A black haired boy stood on a small slab of rock with two others; a boy with brown hair and a girl with pink. Their other features were indiscernable. All I can hear are snatches of some voices.
"…bring Riku back!"
"…know you will!" There was a loud rumble. The two rocks separated and slowly drifted apart. The boy and girl were separated from the black haired guy.
"We'll be back! I promise!"

I sit up quickly, wide awake. I had another one of those dreams. They're always about that guy, and his friends too. It's like I'm there with them, but with no free will. Just living out his life.

I look around around my room, making sure I'm not dreaming anymore. The bed is next to a window overlooking a town. The entire room is full of random stuff. Just as I remember it.

I think back to one of the dreams I had last night. It felt different from the others. It was about two people in black hoods. They were walking down a rainy, dark street. It felt like they were doing something important. But then they were stopped by…

I suddenly feel a splitting pain in my head. I grip my temples and groan painfully. It feels like my brain is being ripped in half! But as soon as the pain came, it disappears. What was that all about?

A voice shouts up from outside the window. "Hey, Zaxke! Are you up?" I open it and look outside. Below the window are three teenagers.

One of the guys is blond and appears to be pretty muscular. He's wearing camo shorts and sneakers. He also has on a black shirt and grey jacket.

The only girl is brunette with long hair. She has on an orange tank-top with a floral design near the bottom. Her shorts are a light yellow.

The last person is a kind of chubby boy. He is wearing jeans and blue and white sneakers. His shirt is red with white sleeves. It has a strange design on it. He also is wearing a red headband and a purple bandana.

I remember them at least. Hayner, Olette, and Pence. Three of my best friends in the world.

"Are you coming or what?" Hayner shouts.

"Yeah, we've been waiting for you!" Pence calls.

"I'll be down in a minute," I answer. I close the window and step out of bed.

I look in the drawer for some clothes. All that's in there is a pair of black pants with a white stripe down both legs. In the closet there is a white jacket and grey t-shirt in the closet. The jacket has a strange symbol on the back.

I put all of the clothes on and rush downstairs.

When I get outside, Hayner, Pence, and Olette are gone. They must be at the Secret Place by now! We always hang out there.

While I walk there, I appreciate the beauty the sunset offers. It isn't the end of the day, but this town is always in a state of perpetual twilight. Almost every building is yellow and orange, reflecting that same color. That's why they call it Twilight Town.

When I arrive, the gang is already sitting around in various places. I sit down on the couch next to Olette.

They start to talk about something, but I barely pay attention. I'm trying to remember that dream, but I only have bits and pieces left. It felt important, but it was just a dream, right?

"Hey, guys! Sorry I'm late." I turn to the entrance. Standing there is Roxas. His wild blond hair makes it immpossible to mistake him for anyone else.

He's wearing a white jacket with black stitches around it. The inside of the jacket is red He also wears grey and black pants and grey shoes with red laces. He has a few wigs and a checkered wristband. His zipper is an X.

Roxas sits down in the a chair near the door. He looks really unfocused. Has he been having weird dreams too?

Before I can get up to talk to him, Hayner turns to me. "Have you ever been this ticked off in your life? Cuz I haven't! Nuh-uh, NEVER." He punches his palm, looking really angry. "Now… what to do."

I shrug. I'm not really a plan-making guy. "Uh, well…" Luckily, Roxas covers for me.

"We could find the real thieves! That would set the record straight!" Recently, a lot of things have gone missing around town. We have nothing to do with it, but everyone has been blaming us! As if we'd ever steal from people

"Hey, that sounds fun!" Hayner says. "But what about Seifer?"

Roxas stands up. "First, we gotta clear our names. Once we find the real culprit, everyone will get off our backs." That sounds like a good plan to me. If we find the real thieves, no one can blame us any more. To be honest, I'm sick of being treated like a criminal.

"Oh no! They're gone!" Pence exclaims. I look over to him. He's holding a camera. "Our - are gone!"

Pence rubs his throat, apparently realizing he didn't say pictures.

