Kingdom Dreamless

Episode Three - War

bwar/b ( P )(wôr)
In./I

1.a.A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties.

1.b.The period of such conflict.

1.c.The techniques and procedures of war; military science.

2.a.A condition of active antagonism or contention: Ia war of words; a price war./I

2.b.A concerted effort or campaign to combat or put an end to something considered injurious: Ithe war against acid rain./I

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left." Bertrand Russell

---

It had been a long time since me and Alan had last parted. I had begun to miss him more than I previously had, but that feeling - that loneliness - didn't take my mind away from my goal of saving Karolyn. Me and Mickey had been coming up with our plan since then, perfecting it slowly, and recruiting dream people from Dream Worlds that I had recently saved. We know had what one might consider to be an army; but it still wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

What we need- no, what we Irequired/I to end this war with the Dreamless could not be gained through how many thought up characters we took out of peoples dreams - no, that would not do. Mere numbers could not win this war.

What we need was a weapon.

We had worked on the plans for the weapon for a long, long time. It would need something that was very common around here, but could only be used for our purpose in their purest form: Dreams.

Purest… What exactly is "purest"?

Good dreams, not nightmares. That was something that couldn't easily be found any more. The Dreamless were having an adverse affect on people, giving them cruel nightmares. Then there were those who were to scared to sleep for fear of slipping into one of the comas that they had heard about on the television.

One of the comas that Karolyn had slipped into.

We hadn't had much time to train lately, either. Considering I was now using two Keyblades, the Kingdom Key and the Friendship Key, I really should have been training more than I was. Still, beating on Dreamless while I was saving Dream Worlds was good practice, right?

Mickey didn't seem to think so.

'You need to train more,' he said.

'Your skills are inefficient,' he said. He seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to be the one training me.

Then there was the constant modifications we were having to make to Steamboat Willie, Mickey's Gummi Boat. When ever we used it, it came back with several large chunks missing thanks to the Dreamless, so we were constantly fixing her up. That wasn't it, though; we were also trying to build the weapon to beat the Dreamless on to it. Speaking of the weapon, perhaps I hadn't explained that very well before.

The function of the weapon (named 'Bahamut I') is to shoot large, concentrated amounts of pure dreams, also called light dreams because of the high concentration of light within them, into that big ball of Dreamless floating in the sky, above the Stream of Dreams. See, I figured that there must have been some connection with that ball and everybody's dreams, as the Dreamless were so efficient at going from their ball to those little caves that contained our dreams. Mickey agreed on this point, so we decided to build our weapon. What would our ammo be, though?

The purest of dreams: A child's dream.

This would be our greatest source of light, and the ammo we would use to defeat the Dreamless. To think that a child could be the key to winning a war… I had learned to live with insanity like that.

Using dreams to build a weapon wasn't as complicated as it sounded. You see, when you become part of the Dream World, as Mickey and I have, you see more in dreams. There is a substance in all our dreams, which we call, quite simply, "Dream Substance." This is the building blocks of our weapon.

---

'Are you okay, pal?' Mickey snapped me out of my stupor. I felt like I was dreaming within a dream, except I could no longer dream, so I couldn't have been.

'Yeah, fine. I was just thinking about all of this.' I stood up. I hadn't realised it until now, but my back was soaking wet from where I had been sat against the walls of our little cave. 'Thinking about what will happen after we finish this thing.'

'IIf/I we finish this thing,' Mickey corrected me.

I was shocked; I expected him to have more faith in me. 'Mickey, I'm not going to fail.'

He didn't respond. 'Let's go.' He put his long leather coat on, summoned his Keyblade, and walked to the stream. I quickly followed after summoning both of my Keyblades.

Using two of them was a lot different from using one. It was easier and harder at the same time, yet oddly enough it wasn't any heavier. When I consulted Mickey about this, he didn't seem very interested. In fact, he wasn't interested in much these days; he seemed distant, as if he was always in deep thought about something. We both jumped into Steamboat Willie. The Gummi Boat was cold on our feet, despite wearing our boots.

