In the cockpit of her invisible jet, Wonder Woman flew the aircraft through the night, away from the remains of the city once known as Los Angeles. Cassandra Sandsmark, the current Wonder Girl, sobbed quietly in the seat beside her, while the rest of her remaining team rested silently in the back of the swiftly moving aircraft. The teenager, battered, bruised, and bandaged, was beside herself with grief...


On a rooftop in Gotham, Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne looked out over the dark city as Nightwing and Robin. Despite the fact that they were patrolling together, there was none of their usual banter. There's no smile playing on Nightwing's lips. The hood of Robin's cloak, for the first time in weeks, remained pulled over the eleven-year-old boy's head, hiding his face in shadows.

The city was strangely calm tonight...


"I'm sorry. I must have misheard you," a man's voice said, clear disbelief obvious even through the computer terminal's speakers. "How many people inhabited the city of Los Angeles?"

Bruce Wayne sat at the computer terminal in the Batcave with Alfred and Clark Kent at his back, a grim expression on all their faces. "Nearly four million."

A girl's voice could be heard faintly in the background of com link, horror in her tone as she whispered to a companion, though the microphone on her end was too sensitive. It picked up every word. "I don't think we've ever been to a single world with that many people, let alone just in one city. A new Heartless for every heart consumed. There's no hope of fighting that many, Leon, not even if Sora, Riku, AND the King were here with us. There's only three of us."

The man behind Batman's mask felt an uncomfortable sensation of dread pooling in the pit of his stomach...


"There was nothing we could do, Diana," Cassie told her dear sister-in-arms, tears in her eyes. "The creatures. Nothing hurt them. Nothing could stop them. It was like fighting shadows." She pulled up her good, unbroken arm and wiped her eyes. "But they could hurt us."

Wonder Woman nodded and stroked Cassie's long blond hair comfortingly. "What can you tell me about them?"

"At first they seemed kinda cute," she said with a frown. "They were short and black with round glowing yellow eyes and two antennas on top of their heads." Cassie sniffled. "When we first saw them in Los Angeles, we didn't think they were that dangerous. Oh God, Diana. We were wrong! We were so wrong!"


"It's too quiet," Robin said as he and Nightwing pulled out their grappling guns.

"Everyone's scared after what happened to Los Angeles."

Damian looked at his elder brother from the shadow of his hood. "Do you think the report that was on the news is true? Is he really gone?"

Dick's jawline tightened. "I don't know, D... I just don't know..."


"Is there anything we can do to fight these creatures?" Superman asked. "Conventional weapons and attacks don't seem to do anything to them. Even those of us with enhanced strength and powers haven't been able to make a dent in their numbers."

"Do you have any mages?" the voice now known as Leon asked. "Elemental magic based in fire, lightning, and ice work well. Do you weapons that have been forged with mystical energies?"

Bruce frowned as he inwardly cursed his past distaste for most things magical and metaphysical. "There are some weapons, but they're scattered across the world. We have none here. We have some metas who have powers along those lines, some are actual 'mages' as you call them, but our world-wide communication systems have been disrupted. Yours is the first transmission from beyond the city that we've received in the past twelve hours."

There was a pregnant moment of silence in the cave.

"By any chance, do you know if a Keyblade has appeared in your world?"

"What's a Keyblade?" Alfred asked curiously

"It's a powerful mystic sword that has a blade in the shape of a large key."

Bruce looked to Alfred and Clark before turning back to the computer. "We've never heard of such a thing before."

Leon sighed from the other end of the com link. "Without magic or a Keyblade... I'm sorry, but your world is doomed to fall..."


Diana held Cassie's undamaged hand. If it weren't for her enhanced strength, the younger woman would've crushed her hand, she was holding so tightly. "When the tornado appeared and the city started to be pulled apart by the shadows, we tried to retreat. Tim ordered us to retreat." Cassie choked on her words with a sob.

"What happened to Tim," Diana asked gently after a moment.

Cassie shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "The shadow creatures wouldn't let him escape, and they wouldn't let us get near him. Then a strange man with white hair appeared behind him and... and..."

