AN: Hey guys! Who's ready for some more Kingdom Hearts action in my latest story?

[audience applause and cheers]

I thought so. So hey, not gonna lie, I wasn't really expecting much in the way of reviews, follows, or favorites after posting the first chapter of this story, I mean it was kinda short...

Sora: Kinda short?

AN: Okay fine, it was the shortest chapter I have written for any story, period, but still, with all the reviews I had gotten in Keyblades of Future Past that were asking me either if I was going to do a story like this or just asking me to do a sequel to it period, I kinda figured there would be a few more follows or favorites. Oh well, it's not like it was gonna kill anyone one way or the other. Hades, how many times do I have to say not literally?

Hades: ARE YOU FOR REAL?! Barely two chapters in and we're already doing this again?!

AN: [Hits control, leading Hades to get to catapulted into a massive pile of dirty laundry belonging to the most disgusting people known to man] Does that answer your question?

Hades: [mutters something that is completely inaudible]

AN: Good, now let's get on with the story, we've got some stuff that might be a little more familiar to everyone this time around with a twist or two, and some new stuff as well. Exciting huh?...Well, go on then. [makes shooing motion with both hands]

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter I

There are many times when our dreams can be quite confusing to us, even to the point where we are even questioning whether or not it is a dream at all. Oftentimes when this happens, we think that it is actually real life due to how much like our day-to-day lives are in comparison to the dream, but there are a few times when some would say that such dreams are some strange type of vision of something that is yet to happen or that we need to understand for one reason or another. At the moment though, a certain spiky haired boy in a red jumpsuit, a black hoodie with white sleeves, large yellow and black shoes, white gloves with blue, black, and yellow straps, and a crown necklace around his neck would probably tell you that the dream he seemed to be having was most likely not like either of the previously mentioned cases, because as far as his dreams go, he never once remembered having a dream where he was standing upon a strange, large pillar that was topped by what appeared to be a stain glass image of a woman in a blue and yellow dress with black hair and fair skin, holding an apple, and surrounded by smaller images of seven men and a few different animals.

This boy, named Sora, honestly did not know what to think of this very odd dream, aside from the fact that something about it and this place felt rather strange even for any kind of dream he had ever had before, and the fact he suddenly started to hear an odd voice speaking to him from some unseen location did not help make it any less so. "So much to do, so little time…Take your time. Don't be afraid," the voice advised.

"What? Who are you? And what're you talking about," Sora called out, hoping that he would get some sort of answer.

Sadly, those hopes were not answered, at least not in the way Sora had been hoping. "The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?"

"Take a step forward? Sure, not a problem," Sora shrugged in reply, knowing that the voice was asking if he was brave enough to step up and accept whatever challenge he was likely going to be presented with in a moment despite his rather childishly naïve response. Admittedly, he was a little nervous for some reason about what was going on, but Sora quickly swallowed such feelings away and walked towards the center of the floor.

The moment that Sora had reached the middle of the floor, the ground began to shake, and three different points around him suddenly started to glow as three pillars rose up from beneath the ground. When the pillars reached their full height, which was not really very high at all, much to Sora's relief, three, strangely shaped swords suddenly appeared above the pillars in a flash of light, and despite the various different designs of each sword, if you were to ask Sora, he would tell you that each one of these odd blades looked an awful lot like keys; very strangely shaped keys, but still keys nonetheless. The sword that was directly in front of Sora was dull gold and dark grey in color, possessed a curved shaft, and a set of teeth that held a wing-like shape, while the handle and guard were both a bit offset from blade. The sword that was to Sora's left had a shaft that was textured, dark brown with brass edges, while the teeth held two pick-like points with a pair of hammer-like protrusions on the opposite side, and the guard was an off-blue color and took the shape of two Omega symbols. Finally, the sword on Sora's right had thin blade that was predominantly dull, metallic blue with a teardrop shaped gap in the base and near the tip of the blade's shaft. The head of the last blade was a rough diamond shape from what Sora could tell, despite the fact that one corner of the diamond was missing, with a small, white diamond on the inner edge of the right corner, while the teeth were formed by four blue spikes lining the outer edge of the blade's head, and the handle was smooth and black with an angular guard that did not fully connect to the blade. Truly these were some of the strangest swords that Sora had ever seen even without the fact that they were supposed to look like some type of keys, and even without the voice's next words, it was clear that they were part of the next step in the strange test he was being given.

"Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well," the voice decreed.

"No idea what that means, but I'm guessing that I've basically gotta choose one of these weird looking swords for something, right," Sora guessed aloud. When he received only silence in reply, he just shrugged and said, "Alright then."

After looking between the three weird swords for a minute, Sora finally approached the sword that had appeared directly in front of him and picked it up so that he could observe it more closely, only paying just enough attention to the voice as it explained some details of the sword to know what it was saying. "The Wayward Wind. A blade that requires great swiftness in action and often acts to defend the wielder's friends without a second thought or care for their well-being. The path this blade leads you down is never truly known, but promises that you shall always have the courage to follow your heart when regarding those you value most. Is this the path you seek?"

Sora thought the voice's words over for a minute, and though he really wanted to say yes, he knew that he should really think carefully before making a final decision, so he placed the sword back and then moved to approach the second sword, the one that had initially appeared on his left, and examined it while the voice gave another description. "The Earthshaker. Power and strength that constantly grows to exceed that of others awaits those who wield this blade, but be forewarned, such a thing does not come without cost. The path to finding greater strength alone, even for the most pure of reasons, can often lead one to face great hardships and trials that may ultimately lead one to lose all those precious to them."

