Nothing among the darkness {open to all}

Stephen walked along the shadows created by the ominous lighting casting down over the houses and towers. There was nothing here, suitable for a nobody. It was dark enough for darkness, but it held no purpose. This place held memories, lost memories, memories that were supposed to happen, but were torn away by a bad decision chosen along the wrong path, changing the life of everyone around them. Stephen just walked along. He walked out of the shadows and came to the clearing near the tower. Like the rest of this town there was nothing. Nothing around, except remains of what should have been. A smooth breeze rolled by, displacing the hood from Stephen's head. He drew his hands from his pockets and took in a deep breath.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah..........."

A heavy, drawn-out breath that should have been a groan rose into the air, breaking the silence of the nothing. Its source lay sprawled on her back in the dead center of a road leading to the ominous tower; still both numb and sore from her recent impact with the cold street. Sore because the initial shock her body had gone into that had prevented it from acknowledging the pain had already worn off; numb because she completely wasn't noticing it.

This is Neona.

Neona's bright clothes stood out so much against the darkness or the world she practically looked like she was glowing. The part of her light blonde hair that wasn't tied up had fallen out of her hood (which she had been wearing before the fall, but it had been shaken off when she had hit the ground and was now just kinda awkwardly framing her head) and fanned out, completely revealing her entire face. She lay very still, half-closed eyes directed unflinchingly towards the sky. Her mouth hung partially open.

Despite having crashed into the street, Neona was barely concerned with anything that had just happened to her. Subconsciously her mind was aware of it, but it just didn't concern her enough to warrant a reaction. In fact, nothing was really concerning Neona at all. Her head was mostly a blank slate with a few content thoughts, like how nice it was to be off her feet, floating around in the empty cranial space.

She was so oblivious she hadn't even noticed the figure who was slowly getting closer to her or the sound of his footsteps, for that matter.

Stephen closed his eyes and turned towards the tower. He opened his eyes and called his keyblade to his hands. He could sense a someone near, but their aura was weak. He untensed and scanned the area. He saw a girl sitting down, almost unconsious from what Stephen could tell. He stood where he was, not sure if he should interfear with whatever was going on

As her eyes opened up more and vision focused (clearing up her mind a bit as well), Neona suddenly became aware of the lack of moon in the sky. It was so dark she had been presuming it was night, so why was there no moon? The corner of her mouth turned down slightly.

Her brain reminded her of how she had just hopped worlds again, and yet although it cleared up her change in surroundings, she didn't particularly care too much. She was used to this kind of thing by now. She decided to figure out more about the moon thing and also where she was later, but for now, her legs were falling asleep. She forced herself to shakily stand, although for some reason, her body throbbed and protested the action the whole way. She held her standing position as firmly as she could and started looking around at her surroundings, when suddenly the lone sillohuet standing several feet away from her got her attention.

Oh, look, a guy! He appeared to be about her age, and looked like he had a pulse so that made him approachable enough. ...She kinda failed to notice his keyblade, though.

Thanks to past experiences Neona wasn't much of a socializer with strangers, but she wasn't a complete introvert either. He was also the only living thing she had seen so far. With a tiny/somewhat shyish smile and a wave, Neona shakily weaved together a timid greeting consisting of a single "Hello!" in sign language; unable to articulate even that simple word whether tried/wanted to or not. Once again, she was completely oblivious to the fact that the boy probably couldn't recognize or understand sign language, as hardly anyone in any world could. It was hard to be a mute in a sea of voices.

(Ooc: When Neona speaks in sign language, it'll be in bold italics (like so), when she writes it'll be in plain bold, and when she's just thinking to herself it'll be in italics.
I'll put this in my bio too, to avoid confusion X'D

PS: MOTHER OF DUCKLING I LOST THIS POST TWICE)

Stephen noticed the girl stand up and move her hands. He shrugged and decided to say "Hey." Stephen wasn't the best at greetings, but he was still pleasant. He flipped his hair and let out a little smile. The golden flecks on his keyblade's hilt caught what little light was being given off. An ominous wind lightly gusted throught the plaza. Everything seemed to grow darker. Sthephen's grip tightened on his keyblade and he spoke to the girl, "I hope you know how to fight, because were about to get swarmed by heartless." Stephen had a foreboding tone to his voice as he prepared himself for a battle.

