Sora had been having nightmares for the past few nights, but he couldn't put his finger on what it might possibly be that was causing them, so when he woke up in a cold sweat for another countless time he wouldn't have deemed it out of the ordinary, however this time he awoke to find himself lying on the soft sand of the Destiny Islands. It was the middle of the day in the middle of summer and nothing could be more out of the ordinary than the feeling of a cold shiver running down your spine while you lie in the warmth of the tropical sun that shone overhead.

It was so bright that Sora lay there only for a second before a reaching a hand out up above him to shield his eyes from the harsh sun, breathing in and out slowly he tried to come to his senses. He was becoming weaker and weaker by day and found himself yawning after every word of conversation. Lately he'd been losing tournaments and races with his friend Riku, which he usually never won anyway, but even Sora himself had noticed his own decrease in ability. Feeling he needed to find a way to get some sleep somehow, he thought maybe he'd fallen asleep on the beach to try to regain some shuteye, but as Sora wiped a slew of cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his gloved hand he sighed and realized that he probably wouldn't have gotten any better a sleep on the burning sand than in his cool, comfy bed.

"Sora! What are you doing down on the beach?" a familiar voice called from behind. Sora, who was too tired to sit up and turn around to meet the voice, opted for stretching his neck back to greet his friend Riku. Sora lie on his back, watching Riku make his way toward him through upside down eyes. He tried to smile, but he was so taken by his grogginess he somehow wound up making some off-faced grimace before he found Riku standing over him. "Sleeping, of course! Kairi's right, you are a lazy bum." He threw his head back in a throaty laugh that exposed his perfect teeth that caught the sun in a shimmer. Sora instantly found himself wincing at the brightness of the refracted light.

Kairi had caught him resting on the beach earlier that day and she'd called him just that—a lazy bum, but not before giggling and hitting Sora over the head as he tried to blab on about one of the nightmares he'd just had. After that he'd trudged around the island exploring for a while before falling back asleep in the same place he'd woken just now.

With a well-placed hand, Sora blocked the light from Riku's smile that had just blinded him a moment before. He could see that Riku, still laughing, held a tarp in one hand a rope in the other. Riku's laugh was followed by a quick bubbly giggle from Kairi, who Sora had just noticed standing behind his taller friend. A coconut and a couple of mushrooms were cradled in her arms.

"I told you he'd be down here, Riku." Kairi said as she smiled up at him and then down back to Sora. "What is this, the second time today? The sun hasn't even gone down yet!"

It had been Sora's job to collect the supplies for the raft, but since he had dozed off on the beach his friends had taken the liberty to move on with the gathering.

"Well I… You guys gathered the supplies without me?" Sora asked, a bit downhearted.

"We couldn't wait all day for you to wake up from your nap!" Kairi pouted playfully in a way that made Sora's grimace turn into the smile he was trying for. It was no secret that Sora had liked Kairi since she first came to the island. It was wishful thinking, but he hoped that she liked him too, at least a little bit. He was kind of upset they hadn't woken him up so he could go gather the supplies with them, because it was also no secret that Riku had liked Kairi since she first came to the island as well, as he seemed to take every chance Sora had with Kairi away.

"But you can still help us! There's one more thing we still need." Kairi said through a smile that seemed to brake Sora's train of thought. He didn't mind though, he'd listen to Kairi talk any chance he got, but as he was smiling and ready to listen, Riku had come in to finish the thought.

"More like three—we still need to gather the fish," Sora and Riku had a playful rivalry when it came to Kairi's attention, but Sora swore, sometimes he really set off his nerves. "We figured since you were down here anyway you wouldn't mind getting them for us."

If it weren't for Kairi's very, very convincing, yet simple word of "please," Sora would not have found himself trudging around the shallow waters of the ocean looking for some fish to catch. More than once, Sora had found himself splashing water on his own face to keep awake and alert. He hoped this would help him catch something, since it had been over half an hour and he'd caught nothing, but it appeared as though most of the problem came from the fact that fish were all just too fastfor him. Unlike most people, whose most brilliant plans come to them in the deepest hour of the night in that state of being not-quite-asleep, Sora did not do his best thinking when he was half asleep—so why he had decided to go in the water with his shoes still on was beyond him.

He stepped out of the ocean, his shoes pooling with water, pockets filled with flopping fish, skin itchy from the salt water that had dried under his clothes, and so exhausted he thought he was going to collapse. Sora's very next step was followed by wobble knees and a sudden surge of gravity. Because he was exhausted out of his mind, it took the boy much more than a second to realize he'd not reached the sandy ground on his way down.

