Dark abyss…. I feel it consume me. Where am I?

Pounding fills my ears. Surrounding me within its sound. Steady beats that wrap themselves around me. What are they? They sound so familiar…. Remembrance teases at my mind, waiting for me to grasp it. Heart… …heartbeat...? Is that a beating heart? Who's is it?

Yours says a voice inside my head. Mine.

This darkness is where your heart thrives. This darkness is you.

This darkness…. This darkness is me? I'm in my heart? This is what it looks like, locked in darkness? How…?

I can barely remember anything. Even my own name, I can feel it slipping from me grasp.

Who am I?

Someone…he's standing before me. I can scarcely recognize his face and murmur his name as it emerges from my memories.

"… …Sora…."

I hear him speak but can't decipher the words, lost in the black emptiness around us. Sora... I can vaguely remember…all those memories. But the ones from the darkness, those are stronger. How he had left me for his new friends. How he had replaced me….

Sora didn't trust me. He hadn't trusted me enough to follow me into the darkness.

He had abandoned you.

He had betrayed you.

Sora steps forwards, reaching out a hand to grab my arm. But I step back, away from his touch. Why? Why should I follow? Why should I trust him when he left me?

An emotion crosses Sora's face, a combination between confusion and pity.

Pity.

Sora steps forwards only for me to take another step back. Now the confusion is filling me, too. What am I doing? Why was I running?

What am I doing…?

But although I question myself I don't stop. I keep walking back, away from those blue eyes that pierce the darkness, away from his outstretched hand, away from the light and into the darkness.

I feel myself falling. Falling through the emptiness. Falling through those clear blue eyes.

The ground is coming up fast, and there is nothing to slow my fall. Nothing to save me now.

But is that a curse, or a blessing?

But when I hit the ground I don't stop. I still feel the wind lashing at my face as I continue to fall. Bright light strikes my eyelids, harsh compared to the consuming darkness. I open my eyes.

I am falling through clear blue, a sky. Bright sunshine, clear are. Beneath me is purer blue…an ocean. My ocean. Destiny Islands….

I close my eyes and feel the wind hissing at my ears. Stinging my face. The smell of this air…. The warmth of this sun…. I had never loved it more. My islands….

There's a crash as I break through the waves, water rushing around me. Filling my mouth, my nose, current pulling at my clothes and hair.

I stand, water streaming down my face and hair as I rise above the ocean waves. I look up, seeing the sparkling sand, the green trees, the golden sun. All of this…. I remember when I had wanted to leave all this. When I had wanted nothing more than to be free of these beaches. But now….

I walk through the shallow water, towards the shore. Maybe I can see them again…. All my friends, everything I used to take for granted when I had lived here before.

Is this real, or is this just a memory?

It doesn't matter. I'm home.

My foot hits the dry sand, and I feel a chill run through me. A familiar chill. I look down and see darkness spreading from my step, consuming the beach around it. I step back, off of the beach and back into the surf, but not fast enough.

Already the darkness is eating the clear beach, turning it black and dead. I watch helplessly, my heart growing heavier and heavier as the beach, the islands, they all disappear before my eyes, becoming nothing but darkness. The trees crumple and bend, the shacks we had worked so hard to build creak, ready to collapse. The sun is eaten away by darkness as the sky turns a deep gray, the clear blue long gone.

I fall to my knees, waves lapping at my pants. Gone. Consumed by darkness, leaving me in what had held me for so long. Gone.

I fall forwards, catching myself with my hands. I stare at them, fingers dug into the wet sand. Black sand. Black water. I squeeze my eyes shut to block out the sight, but even then all I see is black.

Everywhere you turn is darkness. Its in your mind, in your heart. You can't escape it. You can't defeat it. Then how do you overcome it?

How do you survive?

You don't.

Footsteps. I open my eyes and see a pair of black shoes before me. Looking up, I see a shadow, a silhouette, standing out even in this darkness. It watches me, silent. Anger builds up inside of me. Fueled by the darkness in my heart. I don't even know why I'm so angry, but there's nothing I want more than to drive a blade through this shadow's heart.

I lunge, leaping to my feet with a roar, Road to Dawn in my hands. The shadow brings up a blade, blocking my blow and leaping around me. But before he can strike I lash out again, anger powering my attacks. Again and again I strike, not giving my opponent a chance to counterattack. He stumbles, struggling to block my flying blade.

Fury. That's all I feel. I had to watch my home be destroyed by darkness for a second time, I had to watch it be destroyed by me. There's nothing I want more than to cut something down. There's nothing I want more than to destroy it all. Burn it all.

Just make the memory go away.

Finally my blade finds flesh. I feel my sword plunge into the silhouette's chest and the being falters, stumbling back. Everything is still for a long moment, by breath coming quick.

