The morning sun rose upon the land, stirring those hit by the light through their windows to wake up and start their day or keep the light away from their eyes to get a few more minutes of sleep. There was a large shadow Twilight's new castle set across some of the town, which meant everyone who lived under its shadow early in the morning would have to get used to waking up without the light hitting their windows.

In one of the guest rooms of the crystal tree castle, Aqua laid with her head hanging over the side of the bed. Her sheets were a mess from her tossing and turning, her body dangerously close to falling off, unaware of the position she was in. She wound up slipping off, landing on her head and jolting her awake.

"Agh!" she yelled, the rest of her body tumbling over, now laying on the floor. The unicorn groaned, sitting up as she rubbed a hoof against the bump on her head. "Mrf...When was I laying like that?" After waking up from the sudden fall, she wondered where she was as she looked around. "...Oh. Right. This is Twilight's castle. I forgot we all spent the night here."

After a quick stretch, she went over to the window to look outside. The sun was rising, bathing Ponyville in a warm glow. There was a little bit of damage in the town from Tirek's attack, mostly toward where the Golden Oak Library used to be. Aqua knew it must have been painful for Twilight to see her home had been destroyed, along with any of her possessions inside. And having a new place to live moments later after defeating one of Equestria's greatest threats, it must be hard for her to cope with the new changes.

She looked out and spotted the Carousel Boutique, not difficult to find with the carousel rooftop. Aqua did finish making new Wayfinders for everyone a while back, and she withheld them due to all the sudden complications that came up with saving the world or thoughts of who and where The Unknown was. The Keyblade Master teleported from the castle to her room in the boutique, grabbing the chest where she kept her projects before returning back to her guest bedroom in the castle. She figured everyone should have their Wayfinders after saving the day once again, along with their unified friendship as the castle has made thrones for herself, Kairi, Riku, Ventus, and Sora.

With the chest of star charms on her back, she began making her way out of the room. Before she left, she noticed a letter that was on the bedside table. Curious, she levitated it over to her, finding no address or a name of the sender, wondering who sent this while she was asleep. She opened it and read it, shocked to see the same handwriting that came from the last letter, the one The Unknown sent her.

It's time we officially meet. As soon as you wake up and read this, make your way to this location in this world. You'll have all your questions answered, as best as I can answer them, and you'll find out who I am underneath the veil of my cloak.
The Unknown

At the bottom of the letter was a section of a map of Equestria, The Unknown's location marked with an "X" in a forest several miles away from Ponyville. It seemed like he lived in solitude inside of the large forest, though there seemed to be a town that wasn't too far away. Even if he wanted to rough it in the wilderness, there would always be one or two things someone who lived outdoors away from civilization would want, like groceries or books to pass the time. He wanted to see her now, and she wasn't going to throw away this opportunity to find out who this person is.

She stuffed the letter in her pocket, not wanting to let the others know of her other plans. First, she wanted to at least give everyone their new Wayfinders, though Ventus got his first on his birthday. Aqua navigated her way through the castle, unsure if the others were awake or not and what they had planned. She checked the throne room, only to find no one inside. Surprisingly, only the Mane Six's and Spike's thrones were present in the room, hers and the other Keyblade wielders' taller thrones had disappeared.

"Hmm...That's strange." Aqua walked inside the throne room to figure out why their thrones had vanished, her Keyblade suddenly appearing in her mouth. Magically appearing where it had yesterday in a flash of light, her throne now there between Twilight and Rainbow Dash's. "Oh. I see. Whenever we're present in this room, our thrones appear. Quite a mysterious function, but a bit reliable since five extra thrones take up a bit more walking space."

As much as Aqua wanted to study the magic within this castle and its connections with their Keyblades while she waited for the others, she didn't want to stay for long. She would finally get some answers from The Unknown, and she was going to get them this time. She was prepared to fight him to get the information out of the stallion, even if it was just a simple meeting with no hostility involved. Dropping the chest in the center of the room, she tapped it open with her Keyblade to take her new Wayfinder with her. Teleporting back to the boutique to write a note for the rest of her friends, she returned and placed the slip of paper on top of the closed chest for them to see.

Warping outside the castle, Aqua threw her Keyblade into the air to form her glider, pulling out the message from The Unknown. Taking a look at the map, she climbed onto her glider, gauging the distance between Ponyville to where the stallion's hideout was. She flew off after finding which direction it was from the castle, heading out west north-west, staying hidden above the clouds and avoiding pegasi flying around her route

(Lazy Afternoon)

Twilight began to wake up, staring out at the morning sky from the windows to her balcony. She didn't realize how long she slept, always waking up early under her training with Aqua. After the long and stressful couple days with Tirek running loose, she felt a lot more refreshed after a pleasant night's sleep.

