The landscape of the floor started to change after we departed the Moment's Reprieve room. Like Deep Jungle, much of it appeared to carry on past the walls into the inaccessible beyond – which often did not take into account whatever was on the other side of the doors, which was disorienting.

But prior to that room they had appeared to show a realm not unlike most of Atlantica in it's first incarnation, rocky valleys and arches, trident symbols on the walls – no open ocean. There was even a white ceiling extending over the top of it. It looked out of place, but at least it kept me from having to confront my own issues again. I suspect the Castle for being responsible for that.

As it changed, the rocks became less and less evident, the trident and other symbols engraved into the rock-walls appeared less often. The rooms appeared to get deeper, though as one Heartless along the way helpfully proved, the floor was still there – it was just much like the walls, unseen.

Neku started to work out some of the issues with his swimming, though I was still left doing most of the work whenever Heartless showed up. We came up with a plan for most kinds of Heartless anyway – he distracted them, and I set up chains of magic that would decimate them before they realized their mistake.

One of them did get him. Just once, he drifted too far after dealing with one Heartless, and a Screwdriver managed to catch him with the spear it carried because I was too distracted by an outbreak of Search Ghosts.

Neku's injury wasn't serious, but he did leave a trail of that still oddly blue blood in the water. On the other hand, it did get him to be more offensive, not just with the borrowed Keyblade either. I strongly suspect it's a good thing I don't understand the language he frequently resorted to.

My irritable temper might have rubbed off on him slightly.

Without his book around here in Atlantica I wasn't able to heal him right away. I didn't have enough magic anyway, since healing him before had taken everything I had.

"It'll be fine," he kept insisting. "It's not like I've lost an arm or something."

"I thought injuries weren't meant to show up over here?" I said, opening the next room. Another empty room, since I hadn't been paying attention to which card I picked. "I never showed any sign of them."

"Probably just as well, given some of your earlier fights. Anyway, I'm not affected by it. I'm not a part of any of this. I made it exist away from the games after those first words you wrote, and I've influenced it too many times since I met you, but it doesn't affect me in return."

"Inconvenient. I don't suppose you can tell how far we are through this floor?"

"Two more rooms," he answered after a moment. "Second one is the boss room."

"Great. Ursula again."

"You didn't exactly do badly against her before, you know."

"You've never seen me try and beat her in the game though." The last room before Ursula opened. Neku went on in, but I held back.

"Something up?" he asked, not yet noticing what I had.

"Look up," I answered.

The white ceiling wasn't there in the room beyond. A view of the water's surface far above was.

"It's not real, Liam. The room's still there."

"You try telling that to my mind," I retorted somewhat tartly.

Neku gave me an odd look, then with a grin told me, "Bad things happen, so stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with it. It's not like I can do this without you."

I muttered a few choice words, but had to admit he was right. Sooner or later I was going to have to deal with it.

The room I'd created was from a map card that doesn't show up in the original Chain of Memories – only the later remake. It's called Bottomless Darkness, and ordinarily it appears as a pitch-black room where many Heartless appear, usually in varieties that blend in well.

In Atlantica it had taken the form of a vast open ocean area, the surface visible high above, and the floor lost in the dark depths below. The mass of Heartless still happened though. At least in fighting them, I was able to distract myself from the surface above. You might not have a problem with that, but it definitely unsettles me.

It wasn't Ursula that awaited us on the other side of that seemingly endless room. The door on the other side had been clearly visible of course but somehow the vast emptiness of the room had made it seem further away. It's disorienting.

Waiting for us on a low rock in the room, looking for all the world as if the water around wasn't even there, was Sora. Data-Sora was busy going through the upper floors so I was certain it wasn't him. I strongly doubted it was the real Sora, or Xion for that matter since as you'll recall, the two are twins now. He didn't have the right outfit to be either of them.

"A memory?" I murmured to Neku, pausing at the door. Sora, if it was him, stood on the far side of the rock, which appeared to be some distance away.

"Possibly," Neku replied. "I can feel someone else's touch here though. Charlie might have found a way around me. It's probably very rudimentary and I don't think it'll have been easy for him, but it is possible. Especially with me distracted like this."

"Are you sure it's him?"

"I've told you before there's no way to tell. You're going to have to swim on down there and find out the hard way. Be careful, Liam." I gave him a flat look, and he added, "I know, I know. But look what's happened so far – your darkness is still unstable, you had to borrow some Samurais, take command of the Heartless and have me bully Castle Oblivion into this state."

"I'd feel better knowing a bit more about what I'm going up against. If that is Sora – any version of him – then I don't think anyone else is going to be able to handle him."

