“See ya tomorrow!” called Zack, saying goodbye to his friends. He’d sure had had a lot of fun today, meeting up with his friends and having loads of fun. Even during training there was a moment where he and Fayte had cracked up laughing…. And had been punished for, as his Sensei put it ‘breaking the concentration of the other disciples’. Zack couldn’t help but smile again and, raising both arms and putting his hands behind his head he continued to walk towards his home.

He didn’t know if he should be happy or sad about it… His old man had forgotten about his birthday yet again. Well, he had gotten used to it a long time ago. This wasn’t the first time it happened and he’d given up on his dad already. He was the kind of man that never seemed to smile; he was always so serious and cold. There were even times in which his father locked himself up into his study and didn’t come out for several days (or even weeks!). His dad was just weird but it still was his dad. He couldn’t blame him… Everything had changed since his mother died and that probably changed his father. But well…

It was due to these thoughts that Zack took his time to notice that something was weird, but he just didn’t know what. He had one of these feeling that something had happened, something bad. He looked at the sky and saw only dark clouds that covered the sun’s light. The hot day had suddenly become cold. It was as if all life had just withered away… He didn’t know why but he started to run towards his house, his smile had been replaced by an anxious face. As he ran down the street he could feel a vague smell, but his mind just couldn’t recognize it.

And that’s where it struck him. This weird feeling… the usual lively neighborhood he lived in, filled with little kids playing and running and yelling was empty for some reason, the remnants of their laughter still echoing through the shadows of the road. It was then that he saw it, that humongous ball of reddish light igniting the heavens and… his home.

He ran full speed towards his house, hoping his dad was ok, that he’d managed to get out just in time. But, in that inferno, he saw the silhouette of somebody lying in the floor, somebody….who….greatly resembled his father…. Zack threw the backpack he was carrying and ran towards the half-charred corpse of his father, who was lying in a pool of his own blood. Death had come quickly; there was just no way he was alive, and yet the teen embraced him, hoping he’d open his eyes anytime soon, hoping he’d say everything was alright.

“You’ve grown, Zack”

The brunette gasped. He looked around, searching for the origin of the deep voice he’d just heard. Just a bit to his right stood a tall and thin man, a big black cape covering most of his body and head, with the exceptions of the hands and feet, which were covered by what seemed to be a black, shining garment – Black metal. Although Zack couldn’t make much of this man, he could feel that he was inspecting him carefully.

“Who’re you?!” yelled Zack with an edgy tone in his voice, doing his best to fight the tears that threatenned to stream down his face any second now.

“Relax, kid” responded the man, pulling his arms up a little, his open palms were facing the dark sky. “I’m nothing more than a friend –“

“—did you do this to my old man?!”

“Your 'father'” answered the dark-clothed man calmly. “was just a nuisance to us. He had… outlived his usefulness and so we were sent to …” The mysterious man performed circular movements with his hand, as if looking for a more appropriate word to use. “exterminate him.”

“You son of a –!!!”

“Now now, kid. Why don’t you forget about your old man and come with us?” The man extended his right hand to Zack, which the latter one forcefully pushed away with his own. “ You’re just doing this more complicated, kid. Come with us or we’ll –“

“Kill me? Just give it a try, you assh—“

The old man sighed and, with a snap of his fingers, the lingering Shadows seemed to take form in front of Zack’s eyes, taking the shape of hundreds of ‘things’ that had a weird heart tattoo somewhere on their bodies. The heartless quickly began to move towards Zack, who instinctively got to this feet and entered into a fighting stance.

Zack used his gloved fist to punch the heartless that had jumped towards him, sending it flying a couple of feet back, eventually crashing against the other shadows that were standing in the back rows. Another one of those ‘beasts’ rushed towards Zack, but was stopped by a strong round-kick and, just like the previous heartless, crashed against the other ones behind it. But the shadows didn’t stop; they kept on attacking, rushing towards the brunette in groups of three, four and five. The teen however, was putting a good fight and kept on defeating them.

Meanwhile, the man in the black cap stood nearby, watching how Zack defeated the heartless. The boy was putting a good fight, although not as good as to get away without getting scratched by those claws from time to time. After a hundred or more heartless had been defeated the man started to clap his hands.

“Congratulations, kid. Your ‘dad’ seemed to know what he was doing after all. Who would’ve thought you knew how to fight! However….” The man snapped his fingers and more and more heartless began to materialize out of nowhere. “You cannot win. So come with us and I’ll stop this meaningless fight.”

Zack didn’t respond. He refused to go with the one that had murdered his father… and he refused to give up altogether. Breathing heavily, the teen once again took his battle stance and prepared himself to defeat his enemies.

“Very well…”

More and more heartless kept on appearing and it didn’t take long before the brunette was surrounded by darkness. He knew he didn’t stand a chance but he preferred to die fighting than to give up. That’s why he rushed to the line of heartless just in front of him and he proceeded to thrust his palm against the big fat heartless, which fell down and began to roll backwards, squashing all the smaller heartless that stood behind him.

“Heh, the bigger they are, the harder they fall” said Zack, a smile spreading through his face.