"So it's settled then, research begins tomorrow," Ansem said. "It's off to bed with you then, I want you ready and well rested tomorrow. I want to know more about this 'shadow' business you spoke of. Are you sure you can't remember anything else?" Xehanort looked down and nodded, slightly ashamed. "I see…well, perhaps we'll be able to figure out this whole mess then. Good night Xehanort."
"Good night," he replied. Ansem closed the door and left Xehanort to his chamber. He walked through the castle, perplexed by Xehanort's story. He walked aimlessly for hours trying to think of what could have happened. He made his way to the balcony overlooking the town. Night had fallen, and the town was only lit up by the stars above. Ansem looked up into the sky wondering what sort of fate had befallen his new apprentice. Everything about his story baffled him, especially the shadow. "Why in the world did the shadow have eyes? A shadow is nothing but a shadow…is it not?" Everyone in Radiant Garden was sleeping peacefully except for Ansem. He didn't even attempt to go to bed. He couldn't with all of these questions in his head.
He stared up into the stars, gazing into the beauty of a hundred thousand fireflies. He always questioned what lay beyond the boundary of the world of Radiant Garden, and hoped to one day find that answer. Ansem didn't have the technology to gaze beyond the sky and see what wonders could await him, and he always hoped that he might someday see them. But he had grown old, and was beginning to think he'd never see those miracles. And so he could only speculate. He wondered what the stars were; he believed they were other worlds. Other worlds he hoped to someday visit. Ansem watched a particularly bright star with interest. "Another world…someday, I'll unlock the secrets to the universe." He watched the star shine brightly, and looked at the town once again. But when he looked back at the star, it was no longer there. Ansem looked around for it, but the star had vanished.
"Well…that's a bit odd. I thought there was a star there…" he thought aloud as he searched. He found some other bright stars, and brushed it off as his old mind playing tricks on him. That moment, however, was when he first began to feel uneasy about the world around him and beyond.
But Ansem didn't know just how right he was about the other worlds…
Far away in that diamond sky, far from Ansem, far from Xehanort, far from Radiant Garden and all of its inhabitants…was another world, just as Ansem had predicted. Of course, this was not the only other world in the sky. There were in fact hundreds, possibly even thousands. But very few knew of any world outside their own. But that was all about to change.
Deep in amidst the Gummi Galaxy as it would be called; there was a war-torn world called Crimson Skies. This world was almost constantly under siege of war. But just recently, it's been in a war unlike any other. This time, the war isn't among the inhabitants, the war is between the people of the world, and a new enemy unlike any they'd ever seen before. Shadow creatures have begun materializing out of the ground and attacking people. Militaries all over the world have joined forces to try and combat these enemies, but their efforts have hardly proven worth it. The creatures seem to be unharmed by normal firepower, and so two of the world's best soldiers were recruited to fight.
In all the world, possibly even the universe, there are two men that are undeniably the best in their classes. The first, Braig, is the best sharpshooter in the land. His accuracy is flawless, and he never misses his target. He can shoot hundreds upon thousands of bullets rapidly in a matter of seconds with every one of them landing their hit. He could easily take on an army of a hundred men and manage to take every one of them down before they could even pull the trigger of their own firearms.
The second, Dilan, is just the opposite of Braig. Dilan is a master of weaponry, and is simply unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat. Any weapon he holds, he masters, and he can manage to hold multiple weapons at a time and use them all with ease. His specialty is lances, and oftentimes will use two of them, one in each hand. His style of fighting is mixed by combining offensive attacks with defensive motives, and alternates the two constantly so that the enemy can't even keep up. The two best fighters in the entire world have been called together to give some hope of defeating the shadows.
"Sir, the soldiers have arrived," shouted a soldier to the commander.
"What soldiers?" questioned the commander. "Braig and Dilan? S'bout damn time. These shadows are just killin' us." Braig and Dilan walked up to the commander, seemingly unprepared. They held their weapons, but no armor to shield themselves. "The hell do you think you're doin'? You boys ain't got no armor? Them shadows are gonna eat right through you!"
