Kingdom Dreamless

Episode 2 - Second Gear

The air felt dirty. Stagnant. It was as if somebody had taken all the life out of the air, turning it in to a lifeless void containing nothing.

At least that's how Alan, Jonas and Karolyn were feeling.

They watched, with my family and friends, as the coffin was slowly lowered in to the dirty hole in the ground on the cold, wintery morning. The majority of people were struggling. Struggling with many things; the realisation that I was gone, fighting back the tears, and just the whole worthless situation.

"He was too young," People would say, "His life was thrown away."

And then there was the confusion.

"What did he mean?" His three friends thought, almost simultaneously.

"What did he mean?" Jonas thought, "He would stop the Dreamless? They were just parts of his dreams; figments of his imagination though."

The sides of the coffin slid down against the dirt, causing some of it to fall on it. I couldn't feel it though. My body was no nothing; I had left it. It was useless to me now, nothing more than a lifeless puppet.

A tear crawled down Karolyn's cheek as she shivered in the cold, and silently dripped off of her face. It soundlessly hit the ground, as more tears began to appear.

My mother, my sisters, my friends, Jonas, Alan. They were all crying for me.

My coffin hit the dirty ground, in the dirty ditch, in the dirty graveyard. The priest began to talk; not that anybody could hear him. Everybody's focus was on the coffin.

The only thing that anybody could see was my little brown box.

The only thing that anybody could hear was the thump of my box hitting the ground.

The only thing that anybody could smell was the wood that my box had been carved out of.

The only thing that anybody could feel was the cold, hard wood of my box.

The only thing that anybody could taste was the dirt on all four sides of my box.

But they didn't know that my death was only the beginning of something much bigger. How could they? They hadn't gained the knowledge that I had. They didn't know the struggles taking place in the dream world.

The priest finished his words. It was over.

My grave would be covered with more dirt, sealing away my body for eternity.

Everybody walked away from my little hold in the ground, with a feeling of both completion and the feeling that something would never be complete.

The stagnant feeling in the air began to be lifted as the people walked away from my body. That would be all they would have to remember me; a sealed up hole and a rock.

It would be followed by a wake, like all funerals, and everybody would try to get on with their lives after that.

They didn't know that I was the only one who could save those lives that they would try to get on with, though.

"What the hell have I done?"

---

It was so hard to contain my thoughts, I was struggling to just be able to tell what colour the cave I was in was.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I instantly calmed down. My surroundings stopped looking like a blur, and gradually I was able to make out the cyan walls made entirely of rock, and the water droplets clinging to everything around me. The sound of the rushing waterfall suddenly invaded my ears, as though it hadn't been there before. The weird worm like creatures clinging from the roof of the cave, dangling from the slime that covered their body's came into focus. Then finally, the feeling of something that combined the properties of stones and sand beneath my boots hit me.

"What is this place?" I asked. My voice sounded larger than it had before.

"This is where I live." Mickey answered as he took his hand of my shoulder. The little mouse began to walk around the cave, touching the walls occasionally on his way round. "This little place has been a good home for me, and now you can share it."

I paused for a moment. "Did I do the right thing?"

He stopped and turned toward me. His big ears would have been moving, had there been any wind in this cave. "You did the only thing you could do."

"But what about all the people I left behind?" My head sprung up, I stared at Mickey. "Jonas, Alan, Karolyn… What about them?"

"Listen…" Mickey said. The cave appeared to get drier, it didn't look as wet as it had done before. "It's your fault that the Dreamless have been awakened, so you're gonna have to sort your mess out."

I hadn't expected him to be quite so harsh. My eyes widened in surprise, and my I could feel my jaw drop. His happy face had become a frown, another thing I hadn't expected of everybody's favourite mouse.

"It was going to happen to somebody regardless; but it happened to you." He turned away from me, narrowly missing me with his tail. "So now you're the only one that can stop them. I must admit, I was expecting somebody a little more… mature."

I felt a short burst of anger, which was quickly obliterated by the realisation that he was right. I was acting like a spoilt child. I was looking at it the wrong way; as a burden. But no, this wasn't a burden, it was an Iopportunity./I I had been given the chance to do something that nobody had ever done before. I had become a part of the dream world, a pretty important part. But I still felt sad that I had been taken from the real world; from my friends.

