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Due to lengthy periods between releases and the prevalence of Late Arrival Spoilers, spoilers from installments before 2010 may be unmarked. Read at your own risk.


Aqua

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aqua_khiii_21.png
Click here to see Anti-Aqua

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Willa Holland (English)

Appearances: II Final Mix | Birth by Sleep | coded | Dream Drop Distance | 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- | III | Melody of Memory

"Power is born within the heart. When the time is right, you just need to look inside yourself... and you'll find it there."

The only one of her trio of friends to become a Keyblade Master. She is tasked with looking after Terra to keep him from succumbing to darkness, and to bring Ventus back to the Land of Departure after he runs away from home. Specializing in magic instead of physical fighting like Terra, Aqua's promotion above him and Ven and her natural urge to try and guide them leads to their friendship fracturing when she seems to be acting superior to them. Despite this, she has a very strong sense of justice and a strong desire to do the right things, and she is the overall heroine of Birth by Sleep.

By the end of the game, Aqua duels Xehanort to try and break his control of Terra's body. Terra, in desperation, casts their body into the Realm of Darkness, and Aqua sacrifices her armor and Keyblade to save him. Trapped in the Realm of Darkness with Master Eraqus's Keyblade, she's been looking for a way out for ten years, and has had additional adventures in the darkness before she meets up with Ansem the Wise at the Dark Margin where they both waited together for help to escape.

The pair would come under attack by Xehanort’s Heartless, and Aqua was corrupted and succumbed to darkness and despair. However, the intervention of Sora and his friends finally freed her from the Realm of Darkness. Aqua quickly becomes one of the Guardians of Light’s primary assets and leaders, helping the group locate Ven and providing invaluable support when she takes part in the Second Keyblade War. After Xehanort’s defeat, Aqua settled down as the Master of the Land of Departure.


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  • 11th-Hour Superpower: She gains the Brightcrest Keyblade in the Final Chapter. It possesses very impressive range, makes critical hits a 75% chance, and provides an outstanding boost to her already impressive magic stat. She gets yet another one, namely Eraqus's Keyblade, Master's Defender, during the Secret Episode. It has the same range and magic rating as Brightcrest, but with additional physical strength.
  • The Ace: The only one of her three friends to be a Keyblade Master, and she has the skills to back it up both in and out of gameplay. In nearly every regard, Aqua is straight-up better than her companions, and all three of them know it. The darker side of this trope rears its head as it becomes more clear that her superiority has made Aqua arrogant, and helps drive Terra's sense of inadequacy, both factors in splitting the trio apart and bringing about their demise. By the present day, ten years of unrelenting psychological torture in the Realm of Darkness has made her a Broken Ace.
  • Achilles' Heel: Unlike Sora, Roxas and Xion who rely on their magical prowess when bereaved of their Keyblade, Aqua seems all but helpless without it and tries to go at it barehanded with predictable results.
  • Action Girl: Is primarily a magic user, which she can combine into a few good physical attacks. There's a reason she's the one with the Master rank, after all. Doubles as an Affirmative Action Girl; though Kairi had fought in cut-scene form before, and Xion and Larxene had been playable in Days's multiplayer mode, Aqua is the first proper female player character. She temporarily becomes a Dark Action Girl after being trapped in the Realm of Darkness.
  • And I Must Scream: By the end of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Aqua becomes trapped in the Realm of Darkness alone. In Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, we see that Aqua has spent the last ten years doing nothing but fight Heartless and wandering aimlessly through the Realm of Darkness chasing the illusions of Terra and Ventus. Not only does she have to deal with the disappointment of never seeing her friends again, but the Realm of Darkness also toys with her on an emotional level, changing around her and forcing her to face her personal demons in the form of her own reflection. It is even revealed that time works differently there, with her not realizing how long she has been there in the first place.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: Even though Sora is playable through the very end in III, Aqua is also playable in Castle Oblivion during the boss fight against Vanitas. Re:Mind also allows the player to use her during the boss fight against Vanitas and Terranort in the Keyblade Graveyard.
  • The Archmage: While she's more than capable physically, her prowess lies with a more magic-oriented fighting style, being versed in all forms of it. The only Keyblade Wielder that exceeds her in terms of magic power is Master Xehanort.
  • Armor-Piercing Response: In III. In the Realm of Darkness, she gives one to Mickey on seeing him again.
    "You left me in this shadow prison for more than a decade, knowing what it would do to me…"
  • Artistic Age: There are flashbacks where, given that Aqua is approximately 18 in the main story, she can't be older than 14. Not that you would know that from her character model, which is unchanged.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses:
    • Subverted when she tells Zack to sit on the sidelines before her battle with Hades and the Ice Colossus. Later played straight in an awesome fashion when she teams up with fellow invokedMemetic Badass Mickey to fend off a Vanitas-possessed Ven.
    • During the Re:Mind DLC of KHIII Aqua stands back to back with Mickey and Xion and together the three provide magical protection for the other Guardians of Light against the Xehanort Replicas.
  • Badass Boast: "My name is Master Aqua. Now return my friend's heart, or pay the price!"
  • Badass in Distress: Even with her being The Ace compared to Terra and Ventus, she's ironically been the character of the trio who has been needed to be rescued the most combined in all the games she appeared in. She especially got this in III where she had to be rescued twice in the Realm of Darkness, as well as when Vanitas attempted to kill her.
  • Barrier Warrior: Where Terra and Ventus block attacks with their Keyblades, Aqua throws up a Beehive Barrier that protects her from all directions. She also learns skills to dash while projecting a barrier to damage enemies, can explode her barrier outwards to damage enemies, and is the only character who can use her Block skill in midair.
  • Beehive Barrier: In II, Aqua creates a barrier around someone else (Terra) in the secret movie. It's also her regular guard ability in Birth By Sleep, emphasising her Magic Knight / Squishy Wizard status.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Aqua is basically the big sister you'd always want... until you mess with someone close to her. At which point, she becomes your worst nightmare. By Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, she is officially the most dangerous thing in the Realm of Darkness.
