Hello My friends, I hope you are all doing well. I would firstly like to say Happy belated holidays.

I hope that your year is going well and if not I hope it gets better.

I apologize for not posting in a very long while.

Imagine my joy when I saw the stats of my stories and more than 700 people had read my stories.

I want to say thank you to all my patient readers.

Your patience, Favorites, and reviews are truly the gold that I treasure.

Thank you for everything.

-o-

Pain chapter 8: RED

Riku and Co. arrive at Yensids tower.

"Come, Master Riku Make yourself at home in the new drafting room" Yensid says as he leads them to a new door that had never existed prior.

The new door extended into a very big room with a very high ceiling decorated with constellations of the worlds. It had background gradients from sunset orange to dusk blues and purples. A large oval table and chairs were in the middle of the room. The wall of the rooms was of a metallic dark grey and it seemed as if the floor was also built high tech with its intricate designs.

The group stares at the room in awe and takes their places in their respectful chairs.

"This is the drafting room, It is equipped with the best technology that our worlds can conjure. Masters and trainees, please say your greetings to our most esteemed guest, Jarvis."

The team looks around for this "Jarvis", not finding him Donald impatiently squawks "Well?! Where are they?!"

Jarvis's voice flows from the ceiling and jerks everyone's head up.

"Greetings Sir Donald, Court magician of Sir King mickeys kingdom. From Master Yensids' conversation, I had the impression not to intervene. "

"Jarvis is an AI created by the greatest investor of all worlds, Anthony Stark of Stark enterprises. A company previously sought to create destruction. Having been used against his own technology he had become gravely wounded." Yensid closes his eyes as he strokes his beard. "Seeing the errors of the ways he had sought out the rest of his life's work saving his world and people from the impending danger that constantly seeks to destroy his world and their inhabitants."

The group shifts uncomfortably. Goofy speaks up; "Gosh, he sounds like he awfully could use a couple of helping hands. Are you sure it's-a-o-kay to keep here Jarvis?" Goofy asks while scratching his head.

"Sir is Aided by the original copy of myself and the help of a Hero group by the name of the AVENGERS. The group is consisting of the most powerful and implements agents and candidates listed by SHEILD." A carousel of photos pops up in the air showing the faces and profiles of the current avengers. " Their sole responsibility is to defend earth and its inhabitants. Please keep your mind at ease Sir goofy, your concern is duly noted ad or appreciated."

The group asks Jarvis basic and complex questions. They sit and discuss as Jarvis keeps a record of data of what is said in the room.

Riku relays what had happened when had been in his dream eater form to the group and his encounter with sora.

Yensid strokes his beard in thought. "That is of most peculiar… Sora was able to call you in your most conscious form…"

"... at least we have some sort of update on soras well-being, although it's not the best…"Kairi adds.

Axel looks around the moping crowd, rolls his eyes, and sighs. "Jarvis man, you showed us how smart you are and all. Coulda throw us a bone or something?" Axel says as he lays back in his chair with his arms crossed.

"Trainee Axel, although I lack a physical body to 'throw a bone' I will take your words in the concept that I may have a theory of what had become of 'Sora'. My creator, who had used the knowledge of the quantum realm was able to create a machine where it was possible to go back in time to achieve a goal to save his world. Alternatively, this had of course Altered the endless possibilities of those universes' outcomes. Ultimately there are infinite possible realities where 'sora' may exist. Maybe part of him, a carbon copy of the original exists in that universe."

"...So you're saying that even if we do find sora there might be a chance that he might not be the real sora?" Kairi says and clenches her hand above her chest.

"Affirmative" replies Jarvis.

The room falls into a heavy silence.

"Is it possible to use the one your creator had used? The Quantum realms thing." Riku asks Jarvis.

"Unfourtenlly, Master Riku, Access is denied of usage of the Quantum realm due to lack of supplies to power the Quantum realm. Also due to extensive damage of the machinery. There is also the issue of asking permission from Sir is required of use of technology."

Ventus speaks up.

"Well, it can't be that bad right? We could ask Master Yensid or Merlin to chip in with their magic?" He looks at the master inside with hopeful eyes.

Master Yensid strokes his beard with his eyes closed.

"Perhaps… If we can acquire some blueprints from Hero Anothony we could ponder the possibilities. For now, I want you Master Riku to go to the radiant garden to be examined by our science division. I want further tests done to determine the strange phenomenon of soras' ability to call your conscious form into a dream eater. Perhaps we can replicate and communicate with sora in this way too."

