Chapter 1: Awakening

Darkness.

Darkness, is half of the entire world.

It can be found as much in the deepest cavern, to as small as the silhouette of one's shadow.

Darkness can be found everywhere, even in the depths of the lightest heart.

Most would say the darkness is a force of evil that infects hearts and fills them with malice. However, as many people forget, every heart is born with both light and darkness within it. It's up to the individual if they fall to shadow or not.

Some people persevere and rise above their darkness, but more often than not, people give in to the dark and become…

Well, I suppose most would say evil, wouldn't they?

All I could see was pitch black. Nothing but an empty void and the sounds of clashing blades from all around. I couldn't move and I felt very numb, especially in my chest. All I could remember was feeling a sharp pain, then a cold sensation, then this. For some time, all I could hear was the fighting for a moment until I heard something new.

"Wait…" a voice said, "No no no!" it called out frantically.

I could then hear footsteps approaching me from the darkness.

"No wait, I- I didn't mean it, please don't go!"

The voice became lower and softer.

"Please… don't leave me."

The voice had stopped and it was only the sound of battle again, but after a while that stopped too. It was now completely silent. Nothing happened in that void for what felt like an eternity. At first it might've only been minutes, but it felt like it became longer. It felt like hours were going by, but for all I know it could've been days or even weeks I've spent looking in the black space. I just couldn't tell. After a long time something finally happened.

I suddenly gasped awake and was now breathing heavily as I was looking up at the night sky. I quickly sat up and tried to calm down. As my breathing steadied, I stood up and looked around to see a vast land of dirt with rocky terrain in the distance.

"Where am I?" I asked aloud.

I saw that I was standing in a pathed crossroad with hundreds, no thousands of blades planted just outside of it. Most of the blades were different but they all shared a similar design. Each had a guarded handle, a chain and little trinket hanging off it, and a head piece sticking out from the end of the blade. They all kind of resembled keys. Staring out into the countless number of blades, I could tell what happened here and what the weapons represented. I could feel the gloom of this place, the hate, the loss, and the death. All these feelings were all present among this post battle site. However something that wasn't present here, was familiarity.

"What happened to me? What is this place?"

I tried to think, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what this place was, or even how I got here. In fact I couldn't remember anything. Not where I'm from, not any friends I may have, not even my own name. I tried and tried, but I was coming up blank.

"Why… can't I remember anything?"

I looked down at myself hoping to jog some memories, and I was wearing brown boots, tan pants, black fingerless gloves, white bell sleeves on my forearms, and a pink strapped black sleeveless shirt. There was a dark purple burned tear on the front of my shirt. The only thing I was getting was that this shirt didn't have a hole in it before.

"I guess I should start small. I am a girl, I remember that much, and I am… 16? Yeah, that sounds right. I just woke up in some wasteland where there was apparently a huge battle once, and before that…"

It didn't matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember. After a moment, I let out a sigh.

"Maybe there's something in this place that can help me remember."

I began to walk down one of the four paths, until I heard something behind me. I turned around and saw a black hunched over creature with yellow eyes, two antennae, and clawed hands. I took a step back looking at it. I didn't have a good feeling about the little creature, but also for some reason it seemed kinda familiar.

"What are-"

Before I could actually ask, the dark creature ran up to me and tried to claw at me.

"Whoa, hey!" I said, getting out of the way of it's attack, "What's your problem!?"

The creature ignored my question and charged me again. I dodged once more, before deciding talking would be pointless.

"Alright fine, you asked for it." I quickly ran up to the creature getting ready to hit it. I figured I could scare it off or something but when I actually made contact, my punch didn't even phase it.

"W- What the?" I asked. Unfortunately in my moment of distraction the creature slashed at my leg with its claws. I winced at the pain before quickly backing away. I placed a hand on my injury as the pain swelled. It hurt, but it was manageable.

I started to back away slowly until I tripped on a rock. The creature saw its moment and ran toward me once again. I tried to get up but the pain in my leg halted me. When I looked up at the creature charging me, I held up my arm bracing myself for another slash. But then, a bright light appeared in my hand. It was gone just as quickly as it appeared, but in its place was a blade similar to the ones around me.

