Where...am I?

Sora felt a trickle of sweat rolling between his shoulder blades as he stared at his hands splayed on the wall in front of him. A shiver ran down his spine as he felt something warm and wet against the nape of his neck, working toward the nook at his shoulder. He let out a ragged breath in reaction to the warmth spreading from that particular area into his chest, swirling low to the pit of his stomach and below to stir his libido. Something soft brushed against his cheek, causing him to turn his head to stare directly into into a pair of sea foam colored eyes.

Although he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out but the sound of his voice hitching in his throat. Riku chuckled, his breath fanning against the brunette's ear and stirring the pitted warmth once again and causing a small sound to come from his throat. Feeling his face flush from the noise he made, Sora went to turn and attempt to wrestle himself from whatever was happening, but the shifter simply threaded his hands through the brown locks and held his head in place as he covered the smaller boy's mouth with his own.

What is...going on?

He felt the fingers of the shifter deftly wiggle under the waistband of his pants and close around the base of his shaft. As his mouth opened in a gasp, he felt Riku's tongue sweep inside, deepening the kiss further. Instead of fighting against it, Sora felt himself responding to every teasing swirl the silverette made, moaning into the kiss as he began to feel a tightening in his stomach and the pressure of release growing steadily beneath those skilled fingers.

"Nng...R-riku." He gasped out the shifter's name when he felt a nip at his bottom lip and a tug at his hair. Sora let his head fall back, settling it on the silverette's shoulder, and felt his fingers reflexively press against the wall as if looking something to hold on to. He was so close, but Riku had began to slow his work to delay it.

"Time to wake up, Sora."

"Huh?"

"Come on, half-pint. Get your ass up!"

As the image of Riku dissolved, he was thrown into a brief second of darkness before his eyes shot open again. Instead of finding himself in the same position as before, he stared at a bright white ceiling and the stale stench of the infirmary greeted him. Sora sat up sharply, eyes instantly picking out a particular trio standing at the side of his bed. They all shared a look of amusement, but Ventus quickly changed his demeanor and partially turned away, covering his mouth with a hand in an attempt to stifle a laugh.

"Did we interrupt something?" asked Axel, raising an eyebrow at the brunette.

"W-what? No, I-How did I get here?" Sora glared at the younger twin indignantly, watching as he stifled his laughter with a hand to his mouth. Clearly his question was going to be ignored.

"I think...that says otherwise, Sora," said Roxas, struggling with his composure as he pointed at the vampire's lap. Sora glanced down, noticing the pitched tent underneath the thin material of the sheet. As quickly as possible, he bunched the material up and covered his lap as he shot dark glares at each of them when they began to burst into fits of laughter.

"It's normal. Nearly every man has it when they're sleeping! Get over yourselves and grow up!" he hissed vehemently. His mind then wandered back to the competition and to the shifter he had been with when he passed out. "Did he make it to the last stone? What happened to Riku?"

His question about the shifter spurred more laughter.

"Oh, yeah. Riku. You guys had a pretty hot moment there in the competition," said the dragon, managing to curb his laughter for a moment. "So what's it like with a wolf shifter, eh?"

Just as Sora picked up the single pillow on his bed to throw it at Axel, the curtain separating his bed from the rest of the room slid open with the sound of screeching metal. The four of them stopped and looked over to a half naked Riku, his torso bound in bandages tinted pink with blood. Sora felt a slight flush to his cheeks, but he didn't dare to try and decipher it in that moment.

"Will you morons shut the hell up?" he growled.

His aquamarine eyes swept between each of them before stopping on Sora, pinning him to the spot as if he dared the brunette to move further off of the bed than he already was. Snapping his mouth shut and clearing his throat, Sora placed the pillow back on the bed as he forced himself to look away and instantly reached up to the nook at his shoulder, feeling that familiar warmth underneath his fingertips.

"I-I have to... uh, go check in with Vincent. I'll see you guys at-" Sora paused and glanced toward the windows, guessing the time of day. "Dinner?"

