Chapter Text
Ven tried not to fidget too much, he really did, but he was nervous. He paced the ferry deck as it swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the waves.
“Relax, Ven,” Aqua said with a smile. She was perched on the hood of their car, gazing out at the bright blue ocean that rushed around them. Her fancy witch robes almost seemed to glow the exact same shade under the warm sunlight. Chirithy was sprawled out on her lap, purring as she scratched his chin. “I know you’ve never been to a clan meeting before, but there’s no need to be nervous. You’ll do fine. I promise.”
“Have you been to a meeting before?” Ven asked.
“Master took us a few times,” Aqua said, “but our coven hasn’t been to one since you got here.”
“Were we not invited?”
“We were busy.” Eraqus was unusually subdued. Both he and Terra were brooding inside the car. Terra was in the driver’s seat with his eyes screwed shut as he rubbed the chunky necklace he always wore. Ven bet he was seasick. “But now our coven has received a direct invitation.”
Ven frowned. “Are we in trouble, Master?”
“I don’t think so,” Eraqus said. “But the summons were unusually vague.”
“Are they always on the mainland?” Ven asked. He switched from pacing to running his fingers over the soft sleeves of his prairie-green robes.
“They usually are,” Eraqus said. “The location of yearly meetings changes, but it’s never been this early before, and never so far into the desert.”
“The desert?” Terra’s eyes snapped open. “You didn’t tell me it was going to be in the desert.”
Ven wrinkled his nose.
“We’re having a meeting in the desert?” Ven asked. “With these robes?”
At least their brimmed hats would shade them, but they were heavy and hot too. Ven hadn’t had to deal with dry desert heat for years, since he had been drifting from foster home to foster home, but those memories were as fuzzy as they were painful.
“I understand why they chose the desert,” Terra said. “There are rock formations out there that are good for magic circles. I guess it depends how deep into the desert we go. I brought amulets and stuff just in case.”
“In case of what?” Aqua asked.
“You’ve been to the desert?” Ven asked Terra. “When?”
“Years ago,” Terra said. He cracked a smile. “But don’t worry too much about the heat. There are way worse things to wear out there than fancy linen. Besides, it’s not hot at this time of year.”
There was a story there, one Ven was dying to know, but before he could ask about it, Aqua pointed at the horizon. “I think we’re almost there,” she said.
“Aw,” Chirithy grumbled from Aqua’s lap. “I don’t wanna move.”
Unfortunately, since he was Ven’s familiar, Aqua couldn’t understand him, but she probably would have picked him up off her lap even if she could. The captain made the same announcement. Ven got back into the car, fastened his and Chirithy’s seat belts, and waited for the ferry to stop.
A few minutes after they drove onto the mainland, Eraqus’s phone rang.
“Hello?”
The phone wasn’t on speaker, but since Ven was sitting behind Eraqus in the back seat, he could faintly hear the other side of the conversation.
“Greetings, Eraqus. I was just calling to make sure you are prepared for what lies ahead.”
Ven could hear the scowl in Eraqus’s voice. “Pardon me, but I was under the impression that this was a clan meeting.”
“Who’s the master talking to?” Ven whispered to Aqua.
“It’s probably Yen Sid,” Aqua said, “since he’s the head of our clan.”
“Have you met him before?” Ven asked.
“Mmhm,” Aqua said. “He’s nice.”
“Xehanort’s been arrested?”
Eraqus’s shocked question reverberated through the car. Terra’s hands tensed on the steering wheel. Ven narrowed his eyes. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place the memory…
“Aqua, can you take over?” Terra asked tersely.
“Sure,” she said. “Pull over.”
They swapped places. Normally, Terra would complain about being forced to fold his long legs and wide frame into the small space behind the driver’s seat, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere as he gripped his necklace.
Ven focused back on the conversation Eraqus was still having over the phone.
“Was he arrested by amagicals, or did the clan arrest him?” Eraqus continued to the phone.
