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Description
Chapter 18

So many worlds lit the sky, and so hard was it to tell star from sky. No different where they from light and dark. So many claimed to know the two, or at least know enough to tell them apart. But it was all a joke, a scam, a lie.

There were no differences, there were no opposites.

Too easily could one claim to be entangled by the darkness, but all to easily fall back into the light. Too simply could one brag to be protected by the light, but then swiftly be lost within the darkness. Boundaries between the two, if any could allege to even exist, were as loose and fallible as the words and promises of a drunken sailor.

Terms of an alliance or promises of treaty with the light or dark where nothing to take as serious. They were nothing more than whispers on the wind, excuses for actions that would be traded for a promise of dying man. Worth nothing, worth nothing at all.

But one force did offer fruitful promises.

It invited all the lost. It took care of all the wounded. It gave solace to all the hurt. It gave meaning to all the confused. It brought together all of them. All who had lost a piece of themselves, all who had been robbed of value, who now sifted through motions without meaning, and didn't care for life.

Nothing.

The Void. The Emptiness. The Abyss. The Empty Gulf. The Space. So many names, and so many promises.

Perhaps that is what brought them all together. All the Nobodies who had failed their test, and now paid the price. So convinced in the workings of the heart, that they dared to tap into the deepest depths of the soul. And now, they were without their own souls. Just empty of all feeling. And it was that emptiness that drew them together.

The desire to fill that space, to have something to replace what they lost, led them all together, in a realm where nothing existed. So they created something to exist in. A league for their own purpose, a group with their own interests.

An Organization, founded with thirteen members.

So long ago none can remember, but not so distant that their purpose be lost. Upon their first meeting, they knew their true goal, all agreed to follow. Each so broken by their own emptiness, they mimicked their actions of their past life. Laughing at every little thing, tinkering when all was already fixed, thinking when all thoughts were filled, and plotting after the plans were made. They did not know what it meant to constrain, because no feeling told them they had enough. No control over what they did, led to a break within the group.

Greed most an emotion one among them knew well. How he followed it, exploited it, worshipped it, and believed it within the mind of his past life. So well did he know the emotion, no heart was required to know what it would command.

Seize control, do away with leader. Claim the Key.

And so he did, or so he tried. In a castle built upon the foundation of a world's oblivion, he let those who believed him right fight for the key they all knew important. They fought for savage joy, twisted academics, brutal force, and corrupted dreams. They fought well, they fought heart, but they fought for naught.

A fatal flaw was lingering on the plans of the greedy nobody, and supposed ally took hold of it.

Then before his eyes, and his fading flesh, the plan of greed was defeated and his last hold of life was left for the light and dark to divide and claim. Lost and forgotten forever more.

But his single plan of failure undid all that was planned before. Losing no more than five members of the once thirteen crippled was to be a flawless scheme. And so to then did the plan to open the door of hearts fail on the eve of its success.

Light and darkness, the two forces of one origin, defeat the nothingness that hoped to swallow everything. The eternal forces of light and dark would live and defend the realms of existence, letting their undying spirit fill the hearts of all worlds.

"But nothingness is eternal too."

"Hmm? You say somethin'?" Xigbar questioned as he twisted his head, letting the gray streaked ponytail fall over his shoulder, letting his one golden eye question the words of his leader.

"Nothing of importance Xigbar. Nothing at all." He continued to watch the heartless perform. He would not speak of it to his followers, and he would not whisper it to the shadows, but he felt that emptiness being to fill again.

A new organization was beginning to form.

-----------------------

She moved with the care of a shadow, bending around the sharpest of corners, and making not a sound as her feet met the pavement. So long as none heard her, none would see her either.

Hiding like a shadow, in the shadows, from shadows. Should she still have a heart, it would have been comedic enough to laugh. But as dozen before her, she knew better than to play a heart when none was near. Better to let her mind think than let a false heart guide.

Her white clothed form moved down a new alley, careful to not make a scratch as she glided through the darkness. She bit her tongue as the pain of her wound came forth again.