  • Big Good: After Master Xehanort’s defeat she becomes master of the Land of Departure, though she still defers to Master Yen Sid, the most experienced living master around.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Harm Ventus in any way and you have dug your own grave.
  • Black-and-White Morality: It seemed like Aqua was going to learn to outgrow this mentality over the course of the game, but then she is constantly put up against villains who use darkness to destroy or take over the world such as Xehanort and the darkness continues to take everything from her left, right, and sideways. Aqua actually grows to enforce this trope; asking "what else is darkness but hate and rage?".
  • Blue Oni, Red Oni: Blue Oni to Terra's Red Oni. Terra is more impulsive, and is also emotional and extremely concerned for his friends (not to say Aqua isn't). Aqua is more calm when it comes to decisions. Their battle poses reflect this as well.
  • Bond Breaker: Her attempt to take Terra to task over his flirtations with darkness and subsequent announcement that she’s there to similarly rein Ven in alienates both of them. Terra declares he’s on his own from now on and Ven spends the following Disney worlds trying to make new friends, implicitly to replace the ones he’s lost.
  • Boss Remix: Anti-Aqua's battle theme "Aqua -Dark Dive-" is a remix of Aqua's normal theme.
  • Breakout Character: Even though Aqua wasn't that popular at first when BBS came out, the developers were surprised to find that she was by far the most well-liked of the trio in the coming years. As a result, she was made the sole playable character in the (albeit rather short) game 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage, which served as a prologue to III. She was also featured as both a boss and a playable character in III and its DLC Re: Mind later on, as well as being the playable leader for Team BBS in Melody of Memory.
  • Brought Down to Badass: By the time Aqua reached the Castle of Dreams in the Realm of Darkness, she had lost nearly all of her custom-tailored Command Deck and styles, leaving her only the third-tier basic spells, due to the Bag of Spilling between the games. She still managed to survive the first two thirds of A Fragmentary Passage.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Loses Eraqus' Master's Defender keyblade after Fragmentary Passage, though she still lasts long enough to make it to the beach where Ansem The Wise is resting after the events of II. When Ansem, Seeker of Darkness arrives to interrogate Ansem The Wise, Aqua makes a valiant effort to fend him off, but her unarmed physical attacks quickly prove ineffective against him and a single blast of Dark magic is enough to defeat her.
  • Broken Ace: Aqua could be mistaken for a self-insert character just from her description: she's a young Keyblade Master that graduated ahead of her two best friends, is graceful in the middle of battle and gorgeous enough that she doesn't need makeup or a fancy dress to attract male attention, not to mention a skilled sorceress. Unfortunately, her first assignment as a master involves spying on one of her friends for their teacher, and she quickly finds that her new rank is pushing both Terra and Ventus away from her; also, as smart as Aqua is, Master Xehanort is playing a much more complicated game than she is ready to handle (to be fair, everyone has been blindsided by Xehanort at some point). By the end of Birth By Sleep she's lost everyone that mattered to her and is trapped in the Realm of Darkness, where even her strong will is beginning to waver. In a bit of irony, her best hope lies with Sora, the same boy that she rejected as an apprentice. Well, about that...
  • Bubble Gun: Aqua's starting Shotlock, Bubble Blaster. It allows Aqua to fire volleys of bubbles at targets.
  • Character Development: At the start of Birth By Sleep, Aqua's reaction to darkness and people who harbor considerable darkness in their hearts is an implacable compulsion to destroy them, as Eraqus indoctrinated her in an excessively black-and-white way of viewing people's moral dispositions. Though her belief in light and its superiority to the darkness never once falters, she learns gradually, starting with her encounter with the Fairy Godmother in the Castle of Dreams, that things aren't always so cut-and-dry and that using light to fight and destroy darkness unprovoked only serves to "cast a shadow" and perpetuate the cycle of positive and negative emotions that characterize light and darkness. Downplayed, ultimately, as her Black-and-White Morality is never really challenged in her later appearances.
  • Chekhov's Gun: At the start of the game, Aqua, as the newest Keyblade Master, is "entitled to certain knowledge", that the player doesn't get to see, even when playing as Aqua. You finally find out what she was told in the Final Story, that being the true nature of the Land of Departure, its significance as a world of balance, and how to turn it into Castle Oblivion.
  • The Chooser of the One:
    • She marks Kairi, albeit accidentally, with the ability to wield a Keyblade, making her both a Princess of Heart and a Keyblade wielder. Much later, this will also allow her to become a Guardian of Light.
    • She is also one to Sora. While she doesn't grant him the power to use a Keyblade to avoid putting him and Riku through the same ordeals she and her friends has been through, she advises Sora to help Riku if he ever falls into darkness, thereby putting him on the path to become a heroic Keyblade wielder who continues to ruin Xehanort's plans in her place.
  • Closest Thing We Got: Due to her extremely strong Light, Vanitas intended to possess her in order to forge the χ-blade if Ventus proved too weak at the necessary time.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Blue-purple to Terra's red-orange and Ven's green. It's expressed best through their Wayfinders, though their outfits also play on it.
  • Condescending Compassion: What her treatment of Terra and Ven becomes. Though Aqua cares deeply for both of them, her desire to protect them comes off as her treating them like children, with her trying to send Ven to his room and calling Terra (who is clearly an adult and older then her) a “boy”. When it comes out that she’s spying on Terra in case he falls to darkness and intends to take Ven back home, Terra is enraged and Ven says she’s become arrogant.
  • Cool Big Sis: To Ventus, guiding and watching over him with a caring but firm hand.
  • The Corruptible: Constant exposure to the Realm of Darkness for years without her darkness-proof armor slowly but surely eroded Aqua's will, leaving her depressed and dampening her ability to feel her heart. She actually still retains her sense of self in III, which is over 12 years since her exile, despite having lost her Keyblade, but a single powerful strike by Ansem is enough to plunge her into the darkness. By the time Riku and Mickey find her, she is already corrupted, forcing them to fight her. She is finally brought to light by Sora.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Blue eyes and blue hair. When she temporarily gets corrupted by the darkness in III, her hair turns white and her eyes gold.

