The effects of the crystal were immediate. Her eyes dulled and lost their focus for a moment. As the Locket removed her memory from the moment they entered the alley to when the Locket was closed she became a little unsteady. When the process was complete she collapsed into the Chronicler, who caught her easily. "Keep in mind young one, the Darkness by itself is not inherently evil. But to think that the light holds no fault would also be folly. There is a power within the Heart of Darkness that guides and twists the Darkness to its own evil ambitions. The Darkness will one day move to fix the wrongs it was forced into. Once her feet are set firmly upon the true path even the Chasers will have their match."

Picking her up as though she weighed nothing he gently handed her to Damien, a brief spark of energy transferring to her from his hands before he released her completely. To accentuate the point that it was time for them to go several dozen balls of flame struck the street outside the alley becoming a great wall of flame with numerous deafening explosions.

"There weren't that many registered magic users among the populace were there?" "Damien." "Yes Dante?" "Now is the time to shut up and run, not to discuss the apparently ill kept records of the census." "Quite right, lets go before these little freaks get us too."

They ran through the city for the next half hour avoiding fights where they could, but usually having to stop for a moment to clear a path through a number of the ever diversifying Heartless, though there appeared to be exceptionally few Nobodies about at this point.

They arrived at the main gate to the wall around the crater where the palace normally rested during the day. Every five feet around the wall were odd dome like structures in the brick work that were cunningly designed to rotate around and reveal a hidden weapons locker for city soldiers locked outside the wall in a crisis.

They were confronted by a fiery spike haired red head with liquid green eyes, a penchant for mischief and control over fire. "Well, if it isn't her royal sleepiness and her entourage of lunatics. What happened, run afoul of the Snoozers again?"

"This wasn't the work of a gang of unruly teens who refuse to accept the necessary training for their magical skills." "Oh, okay, I get it. You drank her under the table again didn't you, you sly dog." "Lea, this is no time for jokes, call for a light transport and get us up to the palace now. We must warn the Council that the Darkness is coming. If they don't do anything we'll have to go to the King himself!" Dante was practically shouting when he finished and Lea shrank back from him slightly.

"Yes Captain. Sentries, attention." The bulging domes along the perimeter of the wall rotated around revealing not only the weapons cashes held within but also statuesque gargoyle like security robots resting within. Thousands of blank armored face plates raised to catch the blue-silver sheen of the moonlight while the white light of their rhombus shaped eyes burned brightly in the night.

Dante grabbed the control interface magnetically attached to Lea's left armband and commanded the security machines, cutting Lea off in the process as he had not yet seen any of what was happening. "Sentries. Creatures of the Darkness are running loose and attacking the populace. Citizens are to be allowed through, but nothing of the Darkness is to breach the perimeter."

The control device beeped twice to indicate that the command was accepted. In each alcove the security robots reached up to the weapon racks above their heads and pulled down twin gunblades, turning on the wall's floodlights in the process.

The relative quiet around the wall was rent by the dissonant click-clack of a few hundred gunblade revolvers being cocked and readied to fire. The activation of the wall's lights seemed to be a signal of some sort as the riot which had left the palace compound and surrounding area untouched thus far broke the calm of the storm like the shattering of a dam in a flood.

The building nearest them straddling the street they had just exited shattered into fragments of masonry and slush as a giant crystalline structure of ice emerged from the rubble as several magic users combined Blizaga spells, momentarily trapping four Large Bodies so that a small group of people could make a run for the wall.

Lea hit a couple buttons on a wall panel near him before slapping a large red one marked: Emergency. Grated segments on the floor behind the wall rose to reveal ramps leading down to brightly lit well planned and designed emergency shelters. As the group passed the Sentries they were scanned by a faint green pulse and then ignored as they ran down the ramps, the first fifteen to reach safety.

Lea hit one more button and alarms began to ring out through the city to alert those who couldn't see the walls lights that the safety of the shelters awaited. The first Heartless came into the edge of the lit area and was scanned as the people had been. When the Sentries detected no form of identifying presence upon it alarms started going off within the palace compound as well. Before it could go any further one Sentry had taken aim and fired one of its gunblades returning the Shadow to the Darkness.

Powerful lights from within the crater turned on illuminating the bottom of the odd meteor like rock upon which the palace was built. An equal number of lights around the broken surface of the rock turned on filling the crater and the rim between it and the wall with a pure blinding white light as well.

There was a loud clang behind the group as an emergency lift hit the ground. They stepped upon the lift and several rings of energy rose up from the surface to surround them. Six more beams of energy connected the rings and came up to form a point above their heads and the combined beams shot up to a receiver far above. Because they had called for an emergency lift it sped up to the palace faster than was comfortable waking Kira in the process.

Damien gently lowered her to her feet, but since she was still unsteady didn't release her entirely. They reached the top with an uncomfortable bump and the receiver was pulled into the palace proper. Enormous gears upon either side of them turned ominously as they were pulled toward a dimly lit platform in the dark mechanical corridor and the opening in the wall was closed with a loud terrifying bang.