What you recognized I don't own. Be warned that I have only watched a play through of this game several times so there might be some inaccuracies. This starts shortly before the ending to Dream Drop Distance in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, so what if when Lea/Axel came to help save the group and managed to prevent Xehanort from making Sora a vessel everyone there thought that Sora was killed instead of simply still being unconscious? What would the heroes and Organization XIII do in that situation? Also as always thoughts are in italics. Also while the group doesn't know about Ventus being in Sora's heart since that was discovered in the third game it is mentioned (as far as I remember) that the group was counting on Sora to use the Power of Waking to free Aqua and it might have also hinted at Ventus as well. And the group will get Ansem back sooner as well, and with Ansem's help they'll find out about Ventus and the others (in regards to Ventus and Roxas I have a plan that will allow them to be woken up despite Sora apparently being dead). Also this is NOT going to be KH3 compliant for the most part, yes there will be parts that will be either the same or at least similar but there's also going to be a lot of differences because of Sora being dead as far as everyone is concerned

Lea insisted on being the one to carry Sora back to the Mysterious Tower even though Riku had also wanted to carry his friend back to said tower

"Listen, I know that you want to take care of your friend, but you're exhausted, I have more strength then you right now so it's best that I be the one to carry him at the moment" (thinks) "I also don't want you to feel what I'm feeling, I don't think you'd last at the moment knowing that your friend is dead and his body is going cold in my arms as we're walking"

"We need to get to Master Yen Sid"

"Agreed, my usual method is out of the question, is there a faster way?"

"Only the Gummi ship really all things considered since we don't want to waste time going to Twilight Town and taking the train from there"

"Then once we can get to the Gummi ship we need to head to the tower immediately"

"You're right, Master Yen Sid should know what to do"

Once at the tower Lea carefully put Sora down against the wall as directed by Yen Sid and that's when Mickey speaks up

"Aw, Sora, don't tell me your heart is sleeping too"

But before Yen Sid could speak Lea does instead

"No King Mickey, Sora isn't sleeping, neither his heart, which you're going to have to explain to me, or in any other way. I...I haven't said anything but...Sora is dead, I felt his body going cold as I was carrying him here, I'm not sorry I didn't say anything since I'm pretty sure of what would have happened if you had known this immediately after battle but...I am sorry that I wasn't there sooner in order to prevent his death"

"No way, there's no way he's dead"

"Riku...Lea tells the truth, Sora is dead"

"Master what is the plan now for Aqua and Ventus?, not to mention Terra?"

"I'm not sure Mickey, but for now we have a funeral to plan"

And so the small group hold a small but meaningful funeral held at the Tower because while even Yen Sid would have preferred that Sora be buried on his home world he knew that it would have been impossible due to the circumstances surrounding his death. Once the funeral was over Kairi speaks up

"What now?"

"Now we need to figure out who will help fill the requirement for our seven lights while trying to stop Xehanort from gathering his thirteen darkness's"
Lea then speaks up

"King Mickey, you mentioned a few names recently, are they part of the seven lights?"

"Yes but...one has been missing a long time in a way, another is hidden while his heart is sleeping and may never wake up now while the third...the third is in a place that Riku knows of...in fact I need to explain some things about the third person to him"

And so Mickey tells Riku about Aqua and how she was in the realm of darkness and that she had sacrificed herself to allow Riku to complete his mission to close the door to Kingdom Hearts way back when

"Why didn't I know about this before?"

"I had to respect her wishes, and then there's the fact that we can't bring Aqua back without the Power of Waking Riku"

"Mickey is telling the truth Riku, it's why I forbade him to tell you, so that you or Sora didn't try to attempt a reckless rescue attempt"

"I see...I'll do it somehow, I'll gain the Power of Waking and free Aqua so that we can hopefully wake up Ventus and find Terra"

"And in the meantime we will keep an eye on the Organization to see if they try anything with Sora now dead"

"Thank you Lea, what about those who came back with you?"

"We're all adjusting still, but we seem to be okay"

"If that changes let us know immediately"

"Master Yen Sid is right, it's not your fault what happened, I just wish..."

Mickey goes very quiet all of a sudden and Riku finally speaks up knowing what Mickey was about to say

"Let me guess, you just wish that Ansem the Wise was here to help right?"

"Yes, he made his mistakes but he also did what he could to fix said mistakes...and it cost him his life as far as I'm aware"

"What do you mean?"

