riku narrowed his eyes, lifting his still-drawn keyblade slightly. “You’re not trying to take Naminé again, are you?”

Marluxia scoffed. “No, we want nothing to do with that failure of an experiment. However, I am curious about why you are gallivanting around with a Princess of Heart.”

Kairi narrowed her eyes. “What do you want with Rapunzel?” Oh, so that’s why Kairi had immediately taken so well to the girl; they were both Princesses of Heart.

Marluxia blinked, looking thrown off by that. “How do you know… ah, yes, you would be able to tell, being a Princess yourself. However, that was not what I was referring to. What does a Princess hope to gain from becoming a keyblade wielder? Do you intend to be one of the Seven Guardians?”

“Seven Guardians?” Riku asked, before Kairi or Sora could respond. They had already been told by the three defectors about Xehanort’s plan to clash thirteen darknesses against seven lights, but the Organization didn’t know that. Did they even know yet that the three had defected?

“Ah, yes, you wouldn’t have been told… Xehanort had this whole big dramatic speech planned, but you two never showed up for it. He was awfully angry about that. I would have thought he’d gotten around to telling you by now… no matter. In short, we are gathering thirteen Seekers of Darkness, and you will gather seven Guardians of Light. Once they clash, the X-blade will be created, and Kingdom Hearts will be summoned.”

“And the Princesses play into that how?” Sora demanded. Right, that was something the trio did not yet know.

Marluxia raised an eyebrow. “Who said anything about Princesses?”

“Well, you gotta be in this world for some reason,” Sora concluded. “If Rapunzel is a Princess, it’s gotta be related to her, right? I mean, you guys have been pretty obsessed with them in the past.”

“Hmm. Perhaps you are much more clever than we have given you credit for. Yes, I am here to ensure Rapunzel is protected—she may be off on a little adventure now, but she will eventually return to her tower. Currently, her mother is searching for her, and once she brings her home we will help properly secure her.”

“And why would you be protecting her?” Riku probed.

“Oh, call it a back-up plan, if you will, as you seem to be woefully short of your Lights whereas we already have nearly all of our Darknesses," Marluxia informed them. So, they didn't know about the defectors. "It is not the ideal situation, but the Princesses will suffice if necessary, providing we can find them.”

“But don’t you know who the Princesses are?” Riku asked, fishing for more information. Were there new Princesses? Rapunzel hadn’t been one before. Well, no use wondering, as they’d learn soon—if this guy was like most the other Organization members, he liked to do the stereotypical evil-villain trope of pridefully monologuing the plan.

“It seems you are woefully ignorant of how things work,” Marluxia drawled. “No, we do not know all of them, nor do you. You see, when the Princesses use their powers, their pure light is passed on to a New Seven Hearts.” Yup, just as expected. Why did evil villains like giving the heroes so much information? You’d think they’d prefer they be kept more in the dark about their plans.

“But Kairi’s still a Princess,” Sora pointed out.

“Yes, that is true,” Marluxia confirmed. “Why the little spitfire Princess here has not passed on her powers is a mystery, but that does make it rather convenient for us.”

“Yeah right! Like I’d help you!” Kairi spat, taking a stance as though ready to attack.

“Always so dramatic,” Marluxia sighed. “You have no choice in the matter; whether as a Princess or as a Guardian, you will assist in summoning the X-blade and Kingdom Hearts. Now, if you excuse me, I must be on my way; a parting gift…”

Marluxia waved his hand and a small mist flew towards them.

Kairi immediately put up a barrier of light to block the status-inducing spell.

Marluxia stood there blankly for a moment, then frowned, seeming disappointed. “Well, I suppose you’ve avoided falling asleep this time. Pity; I had a good taunt prepared. Well, no matter; I’m sure we will meet again…”

Marluxia summoned a dark portal and walked through, the portal closing behind him once he entered.

Sora laughed as he dismissed his keyblade. “What an idiot. Does he realize how much information he gave us? I mean, we already knew most of it, but he didn’t know that.”

“Actually, he probably did,” Riku mused. “Not about us knowing it, but about how much he gave,” he clarified. “It sounded like they planned on giving us that information at the end of that exam they infiltrated.”

“Yeah but he said that Xehanort wanted to tell us himself,” Sora pointed out. “I wonder if Marluxia is going to get in trouble for that.”

“Does it matter?” Kairi snapped harshly. “He’s a bad guy. Internal strife works in our favor. I hope Xehanort murders him for it.”

“Whoa, Kairi, that’s a little intense, don’t you think?” Riku said warily. It was rare for Kairi to get so mad.

“After what he did to Naminé? He deserves it. Tenfold.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Riku said. He had seen firsthand what being under the Organization’s control had done to Naminé’s mental state. She’d had nightmares and flashbacks; Riku wondered if she was having one now, while she was inside Kairi’s heart. Was that possible? “Do you need to take some time to rest?” Riku asked Kairi calmly.

Kairi quickly shook her head, then took a deep breath. “No. Let’s just get to the city,” she said, tone more neural.

Sora grinned. “Yeah! Let’s go see the festival!”

Chapter Text

The trio had been unhurriedly meandering down the forest paths, following the signs towards the town and fighting occasional small groups of heartless and nobodies on their way, when they encountered a woman. She was roughly middle-aged with dark curly hair and a shawl. She approached them smiling gently, but Riku couldn’t help but think that something seemed slightly off about her.

“Oh, good travelers!” the woman said to them. “You wouldn’t have happened to have encountered a girl around here, would you? You see, my daughter is missing. She would be about your age, with long blonde hair…”

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but Riku quickly did before he could. “I’m sorry, but we haven’t seen any girls around here,” he lied, realizing what was off about the woman and not wanting her anywhere near a Princess of Heart, mother or not.

“Oh, well that’s too bad then,” the woman said curtly, almost coldly, then abruptly walked away.

“Why’d you lie to her?” Sora asked once the woman was a significant enough distance away from them.

“I sensed darkness,” Riku explained.

“I think she was lying, too,” Kairi pitched in. “She didn’t seem trustworthy.”

Sora frowned. “Why would she lie about being her mother?” he wondered.

Riku answered that. “It may be that that isn’t actually her mother—remember what Rapunzel said about being locked away to keep her safe from people using her for her magic? Well, something tells me Rapunzel’s ‘mother’ wasn’t just holding her in a tower to keep her safe.”

“She was hiding her?” Kairi caught on. The three began walking again.

Riku nodded. “Yeah. I think she may have kidnapped Rapunzel to use her magic for her own gain.”

Sora let out a small whistle. “That’s going to be tough for Rapunzel to hear; she grew up thinking that woman was her mother, locking her up out of love… to learn that’s not the case… well, I guess I can kinda relate.”

“What do you mean?” Kairi asked, looking puzzled.

Sora raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? It’s not exactly the same, but I thought my mom loved me until she went and kicked me out screaming profanities and slurs. It’s a different situation, sure, but it’s the same sense of betrayal, don’t you think? Learning your mother isn’t who you thought she was.”

“True,” Riku said, wondering how much it’d be okay to talk about this. Sora had never willingly brought up the topic of his mom without prompting before.

Sora grinned. “Yup! Now, let’s go get something to eat—I see a tavern up ahead!” Sora hurried off towards it. Apparently they weren’t going to talk about it at all.

Kairi sighed. “He’s hiding his emotions again,” she commented.

“Yup,” Riku confirmed. Well, at least this one made sense to avoid talking about. “We’ve already pushed him enough today though, so let’s give him this, okay?” After Riku’s talk about Sora’s darkness with Vanitas, Riku had been trying extra hard to coax Sora into expressing things instead of bottling things up, but he was also concerned that pushing too much too fast could trigger the form.

“Okay...” Kairi said, then frowned. “Wait, we just ate. Why is he already hungry?”

“Um… well, does it really matter? He’s actually interested in eating for once so let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, okay?” Riku said, hoping she didn’t question things further and figure out that neither boy ate much of the lunch she made, by choice. “Plus, we just did a lot of fighting, so it makes sense to get hungry faster.”

“True,” Kairi agreed as they reached the tavern.

Kairi and Riku entered the tavern to find Sora already happily chatting with a group of guys, beer glass in his hand (which answered the question of if there were age restrictions in this world). Riku had to do a double-take; they’d only been barely five minutes behind the brunette! How did he manage to already have a drink and be happily chatting with people?

Scary people, at that. Perhaps they should have been more suspicious about a random tavern in the middle of the woods; all the guys there were clad in either heavy leather, armor, or shirtless, all clearly drunk, and all carrying visible weapons. Most of them were wearing horned helmets and spiked shoulder guards. How was Sora conversing with them so carelessly? Riku wasn’t sure what to do. He shifted a little closer to Kairi, just to be safe; there were no other females there, and all the guys looked like the rough sort.

Kairi put her hand on Riku’s elbow. “Relax,” she said. “Sora might try to befriend everything without care, but I don't sense any particularly malicious intent from them; plus, you can check their darkness, right?”

“Right,” Riku said. Kairi had a good track record of sensing when people had ill-intent, and if they could be trusted, probably thanks to her princess powers, but Riku took her advice just in case. Yup, Kairi was right: none of them had any more darkness than people usually did. Of course, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t do things like steal from them, but at least there weren’t any serial killers among them. “Yeah, they seem fine… we should still be careful though,” Riku concluded.

“Riku! Kairi! Over here!” Sora dramatically signaled, waving at them with his entire arm.

Riku and Kairi pushed through the rambunctions group of drunks to reach their boyfriend, who shoved tankards of beer at them. Riku hesitated; there was clearly no age limit here, but the others would surely be disappointed to learn the trio had been drinking. Then again, they were technically on vacation, and it wasn’t like anyone there actually knew them so there wasn’t really a chance the others would learn about it… Then again, shouldn’t they be looking into the Nobody situation?

“We shouldn’t be drinking,” Riku told Sora.

Sora pushed the mug towards Riku again. “Come on! Just try it!”

Riku sighed, then accepted the tankard. Maybe one wouldn’t hurt; they were technically on vacation, after all. Riku took a sip, then realized that it wasn’t actually beer. “What is this?” Riku asked. Maybe it wasn’t alcoholic?

“It’s called mead!” Sora explained.

“Oh! Honey wine,” Kairi said, tasting her drink too. “I’ve had this before. It’s basically beer, but tastes better.” Ah, so it was alcoholic. In that case, Riku should make sure they all only had one each, then get food and be done with the tavern.

Instead, against his better judgement, Riku finished his glass of mead quite rapidly, and soon found himself filling it up again from one of the many self-serve barrels along the wall. He wasn’t sure who collected the money for it, but allegedly someone was around keeping track of everyone’s tab. He’d stop at two, Riku decided. He reminded Kairi and Sora to do the same, only to receive eyerolls from both.

Somehow the trio ended up completely integrated into the group, laughing and cheering with them and whatnot as they drank. Turned out Sora had been right this time about making friends with these ruffians. Or maybe that was the alcohol speaking; Riku wasn’t sure. How many drinks had he had? He hadn’t stopped at two. It definitely was not as much as Sora, who was now dancing atop a barrel, doing flips and strange calisthenics that shouldn’t be possible when drunk while one of the largest guys there was happily banging away on a piano while another played an accordion.

The mood abruptly changed and the room stilled when none other than Flynn and Rapunzel entered the tavern. Apparently, Flynn had a bounty on him, and everyone other than the trio wanted to collect.

Thankfully Rapunzel took care of this. Riku wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but within minutes the girl had the entire tavern singing and dancing, talking about all their dreams. The smallest guy—a dwarf?—was dressed as a mostly-naked cherub, little wings strapped to his back, and was swinging from a rope around the place. Somewhere along the line cupcakes were brought out.

Kairi ended up in some sort of a mosh pit situation, riding the crowd. Riku cringed at seeing so many guys with their hands on her as they passed her around, but she was laughing and encouraging it so it was fine. Flynn and a few of the smaller guys were getting passed around, too.

Rapunzel was now swinging from the chandelier—no, wait, Sora was? In Rapunzel’s dress? And Rapunzel was swinging from the rafters using her hair, in Sora’s clothing… When had they switched?!

Suddenly Riku found himself dancing a jig with some guys, insisting it was his turn to sing about his dreams. Riku was at a loss.

Riku grunted as someone landed on his shoulders in a crouch. “Don’t you have a dream, Riku?” Sora asked in a singsongy voice.

“Um… no?” Riku tried, caught off guard and truly unsure if he did. Did wanting to protect his friends count as a dream?

“Whaaaaat? But everyone has a dream!”

“Well then what’s yours, Sora?” Riku returned the question.

“Umm…” Sora played with Riku’s hair as he thought about that. “I dunno either. Be happy? Is that a good dream?”

The guys around them cheered, so apparently it was.

“I have a dream too!” Kairi declared loudly from atop a table. “I want to murder someone!”

The room immediately froze and everyone went silent as they stared at the redhead in flabbergasted shock.

“He’s a really really bad guy who kidnapped me and now wants to destroy the world,” Kairi explained casually, oversimplifying it.

Everyone cheered, collectively agreeing that was a good dream, and went back to singing.

After Flynn and Rapunzel had shared their dreams—Flynn’s being something about money and Rapunzel’s wanting to see the lanterns—the door to the tavern flew open and the cheerful singing halted as soldiers flooded in, apparently looking for Flynn. Before the singing started someone had left to find the soldiers about the bounty.

Riku looked around to see if he could help Flynn escape, but it looked like he and Rapunzel already had.

Someone tried to claim the cherub-dwarf was Flynn, citing the large nose on the wanted poster. As the soldiers began to accept that it had just been a case of mistaken identity, the door flew open again.

Riku had to do a double-take; had his drunken mind imagined it, or was that a horse sniffing around like a dog? And… did it just find a secret passage? What? Riku was so confused.

Sora apparently was on top of things though, somewhat. "You're not going to catch them!" he declared, slurring slightly, as he jumped onto the counter and summoned his keyblade, pointing it at the horse before it and the soldiers could use the passage behind the counter. The ruffians around the room followed Sora’s lead, drawing their weapons and facing the soldiers.

"Sora, we can't fight soldiers!" Riku hissed. World Order needed to be kept. Plus, they were human.

Sora huffed. "Says you," he muttered, then called "Sleep!” while focusing on the horse.

Everything went fuzzy as not just the horse but also Riku and everyone else in the room passed out due to the sleep spell.

Riku was awoken less than a minute later by Sora.

“Was that really necessary?” Riku asked in a whisper, so as not to wake anyone else.

Sora chuckled nervously. “I, er, actually only wanted to make the horse sleep,” he quietly admitted before he went to wake Kairi. Huh. So Sora should definitely refrain from using magic while drunk; if that had been a damage-oriented spell, that would have ended badly.

“Um. Shouldn't we pay our tab?” Riku wondered as he snuck out the front door with his girlfriend and boyfriend.

“We don’t even know whom to give it to,” Kairi pointed out, wobbling slightly as she closed the door as quietly as possible. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“We need to find Rapunzel,” Sora noted as he stumbled slightly over the hem of the blonde’s dress, which was just a tiny bit too long for him. He grabbed the sides to hold it up a little. “The fairies are going to be mad if I lose those clothes they made.”

“Are you wearing a guard’s helmet?” Riku asked Kairi, wondering how he hadn’t noticed immediately.

“Uhhhh. Am I?” Kairi asked, reaching up to feel her head. “Huh. Well, guess I got a souvenir, then.”

Riku sighed. “Kairi, you can’t just take a guard’s helmet,” he told the redhead. Did she lose her sense of morals when drunk or something?

“Riku, carry me!” Sora loudly complained, tripping again, possibly intentionally.

“Me toooooo!” Kairi declared, also loudly. Weren’t they trying to escape quietly?

Riku eventually gave into the two, if only to shut them up so they didn’t wake the whole forest. Unfortunately, Riku’s drunken attempt to carry both of them at once ended with him face-down on the ground with the two sprawled on top of him.

“This is going to be a long journey,” Riku mumbled into the ground.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

It took three times as long as it probably would have normally taken, but that worked in the trio’s favor as thankfully by the time the trio reached the village on the water they were at least semi-sober. Enough to hopefully not appear obviously drunk at least. They weren’t slurring or wobbling or anything, which was huge progress. Riku even managed to carry Sora—now sleeping—on his shoulders with no issue.

“Sora! Kairi! Riku!” Rapunzel called, hurrying over to the group as they crossed the bridge. “Oh, I am SO glad you three made it! I thought you’d all be arrested or something, with all those guards there! I mean, there wasn’t any reason for you to be, I know, but still, there were just so many guards!”

“Yeah, about that… We might actually be on the wanted list now,” Riku admitted. “Sora kinda started a riot against the guards and then put everyone to sleep before we ran.”

“Put to sleep?” Flynn asked as he caught up to them. “That’s not a euphemism for, well”—he made a chopping motion across his throat with his hand—“is it?”

“What? No, gods no!” Riku said. “He used magic. Apparently he only meant it for the horse, but instead it affected everyone.”

“Including him?” Flynn asked, looking at the brunette, who was currently using Riku’s head for a pillow.

“No, he passed out because he’s drunk,” Kairi said bluntly. “Riku was already carrying him since he kept tripping over the dress and I guess he decided to nap.”

“Kairi, I told you to not be vocal about the alcohol,” Riku chided.

“Oooooh, right, sorry,” Kairi said; she still seemed to be quite a bit tipsy.

Flynn laughed. “Hey, it’s all in good fun.”

“Speaking of fun, there’s some sort of festival going on!” Rapunzel said excitedly. “Look, some kids braided my hair, and put me in this pretty dress!” She was wearing a simple knee-length periwinkle sundress with yellow suns decorating it, in the same style of a lot of the decorations and flags that appeared to be around the town. Riku wondered where Sora’s magical clothing had gone, as the fairies would be mad if they lost it, but he didn’t get a chance to ask.

“Yup. Like I said before, tonight’s the lantern lighting, which means there’s a festival too!” Flynn told them.

“What’s the lantern lighting for, anyway?” Sora wondered, apparently now awake.

Flynn answered that. “It’s for the lost princess. She was taken from her crib eighteen years ago, so every day on her birthday the town lights lanterns to remember her and hope that someday she’ll return.”

“That’s so romantic!” Rapunzel swooned.

“It is,” Kairi agreed with a contented sigh.

Before Sora or Riku could say anything, Rapunzel grabbed Flynn’s hand and ran into the town with him.

The trio followed, arriving in the town square to find that Rapunzel was leading yet another song and dance, somehow roping everyone around the square into it. Sora hopped off Riku’s shoulders and grabbed his and Kairi’s hands, probably intending to get them all dancing but instead tripped over the dress again. Thankfully there was a stall nearby selling festival clothes; well, only dresses like Rapunzel’s and shirts, not pants. Sora didn’t seem to mind, though, as he happily purchased a dress then ducked into an alleyway to change.

Once he exited the alleyway, Sora again grabbed Kairi’s and Riku’s hands and this time succeeded in pulling them into the dance. Riku wasn’t great at dancing, but he was able to keep up at least, he was happy to find—which was quite a feat considering Sora and Kairi were the ones he was mainly dancing with, although everyone kept changing partners whether strangers or not.

Conveniently by the time the dance ended evening had begun to settle in, giving them just enough time to grab some street food and then find places to watch the lanterns be released. Small stands had been set up where everyone could pick one up, so the group did so before heading to the docks for boats. Rapunzel and Flynn found a boat easily, but…

“Only two per boat,” the burly man in charge of the rowboats told the trio.

“What? Can’t there be an exception?” Sora protested.

“Yeah, we're small!” Kairi pointed out.

“He’s not,” the guy said, gesturing to Riku. “I can give two of you one boat and the third a private boat, but you can’t all be in one.”

“But we’re here on a date,” Sora said, pulling out his puppy-dog eyes.

“Doesn’t matter. The boats aren’t designed for three people.”

“I can sit on Riku’s lap,” Kairi suggested.

The man shook his head. “No; it’s not a space issue, it’s the weight. You’ll sink it.”

“You two go together,” Riku told Sora and Kairi. “I’ll go alone.”

“No! It’s all or none!” Sora insisted, crossing his arms.

The man mirrored the position. “Then it’ll be none. Now, please leave, or I’ll have to force you away; other people are waiting for boats, too.”

“Sora, come on, let’s find a different place to watch,” Riku said, noting that the man could probably easily simultaneously pick him, Sora, and Kairi up and toss them somewhere. “It’s not worth fighting.”

“But—”

“Riku’s right,” Kairi conceded. “Come on.”

“There’s a nice spot near the wharf, on a rocky jetty,” the man suggested helpfully, pointing towards it. “It has one of the best views other than directly on the water. Not many go there because it’s difficult to get to, but from how you were all jumping around at the dance earlier, I think you three will have no problem.”

“Thank you,” Riku said, appreciative, then grabbed Kairi and Sora’s hands and led them that way.

‘Difficult to get to’ ended up being a simple matter of climbing down a rocky slope and then navigating a patch of rocks jutting out into the water until they reached a flat stone just large enough for the three of them to lie down comfortably. For the average person it would be risky, especially at night, but for three trained keyblade wielders with special abilities it was a breeze.

As usual, Riku sat in the middle with Kairi and Sora on either side of him. Kairi snapped a photo of them, and then the trio shared a few kisses with each other before they settled down to cuddle, preparing to view the lanterns.

“I think I like this better than a boat,” Kairi decided after a few minutes.

“Really?” Sora asked.

“Yeah. We can’t cuddle like this in a boat.”

“Very true,” Riku agreed. Plus, it wasn’t much different than a boat location-wise; they were fairly far into the water, after all.

“It’s starting!” Kairi said excitedly, pointing towards the castle.

Riku turned to see that on the highest tower a single lantern had been lit. Slowly, all around the lake and along the shore other lanterns lit up too. The trio hurried to take out their own and light them; after the one on the high tower floated into the air, others around them began to too. The trio raised up their own lanterns and gently pushed them upwards, releasing them into the sky.

Kairi sighed happily. “It’s so beautiful. I hope the princess finds her way back home.”

“Isn’t the princess Rapunzel though?” Sora said.

“What?” Kairi and Riku said simultaneously, looking at the brunette.

“What?”

“It does make sense,” Riku agreed. “Princesses of Heart aren’t always actual royalty, but they often are. In addition, Rapunzel was hidden in a tower her whole life, and her eighteenth birthday coincides with that of the lost princess’s, who vanished eighteen years ago. It’s too much to all be coincidence.”

“Should we tell someone?” Kairi wondered. “I mean, they’ve been looking for her for eighteen years…”

“We can do it later,” Sora decided, cuddling into Riku’s side more. “I’m too comfortable right now. Plus, she’s enjoying her own date with Flynn; let her have that before everything’s untended.”

"Upended," Kairi corrected.

“Yeah, I agree,” Riku said. “Let’s enjoy the lanterns for now.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku awoke with a yawn to find himself on a rock in the water with the warm glow of sunrise washing over him and his partners. Huh? Why was he—oh, right. They had watched the lanterns from here; they must have become too relaxed and fallen asleep.

Riku sat up, then pain seared through his brain. He put a hand on his head; why did he have such a headache? Wait… ah. Right. The tavern.

Sora and Kairi, now awake too, echoed with similar groans. Kairi used a cure spell on them, but it didn’t do much other than heal a slight crink in Riku’s neck from the awkward sleeping location.

“I don’t think cure magic works on hangovers,” Riku grumbled.

“Shit,” Kairi said. “I’m never drinking again.”

Sora laughed a bit at that. “Five hundred munny says that’s a lie.”

Kairi opened her mouth, then closed it again. She sighed. “Yeah, I’m not taking that bet. Come on, let’s go find headache medicine, I think there was an apothecary near the town entrance.”

“Will it be open this early?” Riku wondered. He wasn’t sure how early this town opened; each world seemed to be different in that regard.

“I don’t care if it is or not. If it isn’t, Sora can break in.”

“What! Why do I need to break in?” Sora complained.

“Because you’re the one who can change into animals.”

“No one is breaking into the apothecary,” Riku chided. They probably hadn’t been serious, but there was no harm in making sure.

Thankfully, it turned out that the apothecary was open after all, despite the early hour.

“Let me guess: hungover?” asked the elderly lady at the counter of the little shop, which was full of herbs and powders and other such things. So it would be more traditional medicine, then, not the fancier things found on other worlds.

“What? Is it that obvious?” Sora asked.

“No, but it’s the day after the festival,” the woman said in explanation, frowning slightly at Sora, possibly at his attire but she didn’t say anything about it. Most likely she attributed it to drunken shenanigans… which, technically, it had been. The woman explained further, “Usually I don’t get people quite this early, but they’ll all start trickling in soon. I have plenty of it already prepared.” She gestured to the counter, which had an array of little single-serve cups with a liquid that looked very unappealing, brown with little flecks of green herbs. “Discounted today; only thirty munny each.”

The trio paid the munny and each took a cup. Riku stared down at the liquid; it had a strange odor to it, but most medicine did. Even potions tasted funny.

“Well, bottoms up, I guess,” Riku said, and the three quickly downed the medicine, all scrunching their noses at the awful taste. Riku surmised that it’d be akin to what sewage tasted like.

Miraculously the headaches subsided immediately.

Riku blinked. “Whoa. What’s in this?” he wondered

The woman grinned. “Secret recipe.”

At that moment, a few other people entered the tiny shop, so the trio left to make room for them.

“Think there’s any coffee shops open too?” Riku wondered, looking around. He vaguely wondered if his coffee habit was becoming an addiction; he didn’t drink it that often, did he? He tried to recall a day when he hadn’t last drank any… and couldn't. Huh.

“I’m pretty sure the medicine had caffeine in it,” Kairi noted. “I saw a mostly-empty jar of espresso powder along with some other herbs and stuff in the preparation area.” Oh, that made sense: caffeine was said to help with headaches from hangovers. There was no way the instant effect was from that though.

“Oh, so that’s why it was so bitter,” Sora commented, then his attention shifted to a nearby bulletin board. “Hey, what’s that?”

“Shit,” Riku swore as he walked up to the board and examined the item in question: a wanted poster of the trio.

“Let’s see…” Kairi mused. “We all have intoxicated disorderly conduct, fleeing authority, and aiding a fugitive; Sora also has charges of assault on multiple soldiers and inciting a riot; and I also have thievery of royal military equipment. Seriously? It was just a helmet; this makes it sound like I took something significant!”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna take this down,” Sora decided, ripping the poster away from the board and shoving it in his pocket. Then, he noticed something down the street. “Hey, aren’t those some of the guys from the tavern? What are they doing here?”

“Maybe they need hangover cures too,” Kairi suggested.

“No, they’re just standing there… let’s go check it out!” Sora dashed off, and Kairi and Riku followed, Riku with a sigh; if they were wanted, they should be either getting out of there or trying to clear their name, not chatting with people. Seeing as they also needed to notify someone about Rapunzel being the princess, the latter would be the better choice.

“Oh! It’s you!” a heavyset guy in armor said as the trio approached. “You here to rescue him, too? The operation’s already begun, but you can help keep guard.”

“Rescue him?” Sora wondered.

“Yeah, Flynn got captured, didn’t you hear?” The other guy informed them.

“Whaaaaaat?” Sora said. “No we didn’t hear! We’re gonna help too,” he decided for all three.

“Wait, what about Rapunzel?” Kairi wondered. “She was with Flynn.”

“Rumor has it he was found already tied up, the girl not in sight,” the first man explained. “We figure Flynn probably knows where she is, and whoever tied him up took her.”

“Aw, fuck,” Sora swore. “I bet it was that witch, or Organization dude!”

"Yeah, probably,” Riku agreed. “Right. Sora, how about you go with Flynn once he escapes to help get back Rapunzel; Kairi and I will go try to talk to the King and Queen about our suspicions that Rapunzel is the princess.”

“You want me to go alone?” Sora asked, surprised.

Riku wanted to say no; if he had his way he’d be constantly by Sora and Kairi’s sides protecting them. However… “It makes the most sense,” Riku explained. “You’re the best fighter here—and don’t you try to claim otherwise!—so you should be the one helping Flynn as opposed to staying in the city. Your magic will perfectly complement his more physical fighting style.”

“I agree,” Kairi chimed in. “Go help him, Sora; we’ll take care of things here!”

“It’d be best to meet him outside the city,” one of the large guys pitched in. “Since we don’t know what streets he’ll take.”

There was an explosion nearby.

“I’d hurry; sounds like it’s started,” the other pointed out.

“Right!” Sora said, then turned and dashed away… not bothering with the bridge, rather running over the water with the aid of magic. Great; so much for the World Order. Actually… that was technically already broken with these guys anyway, due to the sleep spell earlier, so maybe that wasn’t so bad.

“Whoa. That kid is AWESOME!” the first armored guy declared.

“You two should probably get going too,” the other guy pointed out.

“Right,” Riku acknowledged, then he and Kairi dashed towards the castle.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku let out a deep sigh. How long was Sora going to take? It was a few hours to get to the tower, at least, then they had to save Rapunzel and return… It’d already been quite some time, considering the sun was already near-setting. Riku hoped the group hadn’t gotten distracted along the way; Sora had a tendency to, and from their brief interactions it appeared Rapunzel did too. Considering Flynn was completely smitten with Rapunzel, he was likely to just cave to their whims… ugh. Riku wouldn’t be surprised if Sora was trying to catch birds for Rapunzel or something.

Riku and Kairi’s attempt to notify the King and Queen had not ended well, to put it mildly. The proof of that was the fact that the two were currently sitting in a jail cell in the very prison that Flynn had recently escaped. The hope was that Rapunzel truly was the princess, and thus could pardon the trio, seeing as they’d done (most) those things in order to help Rapunzel. Saving the princess had to count for something, right?

Basically what happened was that Riku and Kairi had reached the castle gates, and the guards recognized them from the poster—even though, much like Flynn’s poster, the artist seemed unable to draw proper noses. No matter how much the two tried to explain that they knew who the princess was and where they could find her, the guards simply weren’t having it, rather assumed the two were lying. Kairi and Riku had tried to fight, but not too seriously—after all, they were trying to convince them of the truth, not make them think the duo were even worse scumbags than they already were thought to be! Still, they’d resisted enough that now they had resisting arrest added to their list of charges. Hopefully there would be a trial first; Flynn hadn’t gotten one. Wait, Riku was getting ahead of himself; they’d be rescued soon enough.

“Relax, they’ll be back soon, and explain everything to Rapunzel’s parents,” Kairi said from behind Riku; she was braiding his hair for the twelfth time, trying all different styles. There wasn’t much else to do, after all, other than make out, which they’d gotten in trouble for; the guards had threatened to separate them, putting them with strangers. Of course, they were only sharing cells because most of the cells were broken after Flynn’s theatrical escape; as soon as they were fixed they’d be separated again… wait, no. They wouldn’t be here that long, Riku reminded himself. Sora would save them, whether by getting the King and Queen to pardon them or by extricating them himself, hopefully without blowing up the place.

It took another hour, but thankfully the first scenario had been the one to transpire.

A guard led the two outside, where Sora greeted them happily, nearly knocking the two over in an attempt at an enthusiastic group hug.

“Okay, okay, we get it, we’re happy to see you too,” Riku said, laughing. He ruffled Sora’s hair a bit and extracted himself from the brunette’s arms. “Now, tell us what’s been going on; we’ve been trapped in there most of the day!”

“Oh, right! Come on, I’ll take you to Rapunzel and Flynn; they’re talking to her parents now, in front of the castle!” Sora spun around, his dress swishing with the force, and grabbed both their hands to lead them away.

“So, what’s the story?” Kairi asked as they maneuvered down the streets. “How’d you rescue Rapunzel?”

“Oh, it was pretty epic!” Sora told the two, speaking fast in his excitement. “Once we shook the guards we headed straight to the tower—Mother Gothel was there, and not happy at all! Marluxia was there too, and he did something before he left that turned her into a gigantic heartless I had to fight, but not before she stabbed Flynn. I had to fight the heartless, but that was easy although annoying since it kept moving and shooting vine walls everywhere. When I got back Flynn was dying—but don’t worry, Rapunzel healed him! First he cut her hair because he didn’t want her to, since apparently she actually gets hurt when she heals people or something and death would kill her or something? I’m not clear on the details of that. Anyway, so that made her lose her powers. So then I tried to heal him but that wasn’t working either. But when she started crying the last of the magic appeared and miraculously cured him fully without hurting her! It was amazing. Like, a true miracle.”

“That’s.. Wow,” Kairi said, stunned. Riku too echoed that sentiment; so much had happened—and Sora had glossed over it, but it actually sounded fairly traumatizing, come to think of it. Hopefully Sora would be okay; Flynn had survived, but it sounded like the two had fully thought he would die.

There was one question Riku had though: “What happened to Marluxia? Is he still around?”

Sora shook his head. “I don’t think so. There were nobodies and heartless on the way there, but the only thing we saw on the way back were squirrels and birds, which Rapunzel wanted to see so I caught some for her.”

Riku blinked. He hadn’t actually thought Sora would actually have been catching birds.

“Oh, there they are,” Sora said, as they turned a corner. Rapunzel was in front of the castle, hugging her parents and happily chatting with them.

“Looks like maybe we should give them a few minutes to talk,” Riku suggested, as the family was in tears.

Flynn, who was off to the side, seemed to have the same idea; as he noticed the trio approach he slid over to them. “You got here faster than I’d expected; the guards didn’t question the letter then?”

Sora shook his head. “No, it had the royal seal…” he explained, although he looked distracted. Riku followed Sora’s gaze, noting that he was watching Rapuzel talking with her newfound parents and his expression had shifted to a sad one.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Flynn asked, noticing too.

When Sora didn’t respond, Riku nudged his shoulder. Sora blinked, looking at Riku, who asked “What’s up?”

Sora shook his head. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

Kairi put her fists on her hips and gave Sora a pointed look. “Sora, don’t lie to us.” She relaxed into a kinder expression. “Talk to us. It helps to discuss emotions; you know that.”

Sora sighed and gave her a wan smile. “Can’t fool you, huh?”

“Nope,” Riku answered. The two of them knew Sora better than anyone else, Riku liked to think. “So, talk.”

Sora looked over at Rapunzel’s family sadly. “I miss her,” he said almost inaudibly.

“Miss who?” Kairi asked, seeming confused. “Rapunzel?”

Riku rolled his eyes at his girlfriend. “Seriously, Kai?”

“Oh!” Kairi put her hands over her mouth, clearly realizing.

Riku put a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Hey. Remember, you have us now, and a whole lot of other people, all who love you.”

Sora sighed. “I know. But it still hurts that she doesn’t.”

Flynn, who had looked puzzled, seemed to suddenly realize something as he too noted where Sora’s gaze had been locked onto. “Parent trouble?” he asked, then continued without waiting for an answer, “I know our situations are probably different, but I grew up without parents—Riku’s right, it’s not about blood relation, it’s about the bonds you make willingly that count. For some people, those bonds are with their blood family, but for others, it isn’t. I myself never knew my parents, but there were quite a few children at the orphanage who had, some which had been left there by the very parents they thought had cared for them. So we made our own family. If your parents don’t want you, it’s no use wanting them, right? So screw them. Instead, find new people who do want you.”

Sora stared at Flynn, looking incredulous. “I… yeah, I guess that’s what others have said too, just not quite that bluntly. And… I have tried to do that. It’s just tough. I spent fourteen years thinking my mom loved me unconditionally, as her son… only to find it was conditional. Me loving Riku… she couldn’t accept that.”

Flynn cringed. “Ah, yeah, too many kids were in the orphanage for that,” he said. “I can’t imagine what that’s like, especially after all that time. It’s horrible.”

“It is,” Sora said. “It hadn’t ever occurred to me that could ever happen. It’s actually pretty raw still... when I was 14, something happened, and I was away from home for two years. When I returned, happy to see her, I soon discovered that she wasn’t at all like I’d remembered. Or rather, she was, but I could see things I hadn’t seen before. I guess it’s because I’d gotten older, seen so much of the world, that changed my perspective. At first there were just small things I noticed, but then I started to feel that there was something else off about how she was acting… well, that turned out to be the fact that she’s horribly homophobic, and had been trying to figure out if the rumors about me being gay were true. That one I discovered minutes before she kicked me out and told me to never return. It’s a bit ironic, because at that point I wasn’t even sure myself of what I was, but after finding out she felt that hateful I don’t know if I would have been able to stay anyway. Suddenly things started making sense about how she’d acted as I grew up—why she hit me when I tried on a dress, why she insisted I play sports when I wanted to try dance, and things like that. So much of my childhood had been affected by her hateful viewpoints.”

Riku put an arm around Sora’s shoulders; the brunette had a few silent tears falling. He hadn’t heard Sora talk so in depth about this since the night before they left the Islands, when Riku found Sora on the Play Island shortly after being kicked out. Also, that bit about being hit was new; Riku worriedly wondered if that had been a recurring thing. Should he ask Sora about that?

Flynn took a few seconds to process that. “Well, then, fuck her,” he concluded. “Fuck anyone who treats her kid like that. I may not know much about parents, but I know enough to know that proper parents do not do things like hit their children.”

Sora sighed. “I know. A part of me still loves her though. I think it always will, even knowing how horrible she is. And I hate her, too, I do! But there’s still a part of me that keeps being hopeful, keeps trying to say that maybe it’ll be different if I go back to see her. I know it won’t be, I really do! I never would actually go back. But still. I can’t help but to sometimes feel nostalgia for how she was when I was a kid. I don’t want to sound like I’m defending her, but overall she was nice. I do have a lot of good memories… Is that bad?”

Flynn shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s bad to feel that way. People change—and it’s not always for the better. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t have redeeming features in the past. Even if they were evil all along… Hey, you know what? Maybe you can talk to Rapunzel about this; I think she’ll be very understanding, after what just happened. More helpful than I can be, at least.”

“But you’ve been very helpful, actually,” Sora assured Flynn. “I mean it! It feels good to get this off my chest, talking to someone who didn’t grow up with me.” He turned to Riku and Kairi. “Not that it’s not great talking to you two!” he assured them. “It’s just different.”

Riku smiled gently at Sora. “I get it. I talked to Namine about feelings and my past a lot during that one year,” he told the brunette. He didn’t mention the sleep since he wasn’t sure how much he should say with Flynn there. “It was definitely helpful, talking to someone with a different perspective.”

Sora grinned. “Right!” Then he turned back to Rapunzel. “Hey, looks like they’ve noticed us; let’s go say hi!”

The other three agreed, and headed over to meet Rapunzel’s parents.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

After a few more days of vacation—actual vacation this time, doing things like exploring without potential battles and seeing the sights and souvenir shopping and spending nights in the castle, where they’d been offered a bedroom, as well as enjoying the week-long festival in celebration of the princess’s return—the trio bid farewell to Rapunzel, Flynn, and her parents and headed back to their GummiShip.

As they entered the ship, Riku noticed the date on the dashboard computer, and remembered that they had forgotten to notify anyone that their vacation had been extended… by three days, it turned out. Alerts showed that they had many missed calls.

Riku sighed, told this to Kairi and Sora, who both paled, and then called up Mickey, preparing to get an earful.

Chapter Text

“Ugh, this place is even stupider than the last,” Larxene grumbled from her position atop one of thirteen stone pillars that were arranged in a circle in the middle of a dusty wasteland full of dead keyblades, aptly named the ‘Keyblade Graveyard’.

“Really? I think it’s quite nice,” Luxord commented.

“Nice?” Marluxia asked in disbelief as he fiddled with his hair. “It’s much too windy! At least the white room was amicable to longer hairstyles!”

Larxene rolled her eyes. “That’s what hair ties are for, dumbass.”

“Well excuse me for not carrying around hair ties everywhere,” Marluxia snapped.

“I have one you can borrow,” Demyx said helpfully, taking one off his wrist and flinging it at the pink-haired man.

Marluxia caught it. “Thank you.” After some struggling, he corralled his hair into a messy ponytail.

Xehanort watched the display with hidden impatience. When were the others going to arrive? He did not fancy watching these four bickering. Half of them weren’t even supposed to be official members, rather reserves.

Thankfully, soon they were joined by most of the other members of the New Organization Thirteen: Vexen, Saïx, Xigbar, Terra, Xemnas, and Ansem. They waited five more minutes to see if the rest would appear, yet they did not. Xehanort was getting an uneasy feeling from their absence.

The group discussed their plans for a while.

“Any questions?” Xehanort asked afterwards, satisfied with the meeting.

“Uh, yeah,” Xigbar said loudly. “Hello? Elephant in the room, anyone?”

“There are three members still missing,” Xemnas responded. “Does anyone know where they are?”

"I have seen no sign of them," Luxord said. Almost everyone else echoed the sentiment.

“Perhaps they were found, and are now on a special mission,” Saïx suggested, looking towards Xehanort for clarification. "Otherwise learning their whereabouts would be top priority, correct?"

Xehanort didn’t know what to say. He too had no idea where his young self, the replica, and Vanitas had disappeared to.

“Perhaps they are traitors working against us,” Terra suggested.

Xehanort scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.” There was no way. One was his younger self!

Marluxia too counteracted this. “I met the three weilders from the Destiny Islands in Corona. They did not have any of these three with them.”

Larxene snorted. “Gotta be more specific there, pinky. Way too many come from those islands.”

“You know who I mean,” Marluxia told her coldly.

“Silence,” Xehanort said, and everyone quieted and looked at him. “There have been no signs of my teenage self, Vanitas, or the replica. We must assume at this point that they have either been captured or slain. It is an unfortunate snag, but we will manage.”

“I dunno. I still say they betrayed us,” Xigbar said confidently.

“Then you know nothing,” Xehanort retorted.

Luxord chuckled. “I too would bet on that.” Xehanort wasn't sure whose statement the gambler was referring to. Surely not Xigbar's; it was too slim a chance… right?

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas plopped down on top of Sora, who was laying on the neon-pink couch on Merlin’s ground floor. It was weird how Merlin’s furniture changed multiple times a day. Even more strange was that no one ever saw it do so, so it must know when people were looking or not… Vanitas shook the thought away. The house was already sentient enough; he didn’t want to think of the possibility that the furniture was too.

Sora let out a grunt at the sudden weight, but didn’t comment otherwise.

“Whatcha reading?” Vanitas asked. The cover showed a hand holding an apple.

“None of your business,” Sora mumbled, with a slight blush. Huh. Was it an embarrassing book?

“Tell me,” Vanitas demanded.

“Why?”

“I wanna know.”

Sora sighed, looking over the book at Vanitas. “Fine. It’s about a girl who falls for a vampire.”

Vanitas looked at Sora curiously. “Falls for?” He wasn’t sure what that term meant, picturing someone literally falling. “Does she jump off a cliff or something? Kinda morbid for you.”

Sora chuckled. “No, not literally falling. It…” Sora blushed slightly again. “It means she wants to be with him. Romantically,” he explained, the blush deepening as he looked back at the book.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t those the kind of books chicks read?” That’s what Larxene had said at least; she’d been teasing Demyx about reading a romance book a few days before Vanitas left. He didn’t know what the big deal was, but it appeared to be good teasing material from how red Sora’s face had grown.

Sora pouted and mumbled. “Riku read it to me when I was asleep in the pod. I had some dreams about it so wanted to see what it was about. That’s all.”

“Which is why you’re more than halfway through,” Vanitas pointed out in a teasing voice. He was bored and wanted to cause a stir. So far it wasn’t working so well; he wanted abrasiveness, not this blushing embarrassed mess.

Sora instead blushed harder and covered his face with the book. “Shut up.”

A thought struck Vanitas, causing him to forget about wanting a fight. “You like a lot of girly things, don’t you?” he asked. It wasn’t with the intent of teasing or anything, either, for once—he truly was curious about this new line of thought.

Sora looked at Vanitas with wide eyes. “What! No I don’t!”

“You’re reading a chick book while in a pink dress,” Vanitas pointed out, this time adding in a slightly teasing tone… but not a malicious teasing? That was… new. Vanitas wasn’t sure what he was doing now.

“It’s not pink, it’s magenta!” Sora argued. “And comfy.”

“Right…” Vanitas decided not to point out that magenta was a type of pink. He tilted his head slightly, now fully serious, any hints of teasing gone. “Do you want to be a girl?” Vanitas asked bluntly.

Sora looked completely baffled by that question. “No, why would I?” he replied.

“Because you’re in a dress.” Vanitas was confused now. He didn’t know much about the world, but he did know dresses were unusual for a boy to wear, and people in many worlds disliked that.

Sora shrugged. “Like I said, it’s comfy and it looks good.”

“But people judge you for it. Why would you intentionally do something that people can tease you over?”

Sora raised an eyebrow at Vanitas. “Since when do you care what society thinks?”

“...Touche.” A beat. “Did you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Wear girl clothes.”

Sora looked down, suddenly sad, to Vanitas’s further confusion. “No,” Sora said. “Only recently. I always wanted to, but my mom caught me trying stuff on a few times, and got really mad. So I stopped doing it until recently.”

“Why’d you start again?” Vanitas asked, belatedly wondering if that was a rude question. He was trying not to be very rude, for once, since that was counterintuitive to getting answers. He was too curious about this to bother with maintaining his dark demeanor.

Sora paused in thought for a moment before explaining in more detail than expected. “Well, when Kairi, Riku, and I visited Wonderland, I lost my clothes due to magic shenanigans. I ended up in a dress as a result. When I got back here, to this house, no one treated me badly for it—in fact, some of the girls insisted on dressing me up in other things! They thought it was fun, not weird or messed up. At first I just wore the dresses and skirts when they put them on me, then kept them on, and if someone asked I’d just say I forgot to remove it after they played dress-up. Then people stopped asking, so I started wearing their clothes intentionally on occasion, though only around here. Then they decided I needed some of my own, so took me shopping. They convinced me to go in a dress, and I discovered that people on this world aren’t nearly as judgemental as the ones on the Islands were. Aerith says that’s because there are people from all different worlds now living here—since they all come from different places, they all have their own customs and cultures, so they’re less judgemental when people are unconventional because for all they know it’s typical for your culture. I still sometimes get odd looks, but not enough to bother me and never from people I know so it’s fine.”

“Not from people you know? So your mom’s okay with it now?” Vanitas asked, unsure why she wouldn’t have been in the first place.

Sora sighed. “Probably not. But she wants nothing to do with me anyway, so it doesn’t really matter if she’s okay with it or not.”

Vanitas blinked. “I don’t have any experience with parents, but—”

“Yes, that doesn’t normally happen,” Sora said, predicting the question. It sounded like he was used to being asked that. “She doesn’t like the fact that I like boys, thinks it’s unnatural. Some people are like that. When she found out, she kicked me out of the house, told me not to return.”

Vanitas took a moment to process that. “That’s stupid,” he concluded.

Sora chuckled at that. “Agreed.”

The boys fell into amicable silence, Vanitas lost in thought while Sora went back to his book. After a bit Vanitas concluded he wasn’t quite sure what to make of all this, so as a distraction he grabbed a comic book on the table in front of them—something R2 left there about superheroes—to read as well, still sitting on Sora.

A few minutes later, Sora lowered the book and looked at Vanitas with a curious expression. “I really don’t want to be a girl, but if I did, why would it matter to you?” he asked.

Vanitas shrugged. “It doesn’t. Just was curious; thought it might explain Xion.”

Sora scrunched his brow in confusion. “Who’s Xion?”

Vanitas blinked in confusion, then realized that he wouldn’t know. “Right, everyone forgot about her… she’s a replica the Organization tried to make of you that time you were asleep. She was supposed to end up like you, but when her heart and personality started to develop she became a girl instead.”

Sora tried to sit up, but Vanitas didn’t move so he gave up. “Why did everyone forget about her?”

Vanitas shrugged. “Not quite sure, but it’s something to do with Naminé’s magic. Xion was created from some memories they stole from you, which Naminé had to return to you, and when she did everyone forgot about Xion. Except me, because I’m pure darkness. Naminé’s memory magic is light, so it can’t touch me.”

Sora frowned slightly. “Huh.” A pause. “Wait… when Roxas merged with me, his heart didn’t fully vanish. Does that mean she didn’t fully disappear too? Is she the mystery heart in me?”

Vanitas blinked. He hadn’t considered that. “That… does make sense,” he surmised. “Ienzo said the third heart joined you around the same time as Roxas…”

Sora abruptly sat up with an excited shout; unprepared, Vanitas was thrown sideways onto the couch. “That must be it! The third heart is Xion! Vani, you’re awesome!” Sora tackled Vanitas in a hug.

“Hey, what the fuck, no touching!” Vanitas called, automatically shoving Sora off of him, vaguely noting that getting a hug from Sora wasn’t quite as bad as he thought it’d be. Maybe Sora could be an exception… wait, what was he thinking? Vanitas was created from negativity. He should not like hugs, even from Sora.

Sora pouted and crossed his arms, though obviously was not actually upset. “Hmph. You’re no fun.”

Vanitas smirked. “I’m pure darkness, what do you expect?”

A camera flashed, and someone giggled from the stairway. Both boys jumped and swerved around. Vanitas was briefly surprised someone had appeared without him realizing, then noted that it was the one person he could never tell was there—he sensed people’s darkness, whereas this girl had none.

“You two are just like brothers,” Kairi commented affectionately.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

After getting ice cream with Sora and Kairi—which Vanitas had been forced into; he definitely had not been happy about going with them! There was no way that emotion was anywhere close to joy, not for him… right?—Vanitas wandered Radiant Garden looking for R2. R2 had experience with discerning confusing emotions, so maybe he could help.

Vanitas found R2 alone, working on planting some flowers for the Restoration Committee. Part of the deal to stay at Merlin’s was that they had to help with such.

“You’re here to help with this, right?” R2 asked. “Because if not, fuck off.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “What’s got you in a tizzy?”

“You’re always slacking off when we’re supposed to be working, and then for some reason I get in trouble for it! It’s like when we were working on the ra—argh! What the fuck!” R2 grabbed his hair in frustration.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “Memories from him again?” Vanitas didn’t tease R2 about that, knowing how sensitive his friend—friend? What? No. No, Vanitas didn’t make friends.

R2 sighed and grumbled simultaneously. “Yeah. It just hits me sometimes; it’s so annoying! When Namine returns, I’m going to ask her if she can remove those memories.”

“Yeah, that must be… annoying…” Vanitas trailed off, realizing something. He stared off into the distance as he pondered what it would mean if he ever got his memories back. He’d always wanted them restored, and Xehanort said he could do that if Vanitas stayed loyal—a lie, it turned out—but they were Ventus’s memories too, weren’t they? They had been the same person, even though Ventus kept the name and body while Vanitas got new ones. If their memories returned, they would share them, just like R2 did with Riku.

“What are you thinking about?” R2 asked, pausing in the planting to look at the noirette.

“Huh? Oh, nothing important,” Vanitas said. He knelt down and grabbed a flower to start helping, then started saying what was on his mind anyway, for reasons he couldn’t fathom. “I was just thinking that Namine might be able to restore my memories… I thought I wanted that, but I just realized that I’d share them with Ventus.”

“Oh, right, you were the same person,” R2 recalled. “Well, let me tell you: it sucks sharing memories. You’d be better off not having them. Plus, what if it changes you? Your personality could become more like his.”

Vanitas scrunched his nose. “Oh, ew. No way. He’s more positive than Sora acts, and actually means it.”

“Means it?” R2 asked, appearing confused.

“Well, yeah. Sora’s got darkness in him. He can get actually angry and stuff. Ventus is literally pure light, all positive emotions, just like I’m all negativity.”

“Pfft. That’s not true at all.”

Vanitas blinked, entirely thrown off by that. “What?” he said blankly, then remembered to act surly so crossed his arms. “Haha, very funny. I should think I’d know my own mind.”

“I don’t think you do,” R2 said as he lowered a flower into the dirt.

Vanitas narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean? Of course I do!” he snapped automatically, then remembered why he had sought out R2 in the first place, anger abruptly subsiding. “Oh, right. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” he admitted.

“What?” R2 asked, puzzled. “Emotions?”

“Yup.”

“Seriously? YOU want to talk about emotions?”

“Is it really that hard to believe? Yes, I want to talk about emotions!” Vanitas growled.

“Okay, okay, cool your temper,” R2 said with an eyeroll. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know what happiness feels like.”

R2 raised an eyebrow and looked at Vanitas curiously. “Don’t you already know?”

Vanitas was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I’m… I’m supposed to be all negativity. That’s what Xehanort always told me. But I’ve been feeling strange things lately, having weird thoughts… I thought maybe you could help me figure it out a little, since you struggled a bit with feelings too, when you first came into being.”

R2 narrowed his eyes. “Who told you that?” he asked, abrasive. Apparently that was a sensitive topic, too; Vanitas felt bad about upsetting the boy. Wait, upset? Yeah, that was a negative emotion… but upset that he hurt someone? Since when did he do that?

“Larxene,” Vanitas supplied.

R2 sighed exasperatedly. “Figures. Okay then, let’s talk.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Two days after the trio’s return from Corona, Riku found himself in Yen Sid’s study along with Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, Lea, Xehanort, R2, and Vanitas. After Kairi, Riku, and Sora had received a scolding for forgetting to notify anyone they’d be gone longer than expected, Yen Sid and Mickey had proceeded straight to the first order of business: the Organization’s movements. Riku had given Mickey a brief summary of what had happened in Corona when he’d called him after their vacation—leaving certain details out—which is what prompted this urgent meeting.

Well, actually, the first order of business had not been the Organization's movements: it had been giving everyone there something Chip and Dale had created called a “GummiPhone”, which was essentially a mini version of the GummiShip video communication device. This way, it’d be much easier to contact each other. Apparently they’d had a version of it ready before Corona, but then had gotten into an argument with Cid about how idiotic it was to make their power “happy faces”, reminding them of the Pride Lands incident. So they’d compromised with him, giving the devices solar-powered batteries in addition as a failsafe. Kairi was probably the happiest about getting the phone, as it also included a camera, meaning she would no longer have to use the clunky polaroid thing with the expensive film.

Then came the next order of business: the casual training and adventuring was over. Now that the Organization seemed to be moving, they had to figure out exactly what was going on. The former-Organization members had only known the basics, and nothing about what Marluxia had been doing, so it was necessary to start investigating.

“We’ll be sending you on missions in teams of four,” Mickey said. “We’ll be switching it up as we don’t yet know who works best together, but at first we’re going to have the groups be an even mix of experienced wielders, new wielders, and former-Organization.”

“Don’t mince words. You’re saying you want us to be supervised,” R2 said snarkily.

Xehanort turned to him. “It makes logical sense, R2. Don’t be so belligerent. They’re not yet completely sure if they can trust us, as anyone would be when former enemies ask to join them.”

“Yeah,” Vanitas jumped in. “They’re not stupid.” A beat. “Well, most of them aren’t.” Riku held in a chuckle; the noirette constantly tried to hide signs that he might feel anything other than negativity, or, gods forbid, he was nice underneath all the bad attitude. Whether Vanitas was hiding it from himself too Riku didn’t know.

“Wait, so what group would I be in?” Lea wondered. “Former Organization, or newbie wielder? I’m kinda both.”

“Wait, how can it be groups of four if there’s ten of us?” Sora realized at the same time.

“Enough,” Yen Sid said. “The experienced ones are Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The new wielders are Kairi and Lea, and the former-organization are Vanitas, R2, and Xehanort.”

“Wait, what about Riku and Mickey?” Kairi realized.

“Riku and I have a special mission,” Mickey said.

“We do?” This was a surprise to Riku.

“Yup!” Mickey said. “We’re going to look for the missing keyblade wielders! They vanished ten years ago. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus.”

“Um. How are they missing if we know where they are?” Vanitas asked, looking… puzzled? Huh. Riku hadn’t seen that look on him before; usually if he got confused, Vanitas quickly tried to hide it.

Mickey swerved towards Vanitas. “What? You know where they are?!”

Sora answered that. “Well we already know Ventus is hiding in my heart,” he pointed out.

“Well, yes,” Mickey acknowledged. “But we don’t know where his body is. Aqua should know that, since she hid him before going to look for Terra—”

“Terra? You mean that guy Old Norty possessed?” R2 asked.

“WHAT?” yelled multiple voices.

Xehanort scoffed. “Pu-lease, don’t tell me you never wondered why Xemnas and Ansem look so much younger than my old self?”

The silence in the room spoke for itself.

R2 snickered. Then he looked at Vanitas and raised an eyebrow; Vanitas looked away, blushing slightly. Riku bit his lip to bite back laughter; clearly the noirette had not realized that either. Riku had noticed that that happened a lot—the Organization definitely did not keep everyone on the same page.

Riku decided to be the one to move the conversation along. “So, that means the only one we need to find is Aqua, right? Since she knows where Ventus’s body is.”

“Can’t we put Ven in a replica?” Sora suggested. “Ienzo’s making them…”

Yen Sid looked at Sora with slight… annoyance? It was hard to tell. But it had been an honest question, no need to get annoyed! Riku was now annoyed at that. The wizard said, “We do not know when Ienzo will finish with such. It will most likely be faster to find Aqua and then put Ventus back in his own body.”

“Wait a moment!” Mickey said. “Don’t you need the Power of Waking for that? Does anyone here have that? The whole point of the Mark of Mastery exam in the Sleeping Realms was to allow Sora and Riku to get that power.”

Yen Sid seemed unsure what to say to that. Riku steeled himself for an argument; if the wizard suggested he and Sora go do that despite the dangers, Riku would say no.

“Are you sure that’s the only way?” Sora asked. “If Ienzo can move hearts to replicas, can’t he move them between bodies, too?”

“Yes, he can,” R2 answered. “He can move a heart between anything. I saw him and Vexen do experiments with such back during the whole Castle Oblivion fiasco.”

Mickey clapped his hands together. “Well, there ya have it! So, back to missions. Riku is going with me, but the rest of you will be investigating the Organization’s movements and attempting to find out who the various Princesses of Heart are before the Organization does and warn them of the danger. We have two leads right now, one in a place called Arendelle and the other in a place called Olympus. Sora, Donald, Goofy, you’ve been to Olympus before, right?”

“Yep!” Sora said happily. “So, we’re going there again?”

Mickey shook his head. “No, you three are the most experienced, so we need to split ya up. Sora, you’ll lead a team with Kairi, Xehanort, and R2 to Arendelle. Donald and Goofy will lead the Olympus team with Vanitas and Lea.”

“Huh? But I want to go to Olympus again,” Sora said, sounding disappointed. “Can we switch locations?”

“You are not going to Olympus,” Riku quickly said.

“What? Why?” Sora wondered, looking puzzled. “We’ve been there before, Riku.”

Kairi giggled and her eyes sparkled a little. “You’re jealous of Melinoë, aren’t you?”

Sora blinked, then laughed. “Whaaaaaat? Riku! Why would you be jealous of Melinoë?”

“Who’s Melinoë?” Lea asked.

“Hades’s daughter,” Kairi clarified. “She apparently has a major crush on Sora, or so Riku claims.”

“What!” Sora proclaimed. “That’s not true, Riku! ...Is it?” He looked pensieve.

“It is,” Riku said unwaveringly. "You didn't see the way she was looking at you in the coliseum infirmary."

“Wait wait wait,” Lea interjected. “HADES has a daughter?!”

“Yeah, she’s the goddess of insanity,” Riku explained. “We met her at the tournament a couple months ago. She’s got a sister, too. But she claims Hades told her Sora’s off limits—which is also concerning, come to think of it, because he might have another plot brewing, which is even more reason for you not to go, Sora, especially because he loves baiting you.”

Sora frowned. “I guess you have a point,” he finally admitted. “I wanted to see Meg and Hercules though…”

“This is not a recreational visit,” Yen Sid interjected. “Sora, you are going to Arendelle, no arguing.”

Sora opened his mouth, but Mickey quickly said, probably anticipating an argument, “Great! Now that that’s settled—”

“No,” Vanitas interrupted adamantly. “It’s not settled. I’m going with Sora and R2.”

Yen Sid frowned. “This is not up for debate.”

“No I agree. I want Vani on my team,” Sora said, grabbing onto the noirette’s arm.

“Get off,” Vanitas said with a glare, shoving Sora away, although to Riku’s surprise it seemed more playful than actually angry. Huh. They two were developing an interesting dynamic.

Yen Sid sighed. Riku had a strong feeling that the wizard was resisting rolling his eyes at the display.

“Why do you wish to be with Sora and R2?” Mickey asked, sounding more curious than suspicious.

Vanitas frowned. “Um. Because… um.” He didn’t seem to know what to say. “Because I want to be on their team,” he concluded. Riku hid a smile; he suspected Vanitas was starting to form friendships, or already had, but was confused about it. R2 had told him as much earlier that day, but Riku had been skeptical at first. Now he could see what R2 had meant.

“That is not a proper explanation,” Yen Sid pointed out, unamused.

Vanitas frowned, seeming unsure what to say.

“It’s because Ventus is in me, right?” Sora supplied with a smile. “Just like Roxas and Xion! You want to protect him!”

“Yes, that,” Vanitas said, latching onto the lifeline Sora had thrown him. “I don’t want Ventus to be in danger.”

“Wait who’s Xion?” Kairi asked.

Riku felt a sharp headache; he put his head on his forehead as the memories rapidly flashed back to him, like a tape on extreme fast-forwards. Axel—no, Lea—seemed to be experiencing the same, as well as Mickey.

“What’s going on?” Donald voiced what the others all were thinking. “What did you do?!”

“I didn’t do anything!” Sora argued.

The headache began to subside. “Sorry,” Riku said. “I just… remembered her. She was a replica designed by the Organization based on some of Sora’s memories. When Naminé returned the memories to Sora, she disappeared completely, even from peoples’ memories…”

“But Sora, how did you know about her?” Mickey asked. “She should have fully disappeared…”

“Well, she didn’t,” Sora said bluntly. “Vanitas told me her name. Naminé’s magic doesn’t affect him because it’s pure light.”

The group contemplated this. Riku was surprised; Naminé’s magic, light? Well… maybe it wasn’t surprising. Just because it had initially been used in a negative capacity didn’t necessarily mean it was dark. Naminé was Kairi’s nobody, so it would make sense that she was pure light too, as Kairi herself had no darkness in her.

“So,” Vanitas interrupted. “Now that that’s been established, let’s get back to the topic of me, and how I am going with Sora—I mean, Ventus—on his mission.”

Yen Sid looked contemplative for a moment. “Very well," he decided, voice sounding tired. He probably realized that the two weren’t going to back down without a fight. "Vanitas, you may go to Arendelle. Xehanort, you will go to Olympus.”

“And what about me?” asked Jiminy, appearing out of nowhere. He briefly introduced himself to everyone who didn't know him.

“You can go with Sora again,” Mickey said.

Riku glanced at Sora, who seemed to mutter something under his breath akin to “I don’t need a babysitter,” quiet enough that only Riku heard him, and perhaps Vanitas who hadn’t let go of Sora’s arm—Riku bit down an unwarranted spark of jealousy. Riku didn’t think that was why Mickey had decided to send Jiminy with Sora; maybe he’d ask Sora later why he instantly thought that rather than something else, in case it was another low-self-esteem thing that needed addressing.

“Now that that’s decided,” Yen Sid said, “The three Good Fairies would like to design new outfits for you all,” he said.

“All of us?” R2 asked.

“That is what they said, yes.”

“Awesome!” Sora declared. “I lost mine, so that’s perfect.”

Yen Sid raised an eyebrow. “You lost your magical clothing?”

“How do you lose magical clothing?” Vanitas wondered, sounding genuinely curious.

“That, er, irrelevant,” Sora said with a nervous chuckle.

Yen Sid frowned. “Sora, it most certainly is not. If that magical clothing is in another world and someone finds it, that can disrupt the World Order. Where did you lose it?”

“Oh. Um. Somewhere in Corona,” he answered truthfully.

“And how did you lose it?”

Sora was quiet. Riku understood why; they had left some things out from their report, things they didn't want the others knowing.

“Sora?” Donald prodded, eyes narrowed.

“I, er, don’t remember,” Sora said. Riku wasn’t sure if that was the truth or not; that whole bit had been a bit of a blur, all things considered.

“Rapunzel wanted to try it on,” Kairi supplied, which was true. “But then all that stuff in our report happened and there wasn’t a chance to change back.” Partially true.

“So the Princess of Light has your clothes?” Yen Sid confirmed.

“Yes?” Sora said, sounding like a question.

“Sora. You were there for nearly a week after the events in your report. Surely you were not wearing each others’ clothing that entire time. Does she or does she not have them?”

“...I don’t know,” Sora admitted, unable to resist Yen Sid’s gaze. Riku wondered if there was magic behind that; no one seemed to ever be able to lie to Yen Sid for long.

“I see,” Yen Sid said. There was an awkward pause before he continued, “I am sensing that you three did not report everything that happened in Corona.”

Riku quickly responded to that. “Look, we were technically on vacation, not a mission. We reported everything relevant,” he said firmly.

“Oh?” Lea said, a smirk on his face. “That sounds like you three may have gotten into some mischief, huh?”

“Lea,” Riku growled in warning. He did not want everyone there learning that they had gotten drunk and then incited a riot, during which Sora used magic on a whole room of people, including royal soldiers. That was probably a bigger breach of the World Order than losing some clothing.

Kairi put her hands behind her back and donned her best look of innocence. “Well, we’re all dating,” she told him. “Can you blame us for wanting to have fun together on our vacation?”

Riku and Sora both blushed deeply, realizing what she was implying. Or rather, what she expected the others to think she was implying. From the expressions of everyone around the room, they had taken it how Kairi had expected—sexual encounters rather than drunken shenanigans. Hopefully they assumed it was just the three of them, and not that Rapunzel was included; considering the lost clothing, they might be inclined to think the latter. Unfortunately, it’d only be more awkward to try to correct that misconception… sorry, Rapunzel.

“Right, then, no need to tell us more!” Mickey said hurriedly. “No, let’s all get our new magical clothing!”

"Aww, but I wanted to learn how they got a bounty put on them!" R2 said.

"What! How the hell did you know about that?!" Riku exclaimed.

R2 grinned mischievously and held up a piece of paper. "You left this in the GummiShip."

Riku groaned. "Sora, I told you to get rid of that!"

"I thought it was neat to have a picture drawn of us together!" Sora defended. "Even if they got the noses wildly wrong."

"It's not a picture, it's a wanted poster!"

"So? We were pardoned. Besides, Kairi kept the soldier's helmet; can't I have a souvenir too?"

Riku turned to glare at Kairi. "You kept that? You told me you gave that back!"

"Children," Yen Sid said firmly, eyebrows lowered slightly and frowning. "Explain. Now."

The trio looked at each other, weighing if it'd be worth lying or not.

"It was just a misunderstanding," Sora clarified.

Lea grabbed the poster from R2 and raised an eyebrow. “Misunderstanding? How is ‘intoxicated disorderly conduct, fleeing authority, aiding a fugitive, assault on multiple soldiers, inciting a riot, and thievery of royal military equipment’ ALL a misunderstanding?”

“Um… well, it was all pardoned anyway,” Sora said.

“And Riku and I did spend a half day in jail for it,” Kairi pointed out. “So, like, we’ve already been punished for it.”

Riku took to actually explaining. “It was related to finding the lost princess. Flynn was a fugitive, so at first we had to evade authorities and fight them until we got to town, where things could be explained to the King and Queen. Then since we saved Rapunzel we were all pardoned, him too.”

“That may be so,” Yen Sid said, still frowning. “However, I do not see how intoxication would be related to saving a Princess of Heart.”

“That’s just because the riot started at a tavern; everyone there got slapped with that,” Sora said with a sigh. “We just went there for food.”

“Yeah, they exaggerated everything,” Kairi added.

Yen Sid turned to look at Riku. “Is this true?”

“Um…” Riku thought about it. Technically… “Yeah, it’s true.”

“So you three were not intoxicated?”

Riku thought about denying it, but Yen Sid had a way of telling when people were lying. “....Well, I wouldn’t say that… but we were on vacation and are of-age in that world!”

“Wak!” Donald squawked. “Sora, you were drunk!?”

Sora quickly countered, “Like Riku said, it wasn’t illegal, and we weren’t technically working!”

“But you were arrested because of it,” R2 said somewhat happily. The brat was probably enjoying the fact that Riku was getting in trouble; Riku imagined this is what it would be like to have a younger sibling.

“No, we were wanted for other stuff, the drunken thing was just slapped on,” Sora reiterated.

“He has a point,” Vanitas pitched in, previously observing. Riku was surprised; he’d expected Vanitas to try to join with R2 in teasing them about it, not defend them. “Besides, you’re not their parents.”

“I agree,” Mickey added, to Riku’s additional surprise. “Master Yen Sid, they were of age there and on vacation. This isn’t a matter we should be involved in, even if we disapprove. They are old enough to handle themselves, proven by the fact that they’ve essentially been living independently for months—years, in Riku’s case; we ought to respect that.”

“I also agree,” Goofy pitched in. “As much as we feel these three are family, we have to trust that they can handle themselves. I made the mistake of not trusting Maxie enough, treating him too much like a child when he no longer was, and now he barely wants to talk to me. Children grow up, whether we want them to or not.”

Donald looked like he wanted to say something, then decided against it; he probably concluded that if Mickey and Goofy were both saying it was fine, he shouldn’t protest. He tended to listen to Mickey, even if he didn’t listen to anyone else.

Everyone stayed quiet for a bit while Yen Sid considered that. “...Very well,” he finally decided. “There will not be repercussions this time. However, there certainly will be if any of you imbibe during an official mission.” The last part he addressed to the entire room, adults and teenages. “Understood?”

“Understood!” everyone said.

Yen Sid nodded. “Good. Now, I believe the fairies have been waiting a while to give everyone their new clothing,” he said. “Let us not make them wait any longer.”

“We already got ours earlier,” Donald said, referring to him and Goofy. Riku didn’t realize they had; the outfits hadn’t changed much, if at all. “We’ll wait on the ship.”

Mickey had his already too, so left with them to get his and Riku’s ship ready. Then, the group all took turns getting their outfits. Lea refused to take off his organization coat, and Xehanort requested they use some sort of material the fairies needed some time to magically weave—something about wanting the outfit he wore in his own time period—which the fairies cheerfully agreed to. They took his measurements and promised they’d send it to him when finished. Those two then left to meet Donald and Goofy for their mission, leaving just Sora’s team and Riku. Riku got his outfit, then lingered after as he wanted to see the outfits given to Kairi and Sora. Mickey would be waiting for him, but it was fine; he was sure the mouse would understand.

While Kairi was in the fitting room, Sora tugged on Riku’s sleeve to pull him to the side, away from where the others could hear. He looked incredibly nervous.

“What’s up?” Riku asked quietly.

“Um. I… um. Do you think… would it be okay if… um.” Sora didn’t seem like he knew what to say.

“Sora?” Riku prodded, getting worried.

Sora looked quickly from side to side then said in a rapid whisper, “Doyouthinkit’dbeokayifIaskedthefaeriestogivemeadress?”

Riku blinked. “I caught literally none of that. Could you say it a little slower?”

Sora took a deep breath. “Do you think it’d be okay if I asked the faeries to give me a dress?” he asked, voice still quiet but much more clear. This surprised Riku—he knew Sora had been wearing more feminine clothing at an increasing rate, but previously Sora only intentionally wore more traditionally female clothing around Radiant Garden, at least when sober (Corona had been a one-off, just during the one day; the rest of the week he'd worn more masculine clothes he'd packed, mostly jeans, v-neck t-shirts, and hoodies). The magical clothing would get worn more often and in more places.

“Sure, why wouldn’t it be?” Riku wondered, his worry calming. He couldn’t see the faeries being biased.

Sora gave Riku a wan smile. “You know why—people get funny about that.” Oh, so he didn’t mean the faeries, he meant in general.

“Well if they do, screw them,” Riku said firmly. “The people who matter won’t care. Wear whatever makes you feel best.”

“You sure?” Sora asked tepidly. “You won’t mind either?”

Riku looked at Sora in slight disbelief. “Sora, why would you think I’d mind? You know I find you incredibly hot in skirts and dresses,” he said unabashedly.

Sora flushed the color of a ripe tomato. “Riku!” he hissed.

At that moment, Kairi exited the fitting room, and Sora rushed into it.

“What did you do to embarrass him so much?” Kairi wondered as she reached Riku. Her magical clothes consisted of a cute pink dress with plaid trim.

Riku laughed. “Nothing to worry about,” he said, as Kairi grabbed his hand and leaned sideways into him to wait for Sora.

When Sora exited the fitting room, Riku was quite shocked. The new outfit was very different from his past ones—namely, it was a dress. Somehow Riku hadn’t expected Sora to actually ask the faeries for one. Sora was blushing adorably, hands behind his back as he waited for Riku and Kairi to pass judgement.

“Well?” Sora asked, sounding nervous. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s adorable,” Kairi cooed, clapping her hands together and practically swooning. “What do you think, Riku?”

‘Smoking hot’ was the first word Riku thought of, but that’d be embarrassing to say. “Um,” he said, “It’s, um.” He looked over Sora again, thinking of an appropriate response. Sora was wearing a black dress, the skirt of which was pleated and had red plaid trim. The pockets were also topped with a red trim. A loose belt lay slanted across his hips, and he donned a black hooded short-sleeve jacket with red trim, rows of buttons along each side that looked more aesthetic than functional, and a plaid collar—what was with the fairies and plaid today? Literally everyone had it. The dress was a v-neck, so that Sora’s necklace lay on skin between his collarbones. His arm guards were also black with red trim, and his slightly-heeled boots were black with belts across them. It reminded Riku of the type of sexy outfits action movies tended to put female characters in. Riku was sure he was blushing just as much as the brunette was.

Vanitas grinned slyly. “I think he likes it, judging from where his eyes keep going. Probably can’t think of anything to say that isn’t lewd.”

Riku’s eyes darted to Vanitas, narrowing. “Shut up,” he said, aiming for vehement but sounding meek and embarrassed at how much he’d been ogling Sora.

“Oh, ew,” R2 said, scrunching his nose. “I can’t believe I came from you.” He turned and went into the fitting room, as the faeries were calling for him.

Sora grinned as well, with a sly grin that scarily matched Vanitas’s. “Really?” Sora said, walking up to Riku and looking him in the eyes, face shifting to a more playful expression. “You find me… what’s the word… sexy? Is that it?”

Riku turned away, face feeling like it was on fire. “Well, I can’t help it. You’re my boyfriend,” he muttered, very conscious of how close Sora had gotten.

Sora grabbed Riku’s collar and Riku turned back to face him as Sora pulled him down and pressed their lips together. Riku closed his eyes automatically in response.

“Heh-hem,” Yen Sid coughed loudly, and the two boys broke apart, faces bright red. Kairi made a small sound of disappointment, most likely because she wanted a kiss too.

“Aww, man,” Vanitas falsely lamented. “I was looking forward to the show.”

Sora looked at Vanitas. “Your outfit is really similar, except for the pants and boots,” he commented. It was true; the jackets and arm guards were identical. The shirt and capri pants were also black, the latter with red plaid trim. The black boots were a more masculine laced type.

“Everyone’s is similar,” Vanitas retorted. “I think they tried to make everyone match. Well, except the colors on most people.”

“There’s eleven of us,” Riku pointed out. “Some colors needed to repeat.” His own pants were dark blue and shirt light blue, and the plaid was white, but otherwise it was more-or-less the same style too.

“You look like brothers!” Kairi said to Sora and Vanitas.

Both boys protested, but it was true. They could be twins—the matching outfits only highlighted it. Riku wondered if the faeries had planned that.

“You’ll need to tell people something if they ask,” Riku pointed out. “The actual explanation is a bit complicated and most people would be skeptical about it.”

“Ugh, fine,” Vanitas whined. “We’ll tell them we’re brothers. But only if they ask! And not otherwise!”

Sora shrugged with a smile. “If you say so.” Riku had a feeling Sora intended to change that mentality.

“Okay, let’s go,” R2 said, exiting the fitting room in an outfit like the others, complete with black jacket and white plaid. However, as opposed to the gentler colors of everyone else’s, his shirt and pants were in the exact opposite colors as Riku’s—a bright yellow shirt and crimson pants. That was probably intentional, as he still significantly tried to distance himself from anything related to Riku. Seeing how long it took compared to the others, he probably argued with the fairies until they agreed to do so.

And thus, with that taken care of, they all left on their respective missions.

Chapter Text

“Aaaaaaah, it’s so cold here!” Sora complained, hopping from one foot to the other and rubbing his arms in an attempt to get warm.

“Really?” Vanitas asked, frowning as he exited the GummiShip. He could tell it was cold, yes, but it wasn’t bothering him to the point it was Sora. A little annoying, but not bad.

“Yeah, you don’t feel it?” Kairi asked, in a similar position as Sora, although instead of hopping she had her bare legs pressed together, almost crossing.

“I think the replica bodies have some sort of temperature resistance thing,” R2 mused. “I feel fine, too… I mean, I can tell it’s really cold, but it’s not making my body actually freeze or anything. A coat would still be nice though.”

“Oh, that would explain it,” Vanitas concluded. “I guess the darkness keeps me warm.” Being a being of pure darkness, he’d never been affected by the heat like humans generally were—it would follow that the same thing applied to coldness.

“You both also have long pants,” Sora pointed out. "We just have legs."

“S-Sora, can’t you change the clothes to have coats?” Kairi asked. “Like, wasn’t the World Order magic supposed to do that? Did we cast it wrong?”

Sora shook his head. “No, it only works when the main senile creatures in a world aren’t human…”

"I think you mean 'sentient'," R2 pointed out.

"Same thing."

"No, actually, it's—"

"Oh, duh!" Sora smacked his head, ignoring R2. “I can’t change the magical clothes since I don’t know how it would affect the faeries’ magic, but there’s warming spells!” Sora said a few funny words and he and Kairi both stopped shivering.

“Oh, wow,” Kairi said, sounding amazed and looking at her goosebumps-free arms. “That’s a really useful spell!”

Sora beamed. “I know! Merlin’s been trying to teach me more practical stuff lately!”

Vanitas shook his head in amazement. “I can’t believe the Organization intel was so wrong about that,” he commented.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Sora asked.

“Well, Saïx said that you suck at magic, like Roxas did, yet you’ve regularly been using more complex and powerful magic than I’ve ever seen a teenager use, except maybe Aqua—hell, it’s even better than most adult wizards even manage! Not just in power either; I’ve never seen anyone use such a wide variety of magic before, with the exception of master sorcerers like Merlin and Yen Sid.”

Sora’s face turned the color of a ripe tomato, as it often did when receiving praise. Wait, praise? Vanitas didn’t give praise. What was wrong with him? “It-it’s not tha-that impressive,” Sora stammered.

“Since when do you give people praise?” R2 teased.

Vanitas blinked, then felt his face redden too. “I don’t!” he quickly denied. He didn’t. Well, he technically had. But he shouldn’t have. Feeling happiness sometimes was one thing, but giving praise? No. “I was just pointing out a fact! The praise was just a coincidence!”

“Uh-huh, right,” R2 said with a chuckle.

“Why don’t we get moving,” Kairi suggested, most likely trying to prevent the situation from escalating, which was fair.

“So, uh, why are we here again?” Sora wondered, looking around at their environment. Vanitas had to wonder too; there appeared to be nothing around but whatever the strange white material covering the ground and trees was.

“What is this stuff, anyway?” R2 wondered, picking up his foot and looking down at the footprint it left. “It’s like, cold sand or something.”

“It’s snow!” Sora declared mirthfully. “I was surprised, too, when I first saw it in Christmas Town.”

“Basically, it’s clouds that froze and then fell to the ground,” Kairi explained further. “It happens instead of rain when it’s really cold.”

“Weird,” R2 commented. “And it just stays like this?”

“Until it gets warm again. Then it melts and turns to water,” Sora told them. “You have to be careful when walking in it though, since it can be slippery. It’s basically tiny pieces of ice.”

“How careful?” Vanitas asked, taking a small tentative step.

Sora laughed. “Not that careful! You can run in it and stuff.”

“It’s just less traction than dirt or sand, so you can slip easily,” Kairi explained.