'You might want to be careful in the Dream World we're about to go to.' Mickey didn't usually speak on the Gummi Boat.

I raised an eyebrow. 'And why would that be?'

'Well…' I saw something I clearly wasn't meant to; Mickey had a small grin on his face, 'I know how much you hate-'

'Christmas?' I shouted. 'What the hell is this?'

'You're asking the wrong question,' Mickey hinted at something I was obviously unaware of.

'What are you talking about?'

'You shouldn't be asking what, you ought to be asking "Who?"'

I looked around, puzzled. All I could see was this stupid Christmas dream world. There were prancing reindeer, dancing Santa's, big ugly trees, and the whole place was full of snow. I have to admit, though; the red houses with snow all over them were quite cute.

Then I saw it.

'A child! This is a child's dream!'

'Welcome to five minutes ago,' Mickey said, sounding bored.

'Hey, did you just make a funny?' This wasn't the first time Mickey had shocked me today.

'I guess I did,' the mouse replied. 'Let's go and have a little chat.'

We approached the child. He was a small boy in a red woolly jumper and baggy blue shorts. Strange clothes. He was wearing a grin that looked like it had been plastered on, and had blond shaggy hair and big blue eyes.

'Hooray! It's Mickey Mouse! Just what I wanted for Christmas! What's this big key you're holding? Can I play with it? Huh?' He was now at least two foot in the air. I remembered never to touch Mickey's Keyblade.

'That was a little harsh, wasn't it?' I whispered as the boy landed with a thud.

'I hate it when people touch my Keyblade,' Mickey replied, 'And remember, don't tell him that this is a dream. He'll get too excited and wake up.'

I sighed. 'All right.'

'Hey, what was that for?' The boy asked, looking and sounding as if he were about to cry.

'Nothing, nothing. Sorry, kid.' Mickey forced a smile on to his face. 'Me and my friend are here to visit.'

'Yay!' The kid's shouts made my ears bleed, I swear. 'I'll go tell all my friends and we can eat bacon!'

With that, he ran away, and I was glad to see the back of him.

'Can we run away from him, now? We don't really Ineed/I his help, do we?' I was a little too hopeful.

'That's true. Let's go find some Dream Substance, hopefully it will be exactly the kind we need.'

'How about we kidnap a couple of reindeer to help us?' I joked.

Mickey didn't like jokes, though. 'No,' he said with a sternness I had come to expect of him. I really wish he was more like his television character in the real world.

---

'I bHATE/b Jingle Bells!' I threw a snowball at the bell in the church tower. Amazingly enough, I had one hundred percent accuracy, and hit my target.

Mickey's grip on his Keyblade tightened. 'So do I,' he growled. The singing children all looked each other, and ran.

'Three hours and still no Dream Substance. Are you sure this kid is "pure" enough to have it?'

'All children begin life completely pure, and thus their dreams are pure. Of course we'll find some eventually.' I got the feeling that Mickey was trying to reassure me.

'I heard it was the other way round. "Original sin," and all that.' I shrugged. Then I thought I heard Mickey whisper 'Baka' beneath his breath.

'I have an idea,' Mickey said, before I could ask if he had said anything. 'Let's look in the church.'

I thought about it for a second. I guess it did make a little sense to look in there. Before I could agree, though, Mickey had already begun his walk to the large church doors. He didn't make it, though.

There was a loud crash, and the doors flung open. One of them landed on top of Mickey, sending him at least ten feet backwards, and knocked him out.

'Mickey!' I shouted, ignoring the source of what had just happened.

Nobody else was ignoring it, I quickly realised when everyone who was stood around the church ran past me, fleeing. I looked toward the church, and as the dust began to settle, I saw one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

There was a giant Dreamless version of Santa Claus. It was at least thirty foot tall, and was wearing all the stereotypical Santa clothes. It's huge yellow eyes seemed out of plan in the jolly Santa costume, or perhaps it was really the white fluffy beard that seemed peculiar. Not that I had a lot of time to think about it.

