The Realm of Darkness is unlike any world that Aqua could have imagined.
It’s cold, dark, dangerous… lonely.
When was the last time that she felt the sun’s warmth on her face? Or smelt anything other than the stagnant, musty air of this world hidden beneath the light?
When was the last time she talked to someone? Anyone besides the thoughts circling round and round in her head?
There is nothing here but monsters. Creatures of the dark with yellow eyes and uncomfortable, unyielding stares.
They are not Unversed. Of that she is certain.
No, these creatures are more… relentless.
The Unversed had been an undeniable threat back home, but even so, there was an… intelligence about them that she could never quite name. They rarely attacked humans, and whenever they did, their efforts were enough to hurt and noticeably, suspiciously, nothing more.
The enemies that she faces now hold no such mercy.
They are mindless. Loyal watchers in inky shadows for anyone who dares to harbor the light.
How long has she been down here with them, trying to survive?
‘It feels like I’ve been walking for ages.’ Aqua says to herself. Her feet and her eyes are weary. The weight of Eraqus’s keyblade is heavy in her hand. ‘Ven’s still sleeping, and Terra… I just hope he’s alright.’
Her words do not echo in the darkness that surrounds her, but the sound of her own voice is comforting all the same amongst the solitude.
She continues on, unaware of someone watching from the depths.
Time does not flow correctly in the Dark World. There is no cycle from night into day, nor a changing of seasons. Aqua does not feel hunger’s pull in her stomach, nor the warmth or chill against her skin.
What she does feel, though, is exhaustion. It is a constant companion now.
One of the few she has left.
Once, she had managed to find rest and shelter in the remnants of a familiar place, Castle of Dreams. It had been both a curse as well as a blessing to find that blue ethereal glow looming in the distance; and hear the clock ticking in persistent rhythm.
A reminder to her heart of better times.
She left that crumbling world behind, though, when the weight of it all became more painful than comforting.
As if to mock her, there were more memories that followed amongst possessed mirrors and phantoms. She kept moving, kept fighting, kept steeling her heart, kept forcing her feet to run and her mind to keep quiet.
By now, a familiar Forest of Thorns has welcomed her, and it is here that she encounters something… strange.
While chasing golden visions of Terra and Ventus, Aqua stumbles upon a familiar creature as she sears overgrown thorns into ash. When the sizzling fire settles, and the vines retreat into smoke, a blue hue is found among the underbrush.
It is immediately recognizable.
So unlike the black, inky monsters that frequent this world.
The creature before her is a Flood, one of the Unversed that she had slain thousands of times before in the realm of light.
It stands tall on its hind legs, looking at her with silent curiosity.
Immediately, Aqua grips her keyblade and prepares to strike it down.
But as she charges a spell of crackling thunder, the creature does not move.
It merely stands there, quietly waiting for the inevitable.
It’s enough for her to pause.
‘What?’ She asks, confused. She lowers her weapon slightly and looks the creature over. It is not injured, nor appears any different from the ones she had encountered thus far.
Why… isn’t it fighting back?
The creature answers her inward question by turning and scampering ahead on the path. Its small feet barely make a sound when it stops in the dirt to look back at her curiously.
A long, tense moment passes between them, before the Flood moves its arms.
As if… beckoning her to follow.
Aqua tilts her head, her guard still up as she takes a moment to apprehensively look around, expecting some trap.
But there is nothing and no one here. Not this far into the darkness.
And so, she slowly, hesitantly, follows.
The Unversed is slow, its trust of her clearly just as fragile as hers is of it.
Their mutual mistrust creates a wide berth between them, with the Flood leading the way and Aqua hesitantly keeping pace several steps behind.
Meanwhile, Aqua watches it like a hawk, clearly wondering where all of this is going.
After some time, they arrive at their apparent destination as the Flood comes to a stop near two trees. There are vines and moss staggered in between them, the overgrowth here thick and heavy though noticeably not covered in thorns.
Aqua keeps her keyblade in her hand as she uses it to tentatively peel the vines back. Inside is a small hidden space between the two trees. A sort of hollow crevasse that is surrounded on all sides by bark, vines and dirt. One or two bright mushrooms bloom from the bark, offering gentle artificial light that cannot be seen from outside.
She replaces the vines and steps back to admire the spot.
Surely, no one would notice this place without prior knowledge of its existence.
‘Is this… a shelter?’ She asks herself out loud.
When she turns back to question the Unversed, however, she finds that it’s no longer there.
