Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. That belongs to Square-Enix/Disney, but the OCs are mine.

A/N: Well, finally I did it, my own KH fanfic thingy. This takes place in the future of the KH universe and involves the adventures of my OCs. A few notes on the text: Thoughts are italicized and the bolded all-caps text was originally written in the Chiller font to give the appearance of a monster talking and I'm too lazy to fix it. Please read and review, it will help me know whether I should continue this or not. Constructive critisim would be gladly appreciated, just no flaming. If you don't like something, let me know why, give me a reason. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Advent

It was twilight, the time right between day and night and the sun is just below the horizon. The sunset cast a soft orange glow across the sky, illuminating the clouds with multiple shades of red and orange and faded into dark blue speckled with scattered stars. The town was also bathed in the red-yellow light, which reflected off the windows and made them shine. A girl walked down the road on the edge of the town, humming a tune as she headed home. Her backpack hung off one shoulder and her arms were wrapped around a paper grocery bag. A soft breeze blew through her purple hair as her violet eyes turned to the sky.

"Beautiful," she whispered as she gazed at the glowing, multi-colored sky. Just then, one of the stars began to grow and shine even brighter until it became a deep red and simply disappeared from the sky. "There goes another one," she sighed. 'It's been like this for the past year. Stars are just vanishing from the sky. Wonder why?' She turned back to the house at the end of the road. "Almost home! Wonder what mom's gonna cook tonight?" she said happily and resumed her tune.

Suddenly, a strange feeling began to creep over her. She found herself unable to move a muscle, or even make a noise. 'Wh-what's going on?' she thought as fear filled her. She felt as if she were suffocating, though she could breathe just fine. She felt claustrophobic despite being out in the open. The girl began to panic.

Then, a black slit cut the air in front of her. She yelped and jumped back; the grocery bag fell from her grasp and spilled its contents all over the road. The slit quickly expanded into a large gaping hole swirling with a black and purple mist. Fear kept the girl frozen to the spot, staring into the darkness. All of a sudden, a young man stumbled out of the hole and fell to his hands and knees. The hole vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The girl stood paralyzed for another moment before her mind registered the boy in front of her.

"Oh my god!" She hurried forward to help him. He was in bad shape. His clothes were shredded and soaked with blood. He was covered in dirt, sweat, cuts, and bruises. His left arm seemed to be broken. Blood also ran out from under his dark, matted hair and down his face.

Then the boy began to stand, supporting himself on his odd looking sword. 'What in the world?' The girl thought staring in awe. 'He looks like he's been through hell and he can still stand?' The boy looked up at her. The girl yelped and jumped back, 'His eyes -- they're glowing yellow!' He was exhausted but still tried to take a step forward. He began to fall backwards, but the girl caught him and helped slow his fall, setting him somewhat gently on the ground with his back leaning against her. "What happened to you! Whoa!"

The boy's eyes gradually changed and faded into normal brown eyes. He shook his head, slowly.

She laid him down carefully. "I'll be right back, alright? I'll go get help. Don't die!" She took off running towards her house hoping the boy would be okay as he passed out.

Darkness. Darkness was everywhere. It was pitch black all around. The dark even seemed to be seeping into his body. He was tired, couldn't hold out much longer. FIGHT. He had to keep fighting, keep the darkness from getting a hold of him. Someone else was there. He was struggling against the darkness as well. HELP HIM. He had to help him, he was being called. But the darkness was too much. He felt himself being lifted up and away.

"Aiden!"

He bolted up, panting heavily and drenched with sweat. He quickly wiped the sweat off his face with a bandaged hand. 'Wait, bandages?' He looked down and inspected his body. He was covered in bandages. They were wrapped all around his arms, legs, chest, stomach, and even his head. 'Jeez, what the hell happened to me?' he thought.

Then, he became aware of his surroundings. He was sitting on a soft, comfortable bed in a nice, clean bedroom. Sunlight streamed through the open window on his left, followed by a cool breeze that fluttered though the curtains and through a few spikes of the boy's hair that stuck out through the bandages. Directly across from the foot of the bed were a closet and an open door that led to a tiled room, most likely a bathroom. On the right, beside the door was a small desk and chair, on top of which were some carefully folded clothes. A trash can beside the desk was full of bloody bandages.

