Chapter 1

Before, I was a no one, someone who walked the path of darkness and misery. I was merely a shadow of others, with no purpose to live for. I needed to find answers.

Then in front of the gates of a mansion, a mysterious man confronted me. His face was covered by his black hood. He stood silently before me.

"You seek answers," he told me.

Answers? I looked at him blankly, Could he have the answers I needed?

"I can give you purpose." Wordlessly he waved his hand in front of me. A cluster of letters appeared before me in a strange font that I could read. A name, someone's name. The letters whirled around me, spinning in circles until finally, the letters grouped together to form a new name. It appeared right in front of me. Surprised and blinking quickly, I stepped back a few steps. My mouth opened slowly and a word poured from my lips.

"Roxas."

The man smiled mutely, his bold yellow eyes stared right at me. "That is right, the new you."

What did he mean? What was the new me? Then, it caught me. This name, the new me. I felt of surge of energy flow through my body. This was my name, my purpose. Roxas.

"Pitiful Heartless…mindlessly collecting hearts. The rage of the Keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, mindless and free…to create Kingdom Hearts. Then, we can truly, finally exist."

Roxas sat on the edge of the clock tower balcony. This was the meeting place where the hotheaded Axel, Roxas and their newest companion Xion all met together, eating sea salt ice cream and would watch for the sunset. They met there almost every time after their missions, sharing and sometimes even laughing together, Except nobodies like them can't laugh, Nobodies and Heartless, two strange beings that lurk around as evils. Heartless formed when a person with a strong or weak heart loses that heart and becomes a Heartless, searching for hearts to steal for themselves, hoping to return to their original selves. When someone with true strength in their heart loses that heart and becomes a heartless, every so often a second version of them come to being.

Roxas twirled his blue sea salt ice cream in his mouth, licking the salty and sweet taste dripping from his mouth. He had just come back from his mission and was tired out from killing Heartless. As an Organization member, it was his job to destroy Heartless and so that the stolen hearts would go and form Kingdom Hearts. He and Xion were the only ones who could make the hearts go to Kingdom Hearts because they wielded the Keyblade, an oversized key used to unlock hearts by the power of light.

"Roxas?"

Roxas turned his head around. A girl with short black hair and bright blue eyes like Roxas began to walk towards him. She sat next to him on the left and smiled. "You're here pretty early."

"Xion," Roxas said with a half smile. He handed her a Popsicle. "Want one?"

"Sure." Gratefully, she took it and bit a chunk off. Roxas bit his, but the chunk fell all the way to the bottom. Xion giggled. "Oops."

Roxas grinned and laughed a little too. Even though nobodies have no heart to feel with, they carried memories of their human past and can remember what it was like to have feelings.

"Where is Axel?" Xion asked, wiping her mouth with her black sleeve.

"Probably late as usual," Roxas replied with a small smile. He turned to face the horizon. "Tomorrow is that big meeting."

"Yeah I know," Xion nodded her head. "Don't you think it's so sudden? We rarely even have these kind of meetings." She paused and looked at him. "Do you know what it's going to be about?"

Roxas shook his head. "But maybe Axel knows."

Then, a spiky red haired guy with a black jacket appeared out of the blue. "Yo." He sat on the other end of Roxas. Xion and Roxas stared at him blankly.

"What?" Axel asked quizzically and he pointed at his face. "Something on my face?"

"No," Xion said. "Roxas and I were talking about the meeting tomorrow."

"Jeez what a boring topic," Axel yawned and he took a big stretch. Careless guy isn't he?

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Do you know anything about it?"

With another big yawn, Axel scratched his head. "Same old, same old. I think Xemnas found another world or something."

"Another world?" Xion asked. "What else about it?"

"Saïx knows all about it. He only gave me a brief detail." Saïx was Xemnas's right-handed man and the day-to-day overseer of the Organization.

