Yuki was starting to think they were really in the Realm of Darkness now, and all the worlds that had led to this were some strange in-between. They had still had light as strange as it was to say. But it was now only getting darker. Before long she wasn't sure she would be able to see, something that was hard to achieve. Perhaps it was because she was a Heartless, but her night vision had always been much better than the others around her. 

Yuki craned her neck up searching for an end to the tall walls of rock and stone on either side of them. There was nothing to see. Soon the ravine walls were out of her sight and she couldn't tell if it was sky above her or a cavern ceiling. There wasn't the faintest flicker of light. She repressed a shiver as she continued down the ravine. She didn't like it. It was like walking into a trap, with no way to go. Only forced forward along the path.

It was almost impossible to see when their surroundings changed. For a moment Yuki couldn't see the walls change from sheer rock face to neatly laid bricks. The ground under her feet became a beaten paved path. It was only at Y's gasp she noticed.

Y moved from the center of the path to one of the stone walls. It was difficult to make out, but Yuki realized they were houses. There was a faint outline of the roofs that sloped down to meet them. Taking in all she could, Yuki began to see the town's details. It looked strangely familiar though it was hard to tell in the monochrome the darkness offered.

"What is this place?" Y asked, her hand lightly touching one of the walls. She looked around trying to gleen more detail. Holding out her hand and muttering a spell an orb of light appeared in her hand. Yuki winched away from the light at first, but soon adjusted to its presence. It cast strange shadows on the walls of the town. She could see the colors better now. Tanned stones paved the road under her feet and grey stone made up the base of the houses. The sloping roofs were a mix of purple and blue.

"It almost reminds me of Radiant Gardens or Twilight Town," Yuki said, turning as she looked around. There was still no other path save the one that forced them forward.

"The City of Fate," Y said. For a moment Yuki thought she meant this deeply shadowed town was her home world, but Yuki quickly dismissed it. This world looked too different. But the City of Fate was another world that shared this town's structure. 

"All those worlds have something in common," X said. Yuki jumped and turned. X stood just outside the reach of Y's light, the shadows darkening around him. All she could see of him clearly were amber gold eyes that glowed. "They resemble the old world. When all worlds were one."

"But, wasn't that world completely lost to the light?" Y asked.

"We aren't exactly in the light," X said. For a moment the glow of his eyes disappeared, turned towards what Yuki could only hope was the sky. But with everything all turned around, maybe it wasn't.

"Do you think this is the old world?" Yuki asked. The idea sent even more shivers down her back. Something about standing where so many had died didn't sit right with her. Especially if it was now so far in the darkness the only light was that Y made.

"No," X said. Yuki tilted her head to the side in confusion as the glow of X's amber-colored eyes returned. Amber, not purple. That only happened when he was commanding the Heartless underneath him. Or, when he had seemed someone completely different. "Not exactly. But, there's no doubt this is meant to be Daybreak Town."

Daybreak Town. Not the old world.

"You, know its name," Y said, her voice slightly shaking.

"So did you," X said calmly, his eyes moving to rest on his sister. For a moment he only looked her up and down, waiting for her denial. It didn't come. She only looked at him, seeming deathly pale in her fabricated light. "I just said it first."

They stood in silence for a moment. And it seemed for that moment they didn't even breathe.

X was the first to break it. He slinked around the edges of the light and farther into the town. Yuki glanced to Y, looking for some kind of reaction. Y stood strangely pale, the orb of light floating beside her. She was looking after X, as if nothing else existed. Without a word Y followed after X, as if trying to capture him in her light. Yuki watched for a moment.

No matter how close Y got to X he stayed just out of reach of the light.

Yuki followed the twins after a pause, her eyes watching the edges of the light. The upper portion of the houses was a cream color with purplish-blue trim. Namine would have known the exact name for the color but Yuki wasn't so artistically inclined. Following the steps that led into the town more paths opened for them to follow. X didn't cast these paths a second glance, moving forward with determination.

"Do you feel anything Y?" Yuki asked, jogging lightly to walk beside her. Y looked over her shoulder at Yuki, almost surprised she was there. For a moment Y considered what Yuki had asked. Her eyes returned to in front of her before she answered.