But the thing that really caught the boy's attention was the long, dark, metallic blue sword that stood leaning against the desk. It consisted of a handle covered in a black wrap with a bright blue gem set in the hilt. The gem connected to a one-sided blade that had two white, bone-like extensions growing out near the bottom on both sides to form a hand guard around the handle. The blade ended in a wicked curve and on its dull side were several "teeth", similar to that of an old key. In fact the whole thing very vaguely resembled a large key.

Slowly, the boy pulled himself out of bed and carefully got to his feet. 'Damn, how long was I out?' His body felt sore and stiff. He tried to move around, but he was so stiff he could barely move. Slowly and awkwardly, he made his way to the bathroom to inspect himself in the mirror.

"Wow." The figure staring back at him looked like a mummy. 'No wonder why I can't move. Someone went a little overboard here.' He found most of the bandages unnecessary and unwrapped himself. However he kept the cast on his left arm and the bandages around his head since those two areas didn't seem to be healed yet.

After getting rid of the bandages, he looked himself over again, and again thought, 'Jeez, what the hell happened to me?' His body seemed to be covered in scars now. They were everywhere; chest, back, arms, legs. 'The hell did I do, get into a fight with a pack of wild animals or something?' Most of the scars did seem to have been made by claws. He shook his head and went to get some clothes on.

'What the…? Whoever took care of me has no idea what they're doing,' he sighed as he held them up. 'First the bandages, now this.' His clothes which were as torn up as he was, seemed to be patched the same way he was. All the holes were either sewn up or covered with an odd patch. However, he found that he had a brand new long-sleeved t-shirt, underwear, and shoes. He put those on along with his patched up pants and short-sleeved zip-up hoodie/jacket.

Then he turned to the sword. 'Is this mine?' he wondered. 'Wait, this is what I was using to fight in my dream. Yeah, it's comin' back now. Did that dream really happen? That darkness…?' He went to lift it up. However, as soon as his hand touched the handle, a word flashed through his mind: "Keyblade".

"A Keyblade." The boy took a few practice swings and no longer doubted that it was his.

He then began looking around for a strap or sheath for the blade, but found none. 'What do I do, carry it around like this all the time?' Suddenly another thought flashed through his mind. He concentrated and the blade vanished in a bright swirl of light. He concentrated again and it reappeared in his hand. "That's, uh…weird."

"Mom, I'm home!" yelled the purple haired girl, bursting through the front door. She shut the door and dropped her bag next to it.

"I'm in the kitchen! About time you got back, Risa."

"Yeah, I know, Mom," she muttered as she slumped into a chair in the dining room. "My stupid teacher gave us a pop quiz a couple minutes before school ended and wouldn't let us out until everyone finished."

"You shouldn't be calling your teacher stupid, hon," Risa's mother said.

"Well he is." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, what's for dinner? I'm starving!"

Her mother entered the room carrying a steaming pan which she set on the table, "Chicken."

Risa set out the plates and silverware. Then, just before they began eating, they heard a noise and turned around. Risa gasped, "You shouldn't be walking around yet! There's no way you're healed!"

The boy simply shrugged. Suddenly, Risa was up and inspecting the boy, pulling up his sleeves, checking his face, and even pulling up his shirt.

"Whoa! Whoa! What the hell are you doing!" The boy jumped back and yanked his shirt down.

"Risa!" shouted her mother.

"No way…" she said, sitting back down still staring in awe. 'Just this morning, he was still bleeding…'

"I'm sorry, young man. You'll have to forgive her. But, at least you're finally awake." Risa's mother smiled at the young man in the doorway. There was a moment of awkward silence, then, "Well, don't just stand there. Why don't you join us for dinner? You must be starving."

The young man nodded and sat down as Risa's mom fetched a plate from the kitchen, filled it, and set it in front of him. "Uh…thanks."

"Oh, it's no problem, dear. We're just glad that you're alive. In fact, you should be thanking Risa here. She's the one that found you two days ago. She even did most of the bandaging and um, uh…fixed, your clothes."

The boy turned to her, but Risa shook her head and gestured with her hands, "Nah, it's no big deal really! I couldn't just leave you to die in the middle of the road."

The boy nodded and began eating. The three of them ate in silence for a few moments before Risa's mom asked, "So, why don't you tell us a little about yourself?"

The boy looked up at her and appeared to be thinking. "…I don't really remember much."

"Aw, come on," Risa whined.

Her mother glared at her, then asked the boy, "Why don't you start with your name?"

