#amisitterra

Even wayfinder clenched tightly in hand the elder had still pulled away. He had become nearly enraged when the younger had suggested using his own darkness as an alternative. He’d said that if Terra didn’t want to use the darkness he had become in touch with, he understood but they still needed to find a way to Aqua...and if that way meant asking for the assistance of his darker half, so be it. 

He’d told his brother that he would look for his darkness on his own. Unlike the situation of his siblings, Ventus could not simply call forward or summon his darkness to his beck and call. 

No. 

Vanitas was his own being and the shadowy boy was one to do as he pleases whenever the urge struck him. Ventus could only wonder where he was now considering that they were both freed of their parts as Xehanort’s pawns....and he could only hope that his other hated the man in question as just as he did. 

So their paths parted, despite the declarations of never being torn apart again. Ventus would simply find his darkness on his own. Vanitas always manged to find him when he was lost, so he assumed if he traveled the worlds the other half of his heart would seek him out eventually. They were two halves of the same whole after all. It was only a matter of time before they were drawn together again anyways. 

It was natural for him to start in Radiant Garden. The City of Light had always seemingly been a place that his darkness despised. If Vanitas was still causing chaos, he would surely try to destroy the most light he could - and this would be the world to do it in. 

So hours passed as he searched, hoping that his darkness would be drawn to him, and it was right in his moment of despair that it opened before him. Steaming from the ground in a grand incising display stood a portal of darkness, calling him in.  This wasn’t like his other but he wasn’t about to refuse the invitation. 

Stepping into the portal, he felt a chill up his side as the darkness wrapped around him and guided him to the other side. Blue took in the sight of a world filled with shadows and vast outstretches of seemingly nothing. 

Just where was he? 

“Freedom is a burden. You should be glad I took it away from you.”

The voice that came from behind him and the sound of it chilled him to the bone. It was soft and gentle; loving and kind but it also held a darkness to it that he’d only ever heard in the words of his other.  

Turning on his heel, he looked into the soft eyes of the woman behind him and he felt his heart skip a beat. 

Aqua! 

There she was, his sister; his Aqua. There she was smiling at him with the most caring of expression and she leaned forward and softly brushed her hand on his cheek. It was a warmth that he had missed so, but when her fingers touched his skin all he felt was cold. He knew that feeling. He knew the feeling of the frigid darkness that was running through her, as blue eyes fell closed only to open once more as the pierce gold he knew better than all else. 

He stumbles backwards, away from her in fear, his hand coming up to clutch the green star that safely hanging around his neck. “What’s going on?! You- You’re not Aqua.” He stammered out the words, as he looked to her with more concern than anger.  

She looked just like her, but this woman gave him the same feeling as his own darker half. What happened while she was trapped down here?  Was his sister now suffering in the same way he had so many years ago? 

He needed to find her. He needed to help her in away way he could. 

“Who- Who are you?” He asked, unsure of how she would react. Did she hold the same aggressive personality that his other did, or was that just a product of Xehanort’s abuse. “Is Aqua... okay?” he sounded again, worried for his sister, as he knew the pain of having your heart split all too well.  

The woman only gave him a half smile, half smirk before a portal of darkness appeared once more.  She stepped forward to it, as if to pass through, but Ven hesitated to follow her.