The Heartless

When Scott saw the spear fly in, he knew someone was above them. He grabbed Cathy and Maria and flung them off the other side of the shelter. He ran after them and saw that they were staring back at the Heartless. It was then that Scott saw that the Heartless had David's face. Frozen he watched as events unfolded.

"Well", the cloaked child continued, "Aren't you quick." The child raised his arm and the spear returned to his hand. The child raised the spear again and spoke, "Nice job, but I betcha can't dodge—"

"David" did not give the kid enough time to continue his threat. Quickly, he used his Keyblade to slice the supporting beams for the shelter. The shelter shook and the child lost his balance. The Heartless jumped above him, his Keyblade held high.

Scott ducked as the force from the Keyblade's impact destroyed the shelter. Pieces of concrete and wood flew about. The three friends were pelted by fragments.

"David" looked around the remains.

No body. No Kill.

"David" turned around and saw the child atop a tree.

"Aw, man!" The child exclaimed, "This is just TOO FUN!" The child used his spear to sever branches from the tree and he held in midair with a flick from his hand. He stuck his spear into the tree's remains and held out his arms lengthwise.

"As I was saying," He said with an inhuman smile, "Betcha can't dodge THIS!" He turned his hands and the branches became duplicates of his spear. With a laugh, he thrust his arms forward and the spears flew towards "David".

"David" dug in his heel and deflected the first spear with his blade. Then he sidestepped the second and third and blocked the fourth with his gauntlet. He jumped over the rest and threw his Keyblade at the child.

The smile fled from the kid's face as he quickly reached for his spear, but he was too slow. With the point only feet away from his face, he closed his eyes.

The child slowly opened his eyes, seconds later, to find the point of the blade hardly an inch from the bridge of his nose. The Keyblade had been halted because it now was stuck into the side of a large, double-bladed sword of the same style as his spear.

Breathing heavily, the child looked up the sword to see his giant companion at the hilt of the blade.

"David" held out his hand and the Keyblade blinked out of sight and reappeared in his hand. The giant in the cloak's hood had been pulled back to reveal a hard, stern face with grey eyes and brown hair, slicked back. The man easily slung the giant sword onto his back and spoke in a deep, throaty voice.

"Time to go, Narax," His words holding great authority over the boy. The boy rose shakily and picked up his spear. He opened a black portal with a wave of his hand and disappeared.

The giant man turned to "David" and spoke, "We shall meet again, warrior. My name is Ronx." The giant turned and disappeared into the portal.

"David" stood staring at the portal as it disappeared. In the sky, remaining Heartless ships disappeared into their own dark portals. The grey ships did the same, their job was done.

As "David" turned around to the three friends, he found himself caught in a tight hug from Maria. Instantly, his body went stiff and his hands gripped the Keyblade tighter.

Behind Maria, Scott was halfway to her, a scared expression on his face. Cathy was frozen to the grass in terror.

"You have no idea how worried I was when you disappeared, David," Maria said, "I thought that you were—" Her monologue halted when she felt a cold blade against her throat.

Maria heard a familiar voice speak to her saying, "Release me, human." Only, it sounded so cold. She looked up to see that the voice belonged to "David".

Slowly, she unbound herself from him and stepped back, "David's" Keyblade pointed straight at her.

"David" looked at Scott and Cathy. "You two, get over here, or I'll slay you where you are. Needless to say, the two got up and stood by Maria.

Hmmmm…, "David" thought, eying them over. Two females and one male. Threat level, none. Fear level, high. Hmmmmm…

"If it will put your minds at ease," The Heartless said emotionlessly and lowering his Keyblade, "I have no desire whatsoever to kill you. My purpose is as an Anti-Nobody fighter." His black keyblade blinked out of his hands and disappeared.

Hmmm…, "David" thought, that didn't seem to calm them very much. So he continued.

"I will not harm you. I am merely going to transport you to the Traveler Heartless home world of Grand Kelm. There your hearts will be freed of your mortal shells and—"

"No way, man!" the male said angrily taking a step forward. "David" merely narrowed his eyes and the male's bravado disintegrated. The male stepped back to his original spot next to the two females.

Why is so he mad, "David" wondered. Then he remembered one of the things he learned while he was in the Dark Abyss.

Sentient species have an aversion towards having their hearts freed.

This is understandable because they cannot comprehend that we are doing this to free them of their tiresome, temporary existence.

Suddenly, "David" wished he had learned more in his short time in the Abyss. He was only given rudimentary knowledge as he was born only minutes ago and thrust onto the battlefield. He decided that when he got to Grand Kelm he would receive the remainder of his education. His mind was buzzing with all sorts of questions due to the holes in his knowledge.

Questions like:

How would he get to Grand Kelm?

Who were those two cloaked figures he fought?

How could he convince these humans to go with him?

And…

He focused his gaze on the female who had spoken to him earlier.

Maria almost jumped when "David" looked at her. His once pale brown eyes had been replaced by deep black eyes. His expression was empty except for a short flash of confusion from when Scott yelled at him. What's wrong with him? She wondered.