"Cassie?"

"He killed Tim!" she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. "That bastard cut him down from the back with a weird looking black sword!"

Diana put the jet on autopilot and left her seat to comfort the distraught young woman. Like so many others, she'd seen the last news report out of Los Angeles before all telecommunication went down across the world. The last report stated that Red Robin, one of the leaders of the Teen Titans, had fallen in battle and included a video of the tragic event taken by a news crew that had been on the scene at the time. Her heart went out to the young man's family back in Gotham City and around the world, but she would have to offer her condolences to them later. Right now, she had to focus on caring for the Titans who survived.

...The few teenage heroes she barely managed to rescue before Los Angeles was completely consumed by darkness.

"But that's not all."

"What do you mean?"

Cassie looked at Diana with a heart-broken expression. "He took something from Tim... Something that glowed red and looked kinda like a heart. I think maybe... it WAS Tim's heart. It... was so beautiful..." The girl shuddered. "Then that monster turned it into something horrible..."


The masked man and boy froze when they reached the next rooftop. Robin heard the gasp of surprise from Nightwing as he stared at the shadow of a familiar figure that was already there. The boy's eyes couldn't help but narrow his eyes even as a small part of him felt a tiny measure of relief.

He'd know that annoying silhouette anywhere.

"Drake!" Damian declared irritably to Red Robin's back. "You've got a lot of nerve showing up now! Last anyone heard, you were supposed to be dead!" His hands clenched into tiny fists, the desire to punch his much despised adopted brother present as always. "Do you have any idea how upset you made everyone?"

Just as Damian was about to stalk over and throw a few punches, he felt a strong grip catch his shoulder. He'd expected to be restrained by Dick, so that didn't catch him off guard. What caught him off guard was the look on his eldest brother's face

Dick was not happy to see Tim alive.

"Something's wrong," Dick whispered. "Something doesn't look right. Something doesn't feel right." Nightwing stepped forward, putting himself between his two younger brothers. "Tim?" he said hesitantly. "Is that you?"

When Red Robin turned to look at them, Damian felt his blood run cold. Dick was clearly shaken as well.

That was not Timothy Drake.

The silhouette looked like Red Robin, to be sure, but the form was nearly completely pitch black. The only color on the figure's body was a red and black heart-like emblem on his chest where his bandoliers would've crossed and a pair of souless glowing yellow eyes.


"I'm sorry there's not much we can do," Leon said with genuine regret. "If we only could've been there for the initial invasion, we might've been able to stop this from happening. Unfortunately, your world was just too far from our own, and the enemy had too great a lead on us."

Bruce's mind was working furiously. Though they'd endured plenty of other Earth-threatening events in their lives (most recently a near-miss encounter with destruction at the hands of Darkseid) this felt different. From what Leon had told them, and what they'd learned from the assault on Los Angeles before the communication satellites went down, they were facing an enemy that could move through shadows, stole people's hearts, multiplied rapidly, and could only be affected by supernatural means of a mystical nature.

Even Superman's powers were mostly ineffective against this bizarre new enemy.

Clark had a strange, haunting expression on his face as he leaned forward to speak into the microphone. "How far away are you from Earth, Leon?"

"We should arrive within twelve of your planetary hours."

"And how many people can you carry on your ship?" Clark continued.

Bruce looked at the Man of Steel, eyes widening as he began to realize exactly where his best friend was going with this line of questioning.

"We can carry around twenty adult humans... Well seventeen counting the three of us already on it." There was a pause. "Are you considering-"

"If we get them to you, would you take survivors?"


Author's Notes: And so starts my experimental crossover fic "Nobody Matters". Like "Confidence Lost", I'm making this story up as I go along. While I have a rough general idea for the direction I want the beginning of this tale to go, I don't have any plans or outlines to help with writing it.

As stated above, this story is a crossover between DCU and Kingdom Hearts. This story takes place pre-Reboot in the DCU!verse and shortly after KH2.

(I think?)

We'll see where the muses decide to take this one...

Sit back, and I hope you enjoy the ride.