The blonde girl stared up at the clear night sky. Her chocolate brown doe eyes assessed each star in turn, trying to find one in particular. She spent so many nights doing this. It was a promise she had made before leaving her home for what seemed to be the rest of her life. She promised to always look to the sky. All worlds shared the same sky, so wherever he was, he would be looking at the same sky as her.

"Hey! Y!" A voice called out making the girl turn. Behind her was a spiky-haired blonde boy smiling warmly at her. His blue eyes shone brightly despite the night. It looked as if a thousand stars were reflected in his gaze. Y felt her heart race a little as it always did when she saw him.

"Hi, Ven." Y greeted with a smile. "What are you doing up so late?" She asked. Ven put his hands behind his head like he so often did. His bright smile remained as he looked up at the stars.

"There's a meteor shower." He replied happily. "I thought you would have noticed since you were looking up at the sky." He said. Y looked up to the sky again. Just as Ven had said, bright lines of light streaked across the sky. Y took the in an amazed breath. How had she not seen them until now?

"Wow, that's amazing." Y said breathlessly. Ven looked down at her in confusion.

"You really didn't notice?" He asked. Y shook her head, still looking up. Her eyes reflected back the light of the stars making them seem to glow.

"I was too busy thinking I guess." She said. Ven tipped his head to the side. He dropped his arms and walked over to where Y sat. He dropped to the ground beside her, looking at her with innocent curiosity.

"What were you thinking about?" He asked. Y shrugged, picking at the grass.

"My homeworld." She replied. Ven smiled brightly before laying back to watch the stars. He crossed his arms behind his head once more.

"You're the only one out of us who can remember where they came from, aren't you?" Ven asked. Y had answered this question many times, but Ven always asked. It was true of course. Ven had amnesia and couldn't remember very much of anything before the Land of Departure. Aqua, the older girl that trained with them, had been at the Land of Departure practically her entire life. She was too young to remember where she came from. And Terra, the last apprentice of the master, he never spoke of if he could remember or not. He wasn't much older than Aqua when he came to the world, so Y guessed he didn't remember his home. Y, unlike all the others, clearly remembered her world and all the people in it.

"Yeah, I am." Y answered softly.

"That must be hard," Ven said with a frown. Y shrugged looking back to the stars.

"It can be. But I'm glad to be here. And I know they would want me here." She said. Ven seemed to think about her words before smiling.

"That sounds great. I hope where ever I came from was like that." He said. Y smiled down at the blonde and nodded. She had heard from Aqua some strange man had brought Ven here. An old friend of the masters. Why they never found out. "You should tell me a story about your world," Ven said suddenly. Y looked at him shocked.

"Now?" She asked. Ven nodded. Y tapped her chin thinking. "Well, there is one, from ages ago." She said. Ven smiled brightly.

"Tell me it." He said excitedly. Y smiled and laid back beside Ven.

"A long time ago there was a set of twins. A boy and a girl. They had been raised in the forest outside of town by a very kind man. The girl was very kind and gentle. People from all around compared her to the sun, always warm and seemed to radiate light. Her name was Hiko. The boy was much quieter than his sister, but still very kind. He spoke only the truth and knew a great deal. He was often times compared to the moon, quiet and distant so it seemed. His name was Yoruko." Y began. Ven closed his eyes, listening intently to the girl's story.

"The world was peaceful, but a disease was spreading across the land. The disease was darkness. It crept into the hearts of many turning them into monsters. It poisoned their minds and made them unable to tell friends and family from enemies. People were dying."

"I'm not sure I like this story." Ven interrupted. Y playfully hit his arm.

"No interrupting." She said. "Anyway, it gets better. I promise." Ven nodded, not daring to speak again. Y sighed, before returning to her tale.

"The man who had raised the twins soon fell into the darkness. But Hiko couldn't accept that. Despite Yoruko's repeated attempts to pull her away, Hiko went to the man. She pulled him close to her heart and took the darkness away from him into her own heart. The man returned to himself and Hiko was perfectly fine, as if nothing had happened.

