A/N: Hey, sorry about the long wait. I've enrolled at the University of Memphis and am now pursuing a degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering. I won't have much time to put stuff on here, but I'll do what I can! To those who await more chapters of my other stories, look out because they're coming really soon!

Light in the Darkness

Chapter 1 - Tied to the Darkness

I stared at the screen for what seemed like an eternity. The deafening sound from up above my head would be enough to frighten the living daylights out of some people, even my friends looked shaken. After all, our greatest enemy had achieved his greatest victory. He was free from his prison and had escaped into the world, free to destroy it.

If you don't already know, my name is Jeremy Belpois, and today is officially the worst day of my life.

I have just witnessed our archenemy XANA steal the Keys to Lyoko from the mind of my dear friend Aelita, killing her in doing so. Needless to say, I was devastated. Not only was Aelita dead, but XANA was freed from the supercomputer, ready and willing to take over Earth. In fact, he was escaping even now, with the aforementioned deafening noise coming from outside the factory being his essence entering our world fully and completely.

I thought to myself, how could it possibly get any worse than this?

However, after I tore myself away from the screen, which showed the painful evidence of my friend's demise, I heard a strange beeping noise. I looked back at the screen and noticed the supercomputer was making some very bizarre calculations. As soon as I noticed this, the whole of the factory seemed to lurch and shake. The tremor shook me out of the command chair and onto the metallic floor of the computer room.

"What's happening?" Ulrich shouted, looking around in the room for the source of the shaking.

"I don't know!" I shouted as I got to my feet. I looked behind me and quickly noticed that everything and everyone around me had completely stopped moving. Time had frozen my friends and the outside world solid. Ulrich looked like he was going to fall over, Yumi looked like she was trying to help him, while Odd looked like he was going to hurl.

Suddenly, the silence was broken.

Someone in this world has opened this world's Keyhole.

The unfamiliarity of this deep voice was more than enough to unnerve me. "What?" I turned around and noticed a new feature in the room: a small figure draped and hooded in a brown cloak. I realized it was he (I assumed it was a he) who had spoken.

"Who are you?" I asked instinctively.

This world has been connected, the voice came again. Tied to the darkness, soon to be completely eclipsed.

"This world? Darkness?" I asked. "What are you talking about?" Almost as soon as I said this, the screen started blinking with images I had never seen the likes of before. One was of several spheres linked to a heart shaped icon, another was of a keyhole on a large door, but the last was a vision of my friends being sucked into a dark mist while trying to run away from it. Seeing Aelita as one of those running from the darkness, I realized that Aelita was still alive, but this person – whoever he was – intended to make sure it would not be so for long.

You know not yet what waits beyond the door, the man said.

"The door?" I raised an eyebrow, and then looked back at the images still fresh on the screen. "Do you mean this door?"

There is so very much to learn. You understand so little. He ignored my question, giving me another of his anecdotes.

I then turned to the hooded figure. "I don't know what you mean with this whole darkness speech," I said, "but I know I won't let you hurt my friends or my home!"

A meaningless effort, the man's voice callously replied. As he spoke, his body began to fade and his voice was gradually reducing in volume until these last words were spoken in a whisper:

One who knows nothing can understand nothing.

Suddenly, as he completely faded from sight, everything began to move again. Just then, the globe display from the holomap flickered and faded, and something else began to shine inside the bottom of the console. However, this was a sphere of utter blackness, and as I stared at it I realized it was growing larger and larger every second. There were some glowing orange and purple lights inside the sphere, like a small sun was inside of the sphere, but I was more focused on the fact that it now started to draw dust and small objects into it. As it grew bigger still, its syphoning power began to grow as well. I felt myself being drawn towards it, the suction becoming more and more intense. I turned and tried to run, but it kept pulling me back. I ended up grasping onto one of the mainframe support beams on the floor, and my legs were lifted into the air, being drawn to the pitch-dark vortex that was now twice as big as the photomap projection.

"Guys! Help me!" I called out, but noticed that my friends had completely vanished. The only thing that was left of them was their footprints on the lab floor. The shock of this surprise made me slightly loosen my grip. I realized it all too late, as my grip failed and I was flung into the vortex. I knew no more beyond me screaming as I was flung into an unfathomable darkness.

[=]====m

Aerith Gainsborough stared out the window of the rental house in the Third District of Traverse Town. It had been a full three days since her friend Sora, the Keyblade's chosen warrior, had left the world of the town for Hollow Bastion. Since then, she could only imagine what was in store for the young hero and his companions. Her other friends, Yuffie Kisaragi and Squall Leonhart (he called himself Leon) were out patrolling the town for any stray Heartless. Cid Highwind, her other friend, was busy keeping watch over his shop and the folks who had taken shelter there.

Suddenly, Aerith bolted upright as if she had been struck by lightning. She gazed up at the night sky and saw a far-off star shine brightly before it faded away completely. No sooner had she grasped at her chest than Leon and Yuffie charged in.

"What is it?" she asked, worried at seeing the weary expressions on their faces.

"Aerith," Leon started, "we've got trouble."

