Shadows of a Dream

Chapter Twenty-Four – A Family Affair

Shadows danced in front of his vision, blocking out half of the scenery in front of him. He hesitantly took a few steps forward, wincing as his footsteps echoed loudly around him. It was the only sound that he could hear, and he didn't like making a lot of noise if he could help it. He couldn't feel anything, and he could just barely see what was in front of him. It was like his didn't truly exist, like he was in his own little world consisting of him, his footsteps and the shadows. It was getting darker with each step he took, and he was beginning to feel suffocated, just like he had a few times when he was lost in the realm of darkness with Mickey.

Suddenly, he felt something different. It was warm and calming, making him feel so much better, but at the same time, it was sad. He turned his attention towards where the warmth was coming from, and something grabbed a hold of his wrist and pulled him. He let out a surprised yell as he stumbled through the shadows, wincing as the light erupted in his eyes.

Riku looked around, trying to figure out who had dragged him from the ever-approaching darkness. He could see a figure in the distance with black hair, but he couldn't tell anything else about them. He wanted to yell out, knowing the person had dragged him from a nightmarish place, but then she was gone.

He felt something brush passed him, and turned around. A stunned look appeared on Riku's face as he saw Sora and Roxas running in front of him. They looked the same as when he has seen them (well, Sora) months ago, but something felt different about them, even from afar. He rushed to catch up to them, wanting to know what was going on and why he was here.

It was only then that Riku realized where he actually was. It was a bare hallway that reminded him a bit of Castle Oblivion from all of its whiteness and intricate patterns. The only way he could tell that this wasn't a vision of Castle Oblivion was that the patterns on the walls didn't match.

Suddenly, both Sora and Roxas stopped running. Riku had been trying to catch up, and ended up sliding across the slippery floor, ready to collide with the other two. Much to his shock though, he went straight through them. With confusion, Riku looked back at them and saw that they had stopped in front of another hall, horror splayed across their identical faces. He knew why a second later.

A woman rushed out of the hall, a brown cloak covering her body as she held a small bundle close, blood seeping through the blankets. Riku felt horror and bile build up in him as he realized that it was a baby, and it was badly injured.

The castle suddenly shook, and the woman fell to the ground, her hood falling off in the process. Sora and Roxas both looked stunned, and Riku couldn't help but gape with disbelief. It was Sora's mother, who looked younger than he remembered. In all fairness, Amaya Hikari had been only a few years shy of 50, having had Sora later on in life when she was 31 (something about complications, he couldn't remember what Sora had told him), and here she look like she was in her 20s or 30s. That's when it occurred to him. If she was around 30 there than that meant that the injured baby in her arms was-

Tears streaked down her face as she pushed herself to her knees and looked at the bundle in her arms. Riku couldn't help but approach, staring at the bundle with growing anticipation. The child was probably barely over six months old, but already he had a bundle of dark brown hair, and as his eyes opened weakly, Riku could make out a pair of cerulean eyes. There was no doubt in his mind that this child, so badly injured, was Sora. The baby didn't look like it was crying, just getting weaker and weaker.

After a moment, Ayame pushed herself up all of the way, holding her baby tighter, as she started running again. Sora looked like he was about to run after her, but she vanished. Or maybe it was them that were vanishing, because the pristine white halls were suddenly replaced with a room made with white stone walls, polished marble floors, and decorated extravagantly with gold, silver and gemstones. Sora and Roxas looked just as confused and Riku felt.

Sora was looked around at everything, when Roxas grabbed his arm and swung him around so that they were facing the same direction. Riku moved down the thin hallway to where they were, and gaped at what he saw.

There was a tall figure in front of them, wearing a long white cloak with a hood to hide his features. His hands were held together as if in a prayer, before his hands shot out in front of him. A stunned look passed over Riku's face when he saw a glass heart appear in the air in front of the man. The stone started glowing before a gentle beam of light surrounded it, appearing from the hole in the ceiling. It glowed with stronger intensity, until there was a suddenly blast of light.