"Will I ever be able to return?"

He didn't give an answer. He walked over to the other side of the cave, and put a finger on the wall. A small part of the wall began to glow. It began as a small ball, then grew and changed shape until finally it became the shape of a key. The wall began to crack at the symbol, the crack slowly slid up and down the wall, and then it slid open.

"This is where I keep my Keyblade." Mickey turned his head a little to his right, so I could just see his mouth beneath his coat. "And now it is where you keep yours."

I stood up and began to walk over to the wall. I looked inside the newly opened wall, and saw a pair of Keyblades.

There was mine; the gold handle, silver blade, and the small blue part that connected the two parts.

Then there was Mickey's; the silver handle, the gold blade, and the small red part that connected the two parts.

"Take it." He whispered, "It is yours, after all."

My hand instantly sprung up to my Keyblade. I willed it and it happened; there was no complicated process of using my brain, nerves and my bones. I had read about a similar feeling in a book, 'The Vampire Lestat' a few years ago, in which Lestat finds that he only has to will a movement and it will happen, much like what I had just discovered happens in the dream world.

I gripped the handle and pulled it from the wall. It felt light… weightless. My vision became brighter when I gripped it, as though a light had been turned on inside my eyes and I could see everything more clearly. Mickey pulled his own Keyblade from the wall.

"Good, you can see clearer with it too." He patted my back. "Now, let's test out that new vision of yours."

He put his hand out, his palm pointing into the middle of the cave. A black hold appeared in the ground, opening up slowly. I felt something dark and vicious come from the hole, and that's when he closed it.

"Look around." Mickey said, "Particularly around the rocks."

I scanned the room carefully, from left to right. Eventually, I saw it: A Dreamless. I felt like I didn't have time to think, so I immediately yelled at Mickey, "What am I supposed to do?"

"What do you think? Destroy it."

I ran at the dreamless, as it sprung itself toward me. I was quite amazed at how it was exactly the same as a Heartless from that game, 'Kingdom Hearts'

I stopped in front of it, wondering what the hell I was expected to do. Then it hit me; how I had seen it.

With my new vision, it appeared differently. Because everything around me was lit up, it stood out. Not only that, but it appeared darker than it should have done. This new vision was really quite handy.

"Ouch." I yelled out as it hit me. I really shouldn't have stopped to think. I had let it get a sucker punch in once, but it wouldn't happen again. It threw a punch at me again, but I slid on my feet to my right, and it went passed me. I held my Keyblade above me, up in the air, and brought it back down while aiming for the Dreamless.

I missed.

It had gone through my legs and around to my back. I turned to meet it's evil gaze, staring at me. It launched itself into the air, appearing to fly, and dove back down for me. I barely escaped its attack, just rolling to my left to avoid it.

I had one knee on the ground, and one foot on the ground, and I swung my Keyblade horizontally, hoping to hit it. I missed again, it just ducked out of the way.

I was hit by another realisation; I wasn't worn out. Normally, I'd be tired from this fighting, but not in the dream world.

And then I was hit by another punch, throwing me on to my back. The Dreamless jumped on to my chest, but I wasn't finished yet. My left hand met it's face repeatedly until it finally slid to my right. I got up quickly, but not quicker than the Dreamless had done.

It was like a little bag of energy, but the energy seemed to be endless. I was in awe at how quickly it moved, and with how much intelligence it seemed to work with.

It came to hit me as I was thinking, but luckily this time I managed to duck beneath its attack.

Why wasn't Mickey helping me?

I ran at it again. Missed. It came at me again. Dodged. I ran at it. Missed. It came at me again. Dodged. It began to seem like an endless cycle. A very Itedious/I endless cycle. I was getting very irritated by the little shit. I just couldn't land a decent hit on it. I opted for something different in my next attack though.

I ran at it, holding my Keyblade above me. I focused all my energy on to what I was going to do. I kept thinking 'I think it's possible. This is the dream world, after all.' And it was possible; I ran right through it. I quickly turned around and swung my Keyblade at it.