The boy thought for a second, 'In my dream…I remember someone calling a name…Aiden! Is that my name?' "…Aiden."

"Well, nice to meet you Aiden. My name is Rose." The boy nodded in response. "Do you remember how old you are?"

"Uh…sixteen…I think." 'Am I really…?'

"Oh! That's just a year younger that Risa."

"Yeah," Risa piped up. "So, Aiden, do you remember where you're from? Like your city, or hometown, or somethin'?"

"No. Not really," he sighed.

"So you don't think you're from around here?"

"Uh, where is here?"

"Oh, yeah, this is the town of Advent."

'Doesn't sound familiar. Besides,' Aiden shook his head, "It's too bright here…" he muttered.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" asked Rose.

"Nothing," he told her and began eating again. The other two followed his example and they all ate in silence for several minutes.

'It's never been this quiet before,' Risa thought. 'Mom and I always have something to talk about. I can't stand this!' She looked up at her mother, then at the boy. "Uh…Aiden?"

He looked at her as he ate.

"So, where'd you get that sword of yours? You know, you didn't let go of that thing the whole time you were unconscious? I practically had to pry it out of your hand."

"…I don't remember where I got it. It's called a Keyblade."

"Huh. A Keyblade? That's a weird name."

He shrugged.

"Key…you think it opens something?"

He shrugged again.

Suddenly, a clock somewhere rang six o'clock.

"Oh!" Rose exclaimed. "I've got laundry to do. Are you kids done?" They nodded. "Okay. Risa help me clear this up. Aiden, you're welcome to stay here with us at least until you're memory comes back. I doubt your amnesia is permanent." She smiled.

"Thanks."

Later that night…

Aiden found himself falling headfirst into darkness. 'Whoa, what's going on? I'm falling. Is this a dream?' He couldn't see a thing. But this time, the darkness was different, 'I'm not afraid this time….'

His descent slowed and he was able to slowly flip over. His feet abruptly hit something solid and he was able to stand. He glanced around, eyes trying to peer into the darkness. He took a step forward and a bright light suddenly burst from the floor. He shielded his eyes with his arm as the light quickly spread out in a circle and became a flock of white birds flying outwards into the darkness.

Aiden jerked up once again and found himself back in the guest room with an alarm clock buzzing loudly. He pounded the annoying noise off as he sat up.

He covered his face with his hands, 'What the hell is wrong with me? What's with the weird dreams?' He glanced at the clock which displayed 7:00. He sighed as he threw the covers off and got up to dress. Last night, Rose and Risa decided it would be best if Aiden attended school. Though he could not recall anything specific, he knew he used to go to school, and remembered he didn't like it. But he decided not to argue with the two women. Besides, maybe using his brain would help his memory. He went downstairs to get some breakfast.

"Hey, you'll probably need these," Risa said after they finished eating, handing Aiden a spare notebook, a pencil, and a pen. "You remember how to use these, right?"

He nodded.

The three of them then left the house. Rose came along to help with the registration. Nothing eventful happened for the rest of the day. Aiden went through a registration and orientation, though he didn't really pay much attention to what was going on. It was taking too long since it was unusual for a new kid to join in the middle of the year and he ended up getting lost in his thoughts most of the time, trying to remember his past and where'd he'd come from.

'As long as I don't do something stupid, I won't get in trouble,' he figured, as he mostly ignored the lecture on the school rules.

The school required him to take a placement test and he was surprised by what he knew. He did more than well enough to be placed in the senior class, Risa's grade level. He began classes soon after and was again surprised by how much he already knew. He tended to sit towards the back corners and simply followed instructions, though his mind was usually elsewhere.

Risa was in several classes and even showed him around school and taught Aiden how to use his locker and how to get food at the cafeteria. However, he didn't like the noise of the school and found his way to the roof, where he spent his free time trying to figure out who he was. He even began playing with his Keyblade.

'Swinging this thing around just feels so natural to me,' he noticed. 'It's like I've been doing this forever…'

He spent the next couple of weeks like this, simply going to school and helping with chores around the house. He dreamt about the darkness a few more times, but was glad it didn't happen often. Risa and her mother weren't able to learn much more about him. Aiden kept to himself most of the time and wasn't very social, unlike Risa, who was friendly and took part in school activities. She was even on the track team and started practice not long after Aiden came along.

On her first day of practice, Aiden decided to wait for her and watched from the roof of the school. However, he didn't realize how long it would be and accidentally fell asleep.