Roxas stuck his finished Popsicle stick into his mouth. He felt as if his mind was drifting away, being sucked into the setting sun. He could hear Xion and Axel talking distantly, laughing together. Roxas was glad he was their friends. Everyone else in the Organization were more harder to talk to than them. He wished they could be friends for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, they would be able to get hearts of their own so that they would enjoy more time with each other, not having to worry about Heartless. One day to be able to have feelings…

"Get down everyone!" Xion shouted. Roxas awakened from his mind drifting and instantly Roxas, Xion and Axel covered their heads. Something flew quickly at them and stuck onto the wall. Everyone turned their heads around, wondering what was it that was flying at them.

"Whoa," Axel said with aghaust. "That thing just flew right at us."

"A sword out of nowhere?" Xion said puzzled.

Roxas walked slowly towards it and raised his hand to touch it, but it vanished into air.

"It disintegrated," Xion said, her eyes opened wide.

"That's weird," Roxas muttered.

Axel quickly looked at Roxas and Xion. "We should tell this is Sa-"

"Look!" Suddenly, the sky ripped opened and a black opening appeared. A huge white hand grabbed Xion. "Let go!" Xion struggled. A large creature with a pointy nose and red eyes roared with anger. They all covered their ears.

"What is that?" Axel said with alarm. "A Heartless?"

"Whatever it is, it has Xion!" Roxas immediately summoned his Keyblade and ran at the creature's hand and swung his blade.

It hit the creature's hand and it cried out with apprehension and freed Xion. She fell off the clock tower, her eyes filled with alarm. Quickly, Roxas grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up. "Axel! Hurry!"

Axel took out his chakrams, swinging them back and forth and charged after the large monster and hit its face, but the monster slammed Axel aside and he hit the clock tower.

"Axel!" Xion and Roxas cried out.

Meekly, Axel gave them thumbs up and gave a lopsided grin. He was alright, but they had to destroy the creature before it wrecked the entire town.

Roxas managed to get Xion up onto the clock tower. Xion summoned her Keyblade and pointed it straight at the creature. "Thunder!" She shouted. A bolt of electricity shot from her Keyblade, yet nothing happened to the creature.

Roxas tried again and ran at the creature's head. It caused a deep cut on the face and Roxas jumped back next to Axel. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good." Axel stood next Roxas and cracked his neck. "Nothing gets better."

Xion casted a fire spell at the creature. It burned the side of the creature's white face.

In anguish, the creature roared and opened its mouth widely and a red ball began to get bigger. "What the heck is that?" Axel shouted, looking at Roxas.

Roxas gawked at it with revelation. "C'mon we have to get Xion and get out of here!"

Suddenly, the red flare fired straight at Axel and Roxas. Without a second to lose, Xion tried to block the beam with her Keyblade. "Xion!" Axel shouted. "What are you doing?"

"Ngh," Xion gasped. "Hurry and slice his head in half!"

Bewildered, Roxas inquired. "What?"

"Just do it and hurry!" she barked at them.

Roxas and Axel leaped towards the creature and together, they sliced the creature's head in hald and the monster disappeared. Then, a massive cluster of hearts were set free from the monster's disintegrating body.

The trio gazed at the hearts as they flew up into the sky to Kingdom Hearts. "Look how many hearts there are…" Roxas said breathlessly with amazement."

Then, Xion collapsed to the ground and was on her knees, he Keyblade laid by her side. She was taking deep breaths. Axel looked at her with troubled eyes. "You alright Xion?"

She didn't answer right away but she gave a brief nod. Her face was pale and she was shaking. Roxas and Axel put their hands on her back. Then, Xion murmured softly. "That thing was from another world."

"Yeah it probably was," Roxas agreed. "It was probably a really strong Heartless that we haven't seen before."

"I know I never seen anything like it," Axel groused.

Slowly, Xion shook her head. "It wasn't a Heartless."

"Then what was it? A nobody?" Axel seemed a little annoyed. "C'mon Xion it had to be a Heartless. Only Heartless could steal hearts like that. This one probably stole a lot that's what."

"It wasn't a Heartless," Xion said again persistently. "It was a Hollow called a Menos Grande."

From the lurking shadows, a figure in black leapt from rooftop to rooftop. The silver moon glowed brightly and so the figure was visible, but hard to notice.