"No," she said softly. "My heart just hurts. I don't think there's any light here at all."

"I get the feeling," X cut in from somewhere in the shadows ahead of them. "This is just a shadow. Not even a real world. Just another obstacle."

"So what do we do?" Yuki asked. They had had goals before. Find the remnant of light and return the world to the realm of light. What were they supposed to do with a shadow? What did that even mean, not a real world?

"I don't know," X admitted. Yuki repressed another shudder. His voice seemed to come from a distant void, without being able to see him. It echoed off the empty buildings and paths. Almost as if it was all around them. As if the shadows were talking using X's voice.

Soon the only sound was their footsteps. Each thud echoed and each scrap on the pavement was like scratching down a chalkboard. They still moved forward, both X and Y moving with ease. No glances at each possible turn. Walking the same way Yuki would walk in Twilight Town or on Destiny Islands. The light from Y was at least lighting the way for Yuki, showing her a town long forgotten by most.

The light extended its reach as they entered a square. Still, it could only reach so far forward, keeping X out of sight. But that did not hide the fountain in the center of the plaza. Though no water flowed Yuki could almost see the sparkle that remained. The stones in the ground paved the formed stars, outlined in purple bricks.

Y stopped in front of the fountain, her eyes glossing over. After a bit of searching, Yuki managed to pick out where X was. He perched on the edge of a set of stairs leading back to a gate between two of the buildings. Amber eyes were trained on Y as she stood in a daze.

Y slowly moved away from the fountain standing back to the side at the edge of the circle of bricks. She looked for a moment her head tilting from side to side.

"Yuki," Y said. Yuki looked at her in shock, she didn't think Y even remembered there were people with her. "You're the photo nerd. This is the same place that picture Zakey had was taken right?"

"I can compare. I still have it," Yuki said, reaching into her pocket where she had stored the picture. She crossed to Y, holding up the picture. Yuki frowned taking a few steps to one side, then to the back. Depending on the zoom and how to focus was arranged. But Zakey had said she was the one to take the picture. If that were the case, she had a specific pattern she liked to use. That would mean. Yuki came to a stop. The picture seemed to run into real life now. The lines of the background lined up perfectly between picture and actuality. "This is where they stood. When they took the picture."

It was hard to lower the picture once again to see only the empty square. Not the smiles and laughter that Yuki could practically hear echoing. Only Y stood before her, with X hidden in the shadows.

"Why weren't we here?" Y asked. Yuki stared at her for a moment. But there was no follow-up, only Y's dazed stare as she looked over the square. Her lips moved as if she were speaking, but if there were ever words Yuki couldn't hear them.

"What?" Yuki asked, keeping her voice soft and gentle. It did nothing and Y still jumped as if she had been forced into the moment again.

"Nothing..." Y said, her dazed look returning again. "I think."

"We should keep moving, don't you think?" Yuki suggested, tucking the photo back into her pocket. Y's gaze didn't return this time.

"Yeah, I guess."

Yuki watched X get to his feet and move away from the gate to the other exit directly beside it. As he skirted the edge of the light the shadows followed him, protecting him from the light. Yuki was beginning to think he had cast his own spell, keeping him out of their sight. Y trailed after him, her light bobbing alongside her. Yuki followed behind, her eyes forced forward.

Before long it seemed they stood at the base of a tower, standing on a bridge of sorts. Yuki stood at the edge of the bridge her eyes searching the front of the tower. It was impossible to tell much, all she could see was the workings of a clock in the center of two towers. The two clock hands were joined together, pointing up.

"What is this place?" Yuki asked. Y had fallen into another sort of daze, forcing them to stop in the shadow of the tower. Yuki could see X, now perched on the railing to the right of her. Y was standing in the center of the bridge behind her.

"This is the tower," Y said. Yuki glanced over her shoulder at. She was staring up at the tower just as Yuki had been. Her eyes were glazed over, as thoughts raced through her mind.

"Who's?" X asked, his voice echoing around them. Y slowly turned to face X. Yuki wasn't sure how she knew where X was, but it wasn't the priority.