Riku nods determinedly to do whatever it takes to get sora back.

o-o

Ienzo and Xaldin lead Riku to the lab where Kairi had slept for months prior for clues about her past and possibly Sora.

The procedure although cold and awkward was quick.

Ienzo had measured the amount of general anesthesia with a blood sample taken from Riku that early morning.

Riku slept before they could count to ten.

He sunk, sunk, sunk deep into a deep void. He was weightless. He flew around the vast space trying to find if anything else existed within the plane.

His heart called out like a beacon around him. White misty pulses radiated out of his body.

As he cut through the void he notices a bright patch like it was something torn from fabric.

Riku investigates the mysterious tear in the sky.

"Is this a… locked world? What is it doing here?" Riku says as he summons his keyblade.

"Only one way to find out!"

The keyhole lights brightly as it is unlocked. A big white flash and Riku finds himself in the dreamscape of traverse town.

"Traverse Town? No… this is the dream version of that world…"

Riku walks around inspecting the nearly empty town.

"It's completely empty…" he mutters.

A whimper is heard in the ally way between the tavern and the empty bazaar.

Riku goes there to investigate. There, a meowow is stuck in a barrel.

"Woah, hold on there buddy."

Riku pulls its middle and the meowow pops out after a bit of a struggle landing them both on the stone floor.

"I'm never letting sora over the stuff you guys again…" Riku says as he rubs his nearly nonexistent rump.

The meowow dizzy shakes its head and makes cute squealing noises. It jumps up and down excited, circling Riku.

"You missed me huh?" Riku says smiling fondly while petting it.

It makes a blissed-out face and proceeds to jump on Riku licking his whole face.

Riku giggles while trying to hold the meowow back.

"T-That tickles! Haha!... " after settling down from the giggles he asks the meowow "you wouldn't have seen Sora anywhere have you?"

The meowow perks up in excitement by Soras name. It squeals and runs in circles. A bunch of summoning sounds is heard nearby. The plaza is slowly being filled up by more and more dream eaters.

They seemed to be happy, excited, blissed.

"What.. in the... " Riku says, mouth wide open gaping.

/Hello Riku, Master of the keyblade and friend/

"Huh?" Riku asks in confusion.

/We are the dream eaters of keybladers long lost… Sora had given us a place to be… here, in the realm of sleep!/

"How are we communicating with each other? How is this a thing? How come I've never known about his before?" Riku asks.

/you are Soras dream eater, you are one of us - despite being a humankind of dream eater in your original form. Your connection and drive to find Sora… your bond is strong enough and more potent. That is why you are able to speak with us Master Riku./

"I wouldn't call this my original form… but interesting. Does anyone here have any clues on the whereabouts of sora?"

/Sora!/ They exclaim happily in a union.

/when it rains it pours! Look in the puddles, you'll bound to find sora in one of the puddle realms!/ one of the voices exclaim happily.

"Puddle realms?" Riku questions.

Riku tries to question further but the voices became muddled and lost in their own exciting conservations. A lot of mentions of Sora and what type of dreams he had or was going to get in the future.

Riku looks around on the ground into the puddles. The puddles make Interference colors. He sees worlds, both new and old, people and places.

Riku closes his eyes. He pulls his clenched hand to the front of his chest and focused on connecting his heart with soras'.

'Sora…'

'Sora… Where are you…'

'Sora!'

In the corner of his eyes, one of the Interference colors puddles shines brightly.

He looks closely and sees Sora, Dozing under a palm tree.

Reaching his hand out and dipping his hand into the puddle suddenly, vertigo twists Riku.

Landing on his knee he sees Sand, Tropical plants, and large bodies of seawater.

'Destiny island?... No.'

He turns around at the sound of a light snore.

"Sora!"

Riku walks to sora, careful not to wake him.

As he observes Sora he notices that he seems younger. His clothes were different. A single color, The red of his uniform, was only visible. The rest were of shades of grey as if left out of a coloring book.

"Sora…!" Riku shakes his shoulder to wake him.

He scrunches his face and grunts. Slowly fluttering his eyes awake.

"Ri…ku…? Nah… I must… be dream-in"

He yawns and attempts to shut his eyes back to sleep more.

Riku cuffs the back of his head.

"Ah! Wha!? That was so not a dream!"

"I'm glad my hand could convenience you." He huffs.

Sora rubs the back of his head and stands.

"What are you doing here?" Sora asks.

Riku looks bewildered and looks confused at this monochromatic sora.

"What do mean? I came back for you, to save you." Riku makes to grab soras' arm but sora quickly retracts it.

