Vagabond Hearts: True
Well, I'm back! What follows is what should have come first, the true incarnation of Vagabond Hearts. Of course, neither the Kingdom Hearts mythos nor any of its characters are my property, and I don't make any claims they are. I don't make any money, either, so I'm pretty sure I can't be sued. Hey, 8-Bit Theater gets away with it, why can't we?

Chapter One:

Hex Nightwise stood leaning on the railing of the balcony overlooking the dance floor. He stood staring up into the skylight, watching the lights of the club dance over the rain pounding against the glass. The pounding rhythm of the music drowned out the sound of the rain and thunder, though neither the music nor the lights could hide the lightning. Every now and then, it highlighted the towering buildings of Neon, the city of magical technology.
Below him danced a legion of teenagers, the protectors of this city. Long ago, the founders of the city had set only three laws to govern the city. The first was that all people should live lives of honor, and allow others to do the same. The second was that all people should be free to do as they please, as long as they did not strip freedom or honor from themselves or others through their actions. The third law was that there would be no more laws.
Naturally, the city quickly fell into anarchy and hedonism.
In response to this, the Clans were formed. They protected the freedom and honor of others to further their own honor and fame. Over time, colleges were formed to train those who would be Clan members, and many of the best and the brightest of new Clan members - teenage protectors of a city on the edge, a city of paradox - spent their down time here, in the Lifebeat dance club.
Hex himself had been a Clan fighter for a little over a year, now. He belonged to the Orphans, a Clan of only three members, including himself, but one of the most celebrated in the city. His fellow Clan members, Crystal and Damon, danced below him, but he never joined them. Hex was quite the jack of all trades - knowledgeable, dedicated, and capable. But he was not a dancer.
Hex looked down onto the dance floor to locate his friends. It was not hard. As usual, Crystal had attracted quite the crowd of onlookers, and Damon was by her side. Hex watched Crystal Bluewolf with a sort of envy. She moved with an almost supernatural grace in a tight, midnight blue dress hemmed in silver. It was a long dress, but the slits running down both sides allowed full range of movement in and out of combat situations. The dress's blouse was cut over her breast in an intricate, half-snowflake pattern, and the sleeves were long, but open along the sides, coming together at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Her skin was a deep tan, tinted in blue and silver that one could only see when the light hit her just right. Her silver-blue hair was tied up out of her face, but Hex wished she would wear it down - he preferred it that way, though it often frizzed out when she did. As she circled within the crowd, all eyes were on her, and Hex again felt that sense of loss that came to him so often since they had broken off their romantic relationship.
Damon Bayne danced with her, but outside of the crowd's gaze. Crystal was quite exotic, and Hex, with his amazing blue eyes and the occasional sparks of electricity that danced across his skin, sported a bit of the exotic, as well. Damon, however, was less exotic then he was unsettling. He looked normal enough from a distance, but when one looked into his eyes, they were confronted with pools of deep blood red, eyes as unsettling as the cries of the wounded on the battlefield. He wore an outfit almost identical to Hex's - a club shirt and simple jeans in black, and a gray shirt underneath. All were decorated in various tribal pattern, blood red and resembling flames. The tribal markings on the back of the club shirt formed a pair of demonic-looking wings, chosen by Damon to further the outcast image he had come to accept since Hex and Crystal had begun their romance, and kept even after they broke up.
It was this eerie quality and the fact that he willingly accepted his outcast status, now, that caused many of the crowd of dancers to avert their gaze from him. Hex, Crystal, and Damon were very truly Orphans, children sent to this Kingdom from another one, somewhere in the starry night sky. Why they had been sent here, no one really knew. But they had grown up here, raised by the Clan colleges, and all the Clan members in the club knew them fairly well, had grown up with them. All his life, Damon had suffered from the people around him looking away. Hex and Crystal had been his only friends growing up, and this was exactly why Hex now stood above, looking at Crystal with envious desire instead of dancing with her. Crystal had broken up with him when their relationship had begun to drive a wedge between him and Damon. It was an effort that came too late, of course. There was jealousy and anger there, now, boiling beneath the surface of a friendship that now possibly lasted only because it always had been there. And Hex knew it. He simply did not like, or even really trust, Damon anymore.