"What?" Y asked.

"Who's tower is it?" X asked. Y stared for a moment, as if waiting for X to eleborate more. He didn't, so Y slowly turned back to the tower. For a moment she only stared her eyes furrowed as she seemed to whisper to herself. Repeating something over and over again.

"It's, it's the foretellers, right?" Y strung together slowly. X gave a slight nod.

"Who are the foretellers?" Yuki asked. She could barely remember hearing them referenced before. And X and Y had just brushed past it like it meant something. Yuki hadn't understood it then. All she knew was they were someone, or a group from the sounds of it.

"They were the keyblade masters of the era," X explained, his calm voice sending shivers up Yuki's back. She didn't like the way he kept coming in and out of her sight line. All without moving. "Five of them. Each one was the leader of a union. And eventually, they led their unions to their ends in the war."

The war. Yuki felt her blood run cold. The war. Images falshed in her mind of the graveyard filled with keys. The leaders. The ones who started that terrible death spree. So many lost. Because of five.

"There was a sixth though," Y said, her eyes still trained up. "That Master he trained six of them. And they all lived here."

"So, what happened to the sixth?" Yuki asked, before she really could consider if it was a good idea. How much did the twins know? And what would make the dazed look Y had snap, the clarity return? "If there was only five unions."

"He disappeared," Y said simply. She brought her hands to rest over her heart, her fingers tightening over nothing. "No one knows what happened to him, or the Master. Both just gone."

"No sort of explanation?" Yuki asked. In her experience people rarely just vanished into thin air.  And when they did it was usually because someone else made them disappear. 

"They knew he was going to," X spoke from the shadows now. "He warned them, and left them instructions."

"The book," Y breathed out. Yuki frowned, eyes jumping between the twins. Or at least where she thought X was and where Y stood in her daze. X's words were careful, on the edge of vagueness and ambiguity. He was leading Y.

"Book?" Yuki asked.

"The book of prophecies," Y answered with no hesitation. It was a question she seemed used to. "It told the future. And, it preluded to the war. A war they couldn't stop. So the master was preparing for what came next. They had their roles, but some one, one of them. The traitor..."

"The what?" Yuki asked. Y had trailed off mid thought, and it seemed like an important thought. Y stayed silent for a moment, once again seeming to mouth words.

"They thought there was a traitor," Y eventually said. "A page was missing from the books. They turned on each other. Because there was a page gone from their books."

"And they fought until the war started," X said. Yuki wasn't surprised by the sarcasm that was dripping from his voice. He found this almost as ridiculous as it sounded.

"That's all it took?" Yuki asked.

"There was a lot more," X admitted. "But to make it simple, that was the start of the end."

"They never had a chance," Y said. Yuki quickly turned her attention away from the shadows to where Y stood. She was looking down now, here eyes finally off the tower and onto the ground. "Only some were meant to survive, none of the masters. Just, just the dandelions."

For a moment they only stared at Y in silence. Y was once again in her dazed state, her lips moving in the same pattern. Yuki was starting to recognize it wasn't any sort of sentence. Just names, or something of the sort. Something that meant something to Y as she repeated it over and over again.

There was no warning as Y suddenly took off down the road, her light moving in a blur. Yuki wasn't given much of a chance to consider her next move as X moved just as quickly on Y's heels. She didn't want to be alone here. So she followed as the twins darted through the streets as if they had lived there their whole lives.

She found Y leaning over the railing over looking what would have once been a river. Her light hovered beside her, casting strange shadows into the chanal. She couldn't find X now. The shadows must have wrapped around him even tighter. 

"He was always in trouble after I showed him it was here," Y said. Yuki followed her misty gaze to a strange hole in the ground. Slowly she looked back at Y.

"Y, what are you talking about?" she asked. Her heart was getting tight. Y looked like she was about to cry as she turned away from the chanal.

"I'm not sure. But I know this town. I remember the people," Y said. She looked up and glanced around. She frowned as she wasn't able to find X in her sightline. "What about you?" she asked to the air.

