AN/ Hello! Rar here, as always, and welcome to book 5 of the FtPverse series. I'm just gonna be blunt here and say if you haven't read the rest, you probably shouldn't be here. Really.

This chapter (and every following one) will have a blog post/chapter commentary over on the FtPverse blog (on blogspot), and there will be various posts on my personal tumblr and the FtPverse tumblr about the entire book, as always. You already know this, unless you're new to the series. Don't fret about not knowing where to go: There's a link on my profile to the FtPverse blogspot, and it'll have links to all relevant tumblr posts/tags for each chapter.

Also, I never mentioned that I have redesigns for the main FtPverse cast (Sora/Riku/Kairi/Namine) done and I think they're pretty cool? Sora and Kairi's especially. There's a link to them on my profile, but if you can't find it amongst the wall of links, you can also find them on the ftpverse tumblr under the tag "outfits".

Anyway, that's it! Expect shorter author's notes in the future, enjoy, etc.

Part 1

Revenge

Chapter 1: In which Namine has a nightmare

It was less a set of images, and more a set of feelings and barely grasped sounds that plagued Namine's nightmares. That didn't mean she didn't recognize what was going on. She'd had this nightmare before.

The sense of darkness filling the room, grating against her skin…

The feeling of something being very, very wrong…

Horror.

A sense of throwing herself forward—was that a blast of darkness she was stopping? A bolt of lightning? She couldn't tell.

Riku's face was always the clearest. Grinning widely, but the grin wasn't his. His lips never curled like that. His eyes never glinted with that sort of malice.

Larxene was always there, too. Laughing? Screaming? Namine could never tell.

"Don't struggle. It'll only make things worse."

Larxene's words. Riku's voice.

Namine woke up screaming.

It wasn't a surprise to find herself on the floor in Kairi's room, but it wasn't exactly a comfort either. They'd fallen asleep here last night—all four of them. Her, Riku, Sora and Kairi. She and Riku had come to tell Sora and Kairi that they intended to move to Hollow Bastion. Somewhere during the conversation they got wrapped up in telling each other what they'd all been doing for the past six or so months. The conversation took so long that the obvious answer was just to spend the night. She and Riku didn't normally need nearly as much sleep as Sora and Kairi did, being Replicas, but they were just as exhausted that night, so sleep came easy.

Riku was the first to be woken by Namine's scream—that didn't come as a surprise either. Namine found herself jolting away from him when he reached to comfort her. The image of darkness pouring from his fingertips still burned in her mind. The sound of someone shrieking. The sound of his laughter. She could almost still see the horrible smile on his face, despite the fact his features were all pinched with concern.

"N… Namine?" Sora asked, sitting up groggily. "Everything okay?"

"Just- just a nightmare," Namine assure him. Assured all of them. Kairi was pushing herself up, too, blinking at the sunlight streaming through cracks of the window curtains. Riku still studied her, looking worried, but he didn't press the matter at least.

"Oh." Sora yawned, rubbing his mouth. "Should we get up, Kai? The sun looks like it's high enough…"

"Wouldn't hurt to get up now," Kairi replied. She rubbed the crust of sleep from her eyes. She studied Namine, too, her mouth turned down in a frown.

"Y'sure you're okay?" Riku asked. He didn't try and comfort her this time. Namine felt relief flood through her, though she felt terrible about it once it had. Riku wasn't dangerous. Well… not to her, anyway. She shouldn't be so… terrified…

"I'm fine," she lied.

How was she supposed to tell him—tell any of them—the visions she saw in her sleep? She couldn't think of a way, so she just wouldn't.

Kairi kept sending Namine worried and distrustful looks. Namine shifted uncomfortably, and was very grateful when Kairi didn't open her mouth to say anything. Kairi's attention turned to Sora instead. After an initial look of confusion, understanding passed through Sora's face. Namine still wasn't quite sure how they did that. How they communicated with their eyes alone. It must've come from knowing each other for so long.

"Hey Riku!" Sora said, jumping to his feet. "I think Kairi's dad is making pancakes—maybe we should go help."

Riku sent a nervous glance at Namine. She said nothing.

"Well, uh," Riku stammered.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Sora said. He grabbed Riku by the arm and dragged him to his feet. "The girls've gotta get dressed, anyway."

Riku stammered a few more feeble protests, but Sora still succeeded in dragging him out of the room and down the stairs.

"Alright, cut the act and tell me what's up," Kairi said, looking directly at Namine. Namine sunk down where she was sitting, her heart pounding in her chest.

"J- just a nightmare," she mumbled.

"Then tell me what's so horrible about it that's making you look at Riku like that."