This weapon had a white handle guard with a purple thorned vine design on it, a purple blade with a diamond shape hole in the center, a purple chain, and a blue and white trinket and head piece resembling stars. With all this the key shaped weapon also had dark purple gems embedded in it. I stared at the blade in wonder.

"Wha… What is-"

Suddenly I was brought back to reality as the creature's attack bounced off the blade, and it staggered back. I looked between it and the blade, still shocked before getting back up. The creature almost looked hesitant, like it was scared of the weapon that just appeared in my hands.

"Oh, so you don't like this thing huh?" I said as I raised the blade up, "Good!"

I ran forward holding the blade to my side, and swung it at the dark creature. This time when I hit it, I actually made contact, and the now injured creature was flung a couple feet away. Whatever this weapon was, it can hurt this thing.

"That's right!" I said to the creature, "You want some more?"

I went to hit it again, but before I could the creature had flattened itself into the ground avoiding my attack. I looked at the dark silhouette annoyed.

"Hey, that's not fair! You can't just turn into a shadow or whatever like that!"

Shadow…

That word triggered something in my head, for some reason it was ringing a bell. The more I looked at the dark creature, the more the word shadow kept popping up. Was that what this creature was called, a shadow?

Unfortunately as I was thinking of it, I realized the shadow was now gone. I looked around trying to find it, but then I heard a noise behind me. Without hesitation, I swung around and struck the shadow with the blade, destroying it in a puff of darkness.

"Heh, nice try."

After the shadow was destroyed, something appeared from the dark remnants. It was a glowing pink heart shaped object. Looking at it I immediately knew It was someone's heart. Using that blade released it from the darkness that was holding it. Wait a second, how did I know that?

Before I could follow that train of thought, about five more shadows appeared around me. I guess they could feel me destroying their buddy. I raised the blade again, ready to fight.

"Okay then, round two."

One to the side of me charged first, I quickly blocked it's attack and swatted it away. Next, one ahead of me tried to sneak up on me through the ground, but was slashed promptly after reappearing. Two of them tried to attack me at once, I rolled out of the way and swung in a wide arc hitting both of them.

Then all five shadows slowly got closer to me as they were about to attack all at once, which only made me smile. I jumped up, and spun around to hit each and every one when they jumped at me. All but one was destroyed. The final shadow was knocked to the ground as it looked at me when getting back up. I calmly mocked the shadow as I motioned it to come at me with my finger. As it charged at me one final time, I held the blade back and aimed it right at the shadow. Once it was close, I thrusted my blade forward right into the dark creature. The shadow, now turned dark cloud had faded away as the battle ended.

"Yes!" I said celebrating my victory.

The feeling I had during that fight, it was great. Testing my strength, destroying these shadows. For one it felt like I needed to, like it was some kind of duty, but more so it felt so fun. I wasn't sure if it was just the shadows, or if I just like fighting in general, but one thing was certain.

I held up the blade in my hands to admire it. Something was definitely familiar about it, and not just the blade itself. How I used it too. Fighting the shadows made me feel like I've been using this thing for a long time. I had no memories, but wielding this key shaped weapon felt natural. The blade then disappeared in a white light similar to how it first appeared.

"Okay so, I can use a cool magic sword, and I really like fighting shadows. That's something I guess, but I still can't remember my name?" I asked with a sigh.

I guess it wouldn't be that easy. I spent a moment thinking until I figured staying in one spot wouldn't make me remember any faster. I began walking down one of the paths, focusing on only walking and remembering. But to be honest, I had no idea what memories I'd be focusing on. I couldn't think of anything.

