Hello again readers. Edge has met his Nobody and is in a clash with him. However, he seems like he doesn't want any part of this. Let's see if we can't get more of the reason why. Enjoy!

-POV change: Link-

"Ugh, Im getting so annoyed, having these stupid Heartless jumping from behind and pinning us, just so someone can get to Edge. Just fight me!" I heard Hunter yell as he struggled to get freed from the Heartless that were pinning us to the ground, yet again. "Yelling at them won't help Hunter!" "Well then what do you think we should do Rose?" "I don't know. But we have to help Edge!" "How!?" Why must Hunter be like this? I turned my head to the battle between Edge and a red Lucario named Ahriman. He sure is a weird one. His aura says one thing, but then says another. Good or bad intentions, I don't know. Its really confusing. But it looks like he has the upper hand on Edge.

Edge and Ahriman got into another lock, trying to overpower the other. The first lock wasn't so good since Edge was kneeling, but this time he was on both feet, so this could go either way. Luckly for us, Edge managed to overpower Ahriman and he sent him flying backwards. Still, Edge had many marks of a battle on him and I could tell that he was in a bit of pain from said battle. "I have had enough of this!" I heard Hunter say, catching his attention. I was about to ask what he planned on doing, but that could start something and right now is not the time to start an argument.

Hunter closed his eyes like he was conncentrating on something. "Sword Dance." Hunter said, and a bunch of swords of light appeared around him and started to spin. This caused some of them to hit the Heartless around us, making them dissapeare. I have never thought of Sword Dance being used like that. Usually, the move causes the user's attack power to increase, but he used it as a offencive move rather than a support move. If he is that smart, then why wasn't he smart enough to know not to cross the line with me? Oh well.

Hunter still got the affects of Sword Dance and managed to lift the Heartless up and off of him, then slamming it into the ground. "Thats what you get for trying to pin me everytime you see me." Angry are we? Once we all seen that the Heartless was all dealt with, we all stormed to the battle between Ahriman and Edge, but Ahrima swung his arm at us and a barrier appeared out of nowhere, trapping us inside of it. "Stay out of this. I don't want anymore innocent people to..." "To what?" Edge asked. "Never mind." Ahriman then rused at Edge again with Metal Claw and Edge managed to dodge and block most of the attacks, but he couldn't block all of them. Ahriman was pretty fast. Maybe slightly faster than me. This is a problem.

-POV change: Edge-

This isn't good. Ahriman maybe a copy of me, but he seems much stronger than me. A plan then formed in my head. He is a Lucario, just like me. Type advantages must amply. I pointed my keyblade at Ahriman and called out "Fire!" and shot a fire ball at him. He retracted his Medal Claw attack and just stood there. But then, he quickly swung his arm at the fire ball and it exploded right in front of him, looking unaffected by the attack. "Hmph. If that was just a regular Lucario, then that would of done major damage dispite what I did. You thought that they typing would play by the rule. However, I am not affected by type advantages. You can't deal major damsge to me even with a fire attack." "What!?" He doesn't take extra damage from type advantages? "Im not a normal Lucario. Im you Nobody, remember? I don't play by the rules." So much for thinking that fire would end this quickly.

"So you haven't defeated Edge yet? What a shame." A unknown voice said. "Hmph. I should of known you would of followed me, Luxord!" A black hooded figure then appeared out of nowhere while levatating, what looks like a card, in the palm of his hand. "Well, someone has to keep an eye on you. Making sure you don't chicken out on your orders." "Im no coward!" "On the contrary, you are. Your just a weak little red coward!" I sensed anger from Ahriman. Is this what his reasons are for feeling depressed and sad? But now that I think about it, I have felt a slight sense of anger in him. It was a very small amout of anger, but it was there.

"What is your true purpose of following me? You here to make fun of me more. Try to makeme feel like a tool rather than a living being?" "Thats all you are. A tool. A thing. You were created to follow our command. Nothing more." "Your wrong. Everyone has a purpose. No matter how they were created." "Oh please. If YOU were givin' a purpose, then it would be just to do our biding. But you can't even do the simplest of jobs." "And yet, all you do is gamble with things like its some game to you. Even with fights. You just gamble. I have never seen you do any real fighting!" I really wasn't understanding this whole thing. Only thing I can see right now is bad history.