Suddenly, someone was shaking him, "Hey, get up, you lazy bum."

Aiden opened his eyes to see Risa kneeling over him. He was surprised that the sun was almost gone already and the stars were visible.

"You're lucky I saw you up here during practice," she told him as he sat up. "So, this is where you hang out all the time. No wonder I never see you at lunch, then again I'm usually busy. Students aren't allowed up here, you know?"

He yawned. "Whatever."

"Wow, it is nice up here." She leaned on the railing and watched as the last light from the sun began to disappear.

"Yeah," Aiden agreed.

"Hey, maybe I'll give you some company up here sometime." She closed her eyes as the breeze blew through her purple hair. She turned to him, "But if I get caught, it'll be your fault."

Aiden shrugged, "Come on, let's go."

They reached the school's front steps when Risa suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, I'll race you home!"

Aiden gave her a strange look. "Aren't you tired?"

She grinned and took off.

"Wha–?" Suddenly her gym bag collided with his face. "Hey!" Quickly, Aiden slung the bag around himself and followed.

Risa smiled to herself, 'There's no way he'll beat me!' She glanced over her shoulder to see how bad she was beating him, "What!" All of a sudden, he had caught up and was now ahead of her. 'He's fast!' She pushed herself even harder, but couldn't catch up.

By the time she reached her house, Aiden was already sitting on the front porch steps, grinning. She collapsed on the porch next to him. "Y…ou…cheated!" she accused him between breaths.

He gave her a questioning look, "I cheated? I think this is yours." He dropped the bag next to her.

"Shut…up. I was…al…ready…tired."

"I told you-" She glared at him. "Fine, whatever." He leaned back against the next step and looked up at the sky. The sun had already set and several scattered stars were visible against the dark sky. A while ago, Risa had told him how she found him. As he stared at the specks of light, a crazy thought occurred to him, 'Huh, maybe I'm from somewhere up there?' he thought to himself. 'Wonder if my memory will ever come back. What am I doing here anyway? These last couple weeks…I don't know, something's wrong with this. Everything just feels too…normal. Like it's too good to be true. What happened to me?'

He gazed at the stars for a minute or two when, suddenly, one of the stars began to expand and turn a bright red. Aiden stopped to watch as it disappeared, 'What the hell?'

"Hey, what's up?" Risa asked, sitting up and wrapping her arms around her knees.

"A star just disappeared."

She looked up at the sky, "So, another one's gone, huh?"

He gave her a questioning look.

"They've been disappearing like that almost every night for over a year."

'Every night…? I've been here for two weeks, how come I never noticed until now?'

"There's so few now…," she sighed. "You should've seen the sky before; it used to be covered with stars. Hey! There goes another one! Weird…I've never seen two go in one night."

As Aiden watched the second one go out, something happened. Something inside him snapped. He began to fill with an incredible pain and…hunger. Darkness began to fill his mind. He screamed.

"Aiden!" Risa grabbed his shoulders and tried to see what was wrong, but, when he turned to her, 'His eyes are yellow again!'

Aiden threw her off as he clutched his head and began to stumble about. 'WHAT'S HAPPENING!' he screamed to himself.

The darkness spoke to him. "RELEASE ME!" it roared. Aiden felt it as it began to take over his body. A strange shadow was beginning to move across the left side of his face, spreading from his glowing yellow eyes.

'No! Leave me alone!'

"WHY DO YOU WASTE YOUR TIME HERE!"

'You can't control me! Get out!'

"STOP TRYING TO CONFINE ME!"

"Aiden! What's going on!" Risa screamed as she watched him thrash around. 'What do I do? What do I do!'

Suddenly, Aiden stopped thrashing. The darkness on his face quickly receded as his eyes turned back to normal and he collapsed.

"What!" Aiden quickly pushed himself up and looked around. As his eyes adjusted, Aiden found himself atop some sort of column or platform. The floor was decorated with tile that formed a large picture of three people, and each wielded a Keyblade. The person on the left was a red-headed girl in a pink dress holding a key adorned with flowers. On the right was a silver-haired boy in a white vest and blue pants holding a sword shaped like a dragon's wing with an angel's wing on the back near the tip and an angel's wing and demon's wing forming the hand guard. Between them was a boy with brown hair and black clothing wielding a large silver key. Behind the three figures was what seemed to be the silhouette of a duck holding a wand, a dog holding a shield, and a mouse with another large key.

