||Episode 1 - Part VII: The Door has Opened||

*Fragments of Sorrow*...[Dive into the Heart]

A dream.

I was trapped inside this same dream again. At some point, the darkness swallowed me whole and plunged me into the depths of a deep void. There was no light, save the dim glow of the very first platform I landed on during the initial dream. I got the hang of moving within that place, though. It was like I was simply picking up from my last visit. And, the dream sword was back in my hands. What made this time different was how real it felt. I was breathing hard as more of the shadowy monsters surrounded me. Their numbers were high, and I was defeating so few with the sword. Was it really just another dream?

There was no voice to guide me. Rather, an unseen spirit of some kind led the way as I fought to defeat the enemies attacking me. A way was opened up to other platforms- white and glowing stairs ascending the darkness. The shadows appeared on them, too, but I was able to run along and cut them down. Still... I turned every which way possible to see if there was any room for escape. A door had to be somewhere to let me out of this place. Or, maybe a mysterious light could snatch me away and return me back to the islands. No. Nothing of the sort. I was being left alone to fend for myself.

But, in the midst of the conflict, I found the strength to wipe out the hostile shadows. The others lingering around escaped while they still could. I had thought that they escaped, at least. Those pools of darkness remained open rather than dissolving away. Instead, they expanded to fill up half of the platform I stood on. Something was rising from it- something big!

The half that rules light... and the half that rules darkness.

I gritted my teeth as the darkness morphed into a raging sphere. Such an immense power coming from it. It frightened me and forced me into backing away to the very edge of the platform. The storming dark matter did eventually cease, but my eyes beheld something much more menacing. A tall and toned figure made purely of darkness like the shadows were. It had long arms and sharp claws. Long antennae protruded from the head, running down past the shoulders. My eyes trailed downward, spotting a hole in its chest. The hole was heart-shaped and displayed glowing blue veins from the rigid outline.

Prove to me that you have what it takes to reign over this heart. Weakness cannot withstand the darkness.

'Who are you?!' I mouthed the words, unable to make them audible. The hideous being that approached me paused in its movement, though I could only tell that it did since the arms stopped moving. There were no legs beneath it, save for a transparent tail that whipped back and forth. 'What do you want with me? I... I...'

I... am you.

*Music End*

間

"No!" My eyes snapped open and my body jolted upright. Fear sent cold chills down my back as I breathed hard. Every labored breath pained me until I was able to regain my composure. It was just another dream, I thought to myself. There was nothing more to it. Although it scared me half to death, I had nothing to fear about being back in my bedroom. I took a little bit of time in calming down my nerves after the nightmare. Sweat was even rolling down my cheeks. "I... I'm okay..."

The dream was similar to the one I had yesterday. I was stuck in that dark place with no escape, and there were monsters everywhere. It was definitely a nightmare. Dreams were peaceful and made me happy. That one had no such quality. It frightened me deeply, too, and I couldn't think back to it without shivering under the covers. Then, I wouldn't think about it anymore because it did that to me.

I threw the blanket off my legs and stood in the middle of my dark room. Nighttime had finally come after hours of wasting time at home. It wasn't even time for bed, yet here I was waking up. In my defense, I was feeling incredibly tired after a long day of running around the islands with the others. No one would ever criticize me over my lazy behavior, though. Riku was an exception, but he didn't live with me. In fact, no one did. The old couple that used to live in this home went away a long time ago, but the mayor let me stay to keep their home in good shape. Someone always came over to check in on me.

Alone.

Living alone didn't bother me all that much. I could live without having some adult telling me what I could and couldn't do. Chores were nothing but a daily task that needed to be done. I did them without complaint. Shopping for food was no problem with the allowance I got from the mayor. I could live any way I wanted, yet I chose to be an obedient and disciplined child. Yet... I forgot to make myself a plate of dinner.

I moaned softly when my stomach growled. The downstairs lit up promptly when I came jogging down the stairs. In the kitchen, I prepared a sub sandwich to eat along with a large bag of chips. It was a simple meal, but I was satisfied with a full belly. Now I could go back to bed feeling content about the day.