“Well, therein lies the complication,” Yen Sid said. “I will explain the rest to you in-person. The real reason the clan summoned you was out of desperation. Xehanort himself surrendered quietly to the amagicals, but his apprentice refused to go quietly.”
“Don’t tell me the amagicals tried to arrest a child just for associating with Xehanort,” Eraqus said quietly.
“It wasn’t a matter of wouldn’t, it was a matter of couldn’t,” Yen Sid said. “Myself and the rest of the clan have been trying to get him under control, but he is stubborn. We were hoping that your experience with exorcism and Xehanort would bring new light to this situation.”
“Exorcism?” Eraqus asked. “Did the apprentice summon a ghost or spirit?”
"The apprentice is a ghost."
What? Xehanort had made a ghost his apprentice? Ven had no idea ghosts could be solid enough to do magic at all, even if they were witches in life.
Eraqus scowled. "I wish I had heard all of these details beforehand. My apprentices and I are dressed for ceremony, not combat."
"Believe me, it was not my intention to keep you in the dark," Yen Sid said. "Would your garments impede too much?"
"No," Eraqus said. "Anything else?"
“No, that is all.”
“Farewell then. We can speak more once we arrive.”
He hung up the phone.
"Aqua, Terra, Ventus," he said in the voice that Required Attention. "I need you to listen carefully. I don't know how much of that conversation you heard, but we were not invited for a clan meeting. A... prominent witch who used to hail from our coven has been arrested. Although he is currently in custody, his apprentice is still fighting clan officials. Apparently, Xehanort managed to apprentice a ghost."
Terra's face turned stony. “They really arrested Xehanort?”
Eraqus's eyes narrowed. "I wasn't aware you knew of Xehanort," he said quietly.
"Who's Xehanort again?" Ven asked. Now that Terra brought attention to it, the name sounded even more familiar, but-
"He was once part of our coven and a close friend of mine," Eraqus said. "No longer. I had to banish him years ago for using dark magic."
"If he’s banished, why did the clan send us to take care of his ghost apprentice?" Aqua asked. "He's not our responsibility anymore."
"Xehanort will always be my responsibility," Eraqus said sadly. "It’s my burden for allowing him to fall to darkness."
Ven could see Aqua's face soften in the rearview mirror.
"We'll take care of this quickly," she said.
"I hope it's that simple," Eraqus said. "Exorcists far more powerful than I have attempted to exorcise this ghost-witch, and failed."
Ven didn’t even know there were exorcists more powerful than Eraqus. Maybe he was just being humble.
"There's no harm in trying," Terra said, but his face said otherwise. Nerves didn't belong on Terra's face, but there they were.
Ven ran his fingers through Chirithy’s fur. He wished that the butterflies in his stomach could have been from meeting clan leaders and not from whatever this ghost held in store.
The ghost-apprentice was making his last stand in the middle of the desert badlands. Crops of stone dotted the landscape. When Ven looked closer, he noticed scorch marks on the stones and scars in the earth from spells that missed their marks. There was a faint sickly-sweet scent under the smell of dust and ozone.
Eraqus pointed to the distance. "There. Do you see him?"
There was nothing on the first two planes of existence, but on the third, a small silhouette stood against the burning desert sky.
"Yes," Aqua said.
Chirithy stirred and nudged Ven.
"Hey, Ven," he said. "Do you feel anything?"
"What do you mean?" he asked. "I'm not a prophet like Terra. I'm nervous, but that's normal. I've never exorcised a witch's ghost before."
"I mean with your heart," Chirithy meowed. "There's something on the seventh plane between the two of you."
"What do you mean? Like a curse?"
"Like a thread," Chirithy said. "I've never seen anything like it."
Before Ven could ask more, Aqua put her hand on his shoulder.
"Is everything alright?" she asked. "Are you nervous?"
"Yeah," Ven said.
"We'll be fine, Ven," Terra said. "We'll wrap this up and get out of here as fast as possible. Does that sound good?"
