The Chosen Four

Discussion in 'Archives' started by -Xero-, Jun 16, 2013.

  1. -Xero- Twilight Town Denizen

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    Kingdom Hearts: The Chosen Four


    1: Sunrise, Destiny of the Light
    2: Ones and Zeros, The Heart in Data
    3: XII Forgotten, Xemnas's Moon
    4: Broken Chains, The Girl in White
    5: A Good Feeling, Friends Among Nobodies?
    6: No More Second Chances, A Siren's Tears
    7: Final Promise, A Warning from the Void?
    8: Frayed Hearts, The Icy Imposter
    9: The King of the Rose
    10: The Chosen Four, A New Threat
    Disclaimer!

    This is purely fan fiction and should not be sold for commercial gain. Furthermore I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the Disney/Square-enix properties appearing in this fan fiction.

    Spoilers!

    This fan fiction contains spoilers to the following games. Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories:Re, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. It is best to complete the following in their entirety before reading. Time line in this fan fiction will differ slightly from the order of events in the Kingdom Hearts 2 video game, (Most importantly, Sora does not visit the Disney worlds twice, instead, as in the Kingdom Hearts 2 official Manga, completes both stories on the same visit,)
    Okay, this is a Kingdom Hearts fan fiction my friends and I did when we were Freshmen in high school. We were all in love with KH and wanted to make something that had to do with out characters in the KH world. So my friend cooked up this amazing fan fiction that is a whopping 600 pages! So, due to it being so long, I'm not sure if I can fit all of the fan fic on here because I don't know if there is a certain character limit on posts so I'll try to post it if I can.
    _________________________________________________________________________________

    "This is it; I can feel it calling to me,"
    "Over there? Well, how are we going to get across then? Not like we can sprout wings or something,"
    The man held his hand up into the air and skimmed his fingers along the wispy clouds over their heads to make his point. The drop off the rooftop was enough to kill anybody.
    "Don't worry, I can do it. As long as the wind's right,"
    "What you got a hang glider or something?" the man asked pulling back his hood and fixing his red hair back into its original state, shooting from the back of his head in long pointed spikes,
    The boy shook his head, "No, it's something else,"
    before the man could complain he was already making a run for the edge of the building, "Roxas! Wait!" he called to the boy but his friend was already free falling off of the roof top, looking down at the street stories below him. He spread his arms out as he dropped, eyeing his target from under his hood, marking a balcony near the top of the structure across from him. The terror of the shear drop didn't even faze him, he had a mission and he planned to follow it.
    The air around him began to bend and he slowed down, his drop turning to a slow glide. He turned his body and the wind followed him landing him slowly onto the balcony with silent steps.
    He turned back to the man at the top of the building across the street, barely a spec in the distance. The man called something to him but his words were lost before they could reach him.
    He looked out of the star lit balcony and through a pair of sliding doors pulling his black hood off of his spiky blonde hair and rested it against the back of his head. He put his hand on the door of the sliding glass but it was firmly locked. Without a word he backed off from the door and held his hand to it. The starlight began to bend, wrapping around his hand and forming a defined metal structure around is grasp, a sword. The weapon in its self was a sign of light in the darkness. The Keyblade could mend a broken universe but the weapon he held had been used for a much different purpose. Its deadly edge played off the moonlight in a brilliant metal glare shimmering up the long blade up to the teeth near at its tip. He turned the huge key in his hand and it made contact with the lock sending a glistening ray of light through its tumblers. The door clicked open and he smiled with a faint sense of success looking back at his weapon. It vanished under his will as soon as it came, fading from reality in a flash of light. He laid his hands on the door and pulled it open letting the warm air inside of the building escaped into the cold night.



    * * *


    There were no lights in her room. A bedroom perched into the sky far into the thin air. She was not special though, everyone on the world lived like this.
    When they could go no farther, when life had reached the edge of their world they could no longer go forwards, only up. The huge buildings dotted the world and these sky scrapers were the foundation of these human's civilization.
    Roe turned in her sleep under her covers as visions passed in front of her eyes. She was falling through a thick darkness, almost like water. She slowly sunk in the shadow as light broke her vision.
    Three lights glared at her through the water but she couldn't manage to focus her eyes on them without her vision scattering.
    The lights faded from her sight and the dark water underneath of her fall lit a brilliant white light, a platform appearing under her feet separating her from the void. She turned down to it but no sooner then she layed her eyes upon the brilliant glass a crack formed in the platform turning her blood to ice.
    She sped up, the water no longer slowed her and she fell from the sky like a stone. She tried to slow her decent but her arm’s didn’t work. She looked back up at the lights above her crying to them for help but they couldn't answer. She looked at the ground for one more moment as the shadow tore the platform open under her feet, there was nothing. She was lost in the fall, nothing except blackness around her, a cold chill rippling through the water snapped her back as she was dragged down into the cold void. There was a form, a creature in the darkness in front of her, "Yes, this one will do," it spoke glaring at her through the void. It's orange eyes lit from far away but she could still see them, "A fitting scarifies to her god,"
    Roe almost screamed as she shot out of her bed. It was night still and the only light reaching her was the brilliant glare from the stars. She wiped beads of cold sweat away from her eyes and tried to slow down her breathing. Her black hair lying matted against the back of her head as she pulled her covers back over her tight.
    There was a cold presence in the room and she turned to her balcony door. The glass sliding door lay wide open and thin cold air whistled through the opening chilling her to the bone even through the thick cover. She braved the chill and stepped out onto the balcony letting the starlight shown down on her. There was no moon in the sky but the darkness was illuminated with a million different stars. She smiled up to the lights in the sky and walked back inside closing her window.
    “I must have left it open,” she assured herself getting back into her bed when she heard a rustling, “Is, someone their?” she asked into the shadow. There was a shape moving through the darkness and she got out of her bed. She didn't take any regard to the shadowy figure when she first woke, dismissing it in the still, daze of awakening but now the threat was real, and her heart beat faster, “What are you doing here!?”
    The form realized he was seen and tried to make a break for it but she lunged at him before he could make any distance knocking him to the ground. His dark hood fell off his head revealing his face he had to only be her age, staring into her with brilliant blue eyes.
    Without a word he regained his balance and pushed her backwards as the he made lunge for the door, “Stop,” She called grabbing onto his foot sending his to the ground face first. She got in his path before he could get back onto his feet holding out her arms to block the door from him, “Who are you?'


    * * *


    The darkness robbed her of her breath as the first light sunk through the shadows,
    "Take a look at this tiny place," she heard an echo from somewhere far off, somehow reaching her through the water, "To the heart seeking freedom, this island is a prison, surrounded by water," She looked through the shadows to identify the voice but there was nothing exept the cold darkness, "And so, this boy sought out to escape his prison," The darkness lit up as square shapes appeared around her. Huge screens like the kinds on a TV depicting places she had never seen before, "He sought a way to cross over into other worlds," thousands of impossible sights shown around her, stone buildings atop brilliant golden sands, graveyards stretching as far as the eye could see, a forest with trees as high at the buildings she grew up in and thousands more images playing scenes that seemed impossible. Gods, fairies, Demons, all creatures from the human imagination fighting against one boy. The same boy was depicted on all of the screens, a collogue of his life lying right in front of her, "And he opened his heart to darkness," all of the monitors changed displaying a larger image, a man standing on the edge of a broken shore. Water once lapped against the sands but now it only harbored an endless abyss. She was looking through someone's eyes, not her own, they were the boy's,
    "Sora," she spoke remembering the name of the child she never met,
    "Don't bother. You're voice can no longer reach him where he is. His heart belongs again to darkness," the man held out his hand and Imri gazed into his orange eyes, "All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different, darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it, such is it's nature. In the end every heart returns to the darkness whence it came!" she could feel the man's orange eyes staring into her even though she knew these were not truly her memories, "You see, darkness is the heart's, true essence,"
    "That's not true!" she heard herself call out as Sora's memories coursed through her. She was playing the part of the child facing head on against an endless darkness, "The heart may be weak, and sometimes, it might even give in, but deep down, there is a light that never goes out!"
    As if mocking the boy's words the screens went black leaving her in the endless waters. Her feet finaly found something solid on the ground under her to stand on as the water circled and twisted around her in a shadowy maelstrom,
    "Imri," she heard someone call to her in the darkness,
    "Who's there?" she spoke in a silent voice, the water catching the sound from her mouth as it left her lips. There was no answer but the darkness began to clear. Draining away from her until she was standing on top of a roof suspended into the sky,
    "Are you coming?" the voice asked again and she looked at the darkness to see her friend holding her hand out to her,
    "Roe!" she called, waving,
    "What took you so long," the girl complained looking down off the building. A grey void lay where the streets normally ran and she looked down at it with wide eyes,
    "Are you ready to go?" Roe asked with a smile as Imri lifted her eyes from the abyss looking into hers,
    "But, what if we fall?" Imri tilted her head, "What will happen?"
    "You won’t," her friend assured her taking a step off the top of the building, her feet hitting an invisible force. The darkness under her feet supporting her weight, she took another few steps away from the side of the building,
    "He won’t let us fall, if you accept him," she decided turning back to her friend holding out her hand to her, "He needs us to come back,"
    "Who is he?"
    "A lost soul cursed forever to brood in the shadow, we need to help him. So he can take his revenge upon creation, destroy the cosmos that did him wrong,"
    "Why would we want to help him if he is going to do that!?"
    "Because he needs us," Roe said with a sigh, "We can't let him stay in the night, open your heart to darkness, and he can return,"
    "Why do you want me to, Roe? You're a good person, why would you want to destroy everything!?"
    "Just accept evil, accept the shadow," her friends eyes began to change glowing with an orange light, "I have. It won't hurt you, only make you stronger,"
    "I don't want to be strong, I want to be a good person!" she argued and her friend laughed,
    "Weakling, you need the darkness," he friend words changed the moment they left her mouth, her voice not her own, but that of a man. The same voice as the man she saw in the memories.
    "Your not Roe," she spoke as her friends eyes flashed in a orange glare "You're name is, Ansem,"
    "I do not believe we have met, no mater," shadow began to wrap around Roe and her form changed, bright orange eyes shown under pitch black skin. Broken wings emerged out of her back, tangled strands of darkness waving and holding her in still, her dark clothing hardened into metal forming a shell of black and grey armor around her body.
    A weapon began to craft it's self out of shadow. A black staff formed in her grip as darkness at the tip of the weapon cut out a brilliant blade from shadow. She held the scythe in one hand pointing it towards her and she could feel the darkness closing in around her,
    "No!" she called out into the shadow, "I, won’t!"
    the creature laughed. She walked up to the creature formed from her friend, without fear, staring the darkness heads on. In the distance she could see the first glimmers of morning reach the tower cutting through the dark void around her.
    "The darkness will go away once the sun rises!"
    "You foolish girl," the creature hissed as the sun began to perch on the horizon, "As the sun rises, you're shadow will only grow," the sun came up from the horizon in a flash cutting through the starry sky. In an implosion of shadow the creature disappeared but a new darkness formed. A circle of shadow formed on the ground under her feet and barbed strands of darkness shot from it latching onto her consuming her into shadow,
    "Imri," a bodiless voice spoke to her as the darkness entangled her feet. She could see the man in her head but what she saw of him was only a face concealed by red bandages forming a mask around him. But even in the guise, she felt as if she could trust the man completely, "Do not be afraid," he spoke and she could feel the warm light of the sun shining over her, the darkness fading away under the heavenly light, "It has chose you. You're heart, it is you're strongest weapon," the light of the sun gathered in her hand and she felt its warmth surge through her body. Protection, harmony, peace, it all echoed through her body as the sun lit the sky. The radiance created a form in her hand, a metal blade forged from the hopes and warmth of the sun, "Yes, Imri, the seventh key,” it said as she looked at the metal weapon that had formed in her hand.
    It was a long steel key with bright yellow hilt, but at the same time it was more. This was the light; this was the sun, the energy of such a radiant light concentrated into a single blade, one with the power to cut through any darkness. The steel glowed a radiant light that was almost blinding but she kept her eyes open looking at the bright weapon,
    "Seventh key?" she asked again,
    "Soon, Imri. As he will open the door to the light you have your own path to follow,"
    "Who is 'he'?" she called out into the sunrise looking away from her weapon,
    "The one who you remember, I have given you you're first glimpse into the truth, it is you're choice to continue to look,"
    "What do you want me to do?"
    "Live, Imri. Live and I will see you're true light," the form began to disappear from her mind, "Wait, who are you!? Why are you protecting me?"
    "Darkness in Zero," he spoke again as he faded from her leaving her alone to basking in the light of the brilliant sun.