Though the only vixen of the organization was finally felled by her hands, it did not help for the wound to grow as it did. But she could not stay and heal, and there was no where to hide. She had to leave the city, and quick befo-

"No! Please! Stay away!" Her head spun like a top to the streets behind her. A man, no older than his teens fell to the ground. Blood marred his arm, holding it up like a paper shield to what she could only guess be the Heartless. Breath was caught in her throat for what to do. To help him, but risk herself, or flee, and preserve just a few more moments of her time.

She had no heart, so it was all calculation. Or so she thought. When the creature emerged that harmed, her breath died in her throat, a cavity in her chest began to pain, and the sense of her mind began to numb.

Before her was Wicked Kindness, The Heartless of Camillia.

Her missing link to humanity.

"Stop!" She shouted before she even thought of it. Why did she do that? Did she feel it was right? But that wasn't possible! But it didn't matter.

The malicious eyes of her corrupted heart turned to her, ignoring the man who now was begging on his back for his life to be spared. It was curiosity that swept the darkened face, curiosity that forced the bloodied claws of her armor to graze of her lips as she thought of the shell before her. Then, as instincts would dictate, she began to walk to the white clothed cat, all four of her paws set on the ground as she moved.

Camillia did not miss what followed her.

Heartless by the hundreds poured from the walls. Their glowing eyes demanding a piece of the flesh that was before them, a chance to corrupt the body of an already fallen soul. The shadows continued to birth them, again and again without break or fail. Swarming the alley, they quickly surrounded her, staid off only by the approach of their better, of her fallen heart, of Wicked Kindness.

She felt terror. She felt scared. She felt worried. She felt!

And with feeling, she felt relief.

But as the already bloodied claw of heartless cat rose, she felt something else edge into the barren cavity of her heart.

Despair.

-----------------------

When the sphere settled upon its station, five figures emerged, four hesitant to even take a step. The fifth noticed quickly, and was quick to chastise.

"You have to be kidding me, I am not your enemy!" His hand moved to point behind the four anthropomorphic figures. "Our enemies our the black shapeless THINGS out there! I need you, all of you, to help me beat them! Clear?!" As hesitant as their steps, they began to nod. "Good, then Tails?" The young fox looked into the doctor's hazy glass frames, "I need your help with data." With a wave of his hand, he beckoned the twin-tailed wunderkind. Still with hesitation, he followed the red-coated doctor.

As the two approached the lab of Robotnick, the three left over cautiously stepped through.

The home of the doctor was as they expected. Filled with gadgets and weapons both familiar and new, all bearing the mustached face of their creature. Some stood stories high, while other barely made their way to the knees of little Cream. As they strode forward into the mechanical lab, each let their eyes wander, but always standing close to the others. Silver let his arm wrap around Amy's shoulders, pulling her into his chest as the moved. She complied with no shyness, glad to be curled in his arms next to all the destruction they had seen. Cream merely held onto the skirt of Amy Rose, refusing to be the only one to walk alone in the fortress of the had-been enemy.

Soon they all stood before the super computer of the good doctor, nearly identical in size and shape to the young wunderkind's own. Three separate keypads were lined beneath the screen, charge and on, ready for all the was to come, and what was to be done. Threading his fingers, and cracking his knuckles, Robotnick spoke once more.

"Let's begin."

In a flurry of speed only Sonic could follow, the two began to type rapidly upon the keypads, pulling data, videos, images, records, anything to everything they could find on the state of the city.

Each new thing brought fresh new tears.

Even with their own eyes above the city, not a one of them could imagine the pain and misery they saw on the screen. Cream ducked her head into the rose skirt of amy, and the pink hedgehog hid her own face within the furred chest of Silver. Only the telepath looked on, though not free of fright.