He couldn't really explain where the distrust came from, though. The anger made sense, but not the distrust. Damon had never acted on his feelings for Crystal in any physical way; Crystal had told Hex so, and Hex believed her. But, for some time now, maybe years, Hex had had the feeling that some distant Kingdom, or maybe many, had been irrevocably altered by Damon's actions. Of course, this was nonsense. Since coming to Neon, Hex and his friends had never left the Kingdom - they had no way to do so. But, still...Hex couldn't shake the feeling that Damon had done something very wrong, even evil.
Hex didn't know it, but Damon felt some hidden feeling very similar to Hex's own. Damon felt betrayed and defeated by Hex, but the feeling seemed to stretch beyond Hex's relationship with Crystal. Damon himself felt like he and Hex had fought a terrible battle on some distant Kingdom, and Hex had ultimately won a battle he should never have started.
Both explained the strange feelings away as nonsense. But neither could shake the feeling, no matter how hard they tried. And neither told Crystal how they felt.
The song ended, and the crowd applauded Crystal, shaking Hex from his reverie. He smiled and clapped, as well, as Crystal and Damon looked up at him. They exchanged words, and Damon went towards the bar as Crystal began to climb up the stairs to the balcony. A new song began, quieter then the last, and the sound of thunder could now be heard outside.
"Strange weather, isn't it?" Crystal said as she sat down with Hex.
Hex nodded. "It does give me an uneasy feeling..." Neon was a very rainy city, but thunder and lightning were very, very rare. And they never showed up unless something very, very bad was about to happen. And the Orphans weren't the only ones to think so. Nearby, a massive fighter named Manos laughed nervously with his fellow Clan member, Mac. Hex could here them joking about the bad omen raging in the sky above them. They mentioned how odd it was that simply so many Clans had gathered here, tonight. Hex seemed to agree, feeling that this would surely attract misfortune to the Lifebeat.
Damon arrived at the table with drinks, and sat down quietly. "Don't let me interrupt the silence," he joked. Hex and Crystal looked at him for a moment, until he sighed and looked up into the skylight. "Yeah, I think we all feel it..."
It was a terrible feeling, too. It seemed like it had been raining non-stop for weeks, now. That in and of itself was not too unusual, but every time the clouds broke apart, it seemed there were fewer stars in the sky. At first, only the city astronomers and Clan mages had noticed, as the clouds broke to reveal one or two stars missing at a time. But then, even spellslingers like Hex, often considered the most dense and spontaneous Clan members around, started looking up to notice whole constellations missing.
The mages and fighters of Neon were very knowledgeable, very advanced. They knew what the stars in the night sky were: other Kingdoms, worlds with peoples and histories all their own. And here the stars were, vanishing at a rapidly increasing rate. The people of Neon knew what this meant - that the Kingdoms were being completely destroyed, the Hearts of the Kingdoms were being swallowed by some unknown enemy. And the people of Neon knew they should be nervous about this, as well. They knew that the Kingdoms were separate, existed apart from each other. But they also knew the Kingdoms shared something: one sky.
One sky, one destiny.
Neon was in trouble, and tonight would be the night its final fate would be set in motion. No Clan member was prepared to be left out of what very may be their final battle. Of course, no Clan knew for certain this last part. They knew it only as an itch, a tingle in the back of their collective heads, a buzz. A sixth sense. Something was coming.
But, until it came, the teenage magi and warriors, the young monks and impulsive spellslingers enjoyed themselves. They danced, and drank, and laughed. They enjoyed themselves, not really believing or accepting that their final fates were at hand, but enjoying themselves as best they could, just in case.
This was pretty much the attitude held by the newest generation of Clan members: Be heroes, have fun, and be ready to die.
Of course, none of them could even begin to suspect that it was not death bearing down on their Kingdom. It was darkness, pure and untainted. It was Chaos. And it came at the head of a massive force of the creatures known as the Heartless.

********

The night wore on, until the tension was so much that none of the Clan members could even bring themselves to dance. In fact, the band even stopped playing at one point, almost as an experiment. When no one noticed, they simply left. They were a band, not a Clan. They wanted no part of whatever was coming.
As midnight came and went, much of the crowd began an uneasy journey to their homes. By one in the morning, only a handful of the Clans were left. Many of them had gone home, too. Finally, Hex himself was all set to leave, ready to explain the feeling away as simply a feeling, like his uneasiness with Damon. As he and his friends stood to leave, a massive explosion stopped them.