    * * *

    She stood over the void looking at a beaten and battered form in the shadows infront of her,
    "It is futile," the man clutched his arm sucumbing to his wounds, his orange eyes looked deep into hers. She shook her head but somthing inside her let go, letting whatever it was in the darkness controll her. A masked pupetere reinacting a scene eras past,
    "The Keyblade alone, can not seal the door to darkness," the man turned away from her and she could see the white frame of a door illuminate on the edge of the void the man smiled looking at the door, "Kingdom Hearts!" he oredered through the void gazing into the doors luminous, "Fill me, with the power of darkness!" the door began to open under his comand and she could see the darkness spilling from the luminous door. Tendrills of shadow lapping out from the cracks and spilling into the void, "Supreme darkness!" the man called again staring at the power of the 'Kingdom Hearts'.
    "You're wrong," she could feel a voice speak through her as the artificial memories took hold of her, "I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!"
    "As much as I would hate to ruin this-, lavish atempt you are making, DiZ-," another voice spoke through the memories as time froze around her, "Kuromimi, open you're eyes," he spoke and the scene infront of her shattered. Instead of looking into the door there was nothing exept blackness,
    "Where am I?" She started looking at the void around her. It was only her and the dark shape standing in a room made entirely of shadow, "Where was I?"
    "In a memory not you're own. Never the less, the damage is done, his memory is your's now," she looked at him skepticaly and he shook his head, "You can take solace in the fact that the man you saw was beaten, driven away back to the darkness,"
    "I'm dreaming? Arn't I?" she guessed with a nod, "Yea, that explains it all right,"
    "Not a simple dream, Kuromimi. You are asleep, in your own awakening," a brilliant light erupted from the ground. White shapes moved flapping their feathered wings and taking to the sky scattering the darkness. Doves, there were at least twenty of the birds emerging out of the darkness at her feet, parting to reveal a huge platform underneath her feet,
    "How do you know my name?" she asked but the man ignored her,
    "I dreamed of this day for myself at a time," The shadows wrapping around the figure parted revealing a man dressed entirely in black, a veil of shadow covered his entire face still shrouding his identity from her even in the radiant light of the platform, She asked again pinching herself in an attempt to wake but it proved pointless,
    "Powers beyond your understanding are at play here,"
    "Who are you? If this is my dream, why are you here?!"
    "I am merely an observer, here to watch you make your choice," The platform began to glow fiercely and three stone pedestals rose in a triangle around her,
    "Between the darkness, the light," he started as two orbs appeared on two of the pedestals, One black, one white, "Or something else," a final orb appeared behind her, this one glowed in a grey dull light, a light void of warmth or radiance,
    "Why do I have to choose?"
    "You may chose not to accept your gift, but, you will perish a regular mortal with eyes covered to the truth of your existence should you choose not to remove you're blindfold," a tear in reality appeared in front of her,
    “Kuromimi! Get to work the store isn’t going to clean itself!” a haggard voice split through the darkness,
    "Choose," the figure insisted as her dream began to cave in on its self. She reached for the light but when she grabbed for it her hand phased through it like it wasn't there,
    "Interesting. It appears someone has already chosen for you," the light and dark orbs disappeared and the grey orb began to shine with a fierce yet calming light,
    "Kuromimi!" the voice called into her dream again ripping the false reality apart.
    Her eyes opened on a small room and she had to shake her head to get her bearings,
    “I think these fumes are starting to mess with my brain,” she pulled the covers off herself and pressed her feet against the cold wood floors, “At least it's over now,” She stepped the two feet it took to get to her closet and undressed herself, throwing on her work cloth,
    "Kuromimi! Get in here!" the voice called again,
    "I'm getting dressed mom!" she yelled back,
    "Well hurry up, you were suppose to be awake hours ago!"
    "Give me a break! You had me up all night cleaning,"
    "You make me sound like some sort of witch child!" he mom yelled back at her. Once she was dressed in her ragged jeans and stained shirt she walked up to the small cage to the side of her bed,
    “How are you doing today?” She asked tearing small piece of lettuce off of the vegetable she kept next to her bed and dropped it in the cage for her Guiney pig. It was old and probably didn’t suite a human but the little creature didn’t mind and gnawed on the thing happily.
    She pulled back the curtains separating her room from the rest of her house and walked down stairs. Her house was only two rooms perched on top of her mom's pharmacy but it was enough so that she and the old woman could sleep in their own beds. Her mother was working in the back of the store, standing over a huge iron pot mixing some sort of chemicals together,
    “Kuromimi! I need you to clean up the storage room! Something exploded and there's glass everywhere!” She sighed,
    “This early?"
    "Stop complaining! Just get a broom,"
    "You want me to clean a chemical spill at seven in the morning, with a broom?" Kuromimi asked tilting her head,
    "Yea sure, whatever blew will clean the floor. Just get the glass out of these!" the old woman ranted, not willing to pull her hands away from her stirring, turning her head to an old broom perched besides the door to the storeroom. She pulled the trash can lid off of their metal garbage can to serve as her dust pan and stepped into the room with a white skull painted on the door.
    She closed the door behind her and flipped on the lights which gave out as soon as they had started leaving her in the darkness. She sighed opening the door again letting the light flood back into the room lighting up the shelves adorn with thousands of vials, each holding inside something that could either cure or kill you.
    Anyone could see where the rat poison blew. The vials around it didn’t seem damaged but there was glass on the floor and the shelf. She brushed the visible glass into a trashcan lid which didn't take her very long, “Alright it’s done,” she announced walking out of the storage holding the lid of glass in one hand and the broom in the other,
    “Good, good, put it in the dumpster, now," she ordered and Kuromimi made an attempt to look her in the eye but she was too caught up in her mixing.
    "Mom, wasn't there something we were going to talk about?" she asked tilting her head away from the toxic glass,
    "What? Talk about something?"
    "Don't you remember?" she asked her again and the old women shrugged continuing the stirring,
    "About buying a TV?" she asked again and her mom finally nodded,
    "I do remember something about that," She muttered staring down into the vat of chemicals,
    "I've only been pestering you for months now, it’s ok,"
    "So what about it?"
    "Buying one!"
    "We can't afford that!" Her mom complained,
    "Sometimes Kuromimi you have to take what you have in life for granted, and-,"
    "I already got the money for it!" she interrupted her, "And the money you would normally pay me would go to a satellite dish! We've talked about this!" her mom didn't look at her, "And we could totally share it! Like you get it one night and I get it the next,” the woman shook her head,
    "I'll think about it, child. But it's not going to happen if you don't get rid of that glass!" she sighed looking down into the pan of glass,
    “Uh, didn't the city say something about-?”
    “I don’t care what some ‘city officials’ say I’m running a business here! Kuromimi Neko, if you want to be successful in life you have to put this stuff first, not TVs! Hard work!”
    "Then how come it never worked for you?" she shot back stepping towards the door “And you wonder why dad left,” She muttered under her breath as she stepped into the street before her mom had time to answer.
    The streets were cold and the new sun shown over the city in a golden light. Her mother’s shop was on the bad side of town though; most of the buildings were decrepit and run down. There were no sky scrapers here like there was across town, only shacks and ghettos some of which not even able to support the rats scurrying around the sewers. The streets were equally deserted; beggars didn't even try to scavenge money in this part of town. Most of them had high tailed it to the safer center of town. She walked over to the trashcan in the alley behind her moms shop when she heard a noise, like far off music and at that, nothing she had ever heard before. Long echoing cords played in an almost hypnotic fashion,
    "Thank you! Thank you!" a boyish voice called from the other end of the alley behind her moms shop. A crowd was gathered in the middle of the street gazing towards the source of the noise, "Now for this next song, the melodious nocturne would like to dedicate this song to the lovely Xion!" the voice anounced and long cords of sitar music began to play. Kuromimi wormed her way through the cloud to see two forms in the center of the mass, both dressed in shady black trench coats.
    One of the figures was a boy; he looked about eighteen with mullet like hair that rose above his head about two inches. The other was a girl looking like she really didn't want to be there right now, her short black hair hanging low over her ear as she looked down at the ground with lost eyes sitting to the side of the musician. He stopped mid cord turning to her,
    "Xion! Come on this is dedicated to you! Can't you like, dance or something? Set the mood?" he asked but she only sighed "Fine," he decided turning back to his crowd and getting back to playing,
    "Who are they?" Kuromimi turned to a random member of the audience just hoping that he would recognize her and to her relief he did. One of her mom's customers that she tried desperately not to get acquainted with, but against her best efforts the man still knew her by name,
    "Oh, hey Kuromimi! Is the dish soap ready?" he asked turning away from the music,
    "Um, no, who are those two?" the man sighed as if he was desperately seeking his dish soap but then decided to tell her,
    "These two showed up a few hours ago claiming that they were looking for something. The blonde haired boy refused to give his name, but was fine with giving out his girlfriends," the man turned back to the musician.
    The boy's sitar stood out the most about him and it was probably because the instrument was bright blue. The top of the thing had three points coming out of either direction like it could be used as a weapon,
    "So, you just decided to listen?" She asked him again,
    "Why not?"
    "He is a weirdo! Doesn’t two people in trench coats looking for something just spell bad news!?" The boy stopped his playing and looked at her. As the music ended the small crowd broke as if released by his spell,
    "Hey! Can't a starving artist get some peace! That was just plain rude! Tell her Xion," he finished as the last of the crowd parted,
    "Demyx-," the girl started,
    "Don't say my name we are trying to be covert here!" he argued,
    "So you are up to something!" Kuromimi started raising her finger in the air. The group of half a dozen had all but left, minus her, leaving her on the empty street as the neighbors got back to their lives.
    ""Did I say something? I didn't say anything!" he argued,
    "-can we get back to the mission so we can go home?" the girl finished getting to her feet,
    "There is no mission!" Demyx ran over and putting his hand over his partner's mouth,
    "Just, friendly, traveling, musicians,"
    "You two are nuts! I'm reporting you to the police!"
    "What? No no no no, don't do that! I'm trying to be your friend here!" the boy ran over to her and put his arm around her shoulder but she shook him off glaring at him,
    "Tell me what you're doing then,"
    "Can't. But what if I played you a song," he begged but she shook her head,
    "No, I’m definitely reporting you,"
    "Ok, fine, you force my hand. Xion, lets run,"
    The black haired girl turned to him, "What? You’re not going to do anything? Just leave?" she said breaking free of her self induced trance,
    "Strategic retreat," he corrected her leaning against his sitar,
    "Ignore him he's crazy. I'm Xion,"
    "Xion?"
    "We aren’t doing anything. We are just looking for something then we'll be off. You'll never, ever, see us again,"
    "But, that guy said-," she started but Demyx interrupted her,
    "This is why I prefer my retreat alternative, it's much more-," the boy started but then froze looking at something down the street from them, "Um, Xion, we should really go now, and I mean. Run!"
    "Human, get down!" she heard a voice call from the direction Demyx was looking as a projectile impacted against his instrument,
    "Dang it I just fixed that!" he complained looking at the metal shrapnel lodged into the frame of his blue sitar,
    "Demyx! He found us we have to leave,"
    "That what I was telling you!" the boy finished shielding himself with the frame of his sitar,
    "Just try it!" the voice called again as another projectile hit The ground near Kuromimi's feet. She almost fell off balance as the thing sent bits of cement into the air but when she looked at the impact sight there was nothing but a coin lodged halfway into the concrete. She looked toward the direction that the projectile had come from to see a form with another coin in hand ready to throw,
    "Go back to your castle," he called at the two,
    "Whatever you say!" Demyx agreed backing away from him, "We'll go! Sure!" he called out again,
    "Hold on, it's just you?" Xion looked him in the eyes and a brilliant surge of light shot from her hand. Huge metal key formed in front of her.
    "Demyx, we can take him,"
    "Uh-,"
    "You want to fight, fine, I’m good with that," the boy managed a smile. He had dark brown hair and was only dressed in a dull grey t-shirt and black pants,
    "Xion, are you crazy?! That’s the guy the boss said to avoid!" Demyx reminded her,
    "You're Raeni?" Xion asked tilting her head but the boy ignored her,
    "What are you still doing here! You have a heart! Get out before these creeps take that away from you!" the boy, 'Raeni', warned steadying his coin. Kuromimi nodded running back to the alley to avoid the cross fire,
    "Keyblade or not," Raeni looked Xion down but she stood firm, "I'm going to make you monsters fade away,"


    * * *


    He was no stranger to the creatures that lurk where you least expect them. No stranger to the people you see out of the corner of your eye that just seem, wrong. He fought the darkness on every turn as he traveled from world to world, a mercenary fighting against the shadows cast by peoples' hearts. He held his metal weapon in front of him pointing it to the Keyblade wielder,
    "Fire!" the girl chanted pointing her Keyblade at him and immediately it's power and the words of Xion's spell were channeled to its tip, manifesting themselves as a glowing orb of heat. As soon as this idea, this concept turned into energy by the thought of the girl, was exposed to the air the fire began to swell and grow. It expanded until it was the size of a basket ball before it shot from her weapon like a bullet from a gun speeding through the air towards him,
    "Magic? Fine, but I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve to," he flipped the coin in his hand into the air, "Heads," he called as the coin landed on his arm. He smiled as he vanished, the fireball coming up with nothing, exploding at the spot where he stood, "Miss me?" he asked reappearing behind Xion but Demyx came to her assistance slamming him with the base of his Sitar, knocking him aside,
    "Xion, we have to go, now!" Demyx argued and she nodded forming a dark corridor around herself, "Mistex will sure be happy to hear about this," Raeni got to his feet, running at him but he already formed a dark corridor around himself vanishing before he could fight back,
    "I thought I had you!" he cried out throwing the coin in his hand to the ground, "Darn it,"
    "Is it, safe?" he heard a girl's voice call to him and he turned to the alley way,
    "Oh, you. You stuck around? Do you not like your heart or something? Vamoose, you don't need to be involved with this stuff,"
    "Two people that can shoot fire balls appear in black coats behind my house and you want me to just ignore it?" she argued,
    "It's safer," he admitted, "Enough people are hurt like this as it is, we don't need any one else falling because of the Nobodies,"
    "Nobodies? So now you're saying no one was here?"
    "Just forget I said anything. I waited to attack for a reason; those two were completely content with using those people as human shields. They're bad guys!" he looked into her eyes but she didn't answer, "Look, uh, what’s your name?"
    "Kuromimi,"
    "Man that’s a mouthful, can I just call you, Mimi?"
    "Um sure?" she guessed and he nodded,
    "Mimi, I need you to stay safe, something is going to go down today, those people are just going to keep coming, they are going to make sure everyone in this city is dead by sunset,"
    "How?"
    "Again, can't explain, if I do my job right, nothing will happen, but if I die, you need to hide. Get to the safest place, a basement, a bomb shelter, something! Take as many people as you can!" she tilted her head and he sighed, "Right, a crazy madman preaching about the end of the world, I’m sure you get that allot around here, but I’m not lying,"
    "I would believe you, Raeni, but it goes against every shred of common sense I have," he sighed,
    "Ok, look I have-," he reached into the pouch on his belt pulling out a few golden coins, "Fourteen hundred munny, take it and buy whatever rations you need,"
    "One thousand four hundred dollars!?"
    "These are worth allot less where I come from," he assured her,
    "Are you sure I can, keep this? You don't want it back or anything?"
    "It's all yours, get enough food and water to last you a few weeks, in case it takes you a while to find an uncontaminated water source after it happens," She nodded even though she didn't understand a word he said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got the end of the world to prevent, have a good Thursday," he gave her a small wave flipping a coin, "Tails," he called as the coin hit his arm and after inspecting it he smiled, "Good luck," he said with smile, vanishing befor she could thank him.
    "One thousand dollars," she assured herself looking at the golden coins in her hand, "One, thousand? Thank you madmen! Yes! This is the best day ever!"