Bodies by the countless many were lined on the streets. The cavities of their chest ripped open in violent manners; blood sprayed yards away. Organs and muscles lay freely on the pavement, detached or dislodged from their once permanent home within their owners, now being ravaged upon. Entire limbs were dislocated from torsos, tossed building high as the many monsters sought for their prize. One such did to be caught on screen.

A glowing heart, floating like a star within its hands.

How odd it was, that the peaceful serenity of that heart was contrasted to the massacre of the streets. The gentle warmth of the glow against the cold blood of death. But it was clear what force was stronger, and without the image to tell.

The shadow soon ravaged the heart, robbing the once floating entity of its glow. The once pink mass began to dribble black, and tear itself into the ground below. Swallowed by the shadows, it soon disappeared, and was forever lost into the mass of the monsters.

The silver hedgehog audibly gulped.

"I believe the heart they speak of is the equivalent of the soul." His monotone voice earned the stares of his friends and forced colleague. The yellow furred fox was anything but thrilled at the deduction, as his cheerful attitude usually would be, but these trying times and forced him beyond anything Robotnick ever had.

"Why do you think that?" It was Cream that raised the question through material of Amy's skirt, much to everyone's surprise.

"Well," he began, "Firstly is the way they describe it. Corrupting it, ensnaring it, possessing it. If it were an actual heart, they could make a fake one easily enough, at least I could." His head momentarily fell to his knuckled hands, his mind racing in thought. "But also, is the way they are being used. Apparently, Nobodies can't feel any emotion without them, but all the heart does is give blood to the body for us to live. If they needed an actual heart, they wouldn't be able to walk let alone breath. Then there are the Heartless themselves." His hand flashed to point at one the computer.

A perfect image was capture by one of the many cams of the city. Its piercing yellow eyes seemingly looking at them through the lens of the camera, it' black claws curled up around the intangible antennas of its head. Not a piece of it aside from its eyes was anything but black. Black arms, black head, black torso, black feet, black legs, black claws. Black, black, black.

"From what Xemnas has told Robotnick, apparently they are made from 'hearts'. If that's the case, and we assume they are actually the heart muscle, then they would be useless. Just an organ the pumps blood in a shadow of a form. Cause those things CLEARLY don't have their own body, nothing but that 'heart' that lies within them. However," he began again, "If it were a soul that it possessed, it would make perfect sense. Corrupting a soul to the desires of a dark mind would lead it to do the things they do, from killing men to following a master of the darkness."

"These hearts are souls."

His words were hanging on a fine thread. Only the humming of the computers vibrated through the room as his voice died. Robotnick did not spare a glance, but continued to glare at the screen as if accusing it of the horror it showed. The friends that were brought with him, however only continued to stare at him, perplexed more than shocked.

"So… So what does it matter" Amy asked, her head titled to the side.

"It tells us what to focus on." Robotnick answered for the fox. With a turn of his head, and a glare from beneath his glass frames, he continued. "If we built or planned something to draw the pure hearts of flesh from becoming these shadows, we'd end up with a useless contraption that would very well kill every one not already dead. However, if  we construct something that can draw the soul, then we have a bit more of a chance at succeeding."

"Simply, we know now what we need, and we know how to plan."

The young hedgehog nodded to the younger fox, and the rabbit from behind her gave a weak smile. It was a step, not a strong or long one, but a step nonetheless to ending the massacre of the Heartless.

God hope they could make a few more.

-----------------------

He jumped to the side as the ground beneath him was again dismantled and destroyed. Spinning on a heel, he chucked the silver key at the green-tipped hedgehog. It flew true from his hand, but even that was not enough. The Heartless monster waved its hand in the path of the blade, sending its unseen force to crash against the steel, sending the weapon of the hero of light free from its path. The darkened face turned once more to face him, grinning with the smile of a mad man, enjoying every second of the pain they caused.

The warrior of darkness had little more luck against his foe. Though both were adapt and gifted in using the arts of the dark, the silver haired Nobody knew far more and far better how to use the corrupting force. Portals, more numerous than a single body may need, were formed surrounding the wielder of the Path to Dawn. Smirking the member moved to one, and vanished from sight.