As one, all eyes turned to the stage. An incredible, black flame had manifested there. Above the stage, flames danced in the air, suspended in nothing. As they watched, the flames in the air formed a symbol, a symbol completely alien to the young warriors gathered to confront the coming darkness. It was a great heart, its bottom point tapering to a three- pointed ornament, like a spear tip. The heart itself was empty, save for an "X" drawn through its center, flames dancing along it in a truly foreboding way.
"It's...it's amazing," Damon said breathlessly. The other Clan members gathered nearby looked at him uneasily and shifted, and Hex glared at Damon.
"Yeah," Hex said sarcastically. "Amazing in that, 'It's a sign of the Kingdom's doom' sort of way." He shook his head and looked back at the symbol.
Nothing happened for a few moments, until another member of Mac's Clan, a ninja named Cloak (Hex always thought the name was a bit unoriginal), approached the black flames on the stage.
As he stepped up to symbol, it flared outwards almost to the balcony. Next to Hex, Cloak's brother Manos yelled out. The flames spread all over the floor. They didn't burn, they didn't even feel hot. Hex noted, though, that they didn't feel cold, either. They simply...didn't feel like anything at all.
"Cloak!" Manos yelled again. "Cloak, are you all right?"
"Talk to us Cloak!" Mac yelled down.
Hex looked over the railing, ignoring the black flames all around him. Cloak did not say anything back, but he did stir a little. "Come on," Hex yelled down. "Get up, Cloak!"
"He can't, he's been wounded," Crystal said. She looked at Hex, and he nodded to her. With a whirlwind action, she put on her cloak, midnight blue to match her dress, with lighter blue tribal markings forming snowflakes and angelic wings, in keeping with the Orphan's uniform. She then leapt down off the balcony, and began casting a Cure spell.
"Let's go," Manos said to Mac. Mac nodded and, with their more silent partner, Dragn, they headed down to the dance floor. Damon followed, but Hex remained above. He didn't understand what was going on, why nothing was actually happening.
"Thank you, Crystal," Hex heard Manos say below. She muttered something in return, but she was no longer paying attention to him or Cloak. As Manos and Dragn helped Cloak away from the dance floor, Crystal stood. Hex followed her gaze, and saw that Damon was standing on the stage, in the spot where Cloak had been when the symbol flared. Hex wasn't sure what Damon was doing, and yelled out a warning.
"Damon, get back, man!" he exclaimed.
Damon ignored Hex. He stood on the stage for a moment, staring into the symbol. As the crowd of Clans watched, more flames spread from the symbol around Damon. But Damon did not move. The black flames gathered around him, and he simply stared at them, watching them in wonder. Those feelings of uneasiness about Damon and the situation grew to a fevered pitch in Hex's mind, spread throughout his being in an instant. He knew this was it, that whatever was coming was coming now. He knew that Crystal was down there, that she would be threatened by whatever was about to appear. And Hex knew that Damon would not help her, though he didn't understand why.
"Everyone!" Hex yelled, trying to hide the rising pitch of panic in his voice. "Your weapons, now!"
As the sounds of swords being unsheathed and chants beginning filled the room, Hex himself drew Honor and Freedom, his spellhands - gauntlets designed to unleash bursts of elemental spell energy, named after the two highest ideals of the city. There was a reason Hex commanded such authority, even over other Clans. Many Clans were simply in the business for the rewards, they had lost the true spirit of protecting the innocents of Neon. But Hex was not like that, Hex fought for the ideals the Clans were formed for.
No one could deny that Hex had the stuff to be a hero.
Again, however, a stillness settled over the Lifebeat. The only movement was Damon, staring around him into the black flames in wonder. The chants trailed off, and the gathered fighters drew a collective breath. For only a moment, the crowd let its guard down. And in that moment, the world exploded.
All around him, Hex saw the black flames forming into impish creatures of pure shadow. They were completely alien, and as their numbers rapidly expanded, Hex felt a sort of despair grow unbidden in his heart.
Yells rose from the crowd as the battle was joined. There were too many people around, Hex couldn't get a good bead on any of the creatures attacking them. Forgetting the fear and despair with the effortless single- mindedness he had been trained to hold in battle, Hex leapt up on his table. He had a few feet above the crowd, now, but the creatures were only a couple feet tall themselves. Hex threw a couple of Aero bursts, but his heavy-hitter Thunder bursts were useless in this crowd. He began leaping from table to table, throwing bursts at what appeared to be random, though every one of his shots found its target.