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  • Dance Battler: In line with her agility, Aqua's fighting style is peppered with graceful cartwheels, spins, and twirls, making it a sight to behold as an ally and a symphony of pain to avoid if you're an enemy.
  • Dark Reprise: Aqua's theme gets a more demented-sounding reprise during the battle with Phantom Aqua, Foreshadowing Aqua's fall to darkness. When Sora fights her, she's accompanied by another Dark Reprise, this time with a One-Woman Wail.
  • Death Seeker: Aqua sometimes expresses a desire to "fade into darkness" while she wanders in the Realm of Darkness.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Comes close to crossing it after being trapped in the Realm of Darkness; she comes across several Darksides, and after considering fighting back, ultimately dismisses her Keyblade and plans to just let them kill her. When the Darksides are destroyed by the sudden appearance of Terra and Ven's Keyblades, she snaps out of it.
    • She nearly crosses into this again in III after Ansem strikes her into the sea. When she comes out of it, she's been fully corrupted by the darkness, forcing Sora, Riku, and Mickey to fight her to bring her back to her senses. Even after she is brought to Destiny Islands and no longer in danger, she dully asks the others if the Destiny Islands has also fallen into darkness, showing that over a decade in the Realm of Darkness had made Aqua resigned to the thought that she would never be able to escape from it.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She doesn't quite punch him out, but in the final battle of her storyline in Birth By Sleep she takes on Vanitas after he had fused with Ven to form the χ-blade, which is synonymous with the full power of Kingdom Hearts itself. Mind you that Keyblade Wielders are stated to decide the fate of entire worlds on their lonesome and Keyblades themselves are pale imitations of the χ-blade's power. Aqua held her own while Ven was Fighting from the Inside and eventually succeeds in disarming Vanitas as the χ-blade explodes into light.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: The most difficult protagonist to play due to her preference towards magic over brute force, meaning that players used to just swinging their Keyblades and casting Cure will have a harder time with her. But when properly mastered and fully leveled up, she is by far one of the most powerful Keyblade wielders, outclassed only by Sora himself.
  • Distaff Counterpart: To Sora to a certain extent. She's effectively The Hero of the game and shares many of the core beliefs that make him suitable for the role.
  • Doppelgänger Spin: When you fight Phantom Aqua and Anti-Aqua, she creates several illusions, which will all guilt-trip you. Only one of them is the real version you are able to attack.
  • Double Jump: She gets this as an ability called Doubleflight. When she does her second jump there's a large burst of magic at her feet, propelling her upwards.
  • Drunk with Power: Invoked; in Radiant Garden, Ven accuses her of letting her newfound status as a Keyblade Master go to her head.
  • Elemental Powers: Has access to all types of Elemental magic, including her own special variations of the Fire, Ice, and Thunder spells.
    • Fire spells include:
      • Triple Firaga: It allows Aqua to launch a series of three fireballs toward enemies.
      • Firaga Burst: Aqua summons a large fireball overhead that releases smaller fireballs that home in on and may ignite enemies.
      • Raging Storm: Allows Aqua to summon three pillars of flame that orbit her as they move.
    • Ice spells include:
      • Triple Blizzaga: Aqua blasts enemies head-on with a series of three chunks of ice that cut right through and potentially deal multiple hits.
      • Glacier: Aqua freezes surrounding enemies in a block of ice, before sending them flying.
      • Ice Barrage: Aqua summons giant ice crystals that burst from the ground and knock enemies into the air. It can hit the enemy wherever it is provided it is locked-on.
    • A Thunder spell she can use is Thundaga Shot. It allows Aqua to blast enemies head-on with a bolt of lightning that shocks other nearby foes if it connects.
  • Emotionless Girl: The Realm of Darkness dampened Aqua's ability to feel her heart while trapped within. She remarks that by the beginning of 0.2, she can't remember the last time she felt it stir.
  • Energy Bow: The front portion of her Keyblade Glider can become one.
  • Everyone Has Standards: She doesn't bother giving Master Xehanort a brutal coup de grace, if only because being reunited with her two boys is better.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Along with the telltale changes to her physical appearance, Aqua's costume changes to match her corruption to darkness: most of the material and even much of her skin is black or deep purple. Her skirt is also tattered and her hands have turned dark red, drawing parallels to Dark Riku and Vanitas's costumes, as well as a call-back to Union x with the Darklings.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Only temporarily. In III, she's fallen to darkness thanks to a dark curse from Ansem, and even tells Mickey "You Are Too Late" to save her. Her boss battle against Sora in the Realm of Darkness is Sora managing to beat the curse out of her to undo it.
  • Fallen Hero: After Ansem casts a dark curse on Aqua in III, she is unable to fight back and returns to the shore as Anti-Aqua. Sora has to fight her so she can be released from the possession and return to light.
  • Fastball Special: She tosses Stitch at enemies when teamed up with him. When teamed up with Prince Phillip, however, he tosses her instead.
    • Brought back in the Re:Mind DLC of III: her Icy Slider Combination Attack with Ven has her telekinetically launch him at the enemy.
  • Fatal Flaw:
    • Like Eraqus, Aqua is also strict, stubborn and overprotective, which sometimes makes her seem condescending. Aqua tries to protect and look after Terra and Ventus, even from themselves, which the two of them find insulting. She always worries about Ventus because of his age and lack of experience, ordering him to go home whenever she finds him without giving him a chance to prove himself. Also, Aqua gets trapped in the Realm of Darkness saving Terra from the same, which allows Xehanort free reign to enact his experiments in Radiant Garden.
    • Her inclination to reject other people's help. Even in III, after more than a decade of suffering, Aqua still can't fully shake the thought that she does not have to do everything by herself. When she confronts Vanitas in the Land of Departure, she casts a wall so Sora, Donald, and Goofy cannot interfere with her fight against him, which she considers personal. This almost leads to her death when she Takes The Bullet meant for Ventus' comatose body, rendering her wide open for Vanitas to attack. Vanitas actually flees when he finds himself up against Ventus, Aqua, Sora, Donald, and Goofy; Aqua wanting to fight him by herself just made her an easy target. Tellingly, when she tries to do it again in Keyblade Graveyard, Ventus and Kairi shoot her idea down, stating that fights the army of Heartless and Nobodies alone will only get her killed.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: In the tie-in novels, she's a skilled baker of sweets. Terra teases that, due to her Action Girl status, it's his only reminder that she's a girl.
