Only Just a Dream
A Kingdom Hearts Fanfic
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING of the Kingdom Hearts Franchise! All rights belong to Disney and Square Enix!
AN: Recently I've come across something called "cartoon overanalyzation", in which people interpret cartoons in mind-blowing ways that would make them more realistic. This fanfic is very much like that. You're going to find TONS of twists.
Light and Darkness.
Good and Evil.
A boy and a man.
Sora and Xehanort…
Two Keyblade wielders with completely polar ideologies were now standing face to face with one another. The young boy, now an adolescent of 17 years old, stood before Xehanort. The possessor sneered with a smile, the grin spreading across Terra's face. As Aqua stood on the sidelines with Ven, Kairi, and Riku, she gritted her teeth in anger to see the old man still in control of her friend's body.
"Foolish boy," the dark master said. "You have fought your way through so many challenges…climbed to the very pinnacle of your potential…and all of it was for nothing."
Flames erupted from the manipulator's hand, slowly taking the form of his axe-like gray weapon. The eye on the blade gazed at Sora, suddenly glowing red with anticipation. "This realm does not belong to you…it never has. I've been predestined to rule these worlds since my inception. And I won't let a child stand in my way!"
Sora summoned the Ultima Weapon, pointing it towards Xehanort. "I'll ask you once more…get out of Terra's body!"
A sphere of light gathered around the weapon's tip, bursting with energy. Xehanort's did the same, only his weapon began to form darkness at its end. Finally, the two exploded with huge beams of energy. The light and darkness collided, each pushing against the other.
Xehanort smiled as Sora's beam began to die out, yet the boy shook his head in denial. In a flash of light, his usual attire was replaced by a bright set of white and black garments. Using the power of his Final Form, Sora summoned his Kingdom Key in the other hand, and spun the two together to create a whirlwind of light.
The inferno dashed towards Xehanort, fading away the darkness.
"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the man screamed.
A blinding light engulfed everything. As Sora slowly opened his eyes, he saw Xehanort sprawled on his back. The man glared toward him. "How…could your heart…be so powerful?"
Sora shook his head. "It's not just my power…"
He glanced over to his friends. "It's all of ours."
Suddenly, the sky turned pitch black, and the ground underneath Sora disappeared. The Keyblade hero stared in shock to see Aqua and Ven vanish into thin air.
"What?" he yelled.
Kairi faded away as well.
"No, Kairi!" Sora screamed.
Acting quickly, he dashed toward Riku as he saw his best friend losing his opacity. "Riku…I'm coming!"
Just as he reached him, the white-haired teenager was gone. Sora looked around to find himself alone in the darkness.
"Sora…wake up…" a soft voice called out.
Fluttering his eyes open, Sora found himself face to face with Aqua.
"What the…Aqua?" he inquired.
She narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me? Sora, you know I've told you not to call me that! You're too young to call your mother by her first name!"
"M…MOTHER?"
The boy was even more shocked to find himself in an unfamiliar yet elegant bedroom. "Where am I?"
She shook her head. "You're in your bedroom silly! "
"But…I don't recognize any of this!" he yelled out.
The woman sighed. "I guess the dreams have gotten worse. We'll have to talk to your father. But don't worry, he'll be home any minute."
Sora stared in surprise. "Dad's...alive?"
"Well of course he is!" Aqua exclaimed. "Though considering how tough it's been at the office lately with the recession, he's probably gonna be wiped out."
"Okay, I'd be happy to see dad," Sora said. "But where's Riku?"
Aqua frowned almost. "Honey, I told you…Riku was too busy to accept our offer to introduce him to you."
"INTRODUCE ME?" Sora yelled.
"Well he IS the biggest star in the music industry," Aqua replied.
His heart pounding, Sora laid his head against the pillow. Suddenly, he saw a furry dog at the other end of the room accidentally run into a dresser. Aqua picked up the pet, soflty brushing its head.
"Goofy…you have to be more careful," Aqua said. "Just because that's your name doesn't give you the right to hurt yourself."
"That's…Goofy…" Sora said in confusion. "Mom, I don't understand anything right now."
She sat on the bed next to him, her slightly long blue hair softly resting behind her neck. "That's because of the dreams you've been having."
The boy stared in horror. "No…"
Jumping to his feet, he glanced at the mirror to see that he still had the appearance of a fourteen year old. Holding out his hand, Sora found he couldn't summon a Keyblade.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" he cried out.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and Sora gazed in shock at the man standing there. The brown hair was the same style and length as Xemnas's, sharply contrasting with the man's pale skin. He had vibrant blue eyes, just like Sora. And his face was the same as…as…
Xemnas's. Which meant this man was…
"Terra?" the boy asked.
