Yay! It's done, it only took several months…hah, sorry, I was rather occupied with many other things, please read and enjoy.


For a time, all Rui knew was darkness. Deaf, dumb, and blind, she tumbled inside out and upside down, insignificant and unremarkable within the vast nothingness. For a heartbeat she struggled, and for another, and another. There was a roaring about her head, whether it was her imagination or her screams for help, she could not tell. Finally, she quit struggling, quit thinking all together, it was simply too tiring. Finally, she closed her eyes, shutting herself off from everything.

"Rui…" a voice, sounding like it was inside of her head, called out to her, it seemed sad, desperate, "Rui, wake up…" hearing it, Rui struggled, and found that she could breath. The darkness was no longer around her, suffocating her.

"Rui, wake up," the voice repeated, it sounded the same, but this one was devoid of the sadness from the first call, this sounded blank, uncaring, "open your eyes." Seeing nothing else to do, Rui obeyed and opened them.

She was greeted by a world of shadows, but not angry and stifling, like what had consumed her in front of the school, they seemed like regular shadows, calm and uncaring.

"You're awake," someone spoke behind her, quickly turning her head, Rui's eyes widened in shock as she found herself facing Kyle, looking just as he did when she last saw him at school.

"Kyle! What…how…where are we? How did we get here?" she finally managed to get out, pushing off the ground to stand up, her legs shaky and uneasy. She immediately wrapped her arms around her chest, this place was freezing, it seemed to draw more than just body heat from you.

"I have no idea," Kyle replied uneasily, looking around at the blank surroundings, absentmindedly rubbing his arms, "all I remember is darkness, and then I was here, next to you, I thought you would never wake up…" they both stared at each other, a blank silence extending between them.

"So…what are we supposed to do?" Rui finally asked, "how are we going to get out of here, get back home?"

"Rui I…" Kyle began, sounding nervous, "I don't think we have a home to go back to. I mean, look around us, this place feels like…like a graveyard…" Rui simply stared, how could she not have realized…she had seen everything around her consumed…she bowed her head, feeling the sting as tears began to well from her eyes.

"Wait…then are we…" Rui somehow managed to say, her voice small and pathetic.

"What? No!" Kyle quickly responded, shaking his head, obviously trying to bring her spirits up, "death…you…we would know it, but I think…I know…our world is dead. But we're still here, so let's go, if we keep walking, we might be able to find something, we can't give up," he offered Rui his hand, and she silently took it. Together, they ventured through the darkness.


They had been walking for what seemed like hours, yet nothing had changed, the darkness still surrounded them, a quiet oppressive force. Rui felt like collapsing out of desperation, but Kyle showed no such feeling. He continued forward, pulling her along, his face formed into a mask of fierce determination, almost as if he knew what he was searching for.

"Look," Kyle stated, pointing off in the distance. Following his gaze, Rui saw what had caught his attention. It looked, like a portal…a portal of swirling tendrils of darkness. Seeing it, Rui shied away, it reminded her too much of what had taken her away from home.

"Kyle…I don't think that's going to help us…" she said shyly, the memory of floating in nothing was still fresh in her mind.

"Rui…it's the only thing we've seen here, if it's our only chance, then we should take it, come on," he smiled to reassure her, and Rui help but feel a little better, yet, something didn't seem right…it was almost…

"Let's go," said Kyle, breaking Rui's train of thought as he grabbed her hand. Without a moment's hesitation, he plunged into the portal, Rui following behind. As they entered, the darkness seemed to reach towards them, tendrils spiraling toward them, looking almost hungry. Yet they stopped before grabbing them. They seemed repelled by some power, and then moved away revealing something resembling a pathway. They flew along the path, propelled by an unknown force, and at the end, Rui spied something, was it light? It seemed so alien after being around darkness for so long. Reaching the light, it engulfed them, and she was blinded.

Blinking the spots from her eyes, Rui quickly took in her new surroundings. The place seemed far too…normal, after everything they've been through. They were lying in what looked like the middle of a cul-de-sac, the cold pavement they were on surrounded by a semi-circle of dark houses. Continuing to look around, Rui saw that her first observation wasn't entirely true. There were no lights on anywhere except for the streetlights that seemed randomly spaced throughout the street. A lone one stood above them, providing a pathetic, flickering light. Rui couldn't even see any stars in the sky, and there was no noise at all. Not even the sounds of wildlife, it was far too eerie, the only thing she could hear was her heart pounding in her ears.

"W-where are we?" she finally managed to get out of her mouth.

"Not home," Kyle answered, "we'll ask someone, come on," he immediately headed towards one of the dark houses.

"What are you doing? No one's in there," Rui asked, following behind him.

"Yes, there is," he told her simply, his voice stern. He reached the front door and began pounding on it with his fist, the sound echoing through the empty air, "open up please, we need help," no one answered, but Kyle continued to slam his fist against the door. Rui was just about to try to and stop him when the door opened, just a crack.

"Shut up!" a voice hissed, "you keep all this noise up and you're going to draw 'them' here," the voice tried to make itself sound angry, but it was obvious whoever was speaking was terrified.