Sora definitely did not like the sound of that. Yes, he wanted to be strong so that he could keep the things that mattered most safe, like his family and friends, but he did not want to gain any kind of strength if it meant he would lose those things in the process. Shaking his head to free his mind of the rather worrying and frightening thoughts that had seeped inside because of what he just heard, Sora quickly placed the second blade back on its pedestal and moved to the third and final sword, not feeling any surprise at all when the voice spoke again as he picked up and examined the thin, metallic blue sword. "The Rainfell. The promise of a path that is of equal inner and outer strength. The power of a mystic mixed with that of a noble knight, the path this blade promises that one shall always seek out what is true, just, and right. Though sometimes, a fight for the greater good can often be with difficult hardships that can lead one to question their place among those they care for and where it is leading them all, and often requires great sacrifice even at their own expense."

While this one did sound rather appealing to Sora at first, the last half of that seemed a little worrying. Yes, he understood the basic idea of placing the needs of the many ahead of one's personal needs or those of a select few, but somehow he just did not feel like he could make a decision like that if push really came to shove. It just sounded a little too much like he would have to sacrifice the things and people he cared for most in order to achieve a goal, and that did not sit right with him, and at that moment, Sora found that he had made his decision. After placing the third sword back on its pedestal, he returned to the first one, which the voice had called Wayward Wind, and when it asked again if this was his chosen path, he immediately replied with a somewhat confident yes. A second later, the dark grey and dull gold sword vanished in a flash of light, and the voice then said, "Your path is set. Now, what will you give up in exchange?"

"I have to give up one of the other two now? Hmm…" Sora murmured to himself, since he was now very confident that he would not get any direct answers from the voice at this point. Looking between the remaining two swords and thinking back on what the voice said Sora found that this decision was a bit more difficult. Both promised a great deal with a small risk of very harsh side-effects, but that only made it that much more difficult to decide which of the two he should sacrifice. In the end though, Sora ultimately found himself moving towards the one called Earthshaker as he declared, "I'll give up this one here. The one called Earthshaker."

"You have chosen the power of Wayward Wind, the power of a steadfast and loyal warrior. You've given up the power of Earthshaker, the power of a mighty guardian. Is this the form you choose," the voice questioned after Earthshaker had vanished as well, immediately telling Sora that it was double-checking just to be sure.

Sora simply nodded in response, and after thinking there might be a chance that the person this voice belonged to could not see him, he vocalized his response and half-shouted, "Yes."

A minute after Sora had given his response, the platforms sank back into the ground from which they had arisen from, making Sora run for the center of the floor again, but it ended up doing him very little good, as the floor suddenly started to shatter apart until if broke completely, sending him flying down to whatever lay beneath it. Oddly enough, Sora found that his descent was not at an increasingly speeding rate, like one would expect if they were to fall from a high place, but instead was rather slow and steady, like he were simply floating down through the water of a lake or something. After falling like this for a few more seconds or so, Sora found himself descending to another stain-glass floor that depicted a blonde haired woman in a sparkling white ball gown who appeared to be wearing glass slippers, and just a minute after his feet had touched the floor, the Wayward Wind appeared in his hand like magic, much to his surprise.

"You've gained the power to fight," the voice declared, prompting Sora to fall into a long-practiced battle stance after giving the strange sword a few practice swings, which consisted of him bending down slightly while the tip of the blade pointed away from him, towards his right side. "Use this power to protect yourself and others."

"I wouldn't exactly use that kind of power very seriously for anything else," Sora remarked with a shrug. Sure he would like to have a few play fights with his friends, but those were never very serious fights or anything like that. Any further remarks he had on the matter were quickly silenced when he noticed some odd shadows forming on the ground around him, which was rather strange since as far as Sora could tell, the only light source around him was from the floor beneath him, and even if that were not the case, he should have been the only one around. A minute later, he was jumping back in shock as the shadows suddenly rose up from the ground and formed into strange, little pitch-black creatures with three claws on each hand, glowing yellow eyes, and two long, twisted antennae on their heads.

"There will be times when you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong," the voice then warned, a little too late in Sora's opinion as the weird monsters suddenly started to move towards him, clearly intent on attacking him.

"No kidding," Sora dryly replied before he began swinging his current weapon at the offending creatures. Despite not having any real formal training in sword fighting, Sora was no slouch in the area, as some of his friends would easily tell you if you were to ask them, so a few quick swings of Wayward Wind were all it really took for Sora to deal some decisive and finishing blows to the monsters that were attacking him. At least, that was what it seemed like at first, but Sora did not notice that in his hasty attack, one of the creatures had actually retreated into the floor after barely managing to avoid a swing of Sora's blade, and was now sneaking around to Sora's blind spot.

The creature likely would have managed to deliver a damaging blow to Sora from behind, had the voice from before not intervened when it did. "Behind you!"

