The Tie That Binds is a Kingdom Hearts fanfiction that starts at the end of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and progresses through the fall of Radiant Garden, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II before becoming completely AU. It can be read here
A small miscalculation turns Master Xehanort's plan on its head. Vanitas, after merging with Ventus, does not wake up as the dominant personality - but neither does Ventus. Instead, the result is an odd fusion of the two: a vicious, aggressive soul with full control over the X-Blade. . . and who really, really wants his friends home and safe.
However, even that simple wish isn't within reach as Terra and Aqua have succumbed to their canon fates. Ventus isn't about to give up though. Terra is still here after all, just amnesic and once he finds Aqua, everything will go back to how it should be.
But the path to a happy ending is long and difficult. And their efforts to force one might end up destroying the universe instead.
The Tie That Binds contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: Most canon after Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is ignored. This means there is no Union X, no True Organization XIII, or time travel.
- Animated Armor: The Lingering Will.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Lea frequently lobs these at Aqua as an attempt to make her see Xemnas isn't such a great guy.Lea: "What do you really know about the time you were gone?"
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The Organization is defeated by Ventus.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Averted by Terra. Because Xehanort believes he is Terra, the real Terra doesn't want to fight him and risk Xehanort figuring out the truth.
- Berserker: Aqua is a few shades away from this. Isa grows into this as a direct result of being trained by her.
- Blood Knight: Eight years in the Realm of Darkness have turned Aqua into someone who hits first and asks questions later.
- Body Horror: Xemnas attempts to turn Lea into a Dusk. The description is very disturbing.
- Book Ends: One of the first scenes in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has Aqua, Ventus and Terra watching a meteor shower in the Land of Departure. The story ends with them watching a second one, only it's a much more solemn scene as it's heavily implied this is the last thing Ventus experiences before he dies.
- Bound and Gagged: Happens to Aqua, but she escapes quickly.
- Broken Bird: Aqua's sanity is already questionable when she is rescued from the Realm of Darkness. She is then thrown into the custody of Xemnas, who grooms her into believing that every single terrible thing he did is actually HER fault.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Aqua cuts ties with Xemnas and Ventus after discovering they were responsible for the fall of Radiant Garden.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Sora, Riku and Kairi never stood a chance against Aqua.
- Ventus also brushes off everyone when they try to stop him from destroying Kingdom Hearts.
- Decoy Protagonist: Aqua is missing at the beginning of the story, leaving it to focus on Ventus and Terra. It's clear she's the real protagonist by the end however.
- Demoted to Extra: Braig is killed off at the end of the second chapter. Justified as the Union X and Master of Masters plotlines are not canon in this universe.
- Despair Event Horizon: Aqua hits this after cutting ties with her friends and leaving the Organization. By the time Sora finds her, she has entered the first stages of falling to darkness.
- In the second to last chapter, Ventus breaks down and decides he doesn't care if the Keyblade War happens and the universe is destroyed.
- Empathic Weapon: Keyblades are reflections of the heart and possess some level of sentience. The most notable is Wayward Wind, which appears to a weaponless Aqua in the Realm of Darkness and refuses to return to Ven until she's rescued.
- Entitled to Have You: A platonic variation. It took Ventus and Terra eight years to rescue Aqua from the Realm of Darkness and they are not willing to lose her again.
- Fallen Hero: Ventus goes from a pure-heartened hero in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep to such an unstable threat to the universe that it is strongly implied Terra kills him in the final scene.
- Fighting Your Friend: After she flees, Ventus and Xemnas/Terranort are willing to drag Aqua home by force.
- A glimpse of a memory in Sora's Station of Awakening show he and Riku fought at some point during this canon's version of Kingdom Hearts.
- Roxas takes over Sora's body to fight off Aqua.
- Friendly Enemy: One-sided between Sora and Ventus. Ventus likes Sora and is noticeably nicer to him.
- Foreshadowing: While on Destiny Islands, Ansem's narrative mentions 'the one he chose', a designation that in context can only refer to Terra passing the keyblade onto Riku. This is a big clue about The Reveal.
- Xemnas is able to summon Ends of the Earth, but cannot keep it for more than a few seconds. This reflects that Xemnas is genuinely identifying as Terra.
- Fusion Dance: A mix of this and Equippable Ally occurs with Aqua and the Lingering Will, giving the combined being access to both sets of powers.