But it stops short as the shadows retreat from my opponents face.

Sora stumbles, stares at the black sky with wide, vacant eyes. Then I feel him slip, falling towards the dark ground.

A cry escapes my lips and I leap forwards, catching him before he falls. But as my fingers graze his skin he vanishes, disappearing into the darkness. I stumble, fall to my knees, eyes disbelieving and stricken. No….

You're the one who destroyed these islands. You're the one who's to blame for everything that happened here.

No….

Sora will die because of you. You said so yourself. Darkness is everywhere. There is no way to overcome it, no way to survive against it.

I feel the islands crumble around me, the ground cracking and falling at my feet, the trees crashing to the sand and crumpling like dust.

He will die.

I look up into the black sky, arms hanging helplessly at my sides. All this…. We had tried to work all this out. We had tried to ignore it. But its impossible. Its impossible to forget. Darkness is impossible to defeat.

We'll die.

I don't flinch as I feel the ground crumple beneath me.

Yuri started, jerking upright. He felt his heart skip a beat as darkness met his gaze. It was just like the dream…. Everywhere he turned, darkness met his stare.

It took him a few moments to fully wake up and realize that it was night, and he had only been dreaming. He took a few deep breaths, calming himself down. After he had relaxed a bit he sighed, thinking about the dream.

That dream…. Something about it made him feel like it wasn't his own. Like it was somebody else's. His gaze automatically wandered towards the unconscious form beside him.

Riku?

Cloud had said that when he had been in his coma provoked by the Mako he had had dreams, haunting dreams that had made him want to die, want to let himself fade away.

Was this one of them? How was he seeing Riku's dreams?

It must be because he was his Nobody. They were connected, and these dreams were strong enough to effect him. But there was another question that growing in his mind.

If I can see his dreams…. Then could I speak to him in them, too? Could I convince him to wake up in his dreams?

"Is he awake yet?"

Yuri looked up, seeing Tifa standing before him. She had a kind smile on her face. Forcing out hope to encourage him.

"Not yet," he said. "How long did it take Cloud to recover?"

Tifa bit her lip. "A while," she said, not at all optimistically. She knelt beside Riku, watching him. "He seems…different that Cloud was. Cloud was trying to talk to us, at least I think he was. He was at least making sounds. Your friend stopped moving a long time ago…. He's alive, but…."

Yuri stood as she trailed off. "Are the others back yet?" It was awkward talking about this. "Vincent, Cloud and Yuffie?" They had explained as much as they could before leaving, about where they where and what was going on. The rest Tifa and Red XIII had patiently explained.

Tifa immediately dropped the old subject as well. "Not yet. They're still at Mideel, stocking up. They should be back soon, though, now that the barrier around the crater is gone."

Yuri nodded, remembering how the giant ray had cut through the air above them, even through the Diamond WEAPON. Even through the barrier around crater.

When the ray had been shot, Riku had screamed as if it was cutting through him instead of WEAPON. All of that energy, it was making the Mako that consumed him react. It had startled Yuri more than anyone else. If Mako had effected him, that could have been him, too, writhing on the ground….

He shook the thoughts from his head. "Cloud…," he murmured. "I've only seen him around a few times, but even then he's so obsessed with Sephiroth. What did Sephiroth do to him?"

Tifa looked away, thinking. "I think…he's trying to prove something to himself. Redeem himself. Settle the score. There are thousands of things it could be. The others fight him because they want to save the planet."

"And you?"

Tifa smiled to herself, turning her face away. "…I want to fight with Cloud."

Warnings immediately went off in Yuri's head. Continue on this conversation and it'll get sappy. He'd seen what happened when they thought everyone was away. He shook his head, casting the thought from his mind.

Fortunately he was saved as Vincent, Yuffie and Cloud returned. Cloud silently dropped a bag of materia at Tifa's feet. Tifa went through them, Vincent grabbing Yuffie's arm and pulling her away from the bag. Yuri frowned in confusion, wondering why they were keeping Yuffie away from the materia, but didn't ask. Cloud dropped a pile of weapons on the ground, looking through them.

"We have enough weapons for everyone," he said handing them out. He glanced over at Yuri. "I didn't buy anything for you. You aren't coming, am I right?"

Yuri blinked. He hadn't thought about that much. He had just realized a while ago that they were going to head straight to Sephiroth to save their planet. He wasn't skilled with fighting, not enough to be much of a use.

Before he can answer, Vincent speaks. "Cloud, before we go…," he murmurs. "I want to visit her again."

Yuri stared at him blankly, sure no one had any idea what he was talking about. But Cloud immidiately nodded, brushing dirt off his gloves casually.

"Sure," he answered. "Hopefully the sea will calm everyone's nerves. But after that, we're going."