Chapter Five: A Haunting Dream

The hooded man nodded, "I see, though I do not know how we are supposed to help you get to Cloud."

"That is simple," Sephiroth mused, "make him mad, depressed, weaken him. He is too resistant for me to do anything at the moment. And without his submission, I cannot even begin to rule the worlds because he will stop me very step of the way, like he did last time."

"Hmm…alright, we can do that, I guess, but now you must know our plans for the Keyblade Master's destruction."

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Sora boarded the Gummi ship silently. He walked over to the back and sat down on the furthest seat. The Gummi ship had obviously been sent to them for this purpose, but Sora took no notice. He remained silent as he looked down at his hands. Everything came back to him. He had hurt all of his friends…he had hurt Riku, the one he had sworn to forgive. Kairi, he had betrayed her, but in the end, hadn't he destroyed the one man who had caused it all? Sora remember Aurithia saying that they weren't sure if Xemnas was dead or not. He hoped he was.

Sora didn't noticed Kairi sit down beside him as he continued to stare at his gloved hands. His normally shining blue eyes were clouded and distant with thought. "Sora?" Kairi said, looking at him with worry. Sora did not respond. He had not spoken to Kairi when they had gotten back to Merlin's, in fact he had not spoken ever since the battle had ended and they had met Aurithia. Sora now believed he knew how Riku had felt, but it wasn't quiet the same.

"Where are we going to?" a familiar voice spoke up. At the voice, Sora looked up and saw Cloud walking in the Gummi ship, followed by Donald and Goofy.

"Sora!" Donald said, along with Goofy. Both of his old friends came over to him. Sora watched in shock as Donald and Goofy gave him a hug.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sora asked, finally speaking. His voice did not display the shock, in fact, in was quite and surprisingly cold. He blinked, why did he sound like that? Donald and Goofy gave him a look.

"Gosh, aren't you happy to see us?" Goofy asked, looking at Sora with worried eyes.

Sora nodded, "Yeah! I-um.." Sora couldn't explain it, but he was saved by Aurithia, who spoke up for him, "Do not worry, Donald, Goofy-Sora cannot exactly sound any different for a few days. His heart was swallowed by the darkness for long hours, just enough to taint it to where the darkness will always reside in his heart,"

Everyone, including Cloud, who had sat down beside Riku, stared at Aurithia. "What?" Sora gasped, his voice choked with horror. Aurithia nodded, her face grim.

Sora looked away from everyone, "I don't want to think about that right now…" he said sourly and then looked up at Donald and Goofy, "So, what are you doing here?"

Goofy gave him his goofy grin and then replied, "Why Donald here said it was time ta go so that we could come with ya!"

Donald, meanwhile had looked over at Riku, who was staring out the window as the Gummi ship took off. Sora noticed the distrust in Donald's eyes, but ignored it. The few times that Donald had met Riku, Riku had been on the side of the darkness, but in the end, he had shut himself in Kingdom Hearts with King Mickey.

"Sora, Aurithia, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy-I'm coming with you to help you. From what Vincent has explained in the best way possible, Sephiroth is out to get both of us-Sora and me." Cloud spoke up from where he was sitting beside Riku, also looking out the window, but he was looking out the windshield as they entered space.

Sora nodded, not exactly sure who Sephiroth was. Why would Sephiroth-Cloud's rival-come after him? He didn't know, but shrugged it off. He would worry about that later. "Why to next?" he asked, looking over at Aurithia who had sat down in the pilot's seat.

"We are going to a world you are very familiar with." Aurithia replied, not giving them a specific name.

Sora's eyebrows furrowed, "But where, exactly?"

"You shall see," Aurithia replied and then she answered no more as Sora continued to press her, but then dropped it. Instead, he turned to look at Donald and Goofy. He ignored Kairi, surprisingly.

"So, what were you guys doing that kept you from coming with me?" he asked. "And when did you get here?"

