Three things I want to clarify about Vanitas's new clothes! Thank you to SorceressKyrsty and PeterPokéfreak for making me think of them.

1. Vanitas's clothes are less Sora (Sorry SorceressKyrsty xD) and more a cross between Terra and Ven's. Terra-like top and Ventus-like pants, except all black. Armor is black with red trim. He's a creature of habit.
2. They don't so much make him physically invisible to Xehanort as they do just keep him off the radar. For instance, if Xehanort is thinking, "Where is that little punk ass?" He might consider Neverland, the Enchanted Dominion, Dwarf Woodlands, etc. etc., basically, EVERYWHERE but where he actually is. At most he'll be like, "I feel like I'm forgetting one. Oh well."
3. Why not just do the same to Terra's clothes? Xehanort already knows where he is. It only works if, as with Vanitas, Xehanort had no idea where he had wandered off to. MAYBE if he went to live in another world but Eraqus is not going to send his son away for such vague reasons as "Someone is plotting something but we don't know what."

And without further ado...

"Terra, Aqua. Ventus, Vanitas. Please welcome my dear friend, Master Yen Sid, and his apprentice, Mickey. They have traveled a long way to observe your skills on this momentous occasion. I trust you will treat them with the same respect you treat me."

Eraqus gives me a pointed glance. In my mind, I roll my eyes.

"It's an honor to meet you, Master Yen Sid!"

"We've heard so much about you..."

"And it will be a pleasure to watch two such promising young Wielders take the final step towards becoming Masters."

This whole socializing nonsense just isn't my thing. Besides, it's hot out for early morning, and I don't want to stand in the sun. As the other three gather around Master Yen Sid, I slink away from the group in favor of the unoccupied shady spot by the main entrance doors.

"Boy, you haven't changed much, have you?"

There's a tug on my pants leg, and I look down to find Yen Sid's apprentice. Putting on a sullen face, he folds his arms across his chest and leans against the wall, flawlessly mirroring my actions at the precise moment I perform them. "You're hilarious, Mickey."

He chuckles, pushing off the wall as he offers a friendly smile. "Gosh, it's swell to see you again, Vanitas." Looking around in a conspiratorial way, he leans closer to me and lowers his voice. "You haven't had any trouble with You Know Who, have you?"

"Nah," I say. "Ye-Master Yen Sid knew what he was doing."

"He sure did." Mickey puffs up with pride as we look towards his master. "So, how have you been doing?"

"'Swell'," I reply. "Enough for a rematch, even."

He might be a little mouse of an apprentice, but he swings a mean Keyblade. I'd found that out the hard way.

His smile becomes almost as sharp as mine, the effect ruined by the playful gleam in his eyes. "Anytime, anywhere, pal. Just don't be a sore loser this time."

"Don't worry. I have no intention of being any kind of loser." I smirk at him. "Oh, wait. I guess you should worry."

"Vanitas, it would be nice if you would stop being a bad influence on my apprentice," Yen Sid calls over, though his voice is relatively mild. "He is enough of a handful as it is."

"The Exam will begin in five minutes," Eraqus announces a few seconds later. "Please finish whatever preparations you need and join us in the Great Hall."

Everyone begins to file away, the Masters in the lead, Terra directly behind them. Aqua and Ven crowd around Mickey, pelting him with chatter and questions and leaving me to trail at the very back of the group.

"So, Mickey, looks like you know Vanitas pretty well, huh?"

"Well, gosh, I guess you could say that."

"You got any dirt on him?"

"Ven! What kind of question is that?"

"A legitimate one! He's gotta have done something we can hold over his head!"

"Weeellllll..."

"Mickey, you can't seriously be considering telling..."

Someone ought to tell Aqua her scandalized act would be more convincing if she weren't leaning towards the other apprentice with such obvious interest. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be me.

"If they only knew. Isn't that right, Vanitas?"

The others turn the corner and continue on into the Great Hall, oblivious to the fact that I'm still standing by the main entrance, half in and half out. Xehanort's Keyblade rests lightly between my shoulders blades, but as a dark portal opens directly in front of me with a soft whoosh, he increases the pressure until I can feel the points digging into my back. "If you don't mind, this shouldn't take too much of your time."

I get the feeling that if I do mind, it'll take even less.