It's dark influence had obviously invaded the reindeer, as they had turned into Dreamless reindeer and were no running at me. I had no choice but to summon my Keyblades.

I swiped my Kingdom Key through the first two, slicing the reindeer on my right first, then the one on my left. I then had to turn quickly, and sliced another two on the left with my Friendship Key. The another two on my right with the Kingdom Key. Then three from all kinds of directions with the Friendship Key, and then another one with the same Keyblade.

I turned around quickly, and pushed the two Keyblades past my body so they were pointing away from my back, and managed to kill five before they realised what I was doing. I took another two out by slicing their legs off, then beheaded three in one swoop of my Kingdom Key. I used both Keyblades to take the head off one of them, then as they swung backwards they managed to hit another two.

The Dreamless Reindeer began to get smart, and come up with some better tactics. They were now coming at me one at a time, so I couldn't take out more than one in a single attack. This was most troublesome. I was taking note of their attack pattern, though. They appeared to actually be coming at me five at a time, from five different directions, and then a sixth would attack. If I could just trick them into doing something, I might be able to end this.

Then the plan formed itself in my mind.

I jumped as high as I could, and just as I expected, five of the reindeer followed me into the air, surrounding me. I continued rising for a second, then just as I had expected, a sixth reindeer came at me from below.

I swung around, taking out the first five reindeer with both Keyblades. As I began to fall back down to the ground, I kicked the sixth reindeer with the sole of my foot, launching myself back into the air and sending the reindeer down to the rest of them. I turned to face the crowd of reindeer and readied my attack.

'Trinity Limit!'

I began falling quickly to the ground, spinning on my way down to increase accuracy and power. I kept my eyes on the reindeer. I had never seen fear in the eyes of Dreamless before.

Then I hit the ground. Or rather, my Keyblades hit the ground, and went into it until all that was left was the handle I was gripping.

A second passed.

Nothing.

Two seconds passed.

Nothing.

Three seconds passed.

bERUPTION/b

The ground shook as if it were in agony. It started cracking where my Keyblades were dug into it, and a brilliant white light was shining out of the deep cracks. It spread slowly, and as the light shone on the Dreamless reindeer, they disappeared in a cloud of dark bubbles. One by one, they disappeared until there were only ten left. The ground screamed, and everything around the cracks in the ground burst. Now all there was, was light. The remaining reindeer burst in screams of dying agony, and I was the only living thing left. Then I fell into the crater I had created.

---

Something on my face.

What is it?

I can feel it on my hands. It's dirt.

'You planning on lying there all day?' That familiar voice said.

'Don't be so bloody stupid.' I launched myself into the air, and performed a flip to get myself out of the hole.

'That's quite a landmark you made there,' Mickey said in a half impressed voice.

I didn't feel the need to reply, since we were now facing the Evil Santa. It had begun picking some of the Dream People up, and was eating them. If they hadn't have just been dreams, I might have felt bad for them.

Mickey coughed to get my attention, 'We should get rid of it before it finds the kid.'

'Yeah. I hope you've got a plan.'

'I Iplan/I to let you take care of it. You're the hero, not me.' Mickey turned away from me, arms crossed. This attitude of his was really starting to piss me off, he could at least Itry/I to help.

'Fine.' I didn't feel like arguing. There were bigger things to worry about; much bigger things. Namely, a giant Santa made of darkness that was currently eating people and possibly destroying the only chance I had of saving Karolyn.

Before I realised that I was doing it, I was running at the monster. I really should have come up with a plan first. The Monster Santa stood, and grew about ten feet due to it's rather lengthy legs. Both it's legs and arms were very skinny compared with the rest of it's body, and looked like they belonged to someone who was a bit too old, and ready to die at any second. They were to be my first target.

I ran at the left leg first. A giant fist slammed in front of me, but I managed to dodge quickly and continued to my true target; the right leg. One slash at it took half of the monsters leg out, leaving a limp, saggy pile of darkness. I managed to spin round after passing the leg, and went for the other side, hoping to sever the leg completely.

