This chapter is twice as long as any normal chapter. I just had to finish it this time.

After their 're-reunion' Namine had sent him back to complete his journey.

BHK's paradise lasted a year. He had great friends, a girlfriend among them (BHK smiled to himself), and he was free! So amazingly free, to do what he wanted, when he wanted. Twilight Town belonged to the Cots. It belonged to him. It was his; he doubted that anybody knew the town's streets better than him. And there seemed to be a new place to explore each day.

He should have known it never could have lasted. After a year, BHK's paradise was shattered, but it all started on a day like all others. BHK was napping on the clocktower's ledge.

"There you are, I knew I'd find you dozing up here, Aros." BHK smiled at Namine's voice, but stayed in his relaxed position, not even opening his eyes. "Why do you keep on calling me that, Namine? Everyone else calls me BHK."

"Well, I'm not everyone else, Aros" She said putting a deliberate stress on the name. BHK could here her sit down beside him, and he finally opened his eyes. She wasn't looking at him, but at the horizon. He couldn't help thinking how beautiful she could be. But, perhaps that was just his pride showing off. His smile grew. He was lucky to have Namine.

"Besides, I think knowing your true name is important. Rinoa never told you her 'secret of the names' has she?" BHK shook his head. "Well, she says it because she thinks its clever, but it actually makes a lot of sense. I've put together a theory-" Namine broke off as the sound of laughter reached their ears.

Verde was the first one through the stairway door. He saw Namine and BHK sitting together, and a flash of unknown emotion crossed his face. BHK didn't know if Namine had noticed it, but he had. And he also wasn't sure what Verde was feeling, but BHK did know that the smile that just fixed itself on Verde's face was forced.

"I know, right! And when she said that I was just-! Oh-My-God! You know?" It was Rinoa, obviously talking to Zach. BHK could hear him laughing.

Namine gave BHK a look that told him that they'd finish their conversation later, then they went to join their friends. BHK and Zach asked the same question when they all met.

"So, what adventure are we on today?"

They decided on Hide n' Seek. It was a childish game, they knew, but they enjoyed it. It was especially fun when an entire city was at your hiding disposal. At, least, up to a point. They didn't want to lose everybody for hours at a time. So as a fail-safe, they all carried walkie-talkies to announce game-over, and cut up the city into Regions. BHK knew the Regions like the back of his hand.

As usual, BHK somehow wound up "IT" again. "IT" seemed to happen to him every time. There was the constant thought lurking in the back of his mind: 'They have so rigged the rock-paper-scissors….'

He found Zach after 15 minutes worth of searching. BHK laughed silently. Though Zach was generally a smart kid, he picked the exact same spot every time. He didn't have much common sense.

"So, where do you think the others are?" BHK asked him, as they searched for another of their group. (It was an added rule. All captured players had to assist "IT")

"No idea. I know Namine's in Region 1, but Verde and Rinoa could be anywhere."

"Let's go then." They set off to find Namine, and as they walked, Zach brought up another topic for conversation's sake. "So did you hear about all these strange disappearances lately?"

BHK, who never paid any mind to the news, had not heard of any such thing. "Yeah." Zach continued, "A whole lot of people started just disappearing, supposedly right from out of their homes. The police don't know what the heck is going on. Baffled, the news guy said."

"Baffled huh? That's interesting" BHK said, uniterested at all in the conversation. It didn't take long to find Namine after that. She was sitting high up in a tree, keeping a lookout for "IT", but mostly looking out at the sky. As usual.

She jumped down, and was caught by the boys. "Well, Namine that wasn't so hard." Zach said happily. But Namine had suddenly gone very pale. "What's wrong?" BHK asked, concerned. When she wouldn't answer, he followed her gaze. Three tall men in long, black cloaks were standing atop a building not far away. Their hoods were up, but BHK felt that they were looking towards them.

Then, the men faded away into nothing, and BHK blinked vigorously, unsure if they were really there or not. He looked back at Namine; she was already looking better. Color had returned to her face. "What just happened Namine?" BHK asked firmly.