"So this is where you've been hiding. I should have known," Xehanort says when we emerge on a large, grassy cliff. The castle is a short distance away, the stained glass set in the wall above the thrones in the Great Hall easily identifiable.

My former master's hands, as usual, are clasped behind his back, his Keyblade dismissed. He gazes at me coolly as I summon my own and whirl around to face him, the expression in his yellow eyes thoroughly unimpressed.

"Senility is nothing to be ashamed of at your age," I reply, matching him in casual scorn. "'course, Masters Yen Sid and Eraqus are still sharp as tacks, but it's not a competition, right?"

"Eraqus," he scoffs. Even if I agree-to some extent-I raise Void Gear warningly, as would be expected of me should the enemy insult my master. "Let's see how good a Master he really is."

He unclasps his hands from behind his back, raising one into the air at eye level with his fingers hooked so they resemble claws. Darkness begins to gather around his hand, swirling faster and thicker, until he sends it speeding towards the castle with a flick of the wrist. There's a certain manic glee in his eyes that I know all too well, and the sight sends an uneasy shiver down my spine.

"What did you do?" I demand.

"What I came to do. Put those apprentices of his to a real test," Xehanort sneers. "What a delightful surprise it was to stumble across you as well."

"I guess it's your lucky day." Damn you, Aqua, you and your good luck charms.

There's the strangest feeling in my chest; one that threatens to spawn my Unversed, and yet I'd thought I knew all the emotions capable of producing them. This is new, foreign, and even when it dawns on me I'm not willing to accept the realization.

I don't fear anything. Not Xehanort. Not anything.

At least, not for myself. I resist the urge to turn, to run back to the castle and warn the others. I'll never be able to make it back in time, and besides, I don't want to turn my back right now. He's focused on me again, the look on his face becoming more appraising. Calculating. Predatory.

"I'm in such a good mood I'll make you an offer, Vanitas. Come back to my side and I will be willing to look past your transgressions." There's an unspoken, but heavily implied, This time. When I don't immediately reject him, when I let my arm drop so that Void Gear is held slack at my side, he continues, letting a cajoling tone slip into his voice. "You know the emptiness you feel is not one that can be filled by illusions of friendship. There is only one thing that can complete you. Let me help you."

He's good, I have to admit, and if I didn't know him as well I'd probably let him coax me back into his grasp. But I do know him, and that familiarity brings a sneer of my own to my face. "You mean, let you use me. And the answer is no. Not a chance."

It's eerie, if not entirely unexpected, how quickly he lets his face and tone harden. "I will admit, having you with me would make things much easier, Vanitas. But do not be so arrogant as to think I'm helpless without you. And if you truly have no intention of helping me..." He summons his Keyblade. "...then I have no intention of letting you, a purposeless creature, exist. I will eliminate you."

I'm sure this is the point where I'm supposed to fall to my knees in supplication and swear that I'll never do anything so foolish as to turn on him ever again. Instead, I sink into my battle stance, raising Void Gear alongside my head as a smirk flits across my face. "You can try."

I can't beat him.

Now, even as strong as I am, this is by no means a major revelation. But, shockingly enough, having my suspicions confirmed isn't making me feel a hell of a lot better. I am bruised and battered and swaying on my feet and that is nothing compared to the beating my pride has taken. I haven't even been able to touch him.

The worst part? He's only been on the defensive this entire time. Every swing of my Keyblade has been parried with no apparent effort, every spell cast blocked and countered. I'm not looking forward to being on the receiving end when he decides to get serious, and it's only a matter of time.

Adding even more insult to injury is the look on Master Xehanort's face. He is bored, playing with a toy that isn't meeting his standards of entertainment; a toy for which the only redeeming factor is its durability, and he might as well break it and be done with it.

Once again, Void Gear is the only thing that saves me from the humiliation of face planting at my opponent's feet. I thrust the blade into the earth and lean against my Keyblade for support, allowing myself only a few seconds to recover. It takes more effort than I'd care to admit to take my weight back onto my legs and settle once more into my battle stance.

Keeping my senses trained on Xehanort, I turn my head aside and spit, disgusted, into the grass. The Thundaga he'd hit me with moments before has left a terrible metallic taste in my mouth, and the nauseating smell of singed me is still lingering in the air.