  • Fighting Your Friend: Aqua has to fight both her friends, Ventus possessed by Vanitas at the end of her chapter, and Terra possessed by Xehanort in the final chapter. Both of these characters are being directly controlled by another though and in fact will help Aqua out by resisting as best they can.
  • Flash Step: Aqua can perform this with the Ghost Drive Command Style. It allows her to attack enemies while leaving behind afterimages and using tricky movements to her advantage.
  • Flashy Teleportation: She has a "Teleport" command, which works as a kind of dodge and has light at the start and end points.
  • Flying Weapon: She can do this with her Keyblade when in her Spellweaver command style.
  • Friend to All Children: Aqua is shown to be very sociable with children, quickly befriending Kairi, Sora, and Riku. She also plays Team Mom to the Lost Boys.
  • Gaslighting: Aqua does a rare well-intentioned case of this towards Ven. When he says he felt like he had been to the place he dreamed of, she lies to him that he can't have because he's always lived in the Land of Departure. Given his last attempt to remember his past had caused him to collapse to the floor screaming in pain and slip into a coma, it's easy to see why Aqua engages in this deception.
  • The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: In the retelling of Cinderella, Aqua is present during the scene where the Grand Duke brings the slipper to the Tremaines' home. She actually buys time for Cinderella to arrive by asking the Duke if she can try on the slipper since she is a young woman roughly of the same age as the girl that attended the ball. After that it plays out much the same as the original movie plot... except for the obligatory Boss Battle afterward.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: In 0.2, she seems to be in the early stages of this throughout most of the game, talking to herself (which she lampshades as a bad sign) and eventually chasing after Terra and Ven's phantoms despite knowing they're not real. She gets better after briefly talking to Terra for real and teaming up with Mickey near the end of the game, but she eventually falls into darkness again, though Sora is eventually able to rescue her.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Deconstructed. Aqua is a genuinely nice and caring person, but as mentioned above, her rank as Master and her desire to protect her friends makes her come off as a high and mighty busybody. This ends up biting her in the ass when the trio reunite in Radiant Garden, when Aqua accuses Terra of being too close to the darkness, inadvertently letting it slip that she was sent by Master Eraqus to spy on Terra and bring Ventus home. Shocked and upset by her apparent lack of trust in them, Terra storms off and Ventus accuses Aqua of letting her status as Master go to her head, effectively driving away the very friends she wanted to protect. Put simply, she is a nice person, but she has the unfortunate habit of rubbing people the wrong way at the wrong times.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Though she also wields a Keyblade for melee attacks like Ventus and Terra, Aqua is singled out as being an exceptional mage, and most of her unique moves and abilities are spell-based.
  • Hate at First Sight: Early on in Birth By Sleep, Aqua walks past Lady Tremaine and her daughters and immediately detects a horrifying amount of darkness in the trio. She plots to assassinate them right away to protect that world, but the Fairy Godmother stops her.
  • The Hero:
    • Ultimately, Aqua ends up the hero of Birth by Sleep, as the last member of the trio standing. Aqua's story is recommended to be played last for this reason, as she's the one you play as to complete the game's Final Episode. Also worth noting is that Aqua fights and defeats both Ven and Terra's final bosses, Vanitas with the χ-blade and Terra-Xehanort respectively, herself.
    • She's also the protagonist of Birth by Sleep 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage, which itself is the prologue to Kingdom Hearts III, making her something of a Decoy Protagonist to Sora.
  • Heroes Fight Barehanded: She knows enough basic martial arts to handle herself if she has to fight without a weapon, although she's no match against someone like Ansem the Seeker of Darkness without a proper Keyblade.
  • Hidden Depths: She's very good at cooking.
  • Hope Spot: 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage is this. Going by the trailers, you'd think that Mickey would be able to save her and have her return to the Realm of Light, right? Nope, she gets swept up by an utterly colossal swarm of Heartless at the end and dragged further into the Realm of Darkness, where she meets Ansem the Wise. Luckily, Riku and Mickey plan on diving back into the Realm of Darkness to get her back for real.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: She accuses Terra of embracing darkness at a point in the story when he was still firmly resisting its pull. Even worse, one of the main reasons Aqua suspected him was because Maleficent told her so.
  • Humble Heroine: Aqua is typically modest, only calling herself "Master Aqua" before she fights Terra-Xehanort, and acting very respectful toward elders and authorities, such as Master Eraqus, Queen Minnie and the Grand Councilwoman.
  • An Ice Person: Her Lady of Black Magic status gives her stronger spells of the entire Fire, Ice, Lightning trio, but further entries have given her more of an ice-elemental focus befitting her name. As of 0.2, her Spellweaver command style ends with a burst of ice damage. Defeating her in III awards Sora with Blizzaga.
    • Her battle against Vanitas and Terra-Xehanort in Re:Mind also features her "Icy Slider" Combination Attack, where she enchants Ven's Keyblade with ice magic, allowing her to telekinetically control it while he surfs it into battle against Vanitas. Against the Xehanort Replicas later, she combines "Absolute Zero" with Lea's "Prominence" to damage several Replicas at once.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: Aqua has her own game, is sort of a genderflipped proto-Sora, is an unquestionably kickass Action Girl in a series that was long infamous for its poor treatment of (original) female characters, and becomes an important mentor figure on par with Riku and Mickey.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Aqua vs. Ventus (possessed by Vanitas) and Terra (possessed by Xehanort) involves her beseeching her friends to break free of the intruder's control while fighting them.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Because she follows Eraqus's teachings so strongly, she has only a small bit of darkness in her heart. This leads Vanitas to plan to use her as a backup for the Master Plan, and her heart is strong enough to not be consumed in the Realm of Darkness without her armor or a Black Coat for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, because she has very little darkness in her heart, she can't tap into it to escape her confinement the way Ansem the Wise did. Subverted in III, where it is shown that she can succumb to darkness if she is attacked by it enough, as shown when Ansem attacks her with a curse that corrupts her into Anti-Aqua.