"Oh, um…well," Donald and Goofy looked at one another, "it's confidential. But we just got to Radiant Garden, otherwise known as Hollow Bastion, that's how you got this Gummi ship."

Sora blinked, "Oh…"

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Cloud blinked. He had blocked everyone out of his mind and was now concentrating on where he should look for Sephiroth next. He did not know, but he knew that if he stayed with Sora, he would run into Sephiroth soon. Suddenly he heard someone muttering beside him. Cloud turned his head to see Riku leaned back in his chair, asleep. He was talking in his sleep quietly, but Cloud could hear him. "Go away…darkness is not the key…" Riku muttered.

Cloud stared at Riku. What the hell was the Dark Keyblade wielder dreaming? Apparently, Aurithia heard Riku too because she turned to look at Riku with hard, icy eyes. Cloud stared at the woman for a moment and he could see the sympathy in her eyes. She blinked and then nodded to him, but it could barley be seen. Cloud nodded, understanding what she meant.

He turned away from Riku and blocked the silver-haired teen out of his mind. His thoughts drifted back to Sephiroth and his friends. Why was Marlene, Barret, and Red there with Vincent? Did they truly wish to check up on everyone, or did they want to help fight Sephiroth-again?

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A dark being stood in the middle of the ruins of his castle. Orange eyes flashed with fury at the state of it. He walked forward, his silver hair flowing behind him. He was wearing a black cloak over his regular clothes as he entered the castle. He walked through all of the rubble, looking at the rubble that was everywhere.

This place had looked different a long time ago, but now it was all rotting away. The man continued down the hallway for quite a ways until he came upon a door. He opened it and walked in. A picture of himself was hanging on the wall. A table sat in the middle of the room, papers scatter all over it. He ignored all of it as he walked over to a wall and place his hand on a specific spot. The wall opened to reveal a wide open place that was full of metal, yet there was no sign of damage done to it. He smirked as he walked over to a computer.

The computer was turned on a there was something pulled up on it. It was an entry of some sort.

XXXMonthXXXDayXXXYear

I have returned to my study to find it in ruins. No one knows yet of my return, but it will soon be made clear. From what I understand, my former apprentice, Xehanort, has tried to destroy the Keyblade Master. He will fail every time he tries to take the Keyblade from the wielder. It is an impossible task, but from what I saw today, I learned. Xehanort did the impossible. He killed the Keyblade Master and took his heart-along with the Keyblade.

His attempt was still in vain as he was killed the process. The Keyblade Master is alive and with his friends now. That is good. Now that Xehanort is gone, I now wait on word for the King, though I have not been able to contact him. I would have spoken to him long ago if it had not been for the fact the Xehanort's Heartless has stolen my name.

I fear that the King will believe me to be the Xehanort's Heartless. I do not wish to become an enemy, for the king is a good friend of mine. I shall contact him soon enough, or wait for something to appear up here.

-Ansem

"I see you have found my refuge, Xehanort," a voice came from beside the cloaked man. The man spun around, now known as Xehanort. His orange eyes flashed at the man who stood in a doorway leading an even bigger space. His eyes narrowed at the sight of his old mentor. The man standing before Xehanort had blonde hair, and a blonde beard. He wore a robe of black and red. A cape was on his shoulder and he had on black gloves. He stood as tall as Xehanort, and his blue eyes were hard.

"Ansem-you are a fool, I knew of this place," Xehanort growled.

Ansem shook his head, his blonde hair that had once been neat was now little messy, "I may be a fool, Xehanort, but you are a bigger fool. You believed that you could open Kingdom Hearts and swath the universe in darkness. That can not be done. It is true, Kingdom Heart is made up of both light and dark, but opening the door will do you no good. So you decided to take over a young boy and use him to get what you wanted. That is the makings of a fool. That boy was the destined wielder of the Keyblade, instead, because of his giving into darkness, he wields the Dark Keyblade. Either way, you did not get what you wanted and he stopped you from hurting the Keyblade Wielder's friends. You use his body for a while, but then, he freed himself and you were killed, supposedly, I guess I should say." Ansem replied calmly.