"Is this the best Eraqus can do?" my old Master wonders aloud. "You were stronger when you were serving as my apprentice."

I know what he's trying to do, and yet I can't help stiffening. What can I say? The man knows how to push my buttons. We've been doing this dance ever since the fight started: a brief, violent clash, followed by a momentary breaking apart for me to catch my breath and him to make another infuriating remark, and so on and so forth.

Like it or not, I'm forced to play his game. The rage he inspires surges up, clawing at my chest. It's got to come out one way or the other, and it's when it comes out the other that I'm really going to be in trouble. That's when he'll really go on the offensive, and that's when I'll have no choice but to submit.

So I charge, closing the gap between us, and spring into the air above him, Keyblade arcing down with my descent. It didn't work before. Truth be told, I don't expect it to work now. And at the last possible moment, Xehanort lifts his arm and catches Void Gear's blade against his own.

For a moment, we strain against each other-or to be more accurate, I strain, trying with failing strength to beat him back, and he smirks, nearly nose to nose with my snarl and I. And then with one powerful swipe of his arm he heaves me away again, sending me slamming into the ground where I tumble head over heels and finally end up sprawled on my stomach several yards away, Void Gear miraculously spinning to a stop within arm's reach.

Unhurried, unconcerned, he strolls towards me as I struggle to get back up, stopping when I totter to my feet and assume a defensive stance. "Your arm is tiring," he observes in a pleasant tone.

"No. It's not." Yes. It is. My muscles burn with the effort of holding the weight of my Keyblade; heavy enough as it usually is, it feels ten times worse now. My fingers are aching, aching to uncurl from around the handle and just let it drop. The only thing I have to keep my blade from drooping is sheer force of will. But I am not going to surrender, and it seems that Master Xehanort has come to this realization as well. His eyes narrow briefly as I continue, "I could do this for hours."

"Can you really?" he asks, as a sadistic smile curves the corners of his lips upward. "Let us test that theory."

He vanishes before my eyes. Knowing what to expect, I flip away as rapidly as I can, whirling around and pointing my Keyblade at him when he reappears behind the spot where I was standing. "Burn," I growl, and send the largest Firaga I can dredge up streaking towards him.

I don't have the time to savor his cry of pain as the spell hits its mark. I barely have the time to bring Void Gear up to defend myself when he begins his retaliation.

From past experience I know that it would have been all I could do to block the furious onslaught of blows he crashes down on me if he had done so from the start. Tired out as I am, I feel every jarring strike much more than I normally would. And despite my best efforts to fend him off, he disarms me a moment later with a contemptuous flick of his Keyblade.

I make the mistake of watching in dismay as my weapon sails over our heads and clatters unceremoniously to the ground a hopeless distance away. Given the opportunity, Xehanort seizes the chance to reclaim my attention with a boot to my stomach. The air whooshes from my lungs and I crumple to the ground, struggling to breathe.

Another kick renders me flat on my back, staring up the shaft of his Keyblade as he rests the tip on my chest. "Last chance, Vanitas," he says, and means it.

Still winded, I can only shake my head. Our eyes meet, full of concentrated mutual loathing, and he bares his teeth as he pulls the blade away and raises it above his head. "Suit yourself."

The air whistles and seems to shimmer as he slashes downwards.

...shimmer?

Several voices cry out simultaneously. "BARRIER!"

The reinforced spell is so powerful that Xehanort is knocked off balance as his Keyblade glances violently off the unseen surface that has sprung up between us. He's quick to recover, but I'm no longer the focus of his attention. His eyes fix onto something beyond me. Following his gaze, I spot Mickey and Aqua, Star Seeker and Rainfell drawn as they race towards us from the castle, rapidly closing the distance. Behind them come Eraqus and Yen Sid, expressions grim and eyes locked on my old Master.

"Stop!" Aqua shouts, but the spell soars harmlessly through empty space.

Xehanort has gone.

Dropping to her knees beside me, she checks me over with gentle hands, examining my injuries. "Vanitas, don't move," she says, pressing me back down as I make to sit up.

"Was that Master Xehanort?" Mickey asks. "Shouldn't we go after him?"

With a single, stern look, Yen Sid silences his apprentice. "We have more urgent matters at hand." He gestures at me.

"I'm okay," I argue, fighting to be let up off my back. "I'm okay. Aqua, get off-"

"Vanitas," she says, firmly, and holds her hands up for my inspection.