As she moved to stretch her legs, she felt a pair of hooves around her barrel tighten their grip on her. Twilight remembered Riku stayed in bed with her last night, sharing a little bit of privacy between each other. She definitely needed something to help her unwind after fighting for her life, fearing the thought of losing the ones she held dear to the power hungry centaur, and her slight depression losing her old home. She was still upset, everything she had in the library was practically gone, including all of the books that were kept there, but at least she got Owlowiscious out of there before it was too late, her pet finding his way to the castle late last night.

Twilight rolled over to face the still sleeping stallion laying beside her. With how tightly he was holding her after she turned over, Riku didn't want her to leave his sights, a small smile on his lips from the dream he was currently having. As much as she wanted to stay on her bed with her stallion cuddling her, her stomach began growling, demanding breakfast. That also meant waking up Riku in the middle of his dream so he can let go of her. She leaned forward and gave him a gentle nuzzle against his snout, slowly stirring him awake.

Riku squinted his eyes open, waking up to see the lavender eyes of his alicorn girlfriend. "Hey."

"Morning," Twilight said, moving in to give him a soft kiss. He returned the kiss, pulling her closer, making his hold on her even tighter. Reluctantly, Twilight had to pull away before she lost herself in their passionate morning greeting. "You mind letting go of me for just a few? I'm kind of hungry."

"What? My lips aren't enough for you?" Riku questioned with a sly grin.

Twilight lightly bonked him on the head over his silly comment. "Just let me go. I was being polite and waking you up so you won't freak out where I went off to if I was gone, and I'm starving."

"Eh, alright. I'm hungry, too." The stallion let her go, stretching out his back while Twilight got up out of bed. "So, wanna find the kitchen in this place and see if it also grew some food?"

"I doubt there's any food that came with the castle," she said. "Spike and I might need to get some groceries anyway. And we'll need to make a map of the castle and where everything is after I eat."

"You're the princess," Riku said, following whatever Twilight wanted to do as they left the bedroom.

Making their way through the halls and on their way to the front doors of the castle, they heard the others in the opened doors of the throne room. They must have been the last ones to wake up, hearing them talking about something, Pinkie definitely sounding excited about whatever was going on. Looking inside, they saw their friends around a chest in the middle of the room, holding a star-shaped pendant on a piece of thin, durable string meant to be worn around their necks.

Sora spotted Twilight and Riku standing by the doorway. "Hey! You two finally decided to wake up! Hopefully you weren't too busy last night."

"Very funny, Sora," Riku muttered. He then noticed his throne was mysteriously gone, as well as Aqua's. "Hey, what's happened to-?" As soon as he stepped into the room, his Keyblade interrupted him, appearing in his mouth against his will. He spat it out into his hoof, opening his mouth to complain about his weapon's random summoning, only to pause, seeing his throne reappearing back in its rightful place in a flash of light. "...Uhhh...What is going on with my throne?"

"Don't worry, Riku," Kairi said. "That happened to us as well."

"Apparently, our thrones only appear when we're in this room," Ventus added. "That also might explain why our Keyblades are called out when we don't need them. We arrive, they call on our thrones for us to sit upon, and when we leave, so do they. It can get a little crowded with our royal thrones, which makes a lot of sense."

"And that means more of a magical mystery," Riku said, letting Kairi and Ventus's answer his question as he and Twilight stepped closer to the chest. "Let me guess; is this chest another magical anomaly from the castle?"

"Nope! This was something Aqua did for all of us!" Pinkie said, shoving her pink Wayfinder in the white stallion's face. "Lookie! It's got my cutie mark in the middle! And looks just like it too!"

"Thanks, Pinkie. I really wanted you to slap something directly in my face today." Riku pulled Pinkie's hoof away after his sarcastic remark. He got a better look at the necklace, now that it wasn't so close to his eyes. "Hmm...This kind of looks like Aqua's Wayfinder."

"They are, darling, and they were quite carefully crafted," Rarity said, admiring Aqua's work. "I always wondered why she was making them so secretive like that. I could barely peek inside her room or in that chest to see what she was doing...Then again, Keyblades able to lock just about anything might answer that."

"And all that's left is yours and Twilight's," Sora said. He and Kairi held theirs out; Sora's Wayfinder being red with a white heart in the center, his Kingdom Keyblade sewn inside the heart, Kairi's was completely white, a black threaded outline of a heart in the center with her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, in the heart. "Ven, out of all of us, got his earlier during his and Rainbow's birthday."

"Yup." Ventus dug around the collar of his shirt, pulling out his Wayfinder necklace. "She made it a lot like the one she made for her, Terra, and me, only with a few more details than before."

Twilight levitated the last two Wayfinders left in the chest, hers purple like her coat with her cutie mark in the white heart, and Riku's black with his Keyblade, Way to the Dawn, inside the white heart. "Wow. These are incredible. We need to thank her for these, but where is she?"

"She left us a note on top of the chest," Kairi said, holding up the letter Aqua had left for them. "No idea where she was going, but she said she'll be back later today."