Namine just gave a quick laugh. "Nothing, Aros. Nothing at all. I just don't feel like playing much anymore."

Next day. The day of reckoning. The day when everything would fall apart.

BHK and co. were gathered around a t.v. they had found, fixed, and set up inside the clocktower. They were watching a news report, more disappearances. Now, BHK was finally starting to pay attention. He had to admit, it was weird.

"…On a different subject, an unknown anomaly is occurring in space as we speak. Stay tuned, to find out how many scientists believe it to be a rip in the space-time continuum…."

"Right…." BHK said, getting up and stretching, "though I'm sure listening to another half-baked crackpot scientist will be very captivating, I'm going for a stroll outside. I'll see you guys later."

BHK walked out into the streets, chuckling lightly to himself. "Space-time continuum? Whatever, man. As if that means anything…."

BHK glimpsed a brown-haired boy turning a corner. "Zach! Hey! Zach!" BHK jogged after him, and rounded the corner. Zach was nowhere to be seen. BHK stopped and scratched the back of his head. "Well, that is a bit odd."

BHK turned around, and stumbled back as he saw a strange looking white creature staring at him. At least, BHK thought it was staring; it had no eyes. As soon as BHK regained his footing, it bolted. "Stop!" BHK yelled, before tearing after it.

The streets he passed were a blur as he struggled to keep up. The little thing was fast, and it was cheating, it was running along the walls. For some reason, BHK didn't seem to notice this fact, but he did stop after the creature had let out a shriek, and then disappeared by morphing through a wall. "That's a neat trick." BHK said in awe.

"BHK!" he turned. It was Rinoa. "Run!" BHK looked around, confused, and then saw three more white creatures behind him. Rinoa was already gone. BHK decided to take her advice as the creatures began to shriek.

BHK dashed back the way he came, heading for the clock-tower. The white creatures were right behind him, but as he neared the tower, he saw Rinoa disappear under the hole in the wall. BHK pumped his legs as fast as he could, then dove through as well.

When he stood up, he could hear scratching and shrieking behind the wall. The creatures didn't seem to be able to get in. He realized that his head hurt. He had dived pretty roughly.

"Rinoa?" he said looking around. She was sitting on the stairs, crying. "What's going on?" He demanded. She looked up, fear in her eyes. "I can hear them, I can understand their cries…."

BHK tried to ignore the fact that this was all freaking him out. "Hear who? Them? Those things outside?" BHK asked, pointing.

Rinoa nodded. BHK moved closer to her, to try and comfort. "Stay away!" She screamed. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Me? Why would you hurt me, Rinoa? C'mon, just calm down. I'm sure there's a good explanation for this."

"No…no, no, no… They've come for you, BHK. And…."

"And WHAT?" BHK was getting angry now, this had to be some joke, and he was getting tired of all the surprises.

"..and Namine."

BHK's blood ran cold. Before he knew it, he was already rushing up the stairs. Rinoa was calling after him; "Hurrry! Run BHK!"

He burst through the door at the top of the stairs, almost running off of the ledge. "Namine?" He called, checking every place he could think of, "Namine!" He found her, staring out at the setting sun.

"They've finally come." She said, as he approached. "I knew they would."

"Namine, please. Why do I feel like I'm the only one who hasn't got a clue here! What am I missing. Please, tell me what's going on!" BHK pleaded. "Where is everyone? Where's Zach? Verde?"

Namine shook her head. "Zach is gone. Lost to the Unknown." Her eyes were glazed over, giving her a look that she was far away, as if she had gone somewhere, and simply left her body behind.

BHK grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Namine! Wake UP!" He shouted. She blinked and seemed to come to her senses. "Aros! You shouldn't be here. You should have run when you had the chance!"

"Rinoa told me they were after you. How could I run? Especially since I don't know what I'm running from!"

" I would have been fine, Aros. Why don't you understand? You had to save yourself." But BHK didn't hear these last words. He had noticed something…."The door…! At the top of the ladder! It's open!"