    * * *


    Roe walked to school down the street’s of the city taking a detour down the same path she walked last night. Somehow, she had managed to overpower the intruder and chase him up to the alleyway in front of her. He had just vanished the last time and now she was sure it was nothing but an empty alley and she turned away from it with a sigh,
    "He called him, Axel?" she remembered, the images of the man still fresh in her mind after her brief time asleep. There was another man, and he seemed to be on the boy's side. He was the reason they were able to disappear but how he did it was a mystery. The escape wasn't the bewildering part though; it was the fact that the kid hadn’t even taken anything even after the trouble it would have taken to get into her bedroom completely unnoticed by her parents. It was like he was looking for something,
    “How did he even get inside?” she asked herself facing towards the alleyway. Their door was locked in more than one way and it would have been impossible for him to get up to the room unless he had wings,
    “Heya Roe!” A voice called behind her and she turned. The blonde haired girl walked up to her and she turned away from the alleyway to greet her,
    "Imri,” Roe said with a nod, “What are you doing here?”
    “Looking for you! You said we would walk to school together,” Roe tilted her head looking at the girl. She wore a pair of dulled jeans and a T-shirt with the word ‘epicness’ written with sharpie onto the pink fabric,
    “Um,” Roe started looking at her shirt, “Why did you-?”
    “I was bored,” she hung her head and Roe nodded, “So what’cha doing here?”
    “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,”
    “Come on! Tell!” She argued but Roe only shook her head,
    “I can’t,”
    “What if I tell you all about the dream I had last night?”
    “No Don’t-!” Roe started but Imri continued on,
    “It was so wei-rd; you were, like, evil!”
    “Ok, before you go into detail, let explain to you how little I care,” Roe interupted her rambling, raising her finger into the air, “I would rather gouge my eyes out then see you talk about your dreams,”
    “Fine,” Imri sighed but then after a few seconds a smile lit her face, “I will tell you if you don't tell me while you’re here!”
    “No!” Roe covered her ears and walked away towards the school,
    “This man in my head gave me a huge key! I couldn’t see him in person but he was the one who rescued me from you!”
    “My hands aren’t good enough earmuffs!” Roe called out in annoyance pulling her hands away from her ears, “Ok, fine, a boy broke into my room last night and disappeared into darkness when I came here!”
    “A boy in your room?” Imri asked,
    “It’s not what you are thinking!” Roe yelled at her shaking her head, “I didn’t even know who he was!”
    “And he disappeared into darkness?”
    “Yes, he created a swirly, dark, thing. And jumped down it,”
    “Um, are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”
    “I might have been, I might have not, I have no idea,”
    “That’s just weird,”
    “No, It's strange, weird stuff would be like us being twins or something,”
    "But that’s not possible! You look nothing like me!" Imri argued and Roe shook her head,
    “Let’s just get to school, okayImri, you stand here and talk any longer we are going to be late again,” she nodded,
    “Ok, fine,” she said hanging her head. It wasn’t a very long walk to the school but the real question was how long it would take the line at the front desk to clear. They opened the door of the skyscraper and stepped into a strangely empty entrance room,
    "Imri, Roe,” the receptionist at the front desk greeted them without taking her eyes off the computer, “Need an elevator card?”
    “Yea,” Roe said walking up to her as she handed them two cards. The word ‘late’ was imprinted onto both of them in capital letters,
    “We are seriously late!?” Imri argued but the receptionist didn’t speak,
    “Right, fine then, let’s get to the elevator,” Roe said looking at her friend,
    “I’m never late!” she continued, “I’m on time every day! Ma’am, please!” she argued to the receptionist but Roe dragged her to elevators before she could make her case.
    "Being late isn't that bad Imri," Roe argued pressing the up button next to the elevator door, "I'm late every day,"
    "Yea but I’m 'never', is it, like, daylight savings time or something?" Roe shook her head and Imri sighed as the elevator door opened, the two of them walked inside and slipped there cards into open slots in the elevator,
    "Welcome, Imri, and, Roe," the computer spoke in its automated voice. Roe silenced the thing with a push of a button and looked up at the ceiling,
    "Lockers," Roe ordered and on her command the elevator began to move
    "Destination, Third floor, student supplies," the computer reminded them as it brought them up a floor,
    "Second floor, detention wing, door opening," the computer sung out and Roe's blood froze over,
    "No, no, come on! Not here this is the wrong place wrong time, next floor!" she slammed her finger down on the close door button but the door still swung open against her best efforts,
    "Why is this so-?" Imri started but then backed into the corner of the elevator as she saw the form on the other side of the door,
    "Ya'll don't want to see me?" the boy said as he held his meaty hand against the side of the door keeping her from closing him out, "Morning study hall just let out, and my two favorite people try to close the door on me?" he walked into the lift and Roe tried her best to keep her cool but that didn't prevent Imri from freaking out,
    "Mat," Roe greeted annoyed as Imri dug herself deeper against the corner,
    "You two heading up to lockers an' stuff right?"
    "Maybe," Imri squeaked pressed as far against the back of the elevator as possible,
    "We don't have any money Mat," Roe said with a sigh as the elevator door closed. The blond haired brute was closed in the elevator car with them as they rode up another floor.
    He was a kid from the east side only here because his step dad is on the city council and sponsored putting the kid here instead of making him go to any of the run down east side schools. Once he got here he immediately became the fear of all the city dwelling kids that went to the once peaceful building,
    "Mat," Roe repeated his name,
    "Yes my dear?" he asked turning to her, his sulfurous breath hitting her in the face in a hot, wet, puff. She dared not clench her nose but her eyes watered at the foul sent,
    "I told you we don't have any money,"
    "What makes you think I want your money, this time," Imri squeezed past him making a break for the on time elevator. Roe tried to do the same but Mat grabbed the neck of her shirt pulling her into the locker room,
    "Please remove cards," the elevator whined and Imri's blood froze,
    "Um," she started remembering her card was still lodged in the elevator, she was trapped, "Roe! I left my card in there!" she complained running back up to the two,
    "Don't you think we have a little bigger problem on our hands?" Roe choked out as Mat threw her to the floor,
    "Both of you, empty out you’re lockers, now!" he roared,
    "We don't have anything!" Roe insisted getting back to her feet,
    "You rich kids could do without some of your trash. And if you can't pay up, I’m sure you two can even afford to get false teeth!" he commanded and Imri shivered,
    "Sorry, sorry, on it," Imri said quickly running to her locker,
    "Just cause you're family is as poor as dirt, doesn’t mean you get to treat us like trash,"
    "I'm just robin hood, stealing from the rich and giving it to myself," he insisted,
    "You can't talk me out of not mugging you, now go!" she sighed finding her locker and opening it up with a few turns of the dial,
    “Ah so that’s where I put it,” she said pulling out a red and black snow cap. A fanged skull was imprinted on the front of it. It wasn’t cold but she still fit it over her head snuggly,
    "What’s that!?" Mat roared looking at her,
    "My hat, you know, the hat,"
    "I thought ya'll said you didn't have anything Roe? Hand it over!"
    "No, it’s my hat," she argued taking the thing off and holding it in both hands,
    "Right, fine, I’ll take it out on your face then!" he called running at her. Even she couldn't stay calm and scrambled back making sure she had a tight grip on the snow cap,
    "Roe!" Imri called looking away from her locker and running up to her against every instinct that she had. When she reached her friend the brute was bearing down on both of them and time began to slow,
    "The, Keyblade," a voice spoke in her ear and she could feel her and being pulled out in front of her friend. In a glimmer of light a beautiful key shaped sword appeared in her hand blocking the boy's path,
    "A toy sword?! It doesn’t even look real!" he said continuing to his punch around her weapon`. She could feel the blade moving on its own regard, posed to strike a killing arc when she held it back,
    "No!" she called to the weapon and it obeyed her grasp coming up at the boy and making a cut on his arm. He pulled back his fist in pain and looked at his arm,
    "What did you do!?" he yelled at the two of them covering the bleeding wound with his hand. The damage could have been much worse, the blade was content with just killing him on the spot,
    "Imri!?" Roe turned to her amazed, "Where did you-?"
    "This is the Key!" she said looking at the gleaming weapon, "The one from my dream!"
    "I thought you said that was a dream?" Roe asked looking back at Mat, "Scram before she hits you again!" Roe warned to the boy but before the words had even left her mouth the kid was already making a break for the elevator. Roe watched the boy leave and then looked at her curiously,
    "Where did you even get that?" she asked and the weapon began to shimmer, disappearing as quickly as it came,
    "Sorry to interrupt you're nerd fest, but," Mat called form the elevator holding both of their cards in the air, "You're not going anywhere, no one even uses this room till the end of the day. And by then the head master is already going to know you two brought one of your geeky model sword things to school, you'll be out of my hair for good!" Roe made a break for the door but it closed before she could get to it with the sound of rough laughter on the other side,
    "Come back darn it! I didn't mean the whole scram thing!" Roe called up at the elevator but not to her surprise, nothing happened,
    "Roe don't worry!" Imri said running over to her locker, "I am the ninth grade class president, aren’t I? I can get us out of here," She pulled a card out of the pocket, this one golded and with Imri's mame engraved with silver letters, "Ta-da! My universal hall pass!" she announced holding the thing in the air and Roe stared at it,
    "Why are you allowed to have that!? They don't even let me go anywhere near the elevators during class time!"
    "Class, president," Imri sounded out with a smile walking over to the other elevator,
    "If we are late we can blame Mat?" Imri guessed tilting her head,
    "Yea, sure," Roe said with a nod fitting her hat back onto her head,
    "Thanks," she said again with a nod and Imri smiled,
    "Don't mention it!" she agreed as the elevator door opened.


    * * *


    The boy stood in front of a large building that was his only safe haven in this world. He opened the industrial double doors and walked into a broken room, abandoned and neglected,
    “You’re late Raeni,” a man said walking up to him. His entire face was wrapped in red bandanas held together with a black belt that covered one of his eyes. The one that was shown stared at him ominously as if it knew everything,
    “DiZ,” Raeni greeted,
    “Have you brought the Heartless?” He pulled a coin out of his pocket and showed it to him. The front of the coin showed the face of a Shadow, one of the weakest of the Heartless but enough to easily kill a grown man, “A pureblood, is that all you could find?”
    “No, they haven’t all appeared yet. I found this one following one of the Nobodies, is this enough for your experiments?”
    "It will make due," he said raising an eyebrow, "One of the Keyblade masters, I assume?"
    "Xion," he informed him with a shrugged,
    "Her and Demyx got away before I could kill either of them,"
    "Fortunate for you. Should you have terminated Xion, the true Keyblade master will never wake,"
    "And I don't care?" he guessed tilting his head, "You can tell me to avoid her, but that’s going to cost you extra,"
    DiZ shook his head, turning and walking to a wall, a magic symbol was marked out with yellow pen. DiZ pulled the pen out of his pocket and completed the symbol. The floor melted away in a haze revealing a completely metal room where the floor was. DiZ lead him into the room and showed him into the chamber.
    The walls were lined with prisons in the shape of flowers. The bulbs were made of a clear glass with an assortment of the Heartless trapped inside. He put the coin in an open flower and the bulb closed. Raeni snapped his figures and the coin changed back into its original form. The scrawny shadow glared at him scratching at the glass with its razor claws but to no avail. Raeni waved good bye to it and turned to a table in the middle of the room. A devise that looked like a huge laser was perched in the center,
    “Now let’s see how the Heartless react’s to the devise,” DiZ anounced picking up the thing in one hand, planting it on the ground pointing it to the Heartless. The machine buzzed and then shot a beam of green light at the creature. Is shuddered for a second and then fell apart, crumbling into black dust,
    “Kind of ironic isn’t it,” Raeni said looking back at the scientist, “That the ‘Heartless’ have hearts,”
    DiZ ignored him setting the laser back on the table, “The devise work’s on the small ones, but I will need more test subject’s before the Nobodies manage to complete Kingdom Hearts. Even if it can convert a single heart into data, I need more tests to perfect the design,”
    “And what makes you so sure that they will actually succeed? Kingdom Hearts has been hot gas for the past two years. It only became big enough to even see a few months ago. Not the 'ultimate power' the organization was going for,”
    “The Nobodies are not dumb despite the fact of lacking a heart, currently there are seven who have awakened the power of the Keyblades, two of which don’t know how to wield it and another two are fighting on the side of the organization. I have no doubt in time enough hearts will be released to complete it,”
    “Well, whatever DiZ, I’ll just keep bagging Heartless as long as you keep paying me,” Raeni said with a yawn and DiZ sighed
    “I wish your loyalties were not so divided Raeni, you would make an excellent assistant,”
    “Hey, I work for whoever has the deepest pockets, you’re lucky that’s you, old man. I learned the hard way that you can't play favorites in my profession,” DiZ laughed turning away from his machine back to him
    "Yet, you were all to happy to help that girl,"
    "How did-?"
    Raeni started but DiZ interrupted him, "She is still permanent in your mind, I can see her clearly. Her name is Kuromimi, correct?"
    "If the Nobodies open the last keyhole, she is going to die, just Because I don't play favorites doesn’t mean I’m heartless,"
    "Yes, it would be quite unfortunate, were they to succeed,” He said as Raeni started walking out of the lab,
    "Yet you seem less interested in this world being torn apart, and more interested in your experiment, why is that?" he asked without turning stepping back onto ground level before the scientist could answer.
    DiZ was obviously keeping something hidden from him. Nothing bad could come from giving the Nobodies hearts besides ruining his research; they would probably just leave people alone once they got their hearts anyway. The Heartless were the real enemy and if DiZ succeeded there would be more Heartless everywhere and that would ruin everyone’s weekend.
    He pulled a coin out of his pocket and flipped it. It began to grow, but not in width, in length. The bronze coin kept extending until it formed a staff spinning through the air. He caught it and held it at his side. He had a visit to pay with the new Keyblade master, if he found her, there was no doubt he would find the Heartless, and possibly, even the Nobodies.


    * * *


    "Pay attention kids, this is very important stuff," their teacher called out to the class hitting the black bored with the tip of her ruler, "Now, who can tell me how to find the midpoint of a line once you know the coordinates of the endpoints,"
    "Why would you want to?" Roe guessed and her teacher shook her head,
    "Any one smarted then a bench post want to answer that?" the teacher said again and Imri's hand shot up,
    "You find the sum of the given coordinates!" she called out proudly befor giving the teacher a chance to call out her name.
    Roe buried her face in her hand, "Show off,"
    "Very good, Imri, you obviously studied," the teacher said again smiling to her, The rest of the kids either didn't care or didn't understand themselves so they ignored her, "This is geometry!" she called to the other kids, "Pay attention! This is one of the most practical forms of math there is!"
    "Practical, I’ll remember that," Roe whispered to herself ripping a piece of paper out of her sketch book and putting her pencil to it,
    "Are there any other questions before the test on Friday," she said again looking through the class,
    "Anyone? Roe?" she said eyeing her,
    "I'm more of a history person," she said without looking up from her drawing,
    "Than why don't you have any questions?" she paused as the intercom system rang through the room,
    "Roe, Imri, please report to Dr. Burner's office on floor twenty four. Roe and Imri, please report to the headmaster's office,"
    "Saved by the bell," she said under her breath turning the paper face down and leaving the pencil aside
    "We didn't do anything wrong!" Imri assured the class, "Really!" she stood up from her desk and Roe nearly had to drag her away from the classroom. She closed the door as they got into the hall and scowled at her,
    "Make it any more obvious why don't ya?" she asked with a sigh,
    "They believe me! I'm class president,"
    "No one cares!" she admitted, "The teachers rigged that so it wouldn't be a popularity contest! They didn't pick you!" she sighed,
    "Fine, ok," she turned towards the elevator across from them,
    "Now, if it's Mat, just act cool,"
    "Okie-doky,"
    "You see that’s not acting cool," Roe pointed out, "Just add 'sir' to the end off all of your sentences and then you're golden,"
    "Like, I didn't do it, sir. And, Mat is lying, sir?"
    "Exactly! Mat values his self dignity to much to humiliate himself by saying that, but it’s the only thing at this point that will keep us from getting expelled," she hit the up button on the elevator and it almost immediately arrived opening its doors to them. They stepped inside and Imri stuck her 'universal hall pass' into the side of the machine,
    "Welcome, Imri," it spoke and she hit the button for floor twenty four, "Destination floor twenty four, faculty lodge and headmaster's office," it spoke and they began their accent,
    "Remember, when you're around the superior you can’t say anything against him or he won’t even think before he punishes you,"
    "Right," Imri said with a nod as the door opened into another hallway. They stepped out of the elevator and the door closed behind them,
    "Ok, moment of truth, don't get us in any more trouble," Roe said turning to her and she nodded as they both knocked on the headmaster's door,
    “Imri, Roe, come in," the headmaster called. They opened the door and came in to see Mat standing next to the head master staring at them with a wicked smile, "Take a seat," the headmaster said gesturing to two twin chairs in front of his desk. He fixed his comb over as they sat down and pushed his glassed back up on his face. He had been the head master since the two of them were in second grade and over seven years the man seemed to stay his ridiculously old age, "The school had a very strict policy when it comes to weapons," he atiterlacing his inges ove his desk, "Mat, please tell me what they used to cut your arm with?" he asked and the boy showed them the band aids that wrapped around the wound they had given him. A slight red tint of blood shown through the cloth,
    "Imri had a sword, Dr. Burner," the head master shook his head looking away from the boy and back to them,
    "Care to explain, Imri?"
    "I don't have a sword, sir," she assured him bowing her head, "I am class president, I know the schools policy on weapons and I would never disobey them, sir,"
    "She is lying!" Mat said pointing at her but the headmaster interrupted him,
    "Allow me to finish," he raised his hand in the air without looking to Mat and the boy closed his mouth, "Roe?" he asked again turning to her,
    "I agree with Imri, sir, we didn't have a weapon," the headmaster looked at them with disbelief obvious in his eyes,
    "Are you suggesting Mat's wound is self inflicted, Imri?"
    "Um, I don't know, Mat are you emo.? Sir," Imri asked curiously and Roe buried her head in her hand,
    "Do I look freaking emo.!?" he called back to her but the head master interrupted him again,
    "This is a conversation, not a fist fight," he reminded them, "Now, Imri, if you have no weapon, then you would be fine with us searching through your belongings?"
    "Fine, go ahead sir," Roe answered for her and Mat smiled,
    "Oh, you're going to get it now!" he called to them as the headmaster stood up brushing invisible particles of dust from his shirt,
    "Show me to where you were attacked, Mat,"
    * * *


    "Can you deliver it?" Kuromimi asked the man at the counter of the store tilting her head,
    "Of course, what address?" the man said not looking up from his register. She handed him a slip of paper form her pocket and he looked at her,
    "This is the east side, is this right?" he asked confused. She sighed looking him in the eye. She had to go across town to the good part of town to actually get what she was looking for, nothing along the lines of what she wanted even existed back at home, "Can you afford this?" the man asked again and she pulled the coins out of her pocket handing them to him, "You didn't steal these did you?" he asked again,
    "No, no I didn't steal them," she said trying to stop herself from punching the man,
    "But how-,"
    "Ok, can you deliver it to the address or not?"
    "We'll send a truck on it," he said slipping the coins into the register, "Have a nice day,"
    "We aren’t all poor," she called back but the man ignored her. The sliding doors in front of the store parted and she stepped out, pockets much lighter then she came,
    "Dreams might actually come true," she muttered to herself looking at the sun, now high in the sky. Her mom still thought she was still trashing glass, if she knew she had gone across town the woman would have a heart attack,
    "Oh, excuse me," she heard a voice say from in front of her and a form appeared in an eruption of darkness. She was a girl dressed entirely in black,
    "Xion?" she guessed looking at the outfit but then the form pulled down her hood,
    "Xion? No, Mistex, how ya doing Kuromimi?" her blood froze looking into her eye. Her other eye was wrapped with white almost makeshift band aids but even with the injury she only looked her age. Her good eye stared at her, a clam green like a grassy feild. Her black hair was pulled back straight behind her head but was still messed up by the hood,
    "How do you know my name?" she asked staring at her,
    "Well Demyx told me! And Xion! You know then right?"
    "The musician? Yea," she said nodding,
    "Well I was in their 'group' but they decided to go their own way. I really can't explain this to you, but can you help me out?"
    "Help? How?"
    "Ok, there’s a boy, Raeni, Demyx said he saw you with him, can you tell me about him?"
    "Why do you want to know?"
    Mistex sighed shaking her head "Look, Kuromimi, believe me, Raeni is a bad person,"
    "And why should I trust you over him?"
    "Because! Um-," she started but then she raised her finger into the air, "I am trying to protect you from him!"
    "From him? He said he was trying to protect me-, from people like you," she finished beginning to walk away but Mistex followed suite,
    "Wait, you're not leaving? Help a girl out here! Can you at least tell me what he told you,"
    "Something about, the end of the world, I don't know, you two are both crazy!"
    "He is decently crazier than I am. I know him!" Mistex argued, "Did he mention any where he was going?"
    "He said, you were planning to kill him, is that true?"
    "No, not kill him! Just, um," she scratched the back of her head but Kuromimi continued to walk, "Recruit him," she finished catching up, "That might hurt him just a bit, but come on he will still be alive in one sense or another,"
    "Recruit him?"
    "Again, one of those 'long story' areas I would rather not get into now, but the point is, I need you to tell me everything!"
    "There isn't anything left to tell, what I know, you know,"
    "Well, thanks!" she said with a smile, looking into her with her one good eye,
    "Now can I ask you something?"
    "Ok, sure, anything,"
    "Why are you here?" the girl shrugged,
    "Um, you really want the truth?"
    "Yes,"
    "Can I just tell you part of the truth?"
    "No the whole thing," she stopped walking and looked her in the eye and the girl shuddered,
    "I can see you're determination, fierce stuff, that heart of yours. You don't believe a word i'm saying about trying to help, right?" asked said with a nod,
    "Ok, fine, you can take it,"
    "Take what?"
    "Dying, you're heart is strong enough, you might actually make it in,"
    "Dying?! I'm not dying any time soon,"
    Mistex shrugged, "Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that," darkness began to erupt from the ground and wrap around the girl, "Don't say I didn't warn ya' though,"
    "You still haven’t told me why you're here!" she complained as the girl began to sink into darkness, "How am I going to die?"
    "Your world. It's killing it's self, I don't know how, but it's going to go down tonight, big battle between good and evil-," she started as the darkness consumed her, "And we're the 'evil',"


