​xXx

The hooded figure lifted his hood and pursed his lips, feeling an odd sense of dejavu. He had been sent on a mission to stake his current location out, and felt like he had been there before. It was his first time there of course, but he couldn't shake the odd feeling off. 

Nichkhun clasped an arm around his companions shoulder, already bored with this job.

"Can you puh-leasseee hurry?" He sighed and fiddled with his coat, timidly looking over his shoulder. His surroundings made him weary, being at the center of a Keyblade Headquarters wasn't making him feel particularly safe.

His companion shrugged his hand off and leaned further into the shadows, peering over his shoulder. He had to make sure his eyes didn't leave his target, if he had failed like Luhan did earlier, well-

He didn't want to think about that now.

Nichkhun let out a bored noise and snapped his fingers, a pool of darkness appearing besides him.

"Hey Soo....I'm going to go see what Luhan's up to now. He might be a sad little ball of deer, and we don't want our last heart to be sad. Don't miss me too much~"

He chuckled lightly, causing his companion to scoff, trying to ignore his partner as best he could. Why was he assigned with him again?

Nichkhun grinned and stepped into the darkness, "Don't let your eyes wander~"

Silence once more.

xXx

Yuuki ran and gasped for air, too scared to turn around. She groaned and tried to pick up her pace, weaving through the many nooks and crannies in the Land of Departure. She was currently in the deserted part of town, where the 'Keyblade Wielders,' used to live.

Used to.

That was before all the Heartless began taking over, maybe 30 or so years ago. Keyblades. Although most would have not even the slightest idea about what 'Keyblades,' were, this wasn't the case with Yuuki. She had spent her time reading up about Keyblades in the Great Library, and from what she read, could tell that The Land of Departure played a major role.

Whatever that role was however, could not be established now.

Now back to the running.

Something was following her. What the something was, or why they were following her, she had no idea. She muttered under her breath, "no no no..," this had escalated quickly.

It had started off a pretty normal- well, tolerable day, until Henry came along. Or at least, she thought it was Henry at the time. He had tried playing one of those stupid pranks on her- again, she wasn't sure, wearing a dark cloak and following her like some crazy stalker the entire day.

At first she had rolled her eyes and ignored his presence,  and it wasn't until she saw Henry eating mochi on his front step, that this dark looming presence, became more persistent chasing her down. 

Now the reason why she was being chased, left her more confused than ever. Why was he chasing her? And why did he have to be chasing her in the most deserted part of town?

She turned and saw him running faster, it wouldn't be long until he caught up to her. She was growing tired and her legs felt heavy, she knew this was the end.

The dark figures' hand flew out of it's cloak, only a few centimeters away from Yuuki. She tried to get the last burst of energy out, determined to keep running. Whatever this creep wanted, she wouldn't let him have.

The cloaked figure pursed his lips, the dejavu was overwhelming. He let the darkness become an extension of him, his fingertips snagging onto her shoulder.

He smirked, and soon the two were falling into darkness.

xXx

Luhan let his eyes shift over to the other corner of the room, where the 12th Heart was sitting, glaring at him. He shrunk back into his corner and turned to their Hyung standing in the corner of the room, who who was assigned guard duty over the two trouble makers. Although to be honest, who wasn't a trouble maker in their organization?

The red head rocked on his heels and watched them from a far, using ice magic to create little ice sculptures. The 12th Heart in the other corner sighed and flipped his hood down, glaring at Luhan. The top of his head was bleached white, with different strips of color scattered all around.

He shook his head and gave is sunbae a disapproving look.

"Why did you have to run off Lu? If you waited for me, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Luhan gave him an apologetic look, "Sorry Se, I just needed to-"

"SHH!" The red head cut them off and put his fingers to his lips, gesturing them to shut up.

Sehun rolled his eyes and stood up, "L. Joe Hyung it's not our fault!"  He paused and turned to Luhan, "well sort of."

L. Joe played with the ice heart in his hands, continuously using ice to make sure it didn't melt. Luhan watched as he did so, and in the dimly lit room, it looked as if L. Joe was apart of the dark shadows himself, the black coat and black wall almost the exact same shade. He shrugged, "I don't make the rules guys. Sorry. You know I don't want to do this, but it's not like I have a choice."

Luhan fiddled with his fingers and tried to keep from looking at Sehun's glare. It's not as if he was wrong, he should have waited for Sehun to get Lyn, but he had to find out for himself just what kind of person she was. But because he failed, this was their punishment, being stuck in this dark abandoned room with one another like children would be when they misbehaved. It was childish yes, but they were lucky it was Nichkhun giving out the punishment and not their Master.

Luhan didn't want to know what would happen if it was their master.

Sehun whined and walked towards L. Joe, tugging his shoulder.

"HYUNGGGGGGGGG PLEEEAAA-"

L. Joe placed his hand on the younger one's face and shoved him back, tired of playing babysitter. Sehun huffed and was about to retaliate back when a pool of darkness appeared besides the two. Three shadows emerged, one through the door, one out of the darkness, and the other through the...

window?

Luhan blinked as Kyuhyun jumped through, a loud laugh escaping through his lips. He pulled Luhan up and slinged his arm around his shoulder, adrenaline running through his veins.

Donghae walked through the door and paid no attention to Kyuhyun, keeping his eyes on the person who summoned them there. Nichkhun.

Nichkhun smiled as the darkness disapeared behind him, wagging his finger towards Sehun. "I thought I told you to sit down and endure your punishment~"

Sehun sighed and leaned against the wall next to L. Joe, watching his Hyung play with his physical ice heart. Luhan let himself be dragged into the center of the room with Kyuhyun, wondering why Nichkhun would have called them all here.

