The next several months passed slowly. Izenu immersed himself once more in his studies, while Ais and Knosis worked with other compounds to find a place for Chasers now that they were limited to the one world. Ais thought that, once they had that worked out, life would regain normalcy for everyone.

Then a meteor hit a few miles to the northwest of their town. It was an odd enough event that Knosis had a small party of Chasers sent out to investigate it. They came back the next day, claiming that the dead were walking in the crater. Knosis, when he heard this, simply selected a different group to re-examine the impact sight. The first group was sent home "To clear their heads of whatever fancy's caught them," he told Ais. Nobody thought much of it except Izenu, who found Ais's repeat of the event fascinating, but nothing to be concerned about.

"Probably just gases making them hallucinate," the teen said. "I hope they come back soon. The professor said he would take some of us up there to study the impact and any materials left."

Izenu's desired field trip never happened. Two days after they had been sent out, three of the six Chasers stumbled into town. It was true, they claimed. Friends and family known to be dead were up there, walking and talking. The absent three had elected to remain with lost loved ones in the crater. Knosis promptly sent for the original party, wanting to better compare the stories.

That was how they discovered the disease. Those infected – most of the Chasers sent the first time – became lethargic, their energy slowly drained away. At the same time, a type of rot crept over various parts of their bodies, occasionally oozing a black liquid. It was spreading to the families as well, as Ais discovered when a distraught husband pulled him aside and rolled up his sleeve to display the purplish blight spreading down his arm.

He came home afterwards to a silent town. When he reported his findings to Knosis, the commander simply nodded. "It's spreading here, too. The healers are doing their best, but..." He sank back in his chair with a tired sigh. Ais eyed him warily; was he simply working too hard, or-? Catching the look, Knosis snorted. "I don't have the 'crisis from the stars', as they're calling it, Ais. People simply keep looking at me as if I'm in charge or something around here."

"I wonder why," Ais said dryly, hiding his relief.

The sickness continued to spread, then began claiming lives. As Ais looked over the top of a list of statistics on victims at his brother hungrily wolfing down dinner while reading a lab report, he knew that there was only one way for this to get worse.

Three days later he was proven wrong.

It was after dinner, when Ais and Izenu were having their now-routine argument over whether Izenu would return to the healers' building and continue searching for a cure, or if he would go upstairs and sleep for a few hours. Ais thought he was winning, since Izenu was just this side of swaying on his feet, when there was a pounding on the door.

It was a boy from down the street, the only one in a family of five who wasn't affected by the illness. "Monsters!" he blurted. "Monsters with the star crisis, and dead people! They took my sister!"

"Calm down," Ais ordered, gripping the boy's shoulders and giving him a tiny shake. Beside him, Izenu coolly observed the invasion underway.

"This is probably happening wherever the disease spread to, isn't it?" Izenu asked quietly. "And it's going to keep spreading over the whole world until nothing else is left."

"Probably," Ais answered. The boy gave a hiccuping sob.

In the same tone, he asked, "Do you trust me, Ais?"

"Moonlight, if you have a plan I am all ears."

"Hey, listen to me." Izenu turned the boy to face him and looked him in the eye. "This is very important. Do you know where the gummi ships are?" A nod. "Good. Go there, and get in the biggest one. If you come across anyone without the star crisis, tell them to go with you on the order of the Chasers. Understand?"

After the boy ran off, Ais said, "The barrier won't let anyone off the planet."

For the first time since they had come home, the Keyblade flashed into his brother's hand. "Don't worry about the barrier."

They soon came across Knosis in their quest to collect the healthy townspeople, and recruited him without hesitation. It didn't take very long to find them all – it was a depressingly low number of people that were crammed into the large gummi ship. Ais got the last person settled, and turned to ask what the next step in his brother's master plan was, when the teen jumped out of the ship. Feeling like he'd been doused with a bucket of cold water, Ais jumped out and ran after him. He ignored Knosis calling for both of them to come back.

