Kingdom Hearts 2: Dark Dream

By: Kirstin

Chapter 1: What I've known has been a lie

"Sora...are you ever going to wake up?"

Sora's body felt heavy as he wondered whose voice that was. It was someone he knew. But who...? He blinked his eyes open with some effort to be greeted by early morning sunlight and a gasp. A face leaned into his line of vision, silver hair falling in its face. Bright sea green eyes were staring down at him wide with shock.

"S-SORA?"

Sora winced at his raised voice, his head beginning to pound. A thought hit him then. Where was he? His eyes traced round the room, recognizing every detail of it. He was in his room, and to be more precise lying in his bed with...

"Ri-Riku?"

Sea green eyes were looking slightly watery, and Sora finally realized it was indeed Riku leaning over him. But Riku, he looked different...he still wore the same attire...but...he looked older.

"Riku, how old are you?"

He asked, his voice cracking slightly from apparent lack of use. His best friend blinked at him, a puzzled look on his face.

"Sora, why would you ask me a thing like that? Don't you remember? Did that fall make you loose your memory?"

Sora blinked at him. Fall? What fall? The last he remembered was falling asleep under the stars in a field alongside the path they were traveling with Donald and Goofy. But then again...there were some very blurry things in his memory right now that he had never remembered before.

"Sora, I'm sixteen. And your fifteen, remember?"

Fifteen?! Sora's eyes widened. Sora wasn't fifteen, he was fourteen! It was months that he had been with Donald and Goofy, traveling between worlds, sure, but he knew that his birthday hadn't come up in time yet. What was going on?

"Sora, that fall, it must have done something to you..."

He sat up, wincing again as his head began to pound. Riku's eyes widened again.

"Sora you shouldn't..."

"Riku. How did you escape?"

He whispered reverently hoping that Riku would tell him about a miraculous escape, instead of what he dreaded he would say.

"Sora, what are you talking about? Did you have some weird dream while you were out?"

Sora groaned, putting his head in his hands. This HAD to be a dream. He was fourteen, he was the Keyblade Master, and he was asleep this very second in a field he didn't know the name of and the next morning be traveling on a path he didn't know where it would take him.

"Riku, how long have I been "out"?"

Riku put a hand on his shoulder, looking at him with concern that Riku didn't usually show.

"Sora, you've been in a coma for three months."

"Th-three months?"

He breathed.

"How?"

He lifted his cerulean eyes to meet sea green. Riku's worried expression intensified, lifting his other hand to rest on Sora's other shoulder.

"You mean you don't remember any of it?"

"I don't have one memory. Except of who you are and where I am. And my...dream."

He managed, the word falling from his mouth into his stomach like a lead weight. He started to feel ill.

"Sora, three months ago you fell off a cliff and bonked your head. The doctor said you would be fine in a week; that you would wake up. Obviously you didn't. Everyone's been worried sick over you, Kairi and me included."

"Kairi? Kairi wasn't a dream?"

He murmured, his spirit lifting slightly. Not everything was a dream. Dream... He could see the face of Ansem suddenly, sneering at him, amber eyes glinting malevolently. He could see Goofy and Donald, telling him when he first met them that he had to smile. He could see...the door closing. It was closing all over again.

Sora brought his hand up to grip Riku's forearms, his body suddenly falling forward. Riku made a startled noise and grabbed him, steadying his form. Sora was breathing heavily.

"Riku I don't remember ANYTHING, why don't I remember anything?"

"Sora calm down! I'm sure your memories will come back, just give them some time!"

In the background you could dimly hear a phone ringing, then it stopped, and there was a murmur, someone's voice, speaking. A girl walked into the room, a cordless phone held in one hand, her other hand over the receiver of said phone, she opened her mouth to speak but stopped, her blue-violet eyes wide at the sight that was in Sora's room. Sora stared at her. Her hair was a deep shade of red, a necklace was hanging from her neck, the pendant resting on her white tank top. She wore a magenta pastel skirt with pink trimmed white sneakers. The girl was still staring at him as the phone slid from her hands to the floor. She appeared about Riku's age. This girl was –

"Kairi."

Sora murmured, his eyes just as wide as hers as he stared over Riku's shoulder at the sixteen-year-old girl. Riku turned to look at her too, grinning cockily like he normally did.

"Nyah, I saw him first"

He teased in a singsong voice, she rolled her eyes, leaning down to pick up the phone.

"Mrs. Kokoro? Yes, I'm fine. Sora's fine. In fact, congratulations. Why? Sora's awake."