"You've got the advantage there – you can swim out of reach."

"This is the point where if Roxas were with me, I'd mention we both have a bad feeling," I muttered, not really intended for anyone there.

Neku had a nice little response for that though.

"Don't break the wall, Liam," he told me. "If you're going to narrate, do it when you write this up."

I didn't answer that, I just headed for the rock Sora was waiting on, watching him was I approached in case he wasn't who he appeared to be.

I can't say there was any reason for my caution though, but I can't really explain without spoiling things.

As I passed over the edge of the rock I abruptly lost my aquatic form and returned to normal, landing face first with the distinct feeling that there was something wrong. Specifically, I wasn't wet.

"About time," Sora said. "I was beginning to think you were going to just chatter away up there."

"Who're you really?" I asked him suspiciously, setting myself knowing I was probably going to have to go through him.

"I thought you weren't one for asking stupid questions. That's what Roxas said last time he dropped in, anyway."

"You can't be Sora. He's still on the Islands."

"I am. I'm also here."

"That's impossible, Sora. You might be a bit dense at times, but even you should know that."

"I knew you'd say something like that. Someday you and I can talk about it, but right now you're gonna go through me to carry on."

"Why bother? You know how it'll end."

"Simple. I'm one of the few people left you haven't gone up against yet. Riku, Mickey I hear too, even Terra – but not me. Isn't it about time we found out which of us makes a better Sora?"

I began to have second thoughts about whether he was really Sora or not, but he knows me well. Not as well as some, but well enough to know I wasn't going to let that kind of challenge pass.

I wasn't certain whether I had to rely on the Castle's cards here or not, but there was one way to find out about that. I opened our little duel by sending him the first spell to mind – what else, Fire.

Magic aims itself, but it doesn't usually take into account Sora's answer to that. I hadn't picked anything too elaborate for my Fire spell, so it wasn't all that large. Sora waited until it was close, ducked underneath it, then ran for me. The fireball naturally arced around and followed him – also heading for me.

Being on the edge of the rock, with suspicions that there would now be a barrier preventing me from leaving again, I wasn't left with anywhere to run. So I fought back instead, Using my Keyblade to force Sora to remain between me and the fireball. He managed to handle that too, by ducking once again when it got close. Being toasted by your own fireball isn't fun, but I stored his trick for later – maybe I could make use of it.

He'd been left nearby after that and I suspect he knew I'd lash out physically after he'd outmanoeuvred me with my own spell, as he called his own Keyblade to hand to hold me off. When I'd left after defeating the Organization, all the various chains except the ones for the Kingdom Key and my own Gilded Light had stayed with him, so it wasn't too surprising his didn't take the form of the Keyblade we all know of. Interestingly, he'd picked the Photon Debugger form here.

Sora was able to hold me off without a problem, putting us at a stalemate. This is not to say we didn't manage anything – more than once I managed to catch him out, or him me, but such times they did happen seldom achieved much.

Until one of us came up with something else, we were going to end up stuck against each other for a long time, so I started pulling out all the various tricks I'd come up with along the way. First was Thunder, not cast directly as he was expecting, but sent into the Keyblade. When mine made contact with his, the charge shot down his Keyblade and gave him a shock that almost made him drop it. A follow up strike aimed for just near to the grip forced him to drop it. Useful thing to note that – you don't actually have to hit your opponent's hands to disarm them.

Sora tried to retreat, but I wasn't having any of that. I started experimenting a little again, combining the recently made Haste with the old favourite of Teleport, which resulted in an attack very similar to Dark Aura. Much safer to use, but it came at a dreadful cost to the magic.

Again he tried to retreat, this time throwing Blizzard at me as he recalled his Keyblade. I melted that with another Fire spell, this time channelled out through Reflect, then aimed the combined Slow/Stop spell at him.

Sora's own Reflect sent that back toward me, and since a spell reflected once doesn't get reflected a second time, I turned his own opening trick against him, going for him with my own Keyblade to get it to reorient on him.

Spells don't last forever though, and he had plenty more room than I'd had. That one just fizzled out without effect.

"New tricks," Sora grunted, blocking an overhand strike then swiping at me. "You're not the only one who's got some though."

"Bring it," I grinned at him.

"You'll regret it," he warned me, then drew back, held out one hand and said, "See ya!"

I'm not quite sure what magic he used, but I can't deny it was an effective weapon against me. It didn't take time to reach me, it just took effect, blanking out my vision except right around me. A very small area that didn't reveal enough.