Unfortunately, the other leg came crashing down in front of me, and I collided with it. I quickly regained my footing and took a slash at the leg. The yelp of pain told me I had been successful. I turned around to face the other leg, and completely severed it from The Monster Santa's body.

There was some strange black, bloodlike substance flowing out of the stump that was once a leg. I smiled.

I jumped high up in to the air and put my feet on Santa's fat stomach, and flipped myself backwards from it, facing The Monster Santa as I flew in the opposite direction.

'What are you going to do now?' Mickey shouted to me, he wouldn't have been heard over the screams of pain from Santa if he hadn't have done.

'Remember that Dream World that looked like Midgar? I picked up a few skills there.'

I pointed my Keyblades at the monster, and the tips began to light up. The tip of the Kingdom Key was an icy blue, and the tip of the Friendship Key was a fiery red. The light from the tips became an orb hovering in front of the Keyblades. A loud bang was the signal that the spell had been successful, and the orbs were replaced by a stream of red and blue light. At the end of the blue light was a beautiful blue woman, made completely of ice. Shiva - The Queen of Ice.

At the end of the red light was a giant, demon-like beast, surrounded by flames. Ifrit - The King of Fire.

The two demons flew at the monster in a flash, going straight through it. The church collapsed beneath the power of them, and as the rubble began to fall, The Monster Santa exploded in a burst of bubbles, fire, and ice, and I landed back on the ground.

'You kept that quiet.' Mickey had appeared at my side. 'And there's your prize.'

I followed his pointed finger to a mass of white, cloudy, yet equally liquid-like substance: Dream Substance. The pure Dream Substance that we had been looking for.

'Well,' Mickey said, 'Let's take it and get out of here before the kid comes back.'

I raised my hand to the Dream Substance, and it almost instantly began to float towards me and the bottle in my hand. It crept into the bottle, and I put the cap on it.

'Let's go.'

---

Death

IDeath/I

bDeath/b

bRebirth/b

b?/b

Why does this happen?

This is a NIGHTMARE.

uWhy does this happen?/u

IWhy does this happen?/I

bWhy does this happen?/b

Who is responsible?

uWho/u

IWho/I

bWho/b

bDo you like to SHARE?/b

uDo you want what is YOURS?/u

IDo you accept RESPONSIBILITY?/I

Those who are part of the bKINGDOM.OF.THE.DREAM/b are unable to awake.

Those who bDIE/b can not be reborn.

Ask yourself an important question:

bDO.YOU.BELIEVE.IN.GOD?/b

…OR bGODS/b?

This part of the chapter is called…

bGHOSTS/b

---

We had finally got it. The purest of Dream Substance. I was so please when we made our way back to the cave in the Gummi Boat.

'Do you think this is enough?' I asked Mickey, trying hard to suppress the grin on my face.

Mickey chuckled, 'That's enough for three.'

I should have been happy, but that was when I got worried. 'Do you think our weapon is ready, though? I mean really ready?'

Mickey didn't say anything, he just nodded. He knew that was enough to put me at ease.

I remembered how uneasy he had been when that Santa Monster attacked, how helpless he was. He must have been reading my mind…

'I'll explain that when we're back at the cave.'

We arrived back at the cave quite quickly. Mickey sat silently for five minutes before bothering to say anything.

'Do you remember what I told you when we began your training- When you fought that first Dreamless?'

Of course I did.

---

I remembered it clearly.

'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.'

He sat still for a while, then continued. 'I created Kingdom Hearts; the game.'

I was stunned.

'I am responsible for that games creation.' He stood up, and began to walk around our tiny cave. 'I was a member of The Watchers, you see. The Watchers don't only have influence over dreams, but also time. It was because of this that we found out something that would change everything, we found out about the Dreamless.'

I didn't know what to say. I carried on listening.

'One of the Watchers, one that we only know as The Doctor, has the ability to go forward and backwards in time in the Dream World. He claimed to have found creatures in the future of the Dream World that were threatening the existence of both our worlds; the Dream World and the real world. You know them as the Dreamless.' He sat down again, looking uneasy. 'It was me that created the game of Kingdom Hearts by subtly introducing the ideas of Kingdom Hearts to several people through dreams, and then eventually it was created; A training manual.'