    * * *


    Mistex appeared in a dark alley that her co-workers said they would meet her in after she was done on recon but they still seemed startled when the dark corridor appeared,
    "Just me," Mistex assured the two as she came out, "She didn't know anything interesting, Raeni knows about our plans, nothing much besides that. So, lets kill him,"
    "Whoa, this was a 'recon' mission," Demyx argued dissipating his instrument into water vapor, "The superior even said not to-, um," he reached in his pocket and pulled out a cue card, "Do not interfere with the native human population,"
    "Raeni isn't 'native'," Mistex argued ,
    "The goal of this mission is to get one of our keys to that lock by any means necessary. Roxas was onto something last night, and we got to get you there, Xion," the girl remained silent,
    "Roxas wouldn't want people to get hurt,"
    "Even if the door stays closed, they have to Xion! But don't worry; the ones with strong hearts will join us! The rest of them who are contaminated with evil will just become weak heartless. If that does happen then they deserved it!"
    "It's still not right," she argued,
    "Don't pretend like you have a heart! You're too old for that! What? You’re like one already,"
    "It's not my emotions I’m worried about, it's Roxas'," she turned to her, "He doesn’t want to do any of this,"
    "Xion, we have to," Mistex said again holding her hand out to her side. Glowing light began to form in her hand bending into prismatic shapes. Crystals of all size and color floated in the shining maelstrom blending together until they had made a brilliant bow out of the mystical crystals, "Let's go get Raeni, ok? Once you're in battle you'll forget, trust me, nothing will matter but the mission,"
    she turned to Demyx but then turned back to her, "Unless you happen to be the melodious nocturne, then you just want to run!"
    "Hey!" Demyx called back and Xion managed a laugh,
    "Ok, now that that’s settled, let’s go find Raeni, and take him down a few notches, kay?" Demyx and Xion nodded respectfully and Mistex smiled, "Cool, happy hunting,"


    * * *


    The head master stood over her expectantly as she fiddled with the combination of her locker but when she tried to pull it open it remained locked,
    "It hates me, sir," Imri admitted with a sigh trying again,
    "Sir, don't you have a key or something that opens these?" Roe asked but the headmaster shook his head,
    "Can I just pry it open?" Mat guessed and the headmaster shook his head again,
    "No we don't need any more broken lockers, thank you," he said without turning,
    "Ah I think I-," Imri started pulling on the locker again but the lock held strong, "-Never mind," she finished with a sigh,
    "Imri, open the locker or I will suspend you," the headmaster said clutching his temples,
    "I'll help her sir," Roe said walking up the her friend,
    "What's the combination?" she asked and Imri whispered it in her ear, she nodded putting her hand to the dial and the lock popped open,
    "There we go," Roe said pulling the locker and the headmaster examined the contents,
    "Pull out you're back pack," he ordered and Imri nodded opening the pink and white bag, the headmaster looked through the whole of it, "Manga is not allowed at school, you know?" he asked looking at her shaking his head,
    "Um, sorry, I must have left it in there, sir," she said tilting her head,
    "Right, Roe, I’ll check you're locker,"
    "Sir, we don't have a sword,"
    "Then you won’t mind checking," he said and she sighed opening her own locker,
    "Open you're backpack," he ordered after examining the locker but again he came up blank,
    "Tell me where you put it," he ordered, "Where?"
    "We didn't even have a sword!" "
    Really," he said pulling a video tape out of his pocket,
    "This is the security tape from this morning, it says otherwise, now tell me, where you put it?"
    "No where! We didn't have one!" Imri argued,
    "Enough lying we know you had one, now tell me where you put it," neither of them answered and he looked Imri in the eye, "I had no intent on punishing you but you insist on lying to me. However I will lessen you're punishment if you bring it to me," he decided and she sighed holding her hand out in front of her,
    "Imri, what are you doing?"
    "Giving it to him," she said and the man raised an eyebrow,
    "Where is it?" radiant light began to glow from her hand and in a brilliant flash the Keyblade appeared in front of him,
    "This is it," she said hanging her head and the headmaster stared at it,
    "Hmm, hand it over," he ordered slightly stunned by the weapon’s entrance. She gave it to the man and he held it easily until the blade realized it switched hands. In a flash of light it appeared back in her hand and the headmaster stared at her, "Did I say you could have it back?!" he yelled at her confiscating it again but the blade returned to her,
    "No, bad sword! Let him take you!" she argued with the weapon but it stayed firmly in her grasp, "It won’t work," she said with a sigh looking back at the head master,
    "Give me the weapon now, or the two of you are expelled," he threatened and Roe looked at her,
    "Well? do it!" she yelled at her friend but she shook her head,
    "The Keyblade, it-, it isn't going to let me give it away,"
    "Well, I’m very disappointed to hear that," the man said again,
    "Clean out your lockers, you have two hours to leave with all of your belongings,"
    "Sir, that isn't fair!" Imri called looking into his eyes dissipating her weapon, "I didn't mean to hurt anyone with it!"
    "If you didn't mean any harm, you should have handed it over to me,"
    "The sword wouldn't let me!"
    "Imri, I’m in no mood for games,"
    "Hah, you nerds got your butts handed to you on a silver platter!" Mat yelled at them,
    "Sir, if you saw the video you knew I only did it in self defense! He attacked us!"
    The headmaster turned back to Mat, "I was about to ask you that as well, do you want to join them?"
    "Uh, no," he started,
    "Can I talk you out of it? Please!" Roe begged,
    "Imri didn't mean anything!" the headmaster looked them both down but then he sighed,
    "Imri, we can't lose you to this or we'll be the laughing stock of the enitre district. But don't think that means you can do anything you want!" he threatened raising his finger into the air,
    "If you so much sneeze out of order, both of you can pack your bags, you understand?!" he said in a fierce voice that even Mat obeyed,
    "Thank you, sir," Roe said with a bow and Imri followed,
    "You three get back to class, and I-," he started but then another bell rang,
    "That's lunch!" Imri announced and the head master sighed,
    "Go eat," he said dismissing them and the two girls made a break for the elevator,
    "Sir, that's not fair I was attacked!"
    "Don't make more of an issue out of this," the headmaster warned and the boy sealed his lips as the elevator door closed around the two of them.


    * * *


    The kid’s crowded into the cafeteria walking this way and that until they found there tables. Imri and Roe sat together at the edge of the room away from the rest of the crowd,
    “Are you sure that you couldn't have just given him the sword? I mean I was already on thin ice! This is bad, I’m sure I’m going to be out of here for good by the end of the week!” Roe argued,
    "I can't the Keyblade chose me, It isn't going to let me give it away,"
    "It's a weapon! It doesn’t 'choose' anything!"
    "This isn't a weapon, it's light,"
    "Light? Light is over rated,"
    "Light, you know, like the goodness in people’s hearts? That’s what makes this weapon work,"
    "That’s just ridicules," Roe said with a sigh,
    "No it isn't! The Keyblade is proof!"
    "So you're calling it a 'Keyblade' now?"
    "That’s what it wants to be called," Roe looked at her friend and almost buried her face in her food but held back, taking a spoonful of mash potatoes into her mouth,
    "I never even saw the Keyblade until my dream last night, the one where you attacked me," Roe ignored her swallowing her food and Imri sighed, "Least you can do it pretend to care,"
    "Light, dreams, sounds only slightly insane," she said and Imri glared at her,
    "Roe, it's real, you saw the weapon you're self,"
    "Maybe I’m crazy two, none of this makes any sense," Roe said hanging her head, "Just give me some time to take the whole 'sword of light' thing in, ok?" she asked and Imri nodded getting back to eating her food.
    Raeni peered through a small window from the hall crouched onto the ground,
    “Now where are you? Keyblade master,” he asked himself fitting his coin back into his pocket with a clank of metal against metal. There was no way to know which of the hundreds of kids were actually wielding the light, but he managed to pick out a few likely candidates,
    "What are you doing there, young man?" he heard an old voice behind him and turned to see a man looking down at him,
    "Principle?" he guessed,
    "Headmaster, get back to lunch," the man ordered, and Raeni looked at him blankly,
    "You think I’m-?" he started but then he interrupted himself,
    "Oh yea, that’s right, it's lunch, I thought it was PE," he guessed bonking himself on the head,
    "I don't remember seeing you around, what is your name again, son?"
    "Steve?" Raeni guessed and the headmaster nodded,
    "Ah, Steve, yes I remember now," Raeni smiled,
    "Now, go in there, and eat something," he ordered and Raeni stood up with a nod,
    "Yes sir," he said walking into the cafeteria through the old double doors as quietly as possible. He scanned the room for anything out of the ordinary to prove DiZ’s claim. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a pair of beady eyes in the darkness
    “Yep, there is definitely a Keyblade master here,” he said under his breath. He looked over the room until he saw two girls sitting at the very far edge of a table far away from any of the masses, "Those two look promising," he muttered to himself walking over to him and sitting down next to the blond haired girl, "Hey I’m Raeni how ya doing?" he asked and the girl almost fell over in shock,
    "Who, what, where?" she asked confused,
    "Raeni, the new kid, the cafeteria,"
    He answered holding out his hand and Roe tilted her head, "Can't you sit somewhere else?"
    "Nope, I’m here," he said looking at the two of them,
    "Say, you haven’t seen some one, say, showing off a key shaped sword or something like that?"
    "Key shaped sword?" Roe asked, her eyes going wide,
    "Yea, it's called a Keyblade, you seen one?"
    "What do you know about that!?" Imri demanded, looking him in the eye, "Do you have something to do with my Keyblade?"
    "You’re Keyblade? Well looks like I lucked out. I've been looking for you,” looked her in the eyes and smiled,
    "Can you tell me about it?" she asked her eyes wide,
    "How did I get it!? How do you even know about it?!" she asked exited and Roe sighed,
    "You two are simply insane," she muttered ignoring them,
    "You always this angry?" Raeni asked turning to her but she ignored him,
    "Don't worry, she doesn’t believe in the whole blade of light thing,"
    "Well, no one does at first," he admitted, "I didn't at first, but check this out, can I barrow you're spoon?"
    "Knock you're self out," Roe said with a sigh handing him the mash potatoes coated utensil. He put the handle of the spoon in his hand and it began to lift into the air,
    "How-?" Imri started,
    "Magnetism! Isn't it awesome?" he spoon fall back into his hand giving them a corny smile,
    "So, you can lift a spoon," Roe took it out of his hand unimpressed, "I can do it too," she lifted her hand up a few inches and shaking the spoon in the air,
    "It's a parlor trick," She lowered the utensil back onto her tray planting it firmly in her potatoes,
    "You really want to take all the fun out of this, don't you?"
    "I almost got expelled because of the same 'fun',"
    "Don't be mad just cause you don't have a gift, unlike me and Imri,"
    "So, what's my gift then?" she asked him tilting her head,
    "The Keyblade, the biggest gift of them all. Pure light manifested into one weapon. For most fighters, the sword is driven by the person holding the weapon, in your case, the balance is the other way around, for each ounce of effort you put into fighting, and the Keyblade adds the same tenfold! It's amazing!"
    "But I’ve never held a sword in my life!"
    "Exactly, it wouldn't choose an expert because then they would go mad with the weapon's power. Rookies, kids, those are generally who it chooses. There are some exceptions but those exceptions have nearly destroyed the universe so I wouldn't count them,"
    "Destroy, the universe?" Mirix's jaw hanging open as soon as the words left he mouth,
    "What you didn't think you were waving around a match stick did you? This is the big leagues," he closed his eyes and shook his head, "Still, can’t help but feeling a bit jealous,” he opened his eyes again looking into hers,
    "Right, now that formalities are done with, you're in danger,"
    "What?" she asked, "How?"
    "Since you have a Keyblade there is zero harm in knowing, but," He turned to her friend, "You might want to leave,"
    "If she can hear it, I want to hear it," Roe said looking at him with bored eyes,
    "Um, no, you don't understand. If you hear this there is a really good chance that you'll be dead by the end of the day," she looked back to Imri who smiled at her,
    "No way. No way am I weaker than her, tell me,"
    "Ok, here it is-," he started turning to make sure no one was listening in,
    "You know you're heart? The organ in your chest that pumps blood through your body?"
    "Yea," Roe said with a nod, "Go on?"
    "Well, there is a twist. Do you guys have valentine’s day here?"
    "Who doesn’t," Imri argued and Raeni nodded,
    "The heart is described as a symbol of love, right? But, it just pumps blood so how can it be in charge of love too? It's actually two for one, like two sides of a coin,"
    "You're crazy, how could it do anything else?" Roe asked tilting her head, skepticism obvious in her eyes. Raeni sighed pulling a coin from the pouch on his belt and placing it head us on the table,
    "How many faces does this coin have?"
    "Two, of course," Roe asked as Imri examined it,
    "How can you tell? You can't see the other side?"
    "Because all coins have two faces!" Roe argued,
    "Ah, but what if you don't know that," he said putting the coin back into his pocket,
    "So, just because we can't see it, doesn’t mean it isn't there?" Imri guessed,
    "Yea, pretty much, and if you take one away, the emotional or the physical side, you have to take the entire thing away,"
    "Well if you're dead you don't need emotions anyway so why does that matter?" Imri argeed and Raeni smiled,
    "Ah, that’s the tricky part, what if the emotional side is taken before the physical?"
    "Uh," Imri started scratching the back of her head. Raeni gave her a few moments befor answering for her,
    "The shock sends the body into an almost lifeless state, what happens next, there is seriously no way I can explain it to you scientifically,"
    "Why not?"
    "Because, the people that tried to do that became either dead, or freaky mask wearing know it all, mostly dead. But anyway. What happens next is the body starts walking around on its own, no emotions, its mind still works, but Because of the loss of its physical heart. It doesn’t need to eat, it can't sweat or bleed, it's basically a hallowed shell, all internal organs not included,”
    "How is that possible? Last I checked you need your heart to live," Roe said looking him in the eye, "You're fairy tale is full of holes,"
    "It's not a fairy tale, I don't have time to get into those,"
    "Um, well, we are about to go to next period," Imri said looking at the clock on the wall,
    "Really? What lets ya know when to leave?"
    "The intercom," she said pointing at a pair of speakers next to the clock. Raeni pointed his finger at the machine and the clock's hands began to spin wildly jumping from second to hour in a lightning speed until they heard the sound of an electric pop,
    "Right, that takes care of that," he said turning back to them,
    "What did you do?!"
    "Well, um, I broke the intercom, now I got time to finish,"
    Roe stared at him in disbelief, "Why would you do that?"
    "Because, I don't want either of you to have to die without knowing the enemy you're up against. Now listen. These hallowed shells are called 'Nobodies' and their name pretty much describes them. They may look human, they may act human, they have the minds to simulate true emotion, but in reality they don't feel anything, these are the perfect solders. They can betray you, kill you in cold blood, and make false promises, anything, without feeling even the smallest hint of remorse. They have nothing dear to them, they only care about their own existence, that's why the strong ones formed the 'Organization',"
    "Organization?"
    "Whenever a normal person becomes a Nobody just because they have strong hearts, they just become monsters. It is almost impossible for them to hold human form for any amount of time and they collapse into minor Nobodies, they are like the servant Nobodies, foot soldiers. However, if someone special like you or me dies, we become a stronger kind of Nobody, these are the ones who make up Organization XII,"
    "Organization XII?"
    "Yea, those are the really bad 'bad guys',"
    "So, what do they want with me?"
    "To kill you, to remove your memories, to turn you into their Keyblade wielding puppet. One of the above, I don't know which, but definitely one of those three,"
    "Wait, if the Nobodies don't have hearts, what exactly happens to the hearts,"
    "Exact opposite of what happens with the Nobodies, this time it's the heart that is the template for making the monster, special or not, you lose your heart it will become its own monster, any shadow in side you will grow and take over,"
    "Sounds stupid," Roe said, shaking her head as she stood up, "Can't believe I wasted a part of my life listening to your nonsense! I'm reporting you to the head master if you don't leave us alone,"
    "Really, don't do that,” he said and Imri looked her in the eyes,
    "What if he is telling the truth? He knew about the Keyblade!" he sighed and turned back to Imri,
    "Want to finish this conversation elsewhere?" He asked pulling a coin from his pocket,
    "How?"
    "Magnetism isn't the only thing I have to offer," he smiled grabbing onto her arm and flipping the coin with his free hand, "Heads," he called as the coin landed on his arm heads up, "Right, tell you're self it's a dream if ya have to," Raeni said turning to Roe as he simply disappeared taking Imri with him.


