Author's Note: Now that we've gotten past the introductions, let's head over to our next favorite thing… exposition! *Dodges boot being thrown at me* Heheh… sorry, but I think you guys will find this interesting. Welp, here we go!

Chapter 2: The Dreamers

Enter Pax:

I blinked as the light around me faded. I found myself on a platform high above a city, the sky bright and cream colored above me.

"Where are we?" I asked, looking around. "This doesn't look like the Mushroom Kingdom at all…"

"Oh… you must be the Dream Keeper," a female voice spoke. I turned to see Mario standing there, waving at me.

"Hey, long time no see!" I grinned, walking over to Mario. "Uh… what was that voice, though?"

Mario pointed to a rainbow colored butterfly floating next to him.

"I'm Tippi," she told me. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"And you too!" I smiled at her. "I'm Pax, and this is Coron!"

"…I can't see anybody here but you and Mario," Tippi said in confusion.

Only Nightmares can see me, remember? Coron reminded me. Honestly, just how much have you forgotten over the past six months?

"Not a lot!" I defended. "Just… you know, a few things. I mean…"

I held out my right hand and focused. Suddenly, in a flash of light, a sword appeared in my hand. The handle was golden, the hilt winged, but it had a beautiful blue sapphire in the middle. The blade itself didn't look like it was made of any metal at all, but rather… light itself.

"I still remember how to summon the Sword of Dreams," I said with a grin, swinging the sword around to get a feel for it again. "That's something, right?"

"…Pax?"

The voice made me freeze. I made the sword vanish and I turned around to face…

"GOOMBELLA!"

"PAX!"

We sprinted toward each other, and a moment later, the two of us were on the ground in each other's embrace.

"Oh dear God, I missed you so much…" I told her, my eyes shut.

"And I you," Goombella replied with a nod. We pulled back and looked each other in the face. Her eyes were even more beautiful than I remembered.

"Are you… crying?" Goombella asked.

"What… n-no!" I argued, rubbing my face with my sleeve. "I am not!"

Goombella laughed and nuzzled against my chest. "I don't mind…"

We sat there for a few minutes, just happy to be together again. The sound of somebody clearing his throat brought us back to reality as we looked up at a man. He was a human, somewhere in his mid twenties by the looks of it, and he was wearing a hooded blue cloak with stars on it.

"Sorry to interrupt this reunion, but…" he extended a hand to me. "I think it's time we were finally introduced. I'm Nozan, the one who's been giving you these tests."

"Tests?" Goombella hopped off me as I stood up. "What tests?"

"You know…" Nozan slowly pulled his hand back. "When you were placed in Mario's body?"

"…you mean YOU did all that?!" I realized, taking a step back and summoning the Sword of Dreams. Mario pulled out his hammer and stood by my side as well.

"N-now, there's actually a really good explanation for all of this…" Nozan said nervously, taking a step back and holding out his hands in defense. A whimper came from his mouth when he found the tip of my sword an inch away from his throat.

"Then explain," I said, glaring at him. "Why did you set Bowser off to kidnap the Star Spirits? Why did you release the Shadow Queen? And why did you make me possess Mario?"

Mario nodded in agreement at this last part, glaring daggers at Nozan.

"Okay, first of all, we only claim fault for that last part," Nozan clarified. "Secondly-"

"You think that's an excuse?!" snapped Goombella. "Do you have any idea how much pain you've caused because of all of this?!"

Nozan gulped, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Maybe it would be better if I explained things?"

Nozan turned around and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness you're here!"

"Who?" I looked around Nozan to see where the voice came from. My eyes fell upon…

"GOOMPA!"

Goombella, Coron and I all gave the same exclamation as I shoved Nozan out of the way to face the senile old Goomba.

"Well… yes and no," Goompa explained, stepping toward us. He seemed much… calmer than usual. That kind of threw me. "It's time to stop the lies and hidden agendas. I'm so sorry to have put you through all of this in the first place…"

Goompa suddenly exploded into a bright light, and when it faded, an old man was standing in his place. He was also wearing a cloak like Nozan, only his looked much older. His face was wrinkled, and his eyes were kind.

"My name is Merlin," he said, giving me a respectful bow. "I'd like to personally welcome you to the Dreamers."

I blinked, not really sure how to respond to this. "Um…"

Wait a minute… Coron said. You mean… all this time, you've just been acting like a senile old Goomba and putting us through hell?

"Yeah, Coron brings up a good point!" I said. "Was all that stuff you did to us just an act?"