"Hm?" I was on my way back upstairs when I noticed something out of the first window to my left. It was a real attention grabber, making me go back down into the living room to see what it was. Outside my home, I saw something scary lingering in the night sky. The dark night gave no issue with seeing the thunder clouds coming closer. "It looks like a storm is coming. A big one."

The forecast didn't say anything about a thunderstorm this week, making me wonder about the reasons behind the inaccuracy. Usually, it was not troubling to predict what the weather was going to be like around these parts. I knew the islands had their occasional storms. The summer time had surprisingly few. We were approaching the tail end and going into a season where storms weren't very typical. This was hardly strange, so I thought little of it.

'If there is going to be a storm, then I should go and secure the raft.' My mind flickered to the finished raft that we put together the other day. If that storm was going to be a big one, like I thought it was going to be, then it needed to be pulled into a safer location. Being close to the water would risk it being pulled out to sea. I could at least manage getting it closer to the coconut trees. They were strong and sturdy, so the winds weren't likely to knock them over. The others would thank me tomorrow for being so brave as to secure our ticket to getting off Destiny Islands. I was so sure they'd thank me a million times for my kind service.

Grabbing my flashlight and a jacket, I slipped outside and ran down the dirt road to the beach. Three boats were lined up. But, there were usually four sitting in the sand. I looked around, waving the flashlight to try and spot the missing boat. It wasn't anywhere on the beach. Did that mean that someone went to the other island?

I put the thought aside about someone else going to the island across the way. If anyone was there, then I knew I had someone's help in taking care of the raft and our supplies. I pushed my small boat into the water and got in. Taking the single paddle in my hand, I paddled all the way through the darkness to get to the neighboring dock. There was the other boat when I arrived. It was sitting in the water, tied to the wooden post. I noticed the name engraved into it.

"Riku?"

I gasped in surprise. My immediate thought was that he saw the storm coming, too. I wasted no time in getting out, and I hurried to the cove to set things right. The wind was beginning to pick up as I walked down the old bridge. A loose board came undone and fell through with my foot. It scared me, and I ended up screaming as a result of my fall into the cold water.

"Waah! C-C-Cold..." I emerged from the water and quickly got back onto dry land. My clothes were soaked now, to my dismay. But, I carried on with my task and got to where the raft was. There was no one by myself there. Riku wasn't around. "T-That's odd. I could've sworn I saw his boat."

'Either way, I'd better take care of this...' I grabbed a rope attached to the raft and pulled with all my might. The raft slowly but surely came up on the sand; I dragged it all the way to the coconut trees like I wanted. There, it would be safe from the storm. I even took the chance to grab all the bags of food and jars of water away to a small cave. It'd be a decent shelter from the rain.

"There, t-that should do it," I nodded, shivering a bit. The cold really liked to nip. If I didn't get back home as quick as I could, I'd end up getting sick. I didn't want that to happen with our journey to the outside world coming up in the morning. So, I quickly ran back to the other side of the island, where the boat was waiting. But, when I reached the door, I slowed to a staggering halt. "Ugh... Uh... What...?"

My head was feeling foggy, it was like I couldn't see straight. With a groan, I put my hand against the wooden door to keep myself standing. 'What's wrong with me?'

Can you feel the darkness?

"Can I... feel the darkness?" I gritted my teeth. Suddenly and without any warning, there was a loud cracking sound and a rumble. The rumbling spontaneously turned into a quake that sent me tumbling to the ground. I landed on my side as the earth trembled violently. "W-What's happening?!"

The dizziness was slowly going away. What was that voice? What caused the islands to shake and thrash about? A terribly strong wind crashed into me as I tried to sit up, and it nearly knocked me over. I struggled against it and got up to my feet. The trees were swaying in a violent manner while small shrubs were ripped out of the ground. I worried that a terrible disaster was raging all around. Getting back to the mainlands would be impossible with how wild the waves were acting.

"The raft..." I turned to look past the bridge, which crumbled into the water. Even the refined zip-line tower collapsed. I backed into the door and retreated to the other side. There was no checking on our things back there. It'd be suicide trying to get through the water alone. "I-I have to get out of here!"

