At first, everyone in the crowd had stopped moving, as if the wailing of the alarm had robbed the town's people of all movement. The wailing dragged on, silencing the crowd until the first person started to move towards the shelters they hoped they would never have to use. The hurried walking became running as the alarm slowly raised the urgency of getting somewhere safe.

Raitin soon became part of the crowd, being shoved between the masses. His view soon became one of people's backs and heads. Raitin suddenly heard Grandma Aeris voice crying out a name, a name so familiar it rang out through the wailing alarm and the cries of other people.

"Serah! Serah I'm over here! Serah!!!" As Raitin got closer, he realized the rest of the orphans were there as well, except for Serah. Once Raitin got close enough, he grabbed on to Grandma Aeris shoulder and caught her attention. Her tears streaming down her face, with fear and worry mixed all over her expression. Raitin wasted no time and asked her "Did something happen to Serah?"

Grandma Aeris nodded and wiped the tears off her face and replied to Raitin. "We lost her somewhere near the sweet shop, then we couldn't go back," Raitin nodded and tightened his grip. He grinned and spoke "It won't be that hard, not a lot of people have pink strawberry as a hair color," Raitin saw the kind smile he had seen many times return to her face. He reassured her by squeezing her shoulder and nodding his head again. He stood up, spun around and got stopped before he could move.

A pair of small hands grabbed on to his pants and pulled, anchoring Raitin to a stop. He spun around and saw Snow giving him his most determined look he could muster.

"Bring me with you! I can help!" He begged to Raitin. Raitin grinned while placing his hand on Snow's head and crouched down "Of course you can help," Snow's face seem to light up at those words "Help me bring the rest to the shelters." Snow's expression did a full reversal and his mouth opened in protest.

"Wait! I want to-" Raitin shook his head and told him firmly "I can't do both at once, so could you do this half for me?"

Snow stared at him, his chest swelling as he thought of the weight of his task. He nodded and said almost smugly "Fine. Just this once."

Raitin grinned and noticed the other hand belonged to Éclair, her eyes brimming with tears. "Bring my sister back, please." Raitin nodded and turned around and started to jostle through the crowd as Eclair slowly let go.

As he went further the number of people lessened, soon it was just people who were deeper down in the town, they ran faster and their faces had more fear in them. Raitin could see why, further down the street were black form, with pinpricks of yellow shuffling amongst them. Heartless.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of Serah's pink hair in small gap, disappearing as soon as it had appeared. Raitin turned to where he saw Serah's hair and shoved through the waves of people, ignoring the insults they shot as he slowed them down. He broke out of the crowd and saw Serah standing by the street. She was turning her head left and right looking for the orphans, her face a mask of terror that Raitin had seen on everyone's face. Her hand clutching on to the arm of her favorite button- eyed doll, squeezing it tightly from the fear she felt.

He dashed towards her and quickly picked her small frame up. Once Serah saw Raitin, the mask of terror melted away and got replaced by tears of relief. Her smile returned and she began to wipe her tears. Raitin gave her a smile to reassure her and started heading towards the shelter. They were both at the end of the trail of people heading to the shelter. The Heartless were right behind, they were still in deep trouble.

The shops with their grey walls and large windows flew by, this was after all the shopping district. He used to play catch with Dakkun on these streets, they were all too familiar.

A blast of cold air shot pass Raitin and snapped him out before he sunk into his memories again. His eyes widened in surprise and he saw Dakkun ahead holding his keyblade and pointing it at the Heartless behind. Raitin turned around and saw a icicle flying through the air and smashing into the ground. It pieces spread and created a wall of ice, blocking the Heartless.

Raitin slowed down once he reached Dakkun and gave him a nod. He caught his breath before looking at Dakkun and asking him "What are you doing here?"

Dakkun raised a brow and replied "I should asking you that, I'm just saving civilains."

"Well I'm being a civilian helper," Raitin retorted while tilting his head at Serah. Serah looked up from her doll and whispered a faint greeting.

Dakkun smiled and patted her head, Raitin looked at him and asked "Shouldn't we get going?"

"Nah…my Blizzard should have stopped them in place." Dakkun and Raitin turned back and saw the Heartless crawling under the wall and over it. Dakkun let the keyblade disappear and held up his arms to carry her "Ok never mind, I'll carry her since you look like you just ran a marathon."