"Well, you have to admit, it was kind of funny," Merlin grinned. "I haven't had that much fun in two hundred years!"

…alright, just come over here so I can WIPE THAT SMUG GRIN OFF YOUR OLD FACE! Coron threatened, running forward and swinging his incorporeal fists through Merlin's body.

"Er… Coron's not really pleased," I translated, watching him try to harm Merlin to no avail.

"I can imagine!" Merlin stifled a chuckle. "But, yes… we had to put you through these tests… well, trials are more like it…"

"…elaborate," I encouraged, bringing the arm that held the Sword of Dreams down. I didn't make it vanish, but I wasn't in a threatening position anymore. Mario did likewise with his hammer.

"All this stuff that happened, we didn't cause any of it," explained Merlin. "Bowser capturing the Star Spirits? That was all him. The Shadow Queen's bonds weakening? It was already happening before you came along."

"You knew Mario could handle it…" Goombella continued. "But you needed to see what Pax was capable of."

"Correct," Merlin nodded. "That's why I disguised myself as Goompa and followed you throughout your adventure-"

"To keep an eye on him!" Goombella was on a roll, pacing back and forth now. "You kept an eye on him through his first adventure, and when you saw how capable he was, you introduced him to the more dangerous things of the other Worlds, like the Nightmares and the Sword of Dreams!"

Merlin looked a little surprised. He turned to Nozan, who was hanging in the background during the whole discussion. "…you told me she was smart, not that she was on the same level as Einstein."

"Oh stop, you're making me blush," Goombella smirked.

"So, let's go for current events for five hundred," continued Merlin. "Why did we bring you here today?"

Goombella looked up. "…I take it that it has to do with that swirling vortex of darkness?"

"What swirling vortex of-" I looked up to see a really freaky "hole" in the sky, just like Goombella said. "Wow, I REALLY need to work on my observation skills."

"I'd say so," agreed Merlin, slowly pacing across the platform. "That vortex is known only to us as the Void. We're not quite sure how it happened, but it seems somebody pulled a fragment of … into the Dream World, and this is the result."

"A fragment of what now?" I asked.

"…," Merlin repeated. "It's a little hard to explain… you see, … has no form, existence or even name."

"So wouldn't that make it …?" I asked. I froze and felt my throat in surprise. When I tried to say …, it felt like it caught in my throat and couldn't get out.

"… can't be given a name," Nozan piped in. "It's also near impossible to find out anything about it… but something we do know is that … is where all Nobodies come from."

"Nobodies?" Goombella asked.

"Wait, slow down," I held out my hands. "When you say Nobodies, you don't mean the empty shells of people who have lost their Hearts, do you?"

Nozan froze. "…well technically they're Souls, but many people tend to call them Hearts, yes."

"Uhuh…" I nodded. "And tell me, does the word 'Keyblade' mean anything to you?"

"How… how can you possibly know any of this?" Nozan seemed absolutely astonished.

"Well, back in my World, there's this video game series called Kingdom Hearts…" I started.

"They made a game after that?" Merlin started to laugh. "Wow! It must be one heck of a game if it expects to hold all that information in!"

"Time out. Are you saying…" My eyes widened. "Kingdom Hearts actually happened?!"

"Well… come with me," Merlin encouraged. "We'll discuss this further at my house."

"…so then Sora and Riku worked together to beat Xemnas in a pocket of nothingness!" I continued in excitement. "It was one of the most EPIC battles ever, too! Xemnas made a thousand beams of light attack them, but they were fast enough to beat them back, and then Xemnas held his blade at Sora's neck, but Riku jumped in and-"

"Breathe, man!" laughed Merlin.

We were all in Merlin's house now, gathered around in comfy bean-bag chairs. Tippi was resting on Mario's hat, the both of them listening to me explain the plot of the entire Kingdom Hearts series. Nozan was standing in the background, trying his hardest to look important, and Merlin was lounging back on his bean-bag, adding comments and questions as I told the story. Goombella did the same, but she was trying her hardest to write everything I was saying down in her journal, too. Coron, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall next to me, having given up trying to beat up Merlin quite awhile ago.

"And… well, long story short, they beat Xemnas, wind up in the Realm of Darkness, then they find Kairi's letter, and… well, a door to the light appears, and they wind up back on Destiny Islands, everyone re-united," I finished. "At the end of the game they get a letter from Mickey, but I don't know what it says."

"Fascinating…" Merlin nodded as I collapsed in a free bean-bag chair panting. "Water?"

