Silence. At first, Remnant thought he was asleep, but the thick, crisp air enveloping him kept him from fully drifting off. After what felt like hours, dull voices echoed far away. Hadn't he been here before…? Slightly tensing, the boy in blue slowly opened his eyes only to be met by an endless abyss of emptiness. Remnant slowly looked around and immediately noticed the lack of gravity. His eyebrows knit together as he slowly waved his arms around, adjusting to the new environment.

"Took you long enough."

Remnant's heart froze in fear at the cold voice. He quickly twisted his body around until he faced a figure about as tall as him. The figure bemusedly watched a small screen of light before them. The screen's soft glow basked his body, casting a shadow onto Remnant. Even though he could only see a thin silhouette of the person, he knew well the familiar foe facing away.

"Your friend pulled off a feat not even I could've imagined."

With a brief glance at Remnant, the figure moved aside to reveal what he was observing. Remnant's body slowly moved forward to clearly see Maya, Saxs, Noa, and Bael staring at them, alarm clearly present in their battle-fatigued eyes. His own eyes widened as he spotted Heather's unconscious body slumped on the ground, her shoulder marked with a vicious bite wound. Remnant looked over towards his opponent, his once-fierce eyes yielding an expression of apathy and boredom, as he moved closer to the screen.

"Did..?"

"No," he quickly cut Remnant off. His knuckles popped as he clenched his fists. "And don't even think of pinning this on me. I only became aware of this shortly after you lost control."

His chest pounded as his mind processed the boy in black's words. The last thing I remember was…

Remnant's eyes widened in realization. "Where's Tenshi?!"

"Tenshi," Fragment huffed, flexing his fingers, "or rather what's left of her, is right beside us out there. She's not in control of her actions as much as we are, though."

Remnant turned back towards the screen, crossing his arms. "So what caused all of this then?"

He watched quietly as Fragment tensed, focusing intensely on the screen. The four wielders on the screen suddenly vanished into a shadowy pool beneath them. In what appeared to be a quick leap, they soon stood where their prey once had. The ground glowed softly by the slowly revealed moonlight. Remnant watched a pale hand gently graze the surface, testing the texture as if it were a fragile masterpiece.

"Bael…" Fragment mouthed as his voice gruffly echoed from the screen. They heard a faint snort nearby, followed by faint footsteps dancing across the stones towards them. As the screen slowly ascended, Tenshi's decaying face came into view. Remnant winced as his eyes met with his beloved's once youthful appearance. A faint tremor shook his bones as he tore his eyes away.

"Shouldn't we go after them..?" Remnant breathed, only to hear his voice echo in the screen.

Astonishment and confusion flashed across his pale partner's face as her eyebrow raised. "Oh~?"

At first, he thought Tenshi was about to catch on to their control over Remnant's body. He slowly looked over and met Fragment's annoyed expression. His amber eyes coldly pierced into his, as if to say "Say one more word, and we're both finished."

"Why should we waste our energy looking for them?" Tenshi smiled sweetly, gently lifting their chin up. "You did give the girl the bite, right?"

His body flinched at her words, a sharp pain penetrating his belly. Remnant's eyes widened as he quickly looked down to see...nothing. The air seemingly grew colder as he briefly saw the teeth tearing into his flesh again.

Fragment nodded as they heard his altered voice from the screen again. "Yes."

"Then we have nothing to worry about," Tenshi's cold lips brushed his cheek before the young woman took a step back. "It's only a matter of time before the girl awakens, and then we'll have more back on our side again."

Remnant watched as Tenshi slowly walked towards one of the scrapped staircases. She stopped at the edge and glanced back at them. "Come on. We've got a lot to do while…"

Remnant blinked in surprise as the screen slowly faded away. He looked over at Fragment to see the boy clenching his head for a moment. "What is it..?"

"K-kch…." His darker look alike winced for a moment before relaxing. "We lost control again."

"Who else is controlling my body?" Remnant frowned.

Fragment let out a sigh as he leaned back, crossing his arms. "Not 'who'- what. When we last lost control, Tenshi injected something into our blood."

Our blood… Remnant frowned for a moment before tensing. "That black stuff..!"

"Yep. That black stuff you saw in Frosty's blood is the same thing in us now." Fragment opened his eyes and looked up. "It's a slower process in taking control of us because of me. However, I can't predict when it tries to control us. Nor can I do anything to stop it until I have enough energy to wake us up again."

"What about me? Can't I wake us up?"

"You?" He looked back at Remnant and snorted. "You just regained consciousness in here. What makes you think you'll have the energy to take control without falling asleep again?"

Remnant's lips twisted into a grimace. His heavy body told him that he still hadn't regained his full strength, but he couldn't just sit and wait to become healthy again. "How do I know that won't be too late? Every second we're not in control, whatever that stuff is inside us has that much longer to-"

"What do you mean 'we'?" Fragment quickly whirled around in a tense defensive posture. "In case you've forgotten, we aren't exactly friends here."

