Chapter Text
Ven panted, grateful for the lightning that had struck down the Neoshadows, but that didn’t mean the fight was over, not by a long shot. If the flaring of Maleficent’s barrier was any indication, things were heating up, literally.
Maleficent raised her hand, darkness gathering around her fingertips. Ven swung his Keyblade and knocked the blast aside. He dashed forward, knowing that Maleficent’s scepter was dangerous, but she had a hard time fighting in close quarters. Maleficent knew this as well. As Ven jumped forward to strike, she blocked with her staff, and Ven barely got his feet under him in time to press back. He grit his teeth, locking eyes with Maleficent.
Her eyes narrowed as well, and their look added another layer of weight pressing down on him. It was so entrancing, Ven almost missed when her hand moved, fingers pointing towards him. Still, he caught a shift in their struggle, and his eyes widened.
“May you fall back to sleep forever, Ventus!” she said.
He threw himself backwards, screaming as he did, “Aero!”
The blast of air not only propelled him further from Maleficent, but it also pushed the dust of the sleeping spell back at her. Of course, it didn’t knock her out; no, that would be too easy. Instead her irrationally arched brows drew down as a fierce scowl overtook her face.
Ven landed, his shoes scraping stone. As he steadied himself, he panted, feeling the tension in his wrist increase. His muscles were screaming at him, and his stomach clenched. Ven knew he couldn’t keep up this much longer; he didn’t want to run away, but…
Glancing at the wall of green flame, he realized fleeing wasn’t even an option now. Would his armor protect him from the fire? He didn't want to test that right now.
“Augh!” Ven winced, caught off guard as he was trying to find a way out. Maleficent had taken advantage of this and struck him with a blast of darkness. Ven shook himself, clutching his Keyblade with his better arm, though he was less practiced this way.
Maleficent slammed her staff into the ground, and more green flames shot outwards, which Ven barely managed to dodge, sending waves of ice in response. They hit Maleficent dead on, but she wasn’t even bothered. Oh, this was not good.
Ven rushed at her again, rolling and getting behind her, cutting twice with his blade before she whirled and blocked. Not giving her a chance to try the sleep trick again, Ven shoved her away, hopping backwards and stopping just short of the flames. He could feel the heat on his back and rushed away, not about to get knocked into them and end up a very crispy Keybearer.
Maleficent was abruptly before him again, and Ven just barely blocked, but his balance was off, and he fell to the side. Shaking his head violently, he tried to get up, but Maleficent slammed her staff down on his hand, making him cry out and release his Keyblade as he jerked back. His gaze hesitantly traveled up to Maleficent’s leering face.
She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, something dark broke through the green flames, right above Maleficent’s head. Ven couldn’t help grinning. Maleficent, noticing his look, glanced above, just in time for the rock to hit her directly in the face.
“HA!” Ven chuckled as he got to his feet and darted away, calling his Keyblade back into his hand.
“Who dares?!” Maleficent growled, eyes scanning everywhere but where Elrena was probably crouching behind the flames.
“Maybe it’s just your castle crumbling down like all your plans!” Ven said, feeling an unusual amount of satisfaction in his reply. However, the look Maleficent cast him made his blood run cold. He could handle her. He’d done it before. He’d fought harder, darker foes than her. Right?
“I warned you,” Maleficent took a threatening step towards him. Her staff, no, her entire being, radiated darkness like Kairi radiated light, “insolence will not be tolerated, child…”
“What do you—” Ven started to say, but was cut off. Before he could even blink, jagged shadows shot out from Maleficent, striking him like spears.
“AUGH!” Ven screamed, every muscle in his body tensing with each hit. He tried to pull himself out of the way, but the shadows that pierced him held him off the ground, several more striking him. When he was dropped, Ven struggled to find breath and process what had just happened.
There was no hope of avoiding the lightning Maleficent shot from her staff at him. Unlike Elrena’s, this was definitely aimed to hurt him. It did.
Ven winced on the ground, his muscles complaining of every movement, yet his mind and heart urging him to get up and move, to fight or run or do anything to get out of this situation. He managed to get up on his bad wrist, wince, and catch himself before he saw an orb of darkness headed for him.