'Where the hell am I?' Aiden asked himself.

"Come forward! You must awaken once again!"

"What? Who's there?" Aiden shouted. He took a step forward. Suddenly the column began to shake and three stones rose out of the ground, each bathed in light. Floating above the stones were a staff, a shield, and a sword.

"CHOOSE WELL…"

Aiden examined the three weapons. 'I have to choose one? Shield seems kind of useless as a weapon. What would I do with it? Throw it? That leaves the wand and the sword…' He walked up to the sword and pulled it out of the light. 'Think I'm more comfortable relying on my physical strength. Plus, my Keyblade is more like a sword.'

"THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR. INVINCIBLE COURAGE. A SWORD OF TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION. HEH HEH, GOOD CHOICE…"

The weapons all disappeared in a flash of light and the sword in Aiden's hand was replaced by his Keyblade. Suddenly, the darkness surrounding the column jumped at him. Instinctively, Aiden hopped back and two hunched creatures landed before him.

'The hell!'

The creatures were pitch black and seemed to be made of shadows. They were vaguely human-like but had large clawed hands and long lightning-shaped antenna that bent back over their heads, almost touching the ground. They glared at him with their bright yellow eyes.

'What are those things!'

"HEARTLESS."

'And for that matter, who the hell are you?'

"HEH, I'M YOU."

Before Aiden could respond, the Heartless attacked. The first leapt at him, trying to claw his face. Aiden barely got his Keyblade up to block the claws then swung it, throwing the monster back. The second dashed forward, trying to gut Aiden with his left claw, but Aiden quickly sidestepped the attack and countered with two quick horizontal strikes, back and forth, to the Heartless' exposed back. It exploded into a dark cloud that quickly dissipated. However, while Aiden dealt with the second one, the first had melted into a dark shadow that swiftly moved behind the boy. Aiden spun around to find it leaping out of the shadow and at his face once again. So he fell into a back roll and slashed at the creature as it flew over him, dividing it in two right down the middle as it puffed away.

Aiden got to his feet in the center of the column and saw five more shadows moving towards him from the edges.

'More?'

However, they were quickly dispatched by the Keyblade and Aiden got by without a scratch. Then he looked around the empty platform, 'Now what?'

As if on cue, a curving flight of tiled steps appeared in the darkness. Aiden ran upstairs to find a platform similar to the one he just left. As he stepped towards the middle, he heard the sound of shattering glass. He spun around to see the steps shattering. He was trapped again.

Around the edges of the platform, white creatures began to appear. They seemed similar to the Heartless he just fought, but instead of hunched over, they stood leaning backwards and moved with a strange sinuous motion. Instead of claws, their hands ended in points and they had no eyes on their triangular heads.

Aiden dropped into a fighting stance as the creatures surrounded him. They stopped in a circle around him and a zipper underneath where their eyes should be unzipped to show a mouth lined with pointed teeth.

"NOBODIES."

'Wait, what did you mean you're me?'

Suddenly, they began to move around him performing strange somersaults as their bodies stretched and snapped back. Then one attacked, trying to stab Aiden with a pointed hand. Aiden slid under the thrust and suddenly, all the Nobodies that had been watching him seemed confused. They stopped moving and looked side to side. Aiden quickly dispatched the one in front of him and the one next to it before the rest finally caught on. Aiden found these Nobodies were rather simple to destroy if he dodged their initial attack and swiftly finished off the rest.

When he finished, Aiden looked around, expecting another flight of steps. He was surprised when a large door and a treasure chest appeared instead.

"OPEN THEM."

Aiden walked over to the door and tried the knob. 'Locked.' He tried the chest. 'This too.'

"Hey, open them with what?" he called to the voice.

"DON'T BE STUPID." The voice seemed to sigh.

'Wha – oh, duh. Keyblade.' He struck the chest with the blade and it popped open with a flash of light. Inside was a small vial. Its label said "Potion." He shrugged and stuffed it into a pocket. Then he went to the door and hit it. It burst open with an extremely bright light forcing the boy to shield his eyes. When the light faded he found himself on the same platform still facing the door.

'This is getting old,' he muttered to himself. 'I'm not getting anywhere.' Suddenly, there was another bright flash of light and someone else stepped through it.

"Aiden!"

"Huh? Risa?" 'What's she doing here?'

"Aiden! What's going on? Is this a dream?"