"Uh… from what exactly?" Now sora is sounding confused.

"You don't remember? That crazy guy that was attacking you? Impersonating your dad?"

"What!? Riku! You're sounding crazy!" Sora says angrily while stepping backward from Riku.

"You want to play as the knight in shining armor, is that it?!" He adds angrily.

"What? What are you talking about sora?! Come on! I'm getting you out of here!"

This time Riku pushes forward and does grabs his arm and makes to drag him out of here.

"To where exactly! Let go of me! I'm not some damsel in distress!" He scoffs. " I can take care of myself. It's not like I haven't been doing that for the majority of my life time as a keyblade wielder." Sora spits out.

Riku Stops at that and looks back frustrated.

"Why are you being like this? I came to save my best friend! Now come back with me where it's safe! Don't you want to see Kairi? Our friends?!" Riku yells in frustration.

"...Ha… Friends?" the way Sora says it is a bit of hysteria.

"Tell me Riku, Do friends leave other friends behind?"

Riku gasps, his eyes opening as wide as saucers.

"Do friends stab friends in the back? Leave them behind? Burden their shoulders with responsibilities larger than the multi-universe?!" Sora continues angrily.

"Sora - NO - I" Riku stutters as Sora continues to tirade.

"Even after all I had done, who would've thought I would be rejected as a Keyblade Master" Sora spit out.

"Sora please! Calm down! We can talk about this!" Riku raises his hands patently in the air as a sign of peace.

"I'm done being calm, Riku." Soras' eyes flash a dark shade of purple. It seemed as if dark smoke or smog had clung from the bottom of soras' frame.

A torrent of dark wind blinds Riku. When he does open him he sees Sora in keyblade armor, the same as xions. The darkness billowing around him pushes Riku back several feet away.

"I'll show you what a real keyblade master can really do." Sora spits angrily as he readies himself for battle.

Riku makes a constipated face as if he were in physical pain.

He didn't come here to fight his friend. He came here to save his friend. Why was Sora acting the way he was.

As Sora lunges forward Riku barely blocks the first strike.

Riku grunts.

"Sora! I… Don't… Want to fight you!" He says pushes him back off of himself.

"Listen! Think!" Riku says as he uses his shadow slides to escape Soras' swings.

Sora raises his swords above his head and brings them down in a low motion.

"You're starting to sound like a broken record, it's really getting under my skin!"

Sora surges forward in a drill-like fashion.

The attack nicks Rikus's side, barely dodging the attack.

'Why is he so angry?! I've never seen sora so angry before. He's usually so calm, nice, caring. He is always like a sun, beaming smiles making anyone's day…always giving everyone hope even in their darkest hours.'

Riku decides he can't attack his friend nor can he reason his friend so he doges, hides, and runs trying to avoid Soras attacks.

"Where's the fire Riku?" Sora releases a Firaga at Riku. Riku deflects this time with his keyblade sending the attack flying right back knocking Sora back.

"Argh… you think your better than I don't you? Better, smarter, stronger. Well, I'm here to prove to you I'm not that scared feeble kid I was back on the islands!" Sora and Riku clash and exchange attacks. Mostly of Riku defending and deflecting attacks while sora viciously and miraculously lands attack after successful attack.

"Sora! I… I never thought you were weaker than me! I…I… wouldn't have gotten this far without you! Sora, Please! You got to snap out of this… this… Anger that's clouding your mind!"

Riku pleads.

"My heads have never been clearer! Now I can see how clearly how much I am of value to you guys as a pawn! A tool!"

'What!?'

"What!? What are you talking about sora! I never said-!"

'This soras mind is clouded with anger

A mysterious voice flows into Rikus's mind. It didn't seem like Sora could hear this voice as he was continuing his attacks on Riku.

'Who are you?'

'I'm… Let's just say I'm a friend. A friend of soras in this realm?'

'So your a talking dream eater? Where are you?'

'No No No No No, I am not a dream eater. As for your second question I can't answer that either…'

Riku growls in response, not realizing he had done it while holding his keyblade against Soras.

"Ha! Finally, getting Serious Riku?! Well, you better! If this is what a Master could do then this is just sad." He says as he smirks.

He rears his keyblades' back. Swinging one of them in one hand.

"I'm done warming up Riku, This is where the real fun begins. I'm going to Defeat you and then those Masters will have to recognize me for my true value as a master!"

The armor seemed to turn into a much darker shade of dark completely and did he just grow bigger in size?!

