Chapter One

It was a normal day in the Dark City, not that we ever see much of interest here, in what we have termed the Twilight World, home to us that belong to neither the light nor the darkness. Memory's Skyscraper loomed over the landscape, dwarfing all but the massive floating Castle That Never Was, and the city was illuminated, as it always was, by the heart-shaped moon, the door to Kingdom Hearts. The taciturn city, dark as it was, still had its own peace, its own beauty, but unfortunately, to my dismay, today it was not so.

"Yeah, and so Axel set Marluxia's garden on fire again. Well, not all of it, but he got a good section of it. And Marluxia…" Demyx, Number IX of our Organization, chattered pointlessly. His title may be the Melodious Nocturne, but honestly, was it really necessary for him to be so noisy?

Sighing, I tuned him out, turning back to my own thoughts. I would have to request that the Superior place me with someone else next time it was my turn for patrol, preferably someone with more respect for silence, perhaps Lexaeus. These so-called "patrols" were rather pointless anyways, as the only beings in the Dark City were us, the lesser Nobodies, and Heartless. I suppose our "patrols" did help to keep the Heartless population in check, and therefore, keep the city from being overrun by Heartless, but besides this, they served little purpose. Vexen's security system was sophisticated enough to track any Heartless, Nobodies, or full beings throughout the city, and would alert us if a full being or intelligent Nobody appeared. Of course, perhaps Xemnas was simply attempting to get those of us not currently on a mission out of the castle, to keep some semblance of control and slightly lessen the inevitable chaos that was sure to occur if more than four of the members were in the castle at once. With Axel and Roxas or Demyx around, each of us, including the Superior, had been "pranked," as they called it, no less than ten times. Shaking my head slightly, I turned from my thoughts, looking around. To my amazement and annoyance, Demyx was //still// talking. Honestly, one must wonder at the amount of oxygen he was using for the simple task of speech. Probably as much as one of Axel's flames.

"…I remember. Axel set Marluxia's robe on fire…"

By Kingdom Hearts, did Number XI not understand the meaning of the simple word "quiet"? Really, it is not a difficult concept. However, if never ceased to amaze me how people insisted on blathering pointlessly all the time. I have nothing against verbal communication, but I choose to speak when necessary, rather than //constantly//.

"And then of course-"

"Demyx, I know this is rather rude of me, but would you, as I think most people say, politely mind shutting up?" I stated blandly.

Thankfully, Demyx FINALLY decided to close his mouth, resulting in blessed silence, and considerably more oxygen available in the immediate area. We continued to walk around the Dark City, occasionally stopping to take out some Heartless. Unfortunately, they put up so little of a challenge that they were hardly worth destroying. Even Demyx, one of our weakest fighters, had no trouble eliminating the Heartless, not even bothering to summon his water clones, but instead decimating Shadows, the weakest Heartless, with waves of water from his weapon, a blue sitar with a shape echoing that of our symbol. I did not even bother summoning my own weapon, which I used in only the direst of circumstances, but instead opted to create illusionary versions of Roxas's keyblades, Oblivion and Oathkeeper, easily taking out the Heartless with them. After a while more of wandering-

"This is boring…"

I should have known that the silence would not last.

Suddenly, a high-pitched shriek cracked the air, cutting off Demyx and making us both jump.

"What the hell was that?"Demyx asked. Usually I would have reprimanded him for such vulgar, and quite unnecessary, language, but I was just as shocked as he was. Number XI glanced around warily as I inhaled deeply, trying to figure out what we had heard.

You see, besides my Nobody gift of Illusion, I was also able to "smell" certain "scents" for lack of better terms. There was the twilight, shadowy scent of a Dusk nearby, along with Demyx's usual scent of the sea and music. Now, as I'm sure many of you will point out, music is a sound, and as such, cannot be smelled, only heard. But, as I previously stated, I only use "scent" for lack of a more fitting term. After all, you can't actually use your olfactory senses to pick up the presence of darkness, can you? I didn't think so. Nevertheless, darkness and light both have their own scent, differing greatly. Music has a "scent" as well, one that is quite colorful, visually equivalent to a rainbow. In addition to Demyx's unique scent, there was a strong scent of darkness around the corner to the right.

"Let's find out. Come on."

I walked towards the source of the dark scent and scream, Demyx following quickly, but warily, behind. As we approached, the scents became more distinct. Replacing the strong scent of darkness was a multitude of weaker darker scents, obviously Shadows. They were clustered together so much that it was difficult to sense their separate presences from a distance. This in itself was unusual, for Heartless generally only gathered in a clump when attacking something- or rather, someone. And underneath these more powerful scents of darkness… there was a weaker one, nearly fading. I could not clearly make it out, so masked by darkness, but the faintness indicated major weakness or injury, and I could tell that it seemed to be a Nobody or full being… strangely, however, it was hard to tell which.

As we rounded the corner, the disturbance became obvious. A young girl, probably no older than seventeen, lay curled on the ground, surrounded by the hordes of Heartless attacking her. Her features were hard to make out, as I could only see glimpses as the attacking Shadows moved. Demyx summoned his weapon, creating his signature water clones to take care of many of the Heartless at once. I chose to summon an illusion of Axel's chakras, except for the fact that they were silver and purple, and shrouded by energy and darkness instead of fire. I may have strongly disliked the annoying red head, but even I would not deny that he had unique and powerful weapons. Between the two of us, the group of Heartless quickly dissipated, leaving us staring at the young female human who remained.

"Damn Shadows…" Demyx hissed, favoring his right shoulder, where one had clipped him with its claws. I had sustained no injuries. Ignoring Demyx's cursing again, I looked at the girl, who appeared moderately injured. Deciding to spare her the immediate torture of Demyx's ramblings, I walked over to her, extending my hand to help her up.

"How badly are you injured?"

The young girl simply stared at me, clearly shaken by her ordeal. I noted the fear and timid look in her eyes, the gaze of one accustomed to being prey. If she were to survive here long, she would have to acclimate quickly, for neither the world of Twilight, nor our Organization, provided any sympathy for those who hide in fear because the night is dark.