Hopping from his perch on the bed, he snatched a plain white hoodie from the chair next to the bed and quickly threw it on, sliding the zipper most of the way up his chest and pulling the hood over his head. He noticed the shifter still staring at him as he slipped by and headed out of the door and into the hallway. Vincent wasn't exactly his destination, but he couldn't stand being stuck in small area with all four of them in his current confusion.

Sora mulled over his thoughts as he wandered the second floor of the Academy. Every thought he traced, however, ended back to his dream. He wasn't exactly innocent on the subject, but he hadn't had any of the physical experiences with the way his parents had kept him sheltered, afraid and worried for his well being. He had reacted as any normal boy or girl would when hitting that stage in their life. But he had never thought about his own sexuality. The brunette had found many girls attractive, from day dreams to wet dreams. But with the situation with Riku, and the fact he barely knew the guy, was what threw him in a whirlwind of a conundrum.

Images swept through his mind of the shifter, of the sweat and the tanned bare skin, the taut muscles, the low chuckle he had made. It sent a shiver up his spine and settled at the nape of his neck, creating a dull tingle underneath his skin. Sora caught himself touching his fingers to his mouth for a split second before he shook his head and practically threw himself at the wall he'd been walking along, burying his head in his arms.

"What the hell is this?" he whispered to himself.

The sound of a hand smacking against the wall above him broke Sora from his thoughts. He turned around sharply came face to face with none other than Riku, the last person he actually wanted to see in his current situation. To make things worse, he had a clear view of the shifter's bandaged torso underneath the unzipped white infirmary hoodie. The brunette flattened himself back against the wall as he felt heat creep into his face, which only managed to anger him.

"We need to talk," the shifter said in a low voice. Sora felt his face twist into a scowl.

"Is this really necessary to talk?" the shorter boy quickly shot back as he motioned his hand toward one placed on the wall.

"Well, you weren't responding the last couple of times I tried to get your attention. I could have just flat out hit you." Sora couldn't help but feel that, maybe, it would have been the better alternative than being half way trapped against a wall while his thoughts were running rampant in the gutter over this particular guy. The shifter did, however, take a step back and cross his arms over his chest. "Get rid of it."

"Huh? Get rid of what?" asked the brunette with a slight shake of his head.

"Whatever you did in the competition when you fed from me," he growled between clenched teeth. "If you put some weird vampire voodoo shit in my head or body, get rid of it."

Sora thought back to that point in the competition, replaying it in his head as fast as possible. He couldn't very well give him back his blood, but something nagged at him that it was something else. He opened his mouth to respond to him, to deny that he hadn't done whatever Riku was talking about, but his brain did a double take on the memory. Yet again, it lead back to that dream. From Riku's hand in his hair, tugging the brunette's locks, to the way his eyes had turned into a heated look, coincidence didn't seem much of a hopeful outlook.

Vampires, naturally, had a numbing agent within their fangs that released upon a successful bite, but that was all it was. Sora hadn't used any sort of power of persuasion on him. The fact that Riku assumed Sora had any control over how he reacted to the bite left him at a loss for words.

"I didn't do it." It was the first words that flew out of the vampire's mouth after closing off his mind to the thoughts. Clearing his throat, Sora attempted to scoot off to the side, his mind set on getting away from the wall. "I have no control over any of that, let alone some weird vampire voodoo. Do you even know anything about us? You must be some sort of masochist or something."

"Just fuck already."

Sora's eyes snapped up toward the voice across the hall while Riku spun around. A man leaned against the wall and, at first glance, Sora thought it was Axel. But as he took in the goggles atop the familiar wild red hair and the red markings underneath the man's eyes, it was clearly someone else. Someone he hadn't met yet.

"Not gonna happen, Reno," snapped Riku.

"It's obvious you guys have some sort of thing going on, probably since you met."

"No, we haven't!" the two boys chimed at the same time. This earned a laugh from Reno as he pushed off of the wall, making his way toward the pair.

"If you say so. But, you really should find a way to get the tension out of the air."

