Marluxia was unsure of how long he had been out for, but he was aware of the bright light shining around him as he slowly opened his eyes. He was worried, of course, upon finding himself in what felt like such an unfamiliar place, but he couldn't focus on that right now, instead opting to figure out what was going on.
He'd been in the Keyblade Graveyard in Xehanort's Keyblade War to try to forge the χ-Blade alongside Larxene and Luxord. Sora had shown up, defeated him, and now he was here, in a world of sunshine and white buildings and light. "Perhaps...my heart has been recompleted?"
If he was honest with himself, he didn't quite feel like Lauriam. Sure, his heart was now back where it belonged within him, but Strelitzia wasn't. He still remembered when he'd lost his heart, when Darkness had shown up and told them...
No. He wasn't thinking about that. Not now. Ten years may have passed and he'd yet to have a chance to mourn Strelitzia, but he needed to find a way off this world and find Elrena. Then the two of them could figure out what they were going to do from here, and how he could get back to Ephemer, Skuld, Ven, and Brain.
He took in his surroundings, looking around for a moment to gather his bearings. "Even if Larxene isn't here, Chirithy can't be far."
If he could find Chirithy, he could find a way off this world, and from there, he could figure the rest out. With a plan in mind, Marluxia began exploring the unfamiliar world, hoping to find somebody, somebody with answers.
It didn't take long before he managed to find his solution. By the fountain in the center of town he saw three people standing around. One a woman with bright blue hair, one a man with brown hair and a surprising resemblance to the Superior (Xemnas, he had to get out of that habit), and one a resemblance to Ven himself.
Admittedly, Marluxia wasn't expecting Roxas here, but another Keyblade Wielder could never hurt. "Roxas."
"That's not my–" 'Roxas' had turned around, leaving Marluxia silent for a moment as his mind caught up with what he saw. The woman and man summoned Keyblades, but they were ignored as their friend stepped forward. "Lauriam!"
"Ventus?" With the reveal of his connection to Strelitzia's death, in his darkest days it had become difficult for Marluxia to ignore even indirectly how he was responsible for the action that cost him his sister, but that didn't change that Ven was a friend, and might have been the first connection to Daybreak Town he had, enough that at least for now, Marluxia determined it was worth it to reach out to him. Ven winced, though whether it was from the use of his full name or from the memories of what he had been used for, Marluxia wasn't sure.
The man with Ven spoke up, though didn't lower his Keyblade. "Is he a friend of yours, Ven?"
To his credit, Ven didn't seem bothered as he gave the two a smile. "Yeah. You and Aqua should keep looking for anything more on Quadratum and let Kairi know what you find. I'll catch up."
"Are you sure?" Aqua asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Ven nodded, waving them off. The two left on Ven's insistence, leaving Marluxia and him alone. "You're really here?"
"As if I wouldn't be?"
"Well, last I saw you, even if it was only for a second, you were working with Xehanort." Ven was right, not that it made it any easier for Marluxia to acknowledge how far he'd fallen. At one point he was supposed to be one of the guiding lights of the world, and here he was instead almost helping to destroy it.
The Book of Prophecies hadn't warned him about anything to do with that.
"I apologize for my actions then. I hadn't expected to be..." Marluxia sighed. "I didn't remember who I was. What I was supposed to be."
"And now?" Ven asked, looking at him with hopeful eyes, as though waiting for an answer to change what he had done.
"I'm looking for answers." There wasn't much more to explain. "I know something happened to Daybreak Town, but..."
"I don't really have the answers, none of us do." Ven looked down. "One minute we were going through the ark, and then afterwards..."
"You didn't remember either?" Marluxia knew he and Elrena held no memories of their past together, of the Dandelions, Unions, and his sisters, but that they weren't alone in that surprised him. Ven simply nodded. "So Ephemer..."
"I'm actually here with Terra and Aqua to look for answers about what happened to Sora." The interruption made Marluxia look right at Ven, rather than avoiding his gaze as he had been before. It was clear Ven didn't want to focus much on the cause of their missing memories as Union Leaders. "But I'd be happy to help you look for answers about Ephemer too."
