When the immense light vanished, Jack found himself hovering in an area that was completely black. He could feel that he was descending, but there appeared to be no bottom to this area. As he looked down, he noticed that he was wearing a different shirt. Instead of his blue hoodie, he was wearing a skin-tight blue sleeveless shirt. On the front of the shirt was a strange sigil that looked like a heart divided into three sections with two tusks arching downward from its sides.
Jack suddenly felt sand underneath his feet, and the descending feeling left his body. Jack looked down to his feet. What had appeared to be more bottomless darkness before was actually black sand like the type Pitch used.
"Jack!" a voice called from behind.
Jack turned around to see Jim wrapped in chains of black sand several feet away. Jack ran over to him.
"Jim!" he said as he reached Jim, "I'm gonna set you free."
Jack touched the chains and began to freeze them. Jim's face suddenly turned from relieved into horrified.
"Look out!" Jim shouted.
"Huh?" Jack asked as he turned around.
As he did, he was hit in the side of his face by a large crab claw, causing him to stumble a few feet back. When he began to turn back, he found himself suddenly forced down to the ground by a horrendous crab-spider creature with bright yellow eyes that glowed like fire. Jack figured, from Jim's description, that this must have been Scroop.
"Hands off!" Scroop hissed.
Jack struggled in fear of the creature until he remembered that he had become a Dream Eater. He should be able to consume this creature and revert into nothingness. He grabbed onto one of Scroop's legs. For a moment, the bright light surrounded Jack's hand and Scroop's leg, but it quickly vanished. The Nightmare burst out laughing.
"Sorry, boy!" he said, "But I'm too powerful of a Nightmare for that trick."
"This... is bad," Jack said.
Scroop thrust his claw forward towards Jack's head. Jack held out his arm and sent a flurry of frost directly towards Scroop. It hit the Nightmare square in the chest, knocking it back. Jack grabbed his staff and stood up. The Nightmare had also recovered and was sprinting towards him. Jack hurled another flurry of frost at Scroop. This time, it didn't knock the Nightmare backwards because the creature was trying to resist against the blast, however it was very visibly moving slower than before. Jack realized this and began to pelt the Nightmare with multiple smaller blasts of frost. Each time, the creature grew slower and slower as the sands composing it froze solid. Jack let loose a deep breath that he hadn't realized that was holding once he saw that Scroop was completely frozen. Jack walked over to Jim and finished using his ice to break the chains.
"You okay?" Jack asked as helped Jim to his feet.
"Yeah," Jim said, "I think so. So, is the nightmare over?"
"I think so," Jack replied.
"Don't count on that," the Nightmare hissed, "Remember, Jim, how you chased away your father."
The darkness around them suddenly morphed into an image of a man walking down a path towards a ship. Jack assumed that this was Jim's memory of his father leaving.
"It was all your fault," the Nightmare said, "You wanted too much attention from him instead of giving him his space. Your parents fought over you all the time. They would have stayed together if you hadn't been born. You were a mistake."
"Jim!" Jack shouted, "Don't listen to him. It's not your fault for what happened with your parents. You can't blame yourself for that!"
The Nightmare had dethawed itself and was now circling the two boys. Jim had his eyes clenched shut and was pulling on his hair just life he had been back on the hilltop.
"You might want to believe him," the Nightmare continued, "But, in your heart, you have to realize that he's wrong. After all, everyone you truly love always abandons you. Your father. Silver. It's only a matter of time before Cid leaves you too."
"Cid would never leave you!" Jack said, "Jim, this Nightmare is playing up on things that just aren't true. You can't believe it."
"This boy says it's not true, but you know the past," the Nightmare hissed, "Patterns continue. It's always going to be the same."
"You're right," Jim sighed.
"Jim! No!" Jack shouted, "You can't believe him! It's a Nightmare! It's trying to play on your vulnerabilities."
"But it's right," Jim said, his voice sinking into a depressed monotone, "Everyone that I love ends up leaving me."
"Jim, listen to me," Jack said, as he grabbed Jim's shoulder and forced Jim to face him, "I will never leave. I promise. I'm a Guardian, it's my job to protect people. I won't let you go. I promise you that, no matter what happens, I'll never leave you."
"Do you mean it?" Jim asked, a twinge of hope returning to his voice.
"Of course not," the Nightmare hissed, "No one wants to stay with you. He's no different."
"Why don't you let me speak for myself, huh?" Jack asked the Nightmare angrily before turning back to Jim, "I mean it. I'll stand by your side no matter what. I promise you that. Guardian's honor."
"He's lying to you," the Nightmare said.
"No, you're the one that's been lying," Jack said, "You're just a Nightmare, one of Pitch's little stooges. You feed off fear, and Jim's not going to listen to you anymore!"
"Right!" Jim said.
Jack could distinctly hear the Nightmare growling.
"Then I'll just have to take you out of the picture!" the Nightmare roared.
The Scroop-like creature began to rush towards Jack with murderous intent in its eyes. Jack leaped into the air with surprising agility and landed on the Nightmare's back. As he made physical contact with the creature, his hands began to glow and so did the Nightmare. The Nightmare suddenly began to cry out in pain as if it were being burned by the light.
"Looks like you're not as powerful anymore," Jack said, "Jim's not afraid of you anymore! You've got nothing left to feed upon."
The Nightmare's features began to become less and less visible as the bright light was all that was left. Within seconds, the light completely faded away and the Nightmare with it. Jack gently floated back down to the ground. The black sand on the floor suddenly began to spiral away, revealing a beautiful circular stained glass title decorating the floor.