This shocked me a little too much. 'What are you talking about?'

'That game is a training manual to fight Dreamless. The name got changed along the way, somehow, but they were pretty much identical. It taught people several things about them; that the Keyblade was necessary to beat them, that they were made of Darkness, several Keyblade abilities… I really can't be bothered to go into it in that much detail.' The mouse began to look tiny as he let out a sigh.

'So that game was used to create you; The Perfect Dreamless Killer.' He had finished.

---

'About the game being used for training, right?' I asked.

'Yeah, that,' Mickey answered, 'Well, there's more to it than what I told you back then.'

I immediately began to feel uneasy. 'More like what?'

'There was something I didn't tell you.' He slid down the wall until he entered a sitting position. 'Something big.'

'Get on with it, then.'

'When I said that you were responsible for bringing the Dreamless to existence, I wasn't being entirely truthful.' His big black eyes looked up at me. 'I played my part in their creation, too. It turned out that The Doctor was being used by the Dreamless. They let him warn The Watchers about them so that I would create that game as a training manual, and so the game would influence someone into creating the Dreamless. They were kind of ensuring their own existence… through me. That's why I couldn't help you earlier, because I can't help anyone, even when I try to.'

There was only one thing I felt: Burning anger. I felt like hitting him.

I probably Ishould/I have hit him.

So I did.

'Don't pretend you didn't deserve that.' My hand was already in pain.

He sat up. 'I won't.'

I extended my hand to help him up. He accepted, and I lifted him up a bit too hard, so he came up off the ground.

'Sorry.'

'Don't worry about it.'

I didn't like the mood in the room. 'So, what now?'

'Now, we carry on building our weapon,' Mickey replied, 'It shouldn't take too long now.'

'All right, let's go to work.'

The new pure Dream Substance was perfect for our weapon. We had more than enough, so we had to separate some of it, but eventually we moulded it into the perfect shape. It was like a large bullet, but with both ends slightly more rounded than a normal bullet. Being the perfectionist that I was, this bothered me a little.

'We should start gathering the troops, this is almost ready.' Mickey gave me an unusual thumbs up. I guessed he was feeling better after his revelation.

'Yeah?' I was a little surprised, I thought we'd have to make a few modifications.

'We just have to build it up a little to support itself after the force of firing the pure Dream Substance, and it'll be ready.'

'So, how long is that going to take?'

Mickey thought about it for a second. 'About three days.'

Three days.

IThree days./I

It would only be three days until I saved Karolyn. And the world.

---

Those three days didn't pass quickly enough.

Me and Mickey stood before the Dreamless Ball, with our army of Dream People behind us, awaiting the battle that was about to come. I could feel the Dream World shaking in anticipation. We would either save it, or ensure it's destruction. It all depended on if I had the power to save it.

I really hoped I did.

We had gathered Dream People from most of the Dream Worlds we had been to. There were hundreds of them, all waiting to fight to save… well, everything. There were a few I recognised from the Real World: Captain Jack Sparrow, Michael Corleone, Naruto, Monkey T. Luffy, Mulan, Sasuke, Goku, and even Jak & Dexter was there. Then there were the ones I didn't recognise. We had a fine army, all right.

'You all know what to do,' I shouted, without taking my gaze away from the Darkness Ball. I was answered with a grunt of agreement.

'And so do I,' Mickey said, 'And you?'

'Of course.'

We both summoned our Keyblades. The Kingdom Key and the Friendship Key felt different. Not in a bad way, though; they felt as if they were empowered, stronger, could do more damage. I found myself wondering if Mickey was getting the same feeling from his own Keyblade.

'If it ends here,' I said, 'thanks for taking me to that special dream world.'

'No problem,' he winked.

Silence.

It was broken by Mickey, 'You ready?'

'Of course I am.'

I was in my battle stance, my feet parted and my Keyblades at my side, ready for the fight that we were about to enter. I looked behind me, giving our army the signal, and I noticed something strange.