"And Elrena."
"Elrena?" Ven frowned, thinking it over. "Oh, your friend you brought with us! Wasn't she a member of the True Organization as well?"
"She was. Both as Larxene and as Elrena, she's been by my side helping since I lost my sister."
With the reminder of Strelitzia, both fell quiet. Despite being nothing more than a tool, Ven still clearly felt guilt over her ultimate fate. As the quiet faded, Ven finally spoke up. "I'm sorry. If it wasn't for me and..." whatever words he had to say died out before he could say more, the memory of his actions under the control of Darkness likely weren't pleasant to deal with.
"It wasn't your fault," Marluxia said. He was surprised to find that the words rang true. He missed Strelitzia, even now, so many years after her death, but he couldn't find it in himself to blame Ven for actions he had no control over.
"But..." Ven frowned for a moment. "I won't be able to change your mind, will I?"
Marluxia put a hand on his shoulder. "Before I learned of your ties to Strelitzia's fate, I thought of you as a little brother, one I could protect just like I would her. I won't abandon you now when you've done nothing wrong."
Ven smiled. "I thought when you used my full name, you were still mad at me after everything that happened."
"I'm not...happy with you..." Marluxia admitted. He cared about Ven, but it would be a long time before he would move past everything completely. "But she wouldn't want me to hold a grudge, and like I said, I cared about you...I still do. I didn't let your involvement in her death stop me before we left Daybreak Town, and I won't let it stop me now either."
Marluxia wasn't sure it was possible for Ven's smile to grow larger, but he was sure it did in that moment. "Then in that case, I'm glad to still call you my friend!" His eyes grew wide with a realization. "Oh, where's Elrena? Wasn't she with you too?"
Marluxia shook his head. "She wasn't here when I woke up, I'm hoping to find her now too."
"Let me help." Ven nodded. "Terra and Aqua can finish searching here for clues about Quadratum, but you could use all the help you can get. And since this place was Daybreak Town, it would make sense that she'd end up here, just like you did."
The knowledge that Daybreak Town had somehow become this strange world of windmills raised more questions than answers for Marluxia, but he let it go for now. "If you don't mind, then I'd appreciate it. Do you want to let your friends know?"
Ven shook his head. "Nah, they trust me to be safe. If something happens, then they'll find me. Our hearts are connected."
Marluxia nodded, and started to walk off, Ven following behind him.
The journey around the world that was once Daybreak Town (Scala ad Caelum, Ven had called it) was more frustrating than Marluxia could have imagined, none of the streets were the same and although he had Ven serving as a guide, it didn't make the navigation any easier.
It did, however, at least make the time go a little bit faster. As they'd wandered around the streets looking for any sign of Elrena, they'd talked about what had happened after they'd been separated, who they'd met and where they'd been. However even with the time passing faster than expected, it was still a hard search, and with no sighting of her, it was getting difficult for both him and Ven to keep up hope.
"Hey, Lauriam, what are you gonna do if we can't find her anywhere?" Ven asked after another street yielded hopeless in their search.
"I'll find another world. I'm unsure how much of her time as Larxene she's retained, but she isn't one to stay quiet." Marluxia chuckled at the memory of her in Castle Oblivion and her overdramatic antics when it came to Sora and Axel. "It won't be hard to hear something of her."
Ventus stopped, his face scrunching in confusion. "Elrena? Didn't she like to mind her own business?"
"Not anymore. She changed when she became a Nobody, just as I did." While he couldn't bring himself to correct Ven's use of his former name, it didn't feel as though it belonged to him. He imagined Elrena felt the same.
Odd that he still thought of her as that rather than as Larxene.
"Oh." Ven frowned. "It would make our job finding her easier then."
"Finding who easier? Were the two of you looking for me?" At the sound of another, familiar voice Marluxia and Ven turned around.
At the sight of her familiar, blond hair, Marluxia couldn't help but smile. "Larxene?"
"Marluxia, Ven." She let out a laugh, and gave a smile, not the sadistic one she had worn so many times since they'd lost their hearts, but a truly, genuine smile. "It's good to see you too."