And then everything went black

VVVVVVVVVV

Riku jerked awake quickly, steadying himself as he almost toppled over in the dirty, ragged hammock that he had been given when boarding the Pearl. He let out a deep but quiet breath and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. It was disgustingly hot in the ship, even though he knew it wasn't all that hot outside because he could feel the nip of the cold air through some of the cracks in the siding. He quickly came to the conclusion that it was so disgustingly hot because all of the crew, except for the few caring for the ship at night, were packed into one room. Riku didn't like to think of himself as a pretty boy or anything, but he wished that they could have been with pirates from a little more of a modern world, particularly one with a shower. Their natural stench was profound, and only adding to that was the smell of vomit and alcohol.

He looked over at his three anthropomorphic friends, noticing that Mickey seemed to have his ears covered, and Goofy has his nose covered. It made sense, because Mickey's large ears made his hearing very sensitive, and he didn't like to hear the sounds of a drunk pirate vomiting every once and a while, and Goofy was some sort of dog-man, so his sense of smell would have been strong. He felt bad for them.

Riku quickly and quietly rolled out of his hammock, landing on the floor neatly. He couldn't stand the vicious smells anymore, it gave him more of a headache than he already had. On top of his confusing dream, the sickening smells and the loud snoring, he could feel worry coursing through him for different reasons. He was worried about some selfish things like if he would end up contracting some sort of disease while there, he was worried that he would never be able to scrub out the smell of alcohol and vomit and various other things. Then he was worried for his friends. He was worried that Sora and Kairi had met a horrible fate already, he was worried that they wouldn't be able to stop Crysita, Lilanti, Sarlio, Jorix and Carverin, and a part of his was just plain worried about Midori (and, to an extent, Elizabeth).

Jack had been polite enough to offer the two young women to stay somewhere else and not with a horde of men who, while not as intimidating as some of the sleazebags he had seen in Tortuga, would probably try to take their chances with them. Jack had, of course, offered for them to stay in his room with him, only to be slapped in the face twice. He had turned, look at Riku and said, "I deserved that." So, instead, Jack let them stay in his cabin and he stayed awake at the wheel, keeping a large jar of dirt close to him at all times.

Riku walked out of the room and took in a deep breath of the fresh, salty air. It was a little cool out, but it was refreshing compared to the accommodations that he had been given. He enjoyed the smell of the ocean, images of home passing through his mind, but only for a moment. Looking back on the past wouldn't help the situation. What kind of mumbo-jumbo had Sora muttered to him before? Hakuna Matata? He had no clue where his friend had got such a saying, but it was Sora, so for all he knew the brunet made it up.

His eye suddenly caught a shifting figure over by the edge of the ship. He looked around and saw the light, bouncing off of dark green hair, and he knew instantly who it was. How many people did he know with green hair, after all?

"Midori?" he called out as quietly as possibly, not wanting to startle her into falling in the water or something. He had seen some pretty nasty looking sharks in the water.

She looked around curiously, her brown eyes locking on to his after a moment. She grinned a bit and said, "Hey Silver, what are you doing up?"

He shrugged in a way that implied there wasn't a big deal to his being awake so early and asked, "What about you?"

Instead of going into some childish I-asked-you-first mode, Midori shrugged like he had and said, "I don't like boats much. Being below deck makes me feel sick. I'm fine in the open though. You know I don't believe your little shrug, right?"

Riku sighed and asked, "Do you think dreams mean anything?"

"Of course they do," she admonished, "well, some of them at least. Sometimes they're just dirty fantasies or things you would wish to happen. Tell me Riku, have you been having nasty dreams?"

A pale pink tint managed to grace Riku's features, if only for a moment before he sent a small glare at her and said, "Not that type of dream, Tree-Head."