After cautiously resting in between the hollowed trees, Aqua wakes feeling like herself again for the first time in ages. Truly, a little bit of rest has done wonders for both her mind and her heart as Eraqus’s keyblade is no longer heavy in her hand, and her footsteps no longer carry an unseen, endless weight.
When she eventually steps out of her small sanctuary and into the dark world once more, she is surprised to find that she is not alone.
The Flood is there, waiting for her on the path ahead as it casually grooms its face and antennae with small, pointed paws.
It appears unbothered by her presence.
Even so, Aqua twists her face into a guarded expression, and once again draws her blade, but the creature does not attack her nor move to defend itself.
Instead, it merely turns and hops off down the path in the same manner as before, though comes to a stop when it notices that she is not following.
Aqua watches curiously as it once again beckons her.
Cautiously, she does so, allowing the creature to lead on as they traverse the darkness. The Unversed keeps a bit closer to her today, purposefully pausing and changing direction whenever they encounter enemies along the way.
It clearly… wants to keep her alive somehow.
Though the question of why is beyond her reach.
After several hours have passed, they once again stop at a shelter, this time being a small cave hidden behind looming rock.
The Flood vanishes soon after, leaving Aqua once again pondering over her new unlikely comrade.
Days, weeks, perhaps even years go by in this exact pattern with little variation.
Occasionally Aqua will see apparitions of her friends, and chase after them. Each time, though, they disappear right before her eyes, leaving her alone to either face a dangerous enemy or to confront the phantoms looming in her heart.
She allows it to happen. She knows she does.
She’s too desperate in the need to see them again, if only for one moment more.
Somehow, though, whenever it all comes crashing down, the Flood is always there waiting for her once its over.
An insistent companion by her side throughout it all.
‘Why are you helping me?’ She dares to ask it once, feeling a little silly as the small creature pauses and looks up at her with curiosity. ‘Can you even understand me?’
Her companion does not respond to her questions, but even so, Aqua is grateful for its company all the same.
It was… relieving. To not be alone anymore.
Especially when the illusions that she’s been chasing take a turn.
Almost as if they had never been illusions at all.
‘Aqua, get back!’
‘Terra!’
‘I messed up! Xehanort is part of me! Now he’s using me, so you’ll tell him where you hid Ven!’
‘Silence!!’
‘I won’t give in! Aqua! You have to-!’
It all happened so fast.
The sound of Terra’s voice shouting her name rings in her ears as she is crushed. Gigantic dark fingers wrap around her, squeezing her until her vision fades.
The last thing she sees is the golden glow of chains circling forth to cut through the dark.
Eventually, slowly, Aqua comes back into consciousness.
Her fingers twitch as her eyes crack open, eventually focusing on the one person that she never expected to see.
Through bleary blue eyes, Aqua sees Vanitas standing above her.
He appears worse for wear, as if barely escaping a recent battle with his life. His helmet is missing, giving her a glimpse of his young face for the first time. Her blurry gaze watches as he whistles, causing the telltale sound of familiar small footsteps to approach.
Vanitas crouches down to inspect the Unversed companion that she had been following only an hour prior, and uses dark magic to remove the chain-like scars it had gotten on its flank. Once finished, Vanitas holds out a hand, calling forth darkness to summon another Unversed, this time an Archraven, whom he sends out flying into the blackened sky.
So… the Unversed… come from Vanitas?
As Aqua is left barely awake and pondering, Vanitas suddenly looks up in response to some unheard noise. He takes off running, and Aqua doesn’t have the strength to call after him for answers as someone approaches her.
‘Aqua… are you okay?’ A voice calls, forcibly driving any remaining lucidity out of her.
She looks up to find the familiar face of Mickey, and she can’t stop the smile that comes over her as the two of them reunite.
Mickey wasted no time filling Aqua in on what’s been happening to the realm of light. The creatures of the dark, ones that she now knows are called Heartless, have been causing mayhem and leaving absolute destruction in their wake. Entire worlds are now being destroyed, along with everyone that is unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire.
It all makes sense now why she has been seeing remnants of the worlds she once knew down here. She had hoped that they had been merely illusions, but the reality of what exactly has been going on is more devastating than she was prepared for.
All those innocent people, lost to the darkness. There has to be some way to save them.
Turns out, Mickey has been trying to do exactly that.
‘I came here to find somethin’ in the realm of darkness.’ Mickey tells her with a determined expression. ‘The door to the two realms needs to be closed from both sides, so I came here to find the keyblade on this side. It’s the only way to protect the worlds!’