We had Santa on our side.

I couldn't help but chuckle.

My knees bent, and was launched at the Dreamless Ball. A single hit knocked a few Dreamless out of it and sent them flying to the ground, where a group of angry Dream People were waiting to destroy them. I felt myself smile while I was watching Captain Jack lead a pirate crew to one particularly ugly Dreamless. My smile was interrupted, though, just as I expected it to be.

In front of me, with his fist in my cheek, was an eight foot Dreamless, wearing a black coat not dissimilar to Mickey's (though not exactly the same) and a large, black crown. His eyes were brighter from the other Dreamless. I figured he was the leader.

'…out…' he whispered.

I was a little shocked at a talking Dreamless. 'So, the Dreamless have learned to talk? Can you scream, too?' I thrust my knee into it's stomach. It hadn't expected that, it thought I'd attack with my Keyblades. Regardless, my attack had no effect, and we probably looked like we were dancing in mid-air.

'…out of my…' he carried on spouting crap.

'I don't care.' I swung my Kingdom Key at him, but he dodged it effortlessly.

'…NIGHTMARE!' The Dreamless King screamed at me, and some black vomit-like substance covered me. It appeared to be pretty harmless, but it was ugly. 'MY NAME IS NIGHTMARE!'

'I said, II don't care./I' I swung both Keyblades this time, and this time he didn't dodge it. Instead, two massive metal armguards appeared on his arms, and he blocked the attack with them. Then I felt his knee in my face.

I was sent crashing into the walls, and then crashing to the ground.

'Need a hand?' Mickey had appeared at my feet.

'No,' I answered, 'Stick to the plan. We could really use that right now.'

I looked around. Captain Jack Sparrow had just shot a Dreamless' eye out, Naruto and his clones were performing an Uzumaki Naruto Rendan on another Dreamless, and Mario was jumping on lots of heads. This was the strangest fight I had ever seen.

A foot to the stomach. Nightmare was back, and his foot felt like it had gotten heavier.

'Bastard,' I spat at the monster.

'BASTARD!' He copied me. 'NIGHTMARE IS A BASTARD.'

He was just like an overgrown baby.

Another foot to the stomach. And another. Then one to the chest. I could taste blood in my mouth, smell it in my nose.

Hurry, Mickey, I was thinking. Hurry, or it will be too late.

Nightmare's foot came at my face again. I wasn't going to let this one hit, though. My hand rose and grabbed the monsters foot. My grip tightened. I felt rage swell within me, I wanted to crush his foot, but I had a job to do. I pushed him back, forcing him to stumble backwards. I was back up on my feet before I knew it, and my knee was in his ribs.

Or where his ribs would have been, had he been human.

His fist hit my stomach… or maybe it was my stomach that hit is fist… but this time, his attacks had no affect on me. We couldn't hurt each other, and were evenly matched; this was going to take longer than I had hoped. I swung my Friendship Key at his head, but he dodged it easily. Even though he was inhumanly tall, he could still duck low enough to dodge it.

His other fist came at me, right for my stomach. Before I knew it was happening, my other hand rose to block his attack with the Kingdom Key.

We were locked together, neither of us able to gain an advantage on the other. Locked in an endless dance of fists and blades, blood and darkness. A beautiful dance.

I pulled my Kingdom Key back, and swung at him again. Again, he blocked it with the cold, steely shield that was protruding from his arm. I swung at him again. He blocked it again. His fist flew at my stomach, but I blocked it with my Friendship Key. I put my foot to his chest and kicked, sending him flying through the air. I followed him, but he had turned back around and was coming back at me. The steel armguard had come completely out of his arm, and was in fact a large sword, at least two thirds as big as he was.

He swung his sword at me.

'DIE LITTLE MAN!'

I lifted my Keyblades, holding them up in an cross shape, with one across the other.

'Already did.'

His sword hit my Keyblades. We both pushes against the others weapon with everything we had, hoping our weapon would break through the other.

'Hurry up, I'm ready.' It was a familiar voice; Mickey. He must have got the weapon ready.