"I see." Twilight's stomach growled loudly, everyone able to hear it even if it came from outside of the throne room. The alicorn blushed heavily, placing a hoof against her stomach. "...Heheh. Uhh, anypony in the mood for breakfast?"

"I think a bit of brunch sounds like a good idea," Applejack said. "After eatin', let's come back to the castle and figure out where everythin' is in this place. Ah thought Ah was gonna get lost goin' through the halls."

"Ooh! I'll make the map!" Pinkie volunteered, waving her hoof in the air. "Please let me make a map of the castle!"

"Actually, I'll make the map," Twilight said, making the pink earth pony whine in disappointment. "But first, I need something to eat before I pass out."

With everyone agreeing, they headed out of the castle and into Ponyville to get something to sate their empty stomachs before further exploring the castle.

Aqua walked through the forest where The Unknown was hiding out. The canopy was incredibly thick, which would make dropping down from the sky to where he claimed he was, and the map she had showed the forest stretched on for a few acres. She did find the small village a quarter mile away from the first stretch of the thick woods, seeing as it was closer to the marked spot, and there was also a hoofmade path leading in.

The path began to fade away as she walked through the trees, but it wasn't long before she got closer, along with what appeared to be a glade. In the middle of the open space was a log cabin, a bit odd for the unicorn as she approached it. The ground around the large space of the glade showed some hints that there were trees that were here, the logs used as the cabin's building material while the stumps were pulled out, leaving smooth earth behind with hints of where they stood in small circular patches in the grass. Aqua recalled the wall in the picture where her old Keyblade, Rainfell, rested against from The Unknown's other message, which meant this was where he lived, where he had been hiding.

(Secent of Silence)

She approached the door, letting out a sigh as she lifted a hoof to knock on the door. "Well, it's a good thing I came in time."

Startled, Aqua turned around, summoning her Keyblade and aiming it at the pony who snuck up on her. Her blade pointed at the hidden face of The Unknown, the stallion not even flinching with the weapon aimed mere inches away from his face. He was carrying a couple bags filled with groceries, having gone into town before waiting for her. "Relax. It's just some food and beverages, not dangerous weapons or tiny, pony-eating monsters."

Aqua barely managed to respond, her ears twitching at the sound of his voice, almost like Terra's, only a bit deeper. "I'm not going to trust anything you have on you, hidden or out in the open," she said, brushing off The Unknown's voice now that he was finally talking to her. "You couldn't saying anything to me back in the Crystal Empire, yet you have the gall to find where I was in Ponyville, give me a letter in the middle of the night like a creepy stalker, just so you can speak to me in private and make me paranoid. I've had a pretty miserable decade and a half of my life, and I'm already suffering from post-traumatic stress, so if you pull any tricks, I won't hesitate to kill you."

"...I promise you I'm not your enemy," the mysterious stallion said. "I wanted to talk with you and answer your questions. Peacefully." Aqua didn't put any faith in his word, keeping her Keyblade aimed at him. The Unknown sighed, knowing this would be tougher than he thought. "So, would you like to talk inside? I kind of want to put the groceries inside."

"I don't think so. You're going to answer my questions. Right here. Right now. No backpedling out of this." Seeing no other choice, the stallion let out another sigh, waving his hoof to let her proceed with her questioning. "How long have you known about me? About the others?"

"That depends on what you mean," he answered, only making the mare growl, poking The Unknown in the chest. "Alright, alright. No cryptic answers either. I get it." The robed stallion lowered the bags of groceries off his back before Aqua sent him flying across the glade and spilling what he bought. "I'll start with the others, where I think you mean the younger Keyblade wielders. I've heard around the grapevine about Sora, his heroics quite the talk of the kingdom for the last couple years."

"Is that why you were in the Crystal Empire, taking part in the Struggle Tournament?" Aqua asked.

"Kinda-sorta," The Unknown said. "I also know Riku. I met those two boys before, and they both showed a lot of promise. I at first competed to see if there was anyone who could match me in combat, and as luck would have it, Sora and Riku were both competing. I didn't expect having to face the both of them, but they were as tough as I thought.

"I've never met Kairi, but I do know she holds an important role to sealing Kingdom Hearts with her power, along with six other princesses with hearts of pure light," he continued, lowering his head, his hidden eyes filled with regret over one of them he had met. "I can tell she has skills with a Keyblade, too, especially in magic and light...The other one...Well, he's talented too."

"And what about me?" Aqua questioned. "How do you know me?"

"...I know a lot about you, Aqua..." The unicorn felt nervous wanting to know how much he knew about her, but she kept her resolve, not dropping her guard for even a moment. "And you know about me as well."

"I don't know you!" She thrust her Keyblade forward, making The Unknown lean his head back, the tip of the blade dangerously close to his muzzle. "The only ones I knew from the Land of Departure were Terra, Ventus, Master Eraqus, and, regrettably, Xehanort! I don't know anyone else who had a Keyblade back then, and someone as mysterious as you comes off as no good to me!"