  • Ironic Name: Unlike Terra and Ventus, she doesn't get to wield her namesake element. In spite of her focus on spellcasting and the addition of Water magic in III, it's one of the only spells she doesn't have in her repertoirenote . In Birth by Sleep, the only Water-based ability she learns is her initial shotlock, Bubble Blast. In 0.2 and III, her elemental focus is instead on Blizzard magic.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: Early on in BBS, Terra teases Aqua by saying "Oy, sometimes, you can be such a girl," after she tells him and Ventus that she made good luck charms for the three of them. You'd think a badass Action Girl like Aqua would be offended, right? Well, she is — at the word "sometimes."
  • Jack of All Stats: In terms of physical ability, she is the most balanced out of the three main protagonists of Birth by Sleep, with decent strength, speed, agility, and range. She is neither the slowest nor the fastest of the trio, but her thin frame makes her a difficult target.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: She's not wrong when she says Terra is vulnerable to darkness, but she words it in a way that makes Terra feel like she hates him and their friendship of many years meant nothing to her.
  • Jiggle Physics: It's subtle, but Aqua's breasts have a slight bounce to them in Birth By Sleep and III, the former of which was enough for the ESRB to label the game having "Mild Suggestive Themes". This is most noticeable when she's walking; the bobbing of her chest could be attributed just to her footsteps, but the fact they don't quite sync up gives them away.
  • Kick Chick: In her short fight with SoD!Ansem her unarmed attacks are all kicks. Her effectiveness was less helpful than she hoped.
  • Lady of Black Magic: She's a hybrid between this and Lady of War. She's the graceful and motherly female of the Power Trio as well as the magical powerhouse of the game, using devastating Elemental magic. She's still a talented Keyblade wielder, but is the Squishy Wizard to Ventus's Fragile Speedster and Terra's Mighty Glacier. The "Black" part's averted, though — she's quite pro-Light 'em Up until her fall to Darkness in Kingdom Hearts III plays it straight.
  • Lady of War: While Ven and Terra assume typical battle stances, Aqua stands perfectly poised even in the heat of battle. Her first Command Style, Spellweaver, hammers this concept home, where she attacks with Keyblade slashes alongside graceful flips and twirls.
  • Laser Blade:
  • Leitmotif: "Aqua", which borrows from "Fate of the Unknown". Later, there is also a Dark Reprise of it in Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- used during the battle against Phantom Aqua and foreshadows Aqua's temporary falling into darkness.
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Played very, very straight. In the early game, Aqua struggles to survive thanks to poor spells and all-around terrible stats, while Terra and Ven do just fine. In the late game, all three remain effective, but Aqua is far and away from the strongest of the three thanks to numerous unique spells that cover most every strategic option she needs, and with Barrier and Curaga she's got a better defensive position than the other two as well.
  • Love Freak: She is almost as bad as Sora when it comes to friendship speeches and philosophies. But, even moreso than Sora, it's invokedbest not to disagree with her.
  • Luminescent Blush: In Birth By Sleep she gets this when Zack asks her out on a date. After Zack leaves, Hercules finds that Aqua's face red and asks what's wrong, only for Aqua to change the subject.
  • Magic Is Feminine: The main heroes are a Fighter, Mage, Thief triad. The boys are the physically powerful Terra (the Fighter) and the agile Ventus (the Thief). This leaves Aqua, the only girl among the heroes to fill in the Mage role. While all three can use magic, Aqua has the most magically-oriented combat style, has exclusive access to the most powerful spells in the game and even her Guard is a magical shield compared to her male counterparts' actual Keyblade block.
  • Magic Knight: She's the most skilled magic user of the trio, and just as capable a swordsman as her friends.
  • Magikarp Power: Because of her reliance on spells to fight and her Squishy Wizard stats, she's the weakest character at the start of Birth By Sleep, with poor Attack and a small pool of spells that take a long time to recharge. By the end of the game with her support abilities maxed out and access to the strongest spells in the game, Aqua makes Terra and Ven look like amateurs.
  • Making a Splash: Though she's a subtle example. Unlike Terra and Ventus, her only spell that actually fits her name is her initial shotlock; instead, she's cross-trained in Blizzard and Fire spells, gaining advanced versions of both that only she can use. invokedAnd what do you get when you mix the two?
  • Male Gaze: Is frequently the subject of this due to her generous body proportions. Pay close attention to where Hades's eyes briefly wander.
  • Mama Bear: She is undoubtedly the Team Mom and slips instantly into this once things go bad, especially if you mess with Ventus.
  • Master Swordsman: Averted. Though she is a "Keyblade Master", Aqua's prowess with the blade part is far surpassed by her skill in magic. As a result, she has the weakest Strength stat but highest Magic stat of the trio.
  • Meaningful Appearance: Has blue hair, a stark contrast to the other heroes's natural hair colors. It helps highlight her femininity and goes with her water motif.
  • The Mentor: Melody of Memory sets her up to become this for Kairi, who specifically asks to train under Aqua.
  • Mind over Matter: Aqua has the Spellweaver Command Style, which allows her to wield her Keyblade telekinetically.
  • Missing Reflection: When Aqua reaches The World Within in A Fragmentary Passage, she has no reflection in the mirror she came through. When Aqua completes the first mirror room, a blurry, obscure reflection can be seen, becoming more and more clear until it is completely normal after completing every mirror.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Aqua is easily the most attractive original female character to come from the series. Her Sexy Backless Outfit is infamous, and while it covers up the rest of her body well enough, the straps over her chest emphasize her breasts, while a pair of tight black shorts and stockings provide Zettai Ryouiki and draw attention to her legs and butt. Her visit to Olympus Coliseum lampshades it, with Phil indirectly implying he's only training her because of her sex appeal, Hades gives her a leering once-over when they meet, and Zack asking her out on a date.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: After first arriving outside of Lady Tremaine's mansion, Aqua senses darkness lurking in the house. As she recalls Master Eraqus's teachings that darkness must be destroyed, she takes a step toward the door and draws her Keyblade. Thankfully Cinderella's Fairy Godmother stops her, telling her how light and darkness must coexist, and instead convinces her to help Cinderella.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Says the following while confronting Terra-Xehanort in Birth by Sleep:
    "My name is Master Aqua. Now return my friend's heart, or pay the price!"
