Chapter Five

Xehanort's golden eyes gleamed, "I had at first thought that the light had blinded you, but you are beginning to see the truth, aren't you? Perhaps you will be somebody else who can see that the balance is in favor of the light, and has been for many years now. The light has far to much, and the darkness is only trying to reclaim the half that belongs to it."

Summoning Void Gear he took a defensive stance as Xehanort took a step closer to him. The man only smirked in response. "You should see about reconsidering who you fight with," the man stated turning around and walking into it, he paused right before entering and glanced back at Sora. "Think about what I have said," Then he turned back and disappeared into a corridor of darkness.

Sora frowned, confused and not liking that the old man seemed to be… proud for lack of a better word. Xehanort had complimented him, and then, that last bit… was that Xehanort trying to recruit him?

Why would he ever join Xehanort? Even if Sora was using darkness, he would still fight with his friends, he wouldn't fight against them. 'What do you think of what he said?' Sora asked Vanitas.

"I don't trust him. For as long as I have known him all he has wanted is to forge the X-blade, to call forth Kingdom Hearts and reset the worlds into what he believes would be balanced as things should be. Which I agree with his goal. I want things to be balanced, but he has done things that have also further upset the balance."

"After all he created me. He was trying to use Ventus to form the X-blade, but when Ventus failed he forcefully extracted me from Ventus. All I ever wanted was to be rejoined to Ventus, but again and again the opportunity has been denied to me. And now the opportunity is gone. I shall never be whole again."

"Xehanort told me that the only way for me to feel whole would be to reconnect with Ventus and to become the X-blade. It was the only way I thought would end my suffering, so I agreed and let him train me. Now here we are and I am stuck, I will be forever out of balance. Yet, even though he is at fault for me being incomplete, the overall goal of bringing balance is worthwhile. I hate Xehanort, but I respect his goals."

Sora listened as Vanitas spoke of Xehanort and sighed. That hadn't particularly helped, instead it seemed to muddle his thoughts even more. Darkness and Light, neither were good, nor bad. Instead it was how a person used it. Xehanort had used the darkness to cause pain and suffering, but his end goal seemed good.

Why would the end goal being good, cause pain along the way though? Why did Xehanort see fit to forcibly bring out Ventus's darkness? How could the recombining of Ventus and Vanitas forge the X-blade anyways? Curious he decided to ask Vanitas, "How would you and Ventus joining together form the X-blade?"

"I am unsure, perhaps because it would be Ventus who is solid light, merging with me who would be solid dark?"

Sora's thoughts remained turbulent, confusion predominating though him as he was learning things he never had before. He was thinking of things that he never really thought of before. Riku had experience with the dark, but yet the older boy renounced it in favor of the light.

Why would he do that?

Could it be because of the tantalizing grasp the light seemed to offer, the calmness and the feeling of homelyness it gave? Now that he was aware of how both light and dark affected him he could see how useful they both were.

But… had Riku controlled the darkness? Or had the darkness controlled him? Sora huffed, not knowing or understanding. Riku had acted so different when he used the darkness. If the darkness was only enhancing his emotions, than did that mean the way Riku had acted that way because that was how he truly felt?

Or was it because of the darkness controlling him that he acted in such a manner that he did? Sora continued to fight Heartless slashing the keyblade killing hordes of them and learning more about how to fight with Void Gear which was different than fighting with Kingdom Key.

Finally the new wave of Heartless stopped and Sora could take a breather, 'Would you ever join Xehanort again? Since you agree with his goals?'

"After everything he did to me, I wouldn't rejoin him."

'Well, we should try and avoid him for the time being,' Sora thought in reply to Vanitas. He still wasn't sure on the whole opening Kingdom Hearts to bring balance. Was that really the right way for balance to be brought back? Or was there another way?

What would happen if it was dark that controlled too much? Would the light create some kind of creature in order to reclaim what it lost? Would the Heartless and Nobodies disappear once they were in balance? Or would the monsters continue to try and claim more and more?

Sora huffed, he had all these questions, but no answers. Everything had been so much simpler before he started thinking through all of this stuff. Yet… he liked the fact that he was learning all of this, he wanted to find the answers to his questions.

Admittedly, he was a bit curious if Xehanort's plan to bring balance would work. Yet he didn't want to learn it at the cost of his friends. Thinking about his friends he decided to learn more about his newest friend, 'So what do you like?'

"What do you mean?"

'Well what do you do for fun?'

There was a pause, "I have never had any fun."

Sora gaped completely shocked, 'Nothing?'

Vanitas hesitated, "Well… I suppose tormenting Aqua had been fun."

The young keyblade wielder got a feeling he wouldn't like what the answer would be if he pressed on.

'Well, what about anything else? What makes you happy?'

His dark haired counterpart went silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, "I have never known fun, or happiness in the way you would know them, I was created from the darkness and the negative emotions. Those are all I have ever known."

This confused Sora, how could someone not experience happiness? Vanitas seemed to sense his confusion as he continued on, "Let me show you how I feel."

'Show me?'

