A lone figure ambled silently down a street in the Dark City, lost in thought. A chill wind whipped his long platinum blond hair wildly before being stuffed down inside the cloak the man was wareing. The figure was Vexen, no. IV of Organization XIII, the Chilly Academic. He, along with other members of the Organization were sent out on recon missions to various worlds to check up on the Heartless' strange behavior.

Lately, within the past two months, the Heartless were getting more and more aggressive and unpredictable. Like the once harmless, albeit annoying, Emerald Serenade who usually stayed on a certain set path and never defended itself started to chase after creatures that would block it's path and attack with heavy body slams to those that dared to attack it. Rare Truffles and White Mushrooms became more aggressive too, and the other Heartless became absolutely berserk, they would rarely, if ever let up on their attacks and attack anything that moved, animate or not. Vexen was wracking his brain, looking for the answer completely ignorant of the world around him and the on coming storm when a pair for glowing yellow eyes locked onto him and lunged in to attack.

Vexen screamed in agony as a Neoshadow emerged from an alleyway, ramming into the Chilly Academic's side, knocking him to the ground hard, bruising his hip. Wincing in pain he tried to get up only to be knocked down onto all fours by a three clawed hand knocking the air out of him. Vexen gasped for air as he tried to fill his lungs the side where the Heartless hit him screaming in pain with each frantic breath. Out of the corner of his eye the blond saw the Heartless get ready to take another swing at him. Vexen barely managed to roll out of the way of the scything claws and bring his shield, Frozen Pride, up to block the hit, his arm holding the shield shook under the power of the blow but the shield stayed firm.

Using the shield as a crutch Vexen finally managed to get back up onto his quaking feet and cowered behind the blue shield, trying to keep it between himself and his opponent as the Neoshadow delivered blow upon blow. The Heartless ferociously beat and clawed at the shield trying to hammer it's way through to the weakened Nobody it protected, but Frozen Pride held firm.

Angered the Heartless melded into the ground to try and get behind the Nobody for another surprise attack. Vexen panted in exhaustion, while Frozen Pride didn't have so much as a scratch or a dent marring it's sooth silver and blue surface and was ready for more punishment the same could not be said for it's wielder. Vexen's right hip burned and ached when ever he put any weight on it, his left side stung and protested with each needed breath. Vexen's arms shook from trying to hold his shield up against the Neoshadow's powerful and relentless attack he was exhausted both mentally and physically and his eyes hurt trying to tell the difference between the shadow of the Heartless and his own.

The Heartless leapt from the ground up into the air like a rocket letting loose a large shock wave which Vexen dodge rolled away from. Vexen snarled at the Heartless and shot a powerful ice spell at the creature as it landed, freezing it in place. He charged the monster with a defiant war cry and started hammering and slicing away at it with the sharpened edges of his shield. His attacks were erratic and desperate as he tried to kill the monster before it unfroze or to at least weaken it so it could be easily dispatched once it did.

Again and again Vexen brought down his shield a look of pure rage upon his face. When he brought the shield up to deliver the final fatal blow the ice shattered releasing a particularly pissed Heartless from it's prison. Viciously it lashed out at Vexen's exposed stomach talons easily gliding through leather and skin as if it were tissue paper and ripping his thin muscles before becoming snagged on the silver zipper on Vexen's coat. A surprised look came over Vexen's face as he watch his intestines start to poke out of his open belly before wailing in agony. Then with the last reserves of energy Vexen brought the sharpened point of his shield down upon the Heartless' exposed neck. The point easily pierced the black skin of the monster and continued on until the tip struck the street, completely separating head from body.

Vexen watched with glazed eyes as the body of the Neoshadow turned to thick, oily, black smog the head too faded into a smoke before it could even hit hard pavement. Another wind picked up carrying the smog away to some unknown place.

Vexen stood upon shaking legs an arm draped protectively around his midriff to keep his guts from spilling out on to the ground and pooling at his booted feet, his vision tunneling. The adrenaline and other chemicals his body had released during the battle slowly ebbing from his system to be replaced by shear, unequal agony and an overall sense of weakness. Finally his legs gave out from beneath him unable to hold him any more. He fell with a crash not even trying to catch himself as the low dirge of thunder played above his head. His shield vanished in a starburst of snow too weak to maintain the magic that kept it by his side. Vexen lay motionless, falling in and out of consciousness on the cold street, gathering up the very last reserves for his final move. With a flick of the wrist he summoned up a corridor of Darkness not two feet away from him but it felt like a mile as Vexen dragged his fading body into the portal.

When the portal vanished taking Vexen back to the Castle that Never Was a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky the a whip illuminating the city. A heavy downpour of crystal rain came cascading from the heavens, down upon the street where an icy Nobody and enrage Heartless and joined in battle. It washed away all evidence that there had ever been any living things on that street that night. Tiny sharps of ice that had once peppered the pavement, shreds of leather covered in crimson, drag marks stained red leading from a pool of blood, pieces of pale skin and blond hair, all of it was washed away on a steam of pure, cleansing water into the dark open maws of the gutters lining the street.

The rain gradually slowed from a relentless downpour to a light drizzle, to a fine mist that left everything sparking with diamond dew, until it finally stopped revealing a normal city street, probably not so different from the one you live on now. al evidence that two desperate creatures had a battle to the death was washed away gone forever from time and space and memory.

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A/N: Yay! First story! This was more or less written just to see if I have the ability to write… well… what do you think? Sorry if it is terrible or the grammar mistakes, you see I have no Beta. OhNoes! So if you could point out what's wrong so I can fix it I will love you forevers! … Okay no I won't but I will be endlessly thankful. And one more thing, I'm thinking about making this a chapter story, you know add more to it but I will need a Beta reader first, and not to mention lost of motivation, *cough* reviews *cough*.

Thank you for reading! ~Cait