And so the group tells Lea about what Ansem had done once to try and fix his mistakes and while Lea wasn't terribly saddened by Ansem's loss after he heard that Ansem had been DiZ, he still realized that it was a harsh blow for everyone, especially Ansem's former pupils

"I see...I'll let everyone else know about you wanting to help us if possible"

"Good, for now though I think all of us are in need of rest, you can tell the rest of the group tomorrow about all of this"

"Right, thanks, oh and about my ability to still use those dark corridors, I think it might be best if you allow those of us who can still use them into the tower, maybe...maybe figure out a way to identify from friend or foe. This is because even if I can use a Keyblade sometimes the corridor is faster and quite frankly we might need to give you reports fast"

"You have a point Lea, I shall consider this before I tell you yes or no, in the meantime like I just stated everyone needs rest after today's events"

"Right, where are spare bedrooms then?"

The group is led to their rooms and due to their physical and emotional exhaustion they slept well into the next day but eventually woke up and as soon as he did Lea went right back to Radiant Garden to tell the group about Sora's death and that Ansem was also dead and how it happened

"So what now?"

"Now I guess all we can do is try and figure out the Organizations next move and stop them if possible, and wait for Even to wake up to try and see if he can help us figure anything else out that...that Master Ansem left behind in his research regarding Sora"

"Yes, Lea is the group sure that Master Ansem...?"

"Yes Ienzo, they're sure, according to them they saw the explosion in person"

"I see"

"Then I guess all we can do is simply do our best to translate Master Ansem's reports while keeping an eye on the Organization and waiting for Even to wake up"

"Yes, I guess so, let's hope he wakes up soon and that when he hears all of this he doesn't...well you know"

"Agreed, we're also going to have to make sure he doesn't rejoin the Organization"

"Yeah, all things considered he might think that a good idea"

"Any word on Braig and Isa?"

"Not yet"

"Well in that case I have news on Isa at least, he's with the Organization again"

"I see"

"I'll try and find Braig but in the meantime we have other work to keep us busy"

"Yes, we do"

"What about the Restoration Committee that we found out about?"

"Make tentative contact and then go from there I guess, though I get the feeling we're going to have to build a lot of trust between us and them"

"True, and quite frankly I don't think we should even make such an attempt until we make progress regarding our missing people and if not destroying the equipment here then repurpuosing it first"

"Yeah, probably a good idea"

What Lea and the others didn't know was that Mickey and Riku were talking to the committee about Ansem's former apprentice's so that trust could be built between them and the town gradually but what Lea and the others would do would also help go a long ways in helping heal the damage done since both sides knew that trust would take time and effort. Meanwhile Xigbar decided to confront Xehanort about what had happened

"What now old man? I mean Sora was kind of important to our plans since we no longer have seven lights"

"That was indeed an oversight on my part not even thinking about one of them dying, as such we shall have to wait and see if the Keyblade chooses a new master, but while we are doing so we shall try and weaken the forces of good in any way we can while waiting for our final members of darkness to come"

"Very well, how shall we do so?"

"We'll find ways, and we taunt them whenever possible regarding Sora's death as well in any way we can since most likely they'll be questioning themselves about it, especially Axel"

"And that's something that will irritate him a lot, calling him Axel instead of Lea so we can probably use that to our advantage as well"

"Indeed, let us get started then"

"So no chance for them to truly grieve huh?"

"You have a point actually, allowing them time to grieve will make the pain even stronger when we remind them of their loss, and their failure"

"How long though?"

"At least a month, and even then we won't immediately start provoking them"

"Understood, I'll pass that along to the others, though I think Saix should be watched a little closer for a time considering that Axel will probably do anything to get his friend back"

"Then we shall keep him here for a time until we're sure that Axel won't try anything or if he does he can't affect Saix's decisions"

"Very well then I'll let him know, should we try and get some of the others back as well considering they were Ansem the Wise's apprentices?"

"Only if they come to us"

"Got it, Vexen would be the most likely person to come back all things considered"

"True, but he might not if the others convince him to stay or decide to keep an eye on him while he's recovering"

"Then we shall keep an eye on that group and if it appears that they are keeping Vexen from making any rash decisions we shall simply leave him be"

"I understand"

And so while the Organization gave the warriors of light time to grieve so that they could truly hurt Riku and the others emotionally with Sora's loss, Riku underwent intensive training to see if he could gain the Power of Waking, plus it was also training for his test to become a Master since Yen Sid had told him that he would be undertaking another test for the Mark of Mastery due to the interruption of the previous test. What not many realized was that Riku hadn't truly started the grieving process because of how intense he wanted his training, while Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Mickey had all noticed how he was avoiding the grieving process while they themselves had begun it they didn't confront him trying to respect his decisions and trying to understand that Riku just didn't want to think about Sora being dead at the moment. Riku himself hadn't come to full realization about his grieving not starting though he knew he was deliberately pushing himself not to think about the moment of Sora's death all the time. Finally though the month of training was over and Yen Sid had observed Riku the entire time and decided that it was time to intervene