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PROMPT I.
Destiny Islands
The moment he feels his shoes sink into the sand, Ventus knows he’s been here before.
This exact spot, that is.
He’s been to Destiny Islands, of course. It’s not a memory he likes to dwell on, but the lazy splash of waves and the bright blue sky slowly sinking into twilight can’t help but conjure it up. Another place, another lifetime, practically. Without meaning to, he turns his eyes down and spies the shadow under his feet.
“Heads up!” Lea yells and Ven is nothing if not quick.
Blue eyes land on the makeshift frisbee headed his way. With a grin and all thoughts of the darkness beneath him forgotten, Ven springs to action.
He’s not sure how many rounds they go, but the game is decidedly over when he accidentally beheads Donald’s sandy magnum opus. He can’t make out a single word amongst the indignant squawks, something he’s actually grateful for as he tries to placate the seething mage.
Yet somehow, in the midst of Donald’s tirade, he can’t help but tune out as he catches sight of Sora from the corner of his eye.
He’s a silhouette against the sinking sun sat next to Kairi on a log. Ven’s smile is as natural as the tide.
Everyone else goes quiet, too, and silence falls over the beach. Nothing but the waves and the wind and the setting sun.
After Sora vanished, most everyone’s gone inside for the night. They are expectedly somber, even if some try to keep things light. Lea, of course, with his quips, and Ven himself with his generally sunny disposition. Namine surprises them all with her quiet optimism. Kairi surprises no one with her optimistic determination even if there are moments where her eyes grow misty. Riku shares that determination, but he’s opted for a thoughtful sort of retreat from the crowd.
Ven does, too, at some point. Light though his heart may be, even he has his limits.
He decides to get some air.
There’s no moon in the night sky. Not even stars. There are clouds that blot them out and it somehow feels appropriate, like the world itself is suffering the same loss.
His feet carry him to the beach, ultimately to log where Sora disappeared only hours ago. With a sigh, Ven climbs up and lies back, hands beneath his head and eyes skyward.
Is that … there! Peeking in as it darts between the clouds- a shooting star!
Ven lifts his hand, lazily reaches for the endless sky, for the hope that comes when, even on a starless and cloudy night, a single dazzling light shines through anyway.
The moment he reaches out, agony strikes like lightning.
It pierces his skull like nails driven through bone. It drills behind one eye and spreads, lava hot and blizzard cold all at once. He bites out an aborted cry and falls from the log, unable to catch himself in favor of clutching his throbbing head. He hears groans, aware they’re probably his judging from the scraping in his throat, but it all dulls to numbing static consumed by spots blotting his vision until it all whites out.
And when it's back? He’s there. Everything is the same.
But it’s colder. Something scratchy is wrapped around him, too tight. He shivers but he can’t really move and when he tries to open his it’s almost impossible. Yet they drag open and the world seems grey, bleeding into color only when the shine of a beacon of light shines down.
A beacon of light coming from his very own keyblade, held aloft in his outstretched hand.
“A keyblade!” says Master Xehanort .
Ven’s heart flutters at the familiar sound. And then it hurts, like it’s raw and flayed open and held together with nothing but duct tape and paperclips. Like there’s a hollow in his chest that’s been refilled, but nothing sits quite right just yet.
Wayward Wind disappears and the world is dark again but for the bright white blanket Ven dazedly realizes is wrapped around him.
“I suppose I underestimated you, Ventus” says Master Xehanort (Why is he here? He can’t be here!) as he comes closer.
Move.
Ven has to move. Summon Wayward Wind, fight - run away, something, anything , he has to-
“Ventus!”
Ven opens his eyes to Lea’s concerned face.
“Ven! Man, you really know how to worry your friends! … Hey, Ven? Ya with me here?
Ven nods (a mistake if there’s ever been one) and practically feels his brain rattle around inside his skull. He masks the wince as well as he can and drags himself up out of the sand.
“Woah! No rush, okay? Xion already ran to get some help.”
Which means Aqua and Terra. Which means concerned looks and questions.
Not that he’s not grateful, of course he is. He loves them with all his heart and then some, it’s just…
Since they all reunited, Terra and especially Aqua have been in “protective” mode. Bordering into “overprotective.” By a lot.
The sigh that escapes him is equal parts lingering pain and exasperation.
“Thanks, Lea. I’m okay. Musta fallen asleep and fell or…”
Ven lets the lie die. It’d be easy to brush off, to ignore, something he’d done a million times. Old habits and all that.
Maybe he’s not so different, but things are different. Vastly. The world he woke up in is not the one he left even if some of the puzzle pieces coming together make a vaguely familiar picture.
And then there’s the new puzzle pieces. Or… are they old ones?
Chirithy, for example. And incidents just like this one.
The bolt of pain. The fainting. The full on visions are rarer, or they were, but it seems with every passing day they’re coming more often.
Nothing he can make sense of. Even if this most recent one, with the sound of a smile in Xehanort’s voice, makes Ven shiver.
He doesn’t want to lie, and hasn’t really, not about these …memories, or whatever.
But he will for tonight.
“Can’t tell you how many times Aqua caught me sleeping in the courtyard,” he says with a laugh and slaps on a grin, “All that sleep and I just can’t seem to catch up.”
Lea leans back with a little frown, green eyes squinting. He sighs back and stands, only to offer Ven a hand.
“Yeah, yeah, sure. Whatever you say,” he concedes, even if they both know there’s more to it. He puts on a smile of his own, sharper and just as forced. Ven takes his hand and stands. “Well, come on, then. We’ve got a rescue to plan!”
Ven doesn’t want to lie, but he does for tonight because he’s already been rescued once. Whatever these headaches are, whatever this is…? It can wait.
After all, they’ve got a rescue to plan.