Disclaimer: I do not own any characters except my own; all rights belong to Square Enix and Disney. This story is purely for the enjoyment of others whom are also fans of Kingdom Hearts.

*Side Note: If you guys could I'd really appreciate a review or rating, it helps me know where to improve or if you liked the story. Thanks. So here we go again, chapter 3!

Chapter 3: A Nightmare Within

"Xigbar!" Sora stepped forward a bit, yelling out at the man. His appearance was quite odd, he had an eye patch over his right eye and a large gash just underneath his left. From where we stood his eye color was of a golden color. His hair was silver and black, at the end a visible type of ponytail. Again, this seemed personal wit Sora, the change of tone in his voice very noticeable.

"Alright, you got me, haha!" He smirked letting his arms drop to his sides. Sora already had his Keyblade out and he was in position to fight. I held my Keyblade in fighting stance as well, this guy was in my dream, and supposedly he was the cause for my unending sleep. Xigbar only laughed again, his arms extending out forward, index fingers pointing at us. "Heh seems this kid has the angry look down too!

I furrowed my brow, squinting at him with a cold and harsh glare. "What are you doing here? My friends and I defeated you and the rest of the remaining Organization XIII members a long time ago!" Sora continued to question him without any hesitation. Something must have been real funny because this guy couldn't stop giving a sarcastic laugh every time we said or asked something.

"Yes Sora you're right, always coming along and screwing up our plans. Now then to answer your question, oh what was it that old coot was rambling on about? Oh yeah. You can cast away our bodily forms, but that doesn't mean we can't exist in your memories, or in this case your sleep!"

Sora's blue orbs widened, his posture standing up a bit more straight now. He shook his head, this "angry look" the man mentioned before showed on his face again, my eyes catching sight of his hand gripping tighter around his weapon. "That doesn't explain why you're in Xlatem's dream world! Two and two don't add up."

"And that's where you're wrong kiddo. As of now Xlatem's heart is asleep, not to mention pretty vulnerable right now. Just wish this damn light was so strong in his heart, can't see why you all favor it so much." Xigbar shrugged at the end of his little speech, his expression was full of disgust. I could feel the blood rushing to my head, a strong feeling of anger, the other half of me was ashamed at how weak I really could be, so weak that someone like Xigbar could just walk on into my heart. But it made me wonder at that moment… If my heart is asleep and Xigbar could waltz on in, then what about others hearts, Sora did mention something about Organization XIII?

I could tell Sora had enough, he was ready to fight. Xigbar caught the message, his arms protracted to his sides, enveloped in darkness he pulled out from each side a weird looking gun, looking like it had purple like feather knives. He gave them a quick spin, one end meeting another in a sudden motion, seeming like they were two separate pieces that connected into one sniper type rifle.

"Heh, let's how well of a key slinger you've become Roxas!" He bellowed out, dashing from where he stood. Sora and I broke apart, watching him whiz right past us. He vanished quickly, his form reappearing upside-down midair a few feet from me. I hopped backwards, focusing on his game. He fired out what looked like the knife things attached to gun. I raised my Keyblade to block his attack, sending back the little fired shots at him. Again he vanished, reemerging in one place over and over until I finally got close enough, meanwhile Sora had leaped into the air, preforming a combo that knocked him back, making him flinch.

I hurled a strike raid at him, my Keyblade spinning in a rapid attack, knocking Xigbar back from the front and then retrieving my blade when it came back. I smirked a little, it felt nice to put this jerk in his place, though I wasn't as strong as Sora, at least my attacks landed and did some form of damage to him.

Sora was busy knocking him around, hitting him with full force with every slash. Sora jumped back, standing at my side now, seeing Xigbar calm down from his teleporting frenzy. He was breathing heavy, had we winded him? It seemed so apparently. "Huff… So that's how strong… Whew… You are huh? Least I got an idea of what to handle come the future. Ha, well I'm off, you two be good boys."

A single hand from Xigbar pointed behind him, a dark corridor opening up a dark corridor. I had a sudden impulse to run at him, but Sora grabbed my shoulder, holding me back. He gave a salute sign with his fingers pressed to his forehead, fading into the nothingness. I couldn't help but feel a tad disheartened by the scene that unfolded before us. I mean we fought him and yet he got away. My attention was torn away from the thought when something a feet away started appearing.

Dark mists of darkness formed from out of nowhere, a large monster developing once it cleared away. It wore a mask but it only covered half of its face. In a way it reminded me of one of those masks you see in an opera play. Its arms extended outward; in both hands it held an enormous hammer. I could feel the darkness radiating from this creature. It didn't look like a heartless.

"It's a nightmare." Sora said calmly, though it wasn't as much of a calm tone as it was him staring in astonishment to the large being.

"Well then come on Sora, let's take it down!" I said enthusiastically as I ran towards the nightmare. It turned towards me, one of its arms swinging a hammer in the air horizontally. I leaned my body backward, skidding down on my knees, this giving me an opening since it would take the nightmare a few seconds to recover from such a powerful swing. I began to slash about with my Keyblade, landing hit after hit on its legs. Sora followed suit and charged towards it, jumping up on the hammer he oh-so-foolishly swung too quickly, leaping off that, and finally coming down on its head with a mighty smack!

We seemed to stagger it, watching it step backwards trying so hard to regain composure. Sora leaped down after his hit was finished, coming over to my side. Both of us turned our heads to each other, a serious determined look in our eyes. Our free hands that weren't occupied with Keyblades came together like a high-five, interlocking our palms. Sora hoisted me in the air, throwing me forward towards the nightmare. I was headed head first until I used my lower body's leverage to swing it forward, my two feet connecting directly into its chest, sending it toppling over onto the ground.

