A/N: Back with another chapter for you all and I'm sure many of you have been waiting for the moment when Sora finds out what's been happening to him. Let's not delay any further and get straight to it!

Chapter XIV

The Spirit of Vengeance

-Sora's POV-

When his eyes opened, the last thing he expected to find was that of short blonde hair with two antennae like strands and a pair of cyan eyes staring back at him. Sora attempted to get away but he ended up rolling off the couch and onto his back, a towel soon landing on his face, blanketing his vision.

This woman… he didn't even know. So then why did she seem so familiar? It wasn't the good kind of familiar either. It felt like this was the kind of person he should feel disgusted by, which was strange because he wasn't one to assume things about people he had never met before.

The woman chuckled and said something which confirmed his suspicions. "What an idiot."

Sora stripped the towel from his face and looked at the woman. "Why do you… feel so familiar?"

The woman frowned and looked at him as if he were an idiot while massaging her neck. "What the heck? I didn't know you were brain dead as well."

"Mind actually telling me what I want to know instead of talking down to-" It was only then that flashes of the woman entered his mind, surrounded by white walls and sometimes with Donald and Goofy by his side.

"Sora… Sora… You're getting it now! Release the memory from within your heart!"

Sora jumped up from the ground and summoned the Kingdom Key, pointing it at the blonde with anger etched on his face.

"Larxene!"

Larxene rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, no shit, Sherlock."

"Hey, stop it or you get the boot," the man warned. He turned back to Sora, eyeing his Keyblade. Sora lowered the weapon and eventually let it disappear. "And I guess you really do know each other after all."

"Where… am I?" Sora asked, taking a look around the apartment.

"My place. The name's Johnny Blaze," the man told him.

"Oh, so now your name's important," Larxene muttered in a sardonic tone.

"Important information for important people," Blaze replied only for Larxene to roll her eyes.

"I'm Sora. Why am I here?" Sora asked.

"You don't remember then? I expected as such. My first few nights were pretty rough as well before I learned to control it," Blaze said. His eyes seemed focused on some distant object.

"You're not making any sense," Sora said. "And now that I think about it. You're that guy I saw earlier today, the one at the crime scene. You ran when I saw you. What are you playing at?"

Blaze returned his gaze to him and leaned in. "If your assumption is that I killed that woman, you're wrong. Your friend over here can attest to this."

"We're not friends!" Sora and Larxene yelled at him in unison.

Sora cleared his throat soon after. "So then what exactly were you doing there in the first place?"

"Perhaps I should start from the beginning then. Do you ever get the feeling that there's something else living inside you? You may be conscious of it. You may not be. In either case, you feel like something is wrong, like you're you but different. You just can't explain what that is."

Sora remained silent for a while as he contemplated what the man had said. The more he considered his words, the more he became scared of how frighteningly accurate it was to what he was facing at the moment.

"Who are you?" Sora asked again, more forcefully this time.

"I was just like you once. Then I gave the power up. That you have it now means that my job isn't yet over. What you have is the power of the Ghost Rider," Blaze said.

"Ghost Rider?" Larxene was first to ask.

"It may or may not be the same spirit that was first bonded to me. The Ghost Rider is the devil's vengeance incarnate. When evil is near, the Ghost Rider appears and brings 'justice' to the souls corrupted by darkness," Blaze said.

"You aren't making any sense," Sora dismissed.

"I thought I explained it pretty simply but if you want the complex explanation, I can give that to you as well. You know what a soul is, right?" Blaze asked.

"Uh, sure. Well, I think I know at least," Sora stumbled over his words as he tried to come up with a suitable description.

Blaze chuckled. "Don't worry. I can't say I'm quite sure either. What I do know is that it's interchangeable with a lot of other things. Spirit. Consciousness. Essence. You get the idea. It's essentially what makes you who you are. Some would even say you don't have a soul. You are a soul. What you have is a body."
Sora thought back to the Realm of Sleep and the conditions he and Riku had to condone to before being able to enter. He had left his body behind only to be transferred to his much younger self in order to enter the dream state. So it was his consciousness or soul that had made that trip. It made sense. Even when in his younger body, it wasn't like he reverted to his past self. The experiences and factors that had made him who he was today had stayed with him.