Everything was quiet in the Soul Society, except when you were in the drunken area of the Soul Society. People would be drinking sake (a type of drug drink) and some were and kept on leaping from the roofs.

Then, the figure jumped down from a rooftop and looked up at the house. It knocked on the door and suddenly the door opened.

The person who opened the door had crimson hair tied up in a high ponytail and had brown eyes. He had tribal tattoos on his forehead and neck and wore a white headband. He had on the standard Shihakushō, a black samurai suit. His eyes widened as he looked at the person in front of him. "Rukia? Where were you?"

Out of the shadows, the figure stepped into the house. She was hsort and petite, with pale skin and violet-colored eyes. She had black hair with one strand of the hair always hanging between her eyes. Rukia looked up at the man and she replied simply. "That's none of your concern. Where's Ichigo?"

"Oh he's upstairs. He's been staying at my place for awhile," he said, closing the door. "Why do you need him?"

Rukia glanced at the window. "We have a mission to go on. There has been sightings of Menos near the forest." Then she paused and asked. "Renji, do you think…"

Renji put his hand up. "Look Rukia. You have been having weird thoughts lately. Maybe I should take this mission so you can take a short break. You've been working day and night."

"It's okay Renji," Rukia frowned. "I can take care of myself just fine. Just tell Ichigo to meet me at the Kuchiki Residence by midnight. I'll be waiting for him." She began to walk out of the door and she added, "Oh and one more thing, tell Ichigo about that dream I had and see what he thinks about it." She opened the door and gave a little smirk at him. "Lieutenant." Then she disappeared into the night.

Renji snorted with annoyance. He knew Rukia always teased him because he was a lieutenant. H walked up a flight of stairs. "Hey Ichigo! Are you up there?" He opened the door to Ichigo's room and saw Kon, the lion stuffed animal, reading a magazine.

"He's not here," Kon yawned, flipping another page.

Renji groaned. Kon was a mod soul, a small little pill that was in a stuffed doll Lion, but could get inside anybody's body, "Where's Ichigo then?"

Kon shrugged. "Outisde."

Renji walked over to the window and opened it and jumped out. He was on the roof and he found Ichigo on someone's porch. He walked over to him and found him staring at the sky. Ichigo had spiky orange hair and was a tall lean-built in person. He had brown eyes and wore the Soul Reaper's attire. He sat next to his Zanpakutō Zangetsu.

"Hey Renji?" Ichigo asked, surprising Renji.

"Yeah, what?"

"Soul Reapers are known as Shinigamis right?" They are the protectors of the Soul Society and send souls from my world to yours right?"

Renji chuckled astounded. "Well yeah. You got the picture." Where was Ichigo leading this?

Ichigo turned to him. "And Hollows are monsters that eat souls and grow stronger?"

Renji looked bowled over and grinned. "Hmph. What are you, testing me or something? What's with you?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Never mind. There was something on my mind."

Renji shrugged. "Okay…well anyways Rukia told me to tell you that you need to meet her at the Kuchiki Residence for some mission dealing with Menos near the forest area." Then he added. "Also, Rukia wants me to tell you something that has been bothering her for quite awhile. She and I think it's important to tell you too."

"What is it?"

Renji took a deep breath. "Well…"

Flashback:

"I've been having these strange dreams." Rukia took a deep breah. I(Renji) was in a tea room with her and I saw how pale her face was. Rukia began to tell me about jer strange thoughts. "I've been seeing hooded people in black coats. They had these strange weapons different from Zanpakutōs. They were attacking the souls, sucking them from this world and into a different one. Also, Hollows have been disappearing into another world that I've never seen before."

"What else happened?"

"The rest…is pretty complicated. But I think something bad will happen very soon. I'm sure of it."

I looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"I mean all the spirits and including us will all disappear. I'm not sure, but that is probably the end result."

End of flashback:

"Well, I believe that Rukia says might be true, but I'm not sure. Maybe it was just a dream?" Ichigo scratched the back of his neck. "I mean seriously, she gets a dream like that then all of the sudden she predicts that something bad will happen to all of us?"