    * * *


    The girl dressed in white sat alone in the room. A large window to the side of the room was always covered by a curtain but she knew even if she opened it there would be nothing on the other side.
    Sketch book held against the desk in one hand and a pen in another she drew in an attempt to preserve her sanity. The walls were covered by her artwork, the papers in themselves a portrait of the crimes and sins she committed in her short life. She wasn't supposed to feel anything but, unlike the other nobodies, she was different. Without a heart, the light still filled her as it did her counterpart who still bathed in the light of day. Her skin bleached white by year's she had spent void of the sun's light and with pale hands she ran her fingers over the paper looking at the forms she depicted. A boy a man with red hair, and a girl,
    "Roxas, Xion, Axel," she whispered silently to herself looking down at the picture. The three members of the organization had much closer ties to her then any of the other Nobodies but she feared soon that that connection would be severed. She walked over the wall and hung the picture loosely on a thumb tack next to the section of the wall dedicated to Roxas. A knock on the door disturbed her concentration and she nearly fell back turning to the white door,
    "DiZ?" she asked tilting her head to the door but another voice answered,
    "It's Riku," the voice spoke and she could feel the boy's darkness even through the door,
    "Yes?" she asked, "Come in," the double doors creaked open. The form shrouded in black stepped into the room, his eyes blinded by a thin black of cloth, the hood of his trench coat pulled down behind his head, "It's been weeks since one of you last came," she said with a sigh. In loose terms, she was their prisoner. They didn't feed her or even let her drink but even though she didn't mean to she missed the flavor's she only had a chance of experiencing the first few days of her life. DiZ cared less whether she lived or died as long as his project was complete, but Riku still fought against the man to protect her, even if it hindered the process of fixing the memories she broke. A week after she was born, before she could even know the truth behind her powers, men in black coats brought her to a bizarre castle on the edge of insanity. Compared to them, this prison was tame. In fear, desperation, and jealousy, Organization XII had turned her into a weapon against the Keyblade master,
    "I can only assume you want to know how Sora is doing?" She said hanging her head without looking at him,
    "No, actually I came to see how you were?"
    "Me?" she asked curiously looking up at him,
    "Why?"
    "Because, I still count you as a friend, you were the one who helped me see through the darkness,"
    "The Kairi in me just wanted to help,"
    "So, how are you doing then?"
    "As well as a Nobody could,” she managed a smile looking at his blind eyes, "I'm sorry for you being trapped here, but-," he started but she interrupted,
    "No, don't worry, first of all, you're not holding me here, no one is. I could leave any time I want," she held out her hand to the side of the room and a swirling portal of darkness appeared. An innate trite of being nothing was the manipulation of darkness to travel between immeasurable distance in a single step. These 'dark corridors' tap into the pathway the Heartless use for travel between worlds and guide a person, bringing them to wherever they want with ease,
    "I just have to fix Sora's chain of memories first, but even after that is done, I don't know where I could go,"
    "Would it be possible for you to go back to Kairi? Like, our plans to reunite Xion, Roxas, and Sora into one?"
    "I'm not a classic Nobody Riku, I don't even know if Kairi's body will even accept mine,"
    "You smell just like her though," Riku pointed out,
    "Nobodies don't produce any scent, how can we?" she reminded him and he sighed,
    "You're sent of darkness, there isn't any,"
    "Oh, 'that'," she said sitting back down in her chair,
    "I always forget, Ansem gave you that?"
    "Not Ansem. The seeker of darkness," He corrected her, "And he is dead,"
    "Yea, I know," she said with a nod,
    "Can I ask you something?" he said again turning to her drawings,
    "Sure, anything,"
    "Well, you are the closest thing to a friend I have left so-," he started managing to look at her even through the blindfold, "-DiZ is asking me to do something dark, people might get hurt, on a planetary scale, millions of innocent lives-," he started but he stopped himself, "-but, if I don't do it, Sora will never wake up, the Keyholes and Keyblades hold a connection to his memories, but if the door to darkness opens, there isn't any turning back. I'll be trading millions of peoples' lives for Sora's,"
    "Riku, I can't help you, you have to make your own decisions," she said looking down at the blank page of her sketch book,
    "But, you helped me before. I need your help to choose my path,"
    "Riku, you already did, the road to dawn, don't you remember? Although, DiZ does call it, 'the twilight path to nowhere', but I think it's both,"
    "How can it be?"
    "You have gone through light and darkness, yet, you didn't find your answer, so the only place left to look is in the twilight, between both light and darkness,"
    "But what I’m asking, if I come to a place on that path, where I will sit idly by as millions die, should I continue?"
    "Riku, that is your choice, one that no one can make for you, not light, not darkness, yours is the middle road," the boy nodded to her silently and walked to the door,
    "Good luck,"


    * * *


    "Back!" Kuromimi called out through the shop as she opened the door, followed by a stream of yelling,
    "Where were you! You had me worried sick!" the old woman yelled from over her pot, voice hoarse from handling the toxic fumes,
    "I got the TV!" she announced happily,
    "Without my permission!?" the old woman called back as Kuromimi walked into the room,
    "Mom, it's ok, someone gave me the money,"
    "And someone is probably going to want it and more back!"
    "No, he didn't loan it, he gave it to me!" she argued,
    "How much did he give you?"
    "Um," she started looking at her with a smile, "Fourteen, uh, hundred," she said with a small laugh and the woman's jaw hung open and for once she let her mixing spoon stand still,
    "One thousand four hundred!? And you didn't tell me!?"
    "He gave the money to me! Not you!"
    "What did you do to get him to give you that?" she asked,
    "Nothing! He just said the world was going to end and to buy a bomb shelter or something with it,"
    "Whacko's like that normally don't carry around that kind of money!" her mom argued,
    "Mom, he was far from normal! The guy could throw coins like freaking ninja stars! It was crazy!"
    "Who did he throw them at?"
    "Two weirdo’s behind the shop, musicians, I think," No sooner did the words come out of her mouth then a knock sounded on the door,
    "Mimi, you here?" a voice asked and her eyes open wide,
    "Mom, that's him, could you like stay in the back of the shop?" her mom shook her head,
    "Fine, go," Kuromimi smiled at her and ran to the door to see the boy leaning against a metal staff. A blonde haired girl at her side,
    "Here to help ya'," he said with a smile, "Can we come in?"
    "Um, sure, who is-?" she started looking at the girl,
    "Imri! I have a sword made of light!" she called out exited,
    "I guess-," she started turning back to Raeni, "Just don't stay long," Raeni nodded and lead Imri into the front of the store, sitting down on the chair near the center of the room,
    "So, um? Why are you two here?"
    "You see, I had my doubts about you at first but now I’m sure of it," Raeni said looking her in the eyes, "There's something 'unusual' about you, that's why Xion's Keyblade was drawn here,"
    "You mean, that Key shaped sword-ish thing that she shot fire from?" "
    Xion? There is someone else here who has one too?" Imri asked turning to Raeni but he ignored her,
    "Precisely, Mimi," He turned back to Imri,
    "I don't think I’ve introduced you two. Mimi, this is Imri, the Keyblades chosen. Imri, this is Mimi, she is special like us,"
    "I'm not crazy like you two!" She argued and Raeni sighed,
    "No not crazy. Owning ties to light and darkness, that sort of thing, see look," he pulled a coin out of his pocket and balanced it in the palm of his free hand. The coin rose a few inches into the air and he smiled, "So, yea, can you do anything interesting?" she hesitated for a second,
    "Uh, how did you do that?"
    "It's called 'biomagnetism' living beings with the ability to produce stable magnetic fields,"
    "I can't do anything weird like that!" she argued, "That’s not 'special' that’s bizarre,"
    "You sure? I can sense it," the sound of a truck backing up sounded in front of the store,
    "The TV is here!" she announced to the back of the store and Raeni tilted his head,
    "TV? Oh, please tell me you didn't," Kuromimi walked up to the door as a man came up wheeling a huge box, "No-," Raeni said in disbelief as Kuromimi nodded to the man pulling the TV inside, "I said food rations darn it, bomb shelters and basements! You can't eat a TV!"
    "The world isn't going to end," she argued and he sighed,
    "Yea, it is, trust me on this one it's-," his ears twitched and his eyes went wide looking at them,
    "Ok, no one move,"
    "What , what's wrong?" Imri asked him but he shook his head,
    "No sudden movement, no body language, no talking, quite,"
    "What are you talking about!? Why can't we-" Kuromimi started but then was interrupted by an explosion coming from outside. Raeni lunged for her knocking her down onto the floor as a metal shrapnel from the truck sliced through the front of the store imbedding its' self into the wall on the other side of the shop,
    "Ok, when I say quite, I mean quite!" he hissed at her not daring to pull himself off her,
    "Ok, I believe you, can you get off?" she hissed back and he shook his head,
    "Not if I want to live,"
    "What was that!" A voice called from the back of the shop, "Kuromimi are you-," the woman started but then another silver projectile lodged itself in the wall where her mom's voice was coming from,
    "Mom!" she called pushing Raeni off her as another arrow shot through the wall towards her. She saw it at the last second and braced herself for an impact squinting her eyes until she heard the clank of the projectile hitting metal,
    "I said, no movement!" he said to her. A coin as big as a Frisbee blocking the projectile. The arrow had still managed to cut through the bottom the coin, barley missing Raeni's arm, "Estim!" he called out despite his own warning, "I'll come out, just stop shooting! There are innocent people in here!" there was no answer except for the fact that he wasn't already dead, which was a good sign, "I'll go out there alone, and we can settle this, ok?" he asked looking at the door of the shop,
    "I need you two to stay in here where it is safe,"
    "But I can help!" Imri argued,
    "No, no you can't, moment you open that door you can bet there will be an arrow lodged in your head. She is aiming at us completely by sound alone, if she gets her eye into it she will kill you easy,"
    "Who is she!?" Mimi asked looking him in the eye,
    "One of the 'bad guys'," he said as he stared into her eyes,
    "Yea, you saw something didn't you, after I left,"
    "There was a girl," Mimi admitted, "She said, that the world was going to end, just like you said it would,"
    "And she is the one causing it, she is also the one firing at us,"
    "Mistex?"
    "Exactly,"
    "I thought you said her name was Estim?" Imri argued but then another arrow came through the door of the shop and into the television,
    "I can't explain now, she isn't going to wait much longer, you two keep your heads down, get as flat not the ground as you can," he said and Imri nodded getting to the floor,
    "Same for you, Mimi, don't get hurt," he reminded her and she reluctantly nodded flattening herself against the ground next to Imri, "If I don't come back I don't want you to move, breath as lightly as possible," he opened the door and took a last look at the two before stepping into the fray.


    * * *


    Raeni turned to the charred husk of the delivery truck. The drivers had either made for the hills or were completely blown away when the explosion hit,
    "Raeni! Good to see ya!" the girl's faint voice called a distance away as he stepped into the plaza surrounded on all sides by buildings,
    "Estim, you could have hurt them," he called out trying to locate her,
    "Oh blah, blah, blah save the humans. They don't mean anything in the long run and you know it. By the way, my name is Mistex, thank you," she corrected him driving an arrow into the ground next to him. He leaned down against every survival instinct he had and picked up the arrow. It wasn't a traditional arrow with a long shaft, but a single bolt rounded into a train drop shape,
    "Since when did you start using Diamonds as arrows?" he asked her, "Bit pricy don't you think?"
    "They work though, more then your pocket change," he turned trying to get a lock on her location but the voice was too distant,
    "Well, sure is class using a million dollar sighter," he heard a noise in the distance as he held up his staff repelling a diamond bolt with the blunt side of his weapon, "Gotcha," he said with a smile looking the spot where the arrow was fired. He could easily see Mistex and her glimmering bow perched on top of one of the roofs. She shot another diamond bolt towards him but in the second it took the bolt to reach him he held his staff up to deflect it,
    "Now what I’m wondering is-?" she started as he reached the base of the building she was perched on. She leaned over the side to look at him leaving her bow on the roof, "How on earth can you beat a diamond?"
    "Counter magnetism and all that fun stuff, copper works great and it's easy to strengthen just by enlarging the particles,"
    "Right," she said with a sigh, "You do that I’ll get back to shooting you from this roof," He shrunk his staff back into its normal form and pulled another coin out of his pocket,
    "Mistex, you can't beat me here," he said as the coins began to glow. The metals used to construct the building's were caught in his magnetic field and guided by the coins in his hands he rose up to her level. She almost fell back in shock but primed her bow to fire at him,
    "You're smart to not use a metal weapon, but still, you're covered in it!" he held one of his hands to her landing onto the building. The iron chains buttons and zippers on her trench coat began to be caught in the magnetism, "Time, is up," he said twisting his hand sending her to the ground,
    "Metal the problem?" she said looking up to him from the ground, "Ok, fine, I’ll fix it," a dark corridor began to wrap around him and before he could escape it he was dragged into the shadows. When the darkness faded he could see her standing in front of him atop a sky scraper, "Thousands of feet above the metal pipes going through the city. You're in the stars, this is my home field," she held her crystal bow towards him with a smirk,
    "You're still covered in metal," he reminded her by sending her sprawling again to the ground with the wave of a hand, "Organization XIII, not dressed with me in mind are you?"
    "Completely right, I think I need a change of outfits, don't you?" she asked as the crystals from her bow began to melt forming around her. More crystals appeared over her all rushing to her in a storm of brilliant light. She stood up in a suite of armor crafted entirely of diamonds. It was bulky and probably weighed tons but she held it up with ease getting back on her feet. The armor was made up of crystal human shaped plates held together with a series of crystal hinges and joints. Her mask of diamonds was the most protected spot of the armor. In a two inch thick helm of diamonds a symbol the same as the Nobodies' symbol was cut out for her eyes but even that had a clear crystal coat wrapped around it like a visor. From her back four huge crystal spikes rose from her back.
    He took a close look at them before identifying them as weapons held in crystal sheaths. In each hand she held a brilliant cross bow; almost the same beauty as her real bow but the entirety of the things was mechanized. Instead of an actual cord draw sting an almost gun-like system was in place using magic as the detonator. He raised his hand to the armor drawing out all of his power but the suite was simply too heavy and the girl didn't budge,
    "Right, end game," she said holding both of her weapons at him, tilted and pointing for his chest, "Now, before I kill you, you sure you don't want to join us?"
    "And live a trapped puppet like you, no thanks. I'll destroy you and free Estim,"
    "I am Estim! The one and only. I am not trapped in Mistex, Mistex is my new body and I like her," she looked at him through the visor with mischievous eyes, "I only assume you haven’t made amends with Sonya yet?" she guessed but he remained silent, "Yea, feel you're useless, pathetic emotions take grip over you, make you weaker,"
    "That's not what you said back when we were friends," he said looking at her with dark eyes,
    "You mean, before I saw the light? Yea, I could see why you would think just because I am not as kind as my weak human state I am some 'bad guy',"
    "You want to destroy this world," "I couldn't care less. If I had my way we would destroy it, but it's not my choice, talk to the superior about that one,” her weapons clicked indicating that they were loaded, "Right, this is getting boring, let’s throw you off the building, kay?" she guessed with a smile as the weapons fired. Diamond bolts twice as fast as the last ones came straight for him but he grew the coins in his hands forming them as shields in the flick of a hand deflecting the attack,
    "You want it, you've got it, I’m not even going to try to give you a quick death," he said looking at her with solemn eyes, "I go to darkness and back looking for you, and you don't even say thank you? You aren’t Estim, you're a creature living in her flesh,” he emptied his pocket of coins and tossed his metal payload into the air holding his hand up the shower of metal. Coins began to change form, growing and expanding at Raeni's command until they had formed a huge metal shaped wrapped around the building. Scales were fashioned out of the metal and the silver and bronze dragon wrapped around the building with its long snake like body. Huge mechanical wing's beat behind it driving a huge gust of wind through the air towards her but she remained still. Rinaxe stood at the top of the creature’s head holding his staff connecting it to the creature to maintain his grip,
    "Go, attack!" he ordered and the creature obeyed emitting a low electric roar. Mistex stared town the things through and pulled the spines from her back attaching them to her weapons forming two diamonds swords.
    She spun the weapons on their hilt walking toward the beast with unwavering foot stepped. The dragon snapped at her with its metal jaws but she easily countered striking its face with her blades tearing a rip into the metal, "Right, end it," He called and the dragon obeyed. The metal changed under its skin and its scaled began to morph forming into miniature cannons, all pointed towards the girl, "Attack!" he ordered and the thing unloaded.
    Coins rained down onto her at mach speeds but she kept her assault strong slicing again at the metal creature's throat sending it backwards. Raeni fell and stopped the barrage, the creature falling onto the city in a huge mass of coins. He turned back to her with only his staff. His coins had made some pretty good cracks in her armor. They left themselves imbedded halfway through the diamond shell and had managed to crack the girl's visor but she was unscratched, the armor having taken the full force of the attack ,
    "Raeni, give it up, you matched you're best against mine and failed," She tried taking a step to finish him off but the barrage had destroyed the crystal joint on her right leg keeping it stiff, "Forget the armor," she said looking down at her leg as the crystal around her began to melt like water blending back into her bow,
    "Mistex, I’m not going to fight you, I have a job to do here, people to protect,"
    "Oh really? Well I would check who's side you're on before preaching about being the hero," he pulled a coin out of his pocket and flipped it,
    "Let's see my chances, Heads!" he called as the coin landed on his wrist tails,
    "Raeni, you're luck has run out,"


