Notes: Alright, I decided to make another chapter early to help explain a few questions in the previous chapter. I think you'll find the chapters I'm writing as you read this VERY interesting.

p.s. I know that Ven is the Roxas-look-alike, I'll have my explanation in the next chapter. (And maybe throw a few strong hints around in this chapter)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, only my beloved OCs (crap I forgot to make Nihlus do it this time!)


"What makes you think we trust you?!" Riku practically yelled at Xemnas. Although everyone had a reason to loathe Xemnas, Riku had the biggest grudge of all due to Xemnas's resemblance to Xehanort's heartless.

Xemnas frowned at Riku's question, mildly annoyed. "Because, we share a common enemy that can't be defeated through conventional means." Although everyone was suspicious of Xemnas, they couldn't deny that he had a point.

"Why do you want to help us anyway?" Donald asked readying his staff if and when his spells were needed.

Xemnas grinned crookedly at Donald's question. "Let's just say Nihlus and I have a bit of a… history, and if he manages to learn that I survived that fight I had with you, I assure you I won't have a very pleasant death."

Nobody trusted Xemnas, or even knew how he had survived his battle with Sora and Riku, but there was no denying that they could use his help.

"What exactly is your plan?" Terra asked stepping forward.

"You say that the only sure-fire way to beat him is to lure him near the realm of light, correct?" Terra nodded in affirmation. "Well, I happen to know of an object of great personal value to Nihlus, and if I can 'acquire' it then he won't be able to resist the urge to try and retrieve it."

"So, what are those hearts for?" Sora asked out of curiosity.

"They go along with what I intend to take from Nihlus." Xemnas answered offhandedly. Though Sora's gut was telling him that Xemnas was up to something, his plan did seem sound enough to work. "Were do you need me to lure him?" Xemnas asked as he turned around, preparing to open a dark door.

"The keyblade graveyard," Terra said softly. Xemnas nodded, knowing where Terra meant, and then walked through the door. Terra then turned to address Sora and co. "We can use the gummi ship, I know quickest way to get there."


The dark door that Xemnas opened transported him directly into the room that Nihlus used to store the coffin-like object that he considered to be so precious. Xemnas looked around the room to make sure there were no security measures that he'd have to get around. After being satisfied that there weren't any booby-traps Xemnas walked toward the coffin, still highly alert. He had barely managed to stop himself from simply fading out of existence when Sora and Riku defeated him. As a result, however, his powers had been strained to near-breaking. If Nihlus caught him he wouldn't stand a chance against him, in fact he probably couldn't beat Nihlus even if he was lured close to the realm of light.

Thus he needed the keyblade masters to deal with Nihlus. He walked over to the coffin-like object in the middle of the room. Wasting no time, Xemnas quickly walked toward it and opened a dark door that led to the keyblade graveyard Terra mentioned. He began to push the coffin through the door when he heard rushed footfalls echoing in the hallway. Although he knew that Nihlus couldn't sense him due to the fact that he was neutral in terms of alignment, the fact that he used a dark portal may have alerted Nihlus to the fact that something was up.

Xemnas quickly shoved the coffin through the portal before jumping in it himself, but not before throwing down a note he had taken the time to write that would guarantee Nihlus's doom. He was just in time as the moment he jumped through the dark portal he summoned Nihlus came bounding into the room.


Nihlus watched in horror as some kind of thief stole the coffin-like object he treasured. "NO!" he yelled out even as he began sprinting toward the dark door the thief had used to get into the room. Although he didn't get a good look at the thief Nihlus could guarantee that whoever he was, he was going to get a beating he would not soon forget. Nihlus was about halfway across the room when he felt his limbs tighten, completely immobilized by some invisible force.

Looking down at his arms and legs he saw them to be covered with pure darkness. 'Damn it, Shadow, let go!' Nihlus telepathically commanded as he inched his way towards the portal.

'Nihlus, think this through!' Shadow pleaded desperately, his voice strained from the effort of slowing Nihlus to a crawl. Because they were symbiotically bound to each other they both had a degree of control over each other, Nihlus over Shadow's darkness controlling abilities and Shadow over Nihlus's body. Nihlus simply growled at Shadow's request and continued to take small steps toward the portal.

Suddenly a darkness tentacle shot out of Nihlus's back, driving itself into the wall in an attempt to pull him away from the portal. 'Two can play at that game!' Nihlus thought as he morphed his arm into a tentacle and buried it into the wall opposite of the one Shadow was using to try and halt his advance. Nihlus pulled on the tentacle that was his arm in an attempt to get closer to the dark portal, all the while mentally grappling with Shadow.

