"It feels like I've been here before." Sora commented as he looked up at a twisted, desolate castle.

"Somehow, I get the same feeling." Goofy said as they approached the doors.

"Me too." Donald agreed. Sora looked down at the mysterious keyblade in his hand. It had a green-black blade, and a red and white guard.

"Aqua..." Sora paused, a deep pain at the very name had squeezed his chest, but continued, "Aqua said to 'go to the chamber of awakening'... and this keyblade appeared when I wondered how to get there... Is this where the chamber is?" He asked hopefully.

"May your heart be your guiding key." Goofy reassured Sora.

"It's lead us this far!" Donald echoed proudly.

Sora smiled at the encouragement of his good friends and felt his keyblade move and glow. He went with his instincts; he leapt back from the doors of the castle and held his keyblade out to the door. His friends scrambled well out of the way as a circle of light appeared at the tip of the keyblade, and a beam shot from it to the castle doors.

Instead of unlocking the door, the very castle itself seemed to absorb the beam, and glowed and re-arranged itself into a symmetrical castle. Things shattered in a musical fashion, and the world trembled as if it itself was trying to break free from the darkness that had settled within.

"Whoah!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy cried, and steps formed under their feet. Donald yelped, and both Sora and Goofy caught him before he could topple over. Looking around as magic shards, like dandelion seeds, floated past their faces, they all realized that there was a huge, lush world around them instead of a barren cliffed grassland. Somehow, Sora felt like he was home again.

They had a moment of awe at such a beautiful place until monsters appeared.

"Nobodies, Heartless, AND Unversed? Now THAT'S a welcome party!" Sora laughed, getting into a stance and summoning his keyblade. Donald and Goofy nodded and got into their own stances, summoning their staff and shield.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy had fought together for so long that it was second nature for the two sidekicks to combine their magic with Sora's. The result was a sparkling array of magic, one that cast floating christmas-like lights in a rainbow around them, and created objects for Sora to use. Sora wasn't fighting anymore-he was joyfully playing with magic and his enemies were desolated in the process.

With one final slash of Sora's keyblade, it was over. The magic lights sparkled into oblivion. He was barely winded, in fact he was nearly bouncing in place as he waved and called Donald and Goofy to hurry up.

"We're comin' we're comin'!" Donald grumped, and Sora grinned. He sprinted up to the doors, which opened inwards, revealing a huge staircase. Before the doors were completely open, Sora ran inside. His eagerness to explore and try to figure out what this place was was interrupted the moment he stepped onto the staircase. His chest burned, and briefly a wave of pain and dizziness forced him into a kneeling position. His chest flashed with light. As quickly as it came, it left him, almost apologetically.

"Sora!"

"Sora, are you okay?!"

"I'm alright, I…" He forced himself back to his feet, sprinting ahead, an almost unbearable sense of urgency overriding him, "We have to hurry!"

"Where? Sora!" Goofy asked.

"Wait up!"

Oddly enough, there was not any nobodies or heartless. But there were unversed, and their numbers did make up for the absence. The gilded hallway was basked in sparkling light as Sora and his friends attacked the monsters.

Wave after wave left him a bit winded, but it was nothing Sora, Donald, and Goofy wasn't used to. Sora went on ahead, and his speed was almost too fast for his two companions to follow.

"If this number of unversed are here, then Vanitas can't be too far behind." Sora said, and frowned, wondering where in the world that thought had come from as he had not been really thinking of anything but fighting through the unversed and getting to his goal.

Wherever that may be.

At the end of the hallway was a couple of huge boss-type unversed, Sora briefly considered running past them, but quickly realized that would be really counter-productive. He twirled his keyblade and charged it with a magic order, making the keyblade itself transform and turn into a variety of metal loops with a vending machine claw-game grip that wrapped around his arms.

"Come on!" He challenged, and charged ahead. He whipped the claws- through the air, through the ground (his magic quickly fixed the floor), and sometimes just outright spinning around him. When Donald and Goofy finally caught up, Sora had already toppled one unversed. They kept fighting until they had defeated it.

Behind the bosses was a huge hall. Sora was winded but sprinted into it, his keyblade in his hands. The world seemed to slow as he looked around at the stained glass on the wall, the intricate carvings, and finally the three thrones at one end. Seated on the middle throne was a very familiar boy.

Sora walked, and then ran towards him. He slowed to a stop in front of him… "Ventus, you're Ventus aren't you?" He asked, wondering why this boy wasn't waking up.

"So this is Ventus?" Goofy said curiously.

"Hey! Wake up! There's monsters here!" Donald quacked.

"Well, I guess I gotta wake him up!" Sora announced, "I'll be right back guys!"

"Right!"

Sora stepped back and carefully pointed his keyblade at Ventus. A small keyhole appeared, and a beam shot from it. Slowly, his body sank to his knees and his companions caught him as he fell asleep.

Ventus stood at the seashore, looking around at the what was his resting place for a very long time. He felt a pang of unease, of homesickness, he would most likely not see this sanctuary again, but he couldn't stay curled up in the light- Sora's light- forever.

/Are you sure?/ A voice asked him.

"I'm certain." Ventus replied, reaching up to the stars above and drawing on the strength Sora had let him recover.

Sora was brought to complete awareness as he felt a sensation of drifting down. He was still holding his keyblade. His feet tapped against the stained glass floor.

"Ventus!" He called, "Where are you?!"

"Here." Ventus suddenly appeared, glowing orbs surrounding him. He yawned, and smiled, "Hey, Sora."

"Hey!" Sora greeted, he had a lot he wanted to say but that had to wait! "... Let's wake your body up, okay?"

"I… think I'm starting to wake up, but I seemed to have sucked you into my heart in the process," Ventus admitted sheepishly, "But you can make your way out, ri-"

Suddenly, his eyes grew wide. "Sora, stay here! Something's wrong!"

"I'll help!" Sora offered immediately.

"No, you have to stay here." Ventus replied sternly, "Right now, for some reason, we're surrounded by darkness. Transferring back to your body would be dangerous."

"Oh, but, I st-" Sora blinked as Ven suddenly vanished. He frowned and crossed his arms in a huff, he didn't need to be protected! But… he wanted to trust Ven, so eventually he sat down and waited.

It took some time to wake up from a 12-year-long sleep, however magical it was. Ventus remembered when Sora was put in that sleep, and his initial grogginess was reflected tenfold on his body; it made him drift back and forth until he realized, faintly, he was moving. The sense of darkness tingled against his skin, provoking a deep sense of unease that forced his eyes to open.

Red eyes met his gaze. Ventus twitched violently, knowing those eyes, and an intense set of pins-and-needles went throughout his entire body. What he thought had been a blanket slowly tightened around his torso, intensifying the pain but relieving the duration at the same time. Ventus gasped and started to struggle in earnest. He was unable to identify this unversed-

"Good morning, Ventus." A familiar low voice greeted, and Ventus felt the monster stop walking and lower him. Vanitas loomed over him stiffly, still wearing his mask and a black coat.

A/N: Thanks for reading, this chapter was mostly setting things up. Maybe this would be better named as a 'prologue'?