"There are more Heartless popping up than before," Yuffie said, "and these ones are tougher than the last ones!"

"Really?" she gasped. "Then it's worse than I thought!"

"What do you mean by that?" Leon asked.

"I felt something bad," Aerith replied, "and then I looked up in the sky and noticed that another star had blinked out."

"Which means that another world just bit the dust," Yuffie said.

"Let's hope it isn't where Sora is," Leon said.

Just then, they heard a loud thump from behind them. They all jumped at the sound of the thump, but then turned to find the source of the noise.

"I think it came from the closet," Yuffie said.

"Only one way to find out," Leon replied, and opened the door. No sooner had he done so, than a person tumbled out. This caused everyone to give another jump in shock. They took another look and noticed this person was a teenage boy, no older than 13, with blond hair, a blue long sleeved shirt, tan pants, and thick framed glasses.

"How the heck did this kid get in here?" Leon asked.

"Don't ask me!" Yuffie shouted. "It's not like I'd know that!"

"Enough arguing!" Aerith shouted. "We need to help him. Leon, get him on the bed. Yuffie, get to Cid and explain what happened!"

Leon nodded and slung the arm of the boy over his shoulder. "He's pretty light for a teenager," he noted as he set him on the bed. Yuffie ran out the door to the First District, while Aerith and Leon stayed behind to look over the boy.

[=]====m

I felt an uncanny sense of nothingness for a long time, but then I felt something else. Something… warm and welcoming. I stirred around, trying to grasp if I was still alive or not and finally opened my eyes. I found myself in a small room with a few simple pieces of furniture scattered around. It looked like someone had just moved in there.

"Oh, you're awake!" a voice said. "I was worried for a minute that you weren't going to wake up."

"Huh?" I groaned, turning my head to the source of the sound. "Who are you?" Suddenly, I blinked. I thought I saw… "Aelita?"

"Aelita?" she said as her face changed into another person's. This face belonged to a girl quite a few years older than Aelita, with long brown hair in a braided ponytail tied with a red ribbon. Her eyes were a strange and deep green that showed off wisdom beyond her years.

"My name is Aerith," she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jeremy," I answered. I then tried to get up, only to find myself falling back down, wincing in pain. Aerith placed her hands over my now-shaking body.

"Are you okay, Jeremy?" she asked worriedly.

"I…think so…" I said, suddenly feeling really weak.

"How did you get here?" Aerith asked. "You just fell out of the closet in this house."

"Closet?" I looked around and saw the door of the closet in the corner, and remembered what had previously occurred to me. "All I remember was that I was with my friends, and I was being sucked into a deep darkness… and I can't remember anything after that."

"Darkness?" Aerith gasped, as I had cursed. "So you're the one, then."

"Excuse me?" I raised my eyebrow. "The one what?"

"Your world has been absorbed into the darkness," a deep male voice said from behind me. I turned around to see a man in his mid to late twenties, with shaggy dark brown hair, a black leather jacket with black leather pants, and a thin scar running from above his left eye down his nose to below his right eye. "You were chucked from your world and landed here. This is the place where those who have lost their homes to the darkness end up. Welcome to Traverse Town. My name's Leon, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," I said. I then go to my feet and peered out the window. Outside, I saw a street lined with simple buildings under a starry sky. Numerous lamps dotted the landscape and blinking lights from various buildings' signs further confounded me as to my new sense of place.

"So," I said after a while of gazing into this strange and new scenery, "I'm really in another world?"

"You are," Leon nodded.

"What about my home?" I asked. "What happened to my family? My friends?"

"They've been taken into the darkness just like so many other worlds," Leon answered. "You're not the first, and you're probably not the last."

"What do you mean, 'probably'?" I asked, but then a loud knock was heard at the door.

"Who's there?" Leon yelled.

"It's me, you idiot!" a girl's voice barked out. "Open up before they get me!"

"Who's 'they'?" I asked. "Who is that?" But before I could be answered, Leon swung the door open, and a girl barely older than me dashed inside. She had a small mop of black hair, light brown eyes, and a green bandana tied around her forehead.

"Oh," she said, noticing me. "You're awake! That's good to know! You can call me Yuffie!"

"I'm Jeremy," I said quickly, "but what's going on? Who are 'they'? Why do you look so panicked?"

"Guys," she said, ignoring me, "I've got good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Leon asked, folding his arms.

"More Heartless are popping up like before," she started, "and I saw at least two more stars go out!"

Aerith sighed sadly, placing her hand over her chest. "What's the good news, then?"

"Sora and the gang are back!" she said excitedly. "And he's brought a friend!"

"Really?" Aerith asked. "There was someone there that was on his side?"

"And did he seal the final Keyhole already?" Leon asked.

"I don't know myself," she shrugged, "but he's on his way right now!"

"Well then, we'd better get out there and welcome him," Leon said, and they all walked out the door. As she was leaving, Aerith turned to me. "You should come too, especially if you want to know more about this whole world connection thing, which I can see you're new to."

"Okay," I said, and followed her out the door into the starlit town.

Kinda short, I know, but it gets better once Sora and co. get in the story!

-JeremyX signing off!