Neona's confidence and overall happiness jumped through the roof upon receiving the guy's return greeting. She hadn't actually talked to a person in a long time, longer than she realized. She raised her hands to say more, but a cold yet familiar feeling blew through her and they dropped back down to her sides.

Her face grew dim with shadows for a moment as despicably familiar presences crept around behind her, despite the fact that she couldn't recall exactly why they were familiar.

Upon hearing something move ever so slightly behind her, she thrust her hand into the air and spun around 180 degrees. A spontaneous burst of abnormally matrixing light appeared in her hand, and Lunar Crucifiction manifested from it; the silvery blade reflecting and magnifying even the tiniest amounts of light, much like the moon. She grabbed the hilt with with her other hand and held her keyblade out in front of her, pointing in the direction of the noise.

note to self, get a cooler pose when summoning Abyssal Ruins. Stephen thought to himself as he watched the girl materialize her keyblade. A shadowy figure morphed in front of Stephen and glowing yellow eyes look directly at him. The heartless raised its arm. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Stephen taunted. The heartless swiped downwards and with a smooth motion of his arm the Stephen parried the attack and then came across the heartless' chest and a simple heart floated away. "I warned you." Stephen chuckled. Other heartless formed, each about five foot tall. Stephen's smile diminished and he went into action. He dashed and knocked over a heartless and did a back flip, catching a little more hang time he shouted "fireraga!" And a huge swirling gust of flames vaporized three more heartless. Only to notice even more were coming.

A trio of yellow-eyed heartless cropped up and began advancing on Neona. She waited for them to come within about five feet of her, then moved about five steps backwards so quickly she was barely visable; now poised with one foot in front of the other and her keyblade held above her head.

A few more heartless cropped up to back up the first three; exactly where Neona wanted them. She jumped up in the air and hurled her keyblade so that it got caught by centripetal force and orbited around her while spinning at a deadly speed, also known as a Circle Raid. She stayed suspended in the air as the whirling blade orbited her, using her mind and her connection with Lunar Crucfixion to increase its range slightly.

After nailing all of the heartless, Lunar Crucifixion came back to Neona, who caught it with two hands. She dropped back down to the ground and took a defensive stance as a taller heartless sideswiped her, the force of the attack sending her sliding away a few feet. She parried away it's next attack, launching a counterattack that did the brute in.

She snuck a glance back over her shoulder to see how the not-so-stranger boy was doing.

A heatless lunged at Stephen from behind. Stephen kicked straight back, smashing into it's face, causing others to jump in. Slashing left then right Stephen jumped into the air and started to glow faintly. His keyblade turned pitch black and seemed to suck all the light out of the surrounding air. Stephen threw te keyblade so it spun straight toward the geound. Down below where the impact would have been was an eruption of darkness that swallowed the heartless. Stephen call back his blade then stabbed downward towards the ground. This created a giant wave of darkness, consuming most of the heartless. Stephen was sure he was out of range of the girl, but he was a little too close with some of the darkness. Shakily, he stood up and got ready to fight more

Neona only managed to catch a glimpse of the boy before another larger heartless appeared in her peripheral view. She attempted to sidestep, but to no avail as the heartless sucker punched her smack-dab in the solar plexus.

"Cccckkkkahhhhhhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhhhh..." Neona gasped; a cry of pain that had no sound. With the wind knocked out of her, she stumbled away and slashed her keyblade through the air urgently, creating a crescent-shaped ripple that resulted from her casting Stopra. The ripple caused all the heartless it touched to become affected by the spell.

A few small tears rolled down the blonde's cheeks as she tried to force herself to breathe again. She feared that the cheap shot had sent her into an Apnea attack, which could potentially be deadly while she didn't have any medication or cure like this. She considered casting Curaga, but she wasn't sure if she could pull it off after already casting Stopra. As Neona managed a single sharp gasp, some of the stopped heartless twitched slightly. She sensed more than the ones she had stopped erupting from the shadows and continiues to try to force herself to breathe, gripping Lunar Crucifixion tightly and desperately in her hand.