“Got it,” R2 said, nodding his head and looking serious. He looked a lot like the original Riku like that; he must have realized it, because then he sneered and looked at Vanitas with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Bet Vani slips first.”

“I told you not to call me that!” Vanitas bristled.

“You let Sora call you that,” R2 said teasingly.

“That’s… that’s…” Vanitas had no explanation for that. “Sora just does what he wants. I can’t stop him from using it.”

“More like, you don’t want him to.”

“Vani! R2! Let’s go!” Sora called from ahead of them, waving; it appeared that he and Kairi had started walking already.

After a while of walking in amicable silence, Sora hopped ahead, leaned down, and put his hand into the snow.

“Did you find something?” Vanitas asked curiously.

Sora jumped up, spun around, and threw something at Vanitas. He had no opportunity to dodge. Stunned, Vanitas stood there for a second, blinking the cold stuff out of his eyes… what was that? Oh. He’d received a facefull of snow.

“Why would you do that?!” Vanitas snarled angrily as he wiped the rest away from his eyes.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to hit your face!” Sora said quickly, waving his hands as he did so. “I thought it’d be fun to have a snowball fight! I read in a book that people do that in snow! For fun!”

Vanitas took a moment to process that, then grinned slyly. “Is that how it is, huh?” Vanitas picked up a pile of snow and threw it towards Sora… but it just puffed out in a cloud. “Huh? What the fuck?” Vanitas declared, confused. He looked to the others, just in time to see Kairi try too; she had the same result.

“No, you have to pack it together!” Sora explained, grabbing some more snow and pressing it between his hands. “See? Your hands melt it a tiny bit, and then it sticks together.” He then threw the newly-formed snowball at a nearby tree.

Soon Vanitas, Kairi, and R2 had figured it out, and a snowball fight ensued.

When the fight was over, all four laughing by the end, Sora flopped into the snow and began moving his arms back and forth.

“What the hell are you doing now?” Vanitas asked, completely flummoxed.

Sora jumped up and held his arms out as if presenting something. “It’s a snow angel! See?”

Vanitas tilted his head and examined the shape. He supposed it somewhat resembled the vague shape of an angel, although Vanitas would have never guessed that without being told. “I guess? What’s its purpose?”

“None! It’s just for fun!”

“Fun…” Vanitas mused. Fun with no other underlying purpose? Fun spawned by something other than being cruel and taunting people? This was new to Vanitas. Or was it? He supposed that over the past few weeks—no, nearly a month now—he’d had fun doing other things. At least, the things spawned what R2 said was happiness. If something spawned happiness, that meant it was fun, right? Right.

“Yeah, fun!” Kairi chimed in, then flopped onto the ground too and made one as well. Vanitas resisted rolling his eyes. It seemed stupid, not fun.

“Well, might as well, huh?” R2 said, pushing Vanitas down and then flopping onto the ground himself.

“Hey! What the hell!” Vanitas proclaimed, but lay back and waved his arms in the snow anyway. When in Rome, right?

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

The sun was low in the sky by the time the group of Vanitas, Sora, Kairi, and R2 finally made it down the mountain. Vanitas found it a little ironic; Yen Sid had denied Sora’s request to go to Olympus based on the concern that he would make it more recreational, yet the same thing had happened here. They’d arrived in the morning, then spent hours having snowball fights, making angels, building snow-moogles and forts, and sledding. Basically, every snow-related thing they could think of doing, as none of them had experienced playing in the snow before. There were also a few heartless and nobodies that appeared, which they defeated easily—or rather, the unversed defeated easily. Sora was opposed to Vanitas using them to fight, since it hurt him when they were destroyed, but then agreed that as long as only the easier enemies were around they could be used, as there was no way an unversed would lose to a stupid shadow. A few had lost to nobodies, but Sora didn’t need to know that.

Wait… “Are we going to address the fact that there’s nobodies around?” Vanitas said. “Since, you know, that means the Organization is around?”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” Sora said. “Obviously they’ll be in town; what could they possibly be doing on a mountain?”

“Earlier you said you wanted to see if there was a tavern in town,” Vanitas pointed out. “You said nothing about investigating.”

“No, I said we should find an inn,” Sora clarified.

“Same thing.” Vanitas wondered if Sora was thinking about drinking. Yen Sid had said no, but as long as none of them snitched afterwards it could be fun to do anyway.

“No, it isn’t. Inns have rooms,” Sora explained. Huh. Vanitas hadn’t known there actually was a difference; he’d thought they were different names for the same thing: a place to get food and drink. Sora continued, “We’ll need somewhere to spend the night, because I’m not sleeping on the GummiShip!”

“I second finding an inn,” Kairi said with a yawn. “Playing in the snow is really tiring!”

“True,” Vanitas agreed. “Yeah, let’s relax tonight, then investigate tomorrow.”

“Yeah, maybe not,” R2 said as the town appeared in view. “There’s a giant heartless over there with some chicks fighting it.”

Sora groaned. “Seriously?!”

Kairi sighed. “Guess we gotta go save the day, huh?”

Vanitas snickered. “For two ‘heroes’, you’re awfully reluctant to actually do hero stuff,” he pointed out.

“What! That’s not true,” Sora claimed.

“Keep telling yourself that… So, battle plan?”

R2 scoffed. “Seriously? Since when do any of us make plans, Mister Chaos?”

“True,” Vanitas acknowledged, ignoring the name. “Right, so let’s go, then!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

As it turned out, the battle against the giant wolf heartless was fairly easy… almost too easy, Vanitas thought. It was an awfully fun battle, though!

Vanitas, noticing Sora preparing a powerful beam-like spell, signalled to R2 and Kairi; the wolf bounced around an awful lot, so they had to make sure it stayed still as the attack had a very small range, although it should end it if it hit.

Vanitas thrust out his hand and raised the largest dark barrier he could while R2 did the same and Kairi used a light barrier. The wolf scrambled around, looking for a way out—to no avail, as Sora unleashed the powerful Nexus Ray attack; a thin beam of bluish light shot straight through the wolf, instantly draining the remaining life out of it.

As the wolf fell, Vanitas let out a “whoop” of excitement and without thinking grabbed Sora in a hug.

Sora laughed. “Vani!”

Vanitas realized what he was doing and abruptly released Sora, turning around and putting on an angry look while crossing his arms before a blush could develop. “Sorry, don’t know what came over me,” he grumbled. He didn’t do hugs! Vanitas tolerated it when Sora hugged him. He did not enjoy hugs, and definitely did not initiate them! What was wrong with him?!

“Aww, Vani, no need to be embarrassed about hugs!” Sora said, jumping Vanitas from behind, arms flinging over his shoulders.

“Ack!” Vanitas coughed. He tried to wriggle away.

A small chuckle caused the boys to swerve around and blush as they saw Kairi with her GummiPhone out, no doubt catching it on camera.

“Delete that!” Vanitas called, rushing over.

“Nope!” Kairi chimed. “Besides, why does it matter? It’s not the only photo I have of you two being affectionate!”

“What?” Vanitas said, voice constricting.

“Yup! Here,” Kairi said, ruffling through her pocket and holding up a photo of the two boys on Merlin’s couch, Sora’s arm slung around Vanitas’s shoulders.

“What? When did you take that?!” Vanitas declared, reaching to grab it… only for Kairi to hop back and hold it just out of his reach, dancing away as Vanitas tried swiping it multiple times.

Finally, Vanitas gave up and crossed his arms. “Fine,” he huffed. “Just don’t go showing it to everybody.”

Kairi giggled again and stuck the photo back in her pocket.

The girl with ice powers ran up to the group. She had braided long blonde hair and a beautiful blue icy dress, apt for someone with ice powers. “Oh, thank you so much!” she said to them.

Kairi looked at the girl in surprise, then looked even more surprised as a second girl, this one with long brown hair and a less elegant dress, ran up to the group. Whatever Kairi was surprised about she didn’t voice though… wait. Oh, duh. Vanitas hadn’t felt the girls approach, rather only saw them… meaning… Vanitas focused on them, then realized what Kairi had: the two had no darkness whatsoever. They were both Princesses of Heart—which was definitely a big surprise, as Vanitas had never realized that there could actually be two Princesses in a world.

“Of course. Always happy to lend a hand!” Sora told her cheerfully.

“What happened?” R2 wondered.

“Ah, well, that’s quite a long story…” the blue-dressed girl said.

“We have time,” Vanitas told her.

“Oh! Names,” Kairi said, coming back to her senses. “Sorry. “I’m Kairi.” She then gestured to each boy in turn. “This is Sora, Vanitas, and R2.”

The blue-dressed girl nodded. “It is very nice to meet you. As you most likely know, I am Queen Elsa, and this is my sister, Anna. I apologize for the upset during the coronation yesterday.”

“Oh, actually, we only arrived today,” Sora told her.

“Yeah, we got delayed,” Vanitas added, realizing that coming to town for an event was a much better excuse than ‘we wanted to investigate darkness’. All the adults had really drilled into them the ‘World Order’ rule; as much fun as it would be to break that for the sake of causing chaos, Vanitas didn’t want to mess up the good rapport he had somehow developed with the others.

“Well, that’s actually pretty lucky, then!” Anna chimed in. “There was an incident yesterday, and it didn’t get finished, so we’re going to redo the ceremony and reception tomorrow, if you don’t mind staying.”

“Reception? Does that mean there’ll be food?” R2 asked a little too eagerly.

“Of course!” Anna cheered. “Can’t have a coronation without fancy food!”

“We’ll be there then,” R2 stated firmly.

Elsa chuckled. “Anna, you’re awfully happy, considering the circumstances.”

Anna shrugged. “Well, can’t get too hung up on my fiancé turning into a giant wolf, can I?”

“Wait, that wolf was your fiance?!” Sora proclaimed.

“Yup. But that’s okay, since it turned out he was a jerk trying to kill my sister and steal the throne.”

“Care to give us the whole story?” Vanitas asked, curious as to how such a thing could happen.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Elsa said. “You see—”

Anna suddenly screamed and put her hands over her mouth, eyes widening as she looked at something behind the others.

“Aww, shit. It has a second form,” R2, next to Anna, alerted them, and the others turned to see that the creature indeed was getting up again, this time larger and slightly changed to look more powerful. ‘Aww shit’ was right. The fact that the wolf hadn’t actually dissolved into darkness should have alerted them to this… Couldn’t boss fights ever be easy?

The giant wolf roared, then leapt away, running towards the mountains.

“We’ll take care of it!” Sora assured the girls, turning towards the direction it ran.

“Will you be okay?” Else wondered.

“Yup! We’re something like… monster hunters,” Sora explained, then ran off. It was technically partially true, Vanitas supposed, if one considered heartless and nobodies in a loose category of monsters.

Vanitas, Kairi, and R2 hurried after Sora, struggling slightly. Running up a mountain was much tougher than running down, especially in snow! Vanitas found himself slightly jealous of Sora's magical ability—the boy was using ice magic to basically skate through the snow. However, they eventually reached a clearing; the beast had turned around, and was staring them down, definitely looking angry. Or hungry; Vanitas wasn’t sure. Either way, it was definitely ready to fight.

The wolf, predictably, made the first move, unleashing a tremendous howl that was probably loud enough to be heard in town before leaping at the group; everyone easily dodged out of the way of both the leap and resultant shockwave.

The battle, though long, seemed fairly easy. The wolf’s movements were patterned, thus simple to dodge, although the attacks seemed powerful; being hit by one would do a lot of damage that Vanitas was not keen on taking. For a while, the group alternated between dodging and attacking. Vanitas and R2 mostly used physical attacks, Kairi used a lot of defensive spells as well as physical attacks, and Sora stayed in the back and used powerful magic. However, the wolf jumped around so much that it was difficult to hit, even with the larger spells! Which was worrying, as Sora was using so many way too fast; he’d use up all his mana if he kept it up! In fact, he already seemed to be getting tired, his movements slowing…

The wolf finally landed a hit—directly on Sora, knocking him straight off the cliff.

“It’s okay, he can fly!” Kairi reminded Vanitas and R2, as they looked on in horror, nearly getting hit themselves in the process. Right, the kid had magic. He could fly, either with aero-element spells or animal transformations… assuming he had mana.

Or, apparently, darkness. A large flare of it spiked from where Sora had fallen, and within seconds Sora had jumped back onto the battlefield in a full cloak of it, complete with red eyes… wait, red? Not gold? Well, fuck; looks like they discovered what happened when his well of dark emotions burst. This was feral darkness; Vanitas wondered if Sora had any control at all. Would he attack them?

Thankfully, Sora only had eyes for the wolf heartless, it seemed. R2 and Kairi quickly ran while Sora, heedless to his own health, slashed at the wolf again and again with rapid movements, jumping around it at high-speed.

“What the hell is that!?” Kairi yelled, as she and R2 joined Vanitas.

“Uh, that would be Sora,” Vanitas said dryly. “Remember that well of darkness in him?”

Kairi frowned. “Well of darkness?”

“Riku didn’t tell you? I talked to him about it,” Vanitas informed Kairi, then explained. “He shoves away his emotions so much that they build up and fester darkness. We told him to stop that, but… well, here’s the result.”

“Will he change back?” Kairi wondered.

“In theory.”

R2 whistled. “Wow. Just… wow. Didn’t expect this from him at all.”

“What do we do?” Kairi asked nervously.

“Stay away from him,” Vanitas answered.

“Well, yeah, that’s obvious! I meant, other than that. Should we help fight, or leave it to him?”

“Well, considering he seems to be paying no attention to where he is, it’d probably be dangerous to get too close,” R2 pointed out.

“You should heal him,” Vanitas said to the girl. It looked like Sora was taking a lot of damage, possibly using his own health to fuel some of those attacks. “Can you do that long distance?”

“Of course!” Kairi said, sounding offended, even though it was a legit question—not everyone could. Kairi focused on Sora and said “cura.” It didn’t heal Sora as fully as a close-up curaga would, but it appeared to help enough.

Besides, Sora wouldn’t need healing again, as the wolf then dissolved into darkness and released a gigantic glowing heart that flew into the sky, indicating its defeat.

Now came the question of if, now that there were no enemies, Sora would attack his allies. Sora paced around on all fours, on guard. He noticed the group, paused, stared at them, sniffed the air slightly, and then began trotting around the area again, as though waiting for more enemies.

“He’s like a cat,” Kairi commented.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow at her. “Seriously?”

R2 tilted his head and crossed his arms, staring at Sora. “Yeah, I can see it. He’s like an anxious feral cat.”

“Well, cat is his favorite animal transformation,” Kairi pointed out.

“True,” Vanitas acknowledged. “I guess we’re lucky he either can’t use magic in this form or refuses to; don’t want an actual cat running around with a feral darkness cloak.”

“Oh gods. The cat would be the least of our problems in that case; he’d probably raze the mountain!”

“Right… hey, we probably should do something to get him out of that,” R2 pointed out. “Vani, can you tell when it’ll wear off?”

Vanitas ignored the nickname and squinted at Sora. The well of darkness was emptying, albeit slowly. It had been much more massive than anticipated. “I don’t know,” he replied truthfully. “It looks like there was more built up than I’d thought. It may take a while.”

“Well, is there a way we can make it stop faster?”

Vanitas pondered that. Sora was feeling extremely agitated, all those negative feelings unleashing themselves at once, feeding the darkness. In that case… “If we can calm him down, I think it’ll stop,” Vanitas concluded. “Since this darkness is emotion-based,” he further explained. “It probably triggered because he got too stressed and angry, all the battle adrenaline and tension enhancing that.”

“That makes sense,” Kairi said. “You know, I changed him back from being an actual heartless with a hug; this doesn’t seem much different.”

Vanitas looked at the girl in awe, not bothering to hide it. “You did WHAT?”

“Well, he was already hanging onto his senses,” Kairi explained. “If he was completely gone I don’t think it would have worked.”

“Still… wow.”

“So are you going to go save him or what?” R2 asked. “Because it looks like he’s running off.”

“Fuck,” Kairi swore, to Vanitas’s surprise, and dashed off to follow.

“Well, let’s go then; I doubt he’ll sit quietly and let her hug him,” Vanitas pointed out, heading after them too, R2 following.

Thankfully, Sora hadn’t run too far off; he had hidden in a bush, and seemed to be stalking a deer. Did he think it was an enemy? Well, better catch him before he tore it apart; unlike heartless, deer did not dissolve into darkness, and Vanitas did not think the faeries would want deer blood staining the magical clothing... although, it was black and red so maybe they wouldn’t notice… wait, Vanitas was getting ahead of himself. That wouldn’t be an issue if they stopped Sora.

Sora leapt at the deer, and Vanitas jumped in front of him, erecting a darkness barrier that Sora bounced off of. The brunette growled, crouching on the ground. Vanitas checked the darkness level; it was fairly low now, but there was definitely plenty of time left to kill a deer. Or, apparently, Vanitas; defending the deer had caused Sora to determine that Vanitas—no, all three teens—were enemies.

“I think I can grab onto that darkness cloaking him, hold him down enough for you to get close,” Vanitas told Kairi. “Got it?”

Kairi nodded resolutely. “Got it.”

“Okay. On my signal… Now!”

Vanitas sprung forwards, landing close to Sora and pulling on the crouching boy’s darkness. He couldn’t remove it, but it was enough to hold the boy there while Kairi dashed in, sliding to her knees and embracing Sora.

There was a bright light, and the darkness cloaking Sora dissipated. He collapsed fully into Kairi’s arms, unconscious.

They stayed like that for a few moments, then R2 said, “So… who’s going to tell Riku about this?”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas exited his room in the Arendelle castle—after treating the group to an extravagant palace dinner and explaining everything that happened, Anna and Else had insisted they each have an excessively extravagant guest room, all in appreciation for their help. If Vanitas had known heroes got such awesome rewards for helping others, he would have jumped ship and joined them sooner. Just for the rewards; Vanitas definitely had not enjoyed being praised for doing good, or liked the strange warm fuzzy feeling that had snuck up on him when he realized helping the girls had made them happy. Nope, it was just about the rewards; he couldn’t care less if people were happy or not.

Coincidentally, at the same time, Sora exited his room… wait, no. That wasn’t his room; it was Kairi’s. Vanitas knew they shared a room at home, along with Riku, but he knew he saw the two go into separate ones the previous night… oh, duh. They were dating.

“Hey, Vani!” Sora called happily, with a wave.

“Get lucky last night?” Vanitas greeted with what he hoped was a knowing smile, trying to make conversation. That’s what people said in such a situation, right? It’s what some of the other Organization members had said to other members when caught with a girl or guy in their rooms the morning after drinking, which they'd been doing. Just some wine at dinner, but that still counted, right?

Sora blushed. “Vani! Why would you think that?!”

Vanitas frowned. “You were in Kairi’s room, so you slept with her…?” Shouldn’t it have been obvious? “I mean, that’s what people do when they’re dating, right?”

“Oh, you mean just normally sleep. Well, yeah, we do that at home too.”

“No, I meant fuck,” Vanitas clarified unabashedly. “I thought that’s what happened when people who are dating sneak into each others’ rooms… or do I have that wrong?” Vanitas didn’t know much about relationships.

Sora laughed. “No, no, not necessarily! We mostly just kiss and cuddle, sometimes in just our underwear, and she lets me touch her boobs, but underwear stays on.”

“Oh. That’s blunt,” Vanitas stated, not expecting such a thorough answer.

Sora shrugged. “You seem to not know much about how things work, so I figured you’d prefer more detail.”

“That’s true,” Vanitas acknowledged. He hadn’t really had time to learn about anything other than darkness under Xehanort’s tutelage. He appreciated that Sora recognized that and took the time to explain. Vanitas was still a little confused, though. “Why do you only go that far with her? I know you and Riku have definitely gone further.” He had once walked in on the two.

Sora blushed. “Well, yeah, but Riku’s okay with that. Kairi’s not ready to go that far yet.”

Vanitas scrunched his eyebrows. “Why? You’re dating. Isn’t that what people dating do?”

Sora shook his head. “No, not always! It’s more about just wanting to be together.”

“But, you like being together with a lot of people, yet you’re not dating them,” Vanitas pointed out.

“Well yeah, but that’s different.”

“How?”

“Because there’s a different feeling involved. Like, a physical one, and a mental bond? You want to be with that person all the time, and are always thinking about them and wish they were with you when they aren’t. Er, I guess that could apply to friends too though? Oh! And a big indicator is you want to kiss them. But, there’s more to it than just that, too, a feeling that comes from the heart. I dunno, it’s hard to describe romantic love.”

“Oh. I guess that’s why I’m not getting it,” Vanitas decided. “I have no idea what love is like.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out!” Sora said, beaming. “There’s all different types, you know. Familial, platonic, romantic, sexual, and others! Romantic and sexual are the kinds that make you want to be in a more intimate relationship.”

Vanitas blinked. “Different kinds?” He didn’t even understand the basics, and now Sora was saying there was more than one type!

“Yup! You’ll understand someday,” Sora said confidently, though Vanitas wasn’t sure he would—especially the sexual one, as Vanitas was pretty sure he hadn’t ever had any sexual feelings ever, probably due to being basically a mass of darkness in the shape of a human rather than having an actual human body with organs. Ventus had taken the body. Vanitas might understand that if he got back his memories from before splitting, but he didn’t want that anymore. And Sora had said it all comes from the heart anyway, which Vanitas only had half of… well, maybe. Vanitas wasn’t actually sure about that anymore. If he only had half of one, it should only be the negativity… had Xehanort lied about that, too? Ugh, it was all so confusing!

At that moment, Kairi exited the room, yawning as she did so. “Good morning,” she greeted. “Do you know where breakfast is? I’m starving!”

“We should probably wake R2 first,” Sora suggested. “We don’t want him thinking we left him here when he finds us all gone.”

“I dunno. Might be safer than waking him,” Vanitas joked. The silverette could get violent if woken early.

Thankfully that dilemma resolved itself as R2 exited his room.

“Oh, good, you all are awake,” said a voice from behind Vanitas, who swerved around in surprise to see one of the girls from the previous night. How had he not—oh. Duh.

“Oh, hi, Anna!” Sora greeted.

“Is she a Princess of Heart?” Vanitas whispered to Kairi while Sora chatted rapidly with Anna, who rapidly chatted back in a whirlwind of speech. He’d assumed that the previous day, but it didn’t hurt to be extra sure, especially since two in one world was unheard of.

Kairi hummed. “Yup. Her sister, too,” she confirmed.

“Interesting.” A thought popped into Vanitas’s head, something they should have done. “Hey, did you call Riku?” It would be good for him to know about the rage-form incident, and if they kept from him for too long he’d get upset. Not that Vanitas cared about his feelings or anything! It was just annoying when people got upset, that’s all.

Kairi cringed. “Er. Not yet. Couldn’t find an opportunity; Sora’s been attached to me since, and I didn’t want to call Riku with Sora there.”

Vanitas frowned. “Why not?”

“Sora keeps refusing to talk about it. Says it's no big deal. I didn’t want a fight.”

Vanitas nodded. That was understandable. “Are you scared he’ll go into the form again if he gets angry?”

“What? No, of course not,” Kairi quickly said… maybe a little too quickly. Vanitas wished he could read her emotions like he could Sora's.

“Right… well, if it helps, it won’t happen again for a while, probably," Vanitas assured her. "It took months for the well to build that high, and it’s low right now.”

“That’s good to know,” Kairi said, relaxing a little. “Still…”

“If you want, I can call Riku,” Vanitas offered. Then he shifted, unsure for a moment. Riku wasn’t very fond of Vanitas, so it could be awkward… “I dunno how he’d react to me calling though. He doesn’t like me very much.”

Kairi looked at Vanitas, appearing baffled. “What gives you that idea? He trusts you more than most people do!”

Vanitas frowned. “He does?”

“Yeah! Maybe he was wary at first, like most would be, but Sora trusts you, so why shouldn’t we?”

“Sora trusts everyone,” Vanitas pointed out. “If Xehanort himself—the old one, that is—appeared and asked for forgiveness, Sora would instantly give it.”

Kairi laughed. “Okay, he’s not quite that bad, but I guess you have a point. Still, I trust him on this though. Plus, under all that negativity, you’re a nice person.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? I’m made of negativity and darkness. I’m incapable of niceness.” Although after saying that Vanitas realized that wasn’t entirely true—he just denied it out of habit. In fact, not even two minutes prior he’d offered to call, which had been nice, from Vanitas’s understanding of the term. Emotions were so confusing; it was easier to simply revert back to his familiar dark demeanor.

Kairi laughed again. “If you say so!”

“Hey, you two getting breakfast or not?” R2 called, already halfway down the hallway with Sora and Anna.

Kairi and Vanitas hurried to catch up; Vanitas could call Riku later, while in the bathroom or something.

Chapter Text

“Riku? You okay?”

Riku snapped back to himself—he’d been lost in his thoughts. “Huh? Yeah, why?” he asked Mickey. The two were wandering around the Realm of Darkness, looking for clues as to Aqua’s whereabouts. They had last seen the girl more than a year ago—nearly two now, actually—when they’d helped Sora close the door, but then they were separated. The two weren’t sure if Aqua was still here or if she’d found a way out.

“Well, that’s the sixth or seventh time you’ve sighed within about ten minutes,” the mouse pointed out.

“Really?” Riku frowned. He hadn’t realized he’d been doing that.

“Yup. Something on your mind?”

Riku pondered that briefly; should he trouble the mouse with it? “It’s nothing important,” he concluded.

“Ya sure? It helps to talk about things, you know,” Mickey pointed out.

Riku smiled. “I know,” he said truthfully. Naminé had taught him that, and he’d been trying to convince Sora of the same. “But it really isn’t anything major; I just miss them, you know? Sora and Kairi. It’s hard being so far away from them, especially knowing they’re on a mission too…”

Mickey nodded. “Yes, it’s always difficult being away from loved ones,” the mouse acknowledged—right, he should know; Mickey had been away from Disney Castle, and thus his wife Minnie, more often than not over the past few years. “But ya know, it’s a little easier now; we have GummiPhones, remember? You can call them up! We’re due for a moment of rest anyway, and there’s some rocks over there that look perfect for sitting.”

As the two reached the rocks, Riku’s GummiPhone rang. Riku pulled it out of his pocket as he sat down, smiling slightly; had Sora and Kairi caught his thoughts and decided to call him?

Riku’s happy feeling turned to complete confusion when he saw that the caller ID did not say Sora or Kairi, rather Vanitas. What reason did the noirette have for calling him? Was it a wrong number? Wait, he was on the mission with Sora and Kairi…

Riku quickly answered the phone, confusion turning to anxious concern.

Before Riku could even say hello, Vanitas quickly said, “Before you ask, yes, they’re both okay, so you can lose the worried expression.”

Riku tried not to blush as he was called out—was it that obvious? Then he paused, noting where Vanitas seemed to be. “Are you… in the bathroom?”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “I’m not actually using it, idiot. Kairi wanted me to call you, but I had to make sure Sora doesn’t know I’m calling you; if he knows he’ll get upset. Kairi would have called you herself, but Sora’s been glued to her; I think he’s trying to make sure she doesn’t call you. Dunno why though, as you’d eventually learn about it anyway.”

Riku frowned, worry returning. “What happened?” he asked, trying to stay calm. That did not sound good at all.

“Well, in short, remember that well of darkness I told you about? Yeah, we found out what happens when it gets too full.”

Riku tensed. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s like a mini heartless thing. He changed back, but I think Kairi’s kinda scared of him now, but she won’t admit it. I dunno what to do. Like, I told her the well is small right now, but she’s still kinda shaken. Maybe you need to talk to them? But don’t tell Sora I told you, I don’t want him mad at me.”

Riku took a moment to process that. “I think you better give me the full story,” he concluded, then signalled to Mickey, who appeared to be trying to politely not listen in although he looked curious. “I think you better hear this too, Mickey,” he told the mouse, who hopped over to listen too. Sora wouldn’t like him knowing, but Riku figured at least one adult should probably know about this.

Vanitas explained.

“So, ya say this is emotion-based?” Mickey asked once Vanitas had concluded.

“Yeah. The kid’s so concerned with avoiding worrying other people that he shoves his own negative emotions away, basically. Then those emotions fester, spawning darkness,” Vanitas clarified.

Riku sighed. “I’ve been trying to get him to stop doing that,” he divulged. “Especially since you warned me that was happening… I guess I wasn’t making as much progress with that as I thought.”

Vanitas shook his head. “No, you were,” he assured Riku, to Riku’s surprise. He’d expected a snarky taunt. “The rate of growth has been lessening; it was just already pretty close to bursting. All it took was a big stressor to tip it over.” Then, he shifted, looking… nervous? Uncomfortable? It could be difficult to read the noirette. “Can you not tell Sora I told you all this? And maybe keep it a secret? I don’t want him upset that I talked to you. He seems to want to hide it.”

Riku frowned. “I think he’s going to realize once he finds out I know,” he pointed out. “Since he’s currently attached to Kairi and I’ll be calling him soon. I want to speak to him sooner rather than later.”

Vanitas sighed and seemed to wilt a little. “Right, makes sense,” he muttered, then composed himself to more of his usual edgy expression. “There’s something else—I’m pretty sure he was aware of its existence before this.”

Riku’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? You think this has happened before?”

Vanitas shook his head. “No, but I think he was aware of the well that was building up, but still shoved the emotions away anyway. I’d say it’s a good bet that he knew something was going to happen with that eventually, but was ignoring it.”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, sounds like him.” Sora had always been one to shove his problems away until they eventually bit him in the ass, so to say. This was essentially just a more dangerous physical manifestation of that.

“Right. Anyway, I probably should go before Sora decides I drowned in the toilet or something. Ciao.” With that, Vanitas hung up the phone.

Riku looked down at the blank phone for a moment. “...I guess I should call Sora now,” he concluded reluctantly. It would definitely result in an argument and a very angry Sora.

“I’ll give you some space,” Mickey said, hopping off the rock.

Riku shook his head. “No, you don’t—”

“He won’t talk if I’m here,” Mickey interrupted. Yeah, fair point.

As Mickey walked a safe distance away Riku called Sora’s number. It rang once… twice… thrice… four times… voicemail. Riku tried again, getting the same result. So, he tried Kairi next.

“Riku!” Kairi answered immediately. “I guess this is about what Vanitas just called you about?”

“Uh, yeah,” Riku said, surprised at how she knew that so quickly. “How—”

“Apparently Merlin taught Sora some sort of eavesdropping spell. He got suspicious that Vani was taking so long and then realized he took his GummiPhone with him… so, he caught the tail end, and is now chasing Vanitas around angrily. I’m actually not sure what he plans to do when he catches him…” Kairi looked worried.

“Sora’s not going to do anything,” Riku said. “He’s not the type to hurt someone.”

“But Riku, you didn’t see—”

“Consciously,” Riku quickly added, realizing she was thinking of that dark form. “But even so, I don’t think he’d actually have harmed either of you seriously.”

“But—”

“Kairi, listen to me,” Riku said firmly. “Sora is not going to hurt you. Please, don’t be afraid; Vanitas will tell us if the darkness builds up too much again, okay?”

“I know,” Kairi said quietly. “I know, okay?” She started to tear up. “But it was really scary… I was so scared! But… not really for myself; for Sora,” she explained further. “He was being so reckless! I think some of those attacks used physical stamina, and he was not worried at all about dodging or anything. We had to use multiple cure spells after! And… and I was so worried he wouldn’t come out of it! Vani said he would after a while, but what if he didn’t? What if next time it happens he doesn’t? Vani says if he stops shoving everything away it shouldn’t happen again, or at least not for a very long time, but you know Sora. He’s not just going to suddenly start showing his emotions in full because we ask him to.”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, I know. I tried that already; it was improving a little, but not much.”

Kairi narrowed her eyes, looking slightly tense. “Wait. Did you know about this?!”

Riku cringed; right, he had never gotten around to telling Kairi about it. “Er… not the form it’d take specifically, but Vanitas did mention to me that there was a well of darkness in Sora formed by shoving away all his negative emotions…”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Kairi asked, voice a pitch higher than usual.

“I, er, I was going to, but I just… didn’t get around to it,” Riku said, knowing it was a weak excuse. Honestly, he hadn’t wanted Kairi to know, because he knew she’d get worried. Riku thought he could help Sora with it on his own… in retrospect that had not been his brightest idea.

Kairi sighed in exasperation—she probably knew or suspected the real reason Riku hadn’t told her. “What am I going to do with you boys?” she muttered.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“So, I have news you all are reaaaaaallly not gonna like,” Larxene announced from her place around the circle of stone spires. Everyone in the Organization had gathered there except the three who were missing—did she have news of them?

Xehanort narrowed his eyes. “Well? We don’t have all day.”

“We’re down three members,” she said bluntly. “Like, they’re permanently gone.”

“Are they dead?” asked Demyx, drawing the logical conclusion.

“They might be captured,” Saïx said. “In which case rescue is priority.”

“Oh no, not at all,” Larxene drawled in her annoyingly playful manner. Why had Xehanort let them keep personalities again?

“Well, then, spit it out,” Vexen told her.

Larxene laughed shrilly. “Let’s just say Xigbar was right.”

“What do you mean?” Xehanort demanded. Xigbar’s theory had been… but, no, that was impossible!

“So I actually don’t know about the replica or the kid, but back in Arendelle, Vanitas was pretty cozy with Sora and the Princess.”

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, processing that with varying levels of surprise. Well, except Xigbar, who was smirking with his arms crossed, and Larxene of course. But, no, that was impossible. Vanitas, a being of pure darkness, working with the Guardians of Light?

“That is absurd,” Ansem finally commented.

“It has no basis in logic,” Xemnas agreed.

Xehanort frowned. “Perhaps he is attempting to infiltrate the heroes and betray them,” he determined. Yes, that must be it. Or, he still wanted to merge with Ventus and was infiltrating them for that purpose.

Saïx raised an eyebrow. “Without telling us?”

“Oh no. He was much too cozy with them to be planning to betray them,” Larxene said. “Trust me. Snowball fights and making snow angels together? Pu-lease… Like, he was even dressed in fairy clothes.”

Marluxia raised an eyebrow. “Fairy clothes? You are sure this was Vanitas?”

“Oh yeah, no doubt. They even matched Sora’s! Then—get this—Vanitas helped the Princess pull Sora out of that dark form he has after looking legit worried about the boy! Weird, huh?”

Xehanort scoffed. “You jest. Vanitas would never do that; he enjoys chaos too much, and is incapable of worry.”

Larxene smiled slightly. “If you say so... Oh, and now that I think about it, the replica was also there, I think. Hard to tell since he was wearing fairy-made clothing too, so I assumed it was the original, but thinking back, he was too young and not nearly affectionate enough with Sora and the Princess to be the actual one.”

“The actual one went to the Realm of Darkness with King Mickey to search for signs of the missing guardian,” Saïx said, confirming that.

Xigbar chuckled. “Alright, everyone, pay up,” he said, making a ‘come hither’ motion with his hand. Xehanort resisted rolling his eyes. Of course they’d made bets.

“Although I too would be owed money in that case, the bet was only if all three betrayed us,” Luxord pointed out, never one to cheat at a bet.

“Yeah, about that: I saw the kid in Olympus, with the duck and the dog. Looks like you pulled him from time just a liiiiiittle too soon.”

“You are lying,” Xehanort insisted.

“Seriously? What reason would I have to lie? Oh, and Axel was there, too. He has a keyblade now.”

More silence. Axel was not a surprise to Xehanort, due to his past betrayals and previously working with some of them. Neither was him possessing a keyblade, as technically everyone in the Organization had the capability of wielding one, whether they knew it or not. It had been one of Xehanort’s criteria. But his younger self? No, it must be some sort of infiltration mission. He wouldn’t betray himself. What reason would there be to do so?

Xehanort finally said forcefully, “They have not betrayed us! This is impossible. One of them is myself!”

Demyx rolled his eyes. “Yeah, in rebellious teenage form.”

Xehanort paused. That was actually a fair point. “Then they are merely acting out. They will return,” he concluded.

Larxene scoffed. “Yeah, no. Vanitas hugged Sora while smiling and laughing. He's definitely not returning.”

“Vanitas would never do such,” Vexen said, narrowing his eyes at her. “You are certainly concocting lies.”

Larxene laughed. “Oh, no, it’s true. Even got photographic evidence that they’re all buddy-buddy—the chick dropped this.” She held a polaroid in her hand, flipping it so people could see before tossing it to Xehanort.

Xehanort was speechless. It indeed was a photo of Sora and Vanitas, laughing happily while on an ostentatious magenta couch, the brunette’s arm around the noirette’s shoulders.

“Yup, can’t deny that,” Xigbar commented, then turned to the others and made the same motion as before. “Now, as I said earlier, pay up.”

“It is still inconclusive whether or not the replica and the kid have truly betrayed us, too,” Vexen protested.

Xigbar rolled his eyes. “Fine. We’ll wait then! But half of you are in denial.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas sighed as he perused the book on Light magic that Yen Sid was insisting he read. Apparently the old wizard had decided that the three should be fully integrated with the other teens’ training regiment, which Yen Sid had decided to become more involved in, and that meant boring assigned readings. Vanitas didn’t know why a book on the Light had been chosen for him, seeing as Vanitas would forever be useless with such magic; maybe it was because Vanitas had studied a lot about the Dark so the old wizard wanted him to know more about the Light, even if he couldn’t use it. Maybe Vanitas could just not read it; would the wizard even know if he did? There wouldn’t be a quiz, would there? Actually, he wouldn't put it past the wizard.

“Hey, Vani!” Sora called as he entered the room, hopping over to the currently-neon-green main-floor couch Vanitas sat on, bouncing slightly as he practically leapt onto it, kneeling and looking at Vanitas, hands in his lap and grinning. He was awfully hyper for it only being a day after returning from their adventure in Arendelle—which was another reason Vanitas really didn’t want to be reading. Couldn’t they get a day off to rest?

“What do you want?” Vanitas asked the brunette, secretly pleased that Sora hadn't stayed mad at him for long.

“Just saying hi; I had to when I saw you here. That’s what friends do; say hi when they see each other.”

“Don’t you have things to do though?”

Sora shrugged. “Merlin’s training’s done and it’s almost lunch time. I got a little time to kill…” Sora then narrowed his eyes and leaned forwards, staring into Vanitas’s eyes.

“Um, do you need something?” Vanitas asked, leaning back a smidge. He didn’t mind Sora being in his space as much as he did with others, but this was a little too close even for him.

“Your eyes are different.”

“My… eyes?”

“Yeah, they’re less gold,” Sora explained. “More of an olive. There’s little flecks of blue in them.”

Vanitas blinked. “What? That’s impossible. You have to be imagining it,” Vanitas said with certainty. He was darkness, thus his eyes were pure gold. It was a given. That was the way the world worked.

“Hmm. If you say so.”

Suddenly, Vanitas felt a wave of negative emotion, but not from Sora. He turned to the door, where Riku and Kairi were standing, watching the two. Ah, the emotion was coming from Riku, something very recognizable. Surprisingly, Kairi had a little too… huh? He could read her emotions too? Only a little bit though; it was fuzzy. Maybe because the emotion was more associated with negativity.

Vanitas grinned. “I think your boyfriend and girlfriend are rather jealous,” he told Sora.

Sora turned to the doorway. “Oh! Kairi, Riku!” Sora jumped up and practically skipped over to the two. “Is that true? Are you jealous?”

Kairi and Riku both blushed, but didn’t deny it.

Sora laughed. “Seriously? Vani’s my brother. Do we need to have a talk again?” Sora said with a teasing lilt, looking mostly at Riku.

Vanitas ignored the ‘brother’ comment; it didn’t bother him as much as it used to. Vanitas vaguely wondered why. Well, it was their cover when in other worlds, so he probably just had gotten used to the concept. There was no way he felt the same.

Besides, there was no longer anyone there to respond to; Sora had grabbed Kairi and Riku’s hands and once again left the house. Vanitas turned back to his book, then grabbed his GummiPhone, which was open to a dictionary app. Why couldn’t these books ever be updated to modern language? But, no; they always had to be centuries old, full of words that hadn’t been used by anyone in equally as long, making them take triple the time to read than they should. Ugh.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Hey, have you seen Sora anywhere?” R2 asked.

Riku, lounging on the currently-red-velvet couch on the ground-floor room of Merlin’s house, looked up from the book on keyblade forging. He creased his eyebrows in confusion. “Isn’t he training with Merlin right now?” It was morning, five days after he’d returned from the fruitless search of the Realm of Darkness, and there wasn’t a free day scheduled.

R2 shook his head. “No. He was supposed to be helping Merlin teach Kairi, Vani, and me some stuff while the others are off on a mission, but he never showed up…”

Riku sighed, setting the book on the coffee table and standing up. “Well, let’s go find him, then.” Sora not showing up for something like that generally meant he wasn’t feeling well, and Riku generally was the one to help with that. Kairi did too sometimes, but Sora was usually more responsive to Riku’s help; Kairi was wonderful, but unlike Riku she had no experience with darker emotions, so often had trouble knowing how to best help. So she resorted to holding hands, cuddling, acts of kindness, dates, and other similar things that she knew helped her when she was feeling sad, which worked great usually, but sometimes Sora needed more than that, someone to talk him through things and lend an understanding ear, which put Kairi at a loss for what to do. Sometimes Riku got the sense that Kairi understood negative emotions as much as Vanitas understood positive emotions; Riku wondered if that was because Kairi was pure light or just because she’d never personally experienced something as deep as depression.

After checking Sora’s bedroom and the library, Riku and R2 began searching around town at all of Sora’s favorite brooding places; eventually the two found him in the Great Maw.

Sora sat in a dark corner of the chasm, arms wrapped around his knees, which were pulled into his chest with his head buried in them. Riku cautiously approached, R2 in tow, and knelt next to Sora, putting his hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Go away,” Sora mumbled.

“Sora, you know I can’t do that,” Riku told his boyfriend patiently. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

Sora was quiet for a while; R2 began tapping his foot impatiently.

Sora finally lifted his head slightly, looking blankly at a spot on the ground a couple meters out. “I miss my mom,” he said quietly.

Riku let out a breath, trying to think of what to say.

“Then why don’t you visit her?” R2 said bluntly. Riku cringed; right, the new arrivals didn’t know, except for Vanitas.

“I can’t,” Sora said flatly.

R2 crinkled his brow in confusion. “Why—hey!”

Riku stood up, grabbed R2’s arm, and pulled him away, trying not to glare at the silverette that resembled his younger self. “Have you ever heard the word ‘tact’?” he hissed.

“Tact? At what? He has a mom on the Destiny Islands, right? That’s what Organization intelligence said. Can’t he see her? You have GummiShips.”

“That’s not the issue,” Riku said, trying to figure out how to explain. “He can’t see her because… er…” Riku wasn’t sure how much he could reveal.

“Because she doesn’t want to see me,” Sora said dejectedly. Riku and R2 both jumped slightly, not expecting Sora to have snuck up to stand right next to them.

This only confused R2 more. “Why wouldn’t she want to see you? She’s your mom, isn’t she? I might not have parents, but I do know that they’re supposed to want to see their kids.”

Sora let out a bitter laugh, his eyes without their usual spark. “You’d think, right? Although she doesn’t consider me her son anymore. She’d rather have a dead son than one who’s, her words, ‘a depraved cock-sucking faggot’.” Riku’s eyes widened and he tried not to let out a gasp. Sora hadn’t actually told them many specifics of the language his mom used—Riku had no idea it’d been so bad.

R2 seemed at a loss for words. “I… I’m sorry,” he stammered out. “I…”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” Sora waved off. “But, yeah. That’s why we came to Radiant Garden in the first place—she kicked me out.”

“But then why would you miss her?” R2 blurted out, then he caught his mistake. “Ah, sorry if that was rude!”

Riku only sighed at that; R2 couldn’t help it—he was still pretty inexperienced with the world, just as Riku himself had been only a few years prior. Sometimes Riku forgot that he’d seen and experienced a lot more than most teenagers. “R2, there’s still 14 years of good memories there,” Riku explained.

“Yeah…” Sora sighed, sitting back down, cross-legged this time. Riku and R2 sat down next to him as Sora said, “I guess that’s what I miss more. The nostalgia version of her. The person I returned home to… wasn't the same person. She’s not the mother I miss.”

“Is that why you’re depressed?” R2 asked bluntly. Riku wanted to smack him.

Sora’s head snapped to him, eyes wide. “How’d you know that?!”

R2 looked at Riku, who had his hand on his forehead in exasperation. It felt like he was dealing with a younger sibling… Which in a sense, the silverette kinda was. R2 replied defensively, “Vanitas said so! He’s… concerned, I think.” R2 shifted nervously, clearly uncomfortable with talking on such a sensitive subject. “He… he doesn’t want to admit it, but I think he’s grown fond of you.”

Riku raised his eyebrows and said, “Fond? Vanitas?” Vanitas was always so rude to everyone, claimed to dislike everyone… well, actually, maybe not. Sora didn't seem surprised. Vanitas did seem to have a soft spot for Sora, come to think of it. He tolerated much more from the brunette than he did from others; Kairi even claimed she’d witnessed Vanitas willingly hug Sora unprompted back in Arendelle, although Riku wasn’t sure if he believed that or not.

“He still doesn’t understand positive emotions,” R2 explained. “He was told for so long he couldn’t feel them, and now he is, so it’s confusing him. He tried to say it was annoying him that you were sad, since that’s an emotion he understands, but I’m pretty sure it’s actually concern. Once he figures out what a friend is, I’m sure he’d want to be yours.”

Sora beamed at that. “Well, he’s already my friend, as far as I’m concerned! All of you are!”

R2 blinked in surprise. “All of us?”

“Yup! Even teenage Xehanort!”

“And me?” R2 asked quietly, after a moment’s pause.

Sora frowned in confusion. “What about you?”

“Can… can we be friends too?” he asked in a rush, face reddening.

Sora tilted his head. “I thought we already are friends? We met at that Castle place, right? I might have forgotten, but that doesn’t negate that.”

“...We met there as enemies though.”

“Really?” Sora asked, looking eager. “Hey, can you—”

“Okay, enough about that!” Riku interrupted.

“What? Why?!” Sora protested. “You won’t tell me about it, so maybe R2 will!”

Riku sighed. “Sora, Naminé said that if you learn too much about it, and remember parts of it, it might start to damage your memory again.”

Sora’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Riku nodded slowly. “Yeah. She wasn’t certain, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, don’t you think?”

Sora sighed. “Yeah, I guess,” he acquiesced. “Ugh. This sucks… let’s get ice-cream!”

Riku smiled fondly. Sora often felt better after ice cream, so who was Riku to deny him that? “Okay, let’s—”

“Hey, no, you said you’d help Merlin train me, Kairi, and Vani today!” R2 interrupted to remind Sora.

Sora’s eyes widened. “Oh, fuck! I forgot!” Sora spun on his heel and shot off with magically-enhanced speed.

“Other direction!” R2 yelled, and Sora swerved back around to head the other direction, grabbing R2 on the way past.

“Er. Bye…” Riku said after he’d (barely) processed what had just happened, although the two were already too far away to hear him.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas strolled around Radiant Garden, bored and slightly annoyed. He had finished with his restoration work for the day—or rather, had been fired from it. He was supposed to be painting some of the newly refurbished houses on the outskirts, which he thought had been going well, especially as he had the unversed helping out, making things go really fast. Unfortunately, no one had told him what color to use. So, he went with black, which was a nice neutral color, thinking he’d chosen well. However, it turned out that apparently jet black was not a proper house color. But how was Vanitas supposed to know that? He’d never painted a house before! He hadn’t even lived in a legit town until now, rather stayed with Xehanort at whatever weird base he’d chosen.

When Leon, Cloud, and Aerith showed up, they became upset, to Vanitas’s utter confusion. Vanitas thought he’d done a good job! Thankfully Aerith had realized that it had not been an intentional prank, so to Vanitas’s surprise he didn’t actually get in trouble. Merlin then tried to change the paint colors, but made them bright neons, which apparently also was bad. Why were paint colors such a big deal? There must be people who preferred black or neon houses. Well, whatever. Point was, Leon and Cloud then volunteered to do it themselves, and Merlin and Vanitas had been told to leave.

Vanitas’s wandering brought him to the cliff above the chasm, where to his surprise he found Sora, sitting on the edge with his feet dangling over. Didn’t he have things to do too? Well, maybe he could help Vanitas practice the magic he’d helped Merlin teach them a couple days prior; there wasn’t much else to do, and Vanitas had sucked at it.

Vanitas smiled mischievously as he arrived next to Sora, thinking of something Larxene suggested be said when someone looked pensive on a cliff edge. “What, gonna jump?”

Sora hummed slightly in acknowledgement of Vanitas’s presence, but didn’t deny it, to Vanitas’s confusion. Larxene said people usually reacted surprised and protested… wait. If he wasn’t protesting, then…? Vanitas focused on Sora’s emotions, finding them surprisingly negative, even compared to usual… well, fuck. What was Vanitas supposed to do now? Usually when Sora got this depressed Riku or Kairi were around to do something… but it was only Vanitas around… was it up to him to do something? Could he? Vanitas once again found himself in new territory. He took a deep breath; he’d seen Riku and Kairi calm Sora before; how hard could it be?

Vanitas sat next to Sora on the cliff. “Hey, what are you thinking?” he asked, trying for a gentle tone, though not quite sure if he achieved that.

Sora shrugged, but didn’t say anything. Vanitas was at a loss. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Vanitas pondering what to do and Sora lost in thought.

“Hey, Vani?” Sora finally said.

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever wanted to die?” Sora asked casually.

Vanitas froze. What the fuck? Was Sora feeling that low? Why? Nothing had happened recently, had it? Sora had seemed to be doing well. Vanitas wondered if he should answer truthfully or not. He’d heard somewhere that people sometimes felt better knowing they weren’t alone; did that apply in this situation?

“Sorry, forget I said anything,” Sora quickly said when Vanitas took too long to answer. “You probably don’t want to talk about this anyway.”

“Wait, no,” Vanitas said hurriedly. “That’s not it. I was just thinking whether or not to be honest,” he admitted.

Sora turned to look at Vanitas, appearing confused. “Huh? Why wouldn't you be—” Sora’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you saying you actually have felt that way?”

Vanitas nodded and sighed. “Yeah, lots of times. Xehanort… well, he basically tortured me to strengthen my darkness, or at least that’s what he claimed it was for. It often got so bad that death would probably have been better; hell, if I weren’t created from pure darkness, I probably would be dead with what he did to me. Eventually it got to the point I considered doing it myself.”

Sora asked, sounding genuinely curious, “What stopped you?”

“Nothing. I tried it multiple times,” Vanitas said bluntly. “Xehanort always stopped me. So eventually I stopped trying.”

Sora blinked, processing that. “That’s… wow. Do you regret it?”

Vanitas sighed, then smiled slightly—what he hoped was a gentle, reassuring smile—as he put an arm around Sora’s shoulders. “No. I don’t regret it at all; if I were dead, I wouldn’t have found myself here with everyone. I wouldn’t have learned that I’m more than negativity, even if that’s confusing after years of being told that’s all I was. But… I’m happy, now,” Vanitas admitted, finding to his surprise that he actually meant it, even though saying that last bit had only been intended to get Sora feeling better. Vanitas continued, “For the first time, I’m happy where I am, and happy with who I’m with. So I’m glad I lived, because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met everyone… wouldn’t have met you.”

Sora’s mouth was open by the end, looking shocked. “Wow. I’ve never heard you say such personal stuff before!”

Vanitas felt himself blush. “Well, don’t get used to it,” he mumbled, although it actually did feel nice to talk. “Anyway, the point is, I tried to die, I didn’t, and now things are a lot better. So don’t you go trying anything like that, either; you might feel that way now, but things will be better. If you die now you’ll never know how much more awesome things can be.”

Sora blushed and turned away. “I… I wasn’t actually going to do anything. I don’t want everyone to be upset; it’d devastate Kairi and Riku.”

Vanitas didn’t respond to that, unsure how to, although he knew that was a huge red flag; what if something happened to the two, or Sora began to feel like they didn’t care? Instead of addressing that, Vanitas stood up, and held out his hand for Sora. “Right. Well, let’s go then.”

Sora looked at Vanitas’s hand, puzzled. “Go? Where?”

“I’m not leaving you alone by a cliff you’ve been thinking about jumping off of.”

“I told you, I wasn’t actually gonna do anything, I swear!” Sora argued.

“Don’t care. We’re finding Kairi or Riku.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Sora complained, although despite this he took Vanitas’s hand to be helped up and led away from the cliff.

“Like hell you don’t,” Vanitas scoffed. “You’re thinking about killing yourself, serious or not. You don’t have to tell them anything, but I know being with them makes you feel better, so that’s where we’re going, got it?”

Sora sighed. “Got it,” he said without protest, still holding Vanitas’s hand. Vanitas allowed him to, telling himself that it’d make it easier to restrain Sora if he ran, not because he actually didn’t mind. He refused to accept that hand-holding was acceptable for a being of darkness; hugs were already pushing it.

Thankfully it was easy to find Kairi and Riku; they were conveniently looking for Sora. Sora refused to let go of Vanitas’s hand, so he ended up listening in to the trio’s discussion. Apparently they’d all gotten into some sort of argument earlier, and Sora had run away as a result. From Vanitas’s understanding, the argument had been spawned when the trio had been reminiscing about the past, and how they’d all sacrificed things for each other, during which Kairi had announced that she didn’t want them to do that again for her—apparently Sora’s brief stint as a heartless had been caused by stabbing himself to save Kairi or something along those lines. Vanitas vaguely wondered if that was related to what Sora had been thinking about earlier; did Sora think his life was worth less than the other two’s, and that was why he was so willing to sacrifice himself? Vanitas wondered if he should mention Sora's earlier thoughts to Riku and Kairi after all.

Sora finally let go of Vanitas’s hand, so he said goodbye to the three and let them continue their conversation that probably was meant to be private.

Vanitas walked in a random direction, thinking about what to do… or rather, whom he should tell. An adult, obviously, as leaving Sora's depression to Kairi and Riku clearly had not been as successful as everyone thought. But who? Oh, he knew someone.

At that moment Vanitas ran into Xehanort, who looked like he’d only just finished doing some work considering the paint-stained clothes and buckets of said paint being carried.

“Have you seen Aerith anywhere?” Vanitas asked without preamble.

“Aerith? Why do you need to talk to her?” Xehanort asked.

“Just, I need to. It’s important,” Vanitas said impatiently.

Xehanort frowned. “Hey, you okay? You look worried.”

Vanitas blinked. Worried? He was visibly worried? “You gotta be kidding. Why would I be worried?” Vanitas asked with a challenging glare, not wanting to show weakness.

“Hey, chill, it’s not a bad thing. It’s just a bit uncharacteristic for you to show such, that’s all… whatever it is must be bad, huh?”

Vanitas sighed. Kid Xehanort was annoyingly perceptive. “It’s not that big of a deal, really. Sora’s emotions are just weirdly dark again.”

“And you want to talk to Aerith about that? I thought his partners had that handled…” Xehanort appeared confused. “Unless, it’s worse than occasional mood swings?”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “Is that what the kid is telling everyone now? Yeah, it’s worse. Didn’t you ever wonder why they won’t let him fly the GummiShips that use the happiness-based power source unless Kairi’s with him?”

“Oh… I actually hadn’t noticed that,” Xehanort admitted sheepishly. Understandable; he was known for noticing things, so clearly would be uncomfortable admitting when he hadn’t.

“Ah. Yeah, well, that’s a thing. Kid is hella depressed.” Vanitas figured that was okay to say; despite Sora saying otherwise it wasn’t much of a secret—basically everyone but apparently Xehanort had known.

“But he always looks so happy.”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because that’s soooo hard to fake,” he said sarcastically. “Seriously? We worked alongside nobodies. You should know that emotions can easily be faked.”

“Right, okay, I get your point,” Xehanort said, sounding annoyed. “So, you’re worried, and want to see Aerith about it?”

“That’s what I said. So, have you seen her?”

“Actually, yes; she was near the apothecary earlier.”

“Thank you,” Vanitas ground out, glad to finally get an answer.

Xehanort raised an eyebrow. “‘Thank You’? Since when do you thank people?”

“...Shut up,” Vanitas grumbled as he stomped off.

Not even a minute into his trek to find Aerith, R2 appeared.

“Oh, hey, Vani! What—”

“Shut up, I got shit to do,” Vanitas growled without stopping, resolute in his mission. No more distractions; Sora was more important.

Chapter Text

Sora’s unease was palpable as he and Vanitas waited for Donald and Goofy to arrive on the GummiShip.

“I still don’t see why we can’t use a dark corridor,” Vanitas said, trying to assuage the strange tension.

“Because you’re the only one with protection from darkness,” Sora replied emotionlessly.

Vanitas sighed. “That’s what the cloaks are for… whatever. You okay?”

Sora looked up. “What?”

“You okay?” Vanitas repeated. He knew the question was out of character, which was probably why Sora had reacted with slight surprise. But Vanitas wasn’t concerned, just curious. That’s all it was. Right? Well, no. Maybe it was concern. R2 said it was last time… yeah, that was concern. He’d felt concerned about Sora multiple times before, and that’s what Vanitas was feeling again, just to a slightly lesser degree than those other times, most notably compared to the amount he felt during the cliff incident. Had he felt small amounts of concern like this other times, too? Maybe. Emotions were so confusing.

“Uh, yeah, why?” Sora asked, sounding distracted.

“Sora, I can feel negative emotions. Something is seriously bothering you,” Vanitas pointed out. “Or is it someone? Do I need to kill someone?” That was a proper joke, right?

Sora laughed—good, joke successful. “No, that’s not it. I’m just… nervous, I guess.”

“Nervous? Why?”

Sora sighed. “This is the first time I’ll be travelling with Donald and Goofy since fighting Xemnas,” he explained. Ah, right; at first they'd been separating the more experienced light people so they'd be available to supervise the newbies and former-enemies. This would be the first mission since Yen Sid lifted that restriction—now only the newbies needed supervision by the light people. The wizard had also determined that R2 and teen Xehanort had enough light to be considered Guardians of Light for the purpose of thwarting old Xehanort's plans, which Vanitas inexplicably found himself slightly jealous of.

“So? You’ve seen them since,” Vanitas pointed out.

“Yeah, but just around others. And…” Sora sighed again. “Okay, I guess there’s primarily two issues: the clothes and my magic.”

“Why would they be an issue?” Vanitas asked, utterly flummoxed. Sora's outfit was the fairy-made magical one that was designed for adventuring, as they were all required to wear for all missions, and his magic too was perfect for battle.

“Well, they haven’t seen me in the new clothes the fairies gave me.”

“So?”

Sora seemed annoyed now, tapping his foot slightly. “So, what if they think it’s weird? They haven’t seen me wearing dresses or skirts before!”

“Yes they have,” Vanitas pointed out. “When we all met at Yen Sid’s after R2, Xehanort, and I asked to collaborate with you.” Did Sora really forget about that?

“Okay, yeah, but I passed that off as Yuffie’s doing, and they know she’s eccentric. They don’t know I wore it by choice. I wore it then to test the waters, and I’m pretty sure they thought it was weird even if they didn’t say so,” Sora said. That was news to Vanitas; he too had bought the whole ‘Yuffie-put-it-on-me’ thing. Sora was a scarily good liar, come to think of it, when he wanted to be (Yen Sid seemed to be the exception to that; Vanitas was convinced some sort of truth magic was involved there, because even he had an urge to tell the truth to the guy despite being highly trained in the art of lying, courtesy of Xehanort. Oh, and Riku and Kairi were also exceptions, but they were super close to Sora so that made sense, and Vanitas, if he focused on it, as he could feel emotions which was kinda cheating).

Vanitas scoffed, remembering the conversation with Sora about how some people were stupid enough to hate people over clothing choice. “If they get upset about it, I’ll kill them,” Vanitas decided.

“No, don’t do that!” Sora protested.

“Why? If they make you upset—”

“We don’t kill people just for making people upset!”

Vanitas sighed. “Fine. I’ll just beat them up a bit.”

“Vani!”

“Sora!”

Sora laughed. “Okay, okay. You can do that only if they refuse to associate with me because of it, okay? And nothing cure can’t fix.”

Vanitas sighed. “Fine, you win.” Then he frowned. “You said the magic is an issue too. Why?”

Sora bit his lip. “Donald might be a little jealous of it… no, pretty sure he definitely is. He always thought I was shit at magic, then Merlin started teaching me, and now… well, I don’t want to brag, but…”

“You’re magic is a thousand times better?” Vanitas supplied.

Sora laughed. Vanitas found that he liked when Sora laughed. Sora replied, “Maybe not that much better, but yeah, it is objectively better. I can do more things, at least. Took me a while to realize that, though, since I was always told my magical ability sucked… but anyway, yeah, he might be jealous. And we’ll have to rework strategies to account for it, which is annoying.”

Vanitas was confused. Reworking strategies he understood, but, “Why would he be jealous then? Shouldn’t he be happy the team has an awesome mage?”

Sora looked at Vanitas deadpan. “Aren’t you supposed to be all dark emotions? You should know jealousy doesn’t work like that.”

Vanitas shrugged, then thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’d be jealous too if someone I’d thought inferior became much more powerful than me.”

Sora frowned. “I don’t think he thought I was inferior, per se; he always said the potential was there. Merlin says that his teaching methods probably just weren’t as compatible; Donald always explained a lot of complicated theory I barely understood, but Merlin simplified things when I didn't understand and had me learn more by doing… oh, that also might be a reason for his jealousy, too.”

Vanitas wasn’t following. “Huh?” he said intelligently.

Sora explained further. “He tried to teach me and failed. Then Merlin tried teaching me, and taught me more magic within a few weeks than Donald had managed to in more than a year. So he’d be a bit miffed about that.”

“But that’s related to Merlin, not you.”

Sora nodded. “Right. But him seeing me do powerful magic will make him think of that, and get him upset. Not at me, just in general, and when he’s upset he… ah, nevermind.”

“What?” Vanitas asked, sensing a brief flicker of some emotion that Sora shoved away.

Unfortunately the GummiShip arrived at that moment, cutting the conversation short. Dammit. Vanitas wanted to know what that feeling was! And why did Sora shove it away? Why was Sora hiding emotions? He said he wouldn’t after that whole fiasco in Arendelle, according to Kairi, who had allegedly gotten him to talk a little about it. Vanitas really did not want a repeat of that incident… he quickly checked Sora’s darkness levels just in case; good, the well was nowhere close to full.

The ship landed and the ramp lowered. Donald and Goofy quickly appeared in the entryway and gestured them up.

“You’re late,” Vanitas said in greeting as he walked by, trying to hide his slight nervousness; so what if he’d never worked with them before? Vanitas didn’t get nervous over stuff like this. Why was he nervous over this?

“Gawrsh, that’s a bit rude, don’t you think?” Goofy said, sounding slightly hurt.

“That’s just how Vanitas is,” Sora explained. “He’ll warm up to you.” Vanitas wasn’t sure he would, but he knew saying anything would be unproductive. He wanted them to at least tolerate him, not have them hate him like most people did. Hell if he knew why though.

“Sora, why are you in a dress?” Donald immediately asked as the ramp closed.

Vanitas tensed. Had Sora’s qualms actually been warranted? Sora’s unease at the question was palpable to Vanitas. Vanitas, barely thinking, jumped in front of Sora. “What’s it to you what he wears?” he snarled abrasively, almost summoning his keyblade.

The duck squawked in surprise and Sora exclaimed “Whoa!” before taking a deep breath and putting a hand on Vanitas’s shoulder. “Vani, chill, okay?”

Vanitas growled slightly but still complied and backed up, although he continued to press the subject. His voice was slightly tense but level. “Why do you care if he’s in a dress or not? It’s magical clothing from the fairies, so it doesn’t function any differently from mine or yours,” he pointed out. “Looks don’t matter in battle.”

“I know that!” the duck snapped. “I was just curious why the fairies would give a boy a dress!”

“Because I asked them for one,” Sora said firmly, coming across as adamant despite the underlying anxiety. Then he said in a quieter voice, “If you want me to wear more boyish clothing I can change; the fairies made me an extra outfit, with pants, in case I lose my clothes again or we go to a world where it’s dangerous to wear it. They’re in my pocket.”

“What?” Vanitas said sharply, unaware of this. “What happened to ignoring society’s expectations?”

“Well, they’re my friends, not society,” Sora mumbled.

“Well I think your outfit looks very nice,” Goofy said amicably.

Sora looked relieved at those words. “Thanks, Goofy,” he said with a tepid smile.

Goofy turned to Donald. “Don’t you agree?”

Donald crossed his arms. “Yeah, sure, I guess.”

Vanitas frowned, but didn’t say anything more as they headed to their seats—which there were only three of.

“Someone’s going to have to sit on the bench seat,” Donald said, gesturing to the side of the ship as he took his place in the pilot seat. The bench seat didn’t look nearly as comfortable as the regular chairs.

Sora had already hopped into the regular seat, so Vanitas took the bench, not feeling like fighting over a seat. Sora noticed, and hopped out of his seat and onto the bench next to him. “I’ll sit here. You can have the chair.”

Vanitas shook his head. “That’s okay. You got it first. It’s okay fair,” he said, wondering why he was arguing when only a month—no, two now?—prior he’d have taken it without question. Why he was being… kind. This was kindness, wasn’t it? Huh.

“Oh wait! Duh,” Sora proclaimed. He raised a hand up and concentrated. He said some funny-sounding words, one which included a clicking noise, and an additional chair appeared, creating a diamond of four chairs instead of a triangle of three.

“Wak!” Donald squawked, then stared at Sora in disbelief. “Since when can you do that?!”

“Merlin taught me last week,” Sora explained. “It’s a basic duplication spell.”

“Basic!?”

“Well, that’s what he said,” Sora said sheepishly. Vanitas got the sense that the duck did not know that spell and thought it an advanced thing.

Vanitas sat on the chair. Once he did, the chair flickered out of existence. Donald snickered, a smug look on his face, but Goofy looked genuinely concerned as Vanitas scrambled to stand, embarrassed about falling, even if it was Sora’s fault—wait, embarrassed?! Ugh. He better not be blushing!

“Aww, man. Guess I don’t have it as down as I thought,” Sora said.

“You think?!” Vanitas snapped.

“Sorry…”

Vanitas sighed. “Whatever. I’m taking the third chair for that though!” He stomped over and sat in it with his arms crossed.

“That’s okay! I have a better solution anyway,” Sora said cheerfully, and suddenly a cat was leaping into Vanitas’s lap.

“Seriously?!” Vanitas declared, unsure whether to push Sora off of him or not. He decided against it. “Okay, fine, whatever. But stay a cat! If you change back into a human while sitting on me, I will not hesitate to throw you off!”

Sora laughed. “I know. Don’t worry; I’ll probably just take a nap.”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas stared at the three monsters in front of him for a moment, who all jumped in surprise and then stared at each other before checking out themselves. One was blue and duck-like, although the skin was smooth and it had only one large eye and claws, as well as tiny bat wings. It was wearing something similar to Donald’s hat and jacket. Another was green, vaguely dog-like, also clawed, and wore Goofy’s hat and jacket. The third was a little more complex, a silver-furred anthropomorphic cat-like thing with darker grey stripes and red webbing where hair should be, as well as a small spiked tail, horizontal pointed ears, and claws. It wore Sora’s jacket, bracers, and iconic necklace. Then, Vanitas glimpsed his own appearance in a nearby window… ah, this must be a world where people looked like strange aliens. The creatures were Donald, Goofy, and Sora, respectively. Except for eye color, Vanitas looked entirely identical to the latter, complete with red webbing, to his annoyance—like they weren’t similar enough looking normally! …Wait.

“Okay, so last I checked, we were going to a human world, right?” Vanitas confirmed. “A city.”

Vanitas was ignored; Donald had noticed Sora’s bellybutton ring… well, that was a way to tell them apart, Vanitas supposed. That, and Sora’s necklace and… four earrings? Had Sora gotten his ears pierced again? When? And those were the same kind as the others, meaning they had magic haste… ugh, Sora better remember to be careful; according to Kairi, in Corona Sora had nearly passed out from overusing magic due to casting so quickly, and two more magic haste abilities would only make that more likely. The brunette never seemed to exhibit restraint in battle, especially with his magic… well, not that they’d need it here, actually; Vanitas couldn’t sense any heartless anywhere around. Which wasn’t that much of a surprise, considering it was most likely the wrong world.

Vanitas absentmindedly reached up and fiddled with his own earring; maybe he should get his other ear pierced, too… Wait, he was getting off track! “We’re supposed to be in a human city, right?” Vanitas asked again, a little louder.

Goofy answered, “A-hyuk! Yup, the briefing said it was a high-technology city, and the population was definitely human.”

“And has superheroes!” Sora took out his GummiPhone and began scrolling. “Mickey sent some photos; apparently the place is technologically advanced enough that Chip and Dale could access their computer stuff, which is even attached to traffic cameras!” Sora held out the phone, showing them an image.

Vanitas squinted at the somewhat blurry photo of a street. Yup, those were definitely humans walking along the busy street filled with impossibly tall steel-and-glass buildings right up against each other and gigantic billboards everywhere. A train suspended in the air was visible in the background too, as well as what looked like a flying robot with a human in some sort of costume riding it. Vanitas then looked around the area they currently were in, filled with monsters walking down stone pathways that meandered through nicely-cut grass and clearly-intentionally-planted trees to move between much shorter less-futuristic stone buildings spaced far apart. Some sort of campus? There were no billboards, little visible technology let alone flying robots, and the nearby directional signs were in a completely different language (thank the gods for translation magic; Vanitas didn’t know how it worked, but somehow anyone who travelled between worlds instantly understood the native language of wherever they were while on that world).

“Yeah, this is definitely a completely different place,” Vanitas concluded.

Sora glared at Donald. “I thought you said you had the right coordinates!”

“I did!” the duck asserted. “I put in the exact coordinates Chip and Dale gave us!”

“Well, clearly not!”

“Gawrsh, there’s no need to argue,” Goofy told the two. “Who got it wrong doesn’t matter; we’re here now regardless. I say we call Chip and Dale to double-check the coordinates and then go to the right place.”

Sora sighed. “Yeah, I guess. Man, I really wanted to test out my new spell! Waiting sucks.”

“New spell?” Vanitas asked, curious.

“Yeah!” Sora’s eyes practically sparkled with excitement. “After that incident in Arendelle—you know, how we needed coats but world order spells don’t work that way—I consulted with Merlin, and we developed a new version of it that can change clothes to match the world even if they’re all human!”

“Wak!” Donald exclaimed. “Seriously?!” Vanitas felt a flash of jealousy from the duck… uh oh.

“Yup!” Sora declared, unaware of the duck’s emotion. He then sighed. “Guess I’ll have to wait to try it out though…”

“Have you tried it with Merlin?” Donald demanded.

“Um. Not in an actual different world, no,” Sora admitted. “But the theory is all there!”

“Well, then, it’s good that it can’t be used in this world,” Donald decided. “It’s much too dangerous to test a new spell without supervision.”

“But you’re here,” Sora said, confused.

Donald shifted uncomfortably, various emotions flashing. “I don’t know the spell,” the duck said reluctantly. “It wouldn’t be safe. Merlin should be with you, or Yen Sid.”

Sora rolled his eyes. “Come on, I know what I’m doing.”

“No, you—”

“Maybe we should call Chip and Dale now?” Goofy interjected.

“Yeah, I second that,” Vanitas chimed in, eager to avoid another argument between the two. Plus, he was rather eager to see a city; he’d never been to one as large as those pictures showed!

Unfortunately, they did not get the opportunity.

“Ah, you four don’t seem to be from around here; I take it you’re the guest lecturers from Monsters Inc.?” came a feminine voice, and the group turned to see a monster that looked like a pink gelatinous blob on stubby legs hurrying over to them. She had five eyes arranged in a circle, a small lipsticked mouth, too much pink blush on her cheeks, and curly blonde hair in rollers. She wore a garish flowery shirt.

“Uh, no, we—” Sora began.

The monster continued, paying no heed to Sora’s denial. “I must say, we are extremely grateful to have you; changing the curriculum has been a challenge! To think, children’s laughter provides so much more energy than screams… oh, if only we had learned of such long ago, we’d have been able to avoid the recent energy crisis! Anyway, this way, come now!” The monster began hurrying the group towards a building labelled ‘Scare School’, although the ‘Scare’ was crossed out and had ‘Laugh’ scribbled above it, waving them along with her surprisingly normal-looking chubby pink arms, either unaware or ignoring their protests. “We appreciate this so much! We’ve been teaching scaring for so long that we have little idea how to make kids laugh. Dean Hardscrabble even retired out of frustration! Half the students dropped or switched majors too… oh, but we got plenty of new recruits! This gives plenty of opportunities for monsters who wanted to be scarers but just didn’t have the looks to excel.”

Vanitas looked at Sora, who looked back. What should they do? Plenty of information on the situation could be discerned from the ranting, but Vanitas didn’t know how to make kids laugh, only scream. Of course, it seemed those they’d be lecturing didn’t know either, so they could say whatever they wanted. Did Sora know how to make kids laugh? Or Donald or Goofy? Those two had kids, right? They should know. Right, so they were good, hopefully… wait, Vanitas was getting ahead of himself. They wouldn't necessarily be doing this.

“Ah, here we are!” said the monster upon reaching the building’s doors. “Oh, I believe I forgot to introduce myself—I’m Dean Squibbles, but you can call me Sheri. I’m in charge of the Scare—I mean, Laugh—School!” Vanitas was surprised. A Dean? Weren’t Deans of schools usually more professional-looking? She looked like a housewife with a horrid fashion sense. Then again, they were in a monster world; maybe things were different here, and this was considered nice professional dress.

Sora introduced them. “I’m Sora, and this is Donald, Goofy, and Vani!”

“Vanitas, actually,” Vanitas corrected. He was okay with Sora using the nickname, but not this strange thing.

“Oh, are you two brothers? You look so similar! The matching outfits are adorable!” Sheri declared. Vanitas tried not to vomit. Adorable? He was not adorable!

“Yeah, we’re twins,” Sora explained. Vanitas tried not to grumble; yeah their cover was that they were brothers, but twins? They had not discussed that.

“Oh, how nice! Twin brothers both having the same job, working at the same company… oh, I bet you do comedy routines together, don’tcha?” Sheri looked between the two, appearing excited.

“Um… sure?” Vanitas agreed, just wanting to get things over with. Going along with whatever she said seemed easier than protesting at this point. Donald snickered, and Vanitas resisted the urge to punch the duck.

“Oh, you must do one together for us! A demonstration like that would be wonderful!” Sheri proactically cooed. Well, fuck. They did not have a comedy routine prepared at all! Vanitas didn’t even know how to do comedy that wasn’t super dark, and apparently they’d be teaching how to do such for kids, and dark humor was allegedly inappropriate for kids so Vanitas doubted they’d be okay with that. Then again, the monsters apparently knew almost nothing about making kids laugh and more about making them scream, from what he gathered…

“Don’t even think about it,” Sora muttered to Vanitas, somehow catching his train of thought, although the brunette looked amused.

“But I don’t know how to do not-dark comedy,” Vanitas muttered back as the group entered the building.

“Then, we can do slapstick,” Sora suggested.

“Slapstick?” Vanitas had never heard that word.

“Yeah. Violence, basically. Pretending to fight and attack each other but being super dramatic about it, exaggerating everything.”

“That’s a thing kids find funny?” Vanitas asked, a little confused. Didn't people usually dislike violence and try to shield kids from it?

“Yup! They also find things like farting and burping funny,” Sora added. “And other gross stuff.”

Vanitas blinked, processing that. “Weird,” he concluded, unsure why normal bodily functions would be considered funny or gross.

“Yeah, kids are weird,” Sora agreed with a chuckle.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Well, there’s still an hour until the lecture, but I’m sure you four must be hungry,” the dean stated, and Vanitas realized they’d arrived in front of a set of double-doors labelled ‘cafeteria’. “If you want, you can eat something—the college will pay of course—and when you’re done there’s a lounge down the hall”—she gestured in a vague direction—“and I’ll come find you there when it’s time.”

Vanitas, though vaguely curious, had a sense that he didn’t want to know what monsters ate. “Oh, that’s okay, we’re—”

Sora cut Vanitas off by Sora. “Sounds good! I’m definitely hungry!”

Vanitas frowned. According to Riku, Sora was often not hungry and had a dangerous tendency to skip too many meals, so when he was Riku had asked Vanitas to encourage Sora to eat… but would the monster food even be edible? Well, guess they’d find out.

“Thanks,” Vanitas said, and Donald and Goofy looked surprised. Well, they hadn’t interacted with him much, so that made sense—Vanitas used to never say thanks to people, but Sora said that it was a good thing to do and helped people like you. Vanitas found that he wanted people to like him—not because he liked being liked, no! It was definitely because people liking you got you things and got them to do stuff for you! That was all! ...right? After all, beings of darkness weren’t capable of wanting to be liked, of having a nice heartwarming feeling when people were nice and liked you… although, if he knew what that heartwarming feeling was like, didn’t that mean he had felt it? No, it must be a vague memory of feeling such before he was split, that’s all.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku found himself once again travelling with King Mickey, this time in the Enchanted Dominion, where Princess—Queen? Right, Queen now—Aurora lived. Considering Riku had helped keep her hostage, he wasn’t exactly looking forward to meeting her again, but she could have a clue to where Aqua was so that’s what he had to do. At least she wasn’t one of the ones he himself had kidnapped.

As the two walked through the forest towards the castle, Riku had a sudden thought. “Hey, Mickey, all the Princesses of Heart except Kairi are Queens now, right? Is that why they passed on their light?”

Mickey looked slightly nervous. “Uh, yeah. Yup. That seems like a good explanation,” he agreed.

“Wait… but Alice passed it on too, and she isn’t even royalty… And isn’t Jasmine still a regular Princess too?”

“Hmm, good point.”

Riku looked at Mickey suspiciously. “You know, don’t you? Why their pure light is passed on the new Princesses?”

“Uh… you got me,” Mickey admitted with a nervous chuckle. “Let’s just say, they pass it on when they reach adulthood.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Riku acknowledged. Couldn’t Mickey have just said that at first? But, wait, no, that wasn’t right, either… “Actually, no, it doesn’t. Two of the three new Princesses we know about are already adults! Or, at least one is. Rapunzel is 18 so that’s debatable, but Elsa was definitely older. Sora said the coronation of Queen there takes place at age 21… oh, I guess that also confirms being Queen doesn’t change it, either.” So, how? Riku really wanted to figure this out now!

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Mickey said dismissively.

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? I’m 17,” he pointed out, now even more confused. “What—” Oh. Riku suddenly realized what Mickey was trying not to say. Yeah. Well, that was pretty clichéd. And probably meant one of those three new Princesses would pass on their light soon too, although maybe that was a good thing because it’d set back the organization’s efforts to find the new Princesses of Heart. And Kairi might too; she didn’t want to move as fast through their relationship as Sora seemed to, but eventually she’d want to get to that point in it. Should he ask Mickey about that? Would it be better if they waited, allowing her to keep her Princess Powers, until after Organization XIII was defeated?

To Mickey's clear relief, his GummiPhone began ringing. The mouse answered it as quickly as possible, obviously eager to end a conversation that had quickly turned to awkward.

“King Mickey!” came a squawk, or at least that’s what Riku thought the warble meant.

“Hey, Donald! And Goofy!” Mickey said chipperly. “Er, that is you, right?”

“Is Sora there?” Riku wondered, recalling he’d gone on a mission with the duck. And why was he asking if it were them?

Riku gave a start as he looked over Mickey’s shoulder. “Uh. I thought you were going to a human world?” Were they costumes, or actual monsters?

“We were!” Donald said indignantly. “Somehow we ended up in the wrong place!”

“Yeah, it’s a college for monsters,” Goofy further explained.

“Well, gosh. That’s different,” Mickey commented.

“Is Sora okay?” Riku wondered, getting anxious. A monster world? Was it dangerous?

