The darkness is where you'll find your friends

A dull light began to shine within the darkness of the Dark Corridor. It opened in what seemed to be an entrance alley to a strange town. Zero stepped out of the Dark Corridor and looked around. He'd never been there and he wondered if anyone else besides him and Hizuka were there.

He looked back toward the portal. "Have you been here before?" he asked the girl. He highly doubted that she had been. Of course he could be wrong. But right now his first priority was to find at least another Cross Academy student. Another Guardian would be better, but he would settle for an average student.

"Come on. We should go explore the town." he told her and began to walk toward the entrance.

Hizuka covered her eyes when she saw the light. When she stepped out she was in what looked like a strange town. She was relieved that Zero was in front of her.

"No.. The last place was the first world I've been to." She replied. She walked behind him once he started walking.

"Hm ... Damn." he said softly as he continued to walk. When he entered the town, he stopped abruptly. Something wasn't right. There had to be people who lived in this town, yet it seemed deserted right now. There was no one there, as far as he could tell.

It was so quiet and that didn't seem to go well with this world. There were what seemed to be little pumpkins on the ground, orange and blue ones. "Something's not right here." he said and moved forward. He accidently kicked one of the pumpkins and saw it light up.

"A bomb?" he said, and ran back. He knocked ahizuka out of the way and he fell to the ground, away from the explosion that was about to occur. After it, there was no more movement. It was like no one heard what had happened. Something really wasn't right in this place.

Hizuka almost ran into Zero when he stopped. She looked around and saw no one. All she saw were little pumpkins scattered around.

She saw the pumpkin light up. She fell to the ground right before the explosion. She looked up after. Still no one anywhere to be found. This place was really strange.

The hell is up with this place? he thought as he looked around. This place was really strange, he didn't understand what was going on right now. It was obvious that the towns people were preparing for something, Halloween by the looks of things, but there was no one there.

It was as if someone or something had swallowed them up. Zero had a bad feeling about being there, and no matter what way he looked at the situation right now, there was no way to put a positive spin on things. Something was seriously wrong with the town. And he felt they had to find out what was going on.

Suddenly he heard a rustling sound, and then there were light footsteps. Almost as if they were running toward him and Hizuka. "Who's there?" he asked seriously.

Being stuck in this town for a while now, she was starting to learn her way around. Of course right now she was just running away. That creature had come out of nowhere and it began to terrorize everyone in the town. Most had run away to who knows where, while some others had been sucked into the heartless that was there. She'd been one of the lucky few who managed to get away, and one of the few insane people who remained in the town to fight the creature.

Hitame had heard an explosion from the main square of the town, where the pumpkin bombs that had originally been for a celebration were laid out as traps for any heartless that were around. She ran to the town square and hid in the shadows as she looked around, trying to see if any heartless had survived the explosion. What she found there was what she was expecting though.

Her eyes brightened when she realized who it was there. "Zero!" she called out. She ran toward him and gave him a relieved hug. "You're okay! I thought you were gone when I didn't see you anywhere around here!" she said, her voice shaking. Suddenly she realized that he wasn't alone. Hitame looked at the girl with him and smiled. "Hizuka Shikomaru. Fourteen years old, Vampire, Night Class." she said softly. This girl was a year younger than she was and Hitame controlled the element that brought hers down to size. In addition to having the control of fire, she also obtained a Bloody Rose from Headmaster Cross that she was to use until they could develop a rod like "Artemis" that she would be able to weild.

Hizuka was a little surprised when the girl hugged Zero. She was even more surprised when she saw who it was. "Hitame.. Ichigato..?" she said smiling a little. She was relieved to see that there was another person from Cross Academy here.

Zero was caught a bit off guard when he was hugged. He looked down to see Hitame hugging him and smiling up at him. "H - Hitame?" he asked. He kneeled down a bit to her level. "Are you alright? How'd you get here? How long have you been here?" he asked the younger girl.

"Why isn't there anyone out here?" he continued to ask her questions. He needed to know what was going on with this town. Suddenly a new question occurred to him. "What happened to Yuki and The?" he asked. "Are they with you?" he needed to know if at least one of them were with her.