And Verde was holding the lock in his hand. And a javelin in the other. "You." He said. "It's always you!" He threw the javelin, and it flew toward BHK's chest. He was too stunned to move, too shocked to dodge, but somehow he was in motion. Rinoa had reached them, and was pushing him out of the way.

BHK slipped off the ledge but caught himself, and then he heard the scream. He couldn't tell if it had been Namine or Rinoa but he knew what it must have meant. He climbed back to sure-footing and saw Rinoa lying on her back, Namine crouching over her.

"Rinoa…"BHK said softly, crouching to get a better look. There was a hole through her chest, but no blood. This didn't seem to bother BHK. Rinoa grinned weakly at him. "You couldn't die without knowing the secret…." She breathed.

BHK's vision was blurring, tears welling up in his eyes. "The secret…of names. In Twilight town….they make…..a lot more sense……….backward.." She smiled one last time, then she faded away into nothing.

"Damn you BHK! This is all your fault!" Verde screamed, entering the once locked door. BHK felt the anger bubbling up to the surface. He stood, shaking, and attempted to follow Verde, but Namine held him back.

"Please, don't go." She asked desperately.

"I have to."

Namine searched for something to say, but couldn't seem to come up with anything to change his mind. He started to pull away. "Wait!" She fumbled for something around her neck and pulled out a keychain, decorated like a flower. "You came here with this. Verde still has the other one they found. I want you to promise me that you'll come back, okay?"

BHK suddenly felt himself calm down, and he took the chain with steady hands. "I promise you Namine. I'll come back, no matter how long it takes." He kissed Namine on the forehead, then with determination etched into his face, climbed the ladder and entered the room.

The locked room appeared to be an old weapons storeroom; various weapons lined the walls. Maces, swords, axes of all shapes and sizes, etc. BHK could not fathom why the townspeople would put their weapons in the tallest room of a clock-tower, but he realized that it didn't matter.

Now, being in the inside, BHK found that the room was surprisingly large, very wide and a ceiling that seemed to stop several stories above him. And, in the center, stood Verde.

"That lance was supposed to be for you." He told BHK coldly. "But then, you always were the lucky one."

"Lucky? How can you call me lucky? A friend of mine has disappeared, and another is dead, by the hands of yet another person I called 'comrade Cot', your hands!" BHK yelled. "And through it all, I still have no idea as to what's going on. Nothing makes sense anymore. Things like this don't happen in real life."

"No, you're wrong" Verde said, taking a step away from him. "Comrades don't steal from one another!"

"What?"

"I knew it. I knew from the moment she saw you that you were going to be trouble.

"Wait, Namine? Is that what this is all about!"

"She was MINE!" Verde screamed. "How dare a newbie like you come in and take her from me? You little snot-nosed punk!"

" 'Snot-nosed'? Watch it, Verde, you almost hurt my feelings." BHK said with evident sarcasm, the only thing that could cover up the bitterness in his voice.

"I'm better than you! And I always will be! I'll prove it! TO you, to her, to everybody!" Verde said, laughing insanely.

"You've lost it. Completely out of your mind. You killed Rinoa! And my heart does not have enough strength to forgive you. I won't, can't let you win. Not this time." BHK told him.

"Heart? You don't have a heart! Don't you get it? We are Nobodies!"

"I don't accept that. If I don't have a heart, then none of this should hurt so much. None of this would drive me to bring you down. You believe what you wanna believe. My heart is telling me to stop you. And if you don't have one, then I suppose that just makes you heartless." BHK got into a fighter's stance.

Verde laughed. "So be it. Enough talk!" He shouted sharply, the air's temperature decreasing. BHK stared as his former friend's skin turned sheet-white, and hardened. Verde grew his body lengthening and expanding until his arms looked like jousting lances, only magnified, with two huge fists at the ends. His eyes seemed to disappear and a cross-shaped mark wrote itself on his forehead. The ceiling seemed to have disappeared, as Verde would have hit it by now.