"Relax. I will explain." He lifted a hoof, gently pushing the Keyblade away from his face. "Do you want to have another magical surge and create another giant ice tower in your rage?" Aqua flinched, backing away in surprise, jumping slightly when her rump hit the wall of the cabin. She was about to ask how he knew about that, but the stallion beat her to it. "I know about that a few months ago. It's hard to miss something made of ice that towers several stories high. What everyone else didn't know around the thirty mile radius of that spire of magical ice was the power behind it; a magical surge combined with the stress, anger, and depression of a woman who had been broken mentally in the past. Why do you think I didn't want to confront you when you chased after me after the Equestria Games?

"Because you were irritated, your mind racing with questions that demanded an answer from me: my fighting skills, who I really am, why I kept looking at you and the other Keyblade wielders out of the rest of the crowd." Aqua was speechless. Her grip on her Keyblade began to weaken, reminded of the pain she went through under her out of control emotions. After watching The Unknown fight just like Terra, hearing his voice sound just like his, only a bit deeper than when she last heard him, it didn't help her calm down any better. The mysterious stallion stepped closer, only to stop when she aimed her Keyblade at his chest. "I don't like seeing you upset...It's not like you."

"...W-Who...are you...?" Aqua asked. "...How do you know me?"

"I thought you would have guessed just from the sound of my voice." He could see in her eyes that she did recognize his voice, but she was too afraid and shocked to believe it was true. He couldn't blame her; not after what she had gone through. The Unknown dug into his cloak, pulling out his trump card so he can get Aqua to be at ease and relax around him, wanting her to guess who he was to let her know she wasn't hallucinating. "Do you recognize this?"

(Musique pour la tristesse de Xion)

Aqua gasped, her eyes glued on the item he pulled out, part of her wishing she was dreaming while the other prayed it wasn't. Held in the cloaked stallion's hoof by the brown cord attached to it was a familiar looking Wayfinder she had made several years ago. It was just like her's and Ventus's older one, only this one was orange, lightly worn away from time, but still kept in good condition. She took it out of his hoof with her magic, holding it closer, her eyes welling with tears as she examined her old craft she had made for her best friend for many years.

"...T-This is..." Her aura started to waver around the Wayfinder, her grip on her Keyblade shaky. Aqua looked at the stallion, finally seeing his eyes after finally looking up, along with revealing the brown fur on his muzzle. "...I-It can't be..." He smiled, finally clicking to her. He then began to take off his hood and reveal the rest of his face to her. Aqua's breath was caught in her chest now that she finally sees what he looks like, dropping both weapon and charm. She couldn't hold back her tears, completely stunned, confused, and overjoyed, hoping that who she was looking at was really him and not her mind playing tricks on her. "...Terra...?"

"Sorry for being so secretive." Even though he was a pony, Aqua can clearly see Terra in the stallion from his tough, yet gentle blue eyes and his messy, spiked back brown hair reaching the base of his neck and bangs that framed his equine face. He was alive, back in his own body, but how he came back or why he was here didn't matter to her when she was so shocked to see her long-lost friend after what had happened to him. "I'm really glad to know you and Ven are ok, Aqua."

Aqua slowly shook her head, unable to believe this was really happening. She thought she was just dreaming, still asleep in the room she chose in the castle, having a vivid dream that would end up turning into a nightmare. But she was already awake after falling out of bed earlier, and it really wasn't a dream. Whether her fractured mind was making her imagine things or not, she didn't care, running straight into him and hugging him tightly, almost sending them falling over if Terra didn't expect her to nearly tackle him.

As Aqua held him and began to sob, she felt his armored shoulder on his left arm underneath his cloak. He was real. She was hugging him, and he wrapped his hooves around her, hugging her back. Aqua broke down, holding onto Terra as tightly as her hooves could, burying her face in his right shoulder and cried. She thought she would never be able to free Terra or Ventus from their fate back then, her hopes dwindling away the longer she spent in the Realm of Darkness, but by some miracle graced upon her, she had managed to escape darkness infested land that was her purgatory, found Ventus's heart from within Sora's and woke him back up, and now Terra was alive, free from Xehanort's darkness.

Terra just held Aqua, letting her cry as they were reunited after so long. After everything they had all been through, he knew the three of them needed a reprieve from the losses they had, the struggles they endured. And he knew Aqua took the worst of it compared to him and Ventus combined, never once seeing her this emotional when she was always calm and level-headed in any stressful situation. Although, after seeing just how irate she was toward him before knowing who he was, along with figuring out what happened to her the last fifteen years, he would probably be just as paranoid and be suspicious of anyone he doesn't know while looking mysterious and out of place from his perspective.

After almost half an hour of Aqua's joyful bawling, she managed to pull herself away from him and stared at him, tears still rolling down her cheeks. "H-How...?"