If they weren't, there was a chance that Yuki and The were in the same world and knowing how oblivious Yuki could be, Zero knew that she could be in some major danger right now. "Please tell me that at least one of them are with you." he sighed.

"Zero! Calm down!" Hitame said. She was already overwhelmed with his questions. She sighed and crossed her arms, waiting for him to finish with his questions. Once he did she smiled gently at him. "Zero." she said calmly. "I'm fine. I got here after we were seperated at Traverse Town. I've been here since then." she told him.

At his next question about the town, her smile dropped and she looked around. "They're gone." she said. "Something's going on here and it's bad. A few of the people who lived here were apparently swallowed up by some kind of shadow heartless. I think they were calling them Tentaclaws." she explained. "Others left from fear of that same thing happening to them. I'm one of the few who stayed and managed to escape the Tentaclaws." she said.

She knew his questions about Yuki and Tye would come sooner or later, and she'd hoped that they came later, but they didn't. She bit her lip for a moment before answering him. "Neither of them are with me. They might be in the same place together. I know you're worried about what could happen, I am too. And I know we have to find them, but we need to help this town first." she told him.

Hizuka listened to all of the questions. She had never seen Zero like that before. She looked to Hitame when the questions were done to listen to her answers.

When Hitame said that everyone was gone she looked around. "Swallowed..." she said a little eerily. She wondered what kind of creature could just swallow people like that. She didn't like the sound of that at all.

"What do you mean they were swallowed?" Zero asked.

"Exactly that Zero. They were all swallowed by the Tentaclaws. No matter how many of them I fight off, they just sprout back up. My guess is that, there is something bigger than just the Tentaclaws that is behind this." she explained.

"That makes no sense though. And even if there was something bigger where could it he hiding. It has to be huge in order to be able to swallow people up like that." he said.

"I know. But there must be some place where it could hide. I've tried asking, but the people were too scared to answer me. And if you haven't noticed the heartless count has gone down seriously here. Only those Tentaclaw things show up here." she said.

Even though Zero was really worried about Yuki and Tye being together in a fifteenth place, he knew this wasn't the time to be that worried about it. They had to do something to find out where the source of these things was. And on top of that, as Guardians they had to keep Hizuka safe, because she was, after all, a Cross Academy student.

"The best thing to do now is stick together." Zero said. "No splitting up. And if we really have too, I want Hizuka to stay with you Hitame. You know this place the best, so you'll be able to keep her safe."

Hitame nodded at his commands. "Right." she said. "Well now what we have to do is find the source of the Tentaclaws." she said. "I've seen that those things come out in a pattern. They make a line heading toward the alley over there, it leads to a sort of cemetery thing." Hitame pointed out.

Zero nodded and scratched his head lightly. "Well, then I guess we should check there first." he said. Hitame nodded and she followed begins Zero when he started to walk over there. She smiled at Hizuka and gestured for her to follow them.

Hizuka listened to their conversation. Not wanting to interrupt she stayed silent. She hoped that she could become as close as these two were.

She became a little irritated when Zero said they had to keep her safe. She knew that it was their job and that they were older, but she couldn't help feeling like that. She brushed it off and looked to Zero and Hitame.

Hizuka smiled and followed Hitame when she gestured to her. She looked around the town as they were walking. "Were they setting up for Halloween..?"

"So these Tentaclaws just randomly showed up here?" Zero asked.

"Yes. A couple of days ago they just began to appear and they started devouring the heartless and the people in this town. It's like they need their energy for something, which led me to believe that there is something bigger controlling them." she said.

"That's odd. I've yet to encounter any of these things. The heartless where I was were tame compared to what you're telling me about these things. While we were in Neverland, we just fought a heartless called a Phantomtail." he said. "But that was nothing to this. It didn't go around eating other heartless and people." he sighed.

A thought occurred to Hitame and she looked at Zero. "Did you see that boy again?" she asked.

"What boy?" Zero asked. "The same one we saw in Traverse Town when we met that man named Xemnas?" he added.

Hitame nodded. "Yeah. That one." she said. "Did you meet him again in that world you were in?" she asked

Zero nodded. "Yeah. We saw him, but we didn't approach him." he answered.

