"Finally, our world was taken over and no one had seen Ansem since. Until now." I cringe at Yen's retelling of Hollow Bastion's history. The memory of what happened still haunts me. I miss what my world used to be, but I have more important things to do.

A few moments after Kaze and his friends jump into the portal, I start forward. Until now, I used a special power of darkness to blend into the shadows. Now, I'm fully visible.

I suddenly hear the unmistakable sound of a Corridor of Darkness opening. I turn toward the darkness forming and see Axel step out. For a moment, I think he's Lea, but I know he's gone now. I don't think I'll ever get over seeing the nobodies of people I used to know.

"What are you doing here, Axel?" I ask blatantly. "I can handle this on my own."

"Just checking on my best buddy Raven," he answers jokingly. "It wouldn't be good if those kids defeated you."

I have a brief flashback to when I fought Matt and Yen. This won't be a repeat of that day! "I said I'll handle it!" I growl. "I'm a lot stronger than all of them combined!"

"Woah, calm down!" Axel says. "I just don't want you getting hurt. We go back a long way." Could he be referring to when we were kids? A few Nobodies in the Organization were my friend back then. Now, it's like they don't even remember! Especially Is- no- Saïx. It's like we were never even aquantences.

Well, what does it matter anyway? Once we have our hearts again, everything will be back to normal. I can go back to Hollow Bastion, have my old life back, whatever my old life was like. To be honest, I only really remember Isa, Lea, and Ienzo. I don't even know who my parents were.

"Having second thoughts?" Axel says, shaking me from my thoughts.

"No way! I won't let you guys down."

He grins slyly. "Good. Now I've gotta RTC. I'm in charge of training the new guy."

"Roxas, right?" I met him already. Even for a Nobody, that guy is pretty emotionless. Something is familiar about him, though.

"You got it." With that, Axel disappears into a Corridor. I proceed to follow Kaze.

Kaze

The moment that thing rose out of the mountain, I knew we were in trouble. It was pure black, almost blending into the background. The only thing that stood out against it's skin we're it's glowing yellow eyes. It also had huge, rippling muscles. Did I mention it was also fifty feet tall?

We've been fighting for a few minutes now. This monster is immensely powerful. It hasn't move it's arms from their crossed position, but it ha sent powerful waves of fire and lightning at us. It's incredibly hard to get close enough to attack directly. Ob

"What is this thing?" I shout to Yen, dodging a fireball.

"It's not a heartless, that's for sure!" He says, flying near me. "It doesn't display any characteristics of heartless, just darkness."

"So we have no idea how to deal with it?"

"Precisely." Great. Just great.

Regardless, I fly straight at the monster's face. I attack visiously, but the creature doesn't even flinch. Suddenly, it tenses and a wave of fire burns across its body. I was close enough that it hit me.

I fly back, casting curaga to treat my burns.

"That's gotta hurt!" Matt says as I come near.

"Tell me about it…" I answer. The spell finally finishes its job and my burns disappear. I sigh with relief.

When I turn toward the monster, a scarlet flame is burning in it's mouth. Oh no. It's not going to do what I think, is it?

My fears are confirmed as it releases a stream of fire from its mouth. It can breath fire! What's next? Just as the flames come near me, I fly upward as quickly as I can. I can still feel the heat, but the actual fire doesn't touch me.

Some of the others weren't so lucky, though. Donald, Yen, and Goofy were hit hard and are now unconcious and burned greatly.

I fly over to them and cast a Curaga, but it will take a while for them to wake up. Goofy and I push them out of the enemy's range for now.

I get to thinking. If this thing's attacks are all fire based and it seems to have an affinity with darkness, it's weaknesses must be ice and light, right? Well, it's worth a shot.

I fly over to Sora. "You need to attack with ice and light," I insist. He looks skeptical.

"Are you sure?" He asks. "How do you know?"

"Just trust me!" Sora shrugs and begins to fire a volley of icicles at our foe.

I fly around to everyone else at instruct them on what to do. Eventually, I'm able to join them.

Soon, the creature raises one hand and an orb of fire appears in it. The orb suddenly splits, firing smaller fireballs at all of us.

Two of them strike me in the chest and I immediately lose the power to fly. I fall for a few seconds before regaining the ability. I fly toward the monster's face, attacking visiously. However, my attacks still don't seem to do anything.

All of a sudden, the monster raises a fist and swings at me. I am hit hard and fly head over heels toward Yen who had recently awakened. We crash, but the impact slows us down and we eventually stop.

I growl. Okay, that is it! This guy is going down! Time for a little light!

I try to activate one of my light attacks, but for some reason, I can't. And that just makes me even madder! Well if light won't work, I'll use darkness!

I can feel darkness flow out of me, enveloping my entire body. Dark Rise turns completely black and emits a black aura.

I rush the demon, Keyblade held out in front of me. I dash into it's face at high speed, going straight through. I then turn around, doing the same thing. This happens about five times before I stop, drained of energy.

Suddenly, the monster begins to fade away. Darkness leaks out of it from every part of its body. Before long, the demon is gone, leaving only the volcano.

Everyone stares at me. Was it because I used darkness? Or something else? Well, to be honest, I'm kind of ashamed of myself for doing that. I need to get my darkness under control.

Sora flies over to me. "Kaze, what happened to you?"

"What are you talking about?" I ask.

"Just look at yourself." Is he talking about…

I look down, surprised. I'm my entire torso and legs are transparent, almost invisible! How did this speed up so much!

"Seriously, what is going on?" Sora demands. I pause for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell them. Finally, I make my choice. I tell them what happened.

Raven

I watch silently from above as Kaze activates his dark powers. Just like Xemnas said he would. It won't be long now.

Although the plan started to go off track when that Riku kid decided to send Kaze to the Realm of Darkness, everything will still end up like we want. It doesn't make much sense, though. Ansem was supposed to destroy him, not cast that power. Was Riku somewhat in control? No, that's ridiculous!

With Chernabog defeated, Kaze and his friends start to talk. I can't hear what they're saying, but it must be about Kaze's condition.

After a few minutes, the group flies into the volcano. I cloak myself in darkness and follow. Inside, there is no lava, just many platforms like the ones all around this world.

At the bottom is a large, white portal. Kaze's group has already gone through long before me, probably in the middle of another fight by now. Man, we had the worst luck with that kind of thing. I almost miss being with them…

Kaze

I start to pant heavily as soon as the last heartless is destroyed. Four waves of monsters really tire a guy out! Every one of my friends is just as tired as I am.

Finally, the last piece of the heartless emblem appears on the far wall. It starts to shine brightly until the emblem becomes a doorway.

I look over at Matt and Yen who are ready to go. I bitterly remember what they told me a few minutes ago. I can't believe Raven would betray us like that! And all this time, I thought he's just gone missing, maybe even kidnapped! I trusted him.

Before long, everyone has already gone through the doorway. I must have zoned out. Sora sticks his head out. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, I'm coming."