After about thirty seconds of this the dark-portal closed and Nihlus fell to his knees in exhaustion. 'Why did you stop me?!' Nihlus angrily asked Shadow.

'That portal leads to the keyblade graveyard, which just so happens to be very close to the realm of light. It would have been a slaughter if I let you go through!'

'I know, why do you think I was trying to get at him?'

'Not HIS slaughter OUR slaughter!'

'I can't just let him take Aqua's body!'

'Calm down and think will you! They can't get through the coffin's security, Smith built it and we added our own tricks into it, remember? Besides even if they could get the bloody thing open it's not like they'd do anything to Aqua's body right?' (A/N: He didn't mean anything like that! You sick-minded pervs!)

Nihlus had to admit Shadow did have a point. He was just about to calm down and reconsider reopening the portal the thief used to escape through, when he saw a note lying on the ground. He quickly picked it up and began reading it in one quick movement. 'Ah, shit' he heard Shadow comment when he finished reading it. The note claimed that the thief had Ven and Aqua's hearts with; practically guarantying that Nihlus would pursue him.

'Um, Ven's body vanished into nothingness, so unless you can find a replacement or something, retrieving his heart would be pointless?' Shadow pointed out, knowing full-well that his excuse wouldn't stop Nihlus.

'I'm going to bring Kairi with us that should make them think twice about any kind of trickery.' Shadow knew there was no point in trying to stop Nihlus. He was too exhausted from their last match and besides Nihlus was feeling a huge amount of anger right now, and one of the darkness's main source of power was raw emotion, meaning he couldn't hope to overpower Nihlus right now.

In fact all he could do was hope that Nihlus's emotions would be enough to offset the negative effects of fighting so close to the light. 'Are you ready Shadow?' Nihlus asked when he reached Kairi's cell's door.

'Yeah, I just hope we get out of this alive.'


Sora watched as Terra knelt down in front of one of the thousands of keyblades that littered this places landscape. He seemed to be paying his respects to a fallen comrade. This world, the keyblade graveyard as it was called, seemed to be nothing more than a desert with thousands of keyblades stuck into the ground. Looking around Sora saw Roxas and Riku idling away. Mickey had decided to stay in Radient Garden and try to find out what Nihlus was looking for there. Donald and Goofy decided to stay with him.

"Uh, Terra, if you don't mind me asking, what's so special about this place?" Sora asked. Terra got up from his kneeling and turned to face Sora.

"This was were the final battle between the chasers and the dark keyblade wielders took place."

"Oh" was all Sora said as he looked at how many keyblades there were organized into mini-graveyards. He heard a dark door open and spun around to see Xemnas with a coffin-like object in tow.

"He should be here any minute now," Xemnas said as he walked over to the spot were he left the two hearts he claimed went along with his plant to lure Nihlus to the keyblade graveyard.

"We're just knocking him unconscious, right?" Roxas asked. Unlike everyone else he was actually indifferent to Nihlus. In fact the only reason he came along was so that he could keep track of Sora. Roxas's question was met with silence. Although Sora had no intention of killing Nihlus he did need to force him to give Kairi back to them somehow.

"There he is!" Riku yelled out pointing to another dark door. Indeed, out of the door came Nihlus, holding Kairi by her shoulder and carrying his double bladed staff, ready for battle.

As Nihlus stepped out of the portal he could feel his and Shadow's power being drained. 'Oh God, Nihlus, that guy in armor is a chaser!' Shadow exclaimed, his panic clearly evident. Normally Nihlus would have been scared or in some way affected by what Shadow said, but this was hardly a "normal" situation, even by his standards. All of his attention was focused on the thief, none other than Xemnas himself. He saw Terra motion for everyone else to stand back, but he was more concerned about the two jars, which had Ven and Aqua's hearts in them, that Xemnas was holding.

"Give those back now!" Nihlus demanded stepping forward. Unfortunately, he didn't notice that Kairi had summoned her keyblade until she slashed him in the side with it. Nihlus yelped in pain and almost collapsed to his knees while Kairi mad a dash to reunite with Sora.

'Ugh, Shadow, a keyblade has never hurt me that badly before; it feels like something burned me.'

'The light must be empowering them while weakening us.'

Nihlus growled and then got up. He saw Xemnas walking towards him carrying the two jars and wearing a smug grin. "Not so tough now, are you?" he asked. That was the last mistake Xemnas would ever make on account of his arrogance.