"When others heard of what Hiko had done they rushed the ones affected to her. Yoruko tried to tell his sister to turn them away. He didn't think it was wise for her to take the darkness into her heart. Hiko ignored him. She took the darkness from everyone brought to her without question. No matter what the darkness was she would take it. She would give them a place to stay, and a reason to live. Yoruko did what he could to slow those coming to her, but it wasn't enough.

"Soon, almost everyone was saved. But Hiko was falling ill. The people once covered in darkness had turned to light. But Hiko's heart of pure light had turned just as black as the night. Yoruko rushed to his sister. He pulled her close and tried to take the darkness from her before it was too late. He had known if she took too much she would die, but she hadn't listened. He took so much darkness from her, his own heart too became black as night. But he couldn't do enough. Both twins fell to the ground, curled up together as if asleep. The darkness had poisoned both of them. My world forever remembers them as heroes who stopped the darkness."

Ven was silent after Y had finished. Y almost thought he was asleep for a moment.

"That's sad." Ven said. "They both died."

"Better both than one." Y said softly. "They died together, which is how any twin would want to go. They can't imagine a second without the other. Even more, Yoruko tried to save his sister, which is heartwarming."

"If you say so," Ven replied. "I still think it's sad though."

"That's better than some of the stories. That's probably one of the happiest." Y said with a laugh. Ven smiled hearing her laugh. They sat in silence, watching the stars. Y felt her eyes grow heavy. It was probably a good idea for her to go inside. But she didn't want to leave Ven. Instead, she allowed herself to fall asleep there on the grass.

What seemed like seconds later Y was woken by Ven yelling.

"Whoa!" Ven yelled sitting upright. Y shot up as well, blinking her eyes in surprise.  She looked to Ven, confused by his sudden outburst. The reason for his outcry became apparent at the sound of an older girls laugh. "Give us a break, Aqua," Ven said.

Behind the pair was a rather tall girl with short blue hair. She was smiling down at the two, bent over so her hands touched her knees. Her eyes were the same blue as her hair and were filled with laughter. Y crossed her arms and attempted to glare at the older girl but failed.

"You hopeless sleepyheads." Aqua chided. "You know, you should have at least brought a blanket." She said. Ven frowned looking up at the sky.

"But-- Did I dream that place up? It really felt like I'd been there before....looking up at the stars..." he said. From the sounds of it, he was mostly talking to himself. Y couldn't decide what he was talking about, perhaps something from before the Land of Departure. Aqua laughed and patted his head.

"'Cept you've always lived here with us." Aqua said. Ven nodded, looking down. Aqua smiled at him gently, in the motherly way she always seemed to have. The group of three walked to the edge of the cliff and sat down looking at the sky.

"Hey, Aqua, Y," Ven said. Y glanced at him from the corner of her eyes.

"Hm?" Aqua asked, not looking towards the other two.

"Y'ever wonder what stars are? Where light comes from?" Ven asked. Y smiled looking up at the sky.  She laughed a little, surprised he didn't already know.

"Hmm," Aqua said in mock thought. "Well they say--" she was cut off before she could finish by a voice from behind.

"That every star up there is another world." The voice said. The group turned around to see a boy around Aqua's age. He was tall with a muscular build. He had brown hair and clear blue eyes. Aqua smiled at him.

"Terra." She said in greeting. He nodded towards Aqua before walking a little closer to the group.

"Hard to believe there are so many worlds out there besides our own." Terra said, looking to Ven. Y rolled her eyes and snickered.

"Maybe for you." She muttered. Ven heard her and grinned. Terra shot her a playful glare but didn't acknowledge her comment.

"The light is their hearts," Terra continued on. "And it's shining down on us like a million lanterns." He said.

"What?" Ven asked, looking at Terra in confusion. "I don't get it."

"In other words, they're just like you, Ven." Terra explained. Ven stood up from the cliff and walked over to Terra. He crossed his arms looking at Terra.

