Ventus didn't know what to think. If Sora had Vanitas's memory, who knew when he would explode into the sadistic psychopath that all had thought was vanquished? Ticking time bomb, in Ven's eyes at least. Terra at least had something to gloat about in how he was right Vanitas wasn't quite Vanitas, but he was chilled by the revelation that his sweet natured apprentice had taken up the mantle.

Kairi had little idea as to what was going on, but as Riku explained what he could understand a similar chill settled into their bones. Vanitas was relieved to have all of his scrutiny taken off of him, and even was able to have pleasant chats with Riku about old times that never truly happened without too many looks. If anything Vanitas was happy about the news. Riku, on the other hand, felt like he was talking to a ghost.

Kairi lingered around Ventus, trying to discern why he'd become so withdrawn and silent. He was with his friends, wasn't he? Kairi thought their lessons would resume with no problem, with Ventus even becoming a new teacher, but now they were tense and awkward. Instead of adding his bits of wisdom to lessons he would only watch. Or maybe he wasn't, just staring at his old home.

Sora stopped talking to Kairi and Riku. When he did speak, it was curt while he claimed he had clammed up for their sake. Riku improved, Kairi improved, but Sora was going on a downward spiral. Aqua tried to take hold of the situation, but Sora would only politely ask her to stay away, no matter what she said she could do for him. Aqua was too familiar with the pain in his eyes, the crack in his voice, a flicker of memory arising at the traits. A voice, quiet and fractured, asking to die.

Sora stopped going to lessons. So did Ven.

Terra ran out of answers for Riku, and finally just said that he and Aqua didn't know what to do about the situation. Records of when memories were swapped was in no musty tome or forgotten corner of the worlds, and Aqua did not want to seek Ansem the Wise's counsel again while he was studying the heart, too worried about Sora and Vanitas being used in part of the experiments. This had never happened before, and no one knew how to fix it. That didn't stop Riku from reading every inch of the library that he could get to.

King Mickey showed up to see his old friend Ventus, and even brought Donald and Goofy with him. It was nice to have company. Kairi felt content when Ventus smiled and greeted them as if years hadn't passed, and then Terra and Aqua joined him for a mesh of old friends making up for lost time. Donald and Goofy withdrew from the group to introduce themselves to Kairi and Riku, and the four ended up becoming friends awfully fast.

But Sora was absent from the event.

Sora had holed himself up in his room, drawing madly in an attempt to get the evil memories out of him. He hated the pain, he hated the urge to hurt, he hated everything about them. They whispered in his ear words he wanted to never speak, gave him thoughts he wanted to never act upon. They were vile and evil and he didn't want to be that. The memories stubbornly held onto him and wouldn't leave, giving his artwork frustrated tear stains the longer he went on. He kept drawing a face- his face with cold eyes -laughing and reveling in his torment.

Sora ripped the paper to shreds, shrieking, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" He curled up onto his bed, sobbing. "Please... Please leave me alone... I want to forget... I want to forget everything..."

Ventus had heard Sora's cry and ran to his room without a word. He hovered outside Sora's door. Everyone else arrived soon after, but Ventus said softly, "I got it."

"Ven," Aqua held his hand, "Sora is my apprentice-"

"And I said I got it." Ventus repeated.

"He's m- he's our friend, too! What, can we not do something to help him?!" Riku snapped at him. "I haven't done anything to help him and now I can! Dare I say it I might be better for this situation than you! Can you please give me that?!"

Ventus only walked in, "I said I got it. I can calm him down." He promptly, and quietly, closed the door in their faces.

Mickey looked at Aqua and Terra. They looked at their feet. "The situation's... Complicated." Aqua said softly.

Their heads raised at another shriek, too hard to discern from this side of the door. It burst open, Sora screaming "GET OUT!" and shoving Ventus into the hall before slamming the door. Riku glared at Ventus. Ventus fumbled with his hands, seemingly perplexed by how that went rather than disturbed.

Mickey once again wordlessly inclined a question to the Masters of the residence. Donald and Goofy did the same. No one said a word, only making Sora's near-mad blubbering stand out. Aqua put her hand on the doorknob, but then let it slide off. Terra held her shoulder.

Ventus was the first to go, wordlessly to whatever parts of the castle he usually haunted. Aqua followed after him, Terra doing the same and Mickey going after both of them for some answers. Riku and Kairi lingered at the door, sharing the silence with Donald and Goofy.

Kairi put her hand on the door, "Sora? Sora please, we know you're in there-"

"Leave me alone!" Sora told them, "Leave me alone, you'll only make me worse!" Kairi pulled her hand back like the door was burning.

Riku picked up the slack, knocking, "Sora, please, I-I- WE'RE your best friend-"

"How many times do I have to say go?!" Sora shot him down, "Besides, I thought you liked Vanitas!"

Riku was speechless, hurt, "I... Sora h-he's the one who-"

"Was actually your friend! Just leave me alone..."