She could barely speak, still in shock by him being alive, but Terra knew he had a lot of explaining to do. "It's a pretty long story," he said. The stallion picked up the groceries he set down earlier, approaching the front door to his home after picking up his Wayfinder. He opened the door, inviting his friend inside. "Come on in. I'll tell you everything over lunch."

Aqua followed Terra inside, getting a look inside of his home in Equestria. It was pretty rustic with some casual furniture lying about the living room, a fireplace as well for any cold nights during the winter, and a bookshelf with some reading material, mostly action novels as they were Terra's favorite type of genre to read. The stallion took off his cloak after placing the food down in the kitchen in the next room, still wearing the same clothing he had before: a skintight black and gray shirt, his left foreleg adorned in the armor that matched what he would look like in his Keyblade armor of gold, dark gray, and dark red, his hakama tied around his waist with a black obi-sash, dark gray at the top while the rest was tan. She even saw his tail after discarding his robe, as brown as his mane, though not as spiky.

She sat down on one of the couches, making herself at home, still unable to say anything. Aqua felt as if she lost her voice after crying so hard, but she was grateful to see Terra again, even if she was confused as to how he managed to win back control of his body from Xehanort. He had disappeared back in the kitchen, the clattering sounds of pots and pans moving around before finally finding what he needed to make their lunch. Aqua just sat still and looked around the room, feeling as nervous as a little kid waiting to get a shot at a doctor's office. She could smell the food after a while, whatever he was making was mouth-wateringly delicious.

After the food was done, Terra walked out of the kitchen with a tray holding two plates of steaming vegetables and two cups of hot tea. "Lunch is served. Veggie stir fry." He placed the tray down on the coffee table in front of Aqua, sitting down next to her while distributing their plates and cups for them. "And some Earl Grey tea to drink...I know you liked to drink tea with Master Eraqus when we were kids, so I thought I'd try brewing some for you." Terra took his cup in his hooves, blew on it to cool the piping hot liquid down a little, and took a small sip. His face scrunched up at the taste, but he swallowed it down, shuddering slightly while sticking his tongue out. "Ugh. Not much of a tea drinker. I don't even know if I made it right."

Aqua couldn't help but grin at his reaction, taking her cup to sample his first attempt at making tea. "Hmm...It's not bad...But, it could use some sugar."

"Oh..." Terra put down his cup, not wanting to take another sip of the strong brown liquid. "I did not get any sugar."

"It's fine, Terra," Aqua said. She placed her cup down, wiping her face of her tears with her sleeves, even though she felt like crying some more, wanting to do nothing more than hug Terra tightly and make sure he never leaves her sight again. She looked at him, ignoring the food as she still wanted to know what happened to her friend she thought was forever lost in darkness. "...How are you still alive?"

"I guess I should start from the beginning," Terra said, leaning back against the sofa with his hooves behind his head. "It's still a bit confusing for me even if I do tell you, but I regained control of myself just a few years ago."

"W-What!?" Aqua exclaimed, quickly grabbing the stallion's shirt and shaking him. "Why!? What happened!? How is that even possible!? You shouldn't have come back! Xehanort took complete control of your heart and body!"

After Terra's eyes stopped rolling around in his skull, he gently took Aqua's hooves off his shirt, lowering them back down into her lap. "Like I just said, even I have no clue how it happened, but that's the reason why Xehanort is still alive too." He made sure Aqua wouldn't have another questioning meltdown before picking up his plate of steaming mixed vegetables. "We know much about the Heartless, but do you know about Nobodies? Nobodies are the-"

"The shells of those who lost their hearts to the Heartless," Aqua said, completing his sentence. "I was told about them by the others, and I fought some of them first hand at the Crystal Empire during the Games...I suppose you were hiding instead of helping during that day, right?"

"I was actually on the other end of the Empire waiting for the Struggle match to begin," Terra explained, earning a smack upside the head from the unicorn. "Ow...Well, you guys handled it, so there wasn't much to worry about. Besides, I didn't want to reveal myself when you and Ven were here." He rubbed his head, avoiding his friend's patronizing glare. "Speaking of, why is he still a teenager?"

"Finish explaining and I'll tell you everything else," Aqua said, levitating her plate and fork, digging into her food.

"Ok...just don't point Master Eraqus's Keyblade in my face if I irritate you with anything stupid I say." Aqua growled, thinking about doing that after constantly worrying her the past couple weeks, but her mind was distracted by the meal he made, so he was considered a lucky man. "Anyway, if the next generation of Keyblade wielders explained to you everything that happened to them, then they must have told you about Ansem and Xemnas." She nodded her head. "Well...Xehanort may have possessed me with his darkness, but 'his' Heartless and Nobody took the forms closely resembling my body. When he created them, sacrificing himself, part of me went into Ansem and Xemnas.

