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Rebirth | Corruption | Reverse
It’s a dusty forgotten room piled full of boxes where they finally find the device. Ventus pulls it from a box that’s full of old books and a pile of robes that make his heart ache. He must make some noise because Sora leaves off checking another box and comes over to see what he’s found. They both look at it quietly for a long moment.
“Not that I’m against this, but what’s your plan, Ven?” Sora glances over his shoulder and then back at the small gold device resting in Ven’s hands. It looks so unassuming, like a little gold watch just waiting to be wound. Insanely powerful magical objects should look big and fancy, right? Not tiny little things you could step on and break. Sora rubs the back of his head. “I mean, this is time travel and I’m pretty sure everything ever made about it says going back without a plan is a really bad idea?”
Ven laughs and carefully shifts the watch into one hand. He pats Sora’s shoulder. “I know. Trust me, I’m being really careful. It’s just a little hard to explain a time travel plan. Like Xehanort’s was awful.”
“It still makes my brain hurt,” Sora mutters. He drops his hands, shoving them into his jacket pockets. “This is different, anyway. You’re not casting off your body or releasing your heart or whatever.”
“No, I’m not,” Ven says with another laugh. “This is all I need to take all of me back in time.” He holds up the watch, catching the light on its face. “I read all about it, so don’t worry.”
Sora frowns at him. “I’m definitely going to worry.” He scuffs a foot on the ground. “About you and what you’re doing and...time travel freaks me out. What if you make us all not exist or something crazy? Kairi has the freakiest time travel movies.” Sora groans and slumps against the wall. “You’re not going to unexist this whole timeline, right?”
He could laugh again, but Ven swallows it. He takes Sora’s arm and squeezes it. “I’m not, I promise. I’m just going to change one tiny thing and give us a better chance.”
“If this wasn’t so important to you, I’d definitely tell the masters.” Sora shakes his head, spikes bouncing. When Riku gets lumped in with the other masters, it’s to point out how strict they can get sometimes. Ven’s pretty sure it’s deserved when the rest of them can get so reckless. Sora’s bright blue eyes fix on Ven’s face. “Tell me again why you need to do this.”
“We don’t really have ti-.”
“Ven,” Sora protests. “You have plenty of time.”
He’s right and Ven sighs. He pulls a dusty box out for each of them to sit on and then drops onto his, turning the watch in his fingers. Sora waits silently as the dust drifts through the air around them.
“It took a while to understand what happened in your heart.” Ven doesn’t see the watch in his fingers or Sora watching him. He sees colors and shapes blur together as he recalls dreams that only recently began to take form. “It felt like dreams, all your adventures and the things you had to do with the keyblade. But, that was just the easiest part for my heart to process. There were other memories, buried deeper.”
“Your heart was a haven for us. I remember that now, being there and meeting Roxas and Xion. We talked a lot, spent a lot of time trying to understand each other. We wanted to help you, well, I really did, but we were deep in your heart so I could only reach you when I was asleep.” Ventus presses his thumb to the watch face, mind far away. “I didn’t know until the end, right after Xehanort tried to take you for a vessel, that Vanitas had been there the whole time.”
Ven blinks his eyes back into focus and Sora is just watching him, steadily, unsurprised. Ven smiles a little, self-deprecating. “You figured it out?”
A shrug isn’t much of an answer, but it’s what Sora offers. “I knew there was something...more.”
“He hid himself. He didn’t...I don’t think he knew what it was to be safe like that. We never saw him.” Ventus sets the watch in his lap and folds his hands together. “It was only when I wrapped my light around you that I felt his darkness doing the same thing. Then Riku came. Then...he was gone.” He pulls his hands apart again. “And when you and Aqua came to wake me, neither of us remembered.”
Sora hooks his arm around his knee. “Right, because they were deep memories. But now you remember. So, you’re time traveling because?”
Ventus intertwines his fingers. “Because when we were in your heart, we both wanted the same thing: to protect you. That Vanitas, the one who would protect someone, that’s who I want to know. But because of Xehanort, because I didn’t remember then, it wasn’t enough to convince him that there was something more to us than light, darkness, and destiny.” He sighs and picks the watch up again. “I want another chance.”
“You can’t just appear in front of us and change that, can you?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m trying something else.” Ven looks at Sora, eyes bright with some undefinable energy. “Tell me again about the door Vanitas went through in Monstropolis.”
The watch hums in his hands as he carefully winds it back. Hours, days drop away until Ven is looking down at the closest approximate Sora could give him. The watch only gives him an hour in the past, so he’s got to hope that Sora is right. Ven takes a long inhale and then clicks the top of the watch. The world goes very, very bright.