Xehanort narrowed his eyes, raising his head and out stretching his palm in front of his mentor. "You're wrong Ansem, my plan worked. You just have yet to realize what my intentions are. I will give you a hint: The key is darkness-that is the key to everything when you reach what I have. But sadly, you're time is up."

The air around them seemed to shimmer and the lights grew dim. The shadows bent at Xehanort's will and within a second, a beam of energy ripped from the atmosphere and tore into Ansem's body. Ansem's eyes seemed to widened in shock, he grunted in pain, closing his eyes as he dropped to his knees in pain.

Xehanort grinned wicked and was about to finish Ansem off, when out of nowhere, a blue creature jumped on top of his head. "Meega na la queesta!" the blue creature screamed with glee as it bit Xehanort on the head. Xehanort's concentration as broken as he tried to throw the creature off.

"You keep him busy, Stitch, I'll take care of Ansem!" a voice yelled. Xehanort saw a flash of gold before he began to fight the blue creature that was crawling everywhere on him, distracting him from murdering Ansem.

When he finally threw Stitch off, Ansem was gone. Xehanort's eyes flared with rage as Stitch quickly scampered off. "Aaarrggghhhh!" he screamed in fury, "Damn you Mickey!" (Gasp! How dare he!)

Then, quiet suddenly his eyes darkened. "Fine, if you won't let me kill Ansem, I will just have to kill the Keyblade Wielder as I should have long ago!" Xehanort said, an insane glint in his eyes. "Ha, ha, ha! Riku-come back to me!" he yelled, raising up his cloaked arms. A new plan that was the follow-up to his other was

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Riku awoke, his eyes wide in horror, he heard himself shouting, "Come back to me!". He was shaking and looked around him wildly. Cloud was staring at him again, and this time everyone else was looking at him. Riku's breathing slowed as he tried to calm himself. He gulped and took a shallow breath as Kairi walked up to him, locking her eyes with his. "What?" he asked quietly, knowing that everyone had heard him.

"What were you dreaming about Riku?" Kairi asked in a gentle voice, seeing Riku's state of terror.

Riku barley heard her as he recalled the images in his dream. He had been in Xehanort, or Ansem's, place-his shadow's place. He had seen through Ansem's eyes and he could feel every emotion going through the crazed man. Riku shuttered, wondering if what he had been dreaming was real. He turned his aqua blue-green eyes on Kairi and replied by just shaking his head. He tried to speak, but no words would come out.

"Were you dreaming somethin' bad?" Goofy asked, walking right up to Riku. "You look scared to death, Riku!"

"Yeah well! He sounded pretty evil to me when he said that!" Donald snapped back, staying in the back of the Gummi ship with Sora. Sora, however, got up and walked over to Riku. Aurithia had merely glanced at him before returning to the controls. Cloud hadn't said anything as he turned away from Riku. He wouldn't pry into other people's business.

"Donald!" Kairi snapped, glaring at the white duck, who glared right back at her.

Riku narrowed his eyes. It was obvious that the duck did not trust him. He looked at Sora and Kairi-both were looking at him with great curiosity. "What were you dreaming about? You did you want to come back?" Sora asked, his blue eyes flashing momentarily with wonder.

"It wasn't me, Sora," Riku replied, finding his voice. "No-wasn't me. It is just the opposite. I do not want some one to come back, someone wants me to come back."

"So…you were in their point of view? Strange-who was it?" Kairi asked, sitting down next to the chair that Riku was sitting in.

Riku was unsure if he should tell them or not. He didn't really want to, he didn't want to worry them. It had just been a dream, right? There was nothing to worry about. He didn't respond as he looked out the window. His eyes widened at the place where they were going. The world wasn't far off at all.