"She's been having these dreams every night now," Renji told him. "She thinks about it every day and you have realized that you never know what's going to happen."

Ichigo sighed. "But still. It's hard to believe that something that terrible will happen."

Renji nodded. "Yeah I know it sounds weird all of the sudden, but I trust Rukia. I think we should take precautions."

Ichigo nodded. 'But of course the Thirteen Court Guard Squad might not believe in what Rukia says it's true. So we should keep it to ourselves until we have proof that something that what Rukia says will happen."

Renji looked up at the night sky, the moon beams hit his crimson hair and it sparkled. "That's what I don't intend to do. Especially Byakuya. He may be Rukia's brother, but he still is sort of untrustworthy. Even Rukia hasn't told him."

Ichigo wasn't surprised. Of course she wouldn't tell her older brother Byakuya Kuchiki. He was a captain from the Gotei 13 and would never believe that what Rukia was dreaming about was true. Possibly maybe a few might, but it was highly unlikely that ever captain would agree to take preliminary precautions.

Then, Ichigo reached for his Zanpakuto and stood up. He cracked his neck and looked at Renji. "Well, I better go. Rukia is waiting for me."

Xion woke up from her sleep and was heaving deep breaths. She was very pale and her head stung. She looked around and saw that she was in her room, lying on her bed. Quickly, she jumped out of her bed and took a big stretch. She felt her head cooling down and her face was turning normal. Then she remembered her shell collection and ran to check on them by her drawer.

Which one should I choose today…Xion thought. Suddenly, she felt a shock run through her veins. Today's the meeting! I almost forgot.

Grabbing a random shell, Xion ran out of her room.

At the meeting room, everyone sat on high chairs, following their numerical order. At the highest was Xenmas, their leader. He had gray hair that reached his shoulders and striking yellow eyes.

Once everyone was seated, Xemnas began speaking. "My friends, today will be the dawn of a new opportunity that awaits for us." He paused and looked all around the room. "A new world has been discovered varying with plenty of hearts just waiting for our coming. This world will give us the next step to Kingdom Hearts. Then, we can finally exist with hearts of our own, our own purpose for our existence."

Everyone was silent. No one said a word as Xemnas continued. "In this new world, there will be no Heartless there."

"Then why is this world so important if there aren't any Heartless to eliminate?" Vexen exploded with impatience, slamming his fists onto the arms of the chair. "And why must you bring up this new world that's going to waste everyone's time? I could be working on my very important experiments-"

"Oh Vexen will you shut your mouth," a blonde haired lady snarled. Her striking eyes gaped annoyingly at Vexen. "Who cares about your experiments? All we care about is finding Kingdom Hearts. And if Master Xemnas has found a new world that will help us get to Kingdom Hearts, then we shouldn't be exploding all over the place."

Vexen's icy cold eyes glared frigidly at the blond lady. "Larxene, my experiments have been a useful throughout this entire time. What would happen if my experiments never worked?"

"Enough," Saix boomed. "Let Master Xemnas keep on talking."

Silence filled the room as Master Xemnas gave each other the Organization Members a callously stare. Vexen huffed and folded his arms. His icy blue eyes regarded Saix coldly. After giving each one an evil look, he continued on. "I have found beings called 'souls' that hold hearts of their own. Unlike Heartless, who strive to protect and work mainly by them, weaker hearts are protected by the stronger hearted souls, which it will be harder to pursue the weaker ones and the stronger souls."

"But why are we trying to eliminate these souls if we already have Heartless in the other worlds?" A pretty faced rosy haired man named Marluxia asked. Marluxia always held a strong opposes against the Organization and everyone knew that he was waiting for his time to come.

Xemnas looked over at Saix who then spoke for Master Xemnas. "There is an advantage to eliminating souls. As you already know, from Numbers I-XII, we can eliminate Heartless, but their hearts will not go to Kingdom Hearts. They will go wandering off until Heartless come to steal it. But unlike the rest of us, our particular two-'his eyes diverted over at Roxas and Xion-'are the Keyblade's chosen ones and can unlock the hearts of any Heartless. Souls are much different from Heartless, you see. We can purge them with our weapons and their hearts can be collected by us members. Then, using a special Keyhole that Master Xemnas has created, we can send the hearts there where the Keyblade's chosen ones will unlock the hole once it is full, sending them away to Kingdom Hearts."