"I can't answer that," X answered, from wherever he was hidden. The echoes made it almost seem as if there was more than one of him answering.

"Why not?" Y asked, her fist clenching at her side.

"I promised," X answered after a moments pause. "I'll be able to speak soon."

"Why not now?" Y asked.

"You don't remember it all yet."

Yuki felt her gut lurch as she searched for X. So much had happened, she had forgotten. X had told her something about this. About their names. Y had forgotten, Y had wanted to forget. Was that what he was leading her towards? Towards what she had so badly wanted to forget?

It was only when X moved that Yuki found him, the faintest shadow moving deeper into the shadow town. Y followed him, without thinking, trying to catch up to him. Yuki gave a heavy sigh before she followed the twins. Y's light the beacon.

Yuki came to a halt suddenly, all her breath leaving her. The town had so far seemed perfect. But there was now a gouge through the picture perfect town. Yuki wasn't sure what could even cause this damage, save a large blade. Walls of the buildings were collapsed, and the street broken in.

Y slowly approached one of the walls, her hand out stretched. Yuki could almost her the breath Y released as her hand pressed against the wall.

"They fought so badly," Y said softly. "They were all so desperate. I remember. Gula, Kingdom Hearts. And..."

"Kingdom Hearts?" Yuki echoed. She rarely heard that in a good way. And the gut stirring at least made sense now.

"Gula wanted to summon Kingdom Hearts to force the master to return," Y said. Yuki's gut lurched. The name was oddly familiar, though Yuki wasn't sure exactly who he was. Yuki could only guess one of the foretellers. It didn't explain why she felt a sort of anger towards him.

"What an idiot," she hissed. The words left her without her even realizing it. She blinked a few times as the anger faded. She heard a snicker that could only be from X.

"He was desperate. They all were," Y said as she slowly turned from the wall. The dazed look was finally gone. Yuki almost wished it wasn't. All that remained was a look of defeat. "His attempt wasn't the only one."

"What other attempt?" Yuki asked. Desperate never led to anything good.

"They went looking for something," X's voice answered. "Well more two someone's, that were better left alone."

"Who were they looking for?" Yuki asked.

She waited with baited breath, her eyes searched for X, and it was a surprise she found him. Until she realized, the light beside Y was flickering. Slowly it faded in and out of existence until it was gone. Once again all three stood in complete darkness.

"Us."

The darkness was cut by a laugh. As Yuki's eyes adjusted she saw Y, barely standing swaying as she leaned against X. He stood slightly knelt beside her, his hands ready to catch her if she fell. The laughter continued to ring around them.

"And Lucerna has finally begun to remember."

Yuki held in her groan as she called one of her keys to her side. She spun around, looking up to find the source of the voice. She couldn't. All around was only darkness, her field of vision hardly reaching the tops of the building.

"What does that mean?" Yuki demanded. The familiar laughter once again rang out. Yuki was certain there would never be a sound more grating than the lilting laugh.

"As the Kingdom Keeper, should she not already know?"

Yuki's gut lurched again as she summoned her other key. There was two of them.

"Unless, Tenebris has hidden the truth so well, even his mother doesn't speak of it," the lilting voice of Aryum answered. Yuki grit her teeth together as she spun around.

"Where are you?" Yuki demanded. She only heard the laughter now of both the elites that watched them. Neither were within sight, and she doubted they would come into her sight while they had them cornered, like rats in a maze.

Yuki's mind raced, their words playing in her head. Why should she know? The Kingdom Keeper, it didn't give her knowledge over everything. Just one thing. And rarely did it do that for her. X said his mother had given them their names. Names forgotten. X found on accident. His mother.

X was a liar.

And the best lies had grains of truth.

"Tenebris and Lucerna," Aysui said, her calm voice rang out strong. Yuki watched as Y flinched, a hand raising to her head.

"What does that mean?" Yuki snapped, her teeth grounding together as she continued searching the rooftops. She could see nothing still and rage boiled inside her.

"Who, not what," Aryum chided.

"I'm getting sick of this," Yuki growled. "I know who they are. What does it mean?"