"Please," I requested, my voice hoarse. Merlin pulled out a wand and, inspired by my description of the Disney Merlin, made a pitcher of water and a glass "march" over to me.

"Thanks," I nodded, taking the glass after the pitcher poured water into it.

"No problem," Merlin replied. "So… that sounds like an interesting story…"

"And it all happened, right?" Goombella asked, looking over to Merlin.

"Eh…" Merlin shook his hand in a "so-so" way. "Some, not all."

"Elaborate, please," I requested, keeping my eyes on the old man.

"Alright…" Merlin closed his eyes, searching his no-doubt ancient memories. "To start with, yes, there was a Dream Keeper who matches Sora's description. I remember every Dream Keeper we have ever had, but that boy sticks out in my mind since the Sword of Dreams came to him as a Keyblade."

"The Sword of Dreams can change forms?" I asked.

"When you first got that Sword, didn't it take on a different form?" Merlin reminded me.

"Well… yeah," I admitted. "The Crystal Sword. I just figured that the Crystal Sword was just drained or something, and the Sword of Dreams was the Crystal Sword unleashed to its full potential."

"You're kind of right," nodded Merlin. "The Sword of Dreams changes form to fit the wielder best. It thought you would do well with a Sword, so it showed up as the Crystal Sword. Only after the Dream Keeper has been proven to be worthy does it unleash itself as the true Sword of Dreams, but it can be altered at any time."

"So I could make the Sword of Dreams a Keyblade if I wanted to?" I nearly squee'd.

"It would take practice, but you could," laughed Merlin. "In fact, that is something I want to talk to you about, but remind me about that later. Now, back to what I was saying… it was impressive since the form of the Keyblade was banned for years, and most Dreamers had actually forgotten its existence."

"Why the heck would anybody want to ban the form of a weapon that not only slays evil, but unlocks every single lock ever made?" Goombella asked.

"…let me side-track here and tell you all a story," Merlin said after a moment's thought. "You probably already know about the Dream Keeper. It's their job to save the Dream Realm from anything that might come to harm it."

"Like the Nightmares?" I asked.

"The Nightmares… under the influence of the Lord of Nightmares are currently the Dream Realm's biggest threat, yes," Merlin said with a nod. "Well… second biggest, I suppose, but we'll get to that. A long time ago, the Dream Keeper was the 'King' of the Dreamers. Everyone looked up to him and followed his orders without haste.

"One day, the Dream Keeper… I think his name was Fredrick. He was trying to break into one of the Nightmares' many fortresses, but it was sealed by a magical lock. Fredrick was a master of altering the Sword of Dreams to his liking, so he turned it into what you know of as a Keyblade. He named it the X-Blade since it looked like two Keys crossed into an X to create a blade of Light. Using the X-Blade, he entered the Fortress and took down the Nightmares inside.

"The Dreamers were ecstatic over the new weapon. A weapon that could unlock anything, even those held by magical bindings… with this kind of power, the Dreamers had an immense advantage over the Nightmares. Over time, the X-Blade was studied, and other Keyblades were forged and powered by binding them with the Souls of their owners. Pretty soon, every Dreamer had a Keyblade of their own."

"Even you?" I asked.

"I prefer my wand, personally," Merlin smirked. "No, they offered to forge a Keyblade for me, but I turned them down. 'Too old to fight' and such, I told them. But again, I'm getting off track… Eventually, we found out that the Keyblades could unlock the Hearts of different Dreams. The Hearts had a near-limitless amount of energy, and just one of them could purge a Dream of anything the Dreamers deemed unworthy.

"We… had a very bitter split on the question of if extracting the Hearts of Dreams was worth it if we used them to stop the Nightmares. Half of us remained in our Dream, steadfastly refusing to ruin Dreams just to further our own needs… the other half wanted to purge all Nightmares at any cost. The Dream Keeper at that time… James was his name, I think. He led the group of Dreamers who wanted to purge the Nightmares.

"We couldn't allow so many Dreams to fall to this cause, and all attempts at a peaceful solution had failed, so the Dreamers enacted a bloody Civil War on each other, known today as the Great Keyblade War. Souls clashed with Souls, Keyblade against Keyblade, brother against brother…"

Merlin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, staying quiet for a minute.

"…we lost a lot of good Dreamers that day," he finally said. "…somebody finally struck the Dream Keeper down. Some say the Sword of Dreams couldn't handle him anymore, others say the Dreamer that fought him was just abnormally powerful. Either way, the Dream Keeper was defeated, and most of the Dreamers scattered.