BHK wasn't sure where they were now, but knew that this would be where it would all be decided. A long blue scarf hung from Verde's neck. He roared, though BHK didn't know from where the sound originated. Verde's jaws, teeth and lips had cemented together.

Verde raised a gigantic fist, and smashed down on BHK, who had raised his own arms in protection. The impact never came. BHK looked up. Verde's fist was straining to smash him, though it was being pushed back by some unseen force. BHK noticed a glow was emitting from his hand, warming it. He opened his fist. The flower charm was glowing.

"That's right." BHK said, talking to Verde. "You can't defeat me now. I have an Oath to keep." The charm charged with power, and a long sword, shaped like a huge key of sorts, materialized in his hand.

"Now then, let's get down to business."

BHK rolled out of the way as his protective aura died. Verde's fist finally made contact with the ground, producing earth-shaking results. Verde swept his hand across the ground, and BHK jumped higher than he ever had to avoid being hit.

He landed on Verde's forearm. To his surprise, the surface was not smooth, as he had suspected, but rough like sandpaper. Thus an idea came to him. He dug his feet and tried to climb Verde's arm. Verde was raising the arm, so the angle he had to climb soon became possible to do, but that didn't stop it from being hard to hold on.

BHK drove the Keyblade through the arm to use as an anchor as Verde thrashed about. BHK vaguely wondered if Verde could feel pain anymore.

Verde raised his arm above his shoulder, and BHK wrenched the Keyblade out. He slid painfully down, and landed in a heap on the huge shoulder-plate. BHK made his way to the head as quickly as possible without danger of falling off, then slashed at Verde's face.

Verde was now so un-proportioned, that it was hard for him to reach that area with his hands. After a few near grabs, and several good hits, Verde went down. BHK rode him most of the way down, then jumped off as he fell to his back.

BHK landed heavily on Verde's chest, damaging his legs in the process. But he ignored the pain, and jumped onto the cross-like shape on Verde's face. With a final roar from the both of them, BHK pierced Verde's armor with the Keyblade.

There was a blinding light, and BHK found himself standing back in the clock-tower's room, Verde on his back beside him.

"So you beat me…" Verde said weakly. "I should've known." Looking pained, Verde reached into his pocket and withdrew a keychain that resembled a black crown. "Don't end up in my place, Aros. Never give in." Verde coughed, and then followed Rinoa by fading away.

BHK pounded the floor with his fist. Now two of is friends were gone forever. 'Why! Why did this have to happen!' From out of the corner of his eye, BHK spotted movement. He looked up.

A tall man in a long black cloak stood before a swirling vortex of darkness. "So this is how it all plays out…who would have guessed? A nobody being a Keybearer…."

BHK angrily grabbed the dark keychain and stood up. "You're one of the people Namine was talking about! What have you done!"

"They have done nothing, Aros." Said a familiar voice. Zach stepped into view from behind the mysterious man. He too was wearing a cloak. "Zach!"

"Its Slice now. Zach is connected to this place. We can't have that."

"Slice is a stupid name too, hasn't anyone told you that?" BHK snarled.

Zach shrugged. "It's a working title, I haven't really decided yet." He clicked his tongue. "But that's besides the point. I'm really disappointed in you BHK. I was just about to ask you to join us and this is how you act."

"Join you? Join what! In fact-" BHK said, stopping for a moment, "I don't even want to know. I'm not in the mood to have my brain washed today."

Zach laughed. " Brain washed? No, BHK they've just pointed out some facts to me that I hadn't known before. The truth about this world, they helped me to see. That thing you fought just now? That was the true Verde. Those little white creatures? Rinoa was one of them inside. That's why it was so surprising when she sacrificed herself"

"How can you say that so easily?" BHK asked, an incredulous look on his face. "She was one of our friends! So was Verde!"

Zach was laughing again. His voice was cold. "Emphasis on 'was'. Besides, if you call Verde a friend, I'd hate to see your enemies. Come on, E. Let's go, this is a useless argument."