Eventually I gave up on trying to force it and just looked around at my surroundings, hoping that would do something for me. Honestly though, there wasn't much to say about the area itself, it was mainly a large valley with mountains in the distance and a dark sky. Really the only thing of note were the many many blades, so many in fact, that I couldn't see an end to them. Assuming I woke up in the middle of all them, they must've stretched for miles, and if each blade had a person wielding it, then I think describing what happened here as a battle was an understatement. Though that kinda got me thinking. I did have a blade like them, did that mean I was a part of this? Is that why I woke up here? It seemed unlikely, due to how old and rusted the blades around me were. Whatever happened here, it happened a long time ago. Longer than sixteen years for sure. But I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

Some time later, I came across the end of the blades. They had stopped just at the base of a canyon with large mountains pointing high into the sky, with a dirt path continuing forward in between. There were a few stray blades stuck near the canyon entrance but they stopped a few steps in. I'm not sure what it was, but when I was near, I started to feel something further inside the canyon. Whatever it was, it felt like it was calling to me. In hindsight, following a weird feeling coming from a dark canyon, sounds like a stupid idea, but I just wanted to know what was happening so badly, that I wasn't really thinking. Besides, I figured it was better than just wandering around aimlessly in this desolate place.

The canyon was pretty long, and I ran into a few more shadows, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle apparently. I pressed on to what was calling me, and the closer I got, the stronger the feeling became. Soon the canyon started to divide into a large clearing with a couple more blades lying on the ground by themselves. When I was in the center of the clearing, I could actually tell how far the thing calling me was. I looked up and saw that the canyon closes back to it's usual narrow path past the clearing. The feeling was strongest in that direction.

I would've continued, but the very next step made five shadows appear. My blade followed suit as I got into a battle stance. Now I would've been confident here, I mean I've been defeating tons of shadows up to this point, but I noticed that there was something different about these ones. They were dark with glowing yellow eyes like the others, but these ones were bigger and lankier with longer antennae shaped like lightning bolts, veins on their bodies glowing with dark blue energy, and were clearly more aggressive.

Before I could even react, one of these new shadows jumped up and dashed at me at high speed, before hitting me with it's claws.

"Agh!" I exclaimed, "You little-!"

After being hurt by this thing, I quickly retaliated by smacking the shadow away. I accomplished in getting it away from me, but the shadow didn't seem that phazed by my attack. So not only did they look different, these things were way faster, stronger, and tougher than the others.

So, not great for me.

But, after a minute of getting hit by these guys, I started to notice a pattern. Whenever I am far away, the new shadows would either dash at me, or hide in the ground then jump out at me. So I planned to keep my distance, dodge incoming attacks, then retaliate after their attacks fail. I think I could take one on it's own, but if I were to charge one or more right now, I'd be surrounded by the rest. A few more minutes passed, and I was down to only one shadow. I did get hit a few times from the others but that's beside the point.

The new shadow and I were staring each other down, when it suddenly jumped, spun in the air, then dashed toward me a final time. Right before it could hit me, I rolled out of the way right behind it. At that moment, I raised my blade in the air and swung down, destroying the shadow.

"Take… that." I said between breaths.

That battle went on for a while, and had left me very tired. I was covered in scratches and sweat, and my clothes were riddled with tears. I was glad that was over. Unfortunately, my moment of relief was soon gone. Because it was in fact not over.

Towards the way forward, about ten more of those new shadows appeared in the clearing along with a larger creature floating in the middle holding a big scalloped sword. This creature was about twice as big as the shadows, with a dark more muscular looking body, sharp purple and blue horns, yellow tipped wings on it's forearms, a tail ending in a sharp blade, a heart shaped hole in it's torso, and those same glowing yellow eyes. I took a step back. Even when I had a plan, I was still having trouble with that battle, and now it would be twice as hard, or even three times as hard depending on what that new thing can do.

I was in trouble.

Suddenly, three of the shadows dashed at me. I blocked the first one with my blade, but the other two got me in the hip and shoulder. I yelped in pain before I dodged, anticipating more of them to dash as well. After getting out of the way of about four of them, the new bigger creature flew up to me and swung his sword. I quickly raised my weapon up, and when both our blades clashed, I promptly discovered this thing was stronger than me. The creature powered through and flung me a few feet away. I managed to get up, but I was not in great shape. I was keeping an eye on the bigger creature, figuring it was the biggest threat, when I heard something.

"Behind you!" a voice yelled.