"It will all be clear once Lucerna remembers," Aysui said. Yuki held back her urge to scream.

"Her name is Y!" she snapped. "Stop using a name she doesn't know!"

Yuki was again met with only laughter. She ground her teeth as she searched around her. She halted as she faced X and Y.

Y had pushed herself away from X, leaning against a wall instead. X hadn't moved, only shifting slightly to mark where Y had pushed off his shoulder. He knelt slightly, eyes trained on his sister as she swayed.

"X, What are they talking about?" Y asked. Though her voice was hardly above a whisper it cut through the echoes of laughter that had now faded as if she were screaming.

X sat in silence for a moment. Yuki watched his face, his eyes the only indication of the way his thoughts raced. She watched as he opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out at first. It took several times for the words to final tear the way out of him. And the tore through the silence. 

"They're our names," he said, his voice hoarse and raw. As if he had been screaming just moments before. "You're Lucerna, I'm Tenebris. We haven't gone by them in a long, long time."

"How long?" Y asked. Her question was immediate, with no hesitation. She was ready for his answers. Did she already remember? Was this a test?

"I've lost track," he responded and flinched after the words left him. "As long as we've been human. They give us different names then."

"What are we?" Y asked.

"Depends on who you ask," X shrugged. Yuki watched his position shift as he lowered to the ground. The way his face fell, as if he had been defeated and pushed to the ground. "Some say we're gods. Others call us devils. Most just see us as primordial forces, given form. In a way, all of the stories are true."

"What are you?" Y asked.

The answer was immediate, and was something even Yuki knew.

"I am Darkness."

"What am I?"

The question followed with no pause to consider what his answer was. And his answer to the question came just as fast.

"You are Light."

Yuki could almost let out her breath. So simple. So expected. All the times she had seen them. Just as they were. X blending into the shadows here, in the deepest shadow. And Y always radiating light wherever she was.

The relief was short lived.

"Why didn't you tell me!?"

Y's yell was filled with an anger that burned like the brightest fire. Yuki stumbled back, banishing her keys as she cowered away.

"Didn't need to know."

X's answer was hardly a whisper when compared to Y. He didn't move even as Y stepped toward him, towering above him in that moment.

"I didn't need to know?" Y repeated. She gave a short laugh, only stoking the inferno that seemed to radiate from her. "I didn't need to know who I was? Who you were?" Another laugh and Yuki cowered back further. She had never thought it before, but now the light Y radiated hurt. She wanted to do everything she could to run from it. "Everything is starting to make sense now. You keep in the dark so it's easier to kill me, right? So you have more to take from me?"

"Not at all," X answered, his voice still a whisper. He hadn't moved, though it had to burn to be so close to her.

"Liar," Y hissed. X looked up at her slowly. "All you ever do is lie to me. And where does that get us!?" 

X paled, his face losing all color in a matter of seconds. 

"It ends with me dead at your hands. Every time it's your fault."

The silence that hung after her words was deafening. It was if the inferno had devoured every other sound around them. Yuki couldn't hear her own breath. She couldn't hear the blood in her ears. She could only watch as X stared wide eyed at his sister, with the sort of look that he had when he saw blood.

"I won't listen to your poisoned words again," Y said, stepping back just slightly. The movement was enough to startle X from whatever thoughts had filled his head.  "I won't let you kill me."

"I don't," X began, his voice quavering. And it spread through his whole body as he tried to move. He was shaking as he once again knelt. "Never, never did I mean for you to die. Please listen, and let me help you remember."

"No!" Y snapped, still backing farther and farther way. "You be the one to die for once! Own up to what you've done!"

X tried to push himself to his feet despite all his shaking.

"Please, I don't-" He was cut short.

"Don't ever come near me again, or I'll kill you like I should have when you found me." 

Y turned and ran as X fell back into his kneeling position, like a knight before his queen.

Yuki could only sit in silence. Her mind racing.

"X?" she slowly said, as if testing if her voice would still work to shatter the deafening silence that had followed Y's departure.

"Ask my mother."

Yuki sat in stunned silence as X forced himself to his feet and slowly walked into the town.