The rot-covered creatures, some barely resembling the wildlife they had started out as, were thick in the area. Ais, his blood still singing from the battle to round up the others, had no problem using his claymore to clear his path. Izenu held his own for a short time, but the dark night combined with exhaustion, soon tripping him. Two of the wolf-like creatures immediately pounced on him, sinking teeth and claws into his body.

Ais saw red as he closed the gap, easily cleaving one beast in two. A spin of his sword quickly cut down the second and slashed at an approaching third. There was a pause, as he snarled at those nearby before they decided to seek easier prey. Ais knelt next to his brother, who had moved up onto his hands and knees.

"You little idiot, you could have been killed, "Ais told him. "What do you think you're doing out here?"

"I have to open the door," Izenu said, wincing as he probed the deep gouges in his leg. He was covered in cuts and bites, some quite severe, that had gone unheeded in the earlier scramble. Even in the dark, Ais could tell that Izenu needed medical attention, and soon, but he had no way of helping him just then.

The best thing, he concluded, would be to get Izenu to his goal quickly, so they could return to the ship, which had to have an emergency supply of Potions if nothing else. He pulled one of Izenu's arms over his shoulders and wrapped an arm around his brother's waist, lifting him and supporting most of his weight as they stood. "I really hope you know where the door is, because I can't see myself carrying you all over the world looking for it."

Izenu's shoulders momentarily shook with silent laughter, then he pointed at the Chaser compound. "In the smithy. I noticed it after we came back."

By some miracle they weren't attacked as they made their slow way inside and across the compound. The smithy was built against a low hill at the back, slightly isolated from the other buildings. As they entered, Ais noticed for the first time the small ornate door directly across from them.

"Stay here," Izenu said, pulling away. "I can stand well enough on my own."

Ais leaned against the entrance frame, watching the familiar sight of Izenu standing in front of the door, Keyblade level in front of him and glowing brightly. It wasn't something he expected to see again.

The light suddenly went out without a trace, and the door opened with a bang. Darkness poured out, slamming Izenu back into Ais and throwing them both out of the building. Ais sat up, shifting Izenu to lean against him. Darkness flowed away from the smithy, sinking into the ground and splitting it open. Izenu didn't stir, even as the earth began to rumble, but Ais didn't need him to know what was happening.

Their world was being consumed by the dark, but as he cradled his brother's limp body, all Ais could think was, Don't take his heart, he's too young, so much potential still left. Nothing else really mattered to him. Don't take my brother's heart from him.

A tendril of darkness moved towards them. Ais tensed, but it only stroked Izenu's cheek, almost lovingly. Champion, the darkness whispered without sound. His heart is his own until he asks. It wrapped around Izenu, pulling him effortlessly from Ais's arms and sight as the world dissolved around them. He choked on his cry of protest as his own heart was swallowed, neatly severed from his body and soul as the darkness soaked into his being. The loss was a physical pain deep inside, an aching sense of missing.

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He lost all sense of time, wandering the darkness. He wasn't sure how long it was before he stumbled across the dark city, a memory of surprise that something like this existed here. The small creatures in the streets gave no attention to him, lacking a heart to draw them. It could have been months or years that he slowly explored the place.

The two men who came across him seemed shocked to see another person there. The younger one, who let his silvery hair cover half his face, stood back as the taller blond circled him. "Xemnas did theorize that there might be others like us, Vexen," he said. "There's no reason to act surprised."

Vexen paused his study to narrow his eyes at his companion. "Perhaps I simply wished to make sure he was what he seemed. It pays to be cautious, after all."

"Yet you are the one approaching him. Which of us is more cautious?" A smirk. "I believe we should take him to our esteemed leader. It's not every day that we find another humanoid Nobody."

He made no objections to being taken to their stronghold, or the black coat he was given to wear, since his own clothes were long ruined. There was, really, no point in objecting. He was vaguely interested in meeting their 'esteemed leader', being something different from constantly wandering dark roads.

When the Superior entered the room, though, he knew that he would do whatever it took to remain in the white castle. He wasn't about to abandon his brother now, different name or not.