"Everything that had happened in Xemnas's eyes are still pretty clear to me, which meant I saw everything in Organization XIII. All their plans to create Kingdom Hearts from the Heartless, targeting Sora, all the way up to where he met his end by Sora and Riku." Terra grabbed his fork and took a bite of his food, Aqua listening curiously at the odd phenomenon. "I have no idea how long I saw nothing but darkness, but I woke up back in the Keyblade Graveyard, where the last of my light faded after trying to stop Xehanort after he took over..."

The desolate world of the Keyblade Graveyain remained as empty of life, showing only the signs of a deadly war that had waged many years ago. Keyblades of previous wielders fighting in a gruesome battle between light and darkness were left sticking out of the ground, worn away by time as the blades had dulled and rusted. There were signs of recent activity in the forbidden lands filled with nothing but death, though it didn't seem like much that was disturbed after about a decade.

Some Keyblades lay strewn about a tall pillar of a mountain, not naturally made by the world itself. Sitting at the summit of the tall peak, a suit of gold, dark gray, and dark red armor kneeled before a Keyblade stuck in the ground: a grayish-tan blade with teeth on both ends, the guard around the hilt a pale blue in a wing-like shape, and the chain hanging off the pommel was a fragment of a tough rock. The armor's fingered gauntlets clutched the guard of the weapon, its head hung low, completely lifeless, the last remaining part of Terra that struggled to fight back against Xehanort's control in the climactic showdown between the tricked warrior and sinister master.

Suddenly, a small flash of light shone from the bleak sky of the dead world, shooting down from out in the universe and straight down to the empty armor. The suit began shimmering after it struck, lasting for a moment before disappearing. A grunt sounded from inside the armor, beginning to move as its fingers gripped the guard of the Keyblade. The helmet looked up, examining its surroundings, looking at its hands as if it was confused.

"...I-I'm...I'm back?" The male voice let go of the Keyblade, holding his hands up to his face. After flexing his fingers, he grabbed his helmet and pulled it off, revealing Terra's head. He stared at his reflection in his helmet's visor, using a hand to touch his face to see if he was dreaming. "I thought...How am I in control again?" He looked around again, remembering where he was, quickly standing up as he rushed over to the edge of the pillar. "Ven!? Aqua!?"

Looking down at the ground from where he had fallen against Xehanort's darkness, he found no sign of his friends anywhere. Some memories came flooding back to him, now recalling Aqua wasn't here in this world after fighting her under Xehanort's control back in Radiant Garden. Unfortunately, he had no idea where Ventus was, or what happened to him. Terra began to groan, grabbing his head as more memories invaded his mind, but they weren't his, but at the same time, they felt like they were. Thoughts of speaking with twelve others in an unknown world, all of them wearing black cloaks, their faces a blur to him as he cannot recall the names of the beings that were called Nobodies, not having a clue where that name came from.

One memory that shocked him after the slight headache he received scared him to death. He found himself walking into the castle in Radiant Garden, the town desolated from some attack he didn't recall happening. From his point of view, he walked into a lab hidden inside of the castle, destroying a security camera watching him, then moved over to the computer terminal. Placing a disc in the drive, he accessed a profile and password into the system, granting him access to something, taking the disc back after it popped out. Moving further inside of the lab, down into the vast open space of terminals hidden underneath the grand building, a passageway opened up beneath the floor to a secret level only he knew.

After a long walk down the spiral ramp leading further down into the hidden basement of the technological lab, he passed through what appeared to be a hallway with cell doors meant to keep something dangerous inside of them. He walked in a room with a single chair, strange symbols that signified the Nobodies marked on the walls and the seat in the middle of the room. What horrified him the most was what he saw in the seat's direction; Aqua's Keyblade armor and her Keyblade.

Terra snapped back to his senses the moment he saw her armor. He remembered the fight they had in Radiant Garden, a deadly battle she thankfully had bested him in while under Xehanort's control. While beaten, he fought back against the villainous traitor's control, taking Xehanort's Keyblade and plunge it in his chest, sending the both of them to the Realm of Darkness to stop him once and for all. He had no idea what happened after blacking out, but he had no clue what Aqua did that cost her her own life. Dreadfully worried, he quickly put his helmet back on and rushed to his Keyblade, pulling it out of the ground and tossing it in the air to transform it into his glider.

Leaving the Keyblade Graveyard behind, Terra soared through the vast emptiness of space to Radiant Garden. As he flew down to a remote area where no one would see him hover down, the town was really run down compared to how it was last time he was here. He didn't want to know about what happened, his only concern being Aqua's armor and Keyblade and wondering what happened to her. Terra headed straight for the castle, ignoring the residents of the world who were curious to know who he was and what he was in a hurry for. Even the castle looked like it was in a state of disrepair, looking like it was being renovated with parts of the walls missing.

