AN: K, so I had no intentions of continuing this, but my pal Adami was like "hey the wayfinder trio would probably have super messed up dreams", and I thought "wow, that's so true, especially since one of them is sleeping 24/7". HERE Y'ALL GO FAM. ALSO, to the GUEST user, I totally see you fam.
Riku'd done this a few times by now. Not everyday, nor every week, no, that would be too concerning, but enough times that Riku knew the drill. After the third time, showing up on his pillar, he'd tried to leave, or perhaps, wait it out. He'd sat paitently, cross legged a good ways away from the orb in order to restrain himself. This orb was different, flickering into and out of existence periodically, like a broken lightbulb.
Then, it disappeared for good. Sora must've woken up to start the day proper.
"Hey you two, what's up?" Riku asked, arriving at school the following morning. Sora was sitting face down on his desk, groaning, while Kairi sat next to him and gathered her papers. Riku was a year older so they weren't in any of the same classes. Regardless, the silver-haired boy would talk with them before school started and during breaks.
"Someone stayed up all night studying and didn't get any sleep." Kairi said in a sing-song voice.
"Hey! I got to bed in good time, it was just hard to sleep because I kept having nightmares about the test." Sora complained, raising his head just enough for Riku to see dark circles under his eyes. He didn't catch the guilt sneaking onto Riku's face, face first once again onto the wooden surface.
Riku felt bad now - even if he wasn't obligated to get rid of Sora's nightmares, nor could've predicted the outcome - he could've at least done something. Next time, Riku promised he'd do his best to help his friend.
So, that's how he came to be, standing in front of another one of these tantalizing nightmares. This time, however, something didn't seem right. He felt more than just a nightmare, a darkness lurking in the shadows. Sensing something behind him, Riku quickly summoned his keyblade and a CLANG! filled the air as he twisted his body and blade to meet another.
"Who are you?" Came an amused voice. The figure was entirely black with two red glowing eyes, their figure the same outline as Sora's. They jumped back, black keyblade at the ready.
"Depends on who's asking." Riku replied, taking a defensive stance. "You don't deserve to know if you're a nightmare plaguing Sora's heart."
The figure laughed. It wasn't jovial nor kind-hearted, but rather sardonic. Riku only narrowed his eyes further as the figure bent down and clutched their stomach.
"Hmm, whatever. Not like I really cared about an insignificant brat like you, anyways. Step away from the orb and we won't have any problems." The figure warned. Riku couldn't see his face, yet knew it had a big wide smirk on it.
"What orb? Oh do you mean this orb?" Riku feigned ignorance, taking the orb in his palm. The figure growled, lunging at him. Riku only grinned, prepared.
The two battled it out as Riku's eyes changed into their Dream Eater-like state. His disposition did not waver, however, battling the figure of with one hand and holding the floating orb in another. It slammed on his keyblade relentlessly, pushing Riku around the pillar.
Riku eyed the orb, licking his lips. The whole thing fit in Riku's mouth with not much effort. In one "GULP!" It went down the hatch just like that.
The figure stopped, breathless.
"What are… what the hell did you just do?" The figure exclaimed. Riku held up a finger, still trying to fully swallow the orb.
Riku felt fuzzy again, extremely so. This nightmare detailed the deaths of three individuals: a master slain by his own pupil, a body stolen away by Xehanort's hands, and a female friend surely devoured by darkness. It was like a decade of terror crashing down upon him, overwhelming.
"After all the work I go through, it's gone in seconds." The snide voice complained.
Riku clutched his stomach and fell to his knees, trying to calm himself down. It was like he'd overeaten, it was too much. His body was bursting with energy, his inner Dream Eater working quickly to convert the nightmare into good dreams.
What memory should he use as a placeholder? Perhaps the times he spent looking up at the stars with Sora, when he was little. The memories were nostalgic and sort of melancholy, seeing as his desire to reach these stars is what initially broke his relationship with Sora. But now, he knew, he'd try his best to protect the brunet, and help whomever initially had this nightmare.
The figure saw the dream take form in Riku's hands, a golden light drifting and flowing out of his mouth and chest as he breathed. It swirled together and solidified, that feeling of childlike wonder and the excitement of sneaking out past bedtime. Riku opened his eyes, looking down at the new dream crafted from the energy within him with almost a sense of pride.
Riku could sense the figure make another attack, and reacted. He clutched the dream carefully to his chest and dodge rolled a good bit away. Opening his eyes to stare at the figure, his disposition changed, and apparently, he had grown two large colourful bat wings from his back.