Luxord then said, "Actually, Im here to give you your punishment ahead of time. I already know that you would go back crawling to Xehanort and beg for his forgiveness." Ahriman then mumble, "Not anymore." "What was that?" Ahriman didn't awnser back as he look down at the ground. At that time, I seen the barrier thag was keeping the others trap, go down snd disappeare. "Your just weak and pathedic, just like your friend. Well, dead friend." "YOU LEAVE SHADOW OUT OF THIS YOU SICK CREEP!" "Oh, touch a nearve did I? You should know better than to speak to your supiriors like that. Time for your punishment." Luxord raised his hand and sent out a card at him. When it hit him, it kocked him back and sent him flying into a building. Luxord then raised both of his hands and a streem of cards appeared out of nowhere and hit Ahriman. The attackcwas pressing him up against the building as he was repeatedly hit by one card after the other. I never thought someone would beable to use cards as some sort of weapon.

After a while, I got tired of watching this and I rushed at Luxord and tried to land a hit on him. When I swung, he jumped and dodged out of the way. "What kind of person do you think you are? Attacking someone like that. Thats just..." "Why do you care? He is just a pathedic-" "Your pathedic!" I gotten really angry at Luxord. Im not really sure why Im protecting Ahriman, but it just felt nessassary. "Hmph. I will deal with all of you later. I must have the perfect moment." And the Luxord dissapeared out of thin air. My keyblade dissapeared and I turned to Ahriman's hurt form and walked over to him. He was sitting while leaning up agaisnt the building that he was forcefully pressed up against. I reached a paw down to him and he looked at me blankly.

"Are you okay?" I said to him. He pushed my paw away and said, "I don't need your pitty." while trying to get back up. When he did, his legs were too weak to help support him and he started to fall, but I caught him and put his arm around my shoulder to keep him up. "Why are you even doing this? I tried to kill you." "I know you weren't really trying to. I wasn't sure at first as to why it looked like that, but now Im pretty sure I have an idea why." I took Ahriman over to the others, who all looked like they were ready to attack. "Guys! Calm down. He isn't gonna hurt us. He is too badly hurt for that anyhow." "What are you guys gonna do to me?" I wasn't sure what to do with him at first, but then I thought up an idea. But Im not sure if the others would agree. "Why don't he just come with us?" "WHAT!?" Everyone, other than Ahriman, said in unison.

"Now just hear me out." Everyone looked at each other, like they were waiting for someone to voice their opinion about letting me explain myself or not. The all then staired at me, waiting for me to tell them my idea. "Ahriman here mjst of been to the castle before. Since its a floating castle, there isn't gonna be some front gates to open. He can help us get in." "What makes you think that he would even help us?" "Didn't you see how one of the Organization XIII members treated him? He treated Ahriman as some low ranked grunt. Like he wasn't a living, breathing being. Plus, I can sense something from him. Something that I have yet to sense from the other Nobodies." "And what would that be?" Link asked me. "Feelings. I have yet to sense anything like that from any of the others. Not to mention that I can sense goodness in him." My reasoning seemed to sink in and they all gave a form of agreeing with me. Not by a nod or vocal agreement, but more of a look that says "We will give it a shot". Not really what I was looking for, but I'll take it.

I looked over at Ahriman as asked, "Can you walk?" and he gave a nod as he tried to stand on his own and managed. When he tried to walk, he gave a bit of a limp, but he managed to keep up with the others. Link walked over to me and asked, "Are you sure this is a good idea. He seemed to agreed to this just a bit too easily. Like he doesn't care." "I know you have to of sense something fro him too. Something that seems off. He doing a good job from letting his aura give away the reason of these feelings." "Well, your right about that. Alright, Im trusting you on this." I gave a reassuring nod to Link and he walked over to Sorcha as we all continued our way to the foalting castle. Ahriman lead the way, so we all walked at a slower pase, but at lease we should avoid any traps. I was right about that when Ahriman stopped us to show us a fire trap that was in our path. If we were to of walked into that, we would of been hit by a huge fire ball tat would of shot out from a building. This shows that we are getting closer, so Organization XIII are taking extra measures to make sure we don't get there.

"We need a find a p!ace to stop and rest for a while." Ahriman said. "No, we are all fine. We don't need to rest." I argued back. Ahriman turned to me with a serious look on his face and said, "At this time, Xehanort is assembling forces of Heartless to patrol the area. Now more so since you guys are getting dangerously close. Do you really want to be stopped when you guys are this close to ending this?" "Why do you care? I thought Xehanort is your master." Link said. "If he found out that I failed my mission on taking you guys down, he would punish me worse than he ever had. Its worse than death." "Oh." We all decided that it would be best to do as instructed and found a safe building to rest in.