"There is none!" they both exclaimed again.

"Ugh, kids these days. Always running from something." Reno replied under his breath.

"Is there a problem here?"

The three of them looked up toward Namine. Reno was shaking his head while Sora looked anywhere but at the people suddenly surrounding him. Riku had raised his hand, gesturing toward the taller redhead with a glare so intense, anyone else would have turned tail and left. Namine raised a brow at Reno. She may not be an Elder, but she was one of Xehanort's more trusted and experienced attendees at the Academy. The only thing holding her back from Elder status was the lack of control over her powers.

"Reno, are you harassing students again?"

"Hardly. I was just attempting to help them clear the air, that's all," replied the redhead smoothly. An electrical buzz and a swift movement caused Namine to roll her eyes, but the two boys, when they noticed him wielding an electrical rod over his shoulder, shared a look as if they had the same question. Where had it come from? "Although, an ass beating could easily solve it, I'm sure."

"Let's not. Especially with classes starting back up n-" Namine abruptly bent over, holding her head in a fierce grip. Reno acted swiftly, steadying the girl with a hand under one of her arms. A look of dismay flashed on his face before melting into one of seriousness when the moment passed and she stood straight once more. Curling her fingers lightly into the arm of the taller male's jacket, her eyes settled straight onto Sora. "We need to see the Headmaster right now. All of us."

The group sprang into movement, Reno leading with Namine so she could keep her balance. Sora and Riku kept close, maneuvering themselves on either side of the pair. The brunette was curious as to the what and why of the situation, but he thought it was better to bite his tongue. Within minutes, they opened the door to the office. Their unannounced visit earned them a particular look from Xehanort.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" he questioned, a hint of tiredness playing in his voice.

"I think I know what happened to Ephemer. More like, who happened to him. I recognize him, but... Let me just show you."

Namine talked quickly as she shirked off Reno's hand and walked briskly to the Headmaster's desk as Reno closed the door for their privacy. As the girl snatched a paper and a pencil from his desk, she bent over and began sketching a picture. The other three, who had stayed near the door, watched as Xehanort regarded the girl with a surprised look as she fleshed out the image from her mind. He then turned his eyes toward Sora, his brows furrowing just a touch to worry the brunette.

Xehanort took the picture from the witch as he stood, placing an arm behind his back as he stepped around his desk and toward the waiting trio. Once he stopped in front of Sora, he turned the page around to show the portrait. Shock filled the faces of everyone. Their initial reaction was purely based on the fact that the image that was drawn was basically a copy of Sora, the only difference being the black hair.

Riku's disturbance was the fact that he recognized the person. Other than looking like Sora, it was the exact figure he had seen during the competition when they were faced with their greatest fears. He had initially thought the brunette was facing himself, with minor changes due to the magic. But with Namine creating the sketch from a vision, it seemed like this was something else entirely.

Sora, on the other hand, seemed as if he had somehow gotten ten shades lighter. Genuine fear was evident on his features. There was no mistaking the fact that this was the same person he had been hearing and seeing hallucinations of for as long as he could remember since his death. Slowly, he looked past the picture, focusing his stupefied stare at Namine.

"What color are his eyes?" he asked just above a whisper.

"Gold."

At the word, a rush of breath escaped the brunette's mouth before he repeatedly muttered a single word under his breath: no. His hands raised toward his head as he started wandering aimlessly through the office, his distress and fear swallowing him. He had never had anyone else acknowledge the fact he existed. It had always been the same, the same assumption that it was some being he conjured from psychosis. Several questions flew threw his mind. What did it mean? Why was he in Namine's vision? How did she see him? The most important question, however, made him stop in his tracks.

"What did you see?" Sora's voice was shaking as he asked the question. He couldn't even lift his eyes to look at anyone. When he didn't get a quick enough answer, he reiterated his words again with more inflection. "What did you see?"

"There was a lot of destruction. Possibly death. I can draw a wider picture..."