Kairi held the phone away from her ear as there was overjoyed shriek on the other end of the phone line. Kairi finished the phone call with Sora's mother babbling happily on the other end of the phone then she turned back to the two boys.

"Welcome back...Sora."

She grinned, and Sora knew he wasn't dreaming anymore.

The next time Sora saw Riku and Kairi was three days after waking up, his mother hovering over him, having the doctor check him out, having family visit and having his mother worry about him in general. She finally allowed him to go out after much persuasion. He breathed in the salty sea air gratefully as he paddled out in his boat to Destiny Island.

His other friends, also different than he remembered them, greeted him. Wakka was going on eighteen, Selphie being only thirteen and Tidus was seventeen of all ages. They all chatted with him, talking about fighting and Island life among other things until Sora waved goodbye to them and went off to find Riku and Kairi. He found them in the back cove, Kairi making something out of seashells and Riku fishing. It was sinking into his mind that there was no more danger anymore to fight or run from anymore...

No more adventure.

Everything was different. Everything was an illusion that he remembered. All memories from fever dreams. He pulled off his shirt, breathing in another breath of sea air that was so familiar, getting ready to take a swim in the vast ocean. He kicked off his large yellow shoes and dove into the water that sparkled in the mid afternoon sun. Sora opened his eyes to watch colorfully scaled fish swim past just under the surface. He swam for the rest of the afternoon, only coming out of the cool water when the sun started its descent beyond the horizon, painting the sky pinks and purples mixed with fiery red and orange.

They now sat on the crooked trunk of the Paupu Tree, watching the sun set brilliantly on the horizon line.

"Have you guys ever...ever wondered what's out there?"

Kairi spoke up out of nowhere, making the two boys look at her in the fading light. Sora shivered a little, his mind wandering back to the beginning of his dream, dread gathering in the pit of his stomach.

"What do you mean, Kairi?"

"You know, are there any other places out there? I mean, you both have never been off the Island...and I can't remember the place I came from..."

She replied to Riku's question, bringing up the long-standing knowledge that Kairi had amnesia as to where she came from. There was never sadness in her eyes that Sora could see though.

"Well, why don't we take a look?"

He offered slowly, Kairi and Riku staring at him.

"Sora, are you craz-"

"I think it's worth a shot."

Riku replied, cutting off Kairi mid sentence. She glared at him.

"Riku, you know that people have tried leaving, no one sees them again."

"That's a risk we would have to take, you're the one who's curious after all, Kairi."

"Not so curious to ignore my common sense and get us all killed."

Riku waved his hand at her in a carefree "no worries" kind of way. She growled in warning at him, making him smirk at her. Sora could sense a fight about to happen, and he hurried to pacify it.

"So did anyone hear that new song by Utada on the radio this morning?"

"SORA!!! RIKU'S HERE!!"

"COMING MOM!!!"

Sora yelled down that Saturday morning, just pulling on his pants after his shower, the faint drawl of rain on his bedroom window in the background. He moved to the mirror, messing with his hair with his left hand and picking up his crown chain link necklace with his right.

I awake...

Sora blinked, a deep baritone voice sounding in his ears, stopping his movements and pressing down the urge to turn around.

You. I am still bound to you.

"W-who said that?"

You remember nothing...excellent.

Sora went to turn but found that his body wouldn't obey the command.

I require a body, and what better revenge than to use you?

"Wh-what?!"

He tried to pull away, his cerulean eyes widening as he stared into the mirror. It began to cloud over with darkness. He gasped as tendrils of darkness seeped out of it, reaching for him. It pulled at him, and as hard as Sora tried to move away he couldn't. The darkness was wrapping around him, pulling him into the mirror.

"Sora what is taking-SORA!!"

He heard a voice, it was Riku's voice. He turned his head, his body feeling heavy and it lacked energy as the darkness pulled at him. His vision was beginning to cloud over. His hands went lax, and he dropped his necklace to the floor with a muffled thud.

"Ri-ku..."

He murmured being pulled entirely through into the darkness.

"SORA!!!!!"

TBC

Author's Notes: If you were wondering, the voice that Sora was hearing ISN'T Ansem. Come on people, seriously, I'm more original than that.

Yes, they're all older. Why? I really honestly don't know. And what's going to happen with the Sora/Kairi pairing? It just became non-existent XD YES. I do not support the pairing at all. Sorry guys, strictly buddy-buddy relationships for now. You'll get romance pairings later.