Riku was no fool, and shadows were never his enemy. With a call from his heart, and a position of his arm, his own portal of darkness opened, and he quickly ventured inside. What he met was not to be expected.

Within the walls of the darkened realm, the dark gowned Nobody waited patiently, his book open and held before him. A smirk not unlike the Heartless that followed him was set upon his face. Riku was not amused. Like a gun, the dark warrior aimed his sword at the foe before him. In succession, dark balls of energy fired from the tip of the blade, flying to met the form of the Nobody before them. Without a word, and only a chuckle, the Nobody vanished-

-and appeared again beside Riku.

The boy could not react, only gave a face of shock. Another smirk towards his success, his hand took hold of the warrior face, throwing him hard, further into the darkness, and sliding across the ground.

"You'll have to do better to beat schemer." The Nobody taunted as he let his finger ride the hidden writings within his book. Coughing from the fall, Riku stood again to face his foe. "Do you really think you, one who can never be swallowed by the Darkness, can defeat one such as I, who holds no fear of the dark engulfing me?" His chin turned up, looking down upon his enemy from where he crouched.

"You are far more pitiful that I remember."

With a shout, Riku charged again, blade at his side to take the Nobody's life. But the cloaked schemer showed little care.

"Tisk, tisk Riku. Have you forgotten all about me?" Raising his free hand, he snapped his fingers, summoning three more forms of himself. Each held his own cocky grin, all focused upon the warrior of darkness. "You'll have to be one with the darkness to hold even a chance against me." What Riku spoke next, he had been waiting for since the start of the match.

"Then I guess I will."

The Path to Dawn vanished from his hand in a brief show of light, leaving the boy defenseless before his foe, yet neither made a move for the other. The schemer of empty goals merely watched as the path he had set was being freshly treaded upon.

With a grunt from the silver haired youth, four pillars of darkness rose from around him, rising to an infinite length into the sky. Sweat beaded across his face as the power was drawn from him. Within a world of darkness, it required all the strength of his heart to keep the darkness to himself. Should he let it free, run rampant, do as it wishes, he would lose himself to it, just as he had before. Opening his heart to the corrupting force. He could not do it, and he would not do it.

A low cry began to come from his throat, a sort of groan of pain. He paid it no mind and he continued what he had to do. The pillars twisted, bended, and melded together, surrounding the youth within, surrounded by his own darkness. It brought no pain, but did nothing to quell the will of the child that was being pulled at the seams.  He felt the darkness of his heart begin to tear from his light, separating it beyong just the definitions of boundaries, and create a gap in its place, a whole that needed to be filled.

This was the critical time.

As the light began to seep to fill the whole, his darkness would strike and conquer, letting him become one with the entity itself. It  had been done before, he had done it before, and he was going to do it once more.

"No!"

The shout was so loud and sudden his concentration was interrupted. For a moment, fear crossed him as the thought of the darkness ripping him to shreds entered his mind, but they never did.

Light cut through his darkness, and fingerless glove pulled him from his own dark depths.

His lungs begged for air, and he gladly let them partake, not even realizing how he had been out of such a commodity. As the deep breaths permeated through the silver haired youth, he looked up to see the familiar of face of his savior looking back down at him.

"Don't scare me like that Riku. Gees, what am I supposed to tell Kairi if we go back home with you all dark and brooding again?" He couldn't help but chuckle. Sora always had a way of cheering him, intentional or not, he could never decide.

"Bravo, bravo." The thickly coated sarcastic voice of the Nobody spoke from beyond the plain. "Though I found the climax disappointing, the rising action was well played." He shut his book, and his clones dispersed into the blackness around them. "I did wish for this to be swift, but a can follow a twisted path." His body began to meld with the darkness, and his heartless form slip away.

"Wait! What do you mean by that?" The Key blade master yelled to the fading form. A response was never given.

The two were left in the world of darkness, alone.