But still, it wasn't enough. It jumped in to the air, dodging my attack. 'That was just bad luck,' I though, 'I'll get it next time.'

The fight continued as it had before. I was building up my energy to repeat my last attack.

The tedious cycle recommenced. That was it; I was sick of it now. So I thought to myself…

'What would I do if I was playing Kingdom Hearts?'

That's when the idea came to me.

I ran at it again, and repeated my trick of going through it. I turned around and swung my Keyblade at it.

Again, I missed. It jumped in to the air away from my attack.

It was going exactly as I had planned it.

"STRIKE RAID!" I shouted through the cold air of the cave. I pulled the Keyblade back, and then threw it forward at the Dreamless. It's eyes widened as it was torn in two, straight through the middle.

The two parts of it fell to the floor, and then disappeared in little bubbles of darkness which eventually disintegrated within a second or two.

"Good. It looks like it worked." Mickey's voice came from behind me.

I turned around in shock, I had almost entirely forgotten about him. "What worked?"

He was silent for a while. Eventually he spoke again.

"I'll explain it."

---

I was hugely shocked by the explanation. I hadn't expected that at all. To think that that had been going on for all these years. It was definitely a shock to the system. Still, there was nothing that could be done about it now.

"Oh, there's something else I must show you." Mickey said to me, pointing toward the waterfall. "On the other side of that waterfall."

I followed him through as he walked out on to a tiny stream, which grew and grew in to a river, which grew and grew in to an ocean. For as far as I could see was the huge ocean with rivers and streams spreading out from it. On either side of the stream though was a small part of ground, the same kind that had been inside the cave. I stepped to the right side, and Mickey stepped to the left.

"This is the heart of the dream world." Mickey began to tell me. "This is where everybody's dreams are connected, and where the Dreamless live."

I suddenly noticed a large ball above me. It was a giant ball filled with darkness, so I made the correct assumption that that was where the Dreamless lived.

"Every time a person has nightmares which they awake from, that nightmare separates from the sub consciousness and becomes darkness. That's when they come here."

The stream next to the one I was in began to grow larger, that was when I noticed the small sliver of darkness flowing through it. It eventually reached the ocean as Mickey continued to talk.

"It is sucked in to that ball, where it is transformed in to a Dreamless."

Exactly as he said, the darkness from the stream began to flow in to the giant ball above until it disappeared in it's darkness.

"And when you made that hold for the Dreamless to escaped, you created a path for them to go up the stream and in to dreams."

A Dreamless was thrown out of the ball. Mickey put his hand up to signal me to stay back as I watched it crawl up the third stream to my left.

"Shouldn't we go after it?" I asked, confused by Mickey's reasons for stopping me.

"Your training is incomplete. You may be good at the fighting part, but you are not yet fully trained with it. There is also much I must teach you about your new vision." Mickey said to me, "And besides…"

He pointed to the stream, it quickly dissolved.

"He's just woke up."

"Alright then, let's speed up my training. I don't want anybody else becoming comatose because I'm too slow."

"I was going to train you fast anyway, of course." Mickey smirked.

We both turned and went back in to the cave. That's when I began to train to defeat the Dreamless.

It felt like years, though it was probably only a couple of weeks in real world time. I constantly wondered if whoever that Dreamless had gone to attack was alright.

I doubted it.

Finally, after the second week, my training was complete. I could now wield the Keyblade just as good as Mickey, and my light vision was brilliant.

"Alright, I think you're just about ready." Mickey said to me, with a slight smile on his face. "Let's go see if that stream is still alright."

We walked out of the cave. The ocean was still exactly the same as it had been two weeks before. We both looked at the stream we had seen the Dreamless go in.

"Yep, it looks fine." Mickey sighed in relief.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"When it's not fine, the stream becomes full of blood."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing. There was only one word in my mind though; Ew.

I noticed something I hadn't before. At the end of the stream we were in, at the point where it became a river, there was a large construction floating in it. It was multi coloured, and appeared to be made entirely of blocks.

"A… gummi ship?" I pondered.

"Close, but no cigar." Mickey said, "Speaking of cigars…"

He fumbled through his right pocket, and pulled out a large cigar. It lit instantly, without any fire, and he put it between his lips.

