Sorry if this update took too long to be posted. I am already at my final year in college and must study really hard to graduate. And so here it is, the next installment.

And i thank everyone who corrected me on Ionze, since i wrote it in fine print and can't distinguish the e from o. It is Ienzo, not Ionze.

Disc: I, again, do not own kingdom hearts.

Chapter 2: Souls and Silhouettes

Zexion waited, holding the stone in his hands. He was already bored.

"I wonder, where's that music-loving hydromaniac?"

Just after those words, Demyx appeared, panting.

"Hey, Zexy. It's been almost a year since I saw you. What happened?"

"Ask the Superior about that, and don't call me Zexy! The name's Zexion! And why are you panting?"

"Well, the keyblade master Roxas is at my tail and I can't shake him off."

"Of course, you dope, He's Sora's nobody!"

"Anyway, I'll take that stone and dash outta here, … Wait! Why do you have the stone, and why are you here?!"

"Xemnas sent me here to help you steal the stone. You're takinga lot of time obtaining it, so I was sent here."

"Okay, I hear Sora…Roxas…whatever is coming, I'd better take that."

"Here, take it and disappear. Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a card from Luxord, he says that you should do what that card says."

"'Kay, see ya later, Zexy!"

With that Demyx disappeared into the corridor of darkness.

"MY NAME'S NOT ZEXY!"

Then Zexion heard footsteps, Zexion has to think of something to hide himself. He conjured up a sphere and he jumped inside it, hiding the whole room from his view, but as his lexicon touched the sphere, an imprint of the weapon was left outside the sphere, and then Zexion was blinded by a light. He found himself on Destiny Islands. He remembered the place were he was defeated by Riku.

Then he sensed something behind him. He turned around, seeing a copy of his lexicon floating in midair. He held his lexicon closer as the copy emitted light, and a copy of him emerged from thin air, laughing and grinning evilly.

"I must have opened an alternate dimension … Nice!"

The copy formed a large yellow circle with the nobody emblem on it, and Zexion felt that he was being sucked into it. The copy successfully pulled Zexion into another dimension, where lexicons float around. Then the lexicons started to dive towards Zexion, but Zexion already has the first move, absorbing himself into his book and the book took damage instead of Zexion.

Zexion appeared from the book, face smirking with glee, as he prepared himself for battle.

"You do not know my full power, Absent Silhouette!"

The silhouette just laughed from a distance as a tornado of booksstarted circling Zexion. Zexion, knowing how to counter the attack, summoned a dark cyclone, spinning on the opposite direction of the books, stopping the books and that's when Zexion saw it, a red aura surrounding the book.

Zexion went berserk, since there are no weapons to copy except books, using his own metal-decorated lexicon to smash the aura-covered book, making the copy send him back to the islands again. Just then, Zexion dropped his lexicon, revealing to be a picture of Riku's blade, Soul Eater, which he already copied once. Zexion concentrated, and the dark flaming version of the blade formed in his hand. He rushed to the copy, which is about to attack once again, and slashed him to half. But the silhouette wasn't sliced. He just smiled as though he accepts defeat, and disappears, leaving behind a piece of paper. Zexion, lexicon in hand and Soul Eater on the other, stared down on the paper.

"Just a recipe for my necklace, but I already have one, a plus in fact."

With that his lexicon shrunk and formed a thick chain, which joined together at the back of his neck, making the lexicon hang like a pendant. Zexion was proud of his Shade Archive +, but he couldn't help but think that the blade is still in his hands. He is thinking too deeply that he didn't notice that he was back at the underworld. When he does, he saw that the portal was gone. There are open chests around, and a circle of spinning light.

"So if I defeat an Absent Silhouette, the portal closes. Hmm... and since no one can enter if someone is inside, since I've been inside and Sora didn't even show up, then I guess that I should make another one."

With that, Zexion conjured another portal to the silhouette.

"I wonder, when nobodies die, where do they go? Better ask the god of the underworld about that."

Zexion appeared at Hades' chamber, stopping both Hades and Pete in their conversation.

"My name is Zexion, and I am only here to ask a question."

"Ask away, since I'm having problems with a certain keyblade master…" said Hades.

"Well, I was wondering, where do nobodies go when they die? All the souls go here in the underworld, and their hearts go to kingdom hearts, so where does the body disappear to?"

"Before I answer that question, Zexion, I have a condition that you must fulfill. You see, I have Sora open for me the underdrome, but I only command the heartless. I want some nobodies to command so that Sora doesn't expect that, understand?"

"Done, but the nobodies will only obey you if they are in the underdrome, 'kay?"

"'Kay. Now about your question. They say that if a nobody dies, their soul gets separated from their bodies. I am the one who in charge of the souls as they pass from one world to the next. As for the bodies, they disappear into bits and pieces and then they reform, some place in the realm of the in-between."

"The realm of the in-between?"

"Yes. There are four realms in this universe. First is the realm of light, in which most of the worlds exists, then there's the realm of darkness, where the King found his keyblade."

Pete flinched at the mention of the name."

"So that's why Sora's keyblade is the opposite in color of the King's keyblade."

"Exactly. The third realm is the realm of nothingness. This is the most dangerous realm of all, in which if you stay too long here, you would also cease to exist at all. The last is the realm of the in-between. This realm is where all that doesn't exist but exists are living. One example is Twilight Town, it is the bridge between the realms of in-between and light."

"But where exactly in the realm of in-between?"

"That I do not know. All I know about are souls, not the bodies that support those souls."

"So if you combine a soul and a body, you can create a nobody, and if a nobody fuses with its own heart, then that person would be whole, right?"

"Technically speaking, yes."

"Then can I go to where the souls are drifting, and claim them back?"

"Only if you have their bodies. Otherwise, they can't leave the underworld. It's my rules."

"Understood." Zexion nodded as he thanked Hades for the information and left instantly before Pete could react once more.