"Uh…I don't know." Then he noticed what was in her hand, "Hey, is that a Keyblade?"

"What? This?" She held it up. It was shorter than his and had more of a rod shape than a bladed one. It was wrapped in a red ribbon that also formed the hand guard. "Yeah, I guess. That's what this disembodied voice told me. I've been using it to fight off these weird creatures. Oh, and it opened the door that took me here."

'Same as me…'

Then, without warning, the entire column began to rumble and shake violently. Aiden tried to brace himself but Risa fell into him and they both ended up on the ground.

"Oh, what now!" she wailed.

Then it appeared, forming in the darkness. It was enormous. Most of its face and body was covered in tattered bandages. It had no legs and its body ended in a sharp, bladed tail and its arms resembled the torn sleeves of a robe. Bone wings burst from its back and a dark halo appeared behind it. Glowing, angry blue eyes were visible beneath the bandages.

'Oh shit.'

Risa got up and ran for the door with Aiden right behind her. She yelped as the door began to fade away. Risa fell through it but Aiden caught the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the edge.

"YOU COWARD! FIGHT IT!"

"Damn it, we have no choice!" He spun around to face it.

Risa gave him a bewildered look, "You have to be kidding! There's no way we stand a chance against that thing!"

"Look where we are! Where are we gonna go?"

She looked at the monster, her eyes full of fear. She protested weakly, "N-no, I c-can't—"

"Shit! Move!" Aiden shoved her onto her back and jumped backwards, just as the monster swept by them with its tail. The monster came back around and Aiden rolled back as the tail smashed down where he'd been a moment ago. But as soon as he got to his feet, he was forced to dive sideways as a pointed bone wing tried to impale him. He quickly got back on his feet and jumped at the monster, slashing its arm as it attempted to yank its wing out of the floor. It let out a roar as it retreated, but there was no blood. It disappeared back into the darkness.

'Damn! Where'd it go?' Aiden muttered to himself as he pried into the darkness. As he glanced around, he saw that Risa was still frozen on the ground. 'Wait a sec!' "Risa!"

He ran to her and barely got his Keyblade between her and the monster's tail as it appeared from the darkness once again. The force of the blow caused his arms to go numb. "Jeez, it's heavy!"

Risa finally snapped out of it as she saw Aiden holding off the fiend. "Aiden…" 'I'll fight too!'

Suddenly three bursts of white energy struck the monster's face and it fell back. 'What?' Aiden looked over his shoulder to see Risa aiming her Keyblade with both hands. She grinned at him.

But there was no time to celebrate as the creature came back at them. They split up to dodge several wing strikes and Risa fired several bursts at its face. It roared again and shielded its eyes. Aiden took his chance. He dashed underneath the monster, jumped up, and scored three more cuts across its chest. It collapsed on the ground, but before either could attack again, the monster slid off the side of the platform. The two hurried over to the edge and looked down into the darkness.

"Where'd it go?" Risa asked. Aiden shook his head in response.

Suddenly the creature appeared behind them and swerved up above the center of the stage. Then it began to spin faster and faster, until all Aiden could see was a blur. Several little white-blue orbs flew out from it and floated down. Before they hit the ground, the orbs burst into semi-transparent blue-gray creatures with rounded heads and glowing blue eyes that resembled tears running down their faces.

"What are those things?" Risa wondered. "Heartless?"

Aiden watched them, studying their movements. Their motion resembled that of the Nobodies in that it was slightly unpredictable. The creatures moved slowly, bent over with its arms dangling, and faded in and out of sight as they advanced in odd directions. Their heads also had a slight twitchy movement.

Aiden got ready as one of the creatures neared him, but it didn't really seem to notice him.

Suddenly, all the creatures shrieked simultaneously. Risa screamed, stumbled over, and fell. Aiden nearly lost his head, but got his Key up in time to parry the creature's arm. But the monster didn't let up and pressed the attack. Aiden backshuffled quickly, blocking and dodging the flailing arms. He heard Risa scream again. He found an opening and knocked the monster away with a roundhouse to the head. He spun around to see several of the creatures being blasted away by Risa who was still on the ground. She didn't see the ones creeping up behind her.

Aiden hurried to her, jumped over her, and nailed one with a kick to the face. He kept his foot planted on it and rode it down to the ground, smashing its head into the floor. It burst into sparks and faded away. He got two more with a horizontal slash. Behind him, Risa shot several more, blocked an attack, kicked the monster away, and shot it point blank in the face.