Shocked, I tried to move, but I was just too late, and a shadow got me right in the back, making me fall to my knees. The big creature then shoved his sword into the ground before disappearing, and the moment I got back up, a circle of purple fire surrounded me and burned me.

"You need to get out of here!" the voice spoke again. I had no idea who was saying that, but they were right. I would die if I stuck around.

With the rest of my strength, I got up, and ran back the way I came, dodging attacks from those shadows, and balls of purple energy from the big creature. I was now back at the start of the clearing when something happened. I felt a tug at my arm, and when I looked I saw that it was my blade. It was pulling at me, making me hold it up. It was almost like it had a mind of its own. My blade had pulled my arm up so I was now pointing it forward.

"What is-"

Before I could even ask, a light began to charge in the end of the blade until a beam shot out from it. Soon the beam created a swirling portal in front of me. I stared at it in awe before the voice shook me out of it.

"Hurry!"

I jumped a bit at that, but I then started walking to the portal. Well it was more like limping at this point but still. I was just about to enter, when I felt that call again. I turned my head and I saw something past the incoming dark creatures. It was a figure covered in shadows, staring at me with two burning yellow eyes. I don't know how to really describe it, but I felt something when I looked at that figure. It was like a mixture of many different emotions, but I had no idea what they were exactly.

"Do you have a death wish or something?" the voice asked, "Move it!"

Before anything else, my blade quickly pulled me into the portal. Right before I was fully in, I managed to look back at the figure disappearing in darkness.

I had no idea where this portal was taking me, but it had to be better than that place. After a moment, I was limping out from the other end of the portal covered in burns and cuts as it closed behind me. The place I found myself in was completely different from that wasteland. I was standing on a grassy platform high in the sky with a designed stone tiled flooring in the center, short stone walls on the edges, and stairs leading to a large white and gold building being supported by gold chains connected to the surrounding mountains. I looked up at the large decorated door as I continued forward, hoping to find help.

Unfortunately after a few steps, my legs gave out and I finally collapsed from exhaustion. My blade disappeared as it hit the ground, and I laid on the cool stone as my breathing started to slow back to normal. A moment goes by before I noticed the sun start to come out over the horizon. It was now dawn, and I took that as a sign that I'd be safe for now. I took the moment to think back on what just happened. What that place was, those dark creatures, that voice… that figure. All but the first were somewhat familiar to me. Even that voice, I've heard it somewhere before, but I couldn't recall from who or where. I think I've fought those creatures somewhere before, but I'm not certain. Honestly though the biggest thing on my mind at the moment was that figure. Who was that? And why did it feel like…

Before I could continue that thought, I heard the large doors begin to open. I tried to look up, but even that was straining. I could only lay there and listen. Soon I heard a light gasp from the top of the stairs, before whoever it was rushed back inside. Later the door opened again, but now I heard two pairs of feet running toward me from the stairs.

"You see Master?" a boy's voice spoke, "She's right here."

Two people were standing in front of me, but since I was too tired to move, I could only see their feet. One was wearing black with bronze metal shoes, while the other smaller pair was wearing more brown and bronze looking shoes.

"Good work, Terra," A man's voice responded, "Go find Aqua, and I will reconvene with the two of you later."

"Yes Master."

Before the boy left, I could tell he stopped to look at me for a moment, but then ran back into the building. The boy's master then placed two fingers on my neck, most likely to check my pulse, then picked me up in his arms. As he walked us to the stairs, I managed to look up at him. He was a man with slightly tan skin, black goatee, and tied back black hair with a bang free on the right side of his face. He looked down at me with concern before speaking.

"Do not worry, you're safe now."

That was the last thing I remembered before losing consciousness.

Author's Notes

Well it's been a trying day for that girl, hasn't it? Unfortunately I won't be continuing this story until I am finished with my current Infinity Train one. Plus I still need to plan the details for this. Plot points, Disney worlds, that sorta thing. But don't worry, this story will be getting my full attention after that. Although if you still want more, my DeviantArt page has some lore for this story along with artwork.

In the meantime, I hope to see you then.