A/N: Welcome to the story! As the pic in the top left corner of the page says I'm killerroxas. Now, for those of you that have read this story before: I've rewritten the first chapter only for the reason that I found the original terrible and lacking… something, mainly just not looking like complete crap.The co-author Killerkerblader and I have also had a few ideas about a bit of a better plot for Zero. For those of you just joining us, once again welcome to the story. Enough of my prattling, time for the story! Before I forget, all flames will be used to burn Mansex into a pile of ash on the ground.

A quick note: Zero has been modified from his original age to be 16 given I forgot that when a Nobody "dies" they freeze at the age they died, at least as I see it in my head canon.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Zero, Hikari, Yami, their words, and any of the OC's that appear here unless stated otherwise. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.

Exclaimer: If you don't like my story, don't read it.

(In an unknown plane between Light and Darkness…)

A pair of blades met in a shower of sparks and who appeared to be a young woman in a white cloak fell backwards as her strength left her momentarily. "You're slowing down in your age, Hikari. A thousand years ago, you'd have been able to avoid me." A man in a black coat said as he spun his sword, a black katana, around in his hand. His blade was strange to anyone's eye; it was notched, scratched, and looked like it would be destined for the trash heap soon if not for the fact it burned with an aura of black fire around it.

"A thousand years ago we wouldn't be fighting like this, Yami." Hikari said as she shakily stood. "Come back to the Light, come back to the Guardians." She pleaded as she rose, her own pristine, pure white blade, glowing with a bright, though fading and flickering, white aura. "Master (_) wouldn't want this."

"Master (_) trained me for the Darkness, Hikari; my name is proof of that. As for the Guardians… They've been gone for longer than we've been around; why restart a dead order when you can't find a suitable heart to take up the mantle and the remaining members of said order are at war with each other? They deserve to stay gone." He raised his blade and brought it down in a swipe, causing a slash of pure dark energy to fly towards the Light wielder. She raised her blade as a barrier of light erupted between the slash and herself. With a tremendous shattering sound, the barrier failed, breaking like a pane of glass as Hikari was blown off of her feet.

"You're wrong. I'll prove that to you…" She told him as she disappeared through a portal of light, using some of the last bits of her failing strength.

"I await the day when you can, old friend…" Yami chuckled as he opened a dark corridor and walked through, following his target.

(On Destiny Islands...) (Zero's POV)

"So, let me get this straight. You three have been off adventuring on other worlds and seeing Gods know what while I've been stuck here with Wakka, Tidus, Selphie, Vaan, Penelo, Larsa, Hope, Vanile, and the rest of our class doing schoolwork that bores the living hell out of me? I feel like I got the short end of the stick got bashed repeatedly into my head." I said as I carefully stood up on the Paupou tree and grabbed one of the hanging star-shaped fruits.

"It's not our fault you got left behind! After all, you were the one that didn't come to help us with the old raft." Sora laughed as he leaned back against the tree.

"Are you sure you should be eating those? I mean, sure you don't believe in what they can do, but don't they taste nasty just being eaten right off the tree like that?" Kairi asked warily as I took a bite of Paupou.

"Kairi, you know he won't listen. He's probably been eating those things longer than we've have known him." Riku laughed as I took another bite.

"It's not my fault I like them! They're so juicy and sweet- who's that?" I asked as I pointed down at a white coated figure, a woman by the look of her, down on the part of the beach Tidus and the others used for sparring. All four of us gasped though when she fell to the ground with an audible cry of pain as she hit the ground.

Without a thought in my head, I dropped my fruit and dove off the tree, landing heavily on the sand below the small raised island, rolling to cushion my fall. Sora, Riku, and Kairi quickly followed me, Sora and Riku both summoning their Keyblades as they ran. I slid to a stop by the woman and quickly looked her over. "You need a doctor fast. Sora! Riku! I need a hand here!" I called as they ran to the stairs inside the 'Seaside Shack' as we called it.