Nichkhun was an odd member in the Organization.

He wasn't #2, or even #3 or #4 in order of rankings. Ranking Order went by either one or two things. The first thing: the amount of darkness a person possessed in their hearts. While yes, they were completely encased in darkness, some were more prominent in showing it (Kyuhyun, Donghae, etc.) than others (Luhan). The second way they were ranked- when exactly the person had first arrived in the organization.

Donghae was known as Masters Second in command, The 2nd Heart. Luhan gazed at L. Joe, who was intently watching the ice heart, suspending it in his palm. With a bored look he threw the crystallized heart in the air and punched it with blinding speed, ice crystals spewing across the entire room.

It hit the ground with a little clink, and no one besides Luhan paid any attention to it. They were used to L. Joe by now.

Luhan flinched, L. Joe was The 8th Heart, but according to Sehun, easily should have been 3rd. There was something about L. Joe that gave off that...cold, scary vibe.

But back to Nichkhun.

Nichkhun wasn't even in the top positions through rankings, he was the 11th Heart, right before Sehun. Even though he was the 11th Heart, he seemed to have the most authority over all the others, even Donghae himself. He was a natural leader and quite kind for a shadow, something that Luhan found odd. There was no way Nichkhun could have that much authority over all of them by being nice.

Shadows just didn't work that way. 

Kyuhyun let go of Luhan and grinned mischievously, asking, "So what's the big rush? Is Myungsoo done with his mission?"

Nichkhun nodded and smiled brightly, gesturing his companions to follow him out of the room.

"I think all of you should see them."

Donghae raised his brow, "'them?' Then the 10th and 4th Heart were successful in their mission?" Nichkhun nodded as he lead the 5 out of the room, allowing Sehun and Luhan to escape their punishment momentarily. Sehun nudged Luhan confused, who did they manage to capture? Was it their target Lyn? 

Luhan shrugged and kept his eyes on the back of Nichkhun's head, tuning out Kyuhyun and Donghae's squabble. 

They were headed towards the dungeon.

xXx

Yuuki awoke with a large headache, causing her to rub the back of her head and mutter. She made the mistake of sitting up too fast, and felt disoriented. She brought her fingers back down before noticing her head was bandaged up.

"What the-?"

She heard a voice from the corner of the room, a man's voice reassuring her, "When they brought you down, I wasn't sure if you were going to survive that injury."

He nodded towards her head and she stared into his eyes, they were a bright icy blue.

"I bandaged it up as best as I could, it wasn't that hard to get him to lend me materials." He rolled his eyes and picked up a rock, throwing it against the opposite wall.

Yuuki stared at him, who was he and where was she? As if reading her mind, he said, "You're currently sitting in the cellar of The World That Never Was. Or at least I assume we're here. I'm not really sure. You were brought here by the Hearts."

Yuuki gulped, finally building up enough courage to speak. "Hearts?"

He shrugged. 

"An Organization dedicated to destroying the world. I assume the reason why you're here is because you're a keyblade wielder like me."

Yuuki's mind flashed back to the many days spentresearching Keyblades. *Keyblade wielder??*

The strange boy continued, "I'm not sure whether you're a Guardian or an actual Light, but I know for sure you wield a keyblade." His eyes shifted over to her, "My name is Jang Taehyun. Nice to meet you."

Yuuki nodded slightly, finally beginning to take in the room, and the dark dreary look. It was a stone cellar, bars surrounded them from either sides, and was pretty damp and cold. She responded back, "Yuuki. Nice meeting you too." She paused. "Despite the circumstances."

Taehyun laughed and threw another rock, "Well since you're not asking me 'what's a keyblade?' I assume you know most of the story, or at least bits of it. I can fill you in on the rest. I was captured a few weeks ago, I was actually accompanying another Guardian, but she got away." 

He sighed and Yuuki apologized, "I'm sorry...what are they trying to do with us anyway?" 

Taehyun shrugged again, "I'm not really sure. I assume they're preparing for battle, and they want our side to be as defenseless as possible. I don't think they'll kill us or anything, at least not yet-"

*not yet???*

"-but they may try to get information out of us, even if you don't know anything. I'm sure they're coming down here soon, I overheard them earlier talking about another joining us..."

Yuuki was silent, as shocked as she had been initially, she had adjusted fairly quickly, she had always felt as if she was apart something greater. 

"That's awful..." she softly said, "I don't want anyone going through what I did."

She briefly recalled being into darkness before blacking out. 

Taehyun stood and walked around the cell, kicking pieces of rubble. "That's alright. The more people here the better."

Yuuki tilted her head, "What? No it's not!! Why would you say that??" She watched the brunette pace across the room, and noticed he was wearing an odd outfit, it was quite old looking, he wore a white shirt that brightened the room (they were almost in complete darkness), criss-crossed with what seemed like suspenders, a metalic guard over his shoulder, and various rings and a single necklace.

His pants were also odd and fairly baggy. He noticed her staring and chuckled, "the pants are for flexibility, although it doesn't protect me very much in battle that's okay. These rings," he wiggled his fingers, "enhance my magic, I'll explain that later," he added when he saw the look on her face, "this arm guard is to keep the darkness away, and help me transform into my light armor, and the suspenders..."

"they look cool." he lamely finished.

 He turned to her again with those icy blue eyes, and she noticed a twinkle of mischief.

"But the reason why having another person would be good...it'll be easier to escape."

xXx