Description
Chapter 18

So many worlds lit the sky, and so hard was it to tell star from sky. No different where they from light and dark. So many claimed to know the two, or at least know enough to tell them apart. But it was all a joke, a scam, a lie.

There were no differences, there were no opposites.

Too easily could one claim to be entangled by the darkness, but all to easily fall back into the light. Too simply could one brag to be protected by the light, but then swiftly be lost within the darkness. Boundaries between the two, if any could allege to even exist, were as loose and fallible as the words and promises of a drunken sailor.

Terms of an alliance or promises of treaty with the light or dark where nothing to take as serious. They were nothing more than whispers on the wind, excuses for actions that would be traded for a promise of dying man. Worth nothing, worth nothing at all.

But one force did offer fruitful promises.

It invited all the lost. It took care of all the wounded. It gave solace to all the hurt. It gave meaning to all the confused. It brought together all of them. All who had lost a piece of themselves, all who had been robbed of value, who now sifted through motions without meaning, and didn't care for life.

Nothing.

The Void. The Emptiness. The Abyss. The Empty Gulf. The Space. So many names, and so many promises.

Perhaps that is what brought them all together. All the Nobodies who had failed their test, and now paid the price. So convinced in the workings of the heart, that they dared to tap into the deepest depths of the soul. And now, they were without their own souls. Just empty of all feeling. And it was that emptiness that drew them together.

The desire to fill that space, to have something to replace what they lost, led them all together, in a realm where nothing existed. So they created something to exist in. A league for their own purpose, a group with their own interests.

An Organization, founded with thirteen members.

So long ago none can remember, but not so distant that their purpose be lost. Upon their first meeting, they knew their true goal, all agreed to follow. Each so broken by their own emptiness, they mimicked their actions of their past life. Laughing at every little thing, tinkering when all was already fixed, thinking when all thoughts were filled, and plotting after the plans were made. They did not know what it meant to constrain, because no feeling told them they had enough. No control over what they did, led to a break within the group.

Greed most an emotion one among them knew well. How he followed it, exploited it, worshipped it, and believed it within the mind of his past life. So well did he know the emotion, no heart was required to know what it would command.

Seize control, do away with leader. Claim the Key.

And so he did, or so he tried. In a castle built upon the foundation of a world's oblivion, he let those who believed him right fight for the key they all knew important. They fought for savage joy, twisted academics, brutal force, and corrupted dreams. They fought well, they fought heart, but they fought for naught.

A fatal flaw was lingering on the plans of the greedy nobody, and supposed ally took hold of it.

Then before his eyes, and his fading flesh, the plan of greed was defeated and his last hold of life was left for the light and dark to divide and claim. Lost and forgotten forever more.

But his single plan of failure undid all that was planned before. Losing no more than five members of the once thirteen crippled was to be a flawless scheme. And so to then did the plan to open the door of hearts fail on the eve of its success.

Light and darkness, the two forces of one origin, defeat the nothingness that hoped to swallow everything. The eternal forces of light and dark would live and defend the realms of existence, letting their undying spirit fill the hearts of all worlds.

"But nothingness is eternal too."

"Hmm? You say somethin'?" Xigbar questioned as he twisted his head, letting the gray streaked ponytail fall over his shoulder, letting his one golden eye question the words of his leader.

"Nothing of importance Xigbar. Nothing at all." He continued to watch the heartless perform. He would not speak of it to his followers, and he would not whisper it to the shadows, but he felt that emptiness being to fill again.

A new organization was beginning to form.

-----------------------

She moved with the care of a shadow, bending around the sharpest of corners, and making not a sound as her feet met the pavement. So long as none heard her, none would see her either.

Hiding like a shadow, in the shadows, from shadows. Should she still have a heart, it would have been comedic enough to laugh. But as dozen before her, she knew better than to play a heart when none was near. Better to let her mind think than let a false heart guide.

Her white clothed form moved down a new alley, careful to not make a scratch as she glided through the darkness. She bit her tongue as the pain of her wound came forth again.