I looked down into the wide mass of water, and saw Steamboat Willie floating towards the centre. I had less time than I thought.

Our weapons were now trapped in that endless dance again. Blue, red and black sparks were flying from the point the weapons had clashed, and we were surrounding by a transparent fire. My arms were throbbing, as were his. I couldn't finish this in time.

I put everything I had into my Keyblades. He did the same with his sword. I pushed, and pushed, until finally it ended in a bright flash.

Falling.

He was falling.

I had a little more than he had. He fell through the air and I followed. I put my Kingdom Key to his neck, and my Friendship Key to his stomach, and cut through him in both places.

He disappeared.

'Paul!' Mickey shouted, he was ready.

The Dreamless suddenly became aware of what was happening and were leaving their fights with the Dream People, making their way to the Darkness Ball to defend it. I could hear the weapon humming from the Gummi Boat. It was now directly beneath the Darkness Ball, reaching up toward it. It began to glow with a bright light as the pure Dream Substance was being prepared to fire.

It was like a mini volcano erupting as the weapon fired the pure Dream Substance up into the Ball. It shot out at an incredible speed, though it appeared as if it were in slow motion to me.

'Paul, the Dreamless are fighting back!' Mickey shouted from the boat.

He was right. Where the pure Dream Substance was colliding with the Ball, dark bubbles had began to form, trying to push the beam of light back.

I really only had one choice, even if it would cost me everything.

I jumped over to the boat. I didn't have time to say anything to Mickey, although I really should have done. A lot had happen between us. I took a large jump up the weapon, and stood atop it, where the light was shooting from it.

Then I stepped into the light.

I was pushed up in the flow of it, up towards the ball. I wasn't sure what would happen next, only that I had to do something.

Then I was inside it. The thing I had been trying to destroy; the Darkness Ball. I couldn't see anything, but I could feel it.

Feel the darkness of the Dreamless all around me, even within me, now.

I swung my Keyblades around, hitting all the Dreamless that I could feel. I swung, swiped and cut at all of it, blindly. It felt like forever.

Light. There was light beneath me, pushing through the darkness that had surrounded me. Then the light pushed through me, breaking through all the darkness of the Ball.

We had done it.

I could feel the flow of the light. It was as if I had become a part of it. It launched itself up into the streams that the Dreamless had used to get to the Dreams of people, and began to flow into the streams that led to those Dreams. It was pushing back the blood coming from the comatose ones, and flowing back into their dreams, restoring them to the way they should be.

---

'She's awake. She woke up.' The loud voices were giving her a headache. Why were they shouting? Who had woken up? Was it her?

Her eyes opened, and were almost blinded by the light coming through the window. It was a bright, sunny day, despite the masses of falling snow. What had happened?

'Karolyn?'

Yes, that was her name. She knew that much. Despite all the questions running through her mind, that was one undeniable truth; her name was Karolyn.

She looked for the source of the voices, and found it stood at the door of her little white room.

'Alan? Jonas?'

They looked at her, shocked. She could see knowledge flowing into their eyes, though. Knowledge of what had happened.

A small flash. More muffled voices. The television had been turned on.

'Breaking news here, it appears that the people all around the world who had gone into comas are waking up. So far, 19 of them are reported to be awake and alert, and all awoke in the space of five minutes. It has been a long nine months since the Dream Coma's began, and it looks like it's finally over.'

Dream Comas? Was she in one of them? INine months?/I

Had she been sleeping for that long? Really?

But how? How did this happen? And why?

She felt like she knew, but couldn't quite grasp that knowledge. Not yet.

Then a thought struck her; a thought of a boy she had only known briefly, but felt like she had known him well. A boy who was pure and strong of heart. The boy who had freed her.

The boy who had had to die to save her.

'Thank you, Paul.'

---

'Karolyn?'

Darkness. Once again, I couldn't see a thing. I could hear, though.

Sounds were coming from all directions. Blips and bleeps, sounds of computer keys being tapped. I must have been in some computer room or something. It smelled funny, too. Like a flower, but I couldn't remember what flower.