Donald scoffed. “He’s in the cafeteria with Vanitas. I think they started a food fight.”

“A food fight? With monsters?” Riku asked faintly.

“Oh, but they’re good monsters!” Goofy assured Riku, realizing he was worried. “They make kids laugh, because they also use happiness energy like we do! They can put it in canisters to use like batteries; you know, we should look into doing that too, for the GummiShips and phones,” Goofy suggested.

“Hmm. I’ll mention that to Chip and Dale,” Mickey decided. Riku agreed; that’d be really useful, particularly on the ships, as then they wouldn’t have issues when the crew couldn’t collectively remain happy enough, like what had happened when he and Sora had needed to do an emergency landing in the Pride Lands. Mickey continued, “But, if that’s the wrong world, why aren’t ya leaving? Did you try Chip and Dale for the right coordinates?”

“Yeah, but that’s not the problem now!” Donald asserted.

“Then what is it?”

“Sora and Vanitas volunteered to do a comedy show!”

“Come again?” asked Mickey, looking puzzled. Understandable; Sora might offer to do a comedy show, but Vanitas?

Goofy explained, “Well, this is a school where they teach monsters how to make kids laugh so they can gather energy from it. When we got here, they mistook us for guest lecturers that they’re expecting, and before we had a chance to deny it we were being led across campus! Now they think Sora and Vanitas are twins that do comedy routines together, and are expecting such.”

“That’s why we need your help!” Donald interjected. “We need to leave, but Sora refuses! He even threatened to destroy the GummiShip if we tried before the show! He needs to be reigned in! Riku, you can knock some sense into him, right?”

“I dunno; sounds like he plans on doing this no matter what,” Riku commented, having no desire to stop Sora when he seemed to be having fun.

“But we have a mission to do!”

“Aww, let them have this,” Mickey said. “They could use a break. Plus, maybe it’ll help Vanitas learn to understand his emotions better! I hear he’s been struggling with identifying positive ones; perhaps some fun is just what he needs.”

“Gawrsh, ya think?” Goofy wondered. “In that case, it would surely be a good idea to let them do this, dontcha think, Donald?”

“You're all too soft on them,” Donald grumbled. “Fine. We’ll let them do the show.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Sora sat on the couch in the college’s lounge, scrolling through his GummiPhone.

“What are you looking at?” Vanitas asked, sliding over to the boy, curious.

“I’m trying to figure out what to do for our act,” Sora explained. “At first I was thinking we could do ‘Who’s on First,' which would be awesome, but I dunno if kids would understand a routine like that. They’d probably prefer something more physical and silly.”

“What’s ‘Who’s on First’?” Vanitas asked. He had absolutely no knowledge about comedy routines.

“Oooh, it’s a classic!” Sora declared, quickly tapping things on his phone. “It was originally performed by some guys named Abott and Costello. Here's a video.”

“Why’s it in black-and-white?” Vanitas wondered. Most GummiPhone videos were in full color.

“Because it’s a copy of a video from a long time ago in a world that didn’t have color video yet when it was filmed,” Sora explained. “Like how Twilight Town still doesn’t have color stuff.”

“Oh. That makes sense,” Vanitas acknowledged. Sora turned on the video and the two watched it together, leaning on each other slightly. Weirdly enough, their twin cover wasn’t really bothering Vanitas anymore. Or, was it? Kairi had said before that they acted like brothers. Had Vanitas really actually started to feel that way?

“Pay attention!” Sora said, nudging Vanitas.

“I am!” Vanitas hissed, even though he had gotten distracted by his thoughts. Vanitas tried to focus better on the film. He didn’t really understand it that much. They guys’ names were weird, sure, but why was it taking the other guy so long to understand them?

Vanitas expressed those thoughts to Sora when the video finished.

Sora giggled. “That’s the point! It’s exaggerated. That’s what makes it funny.”

“Oh. I see,” Vanitas said, even though he didn’t.

Sora sighed. “Okay, I guess we should find something simpler then… oh! Charlie Chaplin!”

“Who?”

“He’s also from the same place a long time ago, but he does physical things! We could do something like that. Kids love that kind of stuff; remember those cartoons in Twilight Town? It’s kinda like that!”

“Oh, okay!” Vanitas said, understanding that. “Yeah, those are pretty funny! We should do that.”

Sora beamed. “Awesome! I’ll pull up some videos!”

After a few videos, all in black-and-white like the previous one, Vanitas stopped Sora and informed him, “I don’t think these are so great for us to do either.” When Sora began to wilt, Vanitas assured him, “They are funny though!” and found he actually meant it. “It’s just, they seem to need a lot of props. Where will we get a lion?”

“I can change into one!” Sora said.

“Yeah but what about World Order?”

Sora sighed. “Oh, right… but we can do others! I have lots of prop things in my pockets, or can magically change some stuff into props!” Why Sora would have theatre props in his pockets was a mystery, but it was Sora so Vanitas barely questioned it.

Vanitas shook his head, nipping that in the butt (or whatever the phrase was) before Sora pulled stuff out of his magical pockets, which it seemed he was about it. “No, a lot of this comedy relies on music and sound effects too,” he pointed out.

Sora frowned. “Oh, right… can you play an instrument? I can’t.”

Vanitas sighed. “When would I have ever had time to learn an instrument? Besides, we’re supposed to be doing things the monsters can learn, things that are quicker that they can do to get them laughing fast. The Chaplin stuff seems rather long for that; kids tend to have tiny attention spans, right?” Much like Sora, but Vanitas didn’t say that. At least, that was his impression of kids, from what he’d heard; Vanitas had never actually met a child before, nor cared to.

“Oh, true,” Sora agreed. “Um… hm. Well, we can do something like the fight scene, but shorter? Kids love that sort of thing.”

“Kids like violence?” Vanitas asked, curious. Weren’t kids supposed to be mostly light? Loving violence seemed rather dark.

“Well, no, not exactly,” Sora explained. “They like it when it’s exaggerated and looks funny. It’s obvious no one is getting hurt with that stuff. Also, be sure to make really funny expressions and dramatic movements!”

“Funny expressions? Like with my face?”

“Well, yeah! Like this!” Sora contorted his face into a strange shape and made a weird sound.

“...I don’t think I can do that,” Vanitas told the brunette honestly.

“Aww, come on, just try!”

Vanitas sighed, then tried to imitate Sora.

Sora cringed. “Okay, maybe don’t do that face. Um… yeah, let’s try to figure out some you can do before the show.”

“How do you even know all of this?” Vanitas wondered, curious.

“Oh!” Sora grinned broadly. “I did theatre back in school! I can sing and dance too!”

Vanitas gave pause to that. “Please don’t teach the monsters to sing and dance.”

Vanitas regretted saying that as Sora’s eyes lit up in excitement, clearly actually entertaining the idea. What had Vanitas gotten himself into?!

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Thankfully, Sora listened to Vanitas for once and did not attempt to teach the monsters how to sing and dance, although he included that in a general lecture on 'laugh tactics' beforehand.

Also thankfully, Donald and Goofy joined in on the lecture too, and were more than happy to aid them in the comedy performance. They had both raised kids—his nephews in Donald’s case, and in Goofy’s case, inexplicably, an actual biological son. It truly baffled Vanitas (and Sora too, as the brunette admitted later) at how that had happened. Well, maybe he was considered attractive in looks and personality among his own species; Vanitas decided he wouldn’t think about that much. But, he did wonder why it had been his nephews that Donald raised—didn’t he actually have a wife, or a decades-long girlfriend or something? Didn’t people in such intimate relationships usually have kids by then? If not, what was marriage for? Vanitas didn’t know much about that stuff at all, so he didn’t ask in front of the duck or dog for fear of looking stupid, although when he asked Sora later it turned out Sora had little idea as well, although he did know other married adults without kids so maybe that wasn’t a necessity? Who knew.

The comedy act itself had been a slapstick routine with Vanitas and Sora doing fake punches and dramatic flips and other things along those lines while Donald and Goofy made surprisingly good dramatic sound effects, and even joined in a little bit. Vanitas got the sense that they’d done things like that before; did the two, like Sora, do theatre when younger? All three also managed to make funny faces, whereas Vanitas had explicitly been told not to after much trial and all error.

Afterwards, as the monsters in the audience eagerly asked questions while Sora happily answered, two monsters came running in—one a green ball with a gigantic eye and spindly arms and legs, and the other a gigantic blue fuzzy bear-like thing—profusely apologizing for being so late. Immediately realizing the two must be the actual lecturers, the quartet ran before anyone else caught on and began to ask questions about their true identities.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas stood in the middle of a storage room near the cafeteria, unsure what to do. In his panic running from the monsters, unversed—thankfully all just the weak little floods—had been accidentally summoned. He’d thought they’d been under control… it’d been ages since he’d unintentionally summoned them due to panic. Years, in fact. So Vanitas had ducked into a random storage room and locked the door. Maybe then he’d be able to calm down enough to stop them… at least it seemed like no one was attacking them though. That was good; he’d fully expected the duck and dog to do so. So, all he needed to do was calm down, then re-absorb them…

A knock on the door.

“Vani, come out!” Sora called. “It’s okay!”

“No it’s not!” Vanitas replied, voice strained.

Sora grumbled slightly, then there was a click; right, keyblades could open locked doors, duh. Vanitas should have used his own to lock it. Sora pushed into the room. “Vani, come on, stop hiding,” he said gently.

“I’m not hiding,” Vanitas said petulantly. “I just need to calm down, then I can put them away.”

“But you don’t have to!” Sora told him. He closed the door for privacy and started walking forwards. “Just, come out and—AAAH!” Sora, unable to see in the dark, tripped over something, tumbling into Vanitas, who in turn fell backwards into a stack of surplus scream energy canisters left over from before they’d switched to laughter.

Scream energy canisters that had been made by those students just learning how to make them, thus not all were as secure as they should have been.

Sora and Vanitas both scrambled to cover their ears as the screams echoed within the room, canisters flying around the tiny space. In Vanitas’s panic, more unversed appeared, and then rapidly multiplied on their own due to all the negative scream energy in the air.

The door slowly opened. “What’s going on in—WAK!” Donald squawked as he ducked out of the way of a canister before being trampled by a wave of flood unversed funnelling out the door.

“Shit! I’m so sorry!” Vanitas shouted, scrambling up and then helping Sora up. He rushed towards the duck. “I didn’t mean to, I swear, I’ll get them under control—”.

“Vani, hey, shhh, it’s okay,” Sora said gently as he placed a hand on Vanitas’s shoulder from behind.

“B-but—”

“Hey, just, go into the hallway, okay? I promise, it’s fine,” Sora assured Vanitas as he guided him into the hallway, carefully stepping around the dazed Donald.

And, in fact, it somehow actually was fine. Vanitas looked around in wonder at the mass of monsters that had excited the nearby cafeteria and lecture halls at the commotion, all which were interacting nicely with the unversed, and the unversed were acting nice to them in return. The monsters weren’t afraid of the unversed at all, and the unversed were responding to that. Huh. It went beyond that, too, Vanitas then realized: the unversed, though they’d been spawned from anxiety and panic, were actually happy. They felt happy. Their energy could no longer be described as anxious. It was so strange! This had never happened before. It shouldn’t be able to happen. Yet, there it was. One of the floods nearby, being held in a monster’s arms, was legitimately purring like a cat.

“Oh, are these yours?” Dean Squibbles asked, running up to them. “They’re so adorable!”

“Uh, yeah,” Vanitas said, surprised that she didn’t seem angry at them. “I create them when I panic… I know it’s weird…”

“Oh, not at all,” Dean Squibbles said with a wave of her hand. “Sure, it’s uncommon, but you’re by far not the only monster to create familiars. But it’s rare for them to be such cute ones! Wow. Oh, kids must love these!”

“I guess?” Vanitas had never heard anyone say the unversed were cute before, although usually they were attacking people so maybe that was why. And why was she acting so nice? They’d just hijacked the lecture! So, he asked, “You’re not mad at us…?”

“Oh, of course not!” the dean said cheerfully. “Goofy explained everything to me. You did an amazing lecture; why, it’s hard to believe you were only here to tour the school! I’m half inclined to give you honorary degrees for that; it was essentially a dissertation! In fact, I think I will…”

“Oh, um, that’s okay,” Vanitas said quickly. He just wanted to leave at this point; everything was so overwhelming!

Dean Squibbles then picked up an unversed, to Vanitas’s surprise; she cuddled it in her arms, and it responded in kind. She cooed at it, then asked, “Will they disappear, or can we keep some?”

Vanitas blinked, totally perplexed by the surreal situation. “Um. You want to keep some?”

“Yes! They can be our mascots! And look how much the students are enjoying them; why, they can be like therapy animals, helping relieve stress during finals and things!”

“Sure, I guess… I mean, I’m not doing anything with them, and they won’t vanish unless I tell them to or they’re killed…” Vanitas trailed off.

Dean Squibbles smiled broadly. “Great! Is there anything we need to know? What do they eat?”

Vanitas blinked. “Eat? Er… I actually don’t know. I usually don’t keep them around me for long. But, they’re formed from negative energy, and that scream canister in there made them multiply, so I guess they like that?”

“Oh, that’s wonderful! We’ve got plenty of those left; been wondering what to do with them actually!”

“We’ve got lots left too!” the big blue bear-like monster—the actual lecturer—said from behind Vanitas, who jumped a little in surprise. “Mind if we have some? I mean, unless you want more than… what’s that, fifty? Sixty?”

“Yeah, the kids will love them! Kids love pets!” The green eyeball monster jumped in; Vanitas hadn’t seen him as he’d been behind the blue bear.

“Um. I dunno if they’ll like these…” Vanitas said warily.

“Nonsense! They’ll love them!”

“Yeah, Vani, they’re super cuddly when they’re not attacking!” Sora commented, and Vainitas looked to his right to see Sora cuddling with two unversed, Donald and Goofy seeming as bewildered as Vanitas at the display.

“You know, if you two want jobs at Monsters Inc., we can overlook the lack of degrees,” the blue bear said amicably.

“Jobs?” Sora asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah, jobs! Oh, I guess I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Sully, CEO of monsters, Inc..” The blue monster held his hand out and Vanitas warily shook it. He honestly felt like he was in some bizarre fever dream.

“And I’m Mike!” the green one announced, holding his hand out to Sora, who struggled to shake back due to now having four unversed cuddling him. “Seriously, we’d love to have you at the company.”

“Sorry, but we have other jobs,” Donald jumped in before Sora could accept, which it looked like he was about to.

“Well, if you ever want to work at Monsters Inc., just let us know!”

Vanitas nodded absentmindedly. This was so confusing and overwhelming! Vanitas just wanted to leave and go somewhere quiet. He didn’t like all the chaos… yeah, in the past he had said he liked it, and he had, but this was not the type of chaos he was used to. He always had control over it before, causing panic and chaos with the unversed, but he had no control over it this time. There were so many emotions swirling around he couldn’t identify. His own unversed were having emotions he couldn’t identify!

Goofy, of all people, noticed Vanitas was having trouble. “I think it’s time for us to go,” he told the dean.

“Oh, do you have to?”

“Yeah,” Donald answered, although probably not for Vanitas’s benefit—the duck had been opposed to them staying from the start. “We have a bus to catch.”

“A bus?” Vanitas asked, confused, then realized that it was a lie because they couldn’t reveal the GummiShip’s existence due to the world order rules.

“Oh, I see… well, if you have a few moments, I can get you those degrees!” the dean said chipperly. “It won’t take long, I promise!” She gestured down the hallway and began walking.

“Okay!” Sora said, then noticed Vanitas’s unease. “Hey, why don’t you three wait at the bus stop, so you can hold it if I’m running late,” Sora told them before hopping after the dean.

Vanitas nodded absentmindedly, then followed Donald and Goofy out of the building, feeling like he was in a fog. This entire day would take a while to process.

Chapter Text

Xehanort couldn’t help but grin as he observed the members of his Organization arriving at their designated places around the circle; he had exciting news!

“So, pops, why are we meeting here again?” Larxene asked in a drawl as she arrived, once again, late, this time munching on what appeared to be a plate of nachos. Said place was the white room in the Castle That Never Was.

Xehanort glared at her. “I have told you NOT to call me that,” he told her firmly. “And put that away! Food is not permitted here!”

Larxene rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, whatever.” She made no move to discard the food, rather slowly picked up a chip laden with toppings and put it in her mouth while staring directly at him. Ugh. Kids had no respect today!

“I too would like to know why this place was chosen,” Luxord commented.

“I am sure he will tell us now that we have all gathered,” Xemnas told Luxord, then turned to Xehanort and said, “Assuming you are no longer attempting to insist that the remaining three have not defected.”

Xehanort ignored the comment. “Well, I have called you back here because we have a special guest with us today,” he told the group. Xehanort snapped his fingers, and in the center of the room appeared some lesser nobodies struggling to hold a blue-clad woman bound in magic-nullification rope. She glared at Xehanort with vitriol.

“Oh? Well, if it isn’t Aqua!” Xigbar proclaimed, grinning maliciously at the blue-clad woman. Right, he had encountered her before. “Well well well. Not so spunky now, are you, sweetie?”

Aqua glared at him and attempted to say something, but she was prevented from doing so as she was also gagged by the rope—can’t be too careful with a mage of her caliber.

“So, why is she here? Isn’t she supposed to be a Guardian of Light?” Marluxia wondered. “We wanted them to find her, right? What purpose does she serve us?”

Xehanort grinned. “She is going to become one of us!” he declared.

Ansem frowned. “You must be joking. There is no way she would fall to Darkness. Sora is a much better candidate.”

“Yes, but we can’t get to Sora right now,” Xehanort explained, growling slightly in frustration and clenching his teeth. “He’s too well-protected between that little Princess, the boy who overcame darkness, and now Vanitas, who is apparently following him everywhere.”

“So you admit it, then; Vanitas HAS turned against us,” Xigbar said, a victorious grin upon his visage, probably because that meant he got money.

Xehanort resisted the urge to attack the man. “Unfortunately, yes. Saïx confirmed it earlier,” he admitted tersely.

“It is true,” Saïx corroborated. “I witnessed Sora and Kairi attempting to teach him light magic earlier today. Vanitas of course failed completely, but he was earnest in his efforts. He has changed; if he were being duplicitous, surely he would not be acting so eager and, dare I say it, happy to learn from them.”

“Bingo!” Xigbar declared. “Now, pay up, everyone!”

“But my younger self and the Riku replica still may be trying to infiltrate them!” Xehanort insisted.

“Yeah, no, admit you lost, pops,” Larxene drawled.

“It does seem that way,” Xemnas told him. “If they were spies, they would have acted by now. No, they have truly betrayed us; there is no denying it.”

“Shut up,” Xehanort growled. “Fine, believe what you will. Now, back to business: since they have stolen one of our Darknesses—”

“Three,” Larxene interjected.

“As I was saying,” Xehanort said, voice caked with tension, “as they have stolen one of our Darknesses, we will steal one of their Lights.”

“She will never agree to that,” Terra said bluntly. “Her heart is too light; not even possession will work.”

Aqua began struggling more, eyes wide, staring at Terra, probably trying to connect with him. Alas, it was fruitless; Terra was fully possessed, and didn’t even flinch.

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong,” Xehanort said, managing to regain the haughty expression expected of him. “Vexen, if you will.” He nodded to the man.

“Gladly.” Vexen stepped down from his seat, which he’d lowered, and stepped over to the girl. He held a crimson collar in his hand.

“Are you gonna explain what that is?” Demyx asked.

Vexen glared at the mulleted blond. “I was just getting to that. This is a new device that will enhance the hold Darkness has on a person, allowing easier possession of people who would perhaps hold too much light otherwise.”

Xehanort nodded. “Call this a test run. Who knows; perhaps, once perfected, we will be able to control even Princesses of Heart… however, I am getting ahead of myself. First, this woman will be ours. Then, she will lead us to where Ventus’s body is; when that is retrieved, perhaps we can then convince Vanitas to return to us, bringing Sora with him.”

Xigbar scoffed. “You’ve gone mental. I’m telling you, that will NEVER happen.”

Xehanort ignored the man. “Now, let’s test this. Vexen, if you will.”

“Gladly,” Vexen obliged, looking eager to test the experiment too. Aqua struggled, but between the lesser nobodies holding her down and the ropes binding her, Vexen easily got the collar around her neck. She stilled, a glossy look coming over her eyes.

Perfect. Xehanort grinned. “Now, let us see if she truly is a compatible vessel…” he summoned his keyblade, holding it out straight, and used the spell to transplant a piece of his heart into the girl. It shot out of his keyblade, directly hitting her.

The girl collapsed. Vexen turned her onto her back, and everyone waited with baited breath to see what would happen next.

After a moment, Aqua’s eyes opened, revealing bright gold—the color of darkness. The experiment had been a success.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku sat sideways on the leather couch in Merlin’s library, leaning back so Kairi could have better access to his hair, which the redhead was threading her fingers through. She had decided to braid it for him as he’d again mentioned that maybe he should cut it, which had gotten Sora upset again. Riku had been putting it in ponytails, but it still often got in the way on especially windy days, which bothered him. He’d suggested only taking a few inches off, which would still leave it plenty long, but for some reason Sora still insisted he leave it. Well, whatever; it wasn’t that big of a deal. He’d do anything for Sora, after all; in the grand scheme of things, keeping his long hair was a miniscule sacrifice.

“So, anything interesting happen lately?” Kairi asked. “We haven’t really been on missions together.”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, I wish I could join you and Sora on some. Mickey’s had me helping him look for Aqua, but no luck so far. It’s kinda boring, actually; the Realm of Darkness is really monotonous, just barren landscapes and random heartless fights, all shadows. And everywhere else is just talking to people who she interacted with, none of which have any clues—and half of them are former-Princesses-of-Heart whom I helped kidnap, so that’s really awkward!”

“Ah. Yeah, I can see how that’d be difficult,” Kairi said sympathetically. “But, you’ve still gone to more new worlds than the rest of us! There’s so many of us now, and they’ve been alternating who goes on the bigger reconnaissance ones, so we’re still here most of the time,” the redhead pointed out. "That, or quick boring trips to worlds we've already been to."

“I suppose that’s true,” Riku mused. “Still, the major one you went on, to that snowy place, was actually interesting.”

Kairi scoffed. “Depends on perspective I guess. Yeah, we got to play in snow, which was fun, but I didn’t fancy encountering Sora’s ‘rage-form’ as he decided to call it.”

Riku cringed. “Ah, right… are you sure Vanitas can handle it if that happens again?” The two were currently on a mission to a place called ‘San Fransokyo’ with Donald and Goofy, where they had immediately headed after the weird monster place where Sora allegedly did a comedy show with Vanitas.

“Yeah,” Kairi said. “Plus, I’m sure Donald and Goofy can handle it, too. And it won’t even happen, probably; according to Vani it won’t get that bad for a while.”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just worry…”

Kairi giggled. “I know. Worrywart.”

“Hey!” Riku complained, though he was smiling. Then he sighed wistfully, “I wish we could be there with Sora. A city with skyscrapers sounds really cool… the only one I’ve ever been to was the one in The World That Never Was, and it was totally abandoned. It was really creepy.”

“There was a city there?” Kairi asked curiously. “I thought it was a weird white place with confusing pathways.”

“Well, that was inside the castle; outside it was a city,” Riku explained. “It’s where I fought Roxas.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Kairi acknowledged, then dropped the subject. It was still a sore spot for Riku, so he appreciated that.

The two sat in silence for a little bit, Kairi braiding and re-braiding Riku’s hair until she found the pattern she liked best, allegedly. Riku suspected she mostly just liked playing with his hair like Sora did.

“Hey, Kairi?” Riku asked after a bit, feeling he had to get something off of his chest.

“Mhmm?”

“I think I’m getting really jealous again,” Riku admitted, slightly embarrassed saying it aloud.

“About Vani?” Kairi guessed. “Sora and him are like brothers, you know that. Sora’s told you that.”

“Well, yeah, I do know that. But he’s constantly with Sora when not with us. He goes on every mission with him.”

Kairi laughed. “It hasn’t been that many missions. Only two big ones.” Right. The rest had been small ones in worlds they’d visited before, mostly quick trips to consult with the leaders of the worlds and give them emergency GummiPhones in case heartless or nobodies appeared again, and the others being very minor heartless exterminations. Kairi had been on a few of those with Sora, but Riku hadn’t.

“Yeah but it’s going to be every one,” Riku pointed out.

“True,” Kairi acknowledged. “Truthfully, I’m a bit jealous of that, too; how did they even get Yen Sid to agree to that?”

Riku shrugged. “Beats me.” He had a feeling threats may have been involved, possibly from both boys. “...You sure they’re just like brothers? That’s all?”

Kairi sighed. “Yes, that’s all. Vanitas barely understands what a friend is. It’ll be a long time until he figures out love. But even if he does start feeling more towards Sora, which I sincerely doubt, Sora does not feel anything more than brotherhood towards Vani—I can tell, you know, being a Princess of Heart.” She sounded proud of that; Kairi had really embraced her Princess status and was constantly trying to learn as much about it as she could and what powers and abilities it could unlock. Thankfully the Radiant Garden castle had a lot of research related to that.

Riku relaxed a bit at that. “That does make me feel a bit better… still. I really wish I could go on missions with you two.”

Suddenly, the library door burst open (there used to not be one, until Sora made one that time he and Riku… yeah), and in burst Sora.

“Kairi! Riku!” The brunette yelled, practically—actually?—flying to the couch and tackling the two with so much force as to be a little painful. Kairi, on the bottom of the pile, squeaked and Riku shouted in surprise.

“Hey, Sora,” Riku greeted. “I guess you’re back?” He hadn’t expected Sora for a few more days; there must have been barely any issues in the city after all… or did they never go?

Sora rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”

“Well? How was the city?” Kairi asked excitedly as they untangled themselves to sit normally on the couch, Sora in the middle and Riku’s braid only half-done.

Sora blushed a little and scratched the back of his head. “Well, we didn’t exactly go to the city…”

“Then where did you go?” Kairi wondered, looking confused.

Riku chuckled. “Let me guess, you messed up the coordinates again?”

Sora shook his head. “No. We came back because Vani wasn’t feeling well.”

“Wasn’t feeling well? Why?” Kairi asked, sounding worried.

Sora laughed nervously. “Well…”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas strolled around Radiant Garden with a clipboard, helping the Restoration Committee by noting what still had to get done, if anything, in the main residential and commercial districts. Vanitas felt that he was wholly the wrong choice for that, as he knew very little about city building and planning, but somehow he’d been assigned to the job anyway.

Vanitas’s mind wandered as he walked around absentmindedly. He found himself thinking back to a few days prior, in Monstropolis with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The duck and dog still rubbed him the wrong way—well, moreso the duck; the dog was okay, despite his excessive optimism—but otherwise it had been… fun. Really fun. It had been nice to be in a world free of heartless and nobodies and danger in general. Yeah, there had been the scream-canister incident, but the unversed somehow got along with the monsters, so that worked out. It was interesting seeing the unversed so… so happy. That was the only way to describe their bizarre attitude. Yeah they’d initially manifested due to the fear and anxiety and multiplied because of the negativity in the scream canisters, but instead of acting fearful and anxious like normal they’d been joyful… did that mean unversed weren’t simply manifestations of one emotion as formerly believed? Did that imply they could be spawned purely from positive emotions too, or had their changing after spawning to become happy simply been a one-off? Could Vanitas do a comedy act with Sora and the unversed? Doing the comedy act had been a lot of fun! Would the unversed enjoy participating?

Turning a corner, Vanitas nearly bumped right into Lea and Xehanort, who had been walking in the opposite direction as him.

“Hey, watch it!” Vanitas said, making sure to add an edge to it. He wasn't feeling edgy, but he had a reputation to uphold! At least around people who weren't Sora.

“Oh, sorry, Van—Sora?” Xehanort peered closely at Vanitas, seeming confused.

“That’s a new look for you,” Lea commented. “All goth with the black and the chains and dyed hair. Vanitas rubbing off on you?”

Vanitas backed up a step, uncomfortable with the scrutiny, then looked at the two blankly. “Is this some sort of joke? I AM Vanitas,” he informed them. Had the two hit their heads?

Xehanort’s brow scrunched in confusion. “But your eyes are blue.”

“My eyes are WHAT?” Vanitas declared. “You gotta be joking,” he immediately concluded. His eyes were gold—the color of darkness. It was impossible for them to be any other color; that’s just how it worked: if you were possessed by darkness that you could control, your eyes were gold. Vanitas was constructed entirely of darkness, so it’d follow his eyes would be the same.

“Would we really joke about that?” Lea asked. “Come on.”

“But that’s impossible,” Vanitas protested.

“Maybe it’s a side-effect of trying to learn light magic?” Xehanort suggested.

“Yeah, no,” Vanitas denied. “I totally failed at that because I’m still 100% darkness. No light at all, thus no light magic.” Vanitas was actually a little jealous that R2, Lea, and Xehanort had all been able to use some simple light spells—not that he’d let them know that!

“Hmmm.” Xehanort put a hand on his chin as he thought. “This is interesting. Maybe we should ask Ienzo about it? He might know. Despite a body of darkness, you might have light in your heart.”

“What? No way,” Vanitas scoffed. Just in case, Vanitas quickly double-checked: yup, still all darkness.

“But your eyes are blue. That’s a light color.”

“Which is why I‘m saying that’s impossible! You must be hallucinating. Darkness manifests as gold or red eyes. Considering my heart’s pure darkness, it follows mine could only be one of those,” Vanitas reminded them.

“Wait, red?” Lea wondered. “Since when’s that? I thought it was only gold.”

Now it was Vanitas’s turn to be confused. “Didn’t you study darkness before becoming a nobody? Under Ansem?”

Lea laughed. “Nah, Isa and I were just kids. We were fooling around, sneaking into the castle to try to find the rumored secret lab. Well, let me tell you, we definitely found it! We watched Xehanort turn the others into nobodies, and when he saw us there he made us choose between becoming nobodies too or death. Choice was obvious.”

“Huh,” Vanitas said. He hadn’t known that; he’d just assumed everyone from the lab had actually been researchers.

“Yeah. So, red eyes? That’s a thing? Cuz I’ve only ever seen gold.”

“Same here,” Xehanort said. He must have not gotten around to researching darkness yet, Vanitas concluded, as he was not very knowledgeable on a lot of darkness-related things. It baffled Vanitas why old Xehanort had chosen to bring his younger self through time if he didn’t even know types of darkness. He must have either made a logistical error, resulting in taking the kid from earlier than planned, or misremembered his past, forgetting he’d been so light at one point. Vanitas would bet on the latter; that guy was too meticulous to miscalculate the time.

“Well, it’s the difference between the kind you can control and the feral kind,” Vanitas explained. "The Organization all has gold eyes because they use the calmer darkness that they have control over. Red is for the one that manifests from raw emotion; it’s why my unversed have red eyes and Sora has them when in that darkness-cloak thing he does.”

“Sora’s WHAT?” Lea asked, looking stunned. Xehanort too looked surprised at the information. Oh, right; the two didn’t know about that.

“Forget I said anything,” Vanitas said quickly; Sora hadn’t wanted people knowing about… what had he named it? Rage-form?

Xehanort crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You can’t just say something like that and then tell us to forget it.”

“It’s nothing,” Vanitas told them. “I forgot it’s a secret. Please don’t tell him you know!” Vanitas… begged? Huh. Why was he doing that? Why was he feeling so upset about this? Was it because Sora would get upset if he found out? That… made sense. Vanitas didn’t want Sora upset.

Lea’s eyebrows shot up. “Dude, you sure you’re not Sora?”

“Yes I’m sure I’m not Sora!” Vanitas snapped, anger flaring.

“Oooh, gold eyes are back,” Xehanort commented. “Lea, might want to let up,” he suggested, though sounded more teasing than actually worried.

“Are you mocking me!?” Vanitas demanded, ready to throttle them. People did NOT make fun of Vanitas and get away with it!

“No, no, not at all!” Xehanort asserted, putting his hands out and waving them back and forth a little in a gesture of denial.

Vanitas smirked, sensing the fear. Good; he still had it.

“Okay, can we get back to the red yes thing now?” Lea interjected.

“No,” Vanitas said firmly, glaring at the redhead. “And if Sora learns I accidentally said something, you’ll be dead, got it?”

“Okay okay, don’t get your panties in a knot,” Lea said with an eye roll. “But seriously, someone should probably know about it in case it’s an issue, don’t you think? Mickey or Yen Sid? Sora’s a Guardian of Light. If he’s manifesting dark cloaks…”

“He’s still plenty light, it’ll be fine,” Vanitas assured them, rolling his eyes. “It’s a rare occurrence, and yes, people know. Kairi and Riku have it handled.” At least, Vanitas hoped they did.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku, shirtless, rummaged through his corner of the closest—which was barely a fifth of the space, as Kairi and Sora’s side took up the rest (their things were now thoroughly mixed; neither of them had ever been the most organized, and, being the same size, they had taken to sharing most their clothes anyway so it didn’t really matter. Riku wasn’t even sure whose clothes were whose at this point).

“Sora, where’s my shirt?” Riku finally asked.

“Gotta be more specific, Riku,” Sora said through a mouthful of smelly garlic-and-onion flavored potato chips as he sat on their shared bed reading a book in Riku’s boxers.

“The black one that goes with the magical clothes,” Riku explained. Usually he didn’t wear his magical clothing on missions, as he and Mickey had only been interviewing people rather than fighting things, but this time he was, for once, going on an actual mission.

“Oh, I think that’s in the laundry,” Sora said, taking another handful of chips.

“The laundry? Why would it be… you know what, nevermind. You learned how to enchant clothing, right? Here,” Riku said, tossing Sora a plain orange shirt.

Sora caught the shirt and stared at it nonplussed. “Seriously? You want me to enchant THIS shirt?”

Riku scrunched his brow in confusion. “Yes?”

Sora shook his head. “Nope. Pick a different one.” He tossed the shirt back to Riku.

“Why?”

Sora rolled his eyes as he shoved more chips into his mouth. “Your magic pants are blue, duh,” he said with his mouth full.

“Sora, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Riku chided fondly, then frowned. “Wait. How are you not out of chips yet?” With the rate Sora was eating them, that bag should have been long empty.

“Magical bag,” Sora said casually. “Never runs out.”

“Of course,” Riku muttered under his breath, then walked over to take the bag away. “You have to eat more than chips, Sora. Did you have an actual lunch?”

Sora looked thoughtful. “Um… can’t remember,” he concluded, then grabbed for the chips again, which Riku held out of his reach. Sora made a whiny noise of protest.

Riku sighed. “Sora…”

“Okay, fine,” Sora said, then muttered some strange words and flicked his hand towards the bag.

Riku frowned. “I guess that’s a little better?” He handed the bag of vegetable chips to Sora.

“I can’t change them too much yet,” Sora explained.

“Hmm…” Riku narrowed his eyes. “Let me try one.”

Sora pulled the bag against his chest. “No. Get your own.”

“...You just changed the appearance of the bag, didn’t you?”

Sora blushed and looked down. “How’d you know?”

Riku chuckled. “One, you absolutely hate vegetable chips. Two, that flavor has a very distinct smell.”

Sora sniffed the bag. “Huh. I guess you’re right; that is pretty potent.” He stuck his hand in again, retrieving more chips.

Riku gave up; at least Sora was eating something, he supposed. “So, are you going to make me a new magical shirt, or do I need to go hunt down the laundry machine?”

Sora scoffed. “Good luck finding it. Last time I needed something it took, I had to chase it through the forest.” Sora grinned. “Just give me a shirt that matches the pants; I take payment in kisses.”

Riku began laughing. “You what?”

“You heard me. If you want me to enchant your shirt, you gotta give me a kiss or ten.”

“Fine, but just one,” Riku said, sitting on the bed next to Sora and pulling him close. Sora eagerly met Riku halfway, pressing their lips together.

The brunette let out a wine when Riku pulled back before he could deepen it. “Riku!”

“We do have missions soon,” Riku reminded Sora. “And you need a proper lunch before that.”

“And you need a shirt,” Sora muttered, running his hand down Riku’s unclothed chest.

Riku closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

Sora grinned. “Why, is it working?”

“...Maybe a little.” Riku pulled Sora into another kiss, this time deeper, before breaking away again.

Riku headed towards the closet before Sora could tempt him more, finding a shirt that actually did match the pants, so he hoped, and tossing it to Sora.

“Nope,” Sora said, tossing it back.

“It’s white! That matches everything!” Riku argued.

“Yeah but it also gets really dirty really easily, and I dunno how to do dirt-resistance charms yet.”

“Ugh, seriously?” Riku complained. The dirt-resistance charms made it so the clothes got dirty a lot slower and were more easily washable with plain water magic. Without it, it would get sweaty and smelly really quickly if they had to fight, which they usually did.

“I can make it smell-resistant though,” Sora said, catching Riku’s train of thought.

“I guess that’s better than nothing,” Riku decided. “So what color shirt should I give you for that?”

Sora frowned. “Hmm. Oh! What about that blue one with the stars?”

“...My pajama shirt?! Sora, no.”

“But it’s cute!”

“I’m not fighting in a pajama shirt.” Riku’s eyes then spotted the perfect thing. “How about a black tank top?” It was similar enough in looks to the magical one.

“That works, I guess,” Sora playfully complained.

Riku watched curiously as Sora worked his magic, whispering spells over the shirt that made it briefly glow different colors after each, some which Riku was sure didn't exist. Riku helped Sora remember what protections the clothing normally had.

“Done!” Sora declared after a while, and happily handed the shirt to Riku.

Riku sniffed it. “Why does it smell like flowers?”

“Side-effect of the anti-smell charm,” Sora replied dutifully.

“I thought you said that spell made it odorless?”

“Yeah… um. It. It does. It should. But I kinda sorta haven’t quite mastered it….”

“Sora!”

“It’s fine though! Lilies are a nice smell! So it’ll still make it not smell bad! And I think the flower smell should go away eventually! Merlin says I have the spell down otherwise!”

Riku laughed. “Alright, alright, no need to panic! You’re right, it is a nice smell. And it’s actually pretty subtle if your face isn’t against it, like shampoo,” he reasoned. “Anyway, come on, you have a mission too; you aren’t going in my boxers, are you?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Sora said, flopping facedown on the bed. "I don't want to go… It's just one of those stupid boring ones."

“Sora, if you don’t get ready now, Vanitas is going to come in here and drag you away, state of dress notwithstanding.”

“Oh, right, he was really excited for this mission,” Sora remembered. “It’s in Halloween Town, just a simple thing eliminating stray heartless, but he really likes the idea of becoming a monster.”

Riku frowned. “Huh? But you were monsters on your mission a few weeks ago, right?”

“Yeah but those were mostly adorable-looking ones that make kids laugh. Halloween Town’s are super spooky ones!” Sora sighed. “I really wish you could go with us… you look so hot as a werewolf.”

Riku chuckled. “I do, huh?”

“Yeah…” Sora said wistfully, then switched back to a complaining tone. “Why aren’t you going with us again? We haven’t been anywhere together in weeks!”

“Huh?” This confused Riku. “We’ve been together for weeks.” There hadn’t been many leads recently, and the one a couple weeks prior that had popped up in a new place called New Orleans a different group had been selected to go to, consisting of Donald, Goofy, Lea, and Xehanort. Everyone else had been doing the usual, which meant mostly staying in Radiant Garden training and doing restoration work with the occasional quick more-of-a-chore-than-anything mission to known worlds.

“I mean adventuring!” Sora loudly clarified. “I want to go somewhere with you, but they keep putting us separate!”

“Sora, we went on a mission together last week,” Riku pointed out, although it had been a really simple one, a quick check of Atlantica to investigate a small spike of darkness, but it only turned out to be Ursula having a sister and the issue had been resolved by the time they arrived so it ended up being the shortest mission in the history of missions.

“Okay, yeah, that’s true, but they only agreed after I threatened to unleash a fire hurricane in Yen Sid’s tower. And it was so short it barely counted as a mission.”

“You did WHAT?”

“Er. Nothing! Forget I said that!”

“So that’s why the grouping was so strange,” Riku mused, wondering if Sora actually could create fire hurricanes and if so would have actually followed through on that threat. Riku decided that Sora definitely could and probably would. The mission being simple probably had contributed to Yen Sid allowing it too.

“But they won’t let us go together again. They said it was a one-time exception for now,” Sora said sadly.

“That’s because we’re the most experienced and most trustworthy,” Riku reminded Sora. “Yen Sid and Mickey still want the others supervised for bigger missions. You should be glad you’re one of the choices for that!”

“Yeah I guess. But then why don’t they send us anywhere? Donald and Goofy always go when there’s only one thing to investigate. Apparently they only sent us on that one mission together at Donald's request, and that was a one-time exception too.”

“Well, that’s because Donald and Goofy don’t need to train or help with restoration work,” Riku pointed out. “Merlin would throw a fit if they sent you on every mission and stopped letting him teach you magic.” That was probably an exaggeration, but he certainly wouldn’t be happy and would let them know that. Merlin tended to get his way in the end.

Sora smiled and sat up, chuckling a little. “Yeah, guess that’s true. Hey, toss me my magical dress, will you? I wanna make sure I have enough supplies.”

“Sora, you always have enough supplies,” Riku said, grabbing the item from where it was draped over a desk chair and tossing it to Sora. “On last count you had what, a hundred potions and ethers?” They were stored in a drawer, as Sora didn’t feel it necessary to bring that many travelling.

“Well that’s because using cure magic is a whole lot quicker and for some reason heartless keep dropping them.”

“You don’t need to pick them up,” Riku pointed out, watching Sora shake out the contents of his magical pockets, causing a huge pile of stuff to form on the bed. With a wave of his hand Sora removed the synthesis materials, sending them to a drawer that was thankfully similarly magicked to be larger than it looked. This reduced the pile by more than three-quarters. Next Sora did the same with the potions and ethers, snatching a handful of the latter out of the air as they floated by. This left a relatively small pile of items, enough to fit in a small backpack if Sora hadn’t had the magical pockets.

One of those items was not something Riku had seen before. He snatched up the small pill bottle, reading the label. It was an actual prescription, it looked like. “What’s this?” Riku asked. Was Sora ill?

Sora’s face flushed, and he looked a mix of embarrassed and horrified. “It’s, um. It’s…” Sora stuttered, seeming unsure how to phrase things.

“Sora?” Riku prodded, worried. He sat down on the bed next to the brunette, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s an antidepressant!” Sora said in a rush, then covered his face with his hands. “Aerith took me to a psychiatrist a month ago, before the monster city!”

Riku blinked, processing that. A month ago? “Why didn’t you tell me?” Riku asked, hurt that Sora would keep such from him. He had promised Riku he wouldn’t keep secrets.

Sora didn’t say anything for a bit, and Riku waited patiently. “I was too embarrassed,” Sora finally admitted quietly, clutching his dress in his hands like a lifeline. “I thought I was strong enough to deal with stuff on my own, but I wasn’t, and I knew you all thought I was doing so much better, so even though I started feeling bad again I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you getting worried again. But I guess Aerith must have realized; she found me wandering around alone one day and immediately took me to see someone.”

Riku contemplated that. It was a typical Sora reaction to hide things, even though so many people told him not to. Riku slid his arm around Sora’s shoulders and pulled him into his side, offering comfort that way instead. He’d noticed the phrasing; Sora had said Aerith had immediately taken him there. Not suggested it, not convinced him to go. Had it really gotten that bad?

“Does anyone else know?” Riku asked. He didn’t want to accidentally mention it to anyone if this was a really tight secret.

Sora shook his head. “No. I don’t want them to think I’m weak.”

“Weak? Why would anyone think you’re weak?”

“Because I wasn’t able to get through it on my own,” Sora said meekly, as though it were obvious. “Because I need medicine to help.”

Riku shook his head. “Needing help doesn’t make you weak, Sora,” he explained. “It’s the opposite, actually: it takes a lot of strength to admit you need help. People won’t judge you for it.”

“Yes they will,” Sora insisted.

“Not the people who matter,” Riku argued.

Sora thought for a moment. “I guess that’s true,” he concluded.

“So, you’ve had them for weeks?” Riku asked, curious.

“Yeah, since before the mission to the monster world,” Sora reiterated.

“Have they helped any?”

Sora smiled broadly. “Yes, actually!” he said excitedly. “I’ve actually been able to get out of bed willingly, without trying to go back to sleep in hopes I don’t wake up!”

Riku blinked. He had definitely not realized things had gotten that bad. “Yeah, that’s definitely good,” Riku acknowledged, vaguely wondering if thoughts like that had anything to do with what had triggered Aerith forcing Sora to go. He wasn’t going to ask, though; he didn't want to push Sora. Sora would talk more to Riku when he was ready.

The door suddenly burst open.

“Okay, time to go!” Vanitas declared upon entering, heedless of the two boys’ varying states of undress.

“Told you he’d do that,” Sora said to Riku with amusement under his breath. Riku ruffled Sora’s hair in fondness as Sora stood up, having to grab the oversized boxers by the waist before they fell off—then, with a flick of his wrist and some funny-sounding words, Sora instantly changed into his magical clothes.

Sora gave Riku a quick peck on the lips, then dashed out of the door, Riku smiling fondly as he watched him.

Chapter Text

“Kairi, why are you sniffing my shirt?” Riku asked, deadpan.

“It smells like roses and chrysanthemums,” Kairi explained. “Were you in one of the flower gardens?”

Riku blushed. “No. The, er, washing machine stole my regular magical shirt so Sora enchanted one for me,” he explained.

“To smell flowery?” Lea asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t believe you’d let him do that,” R2 said indignantly. “HOW did your data make me, again?”

“Hey, I didn’t ask him to!” Riku protested. “The spell was supposed to make it resist odors—which it does with everything else! Hopefully.”

“Hey, at least it’s subtle, like cologne,” Kairi said. “Ooh, we should get you all cologne!” Kairi decided.

“Why?” Lea asked, sounding very confused.

“I don’t wear perfume,” R2 said, sounding offended.

“Not perfume, cologne!” Kairi argued.

“We’re going to a world filled with pirates,” Riku reminded her. “Pretty sure that’d quickly peg us as not-pirates, despite the world-order magic.” Thanks to Sora and Merlin, they now had a modified version of the world-order spell that changed appearance even in human-dominated worlds, to the extent that it even tailored their fashions based on age as opposed to general fashion patterns. Not that that would matter in a pirate world, as they all generally wore the same things, but still, it was pretty cool magic.

Kairi crossed her arms. “Party pooper,” she playfully teased. Then, she sighed. “I wish Sora could be here though; he loves pirates.”

“What, am I not enough for you?” Riku teased.

Kairi laughed and grabbed Riku’s arm as she leaned into him. “Oh, you know I love you both! That’s not what I meant at all.”

“I know,” Riku said jovially, quickly kissing the top of her head. “I wish he could be here too.”

“Ugh! You two are INCORRIGIBLE!” R2 whined. Riku was surprised at the use of such a word; maybe Xehanort was rubbing off on him, since the two ended up going on simple missions together a lot. Maybe the guy could teach Sora some more advanced vocabulary, too, seeing as he would be doing that Halloween Town mission with the two ‘twins’.

“Hey, when Naminé gets out, I’m sure you’ll be doing that with her, too,” Lea pointed out.

R2’s face reddened. “That… that’s… I don’t even know if she likes me like that!”

Lea rolled his eyes. “Trust me, she does. After Sora woke, I helped her out for a while, and caught her pining for you a few times, thinking about your supposed death.”

“But… that could just be general grief,” R2 pointed out.

“Nah, pretty sure she liked you quite a bit,” Riku chimed in. Well, actually, completely sure; Naminé had admitted it to him while he’d been helping watch over Sora that year Sora had been asleep. That had been a private conversation, so Riku wouldn’t say anything more.

“If you say so,” R2 said, still not sounding like he fully believed that.

“No, she definitely does!” Kairi chimed in, putting her hand over her heart. “I can feel her… oh. Now she’s embarrassed that I said something. Sorry, Nami.”

Riku chuckled. “Okay, now that that’s established, why don’t we actually leave for the mission?”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Wow. This is so cool!” Riku declared as he examined the port, which was bustling with people. Despite his fairly collected demeanor, or rather attempt at such, Riku wanted to jump up and down in delight; this brought back childhood nostalgia. Riku had often played pirates as a kid, and dreamed about what it’d be like to actually be one, but he never imagined that would ever actually happen!

Actually, were they pirates, or just general seamen? It was difficult to tell from their dress, as most people here who travelled by sea, with the exception of the Navy, tended to wear similar clothing. All of the boys wore simple sailor outfits consisting of loose belted tan pants, tucked-in halfway-buttoned white shirts, unbuttoned cotton vests in various colors—deep orange for R2, a dark aqua for Riku, and crimson for Lea—with matching bandanas, and brown laced boots. In short, the typical outfits of crew members. Riku was glad for that; he’d half expected the magic to make them all into captains, as Sora had designed the spell and he could be quite flamboyant with magic, but if they all looked like captains it would have been mighty suspicious. Kairi, on the other hand, actually did look much like a captain: she wore tight grey pinstripe pants with knee-length black boots, a long pink shirt with gold trim and red jeweled buttons tied at the waist with a thick leather belt, a leather coat with a matching feathered tricorn hat, and more gold jewelry than Riku could count. Yeah, she was definitely a pirate captain, and the three boys were her crew.

Although maybe everyone at this port were pirates, Riku mused. It certainly looked like a shady port, an aesthetic that was increased due to it being evening. It somewhat resembled Port Royal, where he’d secretly watched Sora play pirate with an actual pirate named Jack, with its cobblestone streets and stone buildings, but there was a strange air of foreboding to it, as though the very air itself were an outlaw.

Right, Sora's pirate friend, Jack… maybe they could find that guy and get his help; would dropping Sora’s name work for that?

“Tortuga,” Kairi mused, reading the name of the port from a nearby sign.

“Tortuga? I’ve heard that name before…” Riku noted.

“Yeah, so I have,” Lea said, looking worried. “I came to this world a few times, with Roxas. Tortuga is the name of the most dangerous scofflaw port. Xemnas told us to avoid it.”

“Seriously?” Riku replied, then sighed. “Figures we’d end up in a place like this.”

R2 shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Actually, it may be a good thing,” Kairi pointed out. “We’re looking for the Organization. They’d be more likely to be found here than a different port, right?”

“True,” Riku concurred. “Okay, then. Let’s ask around, see if anyone’s seen anyone in black hooded cloaks with silver zippers.” They’d need to specify that as lots of people appeared to be in black coats.

“Wait; zippers don’t exist here,” Lea reminded them. “Say silver accents or trim instead.” Right, had to keep the World Order.

With that, the group split in two, Lea with Riku and Kairi with R2—going individually would be more efficient, but they shouldn’t wander around alone here. Although Riku would have preferred to go with Kairi, he didn’t trust R2 and Lea not to get in trouble when together. Both tended to instigate fights, whether intentional or accidental, and there were an awful lot of skeevy-looking pirates around to get into fights with.

“Been a while since we worked together alone,” Lea commented.

Riku nodded. “Yeah, not since helping Naminé.”

“And helping you be creepy by stalking Sora,” Lea teased.

“Excuse me? I remember that you were just as invested in that as I was, due to Roxas.”

“...Yeah, suppose I can’t deny that,” Lea said with a chuckle. Then, he sighed. “We’re gonna get them out, right?”

“Of course,” Riku promised. “Ienzo wouldn’t tell us he was sure if he weren’t. Dunno how long it’ll be though…”

“Oh, about that!” Lea exclaimed, eyes lighting up. “Before we left, I finally managed to contact Even! Or, Vexen, I mean. Maybe Even? He’s going by Vexen but I don’t know if he’s actually a nobody or not. Anyway! Yeah.” Lea had been attempting to subtly get in contact with Vexen in hopes he’d help them, but it’d been difficult to find the man alone.

“And what did he say?” Riku prodded. “And why didn’t you say anything right away?”

“Well, he said he’ll think about it. Chances are that means he’ll be on board, but I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up if he’s not, you know?”

“Makes sense,” Riku agreed. Best to be sure rather than spread rumors.

“Also, Demyx was with him, fyi; he’d likely be willing to switch sides too though, so I figured him being there wouldn’t matter. It’s been impossible to get Vexen alone, so next best thing, you know?”

Riku nodded. “Yeah, I can see that,” he agreed. That would be amazing if they both defected. “What’d you tempt them with?”

“Well, all Vexen cares about is his research,” Lea explained. “We not only can provide him with state-of-the-art research things—which Xehanort can too, true, but many materials he needs to get illegally as it’s unsanctioned research, which takes longer—as well as that he’ll be able to again work with people who actually understand him, which can help his research progress faster. I’m positive that’ll be plenty to get him to join us.”

“Right. And Demyx?”

“Demyx doesn’t really care about the cause much; he basically agreed with helping Xehanort because he had nothing better to do. Thing is, those that are left in the Organization now are pretty much everyone who Demyx didn’t get along with from the old one—pretty sure that’ll be enough for him to switch.”

“Interesting,” Riku mused. “I wonder what old Xehanort thinks about us stealing all his team members,” he said with a laugh.

Lea laughed too. “Oh, according to those two, the guy’s in total denial! They said he’s convinced himself they’ll come crawling back to the Organization someday.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely not gonna happen anytime soon,” Riku responded. “Did they say anything else about the Organization?”

Lea shook his head. “Nah. They didn’t say much other than that. Pretty funny, though; I knew the guy was stubborn—well, Xemnas was, at least—but that’s a new level.”

“Yeah,” Riku agreed. “Hey, we probably should work on the mission,” he realized.

“Ah, right. Yeah…” Lea looked around. “Hey, that guy looks suspicious,” he said, pointing to a random nondescript man whose visage resembled that of almost any generic seaman.

“Lea, everyone here looks suspicious,” Riku said with a sigh, seeing no difference between the man and most the others around the port.

“Yeah but he looks extra suspicious.”

“How so?”

“I’m not entirely sure… There’s just something about him...”

“Well, let’s go, then,” Riku agreed, as there were no other leads.

The two walked over to the man… who immediately changed into a dusk. No wonder Lea had felt something off whereas Riku hadn't; he used to work with such. Riku grumbled slightly; dusks were annoying. He wondered how many more were around spying.

“Well, that confirms they’re here,” Lea said as he and Riku drew their keyblades. True. Annoying or not, a dusk was a lead.

The dusk didn’t even have a chance to attack before the two had defeated it.

Riku dismissed his keyblade. “Okay, we should ask around for information now,” he stated. “I’m sure other people must have seen more of these.”

“Hey, you two are pretty good with those there key-sword things,” someone commented.

Riku swerved around and narrowed his eyes. “What do you want?” he asked the man, who was dressed similarly to the boys.

The man put his hands up. “Hey, chill, I don’ want no trouble! You two privateers or pirates?”

“Uh. Pirates,” Lea answered. Riku wondered if he knew what a privateer was; Riku didn’t.

“Ah. Nevermind, then,” the man said, and started to walk away.

“Wait!” Riku called. The man turned, looking skeptical. “Have you seen anyone in black cloaks around? Full cloaks with hoods and silver trim.”

“And why should I tell ye that?”

“They… they stole something from us. We want it back,” Riku lied.

“Hmm. Yeah, I saw them around. How much you offering?”

“What?”

Lea sighed. “For the info. Here.” Lea dug through his pockets and procured a large amount of munny. “How about this?”

The man's eyes widened and he let out a low whistle. “Yeah, I can tell you. There’s rumors that there’s a ship led by a man matching that description. The ship’s filled with those strange white things that you just fought, and the shadowy creatures that have been popping up, too. Very strange.”

“And where has it been seen?”

“Oh, all over. King’s Navy has been searching for it, seem to think it’s awfully suspicious—you see, it ain’t behaving like pirate ships should, yet it clearly isn’t any sanctioned ship.”

“How’s it behaving?” Riku enquired.

“Well, it ain’t plundering, and the captain keeps asking about some box… hey, come to think of it, Jack has been looking for a box, too… don’t think he’s working with the guy, though. Jack absolutely hates those shadow creatures, more than most. Has some sort of beef with them.”

“Jack? You mean, a guy with dreadlocks that’s always drunk?” Riku asked; recalling the description Sora had given them of his friend here, who was named Jack.

“Yeah, that’s him! Hey, he’s in the tavern as we speak, looking for a crew. If he and the weird guy are looking for the same thing, maybe you can find the weird guy that way.”

“Thanks; you’ve been a big help,” Riku said as Lea tossed the guy the bag of munny.

“Hey, don’t thank me, thank the munny,” the guy said with a wink before sauntering off. Riku was glad they had ample munny; he had a feeling that was the best way to get info around here.

The two made their way to a place called the Faithful Bride. Sure enough, once entering the tavern the boys noticed a dreadlocked man that was clearly asking around for a crew, obviously dressed as a pirate captain.

“Hey, you’re Jack, right?” Riku asked immediately after hurriedly running over to the man.

“Who’s asking?” Jack asked with narrowed eyes.

Right, pirates were wary of those they didn’t know.

“Riku. We want to join your crew.”

“Yeah? I haven’t seen you around before; how can I trust you?”

“We’re friends of Sora’s,” Lea quickly explained. “Two more of our friends are here too.”

“Oh, friends with Sora! You’re fine, then,” Jack quickly decided, immediately laxening his demeanor. “Riku, hmm… I do recognize that name; you’re the one he was searching all over for, right? Did he find you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Riku said, trying to avoid blushing. “And we both reunited with Kairi, too—she’s actually one of the ones here!”

“But no Sora?”

Riku shook his head. “No. Sora has other things to do.”

“And what things would you have?” Jack asked. “Sora never joined my adventures just for fun, although he did enjoy it; there always was another goal…”

Riku explained, “Well, we happen to be looking for the other person looking for that box you’re looking for. The one on that weird ship.”

“Ah, yes. That was quite a surprise, him looking for it. I considered asking him if he wanted to help, but then I learned he had those strange creatures… Funny thing, that. They always seem to be around when Sora or his friends are.”

“Well, we do deal with these creatures for a living,” Lea pointed out. Riku avoided sighing at the probable-breach of the World Order; it seemed Sora had told Jack more than he should know already, or Jack figured it out. Riku bet on the former.

“Right, Sora mentioned that too,” Jack said, confirming Riku’s suspicions. “Well, why don’t you go find your companions and meet me on the ship, then. It’s the Black Pearl; you can’t miss it.” Jack waved his hand and then hopped over to some other people to ask them about joining his crew.

Riku and Lea left the tavern, and then conveniently immediately ran into R2 and Kairi.

R2 raised an eyebrow and grinned playfully. “A tavern, huh? Thought drinking on missions wasn't allowed?”

Riku scowled and crossed his arms. Did R2 really think they’d drink on a mission after what happened in Corona? Riku explained, “We weren’t drinking, we were scouting for information.”

“And joined a pirate crew in the process,” Lea added.

“Well, we—wait, WHAT?” R2 burst as he realized what Lea had said.

“Yup. The four of us are crew members on the Black Pearl.”

“The Black Pearl?” Kairi asked, eyes lighting up. “That’s great! Some people told us the guy in charge of that ship was looking for the same thing a probable-Organization person is!”

“Yeah, we learned that too; conveniently its captain is Jack, Sora’s friend. That’s who we ran into in the tavern,” Riku explained.

“Nice. Well, let’s go then!” Kairi cheered, heading towards the docks.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku sighed, crossing his arms as he leaned on the railing of the ship looking out at the sea that was so similar, yet so different, compared to the one he was most familiar with. It had been two days since they’d left the harbor (well, maybe not quite, as they’d left in the evening, and now it was noon two nights later), and there was still no sign of anything. At least time moved faster in this world compared to Radiant Garden, so it wouldn't actually be that long gone if this took longer than anticipated.

Jack approached and leaned next to Riku. “What’s got you in a cloud?” the pirate asked.

“Nothing really. Just a little frustrated; thought we’d have seen something by now,” Riku admitted.

“Aye, the sea is vast,” Jack commented. “It may be a while still until we find a hint of either ship we’re eyeing.” Jack was searching for a ship called the Flying Dutchman, which allegedly had the box he sought, which contained the heart of someone Jack wanted dead. Riku had a feeling that, like the one in Olympus, this wasn't actually the box the Organization wanted, which worked in their favor; the Organization making a mistake was a good thing.

“How do you stand it?” Riku wondered. “All this waiting around,” he clarified.

Jack grinned. “Well, this helps,” he commented, holding up a nearly-full bottle of rum towards Riku. “Care for a swig? It eases the tension.”

Riku briefly pondered that. There wasn’t much of a chance of encountering anyone at the moment, so it wouldn’t compromise the mission… “Okay, fine,” Riku concluded, taking the bottle. He tilted it upwards and took a deep swig, coughing slightly after. That stuff was strong!

Jack chuckled. “Sora reacted the same way. First time drinking?”

Riku shook his head. “No, I’ve had alcohol before; just not something this strong.”

“Ah, prefer lighter fare, huh? Well, on this ship you’ll find only rum; mead is for the taverns.”

“Why’s that?” Riku wondered.

“Because rum’s my favorite, and this is my ship,” Jack explained with a wink. “Now, will you partake in another swig, or pass it along?”

Riku took another swig—smaller this time—before handing it back to Jack.

“Aye, that’s what I’m talking about!” Jack said jovially, taking a sip as well.

The two passed the bottle back and forth for a while, chatting about various things. Riku found Jack surprisingly easy to talk to, and much more insightful than he’d expected. It was a nice change of pace from usual conversations, and much calmer. Or maybe that was the alcohol talking.

When the bottle was roughly half gone, Lea strolled up to Riku’s other side, leaning over the railing too. “So, thought the rule was no drinking on missions?” he said with a grin.

“It is,” Riku replied.

“Aren’t you supposed to be Mister Responsible? You’re the leader,” Lea pointed out.

Riku shrugged. “Nothing better to do. Want some?” He held the bottle out to Lea.

“Follow the leader, is it?” Lea said as he accepted the bottle. “Guess you got a point; didn’t know the sea could be so boring.”

“Hey, there’s plenty of action too!” Jack protested. “It’s just more spread out. But I'll tell you, the kind of action pirates experience? Makes all the waiting well worth it.”

“Yeah, Sora’s tales of this place were pretty wild,” Riku agreed. “Must have been difficult dealing with his energy though; can’t imagine he was able to sit still this long.”

“I assure you, that was not an issue.” Jack laughed and held up the bottle. “This thing truly is a miracle worker.”

Riku raised his eyebrows. “You got Sora drunk?” Riku would have usually been more alarmed at that, but the alcohol had dulled that reaction. He wondered how Donald and Goofy had reacted to that; he couldn’t imagine the two joining in.

“Of course. He’s quite the entertainment when he is, I gotta tell you! Singing and dancing, getting the entire crew involved… man, I sure miss that kid.”

“Me too,” Riku agreed. Even though he could call or message Sora if he wanted to, that wasn’t the same as seeing him in-person.

“Hmm…” Jack peered at Riku curiously. “What is it with you two?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the way you and Sora speak about each other makes me think there must be something more there. Although, you and the lass are awfully affectionate too; I’ve seen you two sneaking off.”

“Oh, that,” Riku said, blushing slightly. “Yeah, we’re together. All three of us.” Usually he wouldn’t admit that so easily, but he felt comfortable at the moment.

“Well, aren’t you a lucky lad,” Jack said with a chuckle. “Sora was looking all over for you, you know.”

Riku felt his face redden further. “Yeah, I know. That’s my fault... I… well, I was going through some things. Ran away from everyone. I learned my lesson though.”

“Yes, running seldom is a long-term solution,” Jack mused. “I’ve done my fair share of it too. Although, in my case most of it was to avoid death.”

“Well, that’s a justified reason,” Riku reasoned. “Mine… mine wasn’t. Turned out it wouldn’t have been needed if we’d just talked things out.”

“Ah, yes, the classic tale of misunderstandings,” Jack supplied. “I also know that all too well.”

“Don’t we all?” Lea mused.

“HOSTILE SHIP OFF STARBOARD!!” shouted the crew member in the crow’s nest.

“What?!” Riku yelped, turning to see that there indeed was a ship nearby, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

“Ah, yes, that has been happening lately,” Jack commented casually, gazing at the small black ship adorned with the heartless symbol. “How those things manage to sail is a mystery, but taking care of them ought to be easy.”

“Jack, we’re drunk!” Riku pointed out.

“And they’re trying to board us,” Lea added.

Jack waved a hand. “Eh, we can take them. Like I said: pushovers. Besides, your girl looks like she has it handled.”

“WHAT?” Riku said, turning to the second plank the heartless had extended over to their ship. Indeed, Kairi had stationed herself near it and was taking out heartless as soon as they crossed over. Riku took a deep breath to calm himself; right, she could handle herself. She’d been training plenty; these heartless were just as easy for her as they were for Riku and the other two.

Speaking of, where was R2?

“Last I heard he was below deck playing poker,” Lea informed Riku, catching his thought. “I was too, but I ducked out as I was losing too much munny, mostly to him. He’s somehow a beast at it.”

“Probably card counting,” Riku commented offhandedly.

“What? The little cheat! How’s he even know that?!”

Riku shrugged. “He got it from my memories. Sora taught me.”

“What? Sora?! Since when can—you know what, I don’t wanna know,” Lea decided.

“Hey, boys, as much as your conversation is interesting, you might want to start fighting,” Jack noted.

“Oh, right,” Riku and Lea said together as R2 darted out from below deck and towards them.

“What’s going on? Is it the Organization?” R2 demanded.

“Nah, Just a lone heartless ship,” Lea informed him.

The three ran to fight the heartless that had gotten on deck while Jack rushed over to the canons, shouting instructions to the crew.

Between the canons and the four keyblade wielders, the heartless ship was soon sitting on the bottom of the sea with all those on deck destroyed. Truthfully Riku was amazed at how they’d managed to win while drunk; he had a feeling R2 and Kairi had held most of the weight while fighting, especially as Riku and Lea had tripped numerous times. Jack somehow seemed fine though… still, maybe alcohol while sailing heartless-infested waters was not a good idea.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Riku! Look!” Kairi cheered a day later, hopping up into the crow’s nest with Riku, where he sat leaning against the mast; it was his turn to keep lookout.

“What?” Riku asked, wondering why Kairi was staring at him smiling instead of actually showing anything.

“My hair!” Kairi explained when Riku didn’t catch on. “Isn’t it neat? Jack showed me how to!”

Riku blinked, then realized what Kairi meant. Her hair had been done up into a multitude of little braids with various beads and ribbons woven in.

“Well?” Kairi prodded when Riku didn’t respond.

“Oh! Yes, very cool,” Riku acknowledged.

“I know, right? Now, sit still; your hair has to have this, too!”

“My hair? Kairi, it’s already in a braid!”

“Yeah, one braid! It needs to be in dozens!” Kairi declared.

Riku groaned. “Seriously? That’s going to take forever!”

“And? There’s not much else to do,” Kairi pointed out.

Riku sighed. “Fine.” He turned to give Kairi access to his hair. Despite his slight protest, Riku actually enjoyed it quite a bit when Kairi played with his hair, braiding or otherwise.

After a while—and with only half a head of braided hair—Riku spotted a new ship that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere; it resembled the heartless ships, but somewhat larger, and the person standing at the helm was definitely no heartless. The black flag had not the typical skull and crossbones of a pirate ship, rather the symbol of the nobodies.

“Shit,” Riku swore, hopping off the crow’s nest and landing easily on the desk despite the incredible height. Kairi followed, and the two rushed to Jack, who was on the deck watching the other ship.

“Black cloak with silver trim, strange ship…” Jack mused. “Yup, he’s definitely the guy we’re looking for.”

“How do we get him to talk to us?” Riku wondered as Lea and R2 joined them. They needed to converse if they wanted to learn what the Organization was up to, as spying wouldn’t work with the guy already knowing they were there.

“Isn’t there some pirate code or something?” Lea noted.

“Ah, yes,” Jack confirmed. “The pirate code says that if one wishes to confabulate, it must be respected. There’s this word, you see…” He turned to the man, opening his mouth—

“PARLEY!” the Organization member called, beating Jack to the punch. He raised a hand in a gesture of peace as he lowered his hood, revealing…

“Luxord,” Lea said, sounding unamused. “Should have figured.”

“What do you mean?” Riku asked.

“He was always a big fan of this world,” Lea explained. “Mostly because of the loose gambling laws.”

Luxord vanished in a flare of darkness and appeared on the deck next to Riku and the others in an identical burst of darkness. “That I am,” the man said cheerily. “However, that is not what we are here to discuss.”

“Yeah? And what is it we’re here to discuss?” Riku asked, suspicious.

“I would like to place a wager,” Luxord explained. “I propose we have a race. My ship against yours, first to Port Royal.”

R2, arms crossed, narrowed his eyes. “How do we know you won’t cheat?”

Luxord looked legitimately offended by this. “Me? Cheat at a game? I would never resort to such childish methods.”

“You can trust him on that,” Lea confirmed before Riku could. It was true; Luxord wouldn’t go back on his word if they made a bet, nor would he cheat. However, they had to be careful going in, as he could still be crafty and knew how to exploit loopholes.

“So, what would be the terms of this here wager of yours?” Jack asked.

“Oh, why they’re quite simple,” Luxord said amicably. “I’ll give you anything you want if you win. But if I win…” Luxord looked directly at R2. “The replica returns to us.”

“What! That’s stupid!” R2 burst angirly. “You—”

“Anything?” Jack interrupted, and Riku tried not to groan. He really was going to entertain actually agreeing to that?

“Yes, anything you want,” Luxord stated.

“Deal,” Jack said quickly.

“What! You can’t do that!!” R2 protested loudly.

“Very well,” Luxord said, ignoring R2. “We start in five minutes. Port Royal is the destination.” He then vanished in a burst of darkness to return to his ship.

“What was that?!” Riku yelled at Jack, wanting to punch the guy. “You can’t just bet his life like that!”

R2 actually did punch Jack, landing a blow right against the side of the pirate’s face. Jack clasped a hand to his cheek, looking shocked. “What the bloody hell was that for?” He asked, looking appalled.

“You know what!” R2 raged.

Jack waved an arm in dismissal. “Oh, that. Hey, it’s not like we’re going to actually lose. The Pearl can take their ship, easy. And when we win, he’ll give us the information we need! ...Why are you looking at me like that’s a bad thing?”

Lea sighed. “Jack, buddy, I love ya but you can be a bit too trusting.”

“Too trusting? Didn’t you just say we could trust him?” Jack asked, clearly confused.

“Well he’ll stick to the rules, sure, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be crafty and find loopholes. All he said was a race. That’s a pretty loose goal.”

“But—”

“What’s done is done,” Kairi interjected. “He’s not going to let us back out now. We just have to win this thing.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Sure enough, Luxord did have something else up his sleeve. Riku tried to suppress a groan; the race had been going pretty well, Jack’s ship in an easy lead, but it looked like that would be changing: Four heartless ships appeared along the sides of Luxord’s ship behind them, and all four ships began readying their cannons as they swiftly caught up to Jack's ship due to their smaller size.

“Seriously?!” Kairi practically screeched. “How is that fair!?”

“It’s technically within the rules,” Lea pointed out, rubbing his ear; Kairi had been standing next to him. Riku and R2 were with them on the upper deck along with Jack.

R2 glared at Jack. “This is why you shouldn’t have said yes right away!”

“Well, everyone makes mistakes,” Jack grumbled, then yelled to the general crew, “All hands on deck! Cannons at ready!”

“I really wish Sora were around right now,” Riku muttered.

“What? Missing your boyfriend?” Lea teased.

Riku blushed. “No! I mean, yeah, but that’s not what I meant!”

Kairi caught on. “Oh! Sora could probably destroy them with a few of those new lightning spells he can do now! The ball-shaped ones that are basically bombs!” Right. What had Sora called it? Ball lightning? It was quite destructive; there was no doubt it could take out an entire ship if the spell was charged enough.

“I can make bombs too,” Lea pointed out.

“Yeah but can you get them to reach that far?” R2 asked, looking skeptical.

Lea frowned, putting his hand on his chin as he thought about that. His eyes fell on…

“The cannons!” Kairi gasped. “Lea, you can launch them from the canons!”

“And what exactly will you be launching from the canons?” Jack asked, looking at the group with concern.

“Magic bombs. They can take those ships down faster than your cannonballs, guarantee it,” Lea said with a grin. Riku was relieved; the other three mostly used close-up physical attacks rather than magic. They should have taken that into consideration when making mission teams; normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but this world often required more long-range attacks due to fighting ships.

“Well, then, get to it!” Jack ordered. “And you three can take care of those heartless that just manifested on deck, capiche?”

The four vocalized various forms of agreement and quickly moved to follow the orders.

Between Riku, R2, and Kairi, the heartless on deck were simple to defeat, although the nobodies that followed after were proving to be somewhat more difficult.

“These things are so annoying!” R2 complained as he dodged a spinning attack from a nobody that looked basically like an animated set of clothing. Like Luxord, it was using gambling-related moves like throwing dice and whacking them with giant cards when it wasn’t doing obnoxious spinning attacks. The fact that there were four of them wasn’t helping one bit. Sora would definitely be useful; these things were weak to lightning, and that new spell—

“Riku!” Kairi suddenly shouted. “Do you have enough mana for the joint attack?”

Riku assessed his mana levels. “Yeah, I think so!”

“Let’s do it then!”

Kairi ran towards Riku, who met her halfway. The two crossed their keyblades, gathering energy, Kairi’s light and Riku’s dark…

“R2, out of the way!” Kairi called, and the silverette rushed out of the fray. The nobodies looked around, confused at their enemy’s sudden lack of attacking.

Portals of swirling light and dark appeared circling the nobodies, and Kairi and Riku dashed into them, propelled between random ones with their keyblades held in front of them, striking the nobodies with a multitude of horizontal strikes of light and dark energy.

As Kairi and Riku finished the attack, panting from the exertion, the nobodies collectively dissolved into darkness, indicating their defeat. Immediately following this the heartless ships Luxord had summoned collapsed into piles of flaming wood, unable to survive Lea’s bombardment of powerful fire bombs.

At the same time, Jack navigated his ship across the finish line, which was a magical glowing white line Luxord must have set up ahead of time. Luxord’s ship floated well behind them; Jack kept the ship in place, waiting for the man to catch up, while the other four rejoined him.

“Great job, everyone,” Jack commended. “I haven’t seen fighting that impressive since… well, since Sora and his funny companions were here!”

Before anything else could be said, Luxord appeared once again on their ship right next to the group. “Well, it seems that you three have won,” he said casually, showing no hint of disappointment. Had he expected that? “Now, what is it you would like from me? I forgot to ask before we started.” A likely story; Riku doubted the nobody would ever forget something that important when it came to gambling.

Jack opened his mouth and began to say something, but before he could his mouth was covered by the hands of all four teens who shouted “NO!”

Riku answered Luxord. “We want you to leave this world and stop bothering R2,” he said.

“That’s all? Done,” Luxord easily agreed. Too easily. The man summoned a dark portal; when he walked through it, his ship dissolved into the air. Riku had a bad feeling…

“Well, now that that’s done, what do you say to a little break, hmm?” Jack said.

Riku frowned. “I don’t know. Something was weird about that.”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe, but he’s gone, and that was your goal, wasn’t it? Plus, the ship needs repairs, and we do really need a break.” True. Riku and Kairi's mana levels were extremely low after that attack. Plus, the sun was already setting.

Lea looked at Jack side-eyed. “Something tells me your idea of a break isn’t very relaxing.”

Jack waved a hand. “Oh, no need to get your britches in a bunch; I’m just talking about that tavern over there, next to the docks, dig?”

Riku quickly rejected that. “No thanks. We actually should report in—”

“Sounds like fun!” Kairi decided. Lea and R2 agreed with her.

“Well that’s that then,” Jack commented. “Riku, looks like you’re out voted; gonna join us?”

“Okay, sure,” Riku easily agreed. They’d driven away the Organization guy; what’s the worst that could happen?

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku let out a sigh. Why did he always fall for that trope? Thinking nothing bad could happen always led to something bad happening.

Said bad thing was R2 and Lea in the middle of a bar fight while Riku and Jack took shelter behind a knocked-over table, both clutching glasses of mead. Lea was currently attempting to get R2 to stop throwing punches, which was not working very well at all. Also…

“Where’s Kairi?” Riku asked Jack urgently over the commotion. They really should try to get to the other side of the tavern; as it stood, the fight only took up a third of it, with the rest of the tavern's patrons either cheering people on or completely ignoring it, as though that type of thing happened every day. Maybe it did.

“Ah, the lass be over there, with some lady of the night, I recon,” Jack pointed out, gesturing somewhere on the other side of the room.

Riku squinted through the heavy smoke in the tavern. Indeed, Kairi was sitting at a small table, with another woman right next to her, practically in her seat. The woman had her arm around Kairi, and Kairi was laughing happily, face flushed, ignorant of everything around her. Riku felt a small spike of jealousy, but unlike usual he wasn’t sure if there wasn’t substance to it.

“What do you mean, ‘lady of the night’?” Riku asked suspiciously.

“Well, I’m just saying, a voluptuous lady like that doesn’t dress all nice and go to a Tavern for no reason. She’s looking for a certain something, whether it be for munny or mere entertainment. May want to keep an eye on your girl.”

Riku took a moment to process that, then glared at Jack once he realized the implication. “Kairi’s not like that!” Riku asserted. There was no way; she was a Princess of Heart.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Not to offend you, but that’s what they all say until it happens.”

“I trust Kairi,” Riku insisted.

“So, you’re not going to follow them?”

“Wait, what?” Riku’s gaze returned to where Kairi was—or rather, had been. Riku looked around frantically, finally seeing Kairi headed out the door with the woman, arms hooked together and wobbling slightly; both seemed to be laughing, although couldn’t be heard over the tavern’s noise. Riku quickly checked the darkness in the area. The woman’s level was nothing out of the ordinary… should Riku interfere?

“At this point, the best course would probably be to leave it be,” Jack suggested.

Riku’s gaze snapped back to Jack. “What are you talking about?” he demanded.

“Well, interrupting the two, whatever they’re doing, won’t end well on either of your parts. Either something like that’s actually happening and you become upset, or she’s doing something else and you’ll lose her trust. In my experience, best to ignore it; she’s drunk and probably won’t remember this in the morning anyway.”

Riku frowned. He couldn’t just let Kairi run off! “It’s because she’s drunk that I need to go to her,” Riku decided. Even if Kairi had been tempted by the woman, she would definitely regret it later, once she wasn’t drunk, Riku was certain.

“Well, you’re funeral,” Jack muttered. “Hey, isn’t that your other two friends?” Jack noted.

Riku turned to where Jack was pointing; it appeared that Lea had finally gotten R2 under control, and was leading him by the wrist out the same door Kairi had left by.

“Lucky you,” Jack commented. “Seems you have an excuse to be out there now.”

“Okay, right, see you later then,” Riku said, quickly chugging the rest of his drink and tossing his glass onto the floor before hurriedly rushing to the door, keeping low and dodging some stray glasses.

Riku emerged from the tavern to find Lea scolding R2 about bar fights; Kairi was nowhere in sight.

“Have either of you seen Kairi?” Riku demanded, interrupting their conversation.

“No,” Lea answered. “Why, did something happen?”

Riku opened his mouth to explain, then thought better of it. He didn’t want rumors to spread when he wasn’t certain of the situation. Instead he lied, “I don’t know; I lost sight of her, and she doesn’t seem to be in the tavern.”

“And you’re worried?”

R2 scoffed. “Come on, she can handle herself, you know that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Riku said halfheartedly. He did know… but…

“I’ve found you,” came a hiss, and the three swerved towards the voice to find someone in a black Organization cloak.

“What? Didn’t we already take care of the Organization people around here?” Lea asked, confused.

“Well, there must have been a second one,” R2 responded with an unsaid 'duh' in his tone of voice.