"All our -, gone?" Hayner asks. He couldn't say it either

"Did you mean -?" I ask. I can't say it either!

"You can't say -?" Olette says. "Why not?" She gasps. This is crazy.

"But you do understand what I'm saying, right?" Pence asks. "Our - are gone!"

Roxas stands up. "Stolen... And just the -! They stole the word - too!"

"What kind of thief is that?" I ask.

"Seifer never could have pulled that off," Hayner says. "All right, time for some recon!"

Hayner runs out, followed by Pence and Olette. Roxas starts to follow, but he stops and grabs his head. He sways as if he's dizzy.

I rush over to grab him, but he's already fallen to the ground.

Suddenly, I feel dizzy too. The room starts to spin wildly. I feel a strong pain in my chest. I stumble around, trying to make it somewhere soft. I manage to make it to the couch before blacking out.

His heart is returning. Doubtless, the both of them will awaken very soon.

I open my eyes slowly. I'm lying on the couch. I groan. What just happened? I stand up, noticing Roxas is doing the same. He dusts his pants off as Olette comes back.

"Roxas, Zaxke, come on!" She walks out, us following.

We eventually reach the shopping district. Everyone is waiting near the armor shop.

"Let's get this investigation underway," Pence says when we reach them.

"Yo, Roxas!" The shop keeper, Rick, says. We turn to him. "Never thought you'd do such a rotten thing…"

"We didn't steal anything, all right?" Roxas protests.

Rick looks suspicious. "I'd like to believe you, but… who else would steal that stuff?"

"What stuff?" I ask.

Rick scoffs. "As if you didn't know. I'm not gonna tell you. Go ask at the accessory shop." We go over to the shop Rick told us to go to.

The person who runs it is Ashley. The products she sells have strange effects. I go to talk to her.

"Oh, it's you, Zaxke..." She says sadly. "Please don't let me down. You used to be one of my favorite customers."

"I'm telling you, we didn't steal anything!" I plead.

"Okay…" she still sounds suspicious.

"It's no fun having everyone suspecting us, ya know. I say.

"Then you've got to find a way to clear your name! The woman at the candy shop is pretty disappointed too."

We go over to the candy shop now. The woman who runs it, Mrs. Clove, is a very nice lady. She always used to give us treats for free.

"Roxas? " she says when we arrive. "Have you seen my cat around?"

"Er…" I hear a cat meow. Roxas heard it too. He looks up, seeing the cat on the awning. "So, who wants to get it?" Roxas asks. When no one answers, he sighs. "I guess I have to get it myself."

Roxas climbs up, grabs the cat, and tosses it down to us. I hand Mrs. Clove her cat and she looks very grateful.

"Thank you Roxas," she says.

Roxas moves onto what we came for. "Did they steal something from you too?"

"Oh, my, yes. Something important." There wasnt a hint of accusation in her voice.

"Just so you know, we didn't do it," Roxas adds.

"I believe you," she says kindly. Finally! Someone believes we didn't do it!

"Thanks for that, ma'am. So what did they take from you?"

"My -. My precious -." So I guess no one can say the word.

Hayner nods. "So the thief is going around stealing -! And not just -, but the word -, too."

Pence sighs. "This isn't your average thief…"

"I wonder if Seifer would know anything about this," Olette says.

"We gotta talk to him." I say. "Come on, to the sandlot!"

The sandlot is a wide open area with a few benches on the sidelines. It's mainly used for town events like the yearly struggle tournament. The end of summer carnival is also held here. Other times, it's the regular hangout for Seifer and his gang, the self-appointed Disciplinary Commitee.

When we arrived at the sandlot, Seifer's gang was already there, talking about something. There are three in his gang besides Seifer himself.

Rai is tall and muscular. His skin is very tan and he has brown hair slicked forward. Rai has a lot of stubble too. He usually wears an orange, sleeveless shirt and black pants. He also has a blue wristband and a lightning bolt necklace.

Fuu is the strong, silent type. Her blue-purple hair blocks on of her red eyes. She is wearing a blue sleeveless jacket and Capri pants as usual. Her shoes resemble crocs.