Out of the corner of his eye, Stephen saw the girl get sucker punched, and it looked like it hurt. Damn it, I'm not ready to use anything helpful right now. Stephen thought as a heartless charged him from behind. He jumped slightly and saw the girl cast a spell that seemed to stop heartless dead in their tracks. Stephen's feet connected with the heartless' face and he launched himself towards the girl. He threw his keyblade in front of him, sending it spinning into multiple heartless. He called the blade back to his hand and used the momentum from the blade to do a flip and land on the side of a building, but an unseen heartless knocked him down and Stephen crashed to the ground. not even a cry of pain came out as he sprained his ankle trying to land on his feet. He blocked a sucker punch and countered with a small blast of dark energy. Stephen winced in pain and tossed the girl a hi-potion. "Take this I'll be fine." Stephen shouted out. If only that were true.

Neona managed another gasp of fresh air just as Stopra wore off and a Hi-Potion bounced off her face; a gift she still somehow managed to catch after a short bout of struggling with it. She look at the potion, then back at the boy. He looked pretty beat up as well; he needed a healing just as much as she did; if not more.

Still thinking, Neona used the potion and began to feel her weak lungs relax gradually. She took a few greatful deep breaths; intent on returning the favor. Ahead of her, the small mob of heartless (which had grown since she had used Stopra) advanced quickly on the two keyblade users, but newly-restored Neona had other plans.

She held her keyblade out in front of her again. The light Lunar Crucifixion had been reflecting grew dark, as if the light it had given of before was now made of darkness, and it began to take in the shadows now surrounding Neona.

As the heartless closed in, Neona gracefully ran forward and pushed herself off the ground, swinging her keyblade as she did. These forces caused her to start spinning at a breakneck speed; the destructive power of the Shadowbreaker she was using emanating from her keyblade. Neona rushed the mob, slashing the ones in her path to oblivion.

Even as she was attacking, Neona was planning her next move; she had to time herself right and land right next to the boy. It would be terrible if he got hurt or decapitated in any way, but Neona had a very precise and flowing battle style that pretty much looked like one big dance. She was intent on pulling it of; her selective-one-track mind now refocused after the near-Apnea attack.

Stephen could hear the heartless approaching from almost everywhere. Stephen couldn't rely on his speed at this point. He can only stand and fight. A heartless jumped above Stephen and came straight down. Stabbing upwards vanquished the jumping heartless, then slashing to his left vaporized another. Behind him he could hear the girl approaching. Stephen opened a dark portal beneath him and reappeared three feet from where he estimated she would land. Stephen stabbed his keyblade into the ground and turned it. The blade's color faded, leaving it see through. He then lifted the key out of the ground and it vanished. A group of five heartless lashed out at Stephen, but an unseen force had parried all of their attacks. "Welcome to your ruin!" Stephen shouted as his keyblade disappeared and he started to levitate a few inches from the ground. He shot his arms forty-five degrees in front of him and two dark portals opened. Stephen was completely surrounded by a swirling black fog as he flicked his wrists several black swords, shields, wands, staffs, and keyblades swarmed from the two portals, ravaging as many heartless as possible. The only thing going through his mind was Protect her.

Neona's attack was suddenly parried by another larger heartless's arms, sending her hurtling straight up into the air. The shadows her keyblade had absorbed dispersed, and suddenly she began spinning in the opposite direction. Her keyblade then began glowing brightly and magnificently.

This second wave of Shadowbreaker seemed almost twice as strong as the first (if not more), even in a place as dark as this (possibly because of her alliance with the light). She dropped back down, slicing the heartless that had parried her away in half, and plowed through the mob once again.

Neona charged right towards Stephen, her attack fading out the closer she got until she finally skidded to a stop about a foot away from him. She couldn't exactly call out to him to warn him not to move, but she was pretty sure he'd get the memo in about ten seconds. Ignoring the slight dizziness and fatigue, Neona began casting Sparkaga.

