Despite all the shadows in the cavern, all Donald and Goofy could see was a soulless, black hole in the floor. It was as clear as a cloudless day, and the colour was thick, rich, and clean, the hole's very existence sent a cold sweat down their backs, and iced their fingers and toes. They didn't want to go near it.

Ever the optimist, Goofy fearlessly (or perhaps almost idiotically) asked Donald, "Gawrsh, don't cha think we should help Sora?"

Donald responded by hotly glaring at Goofy, the feathers on his neck bristling indignantly. Such was Donald to be the stubborn one.

"Why wouldn't we help Sora?" Goofy gazed at Donald with uncomprehending eyes.

"Well… gawrsh Donald. It just seemed like you didn't want to help Sora."

Donald waddled over to the hole and stuck one feathered wing in.

"What are you-"

The blackness grew in depth and the colour became murky with tiny glimmers of light flecked across its face. It slowly began to tug at all the beating hearts in the room, a soft popping sound accompanied each heart as it pumped slower; and the hole became more condensed, darker, stronger.

An insatiable fear welled into each of their hearts, and the four stood there silently, listening and waiting, paralyzed with a dreadful knowledge.

It was perhaps the dumbest of lucks that Ping was able to overcome the blanketing force, simply because he did not know the extent and sheer power of the darkness.

"Hurry!" Ping gruffly yelled, gripping onto the hems of Goofy and Donald's shirts. "We have to get out of here!" The two bumbling idiots stood gazing at the hole, willing chocolate locks to pop out of it.

Goofy looked at Ping with a dumbfound look. "What about Sora?"

"He's the keyblade-wielder!"

And yet again, the brunette's friends made a horrid assumption – as the hole writhed from lack of nourishment and ate what little emotion there was left in the air… he was only a child. He was by far not a miracle, nor did miracles tend to go by him. He had just been lucky before. And everyone forgets that they are. Not. Immortal.

And so the fearful four were long gone from the cavern when the darkness threw shadows into every corner, into every pore of the walls.

The blackness effectively cut off the cavern from the rest of the world.

X-X

Roxas can see Sora now. Perhaps it would be better phrased to say he saw what was left of the brunette. There is a single heartbeat, and it is slow and irregular. The expression on the keyblade-wielder's face is similar to the pained expression of someone who has just lost their face and eyesight to a chemical explosion. Sora is so confused, so scared, so unsure. Yet Roxas is filled with an unexplainable joy as the darkness munches on Sora's legs.

"If I had a heart," Roxas thinks, "it would surely be beating with…" he pauses. "Excitement."

The brunette is yelling something. And even though his voice can't be heard, Roxas can read his lips. They are moving fast and with effort, fighting off sleep. Roxas stares fascinated, Sora's gaze on him. And Roxas is relieved to find that if he turns his head, he can't hear the blood curdling pleas; and only has to worry about the burning prickling sensation on his neck. He is sure that he would have stopped the transformation if he could hear the yells… but he can't. And he isn't as nice as the brunette.

Roxas realizes, as his stomach feels warm and dizzy, that his happiness is spawned from a single act – Sora's death into a heartless. And Roxas realizes that he doesn't give a damn. If he doesn't look, he won't bear witness to the slithering, and he can't hear the screams. It'll be like Sora was never there.

And Roxas doesn't care to help the brunette because he's going to have a chance to be a Nobody again. And that's much better than being stuck in a Somebody.

X-X

It's like there was never any darkness. There is light and clarity in the cavern. The air is devoid of sound. The popping of hearts gone, the slurping sound of light eating the darkness gone too. There is not the familiar sound of life, or of a beating heart.

…But there is a single bunny-like heartless… and a single blonde Nobody lying on the floor. Curled together.

Trying to share a heart… But alas, failing to do so.