As the number of creatures shrank, more of the flames formed into similar imps, though these ones had wings. Almost as soon as it had formed, the one nearest Hex launched itself at him. He flipped backwards onto the railing, throwing two more bursts. In his haste, he missed, though the Aero bursts he threw did manage to knock the creature off course. It shot past him, nearly knocking him off balance. He teetered on the railing, and when he managed to catch his balance, he looked around.
Everywhere in the club, Clan warriors were falling to these creatures. But as Hex watched, he saw that those who fell weren't actually being killed. Some strange light escaped their chests, shaped like a heart. And then, the body became another one of the creatures. But many were different then the ones that had come from the flames. When stronger spell casters and warriors fell, they became stronger creatures, definitely of the same nature, but visibly more powerful. Hex realized that they were multiplying by stealing the hearts of the fallen.
The sudden realization stunned Hex, and he was unable to react to the flying creature's return. It raked him with its claws, but there was no pain. Instead, that despair he had felt when the symbol had first appeared seemed to spread through the wound like a poison. In a flash, he realized what was happening: the despair was meant to take his heart.
"Everyone!" he yelled out. "Everyone, stay focused! Believe you can get through this! They are after your hearts, but they can only take them if you give them up!"
Those Clan members still standing all looked at Hex, acknowledging him in various ways. Hex smiled, and he could feel the despair reaching towards his heart recede. Of course, now the wound began to hurt. He needed a Cure spell, where was..?
"Crystal!" Hex yelled over the dance floor below. She didn't answer at first, and it took Hex a moment to locate her.
She was surrounded by the shadowy monsters, but was holding them at bay with calculated swings of her sword. The katana glinted in the multi- colored light of the Lifebeat, reflecting the light like a diamond. The blade of the sword was covered in ice, a trick Crystal often used in battle.
When the creatures backed off for a moment, Crystal looked up at Hex and smiled. Hex smiled back, satisfied that she was alright, and began to turn back to his own battle when a flash of steel caught his eye. He saw one of the winged creatures diving on Crystal, holding a dagger it had picked up.
Hex let out a warning cry, but it was too late - Crystal was not able to react to the attacker in time. It stabbed her and flew upwards again, and the creatures surrounding her leapt at her in a single wave.
Rage drowned the pain of the trio of slashes running down Hex's chest. With a fierce battle cry, Hex leapt into the air. More of the flying creatures flew at him, but he scattered them with a well-placed Thunder burst. In the open air here, there was no fellow warrior to hit.
Hex hit the ground with a roll, and came up still firing in the center of the shadowy mass. He didn't bother aiming, at this distance he was bound to hit something, regardless. It was a scare tactic, meant to hold off the creatures until he could reach Crystal.
Hex managed to find her, but she was unconscious. The creatures surged all around him, and for a brief moment, it seemed to him that he might be overcome. This moment of despair was just what the creatures needed, and the began racking at Hex and Crystal.
With no warning but a roar, Manos charged into the mass, barely missing Hex and Crystal, as the two lay prone on the ground. Dragn and Mac were behind him, battling the creatures with a determination Hex had never seen before.
"Come on, Hex!" Mac shouted. "Don't give up! Like you said, they can't beat you unless you give up!"
Hex knelt over Crystal as Mac and his Clanmates held back the shadow beasts. Like himself, she was covered in shallow cuts. The knife wound that had taken her down was deep, and Hex feared the worst, until she stirred slightly in his arms.
"I need to get her under the balcony!" Hex shouted. There was no verbal response from the warriors around him, but they immediately began carving him a path in that direction. He walked backwards with her on his shoulder as Manos, Dragn, and Mac surged all around him. Not one of them had fallen yet, and they were tearing through the creatures with amazing ability. Hex pulled Crystal to safety, and then Mac was by his side.
"Where's Damon, why isn't he with Crystal?" Hex asked Mac.
"Still on stage..." Mac muttered through clenched teeth, his Holy- enhanced sword slicing through a duo of the shadow creatures.
Hex looked up at the stage, and Damon was indeed still there. He was surrounded by the black flames still, and seemed totally enthralled by them. Hex was furious; Crystal lay wounded, possibly dying, and Damon did nothing to help her.
Hex turned his back on the stage in time to Aero another of the creatures, this one in armor. When he looked back at her, he saw her eyes were open. She was conscious again. "You all right?" he asked her breathlessly.