"Yes, I will show you a memory from my point of view."

Wanting to learn more about Vanitas Sora agreed.

-Memory starts-

Vanitas appeared behind Aqua as she ran through the camp filled with tents, "So, have a good time hanging out with the kiddies?" He questioned her. He watched as she looked around before spinning to face him.

He continued walking towards her anger burning in him, this woman kept his other half weak. Always trying to watch over him and protect him, as if he was a mere child. How could his pathetic other half ever hope to grow strong enough for them to forge the X-blade if she kept watching over him?

She wasn't necessary for the plan, so Vanitas could take her out of the picture, but first he wanted to break her. Behind his mask he smirked as he lightly swung the wooden keyblade as he continued to walk closer. "How'd you get that?" Aqua questioned, her blue eyes widening in recognition.

"I think that kid's outgrown such a childish toy, if you ask my opinion," His other half seemed to share the agreement, for why else would he leave it behind. He doubted Ventus would care if he broke the discarded toy, but Vanitas doubted Aqua would see it as such. He lifted it up and took a brief moment to look over it.

Then he snapped it. He watched Aqua's face as he tossed the pieces to the side. Her arm seemed to automatically reach for the pieces as her blue eyes showed their disbelief, then she turned to him and he watched the emotions play out. Her despair and anger at him. He grinned, though it remained hidden as he held his hand out, "Just like I've outgrown my need for you."

If he removed Aqua from the picture his lighter half could use it as motivation to get stronger, to get strong enough to forge the X-blade. He summoned Void Gear and took a fighting stance.

Aqua shouted angrily, "You freak!" And it shocked Vanitas that being called a freak hurt, he wasn't a freak! He was like Ventus, he was the other half! Why could she like Ventus but not him? They were the same! She summoned her keyblade and the two started to fight.

-End Memory-

Sora came out of the memory, shocked, horrified, and sad. Vanitas wanted to make Ventus stronger, but he didn't seem to understand the right way, instead he decided to use anger to motivate Ventus, as that was all he had known.

The anger and hate Vanitas felt in that memory was overwhelming. Nearly overpowering, Sora had never felt so much anger before. The dark haired boy had broken Ventus's toy, just to mess with Aqua, but he also wanted Aqua to accept him. 'Aqua is wrong, you aren't a freak,' Sora decided upon.

Vanitas scoffed, "I am not normal though, I will never be normal. How could I when I can not understand the lighter half of emotions?"

Sora frowned, 'That's just because no one has tried to teach you, I'm sure you can experience them! And I'll help you!' Sora determinedly stated.

Vanitas didn't respond, and Sora was worried about what Vanitas could be thinking. Minutes passed by and the dark haired boy continued to remain silent.

"Sora!" A familiar voice called out from behind him dragging him out of his thoughts.

He turned to see Donald and Goofy standing there, he frowned, "What are you guys doing here?"

It had only been about 6 hours since the group had split. "We're here to get you of course!" Donald told him.

"Why, I thought that we would train separately?" He questioned ignoring the slight clenching of his heart.

"Master Yen Sid said that it would be best to train together! Besides if ya want to regain your strength it would be best to follow what Master Yen Sid says," Goofy replied.

Vanitas snorted in his mind, but didn't say anything, he didn't need to. Sora was thinking the same thing, that Yen Sid had wiped his abilities just to try and gain one new skill, so why would he want to help Sora get stronger?

"I am regaining my strength though," Sora pointed out.

"That's another thing, how will you move onto a new world once you have defeated whatever is creating the Heartless here?" Donald asked.

Sora shifted, he hadn't planned on solving whatever issue was plaguing the world, he didn't even know the name of this world. He was just letting the Heartless appear and come after him.

Donald crossed his arms. "It usually doesn't take you this long to fix the world, unless we need to sleep or wait or stuff. Let's just fix this world then go see what Master Yen Sid wants us to do."

Without waiting to see what he had to say, Donald and Goofy started dragging him along and soon they had cleaned the world of Heartless. His stomach curled unpleasantly, did they not trust him to get things done by himself?

He just wanted to train without them hovering over him, or judging him as he wanted to practice using the darkness. He wanted to balance himself, using both light and dark in equal measures. Sora had the feeling that if he used darkness around them though they would complain and scold him.

"Come on Sora, let's get goin'. Besides maybe we can visit our friends on the other worlds while we train! You wanna see them, don't ya?" Goofy asked.

Reluctantly Sora followed Donald and Goofy onto the ship. He supposed it would be nice to see his other friends. He sat on the Gummi ship as they used one of the few remaining pathways to get back to the mysterious tower.

Sora wasn't looking forward to chatting with Master Yen Sid.

A/N: I am alive for this fanfiction. My Friend Riku Kingdom Hearts, managed to get me working hard on my Kingdom Hearts stuff. So big thanks to Riku. Another huge thanks for Riku taking their time to look over my work and make sure everything is good. I wouldn't be able to write this without their help. If you are a fan of Kingdom Hearts make sure to check out Riku's stuff! :D I hope you enjoyed, and we will see when I next update this.