On impact, it launched him backwards, and Ven felt a searing pain against his back. He writhed and threw himself on the ground, desperately trying to beat out the flames on his shirt, grateful for the cold stone floor. At least he put out the fire…
He dragged himself away, trying to put distance between himself and both the barrier and Maleficent, who casually strode towards him, a Cheshire grin on her face. Ven saw her eyes flash and knew she wasn’t done with him yet. When had she gotten this strong?! He was sure she hadn’t been this much trouble before…
Maleficent fired another ball of darkness at him, and Ven screamed again, his sore body feeling like it was being stabbed from the inside with thousands of sharp needles. The next moment, the jagged shadows from before were back, stabbing up from the floor through his chest, lifting him up and holding him painfully before dropping him back to the ground again. Ven heaved in a breath, placing a shaky hand on the floor, trying to push himself up. His strength gave out, and Ven collapsed to the ground. He looked up to see Maleficent glaring down at him, stroking the top of her staff agitatedly.
“Perhaps I was remis to trust Pete,” Her fingers stopped tapping, curling into a fist, a single finger pointing at him, “I assure you, that will not be happening again.”
Smoke peeled up from the floor, and Ven had just enough time to realize there was a Dark Corridor appearing beneath him. He didn’t get a chance to react, though, because Maleficent brought her golden staff down on his head, and his vision went dark, a crack echoing between his ears.
+========+
When Ven opened his eyes again, half his vision was of dark stone. As he struggled to push himself up, he found his wrists and ankles were again bound, but the clinking of metal made him realize a knife wasn’t gonna cut it this time. Cold, hard, thick steel bound his ankles and wrists together, and a short chain tied Ven’s wrists to the ground. Normal rope was again wrapped around his arms, but it was so tight that Ven had trouble breathing.
He wondered if that was intentional, and knowing Pete’s temper, it probably was. Growling in frustration, Ven tried to think where Elrena might be, and if she were in the same situation he was. It was possible that Maleficent hadn’t gotten her, and she was just waiting to help him, or maybe looking for another key. Ven glanced around, pretty certain this wasn’t the same cell he’d been thrown in before.
Still dwelling on what had become of Elrena, Ven glanced up as the door behind him opened. Rolling over, he saw Maleficent stride in, her thin lips pulled all the way across her bony face as she slightly inclined her head to inspect Ven. Her casual, satisfied gaze stoked something inside him.
“Alright, what is it you’re planning?” Ven said, which caused Maleficent to raise an arched eyebrow in surprise.
“Are you truly acting like you are in a situation to demand anything?” she gestured to his bound form, and Ven managed to push himself into a sitting position, making him feel a little better, though his right wrist throbbed in protest as he repeated.
“What is it you’re trying to get Terra and Aqua to do?”
Maleficent acted as though he hadn’t spoken as she casually asked, “Tell me, Ventus, do you fear me?”
“Not half as much as I feared Xehanort.” Ven tried to hide his gulp, his muscles contracting as they recalled the darkness piercing him. “You can’t split my heart like he did; you don’t have a Keyblade.”
“True,” Maleficent’s eyes lit up with a cold fire that made Ven shiver, “But I might be able to do more damage than that.” She prowled closer, her long cloak dragging on the floor as she circled him, “Just revealing the truth to you would make your heart buckle, and you’d become powerless to what lies locked up deep within you.”
“…What are you talking about?” Ven asked, momentarily too genuinely confused to be concerned.
“Did you never wonder,” Maleficent paused before him, “why it was that Xehanort chose you specifically for his plans?”
Ven had, many times, but he’d never come up with an answer aside from the one he gave, “He was a crazy, desperate old man, and he thought my heart was strong enough to survive the split.”
“True…” Maleficent said, leaning on her staff, “But there was another reason. Splitting your heart was merely the backup plan, since you proved yourself too stubborn an apprentice to unleash the great darkness in you.”
Ven grit his teeth, accidentally biting his cheek in the process. His head started to hurt—but this couldn’t be confusion; he knew all this already. Maleficent continued.
“As you doubtless know, both great darkness and great light clashing are required to forge the X-blade,” she slowly knelt at this point, “and Xehanort was lucky enough to come across a being that harbored both in his heart.” Her wiry fingers cupped his cheek, “A heart of pure light, in fact, concealing a great darkness.”
Ven winced, his head throbbing as he tried to turn away from her hand.
“I know—Xehanort took all the darkness from my heart—made Vanitas,” Ven inhaled sharply, his mind conjuring up some faint image he couldn’t grasp, “If you’re stupid enough to think I’m gonna let him out again…”
Maleficent cut him off with a laugh, “No, poor Ventus, your heart of pure light was not first made with Xehanort. And Vanitas was not the darkness he sought, but rather your own weak, natural darkness. Though perhaps he was somewhat enhanced,” Her eyes gleamed as her teeth showed, “by the other darkness, locked up tighter in your heart.”