"His name is Roxas. He was here a couple of days ago, around the time when the Tentaclaws began to appear." she said. "At first I thought he was the one who caused them, but it turns out he wants to destroy them too. He's been coming around here a lot lately. He really wants to get rid of these things." she said.

"You talked to him?" Zero asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hitmae nodded. "Yeah. I needed to find something out and he seemed to be the only one who knew anything about these creatures. And he had the same suspicions as I do. He thinks that there's a bigger heartless behind this." she told Zero.

"Both of you might be onto something. But we have to be careful with that boy." Zero warned. "You saw how powerful he was when we met him at Traverse Town. I know you felt his energy." he said.

Hitame nodded. "Yeah, he is really strong. And he controls two Keyblades. I thought that wasn't possible." she said.

"Neither did I but you saw that he could." he answered her.

Hitame nodded again and looked at Hizuka. "So you and Zero met in Neverland?" she asked the girl.

Hizuka followed the entire conversation. She was learning a lot from what they were saying, but she still didn't know everything. She thought back to the boy they saw coming out of the dark corridor. That must be Roxas..

She was a little startled when Hitame started talking to her. "Yes," she answered. "That was the first world I ended up in."

"So that means that others are still being sent into these worlds ..." Hitame said in thought. "Zero?" she looked up at him.

"What is it?" Zero asked, as he looked around.

"Do you think we were sent here with a purpose?" she asked. "I mean, we can't just have been sent here for no reason ... right?" she added softly.

Zero shook his head and sighed. "I don't know. We could have been sent here by accident. Or with a purpose ... but we have to find out what that reason is, if we there even is one." he told her.

Hitame looked back at Hizuka. "How was Neverland?" she asked the girl. "Was it fun to be there? You know ... besides the fighting the Phantomtail." she asked.

Hizuka thought about what everything could mean. She couldn't think of any reasons. She was too new to everything happening.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to go back though.." she answered thinking back to what happened when she lost control. She tried to forget about it.

"Really?" Hitame asked a little confused. "From what I heard about that place from the short time I talked to Roxas, it's pretty fun to be there. Why wouldn't you want to go back?" she asked.

"Wait." Zero interrupted. "Roxas has been to Traverse Town, Neverland and here right?" he asked.

Hitame nodded at his question. "Yeah, why?" she asked.

"Well ... if he's going around to all these worlds, there has to be a reason. And he must be coming from somewhere else. We have to find out where that place is. It might be a key to how we can get back to Cross Academy." Zero explained.

Hitame snapped her fingers and gasped. "Ohh! That's right! For all we know Roxas could be the key to getting home." she said, a little bit in thought. "But he hadn't come back yet. It's been like two days since he last came." she said.

"Well, if he wants to get rid of whatever it is that's causing the diminish of the heartless in this town, he'll come back. Trust me." he told her. As they reached the entrance to a sort of graveyard, Zero looked around. "It looks like a dead end." he sighed.

Hitame looked around more closely than Zero had and she smiled. "No it isn't. Look at that coffin." she pointed to an old coffin at the edge of the other end of the graveyard.

"Yeah..." Hizuka said before Zero interrupted. She looked around what seemed like a dead end graveyard. She didn't think anything about that coffin.

"Is there something wrong with that coffin?" Hizuka asked confused.

Zero looked at the coffin and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What about it?" he asked. "It looks like an ordinary coffin." he said.

"Of course it does Zero." she said, rolling her eyes. "But if you get closer to it, you'll see what I mean." she added.

Zero looked at Hitame weird but he followed her to the coffin. Hitame motioned for Hizuka to follow as well.

"It still looks like an ordinary coffin." Zero said when they got closer to it.

Hitame sighed and shook her head. "Help me move the top of the coffin." he said. She and Zero moved it as quickly as they could, even though it was pretty heavy. When it was moved enough for them to see inside, Zero looked at Hitame in shock.

"A ladder?" he asked. "Where does it lead?" he asked when Hitame nodded at his first question.

"To another part of the town. A deeper part, I think if we follow the ladder to the next part, we should be able to find the source of the disappearances." she said softly.

