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Sora had recently helped Aqua to return to the Realm of Light, with Mickey's help. When they returned to the Realm of Light, Aqua informed Sora of her friend in Castle Oblivion, who needed Sora's help. Sora, always eager to help someone in need, agreed without a second thought. So Aqua lead Sora, Donald, and Goofy through the halls of Castle Oblivion. Though Sora had gotten easily lost on his first visit, Aqua seemed to know exactly where she was going. She lead them to a special room, hidden deep within the castle. The Room of Awakening. Nobody but Aqua knew how to find this room.

Like all the rooms in Castle Oblivion, the Room of Awakening was bare and empty, with pristine white walls all about. In the middle of the room was a white throne, with a boy sleeping peacefully upon it. "Ven!" Aqua called out to him, as she ran to make sure he was all right. He had barely aged a day since she last saw him, though he was a bit taller. Sora, Donald, and Goofy approached him as well.

"Gawrsh, fellas, doesn't he look kinda familiar?" Goofy asked his friends.

"Now that you mention it, he does look a lot like..." Donald chimed in.

"Sora," Aqua interrupted them, "This is where I need your help," she said, drawing her keyblade.

Sora scratched his head. "What do you need me to do?" he asked, not at all intimidated by Aqua's actions.

"Ven's heart sleeps within you. I need you to come here, so that we can release it."

"Release it," Sora repeated after her, "but if we do that, will I become a heartless again?"

Aqua gently patted Sora on the head. "Don't worry, Sora. My keyblade is different from that other. I won't let anything happen to you," She reassured him.

Sora nodded, bravely approaching Aqua. She smiled kindly to him, then took her keyblade, and gently tapped it against his chest. Sora felt a weight lifted from him, as a heart burst forth from his chest. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared in awe as the heart floated above them. Aqua raised her hand up toward it, and the heart floated down into her palm. "Ven, it's time to come back home," she whispered to it, as she lead it back to Ventus' sleeping body.

A burst of light enveloped the room, as Ventus slowly drifted back awake. He yawned, and rubbed his eyes, to see Aqua, Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "Aqua? Where are-" Ventus was interrupted when Aqua pulled him in to hug him tightly. "Ven, I'm so sorry I took so long."

Ventus blushed. "C-cut it out, Aqua, you're embarrassing me." Sora, Donald, and Goofy all giggled.

Suddenly, a dark presence emerged from the back of the room. Goofy gasped, "Sora, it's...!"

"No way..." Sora was flabbergasted by the dark figure approaching with his own face. Ventus and Aqua scowled at him. "Vanitas," they said together.

Vanitas looked the the group with a grin. "Looks like the gang's all back together. Well, except for one other. What was his name again?"

"You be quiet about Terra, you!" Ventus barked at him.

"That's right, Terra. Then again, I doubt he'd ever want to see us again, after what we did to him. You and I. Then again, I am you."

"That's enough!" Ventus drew his keyblade, but Aqua held him back, remembering full well what would happen if the two fought again.

"When I chose to face Master Eraqus, rather than to heed his words and stay home. I drove Terra to destroy him. I drove Terra into darkness."

"That's not true! I didn't want that to happen!"

"When I couldn't handle the burden of the Chí-Blade, I chose to destroy it, abandoning my friends, and leaving Terra to rot in darkness."

"Be quiet, you! You..." Ventus shouted out, as Aqua tried to calm him. Sora, Donald, and Goofy drew their weapons and stood between Ventus and Vanitas.

"You're... not... me!" Ventus shouted, his voice trembling with anger.

Vanitas began to laugh hysterically, as his darkness exploded all around. "Yes! Deny me Ventus! I'm not you! Not anymore!" Vanitas grew and mutated into a dark monstrosity. His mask closed up as he grew. His muscles bulked up massively, as his proportions changed to that of a giant gorilla. In his hands, he held two giant keyblades, one in the shape of his own, and one in the shape of Ventus'. Out of his chest, popped a smaller Ventus torso, with yellow eyes, and a tired expression. Vanitas continued laughing, his voice sounding considerably more distorted than before. "I am a shadow," he said, "the true self."

Aqua ran next to Sora, her keyblade at the ready to fight. "Ven, stay back! Let us handle this!"

"But, Aqua...!" Ventus called out, as he collapsed, suddenly feeling very tired.

"Don't worry, Ventus!" Sora yelled back to him, giving him a thumbs up. "We can handle this!"

"Sora..."

Vanitas slammed his keyblades down, with Sora and Aqua barely dodging out of the way. Donald began pelting him with fire spells. The spells had no noticeable effect on Vanitas, however, and he slapped Donald away with one of his keyblades, knocking him out for the time being.

Sora and Goofy prepared the Goofy-Rocket, but before they could launch, Vanitas opened a previously unseen mouth in his mask, and spewed forth a barrage of dead keyblades and the two. Sora, in his surprise, accidentally dropped Goofy on the floor, but then in his quick thinking, cast a barrier around them to shield them from the keyblades.

While Vanitas was focused on Sora and Goofy, Aqua took advantage. She jumped high in the air, and used her keyblade's whip capability to wrap around Vanitas' neck, and proceeded to slam him down to the ground. She then used her shot-lock to rain down beams of light on Vanitas as he was incapacitated.

Vanitas shouted out, breaking free from Aqua's grip, as he summoned two dark hands out from the floor, which grabbed Sora and Aqua in their awesome grip.

Goofy looked on nervously, as he tried to figure out a way to help. "Hold on, fellers! I'll get ya out of there in a jiffy!"

"Give it up! You can't beat me. You don't even have a keyblade!" Vanitas taunted Goofy.

"I might not be the smartest feller, or the strongest, and I might not be one of the keyblade's chosen, neither, but..." Goofy admitted as he stared down Vanitas' towering form, "but I ain't never givin' up on my friends! Not on your life, ahyuck!"

Goofy proceeded to toss his shield into Vanitas' mouth. Vanitas, not expecting it, involuntarily swallowed the shield, and started choking. His dark hands released Aqua and Sora from their grip. "Sora, now!" Aqua shouted, as they both held their keyblades together, and released a beam of light at Vanitas, shattering him in glorious light.

Sora fell to the floor, tired out from the fight. Just then, they all saw Ventus and Vanitas standing before each other, Vanitas back to his original form.

"Ven!" Aqua cried out, but she was too tired to run to him.

"Y'know," Ventus began, "while I was sleeping, I thought a lot about what I had done. I heard what you said, before you even said it. It hurt so much, just thinking about it, but... you were right. If I had done what Terra and Aqua told me, none of this would've happened, and Terra probably wouldn't have fallen to darkness..." Ventus admitted to his dark other. "I had lived so long in the light, that when the darkness had come back into my life, I was afraid of it. I didn't want anything to do with it, but now I think I know. We can make this right, but, I need you. After all, you are me."

Vanitas smiled gently, an unfamiliar expression for him, as he ascended into the air, and transformed in a burst of light, into a winged armored knight.

"This is... my Persona," Ventus stated, as Vanitas faded into his heart.

"Ven..." Aqua said, as she and Sora slowly walked toward him.

"Aqua, Sora..." Ven said, as they approached.

"Gawrsh, I wonder what that was all about," Goofy wondered aloud as he helped Donald to his feet.

"Donald, Goofy..." Ventus spoke softly. "You guys, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Sora said with a silly grin, "that's what friends are for!"

"Right," Ventus smiled, "Then, let's work together to save our friends!"

So, Ventus joined the team, with his new-found power at heart, ready to fight for the sake of his friends!

THE END