"After that, there were barely a hand full of us left. I did my best to keep the Dreamers together and recruit more members, but… well, the Nightmares seemed to grow more powerful by the day. Blockades were erected… pathways severed… all hope seemed to be lost for us. Then, the Sword of Dreams revealed itself in… we'll call him Sora for simplicity's sake.

"Now, here's where I have to explain something. There are two kinds of Dream Keepers: Those who come from the Realm of Waking, and those who come from the Realm of Dreams. Generally, Dream Keepers from the Realm of Waking are more powerful, but in Sora's case… if it weren't for the fact that I actively witnessed him escape from his Dream, I would have sworn that he was from the Realm of Waking. The Sword of Dreams came to him as a Keyblade, and using it, he helped fight against the Nightmares whilst searching for his childhood friends."

"And that's where Kingdom Hearts picks up?" I asked.

"Eeeeh…" Merlin shook his hand in a "so-so" fashion. "More or less… kind of. The actual story is a bit different, but personally, I think I prefer the Video Game's version."

"So… let me see if I've got this straight," Goombella piped up. "The Dreamers fight to protect the Dreams. The Dream Keeper is the most powerful of the bunch and leads the charge against Nightmares. One Dream Keeper made his Sword the X-Blade, and the Dreamers forged Keyblades based after that. There was a big debate over destroying Dreams to purge Nightmares with the Hearts, and there was a massive Civil War. The side for taking the Hearts of Worlds lost when the Dream Keeper was slain, and the Dreamers were crippled. Sora appeared as the next Dream Keeper, and he helped turn the tides back in the Dreamers' favor?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Merlin nodded. "Fast-forward to the present. The Nightmares have become much more ruthless after the Lord of Nightmares took over."

I could feel Coron give an involuntary shudder.

"Who is the Lord of Nightmares?" I asked.

I think I can take over here, offered Coron.

"Oh, alright," I nodded. I closed my eyes and focused on the black hand. "Shift!"

Enter Coron:

Pax's body erupted into black flames, and once they faded, I was sitting where he once was. Everyone jumped back in surprise, but Merlin gave a hearty laugh.

"Now THERE'S something you don't see every day!" he said. "I take it you're the Nightmare bound to Pax?"

"Name's Coron," I answered, crossing my arms. "You have five seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't deck you right now, old man."

Merlin laughed even harder at this. I was starting to find it hard to dislike him.

Hard, but possible.

"How's this for a reason?" Nozan stepped forward and held out his hands, which were charged with spheres of Light. "Touch Merlin, and I take you down!"

"…are you always this stupid, or is today just special?" I asked him, looking at this pathetic little Dreamer in disbelief. From the looks of him, I was willing to bet that he never even fought in a single battle before.

"I… how DARE you-" Nozan started, but Merlin held out a hand to stop him.

"To answer your question," he said, turning to me, "everything I did to you was to prevent you from getting closer to Pax. Remember, you didn't have a Soul at the time, so you would have tried to kill him. If I hadn't stepped in, none of us would be here."

"…you have a point," I admitted, sitting back down.

"So you were about to talk about the Lord of Nightmares?" encouraged Merlin as Nozan slid back to the wall, glaring daggers at me.

"Yeah…" I nodded. "He's evil, no question about it. Evil, but brilliant. He single-handedly came up with complex and effective ways to completely obliterate Dreams."

"An odd move, since the Nightmares used to just claim Dreams rather than destroy them," noted Merlin.

"I guess… I was born into his rule, though," I reminded him. "He ruthlessly breeds and trains Purebloods to act as a powerful, unstoppable army. We infect others and send them to be trained as foot-soldiers…"

"What about the Lord of Nightmares himself?" Tippi asked.

"He… how do I explain this…" I crossed my fingers and thought for a moment. "…it looks like he USED to be a Nightmare, but… something's not right. It's like he's just a Shell… oh, and he can command the Soul-less Nightmares with no effort at all. It's like he can order anything that's empty around."

Wait… a shell? Pax asked. Would that make him a Nobody?

"A creature who's Soul was lost, but the shell remains…" Nozan nodded. "It sounds right."

But… wait… Pax leaned back and floated around the room as he thought. I thought that Nightmares already don't have Souls. Doesn't that make them Nobodies, too?

"When a Nightmare loses their Soul, the body remains behind," I explained. "When a Dreamer loses their Soul, they just act like a limp ragdoll."

"The only way to become a Nobody is if you spend enough time inside …," Nozan continued.

"Having fun?" Merlin smirked at Pax as he floated around.

