Riku sat on his living room sofa, reading a novel he picked up at one point during his travels. The story was odd, but extremely creative, and Riku could appreciate creativity. As he was about to turn the page to the eighth chapter, he heard a knock on the door. Well, really it was more like a constant string of rapid knocks, but that's besides the point. "Hold on. I'm coming." The silver haired teen called out as he replaced his bookmark and began the short trek to the front door. The knocking still continued, and Riku began to wonder if something was really wrong. He dismissed the thought, though. It was probably just Sora freaking out about something that's not all too serious or Tidus and Wakka being impatient. That was normally the case in these situations, after all. But when Riku opened the door to see an all-too-familiar blonde teen, his worries returned with a vengeance. "Oh, hi Ventus. I wasn't expecting to see you here." Riku fought to keep his voice steady. But one look at the blonde's expression told him that something was wrong. Still, it could just be nothing. He hoped it was nothing.
Sadly, Lady Luck was not so kind. "somethingswrongwithsoraandidontknowwhat-"
"Ven! Slow down. I can't understand a word you're saying." The only things he was able to pick up were the words 'wrong' and 'Sora'. Unfortunately, that much was enough to cause him to worry.
Ventus took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm his racing pulse. Once he was a bit calmer, he spoke again, and Riku realized that his worries were well-founded for once. "There's something wrong with Sora. We don't know what it is but it's almost like he's turning into some sort of heartless or something. Aqua told me to come get you and Kairi."
By the time Ventus finished speaking, Riku was on the verge of a complete breakdown. Somehow he managed to keep his composure as his mind tried to sort out what was happening. "Okay, first thing's first, let's go get Kairi. Then we'll head to the Land of Departure and see if we can figure out what's wrong with Sora." The younger blonde nodded his agreement and followed Riku towards their next destination. Kairi's really not going to like this.
"What do you mean 'Sora's a heartless'? And why are you so calm Riku? Shouldn't you be panicking and worried about what happened to him. We really don't need a repeat of what happened almost two and a half years ago." Kairi, as one would expect, was extremely worried for the brunette. After all, she had seen him turn into a heartless once before when he returned her heart.
"I don't know if he actually became a heartless. All I know is that he looks like a heartless." Ventus attempted to clarify his meaning. In all honesty, he didn't know what happened to Sora. Nor did Terra and Aqua. "All I saw was Sora try to use a drive form and - "
"Wait a minute. Did you say 'drive form'?" A dawn of realization hit Riku at that new revelation. Ventus and Kairi, however, were still just as confused.
"Yeah...why? Do you know something we don't?"
"Riku, do you know what's happened to Sora."
"I do. I'll explain when we get there." The trio nodded their agreements and took off towards the Land of Departure, where Aqua was keeping Sora detained with magic and Terra was looking through books for any solution to their predicament.
Terra paced around the library, looking through every book for any clue as to what happened to Sora. So far he had come up empty, but he was determined to find a way to help Sora without help from Master Yen Sid. Thus he currently was walking in circles as he read through yet another book that failed to give the information he needed. Tossing the book to the side in annoyace, the older brunette groaned, admitting defeat. "Nothing! I don't get it, Aqua. How could no one have ever experienced something like this."
Aqua stood a few feet away with the shadowy form of Sora. A magic barrier stood between 'Sora' and them and Aqua was planning on keeping it that way until they found a way to fix...whatever this was. "Well, to be fair, we don't know how common drive forms are. For all we know, Sora may have been the only person in existence capable of using them."
"You're not going to find anything in those books, Terra." Suddenly, Riku's voice rang out from behind the two older keybearers. Said silver-haired teen emerged from around the corner with Ventus and Kairi following close behind him.
"Riku, Kairi. Thank goodness you two are here." Aqua seemed relieved to see them; Riku could only assume that she was worried about how they would react to what happened to their friend.
"Wait a minute. What do you mean I won't find anything? Do you know something." Terra gave Riku a confused look. How did he know what was going on? Surely this couldn't have been a regular occurance...
Sensing the others' questioning gazes on him, Riku began to explain what was going on and how he knew about it. "Yeah, I do. I watched over Sora a lot during his second journey, so I've seen this happen before."