Hearing the voice's cry of warning, Sora immediately turned to face the direction the mystery person had indicated, and when he saw the creature attempting to jump him, he spun around and thrust the strange sword forward, stabbing right through the creature while it was in mid-jump, causing to vanish in a burst of smoke the minute that the sword had gone through it. The defeat of the sneaky monster prompted the arrival of a few more, similar creatures, but Sora was quick to defeat them as well, until the ones that remained sank into the ground again and created a large, dark hole that quickly began to envelope the entire floor. Sora was worried of course, but after looking every which way he could, he found no way to get clear before the entire floor was enveloped, and as a result, he found himself sinking into the ground as well, all the while struggling to make sure that he was not pulled in.

It turned out that his struggles were not all that necessary, as he soon found himself waking up on another platform with a design that seemed rather…well, girly in his opinion, given how there was an abundance of pink and hearts on it, completely safe. The design of the floor was not what really mattered to Sora, as he quickly found just the very thing he had been hoping for since this whole thing started. "Finally a way out," Sora exclaimed in relief. He was not really all that concerned by the fact that there was just a door standing in the middle of an empty platform, as he just chalked that up to dream-logic, but when he went to open it, his hand just went right through it. "You've gotta be kidding me," Sora lightly groaned as he attempted to grasp the door's handle again and again, only to be met with the same results each time. "Okay mysterious talking voice that enjoys being really cryptic for some weird reason, now what?"

There was no response from the voice, but instead, a light suddenly seemed to shine down from out of nowhere until a small chest appeared out of nowhere behind Sora. Thinking that it was worth a look, Sora simply shrugged and walked over to the chest to open it up, only to find that it was locked. "Well that's just great," Sora grumbled. "Where's a key when you need one? It's not like I can just say 'open sesame' or tap it open with…" Sora stopped in his mutterings as he looked at Wayward Wind, which he was surprised to find was still in his hands for a minute. "It couldn't be that simple, could it," Sora questioned. After thinking it over for a minute, he just shrugged and said, "Well, only one way to find out."

With that said, Sora tapped the key-shaped sword on the chest, and the small box easily popped open without any problem at all, producing what Sora could only assume was the key to the door that he had just been trying to get through. Slightly amazed at the fact that had actually worked, Sora eventually just shrugged in acceptance of this and hurried back to the door, which he was happy to discover, had turned solid at some point while he was trying to open the chest. "Here's hoping that nothing on the other side of this thing will try and kill me," Sora muttered to himself as he stepped through the door, covering his eyes a little due to the bright light that was shinning from the other side.

As he stepped further and further into the door, the light that was glowing from the other side continued to get brighter and brighter, until finally, Sora had to close his eyes completely until the light finally started to fade. When the immensely bright light finally did fade enough for Sora to open his eyes again, he was relieved to see that he was standing on the Play Island that was just a short distance off the shore from the island he lived on, with three of his friends standing around him a short ways above the ground, and he was beginning to think that things would be a bit more normal from here, at least as far as things go in dreams, until he heard the mystery voice calling out to him once again. "Hold on. The door won't open just yet."

"What're you talking about? The door just did open up and it…somehow led me here," Sora protested as waved at the area around him. Before he went any further in his argument though, Sora thought of something that he probably should have realized a little sooner. "You are talking about the door I just went through, right?"

"First, tell me more about yourself," the voice replied.

Sora just shrugged in response to this, knowing that he was not likely to get any straight answers from this mysterious voice, but before he could really say anything, one of the three friends that were currently around him suddenly asked, "Hey Sora, are you talking to someone?"

Sora looked to the person in question and saw that it was the lone girl of the three around him, that he knew as the energetic Selphie. Sora honestly thought that it was a little odd that this particular girl was in this weird dream, since most of his dreams that included girls involved another girl entirely, but he quickly shook it off when he realized where this line of thought was leading him while his face turned a bit scarlet and said, "Uh…just talking to myself."

Selphie just nodded in response to this like it was an everyday occurrence and then asked, "What's most important to you?"

That earned the girl a confused look from Sora, along with the response, "Okay…random topic, but I guess I don't mind telling you. I think the most important thing to me would be my friends, family, and everyone else important in my life."

"Is friendship really such a big deal," Selphie asked.

"Are you really asking me that question right now, Selphie," Sora questioned in disbelief. "I mean, you're not exactly one to talk about whether or not friendship is important with how you're so eager to make friends with everyone and their grandma most of the time." Before Sora could go any further in his answer, the girl suddenly disappeared right before his eyes, almost as if she had never been there. "Selphie? What just…where'd you go?"

"Uh Sora? Who're you talking to," the shorter of the two boys, who was named Tidus, suddenly asked, drawing Sora's attention over to him.

"I was talking to Selphie. She was just here a second ago. Didn't you see," Sora questioned.

"No," Tidus shrugged in response, confusing Sora even more than he already was. That confusion only grew when Tidus suddenly asked, "What're you afraid of?"

Sora did not know why two of his friends were suddenly asking him such random thing, but he figured he might as well answer and get it over with anyway, because whatever was going on was really starting to reach his limits on weirdness. "Well, if there's one thing that I'm really afraid of, it's losing everything and everyone that's really important to me."

"Losing everything and everyone important to you? Is that really so scary," Tidus questioned.

"Please tell me you're joking? You don't think that's scary at all," Sora asked in surprise, only to find that Tidus had also vanished. "And you're gone too. Can this dream get any weirder?" Sora was not really expecting an answer to that question, but he knew he would end up getting it one way or the other eventually, so he just shook his head and walked over to the tallest of the three that had appeared around him, who was also one of the tallest out of all of his friends as well. "Hey Wakka, did you see what just happened over there," Sora called out as he reached the friend in question.