    * * *


    Imri and Kuromimi lay quietly on the floor of the shop until the blonde haired girl broke the silence,
    "You think they're gone?" Imri asked in a quivering voice and Kuromimi nodded,
    "I don't hear anything, I’ll try to stand up slowly," Mimi said slowly rising to her feet but no arrow ripped into the store,
    "Where is Raeni then?" Imri asked her getting up as well, "You don't think?"
    "No, Raeni couldn't die on us," she argued shaking her head,
    "And what if the second he stepped outside he got bolted to death? Then what?!" Imri argued,
    "Look, that doesn’t matter anymore, nothing does, we have to stop them. With or without Raeni,"
    "What are we suppose to do!?"
    "Ok, well these people, they are all special like he said, right? Apparently if Raeni was right, we are special too, we can fight fire with fire," Kuromimi could feel the encroaching twilight,
    "It was chosen for me," she said to herself,
    "What are you talking about! We have to go!"
    “Imri, what if my power is just trapped inside me? You have the key to any lock!" she argued and Imri tilted her head,
    "You want me to unlock something? I'd pay to see a big enough lock I could fit this thing in!" She summoned her weapon to give her an idea of its size but Kuromimi shook her head,
    "The lock isn't a physical thing, Imri, please just let the Keyblade do what it wants to," the girl nodded and her hands rose pointing towards her chest. A beam of light shot at her phasing through her skin. She could feel the light inside her and could hear the sound of tumblers beginning to become undone until the lock broke open. The beam died down and the store's lights went out. She found herself in a dark room looking at the same figure from her dreams standing across the room from her,
    "I knew you would see you're path,"
    "You still haven’t told me who you are?" she argued but the man only shook his head,
    "Some one who is interested in you're connection to Raeni, that is all you need to know about me. I knew he would come, he would sense my workings on your heart, you two are connected,"
    "Connected?" she asked but he ignored her question,
    "We are special people, Kuromimi. We hold a curse, beyond all the power, there is a terrible burden. Darkness and light will fight to control you. You won’t know what these forces intend with you, but they will fight all the same. Death would be a blessing for us, instead of roaming the darkness a hallowed shell or mindless beast we seem so destined to become,”
    she looked him through his black veil and into the eye and could see a darkness stirring inside him. It was like nothing she had ever seen before, not subtle evil, no malevolent forces at work, just the moment she set her eyes on his terror struck her and she only had one thing in mind. Run. Run and get as far away as possible, never stop, never look back. Never turn to the creature in the corner of your eye and just keep going. But even though her heart pulled her away she held her ground keeping their eyes locked,
    "What do I have to do, to save him,"
    "Raeni is beyond you're help now, his conversion is assured. But should you want to save the rest of your world,” he held out his arm and a weapon began to materialize it's self. Darkness wrapping around his arm until a cruel weapon glowed in the shadow in front of him. It's blade was black and like a traditional longsword but it had silver triangular edges comming from the blade on both sides almsot like a hacksaw, "Raise you're blade, and fight,"
    "I don't have a sword," she informed him looking at the weapon in his hand but he laughed,
    "Then this battle, will be quick," The moment the words came from his mouth he was in front of her holding his hand to her stomach. Dark energy pulsed from it and she was send sprawling onto the ground backwards, "You're heart, it is interesting, light, and darkness, they seem to both be present. In harmony,"
    "What do you know about my heart!" she gat back to her feet holding out her hand. A new sensation gripped her like she had never felt before. Light and darkness together as if unlocked by his words began to manifest them self into power. She held out her hand and suddenly a droplet of liquid hits the ground under her hand. She turned towards her arm and purple liquid dripped off of her like sweat, forming and melding together in a rush of liquid forming a saber in her sword hand the liquid turning to a solid steel shape. The blade fumed and hissed with the toxins but she held it steadily completely unaffected,
    "This, this is, my power?"
    "Poisons are very interesting Kuromimi, as with your heart, you can either save lives, or take them away," He held his other hand to the hilt of his broad sword, "But can it handle, the force of darkness it's self!" he yelled as his aura began to glow bright red, The weapon in her hand felt like the most natural thing in the world. She held it out and easily parried his two handed blow with one swing knocking him down. The ability to use the weapon came to her as naturally as breathing, the saber a lethal extension of her body, "As I expected, wonderful," the man said getting to his feet the sword melting away into the shadow on the floor, "But if it will save you're fate, that is unknown," he held out his hand and a door appeared behind him, "Kuromimi, we will meet again, no matter what befalls you,"
    "Wait, didn't you want to fight me?" he looked at her through his veil and terror gripped her like a cold gust of wind, circling her and wrapping around her entire body,
    "If I wished to fight you, you would already be dead," the shadows wrapped around him and he vanished with the darkness. The weapon was no longer in her hand but she could still feel its grip. The power she held was concentrated into the acids of the blade and she could still feel it even though it wasn't there,
    "Did it work?" Imri asked as she snapped back into consciousness,
    "Yea, I think it did," she said with a smile, "I can help, you now,"
    "Great, let’s go!" Imri said opening the door to the shop and holding it open for her, "We have to book it! The thing that the organization is looking for is half way across town! My friend, Roe, she said they were looking for something in her room,"
    "So that's where the source of this is?" She asked tilting her head walking into the plaza and Imri nodded,
    "Please, go back inside," they heard a girls voice say from the plaza,
    "Get down!" Kuromimi said grabbing Imri and throwing them both to the floor but then she looked up,
    "Wait, that-," she started looking at the two cloaked figures, "Xion!" she remembered, "And Demyx,"
    "Um, no, I’m not here," the boy said backing off but Xion looked him in the eye. He groaned and reluctantly walked back to her side,
    "Go back inside," Xion said again forming her glistening Keyblade in one hand pointing it towards them. Imri summoned her Keyblade as well,
    "You're part of the organization, aren’t you?" She asked and the girl nodded,
    "Number fourteen, I don't want you to feel pain so just stay inside and wait for it to end,"
    "You want us to pretend nothing is happening while you try to destroy the world? Fat chance!" Kuromimi held out her arm and she could feel liquid wrapping into a long saber,
    "I knew she was bad news! We can't take on both of them Xion lets go!" she shook her head and Demyx grabbed her shoulder,
    "Menial labor doesn’t suite me, ya' know? We can just leave and let Mistex handle it!" he begged but Xion kept her eyes locked on them shaking him off,
    "Imri, go to your friends house, get whatever those two are looking for," Kuromimi hissed and Imri nodded making a break for the alley way leading out of the plaza,
    "Darn it I said go back inside!" Xion called after her but she ignored her running like her life depended on it, which it did,
    "Ok, fine, Demyx, you keep her busy I’ll go get Imri back,"
    "How about, you do both things and I take a nap?" he suggested but Xion was already giving chase, "Um, hmm, this is a conundrum,” he said raising his finger into the air as his partner disappeared behind a row of buildings, "How about, you go back inside and we'll-," he started but she was already running at him with her blade. She slashed down on him but in a split second a buble of water wrapped around him blocking her attack. She slashed at the barrier again but it was like she was hitting solid rock, "Ok, fine!" he looked at her through the water barrier and his shield fell.
    Water began to wrap around his hand. Bending and changing until he held his blue sitar in front of him, "Dance water! Dance!" he called strumming his Sitar as the moister in the air condensed around him. Shapes formed out of the water, copies of Demyx all circling around the plaza, their sitars playing, "Right, did I tell you that you only have a minute to kill fifty forms?" he asked over his music with a smile on his face, "If not, they'll rock you hard!" She turned away from the boy look at the water clones circling around her. She stabbed her weapon into the concrete and it began to bubble. Purple liquid oozed from the blade. The acid didn't even bother the clones but Demyx had to back off stopping his playing to avoid the pool approaching him, the forms began to dissolve falling into the acidic mixture,
    "That's cheating! You can't attack me!" he called out holding his Sitar to his side,
    "You can't make up the rule!" her feet made contact with the acid as she ran at Demyx but it held her weight easily as she floated on the pool of liquid. She ran at him ready to strike but he held his sitar out strumming a few low cords. A stream of water shot from his weapon and she had to break her charge to avoid it. She ran at him but he blocked her attack catching it on the hardened strings of his instrument throwing her back, "Come on, get to the beat!" he called out slamming his Sitar at her in a fury of attacks. She tried to block him but his weapon some how easily overpowered her one handed grip knocking her into the acid. It held her weight, but a sudden wave of heat hit her from where she lay. The acid under her boiling. She struggled to her feet her hand burning as it touched the acid,
    "How did you do that?"
    "Me? No, that's you're mess, you don't even know how you're own element works! Acid really doesn’t like getting wet,” he smiled playing another few cords on his sitar,
    "If you stop now I might even write a song about you, what do ya say?" she got to her feet clutching the hilt of her toxic blade tight in her hand,
    "No? That’s too bad then," he strummed a high cord on his weapon and water began to build up behind him until it formed a solid column of water. He shot at her like a rocket propelled on the jet of water. She got out of the way a second before he stopped. In another strum of his Sitar water erupted around him washing all of the acid at his feet away, "Human girls are just confusing, you write them songs, get them flowers, nothing works!" she glared at him getting to his feet, "I like Nobody girls better, like Xion, much less confusing. But it can't be helped, once you join us, you'll see light,"


    * * *


    Imri reached the clear line where the rundown buildings turned to skyscrapers. Beautiful tall building she knew and loved over her head but she still wasn't safe, Xion as hot on her tail, Keyblade in hand. She tried to out run her but she had her limits, Xion could keep going like this for hours without a heart or lungs to worry about. She had to lose to her eventually,
    "Imri! Wait!" the girl called behind her but she ignored her darting through the empty streets, she could sense power welling up behind her and looked back to see the girl holding her Keyblade pointed towards her "Fire!" Xion called out as a huge ball of flames was released from the tip of the girl's weapon. She could feel the Keyblade appearing in her hands and guiding her steps. She turned and faced the encroaching ball of fire with the weapon braced in front of her. The qeapon guided her and a sudden burst of surged through her, a word came into her head and she intantly knew what it meant.
    "Reflega!" she called and a barrier of light wrapped around her. The fire crashed into her shield seething and licking at the protective bubble but it didn't so much as singe her shield,
    "You're, not that bad," Xion called as the fire faded, "I put allot into that spell,"
    "That was a first level spell, you're holding back arn't you?" Imri asked bracing the weapon in front of her,
    "To test you're sheild, it's weak enough," Xion admitted holding her weapon into the air, "Let's see how quick of a study you really are, no holding back, I'm going to use all of Sora's power in this one strike!" light began to surge around her and Imri almost had to turn her eyes away from the girl's radiant aura. Her form began to change as battle armor formed around her body. Her black robe replaced by red and white armor surrounding her body and shrouding her face. Her Keyblade had changed shape in her hand, now a red star on the end of a silver saber held in beautiful golden hilts. The weapons radiated pure light that seemed too bright to only be Xion's, stronger light than the sunlight that flowed through her weapon. She held two of the stars in each hand and looked at her through her helmet,
    "Final," she spoke, her voice not her own, "Final form, Sora's ultimate level of power,"
    "Sora-? You know about him?!" she called back looking at the girl but she only answered with a spell,
    "Areogara!" A swirling vortex appeared around her locking her in place. The winds nearly obstructed her view but she could see the girl pressing her two weapons together, merging their light energy into one strike. The edges of the weapons glowed with blue light and a long lash of energy shot from them,
    "Reflega!" she called again as a shield wrapped around her but the attack cut through it like tissue paper. She held her Keyblade in front her to block the strike but it only slowed it down. The radiant weapon caught the blade and began to buckle under the force of the attack. The Keyblade began to bend and then in an explosion of light her weapon disintegrated into a cloud of white dust. Xion's armor broke and she fell to her knee, her Keyblade returning to its normal form. She breathed heavy and looked back up at her with disbelief.
    "How? How are you not dead! A human can't withstand that!" she pushed herself up and an unscratched Imri summoned her weapon back, repaired by the light of the sun. She held her Keyblade in front of her coming down on Xion with an overhead strike but the girl caught the attack. Bracing her Keyblade against Imri's with her shield hand.
    Xion took her hand off the Keyblade ducking out of Imri's attack and placing her hand on Imri’s chest, "Firada!" she called and an explosion formed in her hand throwing Imri back and burning the word 'epicness' off her shirt leaving only charred fabric, "I was weak, but now that I have Sora's power, I should be able to defeat anyone! How are you still standing?" Imri braced her Keyblade in front of her,
    "Because I have something to protect," she turned away from the girl and even though she was exhausted she still sprinted down the road away from her,
    "Hey, wait!" Xion called back matching her steps, "You can't get away from me so easily! Thunder!" storm clouds began to form over them and a single bolt of lightning crashed down in front of her knocking her back, "Areogara!" she called again and wind began to wrap around her locking her in place. The girl ran to her Keyblade ready to strike but Imri turned in time to see her attack and braced her Keyblade in front of her,
    "Reflega!" she called again but her magical energy was already depleted and Xion continued her strike. Imri caught her Keyblade but was overpowered by the strike. She managed to deflect it so it only grazed her shoulder but the blade cut clean through the shoulder of her shirt leaving the skin underneath cut. She attacked back and caught Xion off guard stabbing her chest with her weapon easily piercing her dark robe. She looked down at the wound and pulled back her Keyblade. A human would be bleeding all over the place but the wound just remained a hole in Xion's chest, no blood,
    "You, you really don't have a heart-," Imri started looking at the wound and Xion scowled at her,
    "Cura!" she called holding her Keyblade over the wound. The skin began to pull its self back together followed by the robe sewing it's self up, "I'm not done yet," she said looking at Imri's shoulder, "You don’t know how to fix you're self, do you?" Xion asked and Imri held her Keyblade in the same place Xion did,
    "Cura!" she called replicating Xion’s movements but nothing happened,
    "You need to practice using the Keyblade for much more than a day to learn these thing, you don't stand a chance!" Xion ran up to her slashing again but Imri caught the blade this time holding it steady despite her bloodied shoulder,
    "I have the sun on my side! The light!" she pulled the blade away knocking Xion back with the hilt of her weapon, "You just want to destroy everything that I am fighting to protect?"
    "What makes you think we are trying to do that!?" Xion called running back at her but the winds around her died down letting Imri get out of the way of her charge coming back at her from her side. Xion turned and caught the Keyblade easily with a one handed swing,
    “It’s simple! You guys are the bad guys!" Imri pulled her weapon back and it guided her movements, getting ground between the two. The blade raised her hands in front of her and she could feel it brimming with power. The sun's light restoring enough energy for a small spell, "Radiance!" she called and the sun’s rays ignited the tip of her weapon with a white fire. Xion stared at it in awe but then braced her weapon in front of her as the fire grew to a huge white ball, "This, this is light!" The white fire shot from her weapon like a flame thrower but before it hit Xion it bent, wrapping around her setting the ground ablaze in brilliant fire,
    "How-, I've never even heard of that spell yet, you used it, how?" Xion asked looking at the fire and then back at her. She couldn't answer; the attack seemed like something she was made to call forth by the Keyblade. The weapon whispered answers to her in an invisible voice but they felt on the tip of her tongue, like she couldn't speak them,
    "Maybe, it's because, you don't know the light! You only know the darkness!"
    "Sora's strength, it is all light. I'll show you light!" Xion pointed her weapon towards her and a spell began to well at the tip of the weapon, "Firaga!" she called and fire began to seethe at the tip of her blade, three times as powerful as her last attack, but Imri didn't even try to dodge it. The Keyblade kept her on course, turning her around and running. The Fire shot out of Xion's weapon like a missile tearing through the air but the white fire grew forming a barrier and blocking Xion’s projectile before it could leave the inferno,
    “This isn't over!" she called back through the white inferno; "Roxas and I will defeat you! You can't win!" Imri didn't look back at her taking off at a sprint towards Roe's building, the door a spec in the distance.