“Wha-what are…what do you—AUGH!” Ven screamed as his heart and mind felt like they were caught in a vice and twisted. The dreams from before, of people he didn’t recognize, drifted to the surface of his consciousness. His past? What did Maleficent know of it?
Ven wrung his hands, trying to get out of the binding that rubbed his wrists raw. His breath came in short gasps as every once in a while, the visions in his mind snapped from blurry colors to solid images.
There was Chirithy, and a boy in a black hat. A cliff overlooking a town with purple roofs. Blue skies and a river by a clocktower. A room with a big table and lots of gears. A boy with white hair and a girl with black hair. Danger…something was wrong, and he knew it. A blur of white and orange.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” Ven tried to clutch at his head, but his chains wouldn’t allow it. Each time an image flashed, he felt his heart contract, as though some previously unknown empty space had collapsed. The collapsing caused something in his heart to stir, to bubble over like ice cracking and falling into the swirling water beneath. Within that water, something lurked, something angry.
Ven tried to force himself back to reality, tried to focus on the pain in his wrist. Elrena had to be coming to help him soon, right?
Elrena. The name plunged him back into his thoughts again, like a stone had been tied to his legs and he’d been thrown into the sea. Ven was hurt, he was scared, he wanted…there was the outline of a boy, an older, taller boy. He was always so calm and cool and sure. He always took care of Ven; Ven wanted the boy…
They were meeting up on a rare free afternoon. Ven was standing among the bright stones that made up the streets. There was the fountain, and he stepped forward as the boy pointed to a girl that was leaving. The boy was regretting that they’d just missed each other.
“Ven, that was my friend, Elrena…”
“LAURIAM!”
The sound was coming from his own mouth. Ven registered the tears on his cheeks and the dryness of his throat at the same time.
“Lauriam…” he repeated, but it was like another boy was shouting those words, like he was looking down on his own body, but he was a stranger, “Help me…”
Ven pressed his eyes closed, driving his face into the ground. Dirt smudged across his face, but he didn’t care. He just wanted this aching to stop, the confusion to stop.
This wasn’t the past he wanted; this wasn’t the light it should have been. Surely this wasn’t all his past, was it? “You don’t even know what you’re asking me to put you through.”
“You see, Ventus?”
His gaze was drawn up to where Maleficent grinned down at him, “If I had kept going, you would be overcome. Now, will you cross me again?”
Ven felt he should glare, should shake his head, should do something to tell Maleficent she hadn’t won…but he couldn’t find the strength. His furrowed brows were over wide, exhausted eyes as his face slowly went lax, and he stared at the ground. Maleficent laughed again, drawing herself up.
“Disrespectful boy that you are, making me do all this bending over just for you,” she gave him a vicious kick in his nose—why did she have such pointy shoes?! Blood trickled down his face.
“Goodnight, young Ventus,” Maleficent called as she swept out of the room.
Ven closed his eyes as the door slammed shut, his head still throbbing. How could he make sense of these memories? Were they the reason for his strange feeling about Elrena? What other darkness was Maleficent talking about?
That last thought sent a blow like a knife cutting through his head and down his spine. Ven trembled, drawing himself together, not caring that he was behaving like a baby. His stomach growled, choosing that moment to remind him he was also starving. Tears and blood kept flowing hot down his face, and everything hurt so much. Why would Maleficent do this to him? How had she known? Why did these memories feel so true and yet so wrong at the same time?
Ven closed his eyes, struggling to draw breath in from his gritted teeth. He pressed his overheated head against the hard stone. At the moment, he didn’t care about memories or light or darkness or anything. Ven just cared about getting sleep. Whatever was happening was causing so much pain, Ven just wanted to forget it all.
Forget…light above, that’s what he’d done. His hands went slack, his entire body deflated. His past, even his earliest past, still wasn’t free of darkness, of Xehanort. Ven was never going to have a life that man wasn’t a part of. Ven knew that now, and he had just enough strength left to mutter into the darkness.
“No wonder…you didn’t share it with me…thanks, Elrena, I guess…”
As the first mercy of the day, sleep came quickly, dulling the pain and blurring it all into nothing as Ven’s thoughts muted themselves. Even his heart ceased its aching, as if it, too, finally realized Ventus had no strength left. Whatever stirred in his heart settled as well, sinking deeper as the waters calmed and the ice froze over again.