When they finished off the last of the creatures, Aiden looked up to see that the boss had been using the distraction to charge up another attack. Its arms were up and its halo was spinning as a massive ball of energy formed above its head.

"Crap! We're gonna die!" Risa whined. "Aiden, what do we do!"

Aiden looked around but there still wasn't anywhere to run. The monster's ball kept growing until it was larger than the platform and pulsed with a bright, multicolored light. Then it reared back and flung it down at the two teens.

'Oh damn! What do I do?' They had no where to run and the energy ball was getting closer and closer. Aiden could feel the wind generated by the energy pressing down on him. He looked down to his Keyblade and was struck by a crazy idea.

Risa shut her eyes as the ball crashed into the platform with an electric sound. 'I'm dead!' she thought. She opened one eye slowly to find that she was still on the column with the massive ball still floating above her, but it had stopped moving. In front of her Aiden was holding up the ball with his Keyblade. A bright white light shone where the two objects met. 'Whoa.'

"Risa, a little help?" Aiden shouted over the noise and wind. Quickly, she swung her Keyblade against it,though she knew it was only a matter of time before they got tired. Then the ball would fall and obliterate them. She was surprised when she felt the ball giving as they pressed against it.

Aiden gritted his teeth and put all his strength into the effort. All of a sudden the ball was rushing back to its caster. Aiden and Risa both fell to their hands and knees as the ball moved, breathing hard. The monster's eyes grew large as it saw its own spell coming back. It seemed as if it would strike, but at the last second the monster spun out of the way. However the energy struck a wing and it began to spiral down into the platform.

Again it roared and was able to correct itself before it struck the ground and flew quickly at the two weakened kids. Risa got her Key up and blasted it in the face, slowing it down, and fell to the floor. Aiden, though, jumped up, fell through the center of the halo, and landed on the monster's passing back. He grabbed a handful of bandages and began to make his way to the head, causing the creature to roar in surprise. He quickly reached the head and held on as the monster tried to dislodge him. When it righted itself, Aiden yanked on the bandages, twisting its head, to steer it back towards the platform. As it neared the column, Aiden flipped his Keyblade over so he held it upside down and thrust it down into the back of the monster's head. It gave a final roar as Aiden rode it into the side of the column, then jumped off and landed on the platform. The creature fell down into the darkness as Aiden rolled on the column stopping on his back.

Risa hurried over and knelt beside him, "You are freakin' crazy! Jeez! You okay?"

He nodded as he sat up, "Yeah."

She sighed with relief and sat down. "Man, what the heck is going on? How did I end up fighting ginormous monsters, not to mention those Heartless and Nobody things? And this thing," she looked at her Keyblade. "Oh, why is this happening to me!"

Aiden simply shrugged in response. Then, all of a sudden, a dark shadow began to creep towards them from the edge of the column.

"What!" he exclaimed and jumped up. There was another flash of light and Aiden looked down to see that both his and Risa's Keyblades were gone. He tried to summon it back but it wouldn't come.

The darkness surrounded them and formed a pool beneath them. The two began to sink into the darkness. Tendrils crept up and wrapped around their bodies, dragging them in. Risa was frozen with fear and couldn't make a sound or even fight back.

'This feeling, it's just like what happened back when Aiden first fell out of that portal thing.'

Aiden on the other hand was struggling hard against the darkness despite his fatigue from the recent battle. He had a strange feeling, 'This has happened to me before! But did this stuff swallow me up last time? No! Damn it, get off of me!' Then he noticed that Risa wasn't moving. "Risa, come on! Snap out of it!"

She snapped at the sound of his voice. "Aiden? Help me!"

He waded through the pool of darkness, thought the tendrils were still trying to pull him down. He reached out his hand. Risa struggled against the darkness and tried to reach Aiden's extended hand, but the tendrils pulled her back. She began to loose sight of him as she sunk into darkness. She tried to scream, but suddenly she couldn't breathe and she began to loose consciousness.

"No, damn it!" Aiden cursed as Risa sunk into the black pool. He found himself being dragged down even faster.

A voice laughed. "YOU SHOULDN'T FEAR THE DARKNESS. DON'T BE AFRAID."

Aiden caught Risa's hand just before the darkness swallowed them both.

A/N: Hope you liked that first chapter. Please review and let me know what you thought about it. Chapter 2 will be up soon.