    * * *


    Raeni stepped into DiZ's lab preparing to feel Mistex's arrows bear down into his chest but he looked through the lab with a sign or relief,
    "DiZ! Where are you the Nobodies are about to do it, I need help or this world's going to die!"
    "It already has, Raeni," a voice said behind him. He turned, there was a boy. He knew he was young but something about him seemed off. He had a black piece of cloth tied around his eyes and had white hair that draped down against his shoulders. He wore a black trench coat and Raeni scowled at him,
    "Organization, so you're here too?" he asked pulling a coin out of his pocket, "I called wrong, i should have gone where i didn't want to go. I guess you guided me here somehow," he put his hand over his chin examining him, "Oh! I see. You're one of Vexen's replicas, the Riku Replica! That's it!" "No, I'm the real thing," the air around his hand shimmered, and a sword appeared in his hand, it looked like a black wing like that of a dragon but he could easily recognize it as a Keyblade,
    "You hold a Keyblade? So you're the real Riku?" he flipped his coin and it turned into a staff spinning in the air above his head,
    "The great Riku, the same Riku who fell to darkness and nearly destroyed everything? I'm honored," he spoke mockingly staring him down, "Last I checked though, you were fighting the Nobodies too, so we have something in common,"
    "I am, but. I still have to take you down!" "This is pointless! I'm not trying to hurt anyone; I'm trying to save people!"
    "If you do that then my friend, won’t wake up,"
    "Don't be crazy! We have to stop the organization! They are planning on opening the door to darkness!"
    "Raeni, no they aren’t, we are," Raeni tilted his head,
    "We're the good guys! Corse we wouldn't do that! DiZ hates the organization why would he want more Nobodies running around?"
    "Sora," the Riku spoke holding his blade above his head, the tip pointed towards Raeni's heard, "This world will die so Sora can wake up,"
    "That’s insane! DiZ can't even open the door without-!" he stared but then looked at the boy's weapon, "Ah, so that why you're here? You opened one door to darkness! Why not another?"
    "You're right, because Xion refused to help, I'm here to do it,"
    "Ah, well, that makes my job that much easier. Kill you, and the door stay's locked tight, to bad for Sora ,"
    "You think you can beat me?" the boy ran for him weapon in hand bringing the blade down on him but Raeni easily countered the one handed strike knocking the boy back. He regained his balance and Raeni shook his head,
    "Yea, this shouldn't be long, I thought this was going to be harder,"
    "Well then, how do you like this?" The boy vanished into a cloud of darkness and rematerialized behind him with a thrust. Raeni turned but before he could counter attack he disappeared and charged him again. He landed a glancing blow, cutting into the side of his grey shirt. He brought his staff down on his head but again he vanished, "Its over!" he said rematerializing above him. Raeni got out of the way using his staff to push him away from the blast. Riku came down hard his sword cut into the ground with such force dark shockwaves lapped off of the attack like waved knocking Raeni back. He pulled his weapon out of the ground and slashed at him but Raeni got to his feet in time to counter and knock him back,
    "You aren't the only one with tricks. This entire room is one big chunk of metal, even though I expended most of my power on the Nobodies, I barley need to raise my finger and still I will have more power then you're 'darkness' could ever give you!" Raeni yelled taking whatever coins were left in his pocket, "Try your luck against my dance of thirteen staves!" the coins all grew until they formed twelve staves made out of glistening metal. He threw his own into the pile and the staves came to life, flying into the air and raining down onto the boy in a magnetic field. He was better then he thought though, he hacked and slashed his way through the madness and lunged at him. He pulled the coins back turning his hand into a magnet, causing the shrunken staves to stack in his hand in a neat pile. Before Riku's blade could connect he had a shield of coins in front of him countering the attack. The coins fell back into his pouch in a straight line and his looked at Riku,
    "You really didn't know what you were going up against, did you?" he flexed his hand towards the boy and his weapon was pulled from his hand and onto the floor, "And now, I’ll let the darkness finish you," Raeni held out his hands and the coins held inside the glass flowers around the room began to fight against the clear glass shattering the bulbs of the plants. A stack of heartless coins balanced neatly in his hand and in a perfect stack. He scattered them around the room and the small black creatures burst free of the coins' grips and soon ten 'shadow' heartless stood in a orderly line in front of Raeni. The heartless were easily the weakest servants of the darkness. Small scrawny creatures, about the size of a small monkey. They had black skin, no mouths, and brilliant yellow eyes. The antenna atop their heads twitched as they looked at Riku. Their small black claws at the end of their two short arms were enough to easily tear through human flesh and their two legs were almost kangaroo like feet, "I really got to have got DiZ some more quality heartless, oh well, a wimp like you can't even take these ten without you're precious Keyblade,”
    "I won't lose to someone like you," he snarled trying to materialize his Keyblade in his hand again but again Raeni knocked it away again,
    "Well it wouldn't be fun if you had your weapon of choice," he argued. Riku held his hand out to the heartless and a black flame lit in his hand,
    "Dark Fira!" he called and the black grey until it was about the size of the boys head. He threw it at the heartless and it detonated annihilating the small creatures in a black inferno,
    "Well you're boring, I was hoping you would go out kicking and punching,"
    "No such luck," he said with a smile,
    "Oh well, I'll just kill you now, once you're gone, DiZ isn't going to have any one to clean his messes up for him," Raeni pulled a coin out of his pocket and using the magnetism of his hand he threw it, shooting the coin like a bullet towards Riku. He was aiming for the boy's forehead but in an attempt to dodge the metal it hit right under his eye, "Ouch, should have taken the quick death," Raeni said as the boy fought the earge to cry out pain as he pulled the coin from his skin, "Well, that's one way to go, stay still and I’ll slit you're throat," Raeni said with a sigh, "I normally don't like to kill humans, but you want to kill all of these innocent people. You’re just as dull as the Heartless,"
    "Don't say that when you're the one in a trap,"
    "What could you possibly mean by-," Raeni froze, he didn't notice that he armed DiZ's laser before they had started fighting. It was not pointed at him primed to fire, "Clever," Throwing a wave of magnetism at the thing but before it was knocked off DiZ's table it shot its green beam of light at him. There was no time to get out of the way, even if the beam grazed him he would be stripped of his heart.
    "Rips the heart right from the body and turns it into data, game set and match," the boy spoke Raeni fell to the floor and the laser's beam stopped. He could feel his heart, trying to escape and his body barley holding it in,
    "Well done Riku," he heard DiZ's voice and looked up to see him come out of a dark coridor, "I couldn't have done better myself,"
    "DiZ? Why? I thought, you hated-. The Organization" Raeni strugled trying his hardest to hold onto his heart,
    "If Sora never wakes up, then, all of the worlds will be destroyed. Is the fate of every being in existence worth the life of one world?"
    "Sora? I could beat him easily, why is he so important!?" He asked forcing himself to his feet but DiZ didn't answer,
    "I have no further use for you in my plan, in fact, you would just be a hindrance. Dreams of doing what are right, in this universe, there is only data. Nothing else maters," the sientist said, not willing to give him an answer and Raeni glared at him,
    "I'll take you down DiZ, even if it's as a heartless! I won't sleep until I end you,"
    "You won't even remember who you are," Diz turned back to the blindfolded boy and gave him a small nod, "Riku, return to twilight town, I have a few other matters to settle here first,"
    the blindfolded boy gave the man a nod befor taking his leave in a coridor of darkness
    "When you come back. I will make sure to put you're empty shell to rest,"
    "Empty-?" Raeni started but then he had to put his hands against his chest. He could feel his heart being torn from his body as he fell down to the floor, hallowed.


    * * *

    "Imri, where did you go during lunch?" Roe asked as she opened the door for her but she invited herself in,
    "Um-, well my parents aren’t home if-," she started but Imri shook her head,
    "Your bedroom, what the organization is looking for is in your bedroom,"
    "Organization? Have you been listening to that Raeni creep!?"
    "Listen, Roe!" she said turning to her friend, her eyes grave, "Raeni gave his life so that we could stop the organization from destroying the world. I fought against one of their member's, Xion, and look," she showed her, her bloodied shoulder and Roe's eye went wide,
    "Imri! We have to get some bandages on that!"
    "We don't have time, come up to your bedroom with me and help me look for the thing you said they were after," Roe nodded and lead her up the stairs to her bedroom,
    "So, basically we are looking for something in my room, capable of destroying the world?" she opened the door to her bed room and Imri stepped inside summoning her Keyblade, "Ok, what would the organization be looking for?" Roe asked again,
    "Um, maybe a sword of some sort? Raeni said something about a door on the way over here," Roe stared at her,
    "Did you say a door?"
    "Yea, a door, it might be one of your doors,"
    "No, no that’s not it. Come on Imri help me push the bed,” Imri tilted her head,
    "Why?"
    "Just do it," Roe said getting on one side of the bed. Imri dissipated her Keyblade and helped her push the bed until the side of it pressed against her wall,
    "That, that’s' a mysterious door," Roe said looking down at the wooden knob less door under her bed,
    "It was their when we bought the apartment, it's probably just a building defect but that doesn’t make any sense Because it looks nothing like the rest of the house, Imri said crouching down and running her hand over the door’s wooden frame,
    "No, this is definitely, something evil," she said looking down at the wood,
    “Where does leads, Roe?”
    “I don’t know, probably the floor under us,”
    “As soon as she said it the door shook, like someone on the other side was banging, trying to get in,
    “As he shall open the door to light, it is you to shall open a door,” Imri’s hair stood on end,
    “Did you hear that?” She asked her friend,
    “Hear what?”
    “You are the seventh key Imri, and with you, comes a great power,” her blood turned to ice and she looked down at the door,
    “That, the voice,”
    “You’re hearing things Imri,” Roe said putting her ear against the door,
    “How do we open it?”
    “We don’t! That’s what the organization is trying to do! We have to hide it,” Roe said stepping up from the floor,
    “Help me get my bed back in place,”
    “You must open the door, Imri, see for you're self what is beyond,” She raised her hand towards her door and her weapon appeared in a flash of light,
    "What are you doing! We need to hide it! Not hit it!" Imri held it out to the door and a huge keyhole appeared. She turned the key and the lock opened, the key wanted to close the door, lock it forever, but she had to know what was behind it. The door flew open and the sun set, and in the darkness, they could see a thousand pairs of yellow eyes


    * * *


    The sun set over the city and its last rays of light hit the toxic covered plaza casting red light over the pool of purple liquid. Kuromimi held her weapon in front of her as the melodious nocturne innocently played his cords in front of her,
    "So, you going to make a move?" he asked over his music without a care in the world. She was bruised and burnt over half of her body but the boy didn't have a scratch. Maybe the man in her dreams was wrong,
    "I'm bringing you down!" Kuromimi ran at him slashing down but he easily countered her one handed attack with his Sitar knocking her back,
    "Dance water, dance!" he called playing a few notes on his Sitar causing water clones to form around her. She cut through them with her blade almost the moment they appeared and Demyx's playing stopped, "Don't like music?" Demyx asked her with a frown,
    "I don't like yours!" she called back running at him blade at her side,
    "Everyone likes my music! Even the water," his fingers went to his strings and he picked out a tune on his instrument. Kuromimi tried to come down on him with a strike but she lost all of the strength in her legs sending her to the ground. "No, don't interrupt the song," he scolded her over his haunting tune. The music seemed to be working its way inside her body,
    "Now, stand up," she felt her legs and arms moving on their own accord and she rose to her feet standing in front of him,
    "Ok, now say, Demyx is the most talented musician ever,"
    "Demyx is the most talented musician ever," she nearly fell back after the words slipped through her mouth. Control came back to her body and Demyx smiled,
    "See! Once you really listen to it you love it! It’s awesome isn't-?" he started but she came down on him hard with her blade. He raised his Sitar but she had already slammed her weapon down on his shoulder. The acid of the weapon burning through his coat,
    "No, this is bad, really really bad!" he whined looking at his shoulder, "I only get so many of these! I lose at least one every combat mission I go on give me a break!" despite his whining the cut wasn't enough to slice through the thick pad of cloth at his shoulders and his skin remained untouched. She came at him again from the side and managed to slash him again, this time her blade drove through the coat and grazed his skin. He yelped jumping back and looking at his side, "That hurt! Why would you do that I’m just trying to serenade you with lovely music?"
    "Go, now," she threatened holding her sword above her head,
    "Well, Mistex doesn’t have to know I messed up, right-? Later," he called forming a dark corridor but a diamond bolt crashed down at his feet sending him backwards,
    "Mistex! Where? I thought you said you would go after Raeni!?" Kuromimi looked up to the eye patched girl who was perched over one of the buildings, bow in hand, waving at the two,
    "Oh, hey Kuromimi," she called dropping down to the plaza, "I see Demyx hasn't finished you off yet. I doubted he would. Where are Imri and Xion?" she asked casually. Kuromimi gripped her weapon tighter looking into the girl's one good eye,
    "Come on, you stiffs! Liven up it's the end of the world," she gestured to the sky. Kuromimi looked up and nearly fell back in terror. The stars were all gone. There was no lights hanging in the sky except for a huge heart shaped moon,
    "See, you can see our house form here," Mistex said pointing towards the moon, "Now, since we obviously failed, Demyx, I want to know who dropped the ball? You I guess?" she tilted her head looking at the boy who reluctantly dissipated his Sitar. She normally would have taken the opportunity to attack but there was no telling how quick of a draw the archer really was,
    "Wait, didn't you want this?"
    "No, not really, this is actually worst case scenario for us. Good triumphs over evil, yet again," Mistex sighed hanging her head but almost instantly perked it back up, "Where's Xion so I can round her up and get out of here?"
    "Truer words have never been spoken, I’m out," Demyx said giving her a small salute before summoning a dark corridor around himself,
    "Wait, where is-," she started but Demyx was already gone, "Bah, the help these days, can you tell me Kuromimi?"
    "What makes you think I would tell you!?"
    "Well, if you weren’t busy trying to destroy your own world I would be on your side!"
    "You-. Why would the 'good guys' want to destroy the world? Isn't that your job?"
    "It sounds like fun, but nah, this time we had to save it, believe me or not,"
    "Can you still do it?"
    "Nope, its Armageddon all over again here, look at the sky! There are going to be heartless here any moment,"
    "So-," she started falling to her knees, her toxic weapon falling to the ground, "That's it, I’m going to die?"
    "Uh, well, I did warn ya'," she said holding her bow over her shoulder,
    "I-I, I don't want to die," she managed and Mistex sighed,
    "Well don't get all emotional on me, I can't share you're-," she put her finger on her chin, "Uh, this one is either despair, or fear, can ya tell me please I’m trying to learn this stuff,"
    "You don't have a heart, you wouldn't understand,"
    "Now that's cold," she said scratching the back of her head with her hand, "Don't worry, despair or fear, Kuromimi! Death is only the beginning, I already know you're heart is strong enough, you can become one of us!"
    "One of you? Why?"
    "It's a second chance!"
    She looked up to her, "Without a heart?"
    "Heart, no heart, better then dying isn't it?" Kuromimi looked down at her sword,
    "But, what about everyone else, Raeni."
    "Raeni, can just die, I think I’d shoot him again if he came back a Nobody!"
    "So, just me, no one else, my mom? My Guiney pig?"
    "Uh-," Mistex started,
    "Well, there isn't any food where we come from, so yea, no pets,"
    "No one, but me? Alone?"
    "Ok, don't get teary on me," Mistex said with a sigh,
    "Tell ya what, when we get back, I promise to be you're friend, kay? Just don't cry,"
    "Why? That wouldn't mean anything!"
    "Let me do something for you then," a red crystal formed in her hand and she looked down in it and then back at Kuromimi,
    "If I hit you with this, it will give you complete rite of passage, otherwise it would take a heartless to kill you, and I’m sure the world is going to collapse on its self before that happens," she held the red bolt back in her bow and aimed it towards Kuromimi, "It will be quick and painless, promise," Kuromimi turned back to her mom's shop and then back at the girl,
    "She won’t make it, will she?"
    "No, Maybe the Keyblade master, maybe the other strong hearts here, but not her," Kuromimi sighed looking at the ruby arrow notched in the bow,
    "Ok, fine. Do it,"