"Tell me what happened," he said desperately. He now had his eyes trained on her, as if his entire life depended on her answering him. "Please, tell me. What happened? How did it happen? I need to know."

"I don't know! It isn't like a movie, I'm sorry. I only get bits and pieces from my visions, nothing solid." Despite the outburst, Namine had grabbed another paper and began drawing once again. Everyone waited in silence for a moment before Reno's voice filled the emptiness.

"So, what is it that we're looking at here? Sora gone rogue? Or is it a long lost twin that nobody was aware of? A clone, even?"

Nobody answered. There was no concrete information available for the group to even begin speculation, not until Sora started with what he knew. That, in itself, seemed like it could prove to be a difficult process based on the boy's reaction alone. Before Reno could draw the boy's attention, however, Namine lifted the paper in her hands. Everyone made their way to her, their eyes following the sketch as Sora snatched it out of her hands with his visibly shaking ones. On it was the person he knew. As the vampire combed over the details of the sketch of his doppelganger, he began to wonder who, or what, haunted him.

The arms looked as if they had been dipped into ink, fading into skin just above the elbow. Further down, where there should have been fingers, razor-sharp claws were held splayed open to the sky. Instead of the abnormally sharp canines Sora was used to seeing, there were fangs very similar to his own. The biggest detail that no one could miss, though, was the slim tail that reached from waist to foot, and ended with a sharpened arrowhead-like tip.

Below the detailed, full body sketch was a more detailed layout of the scenario. Sora hadn't recognized the location, but once he saw the Dome tucked into the corner, he assumed it was none other than the rooftop of the Academy. Vague sketches of a few bodies littered the ground. But a single, and rather large, wolf stood its ground before the ebon haired stranger.

That must be Riku. So whenever this is, he either stopped fighting the wolf or he found a way to coexist with it...

More questions began filtering into the brunette's mind, but it was stopped short with a hand to his shoulder. He lifted cerulean eyes to look at everyone surrounding him before settling onto the golden ones that studied him. Everyone had a seriousness to their demeanor, save for Namine. She looked sick with worry, her skin paler than it had been moments before.

"Share with us what you know about this person, Sora. Trust us with this fear, and we may find a solution yet," said the Headmaster quietly, giving a slight squeeze to the brunette's shoulder.

"He's..." Sora hesitated, lowering his eyes back to the paper in his hands. "He's the one I hallucinate and hear. If he has a name, he never told me. I always just thought... I thought, maybe, it was just a dark part of me. The vampire part of me. I never saw him until after I died, after I woke up from the change."

"It seems apparent what this bastard is, based on what Namine has seen. Except he doesn't look like your standard demon," stated the Reno as he met the Headmaster's eyes over the boy's head.

"Now we need to determine whether he is mentally toying with him or if..." Xehanort trailed off as he felt Sora tense under hand, assuming that he was uncomfortable with the conversation. Taking the sketch from his hands, the Headmaster gave a final squeeze to his shoulder before stepping away, muttering something to the others.

In reality, the vampire felt the familiar caress in his mind, resulting in the intangible form of the exact person they were speaking of. Seeing him once again, Sora couldn't help but envision the sketch in his mind. A chuckle came from his doppelganger, but he didn't acknowledge Sora. Instead, he moved over to Riku with a wide grin on his face.

"Ah, the wolf shifter. Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't ripped each other's throats out yet. I think it would be...fun." Sora gritted his teeth as his eyes followed his demon looked up at the silverette, a hand motioning between their two heads. "You could do with some growing, Sora. But being a bit smaller might be to your advantage. And this girl. Oh, I bet she would have the most fantastic screams. Wanna try?"

Sora watched as the ebon haired doppelganger moved his hand to her throat. But before he could close his fingers, Namine moved, breaking the illusion and reminding Sora this was all in his head. The demon couldn't physically harm any of them. It did make him wonder, however, if what Namine had said was true. Was this person really the reason Ephemer was injured? If so, then how?

"Come on, let's get you some dinner and then you can rest. This is a lot to find out about."