"XEMNAS, YOU BASTARD!" Nihlus yelled out, all his rage coming forth. What happened next was easily the most frightening of his transformations. His leather armor began to morph and change into black metal, the staff he carried was covered in darkness and morphed into an immense shadow-scythe. The most disturbing thing though was his eyes. Despite the fact that his armor now included a twisted version of the helmet Terra wore, Nihlus's eyes glowed through it in a manner similar to a darkside's. "REAPER'S DANCE!" Nihlus yelled out as two wing-like pieces of shadow-metal emerged from his back.

He half ran half flew towards Xemnas with his scythe and with an upwards strike sent him flying into the air. He then flew up and proceeded to knock Xemnas around in the air like a one man baseball game. It looked like some twisted kind of dance that only one such as Nihlus could do. "Is that smoke?" Sora asked pointing at Nihlus. Indeed the armor had a kind of black mist emanating from it. The armor seemed to be fading away, no doubt a result of fighting so close to the light.

Suddenly Nihlus knocked Xemnas onto the ground and, before he could react, slammed the blade of the scythe through Xemnas's chest. As he watched Xemnas gasping for breath Nihlus asked "Do WE appear to be weak now?" his voice sounding like Shadow's and his own mixed together. Xemnas gave one last shudder before fading out of existence, for good this time.

Immediately after the armor outright disintegrated, and the staff reverted to it's normal form. 'Crap, Nihlus, we used all your anger to take out Xemnas! We're sitting ducks!'

Nihlus ignored Shadow's comments, though he knew them to be true. Terra advanced forward with his keyblade pointed at Nihlus. "This is the end of the line, dark champion."

Nihlus didn't bother to answer; instead he strapped his staff to his back once more and summoned a darkness claymore. He only used his staff when he couldn't use his powers. Terra and Nihlus charged each other, their weapons colliding in midair. The force of the impact sent both combatants flying into separate "graveyards" of keyblades. Terra's armor shielded him from the damage. Nihlus, however, was not so lucky. He groaned as he sat up, his back aced from the landing. His claymore had been destroyed when it hit Terra's keyblade.

With surprising speed Terra sprinted toward Nihlus and struck him across his head, sending him flying toward the coffin. He landed on his back, his shock preventing him from even getting up. Terra stepped forward and raised his keyblade over his head in preparation to deliver the final blow. "Wait, don't!" Kairi yelled out, knowing full-well what Nihlus had been through. Terra, however, either didn't hear her or chose to ignore her. Just before his keyblade could hit Nihlus a clawed shadow-hand emerged from Nihlus's chest and caught it.

"I won't allow you to murder my friend!" Shadow yelled out loud to everyone's surprise. A black reptilian creature, the form Shadow chose for this occasion, jumped right out of Nihlus's chest like a ghost and tackled Terra. Shadow gave off the same black mist that the armor gave off when it was disintegrating, but still pinned Terra to the ground and began to repeatedly strike his head. Only ten seconds later Shadow seemed to tire and faded back into Nihlus's body. Terra didn't get up, whether he was dead or unconscious was anyone's guess.

'N-nihlus, b-buddy, c-can we g-go home now?'

'After one last task, my friend.' Nihlus answered as exhausted and wounded as Shadow. He made a small tentacle emerge from the palm of his hand and sent it to grab the jar with Aqua's heart in it. Once he held it in his arms he turned to the coffin and pressed a secret button that seemed identical to the rest of the coffin. The coffin opened Revealing a girl, Nihlus's age, with Blue hair that reached to her shoulders and eyes as blue as her hair. She was dressed in a tank top and a pair of blue jeans that screamed that their owner went outdoors all the time. Nihlus gently putting her heart back into her body. He then collapsed onto the ground, completely unconscious.

Aqua opened he eyes and sat up for the first time since Xemnas took her heart so long ago. She slowly looked around and when she saw the unconscious Nihlus bolted clean out of the coffin. "Nihlus, wake up!" she begged, tying to awaken her friend. Sora had a guilty expression on his face as he walked up to Aqua.

"Here, I'll help," Was all he said as he and Aqua worked together to lift Nihlus up. "This way," He said using his head to point in the direction of the gummi ship. Though Aqua had a bad feeling about it she complied, after all this guy did seem sincere in his desire to help.

No one said anything as they put the unconscious Nihlus and terra in the gummi ship. In fact the silence lasted well into the trip back to Radiant Garden.


Ok, not the best way to end a chapter, but it works for me. In hindsight I think I didn't quite do a good job of describing Nihlus's hair (or at least not the way I imagined it). It's more like my avatar's hair than Sora's or Cloud's. R&R please!