Hand in Hand

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all its characters, places, items, puppies, trinities, moogles, Heartless, Unknowns, etc. either belong to Square-Enix or Disney.

Pre-story note: For some reason, John Mayer's songs in Heavier Things helped in writing this story so far. 0_o

Chapter III: Dive In

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I think…my eyes were open, I can see things and colors and stuff… but I really wasn't seeing anything.

"What's happening to me?"

I'm falling in the sky… I thought I was drowning for a moment there…

"I can't breathe…"

I wish I'd land into something solid right about now.

It's so dark in this place…

"Am I still falling?"

I think I'm in a church.

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In an instant, Sora found himself lying down on stained glass. His head was throbbing; it seemed like he had just awoken from a nightmare. Rubbing the back of his head, he debated with himself whether he should stand up or just lie down there until whoever's playing with him would allow him to wake up.

"Ow… That was crazy," he told himself. He eventually stood up, though, and once he did, he regretted it, because the voice in his head spoke up again.

So much to do, so little time... Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?

"Take my time doing what, exactly…" Sora thought to himself angrily as he stared at the beautifully done stained glass image of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. "Wow… I never liked it, but… this is too strange…"

He stepped forward. A sword, a shield and a staff formed from the shadows.

If you give it form... It will give you strength. Choose well.

Sora shook his head. "I don't think it will matter, whichever I choose…"

You're not ready for anything yet. Maybe if you'd tell me more about yourself?...

Sora gasped as the darkness of that empty space gained light. The next thing he knew, he was on Tidus' spot on Destiny Islands.

Well, this was strange enough. Sora looked around. Selphie, Wakka and Tidus were talking amongst themselves, not noticing that Sora was there.

Wait. Tidus, Wakka and Selphie were there! He doesn't have to be alone anymore! "Hey, you guys, you're here too?! What's going on? How'd you all get here?"

The three of them turned to look at Sora. Then they looked at each other and nodded.

"Uh… you guys?" Sora asked warily. These three are starting to creep me out… he thought.

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The three of them looked at me. It was as if I was a stranger to them, but a stranger that they've been waiting for… for quite some time now.

They walked towards me. It was kinda strange, the way they moved. They left some sort of silhouette behind them. Like they're ghosts or something. But it seemed kinda out of place. The island was too sunny and too breezy to be scary.

Then, their mouths opened. They were speaking, but I wasn't too sure if I heard their voices at all.

"What's most important to you?"

"What are you afraid of?"

"What do you want outta life?"

I looked at them strangely. They didn't mind at all. All they wanted were my answers. Problem was, hard as I racked my brain to have at least one specific answer to the questions, I came up with none.

What's most important to me? I dunno. There are too many important things in my life, and I don't consider that one is more important than the others.

What am I afraid of? Failure. Rejection. Lose everything I know. Getting lost. And so much more. But I can't tell Tidus that. I don't think that those are the answers he's expecting.

What do I want out of life? Happiness, basically. But… I didn't answer Wakka anyway. I might regret saying the wrong answer.

But they were my friends, right? And I'm 14. So what if I give them some shallow answers? I'm not sure why I just didn't come up with something like, "Being number one" or "Getting Old" or "To see rare sights"… I just had the strangest feeling that this Tidus-Wakka-Selphie session would be important. Later on.

"Your adventure begins at the dead of the night…"

"The day you will open the door is both far off and very near."

That's what I'm afraid of, yeah. What would happen later on. I should have told that to Tidus before the sunny island faded to black again.

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Sora found himself on the stained glass room again. This time though, the image was of Princess Aurora, surrounded by thorns.

"What now?" he asked out loud. As if to answer his question, stairs appeared out of nowhere. Shrugging, he decided to take the stairs to wherever.

He reached the top of the stairs. There was light coming from somewhere… He believed that it was an exit from this nightmarish place (because light appearing in dark places means something good, right?)

Wrong.

The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.

Curiously, Sora turned to look at his shadow. That makes sense. His shadow was a lot taller than him now…

But then, it rose up. His shadow was alive.

But don't be afraid. And don't forget…

"What the hell!?" he screamed. His shadow, with its little beady yellow eyes, glared at him menacingly. He backed away, hoping that another convenient set of stairs would appear out of nowhere again… but, nothing. He almost fell off the edge of the portrait.

The sword he saw earlier on the pedestals formed on his hands. It seemed that he has no choice. He had to fight this thing in front of him… Darkside, he dubbed it. Since it appeared from the darker side of him…

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I can't believe it. I was actually putting up a fight with this huge thing. And those annoying little black ants that had attacked us back in the alleyway.

I really wasn't thinking during the fight. Just hit the ants until they disappear and drop candy (those green balls made me feel better and healed a few wounds), then hit Darkside's hand that seemed to be responsible for the appearance of the ants.

And I was feeling victorious at that time. But then, I felt myself sinking so suddenly.

Sinking slowly into the darkness.

"But don't be afraid."

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You hold the mightiest weapon of all.

So don't forget: You are the one who will open the door.

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That was one hard chapter to write… especially the Tidus-Wakka-Selphie session! I hope I didn't do too badly… Anyways, on to the notes:

1) I hope you weren't confused with the Sora POV's and the 3rd person POV.

2) Thank you to annjirika and Inside Lines (I hope I got both of your names right!) for the script-finding!

3) The chapter's title is 'Dive In' because of the 'Dive Into The Heart' thing…

Okay! That's it, for now. Sorry if I'm not very descriptive, my stories tend to be more event-driven, or something like that. :sweatdrop: Anyways, as always, comments and suggestions would be appreciated!