Italics indicate flashbacks
~o~o~
Chapter 3
As we headed to the second district Nightmares kept on attacking us and I made two notices. One was that the symbol for the Nightmares were the same as the symbol on my necklace. The other one was that the never attacked Joshua.
Once we were in the second district Riku instantly started asking Joshua questions and I thought that it was rightly so.
"Joshua, why don't they ever attack you?" Riku asked curious.
"'They' being Dream Eaters? They won't go after you unless you're a dreamer. Which is funny, because I've got plenty of dreams." Joshua explained to us sounding a little sad.
"But they're definitely attacking us... So...you think we're dreamers?" Riku asked Joshua.
"That'd be nice if it were true." I muttered under my breath.
"Every human being is a dreamer. I had a friend once who said he never dreamed of anything, but it turned out that his were the most powerful dreams of all. You, Riku, sort of remind me of him. Why don't we give both of your dreams shape? In this world, they take form as Dream Eaters, which can become great allies." Joshua said to us.
After Joshua said that I instantly remembered what Master Yen Sid said to us about the Dream Eaters that live here.
"If we are to ever strike down Xehanort, we need the individuals King Mickey spoke of in his letter. We must lead them out of sorrow and slumber, and back to our world. To do so, seven Sleeping Keyholes must be found and unlocked, and a great power retrieved. As you know, every world is walled off from the next, preventing travel between them. In the past, you could bridge these gaps because the walls were broken, or because you could open special Lanes with your Keyblades.
"But your new goals, the 'Sleeping Keyholes,' are harder to reach. You'll recall, in your first journey, that you brought many worlds back from the darkness-but some never returned completely. They still sleep, cut off from all outside channels. Not even the Heartless can enter." Master Yen Sid said to us.
He raised up his hand and it slowly began to glow as he began to explain something else to us.
"But these Sleeping Worlds are said to have their own manner of darkness." As he said this a holographic projection showed of a little animal type thing that looked like pure evil. "They are called 'Dream Eaters,' and there are two kinds-'Nightmares,' which devour happy dreams-and benevolent 'Spirits,' which consume the Nightmares."
As Master Yen Sid explained another image appeared on his desk of the same kind of creature only with lighter colors.
"The Dream Eaters will guide you, just as the Heartless once guided you, to the Keyhole you seek at the heart of each world." Master Yen Sid said this with seriousness in his voice.
Joshua explained to us how to create some of our very own Spirits and we managed to create two Spirits one for the each of us. A little bat was for Riku and a little prickly tiger thing for me.
"I gotchu now, Joshua!" Shouted someone off to the side.
A man came running over to a ledge and stomped one of his feet onto it. He was wearing punk style clothing and in all honesty I was really finding this guy to be funny.
"This guys a riot." I said chuckling.
"Not helping Suzu." Riku said to me in a hard tone.
"Once I take you down, yo, me and Rhyme is goin' back where we belong!" This guy shouted at Joshua.
"Beat. How many times do we have to go over this? You've been tricked-by that rouge in the black coat." Joshua said to this Beat guy calmly.
"What? Black coats?" Riku asked confused.
"How the hell are they still alive? I thought we got rid of them all." I whispered to Riku confused.
However, looked just as confused as I was.
"I'm telling you you've made a friend of our enemy." Joshua said ignoring us.
"Just can it, aight? Your inverse psychiatry ain't gonna work!" Beat shouted at him.
"Don't you mean reverse psychology?" I asked him confused.
"Can it! Le's go, Dream Eaters!" Beat shouted loudly.
A giant panda bear type Dream Eater came out then and headed towards us.
"What?"Both me and Riku asked confused.
Joshua had some how managed to put us on the firing range. Just great this guy sits on the sidelines while we do the dirty work. I thought annoyed.
"Man, not cool!" Beat shouted angry.
"I agree with Beat. Shall we take this thing down Riku?" I asked summoning Heavens Light.
"Yeah, let's go." Riku agreed with me as he summoned forth The Road to Dawn.
We looked at the Spirit and several other Dream Eaters came out and we were able to finish them off by exchanging blows on the different Dream Eaters. Eventually all were defeated.
Beat sat down hard on the ledge looking annoyed.
"You know what? Forget it. This is stale, yo." Beat said sounding exhausted.
"Playing the tough guy 24/7? I'd be worn out too." Joshua said sounding fickle.
"I just...wanna protect the one person who matters." Beat said sounding genuinely concerned.
"I know the feeling." Riku said solemnly.
"Same here, but unfortunately I didn't succeed in it." I muttered under my breathe.
Just then I got hit with unbelievable sleepiness. I looked over at Riku and he looked just as exhausted. My eyes closed but I rembered something else that Master Yen Sid said to us before the test began.
"Long ago, in the age of fairy tales, the World was filled with light-a gift, many believed, from an unseen power known as 'Kingdom Hearts.' You see, Kingdom Hearts was protected by its counterpart, the 'X-blade,' so that none could ever lay hands on its mysteries. But in time, the World was overrun by legions who wanted the light all for themselves, and the first shadows were cast upon the land. These warriors crafted 'Keyblades' in the image of the original X-blade, and waged a great war over Kingdom Hearts. We call this the 'Keyblade War.' But though the war extinguished all light from the World, the darkness could not reach the brightness inside every child's heart. With that light, the World was remade as we know it today, with countless smaller worlds shining like stars in the sky. As for the real X-blade, it did not survive the battle. The two elements that created it, one of darkness and one of light, shattered into twenty pieces-seven of light; thirteen of darkness. And as for the source of all light-the one true Kingdom Hearts-it was swallowed by the darkness, never to be seen again. As long as it remains there, even the brightest world will have its dark corners. After all, light begets darkness, and darkness is drawn to light. For this reason, some decided to use the Keyblae-a weapon designed to conquer the light-to defend the light instead. These were the first heroes of the Keyblade." Master Yen Sid said calmly.
Even though he said those words I felt anger rise in my chest towards both the X-blade and Kingdom Hearts.
