A/N: The first actual chapter of Darkness Flowing is here! I have to say I am overwhelmed by the positive response to the prologue, I didn't expect it. Thank you for reading, reviewing and alerting my story, you all make me really happy!

I realized it might have came off as unclear in the prologue, but Sora & co. didn't go to Hollow Bastion right after Twilight Town and took a detour first (no locked worlds). As of the start of this, Sora hasn't met Organization XIII at Hollow Bastion yet.

It had been already a week since Sora, Donald and Goofy had woken up in Twilight Town after almost a whole year of being asleep. Even though none of them could remember how they even ended up asleep in the first place, Sora couldn't shake off the feeling that something important had happened to them during that lost year.

- . - . -

The trio had arrived at Hollow Bastion two days before, and immediately started helping out the Restoration Committee with everything they could, from fixing up houses to fighting Heartless. Sora was grateful that the amount of work that had to be done gave him an excuse to stay by himself most of the day, because he was planning to train as much as possible, in the hopes that by becoming stronger he would stop feeling the urge to turn into what he had dubbed his Anti Form.

- . - . -

Sora was currently heading to the outskirts of the city after having spent better part of the day being a delivery boy for Leon, who was working on fixing up a house for a family living near him. Initially Yuffie was the one meant to help him out, but she really didn't want to run around all day and so she had promised Sora a Mythril Ring if he took her place. Sora could never refuse a friend's request, so he accepted. Many hours of carrying heavy materials around the town later, the boy was regretting it.

Now he was sore, tired and wished for nothing more than to go back to Leon's house, where he was currently staying while helping out the Committee, and sleep until morning. But during the day he had plenty of time to think about his current situation, and he came to the conclusion that he couldn't waste a single minute right now, and that meant sleep had to wait.

Once he was sure he was far from the residential area enough to not be seen by anybody he summoned his keyblade, attracting all the Heartless around him, and got ready to fight. Most of his opponents were mere Shadows that he could defeat with a single swing of his keyblade; it seemed only weak Heartless gathered in the area and that was annoying him, since he needed much stronger opponents if he wanted to improve quickly.

Half an hour later the sun was starting to set, and Sora was growing frustrated of fighting only Shadows and more Shadows. By now he wasn't even paying attention to the actual fight anymore, mercilessly killing Heartless left and right with his new sword-like keyblade, his thoughts running away from him. In his distraction, Sora barely registered the feeling at the back of his mind and just instinctively responded to it. He realized his mistake a second too late, when he was already on all fours, darkness emitting from his body.

He tried to stand on his legs, but he couldn't keep his back straight, his slouching shoulders seemingly trying to push him back to the ground. He looked around and then with a leap he reached a nearby group of Shadows and slashed them with his claws, making short work of it. He knew that instead of tearing through Heartless he should have tried to force himself to turn back to normal, but his mind was fogged and he couldn't really remember why he should have turned back to normal when it felt so good to have darkness wrapped around him.

By the time he regained his human form, Sora was completely exhausted, sitting on the ground while sipping a Potion. He started thinking about what had just happened and about the situation in general. He wasn't a fool, and he had realized by now why he felt that familiar feeling that time in Halloween Town. The Anti Form was reminiscent of the short time he had spent as a Heartless after he had released his own heart along with Kairi's, and it had happened exactly in the same world he was now. Getting up and dusting off his clothes he wondered if what happened at that time was related to the mess he was finding himself in now.

- . - . -

Walking back to Merlin's house to meet up with the others and finally eat, he tried to remember what Yen Sid had said about of what happens when someone with a strong heart becomes a Heartless. He knew it had something to with Nobodies... but he was too tired at the moment to recall the explanation.

- . - . -

His chest was hurting.

He instinctively tried to touch it, but it appeared that neither his hands nor any other part of his body were there. There was nothing but a throbbing pain (where his heart was supposed to be).

After what could have been a minute or an hour, he gave up trying to move (his apparently nonexistent) limbs and looked around himself instead. White, everything was white. Had he already been in this place before?

His head started hurting, too.

There was a dark spot among all the white. It was a window (was he in a room?) and there was someone in front of it, looking outside.

(He was dressed all in black.)

(No, he was wearing a black and white jacket.)

- . - . -

Sora woke up slowly, the rising sun filling his room in a warm light. Groaning he grabbed his chest and tried to remember the strange dream he had that night, but his memory of it was hazy. He groaned again and got up, getting ready for another day of hard work.

Like he had thought, Sora got roped into helping out Leon in place of Yuffie again (this time she had promised him two Soldier Earrings) and most of his day consisted of running around carrying heavy materials while trying to not trip on Shadows stalking him.

Stuck doing menial tasks, Sora had the chance to spend a lot of time thinking about his current situation for the second day in a row. What happened the evening before worried him a lot, because his initial plan was to learn how to fight back the impulse to turn into Anti Form; but how could he fight back against something that his mind of body accepted so readily? If avoiding it was impossible, what could he do?

- . - . -

As he carried the last box Leon needed, a Shadow slowly approached him from behind, but the instant it sprung from its pool of darkness Sora kicked it without even needing to turn his head.

A feeling at the back of his mind told him exactly where the creature was standing, and Sora was scared to death that he wasn't able to tell anymore if it was his instinct, developed through experiencing numerous fights, warning him of danger, or the darkness residing inside him sensing his brethren.