“Who are you?” Riku demanded, drawing his keyblade along with the others and pointing it at their adversary, a little sluggish. Fuck; he hadn't drank that much, had he?

“None of you remember me? How sad,” the person said. The voice was feminine; Riku recalled the members they knew about, but this person wasn’t any Riku had met, at least from her voice. Besides, wasn’t there only one female member?

“You’re not Larxene,” R2 said, eyes narrowed. “Larxene is the only girl in the Organization.”

The Organization member scoffed. “Since you betrayed Xehanort, naturally we required more members.”

“What’s going on?” Kairi asked, rushing over to the group and drawing her keyblade, staggering slightly as she did so. Riku inwardly sighed at the redhead’s return.

“Where were you?” Riku asked. “We were getting worried.”

“Just getting some fresh air,” Kairi said evasively, face a little red. That… wasn’t a good sign. Neither was the light mark on Kairi’s neck. Jack’s suspicion hadn’t been accurate, had it? No way. Kairi must have gotten hit by something; the tavern had been extremely rowdy after all. Yeah. She’d gotten hit from the fight, then needed fresh air so took a walk with that woman she was conveniently not mentioning. That couldn’t be a blush, either; she’d just been running to meet them, and it was a little nippy out, so a red face would be normal, especially if she'd been drinking. Right, drinking… Riku's alcohol-addled mind must be making him paranoid.

“Show yourself,” R2 demanded of the black-cloaked person, snapping Riku’s attention back to the situation at hand.

The woman slowly lowered her hood revealing a shock of blue hair. She seemed familiar… Wait. Blue hair?

“Are you Aqua?!” Riku proclaimed in shock., although he didn’t need to ask. It was difficult to see in the dim lighting, but upon closer examination it definitely was the girl Mickey and Riku had been searching for. The only difference was the glowing ochre eyes.

“Yes, isn’t she beautiful?” came another voice, and a swirl of darkness revealed another Organization member. The man put his hood down, revealing Luxord.

“Wasn’t the deal that you’d leave us alone?” Lea asked.

Luxord scoffed. “Please. The deal was that I’d leave—which I did—and stop chasing the replica specifically. You said nothing about me returning… and nothing about other members retrieving a certain defector.”

“You mean me,” R2 stated flatly as he raised his keyblade slightly. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”

“Hmm. Well, it’s too bad you don’t have a choice in this. I leave it to you, Aqua,” Luxord stated, backing up into a dark portal. “Now, I’m off to help capture a couple other traitors, as well as our back-up vessel,” Luxord told them as he vanished.

“Back-up vessel?” Riku asked, but the man had already disappeared.

“Probably Sora,” R2 explained. “That’s what they wanted the test thing to be for, remember?” Right, Riku did know that. His mind seemed to be a little foggy at the moment.

Riku’s heart skipped a beat as he belatedly processed that. “They’re going after Sora!?”

“Which is why we need to capture Aqua ASAP,” Lea asserted.

“Hmph. Do your worst,” the bluenette spat, then darted forwards, positioned for an overhead strike.

Chapter Text

Vanitas stood, arms crossed, carefully watching the small crouching darkness-cloaked creature in front of him. It stared at him with bright red eyes. If someone told him six months ago that this thing was Sora, Vanitas would have never believed them, but here they were. Well, at least he wasn’t feral and consumed by rage this time. Still, a few floods surrounded them at the ready, just in case.

Vanitas, Sora, and Xehanort—the teenage one—were currently in the middle of some creepy woods that completely consisted of dead trees on the outskirts of Halloween Town. The sun was nowhere to be found, as this world was stuck in an eternal night, and any hope of light from the moon was obscured by a cloak of dark clouds, only increasing the nightmarish aesthetic. Vanitas liked it.

Their outfits, too, were all fitting for such a place. It was a monster world, so they had to look like monsters; to Vanitas’s delight, the forms were much more fearsome than the previous monster world he’d been to. Most of the creatures in that place had barely qualified as monsters, in Vanitas’s opinion, rather resembled cuddly stuffed animals and strange blob things. Although, in terms of outfits, Sora's wasn't a particularly creepy one, or even a monster, rather some sort of spooky-cute fashion statement. It was some sort of lolita dress, black with red lace, with spiderweb-fishnet stockings on both legs and arms, red platform shoes with moving bat things, and a matching miniature top hat also adorned with a bat. His back had bat wings, too, and a spiderweb tattoo adorned his face. Of course, most of these features were currently difficult to see with the darkness cloak.

Regardless, this world was definitely scary, and Vanitas loved it. So did both Sora and Xehanort, it seemed, to Vanitas's surprise—in fact, Sora had called it his favorite world! Whether that was due to the inhabitants or actual looks of it, Vanitas didn't know, but it was probably due to the former. Despite their looks, the inhabitants were very fun-loving and got along very well with Sora. Even Vanitas found he enjoyed their company. Maybe they should come back here with everyone else and have a party…

“Are you certain this is a good idea?” Xehanort asked from beside Vanitas, interrupting his reverie. The kid's outfit was a werewolf, consisting of torn jeans and a white long-sleeve shirt with what looked like blood stains. He had ears, a tail, paws for feet, furry arms and legs, and claws. Vanitas’s costume was similarly simple, some sort of zombie thing which consisted of torn jeans, a torn black t-shirt, and bloody bandages over greenish skin. Vanitas wasn’t sure if anything was on his face other than the cheek bandage he could feel; he hadn’t asked nor seen a mirrored surface anywhere. Chances are it’d be baggy eyes to match the costume. Like Xehanort, Vanitas also had no shoes, although unlike Xehanort he didn’t have paws that acted as such. He should have asked Sora to conjure him some shoes before doing the rage-form experiment.

Vanitas shrugged. “Hey, he’s the one who wanted to try this.” By ‘this’ Vanitas meant controlling what Sora had cutely named ‘rage-form’, the cloak of darkness that consumed him when the negative emotions he shoved away accumulated to too high a level. Currently, that level was low enough that it wouldn't consume Sora's mind completely when they forced the change, or so went the theory. If everything worked, this could be a useful tool for getting out of bad situations, or at the very least a way to prevent the darkness from reaching such a high level to manifest as a more feral form via periodic release.

“And is it working?” Xehanort asked. Right, he couldn’t sense the darkness like Vanitas could, not yet.

“Kinda? I mean, he’s not attacking at least.”

“That hardly makes it a success. In order for it to be an asset in battle, he needs to be fully in control; right now, he’s acting like a cat, albeit a calm one.”

Vanitas frowned. “He’s not a cat. Thankfully.” Vanitas wasn’t sure what they’d do if Sora used transformation magic while in this form. Or any magic.

Sora tilted his head as if in thought; Vanitas had a bad feeling…

“I believe you spoke too soon,” Xehanort commented drily.

“Fuck,” Vanitas spat, as he stared at the darkness-cloaked legit-cat in front of them. Well, semi-legit cat; for some reason it had little bat wings extending from its shoulder blades. Those better not actually work.

“At least now we know he can understand us,” Xehanort pointed out.

“I guess that’s true.” Vanitas agreed, subconsciously playing with his newest earring a little; he'd gotten his other ear pierced before they left, with a matching attack-boosting ring. Sora had undoubtedly gotten the idea from the two speaking about cats, although how much he’d actually comprehended was unknown. Vanitas put a hand on his chin as he thought about what to do about this new development. Hopefully transformation magic was where it stopped; they didn’t need a half-aware dark-cloaked teenage winged cat roaming about shooting magic everywhere, although the mad scientist and skeleton king in this world might be delighted at that.

Sora meowed, and Vanitas gave a start, not expecting that. Then Sora fluttered his wings briefly, seemingly trying to fly, yet only lifted an inch above the ground before flopping back into the ground. Vanitas let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding; good, the wings were too small to fly after all. So, instead of flying Sora lifted a paw and began licking it; clearly he was currently in the full mindset of a cat. He better not start licking his butt or something gross.

Before Vanitas could figure out what to do, a dark portal appeared near them, and out stepped the Organization member known as Luxord.

“Fuck,” Vanitas swore. This was the last thing they needed right now. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

“I am here to collect you,” Luxord explained conversationally.

Xehanort crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “You? Just you?”

“Well, I do have armies at my disposal,” Luxord said calmly, raising his arm to summon a swarm of dancer nobodies. Well, shit; those things were a huge nuisance.

“What should we do?” Xehanort whispered to Vanitas.

Vanitas scoffed. “We can take them.”

“If we had Sora cognizant, yes. But with him like this…”

Luxord stared at the two, frowning. “And just what are you two whispering about?” he demanded.

Vanitas sneered. “What’s it to you?”

“I suppose that is true; it is none of my business. You two will come with me now. Where is Sora?” Luxord asked. "He is always with you now, Vanitas, is he not? Or is our intel incorrect?" Oh? He didn’t realize the cat was Sora? Had he even noticed the cat? Or… did he think the cat was an unversed? Sora looked similar enough to pass him off as one.

Maybe they should run; there was a good chance Sora would pass out when the form ended, which would basically be handing him to Luxord. Vanitas summoned a swarm of unversed to help fight while the three escaped.

“We’re running,” Vanitas told Xehanort quietly, carefully bending down to pick up the dark-cloaked cat; Sora complained a little, but surprisingly complied. “Now.”

The two took off; Vanitas also summoned a few larger unversed to help as well as a few smaller ones to follow them at a distance to alert them to anyone tailing them. Thankfully the woods were vast and dense, despite everything being dead, so it would be easy to shake Luxord and his nobodies, hopefully.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku ducked into a cave behind a waterfall, Kairi and Lea following him.

“Where’s R2?” Riku asked quickly. The group had decided to flee rather than fight next to a tavern in a busy part of town full of people. They didn’t want any casualties of innocents, plus there was world order to keep… not to mention they were all drunk in addition. Honestly it had been a miracle that the four managed to shake Aqua off their trail.

R2 rushed into the cave, stumbling slightly, and Riku practically sighed in relief. He had been worried R2 would try to stay and fight.

“Did we seriously have to run?” R2 whined. “We can take her!”

“I know, but there were lots of people around!” Riku explained. “Plus, possessed or not, she’s a powerful keyblade Master that knows high-level magic. We need a strategy.”

“No, we need Sora,” Lea said. “Sora can easily out-magic her.”

“We should call him,” Kairi suggested. “Luxord said he was going to try to capture Sora, remember? We need to warn him.”

“Right,” Riku agreed, pulling out his GummiPhone. “I’ll take care of that; you three figure out a strategy.” Hopefully they'd come up with one that would actually have a chance to work, in spite of being drunk.

The three agreed, and Riku walked a little further into the cave, where he sat against the wall. He quickly found Sora’s contact information and pressed the call button. The phone rang once… twice… thrice… voicemail. Riku frowned; that was odd. He tried again, only to get the same result. Next, Riku tried Vanitas, with similar success. That was troubling. Had Luxord already found them? Well, there was one more person on the mission with the two, although Riku hadn’t interacted much with him at all. Riku found the number and pressed the call button.

“Riku,” Xehanort answered. He appeared to be running through a fairly creepy dead forest. “Is it urgent? None of us can really talk right now; we’re being pursued.”

“By Luxord?” Riku guessed. Why were they running, not fighting? Sora had previously fought the man alone and won.

“Yes, and a swarm of nobodies. Vanitas sent unversed to intercept those.”

“And what about Sora? Is Sora there?” Riku wondered, a feeling of immense worry flaring up.

“Sora is…” Xehanort paused, seeming unsure how to phrase something. “Currently stuck as a cat,” he decided upon.

Riku furrowed his eyebrows. “Stuck as a cat? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He is in cat form, and not switching out. It’s a long story. Where are you? Perhaps we should meet up.”

Riku summarized their situation.

“I see. I will reconvene with Vani and Sora. We will see you soon.” Xehanort hung up.

Riku sighed and stood up, putting his phone back into his pocket as he rejoined the others.

“Is Sora okay?” Kairi wondered.

Riku shook his head. “No idea. Xehanort said something about Sora being stuck in cat form, and Luxord is there. He said they’d try to get here as soon as possible, probably via dark corridor I’d guess.”

“Well, good, because we definitely need their help,” Lea informed Riku.

Riku frowned. “We do?”

Lea waved a hand towards the edge of the cave, where R2 was emptying his stomach into the water.

“Ah. Right,” Riku agreed. They were all fairly drunk.

“Here, Riku, let me finish your braids,” Kairi said, walking over to him.

“My braids?” Riku asked. “Oh, right.” His hair was still only half braided. It was a pretty cool style, though; maybe—

“Don’t even think it,” Kairi chided, catching Riku’s thought as she sequestered some of his hair between her lithe fingers and began weaving.

Once Kairi finished braiding Riku’s hair and R2 had returned to the group seeming somewhat better, a dark portal opened and two figures came tumbling out. Riku and Lea drew their keyblades immediately, but Kairi and R2 took a second, by the time Riku and Lea had already dismissed theirs as they recognized the two figures… Wait. Two?

“Where’s Sora?!” Riku demanded of Vanitas and Xehanort, while their Halloween Town clothes shifted into the same pirate garb all the boys were, Vanitas’s vest red and Xehanort’s grey.

“Hey, chill, Sora’s fine,” Vanitas said with an eye roll. In his arms was a strange-looking, darkness-coated, winged cat-like creature. A new unversed? Wait… that cat looked familiar… but, how…? "Cool hair by the way," the noirette added.

"Uh, thanks?" Riku said, thrown by receiving a compliment from someone who basically never complimented people. Vanitas really had changed a lot since they'd first met!

Kairi boldly walked over and poked the cat, giggling. The cat bristled its fur slightly, but otherwise simply looked warily at the girl.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow at her. “You feeling okay?”

“I think they’re all drunk,” Xehanort assessed flatly, to which Riku blushed and nodded in reluctant confirmation.

“MRRROW!”

“Uh, hey, careful there,” Vanitas warned Kairi, who was gently lifting the complaining dark-cloaked cat out of his arms.

“It’s okay. Sora won’t hurt me,” Kairi said, confirming Riku’s suspicion. Riku tried not to chuckle; before Kairi had been afraid of Sora’s dark ‘rage-form’, which this seemed to be. Or was it? Riku wondered if Kairi was unafraid due to the alcohol or if she’d truly made peace with it. “OUCH!” Kairi screeched, and Riku winced; Kairi had spoken too soon. She glared at the cat, now on the ground, holding her arm, which had a bright red scratch.

“So that’s Sora, huh?” Lea commented, watching the cat run to hide behind Vanitas. Well, Riku supposed that was a good thing; Sora knew to stay close, even if he didn’t seem to have full control over himself.

“So, how did this happen?” Riku wondered.

Vanitas cringed, looking somewhat sheepish as he explained rapidly, “Well, Sora asked us to help him try going into the rage-form while still maintaining control—don’t look at me like that, he insisted, you know how he gets!—and it was kinda working, then he changed into a cat and Luxord appeared and now he seems to be stuck in the cat-mind and the form isn’t going away.”

Xehanort then explained the situation slower and a bit more cohesively.

Riku and Lea then began clumsily cobbling together an explanation of what was going on on their end while R2 again knelt by the water and Kairi, arm unhealed and apparently not caring about that, crawled on her hands and knees towards cat-Sora. Riku briefly paused to use a cure spell on the girl before finishing explaining.

“This is not the ideal situation,” Xehanort commented once everyone was all caught-up.

“You can say that again,” Lea sighed. That was an understatement; they had three drunk teens, one drunk adult that acted like a teen, a dark winged cat, a being of darkness that was tired out due to overuse of unversed, and one teen actually capable of fighting in sound mind, all expected to face a possessed keyblade Master who was an experienced magic user as well as most likely Luxord and an army of nobodies.

“We might have to call for more backup,” Riku admitted reluctantly.

“No! We can’t!” R2 said frantically as he rejoined them. “Do you know how much trouble we’ll be in!?”

“Yeah but I’d rather be in trouble than dead.”

“We should take care of Sora first,” Vanitas stated. “I think the wizard finding out he’s been playing around with using darkness is going to be more of an issue than learning you all got drunk… Wait. Wasn’t your mission technically done? You said you’d thought you’d driven Luxord away, right? So the being drunk part shouldn’t even be an issue.”

“True,” Riku conceded. They didn't have to reveal they had planned on investigating more, rather could spin it as having desired to celebrate after they thought they had successfully driven the Organization fully away; the group had no way of knowing Aqua would appear too. It broke the pattern to have more than one member appear separately. “Still, Yen Sid would be mad.”

Vanitas crossed his arms. “Well, Yen Sid’s stupid then.”

"Why don't you call Mickey, Riku," Xehanort suggested. "You two are close, right? I'm sure he'll be understanding, and can mitigate things if they get heated with the wizard."

"Yeah, I guess that's the best option," Riku agreed as he pulled out his GummiPhone and began scrolling through the contract list.

“Don’t tell him we’re drunk!” R2 reminded Riku.

Riku rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, I won’t.” Chances are the mouse would easily be able to tell though, considering Riku was pretty sure he had a slight slur to his speech. Plus they’d need to tell him why they needed help.

Mickey answered after a few rings; it appeared he was in his study at Disney Castle, to Riku’s relief—he could have been at Yen Sid’s. “Heya, Riku!” Mickey greeted jovially. “What’s—oh, gosh, are you in a cave?” Mickey asked, face surprised and tone shifting to worried. “And you look fairly beat-up…”

“Yeah. Listen, so, we kinda messed up, like a lot. We drove away one Organization member, but there was another here, a new one: Aqua. She—”

“Aqua! Oh no!” Mickey interrupted, appearing shocked.

“Yeah, and she’s really powerful, so we ran, and then called the guys who went to Halloween Town, who used a dark portal to get here, but they were being chased by Luxord and have issues too, so the only one who can actually fight at this point is Xehanort so we really really could use more backup because they're going to eventually find us,” Riku informed the mouse in a bumbling rush.

Mickey narrowed his eyes. “Riku, you’re really hard to understand right now. Are you drunk? And what do you mean, the others can’t fight?”

Riku felt his face redden. “Well, in our defense, we thought the mission was over!” he defended.

“Okay,” Mickey said levelly, taking things in stride. “But surely you all aren’t drunk. Why—”

Xehanort gently removed the phone from Riku's hand. “Only those who went to the Caribbean were drinking,” he concisely explained to the mouse, speaking much more clearly than Riku. “As to those of us who went to Halloween Town, Vanitas summoned too many unversed to help us escape Luxord's onslaught, thus is too exhausted to properly fight, and Sora…”

Xehanort turned the GummiPhone to reveal the darkness-cloaked cat, now in Vanitas’s arms again, who let out a loud “Meow” in response.

“Oh, gosh!” Mickey exclaimed. “How did that happen?!”

“We can explain the how and why later,” Xehanort told the mouse. “The important part is that he seems to be acting very cat-like right now, only half-aware of things and completely unable to fight. Considering Aqua is undoubtedly looking for us, Luxord is most likely on the way, and they’ll probably summon heartless and nobodies—”

“I get it,” Mickey interjected. “I’ll grab Donald and Goofy, and we’ll be there as soon as we can.” Only Donald and Goofy? Oh. Right, they were the only ones left besides Yen Sid, who never left the Tower. “See ya soon.”

“See ya,” Riku acknowledged, probably unheard, as the screen went blank and Xehanort handed Riku back his phone. Oof; they were going to be in so much trouble! But, better in trouble than dead, Riku supposed. Maybe they’d be a bit more sober before the three anthropomorphic animals arrived.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

An hour later, everyone could be found sitting around the cave in various states as they waited for the other three to arrive by GummiShip: pretty much everyone who had been drunk had fallen asleep or were near doing so; Xehanort sat playing a game on his GummiPhone; and Sora was asleep on Vanitas’s lap, still in dark-cat form. Vanitas was trying to remain watchful in case Aqua or Luxord appeared; thankfully, the group hadn’t been found yet, knock on wood. Vanitas wanted to sleep too, but someone had to keep an eye on things… huh. When had Vanitas ever taken responsibility for other people? Excluding Sora, that is. Well, he supposed it was a thing he did now. Also, it was weird he needed to sleep, being basically darkness incarnate, come to think of it. Maybe it was a heart thing; he’d ask Ienzo… but wait, Nobodies slept too. But, they did have human bodies, so maybe that was why. Well, whatever. It was what it was; no use overthinking.

“I finally found you,” hissed a bitter voice from the cave entrance. Vanitas’s eyes snapped to it—Aqua.

Well, fuck.

Aqua shot forwards, directly at… Vanitas? Welp, guess some part of the bluenette's persona still lingered for her to target him first, as he was furthest away.

Before Vanitas could prepare to defend, a streak of light flashed, and Mickey appeared, intercepting Aqua’s attack. Donald and Goofy quickly followed the mouse into the cave.

“Gosh, glad we made it in time!” Mickey exclaimed as he pushed Aqua away with his keyblade. “Everyone, let Donald, Goofy, and I handle this!”

“I can fight too,” Xehanort pointed out, rushing over to them.

“Right!” Mickey agreed. “But everyone else, keep on standby; I don’t want you fighting unless necessary!” he called to all the other wielders, most who looked confused and hadn’t even drawn their keyblades, proving their inability to properly fight.

Vanitas watched the battle from the sidelines. Normally he’d try to insist upon joining the fight, even in light of being tired, but he had the task of keeping Sora from fighting or running; Vanitas wasn’t sure which the winged cat wanted to do, only that his shirt was almost in shreds from the claws and fangs. Thankfully, due to his darkness body, Vanitas didn’t bleed, otherwise his white shirt would be stained red—which is why he’d opted to be the one to hold Sora.

“Wait! The collar!” Vanitas suddenly realized as he dodged a stray firaga burst spell while attempting to hold onto Sora, who was still desperately trying to escape. The darkness was mostly coming from there! How hadn’t he noticed sooner?! “ATTACK THE COLLAR!” he shouted to his companions.

“Collar?” Mickey asked.

“It’s what’s controlling her!” Vanitas hurriedly explained.

“Oh! Of course!” Mickey exclaimed. “I knew Aqua couldn’t be tempted that easily!” he shot a beam of light at the collar...

Despite a direct hit, the collar didn’t react… oh, fuck. “It has some sort of barrier on it,” Vanitas noted. This was no doubt Vexen's work.

“Oh no!” Mickey declared. “How do we get it off her, then?” he asked, landing next to Vanitas while Donald and Goofy distracted Aqua.

“I think maybe I can do something, if I can grab it,” Vanitas said, an idea coming to him. “Maybe pull the darkness out of it, or at least reduce it enough for her to fight its hold on her.”

“Gosh, will that be okay? It’s an awful lot of darkness…”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Who do you think I am? I literally am made of darkness.”

“Right, sorry, forgot,” Mickey said a little sheepishly, then called to Donald, Goofy, and Xehanort, “Hold her down! We have a plan!”

Vanitas remained off to the side holding Sora; he’d have to give the cat to someone before engaging in battle, but he didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself.

Soon, Donald had Aqua in a bind spell, he and Goofy also holding on to an arm of the girl to make sure she remained secure even if it wore off.

“Now, Vanitas!” Mickey called as both he and Xehanort activated stop spells, further freezing the girl.

Vanitas rushed over, hurriedly handing Sora over to Riku on the way. He grabbed the collar; there was a shock, some sort of scientific defense mechanism built into the collar trying to fight him off, surely courtesy of Vexen. Vanitas ignored the pain; it wasn’t any worse than that the unversed caused. Vanitas focused on absorbing the darkness from the thing. There was a lot of it, sure, and it would probably overwhelm anyone else there, but it was no more than Vanitas was already used to. In fact, it was invigorating! The rush of darkness restored the energy lost from his earlier overuse of unversed.

Which was good, because immediately after the remainder of the collar had cracked into pieces and fell off, Vanitas needed to use that energy to summon some unversed as a swarm of dusk-level nobodies swarmed the cave.

Vanitas caught Aqua as she fell, the girl understandably unconscious.

Someone near the front of the cave began to clap, and out of the shadows of the cave's entrance emerged none other than Luxord. “Good show,” he acknowledged.

Everyone, including those who had been benched, drew their keyblades, other than Vanitas and Riku who were holding people. Well, a person and a winged cat, respectively.

“Relax, I know when it is not a good bet to continue fighting,” Luxord promised, dismissing the nobodies. “We will meet again.” He summoned a dark portal and stepped backwards into it. The portal closed immediately afterwards.

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, frozen, as though unsure if things were truly over. Vanitas was the first to move, leaning down to place the unconscious woman in his arms gently on the cavern floor. She was surprisingly heavy, no doubt due to her impressive amount of muscle and the fact that she, like most adults and teens, was unfairly taller than Vanitas.

Donald and Mickey noticed, and hurriedly rushed over to work on healing her, Xehanort following—he had taken well to using healing magic, to everyone’s surprise except for Vanitas’s. Vanitas had told them the guy had more light than they expected, which is what their brand of healing magic used; it seemed the others hadn’t believed him at first, which Vanitas supposed was understandable, given who he’d grow into. Goofy made his way to care for R2, who once again was at the waterside; maybe he was sick from something he ate, not just the alcohol. Jack had warned them to be careful of the food there, but R2 hadn’t listened.

Vanitas strolled over to Riku and Sora.

“Hey, think you could try that trick with him?” Riku wondered, gesturing to the cat draped over his shoulder, which was actually staying still now that the fighting had ended. Riku seemed less drunk than before; he probably wasn't yet sober, but at least he wasn't slurring anymore.

“You read my mind,” Vanitas said with a grin. He looked at Sora pensievely, considering that. Upon closer inspection, the cat seemed to be asleep; well, there went his other theory of using a sleep spell to get him out. Riku must have used one right away, considering his clothes weren't scratched up. “Yeah, I think I can do it," Vanitas concluded. "Should be easier than the collar, too, since his darkness is like the kind my unversed use: feral emotion-based. Plus he doesn’t really have much built up right now.”

“What do you mean, not much built up? He’s been like this for more than an hour!” Riku pointed out.

Vanitas shrugged. “I mean, he went into it to experiment with controlling the form, not while in a rage in battle, and hasn’t been fighting, so it’s not really surprising that it’s not fading as fast with so little darkness actually being used outside of the stuff cloaking him. In Arendelle he was blasting the heartless with waves of darkness, rapidly using it up.”

“So if he’s in control, why isn’t he leaving it?” Lea wondered, joining the conversation.

“Because, despite not acting feral, he’s not actually in control now,” Vanitas explained. “When he first went into it, while human, he seemed to be mostly in control, but when he changed into a cat I guess he slipped into the cat’s mind or something. You have to resist the animal brain when in those forms, you know,” he pointed out. Or so Sora claimed; sometimes Vanitas wondered about that. He hadn’t ever transformed himself, after all.

“Okay… so what happens if you can’t get him out?” Riku asked, sounding concerned.

Vanitas scoffed. “Don’t worry, I can quell it. Like I said, this is easy.”

Vanitas carefully placed his hand on the back of the cat, trying not to appear nervous; despite his show of pride, Vanitas was not actually fully confident he could do this. But, he couldn’t show that, even around his friends! He—wait, friends? Huh. Okay, then. Wait, no, he had to focus… Vanitas turned his attention fully on Sora, on pulling out the darkness… he tugged, and the cat wiggled in its sleep slightly, but the darkness held on. So, it wanted to stay, then… Hmm. It was tougher pulling it away from a living being than a collar. Or, maybe it was just Sora's heart making it though, who knew. Either way… Vanitas tried tugging again. Nope. Okay, back-up plan… Vanitas focused on pushing instead of pulling, coaxing the darkness back into the cage of light Sora had formed for it deep within his heart.

It took a few minutes, but eventually the darkness around Sora faded.

“You did it!” Riku said happily.

“Vani! I knew you could!” Kairi declared, surprising him with a hug from behind. Vanitas didn’t resist, finding he had no desire to pull away. Huh.

But… “I didn’t,” Vanitas told them, a little unsure as to why he’d admit to that rather than going with their assumption when it didn’t make him look as good. “It’s still there. I couldn’t tug it away, so I encouraged it to go back into hiding in his heart. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”

Lea gave Vanitas a hard pat on the back. “Hey, don’t sweat it! You did more than any of us could do,” he pointed out. Vanitas smiled slightly in response to the praise.

“Yeah, thanks, Vani,” Riku said, sounding relieved and moving Sora to hold him a little closer to his chest, arms wrapped tightly around the cat.

“Do you plan to keep him a cat, or are you going to make him human again?” Vanitas asked. "We couldn't get him out when he had the darkness cloak but you probably can now."

Riku frowned. “None of us know the spell.”

Vanitas blinked. “Seriously? You have a boyfriend who can change into animals, yet you never bothered to learn the spell to undo it?”

Riku blushed. “Well, Kairi and I tried to learn it, but it didn’t work,” he admitted.

“Yeah, it’s super difficult,” Kairi muttered into Vanitas’s back, still clutching him for some reason. Vanitas finally shook her off; she staggered back a little and giggled. Just how much had that girl drank?

“Huh. Interesting,” Vanitas commented. “Snick snack snorum,” he said, tapping cat-Sora on the head. With a small sparkle of magic, the cat-Sora was replaced with a human-Sora, dressed in a pirate outfit nearly identical to Kairi's.

Riku readjusted the boy in his arms and moved to sit on the ground with Sora laying in his lap. “How did you do that?” Riku asked Vanitas incredulously.

Vanitas shrugged. “I dunno. I asked Merlin, and he taught me,” he said casually, secretly pleased he could do some magic they couldn’t after completely failing at almost every non-dark spell they tried teaching him. Maybe it was because this type of magic didn’t require any element. Vanitas vaguely wondered if he could do transformations, too, if he could un-transform people; he’d have to ask Merlin.

“Can you teach us, Vani?” Kairi asked, plopping down next to Riku and sitting cross-legged, hands on her ankles and looking up like a toddler asking questions of a teacher.

“Uhhhh. No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Vanitas told her. If this magic was truly as difficult as they claimed, Vanitas did not want to be responsible for what happened if they messed up. Merlin could deal with that… huh. Vanitas briefly pondered that thought; a few months prior he’d have tried teaching them anyway and revelled in their failure…

Sora shifted slightly in Riku’s lap, then blinked open his eyes, only seeming half-aware of things. “Ngh… what happened?” he muttered.

“What do you last remember?” Riku asked.

Sora blinked, thinking about that. “Um… I was… oh. Um…” Sora looked reluctant to say.

“We’re already aware that you were in rage-form,” Riku said flatly, clearly not approving of their ‘experiment’.

“Oh. Okay. Well, that’s the last thing I remember; I went into it, then things are a little fuzzy but I actually do remember a little bit of the feeling of being in it, but then I blacked out… oh!” Sora tried sitting up only to be forced back down by Riku. “Riku! Let me up!” he whined. “Did I go on a rampage or something? Tell me what happened! I need to know! …Wait, why are you here? It was only Vani and Xehanort… oh no! Did I hurt them?!”

“We’re fine,” Vanitas promised Sora. “You need to rest; your energy’s pretty low after that. And don’t even think about transforming!” he ordered.

“Then, what happened?” Sora readjusted his position so he could turn to look at the environment around him, seeing clear marks of battle and the rest of their companions tired out. “Everyone’s here?! Did I do this?” he asked nervously, then his eyes fell on Aqua, who was still unconscious and surrounded by the healers. “Wait, who’s that? She looks familiar…”

“Probably because Ven’s inside you,” Vanitas explained, vaguely wondering why he used the nickname. “That’s Aqua, one of his friends.”

“Oh! So you found her? Nice job, Riku!” Sora said, turning to the silverette with a large smile.

“Er. More like she found us,” Riku said sheepishly. “You, er, have a lot to catch up on…”

“Wait! Kairi! Is she okay?!” Sora asked upon seeing the redhead next to them… now asleep on the floor curled up with an also-sleeping Lea. Sora tried to sit up again. “Lea!” he called too, and Vanitas felt a small flash of something from the boy's heart. Was that Roxas? Usually such flashes belonged to Ventus, which had been frequent when Vanitas first joined them but were rarer now.

Riku held Sora down as he tried to get up again. “They’re fine, just drunk. Now keep quiet and stay still so I can explain.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

It took roughly a quarter hour for Riku to explain everything to Sora, with the help of Vanitas, now sitting in front of them cross-legged, for the parts Riku hadn’t been there for, especially since Sora kept trying to interrupt to ask questions. Riku, truthfully, despite his calm demeanor and gentle stroking of Sora’s hair, was rather upset at the brunette for not telling him he was going to try something so dangerous, but he hid it, knowing this was no time for an argument. They could discuss that later. Plus, part of Riku knew that logically Sora learning to control and use rage-form would be beneficial, as it could prevent the darkness from reaching a high enough level to result in feral rampages, but still. Sora ought to have at least told Riku and Kairi about this; they were his partners, after all, hopefully for life. Having major secrets was not conducive to a healthy relationship, and the trio had already had multiple discussions in regards to such.

“Damn. Sounds like things were a real mess,” Sora concluded after a short pause once Riku had finished. Somewhere along the lines the brunette had wormed his way to be sitting fully in Riku’s lap, arms encircling Riku’s neck while Riku’s encircled Sora’s waist. “I’m sorry.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Dork. You have nothing to apologize for.”

“But I went into that form—”

“Okay, maybe apologizing for not telling me that would be nice, but literally nothing else was your fault,” Riku insisted, predicting his boyfriend’s line of thought. “If anything, it’s my fault. I was the team leader for this mission; I should have said no to the drinking. Then we’d have been in a sound state of mind and could have easily handled things when Aqua and Luxord appeared, backup not necessary.”

“No, it wasn’t your fault either. You had no way of knowing all this would happen,” Vanitas pointed out, to Riku's surprise. Was he trying to console Riku? That was new.

“Yeah, Riku, you thought everything was taken care of,” Sora added. “You can’t plan for every conspiracy.”

“Contingency,” Vanitas and Riku both corrected simultaneously.

Sora giggled. “Yeah, that,” he said as both boys blushed slightly. Riku never expected he and Vanitas would ever be on the same page to the point they would end up saying something together, but it seemed that they were when it came to Sora.

“Hey, looks like the bitch is awake,” Vanitas commented, looking over at Aqua with narrowed eyes.

“Vani! That’s not nice,” Sora chided.

Vanitas looked at Sora flatly. “Really? She just tried to murder us.”

“No, she tried to capture us, and that was only because she was possessed! She’s not at fault for any of it!” Sora’s voice slightly rose, a sign he was getting agitated.

“Sora, it’s fine,” Riku consoled the brunette. He had just been in rage-form; he needed to relax, not become high-strung.

“But—”

“You’re right,” Vanitas said quickly, again to Riku’s surprise. “That wasn’t her fault, sorry. She’s still a bitch though!”

“Oh, right. You two have history,” Riku recalled. A lot of it, all negative. Not that the bluenette’s attitude towards the noirette hadn’t been warranted; it very much had been, considering the person Vanitas had been at that point and whom he had been working for, however unwillingly.

“But you saved her life,” Sora pointed out. “That has to count for something.”

“No, I saved her from possession,” Vanitas clarified.

“That’s basically the same thing,” Riku pitched in. At least, in his opinion it was, based on his own experience with being possessed—it had been hell. In fact, Riku felt that death probably would have been preferred to the time he’d been possessed by Ansem.

“She doesn’t know it’s you though,” Sora suddenly said in realization. “She always saw you in a dark suit. So she doesn’t have to know!”

Vanitas sighed and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “Sora, even if she doesn’t recognize my presence, as soon as she hears my name she’ll know. It’s not exactly a common one. Same for when I summon my keyblade.”

“Ven!” came a gasp as Aqua, now sitting up, looked over at the group. She furrowed a brow. “No, you’re… Sora? And Riku…”

“Why does she know me?” Sora asked Riku in a whisper.

Riku explained, also quietly—he didn’t want the girl feeling sad that Sora didn’t remember her. “She visited the Islands once when we were really little.”

“Kairi!” Aqua gasped, noticing the sleeping girl and moving to get up, but was stopped by Mickey and Donald. “Is she okay?!”

Sora looked at Riku questioningly, and Riku shook his head, equally baffled at how the bluenette knew their girlfriend. She seemed to have no memory from when she was possessed, as expected, so it must have been from sometime before Aqua had fallen to darkness… had she known Kairi from before Kairi’s memories were lost?

“Yeah, she’s just asleep,” Vanitas answered.

Aqua froze. “That voice…” she whispered, a sense of dread in her tone as she slowly turned to Vanitas, who winced, clearly regretting saying anything. Aqua narrowed her eyes. “Vanitas,” she spat, pushing those around her away as she scrambled to stand and rushed towards the noirette, keyblade summoned and ready to strike.

“Aqua, wait!” Mickey shouted.

Vanitas, appearing stunned, made no attempt to block. Instead, Sora summoned his own keyblade to block her while Riku erected a dark shield to protect Vanitas.

“Why are you two protecting him?!” Aqua growled, enraged, as she tried to force through their defense. “He’s evil!”

“He’s not evil!” Sora protested, struggling to defend from his awkward position half in Riku’s lap and half on the floor; he hadn’t had time to stand. “Vanitas is on our side now! Xehanort’s the evil one!”

“Hey! I protest that!” Xehanort said as he rushed over to them from across the cave along with Donald, Goofy, Mickey, and R2.

“I meant the other one!” Sora quipped back. “Get over here and help!”

Aqua withdrew before the others could do anything, collecting herself somewhat. “What do you mean, other one?” she demanded. “And you can’t honestly trust Vanitas!”

“We do trust him,” Riku told Aqua firmly as he and Sora stood up, the latter helping Vanitas stand too as the noirette still appeared uncharacteristically shaken.

“You have a lot to catch up on,” R2 informed Aqua.

Aqua looked at R2 curiously. “Huh. I didn’t know Riku had a brother,” she commented, seeming calm despite her demeanor of only half a minute prior. That, or she was simply good at keeping a collected demeanor.

R2 bristled at that. “I’m not—ugh, you know what, fine,” he decided, throwing his hands up. “Sure, we’re brothers. Everyone—ugh!” R2 suddenly put his hands over his mouth and turned to run to the waterfall’s pool again.

Aqua merely looked confused at the display.

“We’ll explain everything,” Mickey promised. “But first, why don’t we all go to the Mysterious Tower? Yen Sid can help check ya over for any residual effects from the possession, he can help get you caught up on things, and we have to explain all these recent happenings to him as well.”

“Ugh. Do we have to?” Sora moaned. “I’m tired!”

“You can sleep on the ship!” Donald squawked, appearing angry.

“Speaking of ships, ours is not on this world,” Xehanort commented. “Sora, Vanitas, let’s go back to it; everyone else, we’ll meet you there.” He summoned a dark portal and stepped through.

Vanitas and Sora quickly followed him, the former with a casual wave and Sora with a cheerful “See ya!” Riku felt some metaphorical whiplash from their swift departure; he wondered if they would actually see the three at the Tower.

“How much do you wanna bet they’re not going to show up?” Lea, now awake, commented as he and Kairi, also awake, stood. He was clearly thinking the same as Riku: not one of the three would be happy about going to the Tower—Xehanort hated seeing Yen Sid due to the awkwardness of him seeing the wizard as an older version of a friend while Yen Sid saw him as a younger version of an enemy; Vanitas heavily disliked confronting his past; and Sora knew he was in huge trouble for the rage-form thing, especially since, as far as the brunette had been aware, none of the adults had known about it until now.

“Yeah, they’re not coming back,” Kairi agreed.

Goofy looked worried. “Gawrsh, do you really think they’d do that?”

Somehow, everyone else’s gaze fell on Riku, clearly expecting him to confirm or deny it. “They’re just joking; I’m sure those three will be there,” he assured the group, even though he was wondering that himself.

Chapter Text

“Well that didn’t go as planned,” Sora commented drily once he, Xehanort, and Vanitas emerged from the portal into Halloween Town.

“You said it,” Xehanort agreed.

Vanitas scoffed and crossed his arms. “Well, whose fault is that?” he spat, feeling extremely agitated. He did NOT want to go to that Tower! Vanitas had secretly been hoping the girl wouldn’t be found… well, okay, that was a lie, but he only wanted her found to retrieve Ventus’s body, not interact with her, which he’d need to do if they returned to the Tower.

Sora bristled at those words. “Hey! Things would have gone perfectly if Luxord hadn’t appeared!”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Suuuuuure it would have. You had complete control over that cat form.”

Sora crossed his arms, too, and retorted, “Well you put the idea in my head. Things would have worked otherwise.”

“Maybe it was a good thing that happened,” Xehanort tried to reason. “Now we know about the cat issue and can work on that. Better than it happening when trying to use the form in battle.”

“Well, whatever,” Sora grumbled. “Either way, the cat’s out of the bag—no, that was not an intentional pun!—about the rage form, so it doesn’t really matter if I was a cat in it or not. Yen Sid is gonna be absolutely pissed.”

Vanitas cringed, his own annoyance reducing somewhat. Right, he’d forgotten about that—Vanitas’s problem with the situation paled in comparison.

“Then we should probably get there asap, so we don’t incite his rage further,” Xehanort pointed out. “Yennie, in the past, could be scary when not in a good mood; I expect that has only increased with the rigidity he’s developed over the years.”

Sora winced. “Yeah, being on the receiving end of that is not fun…” he agreed, then declared, “Which is why we’re not going to go there!”

Xehanort raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms too. “Seriously? That’ll only make things worse.”

Sora shrugged. “That’s a problem for future-us,” he decided. “So, who’s with me?”

“I’m not,” Xehanort said. “As much as I dislike going there, it is necessary. They already have issues trusting me, simply because of who I am; I do not wish to give them further reason to.”

“Okay, fine. Vani?”

Vanitas shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the decision. On one hand, he didn’t want to go to the Tower either. On the other, it was the responsible thing to do, and running would only make things worse. Logically the latter would be the best choice, even if Vanitas’s heart didn’t want to be logical… “I don’t know,” Vanitas concluded.

“Well, I’m going,” Sora said stubbornly.

“Sora, we—”

“I’m going!” Sora said more forcefully, gathering dark energy, clearly attempting to form a portal.

“Wait, you haven’t tried that yet; wait until you’re not emotional!” Vanitas said with urgency. Sora had asked Vanitas to teach him some darkness-related things, but they hadn’t gotten past the theory of making portals yet! Trying it now wouldn’t be good.

“I’m not emotional!” Sora protested. “Now, are you going with me or not?” A portal appeared, fueled by the emotional frustration and budding anger, and Sora glared at Vanitas in a challenge.

“Sora, this—” Vanitas began.

“Fine then!” Sora interrupted. “Stay! But I’m going!” He darted into the portal.

“Seriously?!” Vanitas grumbled as he immediately followed—it looked like Sora had made his decision for him. There was no way he was letting the brunette go some random place alone, especially in such an emotional state!

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Our efforts have failed on all fronts,” Luxord reported from atop his stone spire—once again Xehanort had called a full meeting, although for some reason neither Demyx nor Vexen had shown up, nor had their newest member, Aqua. Xehanort had a feeling that that was related to what Luxord just said…

Xehanort narrowed his eyes at the man. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, they have failed on all fronts. Not only could no one be captured, but they were able to destroy the collar and free Aqua.”

“How?” Xehanort demanded.

“They called for backup. Aqua and I ended up facing quite literally all the guardians—and yes, that includes your younger self and the Riku replica—and that annoying duck and dog. They held Aqua down while Vanitas sucked the darkness from the collar.”

Xehanort sighed. This was certainly a setback, but he had to take things in stride; things could still be remedied. “Fortunately, all is not lost. It is not the ideal solution, but we must use replicas to fill out the remainder of our ranks.”

“Yeah, about that…” Xigbar began, “All the research on them, including the replica bodies themselves, are gone, and neither Vexen nor Demyx are responding to any efforts to contact them.”

Xehanort considered this as he tried not to panic. Could they have more defectors? That was impossible. Xehanort had given Vexen everything he demanded for his research; that should have been enough. Plus, Xehanort’s heart was in them! Did that not exert enough control? Had the two broken through that? No. There was no way.

“If they have defected too, that means we only have eight darknesses,” Ansem pointed out.

“Could we manage to create the X-blade with the reverse set-up?” Xemnas wondered. “That is, seven darknesses and thirteen lights?”

“No, that won’t work,” Xehanort said, waving a hand in dismissal, even though that wasn't technically true.

“We can use the thing in San Fransokyo,” Larxene suggested.

Xehanort quickly turned to look at her. “What thing in San Fransokyo?”

“I dunno. Thing looks like the replica, but I tried to capture it and it definitely is not. It’s really dark. Like, really really dark. Vanitas-level dark.”

Xehanort’s eyes widened, realizing who—or rather, what—the girl had encountered. “You… are you serious?”

“Yeah. The evil witch was talking to whatever-it-was.”

“The witch? You mean, Maleficent? So you’re saying both the dark fairy and Darkness itself are there?”

Larxene’s brow scrunched in confusion. “Darkness itself?”

“Hmmm. We might be able to pull this off yet,” Xehanort mused, quickly constructing a plan. If they could get Darkness on board, as well as the dark fairy…

“Yeah, neither of those things are gonna happen,” Xigbar said casually, predicting Xehanort’s line of thought. “Darkness does what it wants, and the fairy is definitely not going to work with you after that stunt Ansem pulled.”

Xehanort sighed. He had to admit that was true. Perhaps he should not have burned that bridge so readily.

“Perhaps we can use villains like the ones Maleficent used during her scheme,” Marluxia suggested.

“Those ones were excessively annoying,” Ansem pointed out.

“Yes, but it may be our only option left…” Xehanort mused. If they found dark enough villains, he could easily control them with his heart spell.

“If you do so, I am leaving,” Ansem informed him.

This only slightly surprised Xehanort; his heartless self had a true hatred for those annoying villains. There was no doubt that his threat was real. “Fine,” Xehanort conceded. “I suppose seven darknesses and thirteen lights it is, then,” he decided. Things would get dicey, as that would put the battle odds in the Light’s favor, but Xehanort was certain he could take them despite that.

“Do they even have thirteen?” Larxene wondered.

“If Vexen truly has defected, he will surely use the replicas to aid the Light in restoring the hearts of those lost,” Luxord pointed out.

Xehanort listed the members. “Sora, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, Ventus, Aqua, Lea, Naminé, Xion, Roxas, the Riku replica, teenage me… that leaves one more light keyblade wielder necessary.”

“Naminé can wield a keyblade?” Marluxia asked, clearly confused.

“She comes from Kairi and Sora. Of course she can,” Xehanort practically snapped, resisting rolling his eyes. “She just needs to unlock the skill.”

“Yeah but how?” Larxene wondered.

“They all live with Merlin. He will be able to tell. Now, we need one more…”

“What about Vanitas?” Xemnas wondered. “You did not mention his name.”

Xehanort scoffed. “Whether he likes it or not, Vanitas has no light, and if he did, it’ll never be enough to act as a Guardian. We’ll just have to dodge him if he tries to attack during the finale. Now, onto the matter of their final Light…” his gaze fell to the one member of the group that rarely spoke.

Terra-Xehanort raised his eyebrows. “That is not a good look.”

Xehanort uncharacteristically grinned. “Congratulations; you are going to be the first person I’ve ever willingly de-posessed.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku crossed his arms and tapped his foot anxiously as he stood in Yen Sid’s study along with Kairi, R2, Lea, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and their newest addition, Aqua. Yen Sid, as usual, sat straight-backed in his tall chair, as though he were wearing some sort of back brace. Maybe he was; there was no way someone could remain in such a perfect posture for as long as he could. Riku had only arrived a moment prior to find that, although they had been closer, Xehanort, Sora, and Vanitas had not arrived yet… Would they have actually run? Riku wouldn’t put it past Sora or Vanitas, but Xehanort usually acted more sensible, as he still felt he had to prove he was on their side—understandable, considering he was the younger form of their biggest enemy.

Speaking of, the door opened, and Riku pushed back a sigh of release. So they had arrived, after all… wait, no. Only Xehanort had? Where were—

“So they ditched after all,” Lea commented, arms crossed.

“I tried to stop them,” Xehanort informed the group. “But they ran off in Halloween Town. I tried to convince them not to, I swear, but then Sora summoned a dark portal—”

Half the room proclaimed variations of “What?!”

“You misspoke,” Riku concluded in disbelief. “Vanitas must—”

“No, it was definitely Sora,” Xehanort interjected. “Vani’s been trying to teach him to use the darkness; the theory is that by using it, it won’t build up enough to be dangerous.”

“What? Since when?!” Riku proclaimed. “And why would he tell you and not me?” he wondered, slightly hurt.

“They only told me moments before we tried that experiment earlier,” Xehanort informed them calmly. “Presumably they hadn’t told you yet out of fear of this type of reaction; you know Sora tends to avoid conflict whenever he can.”

“Like now,” Kairi said with a sigh. “Think we should look for them?”

R2 scoffed. “I doubt they’ll run forever. We’ll probably find them dicking around back at Merlin’s or something."

“Perhaps,” Yen Sid said loudly, causing everyone to instantly quiet, then said in a more normal voice, “you all could explain what is going on, and why Sora of all people has been using the darkness to the point he can form portals, as well as why the two have run, how Aqua was found, and what occurred on your missions in general? Riku, perhaps you wish to explain your mission first?”

Riku sighed; he wanted to grumble ‘why me?’ but refrained, as he had been team leader so it only logically followed he’d have to do the report. Thus, he proceeded to explain, leaving out certain things of course. Then Xehanort explained the mission he, Vanitas, and Sora had gone on, as even though Sora had technically been the mission leader Xehanort was the only one there.

“Things in both your reports do not add up,” Yen Sid commented immediately after. “What reason did you have to run, on both your parts, when you were fighting only one person each? And Riku, after you ran, why did you require so much backup?”

“Um…” Riku nervously shifted slightly, and Kairi grabbed his hand in solidarity.

“Because they got drunk!” Donald squawked. “Again!!”

“We thought the mission was over!” R2 protested.

“It’s true,” Lea added. “We didn’t know a second Organization member would appear; we thought we’d flushed them out. Nor did we know it would be Aqua.”

“I apologize for that,” Aqua said hurriedly. “I was ill-prepared, and allowed myself to be captured.”

“Gosh, don’t worry about that,” Mickey told her. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t expect them to have a device like that.”

“Exactly! Just like we couldn’t expect you appearing!” Kairi boldly interjected.

“Enough!” Yen Sid commanded. “I am very disappointed in the four of you who went to the Caribbean,” he told them. “Especially you, Riku; I thought at least you would be responsible. I made it very clear that no wielder ought to be drinking during a mission.”

“But we seriously thought the mission was over!” Riku argued.

“He’s right, Master,” Mickey pitched in in their defense. “The rule is no drinking on missions, and despite remaining in the world the mission had technically ended.”

Yen Sid frowned, seeming to contemplate that. “Very well. I suppose I will overlook it once again. However, in the future when a mission is completed, I expect you to report in immediately, whether in-person, via Merlin’s crystal, or via a GummiPhone call to Mickey.” Right, for some reason Yen Sid didn’t have a phone, preferring to only talk in-person or using magic devices. Merlin was similar despite his house having a computer. "Only then may you indulge in entertainment endeavors."

Riku let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Thank you, Master,” he told the elderly wizard.

Yen Sid didn’t reply to that, rather continued his questions, now directed to Xehanort. “Now, what were you, Sora, and Vanitas doing that you couldn’t properly fight?”

Xehanort mumbled something about a winged cat and unversed.

“Please speak up,” Yen Sid ordered.

Xehanort took a deep breath, then explained more clearly, looking slightly dejected and ashamed. He concluded with, “Our mission was over too.”

“Mission completed or not, playing around with the darkness was extremely irresponsible. Although Sora and Vanitas are known to be reckless, I expected better of you, at least, Xehanort; or are you once again beginning to fall to darkness?”

“No, no, not at all!” Xehanort quickly counteracted, waving his hands in front of him a little. “I didn’t have any hand in it; I just watched! I was curious, and Sora was extremely adamant about trying it, and Vani thought it was safe! It would have been, too, if Luxord hadn’t appeared!”

Yen Sid sighed and muttered something under his breath that sounded like “teenagers” before continuing with “Regardless, it was irresponsible to do that without telling anyone. Did you at least consult with Merlin on the matter prior to the attempt?”

“...No,” Xehanort admitted. “Sora seemed really confident about it, had a book with all sorts of magical equations ready that he claimed proved it would work and was safe.”

Yen Sid raised his eyebrows. “And where would Sora have gotten such a book on darkness? Surely Merlin wouldn’t give it to him…”

“I dunno. It was a notebook; looked like he made it himself. He made some notes and modified some equations, too, and was pointing to some other ones telling Vani something about designing powerful new battle spells that maybe he could learn.”

Yen Sid looked completely shocked at this news, breaking his usually stoic demeanor completely. “Xehanort. Are you saying Sora has been creating his own spells?”

Xehanort shrugged. “I dunno. Sora made that new world-order spell almost entirely on his own, right? Merlin only checked it over and refined it. Not a far stretch he’d be modifying or making other ones. He mentioned something about them being fusions of known spells with darkness—you know, like dark firaga, but using other elements and traits—because Vanitas wants to learn more spells but has been having issues with non-dark ones.”

“That’s dangerous!” Donald squawked. He turned to Riku and Kairi. “Did you two know about this?!”

Kairi shook her head, looking a little pale, and Riku informed them, “No. We saw him with the notebook a few times, but had no idea that it was for brand-new spells, let alone darkness-related ones; neither of us are nearly as adept at magic as Sora. All he said was that it was notes on magical theory, so I assumed it was related to Merlin’s lessons.”

“So he’s experimenting with magic, and clearly knows he shouldn’t be,” Mickey concluded. “At least not without supervision. Particularly if darkness is involved.”

“He should not be using darkness at all,” Yen Sid ground out.

“But if it can help with rage-form, doesn’t it make more sense to?” Lea reasoned.

“Ah, yes, that is another point we must discuss,” Yen Sid said, stoic demeanor back in place. “What is this thing you are calling ‘rage-form’?” Ah, right. Until that day, Mickey had been the only adult to know about it.

Thus, that was explained too; by the end, Yen Sid had a hand on his forehead, elbow on his desk, clearly exasperated with everything.

“It sounds like we need to have a serious talk with Sora about lots of things,” Goofy concluded, voice full of worry.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Donald grumbled.

“If we can find him,” Lea pointed out.

“We need to find him,” Aqua asserted resolutely, the first comment she’d made since arriving at the Tower other than basic greetings—understandably so, as she didn’t know much about what had occurred. “We cannot let Ven fall into Vanitas’s clutches.”

“Hey, remember, Vanitas on our side now,” Mickey reminded the bluenette.

“So you say. I still think he’s playing you,” she again informed everyone.

“Hey, Sora says he’s okay,” Riku pointed out. “I trust Sora’s judgement.” Plus, Riku had also grown friendly with the noirette, trusting him as well, he realized.

“Well, I don’t.”

“What about Ven’s?” Kairi asked. “His heart’s in Sora’s. Sora said he can sometimes feel the people in there; surely he would have reacted negatively and not let Sora trust Vanitas so much if he truly were a threat,” she reasoned.

Aqua didn’t back down, instead crossing her arms and shaking her head. “Unfortunately, we cannot trust Ven’s judgement on him, either,” she said, to Riku’s surprise. Weren’t the two close? Aqua then explained, “Ven can be much too naïve. Being pure light works against him in that way—he’ll trust everyone he meets, seeing the good in people without noticing the bad until it’s too late.”

“Sora’s like that too,” Goofy said.

R2 let out a single laugh at that. “Sorry,” he apologized. “But, he’s really not. When we first confronted him and said we wanted to talk, he knocked us out and tied us up. Nearly strangled me too!” This was news to Riku.

“That was only a threat,” Xehanort corrected. “I doubt he was serious about actually killing us.”

“Yeah, well, he left a bruise. And that was AFTER he told us he would talk. We weren’t even attacking at that point! That is not trust. Not at all.”

“To be fair, you did kidnap him first,” Xehanort mused.

“What? You helped!”

“It was your idea.”

“Boys!” Mickey said loudly, then when everyone quieted said more normally, “Now is not the time to argue about that. Aqua, if you don’t trust Sora or Ven, trust me: Vanitas is on our side now. He’s been changing, thanks to Sora’s influence. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he followed Sora to protect him!”

“He did,” Xehanort confirmed. “Vani had decided to come here too, despite his reservations; Sora is the one who insisted on running off.”

“Do you know where they went?” Riku asked.

Xehanort shook his head. “No. It is likely they were sent to a random world; Sora was in an emotional state, so most likely did not have the conscientiousness required to choose a world.”

“Hmmmm…” Yen Sid mused, teepeeing his fingers with elbows on his desk. “That is quite the conundrum. Finding Sora is imperative; Xehanort will still desire his capture, after all.”

“Wait. We have GummiPhones,” Lea pointed out.

“Of course!” Mickey proclaimed. “Surely they will answer their phones.”

“Ah, yes,” Yen Sid agreed. “Even if Sora refuses to answer, if Vanitas indeed has followed Sora with the intent of protecting him, surely he will. Riku, please go do that. As to the rest of you, I would like you to help Aqua catch up on everything she has missed over the past twelve years.”

Aqua crossed her arms and grumbled under her breath something that sounded like, “You’re all too soft.”

Chapter Text

“I’m a cat,” Vanitas said flatly, twisting to look around at himself; a pure black cat, as would be expected for a being of darkness, although he was smaller and fluffier than a full-grown cat—not quite young enough to be a kitten but not grown enough to be an adult. “Why am I a cat?”

“The world magic spell did it,” Sora explained, in a nearly identical cat-form, with the exception of his coat, which was a light auburn. He also wore his usual crown necklace. “We still had it cast on us when we went through. This must be a world of cats,” he concluded, sounding much more chipper than only minutes before. Vanitas checked the brunette’s emotional state, and to his surprise discovered it was not an act. Was it normal for emotions to change so rapidly?

“Yeah but I definitely see humans around too,” Vanitas pointed out. They were on a busy cobblestone street, full of quaint shops at the base of tall multi-story buildings, mostly brick and all adjacent to each other. “Why would we be cats instead?”

Sora shrugged, an odd movement for a cat. “Beats me.”

“Huh? Haven’t you been here before?” Vanitas asked.

“Uh…" Soda looked around, then concluded, "No, I definitely haven’t."

“Then why—oh. You weren’t actually thinking of a specific place when you ran through the portal, were you?” Vanitas accused. If you didn’t, you got sent to a random place.

Sora looked sheepish. “I, er, kinda got distracted,” he mumbled.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Well, whatever. Let’s get out of here then.”

“No!” Sora insisted, tackling Vanitas before he could summon a portal. “Let’s explore some first!”

“Why?”

“Because it’ll be fun! Come on, Vani, we’re in a new world, and we’re cats! Might as well, right?”

Vanitas sighed. “Yeah, whatever, sure.”

“Yay!” Sora cheered, then bounded off.

“Hey, wait!” Vanitas called, chasing after the brunette.

When he finally caught up to Sora, thanks to the brunette actually slowing down, he pointed out, “You know, we’re going to get into big trouble for this. Like, really really REALLY big trouble.”

“Pfft. That’s a problem for future-us,” Sora decided, which seemed to be an idea he subscribed to a lot now. He seemed unusually energetic and… cheerful? No, not cheerful? Something else. Vanitas couldn’t quite place the emotion coming from Sora.

“Hey, you okay?” Vanitas asked. Sora had been acting similar before trying the darkness thing too, come to think about it.

“Yeah, of course!” Sora exclaimed. “More than okay! I haven’t felt this good in, like, forever!”

Vanitas stopped walking, grabbing Sora’s tail with his teeth to get the brunette to stop too—he wasn’t sure how else to do that as a cat.

“Hey! What was that for?!” Sora bristled.

“You’re acting strange,” Vanitas said bluntly.

“What? No I’m not!” Sora protested, practically jumping in place with energy.

Vanitas narrowed his eyes. “Are you high or something?” Vanitas didn’t know what people on drugs acted like other than that they usually acted strange, and Sora was definitely acting strange.

“Of course not,” Sora said, seeming offended. “Well, unless you count the one the doctor gave me for depression,” he added more casually than expected, considering he hadn’t known that Vanitas knew about that. “It’s supposed to make me not-depressed, and I’m not, so it’s clearly working!”

“Yeah, I think it’s working too much,” Vanitas said dryly.

“Too much? How can you be too happy?” Sora wondered.

“I’m not sure this is happy…” Vanitas said warily. “It’s… weird,” he tried explaining when Sora responded with a confused look. “You’re being hyper, and reckless, irresponsible, and just generally not yourself. I think you need to try a new medicine,” he ventured. Sora would have never done the portal if he were thinking clearly, Vanitas was certain, and although the brunette disliked confrontation he wouldn’t typically go this far knowing the consequences of defying Yen Sid. Plus, the extent of his current high-energy was not normal.

Sora pouted, which was an odd expression on a cat. If Vanitas couldn’t read his emotions he’d be baffled at the expression. “But this is the third one I’ve tried, and we’re finally getting results!”

“The wrong results,” Vanitas insisted. “Seriously, Sora, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be running around in your current state. Especially because it’s been slingshotting your emotions between this hyper cheerfulness and super agitation, like you had before we ran into the portal. It’s not good. We should go back…” Huh. When had he become the responsible one? Usually he’d be all for exploring and avoiding responsibility, or at least he used to be. Well, if it was for Sora’s safety then Vanitas could be responsible for once.

“But Van-niiiii!” Sora protested, dragging out the syllables. "I want to explore! Come on, it’ll be fun!” Sora turned and ran off again.

“Shit,” Vanitas swore, rushing after him. He really hoped he could keep Sora under control—and convince him to go to that doctor immediately after returning back to Radiant Garden.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Sora, we’ve been walking for hours,” Vanitas complained. “Aren’t you tired yet?” A human should not have that much energy for that length of time. Not that Vanitas was tired; his energy was fueled by darkness, so he could easily walk and run for hours. It was fairly boring though, as Sora was investigating every rock and flower as he bounded around so had no time to even talk to Vanitas.

“Nope! I have lots of energy!” Sora informed him, hopping over to investigate a random log. Their current path had farmland on one side and woods on the other.

“Why, hello there,” came a svelte purr as an orange adult tom cat jumped onto the log.

Sora yelped and shuffled backwards.

“Hey, relax,” said the cat as he jumped down from the log. “I mean no harm. What are a couple of young ones doing around here on your own? This is a dangerous area, you know.”

“Dangerous? What do you mean?” Vanitas asked, tensing.

“Whatever it is, we can take it!” Sora declared. “We’re not afraid of anything!”

“Oh?” The cat raised an eyebrow. “Not even… dogs?”

“Nope! We’re friends with a dog!” Sora informed the cat.

The cat looked surprised. “Whoa. Now that’s unusual! But trust me, the ones on the farm over there? You do not want to cross them! Only an experienced cat like myself can confront them.” Wow. This cat had a gigantic ego.

“We’re experienced cats!” Sora protested.

“Uh, yeah, no we’re not,” Vanitas countered. They’d been cats for what, three hours? Well, at least Vanitas had. Sora actually was experienced being a cat, come to think of it.

The cat laughed. “If you say so. I’d still stay away from the farm if I were you. In fact, you two should go home; kittens should be with their parents, and judging by your coats and that necklace, you must be aristocrats.”

Sora wilted slightly at that, mood significant falling. “Oh… um…”

“We don’t have parents,” Vanitas said quickly. Well, not ones they associated with.

The cat looked surprised. “Oh, wow. That is so sad! I suppose it must be a recent development; most street cats don’t look so regal… oh, I’m sorry, that was probably rude of me to ask."

“No, it’s okay,” Sora said, too cheerfully for his sudden mood change. “You’re right, it was recent.”

”Hmm…” the cat pondered that. “Well, then, why don’t you join our clowder?” he decided. “I have a feeling you’ll fit in just fine.”

“Clowder?” Sora asked.

“Yup! It’s a word for a group of cats! Most of us live more or less independently during the day, but during the night we often get together to play music! We’ve got a nice abandoned building in the city. It’s got nice places to sleep, too.”

Vanitas processed that. A cat playing music? Well, Vanitas supposed he’d seen weirder. And sleep would be good; Vanitas was feeling a little tired… oh, right. Cats slept a whole lot more than humans.

Vanitas yawned, then Sora did too.

The orange cat chuckled. “Yeah, it’s definitely time for a nap for me too. Come on, I’ll show you a nice place to sleep, under some large ferns… oh, by the way, the name is Thomas O’Malley.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku sat on a couch in the Mysterious Tower’s library, elbows on his knees and head in his hands, thinking what to do. So much had happened in such a short time! There was the thing with Kairi, the whole ordeal with saving Aqua, and now Sora was missing after experimenting with darkness. The priority, of course, was finding Sora; Riku had tried calling his and Vanitas’s GummiPhones multiple times, but there had been no answer. Where were they? Were they in danger?

Riku’s phone, next to him on the couch, began to ring. Riku hurriedly grabbed it, a wave of relief coming over him when he saw it was Vanitas. Riku quickly answered it: “Hey! Finally! I’ve been calling for hours; what’s going on? Are—wait, are you a cat?!”

“Great observation,” Vanitas said sarcastically. “Yes, I’m a cat. So is Sora. And before you ask, no, we don’t know where we are.”

“Is Sora okay?” Riku asked. “Why weren’t you answering?”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Sora was a little shit about it. He refused to answer his own phone, and to prevent me from answering mine he wouldn’t tell me how to access the pocket dimension in a world where the form doesn’t have pockets. Had to figure it out myself, and then it took me a while to figure out how to work the phone with paws. Had to use my tongue; touch screens based on body heat aren’t practical for cats.”

Riku ignored the tongue comment to ask, “And he’s okay with you calling now? Can I talk to him?”

“Nope; he doesn’t know. He’s asleep. Turns out cats sleep a lot.” Vanitas fumbled with the phone, looking like he was using his paws and teeth to maneuver it so Riku could see Sora… who was indeed sleeping, curled against a larger orange cat.

“Who’s that?” Riku asked, narrowing his eyes.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Relax, no need to get jealous. It’s a cat that’s been helping us, goes by the name of Thomas; we just met him.”

“I’m not jealous,” Riku muttered, painfully aware of the blush spreading across his face.

“Uh-huh, sure.”

“Seriously!” Riku protested. “Anyway, Yen Sid is pissed. You must have known it wasn’t a good idea to run!”

“Okay, first, for the record, I didn’t run. I fully planned on going to that meeting, Aqua being there or not. I followed Sora because I was worried, NOT because I also wanted to skip out on the meeting, got it?” Vanitas informed Riku forcefully.

“Okay, okay, got it,” Riku said, not wanting to cause further vitriol. Plus, he found he actually believed such would happen, trusting Vanitas wouldn’t lie about that—plus Vanitas’s tone of voice definitely coincided with what he said, his feelings on the matter visible. Despite often hiding his positive feelings, Vanitas wasn’t that great an actor, and he had no reason to lie. Riku knew the so-called ‘being of darkness’, for some reason, was as adamant about protecting Sora as Riku and Kairi were. “Anyway, so what happened? Xehanort said Sora formed a portal?” This worried Riku greatly. "And why aren't you making a portal out?"

"Apparently, I can't make a portal in cat-form," Vanitas grumbled. “Tried it before calling you; I thought I could drag him back while asleep. As to Sora making a portal, yes, he did,” Vanitas confirmed. “Before you say anything, that was not my idea either, nor did I teach him. I told the kid the theory, yeah, but that was the first time he ever tried it. And before you try to blame me for teaching him, in my defense, basically no one gets it on the first try, especially without someone actually showing them! I had no way of knowing he would do that!”

Riku sighed. “Right. I believe you; I often forget Sora’s like that with magic, too. Is it true he’s been experimenting with new dark spells?”

“Also in my defense, I didn’t know about that until shortly before trying the rage-form thing,” Vanitas said firmly. “I taught him a few basic things—nothing more than what you could have taught him—since he asked and I didn’t want him trying stuff on his own, but I had no idea he would go and play around with them! I swear I thought it was basic curiosity, since lots of mages will try it a little. Most of the time they learn a spell or two and then get bored with it, since it’s more difficult the lighter you are, not go and make bigger ones. And that kid still has a lot of light, despite that darkness pool.”

“Well, although he does have more light, Sora has a lot more darkness than we ever realized,” Riku mused. “And he can be somewhat… enthusiastic about learning magic.” He sighed. “I guess we should have expected this in retrospect.” Somehow, Riku found himself calming; Sora wasn’t turning dark, he was just playing around. Dangerously playing around, but he was still plenty light; Riku himself used the darkness, so he couldn’t fault Sora for using some too.

“You’re not upset?” Vanitas asked curiously.

“Nah. Sora will be fine,” Riku said, realizing he believed it. He’d have to have a conversation with Sora about its safety, that’s all. Maybe Riku could even help him learn some things, how to control it without it causing issues; he trusted Vanitas wouldn’t intentionally pull Sora too far in, but it didn’t hurt to be safe—after all, Vanitas was still a dark being, so might not have the same awareness of what was too far and what wasn’t for a typical human.

“Well, we agree on that front, then,” Vanitas said. “But… okay, I don’t like admitting this, but I guess it was kinda my fault he started experimenting. So, I’m sorry,” Vanitas said in a hurry.

Riku scrunched his brow in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he said he wanted to make some spells I could do, since I was…” Vanitas took a deep breath. “Since I was having trouble learning anything that wasn’t dark. He thinks that if he mixes darkness into those spells, I could do them. If I didn’t suck at magic so much he wouldn’t be doing that.”

Riku shook his head. “Don’t blame yourself,” he told Vanitas. “And, for the record, you don’t suck at magic; you just have a different elemental affinity than most. Your dark spells are better than nearly everyone’s,” he consoled the noirette, hiding his surprise that Vanitas would show such vulnerability. For all his cocky attitude, it seemed that Vanitas had a fair amount of insecurities. It was good that he was learning to open up about that… huh. Vanitas was comparable to Sora in that way, Riku realized. They both hid their emotions, albeit different ones and with different veneers, and both were learning how to show those emotions.

“If you say so,” Vanitas muttered, then shifted the subject. “Oh. Before I forget, there’s something else Sora-related that actually is a problem…” He shifted nervously.

Riku narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

Vanitas sighed. “So, you know he’s on medicine, right? Well—”

“Wait, he told you that? When? I had to find out on my own!” Riku said, hurt.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. Do you really think he’d have told me willingly? He didn’t even know I knew until today.”

This confused Riku. “Then how did you know?”

“You honestly think Aerith thought to bring Sora somewhere all on her own? He had her as fooled about his happiness as everyone else!”

“What? YOU told her?” Riku proclaimed, flabbergasted. Vanitas kept throwing him curveballs.

“Well, yeah, that’s what I just said! Anyway, back to the medicine…”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Later that day, as the sun was setting, Thomas led Vanitas and Sora into the main city of Paris, down cobblestone streets and past shops topped with multiple floors of living spaces, up trash cans and fences and fire-escapes onto pointed tiled roofs, upon which they easily balanced. Eventually they came across what appeared to be an abandoned wood house in disrepair, six stories high, although a light was on on the upper story with a window open.

“Well, this is it!” Thomas declared cheerfully.

“What’s it?” Vanitas wondered.

“Where the clowder lives, of course! This is a pad for all cats, the best one in all of Paris, both a place to rest up and have fun! And I have a feeling that tonight you’re in for quite a show…” The cat said, looking proud of this.

“A show?” Sora asked, eyes practically lighting up in excitement. He seemed much calmer after the earlier nap, although Vanitas had a sneaking suspicion that whatever Thomas had in store for them would only serve to rile the auburn cat up again… wait. Hadn't the cat said something about music earlier?

“Yup! One everyone can participate in! You’ll see!” Thomas winked. “I bet it’s something you’ve never seen before, growing up with humans. The kind that give you such fancy necklaces tend to be quite boring.”

“Um. I guess?” Sora commented, looking slightly confused, most likely because the necklace wasn’t what they’d call particularly ‘fancy’ nor was Riku.

The three entered the building through an open window—before which Vanitas realized that probably he should text Riku the name of the place now that he knew it, thus did so—into which turned out to be a refurbished attic with a bed, dressers, piano, and lots of random junk. There were a myriad of cats scattered about, some licking themselves—right, that’s how cats bathed—, some curled up asleep, some doing what appeared to be wrestling, and others just lazing around, chatting with each other or in quiet contemplation.

This all changed as soon as the cats noticed who had entered. They all immediately stopped what they were doing, then some pounced on the sleeping cats to get them up, with complaints that soon turned into excitement.

Thomas hopped down further into the room and a large grey cat adorned with a black-and-red bowler hat and red bowtie ambled up to them. “Well, O’Malley, nice to see you around! I see you’ve brought some young'uns. Gonna teach them to swing?”

“Well, if everyone’s up for it! I think these cats need some fun,” Thomas answered cheerfully. “Oh, by the way, this is Scat Cat,” Thomas introduced to Sora and Vanitas.

“A real pleasure to meet ya,” Scat Cat said. “And you two are…?”

“Oh!” Sora proclaimed. “I’m Sora! This is my brother, Vanitas!”

"Ah, littermates! Wonderful!"

“Those are some unusual names!” declared a thin amber-colored cat wearing a necklace of blue beads, a white shaggy wig, and round purple glasses. He had a guitar in his lap.

“And such an unusual necklace,” said a siamese cat, peering closely at it; so closely Sora backed up a pace.

“Yes, they were abandoned by some people in the rich part of town,” Thomas told him, then in a whisper that was still loud enough to hear, though whether the cat realized it or not, said, “They still think the humans will come looking for them.”

“Oh, well that’s just a darn shame,” said Scat Cat. “Well, here, how about some music then? That’ll surely pick up your spirits!”

“Music?” Sora asked, looking excited. “What kind? Rock?”

“Well, I dunno what that is, but if that’s what you call the stuffy aristocrat music, then definitely not!” Scat Cat declared.

“I told you before, we do swing music here!” Thomas told the boys.

“Oh, duh. That’s what you meant by swing,” Sora said, looking slightly… embarrassed? Was there a different definition of the word that was embarrassing?

“Well, we can’t have cats deprived of good music!” a fatter, darker-colored orange cat, wearing a green bowler hat on his head and a red-and-white polka-dot bandana around his neck, declared as he pulled out a strange instrument that looked like a covered slinky… what was that called? Vanitas wasn’t well-versed in instruments.

“It’s an accordion,” Sora whispered, noticing Vanitas’s confusion.

“Well, let’s do this!” Thomas declared.

Suddenly, the siamese cat ran to a piano and another dark-grey cat similar to Scat Cat but instead of actually being fat had fluffy long fur giving the appearance of such grabbed what appeared to be a large guitar with a point on the bottom and strange squiggly holes instead of a round one. Sora supplied the name ‘cello’. They immediately began playing a bouncy tune while a myriad of other cats in the room gathered around to watch and began moving slightly to the music.

Then, Scat Cat and Thomas began to sing and dance.

Everybody wants to be a cat
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at
Tell me, everybody's pickin' up on that feline beat
'Cause everything else is obsolete

Sora began moving back and forth to the tune, and put a paw on Vanitas’s back to try to get him to as well. Most of the other cats were now dancing in earnest.

“Come on, dance with us!” Thomas declared.

Sora leapt into the fray, dragging Vanitas with him by the tail. Vanitas didn’t fight, knowing it was hopeless; looks like he was going to learn how to dance to this strange ‘swing’ music that was oddly catchy.

A square with a horn
Makes you wish you weren't born
Every time he plays
But with a square in the act
You can set music back
To the caveman days

Now the cats playing the instruments were passing them onto other cats so they could dance as well—were all cats musical here? One pulled Sora in to dance some sort of jig, holding his front paws and stepping back and forth on his rear legs. The thin orange cat in the wig grabbed Vanitas.

“Come on, you can do it!” the cat told Vanitas, ignoring his clear reluctance. “It’s easy to dance swing! And-a-rock and-a-step and-a-tri-ple-step…” The cat repeated this as he stepped to the beat until Vanitas finally managed to get somewhat into the swing of it. “That’s it!” the cat declared, and then lifted his arm to move Vanitas into a spin, after which he let go and another cat caught him, this one doing simpler foot movements, no tricky tri-ple-step involved as he moved them around the room.

I've heard some corny birds who tried to sing
Still a cat's the only cat
Who knows how to swing
Who wants to dig a long-haired gig stuff like that?
When everybody wants to be a cat

Sora passed by Vanitas, dancing with yet another cat, and yelled at him over the music, “Isn’t this fun!?”

Vanitas wasn’t sure what to say. On one hand, saying so would mar his dark and stormy image, although he had to admit that was already significantly weaker than it had originally been, maybe to the point it couldn’t be called that anymore. On the other hand, Vanitas found that he actually was having fun—a lot of it! Should he admit that?

Thomas, noticing Vanitas was still fairly tense, briefly broke his singing to yell at him, “Come on, let loose!” before immediately continuing the song.

A square with a horn
Makes you wish you weren't born,
Every time he plays
Oh riki-tiki-tinky
With a square in the act
You can set music back to the Caveman days

The music suddenly got louder as a trombone—or was it a trumpet?—and a saxophone joined in too, and lights in different colors began to flash around the room as the dancing became more boisterous. Vanitas finally gave fully into the music as he was tossed to yet another cat—the dancing seemed to be a partner thing, and clearly involved more than just the simple steps of earlier as the cats dipped and twirled him too, although Vanitas found it becoming easy to follow as he gave in to the flow of the music, even though the beat had now strayed from the original one, requiring a change in step pattern.

Everybody wants to be a cat
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at
When playin' jazz he always has a welcome mat
'Cause everybody digs a swingin' cat

Sora was now singing too as he swiped Vanitas from yet another new cat to dance with him.

“How do you know the lyrics?” Vanitas asked.

Sora laughed. “Magic, of course! Here, I’ll use the spell on you, too!”

“Wait, no—” too late. Vanitas felt the magic wash over him, and he found he knew the words.

“Yeah, still not singing,” Vanitas said with a pout.

“You say that now, but you will soon enough,” Sora said, a twinkle in his eyes as he tossed Vanitas over to Scat Cat.

Everybody, everybody
Everybody wants to be a cat

The music picked up again, to the point that it was rocking the entire house.

Vanitas subconsciously started singing along, getting entirely lost in the music, and when he realized that he found he didn’t care—this was possibly the most fun he’d had in his life!

Everybody, everybody
Everybody wants to be a cat
Everybody, everybody
Everybody wants to be a cat
Everybody, everybody
Everybody wants to be a cat

The song ended, but then Scat Cat asked if there were new song requests, which there were, and the band began playing those, most of the cats now using the rock-step-tri-ple-step pattern from before, making it easier to keep up, with the exception of one confusing dance that appeared to involve kicking and another involving them standing in lines doing tricky footwork, during which Vanitas crashed into Sora.

“Va-ni!” Sora laughed from partially underneath him.

Vanitas quickly untangled himself from Sora. “Not a word of this when we return,” he warned as the two hopped back into the dance, Vanitas trying to figure the pattern out by mimicking Sora’s movements because apparently the brunette had either picked it up unusually quickly or already knew the dance.

This lasted for over an hour more, songs changing with little warning as cats shouted new ones, until everyone began falling onto the various blankets and chairs scattered around the room, completely tired out. Soon even the musicians were yawning as they played, and then finally they put down their instruments.