Raitin passed Serah carefully and shot back "Shaddup useless spellcaster, let's go."

Without warning, the air was cut by an ear splitting howl. Raitin covered up his ears to try and block it out, but it continued through and pierced his eardrums. Dakkun tripped as his sense of balance was shaken, his body falling to the ground with Serah. He moved his feet to below him and regained his balance. The sudden movement combined with the howling, caused Serah's fingers to loosen and let the doll fall to the ground.

The doll hit the ground and at the same time, the howl stopped. Raitin winced at the pain in his ears and went over to pick it up. Dakkun turned around to check on Raitin, while Serah reached for her doll.

Raitin's fingers wrapped around the doll and the whistling began. Raitin and Dakkun cocked their heads up to find out what made it. The whistling was like a high pitched squeal, as if something was speeding through the air.

Suddenly something smashed on to the ground, sending up a huge curtain of smoke, cutting their vision. Dakkun felt the air ripple at the darkness coming out from it. He carried Serah with one hand and let his keyblade snap into his other. There was something in there. Something dark.

"Dakkun! Can you hear me?" Raitin's voice came from the huge plume of smoke and dust, Dakkun looked around desperately for his friend. It was impossible to see where he was.

"Yea! What?" Dakkun yelled back while keeping a eye out.

"Bring Serah to the shelter, I'll go there through the alleyways!"

"Are you nuts? There's something in there with you!"

"Just go! I think I know my way around town better than whatever just smashed into the ground!"

Dakkun spun around and moved towards the shelter, his keyblade bursting into light again. "The rescue team must have reached by now, they can help find Raitin if he's still missing." Dakkun thought to himself as he picked up speed. Suddenly he heard Serah's voice, full of worry.

"What about Rai and Dolly?"

Dakkun grinned and answered her "Rai's saving Dolly, he'll be O.K," Serah nodded and went quiet again. "He'd better be O.K." Dakkun thought to himself.

Meanwhile Raitin stood in the dust cloud and tried to remember where he was before those things landed. "The alleyway should be to my right," Raitin mused to himself. Suddenly a shape appeared through the dust, a huge form coming out of nowhere. Raitin felt his face exploded into pain as something hit it. It hit like a sledgehammer and lifted him off his feet. He flew back and landed outside of the dust cloud. He felt his head ring and a voice muttering in his head.

-Bring him back…Alive-

They were not his thoughts. They felt like something slimy and disgusting had gone into his head. He felt like shivering at those thoughts but the pain from his face nudged it out of his mind.

Raitin sat up and got off the ground while groaning and clutching his face. He had braced himself for impact, but this was beyond what he expected. He spat and saw drops of blood hit the street. Whatever it was, it hit hard.

He looked up and noticed the five shapes appearing out of the smoke. They stood in a line, blocking the way to the shelter.

"I'll just have run pass." Raitin planned while he felt adrenaline spiking his movements as he got up.

He let them take another step before sprinting forward. The one directly in front of him swung a right hook as he got closer, Raitin reacted and bent his spine forward, while the fist flew wild. He shot his own fist forward and combined it with the force of his running speed. He felt a resounding thump and pushed forward.

"Heh my revenge punch, eat that freak," he smirked and pushed himself forward "If they can be hit, they're not Heartless, so I'm saf-"

A sudden snag pulled Raitin to a stop, as well as cutting his train of thoughts. He heard the sound of fabric ripping and trying to hold itself together, he knew what it was. The hoodie. Raitin slingshot back and saw what exactly had grabbed him. The creature he had punched.

One arm supporting its huge frame, another clutching at where Raitin's fist had connected with. A impossible third arm stretching itself to grab what it could. A arm consisting of shadows convulsing as it pulled Raitin back.

As he crashed on the floor, thoughts raced through his head "A Heartless? But I could hit them," He started to stand up again and noticed one of the creatures in the air. It pulled its fist back and prepared to smash Raitin as it landed. They were definitely not human, it had jumped over some of the two storey shops.