'Ok, buddy if you got advice on how to get this situation under control this is the time to do it!'

Riku says panicky as his choices on how to handle the situation are getting smaller by the minute.

'Well, he is your best friend snappy pants! Shouldn't you know how to calm down your friend when he's really sad or upset?'

And Riku realized the strange voice was absolutely correct.

Riku knew what he had to do now.

The reason Sora was so upset and angry.

Riku leads Sora to the large shore towards the open sea.

"Sora! Please listen to me! I'm sorry you are feeling the way that you are feeling!" Riku exclaims.

Sora just huffs "You think a cheap apology is going to make me calmer?!" He says as he slams his keyblade at Riku.

'Ok, he has at least gotten 4 times larger than his original size.'

Riku yelps out in pain as his hand gets twisted back. A loud sharp snap as if a twig had broken resounds in the air with a short scream.

Rikus hand is broken.

His Keyblade falls to the sea with a decent splash sinking to the bottom of the salty waters.

"Ha! Now you're defenseless! This should be an easy win! It's almost sad!" Sora charges full-on ahead, keyblade head-on locked to strike Rikus's chest.

Riku uses his magic, "Bind!" Powerful Yellow rings of light erupt from Riku. The attack Locks Sora in place mid-attack.

Riku gasps out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

He scurries out of the attack's way and makes to hug soras still body.

"What… Are… you… Doing…!" Sora manages to growl out. His eyes trained on Rikus' movements.

Riku just holds Sora tighter.

"I'm sorry you had to feel this way sora. There is no way I could say that I am more qualified of being a keyblader master than you. I get my strength from you sora. Every time I fell into darkness you saved me. You saved all of us - maybe more than once even!"

Sora gasps. "NO! Your lying! Your Lying to me! Get OFF!" He yells frustratingly.

Riku just holds him stronger. "No, I will keep you together sora. You are better than your anger. You're my best friend. When I'm down in the dumps you were always there for me. I thought I had to act tougher, thinking it would be better for me to bottle my emotions so that you would always be happy and to stop worrying about me. Then one day those feelings had been burst out of me and I had been consumed by the darkness.

Now I realize that you are doing the same, this darkness! It's ugly and it thrives off of negative emotion Sora!

No more bottling up our emotions, let's talk about solutions for our problems!"

Sora shoves Riku off of himself as the spell is broken.

"It's too late Riku!" Soras armor starts to crack as bits of light shine through the cracks.

Soras armor chips and falls away revealing a tall figure of red in a long cloak, A perfectly round mask with a simple angry face design. The figure looked like a very basic definition of a ghost, just a simple cloth design or a very lazy last-minute Halloween costume idea.

The red-cloaked figure blinks owlishly at Riku, A hole emerges from the middle of its abdomen revealing miniature red-clothed sora inside a clear orb floating inside sleeping.

Riku, confused observes the strange turns of events. He lefts out a panicked gasp at the now trapped sora.

"What have you done to Sora?!" Riku raises his keyboard and strikes multiple times at his foe. His target seemed to absorb the hit but not quite be injured. The orb in its abdomen falls loose and the sora inside the orb rolls along the beach shores.

The ghost-like figure drops on its knees and stares vacantly at the sandy floor.

Riku grabs the Sora orb in his hands. He feels a torrent of overwhelming emotions burst from the palm of his hands throughout his whole frame. Riku falls to one knee but still clutches at the orb keeping sora safe near his heart. Riku's eye twitches and he closes his eyes with the overwhelming pain enveloping him. His body starts to sweat and he finally falls on both knees still clutching soras orb.

He can feel would sora felt - no feels. Even now. The anger, the regret, Confusion, Pain, and acceptance of his journey.

Riku pockets the miniature orb sora in his inventory and looks back at the ghost figure. It seemed as if it just stopped working after Sora had been released from its perfectly fitted pocket.

After regaining his composure, Riku takes out his gummi phone and snaps a photo of the creature, maybe the science division could figure out something about the strange turn of events.

Riku looks around, seeing nothing else but the white void he falls back into a puddle directly back to the waking world.

He snaps his eyes open, one name on his tongue.

"Master Yen Sid!"

-o-

A set of footprints fade away as the shore eats them away. The mysterious figure picks up the red long creature inspecting it for potential damages. He sends it up in the sky, flinging it. The creature dissipates into a code of numbers and letters.

"Thank you, keyblade Master, I couldn't have done this without you," They say in a sing-song voice ending with a goosebumps enticing smile.

Their long black coat trails behind him into the dark corridor as he disappears without a trace.