"So what's your point?" Sora asked.

"That at some point, another spirit latched onto your own. You haven't made any contracts recently, have you?"

That voice in the darkness, Sora remembered, thinking back to his encounter with the voice. At the time it had been his only way to get out of that darkness and he had been desperate. To think now that the voice had been able to convince him so easily that Riku had betrayed him made him feel ashamed. After everything they had done together in the realm of sleep, after how much he had relied on his friend in times of thick and thin, it had only taken a few minutes to break the trust Sora had in him. That alone made him undeserving of being a Keyblade Master. But then what else could he have done.

From the long pause, Blaze must have assumed that Sora had done so and scratched the nape of his neck. "Listen. Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with that thing now. You are the Ghost Rider."

"And what if I don't want to be the Ghost Rider?" Sora asked. He looked to Larxene again to see that she was still rubbing her neck. Did she wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something? He decided to ask. "Did something happen?"

"Why the concern? Mind your own business," Larxene snapped rudely.

"You attacked her, or I should say, the Ghost Rider did," Blaze answered in her stead.

Sora's eyes grew big. "Let me see."

"What? No! And why did you tell him?" Larxene backed away in a protective stance while looking at Blaze.

"Because he needs to know. The risk for him, and those around him."

"I… I don't want this power," Sora said. He didn't need to see whatever he had done to Larxene to know that this power was dangerous.

"You don't get a choice. Until you learn to take control, the Ghost Rider is like a nightmare. He'll continue to haunt you and take advantage of your body and the worst part is you'll have no way of knowing when it happens. But I can teach you how to make that power yours, rather than having it run rampant."

There wasn't even a choice in the matter if that was the case. It was so clear cut that Sora expected some kind of catch or some eternal debt of gratitude to be declared any moment. It never came. The man's attempts to help him seemed earnest and genuine, probably spurred on by his own experiences as this Ghost Rider.

Another thought entered Sora's mind. If there truly was a way to control this power, then maybe Sora didn't need the power of a Keyblade Master. Maybe he already had a power lying dormant within him, one that could only serve to enhance his own. He wasn't power hungry by any means, but neither was he unwilling to not give this new power a chance. A power that could overwhelm even Xehanort… well, it was a worth a shot.

"So what do I need to do?"

-Aqua's POV-

Aqua knocked on Merlin's door but her mind was completely absent from where her body was. It was the creature she had seen in the sewage facility that preoccupied her thoughts. It was something so unnatural, so unsightly, so incredulous and yet practical in every way. She had fought the exact same thing in the Realm of Darkness and if she could have convinced herself that maybe that creature was one of many of its type and that the creature she saw here was a different one, she would have done so in a heartbeat. It was that denial that inevitably made her accept it. It was the same creature. She had felt it.

But what should she do from here on out? She stood little chance against the creature the first time. This creature of darkness could not be left alone where hundreds of people lived, going about their daily lives. So the question of what to do seemed easy enough, but how to go about doing it? That was another thing entirely. How to find it again? Even worse.

"Stop thinking about it so much, Aqua. Some sleep should clear things up."

Aqua couldn't even believe her own words. She was sure what she had seen—that is to say, a man being burnt alive in a torrent of flame—was something that could not so easily be disregarded. Events like that were what nightmares were made of in the first place. The door only opened slightly before Aqua was barraged with a machine gun load of questions.

"Kairi, take it easy. I can't understand a single thing you're saying." Aqua tried slowing her down.

Kairi nodded before speaking again, more slowly. "Sora hasn't come back yet. I was wondering if you'd seen him?"