Though the only vixen of the organization was finally felled by her hands, it did not help for the wound to grow as it did. But she could not stay and heal, and there was no where to hide. She had to leave the city, and quick befo-

"No! Please! Stay away!" Her head spun like a top to the streets behind her. A man, no older than his teens fell to the ground. Blood marred his arm, holding it up like a paper shield to what she could only guess be the Heartless. Breath was caught in her throat for what to do. To help him, but risk herself, or flee, and preserve just a few more moments of her time.

She had no heart, so it was all calculation. Or so she thought. When the creature emerged that harmed, her breath died in her throat, a cavity in her chest began to pain, and the sense of her mind began to numb.

Before her was Wicked Kindness, The Heartless of Camillia.

Her missing link to humanity.

"Stop!" She shouted before she even thought of it. Why did she do that? Did she feel it was right? But that wasn't possible! But it didn't matter.

The malicious eyes of her corrupted heart turned to her, ignoring the man who now was begging on his back for his life to be spared. It was curiosity that swept the darkened face, curiosity that forced the bloodied claws of her armor to graze of her lips as she thought of the shell before her. Then, as instincts would dictate, she began to walk to the white clothed cat, all four of her paws set on the ground as she moved.

Camillia did not miss what followed her.

Heartless by the hundreds poured from the walls. Their glowing eyes demanding a piece of the flesh that was before them, a chance to corrupt the body of an already fallen soul. The shadows continued to birth them, again and again without break or fail. Swarming the alley, they quickly surrounded her, staid off only by the approach of their better, of her fallen heart, of Wicked Kindness.

She felt terror. She felt scared. She felt worried. She felt!

And with feeling, she felt relief.

But as the already bloodied claw of heartless cat rose, she felt something else edge into the barren cavity of her heart.

Despair.

-----------------------

When the sphere settled upon its station, five figures emerged, four hesitant to even take a step. The fifth noticed quickly, and was quick to chastise.

"You have to be kidding me, I am not your enemy!" His hand moved to point behind the four anthropomorphic figures. "Our enemies our the black shapeless THINGS out there! I need you, all of you, to help me beat them! Clear?!" As hesitant as their steps, they began to nod. "Good, then Tails?" The young fox looked into the doctor's hazy glass frames, "I need your help with data." With a wave of his hand, he beckoned the twin-tailed wunderkind. Still with hesitation, he followed the red-coated doctor.

As the two approached the lab of Robotnick, the three left over cautiously stepped through.

The home of the doctor was as they expected. Filled with gadgets and weapons both familiar and new, all bearing the mustached face of their creature. Some stood stories high, while other barely made their way to the knees of little Cream. As they strode forward into the mechanical lab, each let their eyes wander, but always standing close to the others. Silver let his arm wrap around Amy's shoulders, pulling her into his chest as the moved. She complied with no shyness, glad to be curled in his arms next to all the destruction they had seen. Cream merely held onto the skirt of Amy Rose, refusing to be the only one to walk alone in the fortress of the had-been enemy.

Soon they all stood before the super computer of the good doctor, nearly identical in size and shape to the young wunderkind's own. Three separate keypads were lined beneath the screen, charge and on, ready for all the was to come, and what was to be done. Threading his fingers, and cracking his knuckles, Robotnick spoke once more.

"Let's begin."

In a flurry of speed only Sonic could follow, the two began to type rapidly upon the keypads, pulling data, videos, images, records, anything to everything they could find on the state of the city.

Each new thing brought fresh new tears.

Even with their own eyes above the city, not a one of them could imagine the pain and misery they saw on the screen. Cream ducked her head into the rose skirt of amy, and the pink hedgehog hid her own face within the furred chest of Silver. Only the telepath looked on, though not free of fright.