"So what is it then?" I grew curious.

"A gummi boat." Mickey blew out a cloud of smoke. "We use it to get up in to the ocean, and to go up the rivers to get to peoples dreams. Let's go."

The gummi boat felt hard and cold, and was the shape of a small pirate ship. Mickey told me that he named it 'Steam Boat Willie.'

He wasn't impressed when I jokingly said it was familiar.

It was a surprisingly long journey through the ocean to the river. I noticed a lot of weird birds and fish though. There was dogs with gills and no legs, worms with wings, cats with fins and monkeys with beaks. Those were the least weird of them, too.

"Mickey…" A thought had just crossed my mind. "Am I the first one to do this?"

"The first and the last." He put out his cigar. "If you fail, both the dream world and the real world will be doomed. We'll all be sucked in to the Dreamless world."

"What?" I was stunned, yet again. "There's a Dreamless world?"

"Of course. That ball up there is the door in to it." His eyes stared right in to me. "Through that ball is their world."

"And nobody's thought of going in to it and destroying it?"

"Anybody who goes near it is destroyed," Mickey answered, "Or at least, that's what appears to happen to them."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, they're either destroyed or they are turned in to a Dreamless. Nobody can know for sure but them."

Again, I was shocked.

"Try not to think about it too much." Mickey said. "We've arrived."

I looked up, and sure enough we were there. We jumped out of the ship and ran through the waterfall, Keyblade in hand.

It was complete chaos. The dream had become like a wasteland, covered in red sand for miles and miles with craters dotted throughout it in random places. I instantly knew who's dream this was though; Alan's.

I don't know how I knew, but I knew.

"Mickey, this is Alan's dream." I grabbed his shoulder.

"Alan? Your friend? Alright then, let's go."

We began to run, not knowing where we were going but still running. After an hour, we spotted something coming toward us; a vehicle of some kind. We ran toward it, not sure what to expect.

"Hey! Who are you two clowns?" A loud, quite irritating voice went through my ears. I immediately recognised it though, it was the same voice that belonged to Daxter from the Jak games.

"Jak and Daxter?" I said in shock.

"Yeah, who's asking?" Jak jumped out of the vehicle in front of me. He look exactly as he had in the last part of the Jak games, Jak 3. He had his tall blond hair and his green beard, and his peculiar armour.

"I'm Paul, this is Mickey." I introduced us.

"Paul?" Another voice came from the vehicle. "Is it really?" I immediately recognised that voice, too.

"Alan!" I shouted as he jumped out of the vehicle. He was no dressed in the same clothes that Jak was wearing, but other than that he was the same.

"Paul. But aren't you dead?"

"Only in the real world. Here I'm alive. More so than I ever was in the real world, perhaps."

It's then that it hit me. This was Alan's dream. That meant the Dreamless were here.

"Alan, have you seen any-"

"Heartless? Yeah." He said, "Why else do you think we came so far out?"

"They're not Heartless." I told him, "They're Dreamless."

"Paul… You feel it?" Mickey interrupted.

"Yeah. They're close." I answered. Mickey had taught me to feel the presence of the Dreamless, since they were purely darkness it wasn't hard at all really.

"Let's go." Mickey said. He looked at Jak. "Is there room for us in there?"

"Yeah." Jak answered. "Get in."

"Oh geez! We gotta put up with more of 'em? Are ya tryin' 'a kill me, JAK?" Daxter started yelling, but was quickly shut up by Jak with a hand to his mouth.

We all got in the vehicle as Dreamless began to appear.

"Damn." Jak said, "Two of you take the guns, I'll handle the driving."

"Guns won't do any good." I said, "Only the Keyblade will kill them."

"But the guns can hold them back. You and Alan get the guns, I'll take care of any that get on the car." Mickey suggested.

"Right." I turned and nodded to Alan.

"Sure." Alan said as he stood up and held on to one of the guns. I was already holding mine, since I had been trained to be quicker.

We were completely surrounded by Dreamless, though our bullet's were doing a good job of putting dents in them. Jak's driving skills were also superb, the bumps that were the Dreamless being crushed under the wheels didn't even phase him. Mickey was also doing a good job of getting rid of any Dreamless that got on to the vehicle too.