"Sora's not back? I mean, I saw him a few hours ago. He seemed like he was in a hurry, it was pretty weird. But you're saying he's not back?" Aqua asked.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Maybe he's in trouble or-"

"I'm sure he just needs some time alone. Let's not get too hasty just yet," Aqua preached. For however much she wanted to believe that though, there was always the clawing hand of doubt in her mind that ruined the once undisturbed soil of hope in her mind. What if Sora had come in contact with that creature? She didn't want to countenance the thought but Sora's hastiness earlier today weighed upon her mind. Was it then that Sora had first noticed something was awry? If so, then he was in grave danger. Still, Aqua could not get the others involved in this.

She studied Kairi for a moment. The last time she had seen this girl was almost twelve years ago when she was about four years old. It was strange to think that time had advanced this much outside the realm of darkness. Within the intramural confines of the realm of darkness, time for her had been heavily distorted. At times, it slowed down. In other occasions, it grew exponentially faster past the boundaries of reality as Aqua knew it. And then there were the times when it stopped completely.

But focusing back on Kairi, Aqua could see that the little girl who she had seen a precious light in had grown into a fine and capable young woman. She had a future, as did Sora and Riku. She had once said that she would not place the burden of the worlds on these kids' lives. She was still not prepared to go back on that. She had made up her mind on the first day of coming back to Radiant Garden. She would leave them as soon as she had fully recovered from her time in the Dark Realm and go off to search for Xehanort. Being relocated to Radiant Garden had proved rather convenient for her actually. She had last fought a Terra controlled by Xehanort here. If there were clues as to Terra's whereabouts, then they would be here. Her armor and Keyblade were likely somewhere here as well. Now with this creature, she had just one more reason to stay a while longer.

A long while passed in which Aqua had been able to convince Kairi and Riku to get some rest in hopes that Sora would be there to greet them tomorrow. The silence in the house was her signal. She sneaked out of the house into the breezy night air. Curfew was still in effect so she had to be as careful as possible, though she doubted if she ran into any of the restoration committee that her punishment would be anything serious. It was unfair, but having connections and thus privileges in that same group helped.

Her destination was the sewage treatment facility once again. She wasn't sure if she could find clues about Sora's whereabouts but the creature was something else. If she could find a way to track it then it would be a good start towards finding Sora and killing the creature. She would spend all night doing so if she had to, and by dawn's early light, it was anyone's guess as to where she would find herself.

Entering the facility once again, she followed the pipelines back to the platform she and the woman had last been in, stopping only to quickly admire the aqueduct that traversed miles across Radiant Garden in a single direction. The same aqueduct transported water across the entire town, supplying the various homes and buildings. Aqua considered this a possible escape route through which the creature could have travelled but she had no intention of getting wet or finding out where the watercourse led to.

Aqua soon reached the platform once again and began her investigation. The most obvious clue was right in front of her—a scorch mark where the man had perished in the hellish flames. The smell of soot that had once been in the air had long since disappeared. No matter how much she tried to think about it, she always came to the conclusion that this was something far beyond her understanding. Even if the man had extorted someone for his own gain, even if he had tried to retaliate violently for her reneging on their contract, no one deserved a death like that. In a way, she believed that partly for her selfish reasons. That image, she felt, would forever be ingrained in her mind. Coming from the Realm of Darkness where nightmares followed her every step, that was something she didn't need.

Her attention turned to where the Ghost Rider had fallen. Aqua gripped the iron bars and peered over. She could only see the water in its vastness, stretching over several columns.

Her eyes widened and she spun around after sensing a presence behind her. She relaxed slightly upon seeing no one but kept vigilant. She had definitely felt something just then. As much as she didn't want to admit it, living in fear and paranoia in the Realm of Darkness had honed her senses. She could have sworn she had felt the darkness creeping in, prickling against her skin. It gave her goose bumps, made her feel like she needed to wash, and yet…

"Terra?" She spoke out loudly. Her voice reverberated around empty air.