Zach turned toward the portal. "I'll miss that great sense of humor of yours. You always could make me laugh." Zach walked into the vortex and vanished. The one called E. stayed.

"With your power, you could have easily risen through the ranks of the Organization. But then, your feelings are clouding your mind. I now realize that you even coming to this town was a mistake. You still have a heart, even if it is incomplete. Such a useless thing, the heart. It holds you back from greatness."

E. also turned to leave. "If having a heart stops me from turning on my friends, then I'll keep it. It gives me the strength to carry on. And now it tells me, that you can't just walk out like this! I'll make you pay!" BHK yelled at him. A dark light enveloped his left hand, and another Keyblade, black, appeared.

Swinging his twin blades, BHk rushed toward the cloaked man. E. was chuckling. "It also makes you fools so…predictable." E. stepped through the portal, and BHK leapt in after him, seeing neither Zach, nor the cloaked man. Only darkness.

BHK awoke, yelling angrily, back in the present. He jolted into a sitting position, breathing heavily.

"After you jumped in, the darkness assaulted your already weakened heart." Namine told him. "Your memories were erased, again and you were almost destroyed outright. But your Keyblades protected you, and your heart from oblivion. You were held in limbo like that, dormant, for a whole year. When you next awoke, reborn so to speak, you arrived in the Destiny Islands, with a basic knowledge of where you were, your name, Kairi's, and you know the rest from there."

BHK didn't bother asking how she knew, he just accepted the information and stood up. Kairi and Yuna seemed to just be waking up from a nap, or a sleep. "How long was I out?"

"A couple of hours tops." Yuna told him. The sky above them was a mix of dark color. BHK checked his watch. It read 4:15 p.m.

"The time is correct, Aros. The bridge between this world and their world," Namine gestured toward Kairi and Yuna. "is almost complete. It causes the sky to darken. This town reflects the amount of darkness active in their world, when the bridge connects. At this rate, this world will probably be cloaked in eternal darkness unless the Organization is stopped.

"You three need to leave, now. Get back on the other side and find the Keyblade Master. Only together, will you be able to defeat the darkness forever." Namine was cut short however, as a blade was placed at her throat.

"I think, you've told them enough Namine, my dear." Axel said, laughing.

"Axel! You're here!" said BHK.

"My, my, you are a genius. How did you figure it out?" Axel sneered. "But don't worry. I have new orders. You don't die today. However, can't say much for the Nobody, here…." Axel said, pressing his circular blade into Namine's neck. "Why yes, I think the Princess' shadow shall have to go. Time to say your good-byes!"

"NO!" BHK shouted, lunging forward, but it was too late. With a jerk, Axel cut her neck, and stole Namine's life away. BHK dropped to his knees, stunned. Axel pushed Namine off the ledge.

"Well, that's done." Axel said, slapping his hands together. "Best get away while you can. I have my orders, but they might forget." As he said this, the bolted door rattled in its hinges as a renewed surge by the hidden Flailers arose. " Good evening!" Axel said with a sick smile. He jumped off the edge, and sped into the darkness.

As though far away, BHK could feel and urgent tugging. His body obeyed by slowly standing, his mind too numb to give orders. He could hear frantic shouting, though he couldn't make out the words. He could feel himself in motion, and still so very vaguely, he saw stars rushing past. He was in the gummi ship. He came to that final conclusion before he shut down completely. Unable to cope.

Kairi and Yuna were not hit as badly as BHK was. For them, they hadn't just lost a loved one. Kairi's mind was whirling, but in the backseat with Yuna, she came to a shocking realization.

"Yuna…! What if…what if the names were simply the names of their previous lives-backward?"

Yuna's eyes widened even further. Pushing aside the unbelievable events that just took place, she took up Kairi's train of thought. "Then that would make Aros…"

"Sora's half."

Who figured it out first? Mikol, was that you? Kudos!

Yeah...I felt pretty bad about what happened to Namine this chapter, but what is done is done. Nothing can change that now. Go ahead and tell me what you think!