Vanitas gave a huge yawn as he collapsed on a nearby stray cushion, barely aware of Sora sleepily hopping over to him, yawning too.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Shortly after his phone conversation with Vanitas, Riku found himself in the Mysterious Tower's kitchen with Lea, R2, Mickey, Xehanort, Donald, and Goofy, eating lunch—Aqua was absent as she was receiving new faerie clothing and discussing things with Yen Sid, and Kairi had stayed behind as well to ask Aqua if she knew about Kairi’s childhood as she’d apparently known her then. Kairi… Riku recalled the Caribbean tavern, and how she’d left with that woman… Should Riku bring that up, or let Kairi do so? Or, maybe Jack had been right, and he should put it out of his mind—Riku didn’t know exactly what happened, after all. If it was benign, which was honestly more likely, Kairi would surely get angry, and in the unlikely possibility his undoubtedly jealousy-fueled suspicions proven true it’d make him upset, probably her too as Riku couldn’t see Kairi doing something like that without remorse, especially if drunk… besides, right now he should be worrying about Sora. Riku did trust Vanitas to attempt to keep the brunette safe, but Sora could be a wiley one, especially if he was in an unsound mental state—therefore, they had to find him soon and get him to see that psychiatrist… which, Riku realized, only he, Aerith, and Vanitas knew about, the latter only because he’d been the one to report it to Aerith, to Riku’s surprise. Not even Kairi knew yet. Should he let the people here know, in case they found him in a situation that they needed to de-escalate?

Riku’s phone buzzed; he put down his roast-beef sandwich and pulled the phone from his pocket to find he had a text message from Vanitas.

“Who is it?” asked Lea through a mouthful of his spicy barbecue-chicken sandwich; the kitchen had provided different ones based on personal taste.

“Vani,” Riku answered. “He says they know the name of where they are. A place called ‘Paris’. Anyone know of any world by that name?”

Mickey sighed. “Paris, huh? That’s all the information they have?”

“Yeah; why, is it dangerous?” Riku wondered with a pang of worry at the mouse’s reaction.

“No, not necessarily,” Mickey explained. “It’s just that… well, there’s a lot of them!”

R2 scrunched his brow in confusion. “A lot of them? How can there be more than one of a world?”

“Oh! No, it’s not copies of the same world. For some reason it’s just a popular world name.”

“What about one where they would be cats?” Riku asked. “That’s the form Vani was in when he called me,” Riku explained, realizing he hadn’t told them that part.

“Hmmm. Not off the top of my head, but the library is sure to have information! Although, be aware that some worlds have multiple creatures the world-order magic can change ya into. For example, in Cinderella’s world, Ven became a tiny mouse while Aqua stayed human.”

“So knowing they’re cats isn’t necessarily useful,” Lea concluded.

“Then most likely, we will need to split up,” Xehanort concluded. “Each attempting to find the two in a different world named ‘Paris’.”

“Yes, I agree,” Mickey said. “Now, let’s get to the library to narrow it down.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas yawned as he woke up, immediately stretching his arms out in front of him and sticking his butt in his air as he stretched his back legs upwards—wait. What? This wasn’t his usual shape… Vanitas looked down, finding paws. Oh, right, they were cats in this world.

“Ngh… is it morning already?” Sora muttered from next to Vanitas; apparently they’d been cuddled together to sleep. Vanitas scrunched his nose a little. They were close, but definitely not that close! Then again… Vanitas observed the scene around him, full of other cats mostly curled with each other, some in piles of four or more. Some were asleep, but others appeared to be grooming each other with their tongues or simply enjoying the beams of sunlight streaming across the floor. So, it must be a cat thing, then. That made it feel less awkward. If Sora tried to groom him, though, that’d be a hard no.

Vanitas shrugged. “The sun’s out so I assume so.”

Sora’s stomach growled.

“Ah, yes, you’ll be needing food, huh?” Thomas said, walking over to them. “You’re probably used to humans bringing you it,” he reasoned.

“Yes,” Sora answered. “How do you get food? Dumpsters?” he asked. Vanitas really hoped not; eating garbage did not sound appealing!

Thomas laughed. “Sometimes, if you’re lucky, a human will throw away perfectly good fish! But usually we hunt. Around here it tends to be pigeons and rats.”

“Pigeons and rats?” Vanitas asked. That sounded worse than the garbage!

“Yup! So, let’s go!” the orange cat declared. “I’ll show you how to hunt.” He leapt out the window.

“It’s not so bad,” Sora whispered. “It’ll actually probably taste good in cat-form; I ate raw antelope in lion-form and it was awesome, even though that’s not awesome when human.”

“I see,” Vanitas said, a little disturbed. That part of World Order hadn’t occurred to him.

“Now we might want to follow him before he vanishes,” Sora pointed out before hopping off.

Vanitas followed; outside the window was a roof, which they walked along until they reached the edge, below which was a trellis followed by an awning and then a car hood, all which they leapt between to get to the ground. The sun was extremely low in the sky; it must be earlier than Vanitas had ever woken before; he must have slept maybe four hours, if that. Yet, he seemed fine; must be a cat thing.

“Well, come on,” the orange cat said as he waited by a grate on the road’s curb, a hole above it. He jumped through it.

“Is that a storm drain?” Vanitas asked, again grossed out.

Sora shrugged. “Guess that’s a place cats go,” he concluded, following Thomas.

Vanitas groaned slightly, but followed nonetheless.

The drain was incredibly dark, so Vanitas prepared to have to prevent Sora from running into things, but instead as they began to walk found that the cat eyes made that a non-issue for everyone there. His ears, too, were incredibly sharp—Vanitas had surmised that the previous day, but in such a generally-considered-silent place that feature felt pronounced. His ears tilted from side to side, making miniscule adjustments to pinpoint exactly where various sounds were, until…

“You hear that?” Thomas whispered, and Vanitas and Sora both nodded. “That’s the sound of a mouse’s footsteps,” he explained. “Follow me, and try not to make a sound…”

Somehow, Sora and Vanitas managed not to make sounds, despite there being a lot of debris throughout the tunnel, which led into a large sewer with concrete footpaths along the sides. Thomas crouched low to the ground as he slowly crawled around a corner, and the two younger cats followed his example. Vanitas found himself enjoying this; was that the cat mind, or was stalking things just enjoyable in general? He was made of darkness. Darkness liked doing thrilling things like this. Vanitas had mad respect for cats; they were such beautifully skilled hunters…

Vanitas gave a start as Thomas suddenly pounced, perfectly capturing a squealing mouse between his paws. The cat bit into its neck and the thing stilled, screams trailing off.

Sora looked shocked at this development.

“You okay?” Vanitas whispered to the brunette.

“He killed it!” Sora gasped.

“Well, yeah. It’s food,” Vanitas pointed out. “Generally food is dead.”

“Y-yeah, that’s true,” Sora acknowledged. “But, it’s raw…”

“Didn’t you say you ate raw antelope before?” Vanitas pointed out.

“Okay, yeah, that’s true,” Sora realized. “It’s just… I just… Well, the lionesses killed that. I never actually had to kill my own food before, with the screaming and blood…”

“Okay, your turn!” Thomas declared. “This area has a whole nest, so it should be easy for you to find some!”

“Wait. You want US to hunt, too?” Sora squeaked.

“But of course. You have to learn to hunt if you’re going to live on the streets.”

“I guess…” Sora said meekly. “Um. Can we look in dumpsters instead?”

If a cat could raise an eyebrow, Thomas would have. “You’d rather have old stuff than fresh meat? I mean, I guess what humans feed you isn’t fresh, either… but once you try fresh, trust me, you’ll never want old food again!”

Sora’s stomach growled loudly. “Um…”

“Want me to catch something for you?” Vanias asked.

“Would you?” Sora asked sheepishly. “Please?”

“Oh no,” Thomas interjected. “You both need to learn this! Now, let’s see what you two can do.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku frowned. Strange; he was getting a feeling that Sora and Vanitas were here, but he wasn’t a—oh! Duh! The world-order spell hadn't been cast yet. Riku cast it… both he and R2, his partner for this mission, stayed human, although his clothing changed to a more formal vintage style. So, it wasn’t the right world? Or maybe it was like Cinderella’s world, where you could be either mice or humans.

The world itself was what looked like an older city, one of those quaint ones formed of brick and wood buildings as opposed to the metal skyscrapers in more modern cities like San Fransokyo. They were on the outskirts of it, the only thing around being townhouses; should they go deeper into it, or further out? Sora and Vanitas had seemed to be in some sort of woodsy area, so further out would make sense; then again, it was morning right now, and the call had come during this world’s afternoon, which was plenty of time to move.

Riku took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he concentrated on finding any abnormal amounts of darkness around, hoping that would give a general direction…

Riku gave a shout as his GummiPhone unexpectedly rang. He fumbled it slightly upon retrieval, answering it immediately.

Two fluffy older kittens appeared on screen, a black one and an auburn one. The latter began meowing excessively.

Riku blinked. “Um. Sora? I can’t understand you. It’s all meows.”

The kitten froze, eyes wide, apparently shocked at this news.

Vanitas, too, tried to say something, but to Riku it only sounded like a kitten’s mewls.

“Nope, it’s the same,” Riku told them. “Weird, since I could understand you fine when you called yesterday, Vani…”

Sora, no longer frozen, gave Vanitas a reproachful look. Oops; seems he hadn’t known Vanitas had called Riku.

Riku then had an idea. “Can you type messages instead? And—wait, where are you? Is that a dungeon?” he asked, now confused.

Vanitas shook his head and maneuvered the phone to pan around the area. It was a long, dark hallway with cages along the walls filled with various cats and dogs…

“The pound? Really?” Riku asked, amused. “How’d that happen?”

Sora crossed his arms (legs?) and pouted, which was a hilarious expression on a cat.

“Okay, okay, I got it. Do you know the name of it?” Riku asked, hoping they did. Vanitas responded with a nod, so Riku told him, “Great. Message me that. I’m pretty sure I’m in your world, so I’ll hopefully be there soon.”

Sora responded with a movement of his paws, wiggling the toes and twisting his paws in what Riku suspected was a spectacularly failed attempt at making a heart symbol.

Riku chuckled in response and blew Sora a kiss before hanging up the phone..

“Ugh! You two are way too mushy!” R2 declared. “I’ve said it before, and undoubtedly will say it again, but how in all the worlds are you my original?!”

Riku chuckled. “Give it time; you’re not going to be any better when Naminé gets her body.”

“Says you,” R2 said petulantly, crossing his arms. “Just you watch; I’m going to be the least mushy?”

“But what if Naminé likes mushy?” Riku asked, grinning mischievously.

R2 gave pause to that, seeming unsure how to respond.

Riku smirked playfully. “Thought so. Anyway, let’s go get Sora and Vani, okay?”

“Since when do you call him ‘Vani’?” R2 asked as they started walking deeper into the city, hoping to find a shop that they could ask for information as to the shelter's location.

Riku blinked, then shrugged in response. When had that happened? He definitely called the noirette by that name while on the phone… well, Vanitas didn’t seem to mind. In fact, didn’t most of the teens in their group call him ‘Vani’ now?

Riku looked down at his phone, groaning when he saw Vanitas's text, which simply said "Animal Shelter". Yeah, that definitely wasn't the place's actual name. R2 snickered when Riku informed him as the two continued walking.

“Hey, there’s someone,” R2 pointed out after a while. “Looks like a shopkeeper.”

The man, elderly and stout with an apron, was outside what looked like a sweets shop, sweeping the sidewalk. His shop itself had a closed sign; it seemed they had arrived before most shops were even open.

“Oh! What brings you two boys here so early?” the shopkeep asked as they approached. “I haven’t seen you around before; are you travellers?”

“Yes,” Riku replied as he spun a story. “But, we arrived with two kittens, and they seem to have run off last night. Have you seen them around? One’s black and the other’s a light brown.” He of course knew already that they were at a shelter, but it’d possibly be suspicious to ask that directly, especially if they’d only been caught that morning.

“Hmmm. Well, I didn’t see those two specifically, but animal control was out earlier this morning doing a sweep for strays. You might want to check at the city's shelter.” He gestured up the street. “It’s pretty close; only two blocks that way and then one to the left.”

“Thanks so much,” Riku said appreciatively. So there was only one shelter; maybe it didn't have a specific name.

“Of course; always glad to be of help! ...Oh, they do have collars, right?”

“No, they—oh, one of them does have a necklace,” Riku realized. “But they don’t have our information.”

“Ah. Might want to hurry, then; the shelter doesn’t tend to keep animals long if they think they’re strays.”

Riku scrunched his eyebrows. “Doesn’t keep—oh!” His eyes widened. “You mean… ah, sorry, we have to go now then! Thanks again!” Riku grabbed R2 by the wrist and began running down the street.

“What the fuck!” R2 compained, grabbing his arm away but continued following. “What’s the rush? They’re not going anywhere!”

“Didn’t you hear what he said?” Riku told the other silverette.

“Yeah, he said they don’t keep them long. That means they release them, right?”

“What? No!” Riku told him. “He meant it’s a kill shelter! If they’re not pets, they euthanize them! Sora will be fine since he has the necklace, but Vani isn’t wearing a collar or anything!”

R2 paled. “Shit! ...Wait, wait. Think about it. Vani’s pure darkness, right? So that won’t work, right?”

This calmed Riku slightly, but… “We don’t know that for sure; we can’t take that risk.”

The two arrived at the shelter, which did not actually have a name—to Riku’s relief it was truly as close as the man had said. Thankfully, it was open; the two took a moment to catch their breaths, then hurried inside.

“May I help you?” asked a receptionist.

“Yes,” Riku said, trying not to sound panicked. “We’re looking for two lost kittens, a black one and a light brown one with a crown necklace.”

“Oooh, so they do belong to someone,” the woman said. “Yes, those two are quite feisty! We do have some calmer ones available for adoption, if you’d rather—”

“What! No!” Riku said loudly. “We don’t want other cats; we want Sora and Vanitas! Where are they?!” he demanded.

“Okay, I understand,” the woman said professionally, unphased by Riku’s reaction. She stood up. “I’ll bring you to them. There is, however, a fine for not having proper identification, which—”

“Yes, we’ll pay it,” Riku quickly assured her, aware he sounded desperate. “We’ll pay anything. Just, let us have them back!”

The woman led them into the shelter, passing by a bright room with animals in nice cages labelled ‘for adoption’ and instead down a hall with rows of small stacked cages on either side with differently colored tags. There weren’t many animals there, even though they’d apparently done a sweep earlier that day… did they really kill the animals that quickly?

“Oh thank the gods,” Riku breathed, running up to a yellow-tagged cage with two kittens, one black and the other brown with a crown necklace: Sora and Vanitas. The two began mewing as they saw Riku and R2, pawing at the cage door.

The woman unlocked the cage, and Riku quickly scooped Sora up to cradle in his arms while Vanitas leapt past him and onto R2’s shoulder, whacking him on the head with a paw and meowing angrily, probably annoyed at how long it took them. Well, it wasn’t Riku’s fault there were so many Parises! Sora, however, was much more appreciative, purring loudly in Riku’s arms. Vanitas settled down too, sitting on R2’s shoulder more calmly.

“Oh, wow; they’re acting completely different than before!” the attendant exclaimed. “You know, despite acting like strays, we figured they must belong to someone, even without proper collars. That necklace is much too nice, and considering they were inseparable, we figured the black one must have had something similar which he’d lost.”

“Oh, right. Yeah, he did,” Riku lied, only half paying attention as the adrenaline of his panic faded. Vanitas made a sound that somewhat sounded like an indignant scoff.

“Well, then, I suppose I can waive the fine, as technically they did both have identifiers even if one was lost. However, you may want to add actual ID tags, something with their names and contact information in case they run off again; we sell basic ones—”

“No, that’s okay,” R2 quickly replied. “We’ll get them some later.”

“Ah, yes. I’m sure you’ll be wanting to get them something expensive to match their necklaces. Well, then—”

Sora began meowing excessively, paw motioning to a red-tagged cage across from them with another cat in it, this one orange and an adult. The cat meowed back. Riku recognized it as the cat Sora and Vanitas had been with, Thomas, and realized Sora wanted them to save him, too.

“What about that one? Does he belong to anyone?” Riku wondered.

“No, he's definitely a stray,” the woman answered. “We brought him in with yours; maybe they befriended him.”

“In that case, could we take him too?” Riku asked.

“What?” R2 asked. “Why—hey!” he cut off as Vanitas angrily bopped him on the nose with a paw. “Okay, okay. We’ll take him too.”

The woman looked surprised at that. “Well, I see no issue with that; just be careful, as that one is most likely feral from birth. We’ve seen him around a lot,” she explained, and suddenly Riku realized what the colored tags must be for.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Riku assured her, as R2 brought Vanitas over to the orange cat’s cage; it appeared Vanitas was talking to the cat, most likely letting him know he had to behave.

Thankfully, Thomas did behave, allowing Riku to carry him while Sora moved to R2’s head, to the silverette’s disgruntlement and Riku’s laughter. The group soon found themselves back on the streets of Paris, all extremely relieved.

Once they were again on the outskirts of the city, Riku placed Thomas on the ground. Sora and Vanitas both hopped down from R2 and began chatting with the orange cat, presumably saying goodbye, and after some purrs and face-rubs the orange cat left. Then, Vanitas returned to R2’s shoulders and Sora hopped back into Riku’s arms to cuddle into his chest.

At that point, the GummiShip wasn’t far away, so it only took a couple minutes before the quartet had reached it.

As Riku, R2, Vanitas, and Sora entered the ship, the world-order magic faded away; Vanitas, still on R2’s shoulders, tumbled to the ground, taking R2 with him, whereas Sora stayed cuddled in Riku’s arms. Before Riku could put Sora down, the boy changed into his preferred cat-form, which was a little older looking and had a tabby pattern.

“Sora, what are you doing?” Riku asked fondly.

“I like being a cat!” Sora replied, thankfully able to speak human language.

“Me too; that was fun,” Vanitas said from the floor. “But what’s not fun is being crushed. R2, get off of me before I stab you!”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?!” R2 bristled, scrambling up to standing with Vanitas quickly following.

“Did you just say you found that fun?” Riku said in wonder.

“Yeah, got a problem with that?” Vanitas spat.

“Uh, no, just surprised you’d find being a cat fun,” Riku said honestly. He knew Vanitas had been changing, but it had only just struck him how far the noirette had come.

Vanitas crossed his arms. “Well, I do. Sora, teach me how to become one,” he demanded.

Sora laughed. “Better ask Merlin to do that; things can get messy when you’re first learning, especially as the animal mind can be an influence. I don’t want to mess around with that kind of magic yet.”

“Ugh. That’s such a drag.”

“Sorry, that’s how it is.”

“You shouldn’t be ‘messing around’ with any type of magic,” Riku chided. “Is it true you’ve been making your own spells?”

Sora winced. “Er. You found out about that, huh? Um… right. Okay, yeah, that’s true. But I had good intentions! I wanted to make spells Vani can use!”

Riku sighed. “Yeah, Xehanort said as much—don’t get mad at him, you know how much Yen Sid can draw out from people when he wants to!—when we were explaining everything that happened. Please, Sora, next time consult Merlin first, okay? Especially if you’re trying to involve darkness.”

“Hey!” Vanitas interjected, sounding offended. “I can teach Sora darkness fine! I know way more about it than Merlin!”

“I didn’t say you didn’t,” Riku quickly informed the ‘denizen of darkness’, as the noirette liked to call himself. “It’s just a precaution. Look, I’m not going to mince words: the adults still do not have full trust in you. They do in terms of allegiance and missions, but they still see you, and probably all of us actually, as reckless teenagers. Even if you can handle it—and I don’t doubt you can—they’re still going to want you supervised.”

“Vani, it’s Merlin,” Sora said, sounding amused. “He’ll probably just sit there reading a book while we mess around. Besides, it could be good to have him there anyway, in case I have a question! He might have better ideas about making the darkness-infused spells.”

Vanitas was quiet for a few beats. “I guess that’s true,” he finally conceded.

“Great, now that that’s done, can we leave this world?” R2 interjected. “Before they realize we released that orange cat and come to fine us?”

“His name is Thomas O’Malley!” Sora corrected. “And yeah, I’d really like to leave, too.”

“Really?” Riku asked, looking down at Sora with surprise. “I thought you’d love a cat world.”

“Well, I did, up until we got stuck in a pound! It was scary!”

“Yeah,” Vanitas confirmed. “They kept taking animals to the back, and they weren’t returning. I dunno what they were doing, but they definitely weren’t releasing them or they wouldn’t have been screaming… Hey, wait, Riku, R2, it looked like you knew what was happening,” Vanitas said in realization. “What—”

“We’ll tell you later,” R2 interrupted hurriedly, looking at Riku with trepidation. Riku understood; if they told Sora and Vanitas what was going on there now, the two would surely go storm the place, maybe even blow it up after rescuing the animals. Which Riku wanted to do himself, but they had to at least try to keep World Order.

“Let’s focus on going home now,” Riku agreed, heading to the pilot seat.

“What! Riku,” Sora burst. “If you know, tell us! What—ngh…” Sora began purring as Riku scratched him behind the ears, forgetting the conversation. Riku chuckled; too bad that only worked when Sora was in cat-form.

Riku placed Sora in his lap and started up the ship, entering in the destination coordinates for Radiant Garden.

Chapter Text

It was only when Riku reached Radiant Garden that he realized they probably should have returned to the Mysterious Tower to report in, per Yen Sid’s instructions, rather than going straight home. Oops.

“Why didn’t any of you tell me?” Riku complained as R2, Sora, and Vanitas snickered upon Riku’s reveal of that faux paux.

“Hey, don’t look at us,” Sora said with an amused shrug.

“Yeah, we weren’t told anything about that,” Vanitas continued. “Blame R2.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault either!” R2 defended. “I assumed you had the right coordinates. The places are near enough to each other for it not to be immediately obvious you’re going to the wrong one.”

Riku sighed. “I guess that’s true.” He started the ship again. “Good thing it’s only an hour—”

“Nope!” Sora interrupted, pulling the ship’s door open. A warning alarm blared, and Riku stopped the motor to quell it.

“Sora—” Riku began tiredly, not wanting a fight.

“Go report in yourself. I have to go see my psychiatrist now,” Sora declared before hopping out the door and off towards town.

“I’ll go watch him,” Vanitas groaned, also sounding drained. He ran after the brunette.

“Sora’s seeing a psychiatrist?” R2 asked curiously. Riku wondered if Sora had intentionally revealed the information or if he simply had been careless.

“Yeah,” Riku confirmed. “Come on, let’s get back to the house. We can call the others on the way there to let them know Sora and Vanitas have been found.”

“And then lost again,” R2 added.

“No, we know where they’re going,” Riku argued. “Well, kinda. Aerith knows the exact address.”

R2 shrugged. “Still. We don’t know if they’re actually going there,” he pointed out. “Sora can easily get distracted.”

“Nah, I have a feeling Vanitas won’t let him go anywhere but there,” Riku informed the other silverette, recalling his conversation with the noirette.

The two exited the ship and headed towards their home, deciding to call everyone on the way to notify them rather than going back to the Tower. First, R2 called Xehanort and Lea while Riku started with Mickey and Aqua.

“Riku!” Mickey answered nearly immediately. “I hope this is good news?”

“Yeah, it is,” Riku said with a smile. “We found them. We’re back in Radiant Garden now.”

“Radiant Garden?” Aqua asked from the side of Mickey, and the mouse tilted the phone so both were in focus as the bluenette knelt down. “I thought you were going back to the Tower?”

“Yeah, I know. I accidentally put in the wrong coordinates, and before I could start the ship back up the two ran off again, so—”

“They ran off?” Mickey interjected, looking worried. “That’s not good!”

“Wait, it’s not like that!” Riku hurriedly corrected. “We know where they’re headed!”

“Then collect them and bring them back to the Tower,” Aqua instructed. Or, ordered? She was technically a Master, even though she’d only just recovered from being possessed after a ten-year stint in the Realm of Darkness. So did they have to follow her instructions as they did Mickey's and Yen Sid's?

Riku shook his head. “No can do.”

“Why not?” Mickey inquired.

Riku shifted nervously. Neither Mickey nor Aqua knew Sora was seeing a psychiatrist, as far as Riku knew. Still, this was probably something the Masters should know, considering Sora’s condition had caused him to run… oh. That would mean Sora probably wouldn’t get in trouble for it, right? Or would they not care? Still, they should know. “He… Sora went to see his psychiatrist,” Riku revealed. He hoped Sora wouldn’t be upset at Riku telling them. “This whole incident was caused by some sort of mental break caused by a bad reaction to a medication.”

Aqua looked surprised, and Mickey took a moment to process that, looking like he was trying to choose his words well. “Riku,” the mouse finally said. “This is something we should have been alerted to much sooner. If Sora’s mental state is compromised, it could put him in severe danger when on missions, as well as make him an easier target for Xehanort.”

“Well I only found out about the medicine before the mission to the Caribbean, as we were leaving,” Riku quickly defended. “As well as about the psychiatrist.”

“But you knew he was having problems?”

“So did you,” Riku pointed out. “I mean, it caused the Pride Lands incident and got us banned from using the Disney Castle GummiShips.”

“Well, yes, but it sounds like it’s gotten worse if he’s having breakdowns and requiring psychiatric treatment.”

“Well, yeah, but again, I didn’t even know until recently!”

“But you knew when we all went to search,” Aqua noted.

“Well, yeah,” Riku admitted. “Vanitas said when he called that he was worried, that Sora’s medicine was making him act strange. But I didn’t want him upset that I told…”

“Regardless, that was something we needed to know, in case one of us found him,” Aqua said firmly. “That way we could have been prepared in case a situation needed to be mitigated.”

“Well, it all worked out in the end,” Riku meekly argued.

“That’s not the point. If we had found him, and he was still in an altered mental state thus not thinking logically, the approach to getting him back would be very different than if he were just being petulant. Please tell us next time.”

“Right, I will,” Riku agreed. Then, he noticed something up ahead. “Er, sorry, but I’m gonna have to call you back,” Riku said as he ended the call and hurried ahead to investigate; R2 noticed too and quickly ended his own call to follow.

Someone was lying on the ground in the middle of the town square… someone whom Riku recognized. R2 also noticed who it was and put an arm out in front of Riku, signalling him to stop as they approached, staying just far enough away to look but not to be in danger if the person woke up.

“Think he’s still possessed, or no?” Riku wondered as he looked more closely at the large muscular man with mid-length brown hair, to confirm the man’s identity: Yup, that was definitely Terra, the formerly-lost-master who had been possessed by Xehanort.

R2 scoffed. “Why wouldn’t he be? Old Norty is not the type of person to just abandon perfectly good vessels.”

“Then, maybe there’s something wrong with him that made him no longer viable, or maybe he was able to overcome it,” Riku suggested.

“Seriously? The guy’s been possessed for more than a decade. There’s no way he overcame it on his own, and I don’t see anyone else around here.”

“But I’m not sensing Xehanort’s presence,” Riku explained. “He just has normal darkness.”

R2 gave pause to that, crossing his arms and staring at the figure in front of them with narrowed eyes for a moment before concluding, “You’re right. The old guy’s not there."

Riku walked up to Terra and crouched down to check his pulse, which seemed fine. Was he unconscious due to a spell, or just tired out after being released from possession, similar to how Sora always collapsed after using his rage-form? Xehanort intentionally releasing the man was the only logical explanation Riku could think of, although he couldn’t imagine why Xehanort would do such.

Riku got his answer seconds later.

“Looks like there’s a note stuck in his pants,” R2 pointed out. An interesting place for such, although Riku supposed it made the most sense, as being stuck in the waistline would both guarantee they saw it and ensure that the note stayed put rather than blowing away.

Riku retrieved the rolled-up note, which was on unexpectedly fancy paper. He undid the wax seal and rolled it out, finding an explanation from Xehanort:
It has come to my attention that the balance between our numbers is too skewed for the initial plan of 13 Darknesses and 7 Lights to be feasible. Therefore, I am amending the formula to 13 Lights and 7 Darknesses, meaning that it is necessary for me to return this one to you. It is not the ideal solution, but it will work. Good luck collecting your remaining Lights. I will see you at the Fated Place when you do.

“What’s the ‘Fated Place’?” Riku wondered.

R2 shrugged. “No idea; maybe some of the wizards or Aqua know… wait. Even if we get Roxas and Xion out, that’s still not thirteen of you,” R2 said, looking slightly confused. “Who else is he talking about?”

“You,” Riku said. “And probably his younger self, too.”

“What? Impossible,” R2 protested. “Maybe teen Xehanort has enough light, but me? No way.”

“You have the same amount as me, and I’m apparently light enough to count,” Riku pointed out.

R2 chewed his lip a little before conceding. “Fine. Say that is true, then. Still leaves us short.”

“Well, in addition to me, you, and the teenage Xehanort,” Riku listed, “there’s Kairi, Sora, the King, Lea, Ventus, Aqua, Roxas and Xion. Oh, and Terra… You’re right, that leaves us one short.”

“You don’t think he included Vanitas in that, do you?” R2 suggested. “Or maybe miscounted?”

Riku considered that, then shook his head. “No, I doubt he’d make that kind a mistake, and Vanitas’s body itself is made of darkness. It has to be someone else…”

“One of the former-nobodies, or one of the wizards?” R2 proposed.

“No, they need to be active keyblade wielders, so that wouldn’t work either,” Riku noted. “There must be something we’re missing… anyway, speaking of wizards, let’s get Terra to Merlin’s,” he directed. “Leaving him out here on the ground is probably a bad idea.”

R2 snorted. “One problem with that: he’s larger than either of us can carry and neither of us know zero-gravity magic.”

Riku frowned, thinking what to do. Riku had always prided himself as being fairly strong—he could carry Sora or Kairi no problem—but Terra was definitely too large for him to lift on his own. They could try each lifting him, one at the shoulder and the other at the calves, but that would still be difficult to do for more than a short distance. “Maybe… hmm. He’s wearing pants, so we could drag him without hurting him too much,” Riku reasoned.

“Yeah, that works,” R2 agreed. “Hope he has replacements though; the stone around here isn’t super forgiving. Those things are gonna tear.”

“Pretty sure he won’t mind a few ripped pants when the alternative is getting sick from the weather,” Riku pointed out. It rarely got particularly cold around there, never below-freezing, but it was still fairly chilly out between the wind and dark cloudy sky—growing up on the Islands had taught Riku the signs of a storm brewing. “Come on, before it starts raining.”

The two rolled Terra onto his back, and each boy took one arm, walking backwards as they dragged Terra down the street towards Merlin’s.

Halfway there, R2 let go and smacked his forehead. “Oh, duh! We’re idiots!” he declared.

“What do you mean?” Riku asked, scrunching his brow in confusion.

“We have GummiPhones! We can just call someone who knows magic, or one of those guys with the really big swords who can definitely lift him!” R2 pointed out.

Riku blinked, processing that. “Yeah, we really are idiots,” he concluded, also letting go and pulling out his phone. Terra’s arm crashed to the ground. Oops; that was going to leave a bruise. Well, they had cure magic to fix that. “Okay, you call Merlin, I’ll call Mickey back to know everything’s okay.”

Riku quickly called back Mickey, who answered the phone looking very worried. “Riku! Everything okay? You hung up very abruptly!”

“Yes and no,” Riku explained. “You see, Terra—”

“What about Terra?!” Aqua yelled, grabbing the phone away from Mickey. Did you see him? Is he okay? What—”

“Aqua,” Mickey interrupted. “Please, stay calm and let Riku explain.”

Aqua took a deep breath. “Right, sorry. I just… you know how it is.”

“Yeah, I do,” Riku confirmed. “Well, it’s good news, we think—Terra’s here in Radiant Garden, no longer possessed.”

Aqua and Mickey both audibly gasped. The former asked, breathless, “Can I talk to him?”

R2 answered that with a blunt, “Yeah, sorry, but no can do.”

“R2!” Riku chided. “You don’t have to be that rude; and aren’t you supposed to be calling Merlin, anyway?”

“What?! Why not?!” Aqua demanded. “Is he—”

“Oh, right,” R2 acknowledged at the same time, then stepped a bit away to make the call.

“He seems fine otherwise, but he’s unconscious,” Riku explained to Aqua. “We’re trying to get him back to the house, but are having trouble carrying him, so R2’s trying to get Merlin to help.”

“Mickey, we have to get back there immediately!” Aqua sharply informed the mouse.

“And we will,” Mickey promised, then turned to RIku. “Thanks for the update; we’ll see ya soon, okay?”

“Yeah, see ya,” Riku said as the screen went dark.

“Okay,” R2 said as Riku shoved the phone back in his pocket. “Merlin’s will be here—”

A puff of sparkly blue smoke appeared next to the two, revealing Merlin as it cleared.

“—now,” R2 finished, looking surprised. Riku was, too; he hadn’t expected Merlin to teleport, as the house wasn’t actually that far away.

“Well, now, what do we have here?” Merlin said in his usual cheery voice.

“Well…” Riku explained the situation.

“Oh my!” Merlin declared. “Yes, this is certainly a predicament! Remind me later to teach you two gravity magic; it really is a must to know for situations such as these. Why, perhaps I ought to create a course specifically on essential spells… Yes, ones that every keyblade wielder should know… Perhaps I—”

“Enough pondering,” R2 interrupted. “It’s going to rain soon; we need to get Terra back before then.”

“Oh, why yes, you’d be correct about that!” Merlin agreed. “But rain is nothing to worry about, my boy! Not for a wizard of my caliber; conjuring umbrellas is a simple task. You should store some in your magical pockets just in case.”

“Yeah but we can’t carry an umbrella while we take him back,” Riku pointed out, then immediately mentally facepalmed.

Merlin chuckled. “My boy, did you not call me here to use gravity magic? Here,” Merlin said as he raised an arm. Terra lifted into the air, floating at about chest height. Merlin then began to walk towards the house; a few raindrops began to fall, but Merlin simply conjured a giant umbrella to float above them, making the rain no issue even though it got progressively thicker the closer the three got to the house.

Finally, the group reached the house; Merlin magicked open the door so they could all easily enter, Terra still floating in front.

“So, when do you think he’ll wake up?” Riku wondered as he shook off his boots, splashing some drops of water onto the doormat as he did so.

Merlin conjured some cushions in the middle of the floor and laid Terra upon them as he pondered that question. “Well, he seems physically fine, and I don’t sense any magic spells over him,” the wizard replied. “My guess would be that he’s simply tired; being de-possessed can do that to a person.”

“Mind explaining?” sounded a cranky voice from the corner; Riku gave a start, then turned to see Cid—the one who had spoken—sitting at the computer. Leon stood next to him with his arms crossed and a frown upon his face.

“We were told you found Sora and Vani,” Leon commented. “That is neither Sora nor Vani.”

“Obviously,” R2 snapped.

“It’s Terra,” Riku explained as he resisted sighing in response to R2’s irritability.

“What!” Cid proclaimed. “You don’t mean that guy Ol’ Norty possessed, do ya? They keyblade-using one?”

“Why the very same!” Merlin informed him cheerily.

“Allegedly Xehanort ‘de-possessed’ him,” Riku explained. “He came with a note.” Riku walked over and handed the note to Cid.

Leon read the note over Cid’s shoulder. He raised his eyebrows as he read it. “I see. So now it’s 13 Lights, 7 Darknesses…”

“That guy has a backup plan for everything!” Cid complained.

“Well, it’s better than him trying to capture the ones who betrayed him and Sora,” Riku pointed out.

“Speaking of Sora, where is he?” Leon questioned. “And Vanitas,” he added.

“Yeah!” Cid chimed in. “Mickey sent a mass-message to everyone saying you found the two of them! Don’t tell me you lost them again.”

“We didn’t lose them; they just went to quickly do something,” Riku said, hoping they didn’t ask any more than that. Riku didn’t want to reveal Sora’s secret to anyone else, although he’d be talking to the brunette about telling those they lived with. It was safer for everyone to know Sora was on medicine. “I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“That took forever!” Sora groaned, head down and shoulders slumped as he trudged down the street in the rain, Vanitas following.

“Not really,” Vanitas said drily, walking much more poised; he may be darkness incarnate, but that was no excuse for poor walking posture. Should he correct Sora’s? Slumping like that was bad for the back—wait, why was he even caring about that?

“Yes really!” Sora said loudly.

“Well, whatever,” Vanitas said dismissively. “You’re just lucky she was still at the office,” he commented. “It’s pretty late. And wet. Can’t you conjure an umbrella?” It felt like they were in a shower; both boys’ once-spiky hair was plastered to their heads.

“Well, she lives above it,” Sora pointed out, standing a little straighter now that he wasn’t dramatically complaining. He held a small bottle of pills in his hand which he was fiddling with. “And no, I don’t know umbrella-magic. Shouldn’t you have one anyway? We have magical pockets, you know.”

“Well, yeah, but there wasn’t any sort of packing list for them,” Vanitas retorted, a little irritated. “Besides, you have magical pockets too! Which you should put that bottle in before you lose it.”

“Yeah, but I’m known for being scatterbrained,” Sora said as he put the new medicine away.

“Then learn umbrella magic!”

“Well, we’re here anyway,” Sora noted. Indeed, they were standing in front of Merlin’s door.

Vanitas opened the door for Sora, then followed the brunette in, receiving a faceful of water as he did so as Sora shook out his hair.

“Seriously?!” Vanitas complained.

“Oops,” Sora said as he shook off his boots, clearly unrepentant.

“Sora!” Riku declared, running over to them. “You’re soaked!”

“Oh my!” Merlin declared. “Why, that’s not good! I must add umbrella magic to my course of necessary spells,” he commented as he waved a hand to instantly dry the boys. Vanitas had no clue what Merlin was going on about—then again, no one knew what Merlin was talking about half the time.

As Vanitas much-more-carefully pulled off his shoes he observed the room. In addition to Riku there was R2, Cid, Leon, and… “Is that Terra?!” Vanitas proclaimed. He immediately checked the darkness in the man; no more than usual. No Old Norty to worry about. Vanitas inwardly sighed. But then that begged the question of…

“How?” asked Sora with a gasp. “He was one of the strongest of Xehanort’s possessed people, right?”

R2 explained that. “Apparently we ‘stole’ so many of his Darknesses that his formula is now seven of them, thirteen of us. Returning this guy evened it out.”

“Oh, cool!” Sora declared happily, then frowned. “But wait. We don’t have thirteen keyblade wielders…”

“Your heart people,” Vanitas reminded the brunette.

“Yeah but even with them we’re short.”

Vanitas frowned. “So there’s one more we’re missing? But who?”

“That’s the million dollar question,” Cid said.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

A week later found Riku and Sora cuddled in bed together, shortly after waking up and taking care of their morning wood. Kairi had left just beforehand, apparently remembering she had to go to something, which ‘conveniently’ happened lately whenever both boys woke up in such a manner.

Riku gave Sora a quick kiss; the brunette’s lips tasted slightly salty. Then he rolled onto his back and placed his hands behind his head while Soda sat up, leaning back on his hands.

“Hey, Sora?” Riku asked, slightly nervously. He wasn’t sure about bringing this subject up as he wasn’t completely certain, but Sora was involved and he needed to talk about it.

“Kairi was lying,” Sora said bluntly, noticing too. “It’s a free day. She has nothing planned.” He gestured to the calendar on the wall, where Kairi had been meticulously planning the schedule for each day ever since Sora forgot one too many obligations—not that it had helped the brunette much with that, if at all.

Riku nodded. “She does this—”

“Whenever we get more intimate than just making out and above-clothing things.” Sora finished. He shifted slightly, moving his hands to his lap, seeming nervous. “Do you think she’s just nervous? Or maybe she wants to wait? Or…”

“Or maybe she doesn’t actually like us like that anymore?” Riku voiced, when Sora didn’t finish the sentence.

Sora sighed and slouched slightly. “Yeah. Maybe it’s my imagination though; she’s the same as she’s always been otherwise. And still is enthusiastic about making out. But I just get the feeling that…”

“That it stops there?” Riku again finished. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that vibe from her, too… and…” Riku shifted nervously.

“And?” Sora prompted.

“And there was an incident in the Carribean." Roku blurted out quickly, before he lost his nerve. "I’m not sure what happened, and my memory of it’s a little fuzzy because I was drunk—it was at that tavern, we all were—”

“Yeah, what was with that anyway? Aren’t you the responsible one?” Sora interrupted to tease, grinning at Riku like the cat who got the canary.

Riku blushed. “Sh-shut up! I can let loose sometimes!”

Sora giggled. “I know, I remember Corona…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Riku said, rolling his eyes fondly. “Let’s just get back to Kairi now.”

Sora’s expression turned serious again. “Right… so, Kairi did something while drunk?”

“Um, yeah. She was with someone—”

Sora cut Riku off with a gasp. “Wait, you’re not saying she—”

Riku quickly shook his head. “No! I mean, I don’t think so. At least, I hope not… but I think it got close. They were flirting really heavily.”

Sora looked at Riku wide-eyed. “Wait wait wait. Think about what you’re saying for a second. This is KAIRI we’re talking about! Who was it? Do I know them?”

Riku shook his head and closed his eyes. “Probably not. But… it was a girl. Maybe the reason she doesn’t want to be intimate with us is… well…”

Sora finished the sentence when Riku couldn’t. “Because she only likes girls like that?”

Riku nodded.

Sora quieted for a moment, then asked, “So, what should we do? Talk to her about it?”

Riku bit his lip. “I guess. But how?”

Sora frowned for a moment, then grinned. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out!” he declared. “You know… it’s actually a bit of a relief,” he then sheepishly admitted.

“A relief?” Riku asked, slightly confused as he sat up too.

“Well… I was starting to think maybe she didn’t like us because of our darkness, you know? Or at least, mine. I scared her pretty badly in Arendelle, and that was around the time we started getting more intimate…”

“Oh, Sora,” Riku said, lightly petting his boyfriend’s hair. “You know she doesn’t judge you for that. Hell, she doesn’t judge me for basically kidnapping her! Although, on the topic of darkness—”

“I’m gonna cut you off there,” Sora interrupted. “I told you, I have things handled. Merlin's consulting on the spells now. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“But—”

“No. Not talking about it,” Sora said, crossing his arms and arranging his face into a pout.

Riku sighed. “Fine. But if there’s any issues, please come to me, can you promise me that at least?”

Sora sighed. “Fine.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise, Riku. Now, let’s go get breakfast!” Sora hopped off the bed and towards the door.

Riku jumped off the bed too and grabbed Sora’s wrist before he could leave.

“What gives, Riku?” Sora complained, twisting away.

“You’re mostly naked,” Riku pointed out with a playful grin. “Pretty sure no one wants to see you running around in your boxers.”

“You do,” Sora quipped back, then squealed as Riku tickled him in response.

“Okay, okay,” Riku said after a minute, laughing. “Now, come on, get dressed.”

“Ugh, fine!”

Riku chuckled. “Oh, one more thing,” Riku remembered. “How are you feeling?”

Sora blinked. “Huh? I feel fine.”

“No, I mean, generally. Your doctor put you on a new depression medicine last week, right?”

Sora sighed. “Oh, that.” He sat on the edge of the bed, and Riku did the same. Sora continued, “Yeah, she did give me a new medicine—for something else. She says that level of mania is a rare side-effect to that one, unless it’s actually not depression.”

“Not depression?” Riku asked, confused. Sora had all the symptoms.

“Yeah. Well, kinda. She now thinks I have something called bipolar disorder, and depression is a part of it. She’s been having me track my moods for a while—I use a page of my magic theorey notebook for that—and apparently it’s been cycling between depressed and a… well, it’s not exactly a ‘happier’ feeling per se, more like the kind of high people tend to experience when on drugs, during bad episodes of it? She called it mania. If this medicine starts to work, that’ll confirm it, although with all medicines there’s still no guarantee.”

“Huh,” Riku said, processing that. He’d seen that in the psychology book the library had shown him, but… “Isn’t that genetic or something? I thought the depression was due to… well, you know.”

Sora nodded. “Yeah, it's something having to do with brain chemistry being wonky. She said it would have appeared someday regardless, and usually it first shows up in people’s late teens or early twenties. The whole thing with my mom just triggered it a couple years earlier than might have happened otherwise.”

“Right… but, wait, your moods—”

“Shift more rapidly than typical for that?” Sora cut off, anticipating the question. “Yeah, apparently that’s a subset called ‘rapid-cycling’, more common in teens.” Sora sighed and flopped backwards onto the bed, arms out flat. “Why’d this have to happen to me?”

Riku reached over and rubbed Sora’s knee, the closest thing to where he was sitting. “Hey, it’s not your fault, you know? You can’t help it,” he said, reading into Sora’s words.

“I know,” Sora whined. “Ugh. Why does everything suck?”

“Do you truly think that, or is that an exaggeration?” Riku double-checked. It could be difficult to tell with Sora.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Seriously? It's an exaggeration.”

“Hey, just checking.”

“You sound like the psychiatrist.”

“I’m just—”

Sora cut Riku off. “Yeah, you’re concerned, I get it. I’d be too, if it were you or Kairi.”

Riku smiled slightly. “Glad you understand,” he said, relieved. “Now, let’s get dressed and go get breakfast.”

“Right!” Sora agreed. “Hey, you think Terra will be awake? I mean, it’s been a week…”

“I dunno,” Riku said truthfully. “Hopefully, but I wouldn’t count on it; Aqua’s going to take him to the lab today if he’s not. Maybe they can help.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Vanitas strolled along the chasm outside Radiant Garden. It was nice here: a quiet, shadowy place the sun barely reached. It was a good place to think, to get away from all the chaos of Merlin’s house… Vanitas liked chaos, but the kind there was overwhelming sometimes. So many people! He’d spent years hating people, attacking them, and now over the past months—how many had it been now? Six? Seven?—he’d done more non-violent-yet-energetic interacting with people than he had his whole life prior. It was overwhelming!

Vanitas then noticed a figure up ahead, clad in skinny jeans and a puffy pink blouse, sitting on a rock high enough to have her legs dangle so she could kick them back and forth. “Strange to find a Princess of Light in such a gloomy place,” he commented as he approached. Even in the bright morning the chasm was filled with shadows.

Kairi looked at Vanitas, taking a moment to process that. “Oh. I just needed a place to think. Away from everyone.”

“So you came… here?” Vanitas asked curiously.

“I didn’t want anyone to find me.”

Vanitas frowned, then hopped up onto the rock next to the girl, who looked at him in shock. “Wanna talk about it?” he asked casually. R2 had been pressing him to reach out emotionally to more people; might as well.

“Um… with you?”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Well, duh. See anyone else here?”

“Oh. Well, I don’t know… it’s kinda complicated…”

“Try me,” Vanitas challenged.

Kairi looked at Vanitas like he was a puzzle. “Um. Well, it’s about Sora and Riku…”

“What about them?”

“Our relationship.” Kairi smirked slightly. “Still want to hear it?”

Vanitas was slightly thrown by that, but he’d already committed, so sappy subject or not he was going to follow through. “Sure. What about it?”

Kairi smiled sadly and looked at the chasm wall. “I’m confused, is all. About what I want from it.”

Vanitas frowned. “Don’t you like them?”

“Of course!” Kairi glared at Vanitas; she sounded offended. “I love them.”

“Then what’s the issue?” Vanitas asked calmly, reminding himself to not get offended at the response.

Kairi bit her lip slightly, thinking. “I… I met a girl,” she admitted quietly.

Vanitas’s eyebrows raised. Was Kairi admitting to—

“Oh, no, we didn’t do anything!” Kairi defended, seeing Vanitas’s expression. Then, she sighed. “No, that’s a lie. We did kiss. I don’t think we did anything more… but we were a bit drunk, and the memories are hazy…”

“I see,” Vanitas said, hiding his shock. No wonder the trio's relationship felt strained lately. “And, what, you like her more than Riku and Sora?”

Kairi vigorously shook her head. “No, not at all! It’s just… different. I do love Sora and Riku. I do want to be with them. I like being in a relationship with them. But I… hmm. How do I put this…”

“You want to fuck her but don’t want to fuck them,” Vanitas said bluntly, catching on.

Kairi’s face turned the color of a ripe tomato. “That’s—that’s…” She sighed and looked down. “Honestly, I don’t know. I love kissing and cuddling and waking up in the same bed as them and whatnot, but when I think of possibly going further… I mean, they do give me butterflies, I am attracted to them! But it stops when it reaches that. Like, I’m perfectly happy when… ah, um. Sorry if this is getting too awkward.”

Vanitas shrugged. “I was spawned from darkness. I never experienced the social conditioning that would make sexual topics awkward. Be as blunt as you want.”

Kairi giggled at that and blushed slightly, then plowed ahead with complete bluntness. “Okay, if you say so. Basically, I like kissing them. I like that a lot. And it’s nice when they touch my boobs and kiss my neck and stuff… just not when they go further. Like, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to have actual sex-sex. It’s not about wanting to wait or anything, either, I just… I just have no interest. It turns me off thinking about doing more. But before you say anything, it’s not a libido issue either! I get plenty horny, and can get myself off! I just don’t have the urge to actually do it with them—or rather, guys in general—when it comes down to it. Actually… thinking about it more, I don’t even think I’d want to do it with a girl, either—no, I definitely don’t—although I liked making out with that girl much more than I should have. I just—oh, this is so confusing! I should want to do it with them, right? But I just don't. Why is that? Am I—”

“Have you told them that?” Vanitas interrupted the nervous rambling.

“Huh?”

“Have you told them that? All the stuff you just told me?”

Kairi looked away and sighed. “How can I? They’d take it the wrong way, think I’m not into them. But I am. I do truly love them.”

“Then tell them that.”

“What?”

“Tell them that. Tell them that you want to be with them, but don’t want sex.”

“But what if they—”

“No what-ifs,” Vanitas cut her off. “Those two love you; anyone can see it, even me. Not wanting sex isn’t going to be a deal-breaker for them. If they want sex, they can do it with each other.”

Kairi laughed at that. “I guess you’re right…”

“But?” Vanitas prodded. There definitely was a ‘but’ in her voice.

Kairi sighed again. “What if it actually would be different with a girl? I don’t think it will be, but what if?”

“So date a girl, then.”

Kairi jumped slightly in surprise. “What? But I told you, I like being with Sora and Riku!”

“Okay. Then stay with Sora and Riku while dating a girl.”

“But that’s cheating!” Kairi looked scandalized.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying do it without telling them!”

“That… that’s not how it works, though,” Kairi protested, still looking at Vanitas in shock.

Vanitas looked back at Kairi, raising an eyebrow. “Neither is what you three are doing, from my understanding of society.”

Kairi snorted. “That’s for sure.”

“Exactly. So, screw society again. If all parties are in agreement, why not go for it?”

Kairi frowned and looked down. “Would they really go for it though?”

Vanitas sighed in exasperation. He was getting tired of this self-doubt the girl unexpectedly had. What was with all the Lights having so many dark emotions? “Why wouldn’t they?”

“Well… I dunno. How would you feel if a partner wanted to be with someone else, someone you weren't with too, while also being with you?”

Vanitas blinked, not expecting the question. How would he feel? “Um… honestly I wouldn’t really care. I’m just learning about having friends, let alone a relationship. Besides, it’s not like I really have an urge to fuck anyone, anyway.”

“Wait, what?” Kairi gasped.

“What?”

“That’s… so you’re like me!”

Vanitas blinked. “I… guess? Kinda?” Vanitas never thought about sexuality, or even having sex. He joked about others doing it, since he knew it got a rise out of people, but the concept of why it did was foreign to him. “I mean, I’m not exactly human; my body literally is darkness in the shape of a human. So those kinds of drives don’t even exist for me. Like, the part is there, but it doesn’t even work as far as I know?”

“Oh, that’s so sad…” Kairi trailed.

“Not really. It just is.” Vanitas shrugged, unsure why the girl would find it sad when she was saying she didn’t have an urge either. Then again, didn’t she say she could get off without someone? Vanitas decided he was glad that he didn’t have the capability for that; it’d just be one more confusing emotion to untangle. He continued, “Now, back to your dilemma: I’m sure Sora and Riku would be supportive of you dating someone else… well, Sora would, at least. Riku might be a bit more wary, especially if he doesn’t know the girl, but if Sora agrees, I’m sure he will too.”

Kairi nodded looking a little happier. “Yeah, you’re probably right about that.”

“Probably?” Vanitas huffed. “Of course I’m right.” Hopefully.

Kairi giggled. “If you say so… so, what brought you out here? Something on your mind too?”

Vanitas paused at the sudden shift in subject, nervous about having his feelings on full display like Kairi had done with hers. He did sometimes talk feelings with Sora and R2, but never to the extent Kairi just had with him. Should Vanitas reciprocate anyway?

“Well?” Kairi prodded, voice slightly playful. “Come on, I spilled my secrets.”

Vanitas narrowed his eyes at her, trying to look confident, but a flood appearing belied the attempt.

Kairi frowned. “If you don’t want to talk, it’s fine, you know.”

Vanitas closed his eyes. She was giving him an out, but… “I've never talked about my own feelings before,” Vanitas admitted. “Not like this.”

“Then why not start now?”

Vanitas opened his eyes as he pondered that for a moment, during which the flood crawled onto his lap; Vanitas absentmindedly stroked it like a cat. Yeah, Why not? “Okay,” he said. “I came out here because it was too chaotic at the house right now.”

Kairi tilted her head in curiosity. “I thought you thrived in chaos?”

Vanitas shrugged. “I mean, yeah, but not… not that kind. Not people-kind. Not when they’re not fighting.”

Kairi nodded. “Makes sense. You were raised to always fight, right?”

Vanitas nodded and looked away. “Pretty much, yeah. I was raised to be a tool, nothing but a weapon for Xehanort. My sole purpose was to fight. It’s… weird, being away from that. I don’t regret leaving, but it’s been a big adjustment, even after all these months.”

“Sounds like it,” Kairi agreed. “Change is tough, even when for the better.”

“Yeah… everything’s just so different. And… confusing. Really confusing. I was always told I was pure negativity, that all I could feel was anger and hatred and whatnot. Pain. Creating the unversed intentionally causes me pain, but he told me to use them anyway, because that’s what I was, darkness and pain...”

“That sounds horrible,” Kairi whispered.

“Yeah. Yeah, it was. But it’s all I knew.” Vanitas wasn’t sure why he’d started to spill his entire life story, but he continued talking anyway. It felt… it felt good. It felt good to voice these things. “But now, I’m learning that there’s more to life than pain.”

Kairi smiled. “That’s good!”

“It’s confusing.” Vanitas countered.

“How so?”

“It’s… I keep feeling things. Things I didn’t think were possible to feel. And I’m not sure what they are. Some I've figured out but more and more keep appearing. R2 helps me explain stuff when it gets confusing—for example, I thought I was feeling annoyed at something, but it was actually concern and worry, but I’d never actually felt that FOR someone before. It was weird. But… R2 isn’t always around. He wasn’t there earlier; he’s out on a mission at some toy store.”

Kairi pondered that briefly before concluding, “Well, if he’s not around, I can help explain stuff. And I’m sure if you tell Sora and Riku this, they’d help out too!”

Vanitas bit his lip. “I guess. I don’t know how to though…”

“I can help with that too!” Kairi said, smiling.

“I… yeah. I think I’d like that,” Vanitas admitted. “But…” he grinned slyly, coming up with an idea. “I’ll only ask for their help if you tell them about your feelings.”

Kairi took a deep breath and paused in consideration. “Okay, deal,” she decided, looking at Vanitas confidently and holding out her hand.

Vanitas reached out to shake Kairi’s hand, then hesitated. What was this feeling? Guilt? He wasn’t sure. “I… I… I think there’s something I need to confess first,” he said, unsure why he was telling her this. “I… you’ll probably not want to… how do I say this…” Should he even say this?

Kairi smiled knowingly. “When you first got here, you still wanted to join with Ventus, not reconcile.”

Vanitas blinked at her in surprise. “You knew?”

Kairi nodded. “Mhmm. But you don’t want to anymore,” she said confidently.

Vanitas gave a start. He wasn’t sure what to say to that. He had been toying with the idea, certainly, but wasn’t it his purpose to rejoin Ventus? Ventus was half of him. Vanitas knew in his heart that he wanted to be his own person, but… “I’m not a full person without him,” Vanitas said, though he knew it was obvious that there was no heart in that statement.

“Aren’t you?” Kairi asked.

“I…” Wasn’t he? Xehanort had been that one to drill that into him, and he’d since learned the guy was pretty manipulative. It easily could have been a lie that he only had half a heart.

“What would you get out of it, if you merged?” Kairi asked. “Would things be better?”

“Of course!” Vanitas proclaimed even though he wasn't sure of that at all. “I mean… it is a little scary, since I know I might change and I guess I actually do like who I am now... but, like I said, I’m only half a person. Only the dark half. Plus, things are missing. I have flashes of forgotten memories… Xehanort said they’d all return if we joined.”

Kairi scoffed at that. “Okay, one, you are more than half a person. Your heart may have been all darkness and negativity at first, but you said it before—you’ve begun to feel more positive emotions. That means your heart is healing. Your heart is becoming full again, maybe already has; you’re your own person, not half of one.”

“I guess…” Vanitas said, feeling a bit uncomfortable about that. He knew his heart had grown significantly since coming here, but it was so confusing so he’d been trying to ignore it.

“And off of that,” Kairi continued as though there were no interruption, “That means merging absolutely won’t work even if you still wanted to, which you don't.”

Vanitas gave a start. “What?” he asked in a shocked whisper. “What do you mean, won’t work?!”

“Well, Roxas and Naminé were supposed to merge with Sora and I, remember? But they didn’t, because they’d grown their own hearts. You can’t have a heart that equals more than one, right? So if your heart has grown, then it stands to reason that you won’t be able to merge, as there will be surplus.”

Kairi waited patiently while Vanitas stared at the girl for a few minutes, thinking about that… and realized he’d already known that, in his… heart. His heart. A heart that was more than just negativity now, he realized. Was this why the merge hadn’t happened even when they’d fought twelve years prior? Had he or Ventus already begun to regrow their missing halves of their once-shared hearts? Vanitas never thought that possible at the time… But. There was still one thing.

“What about my memories, then?” Vanitas whispered. “I’ll… am I never going to get those back?” Then again, did he want them back? He recalled his previous conversation with R2 about that. Maybe it'd be bad to get them back.

Kairi paused for a moment, figuring out how to word her thoughts. “Maybe, maybe not,” she settled on, then further explained. “You know, I’m in the same boat as you. I lost my memories after Radiant Garden fell; I landed on the Destiny Islands knowing almost nothing. I sometimes have flashbacks, or vague feelings that I know certain people or places, but nothing concrete.”

Vanitas frowned, pondering that. He never expected to meet someone in such a similar situation. “How did you handle that?” he asked quietly, then clarified, "Not knowing so much about your past?"

Kairi shrugged. “I made new memories.”

“New memories?”

“Yup! With Sora and Riku and the people who took me in.” Kairi smiled and turned to look Vanitas in the eyes. “And you know what? It’s those memories that matter most, not the ones you’ve forgotten of long ago. The friends and connections you make now are what matter. You have to look towards the future, not get lost in the past.”

Vanitas looked at the girl incredulously, taking in those words. New memories? Friends? He didn’t—oh, who was he kidding. He'd definitely become friends with R2 and Sora. And… it wasn't only them, was it? Vanitas felt thrown off by this sudden realization. Friends. He had friends. Vanitas, a being of pure darkness, had made friends.

“We’re friends too, you know,” Kairi told Vanitas, apparently catching his train of thought.

Vanitas scrunched his brow in confusion. “Who?”

“You and I.”

Vanitas wasn’t sure what she was saying. “You want to be friends? With me?”

Kairi laughed slightly. “No, silly. We’re already friends!”

“We are?”

“Yup! You don’t have heart-to-hearts like this if you’re strangers.”

“I… guess that’s true.” Vanitas wasn’t sure how he felt about this.

Kairi nodded. “So we’re friends.”

“...Okay.” Vanitas conceded, realizing there was no arguing with the girl on that front. Then, he had a thought, which he tepidly voiced. “Do you think… do you think Ventus would want to be my friend?”

Kairi smiled at him. “Sure! It might take a bit of work, given your history, but if he’s anything like Sora—which I have a feeling he is—you’ll be able to befriend him. Hey, maybe he’ll even think of you as a brother! Like Sora does.”

“Sora thinks of me as a brother?” Vanitas asked, shocked. They'd been pretending to be when people asked on missions, but did it go beyond that? Was their relationship truly akin to brothers? Vanitas had barely processed the fact that he had friends, yet now he was being told he also had a bond closer than a friend one, one akin to a brother?

Kairi nodded and smiled happily. “Yup! At least, you two act like it. I’m sure Ventus will eventually warm up to you too!”

Vanitas smiled. “I… I think I’d like that,” he realized. So, new goal: release Ventus to befriend him, not to merge. Well, merging hadn't truly been his goal for a while, but still. Now the goal was solid instead of uncertain. Vanitas felt kinda funny at that thought. What was this feeling? Something… positive. A positive feeling, definitely. Similar to happiness, but calmer and warmer? He’d ask R2 about it later. Then, Vanitas frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Kairi asked.

Vanitas looked down into his hands. “You said you knew that I lied about my goal at first,” he recalled. He hadn’t asked how, but he had a suspicion it was part of her Princess of Light ordeal. “Do the others know?”

Kairi shook her head. “Nope. I didn’t tell anyone.”

Vanitas looked at her in confusion. “Why not?” he asked, biting down the urge to call her stupid for it. “That’s usually something you mention to people,” he pointed out instead.

Kairi smiled in that knowing way she had. “I knew you’d change… that you already were changing, even when you'd only first joined us. Telling people would have caused unnecessary strife: Sora has had blind trust in you from the start so would adamantly defend you, Riku would have never trusted you even knowing you were changing, and then we’d be dealing with them fighting over it.”

Vanitas looked at Kairi as if she had two heads. “Those two fight?” They were practically joined at the hip. Either one would sacrifice themself for the other. Well, with the exception of when Riku had been possessed.

Kairi laughed. “Hard to believe, right? It’s really rare that they fight, but when they do it’s bad. When they fought over the name of a raft, Riku made the Islands fall to darkness!” she joked.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “Really? It wasn’t, I don’t know, misplaced jealousy mixed with some gay panic combined with a dose of possession?” he quipped back with a smile. He'd heard the three joke along those lines before.

Kairi laughed harder at that. “Yeah, might’ve been a bit of that, too.”

Chapter Text

A few days later, Vanitas found himself heading towards Ienzo’s—or was it Even’s now?—lab along with a large group of people. A short distance ahead of him walked Sora, Riku, and Kairi, the brunette in the middle with the silverette and redhead to either side. They were holding hands, and appeared to be fairly happy, as opposed to the previous few days; it had been subtle, but Vanitas could tell that there was a tension between the three—or rather, between the boys and Kairi. Vanitas knew why, and it felt strange to be hiding that secret from Riku and Sora, but Kairi had trusted him with it… it was so bizarre. Months prior Vanitas would have wasted no time in telling Sora about it, not caring about breaking trust for the sake of chaos, but now he found himself not wanting to at all. Kairi had trusted him with her feelings, and Vanitas wouldn’t betray that, not only because it would be detrimental for Vanitas but also because it would hurt Kairi, as well as the boys. This feeling… It was called 'care', right? Well anyway, the three appeared to be more cohesive today; had they talked about it? Vanitas sneaked a peek at the trio’s emotions; no, there was still a sense of underlying tension there.

Perhaps the joy was a result of what they were about to do? Vanitas sure was excited! The scientists had called the group two nights prior to inform them that everything was in-place to get Naminé, Ventus, Roxas, and Xion out of Kairi and Sora. The next day Aqua had gone to retrieve Ventus’s body, bringing it straight to the lab after doing so, and today was the day he’d be freed. Also heading to the lab with them were Aqua, Lea, R2, and Terra, the latter who had conveniently woken up that morning (and who also had to go to the lab for a general post-possession checkup); Even had initially insisted that there be no extra people there, worried about potential interference, until Ienzo pointed out that they did have a waiting room and psychologically it’d be best for the people closest to the heart-people to be there upon their waking. Technically that excluded Vanitas, but he’d snuck along anyway; no one had said anything so either they agreed that was fine or hadn’t even realized he shouldn’t be there—Vanitas had noticed that when you were around someone a whole lot people tended to become so used to it that they inadvertently overlooked it when you shouldn’t be there with the other.

Truthfully, Vanitas was somewhat worried in addition to being excited about this; he had no idea how Ventus would react to him upon being freed. How much had the blonde been able to see while in Sora’s heart? Could he observe everything, thus would be aware Vanitas had changed, or would he return thinking it was immediately after the battle with Vanitas still wanting to merge? Vanitas sincerely hoped it was the former.

The others wouldn’t face the same issue, so had no concerns… wait. Vanitas felt a wave of nervousness to the side of him, matching his own. “What’s up with you? Shouldn’t you be more excited?” he asked R2.

“Oh. Figures you’d be able to tell,” R2 said flatly, then sighed. “Fine. I am excited, but I’m also really nervous. I mean, what if she actually doesn’t like me? She spent more time overall with Riku and Lea than me. I know Kairi says Naminé does want to see me, but still… what if she wants to see them more?”

“She spent time with them after she’d thought you’d died,” Vanitas pointed out, predicting the line of thought. “She didn’t abandon you for them. Riku even said she talked about you a lot, remember?”

“I guess,” R2 muttered, then changed the subject in a clear attempt to avoid talking more about his feelings; Vanitas allowed it. “Anyway, what about you?” R2 asked. “You must have it worse. I’m surprised those two even let you come,” he pointed out, nodding behind and to the side, where Aqua, Terra, and Lea were engaged in their own private conversation.

“Honestly I think they haven’t noticed,” Vanitas said with a chuckle. At R2’s slightly confused look he further explained, “They’re so preoccupied with Ventus, and so used to seeing me around Sora, that it’s slipped their mind that I shouldn’t be here.” Plus, their vitriol towards Vanitas was much less than it had been in the past; Aqua had seen for herself the change in Vanitas, and Sora and Riku’s testimonies and assurances had also aided in easing her worries, whereas Terra had been able to see what had been going on while possessed so easily accepted the change as well as felt a surprising amount of sympathy towards how Vanitas had been manipulated by Old Norty—which also contributed to why Aqua was tolerating Vanitas. Although, that might change based on how Ventus reacted…

Finally, the group reached the lab. Upon entering, Even hurried over and quickly directed Sora, Kairi, and Terra into it while insisting all the others follow Ienzo into the nearby small waiting room.

Suddenly, Vanitas had an idea. “Ienzo, can I talk to you about something?” he requested. “Alone?” he clarified, not wanting to embarrass himself if his idea wasn’t possible.

“Of course,” Ienzo said amicably as the others all filed into the waiting room. He stepped away from the door a bit so they wouldn’t be overheard. “What is it that you need?”

Vanitas suddenly felt some trepidation about impulsively asking this immediately after thinking it, but plowed ahead anyway. “Well, you have an extra replica, right? Since Ventus has his own body?”

“Ah. Well, not quite,” Ienzo said. “There was a small issue with the last one, although now that Even’s here I’m sure it can soon be repaired. Why do you ask?”

“Can I use it?” Vanitas blurted out; then, realizing that probably sounded rude, added, “If that’s okay with you.”

Ienzo looked surprised, which was a rare expression on him. “But you already have a body of your own,” he pointed out. “Why would you need a new one? Are you sick or injured?”

“What? No,” Vanitas said hurriedly. “I just… you know my body’s made of darkness, right? Just, pure solidified darkness.”

“No, I actually didn’t know that,” Ienzo admitted, seeming intrigued by the revelation. “But, what does that have to do with needing a replica?”

Vanitas shifted nervously. “Because… because I don’t like that anymore,” he reluctantly admitted, the thought also new to himself. “I don’t like being so different from everyone else. I want to be able to experience the things normal humans do. Also… Kairi thinks I might have some light in me, that my heart’s trying to become whole again, but I don’t think that’s possible if I’m literally made of darkness… is it?” he finished in a question; Ienzo studied the heart, after all.

“Hmmm. Perhaps…” Ienzo mused. “However, we cannot know for certain without an examination. Your body itself is a manifestation of your heart's darkness, correct?”

“Yes,” Vanitas confirmed. “At least, that’s what Xehanort told me—he lied about a bunch of stuff so who really knows what’s true.”

“I see. In that case, if you are starting to generate some light—which, if Kairi says so, it’s most likely true—it may be necessary for you to find a different vessel regardless, as strong darkness can manifest a form but it is yet unknown if a heart not consumed by darkness can—”

“I’m gonna cut you off there,” Vanitas interrupted. “I’m positive I’ll always have enough darkness to maintain a form. My heart becoming whole is a separate matter I want to know about; I don’t care about the level of light itself.”

“Then, why do you wish for a body?”

“Like I said before, I just want to be able to feel normal human stuff,” Vanitas reiterated. “Which I’ve already started to do emotionally, I guess, but there’s other stuff too. Physical stuff. Emotions like lust that involve the body doing stuff.”

“Oh. I, er, I see,” Ienzo said, blushing a little. Was that an awkward topic? Should Vanitas not have been so blunt?

“Plus I want to be able to use other types of magic!” Vanitas quickly added. Surely that wasn't awkward to mention.

Ienzo nodded as he collected himself. “Having a body made of darkness would limit one’s abilities to only darkness-related ones,” he confirmed, clearly thankful for the subject change.

“So?” Vanitas prodded. "Can I have the spare replica body?”

Ienzo replied, “Well, I will need to consult with Even on the matter, but as it is a spare I don’t see why not; Even may even be excited about having more in use. In fact, it may be easier to move you into a replica than it will be for the others.”

“Why would it be easier?” Vanitas wondered.

“Well, there are two parts to the process: first, the heart must be removed from the original vessel and the connection to it must be severed. Then, a new connection is made with the replica body, causing the heart to recognize it as its own vessel. If what you say is true and you technically do not have a body that is separate from your heart, the first step becomes unnecessary. Therefore, it is easier to perform the process.”

“Cool,” Vanitas commented, even though he only barely understood what Ienzo was saying. “So, when can I have one?”

“Like I previously stated, I must consult with Even first, and a proper examination must be performed. And of course there is the matter of repairing the replica body, first, although that shouldn’t take very long; I will contact you after consulting with Even.”

“What happened to it?” Vanitas wondered.

Ienzo paused and frowned. “Demyx spilled coffee on the arm before we could get it attached,” he explained contritely.

Vanitas raised his eyebrows. “Demyx is here?” He hadn't heard about that.

“Yes. He arrived along with Even,” Ienzo replied. “His reasoning, in his words, was that he ‘was bored and Xehanort was being a little bitch’.”

“And you think he won’t try to go back?”

“I am confident that as long as we give him tasks to do and do not treat him as poorly as Xehanort did, he will be content to stay here. Despite his poor following of lab protocol, I truly believe that he has a sincere interest in science and wishes to learn from us.”

“Makes sense,” Vanitas agreed. Honestly he was surprised it’d taken Demyx that long to defect, although joining the lab, thus indirectly the side of light, was a surprise. He probably found it entertaining to be so close to the war in addition to having an unexpected interest in science.

“Well, if that’s all, I must go, as those in the lab are waiting for me,” Ienzo said, then briskly headed to the lab while Vanitas entered the waiting room.

“Everything okay?” R2 asked as Vanitas sat next to him on a couch. Unlike Merlin’s place, the little lounge at the lab was actually cohesive in style, with brown leather couches and armchairs around a chestnut coffee table, walls painted white with some bland paintings of landscapes decorating them. Basically, it was what one would expect from a medical office or, in this case, lab.

“Yeah, just had some questions,” Vanitas replied. “Nothing to worry about,” he added.

“What? I wasn’t worried!” R2 said hurriedly.

Vanitas chuckled. “I can feel emotions, idiot. Besides, even if I couldn’t, your reaction screams ‘yes I was but I don’t want to admit it’.”

“What! That’s—”

“Oh, stop denying it. It’s obvious to everyone that you like to hide your emotions, just like I used to do.”

R2 opened his mouth to again deny it, then closed it, thinking twice. Instead he replied, “Used to?” as he raised an eyebrow.

Vanitas shrugged. “Eh, I’m working on it.”

Soon idle chatter morphed into quiet, with people absorbed in either the magazines someone had left on the table, GummiPhone games, or in Riku’s case nervously staring at the wall bouncing a leg, clearly lost in thoughts of worry; understandable, seeing as both his girlfriend and boyfriend were going through a medical procedure which technically hadn’t been done before.

Vanitas picked up a random magazine, curious about it. He knew magazines tended to have articles written by many different people, as well as related advertisements, but he had never actually held one before, let alone read one. No one in Merlin’s house had any that Vanitas knew about; not even the news stand sold them, as the world was still being rebuilt—they had a small newspaper, but that was all. So these magazines must be from off-world… Yup, sure enough, this one was from the city of San Fransokyo, or at least Vanitas assumed such as the contents listed an article about some robotics symposium at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. Most of the articles seemed to be about robotics; having little understanding of such, Vanitas put the magazine down and picked up a different one, which turned out to be a medical journal full of technical jargon. He again put it down and chose another.

Vanitas was leafing through the final magazine when Ienzo returned to the room. Did this mean things were finished?

Riku stood up immediately. “Is everything okay?” he asked, worry wafting off of him.

“Worrywart,” R2 muttered under his breath, although he too exuded the scent of concern.

“Yes, things are going well!” Ienzo promised. “Terra’s exam is complete, and the hearts have been relocated into their new vessels—well, old in Ventus’s case—with no issues. I would like Lea and Aqua to come with me before we wake them; it would be best for them psychologically if there be people there that Ventus, Roxas, and Xion know when they wake.”

“What about Naminé?” R2 asked.

“Even doesn’t want the lab to be too crowded, and thus feels that Kairi and Sora being there is sufficient enough, as she knows them. We’re going to wake her first, then after a brief exam send her back here. The other three, however, never met either of them formally, and it is unknown to what extent they were aware of things.”

“Roxas and Xion know you, though,” Lea pointed out as he and Aqua stood up. “And Even.”

“Well, yes,” Ienzo acknowledged. “But you were undeniably the closest to them, and considering the manner in which Roxas departed the Organization, we are concerned he may not react well if it is only us there.”

“Oh shit,” Lea exclaimed. “You’re right! If neither of them remember anything that happened while inside Sora… Oh gods. The last time Roxas saw me he thought he’d killed me after I tried to kill him! What a mess…”

“Well, as I previously stated, we are unsure if they will remember or not,” Ienzo replied calmly. “Sora seems confident that they’ll know what’s been going on, at least in general.”

“But wait,” R2 interjected. “Why does Ventus get to have two people there if Even doesn’t want the lab crowded? Are you sure that’s why he doesn’t want me there? I am a ‘failed experiment’ after all,” he said bitterly.

“Oh! No, that isn’t at all why!” Ienzo exclaimed, appearing horrified at the suggestion. “You are by no means a failure, at least not in our eyes. The reason both Aqua and Terra are to be there is because Terra feels like Ventus may react poorly considering what happened between them before their fight with Xehanort. If he indeed doesn’t remember that he took refuge in Sora, he may be extremely traumatized, as the last thing he remembers would be that battle. Add that to the face that Sora looks similar to you, Vanitas…” Ah, right. Yeah, Vanitas could see that ending poorly. Hopefully the kid did remember; if not… oof. If the last thing he’d have remembered was what Vanitas had done to him… Vanitas mentally shook himself; no use thinking too much about that.

As the three left, Vanitas asked Riku, “So, what was that about with Roxas?”

“Why do you think I know?” Riku replied.

Vanitas only raised an eyebrow in response.

Riku sighed. “It’s complicated. Really complicated.”

“We’ve got time,” Vanitas pointed out. Probably.

“I want to know too,” R2 chimed in.

Riku sighed. “Look, I don’t know the full story either; it’s probably best to ask Roxas himself. Or, not; he might get mad if you do. Anyway, here’s a summary of what I do know…”

Vanitas listened with increasing incredulity as he told them Roxas’s, as well as Xion’s, stories.

“He’s gonna want to kill you,” Vanitas said as Riku finished.

“Yeah, probably,” Riku admitted. “I’d deserve it though.”

“Ugh, seriously?” R2 groaned. “Not this self-deprecating shit again! You did what you had to do to save Sora. Many people have told you this. You can’t be faulted for it.”

“But I can be!” Riku insisted. “I shouldn’t have trusted DiZ so much!”

“Can you two quit it?” Vanitas interjected. “Obviously neither of you will concede; it’s pointless to fight.”

Both silverettes looked at Vanitas with incredulity. “Since when do you try to break up fights instead of encouraging them?” Riku wondered.

Vanitas crossed his arms and attempted not to blush. “I can change!” he muttered.

Clearly the attempt at assuaging a blush failed, as R2 replied, jokingly, “Is that a blush?! Who are you and what have you done with Vanitas?”

“Am I interrupting something?” came a gentle voice from the doorway.

“Naminé?!” Riku and R2 simultaneously declared as they both shot up to their feet. Vanitas decided to not point out the identical reaction; it would only make R2 angry, as did anything referencing the fact that his personality had originally been a copy. Vanitas then stood up too, not wanting to be the only one seated.

“You really do look nearly identical to Sora,” the sandy-haired girl commented as she walked up to Vanitas. “They told me you did, but I didn’t know it’d be this much.”

“Guessing you couldn’t see anything while in there?” Vanitas surmised—otherwise she’d have known.

Naminé paused in thought, clearly considering how to word things, or at least that’s the impression Vanitas got—just as with Kairi, Vanitas had a lot of trouble reading her emotions. “Yes and no,” she concluded. “It’s not as you’re imagining. I cannot say how it was for Ventus, as he was there so much longer, but in my case I was only partially aware, as though things were a dream. Sometimes I could feel what Kairi was feeling and get the gist of what was happening—especially as she learned how to communicate with me using feelings—but I couldn’t physically see and could hear only occasionally, which was muffled unless I focused really hard.”

“You have a lot to catch up on then,” Riku commented.

“Yes,” Naminé acknowledged. “But although I am curious, I would recommend waiting until later, so you don’t have to explain multiple times.”

“What are you wearing?” R2 then asked the girl bluntly.

Riku elbowed him. “Hey, that’s rude!”

Naminé giggled. “The replicas had no clothing, so Sora magicked some up for us,” she explained.

“But… Sora’s good at fashion,” Vanitas stated.

“He doesn’t have full control over design yet,” Naminé explained. “But I think it’s nice!” She twirled around, the simple blue-and-red-striped sundress flaring out as she did so to reveal matching underwear, which Vanitas belatedly realized he shouldn’t have looked at. Naminé, though she seemed to notice, didn’t mention that as she continued, “Even if it does hurt the eyes to look at.” Indeed it did; the colors were the perfect amount of contrast to create an optical illusion of the stripes moving.

At that moment, someone else appeared in the doorway—someone whose appearance caused Vanitas to pale (not his outfit, but who specifically it was; thankfully he was in his normal clothing rather than a headache-inducing dress).

“Roxas?” Riku questioned, looking wary.

“What?” Vanitas said, briefly distracted by the comment. “That’s not—Oh, shit!”

Vanitas summoned his keyblade just in time to block a downward strike from Ventus, who had used air magic to leap across the room. That answered the question as to whether he’d immediately be able to move well or not; it had been unclear to what extent his body had been preserved. "I'll kill you!" the blond growled out, although something felt off about it; was he not serious?

As the two pushed against each other, R2 snickered—snickered!—and said, "Didn't you say he was pure light? Murderous intent does not strike me as 'pure light'."

"Shut up and help!" Vanitas demanded. He pushed Ventus away; the blond leapt back and… started laughing?

Vanitas dismissed his keyblade and stared at Ventus in confusion, unsure what to do. The trio of flood unversed that had accidentally appeared stood at his feet, waiting for instructions that Vanitas wouldn't give.

“Okay, what the hell is going on?” Riku demanded. “Why do you look like Roxas?”

Ventus shrugged as he calmed his laughter. “Beats me.”

Vanitas collected himself and joined the conversation. “Probably because you were there when he was created,” he commented offhandedly. When everyone looked at Vanitas with surprise, he asserted with annoyance, “What? I know things!”

“Sorry,” Ventus said automatically.

“Why are you being nice to me?” Vanitas wondered, as although like most pure-light people Ventus was difficult for Vanitas to read, he could tell the boy was nervous but not hateful. The only explanation would be that he knew first-hand what had been going on, as not even having it explained to him beforehand would account for so few negative feelings, even in someone pure light—as exemplified by Kairi, just like dark people could feel positive emotions, light people were definitely not spared from having negative emotions, in contrast to what Xehanort had always told Vanitas. He turned to the girl in the room. “Naminé, I thought you said you couldn’t hear much?”