Namine's throat seized. Had she really been looking at Riku funny? How funny? Had he noticed? Had she upset him? Scared him? She'd obviously worried him…

"Here." Kairi sat down over on Namine's bed. Namine wasn't exactly surprised by that, considering the bed was closer to where Kairi'd initially been sitting, plus was lower to the ground. It'd initially been just a mattress, dragged up here for when Sora spent the night. When Namine'd moved in, Kairi's father had insisted on getting a bedframe for it.

Namine went over to sit down next to Kairi. She rubbed the palm of her hand with her thumb, looking around the room. It was hardly a comfort to be back here, though she definitely preferred this room much more to the one she'd stayed in at Castle Oblivion. (Anything would be better than Castle Oblivion, actually.)

The room was small, really only meant for one person. Kairi's bed was against the opposite wall, and there was a dresser crammed next to it. The dresser only barely fit, but there was nowhere else to put it. The wall to the left was near completely occupied with the window, and the wall on the right had the door. As it was, you couldn't stand at the dresser without risking having the door hit you from behind when it opened.

There was a dresser at the end of Namine's bed, too, though it was much smaller than Kairi's dresser. Not that Namine minded—Kairi had a lot more clothes than she did. (That was largely Namine'd only been living here six or so months, opposed to Kairi, who'd accumulated clothes over the past 14 years.) A single glance told her that her stash of sketchbooks was still safe, wedged between her bed and her dresser.

"C'mon, Namine," Kairi said, snaring Namine's attention again. "Sora's only gonna be able to distract Riku for so long. You gotta tell me what's up."

Namine shifted uncomfortably.

Kairi looked at her expectantly.

"Well?"

"I- I've been having nightmares," Namine mumbled.

"No duh."

Namine's shoulders hunched, and she stared down at her lap. "Well- they- they've been… been about Riku…"

"So that's why you don't want to tell him?" Kairi's voice softened as she said it, and she shifted closer to Namine. She didn't reach out to comfort Namine, and their skin hardly touched, but there was still something comforting about sitting next to Kairi. The solidarity. The familiarity.

"Less… I don't wanna tell him… and more… I don't know how to," Namine said.

Understanding crossed Kairi's features.

"Is he dead in them?" she whispered. "Hurt? Or… you're… Rewritten and—"

"NO!" Namine interrupted, horrified. She shuddered at the thought. She'd never even considered having nightmares about being Rewritten—though that had only happened days ago. She'd been trying not to think about it too much. And even then, these other nightmares… they'd been plaguing her for so long that the images played in her eyes almost every time she closed them.

"…then what?" Kairi asked, gently.

Namine swallowed. Her eyes darted to the doorway. She lowered her voice to the quietest whisper.

"He's- he's terrifying in them," she explained. "And I see them all the time I've… I've had this nightmare so many times. The same thing every time. He's…" She shook her head. This was hard to pull together—no. Hard to admit. "He's… He's bathed in darkness he's grinning like a maniac and- and he's attacking someone. Always. It- It looks like- like Larxene."

Namine struggled to say the words, despite knowing that the words meant nothing to Kairi. She didn't know Larxene. Didn't know all the things that Larxene had done to Riku. And saying that Riku was only attacking Larxene in her nightmares? That was putting it lightly. The details just made Namine's stomach too queasy to formulate into real words.

She didn't want to tell Kairi how much Riku wanted to make Larxene hurt.

How much this revenge meant to him.

"Do you think scaring Larxene is a bad idea?" he'd asked, ages ago. "I've got all this extra power. This extra darkness. I bet I could figure out a way to scare her with it."

He'd said scare.

He'd meant so much more.

But how was she supposed to tell that to Kairi? She didn't want to tell all that to Kairi, didn't want to find the words to explain the situation in its depth. That made it all seem too real. She wasn't ready for that yet. Wasn't ready to consider it happening. Just telling Kairi about the nightmares was hard enough.

"Well… they're just nightmares…" Kairi said slowly. The words made Namine's heart clench in her chest. If only. "I… I know they're terrifying, but—"

"I wish. I wish," Namine interrupted. "And- and maybe- maybe they are. But I've got… this feeling… like a dark cloud hanging over my head. Like a storm- a storm just about to break, I—" She sighed. "I don't know…"

Kairi studied her, as if trying to puzzle out the pieces of her thoughts, as if they were etched on her face. "…you don't think he actually…. would…?" she asked, haltingly.

Namine just shrugged, wearily. "I wouldn't put it… past him…"

Kairi looked at her firmly.

"Do you want to keep him from doing it?"

"Y-yes!"

The word caught in Namine's throat.

"Then you should talk to him."

"He's gonna write it off as nightmares!"