We all had our own rooms except for Ahriman. He stayed in the same from with me and Rose so we could keep an eye on him and so he had a decent place to live in other than outside. Besides, hewould be in even more danger of Xehanort if he was outside and we don't want to lose our guide. Rose and I sat in one corner of the room and Ahriman sat at the opposite side of the room while mumbling something. I was curious about him, so I decided that it would be smart if I knew more about him, since he is like a mystery.

"So...your my Nobody. Whats it like?" "Why do you care?" "Your a part of this group in a way, I think it would be smart if we got to know you better." "Fine. Bring the others in." I called out to the others to come here and we asked Ahrima about his past.

"I wasn't born like how other Pokemon are. I didn't come from some egg. The first thing I remember was appearing in front of the man I called master. I was, however, a Riolu, just like you were Edge. I was created around the same time you were born. Im just as old as you are. But I began to wish that I was never created. I thought I was gonna be loved and tsken care of, but I was wrong. The very first thing I had to do, was train. Train to fight so the day I faced you, I would be ready. But I didn't want to fight. Learn how to defend myself, yes. But learn to fight to kill, I never wanted that." We all looked at each other, like as if we are hearing something from a nightmare. Its hard to believe that this was how he was treated.

Ahriman continued, "I was forced to hurt innocent people. When I was told to stike someone down, I always asked what wrong thing they did, but they would always say that they never did anything wrong. But they still told me to do it anyways. When I refused, I was strucked down myself. Everytime I failed to do someting or when I refued to do something, that was my punishment. For my whole life, I hated the life that that I had that I was always wishing for something to just end my life. I was always treated like dirt. When I turned into a Lucario, the treatments got worse. More painful punishments. More harder tasks and more people that I was forced to hurt. I hated it! Everytime I refued or failed to do something, they punished me. Everytime I spoke out of line, according to them, I was punished. My life was nothing but pain and I hated it. It was pure torture!" Ahriman soon got done telling us his past and he soon started to tear I thought I had it hard. He had it worse than me. No love, no one to call a family. I felt sorry for him. Im sure the others felt the same way too.

I placed a paw on Ahriman's shoulder and said, "Well thats why we are here doing what we are doing. To put an end to this once and for all. We were givin' a purpose." Ahriman then said, "I guess I will never know my true purpose. But I guess thats a dream. Break the barriers dividing fantasyvand reality, define our very existence. Those words stuck with me for as long as I could remember. I heard that thoss words mean that somethings are dreams, but it depends on how hard we dream those dreams that would csuse them to become real. That we would learn our purpose in life. But what is my purpose? I have yet to figure that out. Unless its to be a slave to Organization XIII. Then I don't want to live anymore." "Don't say that. Im sure you will learn your purpose." Ahriman just hung his head.

"You said that you had a friend named Shadow. Who was he?" Rose asked. I was about to ask that question, but she stole it from me. Oh well. "Yeah. He was my only friend, but he was a great friend. He was an Absol. He was forced to join Organization XIII, but when he saw me, he said that it was fine. He was like a brother to me." Like a brother. Its like me all over again. "Shadow cheered me up when I was sad. He would help me when I was hurt. He was always there for me. But I never got to do anything for him. He protected me when I couldn't protect myself. He told me to get stronger so that I could do the same for others. But I never got the chance to fullfill his wish." Sorcha then said, "Well, maybe you can grant his wish now. Help us fight back against Xehanort." "How can you guys even trust me? I tried to kill Edge." Rose stepped in and said, "I always believed in second chances." Link then said, "I trust Edge on his judgement." Then I said, "Well, looks like everyone here is willing to give you a chance, right Hunter?" I said. Hunter has yet to voice his opinion.

Hunter nodded his agreement with a smile, something I haven't seen yet to do since we have reunited with each other. "I curious though, what happened to your Absol friend, Shadow?" "He was sent into some suicide mission, on purpose. A mission that Xehanort said that would get rid of him for good. He was a tough Pokemon and was hard to defeat. Xehanort thought he was holding me back, but he was what made me strong. After that day, I completely lost myself. I felt lonely ever since then. And I was still a young Riolu." I felt bad and said, "You were emotionally scarred, weren't you?" He gave a nod. I just wasn't sure what else to say, other than, "If your with us and want to end all this suffering, full fill your friend's wish of protecting the innocent and help us do so, Im sure we can become your friends." I sense some happyness from Ahriman. "If you guys are they accepting of me, dispite what I am and what I have done..." Link then said, "Forget the past, make a better future. Things can change for the better."