Bodies by the countless many were lined on the streets. The cavities of their chest ripped open in violent manners; blood sprayed yards away. Organs and muscles lay freely on the pavement, detached or dislodged from their once permanent home within their owners, now being ravaged upon. Entire limbs were dislocated from torsos, tossed building high as the many monsters sought for their prize. One such did to be caught on screen.

A glowing heart, floating like a star within its hands.

How odd it was, that the peaceful serenity of that heart was contrasted to the massacre of the streets. The gentle warmth of the glow against the cold blood of death. But it was clear what force was stronger, and without the image to tell.

The shadow soon ravaged the heart, robbing the once floating entity of its glow. The once pink mass began to dribble black, and tear itself into the ground below. Swallowed by the shadows, it soon disappeared, and was forever lost into the mass of the monsters.

The silver hedgehog audibly gulped.

"I believe the heart they speak of is the equivalent of the soul." His monotone voice earned the stares of his friends and forced colleague. The yellow furred fox was anything but thrilled at the deduction, as his cheerful attitude usually would be, but these trying times and forced him beyond anything Robotnick ever had.

"Why do you think that?" It was Cream that raised the question through material of Amy's skirt, much to everyone's surprise.

"Well," he began, "Firstly is the way they describe it. Corrupting it, ensnaring it, possessing it. If it were an actual heart, they could make a fake one easily enough, at least I could." His head momentarily fell to his knuckled hands, his mind racing in thought. "But also, is the way they are being used. Apparently, Nobodies can't feel any emotion without them, but all the heart does is give blood to the body for us to live. If they needed an actual heart, they wouldn't be able to walk let alone breath. Then there are the Heartless themselves." His hand flashed to point at one the computer.

A perfect image was capture by one of the many cams of the city. Its piercing yellow eyes seemingly looking at them through the lens of the camera, it' black claws curled up around the intangible antennas of its head. Not a piece of it aside from its eyes was anything but black. Black arms, black head, black torso, black feet, black legs, black claws. Black, black, black.

"From what Xemnas has told Robotnick, apparently they are made from 'hearts'. If that's the case, and we assume they are actually the heart muscle, then they would be useless. Just an organ the pumps blood in a shadow of a form. Cause those things CLEARLY don't have their own body, nothing but that 'heart' that lies within them. However," he began again, "If it were a soul that it possessed, it would make perfect sense. Corrupting a soul to the desires of a dark mind would lead it to do the things they do, from killing men to following a master of the darkness."

"These hearts are souls."

His words were hanging on a fine thread. Only the humming of the computers vibrated through the room as his voice died. Robotnick did not spare a glance, but continued to glare at the screen as if accusing it of the horror it showed. The friends that were brought with him, however only continued to stare at him, perplexed more than shocked.

"So… So what does it matter" Amy asked, her head titled to the side.

"It tells us what to focus on." Robotnick answered for the fox. With a turn of his head, and a glare from beneath his glass frames, he continued. "If we built or planned something to draw the pure hearts of flesh from becoming these shadows, we'd end up with a useless contraption that would very well kill every one not already dead. However, if  we construct something that can draw the soul, then we have a bit more of a chance at succeeding."

"Simply, we know now what we need, and we know how to plan."

The young hedgehog nodded to the younger fox, and the rabbit from behind her gave a weak smile. It was a step, not a strong or long one, but a step nonetheless to ending the massacre of the Heartless.

God hope they could make a few more.

-----------------------

He jumped to the side as the ground beneath him was again dismantled and destroyed. Spinning on a heel, he chucked the silver key at the green-tipped hedgehog. It flew true from his hand, but even that was not enough. The Heartless monster waved its hand in the path of the blade, sending its unseen force to crash against the steel, sending the weapon of the hero of light free from its path. The darkened face turned once more to face him, grinning with the smile of a mad man, enjoying every second of the pain they caused.

The warrior of darkness had little more luck against his foe. Though both were adapt and gifted in using the arts of the dark, the silver haired Nobody knew far more and far better how to use the corrupting force. Portals, more numerous than a single body may need, were formed surrounding the wielder of the Path to Dawn. Smirking the member moved to one, and vanished from sight.

