Heads up before reading this, I'm calling the Player Character from the game "Avery" in reference to the fact that they are technically your "Avatar" or "Everyone's Character" and I'm keeping them as gender neutral as possible for this, just to keep up with that a bit. I'm going to do a couple chapters like this, just building relationships and how the characters act a bit before getting to more Juicy parts in later chapters, that will lead to an AU eventually. But without further adieu, I hope you enjoy this story!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts, all rights belong to Square Enix.

Bad Memories, Bad Dreams:

Rain pelted the ground as the sound of blades clashing and battle cries echoed through the desolate valley. Bodies laid upon the ground with key shaped blades of varying shapes and sizes stuck up from the ground next to them. Blood pooled below them and many seemed to have holes in their chests from their missing hearts, hearts that seemed to take on a golden light and float off into the sky as more people fell after the final hits from the blades.

Despite all this a young teenage boy with hair as white as snow raced through the fields with crystal blue eyes scanning around for someone he knew. His long red scarf trailed behind him as his black boots kicked up puddles of water as he ran as fast as his legs could take him through this war field.

Please be okay. He thought, repeating it multiple times as he continued to scan the fields of battle. His breath shaky and his drenched clothes making him feel even more cold as he continued to miss what he was looking for… as well as seeing many of the ones falling around him were those close to his own age, give or take a couple years.

The white haired boy dodged and avoided as many of the battles as he could as he continued to run. Of course he had his own Keyblade, a long purple and gold colored one with a shooting star being the main design for the teeth of the blade, out as well for protection from the ocasional fireballs and ice shards that would pierce or burn their targets, but it had yet to be used on anyone… and Ephemer intended to keep it that way as long as he could.

Reaching a high point over a clearing, Ephemer stopped to catch his breath as he surveyed the land before him. The echoing screams of the fallen burning into his memory as he saw people fall below… but one figure stuck out to him as he watched a familiar form seem to slowly pull themselves into a safe area. Praying to whatever divine being he could, Ephemer slid down to the ground below and raced to the figures side.

"Avery!" he called out, hoping to everything that was light it was the person he was looking for.

"E...phe...mer?" They weakly questioned moving their head up to address the white haired boy, and showing a large bloody diagonal gash, that barely missed their left eye and cut across their nearly blue lips. Their normally tied back brown hair was stuck to their face and their eyes looked faded and unfocused. Ephemer's heart stopped when he saw the pool of blood below their body… as well as the trail they made just dragging their self all this way.

"Avery hold on! I'm here…" The white haired boy sunk down to his knees and turned his friend over so he could better see the wounds they had. He had to hold back the bile that slowly tried to make its way up his throat from the long gashes across Avery's chest and stomach. They were so deep and mud was caked around them from having been dragged in the substance for a while. Immediately he held his keyblade up and focused his magic into it, hopping the limited healing magic he knew would fix this. As he charged his magic up, Avery raised a shaking, weakened and up and touched his face. Their skin was as cold as death… and yet despite that and the pain they were in they smiled.

"You're… really… here." Tears seemed to start crawling down from their faded eyes as they looked up at the face of their friend.

"CURE!" Ephemer screamed with tears of his own rolling down his soaked face, as if hopping the louder he cast the spell the more effective it would be. A green light shined around Avery for a moment… yet none of the wounds seemed to close.

"I… waited for… for so… long…" Avery continued, still having a smile on their face despite the horrible amount of pain they were probably in. "I'm… I'm so happy… Ephem-" they began to cough violently, blood coming out and getting a bit onto Ephemer's once white shirt.

"No…. nononononono NO!" Ephemer screamed and then rapidly began to cast as many cure spells as his own magical supply would allow. Despite that he only barely managed to close the worst of the injuries, and they looked like they would still rip open at the slightest of movements. Breathing heavily from magical fatigue and his own emotional distress as he watched Avery take many pain filled breaths, Ephemer found his vision blurring and distorting everything around him.

"Sorry… we couldn't… meet at the… fountain again…" Avery barely whispered, their eyes slowly closing. "The sunsets… were always the best… I wish we… could see that together again."

"We will, just hold on!" Ephemer pulled them up with difficulty as his own exhaustion was starting to kick in. He held them close while wrapping one of their arms over his shoulders and using one arm to hold onto their side as he dragged them forward. "I'm going to open a portal! I'm going to save you! Then we can see it again together! Just hold on a little longer!"

"Eph...emer?" Avery's voice was so weak, so quiet even near his ear but he still heard the confusion in the voice and see the sightless eyes that stared right past him, almost desperately looking for something. "Where…. Did you go… don't leave again… please…"

Ephemer sat up quickly in his bed as he felt his heart break all over again in his chest. His vision was blurred to the point he barely registered he was in the room he picked out nearly a year ago now in the clock tower. As his vision improved just a little bit, the white haired boy quickly flung himself out of his bed and raced out the door. Running as fast as his barely awake legs could take him, the boy raced through the halls down a path that he remembers by heart to the one room he visited more than his own.