With a giant flap of his wings, Riku flew into the air with one giant WOOSH! Riku took a breather hovering a good few feet above his enemy. He could thankfully hear the faint sound of Sora laughing as the dream continued to unfold within his grasp.
The figure snarled and grew giant wings of their own, flying upwards to fight Riku. Riku was clunky at first, awkwardly maneuvering himself through the air, but was getting the hang of it, avoiding most attacks. As much as he hated it, Riku had to be on the defensive to protect the dream.
After some sloppy swordsmanship in Riku's part, the orb was knocked out of his hands and the figure quickly dived after it. Catching it before it could grasp, the figure swooped up and held it between their two claws. With little focus, darkness started to overwhelm the sphere, the golden glow slowly turning to a dark violet.
Riku grunted as he made the snap decision to put an end to this fight. He kicked the figure out of the air and onto his stain glass pillar, the figure landing belly flat. Thankfully, the orb was undamaged, but still within the hands of the figure. From his position; one foot pushed down on the enemy, Riku was able to clearly see the Dream Eater mark that had previously gone unnoticed. Ignoring the figure's futile struggle and the polluted dream, Riku pondered if he could purify this Nightmare like the very orb it held.
As weird as it was, Riku cast sleep of all spells on the figure to at least get it to stop squirming for a moment. The silver haired boy cautiously kneeled down at its side, hesitantly laying his hands on the Mark.
Riku felt it immediately, the darkness that flowed through his palms. His stomach growled.
"Hey, you literally just ate!" Riku berated his tummy. He jested of course: he knew that he didn't get to keep much of the energy he got from nightmares, most of it converted into the new and better dream.
Focusing, Riku closed his eyes and concentrated on absorbing the nightmare. It wasn't as delicious as just right out eating them literally through his mouth, yet it still felt pretty satisfying, Riku humming to himself.
At first it felt numbing, like he was as cold and lifeless as the figure below him, but the sound of the orb rolling to a stop out of the figure's hands drew him back to reality. It sat, mostly corrupted and impure, Riku noting the sad state to deal with after.
Then, Riku felt the light. The previous warmth of laughing with friends, cherishing your loved ones and protecting what mattered most. Of new beginnings and a golden path basked in the glow of dawn. Riku took a moment to live in this feeling, knowing deep down it had to leave him, a home to go to.
Riku gently applied pressure to the figure's back with his two hands and flushed the light out of his system and into the figure below. Immediately, a brilliant colour spread out from his palms, conquering the black and restoring the figure to its multicoloured prime. The figure gasped, and tried to rise from its position, Riku jumping back.
"What did you do to me?" The figure asked, sitting upright. They were inspecting their hands as if they were seeing them for the first time. Riku could now say for certain that this was a boy, a body that looked perhaps too much like his best friend, Sora. Whoops, should've taken care to stop his own feelings from interfering.
"I turned you back into a good Dream Eater." Riku said, eyes greeting the boy with a friendly disposition. He was smiling now, sitting cross legged.
"..." The boy was silent for a moment. "... How did you know?"
Riku chuckled.
"Wasn't that hard, really, once I saw the nightmare Mark. I had a lot of Spirit friends, and they were always super loyal. They never really stray far from their masters." Riku explained. "Nightmares, however, less so. They tend to give up once you beat them. I made the connection that you might just be a corrupted Spirit when I saw your commitment to maintaining a hold over this guy's dreams."
The boy seemed to regard him with a cautious disposition, bowing his head in order to show off his newly presented orange-tinted horns that now grew from his head of black hair.
"I wasn't always corrupted. I came to this heart because I found it had been sleeping for so long. But, there was a darkness, a remnant lingering. It devoured me and turned me into a nightmare." The boy crawled over to the orb, sitting on his knees and regarding it carefully within his palms.
"I see," Riku answered. Quite an odd situation, nonetheless, he would accept it.
"You didn't do half bad for being such an annoying brat," The spirit said, inspecting the fractured dream. Riku noted that the spirit might've just been an asshole by nature. No amount of light Riku could give would fix that.
"Uh, thanks." Riku shrugged, still wearing his fuzzy pajamas. His wings had disappeared by now.
"This dream… I like it, so I'll keep it for now, perhaps splice in some of Ventus' own memories and gradually create a dream of my own for him." The boy said, a small smile on his lips. Quietly, the darkness disappeared, and orange light flowed from the hands of the personified creature into the dream. Riku could see a small happy Sora starting back out at him from underneath the orb's glass.
Riku smiled back.
This is the link to the picture of Spirit Vanitas: ht-tp-:/-/novallion.-tumblr-.-com/-post/179405791978/important-idea-to-consider-vanitas-having-dream