When Sora awoke he was no longer under the stormy sky of the island, rather a starry night sky within an alley way surrounded by light brown buildings and pavement beneath him.

"What a dream…" he said before closing his eye to go back to sleep. All of a sudden it hit him. He bolted onto his two feet in surprise. "This isn't a dream!" He ran out of the alley in complete and utter shock. His eyes skimmed the foreign buildings and signs of the area. "Where am I? Kairi! Riku!" Neither of his friends answered his call. "Am I in another world?" he wondered aloud. "I hope they made it too…"

He started to wander around the main streets of the world. "Excuse me!" He shouted at a man. "Where am I?"

"You're in Traverse Town," the man said. "Are you new?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for my friends," Sora said.

"Well hopefully they're here, so good luck." The man walked away from Sora. He continued to wander around the area. He talked to everybody on the streets, but neither had seen Riku or Kairi. In the end, he entered some of the shops to search.

"Hey there, how can I…Aw it's only a kid," the owner of the shop said to Sora as he walked in. He glared at the blond with goggles on his head.

"I'm not a kid! And the name's Sora!" he said, slightly indignant at being called a kid.

"Okay, okay, so simmer down," the man said. "So why the long face Sora? You lost or something?"

"No! Well…maybe." Sora hadn't wanted to admit the fact, but besides the place's name, he had no idea what it was, or even if it was another world or just a part of the islands he hadn't seen yet. "What is this place?"

"Huh?" the man asked.

"I mean, I was on my islands one minute, and the next, I'm here," Sora explained.

"This place is Traverse Town. It's a refuge," the man said.

"A refuge…So, gramps, is this really another world?" Sora asked. He hadn't expected to leave Destiny Islands with those shadows, but if this was a refuge world, did that mean his home was gone.

"Don't call me gramps! The name's Cid!" the man said. "Anyway…not sure what you're talkin' about, but this sure ain't your islands."

"Hmm…guess I'd better keep looking for Riku and Kairi then," Sora said with a sigh. He'd hoped when he finally left his islands they'd be with him, but both of his best friends were now missing.

"Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doing," Cid said and waved as Sora exited the shop. "If you ever run into trouble, you come to me. I'll look out for you."

After he left the shop, Sora began walking around the Traverse Town plaza, but little else was there. Seeing no other option, he exited through the two doors in the back. They lead him into a slightly narrower area with more buildings and shops lining either side. He walked into the center, only to be surprised as a man bolted in from the left side chased by the shadows from his island. He went to help the man, but the shadow reached him first, reaching at him with his claws the shadow attacked the man, causing a crystal pink heart to float out of him. The heart became shrouded in darkness as a blue humanoid creature with a silver helmet appeared. A red and black thorny heart was on its chest. The creature vanished moments later, but not before more black shadows could appear.

"It's those creatures from my island!" Sora realized and summoned out his Keyblade once more. He began slashing at them quickly, fighting his way through the shadows and the new helmeted creatures. While fighting, he noticed the helmeted ones were stronger than the shadows, so he concentrated on them, ignoring the hits that would strike every once in a while. He continued down another path and found the next area, this one defined by a statue of a dinosaur and a strange creature wearing a bow. The new area also held a new creature, this one large and round, bearing the same symbol as the strange helmeted ones. He tried running at it to hit it, but his Keyblade didn't land a hit, simply bouncing off as the creature tried to body slam him. He barely managed to roll out of the way of this new creature before it charged at him again. He raised his Keyblade, and while no damage was done, he was pushed back several inches.

"I have to get out of here!" He realized and cut across to the entrance the creature was guarding. It lead back into the area of Traverse Town Sora had initially appeared in. He sighed in relief, happy that this area was still unaffected and he had escaped the creatures. Remembering what Cid had said, he walked back into the shop from earlier.

"Back already?" Cid asked.

"I was being attacked by these weird creatures while looking for my friends and there was this big one that I couldn't seem to damage," Sora said. "How can I beat them?"

"I'll tell you what, you find your friends, and I'll tell the three of you how to beat them, so that way I don't have to tell the same information twice," Cid said.

"Okay," Sora said and walked outside of the shop. He was planning on going back to the place where he'd first started seeing the creatures. Maybe in his fight and panic he'd managed to miss them somewhere, and it would be possible to find them if he searched those areas again, and who knew, maybe the large round creature might have been gone by then.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." Sora turned around to see the owner of the voice that had spoken, a brunet with a scar that went down his face. He was carrying a large blade with him.

"Who are you?" Sora asked. The man didn't answer and instead simply approached Sora.

"And they'll keep on coming at you as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade," he said. "But why, why would it choose a kid like you?"

Sora was indignant; he didn't think he was a bad choice for wielder of the Keyblade at all. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Never mind," the man said. "Now let me see that Keyblade."

"What? There's no you're getting this!" The Keyblade was the one weapon he used that allowed him to fight those creatures, and without it there was no way he could find Riku and Kairi. He had to keep the Keyblade for himself, whether this guy wanted it or not.

"All right, then have it your way." The man lifted up his long blade and took aim at Sora. Rather than running towards Sora as he was prepared for, bullets came out of the weapons front aimed directly at him. Sora rolled out of the way as quickly as possible only to get cornered and hit by the blade, knocking him back.

This guy's strong, Sora thought. The man was definitely stronger than Riku. He was sure about that much. Sora ran at the man and tried to hit him with his Keyblade, the man lifted up his blade with little effort and pushed Sora away, causing him to find himself backed into a corner as another strike was fired at him. Without much of a choice, Sora ran at the man again, this time landing a hit that didn't faze the man at all. Even Sora's strongest attack barely seemed to do any damage against the man, which provided a problem. He knew he wasn't at full strength as it was since the battle against the giant shadow on his island, he knew he stood very little chance. He aimed one strike at the man's knee, which seemed to catch him by surprise; however the hits from his battles on the islands and here were taking their toll on Sora. He could barely stand up.

"Now… you're…gonna…you're gonna…" He collapsed where he stood, his body hitting the ground as he fought for consciousness, barely able to hear the words around him.

"Aw, you're slipping Leon," a girl's voice said.

"I went easy on him. Still, it looks like things are a lot worse off than we thought. A lot worse," the man, Leon, said. Sora felt hurt slightly that this man had been going easy on him. It meant that he was weaker than he thought.

He lost consciousness.