Sora let himself be led out of the office by Namine and Riku. He was lost in his thoughts, the demon gone for now, but he went through the motions of a normal routine as they reached the dining hall. Roxas, Ventus and Axel, although taken aback by the fact the shifter was joining them at their table, were filled in vaguely about the information they had uncovered.

As he absently sipped from the tumbler of thick liquid, he faintly heard his name being said. The brunette lifted his eyes, looking at each of them before settling on Riku. Before now, he had never realized how deep of a green the shifter's eyes actually were. He remembered them being a lighter color, almost glowing, during the other encounters. As he sifted through those moments, he realized one common thing. Riku had always been angry, or stressed from fighting his counterpart. Perhaps it lightened his eye color the closer the wolf was to the surface.

As the shifter opened his mouth to say something again, Sora interrupted.

"You should cut your hair." Everyone at the table voiced their confusion in unison at his random statement. He threw back his head as he finished the contents of the tumbler, standing from his seat at the table. "It's getting long. You look better when it's short."

"Where are you going?" asked Ventus.

"I think I'm going to bed. It's been a long day."

It wasn't the day, however, that bothered Sora. In fact, with the whole day's worth of rest, he only felt fatigued after the breakthrough. As he stood in his bathroom moments later and looked at his reflection in the mirror, he knew it was the night that would drain him. Looking at the golden eyes lingering over his shoulder didn't deter him from what he had settled his mind on.

"Who are you, really?" Fingers slipped over his shoulders, but Sora couldn't help but imagine them as the inked claws.

"Hah. So we're finally acknowledging the fact that I'm not you? What a shame. I think I rather got comfortable being your shadow."

Sora spun around, shirking the hands off of his shoulders as he shoved the demon away. He may be ethereal toward any other person but, with Sora, he was very real. It was another mystery that the brunette was yet to figure out.

"Answer my question. Who are you? Why am I the only one who can see and hear you?"

"Have I ever lied to you?" The demon sighed as he turned and disappeared through the closed door of the bathroom. Sora hesitated a moment before swinging the door open and following after him. "I can't believe I have to repeat this. I. Am. You. I always have been, since the day you died."

"Why do you look like me? You didn't exist before I was a vampire, but I don't remember creating you afterward, either. I've never known for any other vampire to have a dark side to themselves."

"What is this, twenty-one questions? I didn't have my own form. I adopted yours, made some tweaks to it, and here we are," he said, sounding exasperated. "I was never simply created. I found you, broken and bleeding in the remains of your home. Your light was dying and you had nothing to cling to but hope. You clung to me when I reached out. I offered you a chance at redemption from the damnation that was about to befall you. A chance of vengeance against the sins committed against you. And you agreed."

As the demon spoke, long forgotten memories flashed within Sora's mind. A house, destroyed beyond recognition. Glimpses of his family dead around him. He had been laying on the floor, a bloody gaping wound where his stomach should have been. But the demon was right. He remembered the black mist that had approached him in his last dying minute. Sora had agreed as he looked at the golden light shining through the murky darkness. Although, being only ten at the time, he had thought the light had been some benevolent being. An angel, even. But now, he realized it was only the demon's eyes.

As he relived the moment, a familiar cold crept across his skin. Fingers framed his face, the way the smoky mist had reached out when he was a child.

"But that vampire just had to come back and change you. I keep you strong, Sora, but with you being turned when you let me in, it sort of put a damper on the party, you know? But with that being said, you should remember my name. I know you were young, but just think hard. You had to know it to let me in."

The demon had leaned forward, merely inches away from the vampire's face, as he watched the fight to remember within the blue irises. He pressed his mouth against Sora's in a short and instantaneous movement. As he watched through half lidded eyes, he felt something snap within the boy when his eyes flew wide and his body tensed. Sora flung his arms out, shoving the demon away as he let out a sharp breath. His response earned a low chuckle, but when the brunette opened his mouth to utter a single name, a malevolent fanged grin greeted him.

"Vanitas..."