When it clears, Ventus quickly ducks behind the closest tree. He can see the shape of a cabin not far off, dark and empty by the look of its windows. Not a bad guess for the door Vanitas will be coming through shortly. The storm howling around the mountain is fierce and Ven thanks the stars above, and also the good faeries, for the magic in his clothes. Long sleeves and a warm hood have been added to his jacket and he wraps his arms around himself gratefully. He’s in position, now to actually make the changes he needs.
He can’t physically talk to Vanitas. That would fuck things up majorly and while he’s sure he could beat Vanitas, he doesn’t want to engage in that and see what kind of madness results. He thought about leaving something for Vanitas, his wayfinder maybe, but that would be a source of confusion and who knows if Vanitas would take it. It might make him think of all he’s lacked since they were split.
Ventus is leaving him a message, one that won’t be clear, won’t spell things out, but one that will hopefully linger. He wants to leave Vanitas a message that this isn’t the only way and that someone out there knows and remembers something more. Maybe it won’t trigger Vanitas’s memories from Sora’s heart, but if it lingers...if it gives Vanitas pause while they’re speaking in the Graveyard…
The future could be so much more.
With the press of a button, Ventus calls his armor around him. He pops the helmet off, immediately yanking the hood of his jacket back up, and sets it on a rock. He circles around the trees until he finds one that’s in clear view of anyone coming out the door. He checks the watch that’s still glowing and then sets to work.
He borrowed the knife from Terra after a few tips on basic carving. It digs into the tree trunk well despite the harsh cold. Eyes on his helmet, Ventus carves its shape into the tree. It takes a while, each minute ticking by so loudly in his ears. It needs to be recognizable...but it doesn’t have to be perfect. He’ll know.
The lines of the wings swoop up on either side and as he carves out the shape of the bottom jaw guard, Ventus pauses. He traces his finger over the shape gently. It’s...very similar to the shape of the guard that protected Vanitas’s chin, the steel frame of his mask. Ventus swallows and finishes the last of the helmet quickly. He lifts the knife again to add a new mark over the front of the visior.
He’s seen the mark of the Unversed many times and despite the time between his last sighting and now, he still remembers it clearly. It’s such a sharp heart shape and Ventus takes a quick step back to make sure the lines haven’t ruined the design. It looks close enough to pass and he puts the knife away quickly. Vanitas will know that someone who knows the two of them was here, but it’s not quite enough.
Ven calls his keyblade to hand and points it at the tree. Under the image, he burns in the words that might, might be enough to call to the pieces of Vanitas’s heart. Just in time, he hears the muffled sound of something and then the cabin door flies open. Ventus dives for cover, scooping up his helmet as he ducks into the bushes. The thorns scrape at the metal, but he freezes as something hits the snow-covered ground hard. Slowly, he reaches out and shifts the leaves in front of him to see the ground in front of the cabin.
Someone in a black coat is lying face-down in the snow. Ven bites his lip as Vanitas’s head lifts, the snow sliding off the dark glass of his mask quickly. He can almost feel the rage under Vanitas’s skin as the darkness pulses around him. He turns, but the door he came through is shut again and already the portal to Monstropolis is disconnected thanks to Sora’s friends. Vanitas’s hands clench in and out and Ventus doesn’t dark breathe.
Void Gear appears in Vanitas’s hand and he throws it at the cabin door. It smashes through the door and then reappears in Vanitas’s hand as the sound rings out through the trees. Vanitas whirls and shoots dark fire at anything close by, scorching the trees and the ground, and melting paths through the snow and ice. Miraculously, none of his furious spellwork hits the tree Ven marked.
The keyblade vanishes as Vanitas grabs his masked head in both hands. He screams wordlessly, more rage that cannot be contained in his skin. Ven’s heart twists in his chest as he watches; he’s never felt anything like this, but he...he almost understands. Vanitas wrenches the mask off and throws it at the nearby rocks. The glass doesn’t shatter, but the mask is lost among the stones for now.
At his slight distance, Ven can see Vanitas’s jaw work as he grinds his teeth. Vanitas looks skyward and yells again. “That stupid, idiot boy! How is he always in my damn way? Always between me and him and always with damn friends! ” He turns and throws fire spells from his hands at the cabin, hurling the fireballs until smoke is rising from the roof. “All I want is what’s mine!”
Ventus exhales softly. He knew Vanitas had been unhinged, driven to extreme emotions by their broken heart, but this… It reminds him so much of a child yelling because the world has shown how broken it is. He presses a hand to his chest. Come on, Vanitas. Look.