Ahriman then took a look at all of us. "Thanks." Well all did our own forms of saying "Your welcome" and the others left, leaving Rose, Ahriman, and I alone in our room. Soon, I feel asleep with no dreams. Feel like I was in a black, empty void. Though, hearing Ahriman's horrible past really didn't make me feel so good either. He had it harder. He wasn't even born like a regular Pokemon, he was created from me by Xehanort. Not the best way to start one's life, doing nothing but fighting. No love or compastion. He definitly is different from a Nobody. He can feel emotions, unlike the other Nobodies. Makes me wonder if he is a true Nobody.

When I woke up, I heard what sounded like crying. I looked around to find out that Ahriman was the one who was crying. "Shadow...don't...go..." I got closer to him. "Please Shadow...don't...leave...come back..." "Ahriman, Ahriman wake up." His eyes shot open and he quickly grabbed a hold of me and pulled me into a hug. I knew that he was badly tramatized, so I thought that I would comfort him by returning the hug. "Hey hey, your fine. Your safe." I said to him, trying to calm him down. His crying did go down to a sob, but he still wasn't letting up. After for what felt like five minutes, he calmed down and released his grip on me. I still couldn't imagin what kind of pain he went through to wish for death and for him to act this way. I had it rough, but not as bad as him.

"Everything alright in here?" Sorcha, Arceus bless her soul, asked with concern. "Yeah, he is fine. Just...letting out some inner pain in his own way." Sorcha gave a slight smile and nodded, understanding what I ment and she went back to Link. After a while, we all decided that it was time to go back to making our way to our destination. As we walked, we managed to avoid small patrol groups of Heartless. Ahriman knew their patrol routes and he directed us through paths that were not watched by the Heartless. We sure did have a lot less encounters with them since we had someone that knew everything about the patrol routes and anything else that would spell danger for us.

We soon came to a cliff that had a clear view of the floating castle. However, there didn't look like there was a way to get to the castle. No portal, walk way, nothing. "What kind of game are you playing?" Hunter asked rudely. "Now I know why you seem so familiar." Ahriman said to Hunter. "Wait. You seen him where he was in the castle?" I asked. "Yeah. They were trying to turn him into a Heartless. However, during the process Hunter broke out. He usually wouldn't of cleared a jump from that castle to here, but he somehow got a boost of power when he broke out. But the effects of this is that the darker side of someone takes over and...well...you guys are seeing Hunter's darker side." So this is Hunter's darker side? Im still not sure if that exscuses the events that has happened with Link and Hunter. "Wait. Can't I use my ability of removing the darkness?" "No thats different. That removing the corruption of the darkness from someone's heart. This is just giving power to one's darker self. Completely different. He has to overcome it himself. No outside help."

Well at lease I was right about Hunter's behavior being odd. "So, how do we get to the castle?" Sorcha asked. Ahriman turned to face back towards the castle and he raised his paw and I felt dark energy for in his paw. But then, a walk way, leading up to the castle appeared. It looked like a purple glassed walkway. "Does that awnser your question?" Ahriman said while a smirk. Hm. First time I seen him give some kind of smile. He should smile more. He looks better with one. "Well, looks like another long trip." I said while looking at the path ahead. "Well on this one, we can run if you want." Ahriman said. "Wrll, we don't want to get ried out. We can just walk at a fast pace. Your wounds have healed up right?" Yes Edge. Lets get going then. Im tired of being treated like a nothing. I want payback!" Ahriman said with a fire in his eyes.

"Alright then!" I stood in front of everyone in front of the path that going to the castle. "Thiscould be our finally battle. I really want to thank all of you for joining me in this war. With out you guys, I definitly would not have made it this far without your guy's help. We all lost something because of these people. Innocent people have been hurt by this group as well. We must stop them from doing anymore harm. You guys ready?" They all gave a nod, all of them with a fire burning in their eyes. I turned around and faced the castle. "Then lets end this once and for all!" "Your not gonna forget about me now are you?" Ahriman turned around and said, "YOUR ALIVE!?"

-To be continued-

Well, now we know more about Ahriman and how he is not as bad has he might of seemed. But who is the new comer that appeared out of nowhere? Is he friend or fo? Find out next time. Until then.

I want to try something that I have seen other authors do. A question and awnser thing.

Question: What other Fanfiction(s) are you reading? Tell me in a review if you want.

Until next time. Bye!