It was raining in the black city, and the Key of Destiny danced.

He spun in the middle of a great pack of Heartless, with a keyblade in either hand. He wore a black robe, with long tassels and a hood that hid his face. He moved like a shadowed dream, and the Heartless died around him. The cores of their beings, purified by the keyblades, floated upwards through the low clouds.

He felt the other's presence before he saw anything. And without looking he spun and leapt. He got a glimpse in mid-air - a boy, shorter than him, in a white robe with a red fringe, hood up against the rain. He raised up a staff and blocked. The keyblades should have cut that narrow stick in three and then lopped the kid's arms off, but they left only shallow notches filled with white light.

"Why do you have the keyblade? Are you Xurik?"

Xurik didn't bother answering, didn't bother thinking. This boy was an intruder; the Superior would want him dead. He attacked. The enemy's staff spun, but it wasn't fast enough to hold off both weapons. He kept the keyblades away with magic - whirlwinds that shoved Xurik's strikes aside, grids of light that blocked them. Xurik sensed the lull he'd made in the Heartless attack was wearing out, felt yellow eyes on his back, and prepared to spin around. Would the boy finally strike, then?

He spun, swung at a Heartless that had been about to leap at his back - and behind him he heard a shout. "Faith!" Xurik knew it was a spell, and he braced for pain. . . but the wave of white light passed through him with only a tingle. The Heartless, though, was obliterated in mid-air, and so were dozens more. The pack was cut back to sullen eyes in the far shadows.

Xurik spun around again. His mind finally started working. This white wizard was an enemy of Heartless, so there was only one other side he could be on. "Where's Riku?"

The other was panting and drained. He blurted out, "Back in Twilight Town." Xurik blinked - he hadn't really expected an answer. "Whoops - I shouldn't have told you that. But I came to take you to him."

"Kidnapper?" Xurik asked, and swung Oathkeeper. The wizard flinched, and blinked away in a white flash. He reappeared twenty yards back, but Xurik had already thrown Way To The Dawn spinning at his face. He blinked again. Xurik looked up.

The wizard stood atop a skyscraper, his figure small and white against the black sky. Encouraged by his absence, the last of the Heartless swarmed in again behind Xurik. He left them behind, and ran right up the side of the building. His opponent ran down to face him.

Xurik brought Way To The Dawn twisting down, in a move he knew the wizard could never block. But he'd forgotten the magic. A triple-bright sphere marked in a grid of light appeared at the last second, and the force of his strike rebounded in a wave of air. Blood splashed, and Xurik was knocked away into the air. He threw Oathkeeper back at the wizard, and this time the boy wasn't fast enough. He screamed, slipped, and hung from the wall by the keyblade through his wrist. The staff fell away into the dark.

Xurik landed in the street. He was hurt, and it was bad, but he could still handle the last of the Heartless. The boy he'd defeated whimpered in pain above him as he finished them off. When they were gone, Xurik turned and walked away.

There was a grating sound, and one last scream, as the boy grabbed Oathkeeper's hilt and pulled it out. The keyblade embedded itself in the street beside Xurik, and he looked over his shoulder to see the wizard break his fall with great wings of light, that exploded into a thousand glowing feathers as he hit the ground. He picked up his staff.

"I beat you," Xurik growled. "Run away."

"Heal." Green light spiraled around both of them, and their wounds vanished.

Xurik picked up Oathkeeper, but he didn't attack. The rain fell around them for several seconds. "Why?"

"I told you, I came to take you to Riku. Namine can't wake him up - he needs your help." The wizard pushed his hood back. His spiky brown hair promptly drooped in the rain. "Please? He's important, he's the keyblade master. And he's my best friend, and I've been trying to find him for so long. . ."

Xurik let the keyblades vanish. The other boy grinned. "I'm not promising to help," Xurik said. "I just want to see him." Bigger grin. "And I was going to leave anyway. So don't flatter yourself."

The wizard ran off down a side street, waving at him to follow. "DiZ's portal is this way; come on!" Xurik jogged after him, and the boy looked over his shoulder and flashed that grin again. "My name's Sora!"