Vivi is very short, almost like a little kid. His face is obscured by his huge hat. Said hat is brown and resembles a face with its open zipper and patches. Vivi wears a sky-blue jacket with large pockets. His pants are green and baggy, and he has town shoes and gloves

Vivi points at us as soon as we arrive, signaling the other two to our presence. Seifer isn't anywhere to be seen.

"That was really low, y'know!" Rai says as soon as he sees us.

"Oh yeah?" Hayner retorts

"Nice comeback there, blondie," someone says. We turn in unison. Walking into the sandlot is Seifer himself. As usual, he's wearing a black beanie obscuring his blond hair. He also has a white cloak that covers a blue shirt. He wears a pair of light purple pants as well. Even though Seifer's a jerk, he did have a point. Not one of Hayner's best retorts.

"What'd you say?" Hayner asks angrily. He clenches his fist, looking ready to fight. Roxas growls.

Seifer ignores our anger. "You can give us back the - now." He doesn't seem bothered that he can't say -.

"Yeah! You're the only ones who would take it, y'know?" Rai interjects. Did I mention Rai uses "y'know" as punctuation?

Seifer continues, pacing toward his gang. "That was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers. So what did you do? Burn it?" He stops. "Ha, not that we needed some - to prove that you're losers."

"Replay," Fuu says bluntly. Seifer laughs.

"Now you're talking!" Seifer and his gang get into a fighting position. We do the same. "I guess if you get on your knees and beg, MAYBE I'll let it slide."

I can tell Roxas is getting mad, but he straightens up and walks toward them. Seifer's gang starts laughing as he gets down on his knees.

"Roxas! What are you doing!" I hiss. Then, I realize what's going on. There are three struggle bats near Seifer. He was just getting closer to them!

As soon as I realize this, Roxas breaks into a run toward on of them. He grabs the one that is geared toward attacking, then gets ready to fight Seifer.

Seifer holds out his bat toward Roxas with the rest of us standing on the sidelines. "Roxas, focus!" Pence shouts.

"Kneel, loser!" Seifer taunts. Angered, Roxas runs toward him. With a thrust of his bat, Roxas breaks Seifer's guard and he recoils. With Seifer open to attack, Roxas thrusts once more, swings down, and spins around. Each of these attacks hit.

Seifer waves his bat in Roxas's face. "Come on, quit playin' around and fight!"

Seifer calmly strolls toward Roxas, holding his struggle bat out. Roxas stands his ground. When Seifer reaches him, he performs a relatively slow strike downward. Roxas is easily able to dodge it by going under his strike. Now behind Seifer, Roxas swings down, forcing Seifer away from him.

Seifer quickly recovers and tries the same attack as before. Roxas leans back, completely dodging the attack. While Seifer is off balance, he slashes him across the middle. Roxas doesn't let up. He follows Seifer and swings down powerfully.

As soon as Seifer recovers, he jumps extremely high into the air. He then quickly dives down with his bat held out, Roxas manages to roll out of the way, but Seifer came close to hitting him.

While Seifer is recovering from his missed attack, Roxas runs to his side and swings hard. While Seifer has his back turned, Roxas goes in for another attack. But as soon as he gets close, Seifer spins around and swings his bat. That was the first time Roxas got hit!

He goes flying, but manages to land on his feet. Seifer jumps back then high up. He dives toward Roxas again, but he misses once again. Roxas goes around to his back and swings down as hard as he can.

Seifer drops his bat and kneels on the ground. Fuu and Rai stand protectively in front of him.

"Seifer's not feelin' so hot, y'know!" Rai says. That really gets annoying fast.

"Tournament decides," Fuu states. Pence grabs his camera and takes a quick picture of Roxas in front of the fallen Seifer.

Suddenly, a strange white creature appears and grabs the camera! It jumps away and runs away with various acrobatic flips and movements. It doesn't really seem to jump, but just stretch long distances. What is it?

"What was that?" Hayner asks.

"The thief?" Olette suggests. We start to chase after it. While we run after it, I grab a struggle bat from the ground.