"That's the best name you can think of?" she asked teasingly before becoming serious. "Dreams can mean something, yeah. Sometimes they're more prophetic, sometimes our past, and sometimes just a reflection of our hopes and fears. Why? What did you see?"

"Sora and Roxas, his Nobody, were there. Usually, if Roxas is outside of Sora, he looks like a ghost or something, but he was—what's the word?"

"Corporeal?" she suggested.

"We'll go with that," he agreed, "anyway, they were in this white hallway, and Sora's mother showed up. Sora was with her, as a baby, and he was hurt really bad. I don't understand where they were though, because Sora was born on Destiny Islands and there's nothing like that there."

"Are you completely sure about that?" Midori asked slowly after a moment of thought.

Riku stared off into the distance at the slowly rising sun and said, "When Kairi showed up, Sora was the one who found her. She actually fell into the water like a meteor, and Sora went in and rescued her. I never thought about it at the time, but looking back, it was amazing that he could drag her out of the water because of how tiny he was. I mean, he was only five and I was six. I know this seems off topic (he had seen her about to question the relevance of the story) but long story short, Kairi's arrival made us ask if we'd been on the islands for all our lives or not. My parents and Sora's mother said that we were." He looked almost wistful as he remembered his happy, simple childhood.

Midori smiled slightly at his expression before asking, "Was that all you saw in your dream?"

He broke out of his thoughts and said, "No. We were in a giant room, and there was a giant diamond heart in the middle of the room and a man in a white cloak doing something."

Her small smile slid off of her face, replaced by a thoughtful look. She glanced up at the sky and said, "I've heard of a diamond heart. It's said to be able to channel a lot of power into a chosen person." She moved forward, resting her elbows on her thighs and placing her chin in her hands. "It vanished a long time ago when the world it was in was destroyed. I don't know why you'd be dreaming about that though."

"Where do you hear all of this stuff?" Riku asked her with both amazement and suspicion.

She frowned a bit, glancing out at the water and said, "Crysita was talking about it. What I told you, I heard her tell the others."

Riku jerked up from his slumped position quickly and stared at her with wide eyes. She tilted her head, staring at him oddly as he stared back with his shock.

"What?" she finally asked, breaking their stalemate.

"Don't you realize what you just said? What if that's what they're looking for!" he said with excitement in his voice.

"One problem with that, it's gone," she pointed out.

"You said it vanished. You never said it was destroyed. If it's still out there somewhere and they're hunting it...getting rid of anyone who might try to get in their way in the process..."

Her eyes widened in realization, but then a doubtful look passed over them as she asked, "And the children they're taking?"

"I don't know. Maybe they're the key to finding it," he suggested with a shrug. "We should tell Mickey!"

He was about to go back when she grabbed his arm and said, "Hi oh Silver, wait a minute. Let him sleep. You must be able to see how exhausted he is."

Riku was about to argue before he realized how true her words actually were. Mickey was running on fumes lately, and even though it was noisy and smelled horrible down there, he deserved all of the sleep that he could get.

There was a sudden yell of 'land ho' from above, causing both Riku and Midori to turned around with both interest and shock. Neither of them had realized that Morty, a rather short pirate, was up in the crows' nest.

A second later, Jack came stumbling over to where they were, his jar of dirt clutched in one arm and his spyglass in the other. It was amusing, watching him struggle with it. Riku offered to hold the jar of dirt, but Jack just glared at him and said to get his own. Finally, he peered through the spyglass and stared at an island in the distance with a large grin.

"Why have we been looking for this island?" Midori asked Jack curiously.

"To find the chest of Davy Jones, o course," he said to her.

"Won't he know something's wrong and go after it himself?" Riku suggested. "I mean, it is his heart."

"That's the beauty of it mate," Jack said to Riku. "Jones can only come ashore once every ten years, and that time has already passed."

The three of them looked towards the visible shoreline, Jack staring at it was a large grin on his face. He glanced at his jar of dirt and said, "Tomorrow I'll be free." He suddenly looked around and said, "Where be that smelly fellow? The former Commodore? One that looks like slop now?"

