Sora lay upon his bed, his hands behind the back of his head as he looked out at the starless night sky. He knew he should be sleeping, but he just couldn't. Tomorrow was when it would all finally start. His adventure with Riku and Kairi across the seas, searching for new places. New worlds. His gaze aimlessly shifted along the many old toys in his messy room, one in particular being a toy pirate ship hanging to the ceiling a pair of dolls inside it: one being be a boy and the other a girl. Looking upon it made him blush faintly as he recalled Kairi suggesting just she and him travel together on the raft. A thought which still made him feel all strangely fluttery inside. He also remembered the words she said to him while they were watching the sun set.

"I just can't wait. Once we set sail. It'll be great."

The sound of a rumble from outside broke him out of his stupor, causing him to look out the open window. His tired eyes squinted as he saw what looked like dark clouds swirling in the horizon along with a sudden sharp whistling of wind. "A storm?"

If there was a storm brewing near the playground island, then... "Oh no! The raft!" Sora shot to his feet, the adrenaline banishing any tiredness he may have felt, overriding it with worry. If he didn't do something, the vessel he and his friends worked days on would be ruined since it was just laying out there in the open. All their supplies would be gone and they'd have to start all over again. Wasting no time he shoved his bedroom window open further and and hopped out into the front yard, running to his boat at the docks as fast as he could.

Seconds after he was gone, his mother called for him from the dining room. "Sora, dinners ready. Come on down... Sora?"

The storm was stronger than he feared. Sora could barely row properly with how wavy the waters were, but he pressed on. When he finally reached the shores of the playground island island, he saw something in the sky, that he was positive wasn't a stormcloud. "What is that?" It looked like a giant ball of dark clouds and a faint, dark purple light of some sort collected in a sphere. He wasn't even sure how to describe it. When he made it to the dock of the island, he noticed he wasn't alone when seeing two more boats. "Riku's boat... and Kairi's!"

But the sight of his friends' boats wasn't the most disconcerting thing he beheld. A bizarre sound reached Sora's ears as he looked towards the island only to see something even worse. The moment he turned to look, several familiar, hunched, pitch black, antennae toting, glowing yellow eyed beings rose up from the sand. Sora's face was immediately plastered with a look of horror. It was the creatures from his dream!

Instinctively, Sora rushed for a nearby discarded wooden sword thrusting it into one of the creatures...only for the wooden thing to phase right through it! The creature sharply turned to him and swiped its clawed hand at Sora's face. The frightened and confused boy barely managed to stumble backwards and avoid the attack, before desperately trying to hit it again. But again, nothing worked. Worse still, more and more of these things were rising up from the sands of the island all around him. What was happening?

Sora had no choice. He couldn't fight them. He had to run away. And as he ran, the creatures kept rising up from the ground around him, giving him no time to even pause as they swiped at him, narrowly missing. He had so many questions already, but now more questions were worming their way into his mind. The poor confused lad had no idea what to do or what to think of what was going on.

Suddenly, Sora looked out toward the paopu tree islet and saw the familiar form of Riku just...standing there. Why wasn't he running!? Running as fast as his legs could carry him, Sora dashed toward his best friend as the creatures wriggled about far behind him. "Where's Kairi!? I thought she was with you!" Sora exclaimed. If Riku was here, then where was Kairi? And why wasn't Riku worried about these things attacking their home!?

"The door has opened." Riku said calmly. Sora didn't understand. "What?" Riku turned to his friend, sounding like this was a great moment. "The door has opened, Sora. Now we can go to the outside world." Everything Riku was saying didn't add up. His behavior seemed far too relaxed about what was happening. He didn't even seem concerned about his own well being given the situation they were in or how one of their other friends was here yet nowhere to be found. Surely he saw her boat. "What are you talking about?! We gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku said, surprising Sora, which gave him a moment to explain as he looked up at the continuously darkening sky. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back." His face became more determined as he sounded bolder. "But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us. I'm not afraid of the darkness!" When finishing his speech, Riku smiled to Sora and offered his hand, inviting him to join him. A gesture that Sora recognized from his dream. The moment before Riku was swallowed up by that wave.

"Riku..." Sora didn't know what to think about this strange change in his best friend. Before he could answer, a pool of darkness rose up from beneath Riku. They started swirling up around him like living vines, yet Riku showed no fear. Hept himself where he was, still urging Sora to come with him. On instinct Sora rushed to him but found the same thing happening to him the instant he neared that pool of inky blackness. He struggled to move closer and reached for his friend but it was like hundreds of hands were pulling him down and away. He was so close but unable to take hold, hoping they'd reach. Riku never moved, showed no fear or concern. He simply stared right back at Sora, still holding his hand out for his best friend to join them. Right as their hands would have reached each other, Sora was pulled back and consumed by the shroud.