She twirled around once and raised her keyblade her keyblade over her head; pointing it at the sky. Like before with the Circle Raid, she became suspended in the air above the ground. Colorful, bright sparks of light began to appear in a wide range on the battleground, and it was pretty obvious what was going to happen next.

Neona wasn't even thinking about what all this magic use and energy expenditure might do to her frail (even if it didn't completely appear that way from the outside) body...

Stephen's limit break subsided and the miscalanious wepons vanished. Stephen droped back down and fell onto one knees. He was breathing heavily and was trying to gather as much magic as he could. He called Abyssal Ruins back to his hand and looked over to the girl. She was definantly struggling to stay up. He stood up straight and took up a defensive pose. He exhaled slowly and shakily raised his key blade up. A green aura encircled him and the girl and he started to feel better. "That should help." He sighed as he was protected by the girl's spell

Casting both Sparkaga and Curaga at the same time really started to take its toll on Neona, mainly her heart. She could already feel it beginning to ache as the colored, crystallized sparks of light orbited around the boy and her at a breakneck pace.

Neona shook her head slightly as she gently decended to the ground; her Sparkaga spell wearing off now that it had finished off most of the nearby heartless. "I'm just a little out of shape... I just need to hold out until this fight ends..." she told herself in her head; rubbing the left side of her throbbing chest. She could already hear her irregular heartbeat from the palpitations pounding away in her ears; "th-th-thump... th-thump... thump... th-thump......."

While her heart palpitations were bad, they generally wouldn't kill her unless it was an extreme case. She was bound to get light-headed, but unlike when her heart would leak there was an easy fix for it. They weren't exactly comfortable; but she was sure she could handle it...

That didn't stop her vision from going blurry, though. And it definitely didn't stop the beginning of the hallucinations.

Stephen could feel his ankle start unswelling and the pressure was subsiding. Soon there wouldn't be any pain and he could use his speed to keep this girl safe. A heartless swiped at him and caught his right cheek, leaving a slight gash. Blood trickled down slowly and a slow burning rage started washing over him. He forgot all about pain. His eyes now had flecks of black among the grey. Doing a back flip Stepehn kicked the heartless that just scratched him do a flip into oblivion. Stephen tucked in his legs to gain momentum to keep spinning and land on the other side of the girl. Stephen spun around and punched a heartless right under the jaw, then slashing at it's now exposed neck, decapitating it into nothing. Stephen threw his keyblade into a few heartless, slicing them in half, and ridding them from the planet. Flipping to his side, over a heartless, he slashed and got rid of another. He could feel adrenalin surging through his entire body. Left and right heartless charged at Stephen, some trying to jump him, others clawing or diving for him. Effortlessly and gracefully he spun his keyblade in his hand, acting like a giant heartless blender. After a few seconds Stephen fell down onto his butt and breathed heavily, almost gasping for air. As far as he could tell the heartless weren't going to bother them for a little bit atleast. "Are you alright." Stephen's voice cut through the silence and the gasps for air.

Neona slumped to the ground as the boy finished off the heartless, both in awe and unable to continue any longer. She took deep breaths, her heart continuing to pound erratically and making her pulse act strangely as well. She looked up slightly and she saw shadows of more heartless; only there were no heartless. She saw blood stains and trees, but there were none.

Neona began to sign, "My heart... my heart..." over and over, trying to get a grip on reality. She didn't know exactly what memories the hallucinations were of, but she knew they were her memories and they were important. Even so, she didn't want to completely lose her head.

When Neona looked up and saw the young, bloodied, blonde male figure, her signing grew even more frantic. She was mostly trying to calm herself down, but she was starting to lose the ability to distinguish her surroundings from the hallucinations. Tears streamed down her face as she stared at nothing; everything but her hands frozen in panic.

Finally, in a last-ditch effort to get her message across, Neona made a heart shape with her fingers and then clutched and her sore, throbbing chest. She was looking for something to keep her tied to reality; to remind her that, no matter how familiar and horrifying it was, the scene in front of her wasn't happening and it was all going to be okay.