"Norrington?" Riku suggested with a raised eyebrow.

Jack pointed one of his dirty fingers at Riku's face, stopping only a centimeter away as he said, "You, young man, are a smart lad. I wish you much rum and women in the future."

Midori rolled her eyes and asked, "Have you been into the rum again, Captain Jack?"

"Aye lassie, I have," he admitted happily. "Life's to short, so drink to it while ya can."

"I'll keep that in mind," the green-haired girl said dryly. "Are you going to round up the crew to head to shore?"

"No, we be sailing two boats only. Just you two, myself, Lizzie, Dorald, Guppy, Mikey, the smelly one, maybe those two creepy ones and me," he said while turning to walk away, stumbling in the process.

"Are you sure you don't want me to hold that?" Riku asked his while motioning to the jar of dirt. He received a dark glare from Jack, who hugged it close to him as if it was some sort of precious treasure. He stumbled a bit more, but treated the dirt as if it was some sort of baby.

Midori rolled her eyes and let out a sigh before turning to lean against the rail of the boat, watching the sunrise across the water. She stared at it for a moment before summoning her Keyblade, holding it out towards the sky. Riku never knew why, but he always caught her comparing the colourful blade to the sunrises and sunsets of the world, as if hoping to one day find a match. He leaned beside her, staring out at it before saying, "On the very first day of school, the last day before Christmas break, the first day back and the last day of school, Sora, Kairi and I would row out to the play island and watch the sun rise for no reason but that we could. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see that sunrise again."

Her Keyblade vanished and she said, "Be positive."

"Do you ever wish that you could go home?"

"No," she said without hesitation. "I don't have many happy memories there really. Never got along with my father, my mother was cold and stoic, and my sister was always off in her own world. We took the duties bestowed on us very seriously, so there was little time for play. Our formal education ended when we were fifteen, and then we were assigned a job based on our talents."

"Wow," Riku replied with amazement, "no free will at all. What did you do?"

"I was a bodyguard," she admitted while grinning. "I was the fastest in my class, and the best trained in hand-to-hand combat because of how harsh my mother was on my sister and I."

"To who?"

Midori shrugged and said, "I might tell you someday, I might not. For now, I'd rather keep that with me."

"Fair enough," he admitted while staring over at the land.

"Mr. Gibbs!" Jack yelled loudly. They all heard a loud thump from below the deck, and a moment later the first mate was in front of them.

"Aye Captain?"

"Prepare two boats," he instructed, "only a few of us will be heading to shore."

"If ya insist," Gibbs said before turning and barking out commands to ready two of the longboats.

VVVVVVVVVV

"Sora makes the weirdest friends," Riku commented as he and Goofy paddled their dingy towards the shore. King Mickey and Donald both agreed whole-heartedly. He tried listening in on the conversation Midori was having with Captain Jack in the other small boat, but all he could get was that they were arguing about something.

Riku's mind turned solely to the girl. She wasn't a sweet girl, or overly peppy, but now that he had gotten to know her, he found that she wasn't quite as harsh as he had originally assumed. She was stubborn, serious and could be distant and nasty when in certain situations. Still, her anger was much more controlled compared to Kairi's. The redhead, when she was truly angry (something Sora in particular feared) would just explode with rage that she usually kept pent up. Midori never bothered trying to suppress her anger or dislike for something, so she was more in control of her actions. Still, despite the sarcastic comments and her standoffish attitude, Riku like her. Probably because she was so different from what he was used to dealing with.

Although she was newer to a Keyblade, and Riku could easily overpower her with his, she could kick his ass in hand-to-hand combat, something she constantly rubbed into his face. She had speed on her side though, but Riku's sheer power still always won.

He broke out of his thoughts as they hit the beach, and all of them turned to Elizabeth. She got out of the boat and started walking around with the compass, a confused and rather flushed look to her face until she sat on the ground with a huff.

