Memoirs of Pain Title: Memoirs of Pain Summary: After the events of Birth By Sleep, Aqua is stuck in the realm of darkness. She feels like she failed to save and protect the ones she cared for most. Is she out of time to save them? Side Note: Written for @kh-worldsconnected with @Capnbanana! Definitely not my best work and I didn’t have much time to perfect it, but I hope this suffices!
She can’t feel her legs.
How long has it been?
Where is she even going?
She doesn’t even know anymore. She knows that her legs feel like
they’re being weighed down by anchors and her body grows heavier by the minute.
She knows that even her memories are a bit hazy. She knows that she failed to
save her best friends.
A voice inside wishes to end it all—to just fade away into the
darkness. She might feel otherwise if she had any worth.
As she looks into the charcoal sky, a smile fights through her
barrier. But it isn’t necessarily born of happiness. She just comes to grips
with her reality, recognizing her own uselessness to save her friends and now,
she doesn’t know if she’ll ever see Ven wake up—or Terra regain control over
himself.
She pulls out her wayfinder. There’s always a way, right? But how
does she find it? She clutches her keepsake and fights against the tears. All
this charm does is bring her loneliness to light.
Terra... Ven... Master Eraqus...
“I guess I’m just sad,” she says to no one in particular.
The Shadows leap at her—she examines her surroundings as if in slow
motion. She protects her weapon behind her back with a look on the edge of
disinterest.
Aqua shields herself and a reflective barrier, knocking the
enemies back. She spirals into the air and delivers a hard shot of ice spikes,
flailing out in every direction, impaling Heartless into splinter.
It’s been like this day in and day out. Slashing purebred
Heartless, ducking and diving, keeping eyes stationed on the back of her head,
it had all become second-nature. A necessity for survival. How long would this
go on for?
“Farewell!” She casts a spell of Firaga Burst, summoning a large
sphere of inferno into the air. She lifts her Keyblade, commanding a flurry of
fireballs to rain down on her enemies.
She’s going easy on them.
After wiping the area clean of any heart devouring critters, Aqua catches her breath and desists her weapon. It was a repeated cycle. Endless and aimless walking that leaves her legs numb to each step, discharging her Keyblade and sufficiently disposing of a countless number of Heartless... was there even a point anymore? What exactly is she searching for?
She practically drags her body down the damp path ahead, tiredly navigating through the surrounding smog that pervades her every breath. How much time does she have left before it’s all over? How many more breaths does she have to take?
She pulls out her Wayfinder and gives it a meaningful stare of appreciation. The sweet taste of nostalgia forms a smile on her face as she goes back to simpler times.
“Nyagh!” Ventus grunts as he falls to his back for what has to be the fifth time in a row. Growling with an impending frustration, the boy rubs the back of his head. Aqua gives a slight smirk.
“Ven, you’re trying to use your head again. Use your heart, not your head.”
“Yeah, I know.” Aqua helps him up to his feet. “It’s just—I don’t know, maybe I’m just not cut out for the Keyblade.” He averts his eyes with a sigh, looking at his wooden Keyblade with Terra’s name ingrained on the handle.
Aqua kneels down to his level and places a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t say that. These things just take time.” She chuckles. “You don’t really expect to become Master material overnight, do you?”
“But you and Terra always make it look easy.”
“We also had to put in a lot of time and effort to get us where we are today,” says a confident voice from behind them.
Ventus lights up with excitement. “Terra!”
Aqua smiles in her usual motherly fashion as Ventus runs towards Terra like he’s the big brother he’d been waiting to see for weeks.
“Remember what I told you,” Terra continues, summoning his Keyblade. “You’re trying too hard to move your body. You got let your body move you.”
Ven crosses his arms, thinking intently as he looks up to the sky. “That’s not as clear as you make it sound...”
Terra chuckles and ruffles his hair. “You’re such a kid.”
Ventus rejects his teasing and offers a scowl. “Hey! I’m not a kid...” he pouts. “
“Yeah?” Terra smirks. “Tell ya what, let’s get a sparring session going and we’ll see just how much of a kid you really are.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t be a bully,” Aqua teases as she enters the fray.
Terra shrugs innocently. “What? Just a little friendly competition, since Ven wants to be taken seriously. I say we give him the shot to prove himself. What do you say?”
Ventus grins, pounding his fist into his palm with a determined expression. “You’re on!”
Aqua rolls her eyes. “Boys...”
Aqua giggles at the memories, allowing a tear slip down her cheek without her notice. The simple days when there wasn’t a catastrophic crisis hanging on the balance of the world as they knew it—how she longed to be transported back to such a blissful purity.
Lost in thought, she fails to realize that she stumbles onto a cobblestone path. She places her Wayfinder back into her pouch and walks down the trail with a keen scrutiny. Lamp line up on each end, giving the path a peach colored warm, but dimly-lit radiance.
Before she can proceed, the ground jolts her with a sudden rumble. Keeping her eyes alert and cautious, she summons her Keyblade and prepares a stance. On the sides of the aisle from the deepest depths of darkness rises two monstrous brutes in the extensive catalogue of Heartless. They are called Darkside’s, and as one of them brings down his fist, Aqua neatly jumps out of the way.