Zero nodded and said, "Then let's go. We don't have any time to waste." and he indicated for Hizuka to go down first.

Hizuka followed Hitame and Zero to the coffin and watched the two of them move the lid of the coffin. She hadn't even thought of the possibility of there being a ladder inside the coffin. She looked inside and couldn't see the bottom.

"Okay," Hizuka said. She got in and climbed down the ladder, hoping nothing was at the bottom.

As soon as Hizuka began to climb down, Hitame went next. Zero was the last one to go in case something happened where they were. Looking around, he made sure there was nothing around there and he went down after the two of them.

"Where are we now?" he asked as he reached the bottom. Hitame looked at him and at Hizuka.

"We're deeper in the town." she told them. Suddenly three kids, probably natives, came out of nowhere and it looked like they were running from something. They seemed really scared, and suddenly one of them fell. The other two tried to get her up quickly, but whatever they were running from came up and apparently grabbed her leg.

Hitame gasped as she realized what it was. "Tentaclaws!" she exclaimed as she saw the girl begin to get dragged. "We have to help them!" she exclaimed as she realized that there were three Tentaclaws that were coming after the kids. Without much thought, Hitame ran after the Tentaclaws that had the little girl. She summoned the Keyblade she could weild and she began hitting the heartless.

It was enough to make it pet go of the girl and now it had its sights set on her. Hitame looked back quickly and said, "Help the other two!" Before she defended herself against an attack the heartless sent at her.

Zero nodded and went after another Tentaclaws that was going after one of the boys. He summoned his own Keyblade and began to hit the other Tentaclaws.

The last Tentaclaws was heading for the last boy quickly and if he didn't get help he would be taken by the heartless. "Shikomaru! Help him!" Zero and Hitame said simultaneously.

Hizuka saw the kids and what happened. Everything registered quickly in her brain. She had to help these kids.

"Right." She ran towards the last of the Tentaclaws and summoned her sword. She began slashing at the heartless while biting the inside of her cheek just in case.

The attacks the heartless were doing were even more powerful that the ones they'd done before. Hitame was sent flying back into a wall near the girl after the Tentaclaw grabbed her and flung her over there. She was quickly bad on her feet and she ran at the Tentaclaw again, hitting it even harder than she had before. Her powers from Cross academy and these worlds were mixing and they were making her lose control, just not in a blood thirsty way. Her eyes turned a dark shade of red and her body was beginning to be surrounded by an aura the resembled fire.

She looked over at Zero and the same thing was happening to him. His eyes had turned a dark shade of red and he was being surrounded by a green aura that almost looked like thrashing vines with thorns. The keyblades in there hands began to glow bright and they gained strength they didn't know they had.

They hit the Tentaclaws once more and sent them flying a couple of feet away. They both looked at the kids that were still behind them and they turned. "Go home now. And don't leave at all." they told the kids at the same time, almost as if they'd been connected somehow. The Tentaclaws came back and a few more were popping out, trying to attack them.

Hizuka was sent flying and hit a wall. When she stood back up her eyes were yellow and there was an ice-like aura around her. She attacked again, this time with ice and her sword, with more strength than before.

She turned away from the kids. She didn't want to lose control and become blood-thirsty. She waited for the kids to leave to turn around and look at the other two.

The kids all nodded and left them there, running frantically to go home. Hitame sighed and looked at the heartless that were popping out. She looked at Zero and smirked.

"Looks like we pissed them off, huh?" Zero said and Hitame nodded. "Well that's not our problem. We have to get them out of the way so we can keep going." he said.

"I say that the three of us put all out energy into one attack and hit them with that. It should wipe them out." she said.

Zero nodded and looked at Hizuka. "Can you do that?" he asked her. He looked at Hitame and noticed she was already trying to focus all her energy into one attack. The tip of her Keyblade had begun to glow very bright and her aura was growing more.

He did the same and concentrated on getting all his energy into one attack. Before long the tip of his Keyblade had begun to glow and his aura began to grow like Hitame's had and both their eyes turned an even deeper shade of red.

"Ready?" they asked Hizuka and they both took aim at the center of the group of Tentaclaws that had appeared.