"No," he agreed, nodding, "but we are fighting on the same side here. You admitted it yourself."

After clashing with his eyes for a long moment, the boy in black finally smirked. "Alright...you win. Neither of us are going to survive if we waste our energy arguing, anyway. But I have some...conditions on our alliance."

Remnant's chest pounded from his quickened heartbeat. He made a deal with this boy once, and the results were almost deadly- for him and the Knights.

Noa's body trembled as they appeared near the refuge. She sighed softly as the overbearing pressure from the dark corridor slowly loosened on her heart. She held Heather's unconscious frame close to hers as she rose beside Bael. Through his manipulation of the darkness, they were able to narrowly escape a futile confrontation with two of their own fellow Knights. The mistress of light carefully surveyed her teammates that were either nearly losing or regaining consciousness. Bael quietly watched Heather, deep in thought.

A few Keyblade wielders near the entrance to the refuge spotted them and quickly rushed over to them. "Are you okay?" one asked, her silver star-shaped necklace glistening in the moonlight. She wore a red bandana over her long silver hair. Her teal eyes darted between the five, resting finally on Heather's bite wound. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at her partner wearing a blue fish mask. "Go get help! These five need immediate medical attention."

"R-right, kupo!" the young wielder quickly dashed back into the refuge.

The first Keyblade wielder carefully pried the volt valkyrie's body from Noa's hands, a reassuring smile stretching across her face. "Don't worry, we'll help her as much as we can!"

Saxs and Maya had regained their composure by now. The former weakly rested a hand on his partner's shoulder, gently pulling the strawberry blonde closer to him. "She'll be fine, honey."

A quiet sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes, gently resting her head against the pervy pyro's. "That's not all I'm worried about…"

"Help me!" she cried out, banging against the screen that illuminated her pale features. "I'm here! I'm here! Can't you hear me?!"

But it was no use. Her strength waned long ago and now the thing had full control over her body. She could do nothing but watch her body run around and attack her friends like an infested puppet, haunting hisses and laughter echoing throughout the darkness of her mind like a nightmare.

"Please! Let me out!" she cried out once more, her throat raw and hoarse. Her hair clung to her sticky face and her fists tingled from pummeling the screen with a desperation that she hadn't felt in years. Please… not him too. I can't lose him too!

When the Black Blood caught a familiar scent and lunged after its next prey, she screamed. "Go back! Remnant, go back! REMNANT!"

But her voice was too small compared to the slithering evil caging her. She watched helplessly as her lover ventured away from the camp, unknowingly falling into its trap; it hissed and clicked its claws against the concrete, luring him closer and closer to his death. No… No, no no, no! NO! Her heart erupting in flames, she thrashed against her captor, her fire brighter than shooting stars against oblivion. In the corner of her vision, she watched her body twitching and cringing in awkward angles, small hisses of irritation whispering in her head. She fought harder, ran faster, yelled louder, her body quaking with the force of her fury as she retaliated with the light of a hundred suns.

A shadow among a shadow, nearly indiscernible even with her fire blazing, lashed out and struck her back, a searing pain crawling up her spine. She roared and whirled around, her Betwixt and Between materializing with a brilliant flash. Her Keyblade snapped in two as she whirled them around her wrists, one feather in each grip. Spinning on one foot, she threw the halves in a tight circle like frisbees, hearing distant screeches grate the air as light flared out of them. Using the same foot to shoot up into an arcing leap, tendrils of embers danced between her fingers until they bursted into a wildfire, the Eternal Flames gyrating with a dangerous speed, stopping instantly right before she reached out to grab them. She fell into a flurry of dancing flames and light, balls of light shooting out with a trail of fire scorching the darkness. When Betwixt and Between finally came whirling back to her, she tossed the chakrams into the air, snapping her Keyblade back together as the Bond of Flame formed and fell into her free hand.

"Tenshi… Tenshi…" She ignored her former lover's plea as she raged against the Black Blood, Remnant's name ringing in her head. She ignored the tears in her eyes as fire and light became shooting stars, a rallying cry to her broken soul.

Her spine protested and screamed as she flipped away from a strike and fell into a crouch, the screen right behind her. It casted a long shadow that bled into the nothingness where the Black Blood hissed and crackled and laughed.

"Tenshi…"

She jumped to her feet and spun around, her Keyblades poised for another attack.

"Tenshi…" Remnant's dying face filled the screen. His gaze shone with love and agony.

"No," she whispered, her eyes wide with horror.

"Tenshi…"

Her Keyblades clattered to the ground without a sound.

"Tenshi…"

Another face conjured in the back of her mind.

"Tenshi," both voices whispered. "Tenshi… Tenshi… Tenshi…"

She fell to her knees and stared until her spine could no longer support her. She leaned forward until her forehead dropped onto the ground, crouched in a fetal position as her lovers' voices―one dead, another dying―echoed her name over and over until her screams pierced the air.

Tenshi fought no longer as the darkness embraced her once more, and her light went out.