"You have?!" The other four exclaimed simultaneously, interrupting Riku before he could finish explaining everything. In hindsight, the others' reactions where a bit strange and redundant. How else would Riku have known about Sora's anti-form if he hadn't seen it himself? Sora wouldn't have told him if he thought it would make him worry. Regardless of redundancy, he continued where he left off.
"This sometimes would happen when Sora activated a drive form. The form could go wrong and this would be the result. From what I could tell, this is called Anti-Form."
"Anti-form? So Sora's not a heartless?" Ven was silently relieved that his friend didn't turn into a heartless. At first he was worried that they wouldn't be able to help Sora and that it would be his fault. He was the one who asked Sora to show off one of his drive forms, after all.
"Fortunately, no. He might be like this for a little while though. It could take some time to wear off."
Aqua was the next to speak up. "Is he dangerous?" It was a legitimate question. They had no way of knowing whether or not he was dangerous when this first happened, so she confined him for their safety as well as his own. Fortunately, however, Riku knew that Anti-Sora was not quite as dangerous as he looked.
"Well when he senses heartless nearby, he attacks them wildly and without mercy. But I've never seen Anti-Sora attack a person. At least not one who's a friend."
Terra decided that it was best to release Sora if he wasn't going to hurt them. He was still their friend, after all, heatless-like appearance or not. "Let him out, Aqua. If anything happens, I'll restrain him." Aqua nodded at the older brunette and released the magic barrier she had formed around Anti-Sora. Anti-Sora looked around for a moment, confused, before his eyes set on a certain blonde-haired teen. Without warning, the shadowy creature pounced at Ventus, knocking him down...
...and promptly curled up in a ball on his chest. "Uh...What?" The shadowy 'Sora' proceeded to emit a noise that sounded like a warbled purring. Ventus, who was dazed and confused at the current situation, began absent-mindedly petting it's head. In what seemed to be a sign of approval, 'Sora' curled tighter into his little ball.
Meanwhile, the others looked on with expressions varying from shock to amusement. "Oh did I forget to mention? When he sees a friend in that form he starts acting like a cat."
"Yeah, I think you did 'forget' to mention that." Terra, who wore a look of annoyance, huffed at the silver-haired teen. "You planned this from the beginning didn't you?" Riku, who found himself on the other end of the older man's suspicion, simply shrugged indifferently.
"Well I didn't necessarily plan for Ventus to be the one who got pounced on. But yeah, when Ven mentioned the drive forms I decided it would be a good joke to play."
"Yeah well it wasn't funny. I seriously thought he was going to hurt Ven!" Terra walked over to his younger friend, aiming to remove 'Sora' from his position. "Come on, Sora! Up!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Riku's warning fell on deaf ears, as Terra proceeded to grab at 'Sora'.
"Agh! What the - " Only for 'Sora' to snap at him.
"He scratched you didn't he? I tried to warn you. It's your own fault for not listening." After all, most cats will attack if you bother them enough.
"That little - "
"To be fair, Riku did tell you he acted like a cat in this form. Cats scratch. And this Anti-Sora has claws. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together and figure out that he would scratch you." Kairi, who had finally adjusted to the situation, raised an argument in her friend's defense. It's not Sora's fault the drive form went wrong. Well, you know, probably.
"Hey, Sora." Aqua called out gently, in a much safer attempt at trying to pry 'Sora' away from his new 'bed' (as he seemed intent to fall asleep where he was). 'Sora' lifted his head in response to his name. He fixed the blue haired woman with a questioning gaze to which she smiled sweetly and held out a hand. 'Sora' cautiously and reluctantly moved from his place over to the woman, obviously forgetting about the magic barrier that she'd used previously to contain him. When 'Sora' got close enough, Aqua reformed the barrier around him, shocking him and causing him to jump at the sudden reappearance. Unfortunately, Aqua hadn't made the barrier big enough; So when Sora jumped, he hit against the top of the barrier. Hearing a cry of pain, Kairi pleaded with Aqua to remove the barrier. She couldn't stand to know that her friend was in pain. After the barrier was gone, Kairi rushed over to 'Sora' and set him in her lap like one would a precious pet, carefully looking over him for any visible wounds. "Hey there, Sora. It's okay, little guy. Did you get hurt? Poor little thing." She began cooing and rocking 'Sora' as though he were a toddler who had fallen and scraped his knee. As she did this, Riku watched on with a confounded look on his face. How did she go from being confused and worried to being a mother hen?