Stephen saw the girl's "heart" gesture and guessed it was a heart attack, or something heart related that wasn't good. Stephen reached into his bag and pulled out an Elixir. He opened the glass bottle and gave it to her. "My name's Stephen." He said in a friendly tone. Stephen's vision started to blur and he began to get a migraine, the after effects of using more strength and magic then he should have used. Although he didn't pass out like most people would have, he wasn't really useful when he was like this. Stephen wiped some of the blood from his face and chin off with his hand. He inspected the wound and found it was a bit deeper then he thought. He sighed and tried to focus his vision and clear his head. Just in case something else decided to show up.

It was hard, but with the help of the greatfully accepted Elixer the bo- Stephen -offered her, Neona began to relax a little bit. She took some deep breaths and began to see a little straighter.

This time, instead of signing, Neona pulled a peice of chalk out of a pocket in her dress and began writing on the road. "My name's Neona~" she scribbled on the ground in front of him. She paused to look over and give him a friendly grin, then turned back to where she had been writing. "Sorry I have to resort to this; I ran out of pages in my notebook, and sometimes I forget most people don't know sign language..." she admitted with a soundless, sheepish giggle.

Neona's expression changed to one of concern as she watched Stephen. "You're not looking well yourself... Can I do anything to help? I'll at least patch up your face" she added quickly before setting the chalk down and digging into her supplies.

Reading the chalk, Stephen finally understood that the girl, Neona, was mute. "It's fine, I don't mind reading that much." He managed a slight smile. He dabbed his wound with the back of his hand. It was still bleeding, but not as much as a minute ago. "I'll be fine, just need a quick rest." Stephen admitted and yawned. His vision was starting to improve, but his migraine was still tearing at his mind. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. The pressure started to subside, not by much though.

Just in case, Neona gently cleaned the gash on Stephen's face; and then stuck a small patch of sterile gauze over the wound. "Sorry if that stung too much..." she scribbled for him to read whenever it was convenient for him. She didn't want to intrude in his personal space, but at least now it wouldn't get infected.

Neona's heart palpitations began to subside completely and she leaned her head back a little; her eyes drifting towards the sky again. She always felt somewhat empty and alone when she was not being able to see the moon. The moon was the closest thing she had to a family; a loving care taker; a friend (ironic because people usually think of the moon as a cold rock). Ever since that event her heart remembered, but her brain didn't, she would have pangs of sadness and loneliness worse than when she had been a child; when she didn't know what it was like to have real...

"Friends..." she slowly wrote without looking away from the sky; not actually aware that she was writing anything at all.

Stephen sat there for a little, just staring off. He noticed Neona wrote something, but he didn't pay much attention. Not many people care about Stephen, or even bother to care about him after a fight. Only Jacob, his closest friend would. Stephen looked at Neona and thought for a little bit. He thought about him searching for Jacob when he went missing, looking everywhere. After the silence Stephen stood up.

(Ooc: Sorry for the wait and the lame post, my laptop and school have been problematic XD.)

Neona's eyes shifted over and followed Steven as he stood, not really sure what to do next. The palpitations had mostly gone away now so she could try and start getting around... If only she knew where she was to start. Or just plain where she was for that matter.

"Are you planning on leaving...?" Neona wrote out slowly, poking Stephen lightly on the leg to get his attention. She was aware that had only just met the guy, but admittedly it was kind of disheartening to see him go.

Ooc: I feel ya, no worries man X'D
I had a big physics project so I've been away for a bit, too |'DD

Stephen read the writing and looked at Neona. He had to admit, she looked extremely pretty in the moon light. He tried his best to hide that most recent thought. After thinking a bit he replied. "I'm not sure yet. If you're feeling better maybe we could go hang out somewhere?" Did I just ask her on a date? Stephen thought to himself, feeling his face get a little warm.

Stephen felt a kind of like a normal teenager for a moment, worrying about love and what not. He never really had a normal life, he went to school until he was thirteen, then Boom, Keyblade. From then on it was fighting and training, and doing whatever the dark told him to do. That's how Stephen became so tough, even though he had a lightheartedness to him.

Stephen quickly scanned the area, just to make sure nothing was trying to bother them. The coast was clear, for now. Stephen didn't want to risk another fight like that last one.