It sounded like Terra wanted to get out of there, but Ven could understand the sentiment.
"Are you ready?" Eraqus asked. "I will draw his attention while you three form a circle. Together, the four of us should be able to help him move on to the Other Place."
They nodded and quietly moved towards the ghost. As soon as they were in range, Eraqus raised his hand, and one of the chains on his hand glowed and shot towards the ghost.
Ven didn't stick around to see how the ghost responded or even what he looked like. As the fastest, it was his job to get behind him. Ven made a fist and kissed the tin ring on his left hand.
"As fast as the wind," he whispered, before grabbing Chirithy and taking off.
The dry desert wind hummed around Ven’s ears as it propelled him further forward. The air buffeted him like his kid siblings trying to push him down with mischievous smiles and giggles.
Ven skidded to his position in seconds. His chest heaved and he resisted the urge to collapse onto the ground.
Chirithy leapt from his arms and waited.
"Aqua and Terra are in position," he finally said.
Ven reached down and grabbed the bright green Wayfinder charm hanging from the belt of his robes. He knew that Aqua and Terra were doing the same with their respective Wayfinders, even if they were too far away for Ven to see.
"Dancing water forms bonds," Aqua's voice chanted from everywhere and nowhere.
A blue slice of light erupted on the second plane, right where Aqua was standing. If the ghost noticed, he didn't care enough to take his attention off of flinging dark lightning at Eraqus.
"Vast earth protects bonds," Terra's voice chanted.
The gold light drew the ghost's attention.
"Swift wind returns to bonds," Ven chanted as he thought of his love for Terra and Aqua. He sliced the ground in front of him with two fingers. Green light erupted in a barrier, trapping the ghost and Eraqus inside their magic circle. The warm connection between Ven and his best friends sang through the planes.
"LIGHT!"
If Eraqus hadn't braced for it, the light magic would have hit him too, but even if it had, it wouldn't have hurt him nearly as much as it hurt the ghost, who hissed and fell to a single knee. Eraqus held out his hands, and before the ghost could cry out, chains wrapped around his limbs.
"And with the bonds connecting me to the World, I release yours. Go in peace.”
With the last words, the ghost should have at least begun to fade away, or maybe cry out, but instead, he threw his head back and laughed.
Ven's blood ran cold. He knew that laugh. He hadn't heard such a cackle in four years, but he recognized it instantly.
"Vanitas?"
"Did you really think that would work?" the ghost jeered, and Ven's hands started to shake, because it was Vanitas's voice. "Your own clan leader couldn't get rid of me. Face it, you're out-"
Ven raced forward. His side of the barrier shattered, and the magic circle fell with it, but he didn't care.
"Ven!" Chirithy cried, but Ven didn't care. He was busy racing towards his brother, his dead twin brother, who he hadn't seen in four years.
Vanitas finally turned, and their eyes caught.
"Vanitas," Ven said, because he didn't know what else to say.
Vanitas's face melted from arrogance to soft shock, but it hardened again to what most people might have seen as contempt but Ven knew was fury.
"How dare you?" Vanitas hissed. "How dare you traitors use my brother's face?" The chains snapped from his writhing and he pushed Eraqus back with a full-face blast of wind. Lightning erupted from his hands. "I'll kill you for that."
"Vanitas, wait!" Ven cried. "It's me! It's really me!"
Vanitas just scoffed. If Aqua hadn't sent a rain-cool magic barrier his way, Ven would have taken a face full of lighting.
"Stop, Vanitas!" Ven shouted again. "Why won't you believe me?"
Vanitas didn't even bother answering. Fire flared into his hand with a short scoff. Ven gulped. The barrier withstood the first hit. It wouldn't withstand another.
"You look just like Sora now," Ven blurted out without thinking. "Or, um, Sora looks just like you."
Vanitas’s hand froze, but the fire didn't leave it.
"Maybe you looked up our records," Vanitas said with narrowed eyes.