You know it! Pax grinned. I simply sighed and shook my head.

"…who are you talking to?" Goombella asked, looking around the room.

"Oh, nobody," Merlin waved his hand dismissively. "So back to the topic at hand… Nozan, would you like to pick up?"

"I'd be honored, sir," Nozan bowed. "For the last several years, the Lord of Nightmares has been operating inside something called the 'Void.' We can't enter, and we have no idea how he leaves it, but we've come to the conclusion that it may be a section of …, not really existing inside the Dream Realm at all. As you can see though, he managed to do something to release the Void in the Dream Realm, and it's beginning to grow at an incredible rate."

"If the Void came from …, and if it grows to the point where it takes up the entire Dream Realm…" Goombella started.

"…all of the Dream Realm will be completely destroyed," I finished in realization.

"And with the Dream Realm gone, the Realm of Waking will collapse into madness," nodded Nozan.

Geeze! Pax's eyes widened. Alright, so how do we stop it?

"That's the other point I wanted to talk to you about," Merlin said. "Can you shift back to Pax, Coron?"

"Yeah," I nodded, closing my eyes and focusing on the mark on my torso. "Shift."

Enter Pax:

Coron's body erupted into light, leaving me behind in his place.

"After the Great Keyblade War," Merlin said as he stood up and walked over to me, "we had to take certain precautions to make sure nothing like that would happen again. At first, we banned the use of Keyblades, but after Sora showed how unpredictable the Sword of Dreams can be, we fortified eight Dreams with all the excess powers of our Souls. These manifested into the Eight Pure Hearts."

Merlin closed his eyes and focused. In a flash of light, a chain with Mickey's head appeared in his hand.

"Attach this to your Sword," he said, offering it to me. I did what he asked, and in a flash of light, the Sword of Dreams became the Keyblade.

"Oh that is SO cool!" I squee'd.

"It gets better," smirked Merlin. He turned around and held out his hand, focusing. The room shook, and all the energy pooled into the far wall. After a moment, a Keyhole appeared in the far wall.

"Use the Keyblade to… take the Pure Heart," panted Merlin, collapsing in a Bean Bag chair. "Once you collect all Eight, you can use their combined power to combat the Void."

I nodded and stood, holding the Keyblade out toward the Keyhole. A beam of Light gathered at the tip of my weapon and shot out toward the Keyhole. There was a sound of a lock clicking, and as the Keyhole vanished, a glowing red Heart appeared. It came close and touched the tip of the Keyblade, absorbing itself in it.

"Sweet!" I fist-pumped before removing the Keychain, turning the Keyblade back into the Sword of Dreams.

"This Dream exists in the exact center of the Dream Realm," Nozan explained as Merlin leaned his head back to rest. "With the Pure Hearts with you, you can rip open pathways to other Dreams. Use this to lead yourself to the Dreams that hold the other Pure Hearts."

"So… long story short," I simplified. "Collect Pure Hearts. Use them to travel to other Dreams that have Pure Hearts. Collect all eight, and save the Dream Realm. Right?"

"Correct," nodded Nozan. "Don't worry, we'll be watching over you as best as we can."

"And I'll be doing everything in my power to aid you on your journey," Tippi added as Mario stood up next to me.

"This is so exciting…" Goombella said as she stood next to me as well. "We're about to travel to other Worlds!"

I nodded as I focused and swung my sword. The air ripped with my blade, and a doorway stood in front of us.

"We'll be back before you'll even have time to miss us!" I said with a wave, stepping through the pathway. Goombella and Mario walked alongside me, and as soon as we entered the rip, the hole closed itself, leaving Nozan and Merlin alone in the house.

"I hope that kid knows what he's doing…" muttered Nozan.

"He'll be fine… oh…" Merlin covered his face. "I feel… off…"

With a groan, a blast of light erupted from him, which took on the form of Goompa. Both Merlin and Nozan stared at him.

"…free?" Goompa looked around. "I'm… FREE!"

He bounced around the room while laughing before vanishing in a blast of light.

"…"

Both Nozan and Merlin stared at the space Goompa was.

"Well!" Merlin clapped his hands. "This is going to be interesting now, isn't it?"

Author's Note: Wow, this is long. Anyway, sorry for not posting on Labor Day, but… well, Labor Day and all. Also, the future chapters won't be NEARLY this long, but I had to fit a lot of exposition in this. Anyway, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!

PS: I'll TRY to stick to Monday-Wednesday-Friday, but if I can't… well, forgive me, 'kay?