I staggered along as the storm continued. Sticking close to the wall, I made my way to the safest place I knew of. The secret place was my best chance at staying safe in this mess compared to the old shack. It'd be ripped apart in a matter of time, what with all this devastating weather rampaging about. Somewhere back there, I had lost my flashlight. However, I was granted a source of light coming from up above. It had a reddish tint to it. No ordinary light did that, even at night.

"What is that?" I looked up into the sky, seeing a giant ball of... I didn't know what. It was hovering overhead with swirling clouds around it. My eyes caught sight of a current winding around the vortex, and I could see that it was pulling all kinds of things into it. Trees, water, sand, and so on. Everything was getting sucked in by the massive energy. It glowed red and purple. I could feel a terrible sensation within my chest. "D-Darkness."

"...Lu...! Lu! Is that you?!"

Gasping, I looked around wildly to see who was calling out my name. It was hard to hear with the wind screaming in my ears, but I saw Sora running over to me from the dock. He looked like he saw a ghost. The 14-year-old nearly crashed right into me, but I was able to catch him in my arms before he did.

"Sora?" I blinked a couple of times, feeling relief upon realizing that it really was him. My vision was returning to how it was- normal and without haze. He was panting hard after his run. I let go of Sora, pulling away to see the fear-stricken expression of his face. "You look terrible! What's happening?"

"I-I... I'd like to know what, too!" He shouted in my face. Although, I was thankful he did with how hard of hearing I was. Sora shook his head and turned around to point at something by the dock. I peered over his shoulder and followed his point to see something crawling toward us. My eyes widened with shock at the sight of them, those several dozens of monsters approaching. "What are those things?!"

"It can't be..." I muttered under my breath, realizing that those were the very monsters I saw and fought against in my dreams. This had to be a dream, too, but I was proved wrong when one of them lunged at me. Its claws dug into my shoulder and cut me. The pain was intense, unlike anything I have ever felt. Yet, the wound was not bleeding as an ordinary one would. I grimaced at the sight of dark wisps rising from my injury. "Agh!"

"C'mon!" Sora grabbed my arm and pulled me away to the shack. He made sure we avoided all of them until we got behind the door. Amazingly, they didn't dare follow us inside, but I was certain that they'd try and barge in at some point. Sora held his back to the door while I stumbled further into the shack. I slumped to the ground and leaned against the wall. Getting hurt by those things sapped a surprising amount of strength from my body. It was like every muscle was burning. "Lu! Are you okay? That looks painful..."

I couldn't bring myself to look into Sora's bright blue eyes. The strength I once had was dwindling, though I doubted that it'd be the end of the road. Swallowing a painful lump in my throat, I clenched my teeth and dragged myself back to my feet with Sora's help. My hand pressed against the wound on my right shoulder. If this was what that voice meant by feeling the darkness, then I could definitely feel it. I wanted to laugh at the cynical thought.

"I'll be fine," I said, but it might have been a lie. At any given moment, I'd probably keel over and lie flat on my face. Sora would have to drag me all the way back here if that were to happen. Then where would we be? That giant vortex in the sky would... I clamped my eyes shut. Realization struck hard. It was no dream. The islands were being torn apart by the storm- the one I thought would be nothing to worry about. Heavy was my doubt. Destiny Islands would have a hard time withstanding this one compared to any other we faced, especially with those monsters out there. "Do you think... everyone back in town will be okay...?"

"I don't know." Sora said sadly, his eyes dropping as he held my left arm. He glanced over at the door, which was being rattled by the strong winds. Boards from the roof of the shack were being removed by the suction of the vortex, so we could see the lightning flashing outside. Yellow eyes. Those creatures were also peering in from up there. They were waiting for us to make a move. "We have to worry about ourselves right now! C'mon, I think I saw someone standing by the paopu tree. Maybe we'll run into Riku and Kairi there. I'll help you..."

"But the monsters..." I protested a little. "They're probably waiting for us. Once we go out-"

"T-Then we fight!" Sora said firmly, finding our wooden swords. They were stored away in a small box in this shack. How well they would put up in a fight against real monsters was about to be tested I supposed. It beat having nothing, at least. "Let's go!"

