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Wow! The last month of the semester is always crazy busy! Sorry this one took so long!

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Chapter 37 – Solo Mission

I opened my eyes. Lying in bed, I looked up at the ceiling, and raised my hand high above my face, between it and the ceiling. I studied the hand there for a moment, holding it in the air.

"Just be you".

Roxas' words echoed in my mind. Be me? Who was I anymore? I was a Nobody; I had no emotions, yet somehow still did. Roxas and Axel certainly did. They were pro at it. I let my hand come back to my side, and stared up at the ceiling.

Roxas had said not to think too hard about it. So that's what I was gonna do. It might be complicated, but I would take it in stride. Who knew? Maybe this whole emotions-no-emotions thing would just do its thing on its own. I got up and headed for the common area.

On arrival, I walked up to Saïx.

"Genxam, today you will begin solo missions" he said emotionlessly.

"Solo?" I said, slightly surprised. There was no fear in me.

"You have proven yourself loyal on more than one occasion; it should not be a surprise" he said.

"O-oh, ok" I said, not sure what else to do.

"You are to go to Halloween Town today, and diminish the Heartless population" Saïx then said.

"Ok, got it" I said.

Turning around briefly, I scanned the room for a moment before opening a Corridor. It was strange not going with anyone else, but I suppose the training wheels had to come off sometime. Not seeing anyone I wanted to talk to around, I turned toward the portal, and walked through. The darkness enveloped me.

Coming out in a forested area, I took a brief look around. Halloween Town. I was in the Hinterlands on the outskirts of it. Looking around, I saw presents scattered around on the ground.

"What are these doing here…?" I muttered to no one in particular, walking forward and picking one up.

There wasn't much time to mull it over, as Heartless began appearing in my immediate vicinity. A group of Trick Ghosts and Wight Nights materialized in front of me. I dropped the present, and took on a defensive posture.

"Right to it then, I see…" I said.

I summoned my Keyblade, and ran toward one of the Knights as it stumbled toward me; its bandaged face and wobbly body not sure on which direction to go.

"Haaaah!" I yelled.

I slashed it up and down, ending with a blow across the torso. It fell over, defeated, and disappeared. I turned to another, careful not to hit any of the presents on the ground. I took out a Trick Ghost next, which was a much easier feat than the Knight had been. It had a much thicker body, and wasn't able to avoid my attacks as much.

I turned around and around, slashing at Heartless here and there, taking them out one by one. I shot off a blast of fire from my Keyblade, eliminating another Ghost, and then turned around to see the final three Heartless. Dismissing my Keyblade, I thrust my arm in their direction, sending a blast of darkness straight at them. On contact, it engulfed all three, causing them to disappear. I bent over, taking a breath, before recovering. It was a different experience being on a mission on my own. I was able to make all the decisions.

Scanning the area for more Heartless, but not finding any, I continued on. Next up was the Graveyard. As I entered the area, there was no sign of anything or anyone initially. The gravestones sat in place completely quiet. Then the scene changed completely.

After taking only a few paces forward, a whole horde of Heartless appeared in my wake. Graveyards, Driller Moles, Creep Worms, and Carrier Ghosts. They were everywhere.

"About time you guys showed up…" I said, taking in the scene around me carefully. "I almost thought this mission was gonna end prematurely…". I paused, smirking slightly before stepping my foot back. "Haaah!".

I thrust my hand forward, sending a blast of darkness at the first of the group ahead of me. The Graveyard was impacted head on, and disappeared immediately. I didn't wait for the attack to finish; just as the darkness was dissipating into a cloud of smoke, I summoned my Keyblade, ran straight into it, and jumped up to ambush the Heartless behind it.

"Haaah!" I yelled, coming down on a helpless ghost, blinded by the smoke.

My Keyblade connected, coming down on it hard. A few slashes later, it disappeared. I ran toward other groups of Heartless, slashing and taking out as many as I could as I went. I fired off a few blasts of Fire, and cast Thunder for good measure. The Heartless disappeared around me.

I stopped and took a breath, letting my head fall forward as I stood there. Then without warning, a blow struck me from behind.

"Ngh!" I grimaced as I was thrown forward.

I came crashing down, face-first to the ground, landing roughly on my torso, my arms falling above my head. Pushing up with my Keyblade hand, I rolled over to see the attacker. It was Wight Knight that I hadn't noticed before. The pain from its slash ebbed across my back as I sat up and curled in on myself, grimacing. A moment later, a golden glow enveloped me, and the pain disappeared. I got up slowly, and looked straight at the Knight.

"That'll teach me not to let my guard down…" I muttered, and then looked up, and smirked confidently at the Knight.

I ran at it, slashing a few times, before it disappeared. Without the element of surprise, it had no chance. Quickly scanning the graveyard, I found there were no other Heartless this time. Next up was Halloween Town Square.

The fountain in the centre of the area had a green glow, and things were eerily quiet. I suppose that matched with the theme of Halloween Town, but what I saw before me did not. It was completely bizarre. Various Heartless were playing with wrapped presents around the fountain. It was a behaviour I had never seen from them before. Wight Knights were handling and examining the small boxes as if curious about them.

"What the-?" I said, walking up.

I scanned the area, taking in the scene before me. Like in the Hinterlands, there were presents scattered everywhere. It puzzled me as I searched my mind for when and if this had happened in the game. It had been so long ago that I had played it, and there had been so many visits to worlds; I just couldn't remember. Oh well; presents or not, Heartless were Heartless and had to be taken care of. I summoned my Keyblade.