"...Wow. That's a lot of blood."

Sheer exasperation forces a sound from her that I can't identify, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "Yes. It is. So stop moving. You're making it worse."

It's as if acknowledging the fact that I'm injured has pulled a stopper on my adrenaline, and as that drains away, everything else comes rushing eagerly in to take its place: every burn, every bruise, every cut, all merging together into waves of pain. Aqua takes advantage of the daze I fall into to place her hands back over the worst of my wounds.

"Curaga," she murmurs. I am bathed in a warm, almost blindingly bright, white-green light. The heat of it intensifies over my injuries, makes me grit my teeth and arch my back in discomfort, and then fades to an oddly pleasant tingle.

Even that's gone by the time the sound of footsteps pounding over the grass announces the arrival of Terra and Ventus. Aqua is helping me to my feet when they join us, graciously letting me pretend I don't really need it.

"What's happened here?" Terra sounds stunned as he looks around us at the landscape, formerly immaculate, now torn-up and destroyed. I can actually see the places where I'd landed following each of Xehanort's rebuttals to my attacks.

"Are you okay?" Ventus asks me at the same time. My injuries are gone, but no amount of healing magics can remove the grass and mud and the residual smell of Thundaga clinging to my clothes.

"Why, Ventus," I drawl, letting go of Aqua to brush myself off. There's a particularly ugly tear in my shirt surrounded a large, uneven stain darker even than the black cloth. When I touch it, my hand comes away red. "You almost sound like you care."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ventus asks, frowning. "Of course I care, you idiot. You're one of us, aren't you?"

As a smile takes the place of his frown, I can't help but to stare, momentarily speechless and wondering, for the first time, just how long my own prejudices have led me to misjudge him.

Wait.

"...Did you just call me an idiot?"

Nervously, he watches my fingers twitch with the desire to summon Void Gear. "...uhh..."

"Boys," Eraqus says, effectively defusing the impending chaos. He takes another look around, his eyes lingering on the spot on which Xehanort had been standing. His voice sounds tired. "Let us go back inside. We have much to discuss."

For the record, Ven did not ever really not like Vanitas. It was Vanitas who, shockingly, never really gave off any, "Let's be friends," vibes to the point that poor Ven was comfortable enough to act on them. Consequently he most certainly used the other three as buffers when Vanitas was around, but it was not so much, "I don't like the new guy," as it was, "I don't think the new guy likes me."

With that, off we go to the responses.

oblivionkeeper23: Er...not quite, lol. I mean, I totally would if I could find it. D: But I'm just going with the Vanitas backstory summary I found online and that was the inspiration. No problem, by the way! The love should always be shared.

the nobody 0: Glad you're enjoying it that much. ^_^

TheCrazyAnimeFan: Thanks! I shall indeed.

DPSS: I KNOW RITE? I actually went through tons of pages of Vanitas-centric fics to see if someone else had beaten me to the punch...but then I gave up because TOO MANY PAGES. Thanks for the comments!

PeterPokéfreak: My head swells like a friggin' balloon every time I see one of your reviews, lol. Short answer, practice. When I first wrote some ten years ago, my stories literally consisted of "I did this, and then I did this. He did that, and then this happened." THAT'S LITERALLY ALL IT WAS. CHAPTERS CONSISTING OF PARAGRAPHS OF THIS. I like to think I've improved. Ten years from now I'll probably look back at this and sob.

SorceressKyrsty: Aaw, thanks. ^_^ I did debate for a long time, should Terra and Vanitas be friends or no? And then I decided probably not since Eraqus and Ven are afraid/suspicious/uncertain of him and this is Terra's family we're talking about.

MegaFlameHedge: Good to know, good to know. ^_^ Vanitas is a sarcastic bastard. Also, that's a good point in regards to character choice. I'll see if there's some less common ones that convert me. It would be nice if I could help a couple people out.

Promotion time!

Just Out of Reach by The Genius Mage
Many believed the darkness to be all powerful. Vanitas was one of them. But even the darkness couldn't force her...to...It didn't matter. She would always be out of his reach. Onesided VanitasxAqua, writing challenge dare.

Anime Expo 2013 tomorrow. I am going to buy ALL the Kingdom Hearts merch. 'Til next time!