Three's A Crowd

Adair and Voltaire suddenly felt left out of the conversation, as if they only half-existed to these two.

"Exactly how does your connection work?" asked Adair. "I mean we-"

Voltaire gave the redhead a sharp nudge and a warning glare.

"-We're just curious, that's all."

Three Shadows surfaced on a rooftop nearby. Voltaire roasted them before they had a chance to flatten themselves across the ground.

"By the way, just what are these Heartless things that keep showing up?" asked Voltaire. "Some girl tried to explain it earlier, but she was confusing."

The two quirked an eyebrow at one another. Without speaking, they both decided that it would be best to answer the second question, and hope that the first would go unnoticed.

"All hearts have darkness in them," Xreig began.

"No matter how small a part," Gris finished for him.

"And when the darkness consumes a heart, it becomes a Heartless." The two nodded sagely.

"Yeah, but what is this darkness?" asked Voltaire. "I assume you don't lose a heart if you walk through the night, or sleep when it's dark. What makes this darkness different?"

"Darkness...." Xreig closed his eyes contemplatively.

"It's many things." Gris said, suddenly. "Anger, fear, hatred, suspicion.... Dark feelings, dark actions." Darkness was something he was well-acquainted with. He was a Heartless himself, after all. He was luck, though. Xreig and Grayson were always close by him, and their presence balanced out his darkness. They made him feel somewhat less dark. More human, if you will.

Xreig looked at his companion with a bit of surprise at the sudden moment of clarity.

"Okay, that makes more sense," replied Voltaire. "The heart gets poisoned by its dark emotions, until it can't take the poison anymore and turns itself into a monster. And it eats hearts because it's trying to recapture the goods emotions that died with thr bad, or something like that."

Ava seem distracted, studying something in the distance. Both Adair and Voltaire craned their necks to see what held her attention, and noticed a towering castle far off in the distance. It looked abandoned by the way it was falling apart. Even as they watched a bit of rock tumbled down its side.

"What's that place in the distance?" asked Voltaire.

"The castle," they said in unison.

"A remnant from before the Heartless came here." Xreig frowned at the crumbling palace. There was just something about it.

"The restoration committee hasn't gotten to that particular project yet." Gris said, looking at the trio. "Xreig isn't fond of it, so we usually don't go there. It's infested with heartless anyway."

"Oh," Voltaire replied, still looking at the ruin. "So much for a place to camp out."

"But why would the Heartless be there, if nobody goes there?" asked Adair. "If they seek hearts, then they would go where they could find lots of hearts. Unless people actually live up there?"

Gris shrugged. "Who knows what they're thinking?" That was precisely why he had no patience for most other Heartless. They were dumb. Especially compared to haw wonderfully brilliant Xreig and I are. he thought.

Xreig threw one last distrustful glare at the castle before turning back to the party before them. "There's one of the still-abandoned residential districts towards the outskirts of town where you could stay. It's fairly safe there."

Both their eyes went cold for a moment, as the same thought crossed their minds. It was safe there because they made it so. The Heartless and Nobodies of the area knew very well that is anything were to happen to Grayson, Gris and Xreig would end them.

"Really? That's great," said Adair. "I was worried that we might have to camp out again. It's not usually a problem, but it looks like a storm is coming."

"Yeah, don't want to get caught up in that crap," Voltaire added. Fire-types and water mixed poorly. "So where's the district at?"

"The other side of town," they said in unison.

"Gris can escort you there," Xreig said. "I'll go ahead and make sure the way is clear for you."

"Sounds good to us," answered Voltaire. "Lead the way."