Hullo all. Wow it has been a long time since I've posted or updated anything. Sorry about that. Senior year of uni and the hospitalization of a chronically ill sibling can screw up your life for sure.
Note: It has been a while since I've played the Kingdom Heart series so I apologize for any mistakes.
Ever since you were little, you would sleepwalk. Never straying towards dangerous places but always your familiar haunts outside your house, except for your island because there is no way you could do that. Or rather, you couldn't explain it without sounding crazy. It's bad enough having to explain how you unlock doors in your sleep. Then again, no one really listens to an eight-year-old, do they?
As you get a little bit older, you find yourself sleeping a little bit more. That's what it feels like, at least. There are times when you know you've woken up and gone back to sleep, only to wake up on the island. Then Kairi would often ask if you'd found it yet, leaving you confused but you don't show it. Once she's gone, sometimes you'd find yourself up in trees or swimming.
Lately, you've taken to naps on your little island beach and you dream. You dream that you're talking to Kairi but for some reason she isn't herself. She's wearing blue and has a keyblade, short pale blue hair framing her face. That image flashes over Kairi's and when you see Kairi again in your dream, you want to call her Aqua but you just don't know why.
("Why are you looking at me like that, Sora?" "…Like what?" "Ugh, never mind.")
Deep inside you, that name, Aqua, stirs something, an emotion, that isn't yours, somehow.
When the dream goes away, you're talking to Kairi and you know it happened again, like when you were little. You know she wouldn't understand if you told her what was going on. After all, she's been talking to you for over an hour while you've been asleep, yet you've been responding. And it isn't enough that you always know that it's happening, but you can't even control yourself.
("Can you repeat that, Kairi?" "Really, Sora?" "Sorry, I'm just a bit tired." "You're always tired, Sora." Sigh. "Fine. What we need for the raft is…")
When it happens, you are completely aware but you are out of control. You think someone might be possessing you, but then you figure it might be a little easier to fight if that were the case. Plus, wouldn't the possessor have issues in a smaller body than his or her own? Not to mention, why would someone want to possess you of all people?
Within your heart you know the answers but you just haven't found them.
The next time you see Riku is strange. You know you are fully awake because you never went to sleep since last night. You hadn't napped at all either. So you aren't having another sleep-living experience thing. You look, really look, at your friend and something about him scares you. Something inside you whispers "darkness" but you pretend it's your imagination because what else could it be. However, you know you're not fooling yourself when you nearly call him Terra.
("Hey Riku. Ever get a feeling of… déjà vu?" "What are you talking about, Sora?" "Nah, don't worry about it.")
You lay in bed, mind whirling and whizzing and spinning all over the place. Memories of blue, blue eyes and brown hair and blue hair dance just on the edge of you consciousness so that you catch a glimpse before they slip away. You see meteor showers and ponds and stone temple-like buildings that you know you've never seen before. Yet they feel so real to you.
It hurts you because those partially, hazy memories sometimes feel much more real than your two best friends. Lately, though, when you're awake, Riku's hair flashes brown and he's wearing black for half a second before he's himself again. The same happens to Kairi, like it did in your dream. You wonder if it's them or you, and why.
("Dude, what is up with you? You keep twitching. Even Kairi noticed." "Gah. I'm fine Riku. Haven't been sleeping too good is all." "Tch. Sure.")
Then, you get the keyblade and suddenly, it's like you're sleepwalking again. Except, you never went to sleep that night. It was like you were shoved out of the way and someone took over. You saw yourself fight, through your own eyes, and felt horrified on some level. You didn't even like play fighting with sticks and wooden swords, no matter what. So you knew that you weren't in control when you watched your blade destroy those creatures.
("C'mon Sora! You can do it!" "Yeah, what Donald said.")
For two years, you watched yourself fight, watched yourself revel in it to a certain degree. Power began to fill you and you realized that you could fight with magic while the other part of you could use the blade. You had no problem with that. You never liked fighting in the first place. But it still bothered you. As your journey continued, sometimes it felt like there was another person inside you, and it scared you.
Your journey has been over for months and suddenly the truth is revealed when a blue-haired woman, ice in her eyes as she glares at you and the blade in your hands. You feel like you want to hug her and tell her that you're alright, that her little brother-figure and friend Ven is alright. But then you realize you don't know Ven and you recognize her from you partial dreams. There is a pain in your head you pass out, but you remember saying "I'm sorry" before you do.
("You look familiar. Do I know you?" "…I'm sorry.")
Her face is worried when you wake up and you have no idea why she apologizes. You figure you must have talked in your sleep again. Out of politeness you ask her name and it takes a lot of effort to not look fearful. At the name "Aqua," your sword-wielding-self leapt for joy in recognition and you felt another's consciousness nestled firmly in your mind.
When she shows you pictures of her two brothers, your heart leaps into your throat. You see the brown-haired version of Riku with his arm around Aqua. That isn't what caused your heart to leap, because you expected to see that, for some reason. What bothered you was the boy. For a moment, you wondered if it was possible that you were edited into the picture because it was like looking into the mirror, except his eyes were bright and his hair was tamer. She doesn't tell you their names but, somehow, you know. Terra and Ventus, or Ven.
("What's your name, kid? I'm Aqua." "I… My friends call me Sora." But I dream that I am Ventus.)