"They'd eat right through us anyway," responded Dilan. "You've been fighting these creatures for some time now, you should know that they're not of this world." Dilan spoke in a very sullen yet wise manner, and he was very serious about the whole situation. Braig however…
"Eat through us? As if…they won't even be able to touch us anyway." Braig spoke in a complete opposite manner to Dilan. He was very brash and didn't seem to be taking it very seriously. "As long as I got my guns, not one shadow's gonna lay a finger on me."
Dilan rolled his eyes, even though he was confident that the shadows wouldn't have the chance to penetrate them as Braig said. "What's the status of the troops?"
"They're eatin' us alive!" shouted the commander. "But they're not exactly killin' our soldiers. It's like a black hole appears on their chests and their hearts get sucked straight out of them. And then our soldiers just collapse. But, they're not exactly dead, cuz then they turn into the shadows themselves! We may have had a chance if we had any forewarning of their attack, but since they got the jump on us, they've taken half our army, which probably near doubles theirs!"
Braig readied his guns, and Dilan took out two lances that were attached behind him in a criss-crossed fashion. The commander was about to give them their orders when Dilan intervened "No offense commander, but I do battle my own way." Braig joined in, "Yea, not like I'm some punk kid." The commander just nodded his head, and dismissed them. Dilan and Braig walked out onto the land to find the rest of the army decimated by the creatures. It was a complete onslaught. "I've never seen anything like this…" said Dilan. "They're unimaginable."
"Pipe down," interjected Braig. "What's a matter? You scared?"
"No, of course not," Dilan said with a big grin. "Intrigued would be a better word."
"Alright then, last one in's a rotten egg!" said Braig, looking over to Dilan. But Dilan had already started sprinting towards the shadows. "Hey! No fair!" Braig shouted as he chased after him.
Dilan and Braig reached a couple of lone soldiers in a group surrounded by shadows and immediately began to take on the shadows. Dilan started whipping his lances around, flipping them from hand to hand, over his shoulder, behind his back, through his legs, devastating every last shadow that came into contact with him. Braig took one gun in each hand and started shooting bullets every which way. He wouldn't even be looking in most of the directions he'd be shooting and every last bullet would hit head on. Dilan and Braig were indeed the best fighters in the world. In a matter of minutes, they had destroyed hundreds of shadows.
"Get out of here! Find a safe place! These shadows will only multiply!" Dilan shouted to the three soldiers they had just saved. There was one lying on the ground, he had obviously been killed shortly before Dilan and Braig arrived. The other three soldiers began to run for safety, but then the dead soldier grabbed one of them by the leg. Dilan swung his lance and cut off the dead soldier's hand. But as the hand was cut off, darkness began to consume its body, until his entire person was pitch black. Two beady yellow eyes stared into the soldier who had tried to run away, and it began to reach for the soldier's heart. But then a bullet came shooting through the shadows head and the shadow dissipated. The soldier managed to catch his breath. "You have my thanks," and took off again.
"Heh…Did you see his face? He almost had a heart attack," Braig joked.
"Irony indeed," commented Dilan. Another group of shadows pounced at Dilan, but Dilan managed to know their presence, and swung around quickly, destroying them all.
"Geez, they're like rabbits!" shouted Braig as he shot four more approaching. Braig and Dilan took off into another direction. They ran up the battlefield and noticed a huge black hole forming in the ground. They both walked up to it and noticed that it was slowly getting bigger. "Whaddya think this is?" asked Braig.
Dilan simply shook his head and gazed into it. "It certainly seems to just go on forever." Dilan looked over to find that Braig was no longer standing next to him. He heard Braig's voice shouting over in another area near him. Dilan ran over to see Braig standing over another black hole, and the two of them gazed up and down the battlefield to find that hundreds of them had started to form.