"Or maybe not." Kairi's gaze only got firmer. "Who knows? You should tell him."

Namine shifted where she was sitting.

"And tell him… what? That… I don't want him doing it?"

It sounded so simple. Few things had ever scared Namine more.

"Yes!" Kairi shouted.

Namine jumped.

"Kairi! Not so loud!" she scolded, quickly. Her eyes darted to the door again. If Riku heard….

"No one's gonna hear us," Kairi laughed.

"You'd be surprised how good Riku's hearing is."

Maybe being able to hear them from all the way downstairs was a bit of a stretch, but... better safe than sorry. Especially about this. Though maybe it'd be easier if Riku did overhear… Then he'd know without her having to tell him.

Kairi grimaced, but when she spoke it was much softer.

"Okay but you have to talk to him about this!"

Namine clutched her hands together, and stared at the floor in front of her. Talking to Riku about this was the last thing she wanted to. She'd tried to once, and he'd blown her off. Dismissed her worries as nothing.

"You don't understand how much this means to him…" she told Kairi. "How much revenge means to him… what she did to him…"

"No, I don't," Kairi admitted. Her tone didn't waver. "But I know revenge isn't the answer—it can't be."

Namine said nothing.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

She looked up at Kairi, surprised.

"No!" she protested. "N- No. He'll… he'll get all upset about the fact that I told you before I told him and that it's not me talking to him and—"

Kairi gaped at her. "So? That's not- that's… not even…" She shook her head, hard enough to whip her hair around a little. "Why would you even consider that? Why would you even…? Namine. It doesn't work like that. Who cares about his feeling so long as we get him to stop?"

I do, Namine said, silently. Out loud she said: "He may not take it as well from you."

"So?" Kairi repeated.

"I just…"

"Who will he take it from?"

Namine shrugged.

"Namine, please, you need to talk to him."

"Maybe it is just nightmares…"

"Namine!"

Namine clenched her hands into fists. Tried to look Kairi in the eyes.

"I mean- it's not like… I may be overreacting." She stumbled over her words, unfortunately, which made her argument so much less convincing. She swallowed the I don't know that formed on her lips after that. That would only put her in a worse position.

"You should still talk to him," Kairi said. She didn't even blink at Namine's protest.

"Even if it won't happen?"

"Better safe than sorry."

Namine chewed her tongue. She was probably overreacting. It wasn't going to happen—it couldn't happen. And even if it was going to… what would they do, really? They couldn't deter Riku. They couldn't.

Kairi got to her feet.

"I'll go talk to him."

"No, wait!" Namine jumped to her feet, too. "No!"

Kairi paused at the doorway. She sent a look back at Namine, hands on her hips, mouth tight. "Then what?"

Namine rubbed her fingers together. "I… I'll do it," she said. "I will. I just. I've gotta figure out how to… how to tell him. This isn't- this isn't exactly easy to… to put into words."

Maybe if she drew it, it'd make him believe it more. But the thought of putting this on paper made her want to puke. And even if she did, and even if he believed it would happen, would it dissuade him? Or would it only encourage him?

Kairi huffed. "Fine." She didn't look happy to say it, and she marched over to her dresser and opened a drawer furiously. "Fine! But come to me if you need any help. And if you- if you haven't told him in a week, and the nightmares haven't stopped, I'll… I'll tell him then!"

Namine swallowed.

"Okay."

She moved to her dresser to rummage out clothes to change into, too.

xxx

"What was that about?" Riku asked, the moment Namine's foot hit the bottom step. Her heart seized again. It felt like his gaze would bore right through her and dig the truth out.

"It's… nothing," she told him, trying not to stutter. "Just nightmares." She directed the last bit at Kairi's father—a kind man named Ren—who'd sent her a worried look. His face softened instantly. Riku's didn't.

Breakfast went well, for the most part. Riku kept sending her worried looks, and Namine kept ignoring them. Kairi gave her a dirty look once, but once Namine had mouthed 'now's not the time' at her she'd let the matter drop.

"We're all going shopping for clothes after this, aren't we?" Sora asked around a mouthful of pancakes. "I know we all need new ones."

"Riku's paying," Namine said, hardly hesitating. Maybe it'd distract him…

"Hey!" he protested. The dirty look he sent her was mostly teasing.

"It's not like you don't have the munny," she replied.

Riku grumbled, but didn't protest further.

"He doesn't have to pay," Kairi's father began.

"It's alright," Riku said, waving the matter away with his hand. "I've got more than enough to cover it."

"How much do you have?" Sora asked.

"Somewhere over a hundred and fifty thousand," Riku replied. Sora let out a low whistle.

Kairi got to her feet. "Well, let's go!"