"Our fourth birthday isn't in any records," Ven mused out loud. "Dad baked us a cowboy cake, remember? With sugar sand and chocolate cacti?"
The fire faded, and Vanitas's face relaxed again.
"Ventus?" he asked quietly.
"Vanitas," Ven breathed. "I found you."
"I thought you were dead," Vanitas said as he stepped closer.
Ven walked through the remains of Aqua's barrier.
"You are dead," Ven said quietly.
He reached for Vanitas, now close enough for Ven to embrace him or bump their foreheads together, but his hand passed through. Vanitas really was a ghost.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked. “Don’t tell me that old man is your master.”
“Of course he is,” Ven said. “And what about you? Didn’t your master get arrested?”
Vanitas’s eyes narrowed, and for the first time, Ven noticed they were tarnished gold instead of the sky blue they used to be. Had Vanitas been using dark magic?
“Some petty nagics are blaming the Master for something he didn’t do. The rest of your stupid clan wants to throw him under the bus for it rather than fight them on it. It’s bullshit.”
“What’s going on?” Aqua asked. Her hands were out, ready to shoot a spear of ice at Vanitas at the smallest movement. Terra was next to her, looking at Vanitas with something akin to horror on his face.
“This is my twin brother Vanitas,” Ven said. He still couldn’t believe it. “Vanitas, this is my master, Eraqus, and these are Aqua and Terra.”
“That’s your twin brother?” Aqua’s hands dropped. “Oh, Ven.”
“Forget this,” Vanitas said. He turned to Ven and bored those gold eyes into his. “You mentioned Sora.”
“Yeah! I found him- I found all of them! Sora and his friends even train with us! A family on-island adopted him, Roxas, and Xion. Oh, um, Shio goes by Xion now. Uses she and they pronouns.”
Vanitas’s face trembled in a way that precluded tears. “You found them? They got adopted? Into the same household?”
“Yeah! Look, stand down, and we can take you to them.”
“Hold, Ventus,” Eraqus said. “We still have business to take care of here. Besides, he is a ghost. You know what that means.”
“You couldn’t exorcise him before,” Ven said. “And if we can’t exorcise him, we won’t.”
“That’s not how we do things,” Eraqus said. “He does not belong here.”
“Don’t worry about it, Venty,” Vanitas said. Every trace of sentiment on his face had twisted into a smirk. “He can spend the rest of his life losing his head over this, but if he can’t do it now, when they’ve destroyed all my Unversed, he won’t be able to do it ever.”
Ven hated when Vanitas called him that, but he didn’t realize how much he had missed hearing it after four years without it.
“Can we take this inside?” Terra asked.
“I’m not moving until your clan agrees to treat my master like they would any other witch and make the nagics drop these stupid charges,” Vanitas said.
“Because amagicals listen to witches,” Aqua muttered under her breath.
“We were brought here unaware of the entire situation,” Eraqus said. “We would be willing to listen to your side of the story, but, as Terra said, it would be easier to do so inside.”
“Fine,” Vanitas said, “but I’m not going into your clan’s tent. Master’s house is close by. I’ll trust you as far as the entryway.”
The “house” in question was closer to a mansion than a house. It was short and box-like, fitting into the desert landscape like it had been placed there by a giant hand. A stone wall surrounded it, only giving way to a spiked metal gate in the front. Vanitas stepped through the gate like it was nothing, but Ven and the others paused in front of it.
“Can you open this for us?” Ven asked.
Vanitas paused.
“Are you able to?” Ven asked. “Or can you not because-”
“I can open the gate,” Vanitas said. He sounded just as fifteen as he looked. “You’re always so impatient, Venty.”
His voice was more fond than usual, but he doubted Terra, Aqua, or Eraqus could tell. He made a gesture, and the gate began to slowly open itself up to them.
“Woah.”
They moved to follow Vanitas through the warded threshold and into the property itself. Desert flowers bloomed in sandy garden soil. Spiked succulents circled the house like guardians of a moat. Wards painted the inside of the stone wall. There was an odd grace in their asymmetrical lines of black, deep purple, and what Ven really hoped was just blood-red paint.