Riku was no fool, and shadows were never his enemy. With a call from his heart, and a position of his arm, his own portal of darkness opened, and he quickly ventured inside. What he met was not to be expected.

Within the walls of the darkened realm, the dark gowned Nobody waited patiently, his book open and held before him. A smirk not unlike the Heartless that followed him was set upon his face. Riku was not amused. Like a gun, the dark warrior aimed his sword at the foe before him. In succession, dark balls of energy fired from the tip of the blade, flying to met the form of the Nobody before them. Without a word, and only a chuckle, the Nobody vanished-

-and appeared again beside Riku.

The boy could not react, only gave a face of shock. Another smirk towards his success, his hand took hold of the warrior face, throwing him hard, further into the darkness, and sliding across the ground.

"You'll have to do better to beat schemer." The Nobody taunted as he let his finger ride the hidden writings within his book. Coughing from the fall, Riku stood again to face his foe. "Do you really think you, one who can never be swallowed by the Darkness, can defeat one such as I, who holds no fear of the dark engulfing me?" His chin turned up, looking down upon his enemy from where he crouched.

"You are far more pitiful that I remember."

With a shout, Riku charged again, blade at his side to take the Nobody's life. But the cloaked schemer showed little care.

"Tisk, tisk Riku. Have you forgotten all about me?" Raising his free hand, he snapped his fingers, summoning three more forms of himself. Each held his own cocky grin, all focused upon the warrior of darkness. "You'll have to be one with the darkness to hold even a chance against me." What Riku spoke next, he had been waiting for since the start of the match.

"Then I guess I will."

The Path to Dawn vanished from his hand in a brief show of light, leaving the boy defenseless before his foe, yet neither made a move for the other. The schemer of empty goals merely watched as the path he had set was being freshly treaded upon.

With a grunt from the silver haired youth, four pillars of darkness rose from around him, rising to an infinite length into the sky. Sweat beaded across his face as the power was drawn from him. Within a world of darkness, it required all the strength of his heart to keep the darkness to himself. Should he let it free, run rampant, do as it wishes, he would lose himself to it, just as he had before. Opening his heart to the corrupting force. He could not do it, and he would not do it.

A low cry began to come from his throat, a sort of groan of pain. He paid it no mind and he continued what he had to do. The pillars twisted, bended, and melded together, surrounding the youth within, surrounded by his own darkness. It brought no pain, but did nothing to quell the will of the child that was being pulled at the seams.  He felt the darkness of his heart begin to tear from his light, separating it beyong just the definitions of boundaries, and create a gap in its place, a whole that needed to be filled.

This was the critical time.

As the light began to seep to fill the whole, his darkness would strike and conquer, letting him become one with the entity itself. It  had been done before, he had done it before, and he was going to do it once more.

"No!"

The shout was so loud and sudden his concentration was interrupted. For a moment, fear crossed him as the thought of the darkness ripping him to shreds entered his mind, but they never did.

Light cut through his darkness, and fingerless glove pulled him from his own dark depths.

His lungs begged for air, and he gladly let them partake, not even realizing how he had been out of such a commodity. As the deep breaths permeated through the silver haired youth, he looked up to see the familiar of face of his savior looking back down at him.

"Don't scare me like that Riku. Gees, what am I supposed to tell Kairi if we go back home with you all dark and brooding again?" He couldn't help but chuckle. Sora always had a way of cheering him, intentional or not, he could never decide.

"Bravo, bravo." The thickly coated sarcastic voice of the Nobody spoke from beyond the plain. "Though I found the climax disappointing, the rising action was well played." He shut his book, and his clones dispersed into the blackness around them. "I did wish for this to be swift, but a can follow a twisted path." His body began to meld with the darkness, and his heartless form slip away.

"Wait! What do you mean by that?" The Key blade master yelled to the fading form. A response was never given.

The two were left in the world of darkness, alone.