She propels her into the air, spinning while discharging powerful bolts of light pearls towards both of the creatures, successfully hitting both. Not backing down, she lands on the ground and lunges towards one of them ready to slash.
To her surprise, the Darkside grabs her by the waist in midair and merely slams her back to the cobblestone path below.
Aqua yells in excruciating pain, desperately trying to lift herself back up to her feet. Normally, a blow like that wouldn’t be nearly as drastic. But with her nonstop battle against these demonic creatures of late, her exhaustion has seemed to finally caught back up to her.
Maybe she really should sink into the darkness here. It’s not like she has anything left...
“I hope you two have been making the necessary adjustments in preparation for your Mark of Mastery in two days,” Eraqus says as he and his pupils sit at the dinner table like a family.
“We’ve been training day and night, Master Eraqus,” Terra says. “You know that.”
“Of course, but training means nothing if it isn’t necessary. You must be sure that you prepare yourselves most adequately.”
“I assure you, Master,” Aqua says. “Terra and I will make sure that we’re prepared.”
“It is not you who I worry for, Aqua...” Eraqus averts an eye to Terra.
“What?” Terra says with a full mouth.
“You mustn’t lose sight of your destiny, Terra. I care for you like my own son, and I don’t want to see you fail. But it is a crucial necessity that you keep that darkness of yours at bay.”
“Y-Yes, Master...”
“My friend who will be coming in to observe your examination will be able to pick up any trace of darkness, so never let your guard down. You must be cautious at all costs. And that goes to all of you. I do not want to see any of my students being driven by the darkness.”
“Hey, don’t sweat it,” Ven says. “Terra and Aqua are gonna pass this exam with flying colors! Right, Terra?”
“Without a doubt.”
“You certainly seem more cheerful,” Aqua observes.
“Huh?” Ventus inquires. “Me?”
“It’s true,” Terra agrees. “You were a zombie when you first got here, and now you’ve actually learned how to smile. I say you’ve had a lot of progress. Not only with your social skills, but as a Keyblade wielder too.”
“Really?” Ven asks in awe.
“Wouldn’t you say so, Aqua?”
“Of course,” she answers. “I see Keyblade Master potential in him, easily.”
Ventus feels his stomach bubbling with joy and mirth overtake him with all of the compliments. He loved when they praised him.
“Let’s just hope no one nearly implodes our home this time.”
Ventus rubs the back of his head with a sheepish smile. “Sorry...”
Aqua fails to suppress a giggle, making the other boys turn their heads. “Oh, sorry—it’s just, it’s the little things like this that can be really special.” She holds her hand to her chest. “I just hope we can always be together like this.”
“Forever is a bold statement,” Eraqus says. “Expect the unexpected. Who knows when sometimes miraculous may come up. Who knows? We may even be put into a situation of grave danger within the next few days and we wouldn’t have seen it coming, which is why you must always see it coming and stand two steps ahead of the opposing force.”
“Even still, no matter what happens, even if we’re apart, we’ll always find a way back to each other,” Terra says.
“Yeah!” Ventus exclaims. “No matter what, we’re a team! And it’s gonna stay that way.”
Aqua can feel her heart glow. The simple moments truly do it for her. Master Eraqus makes a good point to expect the unexpected, but she just hopes that any misfortune that might disrupt their peace will be far off. She wants to spend a long while with the freedom to enjoy these occasions with the ones most special to her.
Besides, nothing can change that drastically, can it?
“I’ll always be there to protect you guys,” Aqua says with sentimentality in her voice. “I’ll never let anything happen to any of you.”
But she failed. She failed to protect both of them and now she was paying the price. She’s alone, about to be pummeled to death by two vicious beings born of darkness. This must be her punishment for not living up to the title of Master.
“No matter what, we’re a team! And it’s gonna stay that way.”
Wait, what is she doing? She can’t give up. Ventus is depending on her survival if he ever wants to see the light of day again. With what little strength left that courses through her veins, she kips herself back up and avoids an incoming punch from both Darkside’s.
In a move she calls Deep Freeze, she summons glaciers of ice to trap both of her foes before launching them both to the sides, killing them both in a final swathe.
She lands on the pathway yet again, but her legs give out and she tumbles to the ground.
What is this weakness? She’s never felt so fatigued before in her life.
Before, she felt like she had something worth fighting for. But both of her friends are gone. Doubts begin to creep in on every direction. Would she even be able to save them? Is she even worthy of the Master title?
How much time does she have left?
Master Eraqus instilled great trust within her. How could she give up when he put so much faith on her as a person?
She clutches a fist and finds inner strength. Aqua uses her Keyblade and lifts herself up to her feet.
She pulls out her Wayfinder and musters a sad smile.
She’s not alone.
There’s still time.
It’s not over yet.
With newfound determination, Aqua sets out into the distance.
It wasn’t long before she came across a familiar castle.
The Castle of Dreams