Surprised to see no one guarding the entrance, he ran inside and navigated his way to where the lab was. After rounding a corner of the many halls he ran through, reaching an open space, he froze when he spotted two guards standing by the hall where he needed to be: both of them wore the same gray uniforms with a red heart in the center of their chests, white gloves with blue hearts on the cuffs, the only difference between them was one of them having messily spiked ginger hair wielding a hand axe while the other had black dreadlocks tied in a ponytail, one dread hanging over the right side of his face, sideburns, and wielded a blue spear. They held up their weapons in response to the mysterious intruder.

"Halt!" the guard with the axe exclaimed. "What are you doing here!? No civilians allowed in the castle grounds!"

"Look, I'm not here to cause trouble," Terra reasoned. "I'm looking something, and it's somewhere here in this castle."

"What exactly are you looking for?" the other guard said, aiming his spear at the Keyblade wielder. "Is it the research on Master Ansem's studies? Those documents are classified to only those here in this palace."

"I'm not looking for research. I'm trying to find a friend of mine," the Keyblade wielder said. "I think she's here, somewhere deep inside the lab down this hall."

The guards balked after hearing his knowledge of the castle's secrets, ready to lunge toward Terra. "How do you know about what's beyond this hall!?"

Terra instinctively summoned his Keyblade, shocking the two guards. "Please, just let me through. I don't want to pick a fight with you, but I will force my way through if I have to!"

Suddenly, flying toward him from beyond the hallway in a veil of fire, two flaming chakrams spun rapidly toward Terra. He deflected the throwing weapons, the dangerously sharp rings disappearing in a spark of embers before reappearing down the same hall they were thrown.

"Aeleus, Dilan, you guys seriously can't handle dealing with an intruder?" Stepping out from the hall, Lea showed himself, holding onto his chakrams, letting off small bursts of flame on the sharp pointed edges. "You guys do a pretty poor job acting as-" The red-headed man stared at Terra, mostly at the Keyblade he was holding. "...Well, looks like there are others aside from Sora with a Keyblade."

"Lea? What are you doing here?" Dilan asked. "I thought you went to look for Braig and Isa."

"I did check Traverse Town, but there was no sign of them," Lea said, stepping past Dilan and Aeleus and approached Terra. "So, who are you and what brings you here to Radiant Garden, Keyblade wielder?"

"Wait...Why do you look familiar to me?" Terra asked. He also noticed that the two guards' faces were strangely recognizable to him as well, despite never meeting them. He shook his head, paying attention to Lea, gripping his Keyblade tightly. "How do you know about the Keyblade?"

"Let's just say we've had a bit of a rough time in a past life, so to speak," Lea answered vaguely. "But we've met some people with Keyblades before. More specifically, a teenage boy." He dismissed his chakrams in a plume of fire, noticing the pauldron on Terra's shoulder. He thought he saw something similar on someone else he met before, but barely any memories of his time when he was younger had returned with him. "So, you with the light or darkness?"

Terra hesitated, having been brought down the wrong path back then, but he was still loyal to protecting the worlds. "Light."

"Good, then I guess you're not an enemy. Name's Lea, and those two are Dilan and Aeleus. Got it memorized?" Lea asked, pointing a finger at his temple as he said his one-liner. Terra nodded, even though he wasn't going to remember them for long after he finds the hidden section of the lab. "Now, who exactly are you looking for, and how do you know about the lab back in the office down the hall?"

"I really can't explain everything," Terra said. "If you don't believe me, then I'll have to show you."

"Knowing about Master Ansem's lab is one thing, but something you know that he or either of us doesn't?" Aeleus questioned. "I don't buy it for a second."

"Well, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt," Lea said, surprising the two guards. "I'll let him through and keep a close eye on him. If he tries anything funny, I'll deal with him." Reluctantly, Dilan and Aeleus allowed Terra through, seeing as Lea was capable of doing much more than they can while back as themselves. Terra followed Lea down the hall to Ansem's Study, the secret passage to the hidden terminal and the expansive mass of technology down below. "What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Terra, and even though I'm not supposed to be here, I appreciate you helping me, Lea," Terra said. They made their way to the computer terminal, the room overlooking the larger area down below with electronics that were beyond the Keyblade wielder's understanding. He approached the keyboard and monitors in the room, but even if he memorized the password and name used to access more of the underground lab, he doesn't have that disc he needed to input the codes and username. "Damn it...I don't have the disc."

"A disc?" Lea asked curiously. "You mean to tell me you know more about this place, and you don't have the necessary key item to get to it?"

"It's...really complicated to explain, and I don't even know how I know about it in the first place..." Looking past the monitors and out the window, he could see exactly where the passageway was. "I'm going to try and open it manually."

"Manually?" Terra walked on ahead, ignoring Lea as the spiky red-head hurried after him.

The duo made their way down the stairway to the lower level of the expansive room filled with machines, their purpose meant to create something, but have been shut down due to an unfortunate incident with the program in charge of the entire system. Terra stood where the hidden entrance was, looking like a simple steel floor in a small part of a large room, hidden from those who had known about this section of the castle.