All was going smoothly till a giant worm shaped Dreamless started chasing us.

"Both of you; shoot it. I'll drive as fast as I can." Jak yelled over the sound of gun fire. "Mickey, you'll have to handle the rest of the Dreamless for now. Think you can do that?"

Mickey lit up another cigar. "Of course."

He did handle himself quite well, actually. His moves were so smooth, and everything he did just seemed to flow together. He could take out three Dreamless within one second, when he needed to. This all left me a bit baffled though; with his skill, why did he need me?

I didn't have much time to think about it though, thanks to the - at least - 50 foot Dreamless worm coming toward us. Our bullets seemed to do nothing until we stopped shooting and saw it's Itrue/I speed. We then continued to shoot it, of course.

"Jak, go faster!" He could barely hear me over the combined sounds of the gun fire, screeching Dreamless and the vehicle. This was beginning to look a bit like a lost cause. I thought for sure we were finished.

"Paul." Mickey's calm voice fell on my ears, "Get your Keyblade."

"What about the guns?" I was more than a little confused. If I stopped shooting, it would only reduce the time it took for us to be eaten by the worm monster.

"Just get your freaking Keyblade."

I nodded, and materialised the Keyblade in my hand.

"Jak, when I say so; brake." Mickey's second command came.

"Are you freaking insane?" Jak and Daxter shouted at the same time.

"Just trust me."

So Alan continued shooting as I waited. I didn't know what I was waiting for, but I was waiting all the same. Jak kept looking back as the giant worm thing got closer, and closer, and closer, until…

"Brake!" Mickey yelled out.

I only just noticed that the sun was setting.

Jak brought the car to a stop, but the worm didn't even slow down. Eventually it reached us, and all I remember was putting my Keyblade up to it, and it disappeared.

---

"You see, Paul, there's something you can't learn in training." Mickey gazed in to the campfire. "And that's just how important and powerful that Keyblade is."

I nodded. I hadn't realised that it held that much power until I destroyed that worm thing with it. The idea that that power was now mine sent a shiver down my spine.

"So what now?" I asked. We had set up camp in the desert while we tried to figure something out. "Where do we go from here? How can I stop the Dreamless from sending Alan in to one of those comas?"

"The Key hole." Mickey answered.

I gave Mickey a look. He knew what it meant; I didn't understand.

"You know… Jonas mentioned something about a Key hold, and I found one here." Alan informed us.

"Good, that saves us a bit of work." Mickey said, "Where is it?"

Alan replied, "Well, I guess it would be about forty miles south of here."

Both me and Mickey could feel it; the Dreamless were back.

"Everyone back in the car." I instructed, "We better go as soon as possible."

Mickey nodded, and everyone got in the car.

We took the same roles as before; Jak was driving, me and Alan were on the guns, and Mickey took out any Dreamless that got too close. It only took us about thirty minutes to get to the Key hole.

It was about the size of my Keyblade, which made perfect sense.

"Wait, Paul. We have to get rid of at least some of the Dreamless first." Mickey told me, "If you get attacked while you're sealing the keyhole because your guard is down, it will all be over."

"Right," I nodded, "Let's get rid of some Dreamless then!"

We all jumped out of the car and began to fight off some of the Dreamless except Alan. If they defeated him, then we couldn't be sure about whether or not it would send him in to a coma, or worse…

"Keep your head down!" I shouted to him. It wouldn't have helped though, the Dreamless would have sensed him regardless of whether or not they could see him.

A Dreamless launched itself at me. I quickly rolled to my right and stood back up again, then my Keyblade finished him for good. Mickey had two Dreamless against him, but even two were no match for him. He cart wheeled over the top of one of them and dug his Keyblade in to it, before quickly spinning around and taking the head off the second attacker.

I gave him a thumbs up "Nice moves."

"Thanks."

There wasn't enough time for talking though, I was now facing two of them myself. The first one jumped at me, so I kicked it in the face sending it back to the ground. The second one had managed to get behind me though, and was gripping my back. I grabbed it's head and pulled it up and over my head on to the floor, then I put my Keyblade through it. The other one went through my legs, tripping me up one of his feet while it went. After I feel to the floor, I turned around just in time to put my Keyblade through it.