I propelled my body backwards right after, catching my footing on the ground again shortly. I turned to Sora who was already dashing forward, his Keyblade over his shoulder as he ran. He looked back at me, smiling happily with a goofy grin on his face before hurdling into the air and down into our monstrous foe.

I let my Keyblade vanish, watching the tiny particles twirl once before it disappeared. I walked nonchalantly towards Sora, the nightmare gone. He stood there, pulling his Keyblade out of the ground; my guess was the impact of the attack caused his Keyblade to pierce the ground slightly, almost like hurling a knife into a wall and watching it stick out. I admired his Keyblade, it looked completely different from any of the ones I've seen. It had a bigger hand guard than mine, the long silver metallic pole shape, and at the top the key part.

"Nice one back there Xlatem, you're not bad at this."

"Hey thanks." I said modestly, chuckling a bit. "So what do we do now, we defeated the nightmare, so that means we have an out of my heart right?"

He simply nodded, is right arm lifting his Keyblade about halfway in the air, pointing it at the skyscraper. "Xlatem, summon your Keyblade and point it like so, this will be how you seal the Keyhole, preventing this world in your heart to be entered."

I could feel a gentle breeze pass by us, funny since from the beginning everything was calm, time didn't change, there wasn't any real airflow, nothing. I extended my hand out just like Sora had, letting my Keyblade take form in my grip once more. I looked at it for a moment, my eyes shutting as I shook my head. I jerked my head up, my vision restored when I opened my eyes. I jumped back, giving my Keyblade a nice spin before pointing it in the direction instructed to me. From both of us a beam of white shot towards the sky from both of our blades, intercepting with a large Keyhole that appeared in doing so. I could hear a locking mechanism once the beams faded.

"Let's go Xlatem; I'll get us outta here." He said heroically, both of our forms beginning to rise up to the sky. Everything was getting brighter… I was going to wake… As we both faded into the light I thought I heard something… What was it I heard...?

"This was merely a test to see if I was right… Hearts that sleep… Hearts proving to be weak… You're memories are weaker…."

I shifted around, opening my eyes finally. The sudden shock I was back caused me to sit upright in the bed. "Sora!" I shouted out. My eyes wandered over to the boy, sitting on the floor, giving me again that goofy grin. The palm of my hand came to my forehead as Sora, Kairi, and I all laughed together.

"I'm glad you're safe Xlatem that was close back there. The redhead spoke out in that charming voice of hers. She gave a small rub to my shoulder, uncrossing her legs and getting off the bed. Sora yawned slightly, getting up on his feet as well. "Hey Kairi, guess you and Riku can't make fun of me anymore for falling asleep."

"No we still can do that, but now we can include Xlatem as well, hehe." She giggled, continuing to walk out of the wooden type house. I witnessed Sora chase after her, the two seemed like a great pair, if that's what they were. I fell back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling for a moment, my hand coming to lie on my heart. I made a fist, as if to show I was holding onto it. "Rien… I'll find you…."

I heard the door creak open, thinking it was Sora or Kairi coming to see if I was okay. I pulled myself up to see another. He had long white/silver hair, he was tall, and his eyes were of a turquoise color. His crooked a smile to the left; his hands were tucked away into his blue jeans. "So I take it you're Xlatem huh?"

"Yeah, nice to meet you, um…."

"Riku." He said, the smile on his face still remaining.

I swung my legs over the bed, walking over to him. We walked outside the cabin, walking along the shore. I began to tell him what had happened to me, how I got here and how my heart was asleep. For some reason I felt more comfortable around him, we were similar in a way, I just felt it. It was easy to talk to him about Rien even. When I began to tell him this he stopped walking. I looked back, turning around. He had his eyes closed, giving a lazy sigh.

"So you're friend used the power of darkness. Sounds like what happened with me. You see this island Xlatem? Me, Sora, and Kairi dreamed of leaving this place, this world was just so small… It took me a while to realize this world is just a smaller part of something much bigger. I sought out on the wrong path, I gave into darkness, and even at my worst Sora managed to save me, bring me back… He's got a good heart like that. And when Sora fell asleep I helped him, you see… Sometimes a heart can be weak and you might even lose because of it… But, friendship, that will never break, it can be the strongest thing you have at times. You'll find your friend Xlatem… I promise."

I swallowed hard, everything he said sounded right. I'm not one to get emotional, but the way he said it, how he believed in what he said… I could feel the tears pushing against the walls behind my eyes, a very faint line of salty liquid running quickly down my cheek. I felt a hand rest against my shoulder, looking up I stared at him. He nodded towards me, smiling a bit more than he did when I met him. I could tell he would be a great friend just as Sora and Kairi would.

We both walked casually on the beach, looking out to the docks. We went under a bridge that seemed to connect a large rocky platform, on top there was a weird looking tree that had a yellow fruit attached to it. I'd have to ask one of them about it later but for now we stopped in our tracks again, beholding a new sight.

"Riku! Xlatem! Get over here, we got trouble! There's Heartless all over the island!" Cried out a voice, no mistaking it was Kairi's! Both Riku and I sprinted over to see Sora and Kairi both fighting off the same type of Heartless I was fighting back on my world. I clenched a fist, calling my Keyblade to attention. These things played a part in destroying my home…! "Hrrgh!" I yelled, slashing one of them. "Xlatem, wait!" Riku called out to me. I could hear him, but I really couldn't "hear" him because of my anger towards these things.