- Heroic Second Wind: The Lingering Will gets one after Terranort defeats Aqua in front of it, leading to the aforementioned Fusion Dance.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: If Ventus and Xemnas hadn't tried so hard to isolate and control Aqua, she likely would have kept enough trust in them to believe Xemnas when he claimed everything that happened in Radiant Garden was an accident.
- Hour Glass Plot: Prior to the story, Aqua's strong maternal instinct made her the Team Mom. However, the Year Inside, Hour Outside nature of the Realm of Darkness means that by the time she's rescued, she's physically younger than her friends. Ventus is quick to position himself as her new big brother, while Xemnas outright invokes this.Xemnas :“Remember though: you spent many years taking care of Ven and I. Now, it is our turn to take care of you.”
- Takes a dark turn later on. Just as Terra and Aqua tended to order Ven around and brush away his concerns during Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, it turns out the older Xemnas and Ventus don't respect Aqua's opinions either and kidnap her when she asks for space and refuses to come home.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ventus does not take it well when Aqua dotes over Roxas.
- It's All My Fault: As most of the events between Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts II were caused by Terranort and Ventus looking for her, Aqua blames herself.
- Love Makes You Evil: While an apprentice of Ansem the Wise, Terranort destroys Radiant Garden trying to find Aqua.
- Ventus is completely driven by his desire to help his friends and doesn't care who else gets hurt along the way.
- Manipulative Bastard: Xemnas towards Aqua. Whenever Xemnas speaks with Aqua about the events that occurred during her absence, he will phrase his answers to indirectly blame her. He then leverages her guilt to make her do what he wants.
- Bonus points goes to the time Xemnas gave Aqua the silent treatment for the crime of talking to her old friend Mickey.
- Mental Fusion: The merged Ventus starring in this story is neither the Ven from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep nor Vanitas.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A jealous Ventus asks Xemnas to make Aqua spend less time with Roxas. Xemnas tries to do this by appointing Lea as Roxas's mentor/guardian. Not only does this fail epically with Aqua latching onto Lea as well, their developing friendship means Lea begins growing a heart.
- Xemnas kills Roxas to solve Ventus's jealously problems once and for all. In response, Lea leaves the Organization and not only tells Sora and co. what they're up to, but also provides them the information needed to make the Ventus-Vanitas and Xehanort-Terra connection.
- Xemnas does this again when he tries to turn Lea into a Dusk. While he succeeds on a surface level, he doesn't realize Lea has regrown his heart and thus, kept his individuality. Later on, when Ventus destroys Lea's Dusk, this ends up recompleting him and directly leads to the events that result in Xemnas's own destruction.
- Spanner in the Works: Roxas kicks off a chain of events that ends with Aqua fleeing the Organization by simply looking and acting like a young Ven.
- Lea. He constantly questions Aqua's friendship with Xemnas to make her see she's being manipulated. And it's his recompletion that makes Ventus realize they don't need Kingdom Hearts to get Terra's heart back.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Until the last chapters, it's never clear how much of Xemnas/Ansem/Terranort is Terra and how much is Xehanort. Rereading with knowledge of the truth puts a different spin on some of their scenes.
- The Reveal: It was Xehanort in control after all, but he genuinely believes he is Terra.
- Too Powerful to Live: Terra and Aqua conclude the universe is in too much danger from Ventus and are heavily implied to kill him in the last scene.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Ventus, Terra and Aqua to each other. Ventus and Terra support each other's descent into villainy. Xemnas and Ventus constantly chip away at Aqua's self-esteem while isolating her. And while Aqua herself isn't that toxic, she indirectly provides justification for Xemnas's and Ventus's darker actions.
- Tragic Dream: All Ventus wants is to go back to the days where he, Aqua and Terra lived happily in the Land of Departure.
- Villainous Friendship: Ventus with Terranort and Xemnas. From what few scenes they have together, Ventus also got along well with Ansem.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ventus is trying to save his friends and go back to how things used to be. The problem is he is willing to sacrifice everything for it.
- While he is apprenticing under Ansem the Wise, Terranort begins his research into darkness because he has recurring visions of Aqua lost in the Realm of Darkness.
- Aqua joins the Organization to help Xemnas/Terra get his heart back.
- Once his memories are restored, Terranort/Ansem/Xemnas attempt to claim Kingdom Hearts to destroy all the darkness in the universe.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted. Ventus kills every remaining member of the Organization after realizing it will reunite them with their hearts.
- Yandere: A platonic example. Ventus scars Isa to warn everyone to keep their distance from Aqua.