  • Mythology Gag: The scene in which we are introduced to her is played out in exactly the same way we met Kairi in the first game, only with a more sisterly tone than romantic. Likewise, the lucky charms Aqua made were inspired from a misinterpretation of the two tales we heard in the first game, with the thalassa shell charm made by sailors for safe returns merged with the binding properties of the Paopu fruit.
  • Nice Girl: Downplayed due to her Black-and-White Morality, but Aqua is in general a polite and kind young woman who cares deeply for her loved ones.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Blame mainly rests on Eraqus' shoulders for tasking her with it, but Aqua's spying on Terra serves to drive him into Xehanort's camp.
    • She saves Terra-Xehanort from becoming trapped in the Realm of Darkness at the cost of her getting stuck there instead. This leads to an amnesiac Terra-Xehanort becoming Ansem the Wise's apprentice, which causes a chain of events that allows every other game in the franchise to happen.
    • In Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Aqua mentions that Ven is in the Chamber of Waking... right in front of Terra-Xehanort!Possessed Terra. He uses this to fuel his ideas, which Xemnas later capitalizes on in The World That Never Was. Thankfully, III reveals her mistake didn't have that much impact; Aqua manages to save Ventus just before Vanitas can take him.
  • Noble Bigot: Aqua (who is literally an agent for the forces of light and virtue across the multiverse) doesn't like how her best friend Terra is becoming more Dark, but her goal is always to change him back, not to destroy him outright. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to explain this before Terra, wounded by her very real condescension, blows her off and refuses to listen to her at all.
  • Not Now, Kiddo: Like Eraqus, Aqua is also strict, stubborn and overprotective, which sometimes makes her seem condescending. She always worries about Ventus because of his age and lack of experience, ordering him to go home whenever she finds him without giving him a chance to prove himself.
  • Not So Above It All: Aqua is remarkably calm and deadset on her goals. Only threats on her loved ones seem to make her lose her composure. However, Aqua is comically insecure in romantic matters, so when Zack asks her out on a date, she becomes completely flustered and desperately tries to compose herself. She also quickly changes the subject when Hercules asks why her face is red.

    O-Z 
  • Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Older Hero to Vanitas' Younger Villain. Vanitas is chronologically 4 years old while in a 15 year old body while Aqua is 18 years old during that game.
  • Onee-sama: Falls somewhere between this and Cool Big Sis, since she can be affectionate and informal or ladylike and serious based on the situation. Either way, though, she acts as a protective sister figure not only for Ven, but also for Kairi, Cinderella and the other Princesses of Heart she encounters. This is reinforced by rescuing every one of them from danger at least once; she only needs to be rescued herself when Vanitas wises up to how strong she is and ambushes her while she's protecting Ven.
  • One-Man Army: On par with Terra. Nothing that stands against Aqua survives the experience. The culmination of this being her defeat of Terra-Xehanort, the series' Big Bad in his strongest state.
  • Only Sane Woman: Subverted. She is the only one of the trio who qualifies to become a Keyblade Master. Ven's too inexperienced to apply, and Terra has too much darkness in him. Despite this, her own personality flaws, namely Poor Communication Kills and being quick to assume she needs to protect them from themselves, result in her being the Bond Breaker of the trio.
  • The Paladin: A self-disciplined hero who has devoted her life to fighting the setting's conveniently-defined villains. She treats mundane abuse, like Cinderella's at the hands of her family, just as seriously as the magical kind.
  • Personality Powers: As the levelheaded and intelligent protagonist, she specializes in magic in general.
  • Petal Power: Aqua's weapon summoning effects are personalized beyond the simple flash of light, being a rush of cherry blossom petals, somewhat odd, since she's not associated with flowers beyond that.
  • Post-Victory Collapse: After beating Vanitas in Neverland, she's so exhausted that she can't stand, and ends up passing out. By the time she comes to, Vanitas has recovered and made his escape.
  • The Power of Friendship: It can create a Spirit Sword when she focuses the magic in her Wayfinder into her Keyblade to destroy the proto-χ-blade.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • Subverted. After Vanitas breaks Ven's wooden keyblade in front of her eyes, Aqua seethes a bit and seems ready to curse him out, only to instead call him a freak. Justified in that this is Disney. That's as extreme as the language will get.
      Aqua: You freak!
    • Played straight in the Japanese version, where she reacts with "kisama", one of the rudest forms of "you", akin to calling someone "you bastard".
  • Properly Paranoid: Like Eraqus, she's quite anti-Darkness. And like with him, the forces of Darkness haven't exactly given her any reason to think otherwise.
  • Pure Energy: Her Spellweaver, Bladecharge, and Ghost Drive Command Styles, Magic Pulse finishers up to and including Teleport Spike, and her Lightbloom shotlock, appear as glowing white orbs of Pure Energy. She also has Roxas's Magic Hour. In III however, Spellweaver is changed to an ice-elemental style.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lays out a vicious one to Mickey after being corrupted into Anti-Aqua. It's effective enough that all the king can do is weakly apologize and say it is all his fault.
    Aqua: You abandoned me, that's what. Left me in this shadow prison for more than a decade, knowing what it would do to me. I reached this shore after endless wandering. Waited forever for help to arrive. But no one ever came. I lost my Keyblade. Had no means of fighting my way back through the Heartless. You should have known I was stranded. Do you have any idea how lonely it is here? How frightening it is to have no one? All that's left in my heart is misery and despair... and now you can share it!
  • Rogue Protagonist: She succumbs to darkness in III and has to be fought as a boss. For an added emphasis, you are playing as Sora, who can be considered as her successor in-story. It doesn't last long, however.
