Rachel's Story

[theme song] Apocalypse Please; Muse

Darkness. Everywhere. Surely this couldn't go on forever. It had to end at some point. No light. No sounds. Only the knowledge that I needed to move. I ran and ran. There was nothing to stumble on, the ground was smooth and yet I tripped.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Then a light. It was a small one, only a few feet a head of me. I felt its pull and as much as the darkness comforted me, it scared me. I reached my hand for the light. It started to pull back.

I tried to scream no, but no sound came out of my dry throat. I ran faster the light was shrinking. With one last leap I launched myself at it.

Blackness.

"You know her?" "I think I do."

"What's her name?"

"Its Rachel, possibly."

"Where's she from?"

"I'm not sure. She showed up at Hollow Bastion one day."

"How do you know that?"

"Riku told me about her."

I woke with a splitting headache. It felt like my brain was going to explode. I groaned and pressed my hand against my forehead in an attempt to push my swollen brain back into place.

"Ah you're awake!" I cringed at the voice. Though it was deep and calming it was commanding and it rattled my brain.

"Where am I?" I muttered, hoping, whoever the man was, he heard me.

"A world in between."

"A name?"

"Twilight Town."

"Never heard of it."

"Good."

I lay still for another moment. Not opening my eyes. I tried to relax and the pain slowly, very slowly, drew back into a dull throb. When it was almost completely subsided I peeked open an eye and looked around.

The room was industrial looking with steel plates on the walls. There was a computer hooked up to some sort of ray gun device on the wall adjacent to it. There were several screens, around twelve, and they each ran blue with scans and numbers on each on.

Sitting in the chair before the computer was a very tall man. He was dressed in heavy red and black robes and his face was wrapped up in a strip of red fabric.

I sat up and realized I was on the floor, maybe that's why he looked so tall. I slowly got my feet underneath me and stood up.

Nope. He was just tall on his own. He was taller than me sitting down. I sighed.

"So who are you?" I asked while looking up at the screens again, making absolutely no sense of the numbers.

"Diz. Who, may I ask, are you?"

"Rachel."

"It's an honor Rachel. I'm glad you've awaken. I have been anxiously awaiting the day when I met you," his voice was deep and there was a small hint of sarcasm and truth in his voice. Was he being serious?

"Why?" asking cautiously I backed up.

"Why? Because you are the darkness in peoples hearts."

"I don't understand."

"Of course. No one has explained this to you," he then launched into a long explanation, "You are the darkness in people's hearts. From the first sliver of darkness a person was made who could control that darkness and summon it to do its will. That is you. You are the essence of darkness itself. The reason you are not evil as so many minions of the dark are is because you are the darkness. Not a heartless, it is just part of your genetic make-up."

"Ah. That makes a bit more sense. So why then, way back when, did I become so crazy?" A million other questions popped up with it, "And how long have I been unconscious? Where are my friends? Where is Twilight Town?"

"Silence." I shut up with my mouth hanging open. "You are just power hungry, everyone is. Power or knowledge hungry. Though some would say knowledge is power. Since the King and I found you, you have been unconscious for two days. Before that we have no clue. I don't know where your friends are, they could be anywhere in the universe. Twilight Town is only a few hours away from Castle Disney."

I sat back down and leaned against the wall. "Huh." Was all I could say.

For a long time Diz let me sit there and think. My friends weren't even with me. We were supposed to be back in Meg's living room staring at the television in disbelief! Not separated in a video game universe! What was wrong with the world? We weren't supposed to go fulfilling some weird prophecy created by a code of numbers and words.

When Diz left the room for a moment I heard some cluttering around and when he came back he held two bright blue popsicles in his hand, he handed one to me. I eyed it carefully but my stomach rumbled loudly. I stuck it in my mouth. What's the worst that could happen? I die and go back to start?

Salty. Sweet! It was delicious.

"Sea Salt Ice Cream," Diz filled in.

"It's delicious!" He nodded and a small smile played on his lips.

"I'm glad you like it." He finished his up within minutes but I savored mine. "Now, Rachel, there are a few things that have happened since you've been unconscious and I feel that you could find a lot out about the location of your friends if you help me out."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Mostly field research. You will go somewhere and report back. I just need bits of information from various places. It requires stealth and good fighting skills."