Everything suddenly went cold and numb. Sora could see nothing except pitch blackness. He couldn't breathe...just like in his dream. Sora wasn't sure what was going on but he felt as if his very essence was slipping away every moment he was in this abyss. What was going to happen to him now?

Suddenly, a faint glimmer of light shone through the blackness. The glimmer grew until it became almost blindingly bright. Before Sora knew it, he was once again standing among the Paopu trees. And in his hand was...a most bizarre thing. It looked almost like a sword, but the blade was more rounded and shaped almost like a silver key. The hilt was surrounded by a golden handguard, and at the end of it was a keychain with what looked to be a round circular head with an equally round pair of ears on top of it. What was this thing?

Keyblade

Sora suddenly felt the familiar soundless voice resound in his mind as he looked at the strange weapon. It called it a...

Keyblade

Before Sora could question it any further, he suddenly got a forceful reminder of what was happening when one of those creatures lunged at him from behind. Instinctively, he swung his newly acquired Keyblade in a horizontal arc. To his surprise, the creature was not only struck, but dissipated like when he struck these creatures in his dream! So then...this 'Keyblade' was actually capable of defeating them?

That spark of hope did little for him however, as Sora slowly realized destroying them was not getting him anywhere. When one fell, five seemed to take its place. Their numbers seemed endless. Even if he could fight them, there were just too many to keep it up. If he tried, he'd be overwhelmed.

There was only one place to go. The secret spot. As he ran toward the cave entrance at the center of the island, Sora skidded to a halt as standing in front of the door was... "Kairi!"

She slowly turned toward him with...an expression of disconcerting lifelessness. "Sora..." Her voice sounded equally lifeless as she stepped toward Sora, raising her arm sluggishly as if trying to reach for him. Suddenly, the door slammed open, revealing nothing but a dark void exuding a sharp gust of wind which threw Sora off balance. As he recovered, he looked forward to see Kairi flying toward him from the force of whatever that was behind the door. Sora instinctively reached out to catch her...only for Kairi to vanish as she reached him. Before he could even wonder what happened, he was forcefully blown out of the cave.

The next thing Sora knew, he was face first on sand of the beach. Or what would have been the beach. As he pushed himself up, his eyes shot open with horror as he saw of nothing but a dropoff into a dark void of nothingness. There wasn't any sign of any kind of ground as he looked down the cliff. "Whoa!" he shouted in surprise when seeing the very landscape of his home had been torn asunder

Around him were far smaller patches of what was left of his home. None of the rock formations and few parts remained of the plant life. What remained of the countless wooden planks was now debris. Parts of the island floated around in the air around the airborne land where Sora was. The sphere of darkness was much closer to him above. Or perhaps much closer. He was too panicked to tell at this point. Before he could figure out exactly where he was, the ground shook behind him. He gasped and stood when seeing the other, much bigger and more menacing creature from his dream.

Just like before, it leered down at him with unblinking glowing yellow eyes veiled by the moving hair-like tendrils and knelt to unleash the bright ethereal projectiles from the inside of its heart shaped hole.

Sora rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the attacks, only stopping once he was certain the slow barrage had ended. Sora wasn't sure what to do. If there were platforms of the island around, maybe he could try climbing them and striking its face like in the dream, but he didn't have that luxury.

The chance seemed to present itself as the shadowy fiend raised its fist again. Sora scrambled to avoid the attack, but this time, the creature didn't simply punch the ground. Its whole arm suddenly phased through the ground into a dark vortex. Was it reaching for something?

Sora didn't want to wait to find out quickly reacted and struck the creature in its face. It seemed to react more noticeably at the strike to its face, confirming Sora's suspicion that its face was the weak spot. But even with that discovered, it seemed Sora would find out the answer to his worried question as the creature was still going strong and pushed itself back up. In its hand, it held a dark, shimmering orb. It then grabbed the orb tightly with its other hand and with a strong pull, split it apart. Sora barely had time to register what was going on as he was now struggling to not get hit by the volley of smaller orbs raining down from the sky. As he tried to avoid it, he found himself grunting in pain as one managed to get a hit on him, making him stumble.

In that moment, the wind currents picked up more intensely, forcing Sora off his feet. He grabbed ahold of a small bit of driftwood buried in the sand, holding onto it for dear life as the currents of the vortex above strengthened. The giant dark creature behind him didn't seem to care as it, like its smaller brethren, was pulled up into the void. Sora's struggle to resist was sadly a doomed endeavor. The boy's one hand couldn't hold for long, and within moments his fingers slipped free one after the other. With a cry of shock, he was forced to let go and fly upward toward the thing that destroyed his home. The last thing Sora remembered was the feeling of terror, the fear and worry for his friends and family, and the myriad of questions that had no answers as he was engulfed by the swirling vortex above. And then...nothing