"It's right here," Terra said, holding up his Keyblade. "I'm going to have to break through it. Stand back, Lea."

"Yeah, ok," Lea said skeptically. "Break important stuff under my watch. That's smart. And even if you think this is a way that leads further down, do you really think you can slice through solid-?" Terra leapt up and dove down to the ground, letting out a powerful yell as he slammed his Keyblade down hard to the ground. The impact caused several magical slabs of earth to pop up around the Keyblade wielder, managing to dent the floor greatly as the stones imploded around him. Lea's jaw dropped, underestimating Terra's strength as he watched him stab his weapon in the opened crack of the sliding floor panels, pulling them apart to gain them access to the secret passage. "...Or you can bend it...Better option."

After prying the metal enough for them to see spiraling walkway down below, Terra jumped in with Lea following after him, who was now more curious to see what secrets were down further in Ansem's study/lab. They ran down until they reached the end, where Terra recognized the hallway of cells lining the walls. Up ahead was where that room he saw himself enter from the memories that weren't his own, part of him dreading to see Aqua's Keyblade and armor lying in that room.

The door automatically opened, revealing the same room just like he had seen before: a small gray room, those symbols on the walls, and the chair in the middle. Terra walked inside and moved around the chair, finding Aqua's Keyblade and armor laying exactly where it was from that memory.

"Aqua..." He slowly approached the pieces of gray and blue armor, falling on his knees in despair. A sudden memory popped into his head upon staring at the visor of Aqua's helmet, a moment where he woke up after suffering what felt like a comatose state, but it was only for a brief moment. He saw the assassin who had 'kidnapped' Xehanort, forcing him to use the power of darkness against him for the old master's plans to come to fruition. He helped him up, and he saw the armor and Keyblade laying where he last remembered watching himself, under Xehanort's control, fight against Aqua. He understood what had happened to her, bringing tears to his eyes; Aqua saved him from thrusting himself into the Realm of Darkness, taking his place to be trapped in darkness as she sacrificed her armor and Keyblade. "...Why?...Why did you save me?"

Lea walked in the room after examining the cells, finding Terra kneeling by the empty suit of armor and Aqua's Keyblade leaning against the wall. He also noted the symbols on the walls, which he knew were meant to resemble the Nobodies. Being an ex-Organization XIII member with the rest of his friends that awoke with him in the castle, he knew Xemnas had to have been up to something aside from trying to create a Kingdom Hearts from the hearts he forced them to collect.

"Looks like someone added in some extra rooms for his experiments behind Ansem the Wise's back," Lea mumbled to himself. He approached the grieving Keyblade wielder, kneeling down beside him to get a better look at the armor. There wasn't a body inside, thankfully, though how he knew there was someone down here when he was never known by anyone baffled him. He couldn't help but feel like Terra was a bit familiar as well, but he didn't question it. "So, this was your friend?"

"...Yeah...It's just her armor though...I'm afraid she's gone." Terra sadly sighed, slowly getting back up on his feet. He couldn't blame Aqua's decision to try to help him, even though it seemed too late to save him from Xehanort's darkness inside his heart. And if Aqua was gone, that meant Ventus was either lost somewhere or he was gone as well, which meant he was on his own. He dug into his pockets and pulled out his Wayfinder, clutching it tightly in his hand as he pressed it against his chest. "It's all my fault...I'm so sorry, Aqua..."

"Sorry for your loss," Lea said, pitying the Keyblade wielder. "There anything we can do to help you out?"

"...No. I don't want to risk getting others involved with my mess..." Terra looked at Aqua's Keyblade, Rainfell, wishing things didn't turn out this way for them. He walked over to it and picked it up, gripping it tightly. If he was going to take on Xehanort again, he was going to need a lot more training, but if he was back, then that meant Xehanort must be in his old body again. Terra couldn't risk being around worlds Xehanort has been to, which meant he needed to find a desolate world the old man has never been to and grow stronger on his own. He looked at Lea, looking away from examining the interesting armor. "Lea, can you and those guards keep me being here a secret?"

"...Uhh, sure," Lea said, though a bit confused. "Dare I ask why?"

"Someone who had caused all this misery upon us is still out there, and if he knows I'm alive, he might try to come after me again. He's already ruined my life, as well as my best friends', and he'll stop at nothing to take over the other worlds." Terra looked back down at Aqua's armor, promising her she will put an end to Xehanort's plans after he grows stronger, staying on the path of light. "Don't tell anyone of my existence. I need to stay in hiding until I'm ready to finally stop him. That includes any other Keyblade bearers you've met before. Understand?"

"Right. Keep you a secret. I got it memorized," Lea promised, repeating his motions like before with his catchphrase. "But, what are you gonna do with this armor? You gonna take that too?"

"All I need is Aqua's Keyblade," Terra said. "I'd rather leave her armor here...It'll only make me miss her more."

To Be Continued...