"This is easy." I cockily joked to Mickey.

"Dammit. Now we got Metal Heads, too!" Jak said from the north.

He was right. There were about five Metal Heads coming in our direction. Even worse was the fact that for each one of them were another five Dreamless joining them, I wasn't sure we could cope with this crowd.

"What the hell are they DOING?" Daxter's load, obtrusive voice could be heard again. He was right to be alarmed though, the Metal Heads and the Dreamless were acting peculiarly.

The Dreamless were wrapping themselves around the Metal Head's limbs and heads, and the Metal Head's appeared to be absorbing them in to their bodies. We weren't just facing Metal Heads now; we were facing Dreamless Metal Heads.

They were a bit taller than normal Metal Heads, and were covered in darkness all over their body. They were undoubtedly stronger too.

IBang/I

"What was that?" I looked around.

Then I saw Jak holding his morph gun, standing in front of one of the Dreamless Metal Heads who had just been sent crashing to the floor.

"I'd like to see Ratchet do Ithat/I" Daxter joked. There wasn't much time for joking though, the Dreamless Metal Head quickly got up and charged again.

One of them came at me, I grabbed it's claws and threw it behind me, using my foot to push it. I turned around and it had already got itself back up and was throwing itself at me again. It pushed me to the floor and starting hitting my face.

The feeling of having your face beaten in was odd in the Dream world. It was as though your head really was knocked off, but at the same time not.

My knee met the beasts stomach and it rolled over.

"Paul!" Mickey shouted at me, nodding toward the Key hold. There was a Dreamless creeping toward it.

"Damn!" I shouted. "What the hell am I gonna do?"

I had a plan though. The Dreamless Metal Head ran at me again, but this I ran at it too. Just before we collided, I threw myself up in to the air and over my opponent, landing myself just in front of the Key hold where I pushed my Keyblade in to it before the creepy Dreamless had the chance to get to it.

I twisted my Keyblade and listened to the clicking noise. I had succeeded in locking it.

---

We eventually got rid of all the Dreamless Metal Heads. It did take a while though.

Daxter had begun to tell the story of how Ihe/I took out the last one, though we all really knew it was Jak. I had walked off though, and was sat on my own now.

"So you're never coming back?" Alan asked me, taking me by surprise.

"I don't think I can." I answered, sensing the sadness in him.

Silence for a while.

I eventually broke the silence, "Hey, have you seen Karolyn lately?"

"You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"She's in a coma. I thought you might have known."

I suddenly had a very bad feeling in my stomach.

When had this happened? Why didn't I know? How could I have stopped it? Questions were racing through my mind.

"I have to find her then, and save her." I stood up from the ground and rubbed the sand off myself. "I'll do it right away."

"Let me come with you." Alan said, "At least until I wake up. And then I can come back when I'm asleep again."

"You can't you'd just be in danger." I thought for a moment. "But perhaps there is a way a part of you can come with me."

I nodded over at Jak & Daxter. Jak had been a huge help in our previous fight, and since he was kind of part of Alan, I wanted him to come along.

"Okay." Alan replied, and instantly Jak & Daxter became a ball of light.

"What the hell?" We both cried out.

"Relax." Mickey said, "It's nothing bad."

The light flew over to Alan and put itself in his hand. It began to unfold and took shape. It was a Keyblade.

Alan stared at it for a while, unsure of what it meant.

"Here," Alan said, "It's yours."

I looked at it. It was the same shape as my Keyblade, but it was a warm red colour all over and it had the word "Friendship" in gold letters on it.

I took it, of course. This was a part of Alan, so I wanted it with me.

"Thank you." I looked him in the eye. "Now I have to go save Karolyn."

"Alright. Bye for good, I guess." He wiped a tear away.

I just nodded.

---

Me and Mickey began to walk back to the Gummi boat, and then I realised something.

I stopped in a state of complete shock. I think I forgot to breathe. I was shaking all over, so much that it was hard to stand up.

"What's wrong?" Mickey shouted, "What the hell?"

"Mickey," I answered, "I think I know how to save them."