“Well, I couldn’t,” Naminé confirmed, “But Ventus was there much longer.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t do much at first, but being in there twelve years gave me a lot of practice," Ventus explained. "The past few years I’ve been able to watch basically everything.”

“Everything?” Riku repeated, voice raised an octave. Vanitas looked at the boy in confusion; why was his face so red?

“Ugh, seriously?” R2 groaned. “That really blows! I feel sorry for you.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Ventus said, blushing too, albeit less so. “Also, I could go to sleep if I wanted to, to give you privacy.” Again Vanitas wondered what—oh. Oooooh. Wow. Awkward.

Vanitas decided a subject change was necessary. “So… we’re good?” he asked Ventus tepidly.

Ventus frowned. “I wouldn’t say good, but I won’t try to kill you, especially considering you saved Sora’s life.”

“WHAT?” Riku proclaimed, turning and glaring at Vanitas, silently demanding an explanation.

Vanitas merely shrugged at Riku. “I have no idea,” he admitted.

“When you told Aerith about Sora,” Ventus explained. “I mean, I know he wasn’t gonna actually do anything, but if he didn’t get help, it was only a matter of time.”

“It was really that bad?” Riku said in a whisper, looking somewhat frightened.

“It’s better now,” Vanitas assured him. “The ther—er, the measures we've been taking have helped, from what I can tell.” Vanitas mentally cringed; the others there didn't know about the therapy and medicine!

“But if he hadn’t seen someone…” Riku trailed shakily.

“There’s no way of knowing for sure, but it was a definite possibility,” Ventus acknowledged. “Just… thank you for that, Vanitas.”

“I… you’re welcome,” Vanitas replied, in somewhat of a daze. Of all things to have happened after Ventus was freed, being thanked by the blond hadn’t even been on the radar. He looked past Ventus to see Aqua and Terra in the doorway, watching.

“So, where are the others?” Riku asked as an awkward silence began to fall. “Are they okay?”

“Oh, yeah, they’re fine,” Ventus assured Riku, speaking as though he knew him—which in a way he did. “Well, kinda. Roxas thought he had died, which is understandable because literally everyone in the room he knew he thought had been dead. So he’s freaking out and they’re trying to calm him down, which is why we decided to leave before he saw me, as I look nearly identical to him.”

As Ventus explained that, Aqua and Terra strolled over to the group, too.

“So, everything’s good with you too?” Vanitas asked the latter.

Terra blinked, looking surprised, as everyone seemed to be whenever Vanitas said anything lately. Was it really that hard to process Vanitas trying to be non-combative and caring? Well, okay, maybe it was, given his history. Terra finally said, “Yeah, everything’s good… Sorry, I know you’ve changed, but it’s still weird,” he admitted.

“Well, you’ve only been awake less than a day,” Vanitas reasoned. “But you two,” he shot a glare at Riku and R2, “shouldn’t be so surprised anymore!”

Vanitas sensed a barely-discernible presence slip into the room—Kairi. Well, at least Vanitas could sense her presence now, which he found himself oddly proud of. Sensing light was still weird though, however little he could… strangely enough, she gravitated to Naminé rather than Riku, the two girls moving to a couch to chat quietly about something. Riku looked over at them, seeming confused… so the relationship was still strained. Why hadn’t Kairi talked to him yet? Did Vanitas have to lock them in a closet?

Sora, however, held no reservations as he bounded into the room and practically crashed into Riku, who laughed in response. “I take it you’re doing okay, then?” Riku asked, his worry immediately lessened from the tremendously high levels of before.

“Yup!” Sora declared happily. Not manic, though; just regular happy. “Everyone’s finally free! Even if Roxas is having a little trouble processing things. Apparently he could only recall vague feelings when inside me, like Naminé, but unlike her and Kairi I couldn't communicate with him, so he was kinda shocked to find half the former Organization in the room—after he realized he wasn’t dead he thought Xemnas must have brought him back because he hadn’t realized they’d all switched sides.”

“Ah, yeah, I can see that being an issue,” Riku acknowledged as Ventus, Aqua, and Terra slipped over to the corner to have a private conversation. Riku wondered, “What about Xion?”

“She’s handling it better,” Sora informed them. “Probably because she was unaware Axel had ‘died’—I mean, Lea, sorry; the two of them have been saying Axel, I dunno if he even told them he’s Lea now.”

“They have a lot of catching up to do,” R2 mused.

Sora sighed. “Yeah. And we’re gonna have to do all the explaining… ugh. Vanitas, I’m putting you in charge of that.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Excuse me?”

“Why don’t we explain everything at Yen Sid’s?” Kairi suggested; when had she and Naminé snuck over? Kairi grabbed Sora’s and Riku’s hands and continued, “He’s going to want to meet everyone, and that way Mickey and the others can help explain.”

Vanitas, again distracted by Naminé’s dress, deviated from the topic to ask Sora, “Can you please give Naminé clothing that doesn’t hurt the eyes?”

“What?” Sora asked.

“Yeah it’s kinda grating,” R2 chimed in.

“Fine,” Sora grumbled, then muttered some odd words and waved a hand at Naminé; the dress turned pale pink with yellow polka-dots.

“I guess that’s kinda better,” R2 commented. “Doesn’t hurt the eyes at least.”

“I like it!” Naminé asserted; Vanitas wasn’t sure if she truly did or was trying to make Sora feel better—like Kairi, she was extremely difficult for Vanitas to read.

“It’s definitely an improvement,” Vanitas pitched in. Maybe it wasn’t aligned with current fashion trends, but it didn’t look bad, in Vanitas’s opinion. Then again, he hadn’t known much at all about fashion until recently, so maybe to regular people it did look bad.

“Speaking of fashion,” Riku muttered, looking towards the door. Vanitas turned to see a group of people: Ienzo, Lea, and two teens approximately Sora’s age physically, one looking like Ventus—that must be Roxas—and the other being a girl with shoulder-length black hair who only could be Xion. Both of them wore similar dresses to Naminé, Xion’s a strange puce-and-green paisley pattern and Roxas’s blue and orange tye-dye.

“I don’t know how to make anything else yet,” Sora muttered at R2’s questioning gaze.

“We forgot to purchase clothing for the replicas,” Ienzo explained as he walked over to the group, overhearing the conversation. “Sora graciously volunteered to magic some up even though he was still unfamiliar with the spell.”

“Unfamiliar?” Riku asked, raising an eyebrow at Sora and crossing his arms.

“Ummmm. Yeah, that might have been the first time I ever tried that spell,” Sora admitted.

“Weren’t you expressly ordered to not experiment with magic without Merlin's supervision?”

“Hey! I knew the theory, and unlike the others, this one’s not dangerous!”

“I feel like there’s a story there,” Roxas said as he, Lea, and Xion joined the group too; Vanitas noted him eyeing both Riku and R2 warily, and Riku doing the same, although R2 seemed unaware.

“There’s a lot of stories there,” Lea commented with a chuckle.

“Oh! We should introduce ourselves, Roxas,” Xion suggested. She held out her hand to Vanitas. “Hi! I’m Xion!”

“Vanitas,” Vanitas said, looking at the hand in confusion.

“You’re supposed to shake it,” R2 whispered to him

“Oh,” Vanitas said, and grasped the girl’s hand in his. She giggled as she shook it slightly, in an identical manner to Kairi’s. Which did make sense, Vanitas supposed; she was based off Kairi, after all, if he recalled correctly.

R2 then took Xion’s hand. “I’m R2,” he told her.

“Oh! So you’re Riku’s brother? I was unaware he had one,” Xion commented.

“What? No!” R2 protested. “I’m—ugh, it’s complicated. I’ll explain it later so I don’t have to repeat myself a billion times.”

“Seriously? That’s what that guy who looks like me said too!” Roxas complained.

“Then why don’t we go to Merlin’s now?” Naminé suggested. “That’s where we’re all to stay, right?”

“How’d you know that?” Vanitas wondered before he could think. Kairi probably told her.

“Naminé just magically knows things,” Sora informed them.

Naminé giggled, also in an identical manner to Kairi. “I’m not quite that clairvoyant, Sora. Kairi told me earlier.”

At that moment, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus joined the group, apparently having the same idea of leaving.

At that moment, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus joined the group, apparently having the same idea of leaving—at least initially.

“What!” Ventus proclaimed, staring at Xion and Roxas. “Why do they get fun clothes!?”

Roxas blinked, then looked down at himself. “Fun?” he questioned.

“Yeah! They’ve got all those neat colors!”

“We didn’t have clothing, so Sora made us these,” Xion explained, unphased by Ventus’s excited state.

Ventus turned to Sora. “Give me some too!” he demanded.

“Ventus!” Aqua scolded. “That’s rude.”

Ventus blushed. “Oh. Sorry! Um. Please give me some too?” he tried, glancing towards Aqua, a question in his eyes.

“Yes, that’s better,” Aqua said patiently.

“He’s still learning manners,” Vanitas overheard Terra whispering to Riku, probably noticing his surprise at Aqua’s treatment of the boy. She acted like his mother, even though she wasn’t that much older physically. Terra continued, “Ven had no memories when he was sent to Eraqus, had to relearn everything—and I mean everything. There’s a lot he still has to learn, too.”

“Like manners,” Riku noted. Vanitas withheld a chuckle; pretty much half the people there were still learning such, himself included

“Yup. Hadn’t gotten around to that much by the time we all left. Although I thought he’d have picked up something from Sora at least…”

Riku chuckled. “Sora’s not the best with manners either,” he divulged.

While Terra and Riku had been talking, Vanitas listening in, Sora had complied with Ventus’s demand/request; Ventus was now spinning around, allowing the green-apple dress, accented with fuschia, to flare out.

“Ven!” Aqua gasped.

“What?” Ventus asked as he halted his spin.

“You have to be careful when in a dress; you just flashed everyone your underwear.”

Ventus merely looked confused at that.

“It’s not something you should do,” Aqua said with a sigh.

“But Sora and Kairi do it all the time,” Ventus argued. “And Naminé did too, earlier.”

“Well they shouldn’t do that either,” Aqua chided, turning to the three. Sora looked embarrassed, but Kairi and Naminé didn’t seem phased. Vanitas chuckled at their reactions. For Sora, dresses were still somewhat new, so he had an excuse for constantly forgetting, and was properly embarrassed about it; Kairi, however, was aware but just didn’t care—modesty wasn’t her strong suit. Naminé must have inherited that.

The group double-checked with Ienzo if it was okay that they leave, and he agreed, as long as they contacted him immediately if there were any issues. They were also to return to the lab daily over the next week to be sure the replicas functioned properly, although Vanitas felt that it was probably unlikely they wouldn’t considering many others already were using them, all also made by Even. The guy was just very cautious—which wasn’t a bad thing when it came to scientific procedures.

As everyone left, they broke off into little groups as they walked back to Merlin’s, which was across town from the lab—a good twenty minute’s walk. If only they could use dark corridors! But Mickey and Yen Sid had banned all of them from using them after the Paris incident… Vanitas suddenly realized neither he nor Sora had met with the wizard since. That was going to be a mess when they all saw him sometime in the next few days.

Somehow, Vanitas found himself walking with Roxas and Xion, of all people.

“Shouldn’t you two be with Lea?” Vanitas wondered.

“Lea?” Roxas asked.

“Axel. Lea’s his name now; didn’t he tell you?”

“Oh, right,” Roxas acknowledged. “He’s been kidnapped by Ventus; apparently they knew each other really long ago.”

“I see. So why are you here with me?” Vanitas wondered.

“You looked lonely,” Xion replied. “Don’t you have anyone to walk with?”

“Oh. Normally I’d walk with Sora or R2, but Sora’s busy being all flirty with Riku and Kairi and I want to give R2 time to talk with Naminé,” Vanitas explained.

“Huh. You’re nicer than I expected,” Roxas commented bluntly.

This confused Vanitas. “We never met before today. Why would you have any expectations?”

“Well, the blue-haired girl and really buff guy were discussing you with Ventus, and it sounded like you weren’t very nice, although the blue-haired girl did mention you were trying to be nicer.”

“Well, I did try to kill them,” Vanitas informed the two.

“What! Why?” Xion asked, sounding worried. “Did they do something to you?”

Vanitas chuckled. “Nah. Xehanort raised me to be a weapon; I’m pretty much the entire reason Ventus’s heart got shattered. I’m actually surprised they’re taking it so well that I’m on the same side now.”

“Xehanort raised you?” Roxas noted, throwing Vanitas off. That’s what he chose to comment on?

“Yeah,” Vanitas confirmed. “It’s kinda complicated, but I was formed from the darkness in Ventus’s heart; that’s why Ventus is pure light, or at least was. Xehanort’s the one who split us. After that, he abandoned Ventus and raised me to think I was pure negativity and darkness and shit like that. I didn’t learn that I wasn’t until Xehanort’s teenage self decided to defect and asked me and R2 to come along—yeah, time travel’s a thing,” Vanitas concluded as he noted the two teens’ confused looks.

“Neat,” Roxas commented. “Well, not the being raised by Xehanort thing,” he hurriedly clarified, “but the time travel.” He seemed to easily accept that; well, he was, technically, only a year old, so Vanitas supposed he hadn’t had enough experience to be surprised at time travel existing.

“We were raised by Xehanort too,” Xion chimed in.

“Wait, what?” Vanitas asked. “I don’t remember—”

Roxas cut Vanitas off. “It wasn’t the old guy, it was his nobody, Xemnas.”

“The Organization created me!” Xion announced. “I was a replica from the start.” Oh, right. Vanitas knew that. It stood to reason the Organization would have raised her.

“I know that,” Vanitas said. “But shouldn’t Roxas—”

“Yeah, I didn’t have any memories after becoming a nobody, so the Organization taught me everything,” Roxas explained. “Including a bunch of wrong stuff.”

“He said we didn’t have hearts, thus had no emotions,” Xion explained. “We believed him, which made things very confusing when we started developing hearts and feeling things. It's honestly still extremely confusing.”

“Wait, so you’re like me?” Vanitas realized. Raised by Xehanort—well, one version of him—to believe they had no emotions, like Vanitas had been raised to think he only experienced negative ones. And if those two went straight to Sora from the Organization… “So you’re only now learning about emotions, too?”

Xion nodded. “You probably know more about emotions than we do,” she pointed out. “You can teach us!”

Vanitas became so surprised he stopped walking. “What?” was all he could muster.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Roxas agreed as he and Xion paused too.

“Wait, no, I can’t do that!” Vanitas protested, as he remembered to continue walking and they followed. “You’d be better off talking to Sora about that, or Kairi, or R2, or teen Xehanort, or literally anyone else!”

“Teen Xehanort?” Roxas noted. “You said that before. What’s the deal with that?”

Vanitas sighed. “That’s a long story…”

After some more needling from Roxas and Xion, Vanitas decided to explain to them the general outline of what had been going on over the past… had it already been more than half a year since Vanitas had joined the group? He did the cliffnotes version as they only had about ten more minutes left of the walk to Merlin’s.

“...So, now we need thirteen light people, and only have twelve, and the last one is definitely not me,” Vanitas finished as they turned the corner onto Merlin’s street.

“Hmmm.” Xion put her hand on her chin as she thought about that. “That old wizard used to have a keyblade, right? Maybe he’s the last one.”

Vanitas scrunched his nose in distaste. “Yen Sid? Ugh. I hope not. That guy’s a real bastard.”

Xion and Roxas made sounds of agreement—lingering feelings from Sora?—then the latter said, “Is it actual people needed, or just keyblades?”

Vanitas frowned at that. “What do you mean?" he asked, unsure what Roxas was getting at.

Roxas grinned. “Well, I have two. So if it’s just keyblades, then we’re good.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow, not believing that for a second. No one had two. “Yeah, and I’m pure light.”

“No, I’m serious!” Roxas insisted. “Look.” Roxas held both his hands out, and sure enough, a keyblade appeared in each, one dark and the other light.

“What the fuck,” Vanitas said flatly, unsure how else to respond.

“Hey, whoa, you’re not fighting, are you?” Sora asked, rushing over to the three. “You said you’d—” Sora cut himself off as he reached them. “Oh. Sorry, from a distance I thought you were… yeah, sorry,” Sora said, clearly embarrassed. Ah, right; Ventus looked like Roxas.

Roxas rolled his eyes. “Seriously? I expected better of you, Sora.”

“Sorry,” the brunette said again, then his eyes lit up. “Whoa! I didn’t know you had TWO keyblades!” He turned and called, “Riku, Kairi, get over here!”

“Wait, no, don’t—” Roxas began.

“What’s wrong? Everything okay?” Riku immediately asked Sora as he ran over.

“Roxas has two keyblades!” Sora declared. “Did you know that?” he asked Riku, upon seeing the look upon the silverette’s face.

“Er, yeah, I did,” Riku admitted reluctantly. Vanitas resisted raising his eyebrows; something was amiss. Did the two have more of a negative history than Riku had let on? The tension was nearly palpable… Vanitas had been joking earlier when he said Roxas would want to kill him, but this feeling in the air… Maybe Riku had glossed over some things.

Sora looked back and forth between the two, and something appeared to click. “Aww, come on, you two! Can’t you get along?” he pleaded.

“He tried to kill me,” Roxas said flatly. “Sorry if I’m not feeling so friendly towards him.”

Riku rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I didn’t try to kill you.”

“Sure didn’t look like that to me.”

“Could someone please clue me in?” Vanitas asked. He had a feeling that this story would prove to be extremely interesting.

“Wait what?” Sora proclaimed, looking stunned. “When was that?” Huh; so he apparently knew barely anything himself.

“Let’s discuss this later,” Riku suggested.

Vanitas crossed his arms and stepped in front of Riku. “Will we really, or are you trying to get around telling us?”

Riku rolled his eyes and crossed his arms too. “I’ll really tell you, promise.”

“Then why not now?” Sora demanded.

“...Because we’ve reached the house,” Riku pointed out. Indeed, they were stopped in front of the house, and the rest of the larger group was joining them.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

A minute later, everyone had caught up; Riku sighed, glad he had dodged the bullet of discussing in detail what had happened with Roxas, which Riku had been sure would end in a fight. Of course, now he had promised he actually would discuss it…

“You okay?” Kairi asked. She’d been observing the conversation rather than contributing, probably as she had no idea what any of them were talking about; Riku didn’t like to talk about that part of his life very much, especially in regards to what he had done to Roxas, which he regretted immensely. He probably should tell her sometime.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Riku assured his girlfriend. “Come on, let’s get in there.” He opened the door, the lock of which had magically unlocked upon noting who was there, and headed inside along with everyone else.

Merlin greeted them jovially as they entered. “Hello, everyone! I expect it all went well?”

“Yup!” Sora, who had been at the front of the pack with Riku, declared. “Look; we got all the people from me and Kairi’s hearts out!” He stepped aside and made a sweeping gesture towards them.

Merlin gasped and clapped his hands together. “Oh, brilliant! And you’re all keyblade wielders, as well! Why, Yen Sid ought to be delighted!”

“Wait, all?” Kairi pointed out. “That means…” She gasped and turned to her counterpart. “Naminé! You can wield a keyblade?”

“Oh. Can I?” Naminé asked, wide-eyed. “I wasn’t aware…”

“Oh, but of course!” Merlin exclaimed. “I’ll help you learn to summon one later,” the wizard told her.

“And I’ll help,” Kairi quickly chimed in.

“Oh, very good! That’ll be a great help!” the wizard agreed.

“That means Naminé must be the thirteenth,” Vanitas realized.

“But, I don’t know how to fight,” Naminé pointed out. “And there’s not much time to learn; once Xehanort realizes all of us are here now, he’ll surely call us to fight.”

“Oh, well, that’s what magical forests are for!” Merlin declared jovially. “The time axis of the one in this house flows at a tenth of this world’s speed!”

“What! Since when?!” Sora wondered aloud. Riku, too, was confused; they’d been in that forest before, yet nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“Well that’s because I haven’t done the spell to make it do that yet,” Merlin said in a tone indicating that that should have been obvious even though it hadn’t been to anyone there.

Sora’s eyes lit up at that. “There’s magic for that?! Can you show me?”

“Of course! In fact, I’ll teach you!” Merlin said cheerily. “I’d say you’re more than ready to learn such spells.”

“Can we do it now?” Sora practically begged, clearly excited at the prospect.

“Why, you’ve read my mind! Yes, let’s—”

“Merlin,” Leon interrupted from behind him. “Let everyone into the room so the rest of us can meet them, and leave the forest to later.” Riku inwardly sighed in relief; Merlin and Sora being excited about the same thing was a dangerous combination.

Merlin stepped aside, and the group filed in, where a multitude of people were waiting for them; not only were all the people who lived at Merlin’s there, but also a slew of people from Disney Castle, more than the usual ones who visited: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Jiminy Cricket, Chip, Dale, and even Donald’s nephews and Goofy’s son were there.

“I didn’t expect so many people would be here,” Riku said to Mickey as Merlin summoned more couches and chairs in increasingly garish patterns for everyone to sit on.

“Well, truthfully, neither did I!” Mickey admitted. “The original plan was only me, Donald, and Goofy were going to be here, as usual, but then Minnie and Daisy wanted to come too, and then more heard about this and before we knew it we could barely fit everyone on the GummiShip!”

“Well, that’s that!” Merlin declared, and Riku and Mickey turned to him. The wizard announced to the room, “It’s officially a party! Tifa, you go find a jukebox,” he ordered. “And Sora, you’re in charge of snacks!”

“We have a jukebox?” Tifa asked, looking highly confused.
“What snacks?” Sora wondered at the same time.

“Don’t you have one at that bar you’re planning to open soon?” Merlin asked Tifa.

Tifa raised an eyebrow. “The bar’s still in the conceptual stages—I only secured the property yesterday. It doesn’t even have a door let alone a jukebox.”

“Oh, I see,” Merlin said, sounding disappointed. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to go get one then; I think they sell them in San Fransokyo… Sora, while I do that, you show them that new spell I taught you, the one to conjure food.”

“What!” Sora exclaimed. “I can’t do that! I’ve barely been—”

“Oh, poppycock, you’ll do fine,” Merlin interrupted. “Now, let’s see it!” Merlin turned to the group, who were all watching the scene curiously—understandably so. Conjuring food? Riku had no idea that was possible! Was it similar to the spell on the house’s fridge? “Anyone have a favorite appetizer?” Merlin asked. “And why aren’t you sitting down? I didn’t conjure these chairs to go unused!”

“No…” Sora said with a small moan as he covered his reddening face with his hands. Riku tugged him by the elbow over to the couch Kairi had seated herself in, saving them a spot. Sora ended up in the middle, face still covered.

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” Kairi whispered to Sora. “Merlin’s not here anymore; he won’t know,” she pointed out. Riku scanned the room; indeed, the wizard had vanished, most likely to find a jukebox.

Sora shook his head and took a deep breath as he uncovered his face, looking considerably less outwardly embarrassed. “I can do it,” he said. “What does everyone want?” he asked the group. “I can only make simple snacky things, nothing fancy.”

“Cheese puffs,” Roxas suggested.

Sora took a deep breath and waved a hand as he said some strange words that Riku wasn’t even sure how the brunette had managed to pronounce—some of those words definitely didn’t sound like something capable of coming from a human’s mouth. A bowl appeared in the middle of a coffee table near Roxas.

Roxas stared down at the bowl and opened his mouth, then closed it again, seeming unsure what to say that wouldn’t come off rude.

Ventus did not have the same reservations it seemed. “Why are they green triangles?” he blurted out.

“Hey, I told you I hadn’t perfected it yet!” Sora defended. “It should still taste good!”

R2 raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

“Fine. I’ll try again,” Sora said, sounding a little upset, although that was probably only obvious to Riku and Kairi, maybe Vanitas and Naminé too. He waved his arm and the bowl of green things vanished. He then repeated the words and gestured to the table, upon which another bowl appeared, this time filled with purple cubes.

There was definitely an awkward tension in the air, but Vanitas of all people broke it, probably sensing Sora’s growing unease—for some reason the noirette had taken it upon himself to monitor Sora’s emotions and help when needed (not that he outright had said so, but it was obvious). Vanitas reached forwards and took a cube from the bowl, which he proceeded to pop into his mouth. Everyone waited with baited breath as he chewed, then swallowed.

“Well, what’s the verdict?” Xehanort asked when Vanitas didn’t respond immediately. “Is it poison?”

“No, it’s actually good,” Vanitas said as he took another one. “But I dunno if it tastes like cheese puffs or not, considering I’ve never had them before,” he admitted.

Roxas, his wariness of the food quelled by Vanitas’s vouchment, took one too. He ate it much faster than Vanitas had and then concluded, “Yup, tastes like cheese puffs.”

“The really good kind,” Xion chimed in, having tried one too.

“Compared to…?” Vanitas wondered.

“Well, there’s lots of brands of them when you go to the supermarket!” Xion explained. “Some are well-known brands and really yummy, but others are much cheaper in cost and you can tell why. They’re just not the same. But these are the same! Well, flavor-wise. Good job, Sora!”

“Aww, thanks, Xion,” Sora said, grinning.

“So, what else can you make?” Yuffie chimed in.

“Well, what do you want?” Sora asked.

Soon everyone started suggesting things for Sora to make, in increasing levels of difficulty, making a game out of it, trying to test the limits of what he could do. Nothing looked how it should at all, but miraculously it all tasted amazing, except for one of the snacks Cid asked for, which the man said actually did taste like it should even if everyone but him found it gross.

By the time Merlin returned with his purchase from San Fransokyo, all the tables were covered completely with strange-looking yet tasty appetizers and snacks, which everyone was munching on as they had various conversations in smaller groups.

Merlin instructed Cid to set up what turned out to be a karaoke machine, as he wasn’t great with electronics—yes, karaoke machine. Merlin hadn’t realized that, despite the small video screen, it wasn’t more than just a music player, only registering that it had songs already installed. However, he was overjoyed to learn that, and decided they could all try it out, to all the teens’ chagrins. That, however, was for later on, hopefully once Riku, Sora, and Kairi could escape.

“Oh, Sora, is this your work?” Merlin asked jovially in regards to the snacks. “I must say, this is quite an impressive quantity! You’re not tired at all after all that? It does use a lot of mana…”

“No, I’m fine,” Sora muttered, although he looked a little flushed—whether due to embarrassment or tiredness Riku wasn’t sure. If Riku had realized such an innocuous-looking spell used a lot of mana, he’d have stopped Sora after just a few things, despite the brunette’s impressively large mana reserves.

“You’re lying,” Kairi pointed out bluntly, in a low voice so only Sora and Riku could hear.

“Seriously, Kairi?” Sora whined. “I’m fine, really. Just a little bit tired, that’s all. It’s been a long day.”

“These are quite good,” Merlin commented, ignoring the teens’ conversation. “Once you work on appearance, I may start asking you to make these for every party!”

“There’s going to be more parties?” Sora asked faintly. Despite his generally outgoing nature, Sora tended to become overwhelmed by large indoor events.

“But of course! We must make use of that music machine, after all.”

“This is a really useful spell in general,” Kairi mused. “If you master it, we’ll never have to pack or buy food when we travel.”

“Oh! No, you mustn't do that!” Merlin said urgently. “This isn’t true food; it has no nutritional value or even calories.”

“What!” Riku proclaimed, nearly dropping the chip in his hand. “Then what is it?!”

Kairi examined the blue corn dog in her hand. “It’s still safe to eat, right?”

“Oh, of course!” Merlin explained. “The spell only creates the sensation of food—that is, once you’ve eaten it, it turns back into water.”

“Water?” Riku asked.

“It uses the water in the air and solidifies it,” Sora told them. “Then it adds texture, temperature, and flavor. That’s why it takes so much effort to do.”

“Huh.” Riku paused a second to look at the bright pink corn chip in his hand and shrugged, then popped it into his mouth. Real food or not, it tasted great.

Merlin again then addressed the room as a whole; apparently he had unexpectedly decided to take charge of the situation. “Well, now, I see you’re all in smaller groups with those you know! Now that won’t do; introductions are surely in order!”

“Yes!” Yuffie proclaimed. “You’re all going to be living here, after all, so we need to at least know your names!”

“We are?” Ventus—no, Roxas—asked.

“Yes; Lea told us that, remember?” Xion said patiently. “Merlin’s house can create unlimited food and rooms, and we’ll need multiple check-ups over the next few days, so it only makes sense.”

“Right,” Roxas said with a blush. He still seemed to be somewhat discombobulated from earlier, perhaps some shock mixed in too. Maybe such a large gathering right now had not been such a good idea.

Miraculously, everyone was able to introduce themselves without a hitch (even Xehanort; there had been some uneasiness on Roxas and Xion’s parts, but thankfully Lea was able to quickly calm the two), thanks to Mickey and Minnie taking charge, the latter which suggested they make a game out of it—one of those things common in classrooms where everyone gives their name and a fun fact about themselves. Some of the new people had trouble figuring out what to say to that, but their close friends were able to help with that. Thank the gods they all had people there who knew them! Riku wasn’t sure what they would have done if any of the heart-people had been completely unknown, or if their friends were unavailable—after all, both Aqua and Terra had been recently possessed; Ventus would have been completely traumatized if he awoke to that with no memory of being with Sora! As such, only Roxas and Xion had an overwhelming amount to adjust to… Well, technically Naminé did too, but she was much more composed about it. Riku wondered if her memory powers had told her some things.

“So, now I suppose it’s time to explain, again, what’s been going on with everything?” Cid commented as the game finished.

“After we get them better clothing!” Tifa asserted.

Leon crossed his arms. “That’s not an urgent matter,” he told her.

“What?” Yuffie chimed in. “Like hell it isn’t! Look at what they’re wearing! Where’d you even get those?”

“Sora made them for us,” Naminé explained calmly.

“I’m, er, not very good at designs yet, just like the food,” Sora muttered.

“Oh, why that’s okay! It is a difficult spell, after all!” Merlin chimed in. “Here, I’ll—”

“NO!” multiple people yelled simultaneously. Understandable; Merlin’s sense of fashion was eclectic, to put it mildly.

“They can borrow our clothes,” Kairi suggested. “Xion and Naminé are the same size as me, and Roxas is the size of Sora. Which is all the same size actually.” Ventus was too, but he already had his regular magical clothing—which undoubtedly the Good Fairies would want to redesign to match everyone else’s current style.

“Will it be a dress or pants?” Roxas wondered, eyeing Sora’s outfit, which consisted of a denim skirt, red knee-high socks, and a red halter top—it was completely inappropriate for the chilly weather, meaning Sora had probably used magic to keep himself warm outside as he hadn’t been wearing a jacket earlier. He'd had to use the spell on all the heart-people.

“Why, is that a problem?” Vanitas defended Sora angrily.

“Huh? Why would it be a problem?” Roxas asked, looking down at himself—he currently was wearing a dress, after all, as Sora couldn't conjure anything else. Xion echoed similar sentiments.

“The Organization didn’t really bother explaining typical social customs to them,” Lea explained. “We all wore the same thing, after all.”

“You can wear whatever you want!” Yuffie told them as she hopped up to standing. “Now, let’s go!”

“Please do that later,” Mickey asserted, taking back the reins of the conversation. “Right now we do have to discuss everything that happened.”

“Won’t we be going to Yen Sid’s for that?” Xehanort wondered. “Not that I oppose not going there…”

Mickey shook his head. “We’ll see Yen Sid, but not until next week; the newly freed people need time to adjust, as well as get daily check-ups all this week, after which they will be cleared to travel.”

Riku noticed Sora, whom he had felt tense at Vanitas’s reminder about the elderly wizard, relaxed a bit at Mickey’s words. For some reason Riku couldn’t quite discern he had a feeling that that meeting would not end well, once again…

The group then proceeded onto explanations, all the while munching on the strange snacks. Riku was pleased with how smoothly everything seemed to be going as they all talked long into the night, after which all the snacks were finished and everyone was definitely ready for sleep. Merlin’s house conjured the appropriate amount of bedrooms for everyone there, as even the guests would be spending the night, and everyone retired for the night—thankfully without fulfilling Merlin's dream of them all doing karaoke.

Chapter Text

The following afternoon, once the guests had all left and everyone’s check-ups had been completed, Riku searched for Ventus. The perfect opportunity had presented itself when Sora decided to go clothing shopping with Kairi, Aqua, Vanitas, Naminé, and R2—an interesting combination, to say the least. R2 no doubt only was going because he wanted to spend time with Naminé, which she seemed pleased about; the true surprise had been Aqua willingly accepting Kairi’s invite despite Vanitas going too. She truly seemed to be making an effort to at least tolerate Vanitas despite their past, and although Vanitas acted indifferent to it Riku could tell he was secretly pleased at the development. Sora had been disappointed that Riku declined to go with them, but Riku had never liked shopping so Sora wasn’t suspicious about that. In actuality, Riku had something to talk to Ventus about, and didn’t want Sora overhearing.

Riku found Ventus playing a board game with Roxas and Xion, the latter two in chairs and the former sprawled on the couch. Riku paused for a moment, unsure what to do. He hadn’t talked much with those two yet, and Roxas clearly was not over being kidnapped by Riku considering how much the blonde constantly glared at him. But if he pulled Ventus aside to talk privately, the two would be curious, and undoubtedly would tell Sora how they were being secretive, as they seemed to be as attached to Sora as Vanitas was despite technically not actually knowing him very well. So Riku would either have to leave without talking to Ventus or include those two in the conversation.

Riku decided to approach them all; Roxas and Xion may actually be good to consult with too, after all.

“What do you want?” Roxas snapped, glaring.

“Roxas, be nice,” Xion chided.

“Sora’s not with you?” Ventus asked, looking concerned. “Did he go on a mission or something? Wait, you’re not here to tell us he’s hurt, are you? Please don’t let Sora be hurt,” he said anxiously.

“What?” Riku asked, surprised and slightly confused at the worry, as it was a strange assumption that someone would actually be sent on a mission right now. “No, he’s just out shopping with the girls. I’m here because I want to consult with you on something.”

Roxas raised an eyebrow. “Without Sora?”

“He’s probably with Kairi,” Xion surmised. “All three of you are dating each other, right? That’s what Naminé said.”

“What? Since when?” Roxas wondered, confused.

“For more than a year now,” Riku divulged, acutely aware that for all the explaining the previous night there was still a lot left for the former-heart-refugees to learn that wouldn’t have come up in an explanation of general world events.

“What’s that even mean?” Roxas asked; it appeared that his curiosity won out over his vitriol at Riku for now.

“What?” Riku asked, unsure of the question.

“Dating. I’ve heard the word, but no one ever told me what it means other than people like being together, but lots of people like being together but they aren’t dating, so there must be a difference,” Roxas reasoned.

“I want to know too!” Xion chimed in. From Ventus’s expectant expression, apparently he was unsure what it meant as well; Riku was suddenly acutely aware that Roxas and Xion only had a year of life experience, and Ventus basically had only four years’ worth of memories, presumably none of which included lessons on romance and related topics—although to be fair, none of the other teens actually had formal lessons on any of that, either.

“It means… how do I explain this…” Riku wondered. “It’s complicated; maybe I’m not the best to explain things. Kairi would probably be better at wording things,” Riku decided.

“Okay! We’ll go to her then,” Xion agreed; Riku felt a bit guilty then, realizing he’d essentially just shoved this onto Kairi. He should have thought about that a bit more; maybe he’d let one of the adults know that they needed some sort of education on such—no, wait, knowing them they’d have Merlin teach it to everyone. So it fell to him after all.

Before Riku could try to instead explain it himself, Roxas, looking agitated again, asked, “So why are you here?”

“It’s actually about Sora,” Riku divulged, mentally apologizing to Kairi; it looked like she’d be the one explaining romance to them after all. “And I’d like to keep this conversation private from him, at least for now.”

Ventus and Xion looked worried, but Roxas’s face was painted with suspicion. “Secret? Why should we keep something secret from Sora just because you want us to?”

Riku struggled not to roll his eyes at the predictable reaction as he sat on the leather armchair Merlin’s house had conjured when it realized Riku needed one. “Well, I suppose I can’t stop you from telling him, but it’d probably be for the best you kept it a secret for now? I don’t want to add another thing for him to be anxious about if I don’t need to.”

“Okay, so spill,” Ventus said, sounding more curious than worried now. Xion looked at Riku patiently, and Roxas looked rather impatient yet ready to listen.

Riku sighed. “I’m just a little worried that Sora’s emotions may change now that you three are no longer in his heart. We already know that you being there affected how he reacted to meeting people—for example, he felt like Aqua was an old friend, and recognized the Organization members—as well as affected the foods he likes—”

“Foods?” Ventus interjected.

“Sea-salt ice-cream, right?” Xion guessed with a giggle.

“Right,” Riku confirmed. “Plus, sometimes things you felt bled over, like anger when he met some of the Organization members. So, my question is: just how much was he affected by you three? Ventus, you’re my biggest concern,” Riku said, turning to the boy. “Xion and Roxas were only in Sora’s heart for not even a year, and weren’t able to see or do much. You, however, have been there more than a decade, and became conscious enough to watch.”

“You’re worried about if my personality bled into his own?” Ventus asked, catching on quickly. He shifted his position on the couch from laying to sitting.

“Not exactly,” Riku clarified. “More like, emotions. Your happiness in particular; you’re pure light, and Aqua said you’re normally super cheerful. Have you been making him happier sometimes, where maybe he wouldn’t be so much?”

Ventus blinked, then shifted uncomfortably. “Um. Maybe? I don’t know. Honestly, I only really became more-or-less fully aware of stuff a few years ago, and being in there was weird. I know I was able to comfort him sometimes, when things got really bad. Didn’t always work though.”

“Really bad?” Riku asked with a sinking feeling.

“Yeah, like when he thought you and Kairi were dead after the Islands fell,” Ventus explained fairly bluntly. “He nearly had a panic attack, but I calmed him. But that got a lot harder to do once he got older, especially after he moved here.”

Roxas frowned. “Are you saying it’s getting worse?” he asked, voicing Riku’s thoughts and sounding equally as worried.

“Or things are just more complex,” Xion pointed out. “I mean, kids are generally much easier to calm than angsty teens.”

Riku chuckled at that. “Sora’s not an angsty—wait, scratch that,” he realized. Though he tried to hide it, Sora was the definition of an angsty teen, more so than even Riku at the moment. Huh; just a couple years prior, it had been the exact opposite. Of course, Sora had the additional complication of having a mental illness.

The other three laughed at Riku’s response.

“Okay, back to the topic of Sora,” Riku steered. “Ventus, would you say it’s worse, or just harder to manage?”

Ventus frowned. “I’m not sure. Maybe a combination? Definitely harder to manage; I rarely manage to help anymore… although that’s partly because you or Kairi often get there before I can do anything, which instantly cheers him up, even if it doesn’t always seem like it,” Ventus smiled conspiratorially at Riku, who blushed in response. “Or Vanitas,” he added as an afterthought. “I still can’t believe he’s been so helpful.”

“He really is trying to change,” Riku pointed out. “I didn’t really know him from before, but he’s very different now than when he first joined us.”

“So it sounds like you all have been doing the same thing,” Xion supplied, drawing the conversation back to Sora again. “Calming him, that is.”

“I’d say it’s a good bet that things have also been getting worse though, not just harder to manage,” Ventus mused. “He takes everything to heart so all those put-downs from people just add to the hurt, then he bottles it all up until that rage-form appears.”

“Put-downs?” Riku asked, unsure what Ventus meant.

“Yeah, all those ‘innocent’ jokes people make that he joins in laughing about, and every time Yen Sid expresses disappointment, which seems to be every time they interact.”

“What?” Roxas proclaimed. “That’s fucking crap. I’m going to punch that wizard the next time I see him, and I haven’t even met him yet!”

“That’s probably not a good idea, Roxas,” Xion told the blond calmly.

“Ah, that,” Riku said, ignoring the punching remark. He was aware, but had no clue what to do about it beyond just offering Sora comfort; certainly confronting Yen Sid about it wouldn’t end well.

“It’s okay! You’ve been doing the best you can do!” Xion assured Riku, sensing his change of mood. How was she so good at sensing feelings? Was it because she was related to Kairi? Kairi was good at that too; a little too good.

“But it’s still not enough,” Riku said with a sigh. He wished he could do something to make all Sora’s pain go away, even though he knew that was impossible.

“Look, as much as you want to, you can’t fix all his problems,” Roxas said bluntly.

“But—”

“No, seriously, you need to stop it,” Roxas cut Riku off. “If you burn out from trying to help Sora, Sora’s going to burn out too. Loathe as I am to admit it, he needs you.”

“Okay… your point?”

Roxas rolled his eyes. “My point, doofus, is that you need to let us help him, too.”

Riku narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying I can’t—”

“I’m saying that you don’t need to do everything alone, especially when it comes to helping Sora.” Roxas crossed his arms.

“I don’t do everything alone,” Riku reminded Roxas. “Kairi, Vanitas—”

Roxas interrupted. “That’s not what I mean! I mean, if the best thing for Sora is us needing to work together, so be it.”

“I think he wants to make a truce,” Xion translated. “We all want Sora safe and happy. None of us truly know what the result will be of having us outside his heart, particularly when it comes to Ventus. So Roxas wants to try to get along, for Sora’s sake.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Roxas mumbled, arms crossed.

“Oh. Okay,” Riku easily agreed. “Uh, do you want to shake on it, or…?” Riku held out his hand.

Roxas scoffed, making no effort to move. “Don’t push it,” he said with a glare. “This doesn’t make us friends. I’ll tolerate you, that’s all.”

“I suppose that’s the best I could hope for,” Riku acknowledged. “For what it’s worth—”

“Can it. I don’t want your apologies.”

“Right. Okay.”

Ventus interjected, “Why don’t we switch back to talking about Sora?”

“There’s not much more to talk about,” Xion pointed out.

“Well, then, back to the card game! Riku, you in?”

“No,” Roxas asserted.

“Roxas! You can’t decide for him,” Xion chided.

“Yeah!” Ventus concurred, then, noting Riku had already stood up, grabbed his wrist to forcefully pull him onto the couch and flung his arm across Riku’s shoulders. “Riku’s playing!” he declared, as Riku took a moment to process the fact that Ventus had done a classic Sora-move as well as seemed to have little regard for personal space, even with someone he had technically just met. Or, had they just met? To Riku it felt like they had, but maybe it didn’t feel that way for Ventus, as he’d been in Sora’s heart for most of their lives.

“You can’t decide for him either,” Xion told him too.

“Pleaaaaase, Ri-ku~?” Ventus begged, pulling out… the puppy-dog eyes. Fuck. Had he taken that from Sora, or had Sora taken that from him? Regardless, it had the same effect.

“Fine,” Riku conceded.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

A few mornings later, while Sora did some training with Merlin, Riku and Kairi had some free time, during which they ended up cuddling and making out quite a bit—shirtless, naturally.

Eventually, after tickling Kairi’s boobs in a way that made her squirm in delight, Riku moved his hand further down, slipping it a tiny bit under the waistband of her skirt.

Kairi froze.

Riku stopped what he was doing, noting the sudden change in atmosphere. “Kairi? You okay?”

Kairi relaxed slightly. “Y-yeah, I’m fine; you just surprised me. You can keep going.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” she said, opening her legs slightly.

“Okay…” Riku slid his across the fabric of Kairi’s skirt, bringing it to rest on her inner thigh.

Kairi froze again and clenched her thighs together.

Riku withdrew his hand and backed off, getting the sense that she did not in fact want to do this despite what she had said. He sat up a little. “Hey, you okay?” he asked gently. “If you don’t want to go further we don’t have to.”

“But, you want to,” Kairi said, looking away.

“Well, yeah,” Riku admitted. “But only if you’re comfortable with it, too. We can wait as long as you need to.”

“But I don’t think I’ll ever want to,” Kairi said quietly, looking sad, at least from what he could tell as she had turned away.

Suddenly, Riku was reminded of when they were at the tavern. “Does this have to do with what happened in the Caribbean?” He asked her, remaining calm despite a pang of hurt at the thought.

Kairi turned to Riku, sitting up a little straighter and looking panicked. “You saw that?!”

So something had happened with the girl. “No, but I saw you leave with her. You two were very handsy.” He worded things carefully, not wanting to sound too accusatory. A conversation was needed, not an argument.

Kairi wilted a little. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d noticed…” She took a bearth and then admitted, “After we left, I kissed her. I feel really really bad about that, I—”

Riku cut her off. He’d honestly been thinking a lot about how to approach this if it came up, and had predicted Kairi would react this way. “It’s fine. You were drunk; it happens. If you feel guilty about it, that’s all that matters to me; if you felt no remorse, that would be an issue.”

“Really?” Kairi asked, eyes wide.

Riku gave what he hoped was a kind smile. “Yeah. All of us have made big mistakes in the past; a little cheating is minor compared to, say, destroying worlds and kidnapping people. If you can forgive me for that, I can definitely forgive you for this.”

Kairi relaxed slightly. “Thank you.”

“Yeah… I do have one question, though.”

“What is it?” Kairi asked, tensing again.

Riku took a deep breath. “Would you have gone further than kissing with her if you hadn’t gotten interrupted?”

Kairi quickly shook her head. “No! Definitely not.”

“What about if Sora and I weren't in the picture?"

Kairi appeared confused. "Huh?"

"What I mean is, would this be different if you were with a girl? Would you still have stopped me just now if I were a girl?”

Kairi shifted nervously. “Um…”

“It’s okay,” Riku quickly assured her. “Sexuality is a complicated thing. If you’ve realized you only like girls, I won’t judge you for it.” He'd be disappointed, sure, but he wanted Kairi to be happy most of all, even if that wasn't with him.

Kairi sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know. I… well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. That girl and I… we only kissed, and a little touching maybe; the memories are hazy. But, I think she wanted to go further, and I know I didn’t. But we were also drunk…” Kairi trailed off, looking unsure of herself.

Riku thought about that for a moment. “So… you don’t want to try things with a girl?”

“I don’t think I want to try sexual things with anyone,” Kairi admitted.

“But you’re not sure.”

“How can I be?” Kairi asked. “I’ve never had an actual relationship with a girl.”

Riku gave that some thought. He wanted Kairi to be happy… it would make him jealous, but it wasn’t about Riku. He and Sora had both experienced things with both genders. Kairi hadn’t. Would it be different? It didn’t feel different for him; he loved them both. But maybe that wasn’t the way Kairi felt.

“Riku?” Kairi prodded nervously.

“If you want to try that, I won’t try to stop you,” Riku decided.

Kairi’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yeah. I just want you to be happy, Kairi. If that means you don’t want to be with me and Sora—”

“But I do want to be with you!” Kairi quickly interjected. “I do! I love you both, I know that! I love cuddling with you two. I love kissing you two. I do want to be with you! That hasn’t changed! I just don’t want to do… that. Sex. Ever. But, is that really needed for a relationship?”

“No, it’s not,” Riku quickly asserted with confidence, glad that Kairi still felt the same love for him and Sora as she always had. “So… how would you want to do that, then?” he wondered. “Be with us, but also date a girl?”

“You know…” Kairi said, giving a pause and shifting nervously. “I’m not entirely sure. Vani suggested that too.”

“You talked to Vanitas about this?” Riku asked, shocked and a little hurt that she had chosen to discuss this first with Vanitas rather than him.

“Well, yes! It was after the Caribbean, and I was confused, and he was there, and I just really needed to talk to someone that wasn’t you or Sora, seeing as it was about my feelings for you!”

That made sense… but something didn’t. “So you talked to Vanitas? He knows nothing about love!” Riku pointed out. How could he have helped work out feelings?

“That’s not true!” Kairi claimed. “Well… maybe it is. But he feels the same way I do about sex! I mean, it’s because his body is physically different, but it’s still a lack of desire, so it did really help to talk to him… and, I’ve been thinking about what he said. The three of us are all dating each other. It’s already unconventional,” she pointed out.

“True,” Riku acknowledged. “Well, if that’s what you want to do, I won’t stop you. I might get a little jealous—you know I always do—but all I want most of all is for you to be happy. If that means dating a girl while you date us, I’ll support you in that.”

Kairi looked stunned. “Really?” she said, sounding awed. “I… honestly I didn’t expect that from you,” she admitted.

“That's understandable,” Riku conceded. “I do have issues with jealousy, and admittedly can be somewhat possessive. But, I can overcome that. Like I said before, your happiness is what matters most to me.”

Kairi smiled. It was a small smile, but genuine nonetheless. “Thank you. I… I still need to think about this more—I’m honestly not even sure if I’d want to try dating anyone else, and definitely don’t plan on intentionally seeking anything out—but I’m glad I have your support."

Riku nodded. “Always, Kairi. I love you.”

Kairi smiled, more broadly this time. “I love you too, Riku! I really, really do,” she assured Riku. “Even though I don’t want sex.”

Riku went to pull Kairi in for a hug, then paused. “Is hugging okay?” he asked.

Kairi practically jumped into Riku’s arms. “Of course, silly. I said I like affection. It’s just the below-the-waist stuff I don’t want.”

Riku squeezed Kairi tighter. Then, he moved back a bit, putting his hands on her shoulders. “You know, you’re going to have to tell Sora about this, too,” he told her seriously. “And about the Caribbean. No more hiding stuff from us.”

Kairi blushed. “Y-yeah, I know. I’m sorry.”

Riku laughed slightly. “Stop apologizing! You’re as bad as Sora with that.”

Kairi frowned, looking worried.

Riku caught her train of thought. “Don’t worry. I’m positive Sora will be okay with all this too.”

“You sure?”

“Kairi, knowing Sora, he’ll actually like the idea of you with another girl,” Riku joked. Once Sora and Riku started doing—well, let’s just say much more intimate things than Kairi desired, although they hadn’t gone all the way yet—the brunette's libido had been insatiable, at least when he wasn’t super depressed… oh. That was a potential symptom of mania, wasn’t it? Come to think of it, it had reduced since the brunette had started on medication… maybe Riku should discuss that with Sora. Wait, did Kairi even know about that? Riku had told Sora that he should tell her everything, but knowing Sora…

Kairi laughed at Riku’s comment, interrupting his thoughts. “You know, you’re actually probably right,” she agreed. Then, she quieted, looking uneasy.

“Kairi?” Riku prodded, sensing her change in demeanor.

“Um… oh, nevermind. It’s stupid.”

Riku shook his head. “I’m sure it’s not.”

“Well… this won’t change how you feel about me, will it?” Kairi asked nervously.

Riku scrunched his brow, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Like… you’ll still love me, right? Even though I don’t want to…” Kairi trailed off.

“What? Kairi, my love for you in NOT hingent upon sex!” Riku asserted, a little offended that Kairi would even think that.

Kairi blushed. “Right, sorry.”

Riku took a deep breath. “Kairi, I love you no matter what. More than anything. Both you and Sora. I won’t love you any less because he wants to have sex with me but you don’t.”

“R-right, sorry.”

“You dork,” Riku said affectionately, pulling Kairi tight to his chest. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.” He gave Kairi a kiss on her forehead.

Kairi tilted her face up to catch Riku’s lips with hers, then she giggled. “Don’t think I don’t still want lots of kisses though!” she reminded him. “You better keep giving me those!” Kairi practically demanded, smiling broadly.

Riku chuckled. “Yes, Ma’am,” he said before pulling his girlfriend into another kiss.

Shortly after, there was a knock on the door; both Riku and Kairi groaned in frustration, which soon melted away as they saw it was Sora entering the room—apparently Kairi had forgotten to lock the door. Oops. Riku should have double-checked; Kairi frequently forgot to do that. Well, at least it was their boyfriend this time; Sora was notoriously bad at locking the door, even worse than Kairi, which had led to a fair amount of extremely awkward interruptions of Riku and him in compromising situations, most recently the previous day with Ventus, who didn’t show any embarrassment or leave until asked because apparently he had gotten so used to seeing them in such a state when he’d been in Sora’s heart that it hadn’t even occurred to him that people generally wanted intimate moments to be private. Riku wasn’t sure how he felt about that; he decided not to ruminate too much about it.

“Hey guys,” Sora greeted, hopping over and giving them each a quick kiss on the lips. He seemed nervous beneath his cheerful demeanor; his next words revealed why: “Mickey showed up; apparently it’s time for everyone to meet with Yen Sid…”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“WHY can’t we just use dark portals again?” Roxas whined, gently bumping the back of his head on the GummiShip wall in frustration. He was dressed thankfully in normal-colored, non-headache-inducing clothing, consisting of simple flared jeans and a black t-shirt with a band logo Riku didn’t recognize (and he doubted Roxas knew either) but the design did look cool, a prism with a rainbow going through it. On top of it he wore a jeans jacket with red buttons.

“Because none of us can use them, remember?” Lea reminded him, sitting next to Roxas on a bench seat in one of the larger GummiShips.

“But whyyyyy? Xion could use them in her first replica body! Why couldn’t Even and Ienzo keep that feature in these?!”

“Because they don’t want people using Darkness,” Xion calmly reminded Roxas from the other side of him. She was dressed in a similar manner to Roxas, but instead of the jeans jacket she wore a red hoodie and the band logo was some sort of lightning bolt crossing some letters obstructed by the hoodie. Naminé sat next to her, camly observing. She wore a simple white dress, similar in style to the kind she had worn the entire year that she’d been working on restoring Sora’s memory. It was a guarantee that those outfits would be replaced by the end of the day, as the fairies would undoubtedly want to design new magical clothes for everyone who didn't have them; everyone who did was wearing them, as Yen Sid’s protocol dictated.

Riku watched the three interact from his place sitting on the opposite bench seat; Sora and Kairi were asleep on either side of him, holding Riku’s arms so he couldn’t move without disturbing them, not even to fiddle with his GummiPhone, as Vanitas was doing on the other side of Sora.

“How much longer is it?” Roxas called to the pilot seat.

R2, who was driving with Xehanort as co-pilot, called back, clearly annoyed, “Still another hour, just like when you asked me two minutes ago!”

“Ugh!” Roxas groaned. “You can’t be serious!”

“Maybe Ven can teach us how to use those glider things,” Xion suggested. Ventus, Aqua, and Terra had taken those, but none of the other wielders knew how to use them yet, nor had the protective armor, and for some reason the Masters had been awfully obtuse when anyone asked them when they could learn. Riku had a feeling they didn’t want the teenage wielders knowing how to use them—most likely a direct result of Terra and Ventus using them to run twelve years prior, which triggered everything.

“Or one of the people here who can make portals could make one for us,” Roxas said, giving Vanitas a pointed look.

Whereas it was true that some of them currently onboard the ship could use portals, all the wielders had been instructed not to do so—a rule which the former-new-Organization people technically didn’t have to follow but did anyway, for various reasons: Xehanort out of respect for Yen Sid’s wishes; R2 because Naminé, who despite being light could use them herself, was uncomfortable with using them after some unpleasant experiences; and Vanitas because… because why?

“Why don’t you make a portal?” Riku asked Vanitas. He previously would use them to travel anywhere that was more than a few blocks away.

Vanitas looked at Riku in surprise. “Because we’re not supposed to,” he said simply.

“But you don’t have to follow that rule,” Riku pointed out. “You’re technically not an apprentice.” That’s what the Masters had started collectively calling the younger wielders once the others had been freed: Keyblade Apprentices. Apprentices to whom specifically Riku wasn’t sure—Yen Sid? Mickey? Aqua? Merlin? All of them?—but whatever the case it meant they had to follow the rules.

Vanitas frowned. “I’m not?”

Riku blinked. “Wait, you are?”

Vanitas shrugged. “Who knows; they never actually explained anything, so I assumed they referred to everyone who wasn’t a Master. But regardless, I’m not using a portal—not unless necessary.”

“But whyyyyyyy?” Roxas whined; apparently he’d been listening to the conversation.

Vanitas didn’t respond.

“It’s because you don’t want Sora using one, right?” Naminé chimed in. “You figure that if you’re not using them all the time, there’s less of a chance of Sora remembering that he wants to learn to make them, thus less of a chance of something bad happening because of it.”

Vanitas started at Naminé for a moment, seemingly unsure what to make of what she said. “You sure you’re not a mind-reader?” he concluded, to Riku’s surprise. That truly was the reason?

Naminé giggled. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“She’s just very perceptive,” Riku explained. Often a little too much so.

“Well it’s creepy,” Vanitas said bluntly.

“Oh and you’re not?” R2 called from the front, making sure to keep his eyes on the road—one of the reasons he was driving and not one of the others; nearly everyone there except Riku and R2 were easily distracted drivers.

Xehanort chuckled as he turned in his seat. “How is it, getting a taste of your own medicine?” he teased.

“What?” Vanitas asked, clearly confused. “I don’t read minds.”

“No, but you read emotions, which is pretty similar,” Xehanort noted.

“Okay, point, but I don’t actually tell people what I’m reading, usually.”

“Wait, you can tell what we’re feeling?” Roxas asked, sitting up straighter.

Vanitas shrugged. “Depends. I’m more attuned to negative emotions, so I sense when someone’s really angry or upset without even trying, but if I concentrate I can usually get a feel for everything someone’s emoting, even positive emotions now… Except Kairi and Naminé; they’re harder.”

“Because they’re princesses?” Xion asked.

“Probably.”

“I’m not a princess,” Naminé pointed out.

“Close enough,” Vanitas said. “You’re pure light.”

“So then you can’t read Ventus, either?” Roxas asked; Riku was glad he was curious now rather than whiny—complaining when bored seemed to be something he’d inherited from Sora. They were similar in a lot of ways, although Riku had a feeling telling Roxas that would be a bad idea.

“Ventus is… different,” Vanitas explained. “I don’t know why, but he’s easy to read despite his light. I think it’s because we used to be the same person.”

“Interesting,” Naminé mused.

As the conversation continued, Riku found himself drifting off as well; something about long GummiShip rides did that, even though theoretically Riku had gotten plenty of sleep the previous night. Well… maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Or more like an outright lie. Sora had had a pretty bad nightmare halfway through, waking both Riku and Kairi up, and although Sora and Kairi had fallen back to sleep fairly quickly Riku had not; Sora’s nightmare had been related to some unpleasant memories of things Riku still felt immense guilt over, so he’d stayed awake ruminating on such…

Riku was woken by a smack to the top of his head.

“Oww, what was that for?” Riku complained, even though it actually hadn’t hurt. He looked up to see R2.

“We’re here,” R2 informed Riku as Xion giggled behind him.

“Five more minutes,” Sora mumbled into Riku’s side, although Kairi did manage to sit up as she blinked the sleep from her eyes.

Riku sighed. “Sora, Yen Sid is not going to be happy if we all go in and you don’t.”

“Yen Sid’s never happy with me,” Sora mumbled, although he did sit up; Riku grabbed Sora’s hand as he stood to pull the brunette up with him. Riku started to say something in response, then realized that it pretty much did seem that way. Was it possible to ask for a new mentor? Merlin was enough for Sora, right? Did Yen Sid really have to be in charge?

The trek up the Tower’s seemingly-endless stairs was uneventful; everyone was silently lost in their own thoughts, no doubt wondering how the meeting would go. There were a lot of things to discuss: the new keyblade-wielders had to be introduced; the fact that all thirteen lights were now available had to be discussed; Yen Sid would probably have things to say to Terra; the fairies would want to give the new people matching clothing; and of course, the entire Paris incident had yet to be addressed—Riku had a feeling Yen Sid was not about to gloss over that.

They entered the study to find that Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy all had already arrived; thankfully chairs were actually set up for once, although they appeared to be uncomfortable rickety wooden ones. Yen Sid, as usual, sat stoically at his desk. Everyone found seats—Sora’s being in Riku’s lap—and waited for the elderly wizard to say something.

“Sora, we have enough seats for everyone,” Yen Sid pointed out neutrally, gesturing to an empty chair beside Roxas. Riku wasn’t sure if Yen Sid genuinely thought Sora hadn’t seen the chair or realized it had been intentional and was subtly trying to reprimand him without making a scene. Either way, Sora blushed and reluctantly moved to it.

“Now, I believe introductions are in order,” Yen Sid continued.

Roxas, Xion, and Naminé all introduced themselves, seeming somewhat nervous; understandable, as Yen Sid was fairly intimidating and they’d never seen him before so didn’t know what to expect. Ventus, however, stayed silent, seeming unaware of Yen Sid’s expectant gaze..

Aqua elbowed Ventus. “Introduce yourself,” she whispered.

“Huh? But I already—oh,” Ventus realized, then introduced himself too. That had happened multiple times since he’d awoken, Riku recalled, and most likely would happen again; since Ventus had been able to see a lot when in Sora’s heart, he knew who everyone Sora had met in the past few years were and forgot that they technically had not met.

“Very good,” Yen Sid said. “As you undoubtedly already know, I am Yen Sid, and will be in charge of your keyblade training and duties along with Masters Mickey and Aqua—”

“What about Merlin?” Sora interjected.

“Merlin’s job is to teach magic, at his discretion,” Yen Sid explained. “Now—”

“Oooh, one moment!” came a high-pitched excited voice as the door to the adjacent room opened to reveal Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather—otherwise known as the Three Good Fairies.

“All the new people require outfits!” the blue-clad one said; Riku could never remember which fairy was which.

Yen Sid looked like he wanted to sigh but held it in. “Surely this can wait until later.”

“Not with those dreadful outfits!” the green one proclaimed.

“What? These are fashionable!” Xion protested. They had gone to the store the other day to pick them out, following the suggestions of the shop owner who had insisted all the teens these days were wearing jeans and band shirts. Sora and Kairi had even gotten some too, despite their usual preference of dresses and skirts, although at the moment the two were wearing their usual magical clothing, as was everyone who had such, as Yen Sid was particular about that.

“Oh, no, certainly not,” the pink fairy said, clicking her tongue slightly. “Teenagers and their fads… We’ll get you some properly fashionable magical clothing!”

“You too, Terra, Ventus!” the blue one told them. “Those clothes are surely outdated by now.”

“Plus, they completely clash with everyone else’s!” the green one declared.

Yen Sid actually did sigh this time. “Very well. Just, hurry up.”

As the fairies rushed them in, Aqua said, slightly confused, “I guess mine still are fashionable?” Indeed, her magical outfit was still the blue one she’d had for the more than ten years she’d been trapped in the Realm of Darkness.

“If you wish for a new outfit, you ought to tell them that,” Xehanort suggested.

“Do it!” Kairi told her. “We can all match then!”

Aqua considered this for a moment, then decided that yes, she did want a new outfit, and hurried into the room with the others.

“While they do that, perhaps we ought to discuss the incident of the other week,” Yen Sid suggested, looking pointedly at Sora.

“What incident?” the brunette asked innocently, although he obviously knew what Yen Sid meant.

“Do not play games, Sora,” the elderly wizard said firmly. “You know very well which incident I am referring to.”

“Master,” Mickey interjected. “Perhaps we should discuss this later.”

Yen Sid contemplated this. “Yes, perhaps it would be better if everyone were here, in case any of them get the same idea.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Mickey insisted. “I spoke to you the other day about this.”

“You did. But I still feel like it should be addressed amongst everyone,”

As the two continued discussing the incident in vague terms, an uneasy feeling washed over Riku. How much had Mickey told Yen Sid? How much did Yen Sid wish to reveal to everyone? Riku squeezed Sora’s hand; he didn’t have to be able to read emotions like Vanitas or Naminé to tell that the brunette was extremely nervous, as anyone would be in such a situation.

Vanitas, also standing near to Sora as usual, appeared nervous too, as evidenced by the small flood unversed that appeared at his feet. Was he sensing something more than Riku could, related to Sora’s darkness? Riku wondered if rage-form could unintentionally appear before the dam filled too much; so far it hadn’t, but if Sora got too worked up, could it?

Sora let go of Riku’s hand and bent down to pick the flood up before Vanitas could make it vanish. Yen Sid frowned at the display—he still disliked it when unversed appeared—but thankfully didn’t comment on it.

Somehow, Mickey won the argument, and Yen Sid miraculously decided to only give them a brief verbal reprimand instead of forcing them to talk about it, to Riku’s surprise.

Soon the rest of the group emerged from the fitting room, their magical clothing unsurprisingly matching all the others. Aqua and Naminé wore the dress version, the trim on theirs being a gentle blue and white respectively. Everyone else wore the pants version, even Xion—she must have requested such, as the fairies usually defaulted to dresses for females and pants for males unless otherwise requested, as with Sora and his dress. Her trim was a light grey, Terra’s was coco brown, Roxas’s was a pale yellow, and Ventus’s… was also pale yellow.

“Seriously? They made you match?” Lea gaped.

Xehanort groaned. “They had to make it more difficult?”

“Get them to fix it right now!” R2 demanded.

“Why? I think it’s fun,” Ventus(?) said cheerily. He turned to Vanitas. “Don’t you think so too, Vani?” (Yup, that one was Ventus).

Vanitas blinked; it appeared he had been distracted in his thoughts, especially as he hadn’t reacted to Ventus, of all people, using the nickname—probably intentionally, seeing if he could get a rise out of the noirette. Ventus liked to tease. Vanitas visibly scrambled for a reply. “What? Um… oh, the clothes? Yeah, they’re fine. Same as everyone else’s,” he said with a shrug, clearly inferring he’d asked how they looked in general.

“No, I mean how me and Roxas’s outfits are completely identical even color-wise,” Ventus clarified, while it looked like Roxas was holding back laughter… Riku had a feeling that they might be trying to prank people. After getting over the initial annoyance about looking the same, the two had started to have fun with it, much like twins tended to do (but if you dared call them that, it could get ugly, at least on Roxas’s part).

Vanitas frowned. “Is that a problem? If you don’t like it, I’m sure the fairies would change it for you,” he reasoned. “They gave R2 something ostentatious at his request.”

“Hey!” R2 protested, then frowned. “What’s that even mean?” he wondered.

“Garish,” Xehanort supplied. R2 just looked more confused, probably not knowing that word either, but didn’t say anything to save his pride.

“But won’t you get us mixed up?” Ventus asked innocently.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “I can sense people’s darkness, idiot,” he said. “Or, lack of it, in your case. I don’t need visuals.”

“Aww, man,” Ventus said, wilting slightly. “Fine. It’s not the real color, anyway,” he admitted. “It’ll be emerald green when the illusion spell wears off.”

“I’ll dispel it now,” Sora offered, and with a casual wave of his hand the proper color was restored.

“If you are all done fooling around,” Yen Sid said loudly, drawing everyone’s attention back to him, “let us get to the meeting; we have much to discuss.”

The meeting itself was fairly boring, to the point Sora, and Roxas, and Ventus were clearly itching to get out of their seats from their fidgeting, lack of attention, and subtle tapping of feet or other displays of pent-up energy. Clearly Roxas had inherited Sora’s inability to stay still for too long—or did both he and Sora inherit that from Ventus?

First they discussed what had been going on in the worlds—much of it a recap from their first night awake—and what their role in future events would be. Yen Sid then requested Ventus to tell his perspective on the events that put him to sleep, followed by asking Xion, Roxas, and Naminé to explain their experience in the Organization, which took a fairly long time, and which Riku listened to raptly—he knew about it all already, unlike most there, but it was still interesting to hear their view on it. Well, Roxas’s and Xion’s, at least; he’d already had long discussions with Naminé about her experiences, more in-depth than the recap she was now telling, as during the year restoring Sora’s memories the two had basically used each other as therapists.

Once everyone was on the same page, Mickey announced that they had GummiPhones ready and available for all the new people, so those were handed out and they were shown the basics on how to use them and where in the phone the manual was for further details on the more complicated functions, some of which Riku hadn’t known about. There was a social messaging thing? Oh; apparently that was brand-new; Mickey had everyone turn over their GummiPhones while he used a small device that plugged into the phones to update them.

“And now, one final matter to attend to,” Yen Sid said once everything seemed to be squared away. “Sora, it is my understanding you have been taking an antipsychotic medication?”

Sora’s change in demeanor was nearly palpable, at least to Riku. He narrowed his eyes at the wizard and corrected, “Actually, it’s a mood stabilizer, not antipsychotic. And who told you that!?” he demanded coldy.

“Who informed me of it is irrelevant,” Yen Sid said calmly despite the clear rage directed at him. “What matters is—”

“Hell no it’s ‘irrelevant’!” Sora shouted as he shot to his feet. “Only a few people actually know! Well, did know. Now everyone does! That’s not something you just go around telling everyone!”

“Well, regardless—”

“No! Who told you?!”

Yen Sid sighed. “If you must know, I heard it from Mickey. Now—”

Sora swerved towards Riku and glared at him. “You told Mickey?!”

Riku felt himself pale. “I, er…” he began, shrinking in his seat, unsure what to say. He hadn’t seen Sora that angry at him in a long time. “I’m sorry, I—”

“I can’t believe you! Riku, I thought I could trust you! Instead you just go blabbing about it to anyone!”

“Wait, it’s not like that!” Riku defended, waving his hands in front of him. “I only told because—”

“No excuses! That was a secret, and you knew it! I can’t believe this. Vanitas keeps better secrets than you!”

“Hey, don’t drag me into this,” Vanitas mumbled as he gazed down at his crossed arms, looking slightly uncomfortable and a little guilty; Riku realized it was probably because Vanitas had reported Sora’s behavior in the first place, which is what got him sent to the psychiatrist, based on a conversation Sora probably had expected to remain private too. Sora still didn’t know about that—he thought Aerith had noticed and decided that on her own.

Then, Riku noticed something concerning. “Sora, you need to calm down,” he told the brunette. “Seriously.”

“No!” Sora yelled, eyes flickering red as small wafts of darkness beginning to form on his skin. Well, fuck.

“I got this,” Vanitas said suddenly. He grabbed Sora’s wrist and formed a dark portal, which he dragged Sora through as the darkness thickened and Sora started actually growling.

Roxas and Xion, closest to them, managed to dart through the portal before it closed, but although Riku and Kairi jumped up too they didn’t reach it in time.

“Fuck,” Riku swore as he stomped his foot down and clenched his fists at his side, more angry at himself than anything. Why had he even told Mickey in the first place?

Kairi, too, was quite angry—but not at Yen Sid. She moved to stand in front of Riku, glaring with her fists on her hips. “Are you serious? Sora’s been on medication, and you knew, yet neither of you told me!? I’m your girlfriend, for fuck’s sake!”

“Look, that was up to him to tell you; I found out by accident,” Riku told her tetchidly, arms crossed and patience nearly gone.

“You told Mickey,” Kairi accused.

Riku ground his teeth together. “I know,” he said tersely. “I shouldn’t have.”

“You did the right thing,” Mickey chimed in, causing Riku to give a start in surprise. He’d momentarily forgotten other people were there in the heat of the argument. “Me and Yen Sid need to know, since we send you all on missions. However,” Mickey narrowed his eyes and turned to Yen Sid, telling him angrily, “As I previously discussed with you, that is not something that should have been mentioned openly!”

“I must disagree,” Yen Sid said calmly. “Proper protocol would be to suspend Sora from missions until we are certain his condition is stable, but we are in the midst of a war thus need everyone possible. Those fighting alongside him must be aware of his condition so that they can be prepared if a situation arises that requires mitigation, especially as—which you just saw—the rage-form seems to be connected to his emotions and he has a penchant for fleeing when things get stressful.”

Riku frowned as he realized something. “You revealed it like this on purpose,” he accused, becoming angrier, having difficulty keeping his own emotions in check too. “You wanted to test his reaction!”

“Indeed,” Yen Sid admitted. “And as I suspected, he is volatile.”

“Anyone would be extremely upset after the stunt you pulled!” Kairi yelled, her anger shifting from Riku to the wizard. If she had darkness, Riku was sure it would be visible; he himself was having trouble keeping his in. Kairi turned to R2 and Xehanort, sitting next to each other, and demanded, “One of you make a portal right now. We’re going after them.”

R2 held out his arm to make one, but Xehanort grabbed the silverette’s wrist and said, “We do not know where they went, thus that would prove fruitless.”

“Just call them then,” Lea pointed out. “All four of them have phones.”

“If they don’t answer, I can see if my connection to Sora is still intact enough to find him,” Naminé suggested, although she appeared a little uncomfortable about that.

“Only as a last resort,” Riku said as he sat back down and tried calming himself. Naminé felt immensely guilty about how she had initially used that ability, so having to use it again, even in a more positive capacity, probably would be somewhat traumatizing; not that Naminé would show it, though. She was generally very driven and practiced with pushing through painful things while hiding her inner turmoil, much like Sora—although in her case, she had too little darkness (or none? Riku would have to ask Vanitas about that) to have that become problematic.

“Okay, can we get to it then?” Kairi yelled, pulling out her phone, clearly still outraged.

Naminé stood and gently took Kairi’s phone from her as she tugged Kairi back to her seat. “I think it’d be best if I’m the one who calls,” Naminé said, and Riku had to agree.

Chapter Text

“You know, I don’t have the best memories of Neverland,” Vanitas mused, looking around the rocky outcropping beside the sea. He wondered why this had been the place they’d ended up; had one of the others thought of it when going through the portal, or was it merely coincidence that, out of the multitude of worlds in their universe, they’d ended up on one they all knew? Vanitas certainly hadn’t chosen it; to his embarrassment, he’d forgotten to think of a place to go in his panic.

“Really?” Roxas asked while Xion tried to calm Sora, who had immediately tried to run. She had it handled, Vanitas concluded. Roxas continued, “Why? Something happened?”

“I got into some trouble here before,” Vanitas admitted, trying to hide his slight discomfort; Roxas dissettled Vanitas a little, as he looked identical to Ventus. He was sure he’d get used to it though; it was just looks, after all. Their essences, personalities, and the scent of their darknesses—or rather, lack thereof in Ventus’s case—were completely different. Vanitas continued, “Specifically, I caused some chaos with the unversed and fought Aqua.”

“Ah, gotcha. Yeah, Xion and I probably don’t have the best reputation here either, since we were part of the Organization, which doesn’t have the best reputation anywhere.”

“Oh, right, I forgot you were in that,” Vanitas admitted, then realized something. “Wait. Does that mean more than half of the current side of Light were former Organization?”

Roxas frowned as he pondered that. “You know what, you’re right. Man, Xehanort must be pissed!”

“Pissed about what?” Xion asked, walking back over to them, leading a sheepish Sora by the hand.

“Most of the Lights are defectors from his groups,” Roxas explained. “So, everything good, then?” he asked the two casually. Vanitas was surprised he was so calm; Roxas had had an underlying sense of unease earlier, which was now absent. Maybe that was due to being around Riku—the two did not get along well, to say the least, which was understandable given their history.

Sora, too, was calmer than expected, although underneath still seemed a bit irritated. “Yeah, I guess. I’m sorry,” he said, the guilty feeling genuine.

“Hey, it’s not your fault,” Vanitas consoled the boy as he concluded that the anger earlier had been normal human upset, not anything related to Sora’s psychiatric condition or medicine; honestly it’d be more concerning if Sora hadn’t reacted negatively to that The only thing different was the rage-form thing, which seemed to be coming up more often and at lower levels ever since Sora started trying to play with it. Vanitas should probably double-check that Sora had stopped messing with it, as the brunette had been instructed.

“Yeah, anyone would have reacted that way,” Roxas pointed out. “I bet Riku and even Kairi are going off on Yen Sid right now. Maybe even some of the others.”

“Riku…” Sora muttered dejectedly, looking at the ground. “I yelled at Riku…”

“He deserved it,” Roxas said automatically.

“Roxas, be nice,” Xion chided. “I’m sure Riku didn’t expect Yen Sid to do that, either.”

“So? It’s still his fault.”

“No,” Sora argued. “It’s mine. If I didn’t need—”

“Okay, stop right there,” Vanitas said, holding a hand out. “None of this is your fault. None of it. You didn’t ask to have a mental illness, and you’ve been taking the right steps to manage it. Yen Sid is the bastard here.”

Sora sighed. “Yeah, I guess. And Riku probably just wanted the best; I know he wouldn’t say anything without good reason… logically that makes sense. And logically I know that people should probably know, if something like Paris happens again,” he reasoned. “But I’m still angry! Riku could have told me he’d told someone if he couldn’t for whatever reason ask me first! And then Yen Sid pulled that right out of left field, in front of everyone!”

“Yes. He should have discussed it with you in private,” Xion agreed. “Both of them should have.”

“Exactly! And if he really wanted everyone to know, he could have just said so, and explained why. Then I could tell them myself.”

Roxas raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Would you really have?”

“Yes,” Sora asserted. “If they’d explained to me why. I wouldn’t want to, but I’m not an idiot; I can be responsible, despite what everyone seems to think!”

“Speaking of responsibility,” Xion commented, “We probably should let someone know where we are.”

“Or just go back,” Roxas offered. “Vani can make dark portals.”

“How the fuck did that nickname catch on so quickly,” Vanitas muttered as he held out his hand to summon a dark portal. One appeared—then fizzled out a moment later.

Vanitas blinked. What in the worlds? He tried again, only to have the same result… Oh. Right. Ienzo and Even had warned Vanitas about this. A few days prior, they had readied a replica body for him, and Vanitas immediately decided to try it out. As expected, his heart had easily bound to it—unexpectedly permanently. Even if they used the heart extractor thing to remove him from this body, his heart would still henceforth need a body, a phenomenon they had all been unaware of (after all, this was the first time it’d been done). Vanitas wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but he got a non-darkness body like he wanted, so wasn’t too concerned, although he’d freaked out a little initially. The only issue? He needed time to adjust; according to Ienzo and Even, Vanitas would eventually be able to use all his abilities again, at the same level, but it would probably take a week or two of practice. Controlling darkness while in a body had been more difficult than expected! No wonder it wasn’t more common to see people using it. It was frustrating to deal with this temporary weakness, for sure, but Vanitas had known this when he signed up for it—he just hadn’t expected it to be such a big issue so soon! Hopefully it wouldn’t take long to recharge.

“Vanitas?” Xion asked, full of worry. “Something wrong?”

“Oh. Well… I don’t think I can make a portal right now,” Vanitas admitted, feeling his face heat up a little; he wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Did you just blush!?” Sora proclaimed.

“Did I?” Vanitas asked, surprised. That's what that feeling had been? He hadn’t realized a physical sensation usually came with such. Vanitas recalled what he knew about anatomy; blushing was a result of blood rushing to the cheeks, right? Vanitas’s previous body of darkness didn’t have such… oh. If he had blood now, did that mean he had to be more careful about getting injured, too? Ugh. Bodies were such a pain! But, there were good things, too, like his new sense of touch. Vanitas hadn’t realized how differently humans felt things, how much more sensitive they were. Temperature, too! He couldn’t feel that before. Like the cool breeze he could feel against his skin at the moment. Honestly it was all somewhat overwhelming.

“Yeah, you did,” Roxas said, but Vanitas wasn’t paying attention.

“Vani?” Sora prodded, now filled with concern. “You seem really distracted. Why can’t you make a portal?”

“Huh?” Vanitas said, snapped out of his thoughts. “Oh… um. Here’s the thing. I didn’t tell anyone because I wanted to wait until I’d adjusted to it, but… IhadIenzogivemeareplicabodytoo,” he said in a rush.

“What?”

Vanitas took a deep breath. “I wanted to be more human physically, so I asked Ienzo for a replica body,” he explained more calmly, despite his heart racing—also a new sensation, and a bit scary, but Ienzo had warned him that would happen sometimes and explained what was normal and what wasn’t. “They had a spare because Ventus didn’t need one. I got it two days ago, but it’s going to take some time before I’m able to use my abilities on the same level, as I’m still adjusting to it. So, yeah. That’s why I can’t use portals consecutively right now.”

Sora gasped, worry changing to excitement. “Vani, that’s awesome!” he proclaimed, shooting forwards and flinging his arms around Vanitas in a hug, pinning his arms to his side. It was… warm, that was the word. A pleasant sensation. Vanitas laughed in response.

Sora retreated from the hug, seeming confused. “Vani?”