Goofy held a gloved hand to his chin, "Gawrsh... He sounds really hurt."

Riku turned to leave, "He wasn't always like this..." Helpless. So helpless. He hated feeling like this, but there wasn't much he could do besides study harder if Sora kept shoving him away. He was so sure that what Sora was hearing from Vanitas's old memories wasn't even that bad, just made a thousand times worse being directed at the people he cared for like a lens converging sunlight onto an anthill.

Kairi grabbed Riku's hand. "Riku, he needs us." She was begging him to stay.

"What exactly is wrong with him?"

Riku and Kairi turned to Donald. The duck tapped his webbed foot impatiently, as if he expected an answer. Riku and Kairi looked at Goofy. The dog shrugged. "I might be able to fix him, I mean if it's a really bad injury-"

"Sora had Ven's heart within him and when he released it his memories ended up in someone named Vanitas and while he got Vanitas's memories." Kairi explained it all in a rush. She then added clumsily, "W-we don't know how or why. Just that it happened and Sora's getting hurt because of it."

Donald shrugged, "Sometimes things happen and they don't have a reason." The manner he said it as so matter-of-fact and callous Kairi wanted to punch him so hard his bill would bend. Things always had a reason, didn't they? They had to because why would they happen if it had no rhyme or reason?

Riku used the opportunity to pull himself away from Kairi. "I'll see you around."

Kairi chased after him, yelling, "Riku! Riku you know that Sora needs us now more than ever!" Their bickering echoed down the hall long after they had vanished. Donald and Goofy watched the door. With a shrug, they both peeked in.

The boy was lying down on his bed, surrounded by shredded paper with graphite smeared hands on his chest, clutching something in them like a life line. His puffy blue eyes stared at a ceiling plastered with a grab bag of images: some were renderings of horrible deeds, but a few images of goodwill were sprinkled among them to try and quiet the thunder. The walls had similar echoes; curtains were drawn over most of the windows, but there was enough space left between them to decently light the room.

Without tearing his eyes away, he croaked, "I don't know how many times I have to tell you to stay away..."

"Well, you don't even know us!" Goofy didn't mean to laugh, but he did let a little chortle slip.

Goofy yelped when Donald bonked his shin with an angry squawk, "He's not in the mood, Goofy!"

He boy turned his head. He then sat up, his hands falling into his lap. What he had been holding onto so tightly was a small drawing, hard to make out with all the crumples and smudges. He watched Donald and Goofy reproachfully for a moment, and it softened until it seemed his guard had been let down. He looked at his lap, "Yeah, I haven't met you." Before Donald and Goofy could introduce themselves he added, "Not that you want to meet me."

Goofy walked over and held out his hand, "Well I'm Goofy."

Donald held out his own feathered hand, "Donald Duck."

The boy watched their hands, debating a moment if he should take them. "Sora." He said quietly, "You probably already met Riku and Kairi."

"We did," Goofy told him, "and they were very nice. I bet you're just the same."

Sora's hand clenched.

Donald changed the subject slightly, "They said you've been under the weather lately." He waddled over to the curtains and pulled them back, "If your room is always like this I can see why."

"He doesn't like it." Sora murmured.

Donald paused a moment to try and think of the right response to that before Goofy blurted out, "You mean that Van- mmpphf!" Donald's hand cove Goofy's mouth like lightning. Sora had violently flinched at the mention of the name.

He then regained some kind of composure and stood, "Y-you both should really go-"

"We just said 'hi'-"

"Hi is more than enough." Sora bitterly stooped Goofy. He began pushing the two out, "J-just go, I don't want to hurt anyone-"

"But Sora, you know, they're all worried." Goofy spoke back up. He rolled out of Sora's hand and shrugged, "You don't seem to be all that terrible, anyways."

Sora stopped and shook his head, "Y-you don't understand-"

"I think what you need is support." Goofy said. He then summoned a shield, and added, "And don't worry about hitting me, I can handle myself."

Sora seemed apprehensive about the offer. He then gave the two another pat, "The offer is nice, but if I can help it I don't want to hurt anyone." When they were out of his room, he hesitated in closing the door. Like someone had pressed a pause button. His hand trembled as if he wanted to close it, but his lips wrung themselves in desperation to say something.

He bowed his head, "A-about Kairi and Riku..." He closed the door, but not before saying, "Tell them I just don't want to hurt them."

Ok I will admit I completely forgot about this story because I am a nerd who has too many stories going on at once here. Sorry!

My writing's just spread thin all over the place: working predominantly on my Zelda fic Abrasion, one shots whenever they come to me (you know how they are; inspiration one hour and the next a complete dud), trying to get a SoRiKai in Hunchback of Notre Dame world run, and this is admittedly less planned out than a lot of that. That's not even getting into my actual life beyond all this!

But I'll try and get this on track to being finished before the year is out, ha ha. I am sincerely sorry that this has been languishing in fanfic hell for so long.