"Thank you, Jack," Jim said.
"Hey, no problem," Jack said as he turned to face Jim, "Anything to help a friend."
"Hey, listen," Jim started to say, "About what you-"
But, before Jim could continue what he was saying, he and Jack suddenly became immersed in the warm light from before, and they began to ascend.
"We'll talk on the outside!" Jack shouted out to Jim as the light enveloped them both.
Jim opened his eyes. Scroop was no where in sight anymore. It looked like he was back in the North Pole, lying in a bed. His head hurt, and he could feel a bump on the side of his head. Jim sat up, rubbing his head. He suddenly realized that he wasn't alone on the bed. Jim looked over to see that Jack was laying next to him. Jack was back in his blue hoodie as opposed to the Dream Eater shirt that he wore in the dream world. Jack slowly sat up as well. When he noticed Jim, he gave a little chuckle.
"Well this is a bit awkward," Jack said upon noticing where he was.
"Thank you, again," Jim said, "For saving me."
"Hey, like I said before," he replied, "Anything to help a friend. But wasn't there something that you wanted to talk to me about before we got cut off."
"Oh, yeah," Jim said, "Listen, when you said that you'd-"
"Hey, Jack," Cid's voice interrupted as he walked in, "North's asking about-"
He stopped short upon seeing Jim and Jack together on the bed. He opened his mouth to speak again, but waved it off before walking back out.
"Y'know what? Fuck it," his voice called from the hall, "I don't wanna know. Come out and see for yourself when you two are decent."
"Wonder what's up," Jack thought out loud as he hopped out of bed.
Jim sighed and followed after him into the Conference room. Sandy and Tooth were not present; Jim assumed that they must still be resting. However, everyone else was gathered around the table, looking severely at something. Upon entering, everyone's faces seemed to lighten at the sight of Jim being up and about.
"Jim!" Belle said with a smile, "You're alright!"
Father Time's normally stoic demeanour even faded for a bit to reveal a bit of a smile.
"So, it would seem that your mission was a success, Jack?" Father Time said, "I must offer my congratulations. Few have successfully achieved a Dream Eater state when diving into a sleeping heart."
Jack gave a slight bow in response.
"Thank you, sir," he said.
"Now, what was so important that you guys needed to show us?" Jim asked.
Cid gestured to the table. Jim walked up and saw that laying on the table was the Keyblade of People's Hearts.
"Whoa," he whispered to himself, taking in the sight of the thing, "How did you guys manage to get it?"
"It came at a heavy cost," Cinderella admitted, "But we all felt that it was worth it."
Jim started to feel uneasy about the cost that the Princesses had to pay to get the Keyblade, but they clearly didn't want to speak further on the matter, so Jim dropped the subject.
"At any rate, Jim," North said, "It is for you."
"Really?" Jim asked, looking towards Father Time.
Father Time's stoic demeanour had returned.
"I still feel as though that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said, "However, the Princesses are fully convinced that you are the right man to wield the blade."
"You remind me a lot of a Keyblade wielder that I met a long time ago," Cinderella explained, "He was one of the bravest men that I've ever met, and he taught me that strength of heart would carry me through the hardest of trials. And I believe that you have the strength of heart needed to be the new Hero of the Keyblade."
Jim gave a courteous bow to Cinderella.
"I'm truly honored," Jim said.
"Well, go on, then," Alice said, "Take it. It's yours now."
Jim reached forward and wrapped his fingers around the cold metal. Despite the size of the blade it was very light weight, and Jim was able to hold it up with ease.
"Hmph," Cid said, "I never thought I'd see the day."
"Kind of a creepy design, though," Jack said, looking over the blade.
"Oh!," Belle said, "That's right, we didn't tell you about key chains. When you attach small trinkets close to someone's heart to a key chain on the hilt, the Keyblade will respond by taking a shape that is reflective of the person."
Jim pondered this, but he couldn't think of any "trinket" close to his heart that he could use. Morph floated out of Jim's pocket to get a look at the blade. Upon hearing what Belle said, Morph promptly transformed himself into a key chain and attached himself to the hilt of the Keyblade. Immediately afterwards, the Keyblade responded and morphed into an entirely different shape. No longer was the blade black and jagged in its design. While it still kept its basic shape, the teeth of the Keyblade now resembled the sail of Jim's solar surfer, providing a sharper and more practical edge. The pole of the blade took on a very robotic look that reminded Jim of Silver's robotic appendages. The hilt now resembled a series of solar surfer sails overlapping one another, and from it hung the pink Morph key chain that still looked a good deal like the little pink blob. This was certainly a Keyblade that looked like it was designed with Jim in mind.
"Whoa!" Jim said, looking it over, "This is so cool! Thank Morph!"
Morph responded with a series of gurgles coming from the key chain.
"It is magnificently designed," Cid said, "Now the real struggle is gonna be learning how the Hell to use it."
"I can train Jim," Father Time volunteered, "The Keyblade, despite its name, bears more resemblance to a scythe or axe than a sword. As a scythe wielder, I am well versed in the fighting style of weapons weighted in such a manner."
"I would be honored to have you teach me," Jim said.
"Let's see if you still feel that way after I begin to train you," Father Time said with a sly smirk.
"I'll help out," Cid said, "He's going up against Loki whose weapon of choice is a lance. I might not be able to help him with that mumbo jumbo shit, but I can definitely show him a few tricks to get the leg up on Loki in a physical battle."
"I have a training room downstairs that I use to practice skills with swords," North said, "You are free to make use of it."
Father Time nodded.
"Then let us get started," he said, "We do not have an abundance of time to waste."