Hello lovelies!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Here is the next part!

~Waking Twilight~

Vanitas jerked awake, scrambling into a crouching position. He didn't remember falling asleep.

The wind whistled as it blew through the rocks around him and he looked around, trying to remember what had happened. Master had left him the wastes of the Keyblade Graveyard, he remembered that. He also remembered that he said his Light was dying and so he took him away.

And then the creatures came.

They were dark, strange looking things and they had hurt. So much. Without his Light, everything hurt. And these creatures, when they appeared, everything hurt a little less. But then they wanted to be whole. And he remembered – they were part of him. They came from him and his pain. They were what was left of his shattered, fragment of a heart. And they wanted to be whole. So they tried to force their way back into his heart, or what was left of it. It was agony. Like someone had split him open and was trying to flip him inside out.

Everything went dark after that.

That was when the child-voice came. Came and held him close and made the hurting less.

He brought a hand to his chest and marveled at the steady beat under his palm. The rhythmic thump-ba-thump didn't hurt anymore; it didn't feel like something was trying to claw its way out of his chest. He could breathe. For the first time since he opened his eyes, since he had been ripped away from his Light.

That small, little voice-child-boy had somehow made it hurt less.

"He doesn't sound like a nice master."

Vanitas shook his head. Of course Master wasn't nice; he had ripped them apart after all. But he had needed too because the way they were meant they were too weak to fulfill the Master's goals. But Vanitas was strong – stronger than their Original and their Light. He was better. So the Master would keep him.

The Master had told him to stay here and train, to become even stronger so that when the time came, he could complete his task. And the Master promised that if he did this, the hurting would be less.

"He hurt you. He broke you."

Vanitas frowned. It was true. The boy-voice hadn't been lying so Vanitas couldn't get mad at him for it. The Master did break them in the most horrible way. The boy-child-voice himself didn't seem angry about it either, just sad. And then he took Vanitas's heart in his hands and made it whole.

He made the hurting less.

Not the Master.

The Master hadn't helped him at all. He had left him here in this barren place alone except for his broken shards of a heart.

"Then why do you follow him?"

Why did he? It seemed so obvious before. The Master had made him – made him stronger, faster, better. But to do that he had broken him. He still remembered the way their heart had shattered as he was ripped away, the way their Original had screamed as he was torn apart, the way his Light went blind to everything, even him.

It had been painful. Agonizing.

He had been left jagged and raw and aching. His Light had been left silent and sightless and dying. Their Original had been broken and shattered and gone.

And the Master. The Master had just smiled. Smiled and called him an empty creature, like he was less – less than human, less than perfect, less than a whole. And he was. Less than a whole, that was. But that hadn't been his fault or his choice. He had wanted his Light back. But the Master had taken him away. Taken him away to get rid of him. Taken him away so he could die.

Taken him away and made Vanitas stay.

Even though Vanitas wanted nothing more than to follow. For all his Light was dying, he still called out for him, reaching, aching. Neither of them had been able to cover the gap between them – it was too large, too deep.

But then the voice-child had come. He had come, drawn in by a light that was too bright and too sad, he had said. And when he found it had been broken, he made it whole. And then he found the gap between them and made a Bridge between their shattered hearts. The boy-child-voice climbed over the too deep, too large gap and made him whole again too. And now he didn't feel so Dark anymore and the gap between him and his Light didn't seem so far.

Not too Dark and not too Light, the child-voice had said.

When he made them whole he must have made them something in between.

Maybe that was why it hurt less. Why there was no more pressure threatening to shatter what was left of him. Why he could feel his Light as a steady warmth in the back of his mind and the center of his heart. Why he felt whole even though he knew that he wasn't.

It was…nice.

He didn't really remember what the Original felt like – what it felt like to truly be whole. Just impressions really. The memories he held as himself were all pain. Pain and loneliness and being stuck in a place that was too deep dark. And through it all, the Master had been there. Smiling. Like he had done something wonderful. Like he hadn't just ripped their Original to shreds. Like he had just won the most wonderful prize.

"It's time to wake up now."

Vanitas nodded to himself and stood slowly. Carefully. He allowed himself a small smile when the pain didn't come back, when none of those creatures appeared and tried to make him hurt more. Yes, it was time to wake up now. Time to wake up and leave. Leave the Master that hurt him and smiled that cold smile and looked at him with those hungry eyes.

He wasn't Dark anymore, but that was fine. He was more now – more than a fragment or a part. He could feel it in his heart. That boy had given him some Light when he made him whole. Not a lot, but enough to make the deep dark a little less deep.

Not too Dark and not too Light, the child-voice had said.

He had both now, both Light and Dark, like any other person would have in their heart. He was still more Dark than Light, but he was fine with that. It felt nice to have the right parts. The parts that made most people whole even if he wasn't really whole.

He supposed this meant that he wasn't Dark anymore.

Perhaps he could be Twilight instead.

So there's the end of the second chapter. I feel like Vani is kinda a bit on the mellow side, but he has a whole heart now instead of a fragment that is all darkness, so I'm not writing him as someone who is unbalanced. If that makes any sense. If not, feel free to ask.

Anyway, hope you guys liked this part.

Until next time,

~Elri