The adult crossed his arms. "Sora, you shouldn't call me by my first name like that! I guess they don't teach manners in school anymore."
Aqua strolled over, kissing him on the lips. "Hey, love. How was work?"
"The same as usual, dear," he responded.
"STOP IT!" Sora exclaimed. "JUST STOP IT AND HEAR ME OUT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!"
Terra's eyes widened in realization. "Oh…the dreams…let's talk about this over dinner, son."
Not surprisingly, the dining room was a fittingly elegant counterpart to the bedroom. A bright chandelier was high above Sora. The table was fairly long, yet his parents were directly on the other side of him.
"For the past two weeks, Sora, you've been having a very strange subconscious condition," Terra said. "You've been having dreams every night…and from what you've told us, it seems that they are completely realistic and believable. When you have them…you actually think that the events occurring around you are reality."
Aqua nodded. "That's right. Yesterday, you told us you dreamed that you were growing up on an island and about to build a raft. It seems like last night's dream was the most complex yet."
Sora rubbed his forehead. "It just seemed…so real."
"Well if you could, Sora, tell us your version of what's real," Terra told him.
The boy nodded. "Okay, here goes. It all started with me living on the island, and a terrible storm was going on…"
"…and then I beat Xehanort, but everyone around me disappeared, and I woke up."
The parents stared in astonishment at the boy.
"That's astounding," Terra said. "Did you take notes, Aqua?"
She nodded. "Yes. Sora, since I have a degree in psychology, I can help you sort out why your subconscious gave you these dreams."
The boy shrugged. "Okay…go ahead I guess."
She turned to the first page of her notes. "Sora…in our world…the real one that is…things have always been peaceful for us. You've been a happy child with everything available to you. But you've also been rather bored. In fact that's almost a catchphrase for you these days."
The woman looked at the boy seriously. "So from what I'm seeing…it seems that since your reality was not exciting, you tried to make your dreams exciting. You envisioned a world where you are a hero despite being so young, and all the adventures you thought you had are simply the adventures you can only DREAM to have. You'd like to have magical powers and do all these amazing things."
"Well if I was bored, why did I imagine the islands?" he asked.
"You've never been that thrilled about our wealth, honey," Aqua explained. "Thus, you chose to fabricate a life in which you live freely and simply on a set of islands with barely any material possessions."
"But what about my friends on the islands?" he asked.
"That's more complicated," Aqua said. "Riku and Kairi are not your friends in reality…but Hayner, Pence, and Olette are. Only they are VERY different from the versions you've created. Thus, I believe that you were unhappy with the cliques those three have joined and thus chose to create one group for all of you. Eventually though, that was not enough for your subconscious. You still internally yearned to venture, but using the incarnations of your real friends as your usual allies might prove not to be exciting. This is why you cried when you saw them for the last time, and it's also why you chose Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Kairi instead."
"Okay, then why are those four different from their real counterparts?" the youth asked.
"Each differed for its own reason," Aqua said. "Kairi was your older sister, Sora. She drowned in a lake on a school camping trip several years ago. You loved her like a sister even…"
Aqua handed Sora a star-shaped charm, the same one said redhead gave him in the dreams. "This charm was her most treasured possession. She passed it on to you as a gift since you never had a chance to go to a beach to find such an object for yourself."
As he fought back his tears, his voice cracked. "Well what about Riku?"
"Riku's the most famous superstar in the world, Sora," the woman explained. "He's been rated as the coolest teenager in Rolling Stones and every other magazine. Since he's such an awesome person, you wished that he was your best friend and thus did so in your dreams. Ultimately, Riku turning away from you was an attempt from another part of your subconscious to wake you from your slumber. A subconscious is constantly changing its mind, Sora. Dreams are never static and easily become nightmares. And yours went back and forth on including Riku in your life."
"And what's the deal with Donald and Goofy," the child asked.
"Donald Duck…is the protagonist of a book series you've read, and since he was your favorite character, he ended up being your associate as well," she stated. "Goofy, on the other hand, has been your companion since you were a baby, and thus you subconsciously wanted him to be with you all the time as well."
"What about the OTHER friends I've made?" the boy inquired.
"Mostly fake," Aqua said. "The majority of the rest are just characters your imagination derived from all the stories you've read in your studies. You love reading, Sora. Every character you encountered in the dreams was most likely just a rendition of characters in books. Mickey Mouse is the joyful optimist who occasionally can be a pain, Cloud is the dark mysterious man…the list goes on. The only exceptions to this rule are certain members of the Organization, Ven, Eraqus…and the incarnations of this Xehanort you constantly battle."