Wakka looked around the area that Sora was indicating, along with the general vicinity to see if there was some other direction that Sora was referring to before he finally replied, "See what, man?"

"How Selphie and Tidus just disappeared," Sora clarified.

"Uh no," Wakka shrugged in reply. Before Sora could add anything else to what he had been saying before, Wakka suddenly asked, "What do you want outta life?"

It was at this point that Sora had become completely certain that this was how the voice was getting to know more about him, or at least, that's what it was starting to look like to him, so instead of getting weirded out by the random topic, Sora just replied, "What I want…is to be able to travel to other worlds and see what's out there, and meet other people from those worlds as well, along with anything else that can only be seen on those worlds."

"See other worlds, huh," Wakka asked, and he then made a show of spinning his blitzball on his finger before he too disappeared like the other two.

"You care most about your friends, family, and all those important to you. You're afraid of losing those that are most important to you. You want to travel to other worlds," the mysterious voice repeated in a summarized version of what Sora had just said.

"Oh hey, you're back," Sora called out, jokingly, since he knew that he should not likely expect a real answer from whoever this person speaking to him from nowhere and everywhere was.

"Your adventure begins at midday. Keep a steady pace and you'll come through fine," the voice continued like it had not been interrupted. "The day you will open the door is both far off and very near."

"Is that supposed to make sense to me, or anyone really," Sora questioned. The only answer he was received was a near blinding light that forced him to shut his eyes again, and when he opened his eyes once more, he found himself standing upon another pillar with a stain glass floor, this time depicting a woman with long blonde hair in a blue dress with a rose held in her hands. "Oh no, not here again," Sora moaned in annoyance, only to groan when he saw that the same creatures from before were suddenly appearing around him once again. "And you guys are back too. Why am I not surprised?"

Sora did waste any more time with words after that point, and quickly went to work cutting down the newest swarm of monsters that were now around him, and after a few quick swings of Wayward Wind, he was once again alone on the pillar with nothing but the strange sword and the mysterious voice to keep him company. After standing in place for a minute though, a strange beam of light shone down from above him, and moved towards the edge of the pillar, were a flight of stairs suddenly began to materialize and then spiral upwards to the top of another pillar that Sora had not noticed before. Thinking that it was probably better to go the only direction he could go in than stay where he currently was, Sora immediately made his way up the new stairs that had just appeared out of thin air like magic, until he was finally on the next pillar, at which point he saw that this one's stain glass floor depicted the image of a woman in a yellow ball gown that left her shoulders bare.

"The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes."

"Yeah, I already know that. That's something that anyone could tell…you," Sora started to tell the voice, until he noticed that something really big seemed to be forming behind him, much like the monsters he had been fighting just a second ago. Upon turning around to fully face the thing in question, Sora ended up stepping back in fright at the sight of his own shadow suddenly coming up from the ground and then begin to grow bigger and bigger, long past the point where it was bigger than him.

"But don't be afraid. And don't forget…"

Whether something was blocking out what the voice was saying or the voice had said it so softly that it could not be heard at the moment, Sora really did not care, because right now, all he knew was that a massive, shadowy monster was looming over him and he had to get away, so he immediately turned and started to run. Unfortunately, he quickly discovered that there was nowhere to run to, as the stairs he had just climbed had now disappeared back to wherever they had come from, and he was now alone on this strange pillar with the massive, strange, shadow monster that had been his shadow just a few seconds ago. Seeing that he now had no other choice, Sora immediately spun his borrowed weapon in his hand before dropping into a battle stance, hoping that he could somehow manage to fight this thing.

Just seconds after seeing Sora assume his battle stance, the monster slammed a massive fist down on the ground, but it was not near where Sora was standing, much to his slight confusion. That puzzle was quickly solved when a pool of shadows suddenly opened up beneath where the fist had struck, and more of the monsters from earlier started to come out of it, instantly telling Sora that this creature was not really going for an attack, but instead, was mainly going for reinforcements. Those reinforcements did not last for very long, as Sora quickly and easily dispensed of them with a few swings of the strange sword he was currently wielding before jumping up onto the massive beast's arm so that he could make a run for its head. Once he had reached the monster's head, he immediately started striking at said area with everything he had, until finally, he felt his footing starting to come loose as the monster began to rise up again and then jumped off.

For a moment, it looked like the beast was going to do something else as it moved back a few paces, but after a second or two, it suddenly seemed to kneel down a bit, making Sora think that it was not really as tough as it looked. That was until the monster suddenly waved its hand and opened another pit of darkness beneath Sora's feet. He tried to use Wayward Wind to help pull him out, but the mysterious blade vanished before he could attempt to securely stab it into the ground around the pit, and thus Sora was left to struggle as the strange, black, shadowy pit continued to swallow him up. Before he finally lost all manner of sight, he heard the strange voice say one last thing.

"But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of all. So don't forget: you are the one who will open the door."

When Sora opened his eyes again, he found himself staring up at a clear blue sky with a shinning sun with the faint sounds of seagulls from somewhere around him. Upon sitting up, Sora glanced around to see that he was right back to the beach on the Play Island where he had initially laid down for a nap, much to his relief, and after letting out a deep yawn, he lay down once more in the hopes of a much more peaceful nap. At least that was what he would have tried to do, had his vision not suddenly found itself being filled with the face of a beautiful young girl with dark red hair and violet-blue eyes smiling down at him.