  • Royal Rapier: Played With in the design of her signature Keyblades, which are thinner and lighter than most, but not much shorter than Terra's. All of her attacks wield her Keyblade in one hand, emphasizing thrusts or slashes with the very tip of the blade, very much like a modified fencing style.
  • Sanity Slippage: Between her Despair Event Horizon mentioned above and the 2.8 trailers indicating she started to hallucinate Terra and Ven, it's clear her extended stay in the Realm of Darkness was not good for her mental health.
  • Satellite Character: Aqua's entire role in the story is to be completely associated with Master Eraqus, Ventus and Terra; she is one of Eraqus's favorite students because she completely follows his teachings, her motive for travelling the world is to look after Terra and Ventus, and she has no Evil Counterpart specifically for her.
  • Save the Villain:
    • Justified. After the final battle, Aqua leaps into the Realm of Darkness to save Xehanort from eternal banishment, though she mostly does so only because Terra was beginning to resist Xehanort's heart and because letting Xehanort collapse into the Realm of Darkness would also mean Terra's permanent exile as well.
    • When in Deep Space, Aqua is instructed to capture the escaped Mad Scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba and his creation Experiment 626 (Stitch) alive by the High Councilwoman and is forced to battle Gantu to protect them when Gantu deviates from these orders and attempts to kill the two on the spot instead.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: She sacrifices herself to save Terra... which ends up letting Terra-Xehanort wreak havoc as "Ansem" and Xemnas later on. Even worse, Aqua's sacrifice was choosing to be trapped in the Realm of Darkness rather than let Terra-Xehanort be trapped there. The Realm of Darkness can be exited at will by anyone with sufficient skill in using darkness. Aqua is the only one of the three people present that has no such skill.
  • Sexy Backless Outfit: To the point where it had to be toned down.
  • She-Fu: She dodges with cartwheels and uses many flips in battle.
  • She Is the King: Master Aqua.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Aqua's long stint trapped in the Realm of Darkness has left its marks on her heart and can cause her to freeze up in the face of triggers like the Demon Tower.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Her standard response to the taunts, boasts and speeches of the villains is to tell them she has no patience for such and that whatever believes they're spouting, they're wrong. Gets most literal at the end of the game with Vanitas.
    "Shut up! I'm sick of your nonsense. Give Ven his heart back!"
  • Space Cop: Aqua is a Keyblade master and she seeks to do her job of fighting the forces of darkness such as The Unversed. In the Deep Space world, she partners up with Gantu in an attempt to arrest Jumba and Stitch but she turns on Gantu when he starts behaving recklessly towards her and Stitch.
  • Spanner in the Works: Despite, or perhaps because of, being irrelevant to Master Xehanort's schemes, she's the one that derails them the most.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Her final Shotlock Lightbloom has her spin in place to launch light projectiles at enemies.
  • Squishy Wizard:
    • Her physical attack isn't as good compared to Terra or Ven early on and her defense is relatively low as well (Terra's is on par with hers, but has higher HP to compensate). However, she is a magical powerhouse and has devastating spells. In the end-game with all her skills mastered, she evolves into a Lightning Bruiser; her Barrier is far more effective than the Block that Terra and Ven have, her Cartwheel is just as good as Ven's Dodge Roll, she has a wide arsenal of unique and powerful spells for both bosses and groups of normal enemies, and she has Command Styles like Bladecharge and Rhythm Mixer to make up her physical deficiencies. To a lesser extent, her physical attack also grows to be slightly stronger than Ven's as well.
    • This carries over to her playable appearance in III, compared to Sora, Riku, Kairi and Roxas, her combos are easily the slowest and most unsafe but her shortcuts are optimized to allow her to use magic more easily (Although Kairi has a greater selection of spells) and Prism Rain can be launched several times with a single use.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Nomura says that, "She puts up a cold front, but she's kind to her friends."
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: When Mickey and Riku finally find Aqua in the realm of darkness, her eyes are no longer blue but golden. They revert back when she is brought to light.
  • Super Sliding: Aqua can cast Blizzaga on a flat surface to create a sheet of ice that she can slide upon to get around more quickly via Flowmotion.
  • Supporting Protagonist: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep's plot focuses mainly on Terra and Ven, even though Aqua serves as The Hero. In Disney worlds, Aqua has a tendency to be a secondary character that helps the original Disney characters to resolve their world’s plotline. In Enchanted Dominion, for example, it’s Philip that deals the final blow to Maleficent and breaks her curse, but without Aqua he would have never gotten out of her castle.
  • Take Up My Sword: She uses Master's Defender (Master Eraqus's Keyblade) to turn the Land of Departure into Castle Oblivion, and afterward it becomes her personal Keyblade, which she uses both throughout her battles in the Realm of Darkness and during the Keyblade War. Anti-Aqua is a darker example: since at the time she doesn't have Master's Defender, she uses Mickey's stolen Star Cluster instead.
  • Taking the Bullet: Does this twice, no less.
    • The first time, she takes a Demon Tide's attack against Riku full on, leading her to fall even deeper into the Realm of Darkness.
    • The second time, she shields a comatose Ventus from one of Vanitas' spells. She survives but is rendered unconscious, and would have been killed by Vanitas had Ventus not woken up in time.
  • Teacher's Pet: She is a more benevolent version. invokedNomura has described her as an 'Honour student-type', and she follows Master Eraqus' teachings the closest out of the three protagonists, even spying on Terra for him. This does not stop her being very loyal to the other two, however. Mess with them and she will kick your ass.
  • Team Mom: Particularly when she meets the Lost Boys. She also serves this role in the main protagonists' Power Trio. At times, the relationship between her, Terra, and Ven more closely resembles two-parents-and-their-child than three friends. This is even lampshaded in the original Japanese text when Scrooge gave Ven the passes to Disney Town. As opposed to the translation, where Ven was told "to take two grownups," he was told to "bring his parents."
  • Tearful Smile: In the secret ending of Birth By Sleep when Ansem the Wise tells her Sora's name.
  • Tears of Joy: Sheds these tears after learning that Sora, who was just an ordinary young boy when she met him, has grown into the one who will restore balance to the multiverse.