"David" turned towards the town. "Follow," He commanded. Maria and Cathy followed him as he walked towards the town. Scott decided to make a break for it in the opposite direction.

Suddenly, "David" disappeared in front of the girls. He was now in front of a frozen, wide-eyed Scott. He looked Scott in the face and spoke again, "That was not a suggestion. Follow." Scott wisely obeyed. The group walked silently into town.

When they arrived, the calmness of the town had been replaced by cold, eerie silence. Silence and devastation was spread out as far as the three friends could see. Cars were toppled, windows were shattered, and buildings were smashed.

However, the most terrible thing was (as strange as this might sound) was that there were no bodies. It occurred to Scott that everyone had been sucked into darkness like David. The thought came to Cathy quite quickly. She rushed past "David" and ran to a building that had a general store in the front and a home in the back, her home.

"David" almost stopped her, but when she ran inside and her friends followed, he figured they would stay there.

"David" walked behind another building nearby to find a Heartless drop-ship and examined it, lessons from the Abyss filling him with knowledge.

As "David" examined the drop-ship, Cathy frantically searched her home.

"Mom? Dad? Where are you," She yelled, her face teary. She ran between the torn rooms searching up and down repeatedly.

Maria and Scott waited for Cathy in the store part of the building. Maria took a step towards the door in the back that led to the home section. Scott held an arm out in front of her, stopping her. Scott shook his head, silently saying that they should wait for Cathy.

Eventually, Cathy emerged from the rooms, her eyes teary and red. She sat down and held her head in her hands. Scott almost put a hand on her shoulder, but he pulled it back.

Maria felt similar to Cathy. She was just better at hiding her emotions. She wandered off to the side and she thought of her parents.

Scott stood in silence. He didn't fee as strongly about his parents. They broke up years ago and he didn't feel wanted by either of them since he was constantly passed between them. Still…, He thought sadly, I would have never wished the Heartless on them.

Maria turned back to Scott and spoke in a cracked voice. "Scott… what were those things? What's wrong with David?"

Scott sighed and sat down. It was time for him to come clean.

"It all began seven years ago," Scott began, "David and I had to go with David's mom to the library. She often went there to relax and read a book. David and I weren't much at home with all the silence and books. So we roamed around, hiding behind bookcases from anyone who came by. We were pretending to be spies or ninjas or something. Anyway, we ran through an aisle in the back of the library when David knocked a book off a shelf. He turned around and picked it up.

"It was an old, brown book with no title and a page had been marked with a little tab. David opened the book to that part and saw a picture of a Heartless fighting a Nobody. The book was old, but the pictures looked pretty good and it looked typed out. It was a book of journals, pictures, and lab notes of some guy named, Zonax. He was a student of some professor guy named Ansem and he was on a team that studied Heartless, Nobodies, and the Keyblades.

"It was really weird to me, but David was really into it after he saw that one page. Our "running-around-in-the-library days" were over. For the next two years, he talked about what he read to me, drew his own sketches of Heartless, and pretended to wield a Keyblade."

"So this Zonax guy researched these Heartless things?" Maria asked. Scott nodded.

"You see," Scott continued, "Heartless are things that are born when people are swallowed by darkness and their hearts leave their bodies. The Heart is a person's soul and emotions. It looks like a red crystal. The Heart uses the darkness around it to create a new body and host for itself. But you see… the Heart becomes a battery and darkness consumes their minds. The stronger the Heart, the more powerful the new body. The newly born Heartless then roams worlds with its kind, devouring worlds and turning their people into more Heartless. They travel by taking what's left of a world and making ships that can travel between worlds, looking for Hearts to devour."

"Wait, wait," Maria interrupted again, "You said 'other worlds' and 'people' you mean there are other planets out there with people like us?"

"More or less," Scott said back, "I didn't believe in other worlds back then, but I didn't believe in Heartless either and well…"

"Ah," Maria said, taking all this new info in.

"One question," Cathy piped up, "What are the Keyblades and Nobodies you mentioned?"

"Well…" Scott began. Maria and Cathy listened intently.

Scott leaned back in his seat, "I don't know." Maria and Cathy gave aggravated sighs. "Well… I got scared by David's stories of Heartless that I wouldn't let him tell me about anything else."

Suddenly, the door to the store opened wide. "David" appeared in the door, his face still emotionless.

"Come on," He commanded, the three friends looked at each other.

Maria rose and stood in front of "David" and spoke, "David, what're you doing?"

"David" just looked at her with his black eyes. "You don't have to do this. You don't want to do this, do you?" She was almost at tears again.

Scott flinched, did Maria actually think she could convince this thing to let them go.

"Listen, human," "David" said with a hint of aggravation. "I'm delivering you to Grand Kelm because it is my duty. I do not break from my kind's will."

"Also…," "David" said throwing a cold glance at Scott and then returning to Maria, "I could hear your 'explanation' of my kind and your information is full of holes. Also, stop calling me David.

"I do not know you, human."

Maria gasped. A tear finally escaped her eye.

This wasn't David.

It was a Monster with his face.

End of Part 2