"Whoa," Sora exclaimed as he bolted upright once more, and he then turned to see the redhead girl in question still standing over him with her hands on her knees, lightly laughing at his startled response to her presence. Upon properly facing the girl in question, one could see that she was dressed in a sleeveless white top, with a black one underneath, a purple skirt over purple bike shorts with a blue belt, and white shoes with purple caps. On her left arm were a yellow wristband and a purple armband, while a pair of bracelets occupied her other wrist, and a black choker and necklace with a silver bead completed her ensemble. This was the girl that Sora knew as one of his best friends, the girl that he somewhat-secretly liked as more than a friend, and one of the few people who could actually get him up from one of his marathon naps. "Gimme a break, Kairi."

"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here," Kairi instantly replied in a teasing tone with a smile that easily matched her smile as she stood up straight with her hands moving to be folded behind her back.

"No! This huge, black THIING swallowed me up," Sora immediately objected. "I couldn't breathe, I couldn't-Ow!"

"Are you still dreaming," Kairi questioned as she bent down again to give him a scrutinizing look while Sora lightly rubbed his head where she had previously hit him just a moment ago to stop his wild protest.

"It wasn't a dream," Sora instantly denied, but his confidence in that quickly faded away as he started to wonder about that. "Or was it? I don't know…What was that place? So bizarre…"

"Yeah, sure," Kairi just shrugged in humoring acceptance, having long since gotten used to some of the weird things that Sora's mind would conjure up when he was sleeping in any way, shape, or form.

Hoping to change the subject, Sora quickly looked back to his friend and crush and asked, "Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up."

"I've told you before, I don't remember," Kairi replied with a small giggle at Sora's apparent forgetfulness of the fact.

"Nothing at all," Sora pressed.

"Nothing," Kairi repeated quietly, surprising Sora once more at the fact that the girl seemed to be able to take the fact she could not remember anything about where she was originally from in stride so well. He was sure that he would never have been able to do something like that.

"You ever want to go back?"

That question made Kairi pause and think for a moment, until she finally hummed, "Well, I'm happy here."

"Really…" Sora asked, not quite fully believing that. He was not questioning the fact that Kairi really was happy here on Destiny Islands, she really was being honest about that, but he could not honestly believe that she would not want to go back at all.

Sora's suspicions were proven true when Kairi added, "But you know…I wouldn't mind going to see it."

"I'd like to see it to, along with any other worlds out there! I want to see 'em all," Sora excitedly declared.

"So what're we waiting for," Kairi questioned in equal excitement. You see, the two friends had shared a dream of traveling to other worlds for nearly as long as they had known each other, and every time they talked about doing so, they always got really excited at the very idea of living said dream, and today, they were another step closer to doing so. Of course, that did not mean that they were the only ones who were planning on living the dream.

"Hey, aren't you guys forgetting about me," a new, more mature voice interrupted, drawing the two to turn their attention to the speaker. The person in question was a boy with silver hair and aquamarine eyes who looked to be about a year older than the other two. His outfit consisted of a yellow and black tank top with black straps crisscrossing his chest and upper back, dark blue pants that were connected to brighter blue, baggy pants by white studded suspenders, white and blue shoes, and a pair of black gloves with matching wrist bands. To everyone on Destiny Islands, this boy was both the heartthrob of nearly every girl on the Islands, and the third member of their little trio of best friends, Riku, and like his two best friends, he also shared the dream of seeing other worlds.

"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft," Riku smirked in good humor at the two before tossing the small log he was carrying to Sora. As Sora flailed about to catch said log before it either landed in the water or crushed him, much to both Riku and Kairi's light amusement, the older boy leveled a small, playfully angry look at the girl of their trio as he added, "And you're just as lazy as he is!"

"Hehe, so you noticed," Kairi grinned with very little shame on the matter. The three had in fact come to the island that day so that they could continue their preparations for their journey to visit other worlds, which they had been making for a few days now, and unfortunately for poor Riku, his two best friends had disappeared on him after Sora had gone off somewhere for a quick nap, with Kairi following behind him shortly after to wake up the, as she called him, lazy bum, though Riku knew that it was just an excuse to spend a bit more time with Sora. Since she did not want her friend to feel bad about their leaving him on his own and wanted to finish what they had set out to do that day, Kairi immediately declared, "Okay, we'll finish it together! I'll race you!"

"Huh," Sora questioned as Riku just sat down in the sand next to him, wondering where that had come from.

"What, are you kidding," Riku asked, showing that he was really tired from what he had already done in the twos absence and wanted to take a page out of Sora's book.

Kairi just giggled at the two, knowing that they would be up and running the minute she gave a signal to start, and she immediately cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Ready…GO!"

In an instant, the two boys were both on their feet again and racing away towards the place where they had been working on the small, wooden raft that would serve as their vessel for traveling to other worlds, with the lone girl of their trio right behind them laughing the whole way. They could not really blame her for that, both because she knew how to really get them going so well, and because they were just as excited for the journey they were preparing to head out on as she was.