Sora took full advantage of that, attacking me from various directions. I did what I could to respond, but without being able to see him I caught him only by pure chance alone. Every time I tried to get magic going he deftly interrupted it and disoriented me even further, somehow making it feel as if he was attacking me from two different directions.

Finally I managed to cast Esuna, which removed the effects of the spell and retaliate against an attack he'd been about to make. He's quick on the uptake though, after a brief moment of consternation he drew back again and recast the spell that blanked out so much of my vision.

This time I had an idea though. I remained still and listened. Sora still had the chain hanging off his belt, not to mention the crown around his neck. Both of those make noise whenever he moves, and I turned that against him, listening intently to where they were coming from then swinging for them blindly.

Blind as it may have been, I caught him out much more often until he twigged. Interestingly, he didn't try to mask the sounds – instead he did something that made even more noise all around me, loud enough to lose him.

That didn't last long though as the spell wore off naturally this time.

"You'll have to do better than that to beat me," I told him.

"Oh yeah? I'll show you – mirror image!"

Anyone want to guess what that spell did for him?

The multiple images of Sora were just as dangerous as the real thing. They were fragile, disappearing after only one strike, but they were also independent of each other. No two Sora images acted the same, making it harder to tell which one was the real Sora, and to make matters worse I was having to fend off more Keyblades than I could handle.

As sometimes happens in troublesome situations, I heard those damned whispers again. The darkness could and would help – but at its usual price. It's persistent and patient though, and will keep on going until the trouble passes or you give in.

Instead of turning to it, I decided to try something else. We weren't using the cards, but what if I pulled one out anyway – and what if it happened to be that first enemy card I'd obtained?

There was no way I could keep what I was doing from Sora. The many images seemed to be able to coordinate with each other without words, one capable of responding to something another saw. It was impossible to catch any one of them out if another could see it for that reason.

I used what magic I had to heal myself, then bore the continued attacks long enough to pull out the card for Roxas and use it like any other card that had come from the deck. A great white flash engulfed everything around me, the many images flung clear. When it passed nothing appeared different at first.

I was wearing Roxas's coat though, just like the times before when I'd borrowed his power through the drive forms, and in my off-hand was Gilded Light. Roxas's presence wasn't with me, but the card had done enough to stand in for him and even allow me to take up two Keyblades for a time.

As an experiment though I chose to dismiss them both and see what else the card had allowed, finding exactly what I wanted. Instead of continuing this fight with Keyblades, I pulled out Axel's chakrams from the air instead. Less reach, but you'd be amazed at how much more control that gives – not to mention it's much, much easier to evade attacks when you're not holding two oversized keys around.

The Sora images rallied quickly to continue their fight, but this time I was ready for them. They still outnumbered me vastly, and until I started whittling down their numbers they were still more than capable of dishing out far more damage than I was, but things were looking up. More of them fell to the chakrams than had to the single Keyblade alone.

I still needed to get rid of more of them though, so exchanged them for the great scythe of Marluxia. It's not effective for single opponents, but use broad swings and put plenty of power behind them and dear gods was it effective. The images started to fall like newly mown hay.

As their numbers fell, Sora revealed which one of them was him by starting to use various magic once again. I didn't have the magic to counter that, but it didn't really matter. They'd closed in around me before he'd used his blinding spell again, and that put them well within range of one of my favourite, if clearly overpowered, moves. Magic Hour.

Just like the real Magic Hour I got from Roxas, the sheer power it output was more than enough to restore my own strength, but also enough to forcibly cancel the card's effect. It was a one-use thing that didn't leave much choice in how it was followed up.

Sora's images had been decimated by that, but he still held firm and tried to continue the attack for a time. It was clear his own magic had been strained to the limit between the blinding spell and the mirror images though, enough that now he was the one who didn't have enough to heal.

"Enough," he said weakly after a particularly heavy blow had caused him to stumble back. "I think I get the idea."

"You mean you don't want to play any more?" I asked lightly. "I'm crushed."

"Be nice," he chided. "Someday I'll beat you."

"You're welcome for a rematch anytime – after I get out of here though. It'll take more than a few bits of magic to overpower me though."

"I noticed. I really wasn't expecting you to pull Roxas on me. I thought you'd left him behind."

"Alright Sora, just how do you know about that?"

"Not now. You've got stuff to do. Just pay me a visit once you're done here."

And with that, he disappeared – leaving behind not a feather, but a green leaf slowly sinking into the ocean that had returned around me with his disappearance, the rock gone with it. I was left floating in the empty room with nothing but the two doors, Neku, and that leaf.

That, and one thought.

Sora had a book too.