Of course, Aqua did not take much convincing to lend him her aid in this task. Honestly, Mickey could have asked her to help clean latrines, and she would have jumped at the chance.
Anything. Anything as long as it meant she wouldn’t be alone again.
Because apparently… it has been 10 years since she last saw the realm of light.
The weight of that knowledge has been heavy, but part of her wasn’t surprised at all.
At least now, she can try to dream that everything up until now has been nothing but a nightmare. And with Mickey at her side, maybe now, she could finally have a chance to escape.
All dreams, though, whether good or bad, need to come to an end.
Following a great battle against a never-ending tide of Heartless, Aqua ultimately had a choice to make.
It was her need, her conviction, that pushed her to do so.
It’s still there, after all this time, at the core of who she is. What she ultimately fights for.
She could never condemn anyone else to the cruel fate of being trapped here.
No. As painful as it is, it was easier this time, to let go. And stay behind.
It was a choice she made, to protect everyone. So that Mickey and the others could escape, and the worlds and all of their innocent inhabitants could see another day in the light.
She is rewarded for her sacrifice by the blackened sun of Destiny Islands beating down on her face. Even here, as the world is consumed by the darkness, the warmth of the sand and the sound of waves are the same.
They lull her into a sense of ease that she hasn’t felt in years, until eventually the world fades, once again drifting her deep down into the shadows.
When the sand settles, and darkness is once again under her feet, Aqua is not at all surprised to find her Unversed companion waiting for her. The creature looks at her, neither one of them saying anything, before it turns to hop off down the path ahead in the same manner as before.
‘Wait.’ Aqua calls out, but it does not yield to her.
‘Wait. Vanitas.’ She tries again, saying his name in a much lighter way than she ever has before.
The creature abruptly stops.
Aqua lets out a breath and relaxes her shoulders as she stands tall, knowing that she’s caught him. That she finally has some answers.
But not enough.
‘You don’t have to hide.’ She keeps her voice cautious but calm, merely someone extending an olive branch. ‘I know you’re there.’
The Unversed slowly turns to look at her as she holds her hands up, a display of truce.
‘I don’t want to fight.’ She says gently. ‘Please, come out and talk to me, Vanitas.’
The Flood looks away, and Aqua puts together that he must be hesitant to trust her. She honestly can’t blame him, not after everything the two of them have put each other through. Scattered memories come forth, and she has to stop herself from wincing as she recounts some of their more cutthroat interactions.
“How’d you get that?”
“I think the kid’s outgrown such a childish toy. Just like I’ve outgrown my need for you.”
“You FREAK!”
Honestly, no one has ever gotten under Aqua’s skin like Vanitas has, and she would be remiss to think that she hasn’t done the exact same to him.
Really, there is no logical reason why he would ever choose to help her.
… Or at least she had thought so. Until now.
She hears footsteps approach slowly, and Aqua squares her shoulders, preparing for what would probably be a difficult conversation. Even so, she could be the bigger person, just as Eraqus taught her.
Put everything aside and hear his story.
Especially since she has a sinking feeling in her heart, that she never would have survived this long down here without his help.
Before the footsteps can reach her, however, suddenly the Unversed at her feet startles in alarm.
She looks at it quizzically.
‘Wha-?’ Before she can even finish the word, the Unversed is already up and running frantically into the darkness.
‘Wait!’ Aqua calls, flustered by the sudden retreat. ‘Vanitas, wait!’ She pleads and desperately runs after it.
The Flood is frantic, appearing flighty and panicked as it runs, and she struggles to keep pace as it twists and turns at random as if to escape from some unknown pursuer.
Aqua can feel the burn in her lungs for what feels like hours as she keeps on its tail, determined not to lose sight of it, before suddenly, all movement stops.
She nearly runs into the poor creature as it cowers at her feet.
‘What’s wrong? Vanitas?’ She asks, crouching down next to it.
The sound of fighting can then be heard nearby, and her ears immediately recognize the distinct clang of a keyblade fighting back against an unknown enemy.
Aqua immediately stands and draws her own, looking for the source of the battle.
Before she can find it, however, the Unversed convulses as if suddenly struck down, and it fades away into the darkness right before her eyes.
In the tense, quiet solitude that follows, Aqua hears an odd sound and turns toward it, only to see a dark swirling portal close far off in the distance.
End
Dream Eater Allyphant Creations 
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