After getting together a list of who would do what to help with putting the finishing touches on the raft, the three friends split up to gather up what they were assigned to get. Of course, Riku did not really need to get all that much, since he had spent the most time working on the raft out of the three, so Sora and Kairi busied themselves with gathering what was left to finish putting the raft together. They did not really need all that much at this point, as evidenced by how close to completion their little raft was, so no one really complained that much when Sora stopped for a moment to have a friendly sparring match with some of the other kids that were on the Play Island that day. Of course, none of them used any real weapons or anything, the closest any of them came to having a real weapon would probably be Sora's wooden toy sword or Tidus' staff, but one would be easily surprised with how easily some of the kids could make do with what they had, especially with the way that Selphie would swing around that jump rope of hers like it was a set of nunchucks. Despite whatever skill each of the kids had though, none of them were ever really able to beat Sora when he got going, except for one person.

"Hey Sora, if you're done warming up with these other guys and getting everything you need for the raft, how about a quick round," Riku called out in a challenge to his best friend from where he was sitting on the crooked palm tree that was settled nicely on the small island that was connected to the rest of the Play Island by a wooden bridge.

Sora just smirked in reply and replied, "Okay, you're on Riku!"

"Alright then, this one decides the champion," Riku declared as he dropped down onto the sand of the smaller island from his perch. Sora nodded in agreement to this and immediately assumed his battle stance once he was on the smaller island with Riku, knowing full well that if either one of them knocked the other off the smaller island, they would be out of bounds and automatically lose.

The other kids just ooed and awed at the sight of the two best friends and occasional rivals going at it once more, because everyone knew full well that when it came to these playful sparring matches, or even serious fighting, the only person who could confidently say that he was better than Sora was Riku, partially because Riku helped teach Sora a lot of what he knew about sword fighting. An instant later, the sounds of wood clashing against wood filled the air, as the two boys' toy swords collided with each other while they tried to strike a blow against the other. While Sora's fighting style was not really as well-honed or practiced as a typical swordsman, Riku's skills were clearly a bit more like that of someone who actually knew how to wield an actual sword, and it was still pretty obvious that Riku was holding back a lot more than Sora was for reasons beyond the facts that they were best friends and that this was not a serious fight. Still, Sora was able to hold his own for a while, until he ended up exposing an opening in his guard that Riku easily took advantage of to go in for the win, leading the spiky haired boy to drop his head a little in light disappointment.

"Good effort, but I'm still the number one fighter on the islands, Sora," Riku boasted proudly, much to Sora's light irritation. Riku may have been his best friend, but that did not mean that the guy did not still get on his nerves sometimes with how large his ego often seemed to be.

"Okay boys, if you're done playing, we've still got a raft to finish, and it looks like the sun's going to start to going down soon," Kairi called out, drawing the two out of their moment of being friendly rivals, and drawing them back into being best friends so that they could finish working on their raft.

It took a while for the three to finish, but after a lot of hard work and cooperation that could only come from a trio of closely-knit best friends, the raft that they were planning to use to travel to other worlds was finished and ready to sail. All that was left to do was make sure that they had all the necessary supplies for their journey, but it had grown to be rather late, so the three decided to leave that sort of thing for the next day, just as Kairi had said they would have to when they had all met up for their little project that morning. Since all of the other kids had gone home for the day a few hours ago or so, the three had the island to themselves, so they were able to gather together on the crooked tree to watch the sunset in peace.

As he watched the setting sun seem to disappear into the wide ocean beneath, Sora looked to his friends and said, "So, Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?"

"Could be," Riku shrugged in reply. "We'll never know by staying here."

"But how far could a raft take us," Sora inquired further, knowing that this was probably a very important question that the three really should have thought of before now.

Riku had to admit that Sora had a bit of a point in that question, but he was not willing to let the other two know about that, so he simply shrugged once more and waved it off as he replied, "Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else."

It was not really an answer that Sora was looking for, but before he could press Riku any further, Kairi cut in with a question of her own. "So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?"

Both boys had to bow their heads in thought for a minute, but eventually Sora just shrugged in response while Riku said, "Well I…I haven't really thought about it. It's just…I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds…Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater, so we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

"I don't know," Sora answered with shrug as he lay back on the crooked tree like he was about to take another nap.

"Exactly," Riku nodded like Sora had perfectly hit the nail on the head of his point. "That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff, so let's go."

"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you," Kairi noted with a bit of surprise in her voice.

"Thanks to you," Riku admitted, drawing Sora's full attention to his best friend in an instant. Sora knew that Riku would sometimes act like his feelings for Kairi were a bit stronger than he let on, but the older boy would always reassure Sora later on that he was not being serious about such things in some way. Thankfully, this turned out to not be one of those times when it was necessary as Riku went on to say, "If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this. Kairi, thanks."

"You're welcome," Kairi smiled in response. The young girl then pushed herself down from where she was sitting on the tree and dusted her shorts free of sand as she said, "We'd probably better get on home now before anyone starts to think we suddenly decided to camp out here for the night at the last minute or something."

The two boys both nodded in agreement and were soon falling into step behind their friend, but they both paused in their departure when Riku suddenly picked one of the star-shaped fruit that grew on the crooked tree and called out to Sora. The minute that Sora had turned around, Riku tossed the fruit over to his friend, which Sora effortlessly caught, and asked, "You wanted one, didn't you?"

"A paopu fruit," Sora questioned as he looked down at the star-shaped fruit in confusion.