    * * *


    Roe stood over the door staring down into the darkness when she heard a voice. A dark whisper in her ear, like a hiss of smoke, "You have done well," it said to her and she clutched her head in pain. The forms in the darkness of the door danced and teased jumping around in their pit slowly climbing their way towards them,
    "Imri! It’s darkness! That’s what was going to end the world, the darkness in the doorway! They are coming!" her friend nodded pointing her Keyblade back to the door. She turned the key in an attempt to lock the door but it was already too far open and her best attempts did absolutely nothing against the flood of shadow,
    "They are going to come through, I can't stop them!" she announced looking into the seething shadow. One of the creatures stuck its head out of the door and Imri screamed hitting it on the head with her weapon sending it falling back into the darkness. Another came to take its place and soon they came out of the door like ants in an ant hill,
    "Push the bed over them so we can slow them down!" Imri suggested taking out three at a time with one slash of her weapon,
    "Roe, she is a creature of the light, you and I, we don't need her," the sispy voice spoke to her again,
    "Shut up!" she called into the darkness clutching her head,
    "Roe, what's wrong!"
    "Get back!" she called to Imri holding out her hand,
    "There, is someone, a-. Oh my god, he, is darkness," she held head and time froze. Imri stopped looking towards her, her eyes held open and Keyblade in hand, a shadow standing behind her ready to attack,
    "Yes, my dear, you are correct," she heard a man's voice say as a form emerged from the door. A man with brilliant white hair stepped onto her bed room floor, he wore a white coat over his exposed skin, a black heart outlined with red in the center, an X crossing through it loosely pinning the two sides of his coat together. He looked down at her with fierce orange eyes and a wicked grin, "You're obedience has been most appreciated, my dear, you shall make a much more suitable host,"
    "Who are you?" she asked looking him in the eyes,
    "I am, the seeker of darkness. My name, is Ansem,”
    "What do you want!?" she called back holding her hand out as if to block him from coming any closer,
    "You're fear, is amusing," Ansem stared her down, "Best an emotion, discarded. We will fix that quite soon, my dear,” darkness began to sprout from the man's back, tendrils of shadow twisting together to make a form, an almost human shape made of pure darkness. It had antenna on its head like the little creatures but they were far more twisted. Its face was that of a human's but much more bestial, razor sharp teeth shown through its mouth and two yellow eyes were centered on its nose less face. It was chained in some sort of metal harness. Probably how Ansem managed to control the thing, "Hold out your arm," he invite her but she didn't have a choice, her arm moved on its own regard and darkness wrapped around it. The nightmarish shadows cut a gleaming dark scythe out of the air in her hand. The metal hilt and blade engraved with dark secrets and unreadable words, "That. That is a weapon stronger than any 'key'," he spoke as her hands tightened around the weapon,
    "This, is darkness? Why?"
    "You have been harboring darkness in your heart for long, Roe. The heart is the absolute darkness, darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it, such is it's nature,"
    "So, what Raeni said, about the heart not being just for pumping blood, he was right?" the man laughed looking down at her with his fierce orange eyes backing her into a corner,
    "How scientist such as you're self try to explain what they have no business knowing. A pitiful attempt to harness the hearts, true darkness,"
    "No, I understand, the heart's power releases some sort of energy right? That energy is responsible for all of this, that creature on your back! Those shadows! Those are all manifestations of the hearts energy!" she held her scythe out and he nodded,
    "You seem to know, but, can you understand?" the shadows began to move again training their beady eyes on her,
    "Go, attack," he ordered and the creatures obeyed lunging at her. The blade was clumsy in her hands but it seemed attracted by the creature's darkness, pulling its self to them like a bladed magnet. It sliced through a group of three and she could feel the energy the creature's released being absorbed by her weapon. The dark blade basking in the glow of the darks power,
    "Yes, giving the weapon to you instead of that fool Riku will prove useful," she could feel time come to a start again and in a heartbeat the man had disappeared leaving her with Imri holding her weapon standing almost as tall as she was,
    "Roe, the shadows they just-," Imri started but then turned to her friend, "Whoa, where did you get that?" Imri examined the weapon but then a look of terror gripped her,
    "I know, that, that's you're weapon form my dreams! Get rid of it! It's pure darkness!"
    "Imri, I know, it was a gift," she spoke shaking her head,
    "The darkness doesn’t want to hurt me. It wants to help!" Another shadow came out of the door and lunged at Roe but Imri held her Keyblade out smacking it away,
    "Does that look like help!" she said finishing the shadow off,
    "Darkness is what is trying to kill us right now!"
    "Imri, look at this scientifically! Darkness is energy, given off by the negative emotions of the heart!"
    "Since when were you the science genius?" Imri asked tilting her head,
    "Just Because I don't sing for those half whit teachers doesn’t mean I can't," she admitted, "I know this, it’s clear. If you stick your hand in a fire, it burns you right?"
    "Right," Imri said nodding, "Go on?" another wave of shadows emerged from the door, this time a group of five struggled out but Roe took them all with one long swing of her weapon,
    "Darkness is the same, it's just energy, a chemical reaction, but this is a reaction caused by emotion, and the energy created by this reaction is much more powerful than a fire! Think if we didn't have fire? Fire can burn you, sure. But it also provides warmth, shelter, protection. Fire is the building block of life, so why can't darkness be, too!?" Imri sliced at the shadows with her Keyblade driving the darkness back but they were being overrun,
    "Whatever, we can't fight you're 'fire' here! Let’s get out of the building, we can fight them outside," Roe nodded running for the door leading Imri down to the elevator out of her apartment. She hit the down button and almost immediately the door opened. Roe stepped inside holding her scythe at her side. Imri dissipated her Keyblade as the door's closed around them,
    "Welcome, please state destination," the computer spoke as they heard banging on the other side of the door,
    "Ground level!" Imri called up to the machine, "Quickly!"
    "Error, quickly is not a destination, please restate floor number,"
    "Zero!" Roe corrected her and the elevator began its drop down the building.


    * * *


    The darkness had grown tenfold since it began. Huge orbs of shadow emitting massive gravity hung in the air ripping huge chunks out of the buildings. Flying heartless dotted the sky looking for prey and it was likely that the Heartless had already close to annihilated all the life within the limits of starlight city. The two stepped out on the street slamming the doors of the building behind them closed but the flood of shadows easily spilled out of the door and onto the street,
    "You both made it, well done," a voice called out through the darkness and the shadows froze. A man appeared in the center of the shadows but they ignored him. Red bandages wrapping around his face,
    "You!" Imri called out to him, "You're the-?"
    "The man from your dreams? Yes. You have done an excellent job fulfilling my plans for this world,"
    "You're plans!?" Imri called to him holding her weapon defensively in front of her, "The Nobodies-!" she started but the man laughed,
    "Imri, let’s take this guy out," Roe said to her focusing her eyes on the man and before Imri had time to answer Roe was already charging him. Scythe posed in a killing arc,
    "Stop!" he called, his voice vibrated the air around them as he raised his hand into the air. Roe began to slow down, she looked at her feet but before she realized what was going on she was already standing still caught between a blink of an eye,
    "Roe!" Imri called to her but DiZ shook his head,
    "Don't bother, she can't hear you in the state she's in,”
    "How did you do that, are you special? Like me?" He looked into her eyes and shook his head,
    "Special? Raeni found you, didn't he?" he asked ignoring her question,
    "How much did he tell you,"
    "Everything I need to know,"
    "Everything you need to know, Imri, is far beyond both of our reaches,"
    she pointed her Keyblade at the man and the tip of the weapon began to burn with white fire, "Radiara!" She called and the white fire made contact with the ground burning through the shadows until it had circled around the man,
    "Areo," he spoke as a gust of wind blew in extinguishing the fire in a split second,
    "Ones and zeros, Imri, that is all you're 'special' strength is, an interesting phenomenon but nothing more. It is only a matter of time before I decode the entire process," time began to flow normally again and Roe sprang back to life before falling to her knees disorientated,
    "Roe!" she called out to her friend but Roe held out her hand to signal that she was alright,
    "I'm fine, don't worry,"
    "I am a scientist, you see, I collect data and study the heart, decoding the light,"
    "You don't understand!" Imri called back to him holding her weapon to her side ready to strike,
    "The light isn't something you can 'study' it is something that just is! Light is all of the good in people’s hearts!"
    "Which can be interpreted as Data," he interrupted, "Even if you're mind state proves, futile. You have proven extremely interesting,” he held his hands at his side and looked over her with his orange eye, "Yes, I have much use for you, will you accept this path," he held out his hand creating a dark corridor, "On the other side of this door, is you're safety, another world where you and you're friend can survive,"
    "Another world?" Imri asked but then DiZ looked behind her,
    "And that's where we crash the party," a girl spoke as a red crystal shard imbedded it's self in the back of Roe's head sending her to the ground in a heartbeat,
    "Roe!" Imri called running for her friend but then another dark corridor opened getting in-between the two of them,
    "Hold you're horses, kiddo, no need to get antsy," the man stepping out of the corridor was tall, about DiZ's height, his face was scared top to bottom with old cuts. One of the cuts ran through his eye and he wore a black eye patch over it to cover the damage. His hair was black and graying, tied back in a long pony tail. She slashed at him with her Keyblade but in a split second he vanished appearing behind her. She heard the clicking of his weapons loading and felt the sharp barrel of one of his guns pressed against her head,
    "You want her to live, DiZ?" he asked driving the tip of the weapon deeper into her. She cried out in pain but her ignored it wrapping his arm around her neck to keep her in place, DiZ remained silent looking at the two nobodies,
    "Come on! You have a heart, show some pity!" the girl said walking up to their side, the crystal bow that she used to take down Roe still in her hand,
    "I get the chance to destroy two nobodies at once," DiZ looked over them and laughed, "Xigbar, Mistex. You two are nothing! The heart is the ultimate power and without that, you're weapons are pointless," he held out his hand to them and before Xigbar had time to shoot and recited a spell, "Stop!" he called and the two of them froze. Imri tried to get out of his grip but she was frozen like a statue. Time reverted back to normal as Xigbar fought DiZ's control,
    "You just crossed the line," he pushed her away forming a second gun in his hand, both of his weapons' barrels were long grey spikes. Underneath the barrel was half circle of thowns almost like a saw blade protecting the man's hands. Mistex broke the time freeze and notched an arrow in her bow firing it at DiZ but he simply held his hand out catching the projectile midflight without even using a spell,
    "Imri, come, now!" DiZ ordered but on his word she could feel bullets of pure energy hit her legs sending her to the ground,
    "No, don't even think about it,” Xigbar said with a smile, the tips of his weapons letting off a thin trail of smoke. Imri tried to struggle to her feet but the moment she put her weight on her foot a wave of pain shot up her body sending her back to the ground. Unlike normal bullets, these were more like lasers; burns coated the inside of her legs where she was shot,
    "Imri, to your feet. Cura!" he called and a wave of soothing light hit her. She could feel the green light wrapping around her and the burns on her body disappearing, the charred fabric of her clothes was repaired and the word 'epicness' reappeared on the front of her. She got to her feet and sprinted towards DiZ almost falling over the idle shadows he was standing over,
    "Can I take the shot?" Mistex asked looking at her,
    "Your bow," he admitted looking at the two of them in the center of the shadows. Mistex nodded forming a ruby bolt in her hand in a flash of light,
    "Right, don't be to mad I did this, ok?" she asked tilting her head targeting her with her one good eye. DiZ held out his hand in front of her matching his eye with hers,
    "Do not shoot, the outcome will be the same,"
    "You underestimating me? Do yourself a favor and don't, or you might lose your hand," she shot the arrow again but this time, she added a spin to it the moment it left her bow darting through the air at almost mach speed. DiZ closed his hand with perfect timing, catching the arrow before it could pierce his skin but the spin knocked it out of his grasp letting the bolt fly clean through his hand. Imri looked at the bolt for a split second before it lodged it's self in her shoulder. She cried in pain and Mistex sighed,
    "Old man, you made me miss!" she called out looking at the hole punched right through DiZ's red glove but he seemed completely unfazed. It didn't matter though, even though the bolt missed, Imri could still feel it going to work severing her heart clean from her body. The arrow carried an overloading emotional shock that hit her heart clean on cutting it loose from her mind, "I told you the results would be the same, but now she has to live through it," Mistex said with a sigh looking at her,
    "I thought Nobodies didn't pity? Stop fooling you'reself" he spoke closing his broken hand into a fist,
    "We can respect pain, DiZ," she shot back at him forming another bolt in her hand. Her heart tried to pull its self through her chest and she could feel it scrapping against the inside of her body. She cried out in pain even though she knew no one could do anything for her, "Let me just end it, please?" she asked drawing her bow and the man nodded,
    "You're letting him go?" Xigbar asked looking at her but she kept her eye on her target,
    "Don't worry, we'll get him, but, for now. Let’s just welcome our new members to the organization,"


    * * *


    Xion looked out of her window of her room. She was curled up on her bed, her head felt like it had a mind of its own, uncontrollable memories, most of which not even hers, flooded her mind without rest at every time of day,
    "Hey Xion," she heard a voice say on the other side of her door,
    "Mistex," she said snapping back into reality,
    "Come in," Xion turned back to the window as the girl walked in and sat down next to her, "You're, back. What do you want?" she asked absent mindedly to her visitor,
    "Nothing, I just came to check on you,"
    "Roxas sent you?" she asked and Mistex sighed,
    "Yea, he did, he is worried about you Xion, and quite frankly I am to, you didn't even manage to take Imri down and I know you're better than that, no matter what Saïx says about you,"
    "I'm fine, you can tell Roxas that, my missions have just been taking, a lot out of me lately," She looked out the window avoiding her gaze, "A star is fading," she said looking out into the night sky above the castle. The star light was nothing compared to the glowing radiance of Kingdom Hearts,
    "They couldn't have had it any other way," Mistex suggested, "It's been about a year since you and Roxas joined the organization and i'm sure when i was sleeping you did worse,"
    "Three hundred and six days, eighteen more to go," she said gazing at the dying star, "You know the exact number?" "Yea, Roxas keeps count, he told me it was day three hundred a few days ago,"
    "You two are close, aren't you?"
    "As close as we can be, without hearts, that is,"
    "Once it's done, Kingdom Hearts that is, you two can really be friends, you would make such a cute couple,"
    Xion elbowed her, “Go back to your room, Mistex, I need some sleep,"
    "Kay then, I'll see you on assignment," she turned to her and nodded,
    "Ok," she said with a sigh as Mistex shut the door behind her, bathing the room solely in the light of Kingdom Hearts.

    If this gets enough feedback I will post more of this!
     
  2. SoulboundAlchemist Gummi Ship Junkie

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    Dude, this was great! I want to read the rest! One piece of criticism though, you need to work on your grammar and spelling, I could barely read some of the sections. Other than that it was epically awesome!
     
  3. -Xero- Twilight Town Denizen

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    I know, but I wasn't the one who wrote this, my friend did (I did have permission to post it so yeah) and I thought about going through it and correcting some stuff but then I realized how long this was..
     
  4. SoulboundAlchemist Gummi Ship Junkie

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    Can I get a link to the rest of the story, cause now that I'm into it, I have to know how it ends. Esspecially now that the main characters have been turned into nobodies.