TSaF

The dark and narrow road of Figgs Street sprung to life as two wisps of smoke flew into the area, taking shape in the form of two human looking figures, one of average height and feminine, and the other short and round. The woman, the Black Rose, strode over to one of the house and tapped in rhythms of two for three repetitions.

It was a short while before the door opened to reveal a man with steely gray eyes. Black Rose had often wondered where the scar on the man's lower lip had come from but he had either refused to answer or straight out dodged the question by changing the topic. She suspected it was something incredibly embarrassing like being bitten by a mutt.

"Chillax, Kitten. What's the problem?" the man asked as she hurried through the door with Gout. He closed the door and slipped his shades back up the bridge of his nose.

"The plan has changed. We can't stay here," Black Rose said.

The man raised an eyebrow. "What's got your thorns in a tangle?"

"The Ghost Rider's returned, Gekido," the Black Rose snarled.

The smile faded from the Gekido's face and he furrowed his brow, looking at Gout. "Ah, I thought you looked holier than a demon ever should…"

"Enough with the facetious remarks. This is serious! Norms don't do that kind of damage to people like us, otherwise it would have healed by now. This is hellfire magic!" Black Rose snapped.

"Then what's the plan? We abandon the search for Xehanort? Unless you're willing to explain to the master why you abandoned the mission he'd set for you-"

"We're not abandoning it!" Black Rose hissed. Her features softened however upon hearing the groans of discomfort from Gout.

"It hurts… it hurts so badly!" Gout moaned as he crumpled to the floor.

"I know, Gout, but you need to grin and bear it. The pain will go away soon," Black Rose soothed. She soon turned back to Gekido in concern.

The line of Gekido's mouth formed a perfect 'U'. "So what are we going to do then? Kill the Ghost Rider?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Even with the three of us, the Ghost Rider would be able to take us all down and likely without a scratch," Black Rose replied with a scoff.

"I highly doubt that." Gekido seemed unconvinced but the temptress shrugged it off coolly.

"Believe what you want, but unlike you, I actually have experience with the Ghost Rider, or one of them at least."
"One of them?"

Black Rose nodded while rubbing her arm. "It's in the past now. All I can say is that this Ghost Rider was different. They were inexperienced, I could tell, but given time his power can only grow as he becomes more accustomed to it. No, we have to be smarter than that. We have two options. The first is to kill him while he's human and not yet experienced in his powers, but that requires finding out who this Ghost Rider is and I can only imagine that would take a long time. The other option is just as difficult."

"Which is?"

"Severing the bond that ties the Ghost Rider's spirit with the host's," Black Rose answered.

Gekido burst out laughing. "Oh, you're taking this so seriously. If only you could see the little dimples on your cheeks right now. It's oh so cute!"

Black Rose grinded her teeth in irritation. "I don't have time for your nonsense. If you're not willing to take this the least bit seriously-"

"I said chillax, cutie patootie. This is obviously a big problem, the hole in Gout's stomach tells me that, and we'll deal with it as you say. Simple as pie, right?"

A lopsided grin distorted the symmetry of Black Rose's face. "I wonder… is it really? Do you have any idea what we're up against?"

"There's not a demon in hell who hasn't heard of the Ghost Rider. Through smoke and flames he rides into the night, like a highway robber who's seeking his prize. His flames begin with judgment and end with punishment. He is vengeance incarnate. I think I know very well what we're up against. Still, I'm surprised. Why now of all times to appear?"

"His host must have come across the Atar somehow," Black Rose said.

"The Atar?" Gekido asked.

"The eternal flame, that of the spirit of vengeance himself. They say if you gaze into its flames at its purest form, your mind melts."

"Melts? Like literally or-"

"No, no. Not literally. At least, I don't think so. It's more like your mind is subjected to an infinite abyss. Hell within hell, like a kaleidoscope. No one knows exactly what happens anyway and they certainly wouldn't live to tell the tale if they had experienced it."
"Then I guess quashing this eternal flame is out of the question. It is eternal after all," Gekido said.

"But is it really?"

A look of intrigue spread across Gekido's face. "Oh?"