The second it materialized, the scene went into a flurry of activity. It was like the Heartless could sense it. They dropped the presents, and began wandering around in their usual fashion. A few jumped straight at me. I stepped forward and slashed horizontally, sending them flying far back as more made their way over.

"Well, that was quite the change…" I muttered to myself.

More came, and I gave them the same treatment as the previous ones. I slashed at a few who came near, and cast Fire at others further away. At one point, I became surrounded by a horde of them. It was a perfect setup. Standing up tall, I raised my Keyblade high into the air.

"THUNDER!" I yelled.

Great, bright bolts of lightning appeared all around me, striking indiscriminately. Every Heartless disappeared in a puff of darkness. The immediate area was cleared. There was no time to celebrate though.

More of them were coming from all directions. I summoned the power of darkness from within. My body and Keyblade became enveloped in green and purple hues. Spinning around with my Keyblade outstretched, I sent a shockwave of darkness in all directions, sending every Heartless in the vicinity into oblivion. They all disappeared, every last one.

I looked ahead of me at the now empty space. All the presents had fallen from the Heartless' hands to the ground. Just as I went to walk toward one, I heard a mechanical sound behind me. Before I could turn around to see what it was, something hard and metal struck from behind, sending me flying across the space. I slid forward on my side like a rag doll, past the fountain, and toward the buildings on the other side.

I rolled over to see what had accosted me, and found myself looking up at a mechanical creation. Everything about it screamed Frankenstein. I gasped. Backing away on all fours, and then getting slowly and unsteadily to my feet, I readied myself for a battle. But nothing happened. Shortly after I had stood up, the creation walked away, disappearing around a corner. I lowered my Keyblade arm, relaxing my posture with a confused look.

"Was that… Dr. Finkelstein's creation?" I wondered aloud.

I had been stood there a moment, trying to figure it out, when I heard voices coming from the Graveyard.

"Quick! We've gotta go find those presents!" came a familiar boy's voice.

I gasped. Sora?! Without thinking, I ran into a nearby alley, hidden from view, just as a group of four people wandered into the area. The first was a tall skeleton-like figure, followed by the boy and two companions. It was Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack Skellington. I leaned my head out carefully from the shadow of the alleyway to watch as they came into the square.

"The presents… but who defeated the Heartless…?" said Sora, looking around.

Jack walked up to a damaged box, and picked it up, stepping on a doll on the ground. The box was opened, and looked heavily beaten up.

"What a shame… it looks like it was such a nice present…" he said.

Sora looked as though he was about to say something when he was interrupted.

"Someone help! My experiment's been stolen!" came a voice from the entryway of one of the buildings. It was Dr. Finkelstein's.

"Let's go!" yelled Sora to the others.

Jack dropped the box, and ran with the others toward the man in the wheelchair. As they ran past the alleyway I was in, I ducked my head back to avoid being seen. After they had passed, I leaned around the corner slightly and watched after them as they ran up the steps. It was Sora.

I watched as they ran toward the laboratory. Why had I just become so nervous at seeing him? What was that? I pushed the thought away. I had a mission to complete. I watched as they followed the man inside, almost solemnly. Sora… I can't go with you right now… I thought as I sighed. We'll do our best separately; from both sides.

Unbeknownst to me, a small figure in a black coat was standing around a corner in the alley behind me. They watched as I waited for Sora to go inside, before quickly leaving the alley so as not to be seen. They followed, keeping to the shadows. I was unaware of their presence.

Cutting through the Graveyard, I took a different turn, instead going to Curly Hill. It was a quiet area that it seemed people almost never came to. The large dirt-laden area gave way to the hill in the centre that gave it its name. The hill that curved in on itself.

I remembered coming here with Lexaeus once on an early mission. He was rather quiet, like the earth around him, I had heard. Only speaking when needed. A strange character.

I walked into the centre of the area, and looked up at the moon. It seemed to be forever dark on this world; what with it being a never-ending Halloween and all. Never-ending… I hoped that my friendship with Roxas and Axel would never end. They would get hearts when we completed Kingdom Hearts, and become Somebodies…

We had joked about having sea-salt ice cream every day after everyone got hearts of their own. I smiled at the thought. It was a comforting notion. My thoughts were suddenly broken as I heard footsteps walk up a short distance in front of me.

A short figure with big round ears, wearing an Organization coat was standing there. I recognized them immediately from the game. It was King Mickey. He spoke before I got a chance to.

"What Riku said was true… I didn't want to believe it" said Mickey. He paused. "They have turned you into a Nobody".

"That's correct" I said calmly.

"Why are you working for them?!" exclaimed Mickey.

"Because they're my friends" I said. "I know I'm doing the right thing. Everyone will get hearts of their own. How is that a bad thing?" I replied.

"But they aren't telling you the whole story!" said Mickey.

"Neither is DiZ" I said pointedly. "He's the real bad guy here". My voice became more angry and passionate, "Why else would he keep my powers from me? Why else would he have kept me in the dark?". I paused, calming down a bit before continuing, "The Organization showed me how to control my powers. They even saved me from falling to darkness. They've been nothing but kind to me".

"But-" said Mickey, but I cut him off.

"I know they may not be telling me everything, but I know what I'm doing is right" I said confidently. I paused, looking down, and then back up. "I can't go with Sora right now. He has to do his part, just as I have to do mine".

I turned to walk away.

"No Genxam, wait!" cried Mickey, reaching his hand out toward me.

I teleported away before he could say anything else.

And there it is! Hope you enjoyed it!

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Until next time!