間

*Night of Fate*...[Destiny Islands - Ruined]

Sora led the way down the bridge as we ran from the collapsing shack. The shadow monsters appeared all over the bridge to catch us off guard, but we ran by without a second thought. It was Sora who tried to fend them off with his practice sword. But, just as I thought, it didn't work. The wood could not do any damage. Rather, it just bounced off their round heads and bumped Sora on his forehead. I decided to not waste my time with fighting them. Instead, I pursued the figure standing on the island ahead of us. Sora was trying to catch up to me.

'Ah! It's him!' I gasped and strained a smile when I saw Riku's back to me. It was amazing that he was standing as still as a statue in all of this chaos. But, regardless of how he stood there, I was glad to see one of our friends around. I glanced behind me to see if Sora was coming. He was still halfway down the bridge, but he was on his way. The monsters knew I was already across, but they did not follow me. It was strange. But, I turned my full attention to Riku and walked up to him.

"Riku?" I called out to him, but he didn't turn around. Maybe he didn't hear me. I walked around so that I could stand face to face with my friend, but his eyes were locked on the thing in the sky. Where we stood, it was directly over our heads. The storm's currents were weaker at this point but menacing everywhere else. "Hey."

"Lu." Riku spoke my name and dropped his gaze to meet with me eye to eye. Something was different about the way he looked at me. It seemed so... cold. Like, he was uncaring and closed himself off. This was unlike the Riku I knew to be my friend. Not that I cared about that. There was a storm and monsters attacking. Riku was my friend, and we needed to get Sora and Kairi out of here. "This is it. Our way to the outside world."

"That?!" I stared at him as though he were out of his mind. My eyes briefly trailed up to the vortex. It didn't look like something we could actually use. Safely. I tightly held my shoulder and shook my head at him. "Riku, the islands are falling apart! We have to find Kairi and get out of here. It's dangerous."

"Maybe, but I'm here," he said. "I'll keep us all safe."

I wanted to ask him how he could possibly accomplish that when we're already in a terrible state. Those things Sora managed to get through were still trying to nip at his neck. He managed to get away from them and make it to us. They stopped following him when he did.

"Riku!" Sora shouted at the top of his lungs. Our talk was over, and we looked to the spiky-haired boy who was still in a panic. I closed my mouth and tried to find a way to talk to Riku. "Where's Kairi?! I thought she was here with you!"

"The door... has opened." Riku's words were indescribably unnerving. I felt an unfamiliar sensation bubbling in my stomach. It was nothing like fear. Or, rather, it must have been something much worse than that. There wasn't a word I could use to actually explain it. I just didn't feel right with this at all. 'The door?' I wondered.

"What?" Sora tilted his head to the side, confused by Riku.

"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku repeated, but this time snapping out of his standoffish behavior. He clenched his hands into tight fists and turned his back on me to face Sora. I noticed that he still wore that peculiar smirk. "Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What're you talking about?" Sora shook his head, pushing the idea aside. He wasn't worried so much about getting off the islands. I clenched my jaw, feeling certainty that Kairi was somewhere out there in this mess. Fear crept inside me as I worried about the danger she was in. Those things lurking around the island could have been attacking her this very moment. How were we supposed to help her without having anything to fight back with? "C'mon, you guys! We've gotta go find Kairi and get out of here!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku argued back, stunning Sora with his tone of voice. I wanted to reach out and grab Riku by the shoulder. He was speaking nonsense to mine and Sora's ears. Whatever about the door. The islands were far more important right now. And, yet, he was so fixated by escaping to the world beyond this one. "Once we step through... we might not be able to come back here. We may never see our parents and friends again. But, there's no turning back. This may be our only shot. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

Riku's left hand slipped behind him, extending back to me while his other hand reached for Sora. His eyes fell dark as he turned to look at me. It was like he was asking me what I was waiting for. But, what he was asking for us to do- demanding- frightened me to my core.

Step through the darkness, and you will be one step closer to the truth...

A voice whispered in my mind. I witnessed darkness spreading out from underneath Riku's feet. Vines of that very dark matter wrapped around his legs and up his body. I gasped and took a step forward. That stuff was going to take Riku away from me and our friends. He couldn't go... not without me!