"No, there's no time for that." She said as she looked me in the eyes, seeming to stare straight into my soul. "Your heart…. Your heart looks pure and corrupt; full of kindness and cruelty; one ready to use both Light and Darkness to protect and destroy without hesitation. I told Yami I'd find a person to take up our mantle…" she said more to herself than to me. "Take my weapon and use it to defend your friends, they'll need it. He won't be far behind me." She said as she summoned a katana, snow white and perfect, while glowing with a pure white aura. She pressed the blade into my arms. "Go… I shall watch over you so long as you serve the Light." She sighed as the last of her strength left her and a flash that momentarily blinded me happened. When my sight returned I looked down and the woman was gone as if she had never been there. I slowly stood, still holding the blade she had given to me. I seemed to stand still for the longest time, processing that someone had just died in my arms when I became aware of Sora and Riku's voices.

"Zero! Zero, focus you idiot!" Riku yelled as he whacked me over the head with a free hand, the other holding 'Way to Dawn' as he called it.

I barely processed the hit; more focused on the weapon I had just been given. "What, what is this?" I asked holding up the blade thinking either of Keybearers would know.

Sora looked over it. "Never seen anything like it before…" He said as he thought.

"It's a weapon of the purest Light in the hands of a novice. How pathetic, I was expecting a challenge." An almost demonic sounding voice said as a man in a black coat appeared from what Sora and Riku had described to me as a Dark Corridor.

Sora, Riku, and I immediately went into fight mode, each of us striking a battle stance with our respective weapons.

. "Who are you and why are you on our world!" Riku yelled at the man, a glare on his face.

"Name's Yami and I'm here for that that guy." He said casually as he pointed at me and summoned a beaten and battered looking blade. It looked notched, scratched, and old though what made me shake was the fact the blade ignited in a black inferno. "Trouble is, I need him dead." He took a step towards us just as Riku and Sora rushed him, both giving battle cries.

The man known as Yami looked almost bored as he blocked both Sora's and Riku's weapons. With a twitch of his wrist I almost didn't catch he disarmed both Keybearers and gave them sharp cracks over the head with the hilt of his sword, knocking them out cold. "Pathetic Keybearers." He spat as they fell into the sand, their weapons vanishing in flashes of light. "They may have come after our Order fell and been hailed as heroes by those who knew about them, but they could never hold a candle to the Guardians. Now, to business." He said as he ran at me.

With Sora and Riku out cold only one thought came to mind: protect Kairi. Sora would never forgive me, more importantly he'd beat me to within an inch of my life, if she got hurt. With a war cry of my own I ran at the cloaked figure, intending to buy some time until Riku and Sora got up.

With the same bored expression Yami sidestepped me and opened a Dark Corridor in front of me. "Let's go somewhere we can discuss something. Shall we?" He asked as he kicked me though the portal. The last thing I heard from the Destiny Islands side of the Corridor was the sound of keyblades being summoned and Riku yelling "After him, Sora!" before something in my mind was overloaded by an intense feeling of Darkness and I lost consciousness…

(Yami's POV)

I looked back to see the kid by the name of Sora run at me again. "Enough of this. Dark Finale!" I cried as I pointed my blade at the Keyblader. A strong blast of the most potent Darkness under my power fired from my blade at the boy, causing him and his friends to dive out of the way and the blast itself to leave a deep black mark on the giant tree in the middle of the island. "That's all folks!" I laughed as I dove through the Corridor, closing it seconds before either of the boys could jump through.

I landed on a certain beach in the Realm of Darkness and surveyed who had apparently been Hikari's choice as a new Guardian. "Not much to look at…" I mused, already noting the changes to his appearance. His hair, which had originally been somewhere between blond, black, and brown by the look of it, was now turning to a clear snow white and his eyes, which had been emerald green, were turning into a deep sapphire blue. "Already messing with how he looks? Ha, you're still as vain as ever, Hikari." I chuckled. "Well, it's time to get down to business. If this is supposedly our chosen replacement let's see if he can wield the destructive powers of Darkness." I said as I placed my hand on his brow and used a bit of my power to delve into his heart.

(Zero's POV)

I awoke on what was seemingly a platform over nothing but a void. "This is amazing…" I muttered quietly.

"What was that? Don't you know it's rude to whisper in the company of others?" Yami's voice said as the man himself appeared holding his black blade.