"This stupid thing certainly does not work," she said and tossed it to the ground.

Jack looked down at the compass and said, "Yes it does, and you're sitting on it!" He came forward and shooed her out of the way. He tossed Norrington a shovel and said, "Start digging."

The former Commador rolled his eyes but went to work anyway. Everyone backed off as Norrington started digging.

"Gawrsh, why is he the only one digging?" Goofy whispered. "Isn't that kinda mean?"

"Shut up you big palooka," Donald whispered back, as much as he could.

Riku sat down on the sand, staring out at the ocean with fascination. Midori came and sat beside him. She stared out at the water and said, "I like the ocean and the warmth. Where I come from it's usually cold and there are very few oceans."

"I thought most people from your world were tanned or dark?" Riku asked while raising an eyebrow.

She didn't look at him as she said, "Just because it's cold doesn't mean we don't go outside, but at the same time just because people have darker complexions doesn't mean we're always outside."

"You know, you've been with us for months now and we still don't know much about you. I mean, I think I know a fair bit, but you haven't really shared with Mickey, Donald or Goofy really," Riku observed. Both turned when they heard Jack yell something at Pintel and Ragetti, something about watching his dirt, but then turned back to the ocean.

"It's nothing against them," she said after a moment, drawing odd patterns into the soft sand, "I'm just not always comfortable around them. Besides, I really don't know all that much about you either. You're an enigma, Silver."

"How so?"

"You fight for your friends," she said, not looking at him, "and because they dwell in the light, or closer to the light, you fight for that as well, but it's not your nature. You have a dark aura to you. Not a black one, but a darker shade of grey. You wield Way to Dawn, meaning you're in the night but are heading towards the morning. You've walked the darkness in a way more complete than Sora has and you are nearly the opposite of Kairi."

"How can you know all that?" he asked, no emotion on his face.

"You might hide your emotions to most, but I don't look at what's on the outside. I can feel things, and I'm feeling you right now (his cheeks got a pale tint of pink to them, but it went unnoticed by Midori). Certain people have a natural ability to feel things like I can. I also got the feeling, although it was fuzzy because it was only a dream, that there's more to Sora than beats the eye. From what I felt, he goes with his gut instincts (Riku nodded at this) but I think it's more than just that. He feels like I do, but he isn't aware of it."

"I don't understand," Riku said after a moment.

"You don't need to yet," she said as she finally turned to him. For a moment Riku looked uncomfortably in her brown eyes, feeling rather revealed before both jumped at the sound of a loud clank.

They stood up and turned around as Jack whooped happily, Elizabeth stared at it with wonder and exclaimed, "It's real!"

"You actually were telling the truth," Norrington added

"I do that quite a lot. Yet people are always surprised," Jack muttered.

"With good reason."

Everyone turned around and there stood a rather unhappy Will Turner.

One thing Riku could tell that this was about to get a lot more interesting.

Author's Note

I'm super sorry for the long wait for an update.

There are some HUGE differences coming from this fic compared to the original ones. Some of them are even forcing me to make more changes to Shadows of Reality: Final Mix than I originally anticipated.

I'm currently working on that as well as the rewrite of Shadows of Beginnings. I'm retitling it as 'Shadows of Sleep: Final Mix'. The storyline for that one is going to be much more heavily based off of BBS than the original was, so it won't be out for a while since I want to play through BBS first. I'm having an awfully hard time rewriting that one because of how different it's going to be. Almost enough for it to be it's own story.

Doing things in 3s and 5s is overrated though, don't you agree? That's why I'm doing this in 4s. After the next two final mixes come out (cause you'll need to have read them to understand the next one) I'm going to start working on and posting the sequel to Shadows of Reality and the finale of my series: Shadows of Destiny.

For the record, it's not one based on their children or anything like that. It's all them.

Oh, btw, if anyone says 'release the kraken' I'm destroying everything.

Love you all!

Krystal Lily Potter