"This is totally wicked. But in a bad way." Braig muttered. Braig and Dilan then saw a new pair of eyes staring back at them in the black hole. "Another shadow?" asked Braig, looking at Dilan. When Braig looked back into the hole, he saw the eyes close, and the shadow crept out. "Too easy," said Braig as he shot it quickly with a bullet. But this shadow didn't stop, it continued creeping towards them. "Hey dude, what's the deal?" Braig started to panic as he franticly shot bullet after bullet at the shadow in vain. The shadow crept close to Dilan and in desperation, Dilan spiked both lances into the ground that the shadow was in. The shadow stopped moving, and Dilan breathed a sigh of relief. That moment of safety was cut short however when the shadow writhed up the lances and jumped off, spiking itself straight into Dilan's chest.
"Dude!" Braig shouted. Dilan fell hard to the ground and began writhing on the floor as if he was having a convulsion. This shadow was different though, it didn't take Dilan's heart, and it didn't turn Dilan's skin black either. Dilan just continued squirming on the ground in pain. And then he stopped, and stood up slowly. Dilan was still Dilan, but his eyes were the golden glow the rest of the shadows had. "What the hell are these things?" shouted Braig. Dilan stared straight at Braig with a sinister glare and responded with a different voice, "We are called Heartless."
Braig stood in shock for a moment as he watched his comrade be taken over by a 'heartless'. Then Dilan picked up both of the lances that had been stuck into the ground and started creeping towards Braig. "Hey man…what are you doing?" But Dilan ignored the comment and continued walking towards Braig. Braig took his guns and pointed them at Dilan, "Dude I'm not playin', back off!" Once again Dilan ignored him, and crept closer. "I mean it! I'll shoot you!" Braig shouted, but Dilan continued his pace. Braig didn't want to shoot him, but he felt he had no choice. So he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
The sound of the gun firing was the only thing Braig heard for a moment. He expected to hear a wince of pain, or a scream of agony, or even the thud of Dilan's lifeless body falling to the ground. But he only heard silence. Braig opened his eyes to find that Dilan wasn't even there any more. He got wide eyed, and started to panic. Braig had never been so nervous in his life, but whatever he and Dilan were up against, it was unlike anything they'd ever faced before.
Suddenly, Braig heard a scream of anger, more like a war cry from behind him, he turned around quickly and saw Dilan lunging at him with all of his strength being put into the swing of a lance. Braig tried to dodge as quickly as possible, but couldn't get out of the way quickly enough. Dilan's lance sliced straight down through the left side of his face. Braig fell to the floor bleeding. His entire face was now covered in blood, and his left eye had gone blind. He screamed in agony as he felt a huge gash in his jaw. Dilan loomed over him with those same golden eyes, holding his lance up high, about to do the killing strike. Braig quickly grabbed a gun with the hand that wasn't covering up his bloody face and shot the lance out of Dilan's hand. Dilan showed a brief look of surprise as the lance flew out of his hand, and then Braig aimed once again and shot him in the chest.
Dilan's eyes got wide, and then they returned to their normal color as Braig saw the shadow jump out of Dilan's back and into the black hole again. Dilan crouched forward holding his chest in pain, staggering back and forth. Braig could see that it was Dilan once again and breathed a sigh of relief. Dilan walked off balance towards the black hole; Braig noticed this and ran over to him. "Look out!" he shouted as Dilan lost his balance and fell in. Braig dove for Dilan and grabbed his hand, holding him suspended inside the black hole. Braig held his grip tightly and Dilan looked up. "Perhaps it's better this way. Not even you or I could make a difference against those things." Braig looked down to Dilan, knowing he was right, but still interjected "Dude, that's so weak."
"I guess we're no stronger than a couple of 'old dudes' huh?" Dilan said with a laugh.
"Old dude? As if. I'm not just any old dude," Braig said grinning. All of the blood from Braig's face was floating out into streams and spiraling into the black hole.
"I guess this is it then. It looks like…Braig look out!" Dilan shouted as he saw the shadow materialize behind Braig with those same two golden eyes again. The shadow kicked Braig in the side, and Braig lost his grip of Dilan. Braig rolled over onto his feet as Dilan fell into oblivion. "No!…the hell? What are you?" The shadow picked up Braig by the throat and started choking him, holding Braig above the hole. It simply stared at Braig with those golden eyes, and didn't mutter a word. Then it tossed Braig into the black hole along with Dilan.