Through the door he saw a lone pod, like many of the other pods that the other members of the Dandelions were in much deeper down in the tower, but unlike those this one was hooked up to large amounts of cables and medical equipment that the teen barely even knew how they worked. Hearing the familiar, slow beeping of the heart monitor Ephemer relaxed just a bit as he made his way to the pod's side.

Inside rested the sleeping form of Avery, wrapped up in bandage under the provided blanket, attached to two wires inside, and breathing slowly through the breathing mask as they slept. Ephemer rested a hand on top of the pod and faintly traced the scar that had formed from the gash his friend had gotten across the face when he found them. Guilt filled his heart as his gaze went to where he knew the bandages were and went back to the scar on Avery's face.

My fault… this is all my fault…

"Ephemer?" the familiar voice made the white haired boy jump nearly a foot in the air as he turned to the doorway. Standing there in her black nightdress with a sugar skull design on the chest and hem of the knee length sleepwear, was Skuld. Her long black hair a mess from having just gotten out of bed to investigate the sound of his panicked footfalls no doubt.

"Sorry for waking you…"

"Bad dreams again?"

"Memories… actually…" Ephemer slowly turned back to look at Avery's pod, his hand was still resting on top of it.

"Why don't you just go to Blaine? He's got quite a few Spirits made now. Pretty sure he wouldn't mind giving one to you like he did with Lauriam to help." Skuld offered as he walked over to his side, looking into the pod with a saddened expression at the sleeping teen.

"I'm fine… besides this just reminds me to come and make sure they remain stable…"

"The attached alarms would alert us if they weren't you know… Besides this is the sixth time this week alone Em. You're getting as bad as Lauriam was when his problems started." Skuld gently placed a worried hand on the white haired boy's shoulder as her brown eyes stared off, remembering how a couple months ago the pink haired boy seemed to have nearly stopped sleeping all together from the constant nightmares he had from the Keyblade War.

"I know… I just… I want to move on from it, not lock it away."

"The spirits don't lock these things away Em."

"She's right on that one Ephemer."

Not even needing to glance towards the door to know who it was that was there, Ephemer sighed.

"You going to go into the technicalities of how they work again Blaine?"

"Nah, I'm writing a book on it instead. But really, they're here to just help with the nightmares." The black haired teen waltzed right on in, hands in the pockets of his blue pajama pants with black star marks on them and loose tank top exposing a scar on the older teens left bicep… probably from one of his failed trick shot attempts of the past if Ephemer was guessing right.

It was quiet for a few beats, Skuld noticing how Blaine's uncovered eye was looking down at Avery and how much more noticable the scar across his nose was now without his hat on.

"Besides… I don't think your friend here would want you to worry yourself to death over them." Blaine's words caused Ephemer's head to snap over in his direction, while Skuld's face tried to keep a neutral look to it, despite the fact she was attempting to hold back a frown.

"You wouldn't know Blaine. You didn't see the state they were in or-"

"That's true." Blaine cut in. Skuld bit at her lower lip a little and backed out from between the two boys, just in case something happened, especially since she still had a hard time reading Blaine. "But what I do know is that if they really are your friend… They wouldn't want you to be losing sleep over them. They'd probably want you to be taking care of yourself as well."

Ephemer was quiet as he looked down a little, and let the other boy's words sink in.

"Because as a fellow Union Leader," Blaine turned to look Ephemer in the face, and even getting the white haired boy to look at him as well by speaking. "As well as your friend… I know I would want you to."

"Blaine…"

"I mean, I hope I'm your friend by this point, but still." The black haired boy shrugged and had his, by now, signature smirk on his face. Skuld found herself relaxing as she heard Ephemer sigh.

"Alright, I'll head back to bed… Quick question though."

"Go for it."

"What are you doing up this early? I can get why Skuld's awake, her room's not far from here… but your rooms no where near here." Skuld blinked as the strangeness of it finally registered in her tired mind. Ephemer was right, Blaine shouldn't have been woken up by the white haired boy… let alone have been able to get here so fast.

"Oh that… Couldn't sleep myself, so I went to the Workshop and began messing around with a couple new ideas I had brewing. Been there for a while, then I heard someone running in the halls so I thought I'd investigate." Blaine shrugged like it was no big deal, while both Ephemer and Skuld stared at him like he was an idiot.

Hypocrite. Was the one word ringing through both Ephemer's and Skuld's minds as they continued to stare at the black haired teen. The steady beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound they heard, yet even then it was simply just apart of the background by this point.