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what," Riku stated in a recitation of the legend that surrounded the fruit that was currently in Sora's hands with a teasing smile. "C'mon, I know you want to try it."

"What're you talking…," Sora started to ask, only to realize what Riku was implying a second later and start blushing up a storm while his friend just laughed at his expense. This was the reason why Sora's crush on Kairi was not really too big of a secret, because even if Riku was not Sora's best friend, just about everyone on Destiny Islands knew about the boy's feelings for Kairi except the girl herself. Of course, since he had been Sora's best friend for nearly all of his life, Riku was the first person who ever found out about this fact, and he had not failed to give Sora a little teasing on the matter ever since.

After letting his friend get the remainder of his laugh in, Sora finally tossed the fruit aside and started to chase after Riku in the hopes he could do something to get the taller and older boy back before they rowed back to the main island and returned to their homes for the day, never suspecting for a minute just what could be going on outside their tiny world.

While night was falling over the peaceful world of Destiny Islands, morning had just risen for the world of Disney Town and the people who lived within the extravagant halls of Disney Castle. As such, Royal Magician Donald Duck was making his way to the audience chamber to give a morning's greeting to his long-time best friend and the world's king, and Donald was sure said king would be in the company of his other friend that had recently become the newest Keyblade Master not too long ago. Upon reaching the very massive doors that led into the audience chamber, Donald cleared his throat with a small cough, and then knocked before opening the actual, normal sized door that one would have missed had they not lived in this castle for so long or known about its design and layout and walking in.

"Good morning, Your Majesty, and to you as well, Master Ventus," Donald bowed in greeting as he walked further into the large room, drawing closer and closer to proper viewing range of the king's throne as he did. "It's nice to see you both this morn…What?!"

The reason why Donald had squawked in surprise in the way that he did was because when he finally did reach the king's throne, he found neither the king nor the aforementioned master waiting for him. In point of fact, the only one that seemed to be in the room at all was Donald himself, at least until he saw the king's dog, Pluto step out from behind the throne with a note in his mouth that had the king's seal on it. After retrieving said letter from the loyal friend and quickly reading through it, Donald was instantly dashing out quacking in panic, and he did not stop until he was out in the courtyard and standing before the sleeping form of his other best friend and the captain of the royal knights. "Wake up, Goofy, wake up! This is serious," Donald ordered his sleeping friend. When Goofy just continued sleeping, Donald's infamous short temper reeled its face and caused the magician to summon a thunder spell down on his friend to shock him awake with a start.

Once Goofy had shaken the jolts of the duck's spell out of his system and rubbed any remaining sleep out of his eyes, he looked over to his friend and greeted, "Hey there, Donald. G'morning."

"We've got a problem, Goofy," Donald interrupted before Goofy could say anymore than that. He then paused to glance around the area before whispering, "But don't tell anyone…"

"Queen Minnie," Goofy asked.

"Not even the queen," Donald stated with a shake of his head and his beak pointed up high while he crossed his arms.

"Daisy," Goofy then asked.

"No, it's top secret," Donald immediately quacked insistently.

That was when Goofy dropped a bit of a surprise on Donald. "Uh…G'morning, ladies."

This comment immediately caused Donald to pause and then slowly turn around to see the previously mentioned ladies were standing right behind, and while Daisy was throwing him a warning look that just dared him to try and deny he was planning to hide something from them, Queen Minnie Mouse was throwing him one of those too-sweet smiles that clearly communicated the same message, instantly telling the now very sheepish duck that he had no choice but tell them everything about what he just learned in the king's letter.

At the same time, over on the world of Traverse Town, Ven was currently holding his usual battle stance in preparation for any sudden attacks, until he finally confirmed that no one was going to be coming out to attack him at the moment, at least in this area, allowing him to dismiss his trusted Keyblade and release a sigh of relief. "Looks like I can finally catch a bit of a break in this district," Ven mused to himself as he turned to go back to the apartment building that his newest friends had set up as their own place and field base in the fight against the creatures known as the Heartless.

As he made his way over, he allowed himself a moment to think over what he had learned since arriving in Traverse Town. It was clear that the Heartless were able to track someone based on the strength of the light within their heart, or if they possessed a Keyblade like he did, but they seemed rather content with leaving this world alone for the most part, at least if one were to judge on how many of the more weaker varieties there were here. In addition, ever since he made it clear that he was not to be messed with or taken lightly, the Heartless had ceased coming after him as much as they would anyone else in his position, so it was also clear just how much like a basic animal the Heartless were without someone to direct them. Of course he knew what that would likely mean for the person he knew would eventually arrive here on this world, and he could only hope that said person would be able to hold his own until they met, or until one of his newest friends found him.

Ven was quickly brought out of his thoughts when he finally walked into his room of the apartment that said friends were currently staying at, as the most excitable of those friends suddenly popped out of nowhere like the ninja she proudly proclaimed to be and said, "Hail the conquering Keyblade Master's triumphant return! And just seconds behind the Great Ninja Master Yuffie. Not bad, Vennie-Boy."

"Said the girl who can just appear and disappear anywhere with some crazy smoke bomb," Ven chuckled in response to the master ninja. "So what're you doing here this time, Yuffie? Looking for a report on how my patrol went, or are you just hiding from someone you recently pulled a prank on?"

"Come on, Ven. I don't always hide here when I pull a prank on someone," Yuffie protested in defense.