    • And again in III when Sora and Riku successfully save her from the Realm of Darkness and she wakes up on the sunny beaches of the Destiny Islands. The poor girl can barely believe she's been rescued.
    • And she outright sobs during her, Terra, and Ventus' reunion in the Keyblade Graveyard.
  • Teleport Spam: Her Ghost Drive style has tons of afterimages, but they're magically generated illusions rather than pure speed or teleportation. There's also the Time Splicer technique she can use, in which she casts Stop on enemies before warping around the field and doing a series of slashes. It ends with a Delayed Effect after Stop wears off.
  • Thinking Tic: When she's thinking, she tends to fold her right arm over her chest while propping her left elbow up on it and placing a hand on her chin.
  • Third-Person Seductress: Aqua fits this trope to a T. The character designer/director Tetsuya Nomura altered her outfit post-reveal because he felt that it was a bit too revealing. Despite what some fans think, Disney didn't do any invokedExecutive Meddling with the design.
    • Before anyone gets any ideas, Aqua's censor consisted of covering up more of her back.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In 0.2, some of Aqua's moves have received upgrades. For example, her default finisher now adds an additional pair of orbs that spread across the ground, and the Spellweaver Finish Command adds a giant ice crystal that explodes at the move's end to deal massive area of effect damage. Her Prism Rain Shotlock has also received a buff that increases its maximum Lock count to 28.
  • Tornado Move: Raging Storm is a command exclusive to Aqua that generates a trio of fiery whirlwinds that circle the caster and while they move around the battlefield, usually obliterating anything in their path.
  • Tranquil Fury: Although she manages to keep her composure, Aqua doesn't take it very well when Hades starts insulting Terra and revealing that he tried to turn him to Darkness. When Zack attempts to back her up in the proceeding boss fight against Hades and the Ice Titan, Aqua tells him to leave both of them to her.
    • This is her default state of mind after being corrupted into Anti-Aqua. Despite her cold, emotionless tone, every word drips with venom when giving her "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Mickey.
  • Trapped in Another World: Has been trapped in the Realm of Darkness ever since the events of Birth By Sleep, and is currently taking residence with Ansem the Wise on the Dark Meridian. After over 12 years, Aqua is finally bailed out by Sora in III.
  • Trauma Button: Aqua's time in the Realm of Darkness has left some psychological scarring and she immediately gave up upon seeing the enormous storm of Heartless, not even resisting when it sucked her up. Re:Mind clarifies that she saw a wave of Anti-Aqua's rushing towards her and the shock triggered her and caused her to drop her guard.
  • True Blue Femininity: She has blue hair, wears blue in her outfit, and is graceful in battle and motherly.
  • The Unchosen One: In Birth by Sleep, Aqua was simply an extremely skilled Keyblade wielder who wanted to look after her friends, and yet she was ultimately responsible for derailing Xehanort's plans and leaving him incapacitated for 10 years.
  • Unstoppable Rage: In Neverland, when Vanitas breaks Ven's Wooden Keyblade right in front of her, Aqua blows her stack, calls him a freak, and beats the ever-loving snot out of him.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Twofold. First, letting Terra!Xehanort ride back to the Realm of Light with her Keyblade and armor in a Heroic Sacrifice was a great gesture and all, but it let an amnesiac Xehanort loose to inevitably continue his plans. Second off, her creation of Castle Oblivion was to protect Ventus from ever being discovered by Xehanort or anyone else, but a decade later, a splinter faction of Organization XIII would use it to Mind Rape Sora and force him into a year long coma.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: In A Fragmentary Passage, Aqua can customize her appearance including accessories for her head and back.
  • Water Is Womanly: Her name is Latin for water and her Keyblades have a water Theme Naming. She is graceful in battle and the most emotionally mature of the Wayfarer Trio, taking on a motherly role for her friends.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: No matter how foul the stench of darkness in the Tremaines' hearts may be, it is simply not the way of light to barge into their home in the middle of the night and brutally murder all three of them with your Keyblade, especially since they had done nothing openly criminal at that point while Aqua doesn't go around plotting the deaths of other people with darkness in their hearts (e.g. Pete, Maleficent, Terra) for most the story. Fortunately, the Fairy Godmother informs her of the folly of her Well-Intentioned Extremist ways (which were likely learned from Eraqus, considering what he tries to do with Ventus later), and the Tremaines get their comeuppance anyway when they officially go over the deep end and try to kill Cinderella.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: In III, her blue hair turns almost white, signifying her corruption in darkness.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: A rare heroic example. Upon encountering Lady Tremaine and her daughters and sensing the darkness within them, she follows them home and overhears them trying to deny the fact that Cinderella lives there. Her response to this is to summon her Keyblade and head inside, though Cinderella's Fairy Godmother pops in and points out how in this instance doing such a thing would be incredibly unwise. note 
  • Worf Had the Flu: Downplayed in III. After spending 12 tiring years traversing the Realm of Darkness, she naturally wouldn’t be at full strength upon returning to battle, lampshaded by Sora when they went to rescue Ven. That being said, when she confronts Vanitas one on one, she manages to overwhelm him until he pulls a cheap shot and aims a well-placed fireball at the comatose Ven, forcing Aqua to take the hit to protect him.
  • World's Strongest Woman: Nothing that stands against Aqua survives the experience. The culmination of this being her defeat of Terra-Xehanort, the series Big Bad in his strongest state. As well as in Birth by Sleep 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage, where she is the most physically dangerous entity in the Realm of Darkness. It makes sense given how dangerous the Realm of Darkness is.
  • Year Outside, Hour Inside: Despite ten years having passed in the realm of light, Aqua looks exactly the same during the events of A Fragmentary Passage because time itself works in a completely different manner in the realm of darkness. She herself was unaware of how long she had actually been roaming around in there.
  • You Are Too Late: Said word for word by Anti-Aqua to Mickey when she's temporarily turned.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Aqua's only role in Xehanort's plan is to make Master rank while Terra doesn't. While Vanitas alludes to keeping her around as a "backup", by the time she reaches Neverland the villains are actively trying to kill her.

"As long as you're with me, I'll always find my way back. Always."

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