Arthur jolted awake, 'V-Ventus? Who was that, his eyes… His eyes looked just like Sora-'
"hey! Are you okay?" Arthur snapped his attention to the right of him, there Sora was, the look on his face made Arthur feel horrible, as the memory of him staring into Sora's eyes came back to him. Arthur barely mumbled out a response
"Y-yeah, sorry for that". Sora seemed to brighten up
"Don't apologize… But what happened? You worried all of us". Arthur wasn't sure what to say
'I'm sorry, it seemed that while I was staring straight into your soul I had some kind of day dream about someone completely irrelevant'
"Oh… That's okay, so what did he look like, was he your friend? Was he mean to you?" Arthur straightened up and said
"Huh?" Sora smiled
"You said that while you were making eye contact with me you were daydreaming about someone else". Arthur went beet red and Yuffie and Aerith giggled, but Sora asked again "who was he?" Sora wasn't laughing, but he was curious, not mad or demanding. Arthur thought back to his dream
"He… He had your eyes… He had blonde spikey hair and was your height, we were friends, I think". Sora seemed intrigued
"Does… Does the name Roxas, ring a bell?" Arthur thought back, then said
"Ventus… It was Ventus". Sora seemed disappointed, so Arthur asked him
"Are you looking for him?" Sora nodded
"Ever since I woke up from my year long nap, he's all I can think about, I don't know why, some people have even called me him… I can faintly remember him, but there's this image". Sora brought out the image of Hayner, Olette, Pence and Roxas, Arthur noticed that Ventus and Roxas bore a very similar complexion, look, everything. It just struck with Arthur that these two were really important, and it may include Sora in all of this.
Sora seemed to be thinking the same thing, now that he thought about it. "Why don't you ask those people about Roxas?" Arthur asked. Sora shook his head
"The thing is… They don't seem to know anything about him… But when we left their world, This guy *pointing at Pence* said he felt wrong not seeing us off, said it was like we had been friends for so long". Arthur then said
"Then… Then they know him! Maybe it's like… I dunno, but… Clearly they had to know each other at one point! You have that photo as proof!" Sora scratched his head
"It's not that simple..." Now the entire gang began to get involved, asking what he meant, but Leon put a stop to their questions
"Geez guys, you gonna let the kid speak or what?" Sora thanked him, and tried to ignore the semi-insulting comment on his youthfulness
"Well… I… I got it when we defended Hollow Bastion from the nobody's and the heartless… We were… Somewhere, but nowhere at the same time, we were floating in darkness, pitch black, If that's all true, I don't think Roxas was their friend in this world". Arthur was having a hard time comprehending it, but the point was, they were friends, but not in this reality… He thought anyways. Sora smiled and said
"Hey… Maybe we could take you with us to Twilight Town!" Arthur was curious, but Donald was very, very clear in the past about bringing people with them from, or to other worlds. He naturally spoke up
"No way! You know we can't chance it! Breaking the order and all that!" Sora sighed and tried to convince him otherwise
"But-" Donald chimed in
"No way!" Goofy suddenly got curious
"Gawrsh Arthur, can I see that weapon of yours again? It seems familiar somehow" Arthur nodded and summoned it, which, on its own, was interesting, but it was the weapon that made Goofy scratch his head, before he snapped his finger, like he had a million munny idea. Goofy exclaimed "that seems a lot like the blade King Mickey described once! He said he met a boy of the light, one who wielded a blade identical to that one! He did say that he was inseparable from his best friend, Ven". Arthur's eyes went wide with shock
They were on the dusty world, nothing else seemed to roam, that's when they saw the figure they were after, except, it was somehow different, that was when he noticed something had skipped, because now he was next to Ven, his hand on his shoulder, when a hand was on his own shoulder 'So it seems your memory is recovering at a better pace than I thought possible, peculiar indeed' Arthur was angry
'Get out of my head!" Then Vanitas gave a sly smirk
"Nah, I think I'll stay a while, it's cozy, besides, maybe I can find out Ven's location from you-'
"You'll never get it, not in a million years! I'm coming for you, you and Master Xehanort!' Arthur stopped in his mental tracks and this made Vanitas smile even wider.
"Yes Arthur, remember more, go on, what'll you do, when we were at the-' Arthur slashed at him, abruptly sliced through him, ending his dream phase.
When Arthur came to, everyone was startled, some degree of worry in their eyes. He held his head, and shook it "what happened?" Sora was the first to inform him
"You started talking to no one, then you got angry and said you'd never give out Ven's location, then you pulled out your sword, you nearly cut me in two! But I got out of the way in time, you okay now?" Arthur nodded, and before he could profusely apologize, Sora then asked "what even happened?".
"It seemed that when I heard the name, some memory triggered, I was… In some dusty world, some guy who I knew from before… Everything, it was really weird… And scary" Sora looked at him and asked him
"How? What's so scary about remembering yourself?" Arthur shook his head and said
"It's not that… He said something weird, something that scares me, he wanted me to remember, said that I'd reveal the location of Ventus for him". Arthur looked Sora in the eyes "Sora, I can't let him find Ven, I don't know him, but I know he's not good, I need to actively unremember all of this, the feeling of letting that creep find Ven doesn't sit well with me, I don't know what he wants with Ven, but it's certainly no good". Sora smirked and said to Donald
"Well Donald, since Arthur knows the king, and it seems they were good friends, I'm sure King Mickey would like us to take him with us… Unless, of course, you'd like to explain to the king why we left his best friend behind?". Donald went from glaring, to worry, to glaring again
"Oh phooey, fine! But this is the only exception to that rule, got it?" Sora gave this bright smile at Donald before nodding. Sora went from talking to the others, to focusing in on Arthur, and as Sora was ranting and raving about the other worlds, and their adventures throughout. Sora was tuned out and Arthur found himself trapped in his mind, hearing a voice he recognized to be this 'Ventus' boy. Arthur recalled that Ven would always talk about the adventures he wanted to drag Arthur along on, the fun of experiencing other worlds, and their inhabitants. Arthur was dragged back into the real world by Sora
"Hey! Have you been dozing off?!" Arthur whispered
"You're just like him… You sound so much like my Ven…".