"Wha-What're you doing here?" I said, trying and failing to sound braver than I felt, Riku and Sora were the best fighters Destiny Islands had to offer, if this guy could beat them without any form of effort… I shuddered to think of what would happen to me. I held up my blade and pointed it at the cloaked man. "If you want me dead, then you'll have to fight!" I called earning a laugh from Yami.

"You want to play, Kid? Then let's play!" He cried as he rushed at me. I don't know how but I saw that he was moving slightly slower than before and noticing details about him I think I normally wouldn't have. I blocked one of his strikes with what could have been ease, if it wasn't for the fact that for each strike I parried or blocked there were what seemed like three more coming. We kept at it for I'm not sure how long until I noticed a tiny, minute flaw in one of his strikes that I hadn't think I'd seen before. I felt a strange feeling come over my mind, almost like a guiding hand as I twisted in a way I didn't think I could. At the end of my strike I ended up behind and facing away from the cloaked figure with my blade buried in his spine.

I saw Yami looking back to me and at my eyes, almost as if he were staring straight through me, just like that woman he had called Hikari had before she gave me her blade. "Well, looks like you found the guy you were looking for, Hikari. He'll do well enough, Master was never that picky so I guess I won't be." He said seemingly to no one.

He pulled himself off my blade as if he were simply pulling himself up from the ground and did something I didn't think anyone who had just taken the wound he had just taken could do. He stabbed me in my heart as he literally started fading away. "I give you two gifts, Kid. One, my blade; use it as you see fit. So long as you fight you shall wield the unstoppable forces of Darkness." He said as a ball of light appeared at my chest and started floating up and away. At once I fell to my knees, the pain of whatever I had lost too great for me to take standing. I think Sora had called it, what was it he had said, a heart? "Two, I grant you a partial immortality. Time shall not ravage you, though a length of steel being shoved through you will still do a fair bit of damage." He chuckled, "oh, and to make sure you don't start blabbing things you shouldn't I'm taking away a few of your memories. You'll still remember everything you should: your normal memories and a select few about me -modified of course- but you'll never really remember me, Hikari, or even how you got your weapons until the time comes." He gasped as his torso started fading away. "When you next wake up, take the coat on the ground next to you and put it on; wait for the man that comes to get you and go with him. He may seem familiar. Now, you be a good boy now!" he said as, with a snap of his fading fingers, he combusted in another black fire. I suddenly found myself falling back, though I don't think I ever hit the ground. The calming hold of unconsciousness had already taken me….

(Who know how much time later…)

I awoke feeling strange, almost empty. I looked down to see a black coat and a strange blade resting beside me. I carefully pulled on the coat and picked up the blade, looking it over and twirling it a couple times in my hand to test the balance. 'Well, time to get to training.' I thought as I found a second, strange blade strapped to my back. I raised the two blades and brought them down on the head of an imaginary enemy, beginning a bit of self-training for the day…

(What felt like years later…)

I lowered my blades for the day and sheathed them, wiping the sweat off my brow. Just then, portal appeared, one that sparked a few memories of my past. I brushed the memories aside as a man in a black coat stepped through and calmly walked over to me. "Are you Zero?" the man asked almost boredly.

"That depends. Who the hell wants to know?" I asked with venom in my voice.

"Just a member of a concerned Organization." He said. With a movement I almost didn't catch, he pulled something out of his coat and brought it down. At once, a sharp pain exploded in me, centered around a spot on my head. With the last thought of 'What the hell just happened?' I lost consciousness….

(Once again: An unknown amount of time later…)

I awoke in a white room, a bedroom by the look of it, with my blades hung on a rack above my head. "Where the hell am I?" I muttered as I strapped my blades to my back and carefully snuck out of my room to explore my new surroundings.

A/N: Well, that took forever to write. Sorry to those of you who were expecting chapter five. A quick note on that: It's in the works; I just have to modify a few things. Also, sorry for the lack of updates, life's just keeping me from writing more. Enough of my prattling, Chapter Five will be out soon, I just need to get a few things fixed up for it. Before I forget, REVIEW! It lets me know if I need to change anything or fix typos; or it tells me whether or not you liked the fic.