Hey. It's me again. I don't own these characters. R&R appreciated. Thank you.
Sora opened his eyes and sat up. Hard stained glass pressed against his body. He stood up and looked this new place over. Darkness surrounded him, but the station he stood on was bright and colorful.
There were three people on it. One was Sora himself, in the black outfit the fairies had given him. He was sleeping peacefully and holding the Kingdom Key. The background was blue, with plain hearts in the small circles that bordered the edge.
The second person looked very much like Roxas, but not quite, with long pants and different shoes. He was asleep. He held an odd brown-grey Keyblade in reverse. The background was green, and an unusual insignia resemblant of the Heartless symbol filled the circles.
The third person was wearing a black and red organic suit with orange boots and a blue-to-red waist-cloth. His face was like Sora's, but his hair black. His sleep seemed troubled. His Keyblade resembled sliced gears. His background was dark red and the circles were filled with a strange, pointed heart symbol.
In the center, where the colors met and Sora stood, there were three images shown in the six circles; there was a simple crown, stylized with edges and rounded points; there was a series of connecting wings that got smaller and faded in three repeats; there was a heart that resembled the Heartless sign without the fleur-de-lis point, crossed by two Kingdom Keys.
Sora looked over all this with fascination and puzzlement. Why would he be in a Station of Awakening?
As though to answer his question, a skin-crawling laugh echoed through the Station, rattling Sora's bones. Even worse was the voice, eerily like his own, but with the tilt of uncertainty and malevolence.
"I've been waiting to finally meet you! Sora, I've been calling to you!"
"Show yourself!" Sora demanded loudly.
A sound was heard from the red side of the Station. Sora turned and saw a torrent of black flames of darkness rising up from it, roiling and writhing around one another. They suddenly began to peel and float away like tissue paper in wind, revealing a boy about Sora's age. He looked like he had just stepped out of the platform. The boy looked at him and smiled sinisterly.
"You didn't have to shout," he said. "I'm so glad we could officially meet, Sora."
Sora opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a hand raised with the index finger up.
"If you could shut that mouth of yours and listen, I could explain," the boy said with evident annoyance. "As I said, I've been calling to you."
Sora bit his lip to avoid shouting something stupid.
The boy rolled his eyes and grimaced. "But you've always been preoccupied with your friends," he spat. "So you never heard, until they went away..."
"What do you mean?" Sora blurted out.
The boy laughed chillingly. "You don't need them," he hissed, smiling like an adder. "They're not your power." He touched where his heart would be. "I am your power."
"Then who are you?" Sora asked, a little unnerved by the boy's presence here in his heart.
"I am Vanitas," he said, crossing his skinny arms. "I am darkness."
Sora raised an eyebrow. "...darkness corrupts. You're not my power!"
Vanitas laughed. "Sora, Sora, Sora! Are you a bigger fool than I thought? You should know now that darkness gives more power than light!"
Sora reflexively drew his Keyblade. "You can't fool me!"
"How much can you trust someone other than yourself?" Vanitas asked.
"I can trust them with my life." Sora met Vanitas' confident tone.
Vanitas cackled, waving once at him as though swatting a fly. "Really. How naïve. How many times has Riku betrayed you?" He took a step forward when he said Riku's name. "How many times have Donald and Goofy not been there to save you? Where was Kairi while you suffered? Aladdin? Peter Pan? Hercules? Simba? Cloud?" He said each name with scorn and stomped each step until he was staring furiously into Sora's eyes. "Where have Terra and Aqua been?" he snarled.
Sora couldn't help but feel unsettled by that golden gaze, but he didn't back down. "I...I don't know who those last two are."
Vanitas' deep frown morphed into a smile and he laughed. "What was I thinking?" He bent backwards and kicked his booted feet into the air, almost kicking Sora in the face, and then pushed off his hands to land on his feet, about a yard away from Sora. "Kingdom Key..." he muttered. "I see you rely on your own strength here, not some loaned to you by others."
Sora harrumphed and crossed his arms. "My friends are my strength."
"Then what if you are alone?" Vanitas reached forward with one gloved hand. Streams of darkness spread from it, expanding forward about eight feet. It formed into a flat, triangular shape and shaped into more detail. It peeled away. A magnificent weapon, gold along a long shaft formed of two swords' blade coming together, sprouting from two crossed Kingdom Keys wreathed with white-blue-green swirling designs, the two keychains linking together to form one, was left in the aftermath.
Sora didn't know the weapon, but he recognized it; the χ-Blade.
Vanitas spun his weapon effortlessly in one hand. "Behold! You are but one person! No friends to get power from here, are there?"
Sora felt the blood run cold in his veins. The air sliced by the weapon seemed to hum loudly. Glowing energy formed on the blade. Sora had the sinking feeling of impending doom in his gut.
"Stop!"
A voice like Roxas' echoed through the Station. Vanitas' hand stopped moving an the χ-Blade dropped straight down, stabbing into the glass and standing upright. The dark boy's face went eerily pale.
Sora spun to the green side of the platform and saw a burst of light. It faded and left the blonde boy standing there, an angry look on his features. He ran forward next to Sora and set a hand on his shoulder.
Vanitas trembled a little and stammered. The blonde boy's brow furrowed and his glare almost burned.
"You will not harm him," he said with utter confidence.
Vanitas' fear ignited to anger and he lifted the weapon and struck at the blonde. The blonde blocked it, his feet set in a combat stance, straining to hold it back. Vanitas yelled wordlessly and lifted the weapon for another strike, not at the blonde, but at Sora. Sora gasped and leapt over the strike like he used to against Sephiroth and dived in for a strike. Vanitas chuffed and hit Sora with the flat of his blade, up, down, up, then slammed onto the floor. The blonde kicked Vanitas' legs from under him and grabbed his ankles. He then spun him around and threw him across the room. Vanitas hit the floor and skidded to the edge.
Sora stood up and brushed himself off. Vanitas stood up as well, crouching low, face twisted in anger. Sora ran forward to attack the raven-haired boy, but the blonde stopped him with an outstretched arm.
"It's not worth it," he said.
Vanitas spat blood. "This was my fight! Alone!"His poison gaze shifted to Sora. "You're alone! Use your own strength!"
"Then I can't use darkness," Sora said, "if you're my darkness."
Vanitas yelled wordlessly and threw his weapon into the oblivion. "Have fun with your little puppet, Ventus!" He stepped backwards off the platform into the abyss.
The blonde- Ventus, apparently- sighed. "Sorry about him."
"But, why are you here?" Sora asked, unsure of this new person in his heart.
"You know me," Ventus said. "You saved my heart."
"Oh." The long-ago moment stirred in Sora's mind. He suddenly felt as though he knew Ventus as well as a close friend, as well as he knew himself. "I guess it's nice to officially meet you."
Ventus gave a small chuckle. "Same here." He glanced around. "You should probably go, in case he comes back. If he does, he won't be so nice."
"Okay." Sora closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Soon, he felt the Station slip away and his consciousness was replaced by blissful sleep.
xxx
Sora blinked awake and sat up.
No matter what you think, Vanitas, Sora thought in the chance the dark being could hear him, I'm never alone, because my friends are always in my heart.