'Stand up, Paul.'

'Mickey?' A light came on above me. Mickey was stood over me, a smile on his face.

'Well done, Paul. You've saved the worlds.'

He was right, I had. I could feel it.

I didn't how I could feel it, nor did I know why. I just did. But how? What was happening?

I sat up and took a look around. Everything looked silver, and all the computers I could hear blipping and bleeping looked like they belonged to some kind of alien spaceship.

'Mickey, where are we?' I asked. I could barely speak.

'Welcome to the Watcher's Council, Paul.' He walked a few steps in front of me. 'This is where we Watchers look over the Dream World, making sure the balance between it and the Real World is maintained. You managed to save that balance.'

'Indeed,' an unfamiliar voice said, 'but you, Mickey, almost ruined that balance.'

The voice came from a small, shadowed corner of the room. A leg came out of the shadows, a long and thin leg. It was slowly followed by the body that leg belonged to, which was covered in a long black cloak, and had one of the strangest faces I had seen.

He had a silver face, with big red eyes with no pupils, two small slits for a nose. and a vertical mouth filled with large, yellow teeth. Somehow, though, he didn't appear to be ugly.

'Sir,' Mickey knelt down on to one knee. 'I have returned with the one who maintained the balance.'

'I can see that,' the man said with out moving. 'Paul, my name is Carathus Joran. I am a Watcher.'

'Watcher?' I stood up. Somehow, I was feeling pain again. 'Me and my friends, we searched for you, the Watchers.'

'That is for another time.' I had barely finished speaking when he said that. 'For now, please accept the gratitude of the Watchers.'

'But-'

'As you have done this task for us, and maintained the balance, we will give you what you most desire, and we will also give you something else.' Carathus' eyes became smaller, almost distant.

'What I most desire?' I was filled with hope. 'You'll bring me back to life?'

'That is impossible, those who die can not be reborn.' My hopes were shattered. 'But… I think you may be the first exception.'

Finally, I could go back. My eyes were feeling heavy, I felt like I was falling asleep.

'What happened to the Dreamless?' I asked.

'They are now nothing more than bghosts/b. Ghosts of darkness.'

Ghosts. That was good, ghosts can't cause trouble.

'Mickey, as it was you that brought this upon us with that game, you will have to be punished.' Carathus took another few steps forward.

Mickey didn't even look up. 'Of course, sir.'

'As punishment for your crimes to the balance, you would normally be annihilated. But, considering you were being manipulated, as we all were, I have settled on a lighter punishment.' I noticed a glimmer of hope in Mickey's eyes. 'You are to go with Paul, and be his companion for the rest of his days.'

Mickey turned to me with a grin on his face, and nodded. 'I understand, sir.'

I was falling asleep.

'Also, I will give you another gift for Paul. You can only give it to him when he Itruly/I need it. I trust you understand?'

'Of course, sir.'

Everything went black. I was falling through… something. Something light. I could feel the Real World all around me, but in a new way.

---

Cold. So cold.

I knew it was winter, but it shouldn't have been this cold.

All around me was snow. The houses were covered in it, as was the little shop on the corner. I recognised this place.

I was home.

Mickey sat up next to me. He was no longer wearing his coat, but was now wearing a black and red t shirt and shorts. I also sat up, and took a look around.

House, shops, a post box, a bin, and a huge hospital in front of me. There were people walking out. A man, a woman and…

'Karolyn!'

I stood up in such a hurry that I almost fell back down again, but I kept my balance and began to run to her. She saw me coming, I saw her drop the bag she was holding an run towards me.

I opened my arms to her, and she opened hers.

Closer. We were only a few inches apart.

Closer. Centimetres were all that separated us.

Then my arms were in hers, and hers in mine.

And then my arms went through hers.

My body followed, and went through hers. I went through her.

I went through her.

bI went through her./b

I couldn't believe it. I looked at myself. I turned around and saw Karolyn looking at me in shock. What had happened?

'Mickey are we-'

'GHOSTS'

bIuTHE END/b/I/u