"I can do that."

"And in payment I will help you find your friends. I am almost positive one is located in Hollow Bastion, but it is hard to tell. There is a thick infestation of Heartless there and they tend to block information to my computer."

"That's fine. I can look for them when you don't have a job for me."

"Of course you don't have to stay here. I will certainly pay you money and give you a device to speak with me when I need you to check something out." I nodded. When he realized I was actually willing to work for him he sighed. "Alright, let me fill you in on a few things."

Since I had been unconscious there was a new power rising from an unknown world that seemed to have manifested out of nowhere. There was a gray fuzz on Diz's map of the worlds and it was impossible to get a reading on. About a month ago the King disappeared off his radar, he was headed towards that gray area to see if it was a danger. He hadn't heard from the King since then.

Hollow Bastion was under reconstruction and all the worlds had once again been separated and highways between them were closed. New paths had to be made. Since Diz had no Gummy Ships he made sure I could still open the pathways in to the realm of darkness to teleport. I still could.

As it was, I stayed with Diz for several days. He provided the most delicious food and had a stockpile of Sea Salt Ice Cream stored up. He told me all about his research and it was based on finding why the darkness affected hearts so. There were many things he knew and just as many that he didn't. He gave me a guide to most of the heartless to look over but I assured him I already knew most of it, and I did.

There were his research papers, written by a man named Ansem, all gathered up and neatly stacked and I poured through them. They started from the first day of his research until now. I could barely read fast enough as I read about the extracted hearts and then the sudden day when his assistant Xemnas wanted to search further into it and Ansem forbid him. Then their worlds ceased to exist as they knew it.

Before I knew it a month passed and Diz decided it was time to kick me out and send me on my first errand. It was then he realized while filling a traveling kit for me that he noticed the dire state of my clothing.

"Go to Hollow Bastion first, get new clothes from a girl name Aerith. Tell her Diz sent you and she'll help you right out," He explained. He gave me the coordinates of the place where he wanted me to go afterward and with a wave goodbye I looked into the darkness. The portal rose up and I was zipping through the darkness again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hollow Bastion was an extremely lively place. I had accidentally landed on the other side in the middle of a small plaza with people around me everywhere. I smiled sheepishly and asked for Aerith.

Eventually when the people got over their shock they sent me in the right direction of her store. I walked in, immediately recognizing the smell of a hair salon.

"May I help you?" A smooth and soft voice called from the receptionist area. I walked in and smiled.

"Yeah, Diz sent me." She studied me, her long brown hair was pulled back in a braid held with a pink bow. With a nod of her head she motioned for me to follow. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and grimaced. I looked terrible.

"Here," she shoved a bottle of shampoo, conditioner and soap into my hands and reached into the shower and turned the water up and immediately steam started. Then she tossed a towel next to the tub. "Take as long as you need." She quickly flitted out of the room.

Did I really make people that nervous?

My shower was wonderful and I stepped out smelling clean and feeling happy. When I walked back down into the main room wrapped up in my towel Aerith looked a little more hospitable.

"I just spoke with Diz and he was telling me about the kind of tasks you will be performing so I think a practical haircut and outfit work best for you." She sat me down in a chair and within seconds my hair was combed, three inches cut out of it and a few layers tossed in for added volume, she said.

Then she came into the room carrying a red fold of clothes and placed them on the counter and pulled a pair of boots out from one of the drawers.

"I'll leave you too it, Diz paid so when you're done just go ahead and walk out," she flew from the room, almost slamming to door shut behind her. I sighed and grabbed the first piece of clothing.

When I was all dressed I looked in the mirror and gasped. Whoa.

My outfit was red, really red. The jacket, pants, armored shirt and wrap were a beautiful crimson red. The pants had a large gray spade shape of armor outlined in a thick black fabric on each leg. The jacket was also lined in the thick black lining and there were gray armor plates across the shoulders and on the sides of my shirt. My boots were black and matched the pouches on my sides.

I quickly replaced the stuff from my traveling pack Diz gave me into the pouches on my pants. Then I reached into the darkness and opened the portal feeling the pull of heartless on my heart.