Riku's strong arms were wrapped around Sora, his beautiful light green eyes creased into a gentle smile as he looked down upon the tired teen.

"You did good today, you lazy bum." Riku chuckled as he ruffled the front of Sora's hair, whether affectionately or teasingly Sora couldn't tell.

"Riku…you jerk." Sora's voice was small and weak and it took all his strength lift his arms, but when he did it was to grab hold of Riku's hand and bring it to his face. Sora's eyes closed while Riku's widened. "I'm so tired…I've been having all these crazy dreams and I can't seem to get any sleep."

"Sora, don't be weird." Riku tried to pull his hand away but Sora held tighter.

"No! I have to have your hand. If I don't—if I don't have your hand then—then I'll lose you! If I don't take your hand when I get the chance I'll be drowning. I'll drown…I'll drown…I'll…I'll…" Sora's voice trailed off as he slipped into a much-needed sleep.

"That sounds like some nightmare." Riku smirked, watching Sora's ocean blue eyes fall close in front of him. The two of them waited in that moment for a while. The sun had just begun to set, making the ocean look like it was made from liquid gold and all around them seagulls could be heard saying goodnight to each other. The sound of the waves crashing into the nearby rocks, although very soothing, were not at all loud enough to cover the obnoxious sound of flopping fish coming from Sora's pockets so Riku sighed to himself and relieved his sleeping friend of his tokens of a job well done, wishing him sweet dreams and hoping he wouldn't stumble onto any unpleasant nightmares tonight.

The sun had just set, leaving Sora's room coated in the leftovers of the sun's warm red glow. He'd always loved this time of day—the time just before it got dark. When you get the feeling that everything's about to disappear…you have to make the most of the light you have left. Sora took a deep breath in, almost as if to inhale the light of the sun. He began to lose himself in his thoughts

It actually wasn't his fault he'd fallen asleep in the middle of his hunting for supplies, but as Sora looked around the room, any worries that the day had brought to him began to fade away. He lay on his back and looked up to the ceiling where a wooden carving of a boat hung. Sora had made it himself when he was younger, when he thought that Riku, and later Kairi, would sail the seas with him onto new worlds. It was always what Riku had wanted to do, and as he talked more and more about it, it eventually became what Sora wanted to do as well. It wasn't until Kairi came to their island when they really started to imagine their dreams into a reality. He'd even carved little versions of himself, Riku and Kairi and stuck them on the top. They were quite atrocious, but Sora had made them when he was still young, and Kairi thought they was cute. As he stared up at the toy in nostalgic admiration he could hear the words that Kairi had once spoken to him in his mind, "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."

While wood-carving had always been a passion of Sora's, he found himself working twice as hard after Kairi had mentioned how much she loved the things he made. His desk was littered with shavings and various sizes of wooden blocks lay scattered about his room. He'd even made himself his own dueling sword—two, in fact, when Riku had stolen his to get the 'one-up' on him in tournaments, he had to make another to even the playing field, even though he still found himself losing as much as he had before.

It wasn't before long Sora had found himself succumbing back to sleep. After he'd confided in Riku earlier about his nightmares he'd found himself more at ease and knew the nightmares would cease. He wasn't sure if he'd really call it confiding, considering he was falling back asleep and only managed to get out a few words. But he tried not to think about for his own sake, for if he did then flashes of images would come crawling back to him. Ones he tried to shake away—images of losing his friends, losing Riku…losing Kairi. Images of darkness. There was nothing Sora hated or feared more than the darkness.

Heart beating hard from the sudden awakening, Sora felt something was off. It was the middle of the night, but this time it wasn't a nightmare that had startled him awake so suddenly. Lightning lit up the room and immediately after, a bone-rattling thunder shook the walls. Outside his window a nasty storm was forming over the Destiny Islands. A big black cloud swirled over the small piece of land, and what trees the island did have looked like they'd be ripped from their roots at any moment by the strong grip of the winds.

"A storm?" Sora muttered, then realization dawned on him. "Oh no, the raft!"

The thought of something that Riku, Kairi, and Sora had worked so hard on for weeks together being destroyed in a single night was enough for Sora to leave his bed and home and race down to the island to make sure everything was secure. Thankfully, the waters weren't as rapid as they would have been during a storm, reason being there was no rain yet, which was strange considering how dark the clouds engulfing the sky were.