"Then help us, we need to know where we are…we need to know what to do…I need…" he quickly stopped, turning to see if Rui had noticed, she had, but didn't understand…what did he need?

"Can't help you," the voice replied quickly, not noticing that Kyle had cut himself off, "go to her house, end of the row, she'll do…something. Just leave me alone," with that the door eased closed with barely a whisper of sound.

"Well, I guess we should go, he said the end of the row," Rui offered to Kyle, he nodded and turned away from the door. But as he brought his gaze up he froze.

"Get behind me," he ordered, grabbing her and shoving her behind his back. Quickly turning around, Rui's eyes opened wide in terror. It was another black creature; it's yellow eyes staring quizzically at the both of them. Kyle continued to stand in front of Rui, staring the creature down. Finally, looking almost confused, it wandered away; it's strange feet making no sound on the hard ground.

"It…it didn't attack us," Rui observed, still slightly shaken.

"No…" Kyle agreed, sounding as confused as her, "come on, we need to see that person at the end of the row." He headed off, Rui falling in step behind him, constantly glancing around, afraid that the black creature would show up again. Finally they reached the house at the end, it showed no difference from the other houses other than that is was completely alone, no other houses were even remotely near it, simply a circle of empty grass. Kyle went up to the door, but as he was raising his fist to knock, the door opened wide, light from the inside of the house pouring out at them.

"Children? Of course, come inside then," a voice said from the doorway. Rui tried to identify the person, but she could only see a silhouette from the light in the house. Kyle warily headed in, Rui quickly behind him. As they stepped inside the door slammed shut behind them, making Rui jump. Looking around the room, she was amazed to see how…well…how normal it looked. If she were still at home, she would say she was at one of her friend's houses. They were standing in what looked a living room; there was a soft carpet with a couch, a fireplace built into the wall that heated the entire house.

"You going to stand in there forever?" the voice called from an empty doorway, it looked like it led to a kitchen. Rui headed towards the doorway, peering into the kitchen. She stopped, staring in shock, the room had a simple tile floor, a fridge, and a wooden table set in the middle, but what had startled her was the person sitting at the table. It was…her mother. Not the mother that was always off at meetings, the only outfit she ever seemed to wear being her business suit, but the mom she remembered from when she was little, the mom that used to wake her up every morning and tuck her in at night, the mom she actually knew.

"M-mom?" Rui asked, unsure of what to do, "what are you doing here, how did you-"

"Stop right there," her mother interrupted, "I'm as much your mother as this planet is your home. Now come in here and sit down, you look like you're about to faint." Rui complied and walked into the room, almost collapsing in an open chair, she hadn't realized just how tired she was.

"You too, I know you're out there," Kyle shyly appeared in the open doorway, but as his eyes fell on the woman at the table, they narrowed in confusion. Rui wondered if he saw her mother too…or maybe his own mother…whatever she was, Kyle never took his eyes off of her as he sat down.

"Okay, now that we're all comfortable, would anyone like to ask a question?" the woman resembling Rui's mother asked. The two just stared, no idea what to do.

"Looks like I'll start," the woman began, " 'Who are you?' Why that's an excellent question, but I think you'll find it more helpful to ask yourself that question."

"What are you talking about?" Kyle finally asked.

"You're planet was destroyed before you eyes, I think you should figure out what you are in this slightly-less-full ocean of stars," the woman's gaze seemed to pass over Rui and focus on Kyle.

"Wait," Rui interjected, "you said our planet was…destroyed. I saw it happen…saw those creatures…but how? How can you destroy a planet just like that?" The woman sighed, this could take awhile.

"Okay, here's the simple version, those creatures you saw, those are heartless, and they are born when a heart is consumed by darkness. After that, they constantly hunt for other hearts; perhaps to fill their now empty void, I don't know. The fact is, each planet has a powerful heart, and it is the primary goal of every heartless. But, there's only one way to get to the heart…" she trailed off, like she was waiting for the answer.

"A keyhole…" Rui muttered, remembering the bonsai tree and the single heartless that had crawled onto it.

"Right, most of the time, the inhabitants are consumed with the planet, but sometimes a few are powerful enough to escape." Her gaze fell back on Rui. Rui understood why, she certainly didn't feel powerful, yet somehow she was able to pull herself out of the void…

"Wait," Kyle began, "why…why are you telling us all of this? And how do you even know this?"

"I'm telling you…because you're the only thing here that has a chance of surviving…" she stood, looking out of a window into darkness, "the heartless are here, and they're going to win…"

"How do you know? Won't someone fight back?" Rui asked, the woman simply laughed, a harsh mocking laugh.

"You saw one of the people here, they're far too afraid and paranoid to do anything. As for how I know…" her hand went to a chain worn around her neck, "I'm far more than what I appear," pulling on the chain she revealed a golden locket. Looking closer, Rui saw a lock in it…a keyhole.

"You're…"

"The heart of this world…the heartless are coming for me…and I won't do anything to stop them."


Whoop! There you go, hopefully I'll get more than one review, though I kind of doubt it, thoughts on what will happen next? Ah well, see you next time!