"But can't you eliminate Heartless and send them to a Keyhole?" Axel questioned.

"Like I said before, if we attack Heartless without a Keyblade, the hearts will just wander off. Even if we created something for the hearts to got to Kingdom Hearts, it will be ineffective because the hearts that the Heartless stole are filled with darkness. Souls, however, are not filled with darkness for they are filled with light and the ability to pass onto a new life. Lord Xemnas created the Keyhole to act as that 'new life' as in 'heaven' to guide the soul's hearts to stay until they are freed to kingdom Hearts."

"So what are souls?" Demyx, an easy going and lazy attitude Organization Member said with a yawn.

"Souls are also known as spirits. They are what every person has on the inside. Once the person deceases, then the soul is freed and wanders to find their path to their new life. Their hearts are pure and full of light, which is exactly what we need for Kingdom Hearts."

"That's pretty confusing…" Demyx scratched his head.

Saix nodded. "It is, but the explanation does not really matter. What matters is that we have our chance to reach Kingdom Hearts and it is our time to use it."

Suddenly, Vexen began laughing hysterically. He slapped his forehead. "This is a new experiment that I cannot wait to try out! These souls will be very interesting for me…" His mad grin appeared and he drifted off talking about what he should do with the souls.

"Well at least we will be more useful than before," Demyx stretched and yawned loudly.

"Since when did you start caring about being useful?" Larxene scoffed. "You are such a stupid fool."

"Oh come on Larxene," Demyx said jokingly. "I'm just plaing around…"

"Well quit acting like you want to be useful then you blockhead!" Larxene spat. Her eyes flared. "It's helping nobody!"

"'Nobody'…haha!" a light blonde haired man with a beard laughed. "Good one."

"Oh shut your pothole Luxord," Larxene hissed. "Or should I teach you a lesson?"

A man with over longing bangs on one side named Zexicon looked up at them. "You nitwits are so frivolous."

"Who are calling a nitwit Zeixon?" Larxene asked slyly.

"I'm referring to you and all of the other nitwits in the room," he replied casually.

"Oh so now you want a lesson, huh?" Larxene snarled. She summoned her knives she placed them between the gaps between her fingers and brutally smiled. "Perhaps after a few cuts, you'll learn some manners."

"Enough!" Saix boomed harsher than before. Everyone quickly settled down. The moon was close to the window that once the moonlight struck him, he would go ballistic. "We are all allies here. I will not tolerate anymore fighting." Then Saix turned to to Lord Xemnas, who sat quietly and thoughtfully, looking at Roxas and Xion.

"Lord Xemnas," Saix said quietly.

Xemnas faced Saix and looked straight at the other side of the room and stood up from his chair, floating in mid air. "You are all dismissed from our meeting. In a couple of hours, you all will have missions to go to. I have chosen the three who will venture to this new world." Then he looked at Roxas and Xion. "You two shall go to this new world. Find more about that place and return to me with a full report. I expect to see you two back from your mission sunset the next day. That is all." Then he disappeared into thin air.

"Hey Axel, you should join us," Roxas told Axel after the meeting.

"Yeah that'll be great!" Xion said happily. "A mission together, all three of us!"

Axel shrugged sheepishly. "Sure. Why not?"

Roxas gave Axel a playful shove. "C'mon! Go ask Saix!"

Axel laughed. "Ok! Ok! I'm going!" He ran towards Saix and Roxas and Xion watched.

Xion looked at Roxas and grinned. "I'm rally excited. I wonder what this world will be like."

Roxas nodded. "Me too. It's going to be great with you, me and-"

"-Hey guys!" Axel called over, waving one hand in the air. He was standing next to Saix, who stared intently at them. "C'mon over here!"

Xion and Roxas ran over to Axel and Saix. Saix regarded them carefully and began to talk. "I hear you want Axel to come with you, correct?"