Their bond shouldn’t be a thing here. Ventus is a person out of time, not this Vanitas’s Ventus, still waiting in Sora’s heart. Vanitas can’t feel him here in the bushes, can’t feel his emotions whirling. They’re not connected, not in this twisting of time.
But Vanitas lowers his hands to his sides and exhales a long breath. The air is warmed by the now burning cabin, melting more of the snow around them. Vanitas turns and looks around and his face is wet, tears cutting twin tracks down his face. We were a child and Xehanort broke us and then I can only imagine what Vanitas’s life was. He wants to be whole, not a person on his own, but me, us again. Tears slide down Ventus’s face, catching in the warm hood, as he presses his lips together and doesn’t make a sound.
He can almost feel it when Vanitas’s eyes finally land on the tree and the marks he carved. He can see Vanitas stiffen and then stride closer, his keyblade coming to his hand. He stops in front of the tree and looks around, face still stained with tears. No one appears, Ven does not breathe, and Vanitas lifts a hand. He must touch the design, but Ven can hardly see what bit from here. He watches anyway, watches Vanitas’s hand follow some line or other, and he watches Vanitas’s gaze drop to the words waiting for him.
“May your heart be your guiding key,” Vanitas whispers to what could be an empty snow-covered land. Ventus squeezes his hand over his heart as the words echo in his mind.
Something slides over Vanitas’s face, an emotion too deep to name. He takes a breath and then his mask has appeared in his hands. He holds it between himself and the tree, face pulled back to an expressionless emptiness that doesn’t cover the signs that his emotions have left on this place and his face. “Ventus,” he mutters and then puts the mask back on.
Vanitas’s steps crunch through the snow as he strides away. His voice carries further. “I’ll find you. I’ll find you.” There is no anger or hate, only desperation in his tone.
Hiding in the bushes, Ventus waits for the sound of a dark portal opening and shutting. Only then does he climb from his hiding spot. He quickly calls water from the air and extinguishes the burning cabin. The fewer signs of their passage through the worlds, the better. Looking down the path Vanitas took away from this place, Ventus tries to have hope. He made his mark, left his message, and now...he has to see what awaits.
The watch is beginning to shake and he pulls it out. Both hands point to twelve and he only has a moment to take a quick breath and then everything is light once again.
Ventus lands in a clatter of armor, knocking the air out of him. He groans and opens his hand, already expecting what he finds. The watch is but broken glass now, the shards already fading away. One chance only. He drops the hand with a sigh and pushes himself back to his feet. He dismisses his armor one-handed and looks around. Destiny Islands had seemed like an auspicious place to leave from and the artifact has set him back on the play island. He crashed right into the stone path circling the large trees.
“Hey, idiot!” The voice comes from out near the water and Ventus shades his eyes. The sun is beginning to rise from the sea and he can just make out a figure standing on the pier. Starting to grin, Ventus jogs over to the steps.
The wood thumps under his boots and he can’t stop himself from waving with his whole arm, even when he’s only ten feet away. He can see Vanitas roll his eyes, but it just makes him grin wider. Ventus slows to a stop in front of him, the sun blocked by Vanitas’s head. “Hey,” he says belatedly.
Vanitas gives that the scoff it probably deserves and crosses his arms over his chest. “I was wondering when you’d get back. Sora said it shouldn’t be too long. It was only supposed to be a thirty minute trip.” Vanitas’s eyes, a gold beginning to fade into something much greener, sweep over Ven’s face as if the answer might be spelled out there.
Giving an enigmatic smile, Ven shrugs. “It was. Everything went fine. What are you doing out here?”
“Waiting for you.” Vanitas flushes and looks away. “You said we’d be doing something important today since I’m ‘no longer inclined to stab me.’” He quotes with his fingers as he does a mockingly high voice.
Ven punches him in the arm. “That’s an important qualification for this.” Vanitas is here. Vanitas has been here. He can feel the bubbly feeling of new memories waiting for him, but he shoves them back. There will be time later to fully know how Vanitas came to be here, to be with him. For now, all that matters is that he is.
“I have something for us to make together.” Ven holds a hand out to him, his heart thrumming in his chest.
Vanitas looks at the hand for a long moment and then takes it, his rough fingers wrapping carefully around Ventus’s. Ven squeezes it and then tugs him toward the beach. “We’re going to make you a wayfinder.” He looks over his shoulder just in time to see the sunrise highlight Vanitas’s small smile.
From a thousand throats comes the call.
From three still living keys in a Graveyard comes the cry.
From the quiet space between the beat of two hearts comes the whisper.
May your heart be your guiding key.