“Sorry,” Vanitas said. “I’m just… happy, I guess. I’ve never been able to feel things the way humans do until now; I didn’t think it was that different, but it is.”

“And it’s nice?” Sora ventured.

Vanitas nodded, feeling himself blush again. “Yeah, it’s nice,” he confirmed. “At least, sometimes,” he amended.

“Only sometimes?” Xion asked, curious.

“Well, yeah. For example, cat fur is soft and nice, but getting bruised by falling on your ass isn’t.”

“Ooooh, so that’s why you were petting me so much yesterday!” Sora proclaimed.

Vanitas was the confused one now. “What? I wasn’t—wait, that was you?! I thought it was a stray!”

“Yeah, I was practicing changing coat patterns,” Sora explained with a chuckle. “You couldn’t tell? Usually you can…”

“Usually, yeah… I guess that’s because of the new body,” Vanitas concluded. “Like I said, I’m still adjusting. Sensing people’s darkness is a bit shaky right now. But it’s already better today than it was at first; I can sense you fine now,” Vanitas assured Sora.

“Wait, backing up,” Roxas suddenly said, “Did you say you couldn’t feel pain before?”

“What?” Vanitas asked, not recalling that.

“You said falling hurt.”

“Oh, that,” Vanitas recalled. “It’s not that I couldn’t feel pain before; I know pain really well, actually. It’s painful every time an unversed is summoned. But, human wounds are really different—I never got bruises when I fell, for example, as my skin was darkness. The unversed cause sharp flashes of pain, but bruises are different. They linger and are pulsing. What’s the term for that? Sore?”

“Ooh, yeah, bruises and cuts and stomach pain and stuff are all really different,” Xion agreed.

“So… you couldn’t feel anything else before?” Sora asked. “Not even good things?”

“Yes and no,” Vanitas replied. “How do I word this… I could tell what things were, like if they were soft or rough and stuff, but it was all superficial, just shapes and stuff. But you humans all have different factors at play; there’s temperature, such as metal feeling cold and a blanket warm, and there’s a feeling of pleasantness at some surfaces and discomfort at others, like rubbing your hand over brick isn’t nice but over silk is really nice. Before it all felt the same to me, neither good or bad, it just was. There wasn’t any ‘this feels nice’ or ‘oh gods I don’t like touching that’.”

“Even sticky things?” Xion wondered.

“Huh?”

“Sticky things aren’t nice. You didn’t know that?” Xion asked.

“Uh, no,” Vanitas answered. “The darkness would remove sticky things quickly, so I didn’t really feel it any. Why? Is sticky not good?”

“No, it’s annoying and frustrating,” Xion explained. Vanitas couldn’t help but feel like he was a little kid, discussing physical feelings like this with simple questions and answers any human older than three would know, although he didn’t actually know what it was like to be a little kid. Technically none of them there did, except Sora.

“You haven’t felt anything like that yet?” Roxas asked curiously.

“I’ve had a real body for two days,” Vanitas pointed out. “Obviously I haven’t felt everything there is to feel.”

“Right,” Roxas acknowledged.

Xion then swerved the conversation back to the original topic. “While this is interesting, we really should be trying to contact someone.”

“Ugh. Do we have to?” Sora bemoaned.

“Yes; the longer we wait, the angrier they’ll get,” Xion reasoned.

Sora sighed. “I guess you have a point. Here, I can make a portal.” He held out his arm; Vanitas grabbed it.

“Oh no you don’t!” Vanitas chided. “You don’t have enough control yet. It’s too dangerous.”

“But—”

“No. Plus, none of you have proper protection from darkness anyway. Going through once today without it was risky enough; more will only increase the danger. We’ll call them, and they can get us with a GummiShip. No portals.” Vanitas wondered if he was protected, too; he had previously been fine while in the dark corridors because of his darkness-body, but would he have the same protection with a replica body?

Sora sighed. “Fine,” he conceded as he reached into his pocket and fished around. Then, he frowned and said, “Ah, shit. My phone’s not here.”

Vanitas groaned, realizing why. “I don’t have mine either; Mickey was upgrading them, remember?”

“Well, we have our phones!” Xion declared, taking hers out. Then, she frowned at it. “It’s not working; I think it’s out of power.”

“They didn’t come charged?”

“Nope,” Roxas said, looking forlornly at his phone too. “What do we do?”

“Well, does it really matter?” Sora wondered. “It’s not like we’re gonna go back to Yen Sid’s anyway.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow at Sora. “We ran out in the middle of a meeting,” he pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but the meeting was basically over.”

“That’s true,” Roxas confirmed. “So, what, you want to explore?”

“Yeah!” Sora and Xion exclaimed.

“But Riku and Kairi will worry if we don’t return,” Vanitas pointed out, although he could already tell it was a lost hope.

“Well, that’s why we’re going to send them a message when the phones charge,” Sora explained.

“How do we do that again?” Xion questioned.

“They run on both happiness and solar energy, so you can either leave them in the sun for a while or we can go exploring and have fun,” Sora told her.

“I vote for exploring,” Roxas said. “And also for not going back to that wizard’s place. Ever.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Vanitas protested, once again in awe that he was the one arguing for the non-chaotic sensible option. “He’s in charge of missions. We have to associate with him.”

“But why?”

“Huh?”

“Why?” Roxas challenged. “Why do we need to do that? Because the adults say so? We’re sixteen, and you’re even older despite looking our age.”

“Actually, Roxas, you and I are technically only two,” Xion pointed out.

“Yeah, but we’re still mentally sixteen,” Roxas countered. “We can make our own decisions, right? Xion, you and I never actually agreed to being part of all this; everyone just assumed we’d go along.”

“That is true,” Xion noted. “Besides, except for the specific people involved, it’s the exact same thing as we did with the Organization. I kinda want to do something else.”

“I know, right? We didn’t sign up for a war!” Roxas agreed.

“Hey, wait a second,” Sora interjected. “If you quit, we won’t have thirteen lights.”

“So?”

“Well, that’s… oh!” Sora’s eyes lit up in realization of something. “Actually, that’s a brilliant idea, Roxas!” Sora proclaimed as he hopped forwards to envelop the blond boy in a hug.

“Wait, what?” Roxas said, clearly surprised at this turn of events.

“Sora, quitting is a really bad idea,” Vanitas told him.

Sora spun around, a dangerous glint in his eye. “Is it though? Xehanort needs thirteen! Without us, Xehanort’s plan fails, and we never have to deal with Yen Sid again! There’s only positives.”

“Sora…” Vanitas began, unsure what to say to that. Superficially it made sense, but Xehanort was crafty. He’d already altered his plan multiple times; he easily could again.

“Come on, Vani! You don’t really want to keep doing missions for that militant wizard, do you?”

Vanitas looked at the ground as he considered that. Honestly, no, he didn’t. He liked doing missions, but with Yen Sid in charge? No thank you. The wizard was nearly as bad as Xehanort… okay, that was a definite exaggeration, but still. It was a toxic environment, especially for Sora. It would probably be highly beneficial for everyone’s mental health to not associate with Yen Sid at all, come to think of it. But, could they just up and quit? They’d still be staying at Merlin’s, so they couldn’t exactly escape everything even if they refused missions—and Vanitas was not going to let Sora flee entirely, even if he wanted to. They were definitely in need of a true vacation though.

“Pleaaaaaase, Vani?” Sora begged, drawing out the words. Vanitas looked up to find Sora directly in front of him, giving him the puppy-dog face.

Vanitas didn’t bother resisting. “Okay, fine,” he agreed. “You’re right. Screw Yen Sid. Let’s do our own thing.”

“Awesome!” Xion cheered. “Should we make a group name?”

“I wouldn’t push it,” Vanitas warned. “Knowing that wizard, he’d declare us another hostile dark group if we did that. The three of us are former-Organization, and he currently thinks Sora is unstable.”

“Oooh, yeah, that wouldn’t be good,” Roxas agreed.

Sora crossed his arms and pouted. “I’m not unstable.”

“Didn’t say you were,” Vanitas hurriedly clarified. “The stuffy wizard’s the one with the problem.”

Sora laughed. “‘Stuffy wizard’? Really?”

Vanitas shrugged. “I call it how I see it. Now, are we going to just stand around here all day, or are we going to go have some fun?”

“Yeah! We should find that fairy that makes us fly!” Xion said excitedly as the four began walking away from the sea and into the nearby forest.

“Fly?” Vanitas asked as he ducked under a low branch. There was a well-worn path, but it seemed to only be cleared up to their chests, as though travelled only by kids… oh, right. Neverland was mostly populated by immortal children. “Doesn’t that require positive thinking or something?”

“Yup,” Roxas confirmed. “You find a pixie, and she gives you dust that lets you fly by thinking happy thoughts.”

Vanitas sighed. “Why does everything require happy thoughts?” he lamented. “I guess I’m not going to be able to do it then.”

“Vani!” Sora chided. “Don’t say that! I know you can do it.”

“I dunno…”

“For me?”

“Okay, fine, I’ll try. No promises though,” Vanitas warned.

“Yay!” Sora jumped sideways and gave Vanitas a big hug, apparently not planning to let go.

“Okay, enough,” Vanitas laughed as he pushed Sora off him. Longer, tighter hugs still bothered Vanitas, even if they were from his brother. Especially as they now felt completely different than they used to… Which admittedly made them quite enjoyable. Maybe he could get used to more hugs. Vanitas just needed some time to adjust.

Sora’s mood then abruptly shifted, and he said dejectedly, “You know, I don’t actually know if I can fly either…”

Vanitas stopped walking, as did the others. “What? Why not?” Roxas asked loudly.

Sora looked at the ground as he spoke. “Well, it needs happy thoughts. I don’t know if I can maintain that enough…”

Vanitas scoffed. “Don’t be silly. You’ve been doing lots better; anyone can see that!”

“Really?” Sora asked, looking up at Vanitas wide-eyed.

“Of course! If anything, I’d be the one unable to fly, being all negativity.”

“All darkness,” Sora corrected. “You do have positivity,” he reminded Vanitas.

“Sorry; habit.”

“Hmmm. Well, guess we should find some pixie dust and see what happens,” Xion decided for everyone. “Do you think that fairy will be willing to do it?”

“Her name is Tinkerbell,” Roxas corrected.

“Oh, yes, I know her,” Sora said, eyes lighting up. “She’s always with Peter Pan; if we find him, we find her!”

“Peter Pan?” Roxas said warily.

“Yeah! Do you know him?”

“Er… kinda? We know Hook, and Hook didn’t really like Peter Pan much…”

“Ah. Hmm. Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine, if you know Tinkerbell!”

“Er. ‘Know’ is a bit strong of a word,” Roxas said. “She’s not too fond of me.”

“But she still let you fly,” Xion pointed out.

“True.”

“What about you, Vanitas? Do you know her?” Sora asked.

“Er. Yeah… Her and Peter Pan, and not amicably… I kinda caused some trouble here a decade back. But I was wearing my dark suit the whole time, so maybe they won’t recognize me,” Vanitas realized, slightly hopeful.

Xion clapped her hands together. “That’s perfect! Now, let’s go fly!”

“Wait one second,” Vanitas said, realizing something. He turned to Sora. “Can’t you already fly? I saw Merlin teaching you.”

“Yeah, but that takes a lot of magic!” Sora explained. “It’s tiring, and requires lots of focus; I passed out in the air last time I tried. But here, pixie dust provides the magic, and all you need to focus on is happy memories! Which is difficult too, but still easier.”

“Then let’s get to it,” Roxas asserted, proceeding onward with the others in tow. Vanitas assumed he knew where he was going.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku paced back and forth in the Mysterious Tower’s library, where Mickey had requested he and Kairi go to “cool down” and resolve things before returning to have a more civil discussion. They tried calling the four, only to realize that the phones were still there, being upgraded, and Xion and Roxas’s phones weren’t charged yet; after that, Riku and Kairi started fighting again, upon which they were sent here. The others had gone to the rooms the Tower provided for them, as it was awfully late to head back—due to distortions with GummiSpace, it’d take six hours to return to Radiant Garden. Instead of discussing more about how to find them, the others had been confident that the four would return once Sora was calmed down, but Riku knew they most likely wouldn’t, not today.

Quite frankly, Yen Sid had been awful, and it was fully understandable how Sora had reacted. Vanitas might try to convince them to return, but it’d probably be halfhearted, as he seemed just as angry by the end, as did both Xion and Roxas. They had such strong ties to Sora, after all, truly like close siblings; if staying away was the best thing for Sora right now—which it was—no doubt they’d agree to not go back if Sora requested it, which he surely would.

“Will you stop that?” Kairi snapped from her place on the leather couch, in reference to the pacing.

Riku paused to look at Kairi, who was glaring daggers at him. “Well, sorry I’m worried about him!” Riku retorted, unable to control his frustration.

“You wouldn’t have to be if you didn’t go behind Sora’s back like that,” Kairi said coldly, crossing her arms.

“You think I don’t know that?!” Riku spat. “I thought I was doing the right thing, telling Mickey; how was I supposed to know he’d go tell Yen Sid, who would then tell everyone?!”

“The right thing? How the hell was that the right thing? You didn’t even tell me! If you did, me and you could have kept enough of an eye on him, like you and apparently Vani were already doing! There was no reason to tell Mickey; or does he matter more to you than your own girlfriend?”

“What? No, it’s not like that at all!” Riku argued. “Kairi, you know I care about you! I was only respecting Sora’s wishes by not telling you.”

“But you told Mickey,” Kairi pointed out.

“The situations were different! Mickey needed to know! And I do stand by it,” Riku decided. “Especially after what Ventus told me.”

“You talked to Ventus about this too?!” Kairi’s voice raised an octave. “Seriously?!”

“He already knew, Kairi! He could see everything, remember?” Riku took a deep breath, trying to calm his anger, realizing arguing like this wouldn’t get them anywhere. “So I asked his opinion on things. So yeah, it was best for Mickey to know, in case something like Paris happens again.”

Kairi frowned. “Paris?” she questioned, her voice lowering in volume too. “What’s that have to do with this? Is there something else you’re not telling me?” Ah, right. Kairi didn’t know the full story behind that, either.

“Well, that’s…” Riku began, unsure what or how much to say.

“Oh, is that a secret from me too? I thought we weren’t going to keep secrets anymore. Or was that a lie?” Kairi said icily.

Riku cringed. “That… okay, fine, I’ll explain,” Riku decided reluctantly. Hopefully Sora would understand. He sat on the couch too, keeping a safe distance from Kairi.

Riku proceeded to explain everything, answering a multitude of questions from Kairi as he did so. There had been a lot more that Riku and Sora had kept from her than he realized; Riku felt somewhat guilty about that, especially after promising no more secrets.

“That’s everything now?” Kairi asked curtly once Riku had finished.

“Yeah, as far as I know,” Riku confirmed, feeling tired.

After a brief bout of semi-awkward silence, Kairi sighed and uncrossed her arms. “I feel like we’re in grade school again, being put in time-out,” she said as a way to ease the remaining tension, seeming less angry. Thankfully Kairi wasn’t the type to hold onto anger for long, although in this case it would be justified.

“Agreed,” Riku said. That had been something he had become extremely familiar with, followed by detention when they got to middle-school, as he’d had a penchant for getting in trouble back then, mostly for fighting—Sora and Kairi had often been the target of bullies, until the bullies learned that Riku was around to defend the two. Then of course there were the times that all three of them got in trouble for various things, including…

Kairi giggled, apparently catching the thought. “This actually kinda reminds me of the time we tried to skip class, then Sora tried to skip detention too.”

Riku laughed too. “He was picked up by the Mayor, who practically dragged him back to the school!” The Mayor was Kairi’s guardian, so had been aware that all three ought to have been in detention that day.

Kairi sighed. “Too bad that won’t happen this time,” she said.

“I dunno about that,” Riku countered. “Honestly, maybe it’s good to let Sora be right now, give him some space. Dragging him back and forcing a confrontation won’t help anyone.”

“You think?”

“Yeah; obviously I’m worried, but he’s with the others, so he should be fine. I’m sure they’ll talk some sense into him, and then he’ll decide to return on his own.” Riku wasn’t sure if he was reassuring Kairi or himself with those words.

“You sure?” Kairi asked skeptically. “That’s awfully optimistic. Maybe you haven’t noticed, since you’ve been trying to avoid Roxas, but he and Xion have been treating Sora practically like an older brother, one of the kinds younger siblings will blindly follow. If Sora decides not to return, they’ll back him up on it, I’m sure of it.”

“Well, Vanitas at least is responsible,” Riku amended. He was surprised at Kairi’s observation of Roxas; Riku would have expected Roxas to act more like an older sibling, as from Riku’s experience Roxas had been overprotective of Sora, as older brothers often were of younger siblings, or at least he had been since regaining a body—then again, maybe Roxas acted differently around Riku than he did around others, due to their history. Also, Riku had known Roxas to be generally independent rather than a follower. Of course, most of what Riku knew was from observing Roxas in the virtual Twilight Town, so maybe he had been different when in the Organization.

“I dunno. Vani seemed pretty angry when he left,” Kairi noted. “If he feels it’s best for Sora not to return here, he’s not going to let him.”

Riku sighed; Kairi had a point there. “I hate when you’re right,” he told her. After a few moments of semi-awkward silence, he continued, “Guess we should go apologize to Yen Sid, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Kairi grumbled as she stood up. “I wish we could just quit dealing with him.”

“You and me both,” Riku agreed. “And probably everyone else, too.”

Chapter Text

“Hmmm. You seem familiar,” Peter Pan said, floating slightly above the ground with his hand on his chin as he peered at Vanitas. “Have we met before?” The quartet had luckily run into him while wandering the woods—despite the others following him, Roxas had not actually known where to go; although neither did Vanitas, nor any of them, so it didn’t actually make any difference who followed whom.

“Well, he is my twin!” Sora explained. “Maybe that’s why!”

“Oh, yes, that must be all it is!” Peter Pan concluded. “The hair is a different color, but you have the same eyes!”

Vanitas blushed at that. His eyes had been shifting a lot even before he got the replica body, and once he did they’d been more frequently blue than yellow, weirdly enough. He was sure he still had no significant amount of light, definitely not enough to create any eye color other than red or yellow, but somehow that had still happened. Maybe it had something to do with one’s relationship to darkness? The eyes still became yellow whenever Vanitas practiced his dark abilities. Vanitas would ask Ienzo about that; he studied hearts and darkness, so maybe he would know more about how eyes were related to it. What was that phrase? ‘The eyes are the windows into one’s heart’, right?

“Oh, and Ventus! It’s been a long time!” Peter Pan said, looking towards Roxas, who looked pissed at that. Vanitas tried not to snicker. Tried.

Roxas glared at Vanitas, then turned to Peter Pan and said, clearly trying to hold in anger, “I’m Roxas, actually. Ventus’s… brother.” Just like Vanitas and Sora had been doing, Roxas and Ventus had decided to tell people unfamiliar with their situation that they were brothers; Ventus had been excited about that, but Roxas had been less-than-enthused… although technically, weren’t they more or less brothers? How did one define the relationship between a Nobody and their Somebody when they existed at the same time? Roxas was some weird blend between Ventus and Sora, somehow managing to be both their nobodies at once, from Vanitas’s understanding… Wait, did that mean Roxas was technically related to Vanitas, too? It was all so confusing!

“Oh, right, Ventus would be older than you now, of course. I forgot people outside of Neverland age,” Peter Pan mused. “Well, tell him I say hi!”

“Sure,” Roxas agreed, although Vanitas suspected he wouldn’t. People generally never did, at least the ones Vanitas knew, which was honestly not that many.

“So. Whatcha doing around here?” Peter Pan wondered. “We don’t often get off-world visitors.”

“You know we’re from off-world?” Xion gasped. Generally the existence of other worlds wasn’t known to the locals of most worlds.

“Well of course! Where do you think we are? All the lost boys that live here in Neverland originated from another world! Lots of different ones, at that. Did you think London was the only place?”

“Yeah, kinda,” Sora said, scratching his cheek a little. “So, we’re just here visiting, really. My siblings wanted to fly; they saw me learning to from a wizard, but their magic isn’t nearly high enough yet for that, so I thought we might come here so they could try using pixie dust,” he said, spinning the story as easily as breathing. Vanitas wondered if the slight brag had been intentional. Also, were they allowed to mention wizards and magic? Peter Pan knew about other worlds, and obviously the pixies here had magic, but how much did he truly know? Ugh, the World Order thing was so annoying! Well, Sora seemed to be disregarding it at the moment, so maybe that meant it didn’t need to be kept here. Peter Pan didn’t seem at all surprised about a human learning magic from a wizard, after all.

“Well, that sounds grand!” Peter Pan said, putting his hands on his hips and stretching in the air. “Let’s go find Tinkerbell, and get ya flying! Well, hopefully.”

“What do you mean, ‘hopefully’?” Vanitas asked.

Peter Pans scratched his cheek. “Well, you see.. Tink and I had a small fight and she flew off somewhere. I’m sure she’ll be back by morning, but if you want to fly now she’s going to take some convincing once you find her.”

“That’s okay; we can wait,” Xion said.

“What? But I wanna fly now,” Roxas complained.

“Roxas, behave,” Xion chided, and Vanitas couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s getting late anyway,” Sora pointed out, gesturing to the setting sun. “We should find something for dinner.”

“Yeah, I agree; I’m getting hungry,” Vanitas realized. Usually he would have only said so to encourage Sora to eat, since Sora had a tendency to inadvertently skip meals, but this time he truly was hungry. At least, that’s what Vanitas thought this strange new feeling was; his old darkness-body hadn’t truly needed food, but this new one did. As if to confirm this, his stomach comically growled.

Peter Pan gave a full-bellied laugh. “Well, that decides it, then! Let’s go find some grub!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku sat with his arms on the dinner table, head buried in them.

“You really should eat something,” Kairi prodded as she sat down, pushing a plate towards him.

“I’m not hungry,” Riku grumbled, but a growl from his stomach betrayed him. He sat up and pulled the plate over, then stared at it. It was the oddest hodgepodge of ingredients Riku had ever seen, and looked wholly unappetizing. Had Kairi created it? She was known for her bizarre taste in food… but no, it couldn’t have been; this was too strange even for her. Kairi’s concoctions, though horrible in flavor, at least always managed to look potentially edible.

“It’s actually really tasty!” Kairi promised, anticipating Riku asking what it was, then further explained, “There were so many people suggesting so many things that the magical brooms got confused and ended up making a weird combination of all of them.”

“Yeah, it’s really not bad,” Lea said through a mouthful of the questionable stuff.

The others around the table—Mickey, Donald, R2, Ventus, Xehanort, Goofy, Terra, Aqua, and Naminé—were giving it questionable looks too, but upon Kairi and Lea’s endorsement tried it, unaware that Kairi (and maybe Lea as well?) tended to like flavor combinations others found unusual, to say the least. Yet despite this, everyone seemed to like it, to Riku’s total shock. So, Riku tried it too… and found it actually was tasty, just like Kairi promised. Well, there was a first time for everything, Riku supposed.

Then, Riku’s phone beeped, signalling a message. Riku thrust his hand into the pocket and pulled the phone out, fumbling it slightly, and opened the message.

“Is it Sora?” Aqua asked as Riku rapidly scanned the message, although the chances it was anyone other than the four absent keyblade apprentices were miniscule considering most those Riku typically messaged were present.

“Xion,” Riku told her somewhat absentmindedly, as he tried to process what he was reading. This was not going to go over well at all. Hopefully they could be convinced to change their minds…

“What’s she saying?” Lea demanded; right, he’d been just as worried about Roxas and Xion as Riku and Kairi had been about Sora.

“They… well, here read it yourself,” Riku said, passing his phone over to the redhead.

“What!” Lea declared as he read it. “Can they do that?”

“What’s going on?” Mickey demanded. “Are they okay?”

“They can’t be serious,” Kairi groaned, reading over Lea’s shoulder. “I thought Vani at least was more responsible than that. Why’s he going along with it?”

R2 rolled his eyes. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, but if whatever's going on was Sora’s idea and Sora was being stubborn about it, that would be why he’s going along with it.”

“He did give into the pressure when Sora insisted he teach him how to make dark portals and help him with using rage form,” Xehanort corroborated.

Donald interjected with a loud quack, then squawked, “Just tell us what’s going on!”

Riku sighed as he took his phone back from Lea. “Here, I’ll read it: Hi, Xion here! The phone’s not charged enough to video call but it’s enough to send a message, so here it is: Roxas and I never signed up for this, Sora doesn’t want to do it anymore, and Vani couldn’t resist Sora’s puppy-dog eyes so he’s done with Yen Sid’s shit too. Please don’t worry about us; we’ll return to Radiant Garden eventually.”

“Puppy-dog eyes?” Terra asked.

“They’re surprisingly persuasive,” Riku explained. “Ventus uses them too.”

“Ah, I know what you mean,” Terra acknowledged.

“THAT’s what you comment on?” Aqua yelled at Terra. She looked livid. “I can’t believe this! I knew Vanitas was a bad influence. I bet if he weren’t around, Sora wouldn’t have done this.”

“Actually, if Vani weren’t around, Sora would have done this a long time ago,” Ventus corrected. This was news to Riku… or, maybe it wasn’t. Vanitas did seem to have adopted the role of keeping Sora in line, oddly enough.

Aqua groaned. “Now you’re calling him that too, Ven?”

“Well, yeah. It’s a good nickname.”

“But he tried to kill you!”

“And now he’s over that. We’re cool,” Ventus told Aqua casually, to which she responded with a look of exasperation. Riku had a feeling they’d had similar conversations before.

“We need to tell Yen Sid about this,” Mickey said, steering the conversation back on topic. The elderly wizard had opted to eat dinner alone in his study; Riku suspected it was because he didn’t want to interact with so many rowdy teens all at once, even if there were a few older adults to balance it out (assuming Donald, Goofy, and Mickey were older; anthropomorphic animals were difficult to tell the ages of. Either way, they were at least a couple decades older than Aqua and Terra, so presumably that made them middle-aged at the very least).

“Yeah, you go do that,” R2 said. “I’m staying the hell away.” Everyone else expressed similar sentiments.

Mickey sighed. “Yes, I suppose it’d best be me.”

“You know, they do make some good points, actually,” Ventus mused.

Aqua interjected, “What! Ven, don’t tell me you—”

“No, I’m not saying I’m leaving,” Ventus quickly interrupted. “It’s just that, everyone keeps assuming people will go along with things. For example, none of you asked if I wanted to participate; when I was freed, you expected me to join in. I did, but what if I didn’t want to? What if the last war made me so traumatized that I said no? Would you still have tried to force me? I still have nightmares, you know. If I hadn’t been able to see anything while in Sora’s heart, and if Vanitas hadn’t redeemed himself, I might have preferred to flee—just like they’re doing. Roxas and Xion couldn’t see as much as me, you know; they could feel Sora and sometimes hear stuff, but couldn’t easily tell what was happening. Things were explained to them, after which they took things in stride, but you literally had Roxas kidnapped to return him to Sora. We’re immensely lucky Lea was here to calm him down, you know; he was ready to go on a killing spree when he got out. Honestly, them leaving shouldn’t be a surprise at all.”

Everyone was quiet for a few moments after Ventus’s speech, contemplating that. It was true, Riku concluded: they had just assumed everyone would follow the plan, taking the individuals in question for granted. Yen Sid had done the same with him, Sora, and Kairi, too, come to think of it.

“You’re right,” Mickey concluded too, looking surprised. “We never actually asked any of you if you wanted to join; only Vanitas, R2, and Xehanort formally asked us, whereas we simply assumed the rest of you would go along with things. I am deeply sorry about that.”

“It’s the exact same thing the original Organization did to Roxas and Xion,” Lea quietly said. “They were brought into it without being given a choice, then immediately began doing missions and helping the cause. We literally just did the exact same thing—and just like before, all they have is our word on it. How do they know this is any different from that? They don’t know Xehanort—the old one—like we do.”

“Gawrsh,” Goofy said. “That’s a really good point. They’re basically children, new to this world, except that they act and look like teenagers. But those two have only been around two years, and we expected them to participate in a war with only our word…”

“But that doesn’t explain Sora!” Donald squawked. “What’s he doing, going off and joining them!?”

“That shouldn’t be surprising either,” Ventus said, a slightly cold tone to his voice that Riku had not expected could come from the boy. “Considering the way you’ve all been treating him.”

“What do you mean?” Aqua demanded, eyes narrowing.

“Well, it’s mostly Yen Sid,” Ventus amended. “But you’re all complicit!”

Naminé took the initiative to explain more calmly, “Surely you have noticed it? Yen Sid is very controlling, and it frustrates him that Sora cannot be easily controlled, which shows.”

“Yes, his contempt of Sora is fairly obvious,” Xehanort added.

Mickey argued, “I wouldn’t call it contempt—”

“Then what would you call it, if not contempt?” Xehanort interrupted. “Whatever Sora does, it’s met with disappointment, irritation, or dismissiveness from that wizard. I don’t know what happened to make him like that, but it’s the opposite of the kid I knew, and I really don’t like it. He’s completely condescending towards Sora for no good reason! He’s barely any different than the old version of me, barring being Light as opposed to Dark!”

“Yeah, he really needs to get off his high-horse,” R2 chimed in offhandedly.

Mickey sighed. “I suppose you have a point. I’ll mention that to him, too.”

Aqua stood up. “I’ll go too; maybe with two Masters there he’ll be more willing to listen.” Had she decided to support the quartet’s decision to leave, too?

“Me too,” said Lea, also standing. “I can vouch for Roxas and Xion, when he’s told about them,” he volunteered. “Just in case he tries to declare them enemies.”

One by one everyone else joined the united front, and they proceeded to climb the Tower’s stairs to go have a frank discussion with Yen Sid—hopefully a civil one.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

A few hours later found Vanitas, Sora, Xion, and Roxas sitting on or against various stumps and logs around a campfire with Peter Pan and his group of followers called the ‘Lost Boys’, which consisted of a couple dozen kids of varying ages whom had been abandoned by their families and found their way here, where they stayed until they were ready to leave—which seemed to be never from what Vanitas could gather. Most were dressed inexplicably in animal costumes. They were eating a large assortment of foods, all which they’d helped cook using only the fire; there were no electronics of any sort here, other than the phones they’d brought, which had managed to charge enough to send one message before the kids stole them. They had allowed the kids to do so because it was better than having the younger kids bother them while they, Peter Pan, and the older kids all helped prepare dinner, although in retrospect it hadn’t been the best idea as the kids then proceeded to use all the remaining power to play games; usually the happiness of playing games would be enough to keep the phones charged while doing so, but they were low on power to start with and then the kids got in a fight over who got to play next, the negativity of which drained the power faster than usual. They’d have to try using solar power in the morning.

Sora leaned back against the log behind him, hands on his stomach. “Man, I’m stuffed!” he proclaimed. “That was some of the best food I’ve had in a while! I could stay here forever!” Roxas, Xion, and Vanitas echoed similar statements.

“Well, you’re welcome to it!” Peter Pan said. “We’ve got plenty of room for all four of yeh! You’re a little older than most Lost Boys are when they come here, but you’re not adults yet, and that’s all that matters!”

“Actually, Roxas and I are only two years old,” Xion corrected.

“Xion! Stop telling everyone that!” Roxas hissed.

“Really?” Peter Pan said, surprised. “Well, I suppose your world must have different rates of maturation or something!”

“No, we were just created via means other than sexual reproduction,” Xion bluntly explained, and Vanitas had to resist shoving his face into his palm.

“So was Vanitas!” Sora pitched in unhelpfully, apparently abandoning the twin ruse. “He’s also nearly thirty, I think, even though he looks like us?”

“That’s Ventus,” Vanitas corrected. “I was split from him when he was a tween and you were an infant, Sora. So I’m basically your age.”

“I see,” Peter Pan said, unperturbed by that news and possibly somewhat confused though he skillfully didn’t show it. “Well, regardless, you’re all still young at heart, and that’s what matters here! Stay as long as you like!”

“Thanks,” Vanitas said in regards to the offer, although they didn’t have plans to. At least, he didn’t; the others might try to, but if they did Vanitas would just have to convince them otherwise or drag them back by force… okay, maybe not the latter. He’d just have to convince them.

“We’d love to stay!” Xion chimed, confirming this.

“Wow, so that means you’d be the first Lost Girl,” one of the Lost Boys, this one dressed in a bear costume, said.

“Does that mean we’ll have to wear animal costumes too?” Roxas wondered, eyeing the outfit with trepidation.

“I can make us some!” Sora declared, readying magic.

“Yeah, gonna veto that idea,” Vanitas said hurriedly, grabbing Sora’s wrist to stop him. “We don’t need pink panther suits or green flamingo outfits.”

“Aww, but I’ve been practicing! I’ve improved!” Sora argued.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow as he let go of Sora. “In a week? Yeah, your magic might be impressive, but I doubt you can go from garish tunics to full animal suits that fast.”

Sora pouted and crossed his arms, but didn’t reply otherwise, getting a laugh from Roxas and Xion.

The bear-boy’s eyes widened. “Did you say you can do magic?!” he proclaimed excitedly, hopping up, although he wasn’t much taller standing than sitting. How old was he? Five? But Vanitas was sure he’d spotted the kid a decade prior… oh, duh. Aging was stopped here. Maturity too, from the looks of it, because the kid definitely did not think like a teenager, or however old he actually was.

“Show us!” A slightly older and lankier kid wearing more normal clothes and a wolf-head hat said, echoed by many other kids.

“Oh. Um… sure,” Sora decided. “What do you want to see?” he asked them. “I can do all sorts of things.” Vanitas didn’t say anything about Sora’s lack of secrecy; any pretense of World Order apparently had gone out the window hours prior. If Sora wanted to show them magic, so be it. Besides, the pixies here did magic, so perhaps it wasn’t so unusual for a human to either… oh, wait, Peter Pan said kids from all different worlds came here, right? So some must be acquainted with magic, whether or not they knew as much as Peter Pan did about other worlds.

“Can you make the smoke dance?” a boy dressed as a raccoon sheepishly asked. “My papa used to make the smoke dance.” Vanitas felt a pang of something hearing those words coupled with the boy’s tone of voice; sorrow? Pity? It was similar to them, but slightly different; where had it come from? Was it in reference to the boy still caring for his father despite being abandoned? Or, not necessarily abandoned, Vanitas realized—there were many reasons a kid might be separated from a parent and end up here. Was this possibly the elusive feeling called sympathy?

“Of course,” Sora told the boy gently, appearing to have felt the same emotion. He began moving his hands and fingers while gesturing to the smoke above the fire, and it began to form various shapes.

Soon the children began requesting things, and eventually Sora began telling stories illustrated by the smoke, telling of their adventures albeit with names changed and using various animals as the characters along with replacing keyblades with various other more common weapons. After a while Roxas, Xion, and Vanitas all joined in; Vanitas had never imagined he’d ever interact willingly with a child, let alone be having fun entertaining a group of them, but here he was. If someone went back in time and told the Vanitas from a decade prior that he’d be doing this, he would have laughed in their face and called them crazy.

By the time that all was done, the younger children were nearly unconscious due to the late hour; as they waddled off to bed and the other Neverland natives went off to do their own things, Xion pulled out her phone—it was much too early for the teenagers to sleep—and her eyes lit up. “It’s fully charged!” she proclaimed.

“Well, yeah! We had a lot of fun!” Sora told her cheerily. “The phones are powered mainly by happiness, after all.”

“Yeah, that was really fun,” Roxas said wistfully. “I never knew kids could be so much fun.”

“We should get one!” Xion declared.

“Yeah I’m gonna veto that,” Vanitas said bluntly. “None of us are capable of caring for a kid, especially when in the middle of a war.”

“Yeah, Xion, that’s definitely a bad idea,” Sora concurred.

“How does that even happen?” Roxas wondered.

“People make them!” Xion explained.

“Yeah but how?”

“Well—um. I don’t actually know.” Xion turned to Sora. “Where do people get kids?”

Vanitas and Sora glanced at each other. Were the two seriously asking how babies were made?

“Don’t you know that?” Sora wondered. “You literally talked about it earlier, mentioning that you were not created by sexual reproduction.”

“Well, yeah, that’s what Even said,” Roxas explained. “But he didn’t say how. Like, do the babies magically appear when people decide they want them or something?”

“Oh! That makes sense,” Xion decided.

“Well, shit. Guess you really don’t know much about this,” Vanitas commented; which made sense, as he could hardly imagine Xemnas giving them a sex-ed lesson. Vanitas sighed. “Sora, I think we need to—”

“Nope,” Sora interrupted, catching on. “You want to talk to them about it, you do that.”

“Seriously?” Vanitas crossed his arms. “You’re the one who’s going to feel all awkward every time they say something too bluntly or ask you questions in public about this stuff.” Plus they didn’t want either to discover how babies were made by accidentally making one themself.

“Yeah, but you don’t get embarrassed about it!” Sora pointed out.

Vanitas smirked at Sora. “Okay, fine. I’ll explain it—using you and Kairi as examples.”

“What! No, don’t do that! Fine, I’ll help,” Sora conceded.

“Wait, why would you two be examples?” Roxas wondered. “Do you have a kid we don’t know about?”

“What! No!” Sora asserted, voice raising a pitch. “Neither Riku nor I have even gone that far with Kairi!”

“Gone far?” Xion asked, tilting her head slightly. “Does that mean you travel to get them?”

Sora put his hands over his face. “Oh gods…” he took a deep breath, then revealed his face, clearly trying to hide a blush. “Okay, so to make babies…”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Xehanort, from his perch upon the tallest stone column in the Keyblade Graveyard, observed the other six members of the newly-named Organization 7—after all, using 13 didn’t work now that the plan had been changed. Remaining were himself, Ansem, Xemnas, Xigbar, Saïx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but if one couldn’t adapt to changing situations then one was doomed to failure.

“Larxene,” Xehanort called. “You said you have an update?”

“Oh yeah; and it’s a biggie,” the girl drawled. “They finally got Roxas, Xion, Naminé, and Ventus out—and just as you expected, Naminé is a keyblade wielder.”

“That is excellent news,” Xehanort agreed, then narrowed his eyes as he peered around the circle. “Wait a moment. We have eight people here,” he noted. He had been certain their previous meeting that there were only seven.

“About time you noticed,” Xigbar said with a big grin. “Seriously, we thought you were going senile.”

Xehanort glared at Xigbar. “Do not mock me. Anyone could have made that mistake.”

“Someone must sit out, you do realize,” Xemnas stated. “Who will you choose?”

Saïx summoned a portal. “No need to choose; I was considering leaving anyway, as there is no one left for me here.” He stepped through, and the portal closed before anyone could react. A long silence followed as they all processed this new development.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Xehanort broke the silence with a highly uncharacteristic scream. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! What use is having my heart in people if it does nothing?! How is the spell so easily broken?! Any of the rest of you have plans to leave, too?!” Xehanort yelled as he glared at each in turn.

As everyone shook their heads, Xehanort calmed down, taking a deep breath as he realized he’d broken his collected composure. “I apologize for that outburst,” he said curtly. “Let us continue the meeting. We still have seven people; all is not lost.”

Luxord gave a little cough. “Then I suppose it is not a good time to say that the Lights don’t actually have thirteen?”

Larxene replied to that. “Are you kidding? I just saw them leaving Radiant Garden this morning, heading towards the old wizard’s place! Are you saying my intel is bad?!”

“No, merely out of date,” Luxord told her, then addressed the whole group. “Moments before I arrived here, a dusk that had been in Neverland alerted me that Sora, Roxas, Xion, and Vanitas fled the Tower and ended up there.”

“You are saying they ran away?” Xemnas asked, then sighed. “Roxas and Xion never were the most respectful of authority.”

Xehanort scoffed. “Sora’s run away from them half a dozen times by now. They’ll be back with the others by morning. Now, it’s time to alert the Lights to the approach of the Final Battle…”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

The next morning, Vanitas, Sora, Xion, and Roxas emerged from their tent to find Tinkerbell had returned sometime during the night. After carefully scrutinizing Roxas, she graciously agreed to give them some pixie dust, probably due to the fact Sora was there; unlike her wary reaction to the other three, Tinkerbell had become extremely excited upon seeing Sora, as apparently they were good friends—she’d even helped him for a while on his first journey.

So, that done, the group proceeded to a beach on the edge of the island, which was a safer place to try it than other spots—there were no trees or rocks to hit, sand was softer and thus less damaging than hard ground if they fell from a small height, and if they flew higher they could do so over the water where a fall just meant diving under the water.

“You can all swim, right?” Vanitas double-checked. He could himself; he’d known how to since he was formed, presumably something inherited from the original Ventus.

“I grew up on an Island; of course I can swim!” Sorra asserted, sounding a bit offended.

“Well, yeah, but they didn’t,” Vanitas pointed out, gesturing to Roxas and Xion.

“We inherited the skill from Sora,” Xion informed them.

“Okay, good,” Vanitas noted, becoming aware that he’d somehow become the ‘mom’ of the group, or so the metaphor went, taking on the responsibility for the others’ safety. “So, let’s try flying, then!” he declared enthusiastically, finding himself extremely excited at the prospect, although Vanitas was fairly nervous as well—would he be able to? “So, how’s it work?” he questioned.

“You think of a happy memory, and imagine yourself flying, then you will!” Sora explained.

“But make sure you actually believe you can fly, too,” Roxas quickly added. “If you don’t believe it’s possible, you won’t.”

“I’ve seen people fly before; why wouldn’t I believe it?” Vanitas asked, a little confused.

“Dunno,” Roxas shrugged. “But that’s what I was warned last time. So I guess some people think it’s impossible?”

“That’s stupid,” Vanitas said bluntly. “Of course flying is possible; magic exists.”

“Exactly,” Xion chimed in, although Sora was quiet. Xion noticed. “You okay? You believe, right?”

“Huh?” Sora snapped out of his thoughts. “Oh, yeah, of course! I’ve done it with Merlin—but I was just thinking how, back before I left the Islands, I probably would have thought it impossible,” he admitted.

“Oh, right; people don’t use magic there,” Vanitas recalled.

“How do they survive without it?” Xion wondered.

“Technology, of course,” Roxas replied. “Twilight Town doesn’t have it, remember? I didn’t know about it in the virtual one,” he reminded them, sounding a little bitter.

“Okay, different topic!” Sora interjected. “We need happy memories, remember?”

“Right,” Roxas confirmed with a nod. He closed his eyes… and began to hover slightly above the ground.

Xion clapped excitedly. “Roxas! You’re doing it!” she cheered. “What are you thinking of?”

Roxas smiled at her as he opened his eyes. “The clocktower, of course. Eating ice-cream with you and Axel—I mean, Lea.” He held out a hand.

Xion smiled, taking the hand and beginning to float too, probably thinking of the same memory. Roxas led her a little higher. Xion squeaked in excitement. “I’m doing it!” she cheered, then turned to look at Vanitas and Sora. “Come on, you two do it too!”

Vanitas stood there, frowning slightly, trying to think of a memory that could work. When was a time he had been super happy? It was such a new sensation, so it would be something recent, but what?

“I can’t think of a happy enough memory,” Sora lamented, apparently having the same issue.

“What about having sex with Riku?” Roxas suggested casually. “That makes you happy, right?” Sora blushed, but Xion didn’t react, and of course Vanitas didn’t either. None of them had been conditioned to find that awkward or embarrassing, after all; did Roxas even realize being blunt about such was generally considered so? Should someone let them know? They hadn’t discussed society’s views on such the previous night, only the mechanics of it.

“I can’t use that kind of memory!” Sora blurted out.

“Why not?” Xion asked innocently.

“Because… because… I just can’t!”

“But if it makes you fly—”

Vanitas chuckled, realizing. “I think he’s implying that using that kind of memory will make his body react in other ways too. Awkward ones.”

“And that’s… a problem?” Roxas asked, seeming surprised.

“Humans get sheepish about sex stuff,” Vanitas explained bluntly. “The embarrassment might overtake the happy memory.”

“Well, what did you think of last time?” Xion asked.

Sora sighed. “It wasn’t a true memory; I thought about Riku and Kairi being there with me, how nice that would be.”

“Then think about that again.”

Sora shook his head. “I’m mad at them right now; thinking about them makes me happy, but now it also makes me annoyed on top of that, which doesn’t work for flying.”

Roxas put his hand on his chin as he thought. “Hmm. Well, what about something without them? Something from when you were travelling with Donald and Goofy?”

Xion clapped her hands together. “Oh! What about last night? We all had fun!”

Sora beamed. “That could work!” he closed his eyes, and lo and behold, began to float too. He opened his eyes, which were practically sparking. “I’m doing it! Vani, come on, you too!”

Vanitas blushed slightly, then took a deep breath. Would the same memory work? Or would it not? Maybe not… he was thinking of it, but wasn’t moving; could he not do it after all?

“Stop overthinking it and just get up here,” Sora told him with a chuckle, holding out his hand.

Vanitas nodded and took his hand. “Right…” he closed his eyes, trying to think of only the memory, willing himself to push the self-doubt away… slowly he felt himself rise up, feet lifting off the ground… Vanitas opened his eyes and gasped. “I’m doing it!” he declared, excitement rising as he let out a laugh. “I’m really doing it!”

Vanitas let go of Sora’s hand and rose higher, focusing on keeping the happy feeling as he twirled around. The other three followed his example; he subtly moved over to be above the water so they subconsciously would too. Xion seemed to be having extra fun with it, even doing somersaults and cartwheels in the air. They flew higher, above the treeline even; some birds flew by them, looking a little surprised that there were human beings in the air, although it shouldn’t be that surprising considering this was Neverland so they’d surely have seen such before. Vanitas faltered in their air slightly as he realized that not only had he seen the birds’ surprise, but sensed it too; regular animals had emotions?

“Careful!” Roxas, next to Vanitas, said, grabbing his arm.

“Sorry, I’m fine,” Vanitas said, shaking Roxas off and flying higher. He took a breath—then realized he felt slightly lightheaded. He looked down; they were much too high up now. “I think the atmosphere is getting thin; we should go back down,” he suggested.

This, of course, led to a mini science lesson as they travelled back down, a reminder that Xion and Roxas never went to school and Sora was a middle-school dropout. Maybe they should look into getting the three an actual education, or at least give them a few textbooks. Vanitas laughed to himself as he watched the three fly ahead, now engaged in a game of tag. When had he become so caring about things like that? Vanitas found he didn’t mind though. Was this what it was like being human? Had he actually managed to be close to such? It wasn’t the replica body that had done it; he’d been becoming more like this progressively since joining Sora’s group. This though, the thought that Vanitas was actually human now, made him feel extremely pleased.

“Tag!” Xion called as she smacked Vanitas in the back.

“Ack!” Vanitas exclaimed; he’d been so lost in thought he hadn’t noticed her sneak up on him! He grinned. “Get back here!” he called, chasing the giggling girl as she quickly flew away.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku sighed as he leaned back on the polka-dot couch on Merlin’s ground floor, arms stretched across the back.

“I’m sure they’ll be back soon,” Leon told him as he entered the room, carrying a big pot of some sort of pasta casserole, which he put on a table by the entranceway to the stairs. The Restoration Committee was hard at work, helping Tifa build some sort of bar, so Leon had volunteered to make them all lunch. “Want some grub before I head back?”

Riku shook his head. “No, I already had a sandwich,” he informed Leon, gesturing to an empty plate on the coffee table.

“Gotcha,” Leon acknowledged. “Well, then, see you later, kid.” He picked up the pot of food and headed out the door, leaving Riku alone.

Riku had just returned to the house; they had touched down in Radiant Garden less than a half hour prior, and now the plan was that after a short break the keyblade wielders would go do some training, which hopefully would get their mind off the Sora situation, but Riku really didn’t want to do that. He’d much rather be doing something to locate his boyfriend, but logically he knew that Sora was safe and it’d be best to give him some space.

Suddenly, Riku’s GummiPhone rang, and Riku scrambled to grab it off the table, hoping beyond hope that it was Sora. Miraculously, it was.

“Hey Riku!” Sora greeted.

“Sora,” Riku said with relief. “I was so worried!”

Sora smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry about that; the phones weren’t charged at first, then when they were the kids stole them and used up all the power.”

“Kids?” Riku asked. What kids? Did Sora mean Roxas and Xion?

“Yeah, the Lost Boys! They live with Peter Pan,” Sora explained.

“Peter Pan?” Riku noted. “So, you’re in Neverland?”

“Ah, fuck, I didn’t want anyone knowing that,” Sora grumbled. “Please don’t tell! I don’t want Yen Sid sending you all to retrieve us!”

Riku rolled his eyes. “I doubt he’d do that.”

Sora scoffed. “Sure about that?”

“We did declare independence,” Xion chimed in, and Sora tilted the phone to reveal her, Vanitas, and Roxas, the last who had his arms crossed and was looking away, obviously not intending to speak to Riku.

“Yeah, but Mickey talked to him, and says he agreed to leave you four alone for now,” Riku explained.

Sora raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? Yen Sid agreed to that?”

Riku shrugged. “That’s what Mickey says. I think he finally realized that he doesn’t have total authority over all our lives, having Mickey and Aqua both being on your side.”

Vanitas appeared shocked at this. “Aqua spoke up for us?”

Riku nodded. “Yeah. Ventus gave a whole speech about how you four made good points and that many of the others, including himself, technically hadn’t signed up for this either, and they were lucky they didn’t object. I think it was a real slap-in-the-face to most, if not all, of the adults. I mean, we’ve already had Mickey’s support on our independence as adults, but I think Aqua really still saw all of us as young kids, and Ventus pointing out all that stuff really struck a chord within her. She basically raised Ventus, so had taken a motherly role, and she finally realized that role was no longer needed. She still seemed a bit shaken up about it all, but agreed to treat us more like adults.”

“I guess it must have been similar for Donald and Goofy, too,” Sora mused. “They basically acted like father-figures when we were travelling together, now that I think about it; I hadn’t realized, seeing as I didn’t have much of one before… Did Mickey do that with you?”

Riku shook his head. “No, Mickey always treated me like an adult, more or less. But the situation was different; we worked together, but still did independent things. It wasn’t like you with Donald and Goofy, travelling together the entire time. They guided you when you knew nothing about the outside world; I already did know a lot when I met Mickey.” Plus, Riku’s personality, especially then, tended to be one where he tried to do everything on his own; Sora’s was the type that didn’t mind being led, at least back then. It would have been easier for Sora to accept someone caring for him like a father than it would have been for Riku.

“Makes sense,” Sora agreed. “So, it’s safe for us to go back?”

“What?” Roxas interjected, finally turning towards them “I thought you didn’t want to go back?”

Sora shrugged. “I didn’t. But I’d much rather be sleeping in a bed than a tent, and do want to continue learning magic. This was a nice break, but if they’re going to let us be, why not return?”

“He has a point,” Xion noted. “What do you think, Vanitas?” she asked, turning to the other noirette.

“I’m cool with whatever,” Vanitas said. “But someone’s going to have to come get us.”

“Oh, right. We don’t have a ship,” Sora told Riku.

Riku frowned in confusion. “Can’t you use a portal?”

“Vani doesn’t want to,” Sora replied. “He says it’s too dangerous, possibly for him too. And he’s having trouble making them right now.”

“What?” Riku asked, furrowing his brow. Vanitas’s body was pure darkness; it shouldn’t be dangerous for him. And why would he have trouble making them? He did so all the time.

“Ienzo gave me a replica body,” Vanitas said, then further explained, to Riku’s growing incredulity.

“Wow,” Riku commented when Vanitas was finished. “That’s… I wouldn’t have ever expected that.”

Vanitas laughed. “Up until a month ago, neither would I,” he said.

“You’re really changed a lot since we first met,” Riku told him. “In a good way, I think,” he added earnestly.

Vanitas nodded. “Yeah…. It’s a little confusing, but I think I like my new self—and this new body—overall,” he acknowledged. “Even if some things are more difficult.”

“Vani!” Sora proclaimed happily, flinging his arms around the boy’s shoulders. Riku felt a pang of unwarranted jealousy; ugh, he’d thought he was over that!

“So back to the main topic,” Roxas interjected, tapping the phone so Sora would turn it to face him more. “You’re positive if we return nothing is going to happen? They’re not going to force us to fight?”

Riku nodded. “Yeah, pretty sure.” Then, he grinned conspiratorially. “Especially since most of the rest of us threatened to quit too, before Mickey and Aqua kicked us out of Yen Sid’s study to have a ‘Masters Only’ talk with him.”

“Seriously?” Sora declared with surprise.

“Yeah. We’re not going to, but the threat was real enough, at least on Lea’s part if not the others’; he looked like he was about to explode after the four of you left. I think the only reason he didn’t was out of shock that Kairi did.”

“KAIRI did?!” Sora proclaimed in surprise.

“Yup! I mean, I think everyone was shocked that we were fighting at first, but then she directed her anger towards Yen Sid which shocked them even more,” Riku explained with a small chuckle.

Sora suddenly looked very worried. “Wait, you and Kairi fought? She isn’t still mad, is she? Wait, is she mad at me, too? Oh gods, she’s mad at me too, isn’t she, I kept so many secrets from—mmph!”

Roxas threw his hand over Sora’s mouth. “You’re rambling. It’ll be fine; it’s Kairi we’re talking about,” Roxas reminded him. “She stays angry for less time than you do.”

Sora pushed Roxas’s hand away. “Yeah, I know… maybe I should get her something in apology though,” he mused. “Corona is on the way home, right? She liked the drinks there; we can pick up a bottle…”

“Bad idea,” Riku quickly vetoed. “The adults may be honoring our independence, but we shouldn’t push it.”

Sora sighed. “I guess that’s true…”

“Can we stop there anyway?” Xion chimed in. “I want to try those drinks!”

“Maybe a different time,” Vanitas told her, on the same page as Riku. They did not need any more incidents involving alcohol, at least not this close to the last one.

“Then we can get something else; they have cute souvenirs,” Sora considered.

“Can you two talk about this later?” Roxas interjected, arms crossed. “I want to get back to Lea before nightfall.”

“It’s an eight-hour drive,” Riku pointed out.

“So?”

“So, we’re not going to get back before nightfall, even if I leave immediately; it’s basic math.”

Roxas was quiet for a beat. “I never studied math,” he admitted, sounding forlorn.

Sora looked at Roxas curiously. “Really? You didn’t inherit that from me?” The confusion was understandable; Roxas had inherited a lot of general knowledge from Sora, and Sora, despite often getting distracted and blurting out the wrong things, was actually fairly good at math, as evidenced by his school grades and those journals full of complex equations related to the magic Merlin was teaching him.

“No, I’m not a copy of you!” Roxas asserted. “Of course I didn’t inherit everything!”

“Oh. I didn’t know,” Sora said with a blush. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry; I remember math!” Xion informed them. “I can teach you, Roxas!”

“Right… sure…” Roxas agreed, looking slightly uncomfortable. “Can you leave now?” he asked Riku.

“Okay,” Riku said. “And I’ll bring Lea, too,” Riku decided.

Roxas and Xion’s eyes both lit up. “Okay!” they said simultaneously, evidently both as excited to see their… their what? Best friend? Brother? Somehow, their bond felt different than either of those, although just as strong, but Riku was certain it wasn’t the type of intimate relationship he had with Sora.

“What is Lea to you?” Vanitas suddenly wondered, evidently thinking the same as Riku.

Roxas blinked, looking thrown off for a moment. He pondered that. “Lea is Lea,” he then concluded.

Xion added, “Does it really need a definition?”

Chapter Text

A few days later, Vanitas found Sora reading a book on Merlin’s couch, as was fairly common. However, unlike usual, Sora hid said book behind his back as Vanitas approached.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You know I don’t care that you read cheesy supernatural romance novels.”

Sora blushed and brought out the book. “I know; I didn’t realize it was you.”

“I doubt anyone else would care either,” Vanitas pointed out flatly. “I’d bet half of them do it too. So what’s this one about?” he asked, sitting next to Sora.

“...Fairies,” Sora admitted after a pause. “And I hid it because… it’s a bit… a bit more for adults than usual,” he mumbled.

“What?” Vanitas asked, not sure if he caught the end, or if he had heard right what ‘more for adults’ would mean in reference to a book.

Sora shook his head. “Nevermind. So, why are you here?” he wondered.

“Oh, right. Can you try teaching me magic again? Like, normal magic, maybe even light spells?”

Sora blinked, looking at Vanitas in surprise. “Seriously? But, I haven’t finished the formulas, and I thought we’re not allowed to without Merlin’s help.”

“No, I mean regular spells, no darkness included,” Vanitas clarified.

“Wait, what?” Sora seemed confused. “But I thought you’d given up, said they were impossible to do…”

Vanitas shook his head. “They were, but now that I have a replica body I was hoping maybe non-dark spells might be more compatible,” he explained. “Especially cure magic, considering my body isn’t self-healing anymore.” That was one of the major nuisances of his new body; it wasn’t enough of an issue for Vanitas to regret getting one, but still annoying. He didn’t want to be reliant on others in battle, for both the sake of his pride and a desire to not inconvenience others… huh. Vanitas still found it surprising when he found himself caring about singular people, let alone others in general.

Sora beamed, jumping up and tossing the book onto the couch. “Great! Let’s do it, then!”

“Right now?”

“Yeah!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Hey,” Riku greeted Kairi with a hug as he stepped off the GummiShip ramp, Xehanort and Lea following behind him.

“Hey!” Kairi greeted as she stepped back after the hug. “How’d the mission go?” Even though Sora, Xion, Roxas, and Vanitas had all quit, the other Keyblade Apprentices had decided to stay working for Yen Sid and Mickey. Well, not working per se, more like volunteering… hmm. Should they request a stipend for that?

“Not bad. It was a pretty simple one, in HalloweenTown,” Riku told her, noticing the other two leaving, probably wanting to give the two privacy. “Jack tried and failed to make the Heartless dance again, but it was easily resolved… Hey, where’s Sora?” he asked. The brunette usually greeted people when they returned, unless he was preoccupied, usually with… “Is he studying with Merlin today?”

Kairi shook her head, then explained, “No, he’s been working with Vani the past few days, teaching him magic.”

Riku’s eyebrows shot up. “He’s teaching Vanitas magic? Merlin is supervising, right?” Teaching Vanitas magic meant using new untested formulas to accommodate the need for darkness in the spells, and Sora had promised not to do that without supervision.

“Nah, Merlin said it was fine to do it on their own; they’re not messing with anything dangerous.”

“Not dangerous?” Riku exclaimed. “Kairi, darkness—”

“It’s not darkness!” Kairi quickly corrected. “He’s trying to teach Vani normal magic. They think it’s possible now that he has a replica body.”

“Oh, right, he has one of those now,” Riku recalled as he calmed slightly. “So that means he doesn’t need darkness to do magic?”

“That’s what they think! He adjusted enough that he can now do all the darkness things he did before, but it appears that since the body itself isn’t dark he can do some non-dark things as well now, although from what I’ve heard it’s going very slowly, and pure light stuff is still out.”

“Makes sense,” Riku commented. “Even I have trouble with non-dark things, and I was only using it exclusively for less than a year, not my whole life. I can’t do the light stuff you and Sora do, either.”

Kairi rolled her eyes. “Next to no one can do the light magic Sora can, or any of the magic he can do for that matter—both light and dark. He even has a spell that mixes the two; did you know that?”

Riku shook his head. “No, I didn’t see that one yet.”

“Yeah, he basically copied it from the joint attack the three of us did at the coliseum,” Kairi explained. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to single-handedly summon that huge keyblade you two made as well. Dunno about the joint attack you and I can do though, as it’s more physical rather than magical.” Right; for all Sora’s skill at magic, his physical attacks weren’t very advanced. With his level of magic though, and the speed at which he could cast (in part due to that extremely expensive naval ring of his combined with a few other accessories containing the ‘magic haste’ ability), physical skills beyond the basics weren’t very necessary. The skills he’d learned from his journeys with Donald and Goofy were enough, which had been learned back when Sora had been told that he sucked at magic. Who knew what difference a better teacher could make!

Something occurred to Riku then. “Er. You don’t think he’d try to teach Vani that, do you?” he ventured. “Something with light and dark combined,” Riku clarified. He had a feeling that anyone other than Sora and possibly Merlin trying that would be a bad idea.

Kairi frowned, then concluded, “I don’t think so. Merlin said it’s really dangerous to try to combine the two because they’re such opposites, and there’s not a whole lot of research on it; he only let Sora try doing our joint attack solo because we’d done it before.”

“Maybe we should go check up on them just in case,” Riku decided, feeling worried. He wouldn’t put it past Sora to start playing around and teach Vanitas magic that Merlin hadn’t approved of them doing alone.

Kairi laughed lightly. “You’re such a worrywart; they’ll be fine.”

“I know,” Riku acknowledged. “I’m still going to go find them; wanna get ice cream and watch from the cliff? I assume they’re in the chasm.”

Kairi beamed and grabbed Riku’s hand as she began walking towards the ice-cream place. “Always!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“How do you manage to remember all this?” Vanitas wondered in awe as Sora showed him the proper stance for a fire-based magic attack. This was all much more complicated than Vanitas had expected! He’d managed to do very simple elemental spells, but using them in battle was another thing entirely, requiring specific body positions, magic flow, and other things not needed when doing basic things like lighting a candle.

Sora shrugged. “Practice, I guess. Once you do it enough it becomes automatic.”

“Makes sense,” Vanitas acknowledged, then felt a tingle of a presence; he looked up to the top of the nearby cliff to see Riku and Kairi watching them while eating ice cream. “Looks like we’ve got company,” Vanitas told Sora.

Sora’s eyes lit up. “Riku’s back!” he proclaimed excitedly, then immediately did an air-magic-enhanced jump to reach the cliff top. Riku and Kairi both looked surprised at that; Vanias was too as he’d never seen Sora jump quite that high before, not in a single bound. Usually the kid would jump with an aero spell, then cast a second one in mid-air to get higher when scaling the cliff.

“Yeah I’m not doing that,” Vanitas muttered; Sora had taught him to do that spell too, and although he had finally managed to use it a few times (out of maybe fifty tries) he could barely get a foot of extra height when using it to jump. Vanitas summoned a dark portal instead, stepping through and emerging on the top of the cliff with the others.

Kairi, standing next to Vanitas, crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. “Thought you weren’t going to use portals as much.”

Vanitas shrugged. “It’s a cliff. I’m not climbing it, and going around takes nearly ten minutes,” he explained. “Besides, Ienzo said it’s still fine for me to use them.” Even so, Vanitas had been trying to lessen his use to avoid Sora becoming tempted to try to use them again. Maybe Merlin could teach him to do his teleportation thing or something instead.

“Excuse me,” came a voice that made Vanitas briefly freeze before swerving around to glare at the blue-haired man.

“You!” Vanitas snapped, summoning his keyblade. “What are you doing here?!”

“You’re with the Organization!” Sora yelled, also recognizing him and summoning his keyblade.

“Saïx,” Riku hissed, keyblade raised as well. “What do you want?!”

Kairi, however, simply paled and stared at the man in shock. Clearly she, Sora, and Riku had encountered Saïx before, more than merely in passing, and definitely not in a positive capacity. Vanitas tried to recall what had happened between the three and Saïx; there were so many events to remember! Something to do with a kidnapping, was it?

“I am no longer Saïx,” the man claimed.

Vanitas couldn’t sense any ill-intent from the man, nor did he have the emotionally empty feeling of a Nobody… so… “You’re a Somebody again,” Vanitas claimed.

Saïx nodded. “Yes. The name is Isa,” he explained. “I bear you all no ill will.”

Sora looked contemplative as he lowered his keyblade. “So, are you not on Xehanort’s side anymore?” he ventured.

“Correct. I have… decided to remain neutral. I do not wish to participate in this war.”

Sora’s eyes lit up. “That’s like me and Vani!” he declared excitedly.

“But how are you a Somebody?” Riku wondered. “Did someone defeat you?”

“That is irrelevant,” Isa said emotionlessly, and Vanitas had a feeling that they didn’t want to know the details of that. “I understand Lea is living around here, too. I would like to speak to him, if possible.”

Sora then raised his keyblade again, as though he’d just remembered his suspicions. “How do we know you’re telling the truth?” he’d demanded. “You could be lying!”

“He’s not,” Vanitas quickly said, putting a hand on Sora’s shoulder.

“You sure?” Sora asked skeptically.

“Vani’s right,” Kairi chimed in, still shaken but now overall outwardly collected. “Saïx—I mean, Isa—isn’t lying.” Right, she could tell that thanks to her Princess of Light abilities. She took a deep breath as she dismissed her keyblade, clearly trying to remain calm. Vanitas was impressed at her ability to control her emotions without actually suppressing them. If only Sora could learn to do that…

“Why do you want to see Lea?” Riku wondered as he and Sora also dismissed their keyblades. Vanitas followed suit.

“Because he is my closest friend,” Isa said without pause. “And hopefully I’m still his,” he added quietly, probably not intended to be heard. Vanitas decided not to comment.

Kairi, however, did decide to comment on that. “I’m sure you are,” she said gently, surprisingly calm now compared to her initial reaction, even inwardly. “He still talks about you sometimes, you know.”

“He does?” Saïx said, a small amount of hope flashing across his face.

Kairi smiled. “Yes. He likes to reminisce on his pre-Organization days. If you’re the same Isa as back then, I just know we can get along!” she declared optimistically.

“I tried to kidnap you,” Isa pointed out bluntly.

“No, Saïx tried to kidnap me,” Kairi corrected. “You’re not Saïx; you’re Isa. Besides, I’d be a hypocrite if I gave all the others a second chance but not you. Just, don’t kidnap me again, and we’re good, okay?”

Isa nodded somberly. “Understood. I promise I will not kidnap you again.”

Vanitas watched the exchange in awe. How could Kairi be so forgiving? True, the guy didn’t bear any ill-will, both outwardly and inwardly, but he’d still tried to kidnap her. Vanitas definitely wouldn’t be able to forgive someone about that so easily… Kairi wasn’t the only Light person to be this way, either. Vanitas wasn’t sure if it were naïvety, optimism, stupidity, or being over-trusting that caused it, but surely it was dangerous to forgive people so easily. So far it had worked out for them all, but—

“What are you worrying about, Vani?” Sora asked, suddenly in his face.

“Whoa!” Vanitas said in surprise, jumping back. He realized that Isa had left while he had been lost in his thoughts.

Sora laughed. “Okay, now I have to know what you were thinking about!” he claimed.

Vanitas sighed and crossed his arms. “Doesn’t matter,” he said gruffly.

“Va-ni!”

“Fine,” Vanitas gave in. “I was thinking you’re too naïve,” he said bluntly.

Riku responded to that, asking sharply, “What do you mean? Was he playing us?”

Vanitas shook his head. “No, he wasn’t. But what about next time? Kairi and I can sense ill-intent in people, but neither you nor Sora can,” he pointed out. “You’re too trusting. Giving people the benefit of the doubt is admirable, but you should be more careful.”

Sora rolled his eyes. “Vani, you’re being too overprotective, seriously.”

“No, he’s right,” Riku agreed. “If he had intended to hurt us, it would have been easy to; we dropped our guard far too quickly.”

“Yeah but you can’t make any friends if you’re always guarded,” Sora protested.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “We’re not saying to never trust anyone. Just, be more cautious, will you?”

“Yeah okay,” Sora obliged, then his eye finally caught what was in Riku and Kairi’s hands and his eyes lit up. “You have ice cream!” he declared.

Kairi giggled. “Surprised it took you so long to notice,” she said. “Don’t worry, I got some for you, too.” She reached into her magical pocket and pulled out two popsicles, handing one to Sora and one to Vanitas.

Sora quickly tore away the magical wrapper (designed to keep it the perfect temperature for a short period after purchasing) and took a humongous bite out of the popsicle. Then, he frowned. “This isn’t sea-salt!” he complained. Radiant garden had started stocking the flavor a week prior after customers kept asking for it. Oh, and Roxas threatening to destroy the place if they didn’t might have played a part, too.

“They were all out; sorry,” Riku told him. “Banana is just as good though, right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sora said, sounding disappointed but he took another bite anyway.

Vanitas opened his and stared at it. He could practically feel the coldness wafting off. He hadn’t eaten ice-cream since gaining his replica body; would something that cold going inside his body be pleasant? Coldness on the outside of the body rarely was. But everyone who could always feel cold loved eating this stuff despite the temperature, so it must be fine. Also, banana? What was banana? Vanitas hadn’t heard of that flavor before, nor seen a treat so incredibly yellow; that couldn’t be natural. He cautiously opened his mouth and took a nibble, shivering slightly at the feeling of cold on his teeth but then finding it nice as he swallowed.

“You okay Vani?” Sora asked.

Vanitas blushed, eyes staying on his ice-cream. “Y-yeah,” he said. “I just, er. Cold food is new for me,” he admitted. “It’s good though. And the flavor is odd, but good too. What was it? Banana?”

“Oh! You don’t know what bananas are?” Sora questioned.

“Ummm…” Vanitas wracked his brain. Should he know what they were? “They’re a… vegetable, right?”

Sora giggled. “No, they’re a fruit! You’ve never seen a banana before?”

“No?”

Kairi looked at Vanitas curiously. “Really? But don’t the monkey heartless throw them?”

Vanitas let out a gasp of realization. “You mean those yellow boomerang-shaped things? Those are bananas?”

“Well, yeah!” Kairi answered. “I can’t believe you didn’t know that…”

“W-well, I never had reason to learn about various fruits!” Vanitas defended. “There’s so many in so many worlds! And it wasn’t like I needed to eat before; I just did it as something to do if things were there. Which, in the Organization, usually meant chips and junk food, since Nobodies don’t technically need food either!”

Sora put his hands up. “Hey, chill. We weren’t making fun of you,” he promised.

“Actually, we kinda were,” Kairi said tactlessly.

Vanitas sighed. “Whatever. But I bet there’s lots of kinds of food you’ve never heard of either!”

“True,” Riku acknowledged. “Most of the native fruits around here we didn’t know about.”

Sora’s eyes lit up. “We should go on a world tour to try all their unique foods!” he declared.

“Sora, that would take a lot of time that we don’t have,” Riku pointed out. “Well, that me and Kairi don’t; you and Vanitas do I guess. And Roxas and Xion.”

“Then we’ll just use dark portals; they’re a lot faster!” Sora decided. “Vani, can you tea—”

Kairi, Vanitas, and Riku all simultaneously interrupted Sora with a resounding “NO.”

Sora crossed his arms and pouted. “Party poopers.”

“We could all go on a trip after all the Xehanort shit is done,” Vanitas suggested.

“With everyone?!” Sora proclaimed with excitement. “Not just us, but also Ventus and Roxas and Terra and—well, you know,” Sora finished, cutting himself off as he realized clarifying who everyone was wasn’t needed.

“With everyone,” Riku agreed, and Kairi and Vanitas both expressed similar sentiments of concurrence.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku sighed and collapsed on the library couch next to Sora, flinging his arms over the back of it. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“What's wrong?” Sora asked, putting his book down and sounding concerned—rightfully so, considering Riku’s demeanor. Riku was not looking forward to talking to Sora about this topic.

“Xehanort sent a letter,” Riku said, figuring it’d be best to get straight to the point. “He’s ready for the final battle.”

Sora frowned. “But, we already knew he’d be sending it,” he pointed out. “Saïx—I mean, Isa—told us it was ready. So why do you seem stressed about it?”

“Because from the sound of it, he still expects everyone to be there: you, Roxas, and Xion included. We think he doesn’t know you quit—or rather, that he believes you weren’t actually serious about it.”

“Well, that’s his fault,” Sora commented contritely. “And if you think we’re going to do it despite quitting, you’re wrong.”

Riku shook his head. “Nah, I don’t expect you to; Yen Sid wanted me to try to convince you, that’s all. I’ll just tell him I made an effort and you refused.”

“Which is accurate, even if the effort was miniscule,” Sora said, sounding amused, then concerned as he noted, “But if Xehanort realizes we don’t have thirteen, that means he’ll try to use the princesses.”

“Yeah, that’s the main issue,” Riku confirmed. “So Yen Sid sent us to check up on the known Princesses and make sure they have adequate protection. Anna and Elsa are fine, but Rapunzel is currently missing; her parents think she just ran away to explore, but we think the Organization may have captured her, to make sure there’s enough Lights. Some of the others are in Arendelle to guard them.”

“Wait. We only know of four Princesses,” Sora said. “Those three and Kairi… you know, it’s weird that she hasn’t lost her powers, whereas the previous ones did.”

Riku felt himself blush. “I, er, don’t think we need to worry about that,” he commented.

“What do you mean?”

“Mickey told me that the Princesses abilities are tied to… how do I put this… Innocence? Which is kinda cliché, but yeah.”

“Innocence?”

“Y-yeah. You know, when they become adults, but not via a specific age, rather… ah… how do I put this…” Riku didn’t want to outright say it.

Sora did not have the same qualms. “Oh, you mean sex,” he said.

Riku nodded. “Yeah, that. So, considering Kairi has no intention of doing that, she’ll probably remain a Princess for life.”

“Right… wait, wasn’t Alice only—”

“Yeah, I don’t think we want to know the details,” Riku said in a rush. “Anyway—”

Sora cut him off again. “Wait, but if that’s how they lose their powers, won’t that mean some of the others will soon too? Rapunzel is engaged, right?”

“Not yet, but yeah, she’ll probably lose her powers soon too. But moving topics a little, on a different aspect of the Princesses, we have another confirmed, thanks to Kairi during her most recent mission of eliminating a few heartless in the Pride Lands: Kiara,” Riku informed Sora.

“Kiara?!” Sora said with a gasp. “You mean, Simba’s daughter?”

“Yup.”

“So, Princesses of Light aren’t limited to humans?” Sora said, sounding surprised—Riku had been too.

“Apparently. Ienzo developed a scanner that can detect pure and near-pure sources of light, and it identified a few worlds that contain them. The other Guardians, Donald, and Goofy have been checking all of them out, to see if any of those people are Princesses, but so far Kiara is the only new one.”

“What are the other worlds?” Sora wondered. “Any we know?”

Riku shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. The names are New Orléans, Game Central Station, Atlantis, Monstropolis—”

“Wait, I’ve been to Monstropolis!” Sora interjected. “It’s the city where Monsters University was.” Oh, right; Riku had forgotten that was the name of the larger area.

“So one of the last two must be a monster,” Riku surmised. “Huh. That’s different.”

Sora nodded. “Yeah, for sure. Any other worlds?”

“Just one more. Zootopia.”

“Zootopia? As in, ‘zoo’? Sounds like it’d be animal-related too,” Sora concluded.

“Why would you think that?” Riku wondered.

“Well, the worlds often have names that match their aesthetic,” Sora explained. “Like, ‘Monstropolis’ has monsters, and the Pride Lands contain a lion pride, for example. So ‘Zootopia’ must mean animals.”

“I guess that logic follows,” Riku admitted, though he was still skeptical.

“I want to go there!” Sora decided, abruptly sitting up. Right, he loved animal transformations for some reason, his favorite worlds being ones where they weren’t human.

Riku smirked. “What, are you volunteering for a mission?”

Sora blinked, then crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch with a pout as he asserted, “No.”

“Besides, Xehanort and R2 already left for there, a while ago,” Riku informed Sora. “In fact, they should be back—”

“Now,” finished a voice from the doorway; Riku turned to see R2 there… with his normal ears replaced by rabbit ears? Xehanort stood next to them.

“Whoa, what happened to you?” Sora declared as he abruptly sat up straight.

R2 glared at Sora. “Do not. Say. A. Word,” he warned. “No one else can know about this. Just undo it,” he demanded, then added, “Please.”

“Well, what happened?” Sora asked, standing to observe R2 as the silverette approached. “Magic, I assume…” He reached up to touch one of the fluffy ears.

R2 dodged away and said, “No shit. Yes, magic.”

Xehanort explained better: “We suspect the world-order spell was messed up. It is my fault; I’m the one who cast it.” He too had ears, small fox ones hidden in his hair that Riku hadn’t noticed at first. He also had a long swishing fox tail.

“Oh, so you actually were animals in that world!” Sora said happily. “Man, now I really want to go there sometime… Were you full animals, or did you only get tails and ears?”

“Focus,” R2 growled.

“I am!” Sora protested. “I need to know if it was the full spell that didn’t change back, or just a few lingering features!”

“We were anthropomorphic animals; we had fur and became smaller and whatnot, but stood on two legs and wore our regular clothes,” Xehanort told him. “So we did change mostly back; it’s only the ears and tails that remained.”

“You have a tail too?” Sora chirped, hopping behind R2 to look.

“Hey, stop that!” R2 said, spinning around and putting his hands over his rear; before he did so Riku caught a glimpse of a small poofy bunny tail. The magic had made a hole in the pants to fit it.

“I need to know what it looks like to figure out what to do,” Sora said, clearly hiding laughter; Riku suspected he didn’t actually need to examine every feature. “So that’s all? Just ears and tails?”

“Yes,” Xehanort replied.

Sora put one hand on his chin and the other on his hip as he thought. “Hmm… well, if it’s just that, it’s no big deal. It’s common for small things to linger; it’ll wear off in anywhere from a few hours to a few days,” he informed them.

“Days!?” R2 declared. “I can’t have ears for days!”

Sora shrugged. “Sorry.”

“Can you not change it back now?” Xehanort inquired, looking like he was also feeling anxious about possibly having extra appendages for days, although he hid it better than R2.

“Well, I could try, but in this case it’d be safer to wait,” Sora told them. “Merlin would say the same thing. If it’s not gone in a few days you can go to him about it, but it risks becoming permanent if we mess with it too much since different peoples’ magic can react in strange ways.”

“Permanent?” R2 practically squeaked.

“Oh, but the chances of that are miniscule!” Sora quickly consoled R2, waving his hands in front of him in emphasis. “It’s just, better safe than sorry, you know? Seriously, these things usually wear off quickly though; I’ve had this happen before.”

“What? When?” Riku asked, confused. Sora was great at magic, and before that Donald did it.

“Once after Halloween Town, I had fangs for a day,” Sora told them. “It happens; Merlin says it’s a potential side-effect of the magic itself, and just randomly happens, whoever uses it.”

“Well, at least fangs are cooler than being stuck with freaking bunny ears!” R2 lamented. “Ugh… this is so embarrassing…”

Sora bit his lip slightly, contemplating something. Then, his eyes lit up. “Oh! I have something that can help!” he declared.

“What?” R2 asked, looking at Sora skeptically. Understandable; Sora’s whims could be dangerous.

Sora waved his arm in a circular motion, and Riku’s vision was briefly obstructed by a puff of purple smoke. Riku coughed, accidentally inhaling a little.

“What the heck was that,” Riku complained, then noticed what Sora had done. The brunette sported large cat ears and a swishing tail. Riku blinked; Sora could easily give himself animal features—Riku had watched Merlin teaching him partial transformations—but the smoke was new; Riku suspected that had been more for dramatic effect than actually necessary for the magic. Riku’s ear twitched in anno—wait. Ear twitched? Riku put his hands on his head, feeling two large fluffy appendages. He bent one down; yup, he had rabbit ears. He moved a hand to his rear, finding a poofy tail too. “What the fuck, Sora?!”

Sora giggled. “You look adorable, Ri-ku!”

“...I guess this makes it somewhat better,” R2 said with a teasing smirk.

Riku pulled his ears down to damper the loudness. “Ack! Why are you all yelling?!”

Xehanort frowned. “Yelling? They’re speaking normally.”

“No, they’re—oh,” Riku realized. “I have rabbit hearing,” he stated.

“What!” R2 declared. “No fair! I don’t have super-hearing!”

“It’s not as pleasant as it seems,” Riku muttered.

“You get used to it,” Sora chimed in. “The cat ears give me better hearing too. That’s why I like being a cat if I’m keeping watch and stuff.”

“Can’t you just use enhancement magic for that?” Xehanort questioned. True; there were many spells that could temporarily enhance things like hearing, vision, and smell, all which took less magic than full animal transformations.

“Yeah but that’s boring,” Sora stated. “Being a cat is more fun.”