"Yes please!" Xion exclaimed.

"There is one condition though," Saix told them. "You all kill at least 50 souls while you are there."

"Yeah of course!" Roxas said. 50 souls shouldn't be too hard to handle. Then he asked. "Are souls just like Heartless? Do they look like them?"

Saix looked at him cautiously and said. "I do not know whether or not these souls are like Heartless. But I do know that they disguise themselves as human beings. I am sure you will see plenty of them." He handed Roxas a golden ball and placed it in his hand. "This is something that Vexen created. He has already researched the souls' auras and this will tell you when it spots a soul." Then he turned to Axel and Xion. "If you find anything suspicious happening in that world, contact me immediately. Understood?"

Axel nodded and Xion began. "Actually…" Then she stopped herself and flushed bright pink.

"If you have anything to say to me, now is the time," Saix said patiently. He was a patient person, he hardly ever got impatient with others.

"Well," Xion started, turning to Roxas and Axel. "The other day, Axel, Roxas and I found a large sword that came out of now where and disappeared right after Roxas touched it. Then, a strange creature attacked us out of the blue, but after we defeated it, so many hearts were freed from the creature. I think it was from another world. It didn't look like a Heartless at all and I am sure it wasn't a soul."

Saix nodded with interest. "I see. Very good. I will tell this to Lord Xemnas as soon as I can. Anything else?"

"The creature was called a Hollow, also known as a Menos Grande," Xion added quietly.

"And how do you know the name of this strange creature?"

Xion opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She embarrassedly stepped back a couple of steps. Roxas stepped in to fill in for her. "We…uh she…decided to give it a name since it has no name."

"Y-Yeah!" Axel added, trying to come up with a way to save Xion from being flattened by Saix. "And Xion has been having pretty bad headaches and she's been making things up."

Xion shot Axel a frusterated look and Axel shrugged as if saying 'Hey, I was only trying to help.' Saix looked at them all suspiciously. "All right then. Get going on your mission."

Ichigo found himself in darkness. He was standing on a circular arena with no fences, nothing that bordered around the circle. There were strange designs as Ichigo looked down at the circle platform and suddenly, white birds flew past him. They flew into the darkness and disappeared. Ichigo felt strange as he breathed the atmosphere around him and quickly prepared to fight as he heard a noise coming from behind him.

A black portal appeared out of nowhere and a person in black with a hood covering his/her face. He held a thick book in his hands, opened to a page.

A dictionary? Ichigo thought. "Hey! Who are you?"

Then with a wave of the stranger's hands, the book transformed into Ichigo's Zanpakuto. The person in black held the handle and pointed it straight at Ichigo.

What? How can he be holding Zangetsu? Ichigo drew his Zanpakuto and asked again in a louder voice. "I said, 'who are you?" He ran at the hooded individual and swung his sword at the person.

Then, the hooded figure deflected Ichigo's blade and said eerily, in a strange yet familiar voice. "Someone from the darkness."

Ichigo put up his poker face. "Why am I here then?" He struggled to press his sword down harder. He was about to do another attack when the person's hood slowly fell off the head. The person's face was visible.

"No way…Rukia?" Ichigo froze.

"What's wrong Ichigo?" Rukia asked in an unfamiliar tone. "I thought you were going to attack me?"

"Rukia," Ichigo stammered. He lowered his sword. "W-What are you…?"

Rukia smiled abnormally. "Ichigo, you tried to attack me. I thought we were friends."

No, Ichigo thought to himself. This isn't Rukia. She isn't…

Rukia came closer and closer to Ichigo. She held the Zanpakuto in her hand tightly.

Then, Ichigo hollered with bewilderment. "Rukia? What are you doing?" Then he took a couple of steps back.

Then, he heard a faint yet recognizable voice. Ichigo…Ichigo…It was Rukia's voice. Hurry and attack me…

Rukia came closer and closer like a zombie. Do it!

Ichigo grabbed his Zanpakuto and thrust his sword into the Rukia and it went right through. Rukia disappeared and the arena shattered into bits and fragments and Ichigo fell into the darkness.