Crystal nodded. "I heard what you said, but it's not as easy as you seem to think..."she laughed lightly.
Hex smiled. Crystal was going to be alright. "Can't cast your own Cure spell, huh?" he asked her with a chuckle of his own.
Crystal shook her head, and Hex could in fact see that her right arm, her sword arm, was badly injured by the knife wound. He turned over his shoulder, suddenly remembering that Mac's Clan had a healer. "Hey, Mac!" Hex called. "Where's Flair?"
Mac tripped an attacker, and shrugged as Manos finished it off with a single punch. "She was...um...in the bathroom when things started," he said, a little sheepishly.
"We all knew that certain doom was at hand," Hex said, "and she couldn't hold it?"
Mac shrugged again, and returned to the battle. In a moment, another young woman appeared at Hex's shoulder.
"Sorry, sorry!" Flair said. "I got here as quick as I could."
"Yeah, well, you're boyfriend got wounded while you were taking a leak," Hex said with bitterness that was half mocking, half real. "Crystal helped him out, so I think you owe her one, yeah?"
Flair smiled and nodded, and cast her Cure spell on Crystal. As the healing light faded, Crystal stood. "Where's Damon?" she asked.
"Still on stage," Hex answered angrily. Flair cast another Cure spell on Hex, and as the light faded again, the wounds on Hex's chest closed. He smiled at Crystal, only to see her raise her hand and unleash a magical blast of ice. The freezing shards flew all around Hex, and he did his best not to so much as twitch. As the spell passed him, he whirled around to see the knife-wielding flyer hit the ground and fade away, its shadow-stuff mixing with the mist of Crystal's Blizzard spell.
"Eyes, open, Hex. Can't be there to protect you all the time," Crystal said with a smile. She looked to the stage, and then back to Hex. "What the hell is Damon doing?"
"Let's ask him," Hex said. "Mac, cover us!"
The creatures were still swarming, now pouring from the symbol, a great wave surging around Damon and into the battle. Hex and Crystal couldn't possibly take them all, but Mac's Clan was willing to help, and even Cloak got back into the fight. The seven fighters worked their way to the stage as quickly as they could, and Mac's Clan held the shadows at bay while Crystal and Hex confronted Damon.
"What the hell are you doing, man?" Hex snapped angrily. Damon did not answer, though. He simply stared at Hex, and it took a moment for Hex to realize that the same symbol that burned in the air above the stage burned black in Damon's blood red eyes.
Crystal noticed it, as well. "Damon, what is the matter? What is this?" she demanded.
Damon said simply, "They are the Heartless." He never looked away from the symbol.
Angrily, Hex looked at it as well. "Are you expecting something else?" he asked. But before Damon even had a chance to answer, even though Hex hadn't expected an answer, that something else appeared.
A massive new creature, one of these Heartless, burst from the symbol. It was large, much larger then any of the others, and was very clearly their leader. It was very draconic, a dragon made entirely of shadows.
"The Shadow Dragon..." Damon said, and then, all at once, returned to his senses. He looked at Hex, and the symbol burning in his eyes had faded. "Hex, we need to stop that one."
"Man," Hex smiled. "We need to stop them all, but thanks for joining the show."
Crystal and Damon drew their swords, and the three Orphans stood together on the stage. They looked up at the Shadow Dragon, hovering above the dance floor, for a moment, and then Crystal and Damon looked at Hex. He looked at each of them with a smile, and then gazed back at the Shadow Dragon. "Hey, big guy!" Hex yelled.
The Dragon ignored him, focusing on the battle on the balcony. Hex, however, was fairly certain the Dragon could understand him. "I said," Hex yelled, "Hey, big guy!"
The Dragon lolled its head toward the trio with what truly struck Hex as exaggerated lack of interest. "Silence, little one," it growled. "Succumb to my Heartless, and give me the Heart of Balance."
Crystal was a bit of a sage, and Hex looked at her for an explanation. She shook her head, and Hex looked back at the Dragon. "Sorry, lizard," Hex laughed. "Not sure what you mean. But how's about you float on down here and tell us what it is, and then maybe we can kill you." As Hex said this, electricity crackled from his eyes and down his arms, and a sudden wind blew up around him.
The Dragon growled, but the sneer seemed to turn into a mockery of a smile. "Very well," the Dragon said, and dove at Hex.