Closer and closer it became clear that this was no ordinary storm. A large ball of black flames turned slowly in the sky, emanating a dark power and creating an uneasy feeling deep within Sora. It was frightening, to say the least, nothing like this had ever crossed the Destiny Islands before, and even though it was night, the clouds covered the moon creating a distinct darkness that made the palms of Sora's hands sweat beneath his gloves.

The boy stared up at it watching, waiting, until bringing his head down to notice two wooden boats, small enough to fit only a single person. Sora recognized each of these, as he was the one who'd made them for him and his friends to travel to the islands from the town and back.

"Riku's boat. And Kairi's!"

The fact that their boats were here on the island meant that the two of them had come to this place during the storm as well, presumably to secure the raft, but with no sign of either of them, Sora was not so sure.

He began squinting through the darkness, trying to locate his friends. He figured he could check the shack or maybe the secret place as those were areas that would provide some remote amount of shelter for his friends to take refuge. He thought he should hurry too, not because the storm was getting more intense by the minute, but because the thought of Riku and Kairi huddled together to comfort each other from the effects of the storm was enough to make him dizzy…but certainly not enough to make him hallucinate?

Sora was wide awake this time—he was sure of that, but it seemed to him as though he'd stepped right into one of his nightmares. The shadows on the island seemed too real, almost as if they were alive, and as each one became more distinct in shape, they rose from the ground and opened their eyes to reveal two bright yellow craters on each figure.

If it were any other day, the hero in Sora would have whipped out his wooden sword and begun fighting with all his might, but even though his nightmares had seceded for now, he hadn't had the time to catch up on his rest and was exhausted still, so he dodged his way through the nightmarish creatures, avoiding them instead of fighting them, trying to find his way to the shack without tripping on sand. Just as he was about to push the wooden door open he saw a figure standing at the end of the bridged extension of islands. It was easy to judge who it was even through the darkness. Riku.

Sora's heart began to race and he could feel a cold dryness in his throat. His knees felt weak and his thoughts began to race.

It's not that he was disappointed to see Riku, but it was only him—no sign of Kairi. He wondered where she could possibly be—the shack, the secret place…where, where, where?

Before he'd even finished his thoughts, Sora found his feet at the edge of the bridge, standing only a few feet away from Riku. Without thinking he began to yell out the first thing on his mind.

"Where's Kairi?" Sora demanded to know. "I thought she was with you!"

Sora didn't even give the poor boy a chance to turn around before he began to shout. Riku didn't need time to turn around though—he never did, as he began talking he kept his back to Sora, his eyes staring intently at the swirling ball of lightning and darkness that swallowed the sky.

"The door has opened…"

"What?"

"The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about? We've gotta find Kai-"

"Kairi's coming with us! Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see out parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be out only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

"Riku…"

Riku turned around to face Sora. His face would be so calm and collected if it weren't for his eyes—widened ever so slightly to reveal an expression Sora had never seen before. Riku's cool green eyes stared into Sora's deep blue ones through the darkness that seemed to become thicker and heavier as time went on.

More shadows rose from the ground, and though they never opened their eyes, Sora couldn't help but feel that this darkness was alive too somehow. Forming a pool of black and purple matter around the two's feet, the large mass released its long arms into the air and began to dance around its guests. The corners of Riku's mouth curled up in a small smile and he extended his arm toward Sora, offering his hand.

Sora's eyes stretched wider than the vacant moon as the darkness crawled up his body and filled his shoes. The pool beneath him was so much thicker than water and it took no more for Sora to feel as though he was drowning. He felt as if he'd die if he didn't take Riku's hand…just like in his nightmares. With all his might, he reached for his friend, the strength of the shadows trying to hold him down. He felt heavy, as if he was sinking into the ground, and the forces that weighed down on him made his arm want to give up.

He reached and reached and he felt scared and terrified and numb. There was a brief feeling of static in his arms and legs before he was certain he'd lost feeling in them. With this numbness, there was no way to tell if his hand had taken Riku's. He tried to look down at his hand, to see if he'd reached his, but there was too much darkness, so Sora kept his eyes locked on Riku's, which had changed from a haunting stare to a beckoning call. He looked so calm and Sora swore his heart had stopped as the darkness wrapped itself around his chest.

So he closed his eyes.

And he took a deep breath.

Their fingers entwined in the dark.