AN: I'm honestly not sure what prompted this, beyond the fact that I'm deeply dissatisfied with DDD having Ventus show his first sign of life in over decade via basically taking a bullet for Sora, and then never following up on it. Not cool Square Enix. Not cool.

So this is me handling this my own way, in a fashion that is probably massively wrong about KH3 but guess what you can't stop me.

Enjoy!

A Message

With the last blow struck, the dark armour staggered, and collapsed to its knees, keyblade vanishing as it did so. Wary, Riku lowered his keyblade, but didn't approach. He wasn't dealing with the embarrassment of getting hit at the last possible minute. Sora would tease him for the next forever over that.

…Which, honestly, would be preferable to the comatose state he was in now. The entire situation was reminding him entirely too much of that hellish year while Sora was asleep. The Organization had gotten downright vicious in their attempts to hunt him down near the end. And not to mention all of the… issues…between him and Roxas.

Riku was looking forwards to this mess being handled, and immediately. What he would give for an uncomplicated life.

The darkness on the armour melted away, revealing gold and silver armour. After a moment, the armour evaporated into light, revealing… a man?

He looked oddly similar to Roxas, if Roxas was somewhere in his late twenties. This was really getting way too goddamn familiar. There was even a murderous Axel on the loose. Albeit not aimed at him. This time. For now.

If Sora somehow lost his memories again, Riku was going to scream.

"Thank you. I wasn't sure how long I could keep Xehanort's darkness away from Sora." The man said, voice soft and grateful. Definitely not Roxas then. By this point, the Nobody would have been doing his best to verbally flay Riku. Possibly physically too. He was very moody, for a someone that literally didn't have moods.

"Uh… no problem. Thanks for protecting him, I think." Riku replied, wondering if the awkwardness he was feeling showed. How many fucking people was Sora going to have in his heart anyways?

Too many. The answer to that question would always be too damn many.

Ugh. Riku needed to make some normal friends.

"He's protected me for this long. The least I could do was return the favour. ...You're Riku, right? I've seen you sometimes, through him. Can you pass on a message? I need you to tell Mickey and Master Yen Sid something for me, if it's not too much trouble."

Riku gave the man a suspicious look, but gestured for him to continue.

"Tell them… tell them that Ventus is ready to wake up now."

Well. That sounded either vaguely hopeful, or vaguely ominous. Could go either way. Still, whether it was a threat, warning or promise, Riku didn't see any harm in telling Mickey and Yen Sid.

"Alright. I'll pass it on."

The man beamed, and it was somehow more infectious than Sora's grin.

"Thanks. I think you're going to have to look after Sora by yourself for a little while now. Just until I can get going again. And then? Xehanort had better watch out."

The man gave another grin, this one with a slightly more feral edge to it, and pressed a hand against the stained glass floor. Sora emerged, bathed in light.

By the time Riku looked up again, the man was gone.

"Oh, and while I was in Sora's heart, I met someone." Riku began. As expected, the response was less than groundbreaking. Donald rolled his eyes, and muttered something about 'what else is new', while Sora just looked up with mild interest, but mostly boredom.

"Which one? …I don't actually remember everyone I've got in there right now."

"Not sure. This one was new, I think. Looked like Roxas, but closed to Ax- er, Lea's age. And he wanted me to pass on a message. To King Mickey and Master Yen Sid."

"Oh? What kind of message?" Mickey asked, a glass of water in his hands.

"He said… to tell you two that Ventus is ready to wake up now."

There was a loud crash as the glass of water dropped from Mickey's hands, and shattered on the floor, both king and wizard staring at Riku with undisguised shock at the words. Even Lea had reacted, jaw dropping in surprise.

"…Okay, I'm sensing this means something to you all."

Meanwhile, hidden away inside of the deserted Castle Oblivion, Ventus began to stir.