Xehanort was sent out to gather some things for Ansem. They had been researching for a few weeks now, but they hadn't really gotten anywhere. The only thing they had to go on was Xehanort's story, which was very vague in details. As Xehanort was walking the path to the town of Radiant Garden, he noticed something peculiar off in the field where Ansem found him.
Xehanort ran over to find two men piled in a heap. They were both wounded very badly, and were both unconscious. Xehanort ran into the town yelling for help, and managed to get Yuffie, Leon, and Cid to help him carry the two men back to Ansem's place. Ansem and Xehanort helped put the two men into beds and Ansem got Aerith to care for their wounds.
Ansem asked Xehanort where he found these two men, and was very perplexed when he found out they were found exactly where Xehanort had been found just a few weeks previous. Both these two men and Xehanort were unconscious when they were found, but these men were very badly wounded as well. The one man was bleeding badly, and Aerith had to put a bandage over nearly half of his face!
"This can be by no mere coincidence Xehanort, do you not agree?"
"I do sir, it is very peculiar."
"I daresay, I'm enticed to ascertain the whereabouts of these men's origins. And why they're here…and how they got here."
"I too am curious Ansem."
"I've done all I can for now," said Aerith with a sullen tone. "The rest is up to them."
"I thank you Aerith. You're the best healer in all of Radiant Garden. I'm sure they will be fine." Aerith smiled at Ansem and left the castle.
The next day, the two men awoke to find themselves in a room with Ansem and Xehanort watching them. Xehanort was taking notes, and Ansem was simply eying the two of them.
"Whoa whoa whoa!…where are we?" shouted the one with the bandage on his face.
"Relax my young friend, you are in Radiant Garden. My apprentice here, Xehanort is the one who found you. You were both unconscious and lying on the side of the pathway to the town. Might I ask you gentlemen your names?"
The one with the bandage on his chest spoke first. "I am Dilan, and this is Braig. Tell me, what happened to Crimson Skies?" Ansem and Xehanort exchanged puzzled looks. Dilan realized something. "You don't know what Crimson Skies is, do you?" Ansem and Xehanort shook their heads. "I see. I thought not. We come from a world called Crimson Skies. It was a war-torn planet you see. And we-"
"-Another world?" Ansem interjected. "My theories were true," he muttered to himself. Dilan and Braig both looked puzzled by Ansem's reaction. "I apologize, do continue."
Braig spoke this time. "Well, you see, our world was attacked by these shadow things." Ansem and Xehanort both got wide-eyed at that statement. Xehanort whispered to Ansem "Sir, that's what happened to me…don't you recall?"
"Indeed I do Xehanort. Perhaps these young men may be able to fill in some of the holes in your story." Xehanort nodded. They looked over to Dilan and Braig once again who both looked confused again. "I apologize again. Let me guess, these creatures attacked the two of you as well, and somehow you ended up here. Correct?"
Dilan and Braig both nodded in agreement. "How did you know?" asked Dilan.
"I experienced a similar fate," replied Xehanort, "but I can't recall anything about it. For some reason my memory escapes me."
Ansem walked over to Braig and Dilan, "I have a proposition for the two of you." They both raised their eyebrows. "You see, Xehanort and I have been trying to figure out exactly what happened to him, and we feel that your story may help us out with our research. I assume neither of you know what attacked you."
Braig answered, "No…although one of them did say that they were called 'heartless'. Which is kinda strange considering they take other people's hearts." Ansem became intrigued at this.
"Take other's hearts? This seems to be more serious of a matter than I first inquired. Now, my proposition…" Braig and Dilan were both listening very intently. "In order to aid us in our research, and to find out what exactly these 'heartless' creatures are, I would like for the two of you to join Xehanort as apprentices of mine. We hope to acquire more information about these creatures, and what their purpose is, but we cannot do it alone. I feel it is not mere coincidence that the two of you and Xehanort all experienced the same fate with these creatures, and I want to know why it all happened. Will you join us?"
Braig and Dilan looked at each other, and Braig grinned, "Sure, I'm game." Dilan grinned with Braig and looked to Ansem. "I'm in."
