A/N: Okay, yeah, this chapter doesn't really make sense at times, but it will eventually, I swear. Mostly, anyways.

Because both chapter 14 and 15 are very short, I am posting both at the same time. They have very little to do with each other, I just felt really bad about the idea of posting two different chapters a week apart with only 1500 words each, but I also didn't want to combine the chapters into one. On with the show!

Chapter 14: Thank…

11:59 P.M., September 11th

The needle of the compass spun madly, never stopping even for a moment. "Maybe its magic is limited to just the one world, it doesn't work outside of the world it came from." Sora shut the lid. "Would've made our jobs a lot easier." He pocketed the compass, and put it away with the rest of the trinkets he had collected over time. His mind went to Jack Sparrow. Well…he was afraid, right? And you can do some really crazy things when you're afraid…if Vanity had gotten him, Jones would've gotten him, and that there's a lot to be afraid of…but Captain Jack Sparrow afraid? That just doesn't fit…

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind. If he let himself obsess over that, he wouldn't be able to focus on the present day when he needed to.

"Do you guys remember what Vanity said?" Sora said suddenly. Donald stopped his ranting about Jack Sparrow, while Goofy snapped out of a daydream. "She said, it was something like 'These claws have the power to re-open the keyholes.' As though she were the only one who can re-open the keyholes. I mean, I assumed that was a power all of the Splices shared, but if she's the only one with that power…"

"If we could beat her for real," Goofy realized, "That'd make it so they couldn't re-open the keyholes anymore!"

"Yeah, and she isn't as strong as the others," Sora said. He corrected himself: "I mean, she's faster than Madness at the beginning of a fight, but she isn't very good at using her tonfa, and she isn't as strong as him, and didn't use any magic there. She even said that there were other Splices stronger than her." He crossed his arms over his chest. "While I doubt we've seen everything she can pull off, the next time we run into Vanity, we really need to kick it up a notch, so we can take her down for good."

Sitting alone in his quarters, Sora put the compass away, and pulled his jacket off. He kicked his shoes off, and leaned back against the headboard. Hm… A thought occurred to him. He reached beneath his bunk blindly, until he could feel something smooth and solid. As he pulled out the 16th birthday present from King Mickey, the wrapping paper crackled. He pulled apart the string knot, and tore the brown paper away. A folded note fell out as he did so.

"A book?" Sora said quietly to himself. The cover was plain brown with no decorations, the binding was unmarked. He turned the front cover carefully. The book was blank. He picked up the note, and started to read.

"Sora," the letter read, "At a time when keybearers were a far less rare sight, and many travelled the worlds, it was common to keep a journal of one's travels for future reference and to better educate others. I would recommend that you do the same; you might find it helpful in organizing your thoughts. Best wishes—" Then the King's insignia.

Sora opened the journal to the first page, and stared at the blanks lines for a moment. He sighed, and closed the journal again. He set it back down, and closed his eyes. No, not right now. Too much has happened, I can't focus. I'm just not in the mood.

Sora stood very still for a long time, lacking both will and reason to move.

He knew he was dreaming, oddly enough. He wasn't sure how he had become aware of it, but he knew for a fact that he was asleep, even though much of his surroundings felt very real. The sand was hot under his bare feet. The wind rushed across his face. The tide rushed up, and licked at his toes.

"So…ra…"

"The door…has opened."

Sora closed his eyes. When he opened them, he wasn't there anymore.

"So much to do, so little time…"

"This is my dream," Sora said calmly. The man in the black coat vanished, but everything behind him remained.

A castle, at the end of the road, right on the edge of the darkness. The dreamscape lurched. Move your legs, Sora told himself. Move. You have to MOVE!

He pushed the front door open wide, and ran inside the castle he didn't know but couldn't help but feel he had been to before.

"To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose."

The front door slammed shut of its own accord.

"Ah, yes, think about it all, consider every single fact you know and even ones you aren't sure of."

A man appeared , leaning against the wall. His hair was sheer white, his skin was pale, and his eyes were pale blue. A black coat was slung over his shoulders like a cape.

"Uh-huh! Consider every fact, every single grand moment beside your friends and allies," he said. "But! Think on this: grand moments turn to hours; empty hours to days; abominable days to years; lonely years to an eternity! Oh, an everlasting eternity, all on your lonesome! And you can't just close your eyes and plug your ears and wait for it to end, because it won't ever end! It'll just chase you down and hunt you down until it finds you and punishes you for leaving it behind!"

"…Huh?"

"Are you stupid? Do you not understand basic English, you rotten piece of bread in the back of the cupboard that never gets eaten and never gets thrown away?"

"What? I don't understand."

"Understand? Stand, you will stand! Stand against the darkness, stand against the light and twilight and nothingness! Stand up, and fight, boy, or are you afraid?"

"You're not making any sense!"

The white-haired man threw his arms up in the air. "Of course I'm not making any sense!" he said theatrically. "This is a dream, after all!" He waved to Sora coyly. "So long, and thanks for all the fish!" With a loud Pop!, he vanished into a cloud of smoke.

It was a good thing that dreams worked on a different timeline than the real world, because Sora sat there for a very long time trying to work out what had just happened.

Sometime later—or more likely, a few seconds later—Sora started blankly looking around the entry hall he had come into. He took a step forward, and met resistance. He moved his arm around, and met the same invisible force. It was only then that he realized that he couldn't breathe. He couldn't scream.

Somebody…anybody, please…

Someone whispered in his ear: "Wow, you're a grade-A idiot, aren't you? Worse than even that guy." There was pressure on his wrist, and he was pulled through the water. As the pressure fell away, light streamed in between his eyelids.

That Person was nowhere in sight. Sora felt completely dry, but that didn't matter. "Hey! He~ey! Who are you?"

"Heh. You'll find out soon enough." Behind his back; Sora spun around, but nobody was there.

"Wait! Who's 'that guy' you were talking about?"

That Person sighed. "Fine, I'll give you a hint. His name starts with a 'V'."

Sora winced in pain. He put a hand to his temple. "Starts with an 'S'." "Can't you give me something more than that?"

Nothing. That Person was gone.

Slowly, Sora stood up straight, but words still rattled about his mind. The room here was similar to the entry hall, but instead of several massive doors, there was only one small door. A chair was in the center of the room.

Skritch-skritch-scratch, came the sound of gentle pencil strokes.

Blonde hair near white, and an old dress too small for her. She blended into the background. Were it not for her bright blue eyes, one would swear she were a ghost.

She brushed her hand lightly across the page, and looked up. She smiled wanly.

"You're—" Sora started, but she put a finger over her lips. She shook her head.

"Goodbye."

"No, not goodbye!"

A/N: Next time, we cut away from Sora for a bit to look elsewhere in the universe. A small world filled with light; a prison, surrounded by water. Until then, sayonara!