We catch up with it in the forest. It dances around the trees, moving wildly. It actually seems to be able to fly!

I look behind me. Only Roxas is with me. "Where did the others go?" I ask him.

He looks confused as well. "I don't know, but we have to catch the thief!" We run after the thief, but it is very difficult to chase because of its erratic movements. However, it seems to be heading for the abandoned mansion.

At the gate of the abandoned Madison, the thief is cornered. Now i have a beeter look at it. It is almost completely white and has a vaguely human shape. However, it's deformed. A blue line runs up each side of its body and its head is flat at the top. It's mouth looks like a zipper. A strange symbol is on it's head.

We have come for you, my liege.

I gasp. What was that? This monster? Suddenly, another one of the creatures appears next to it. Both of their mouths unzip, revealing a set of sharp teeth.

I hold out my struggle bat, ready to fight. Roxas does the same.

"I'll take the one on the right," I tell him.

"Let's do this!" The monster I'm fighting flips itself around, then comes after me. It floats across the ground, slithering toward me like a snake. It rises from the ground, and swings a deformed arm.

Somehow, I slide around it very quickly. Someone looking on would probably see just a blur. In trying to follow me, the monster spins around too quickly, tying itself in a knot.

While it's incapacitated, I try to swing my bat on it's head, but it goes right through it! It felt like I hit nothing at all! The monster recover and flows around my feet. When I try to hit it, it stands on its head and kicks me in the back.

I join Roxas again. He's having the same problem as me! I can tell he's just as tired as me.

He breathes heavily. "It's no use…" The monsters come closer and closer. How are we going to fight them?

I feel a strange tingling in my right hand. I look at the bat I'm holding. Rows of rectangular light start to run up the entire bat. The same is happening to Roxas's.

The light quickly becomes computer code and a ring of data starts to go up the weapon. The bat turns into a dark outline of its former self. Soon, it lengthens, becoming a dark sword.

The sword is black at its square hilt. It is quite long and for some reason resembles a key. The shaft is grey as ash and has five spikes on each end. Dangling from the end is a black star.

I stare at it in wonder. What is this thing? It feels like I've held this thing before.

Suddenly, it starts to pull me toward the monsters. "What… what is this thing?" Roxas gasps. I look over. He has one too, but it looks different…"

"I don't know," I say. "but I think if will help us beat these things!"

One of the creatures slowly meanders toward me. It walks as if it's drunk, now that I think about it.

I run toward it. As soon as I get near it, I slide around to it's back. Like before, it gets tied around itself. Unlike before, when I swing down on its head, I actually make contact. Yes!

When I hit it, the creature conforms to the hit. These things are incredibly stretchy! Instead of flowing into the ground like before, it jumps into the air and curls into a ball. It spins for a few seconds, then it floats upsidedown toward me. All the while, it swings it's arms wildly. It hits me quite hard.

When it lands, I slide around it once more. As I hit it, I get an idea. After two hits, I spin around again, preventing it from recovering. I do that again and again until it is defeated.

The monster is enveloped in a flurry of blue electricity and crackling. It flails around violently as it quickly fades away.

As soon as it's gone, multiple pieces of paper fall to the ground. One lands near me and I pick it up. It's the picture stolen from us! It's of all of us standing in front of the mansion- one of the first pictures we took this summer.

Roxas walks over to me. "We got the pictures back!" He cheers. We hi-five.

I realize something. "Hey, you said pictures!"

"Then everything's back to normal!"

Suddenly, the strange weapons disappear in the same manner they appeared. I almost forgot about them.

I pick up all of the photos. "Well, not everything…"

Restoration at 65%

DiZ frowned. He thought they'd have more time before they came. He watched the footage of what had happened today for the hundredth time. How did they break in?

"Oraganization miscreants… they've found us."

A man in a black cloak stood in the corner, almost unnoticed. "But, why would the Nobodies steal photographs?" He wondered aloud.

"Both are nothing but data to them; The fools could never tell the difference." DiZ paused. "We are running out of time. Namine must make haste."