“Hey, Ven,” Chirithy meowed. “Terra didn’t come inside.”
Ven turned and, sure enough, Terra was lingering outside the gates with a scowl carved into his face. Vanitas noticed Ven’s gaze and strode back over to Terra in a few strides.
“You can’t come in, can you?” Vanitas’s smug grin made his teeth flash in the blinding desert sun.
“I didn’t want to go inside anyway,” Terra said. His voice was darker than Ven had ever heard it. “Go on without me.”
Ven looked between the two of them.
“Vanitas, can you-”
“It’s his own damn fault he’s sitting out there,” Vanitas said as he turned away. “The ward wouldn’t be keeping him out if he didn’t mean harm to my master. Didn’t your master teach you anything?”
Both Eraqus and Ven looked at Terra with new eyes.
“Harm your master?” Eraqus echoed softly.
“Do you not know what a ward is, old man?”
At the entrance of the house, Vanitas made a similar gesture with the same energy as sticking out a middle finger, but the door opened anyway. A chill greeted Ven the second he stepped foot inside the house. The air conditioner was a relief after the strain of an exorcism, but it wasn’t the air conditioner that made him shiver. The looming walls cradled a high ceiling painted with silver runes. Animal-head masks, elaborate clocks that ticked in perfect unison, and mirrors that didn’t reflect Ven’s face hung on the walls above polished ebony furniture. The whole place smelled sickly-sweet, but masked with sandalwood incense. The air was as sterile and cold as an art museum’s.
“Welcome,” Vanitas drawled. “Now, are you going to help my master or aren’t you?”
“It depends,” Eraqus said. “What happened?”
“Some nagic mayor bit the dust,” Vanitas said. “The nagics around here knew my master, and hated him for his power. All they needed was an excuse to arrest him. I wouldn’t be surprised if they killed him themselves as an excuse to put him under arrest. I’d almost admire them if they hadn’t-” Vanitas’s face became a blank mask. “They surrounded the house and shouted for him to come out. He could have killed them all, or waited them out, or just fled, but he didn’t. He stepped outside, just like they asked, and do you know how they repaid his courtesy?”
“I can guess,” Eraqus said quietly.
“They slammed him to the ground, shouting obscenities.” Vanitas’s emotionless mask cracked. “I thought it would be more satisfying to watch than it actually was. When your clan heard about his arrest, instead of offering to pay his bail or even hearing his side of the story, they tried to exorcise me.” The mask fell away completely by the prideful smirk splitting Vanitas’s face open. “They couldn’t even do that right.”
“Forgive me,” Eraqus said, “but I know Xehanort has done… less than scrupulous actions in the past.” He rubbed the scars on his face. “I need to know the truth. Did he kill this man?”
“If he really had, you would have never suspected him. He’s not nearly as sloppy as you all.”
“You make a fair point,” Eraqus said. “He always was clever. Doubtless he has a few plans in motion, even now…”
“If he does, he didn’t share them with me, and he shares almost everything with me,” Vanitas said. “Maybe his plan was for you to help him, since no one else seems to want to. Once his bail is set, he can pay it no problem, but-”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves here,” Eraqus said. “I would like to speak to your master directly-”
“Get in line.” Vanitas’s voice was terse. Ven supposed he’d feel just as stressed if his master was put in jail.
“-but I don’t know how possible that would be at the moment. The others in my clan may know more details.”
“We can check with them,” Aqua said. “Ven, you can stay with your brother while we do. Does that sound alright?”
Ven grinned. “Yeah.” He turned to Vanitas. “We can catch up!”
“Sure.” Vanitas was oddly subdued. “I’ll show you my room.”
Ven grinned.
“Very well,” Eraqus said after a pause. “We will return when we’ve finished speaking.”
They left the house. Ven turned to Vanitas.
“Come on. You have to show me everything.”