Disclaimer: Still don't own it, ya know?

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I sat up, gazing around curiously into the darkness, gazing down I saw the large gaping hole in my chest. I won't go into the details of what I saw but I would gladly skin another pig over that description. But if my stomach was still in my body I would have thrown up in a heartbeat, but since it wasn't I had to content myself with the mental image of me tossing my cookies. When I recovered from the initial shock I sighed, "well who knew death was so black. I was expecting more, green."

"You are not dead," a solemn whisper encroached on my ears.

"Hate to disappoint you but I have a giant hole in my chest. Hell I have no idea how I'm talking with my diaphragm missing."

"No, I saved you." I could finally register the voice as female.

"Okay… so why?"

"You are the one to defeat the darkness and allow peace to be restored to the night."

"How am I gonna pull that off?"

"I shall save you and make you an equal to the one you call Lance."

"Um not to sound like a whiner or a pessimist here, but how are you going to do that?""

"I am the true lord of darkness, and the disease that Hojo hath imparted on this world is corroding my kingdom. You, child, are my best chance to take back my domain."

"Alright then, so basically I get to live and a bunch of powers but what's the catch?"

"You must take your sustenance from a mortal, one who you treasure more than your own life."

I sighed, "but what about her? Will she die?"

"No, she will gain your immortality for as long as you both desire it."

"Anything else at all?"

"You will no longer be able to utilize the powers of the Keyblade as a warrior of the darkness. That said, your powers will compensate for the lack of weaponry, now, when you open your eyes you will find yourself returned to home."

"Alright then, wait My Lady, what's your name?"

"Figure it out for yourself," was the last thing I heard. Slowly my eyes came to focus on the starry sky.

A small head butted into my side, "we found her!"

"Huh?" I sat up slowly, "Ari?"

"Morning Lunawalker!" She smiled at me, mako-enhanced eyes shimmering in the darkness. "We found you! So you aren't dead at all!"

"Yeah… listen Ari… when you started off, was, er, was Mindy worried about me?"

"She seemed really worried. So are you okay?" She asked sniffing my former wound, "you are a Lunawalker now, right?"

"Yeah I guess so… how do I look?"

"Like a Lunawalker, so how do you plan on fighting in the Sol?"

"Dunno, but where's everyone else?"

"Over here, come on!" She loped off, I followed her through the trees to where Sephiroth, Bjanik and Angeal stood searching for me.

"Kamui!" Bjanik called hugging me.

"Hey," I smiled.

"You know smiling is suddenly creeping me out, why do you have fangs?" she asked gazing at my mouth curiously.

I ran my tongue over the two pointy fangs barely poking over my lips, "um well the Lord of Darkness granted me life in exchange for becoming one of her servants. So now I'm a vampire I guess. But that's not important, where's Melinda?"

"She's with Vincent, the twin and Zack, their over there," she pointed behind me.

"Good, Ariella stay here. I'm gonna go find Melinda and talk to her," I nodded leaping up into the air heading towards her location by leaping along the trees. "Mindy? Vincent? Zack?"

"Koinu!" Zack shouted running to me.

"Hey man," I smiled, no point, okay bad pun, no reason to hide my new fangs.

"Whoa!" He stepped back slightly. "Please tell me those are fake!"

"Nope sorry… they're real, I'm a vampire."

"Kamui… is that you?" A soft voice asked me curiously.

I turned around seeing Melinda standing there, "yeah, it's me." I remembered something, 'you must take your sustenance from a mortal, one who you treasure above all others.' "Um, Mindy… did you cut your h-hand?"

She held up a bandage, "yeah I did. But don't worry it's just a scratch."

"Can I see it for a moment?"

"Sure but why?"

I took her hand kneeling down as I unwrapped it, "because," I muttered licking the blood off slowly, "I need this…" I felt her shiver slightly.

"Kamui, what's going on?"

"You are the one I treasure above all else." I muttered tongue licking at the blood desperately, finally sating my hunger I rewrapped the wound in a clean bandage. "Melinda… when I left… I almost died, but I was permitted to live, provided you'll take me."

"Huh what do you mean?" She asked nervously watching me.

"Would you become my life? In exchange we will both live longer provided I am able to take nourishment from you…" I gazed up at her nervously. I wouldn't mind if she refused me, after all I was so messed up in the head that I nearly drove her away.

She ran her good hand against my cheek, "of course." She smiled at me.

A wave of relief washed over me, "thank you."

"Okay enough of this, if you're a vamp then you gotta get ready to hide out." Kamui announced stepping out of the shadows.

"What do you mean?"

"It's five in the morning here, sunrise is at six, so you might wanna find a nice cave to hunker down in. Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't die. All else fails you could hide out under Vincent's cloak until dusk." She laughed.

Vincent glared at her silently.

Zack shrugged, "well, no help for it, we gotta get you outta the sun when it pops up."

I nodded running over the various reactions I'd have against the sun, when I heard Melinda laugh, "well you could sparkle."

I felt a wave of dread wash over me, "I don't wanna sparkle! I don't wanna sparkle!" That was a worse possibility than a sizzling death.

Vincent calmly jabbed me in the ribs pulling off his cloak, he turned to Kamui, "run back into town and procure a hooded shirt."

"You got it," she smiled running off.

Zack and Melinda helped me up, "well at any rate we're not going to cross these mountains and be able to fight."

"Yeah, we should take a day to recover from the search," Melinda agreed.

I smiled at Vincent pulling his cloak closer, "well do we camp out or hide out in Rocket Town?"

"Rocket Town, no way am I camping out, I don't wanna lose my spike." Zack whined.

Melinda and I laughed, and Vincent let a small flicker of a smile cross his face, Zack glared at us, "hey it's not funny! Aerith said she likes my hair spiky!" And that only provoked us to laugh harder. He glared at us for a minute, "that's it I'm telling Angeal on you guys!" He ran off, "Angeal! Angeal!"

"Wait Zack!" We ran off after him, Vincent hung back shaking his head as he followed after us.