“Well, I don’t fancy being part animal,” R2 said firmly, crossing his arms. “If anyone asks, I’ll be in my room for the next however-long-it-takes-for-this-to-vanish. Not a word of this to anyone—especially Naminé!” With that, he spun on his heel and resolutely stomped out of the room.

“I suppose… I’ll be going now too,” Xehanort said a little awkwardly before following R2’s example, albeit not so aggressively.

Sora hopped back onto the couch, schooching up to Riku so their thighs were touching. After he was settled, Riku said, “So… can you remove my ears now?” presumably it wouldn’t be a problem; Sora had applied it himself, and had said the problem with correcting the others’ was that the magic glitch had not been his magic.

“Aww, but you’re so cute!” Sora declared. “At least show it to Kairi; she’ll love it!”

Riku felt himself blush.

Sora continued, “And I’m sure Naminé is going to find R2 adorable too with those ears. Too bad Xehanort doesn’t have anyone right now… I’m sure his boyfriend would have loved his fox ears… Oh, I bet he’s thinking that too. Crap, I didn’t want to make him sad! Maybe I should have removed his.”

Riku narrowed his eyes at Sora, a suspicion rising. “There isn’t actually an issue with you or Merlin changing them back, is there?” he accused.

Sora blushed. “Um. Well… Look, R2 is super awful with interacting with Naminé! He keeps second-guessing himself and seems to be trying to convince himself she doesn’t like him when she clearly does and he just really needs something that’ll show him she does like him!”

Riku took a moment to process that. “And rabbit ears are a good way to show that?” Riku questioned, not quite following.

“Exactly!” Sora replied. “She’ll find them so cute, and when she tells him that he’ll get all bashful, and she’ll giggle, and then he’ll be laughing too, and they’ll bond over it and then be cute together!” Riku could swear Sora’s eyes were sparkling.

“Yeah but she probably won’t notice, since he’ll be hiding in his room and avoiding everyone, including her,” Riku pointed out.

“And how would you know that?” Sora countered.

“Because that’s what I would have done at his age,” Riku said flatly.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Well, whatever. He’ll need to emerge to eat sometime. Then, she’ll see his ears and they’ll finally get together…” He finished with a fond sigh.

“Since when are you such a romantic?” Riku teased.

“Hey! It’s not new; you’ve seen the books I read,” Sora quipped back, unembarrassed; most boys their age would not admit so easily to reading romance… wait, romance?

“I thought you’ve been reading sci-fi and fantasy stuff,” Riku stated.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Those kinds of books can have romance too. You even read me one when I was asleep! The sparkly vampire one.”

“I still can’t believe you actually remembered that,” Riku muttered, feeling like his face had set fire.

“Well, I did. I mean, not fully, but enough to find the book later on to read it. Actually, come to think of it, I never was into this stuff much before that sleep…” Sora mused, then concluded, “So, it’s your fault that I like romance!”

“I dunno, you’ve always been a big sap,” Riku teased, managing to regain his composure, although now he was also questioning if he’d played a role in that. It wasn’t like he had many options, though; whoever had lived in the mansion before had filled the library with such books.

“Oh, you love it,” Sora said playfully, leaning into Riku and rubbing his head on his upper arm, much like a cat; if humans could purr, Riku was certain Sora would be doing so.

“Yeah, I do,” Riku easily admitted with a gentle smile.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Xehanort gazed around the circle of stone pillars, mentally taking attendance of the other Seekers of Darkness. Ansem, Xemnas, Luxord, Marluxia, Xigbar… the only one left to arrive was Larxene, but she’d be there, Xehanort was sure; she was always late.

On cue, Larxene appeared, brandishing what appeared to be a milkshake, presumably infused with coffee given the logo of a popular coffee franchise on the side of the transparent plastic cup and the color of the drink. Would she ever learn to leave ahead of time if she wanted to get coffee on the way? Evidently not.

“So, old man, what’s up?” Larxene said flippantly. Xehanort resisted rolling his eyes and responding to that; she was probably fishing for a reaction, lover-of-chaos that she was. Honestly, she could be worse than Vanitas at times.

“I have called you all here today to discuss the next steps in our journey,” Xehanort began, addressing the entire group. “It is time for us to move onto the final stage of our plan. A letter has been sent to the Guardians of Light requesting their presence at the penultimate battle of this Keyblade War.”

Marluxia raised an eyebrow at that. “Penultimate? Are you implying that there is one more battle after this next one? I was under the impression that this was the finalé. Or are you assuming we will not win this one?”

“Who wins and who loses does not matter; all that matters is the number of clashes,” Xehanort explained. “Undoubtedly, the Lights will not all be defeated by the end, and thus I will engage in the ultimate battle with one of them—most likely Sora—after the chi-blade has been summoned.” Xehanort hoped it was Sora; everyone else had gotten a chance to fight the boy. It was rightfully his turn.

“Yes, that does tend to be how our battles always end,” Marluxia mused. “Hopefully this time the final victors will be us, not him.”

“I am doubtful that will be the case,” Xemnas chimed in. “Sora is much too powerful.”

“I must agree,” Ansem said. “Sora will undoubtedly prevail. It is inevitable.”

“You two have an unhealthy obsession with that boy,” Xigbar commented. “Like, seriously, he’s your enemy; you should definitely NOT be cheering for him.”

“What, have some lingering feelings from possessing Riku?” Larxene teased.

“That is an interesting thought,” Luxord contemplated. “Although that only applies in Ansem’s case; it does not explain why Xemnas possesses such a strong reverence towards the boy.”

“Enough,” Xehanort interjected, not in the mood for pointless conversations. “Do not fret; we will surely win. We have spent too long preparing for this to fail. Darkness winning the final confrontation is a foretold conclusion a millennium in the making.”

“Hey, wait one second,” Larxene interjected. “Aren’t we forgetting something? Half the Guardians of Light quit—including Sora.”

“It is not half; it is three,” Xehanort corrected, patience towards the girl wearing thin. “And as I said during our previous meeting, I am sure it is temporary. In fact, it is likely they have already returned. If not, we can always use the Princesses of Light to fill out the remainder of their ranks.” It would be disappointing to have to do that, especially as it’d mean no battle with Sora, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made.

“If Sora does not participate, I am not sure if I wish to, either,” Ansem told them.

“Yes,” Xemnas agreed. “A final battle without Sora would be much too uneventful.”

“Again: unhealthy obsession,” Larxene drawled.

Xehanort glared at the two. “We are not having this battle for entertainment purposes!” he asserted. “The goal is to form the chi-blade. That can happen with or without Sora!”

“Back to the Princesses,” Luxord piped up, changing the subject, which Xehanort was glad for; he did not fancy more infighting. Luxord continued, “What do we plan to do? Ought we capture the Princesses ahead of time, keep them in storage?”

“Nah, that’s not needed,” Xigbar said with an air of casualness. “They’re easy enough to grab; if the Lights show up without enough people, we can just portal over to the Princesses’ worlds and have them here within minutes, no big deal.”

“And if they fight back?” Marluxia asked.

Xigbar scoffed. “Please. They’re weak! Just knock them out; the rules don’t say they need to be conscious when we clash, right?”

“That is correct,” Xehanort confirmed. “Now, let us discuss battle strategies…”

Chapter Text

A few days later, Vanitas walked towards Even’s lab, contemplating everything that was currently happening. No one seemed very concerned about Xehanort’s letter; they were aware of it, and concocting strategies, but there wasn’t the rush that would be expected leading up to an epic battle. Xehanort was interesting that way: unlike most villains, he was patient. He respectfully waited for his opponents rather than aggressively attacked without warning as most villains would; Vanitas wasn’t sure whether this was because he was just so egotistical that he expected to win regardless of the advantages his opponents had, or if he subconsciously wanted to lose. Maybe a combination. Either way, it was nice that he gave them time to prepare.

Vanitas reached at the lab, entered without knocking, and a small beep sounded to signal someone had arrived.

Ienzo put a glass cover over some vials of chemicals and removed some safety goggles as he turned to see who had entered. “Oh, hello, Vanitas. What brings you here? Is the replica body having issues?”

“Oh, no, not exactly,” Vanitas told the bluenette as he approached. “Although it is about the body… I just have some questions.”

“Well, then, ask away,” Ienzo told him.

“Okay, so—wait, what is he doing here?” Vanitas asked, noticing Isa at a desk across the room.

Isa looked up from the notepad he was scribbling on. “Hello to you too,” he said dryly. “If you must know, I am here to study science.”

“Really? You?” Vanitas asked. Thaw was unexpected.

“Is that truly so surprising? Yes, me. Like Demyx, I find this interesting, and wish to learn. Lea plans to do so, too, once his war duties are finished.”

“Interesting,” Vanitas said. He hadn’t been aware Lea had wanted to do that. “So, are you helping the Lights, too?”

Isa shook his head. “No. I wish to remain neutral, although I do hope the Lights win, considering Xehanort wishes to destroy everything.”

“Wait, what?” Vanitas asked, surprised. “I thought he just wanted to control everything or something.” Had Xehanort always wanted that? Had he told everyone that from the start, or had it been another thing that only few were told? Maybe Vanitas should have paid more attention during those meetings.

“No. He wants what he’s been calling a ‘reset’, which, I have come to discover, means completely erasing everything,” Isa informed him. “As a Nobody I felt like I had nothing to live for, thus I did not care much about that, welcomed it even, but now as a Somebody I find I do care. I have plans for the future, and have been reunited with friends, so life now has meaning.”

“That’s… good,” Vanitas said, slightly shaken by how morbid the candid statement was. Should they be worried about Isa, too? Come to think of it, how had his Nobody become a Somebody again? Maybe Vanitas would mention it to Lea later, as the two were close, or maybe Ienzo would—he looked somewhat disconcerted at Isa’s words too.

“Yes,” Isa acknowledged. “Now, if you don’t mind, I must return to my work,” he stated, not saying anything else as he returned to scribbling in the notebook.

“Right…” Vanitas said, staring at the man.

Ienzo coughed slightly to draw Vanitas’s attention back to him. “So, you said you had questions about your body?”

“Oh, right,” Vanitas recalled. “So, my eyes have been acting kinda weird.”

“Weird how? Is your vision substandard?” Ienzo asked with urgency. “We can give you a test to see if it is as it should be, although it is possible that it’s merely because your darkness body had—”

“No, my vision is fine,” Vanitas interrupted. “It’s their color. It keeps shifting.”

“Oh, well that’s simple,” Ienzo answered, sounding relieved. “The color of one’s eyes is in part dictated by the heart,” he explained. “If they are shifting, it means your heart is too—or rather, how your heart identifies has changed. Previously, due to the darkness, they were gold, correct? But now your body isn’t fully constructed from darkness, nor is your heart. So the eyes will reflect that.”

“But I still am mostly darkness,” Vanitas pointed out, confused. “So shouldn’t they still be gold?”

Ienzo shook his head. “Not necessarily. When you’re actively using darkness to the extent some of your skills require they definitely will turn such, but the default I would assume will eventually be closer to Sora’s, as your appearance is based upon his.”

“They do flash blue sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly positive,” Vanitas mused.

“Precisely. I would hypothesize that, once your heart’s identity has stabilized, the eye color will end up permanently becoming a shade of green, with the exception of when actively using darkness of course,” Ienzo told him.

“Green?” Vanitas wondered. “Why green?”

“Well, as you yourself previously stated, you still use much darkness. People who accept their darkness, but not to the point they are consumed, often have their original eye color blend with the ochre color of darkness. I expect that is what is occurring with yours; when things have stabilized, your eyes ought to be green when you are not actively using heavy amounts of darkness.”

“Interesting,” Vanitas commented. “So that means my heart truly isn’t pure darkness anymore?”

Ienzo nodded. “Correct. I am sure Kairi must have noticed and said something, if you haven’t noticed yourself? I know you two are close”

“Perceptive,” Vanitas commented, although he wasn’t sure he’d use the word ‘close’... actually, maybe that was the right word. If you could have heart-to-heart discussions with someone, that meant you were close, right? Anyway, “Yeah, Kairi mentioned it, even before I got the replica body… I didn’t believe her though,” Vanitas divulged. “But, you’re right, I can kinda feel it too… it’s weird.”

Ienzo chuckled. “Yes, I can imagine; it must be strange to have believed you were pure darkness for so long, only to discover you now are not… Anyway, is that all you wished to know? I really must get back to work, before those chemicals explode.”

“Oh!” Vanitas gasped. “Yeah, that’s all—you go do that before you blow anything up.” Plus Vanitas wanted to go apologize to Kairi for not believing her. He turned to head towards the door while saying, “See ya.”

“Yes, have a good day,” Ienzo commented as he put his goggles back on and turned towards the glass case.

Just before he left, Vanitas noticed some human-shaped things on slabs as he was about to leave the lab. “What are those?” he asked, curious. ”More replicas?”

“Not exactly,” Ienzo said. “They’re—”

“Oh, don’t ruin the surprise now!” Merlin interrupted as he hurried into the lab. “Vanitas, my boy, we’ll reveal them when they’re finished.”

“Providing they actually work,” Even drawled, following the wizard. “I still don’t think—”

“Oh, nonsense!” Merlin asserted. “They’ll work, you’ll see!”

“...Right. Got it. See you later, then,” Vanitas said, not wanting to get involved with their argument and slightly worried—he was skeptical of anything the wizard and eccentric scientists would collaborate on.

The two were so engrossed in their bickering that they didn’t even notice Vanitas slip away.

As Vanitas made his way back to the house, he paused, sensing a presence nearby. He looked around, although didn’t see anyone… Then he sighed as the presence approached, now close enough for Vanitas to easily recognize it. Great, Sora had learned a new spell. Vanitas swerved around and intercepted the incoming tackle from the invisible entity.

“Aww, man! How’d you know it was me?!” Sora whined as he became visible again, not making an effort to move from the awkward position of being held up by Vanitas’s arms under his armpits.

“I don’t need to use my eyes to sense people, remember?” Vanitas reminded the boy. “Now, can you get off me?”

“Oh, right,” Sora noted and stood on his own feet, backing up a bit. He put his hands on his hips and grinned. “You gotta admit that’s an awesome spell though! If you couldn’t sense darkness, you wouldn’t have seen me coming!”

“True,” Vanitas acknowledged as he began walking, Sora following along. “So, why don’t you try it on someone else? Look, over in the garden is—oh, wait, Naminé and R2 can sense you too.”

Sora gasped, then pulled Vanitas behind a random cart of fruit. “It’s finally happening!” he whispered excitedly as he peered at them from behind the cart. “I knew the ears would work!”

“Ears?” Vanitas questioned, then realized what Sora meant. “Wait, you’re responsible for those things?” R2 had been hiding in his room the past day and a half, but had emerged just as Vanitas was leaving the house for the lab, at the bequest of Naminé. Vanitas was impressed; he never imagined R2 would ever willingly walk around with such, but it seemed Naminé had quite the influence over him! What had Sora called the phenomenon? A ‘crush’, right?

“Yup!” Sora chirped. “Well, technically Xehanort did—it’s a potential side-effect of world-order spells—but I told him there wasn’t a way to undo it other than waiting.”

“But… why…?” Vanitas wondered, perplexed as to why Sora would want R2 to have rabbit ears of all things.

“Because they’re finally actually talking! About feelings! They’ve been dancing around it ever since she was freed! Well, he has. She found it cute that he was so nervous,” Sora informed him. Naminé must have told Sora that.

“Wait, how do you know they’re talking about feelings?” Vanitas wondered.

Sora pulled his hair back a little to reveal that one of the brown spikes was actually a cat-ear, replacing his human ear; presumably the other side had one too.

Vanitas chuckled. “Seriously?”

Naminé then said something to R2, who swerved around to stare directly at Sora, who failed to dodge back behind the cart in time. Right, Naminé could sense Sora’s presence.

“Oh shit!” Sora hissed.

“What the fuck, Vanitas?!” R2 yelled, suddenly standing directly in front of him—he had used a dark slide ability to reach them quickly. “Why are you spying on us?!”

“What? No, it was Sora’s idea, I swear!” Vanitas said, turning to where the brunette had just been only to find him not there.

“Sora’s idea, huh? I don’t see him here,” R2 scowled.

“No, seriously, he was here!” Vanitas defended. “He must have turned invisible!”

R2 glared at Vanitas, although Naminé appeared to be holding back giggles. “Sora can’t turn invisible,” R2 stated, then looked a little confused. “Er. He can’t, right?” he questioned as he stared at something behind Vanitas.

Vanitas turned to see a few fruit being juggled in what appeared to be empty air; Sora apparently was still there.

R2 narrowed his eyes, then raised his arm and used a “watera” spell, aimed at the fruit. The fruit fell to the ground and there was a shout.

Water droplets hovered in the air in the shape of a spiky-haired boy, which then said, “What the fuck?! Now I’m all wet!” as Sora became visible again.

R2 rolled his eyes. “You know air magic. Use it.”

Sora did so, his hair blowing around violently as he pouted. “You’re no fun.”

“Excuse me? You’re the one who was spying on us!”

“Vani was too!” Sora protested.

“It was your idea!” Vanitas pointed out.

“Um. Can we not fight?” Naminé’s delicate voice chimed, immediately easing the tension in the air a little. “I’m sure Sora had a good reason for it,” she said gently, looking at Sora with an expectant expression.

Sora looked away sheepishly and scratched his cheek with his index finger. “Ummm… I… Er…”

Vanitas answered with a grin, seeing an opportunity for revenge. He said in a saccharine voice, “Sora’s been getting bored of just reading about romance, and wanted to see some in-person, that’s all.”

R2’s face lit up like Rudolph’s nose. “Wh-who said anything about romance?!” he sputtered as Naminé giggled.

“You know, it’s kinda hard to take you seriously with those ears,” Vanitas commented offhandedly with a smirk, enjoying riling up the boy.

R2 practically growled. “Are you looking to start a fight?”

Vanitas froze. “I… no?” he tried. But, was he? Had he reverted back to his old demeanor? He was just teasing, right? Had he taken it too far?

“You’re fine, Vanitas,” Naminé said, ever perceptive. “R2 is just nervous.” She put her hand on the silverette’s elbow. “It’s okay, R2. We can continue our walk; Sora and Vanitas will leave now,” she said as she looked at the two, then smiled gently, although there was an air of mischievousness to it. “After Sora removes the ears, if you still want that; they are cute, though…”

R2 sputtered a little at the compliment, then realized what else she’d said and froze, turning to glare at Sora. “Wait. You said you couldn’t remove them,” he said in an accusing tone.

Sora winced. “Ah. Well… I might have… not been… entirelytruthfulaboutthat,” he finished in a rush, then swerved around and dashed off with a burst of air magic that brushed through their hair and rustled Naminé’s skirt.

“Get back here!” R2 demanded as he angrily dashed after the brunette.

Vanitas leaned back against the cart as he watched the two… then felt a lurch as his balance was thrown backwards and he landed hard on the ground. He turned to see the cart rolling away; it had been on a slight incline. “Well, fuck,” Vanitas concluded.

“Hmmm…” Naminé watched the cart descend the slope for a moment, looking thoughtful. “We should probably go retrieve that,” she casually concluded.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Riku! Kairi! There you are!” Sora shouted as he threw their bedroom door open—thankfully Riku and Kairi were only folding clothes, especially since the door hadn’t closed behind him. Riku braced for the incoming tackle-hug, although it didn’t come. Instead, Sora put his hands on his knees, catching his breath; had he run there? Then Sora twirled around, skirt flaring and arms out, giggling.

“Um. You okay, Sora?” Riku asked, wondering if he’d had some sort of mental break. The medicine had been working well last Riku had heard…

Sora bounced over to the two, excited. He grabbed Riku’s and Kairi’s hands and hopped up and down a little. “It finally happened!” he declared.

“What finally happened?” Kairi wondered, seeming equally as baffled as Riku.

“R2 and Naminé!” Sora proclaimed. “The bunny-ears worked!”

Riku blinked, processing that. “Wait, hold up, Sora; why don’t we close the door and sit down first?”

The door magically shut, presumably thanks to Sora and a little too hard by the loud THUD it made, then Sora let go of their hands and sat down on the edge of the bed, leg bouncing with excitement.

Riku and Kairi sat on either side of him. “So, what’s this about Naminé and R2?” Kairi asked, appearing to be getting excited too. Riku concluded that this was regular excitement from Sora, nothing to worry about.

Sora spoke rapidly, completely delighted at whatever was happening. “Well, you know how R2 has been super nervous and keeps messing up when approaching Naminé, right? Well today they were walking together in the gardens! On a date! And it’s because of the ears; Vani said that R2 was hiding but Naminé got him to come out of his room and stop being so nervous about the ears, partly because she finds them cute and stuff, and—”

“SORA!” Came a loud bellow, and the door flew open again to reveal an angry bunny-eared R2 glaring at Sora.

“Aww, fuck,” Sora said, then scrambled to hide behind Kairi.

“Want to explain?” Kairi muttered to Sora, eyeing R2 nervously.

“Well, Naminé might have also told him that I was lying about being unable to remove the ears,” Sora told her from the side of his mouth.

Kairi paused in thought, then decided, “Well, you’re on your own for that; come on, Riku, let’s go get lunch.” She stood, then took Riku by the hand and led him out the door.

“You sure Sora will be okay?” Riku wondered as they headed down to the kitchens.

“R2 is based on a younger you; he won’t actually hurt Sora,” Kairi said confidently.

“...Um, did you forget about why the Islands fell?” Riku countered.

“They fell because of Ansem. Also, R2 was created using your memories from after that,” Kairi pointed out. “Therefore, he won’t hurt Sora.”

“I dunno…”

“Riku, stop worrying,” Kairi said as they reached the kitchen. “Now, do you want me to make us lunch, or—”

“No, I’ll make it!” Riku said hurriedly, rushing to the fridge. Kairi’s food could be dangerous.

“Okay,” Kairi agreed. “So… what are your thoughts on what Sora was saying?”

“About R2 and Naminé?”

“Yeah, that! Think they really are finally together?”

“Hmm… I dunno,” Riku cerebrated. “I sure hope so, though; I was concerned R2 might faint the last few times he saw her. I never was that nervous around people, was I?”

Kairi looked at Riku deadpan. “You hid from Sora for months because you were nervous he’d hate your appearance.”

Riku considered that for a moment before concluding, “Well, I guess I can’t argue with that.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Vani! Vani! Vani!!!!” sounded a voice, and Vanitas’s shoulder violently shook.

Vanitas groggily blinked open his eyes, not used to his body actually needing sleep. Or, dreaming; he’d been dreaming, right? Something about a purple hippo in the weird storybook woods… Was there something like that there?

“Vani!” came the shout again, and Vanitas realized it was Sora.

“What do you want?” Vanitas grumbled. “I was taking a nap.”

“I have a great idea!” Sora replied chipperly. Manic? No, Vanitas concluded after a quick check. Just incredibly excited about whatever thought his brain had devised.

“What kind of idea?” Vanitas wondered, sitting up on the library’s couch; he’d fallen asleep while reading. It was probably some whim, like going shopping in the city or going for ice cream in Twilight Town even though sea-salt flavor was now sold here in Radiant Garden.

Or not.

“You should go to fight Xehanort, but pretend to be me,” the brunette informed Vanitas.

Vanitas took a second to process that. “Why?” was all he could think to ask.

“Because he’ll never expect it,” Sora explained. “He’ll think all the Guardians of Light are there, but it’ll actually not be, since you’re mostly Dark, and his plan will fail.”

Vanitas pondered that for a moment. “That’s… not a bad plan, actually,” he concluded. Besides, Vanitas was planning on tagging along anyway; not necessarily to fight, but he wanted to be there to watch old-Xehanort’s demise. “But, wait; he can sense Darkness too,” Vanitas realized. “He’ll know it’s me.”

“Yeah but he doesn’t know you have a replica body and a bit of light,” Sora pointed out.

“Still, he’ll know that it’s a whole lot more Darkness than you usually have.”

This didn’t deter Sora one bit. “Not if we disguise it!” he countered, waving around an ancient book, the leather spine of which was crumbling as it moved through the air. “I found a spell. It’s pretty complex, and probably will require Merlin’s help, but it can hide the magic of a person, or even make it look like they’re a different type—of course, it only discusses elemental affinities, not Light and Dark, but I’m sure it can be modified to work with those too. He’ll never suspect it!”

“Yeah, that could work,” Vanitas agreed. It was a surprisingly good plan. “But we should run it by the others, first.” He didn’t want another incident like the rage-form thing; if they were doing experimental magic, best if everyone knew.

“Awesome!” Sora declared, then waved a hand towards Vanitas and said some strange words. Vanitas felt his scalp tingle slightly.

“...What did you do?” Vanitas asked dryly, narrowing his eyes at the brunette.

“I made your hair brown, like mine,” Sora said simply. “But, we’ll need to get you colored contacts for your eyes; Merlin says using magic on eyes can be really dangerous for some reason. Something about them being windows to the heart and getting them cloudy being bad? I don’t really get it, but Merlin seemed really serious when he said that, so best not to risk it.”

“Best not to risk it anytime Merlin says not to do something,” Vanitas corrected, noting the emphasis the brunette had placed on ‘serious’, probably meaning he’d ignored those orders more than once when Merlin didn’t seem as serious.

“Yeah whatever,” Sora said with a dismissive wave. “So, time to go shopping for contacts!”

“AFTER we run it by the others,” Vanitas quickly reminded Sora.

“Right. So let’s go!” He turned and dashed towards the door—only to be blocked by Riku, who had arrived as Sora had said those last words.

“Go where?” the silvette asked firmly as he crossed his arms.

“It’s a surprise!” Sora said chipperly.

“A surprise,” Riku repeated flatly.

“Yeah!”

“And it wouldn’t happen to involve leaving, would it?” Riku surmised.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on! We’re not going to be leaving Radiant Garden.”

“Yeah but Yen Sid and Mickey said you shouldn’t leave the house without anyone,” Riku reminded him. Right, that had been a thing; when the letter had arrived, Sora, Roxas, Xion, and Vanitas had all been instructed to only go places in groups, just in case Xehanort got wind that they hadn’t returned to being Guardians of Light and tried to capture them or something. Vanitas figured it was a good concern for the other three, but he wasn’t sure why they’d included him in that instruction, too—Xehanort definitely had not counted him as a Guardian of Light. Of course, none of them really followed that rule anyway, but still.

“Well, yeah; Vani’s coming with me, don’t worry!” Sora informed Riku, unphased by the Look the silverette was giving him. “He’s part of the surprise.”

Riku turned his gaze to Vanitas, who was still seated on the couch, and a spark of surprise flashed through him, although he quickly schooled the expression. Vanitas was confused for a second, then remembered that Sora had changed his hair color.

“He thinks it’d be a good idea if I go to the battle instead of him,” Vanitas told Riku. “We—well, at least I—plan to run it by everyone first.”

“Vani!” Sora proclaimed, turning to Vanitas with a scandalized expression. “I said it was a surprise! We need to get you the contacts first.”

“Sorry, Sora, but I’m not buying any props unless this idea of yours is actually approved,” Vanitas told him. “Also, can you change my hair back?”

“Nope; we need to test how believable the disguise is first!” Sora declared, then turned back to Riku. “You two can go around together and see if people notice the deception.”

“Sora, that’s going to be dead obvious,” Riku informed him calmly.

“Nuh-uh! Ven and Roxas did it last week, and only Lea, Naminé, Kairi, Xion, and Vani noticed at first! Which okay I guess is a lot but Lea and Xion have some strange bond with Roxas, Vani can easily tell people apart via their darkness, and Naminé and Kairi just magically know things like that.” True; the bond with Roxas was probably something lingering from their Organization days, Vanitas’s ability to recognize darkness was essentially its own separate sense, and the other two knowing that immediately was probably something having to do with Kairi being a Princess of Light and Naminé being a… whatever she was. Sora continued, “No one else noticed, not even me!”

“Roxas and Ventus haven’t been living with everyone for as long as we have,” Vanitas pointed out. Plus only a handful of those in the house had actually known them before they were freed from Sora’s heart, including Sora himself, and even if they did in most cases it was only via a brief meeting with one or the other. A couple weeks was definitely not long enough to be able to tell them apart when they were trying to intentionally act and dress like each other, not without special circumstances.

“I guess that’s true,” Sora said, wilting slightly in disappointment.

Riku put a hand on Sora’s shoulder in a show of comfort. “Hey, it’ll still probably work on Xehanort,” he said.

“Yeah, I agree,” Vanitas said. “Chances are the guy won’t be getting close enough to examine everyone; he’ll let his lackeys do the fighting first. By the time he realizes I’m not you, it’ll be too late.”

Sora nodded, placated by their support. “Exactly!” He smiled, then frowned as he said, “But you’ll have to be careful about them, too; Xemnas will probably notice, maybe Ansem too, if you’re near them… and, wait, what about your keyblade?” he realized, eyes widening.

Vanitas pondered that for a moment. That would be a problem, if he were to fight… “I’m assuming you can’t transfigure keyblades?” he double-checked with Sora. “You know, make mine look like yours.”

Sora shook his head. “No, those come directly from a person’s heart; magic won’t work on them…. Aw, man; guess that idea is out after all.”

“Actually, not necessarily,” Riku pitched in. “You can’t change an actual keyblade to look like another, true, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change something else into one. Well, not an actual one, but you get what I mean.”

Sora’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Riku! That’s a brilliant idea!” he declared, thrusting his arms around the silverette and nuzzling into his chest in a show of affection. “I love you so much!” he told Riku, who blushed in response.

“Ugh, please tell me I don’t have to be that mushy when I pretend to be you,” Vanitas groaned, although his voice had what he hoped was a teasing lilt.

Sora giggled. “Only towards Riku and Kairi,” he said, hopefully teasingly too. Vanitas didn’t think he could handle so much affection yet, pretend or not.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“So, why are we all in here?” Sora asked.

“Beats me,” Riku replied from his side. They were on the first floor of Merlin’s house, as was the entire Restoration Committee; all the house’s residents; Mickey, Donald, and Goofy; and even all of those who worked in the lab, including Isa.

Cid, Merlin, Ienzo, and Demyx stood near the computer, ready to speak; next to them was an object, possibly two, covered with a sheet.

“We have an important revelation!” Merlin declared, and everyone’s eyes fell to him.

“Well, obviously, or you wouldn’t have called us here,” Vanitas drawled, looking anxious; right, he surprisingly was not a fan of large crowds, even when they were all people he knew.

Kairi elbowed Vanitas and hissed, “Be quiet.” The noirette grumbled something but complied. Those two had unexpectedly become pretty good friends; a year ago no one would have ever expected a Princess of Light and a self-professed incarnation of Darkness would become friends, let alone close ones, but here they were. Riku also noted that he was not jealous of the two’s friendship anymore, which he felt pleased to realize.

“We’ve been working on this since learning there won’t actually be thirteen Guardians of Light going to the final battle,” Cid explained in his gruff voice. “Our hope is that it can trick him.”

“It was my idea!” Demyx proudly proclaimed.

“Quite a feat,” Merlin added, clearly enthralled by whatever-it-was. “Magic and science combined!”

“Yes, it is quite exciting,” Ienzo said, looking chuffed.

“Well, get on with it then!” R2 rudely asserted.

“Oh, don’t worry, we will!” Merlin promised. “And now, Voila!” He grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it off the object—or rather, objects. Two of them. Riku wasn’t sure how to react.

Xion let out a squeak of surprise. “Is that supposed to be us?!” she exclaimed.

“You… they’re not more replicas, are they?” Roxas asked nervously.

“Oh, no no no, not at all!” Ienzo quickly promised, realizing that could be a sensitive topic among many there. “At least, not the kind you’re thinking of.”

Sora was the first to recognize what they actually were. “Robots!” he declared excitedly. “You made robots!” he hopped up to get a closer look at them. “Are they, like, the smart kind? Or does a human need to control them?”

“A little of both,” Cid explained. “They need to be controlled, but a program will be doing it—specifically, Tron.”

Sora gasped. “Tron! Of course! Is he in there now?” Sora grabbed the nearest one by the head and stared into its eyes.

“No, he will still be in his own computer,” Ienzo promised, grabbing Sora by the arm to pull him away from the robot. “That way if—well, honestly, when—they are destroyed, Tron will not be affected.”

“So they’re going to replace Roxas and Xion in the final battle?” Riku surmised. It was definitely a clever plan.

“Yup,” Cid responded. “Now, as you can obviously tell, they do need some touching up first—”

“Wait, you said there was magic involved, too,” Sora interrupted. “Where? It all looks like robot parts.”

“Well, I’m sure Vanitas can tell,” Merlin said, turning to the noirette—er, brunette. Right, Sora still hadn’t changed Vanitas’s hair back.

Vanitas peered at the things. “They feel like they have hearts,” he said after a pause, then clarified, “Well, not exactly, but there’s a sense of darkness and light in them, like a heart would have… It’s not exactly the same, but I think it’ll work if you’re trying to fool the old guy if he tries to examine their darkness,” he concluded. “Although if he sees them up close with his actual eyes you’re in trouble.”

“Well, we have not finished refining them,” Ienzo explained. “Hopefully they will look somewhat more human-like when we are finished. Naminé, Kairi,” he said as he turned to the girls. “Would you mind aiding us in that pursuit?”

Demyx chimed in, “Yeah, as you can tell, we kinda suck at that; but you’re both artistic and stuff so maybe you can make them look good.”

“Oh, I’m not that—” Kairi began.

Sora cut her off. “Of course you are, Kairi! Stop being so modest!”

“But—”

This time Naminé was the one who interrupted, albeit in a softer tone as opposed to Sora’s boisterous one. “Kairi, I didn’t get my artistic abilities out of nowhere; they came from you,” she explained.

Kairi looked skeptical. “I dunno about that…”

“Hey, you designed a lot of the theater props back in school, right?” Riku recalled. “I’m sure they wouldn’t let someone non-artistic do that.”

“I guess that’s true,” Kairi mumbled with a blush.

“Well, now that that’s decided,” Demyx said loudly, “We do have more logistics to work out! Xion, Roxas, we’ll need to examine your keyblades so Merlin can make some fake ones; if the robots don’t summon them, the old man is going to be uber suspicious. Obviously they won’t be real ones, but we can make them shoot fire or something to trick them into thinking they are.”

“Oh, actually, Sora can do that,” Merlin revealed. “He needs some more practice with creating magical weapons.” Riku resisted raising his eyebrows; magical weapons? Merlin was teaching Sora how to make weapons? That sounded dangerous. Should he say something? Ask how much practice was still needed?

R2 had no qualms about asking. “Wait; did you say he needs practice?” he interjected. “I dunno if we want someone inexperienced making something so important for the final battle…”

“Yes,” Even agreed. “If a mistake causes them to fail in battle, it could cause problems.”

“He has a point,” Cid said, turning to Merlin and crossing his arms.

Leon, too, had his arms crossed, and was glaring at the wizard. “Did you say you have him making magical weapons? I thought we told you not to teach him anything dangerous!”

As the adults continued their arguing, Sora sighed and turned to Riku. “Let me guess: you want me to not do it, either?”

Riku took a moment to internally debate that before he answered, “I mean, it’s dangerous, right? You know I don’t like you doing dangerous stuff. But Merlin’s your teacher, and if he says you can do it, I’m sure you can.”

Sora smiled. “Thanks, Riku!” he said. “You know, it feels a little weird that I’m not going to be fighting,” he mused. “Maybe I—”

“No,” Riku interrupted, and not just because he wanted to protect Sora. “This plan makes the most sense; regardless of who wins, Xehanort’s plan will fail.”

“True,” Sora acknowledged, then turned to Vanitas. “Hey, we still need to get you those contacts; wanna go now?”

Vanitas shrugged. “Sure. Riku, Kairi, you coming too?” he asked.

Kairi shook her head. “No; I want to get started on working with Naminé on the designs sooner than later,” she decided.

“I’ll go,” Riku agreed. It was better than watching the adults continue to argue.

“Yay!” Sora cheered. “Okay, let’s go!” He then grabbed Riku and Vanitas by the hand and pulled them out the door.

“Hey!” Cid shouted at them as they left. “We weren’t done with the presentation!”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“You sure you’ll be okay?” Sora anxiously asked Riku and Kairi as he held them tightly in a group hug. They were on Merlin's ground floor, preparing to leave. “I could go with you…”

Vanitas, next to them along with Roxas and Xion, raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms. “What, change your mind about being a Guardian?” he asked. “A little late for that.”

Sora blushed. “N-no! It’s just, my magic would be really useful! You know it would be!”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “We can handle it, don’t worry,” he assured the boy, even though he was feeling quite nervous as well—especially since the plan’s success essentially fell to him. Xehanort liked the strategy of fighting in succession, and Vanitas fighting someone early on would reveal their strategy too soon. The fake Xion and Roxas could be dismissed as the replicas failing, but Xehanort would be able to easily identify Vanitas’s fighting style even if he were disguised and not using his keyblade or unversed. No, he had to be the one to confront the final guy, Xehanort himself, for the plan to work.

“But, I think I may have a way to take them all out at once…” Sora revealed, grinning as he stepped back from his boyfriend and girlfriend.

“Wait, what?!” The others there all exclaimed simultaneously.

“Talk about a last-minute reveal,” Roxas said with an eye-roll. “So, what is it?”

“Well, I saw in one of Merlin’s books that there’s a spell that can absorb everything around it, and the theory seems fairly easy, so if we throw it at the entire graveyard…”

Vanitas narrowed his eyes. He’d heard of that spell before, and was pretty sure it was super dangerous. What was it called again? Oh, right. “You’re talking about creating a blackhole.”

“Oh my!” came a voice from the staircase; a moment later Merlin appeared and hurried over to them. “Did I hear correctly? Sora, you know very well that spell shouldn’t be used! You haven’t been practicing that, have you?”

“No, I only read the theory!” Sora quickly defended. “Besides, it’d need multiple people to cast it, right? You’d have to help, and—”

“Certainly not!” Merlin asserted. “Why, not even I would dare such a spell! Nor would any other magic-user, including the self-proclaimed evil ones like Maleficent. Its failure, which is highly likely even for the highest trained mage, could result in not just that world being destroyed as desired, but also cause every single one adjacent to it to be permanently destroyed and the entire region rendered uninhabitable. You are never to even dare attempt such, do you understand?” he commanded.

“Yes, Merlin, I understand,” Sora said meekly. Understandable; it was rare for Merlin to scold someone like that. Vanitas found himself glad that Merlin actually seemed to have at least some limits when it came to magic after all.

“Good,” Merlin said, instantly back to his cheerful demeanor. Vanitas wondered how much of that cheer was genuine and how much was a mask; he’d never been able to properly read the wizard’s emotions. They were there, of course, but there was a sense that he was choosing which ones to show. Come to think of it, was the wizard even human, or was he like the fairies who only resembled such because they wanted to? Merlin had been alive centuries, right? Normal humans couldn’t do that… well, that was something to consider when they weren’t heading off to a deadly battle.

“But my magic could still help,” Sora said, continuing his earlier train of thought. “Maybe I should…”

Riku put a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Look, we know you want to help, and appreciate the sentiment. But like Vani said earlier, we can handle it. Besides, you did help, a lot; your plan is the one we’re using!”

“Yeah, exactly,” Sora said. “It’s my plan! What if it fails? I’m not—”

“No,” Kairi interrupted. “No self-deprecating crap. It’ll work, you’ll see,” she told him resolutely. “Or do you not trust us?”

“I trust you!” Sora quickly said. “I just… I just worry,” he admitted quietly. “About all of you. It’s hard to sit here while you all fight, even if I know it’s the right thing…”

“I know. And we worry about you, too,” Riku told him gently. “Now, promise you won’t leave here?”

Sora sighed. “Yeah, I promise,” he said, and Vanitas could tell it was genuine. From Kairi’s consoled look it seemed she could as well.

“Don’t worry; we’ll make sure he doesn’t run off,” Xion assured them, and Roxas nodded in agreement.

At that moment, Naminé and R2 entered the house. “Oh good, you’re all here,” the latter said.

“I told you they would be,” Naminé replied to R2, then turned to the group. “The GummiShips are ready; it’s time to go,” she informed them.

Sora latched onto Riku and Kairi again, briefly this time, before giving them each a quick kiss. Then he turned to everyone else. “Good luck,” he told them.

“You all have kupo coins, right?” Merlin double-checked.

Everyone nodded. Kupo coins were a new invention the moogles had come up with; for some reason each person could hold only one, but their magic could somehow revive someone if they were dealt a fatal blow. Sora and Merlin had examined them to try to figure out the magic, to no avail, and the moogles always kept their strange brand of magic secret so asking them wouldn’t yield any information either. Still, if the things worked, they’d definitely be useful! Hopefully the Organization hadn’t discovered them too.

“Very good,” the wizard said. “Now, off you go! Go defeat that bastard!”

Everyone did a double-take; Merlin, cursing? Well, there was a first time for everything. They all said various words of acknowledgement, then headed out the door.

Chapter Text

Xehanort stood on a cliff with the other six Seekers of Darkness, just far enough away from the GummiShip landing pad that hopefully the Guardians of Light would not notice them observing. Three ships descended onto it… were they all there? Xehanort mentally took attendance as they emerged: Mickey, Riku, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Kairi, Naminé, the Riku replica, Xehanort’s teenage self, Lea… hmm. Where were—ah, there they were. Good; Sora, Roxas, and Xion had decided to fight after all. Phew; no need to go retrieve any Princesses.

“Something feels off about them,” Ansem noted.

“Yes, Roxas and Xion’s gaits appear awkward,” Xemnas agreed.

Xehanort observed the two. Yes, they did seem to be stumbling, their movements a little clunky… but, then again, “They are replicas; it is possible they were not properly finished, or the supplies were not the ideal ones,” Xehanort concluded.

“But they had Vexen,” Luxord pointed out. “Surely he would have made sure they were perfect.”

“Yes, Vexen is usually very particular about quality,” Marluxia confirmed.

“Well, they were low on time,” Larxene noted. “It took Vexen forever to get a perfect one for us.”

“True; that must be all it is,” Xehanort concluded. It surely must be an issue with the bodies; the Lights were too noble to lie about being prepared. Plus, there appeared to be keyblades in their hands, as were in all of the Guardians’ hands. Two in Roxas’s case; surely a fake would not be able to summon two, as that was unique to the boy.

“You sure about that?” Xigbar asked, looking skeptical.

“Of course,” Xehanort confirmed. “They are Guardians of Light; cheating would be beneath them.”

“Hmmm. I wonder…”

“Now, let us get into our proper positions,” Xehanort ordered, ignoring Xigbar’s comment. “It is time for the conclusion to our long journey.”

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

“Ugh, how does Sora move in this?!” Vanitas complained, pulling up the corner of the magical dress he had on as the group walked down one of the graveyard’s chasms.

Riku rolled his eyes. “Firstly, you shouldn’t lift a skirt like that,” he told the noirette. Did no one who wore dresses in their group know that? Apparently not. At least the magical battle clothes did have small shorts under them, although they were barely longer than regular underwear. “Secondly, you didn’t actually have to wear it; Xehanort hasn’t seen Sora, so wouldn’t know his outfit normally doesn’t have pants.”

“Dude, the other Organization members have seen Sora in a dress, and know mine is similar in design but with pants,” Vanitas pointed out. “So, better safe than sorry, right?”

“I guess that’s true,” Riku acknowledged, then noticed that Ventus, walking a bit ahead of them, was also wearing something different than usual. “Wait, why is Ven in a dress, too? Or, skirt or whatever?” It was the same design as usual, but had a pleated knee-length plaid skirt instead of pants. When had he had the time to go to the fairies for that? ...They were magical clothes, right? They were all supposed to be wearing such, and the design did match everyone else’s.

Vanitas shrugged. “Something about solidarity? I dunno.”

“Solidarity?”

“Yeah, like because I had to wear one he would too? I think that was just an excuse to wear one though; I caught him trying on one of Sora’s the other day. Maybe he spent so much time in his heart that he got used to them or whatever. Dunno why he thinks anyone cares what he wears, though; clearly none of us mind it considering Sora’s always wearing one.”

As the group turned a corner, they reached a small clearing, on the other side of which was a large stone construct. Some sort of ancient ruins? No, wait…

“Please don’t tell me that’s a freaking maze,” Lea groaned.

“Is he serious?” R2 complained too. “A maze?”

Riku sighed. “He’s probably trying to split us up,” he reasoned.

“Well, yeah, but that’s our plan, too, right?” Vanitas pointed out.

“Quiet, Va—Sora!” Kairi hissed. “You’re talking way too much!”

“Oh, right,” the noirette acknowledged. He’d been instructed to stay quiet until reaching Xehanort just to be safe, as the whole plan hinged on Vanitas being able to pass as Sora. Plus, talking about their plans in general was ill-advised, too—who knew who was listening, after all.

The group entered the maze, which was a series of corridors with tall stone walls on either side but no ceiling and a dirt floor. Well, maybe maze wasn’t actually the correct term, after all; there was only one actual path. Soon they came across an open rectangular area, approximately the size of a baseball field, surrounded by stone walls. In the center stood…

“Larxene,” Lea growled.

“That’s my name,” the black-cloaked girl said casually. She took one final sip from her paper coffee cup and then tossed it to the side. “So, I assume you’re going to try to leave a few of you here while the others move on? Well, whatever, go ahead; I’m supposed to try to stop you all but honestly that’d be a drag. So, who’s going to stay behind and fight me?”

The group looked between each other. Was she serious? Riku for the upteenth time wondered how the hell Xehanort had chosen her to be a member of the Organization and why she continued to remain a member. Well, whatever; easier for them, right?

“I’ll stay,” Lea offered, and stepped forwards. The Roxas and Xion replicas did too, saying nothing—the plan, after all, had been for them to fight first and lose so there’d be less chance of them being revealed as fakes. They weren’t perfect at all, but hopefully they still passed well enough that the Organization would attribute any odd flaws to the replica bodies being faulty rather than suspecting they were robots. The rest of the group began moving towards the other side of the room, where the exit was.

“Ah, so I get the traitor and his two pet brats. This’ll be fun,” Larxene said sarcastically.

“You were once a traitor too,” Lea pointed out.

Riku and his group, now entering the next corridor, were too far away to hear the reply.

They continued down the long corridor until they came across another open space, identical to the first.

“Aqua,” Luxord greeted them. “I must say, it is such a shame you got away from us… You made a fine addition to our group. You as well, Terra. It was unfortunate we had to give you up; you made a truly perfect Seeker of Darkness.”

“We’ve got this,” Aqua said to the others with a small nod. She and Terra stepped forwards.

The rest began to move on, but Ventus hesitated before they entered the next corridor. “I’m going to help them too,” he decided, turning back.

“Wait!” Vanitas called. “That’s not the plan!”

“Too late,” R2 stated flatly; the blonde, speed predictably enhanced via air magic, had already left their line of sight.

The others collectively sighed and kept heading down the corridor until they reached yet another arena. This time, Marluxia waited for him.

Naminé practically growled with rage upon seeing the pink-haired man. “He’s mine,” she spat, summoning her keyblade and running forwards to stand a barely-safe-enough distance directly in front of him.

“Ah, Naminé,” Marluxia greeted amicably. “One of our greatest disappointments, next to the replica of course… oh, I see he is here, too.”

“What did you say?!” R2 yelled, running up to stand next to Naminé, keyblade out too.

Xehanort—the teen one—sighed. “I think I’ll stay with them, just to make sure they don’t get sloppy in their rage,” he stated. Riku had to agree; he’d never seen Naminé this angry before, and R2… well, he was getting better with it, Riku supposed, but the silverette was prone to being extremely rash when angry, just as Riku himself had been in the past.

The rest left those to it and continued on. This corridor had a turn, but otherwise was identical, and as with the others led to an identical room.

“Hey, look at you all!” Xigbar greeted. “All energetic and itching for fights, are you? Sure you can win?”

“Of course we’ll win!” Kairi asserted.

“Oh, I dunno about that,” Xigbar drawled. “You see, I was just watching Larxene’s battle, and that little Nobody of yours, Roxas? Yeah, he’s already gone. Complete toast; no bringing him back from that!”

Clearly Xigbar wanted a reaction; Riku and the others weren’t sure what to give. They all knew that the Roxas fighting was nothing but a robot, controlled remotely, but giving anything but an upset reaction would be suspect—especially from ‘Sora’.

Vanitas thankfully realized that. “You’re lying!” he proclaimed, his voice raised a pitch to better match Sora’s. Riku tried not to sigh in relief as Xigbar began laughing; somehow that imitation worked.

“Aww, you think I’m lying? How cute,” Xigbar mocked. “But I promise you, Roxas is definitely dead as a doornail. Those replicas you made were really rushed, huh? I’m sure Xion will go down shortly, too.”

“I’ll kill you!” Vanitas growled, summoning his fake keyblade.

Xigbar raised an eyebrow. “You’ll kill me? That’s some threat coming from you, dear little Sora. Perhaps Vanitas is rubbing off on you? You two are all buddy-buddy now, right?” Riku’s heart skipped a beat; had Xigbar figured it out?

Vanitas didn’t say anything more, rather held the ‘keyblade’ out more firmly, as though poised to attack. It was a perfect imitation of Sora’s usual pose; the two had been practicing that quite a bit in preparation for this.

Mickey stepped in front of Vanitas, arm out. “Sora, you go on ahead; we’ve got this,” he said as Donald and Goofy stepped up to join him.

Vanitas nodded and said “Right,” before dismissing the ‘keyblade’ and turning to run along with Riku and Kairi while Mickey, Donald, and Goofy blocked Xigbar from trying to follow.

“That was an impressive Sora impression,” Riku told Vanitas as they hurried down yet another identical corridor.

“Yeah, well, I’m around him enough,” Vanitas said with a shrug.

This time, the three emerged from the corridor to find themselves in a wide open expanse of brown dirt ending in a cliff. At the base of the cliff stood none other than Ansem and Xemnas.

“Betcha anything Xehanort’s at the top of that,” Vanitas muttered to Riku and Kairi. Riku felt that was a good bet; the guy really loved high places for some reason.

“Only three of you?” Ansem asked, sounding amused, as Riku, Kairi, and Vanitas approached him and Xemnas.

“It appears that mathematics, particularly that of division, is not your forté,” Xemnas commented.

“We can take you!” Kairi asserted, while Vanitas remained quiet.

Riku cringed; yeah, maybe they did make a calculation error; the plan had been to have multiple Guardians of Light against each Seeker of Darkness, up until Xehanort himself. Oops. Hopefully some of the others would finish their battles quickly and come help; could Riku and Kairi take on both at once? Or would they be doing it one-on-one? He decided to ask them. “Is this a team battle, or separate ones?”

“I would prefer to face you, Riku. A rematch, if you will,” Xemnas replied.

Ansem turned to him. “No, I will be the one to fight Riku,” he asserted.

“You have already fought Riku on multiple occasions,” Xemnas pointed out. “I should be the one to fight him again.”

“No, I—”

Riku interrupted Ansem. “Can you two just decide already?” he asked rudely, crossing his arms.

Ansem glared at him. “We have. I will be the one fighting you.”

“That is incorrect,” Xemnas again interjected, and the two began bickering again.

Kairi and Riku looked at each other, baffled. In the confusion, Vanitas slipped away, completely forgotten by the two enemies. Riku wondered if Ansem and Xemnas would actually start fighting each other; they really seemed close to doing so. Would he and Kairi not have to fight them both after all?

“Let us fight him together,” Xemnas finally suggested. “We can turn it into a bet.”

“And the terms?” Ansem wondered.

Xemnas replied, “Whoever lands the finishing blow on Riku will be determined the victor.”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Kairi muttered, sounding annoyed at being ignored.

Neither replied to her; Ansem said, “And the loser?”

“The loser must buy the other dinner at that fancy place in Twilight Town,” Xemnas decided.

“That is fair,” Ansem acknowledged, writing it down on a pad of paper—when had he produced that?—which he then signed and handed to Xemnas, who did the same.

“Great, now that that’s done, can we get to the fight?” Kairi snapped, clearly frustrated. Riku had to agree; they’d come here for a battle, not to watch two grown men argue!

“Patience, girl,” Ansem snapped.

“For a Princess of Light you are quite uncouth,” Xemnas commented.

“Yeah yeah, whatever, you gonna fight or not?” Kairi asked with vitriol.

“Ah, but patience is a virtue,” Xemnas said calmly. “Not that teaching it to you matters, as soon your existence will be no more.”

Xemnas teleported behind Kairi and grabbed her. “In fact, I’d say your time is up now,” he commented, summoning his glowing light sword.

“Yeah that’s not going to fly,” Kairi retorted, twisting in a maneuver that broke Xemnas’s grip on her and dodging out of the way. Riku released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and felt a wave of pride—he had been the one to teach Kairi that move, which was from some martial-arts lessons he’d had as a kid.

Just then, a large explosion sounded from somewhere above them, and the ground shook, causing Riku to stumble. He glanced towards the sound as he regained his balance, noting that the nearby cliff was crumbling, although thankfully far enough away from them to not require and dodging. Hopefully Vanitas was okay!

Ansem took advantage of Riku’s distraction. Riku’s eyes widened as he looked down at the dark blade poking out of his chest; as Ansem pulled it out, Riku coughed, red droplets flowing out with it. He clutched at the wound, which seared with pain unlike anything Riku had felt before.

“Riku!” Kairi shouted desperately.

KUPO!

Riku’s pain subsided completely as a light enveloped him, and then the wound miraculously vanished. Even the blood retracted back into him. Well, it seemed the kupo coins thankfully worked, after all. Riku swerved around and stabbed his own keyblade directly at Ansem, who barely managed to dodge; the keyblade slashed his side, leaving a small wound.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Ansem bellowed. “That wound was fatal!”

“Well you can thank the moogles for that,” Riku asserted as he leapt towards Ansem. Their blades clashed, and they went back and forth like that for a few minutes, each taking turns initiating an attack with the other blocking.

“Riku!” came a sudden shout from Kairi from behind him. He pushed Ansem away with a powerful dark attack and turned to see Xemnas coming right at him. There was no time to dodge.

Kairi leapt in front, blocking Xemnas’s attack with her body in a near-identical manner to how Riku had blocked the same attack from Xemnas on Sora a year prior. Kairi was knocked aside, tumbling along the ground to lie still, a searing burn clearly visible through the slashed fabric.

“Kairi!” Riku shouted desperately, somehow managing to dodge the follow-up team attack by both Ansem and Xemnas before darting over to her. Thankfully she was breathing; the blow had been to her side. Riku quickly used a cure spell; it lessened the wound although didn’t eliminate it. It was enough for her to be safe though. Once she woke, Kairi would use her own cure spell; her healing magic was much more advanced than Riku’s and thus should eliminate the wound fully providing it wasn’t left as long as Riku’s had been.

“You have lost, Riku,” Xemnas taunted with a mocking smile as he and Ansem watched the two. “You cannot face us both and win.”

“Like hell I can’t!” Riku growled, anger flashing. Both men were weakened, and Riku had one attack combo he knew would work… he only had one chance at it though. Riku gathered all the energy he could and prepared the stance, his body developing a slight red glow in the process.

Ansem frowned. “What are you up to?” he wondered, looking suspicious.

“Sacrifice!” Riku yelled as he unleashed the attack, spinning his keyblade in a half-moon and slamming it down on Ansem from above. The man tried to block, but the attack pushed through, breaking Ansem’s sword and causing the very ground around them to rumble in the shockwave that followed. He immediately turned towards Xemnas and shouted “Limit Storm!” as he spun in a rapid high-speed circle, slamming his keyblade into Xemnas before the man could react.

When the attack ended, Xemnas and Ansem were both on the ground; Riku wasn’t sure if they were dead or not, but at least they appeared defeated. “Good,” Riku panted, before darkness danced across his eyes and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

As Kairi and Riku began their battle, Vanitas hurriedly scaled the cliff; hopefully none of the bad guys realized he was using darkness to do so, as he’d never figured out the air jumping spells Sora tried to teach him. He reached the top and caught his breath, standing tall as he faced Xehanort.

“Sora!” Xehanort proclaimed cheerily. “So, you are the final one, after all! What a delight; I have been looking forward to destroying you…” He waited a moment, clearly expecting Vanitas to reply, which he did not—he wasn’t supposed to speak too much so as not to give himself immediately away. He may have fooled Xigbar, but Xehanort had raised Vanitas so it’d be tougher to fool him. After a moment, once it became clear that Vanitas wouldn’t be saying anything, Xehanort said with an amused chuckle, “What’s this? The silent treatment? How childish."

Vanitas shrugged and summoned his ‘keyblade’, immediately shooting off a fire spell from it. He had to incorporate magic of the elements Sora would use, as using Darkness would be a dead giveaway.

Xehanort easily dodged. “A level-one fire spell, Sora? You surely have much better magic than that, or so our intel revealed. Was it incorrect? Are you still a weakling, after all?” He was clearly trying to get a rise out of Vanitas.

Vanitas cringed; would his sucky magic belie the ruse? But, there was one thing he could do… hopefully it worked. Vanitas subtly snuck a small round object out of his pocket and tossed it in front of the fake keyblade as he shot off another fire spell; the magical bomb, carried towards the man by the spell, exploded shortly after being enveloped in the fire, creating a blast that rocked the cliff.

Xehanort gave a shout; he had barely managed to dodge the massive attack, but the cliff started to crumble due to the blast, and he had no choice but to drop to the ground below. Vanitas followed as his portion of the cliff began crumbling too. Thankfully the falling earth avoided the others’ fight.

Xehanort stabilized himself. “So you are skilled, after all,” he acknowledged as he blocked the downward slash Vanitas had executed as he flew downwards.

Vanitas hopped away and shot off a stronger blast of air magic than he normally could do—a spell pre-loaded into the fake keyblade—followed by a watera spell and a blizzara spell, both a level higher than the usual water and blizzard magic he’d normally be able to do. The fake keyblade shook a little at that; right, he’d been told not to use too much of its pre-loaded magic in succession. So next Vanitas tried a simple thunder spell of his own… a tiny bit of dark lightning was accidentally mixed in, but hopefully Xehanort hadn’t noticed.

The old man blocked the spells with ease. “You are disappointing me, Sora,” he said fiercely. “Is this fight a joke to you? I’m sure you must have fought much harder against Xemnas and Ansem; why will you not give the same effort against me!?”

Vanitas was about to point out, against his better judgement, that Xehanort too was clearly holding back, but then there was a loud rumble from somewhere behind them. Vanitas turned to see Xemnas, Ansem, Riku, and Kairi all collapsed on the ground. Vanitas quickly checked to see their condition; okay, they were all alive, good. Or, not good per se, as ideally Ansem and Xemnas wouldn’t be, but Kairi and Riku being alive was definitely a major relief.

Xehanort used the moment of distraction to spring forwards into a downward strike; Vanitas sensed it and swerved around to catch it with his fake keyblade. He expected Xehanort to jump back after, but instead the man pushed forwards, infusing some type of gravity magic, smirking slightly as he did so.

Vanitas gave a shout and hopped back as his weapon snapped in half, barely managing to dodge as Xehanort’s blade slammed down right where he’d been standing.

Xehanort took a step back, glaring at Vanitas as he did so. “It is as I suspected; you are not Sora,” he claimed. Honestly, Vanitas was surprised it had taken him that long to notice. “Who are you?” the madman demanded.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow, then quipped back snarkily, “Seriously, old man? You don’t even recognize your own apprentice? Sure you should be fighting and not in a senior home?”

Xehanort peered at Vanitas suspiciously as he took a moment to process that. “You cannot be Vanitas,” he concluded. “Vanitas is a being of pure Darkness, whereas you not only use other magic but are clearly human from how you bleed.” He gestured to Vanitas’s arm, which had a small gash in it from when the fake keyblade had shattered; Vanitas hadn’t even noticed with all the adrenaline. Vanitas quickly healed it with a cure spell, which prodded Xehanort to continue, “See? That spell is not one of Darkness, therefore you cannot be Vanitas. Who are you?” he demanded again.

Vanitas rolled his eyes, then summoned his actual keyblade, Void Gear. “This proof enough for you?”

Xehanort blinked; Vanitas didn’t need to sense emotions to know the guy had been thrown completely off-kilter by that. Despite what he thought, Xehanort did not have the best poker face. “But how?” the old man asked. “How are you human?”

Vanitas couldn’t help but laugh at Xehanort’s expression of clear disbelief. “Seriously? You’re supposed to be an evil mastermind, but can’t even figure that out? You’ve been using them for years!”

“Replicas,” Xehanort spat out, anger rising again. “Of course. I must admit that is clever. However, this is but a small snag in my plan; where is Sora?”

“Not here,” Vanitas said simply, somewhat amused at how he was now the one goading Xehanort when conventionally it should be the other way around; Vanitas may not be a villain anymore, but he couldn’t help the habit. “He’s far away from here. Didn’t you hear? He quit being a Guardian. Your plan is a failure.”

“Liar,” Xehanort growled. “He cannot have quit. That is unacceptable!”

“Aww, poor Xehanort,” Vanitas taunted. “Your plan went wrong at every stage, didn’t it? Well, what’d you expect? The villain never wins, you know; that’s just how things work.”

“I am no villain!” Xehanort asserted. “What I am doing is for the good of the universe! Kingdom Hearts WILL be summoned, and Darkness WILL prevail!”

Vanitas scoffed. “Well, duh. Did you forget who I am? What you raised me to be? I’ve got more Darkness in me than you; I defeat you, and Darkness wins, right? Just not from the side you expected. Fits perfectly what you claim was ‘foretold’, right?”

Xehanort glared at Vanitas. “You think you are so clever!” He looked behind Vanitas, where Ansem and Xemnas were, awake and now standing but allowing Xehanort to monologue rather than aiding him. Riku and Kairi were still collapsed on the ground, but beginning to stir too. Xehanort ordered, “Xemnas! Ansem! Go retrieve Sora!”

The two didn’t move, and Ansem said, “I do not think that will be successful; I have no interest in dying at the boy’s hands again.”

“And I wish to see the conclusion of this battle, regardless of who wins,” Xemnas admitted. “Besides, we have lost our battles; attempting to capture Sora would be a fool’s mission in our weakened states.”

“Truly it is a miracle we’re able to stand right now,” Ansem admitted.

“Are you disobeying a direct order?!” Xehanort yelled. He was losing his temper; good, that would give Vanitas an advantage, as people typically became sloppy when enraged. He should try to make the guy angrier.

“You lost before you even began,” Vanitas drawled. “Just admit it; this is getting pathetic.”

Xehanort swerved towards Vanitas. “You dare mock me?! I taught you everything you know! You stand no chance!”

“Yeah, no, you didn’t,” Vanitas informed the man flatly. “Sora and his friends—no, my friends too—taught me more than you ever did.”

Xehanort began laughing. “You cannot be serious. You, of all creatures, are actually going to start spewing drivel about friendship and love? YOU? It’s a farce! You are made of Darkness; Darkness cannot feel love or friendship.”

“Yeah, no, that’s false,” Vanitas corrected. “Emotions and Darkness are not mutually exclusive. I can be happy, and feel friendship, without needing Light; I refuse to believe your lies anymore. I’m not going to defeat you—my friends and I, together, will!”

As Vanitas said that, Riku and Kairi stabbed their keyblades through Ansem and Xemnas from behind, to the shock of the two men who had been paying more attention to Vanitas and Xehanort than the two teens; well, that’s what you get for being cocky enough to believe your enemy is defeated without being fully dead.

“That’s right!” Kairi yelled. “Friendship is not bound by Light or Darkness! They can coexist, which is something you failed to notice, Xehanort!”

“Honestly, not sure how you didn’t,” Riku added. “Considering I use them both, which I’m pretty sure you were well aware of.”

“Now, fall to the power of Friendship!” Vanitas declared, fully aware of both the cheesiness of the statement and the irony of him being the one to say that. If only his younger self could see him now…

As Vanitas yelled that out, the rest of the Guardians of Light emerged from the maze, finished with their own battles; some were weakened, but not enough to be in danger, to Vanitas’s relief. The group hurried over to Vanitas, Riku, and Kairi.

Before Xehanort could finish processing things, everyone shot a beam of light from their keyblades at the man, a swirl of colors in every element imaginable, including both Dark and Light.

Impossibly, Xehanort survived, albeit only by a thread; before the man could fall, Vanitas sprung forwards, thrusting his keyblade of Darkness straight through Xehanort’s heart.

“This… cannot… be…” Xehanort groaned as the light faded from his eyes and his keyblade crashed to the ground, not disintegrating as would be usual—proof that his time had come. He clutched his chest as Vanitas pulled the keyblade out, staggering slightly, but somehow still holding onto his heart.

“Leave this to me,” came a voice, and the heart of Eraqus, projecting a ghost-like image around it, flew out of Terra to stand in front of Xehanort. That was… interesting. Did everyone have a second heart residing within them? Sure felt like it. The ghost reached out, taking Xehanort’s hand, who stood staring at his old friend in awe. “It’s time to go,” Eraqus said gently.

Xehanort relaxed, and smiled gently at the man, clearly still in love despite what he had done, as was Eraqus. His body fell to the ground, but his heart remained where it was and a ghost-like image remained where his body had been. The two shifted into their younger forms; a second later the ghosts disappeared, and their hearts drifted upwards into the sky, swirling around each other before vanishing to go wherever hearts go.

“Sora’s going to love this,” Ventus declared immediately afterwards, and Vanitas turned to find the boy holding a GummiPhone at the spot the two had been.

“Did you record that whole thing?” Vanitas asked in awe.

Ventus shrugged. “Well, I didn’t catch the whole speech, but I think I got most of it,” the blond told him. “I was hiding behind that rock until everyone else showed up.”

Vanitas shook his head in a mix of disbelief and what he now knew to be affection. “You never cease to amaze me,” he admitted.

Ventus laughed lightly. “You’re the same; a speech about friendship? If someone twelve years ago told me you’d do that, I’d have said they should go to an insane asylum!”

Vanitas laughed too. “Yeah, I’d have said the same!” Maybe the two of them weren't so different after all.

×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×X×

Riku and the others returned to the GummiShips. When he retrieved his phone—they had left them in the ships to prevent distractions—Riku noticed there was an unusual number of messages… oh no. Did something happen? Was Sora okay? Riku quickly opened the messaging app.

Vanitas groaned, looking at his phone too. “Seriously? That is way too many messages.”

“I’ve got a bunch of them too,” Kairi said with a sigh, already reading them. “Sora’s worried, it seems.”

“Yeah, same here,” Riku said, closing the messages and missed calls from Sora after only glancing at them to instead check the one from Xion, which would probably explain things better:
Hey, sorry about all of Sora’s messages, he’s really worried. We took his phone before he could try calling everyone. Merlin set up a scrying glass so we could watch things, but I guess that was a bad idea. When Sora saw you get hurt, he really panicked! Leon and Cloud had to hold him down so he didn’t try running off to help. He relaxed a bit when he saw you get up, but I suggest you call him.
Then, a second message:
I mean, call me or Roxas, Sora’s phone was confiscated.

There was also a few from Roxas that were somewhat concerning but thankfully resolved:
Why did no one tell us Sora has a dark cat form
Like, that’s kinda important info
Don’t worry it got fixed
But please don’t get stabbed through the chest again
For Sora’s sake, not mine. I didn’t worry I swear
Riku rolled his eyes and chuckled a little at the last bit; clearly the blond did care yet didn’t want to admit it. He’d have to ask for the full story later, though, as the two’s messages seemed to contrast a little; maybe Xion just hadn’t wanted them to know via messages that that form had appeared.

“Guess we better call,” Riku concluded, trying to smooth the front of his shirt so the hole in it wasn’t too visible; he didn’t want Sora to see it and become even more worried. Thank the gods for kupo coins!

“Already trying that,” Vanitas said, then frowned at his phone. “But he’s not answering…”

“Yeah, I’m not having any luck either,” Kairi said worriedly.

“Nor I,” Naminé, the final person on their ship, informed them. “Although, he didn’t send me any messages,” she said, seeming a little sad about that.

“Xion says they took his phone,” Riku revealed, showing the three the message; it appeared Xion had only messaged him, and it seemed Sora hadn’t managed to contact Naminé before the phone was taken.

“On it,” Kairi said, quickly pulling up Xion’s contact info and pressing the call button. The other three huddled around her.

The phone was answered immediately. “Kairi!” Xion exclaimed. “About time! Oh, and congrats on the win!”

The phone was suddenly snatched from Xion, Sora’s image replacing hers. “Are you all okay?” the brunette urgently asked. “Please tell me you’re all okay.”

“Yes, we’re all fine,” Riku told Sora gently. “You were watching, right? So you should know that.”

“Well, yeah, I guess, but Merlin ended the feed once you started heading back,” Sora said rapidly, voice rife with anxiety. “What if heartless appeared before you got to the ship? There’s a lot of them there! You must all be tired after those battles; what if you were too tired to fight them? What if—”

“Sora,” Kairi interrupted firmly. “We’re okay. We won. Stop worrying about what-ifs.”

“R-right, sorry.”

Kairi shook her head. “No, that came out harsher than intended,” she realized. “Don’t apologize for worrying about us. Anyone would be worried in your situation. But, it doesn’t help much to worry after, thinking about what could have been, right? What matters is we’re all okay.”

Sora nodded too. “Yeah, you’re right, Kairi. Sor—er. Right. I’ll try to stop worrying about hypocritical stuff.”

“Hypothetical,” Riku corrected, and Sora rolled his eyes.

“Right, well now that you know we’re okay, we should go,” Vanitas said. “So we can get home, to you.”

“Yes,” Naminé agreed. “We’ll see you soon, Sora.”

“Wait! Don’t hang up!” Sora quickly said with a blush, then said slower, “Could you just… stay on while you fly? You don’t need to talk or anything! I just want… I just want to make sure you’re okay…” he trailed, looking a little lost. “Or, if you don’t want to, I guess—”

“No, it’s fine,” Riku assured Sora with a fond smile, before the brunette could start doubting their affection for him. “We’ll leave it on for you.”

And with that, they left for home, relieved that—hopefully—the worlds would be safe for a long time to come.

Chapter Text

Riku strolled around Radiant Garden, contemplating the events since the final battle against Xehanort, which had already been a full month prior to the day. To Riku’s surprise, things had settled back to normal fairly quickly, or at least as normal as life could be for a slew of people with supernatural abilities and magical weapons living in a wizard’s house. A year—no, almost two years by now—prior, Riku would never have expected that he’d find himself in such a situation, assuming that their return to the Islands was the end of their journey for a long while. Yet after barely a week there Riku had found himself, Kairi, and Sora flying a GummiShip to Radiant Garden, completely unsure of the future except for the fact that they’d finally be together—at that time as best friends, but now as partners in a polyamorous relationship.

A relationship that had nearly ended in tragedy, if it weren’t for the kupo coins the moogles had created. Riku gave a shiver at the thought; he’d had nightmares about that. The coin may have fully healed him before Riku’s heart had left, but it hadn’t eliminated the pain and the sheer terror of having a blade pierced straight through his chest. He definitely did not want to go through that again! They’d nearly lost Kairi, too; even with the healing magic the wound on her side had left a very slight scar, proof that it most likely would have been fatal without such magic. No wonder Sora had become so panicked that, according to Roxas, he briefly went into rage form upon watching it! Riku, quite frankly, was rather annoyed at Merlin for setting up that scrying glass. What would have happened if one of them truly had died? Riku shook off the thought; there was no point wondering about what-ifs. They had made it through and Xehanort was defeated, hopefully permanently this time.

Speaking of Xehanort, his younger form was still around; no one had been sure what would happen with him, considering the older Xehanort had been the one to bring him back, but his heart had remained in the replica body without issue. He’d expressed mixed feelings about that. He’d grown and changed so much, and wanted to live how he currently was, but knowing that he’d eventually die and return to being his past self, with no memory of this, was distressing to think about. R2 had expressed similar feelings, although in his case his fate was dying for real—at Riku’s hands no less—shortly after going back. Naminé, who was now officially R2’s girlfriend, had helped him come to terms with that.

Lea had decided to join Isa and Demyx in studying science under not just Even and Ienzo’s instruction, but under Ansem the Wise’s as well, who had reappeared a couple weeks after the battle. Mickey and a few others had gone to the Realm of Darkness to chase down Larxene, who had fled from the battle upon realizing she’d lost. She’d tried to pretend to be defeated by creating the illusion of dissolving into darkness, but unfortunately for her her opponent was Lea, who knew that trick well. As far as they knew, she had been the only one to do that. While in the realm, Mickey and the others had not only found and actually defeated Larxene, but had discovered that Ansem the Wise had not been dead as they thought, rather had been lost in the Realm of Darkness as well after his device exploded in The World That Never Was. So he was brought back to the Realm of Light and gone back to continue working at the lab, this time promising to keep a much closer eye on his apprentices and run any new ones by Merlin just in case another mysterious one like Xehanort appeared.

Ansem the Wise also apologized to Kairi, who had apparently been a test subject when she was a kid, to everyone’s surprise. The others who had been involved in those experiments apologized too, as somehow none of them had connected her to the darkness-free child they had studied. Ansem the Wise then informed her that they might have a way to restore Kairi’s memories of that time if she so wished, with Naminé’s help, which surprisingly Kairi easily agreed to. Riku couldn’t help but think Kairi was a bit too forgiving; he certainly wouldn’t be able to so quickly agree to be experimented on again by someone who had traumatized him, memories of it forgotten or not. So, the lab had a new project. Riku sincerely hoped that when they did work out the procedure and attempted it Kairi didn’t have to be in a pod like Sora had; Riku still had nightmares about that.

Aqua, Terra, and Ventus had returned to the Land of Departure, which Aqua proposed could be used as a more legit training place for the younger keyblade wielders once it was properly restored. Her vision was akin to a boarding school, as there apparently already were dorm-like rooms there due to it being used as such in the past, which she invited all the younger wielders to attend once ready; Riku wasn’t sure how he felt about that, as he’d come to see Merlin’s place as his home, although now Merlin’s house was so overcrowded that it had manifested a second kitchen and all-purpose room to accommodate them all. Sora claimed that wasn’t a problem though—if Riku wanted to stay at Merlin’s, Sora could simply teleport them between the two places, as Merlin had started to teach him how to do his instant teleportation thing. Riku wasn’t sure how he felt about that, either—Sora being able to teleport instantly wherever he wanted seemed like a bad idea. If he’d been able to do so during the final battle, they could have ended up with him appearing suddenly in rage-form! Which, Riku supposed, would also have negated the Light-Versus-Dark clash, although considering Sora often tended to fight with claws in that form they’d probably end up with a gory conclusion of him pulling Xehanort’s physical heart out bare-handed. Riku shook the thought away; that was not something he wanted to imagine!

Otherwise, training and work around the town had returned to being the same as before they’d started doing missions, with the addition of Roxas, Xion, and Naminé. Riku was still surprised that Naminé had been able to wield a keyblade, but considering Kairi and Sora both could, it shouldn’t have been that unexpected. Yen Sid had once again brought up the possibility of a Mark of Mastery exam being held, but Mickey and Aqua had quickly shut that idea down, insisting they all needed at least a little of the formal training the proposed school would offer—as well as regular school subjects such as math and science, especially those who had never been to school. No one was being forced to attend, of course, but the adults were strongly encouraging them to, and Riku had to agree that it was a good idea. He’d done some reading on various subjects on his own, but attending a school with a true curriculum would be better. Vanitas surprisingly—or maybe not so surprisingly—was excited about learning regular school things too; apparently, Xehanort hadn’t taught him much that wasn’t related to Darkness, and although some general info had been retained during the split with Ventus a lot of things he knew from that, especially if science-related, was extremely out of date. A thousand years for a couple things, according to Merlin, which Riku had to wonder about. Maybe they should try to look into where the original Ventus had come from. Could Naminé help with that? Although, Vanitas had once said he didn’t want the memories back. Maybe Ventus would, though. Was that even safe to try?

Well, all of that was in the future, which was always a mystery; Riku decided he should try to follow the philosophy of his partners to live more in the moment than worrying about an unknown and unpredictable future. All that mattered was that everyone was together and safe, and Riku planned to do his best to keep things that way.

“Hey, Riku!” Sora called from down the road, waving his arm with a big grin on his face. “Watch this!” Sora lowered his arm, took a deep breath, said a few words… and vanished.

Riku blinked. Where—oh, right. Sora could turn invis—

“Whoa!” came a shout from above Riku, and he looked up just in time to see Sora falling towards him.

“S-Sora?!” Riku said in surprise, then stepped back and held out his arms, somehow managing to catch Sora stomach-down in them.

“Oops, guess I still don’t have the accuracy right,” Sora admitted with a sheepish chuckle.

“You think?” Riku said, raising an eyebrow and smirking as he set Sora back on his feet.

“Hey! Better than you can do!” Sora quipped back.

“True,” Riku acknowledged; he could do a short-distance teleport-like dodge, using darkness, but to go down an entire block without making any sort of portal? Very few could do such. “So, is that the same spell that can be used to traverse worlds?” Riku wondered.

“Yup!” Sora said, grinning broadly and puffing his chest out, hands on his hips. “Merlin says I’m making really good progress! I’m not ready to try going between worlds yet—he says that won’t be for a long while—but if I can get this part down accurately, I can start trying to take someone with me! You wanna be my test subject?”

“Umm…” Although Riku loved Sora, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be his magical guinea pig. “Why don’t you get this part down first, hmm? Then we’ll see.”

“Yay! Thanks, Riku!” Sora said, flopping into Riku’s arms to give him a big hug with his full weight.

“That wasn’t a yes!” Riku protested, but knew he’d give in anyway. “Ow!” he then yelped. Sora had changed into a cat before Riku could properly hold him. So, being a cat, the brunette had automatically driven his claws into Riku’s chest to hold on.

“Sorry,” Sora said, retracting his claws as Riku quickly wrapped his arms around the boy in a tight hold before his new powder-blue v-neck shirt got ruined.

“If you destroy my clothes, Kairi is going to be mad,” Riku warned. “She bought me this yesterday. I won’t hesitate to tell her you’re the one who clawed holes in it!”

Sora gasped theatrically, a funny expression to see on a cat. “Whaaaaat? You would never!”

“Oh I would,” Riku said.

“Eh, whatever. I can just use magic to fix it,” Sora said flippantly, deliberately pawing at the shirt with his claws out.

“Keep doing that and I’ll drop you,” Riku warned.

Sora didn’t answer; instead, he looked at a point behind Riku before twirling out of his arms while changing back into a human form. “Hey, Roxas!” Sora shouted, waving an arm as he had with Riku. “Look what I can do!” He vanished.

Riku turned towards where Sora had been looking, just in time to see the brunette fall on top of the former-Nobody. Unlike Riku, Roxas hadn’t managed to react in time, and the two ended up sprawled on the ground.

Kairi, who had turned the corner while Riku and Sora were bantering, reached Riku and slid her hand into his. “Typical Sora,” she said with amusement.

“Typical Sora,” Riku agreed with a small chuckle.

Vanitas, who had arrived there with Kairi, crossed his arms as he gazed at Sora and let out a sigh of exasperation. “He’s supposed to be practicing that indoors right now,” he revealed.

“What?” Riku asked, only briefly surprised before he realized that of course Sora would ignore a rule like that.

“Yeah, in a room Merlin set up specifically for this that restricts where he can teleport,” Vanitas further explained. “Wanna help me catch him before he accidentally ends up in another world?”

Kairi laughed. “Okay, now that’s probably an exaggeration,” she concluded, although didn’t look very confident about the words. Riku had to agree; Sora was still only learning the basics of the technique, so surely he wouldn’t accidentally use the most powerful version… Right?

“He did earlier today,” Vanitas stated flatly, immediately proving Riku and Kairi wrong.

Riku and Kairi looked at each other, eyes wide, then both yelled “Sora!” as they rushed over to the boy along with Vanitas.

Well, although what the future had in store for them was unknown, Riku definitely knew one thing: with Sora around, it certainly wouldn’t be boring!