Demyx and I ran down the streets, stopping every couple of blocks to check our surroundings for any signs of movement. We were looking for a giant Heartless. Apparently, it was supposed to be as tall as some of the shorter skyscrapers.

"You spotted anything yet?" Demyx called back to me as he peered down yet another alleyway. "There's no sign of the thing."

"It's giant, Demyx," I sighed. "I think we would've spotted it by now. Maybe Xemnas was just messing with us when he put this mission together."

"No, he's never put out a false night mission before." We turned another corner. "And I've had crazier-seeming missions before, trust me. There was one mission where I had to hunt down this one Heartless that would always disguise itself as a trash can. People thought I was crazy, running around attacking every trash can in sight."

I stopped. "Demyx, that's it!"

Demyx looked back at me. "Huh?"

"What if the reason we haven't seen the Heartless yet is because it's disguised as a building?" I walked over to the nearest skyscraper and poked it with my Keyblade. "Not this building, though."

Demyx sighed. "That makes sense. But now we'll have to backtrack." He looked back at the distance we had covered and moaned. "And my feet hurt, too."

I slapped him on the back. "Suck it up. You're the one who wanted to do the night mission, anyways." I tried poking another building. "Not this one."

"You know, we could do that a lot more efficiently," Demyx told me. "Watch." His sitar appeared in his hand. Demyx struck a chord, and send a shock wave blasting out from his instrument. Thankfully, I shielded myself in time, but the Heartless wasn't so lucky. A couple of blocks down, one of the buildings… shuddered.

"That's the one!" Demyx called, racing down the street towards it. "Hurry up, before it starts moving!"

I sped after Demyx. As I reached the building, it shuddered again, and then, with a loud sucking noise, two arms popped out of the side of the building. One held a magic staff, the other a sword.

"That can't be good," I thought aloud. Then, I noticed one of the arms already beginning to twitch. "Demyx, move!"

Demyx jumped to the side, and the sword-arm slammed down where he had been only seconds before. "That was close," Demyx sighed. He turned to face me with a grin. "Ready to beat up this sucker?"

"Ready," I grinned back. I ran towards the Heartless, running partway up its side before flipping backwards and stabbing the thing. It howled in pain, and I landed in a crouch on the pavement. Demyx gave me a thumbs-up before beginning to hack away at the Heartless with his sitar.

The Heartless howled again, although this time it sounded more like a high-pitched screech. Hundreds of smaller Heartless appeared around us, already beginning to attempt to circle around me and Demyx.

"You attack the big guy, and I'll take care of them," Demyx yelled as he struck a power chord on his sitar. All the small Heartless in front of him disintegrated, only to have more take their place. "You're better at one-on-one than I am, anyways."

I gave Demyx a nod before vaulting up onto the side of the building again. I perched on a windowsill, trying to think of the best way to kill the thing. It had to have an obvious weak point somewhere. My musing was interrupted, however, by a Firaga spell racing towards me. It looked like the Heartless was casting spells at me now—a sure sign that I should hurry up.

As the sword-arm came swinging towards me, I jumped up on top of it at the last minute. The thing's arms looked considerably weaker than the rest of it, so at least that was a start.

The Heartless seemed to have realized it had a passenger, however, and began shaking the arm I was on wildly. It took all the strength I had to hang on and slowly crawl my way further up the arm.

Suddenly, the creature screeched again and stopped shaking the arm I was on. I heard Demyx laughing from the other side of the Heartless. "Take that, you selfish bastard!"

I smiled slightly, running up the rest of the length off the arm. Right where the arm met the building the Heartless's flesh glowed. Maybe this was its weak spot? I cautiously prodded the spot with my Keyblade, and the whole creature shook. That's definitely it.

"Whatever you did, do it again!" I heard Demyx yell. "A bunch of the smaller Heartless just disappeared. The big guy hated it."

With a smile on my face, I began slashing away at the glowing flesh. The arm under me began to spasm wildly, but I kept hacking away. The Heartless began to wail—a bone-chilling sound that was even more terrifying than its massive size. I could tell that the sound was summoning more and more smaller Heartless, but I didn't dare stop to look around. The creature was badly wounded, but it still would be able to throw me off it if I stopped for even a second.

Suddenly, the creature froze, and I paused, put off-guard by the sudden cease of movement. What's happening? I thought to myself. Why isn't it moving anymore?

The creature uttered one final, gut-wrenching scream as it began to shake. "Get off, Riku!" Demyx warned me. "The thing is going to fall!"

I sprung off from where I was standing on the Heartless and hit the pavement running. "Demyx, where are you?" I called. "This thing's going to cause an earthquake when it falls. We need to get someplace safe!"

However, I was met with no reply. "Demyx?"

As I turned the corner, I saw Demyx lying on the ground, bleeding heavily from a gash on his forehead. A circle of smaller Heartless were surrounding him.

"Get away from him!" I cried, slashing down the Heartless in my way and flinging Demyx up over my shoulder. The Heartless was really swaying, and I knew that I had to leave at once.

I opened up a shadow portal to my room at Castle Oblivion and dashed inside, the shadow of the toppling Heartless right behind me. Sighing in relief as the portal closed, I gently set Demyx down on my bed. His blood began to blossom on my all-white sheets.

How am I going to help you, Demyx? I started pacing around my room. I can't fix an injury that bad with a simple Cure spell—not even a Cura or a Curaga would fix that.

Then the realization of who would be able to help hit me. "Oh, man," I groaned. "Not Vexen..."