"Well I should hope not. I've only been here for a couple of days," Ven reminded her. The two remained silent for a minute until the Keyblade Master of the two finally asked, "Which of them was it this time? Cid or Leon?"

"…Cid," Yuffie finally admitted in defeat. "In my defense, those bottles of paint were just asking to be dumped on him. Asking to be dumped on him I tell you."

"What bottles of…" Ven started to ask, but he was soon interrupted by someone banging on the door, which was soon followed by the angry shouting of the previously mentioned Gummi Block expert and store owner, leading Yuffie to let out a small squeak as she instantly ducked into a hiding place before Ven could see where she was going.

"Please don't tell him I'm here," Yuffie frantically whispered from wherever she was hiding.

Ven just shrugged in response, knowing that Yuffie had probably seen him do so, and then opened the door, but when he did, it took every ounce of restraint he had not to burst out laughing uncontrollably. There, standing in his doorway, was a very angry Cid, who was nearly covered from head to toe in the brightest shades of pink, purple, and every other girly color one could imagine that Ven had ever seen. "Alright Blondie, where is she," Cid demanded.

"Uh…who," Ven somehow managed to choke out in his attempt to keep himself from laughing.

"That little pest who calls herself a ninja," Cid snarled.

At this point, Ven finally managed to school his features, only to turn his gaze down to Cid's feet a minute later as he found himself unable to look Cid in the face without nearly bursting out laughing, and after regaining his composure once again, he finally said, "I'm sorry, Cid, but I haven't seen Yuffie since our little group meeting earlier today. Maybe you should ask Leon."

"Look me in the eye and say that," Cid ordered.

"I can't do that," Ven said. "I'm doing my best to not laugh at your current appearance right now, and every time I try to look at your face, it only gets harder to do so."

Cid would have given a snarling retort in response to that, but he knew that Ven was likely telling the truth, as even Aerith had been unable to do any better than Ven currently was when he talked to her a second ago, so he just huffed and then stomped away, grumbling under his breath about prank-pulling ninja brats until he was out of sight. After closing the door again, Ven turned around to see Yuffie had come out of hiding again and was now smiling widely at him, and after staring at each other for a minute, they both found that they could no longer hold it in and burst out laughing at what they had seen just now.

"Haha, oh the look on his face," Ven exclaimed through his laughter.

"If you think that was funny, you should've seen the look he had when he was first hit! Priceless," Yuffie proudly declared between her own chuckles. When the two finally settled down, the young woman added, "Wait till you hear about what I did to Leon earlier."

"Just tell me you didn't hide his Gunblade again, because you know what happened the last time you did that," Ven reminded the ninja.

Yuffie's face instantly paled a little at this reminder before she stuttered, "Uh…I'll be right back. I've gotta go do something really important that may or may not keep everyone in Traverse Town from ending up dead. See ya later!"

An instant later, Yuffie was gone again, drawing an amused chuckle from Ventus before he declared, "Well, despite all things considered, things are definitely never boring around here. We can definitely thank Yuffie a lot for that." His mood then became serious once again as he turned his gaze out the window and said, "Still…I can't help but hope that you'll get here soon."

He knew that a lot of the people who lived here in Traverse Town were not from this world, but from worlds that had fallen into darkness, and even with the vast amount of space that it possessed, there was quickly becoming a very small amount of area left for folks to live in. Ven knew full well that if things kept up like this, such matters would be the least of their worries, but that did not keep such concerns from rising to his mind all the same. When a small yawn escape from him, Ven realized that it was probably time for him to call it a night and he quickly made his way over to his bed with one final statement to the stars above the world as he drifted off to sleep. "Sora…if you can hear me, please gain the power you were destined to possess soon. We need you."

AN: Well that was fun. We got to see the big three of the KH series, a change up to Sora's Dive to the Heart, Donald getting himself into trouble because of his big mouth and lack of attention to his surroundings, and we got to see Ven once again as he helped to lighten things up a little with some help with our favorite ninja from the Final Fantasy series.

Before you guys ask, yes, those three swords that Sora saw in his Dive to the Heart were in fact the original Keyblades of Terra, Aqua, and Ven, as if I didn't make it obvious enough when I announced the names. I know that some people don't really change that up very often and just stick with the old sword, wand, and shield thing, but I wanted to do something a little different this time around, and I felt that having those three Keyblades symbolize the different paths Sora could take was a bit more suiting to the storyline that this story falls into. Also, yeah, I highlighted some things that happened on Destiny Islands.

And yeah, I know the whole thing with Yuffie pranking either Cid or Leon has been done a few times before, but it's always pretty funny to hear about such things so I couldn't resist. Shame I couldn't get this story's version of the Yen Sid Reports in this time, but don't worry, like I said before, we'll be seeing that soon enough. Just give it a little bit of time. Now, next chapter will have a few more fun and exciting things happening, and may end up being pretty long, considering what I want to throw in there, but for a better idea, why don't you all just move along and get Onto the Preview!...

The three friends continue their preparations for their voyage, while the situation on the other worlds continues to unfold, until finally, the destiny that awaits Sora finally finds him. Just what will Sora discover with the acquisition of this new power, and how quickly can Ven meet up with either him, Donald and Goofy, or even both before trouble befalls any of them? Find out the answers to these questions and more, next time.

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!