Raitin sat there stunned for a moment before rolling out of the way. The creature smashed into the ground and created a disturbing sound of something breaking. Raitin sat a few metres away and saw its hands had broken through the cobbled walkway and left a few spider web cracks. The creature pulled and the fist broke out, Raitin saw its silhouette through the quickly clearing smoke, flexing its fingers to check if they still worked.

Raitin murmured to himself "No way." Out of his peripheral vision, he saw another creature heading towards him. He stood up and backed himself with a wall. It fired off its fist and Raitin leapt out of the way and curled up to roll away from that fist. He heard the sound of stone crumbling to give way to something tougher, he got up into a crouch and realized the Heartless from behind had caught up, he was completely surrounded.

The dust had cleared enough that Raitin could see the features of the Heartless. They looked a lot like the Heartless he had seen in books. Ink black bodies and dull yellow eyes. Some looked quite big and others were smaller, but they all had the same look in their eyes. They looked like a creature staring at prey, not daring to get closer because of a bigger predator. The Heartless just formed a thicker circle, trapping Raitin and hissing at him.

Raitin noticed the five huge forms were getting closer, as they came out of the remaining dust in the air, their black leather jackets with their shiny silver letters on it. It spelled out "Alley Snakes".

Raitin's eyes widened in shock as he tried to understand what was happening. One of the Alley Snakes bolted forward and caught Raitin by his shoulder and threw him aside. Raitin flew through the air and smashed into a huge display glass and broke through. The force of the throw gave him enough force to continue his flight a bit more and smash his back into a couple of shelves. Raitin's head hit the ground and he felt it spin. The pain from the punch swirled around and increased.

The edges of his vision seemed to slowly fade into the darkness. His mind still managed to think to itself "Sorry Serah..couldn't bring your doll back..Sorry Dakk-"

~Giving up? Loser. Lemme show you how to really use your fists~

With that, their target dropped into unconsciousness. One of the Infected moved into shop to retrieve the target. The shoes belonging to this body crunching the glass on the floor into smaller bits as it got closer. It grabbed the target by his shirt and pulled him up. His head flopped back lifelessly while his arms dangled off his shoulders.

The Infector did what the master told them to do and checked the target's pulse. It beat steadily. The target was still alive. The Infected turned its head to inform its companions when it felt a grip crushing the arm it possessed. It spun its head back and saw the target glaring at him. It felt like predator looking at him. Considering its prey. Wondering how to kill it.

The room became darker as darkness seeped out from the target, the other Heartless outside had retreated away from the presence of a hunter. The Infected in the shop attempted to break the grip but it held despite all the pulling. He heard a guttural voice speak out, it came from the target.

~Get your~

The target clenched its fist and pure darkness spurt from it. The Infector felt something seize the heart of the human. The Infector felt it before. When it saw its master, it felt fear from the power his master held. This was no different.

~hands~

The darkness around the fist seemed to increase and push everything away, the shelves were blasted into the corners of the shop, the rest of the unbroken glass shattered and exploded outwards.

~OF ME!~

The Infector felt the fist connect and pulverize the human's face. The darkness in the fist shot forward like a missle, going through the body and smashing into its own. The blast pushed it out and smashed it into a building. It opened its dull yellow eyes and saw a huge claw holding it in place. Another thought shot into the Infected minds.

-Suppress him. I am coming-

The rest of the Infected moved forward nervously, attempting to face the huge beast of darkness they saw. The rest of them felt their brethren fade away as the massive shadow claw clenched. The sound of the wall being destroyed with their brethren only made them fear the beast more. The rest of its Pureblood brethren rushed forward in their huge numbers. They had been giving permission, they would use their numbers to hold the beast down. Their simple minds ignored the animal instinct of running from the beast.

~Spike Grave~

Darkness shot from the ground around the beast, coming out as spikes. It decimated the Heartless numerical advantage. Many of them disappearing into wisps of darkness, hundreds of the pink crystalline hearts released into the air.

The spikes faded away and the beast turned its attention to the four Infectors. Darkness completely surrounding its human form, the claw retracting and becoming part of the darkness surrounding it.

~Show me what you can really do…or you'll die~

The fear of the beast and of their master twisted the human's hearts, the Infector felt the fear pulling at their minds to run, but then their master would crush them. Another roar from their master steeled them and they rushed to their inevitable deaths.


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