I boldly made an attempt to grab Riku's hand, but the darkness appeared under me and tried to engulf my body. My hand wouldn't move any further. On the other side, Sora was getting caught up in the same thing. The darkness was winding around all three of us, pulling us into its depths. But what did that matter? I was intent on taking Riku's hand before he was gone. Maybe the darkness led to the unknown, but... 'I'm not afraid of the darkness, either! I just want my friend...'

My fingers inched to his hand, but it was too late. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it in time to Riku. The darkness enveloped all of me, preventing me from going anywhere. I saw nothing but pitch black. No islands. None of my friends. The raging storm seemed to be silenced. I couldn't see or feel anything, like my body had gone numb. The darkness was so suffocating...

It is time! Awaken the true power of your heart and withstand the darkness. Show weakness no more.

In the midst of the darkness, a light shined and broke through the heavy fog shrouding over me. I felt freedom returning to my limbs. The darkness was repelled, and I stood again on the small island. Strong winds rammed straight into me upon the darkness's fleeting. That was right. There was still a massive storm going on. I could still see the vortex in the sky. More parts of the island were broken off and pulled into the dark orb. Only the paopu tree remained on the small island, because the others were pulled from their respective places.

"What happened...?" I wondered out loud as a strange feeling came over me. It was like my body was lighter than before and stronger. More importantly, I saw that Riku was nowhere to be seen. The darkness must have swept him away from here. He was probably not even in this world anymore. Sorrow pushing down on my shoulders threatened to overcome me, but I pushed it off and looked up at the sky. My eyes landed on the growing vortex. "The darkness... I won't let it take anyone else from me!"

Flash!

Suddenly and without warning, something appeared in the palm of my left hand. The light was so powerful and brilliant. I squinted my eyes until it dimmed down, then I saw the light-weighted sword. It did seem to be some kind of sword, anyway. Key-shaped and simple in design, but there was no edge to actually cut with. The guard was a deep blue and the rounded blade was a smooth silver. A five-point star made up the sword's teeth. The very tip had a ball on it, and on the other side was a single spike. My eyes trailed down, seeing the gold star making up a little token.

Keyblade...

The very word was not as foreign as I thought it'd be. Another voice echoing inside my head spoke the word- the name of this sword. I held it up for my eyes to examine closely. This Keyblade looked old and scratched up along the body of the blade. It was like someone used it intensely in battle.

"Starlight." I spoke softly to myself and smiled. The name just popped into my head, but it sounded perfect. Lowering the Keyblade, I glanced around to get a good view of the situation. That was when I saw another bright flash of light some feet ahead of me. A dark mass was exploded by the light. Sora stumbled out of it, and he was holding a key-shaped sword, too. I grinned and jogged over to him. "Sora!"

"L-Lu?!" he stuttered, regaining his composure. We were reunited shortly after the darkness tried to take us, but the trouble was far from over. There was not enough time to hug and talk about what just happened, for numerous monsters rose from the ground and had us surrounded. "Uh... I guess we fight!"

The big worry was if these Keyblades would do the trick to get rid of them. I took a practice swing against one that lunged at me, and I was astonished to see that one hit was able to eliminate it. Unlike my wooden sword, Starlight was capable of vanquishing the threat. Sora took that as his cue to take out another pair of shadow monsters. However, as we ran everywhere we could to figure out where our missing friends were, we saw that more hoards of monsters came with every one that was defeated. It was endless.

"Is that a door?" I stopped in the middle of the beach after clearing a bunch of enemies. A pure white door sat in front of the entrance to the secret place. It was never there before, maybe until just recently. "I think we'll be safe if we go through there."

"But, what about Kairi?" Sora asked, grabbing my sore arm. I winced but shrugged off the pain. "Riku's gotta be somewhere out here, too!"

"Riku's gone..." I said lowly, reminding him of the dark portal he was taken through. We still had no idea where Kairi was, but there was a chance she was on the other side of that door. I was getting a strange feeling that something important was there. It was as though there was a dwindling light. "Kairi has to be there. I just know it! Come on, Sora, we have to look everywhere."

"A-Alright," he nodded slowly.

Together, we ran past the waterfall and avoided the incoming monsters. The door was unlocked and opened by itself when we approached it. I crawled down under the vines, followed by Sora. 'Kairi...' I gritted my teeth as the door closed behind us. The feeling was getting stronger. I could just hear her calling out for us...