"What does that mean?" Ven asked.

"That Terra's bad at explaining things." Y said. Terra shot her another glare that she just shrugged off.

"You'll find out someday, I'm sure." Terra said, smiling fondly at Ven after turning his attention away from Y. Ven frowned.

"I wanna know now." Ven said.  Terra chuckled at him.

"You're too young to know now." He said. To Y it sounded like an excuse. One that they couldn't really use since Aqua and Terra had learned this when they were about Ven and Y's age.

"Quit treating me like a kid!" Ven said, clearly aggravated by the way Terra was treating him. Beside Y, Aqua began to laugh. Y looked at her with a curious expression but didn't ask. Terra and Ven turned their attention to Aqua as well.

"Hey, what are you laughing at?" Terra asked. Aqua shook her head while still laughing.

"I can't help it." She managed to get out before laughing again. "You two would make the weirdest brothers." Terra and Ven looked at each other in confusion. Y smiled and joined Aqua in laughing. It was true enough. Though they were always together, almost like an actual family, they would be strange brothers. But maybe not, siblings didn't always agree after all.

Terra and Ven soon joined in the girl's laughter. After a moment they sat down again, looking up at the stars. Y leaned her head to rest on Aqua's shoulder. Aqua looked down at her with a smile and patted her head. Y glanced at Aqua before moving her head, allowing Aqua to stand up.

"Terra, you and I have our Mark of Mastery exams tomorrow." Aqua reminded him. She reached into her pocket to grab something as the other three stood as well. "I made us good luck charms." Aqua said as she tossed something towards Terra. He caught it with ease. It was an orange star-shaped charm with a heart in the center.

"Whoa!" Ven said looking at Terra's charm. Aqua laughed.

"Here." She said tossing a green charm to Ven, then a pink one to Y.

"We get one too?" Ven asked in surprise.

"Of course," Aqua said. "One for each of us." She held out her own charm, which was blue. Y held hers out right beside Aqua's.  Terra and Ven followed suit, holding them together in a circle. "Somewhere out there, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit." Aqua explained. "And the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You'll always find your way back to each other. Technically, I think you're supposed to make them with seashells, but I did the best I could with what I had."

"Sometimes you're such a girl," Terra said while rolling his eyes. Y laughed a little as Aqua glared at Terra.

"What do you mean by 'sometimes'?" Aqua asked. Terra didn't reply with anything more than a shrug. Y laughed again glancing over at Ven. He was frowning as he looked at the good luck charm.

"So this isn't a real good luck charm?" Ven asked. Aqua smiled at him softly.

"That's yet to be seen." She admitted. "But I did work a little magic on it." She continued, with a smile.

"Really? What?" Ven asked. Aqua held her charm up to the sky, almost as if trying to place it among the thousand stars looking down on them.

"An unbreakable connection," Aqua said. Y chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"That's not really magic, you know." She said. She too held her charm up, looking at it with interest. "But I really hope it works."

"We should head back," Terra suggested, watching the girls with amusement.  Y turned and looked at him and nodded.

"Right." Ven agreed.

The four walked back towards the place they called home. Aqua stopped for a moment, looking up at the stars. Y noticed her fall behind and stopped as well. She let her own gaze wander to the sky. A shooting star streaked across the sky, leaving a trail of light. Y closed her brown eyes and made a wish.

Y felt a tap on her shoulder from Aqua. Y looked at her with a smile. Aqua returned the smile before running to catch up with the boys. Y followed her, slowing her pace as she reached them.

That would be the last night we ever spent under the same stars.

~~~~~~~~~~*<3*~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Oddly enough I'm thinking this story might be shorter than my first one. If I keep to the plan of one world per chapter it will only be a little over twenty chapters, thirty at most. I'll just see how it works out.
Anyway, here's the first actual chapter. It was originally meant to be the introductory chapter, but that changed about halfway through the week. Hope you're enjoying it so far.