Hex smiled calmly, and prepared for the Shadow Dragon's charge. But before he could throw any spells, Damon leapt into the line of fire.
"Damon!" Hex cried. "What are you doing?"
"I want this one!" Damon replied. But before he could strike the Dragon, he was in its claws. The Dragon let out a fierce roar as Crystal cried out in fear, but in a flash, Damon's sword was deep in the Dragon's throat.
"Nice shot, Damon!" Hex yelled upwards. The Dragon reeled, and headed back at the symbol. It released Damon, but to everyone's surprise, Damon held onto the Dragon's claw. It flew back through the symbol with Damon.
"What the hell is he doing, now?" Crystal asked. She and Hex looked around the club, and saw that only a handful of the Heartless remained. Unfortunately, the Clans had been decimated, as well. In fact, only Mac's Clan remained whole. Every other Clan had lost one or more members. But it appeared to Hex that the feelings of impending doom they had all carried had been a bit exaggerated.
"I hope Damon's alright," Hex said, following Crystal's gaze into the symbol. It had not yet faded, but there was nothing but the back wall of the stage beyond it. As the last of the Heartless were slain, their bodies fading into nothing, all eyes turned to the symbol again. The black flames died down, only the symbol remained, and the stillness settled over the club again.
The Lifebeat remained silent and still for what seemed an eternity, but no one was willing to turn away from the symbol, for fear of what may come next. They were steeled, one and all, prepared for whatever might come.
Of course, none of them were prepared for what came. A shadowy figure, a humanoid shape, formed in the symbol. After a moment, it blinked, and Damon stepped from whatever lay beyond. He was different now, though, both physically and mentally. His skin was paler, his clothes were accented with a single symbol like the one burning above the stage, and he had dark, draconic wings.
But Hex could sense a further change, and a glance at Crystal showed him she noticed it, too. Moments had passed for them, but clearly Damon had experienced much more time. He had changed, and embraced whatever darkness the Dragon had swept him into.
"Damon," Hex said quietly. "What did you do?"
"You did this, Hex," Damon said. "You did this, and you failed to stop the Heartless. Look into the sky, at the stars as they fall. That is your fault, yours and those...Returners."
Hex looked up through the skylight. The clouds had broken, and Hex could indeed see stars falling from the sky. "The Heartless are taking them all," Damon said, "Because you weren't strong enough to stop them. You refused the power that could have ended all this before it began. But don't worry. Another begins his journey this night, sets out to do what you failed at doing. He will shine the light of Kingdom Hearts upon everything, and when he does, I shall see to it that Chaos is what all things become!"
"Damon, what are you talking about?" Crystal cried. "How can you know all this?"
Damon looked at her, his eyes burning with blood red flame. "Because Hex told me, in a wasted attempt to prevent the future to come." Damon stepped toward Crystal, holding out his hand. "I am no longer Damon, Crystal. I am Chaos, I am a true Heartless, not one of those artificial abominations that strip the stars from the sky. I would let the Kingdoms remain, forged in my image, in the image of Chaos. But I can protect you, Crystal. Just take my hand."
Crystal looked at Damon with a complete sense of hopelessness. Her arm moved slightly, but before she could do anything, Hex stepped between them.
"Not a chance in hell, Damon," he growled, Honor and Freedom leveled at the spot between Damon's eyes.
Damon glared. "I am no longer Damon. I possess the Heart of Chaos. When the light of Kingdom Hearts shines down on the Kingdoms, the Heart of Destiny will have to make a choice. Somewhere in this Kingdom lies the Heart of Balance. I will take it, destroy it, and Destiny will have no other choice then me. I am Chaos. And she, and all Kingdoms, will be mine forever!"
Hex did not respond verbally. He simply, calmly, launched twin Thunder bursts at Damon's face.
What happened next was a blur. Damon produced a strange weapon, a large sword that looked a bit like a key. The spellshots were knocked away, shattering the skylight above them. As glass rained down on the dance floor, a portal of pure darkness opened up beneath Hex's feet. Darkness spread all around the Lifebeat, swallowing everything. Hex sank quickly into the puddle beneath his feet. Crystal let out a cry, and reached for Hex, but Damon grabbed her and took to the sky outside. Hex reached upwards, trying to grab something, anything to hold onto.
But there was nothing, nothing to hold onto. And nothing on the other side.