"Kairi...it's Sora, not an animal." Though it may have seemed cruel to the others that he was showing no concern for his friend's well-being, the truth was this had happened before. Riku had been worried at first, only to find out that he was just shaken up. Not injured, just scared.
"He's hurt, Riku!"
"No he's not. He's scared. I think I know a little more about Anti-Sora than you do I know when he's injured."
"If you know then tell us." Kairi was going full-blown 'Mother Hen' mode on Sora so he had to make his point soundly or he'd be in huge trouble later.
"When he get's hurt, he goes on a rampage. He attacks whatever hurt him. If he was hurt, he'd be attacking Aqua." He stated matter-of-factly only to be fixed with another pointed glare from Terra.
"Yet another thing you 'forgot' to tell us. Honestly, Riku I don't think this prank was very well thought out." Riku admitted to himself that Terra had a point. A number of things could have gone wrong and someone (whether it was Sora or anyone else) could have gotten hurt. Besides, Sora couldn't heal himself in this form, so if he was hurt, they'd be in trouble.
Riku hung his head in defeat. "You're right, I should've thought it through better. Sorry guys."
"I thought Sora was supposed to be the one who doesn't think things through. You're supposed to be the mature one Master Riku." Ventus' smile was innocent, but his eyes held mischief as he teased the older teen.
"As if you're one to talk Ven! The last time I checked, you were the one who decided to try and make the most complicated kind of cookies possible and nearly blew up the kitchen." Everyone turned over at the familiar voice. "At least I can admit that I don't always think things through."
"Sora!" They all exclaimed happily as they spotted the brunette back in his original form. Sora found himself being suffocated by hugs as everyone crowded around him. The hugs were followed by an extra slap on the back of the head by 'Overprotective big brother' Terra for worrying them, to which he replied with an awkward smile and rubbed the back of his head in both embarrassment and pain.
"So, can you explain to me exactly what happened again?" Sora asked Riku after they had bid farewell to Kairi and began walking home.
"Ventus asked you to show off your drive forms and you obliged. But you turned into anti-form instead."
The look of realization was plain as day on Sora's face. "Oh, so that's what happened! But wait, how do you know about anti-form, Riku?"
"I don't know, maybe because I watched over you during your second journey? Or did you forget about that, too." Riku crossed his arms and smirked at his younger friend.
"Heh, whoops!" Sora replied sheepishly. "But it's weird..."
"Hm?"
"I normally can't turn into anti-form if I use a drive form outside of battle..."
"That is weird. Maybe you should ask Master Yen Sid. If anyone would know, it would be him."
"Nah. It was probably just for game balance purposes." Sora said nonchalantly as he walked off. Meanwhile, Riku stayed behind for a moment, with a bewildered expression shown clearly on his face.
"Huh? Game balance?"
A/N: Hurrah for fourth wall breaking. So I just wanted to say I don't fully understand the mechanics of how drive forms work. And since this is an AU, I'll leave it up to your imagination. Nothing has to be accurate in an AU.
I've gotten this request twice now so I decided to attempt to write it. I'll let you know that I've never had a cat before so I'm basing the behavior on what I've seen on TV (and that ain't much). BTW SCHOOL SUCKS. My classes are sapping up all my free time so I keep not publishing stuff here because it takes longer for me than it does on AO3. So I actually uploaded this like 7 days ago there or something.
P.S. Terra is apparently not a cat person.
P.P.S. If you have any idea or requests send them to my tumblr. I go by the same name so if you look up OblivionDTD you'll find me. Just leave an ask or something. Seriously you can stay anonymous or if you want me to call you by anything just leave me something to call you by. But that's where most of my stuff is being directed to. I'm only gonna be posting one-shots here.