"Which people are you talking about?" he asked.
Aqua held out her hand to count off the people. "To start off, Eraqus is your dad's father, and he's still alive today. Roxas is the angry side of your personality. Simply put, Roxas is what you are when you're stressed out or enraged. His friendship with Axel is the ideal friendship you could never have. Axel is the head chef at a barbecue restaurant we frequently eat at, hence his flame powers. Xigbar…or Braig really…is an good friend of your dad's…though he is a complete JERK…"
"Stop trashing Braig, Aqua," Terra begged. "He's just a wise guy at times."
She ignored him. "Anyway, Braig is a marine not currently in active duty, hence the guns. Ansem, known to you as Xehanort's Heartless, is actually-"
Sora shook his head, cutting her off. "What about Ven?"
"Ven was your older brother," Aqua answered. "He was a year older than you and a year younger than Kairi. Unfortunately, he's been in a coma for a few months now. That's why you associated him with the Chamber of Awakening. And that's why Xemnas constantly wanted to find it. He wanted to wake Ven up."
"Well what's the deal with Dad and all these Xehanorts?" he inquired.
Aqua looked over her notes. "Master Xehanort is the embodiment of everything bad essentially. He's the devil of your story and the cause behind all the chaos in your real life and in this one. You needed an enemy, so you chose him. Since you enjoy deciphering anagrams, you chose to make his name an anagram, as well as the names of his incarnations and the Organization members."
"Then what's the meaning behind the others, like Xehanort's Heartless and Xemnas?" the boy asked.
Aqua cleared her throat to continue speaking. "Xehanort's Heartless is what your dad could have been. The business world, and the world at large, is full of corruption, Sora. That Heartless represents what your dad would have been if he ended up like the corrupt people in industry and politics. Xemnas is a part of your father in reality. You see, as a CEO like your dad, you have to be willing to make cuts and lay people off. Doing so requires being emotionless, and thus Xemnas represents that aspect of him."
"What's the significance of Master Xehanort possessing you then, Dad?" the boy asked.
Terra shrugged. "I'm no psychologist. Aqua?"
"I think that represents what you internally fear your dad WILL be, rather than what he COULD have been like Xehanort's Heartless," Aqua assessed. "Terra-Xehanort is always going to be a possibility, because as hard as your Dad tries to be a good person, Sora, it's not easy. If things truly turn for the worse, he may have to take extreme measures to ensure our safety. That's why you associated darkness with him so much."
"What's the deal with light and darkness, and the Heartless and Nobodies?" Sora asked.
"Light and darkness, just like in the Bible, represents good and evil," Aqua replied. "More accurately though, light represents positive emotions like joy and compassion while darkness represents feelings like hatred and envy. Whoever uses darkness is someone you believe may have those qualities or could have those qualities. That's why Kairi never had darkness. To you, your sister was perfect. Heartless represent the corrupt and cruel people in our world, while Nobodies represent people who have been so damaged by the world that they are lethargic and apathetic."
"So…why KEY-blades?" he said in confusion. "Why not just swords?"
"The Keyblade is more of a key than a blade for you, Sora," she said. "Although it serves as the weapon in your adventures, its true function is to act as the symbolic key to your own mysteries. You subconsciously wanted to discover more about yourself, and all the doors in your dreams were the doors to your future careers and possibilities."
"And what's Kingdom Hearts?" he asked.
"Your dad's company," Aqua replied. "Kingdom Hearts Inc. That's why Xehanort never wins it. Because your subconscious self believes that if your father became corrupt, he would lose everything."
Sora crossed his arms. "One last question. Why were you two younger in my dreams…and why you there with Ven? Why wasn't Kairi there?"
"Because that's what you WANT the future to be, Sora," Aqua explained. "The three of us are your family, and more so we are the people closest to you right now. You internally desired for Ven to recover and all of us to return to normal. And that can STILL be achieved, Sora."
The boy sighed for a moment. Suddenly, a tear slipped out of his eye. Quickly rushing to the other side of the table, Aqua held him in her arms, while Terra looked on nervously.
"Everything…I thought was real…was a LIE!" he whimpered. "And so many of the friends I thought I had don't even exist! The ones who are real, like Kairi and Riku, are either dead or distant from me!"
"That's not true, son," Terra said as he held his shoulder. "You've been visiting your friends constantly this summer."
Still crying, Sora walked up the stairs. "I need to lie down for a bit…to sink this all in…"
As he walked off, Aqua stared in sympathy. "My poor baby."
"Don't worry," Terra assured her. "We'll find a way to get him through this. Whatever the cost…I'm ready to pay it…"