Chapter 21

Roxas nearly tripped over the chair Naminé had been sitting in, sending it crashing onto the floor. He grabbed the edge of the table, pulling himself up by it, and then picked the chair back up.

"Naminé," he said, turning around to look at the girl, "You're... I mean... what's going on?"

She looked at him, her smile fading away quickly, and walked through the table, sitting down in the other chair. Roxas noticed, and then sat down in the chair Naminé had been sitting in before.

"I'm sorry, Roxas... this is the most I can do now," she said, picking up the picture she had just finished drawing, "I haven't exactly been myself lately."

"What do you mean?"

"You should remember... what happened when you were in Sora for too long. You started to lose consciousness, slowly, piece-by-piece, until there was nothing left but the Light..."

"That... happened to you, too?"

"No. I'm... not like other Nobodies, Roxas. DiZ had a suspicion that I was somehow different, but he never managed to find out why... but now I know."

She held up the newly-finished picture, passing it over toward Roxas. Kairi and Naminé were both in the picture, drawn in perfect detail, but hovering in the distance behind the two girls there was something else. It wasn't much more than a vague, fuzzy outline--a long-bodied creature, with two arms and sharp claws. It seemed to be surrounded by a bright light, which was illuminating Kairi and creating a slight glow around Naminé.

"I've seen that thing before..."

Roxas stared at the picture for several minutes, trying to remember where he had seen it before. He looked around the room for a second, before finally standing up and looking back toward the door. He then sat down and asked Naminé about it.

"That monster... it's the one from that picture over the door, isn't it?"

"Yes... that creature is Gil-Neithev. Those creatures of Light that you fight now--they are the Shin'an, the white swarm... servants of Gil-Neithev."

"Gil-Neithev..."

Roxas looked around, noticing that there were now several other pictures in the room that weren't there the last time. They were familiar--there were several pictures of every kind of the glowing insects he had encountered so far.

"But... how do you know about all this? You're Kairi's Nobody... right? What does she have to do with all this?"

"I don't think I can truly call myself Kairi's Nobody... not now, now that I know my true origin."

She stood up and walked over to the wall, taking one of the pictures off of it and then walking back toward Roxas. The picture showed an unconscious Kairi, but there was something else--a glowing sphere of energy, entering Kairi's body through her chest just as her heart left it.

"I'm not like other Nobodies, because I am not only the Nobody of Kairi... I was partially born from Gil-Neithev as well."

Naminé sat down again before continuing, handing the picture to Roxas.

"When Kairi's heart left her body, that night on the islands... something happened. Just as her body was beginning to fade away, to create a Nobody... Gil-Neithev had been freed from his prison in the heart of the world and attempted to enter the body."

"Kairi's heart managed to find safety within Sora's... but her body and Gil-Neithev became intertwined. When the body faded out of the World of Light to become a Nobody, a piece of Gil-Neithev was taken along with it. The rest of Gil-Neithev was disrupted, sent into a dormant state... and took the form of Kairi's unconscious body."

Riku and the King's Gummi Ship drifted into the hangar at Disney Castle, having to slow down to avoid slamming into another ship that was already parked there. Apparently, whoever had used that ship last had forgotten to move it from the place it was parked.

"Probably just Goofy teaching his son how to drive," Mickey said, helping Riku steer the ship into another parking spot, "Max always forgets to move the ship out of the way."

"Hmm," Riku said, "Well, he's got to learn someday, right? Let's park over there... we can always move the other ship out later."

The Gummi Ship slowly landed, sitting on the platform at an odd angle to avoid bumping into another ship. As soon as the doors opened, Riku hopped out, and immediately he noticed that all was not well in the castle. That strange smell, which he had detected nearly everywhere in the city that now covered Destiny Islands, was in the air--and it was incredibly strong, as if whatever had left it was still close.

"Be careful," he said, looking down to the King after both of them had left the ship, "Something just isn't right here... I can smell it."

In the room behind the golden door, the three knights sat and waited. They were awaiting the arrival of a new--and incredibly powerful--Shin'an, born from the heart of one who contained no Darkness... a Princess of Heart.

"So the rumor was true, then," the female knight said, "The heart of one of the Princesses gave birth to a Shin'an greater than any created before?"

"Not exactly," the tallest knight answered, "There is but one Shin'an more powerful than the one born from the Princess. You know him as the King of these islands... Sora."

"Ah," she said, "I had forgotten about Sora's state. How unfortunate, that we were unable to destroy the Nobody before it became a problem."

"If Roxas had been killed then, Sora would have never chosen to follow Gil-Neithev," the shorter knight said, fiddling with what appeared to be a necklace.

"True," the female said, "Sora is far from intelligent, but he has a strong will to protect those he cares about... destroying a part of his own being, however worthless that part may be, would enrage him beyond belief."

Suddenly, a bright light began to form on the other side of the room, causing all three of the knights to turn and look toward it. The new Shin'an, the first of its kind, was finally arriving.

The spot of bright light soon widened, forming a door of white light reaching from the floor to the celing. The entire room was lit, but the knights never looked away--the visors on their helmets made even this light, which would nearly blind a normal person, bearable.

Several seconds passed, and then a creature began to emerge from the door. It was still essentially humanoid in shape, closely resembling the form of a woman, but its body was red and almost translucent. Rather than hair, a mass of tentacles grew from the back of the creature's head, and there were two long antennae sprouting out from its forehead. There were three pairs of wings, resembling those of a butterfly but composed entirely of energy, growing out of its back. Growing out of its lower back and wrapping around its lower body almost like a dress was a seventh wing, this one distorted in shape and probably useless for flying.

The light from the door finally began to fade, followed shortly afterward by the disappearance of the door itself. The new Shin'an could be seen clearly by the three knights, and it floated about a foot above the floor, chittering and humming quietly.

"Quite a transformation, don't you think?", the shorter of the two male knights said, dropping the necklace for a second and ignoring it for the first time in favor of staring at the glowing-red insect-woman that was now floating in the room.

"Yes... quite a transformation, indeed," the tallest knight said, "As a human, you were not even able to fight off your pitiful stepsisters... but now, as one of the Shin'an, you are among the most powerful of your kind."

"Welcome to Gil-Neithev's elite, Cinderella," the female knight said, "Or, should I say... Shin'an Cendrillon."