The shimmer of light faded as the Corridor sealed behind them.
The trio emerged in the Lanes Between—an ever-shifting tunnel of cosmic twilight, stars and fragments of shattered realms gliding past in infinite streams. Their Keyblade Armor flickered into place, sealing them against the void as they soared across the endless path atop their gliders.
Traverse Town was still a fair distance away.
"Feels quiet," Skuld said over the rush of magical wind.
"Well, that's a flag if I've ever heard one," Helios replied, his voice low. "Something... bad is about to happen."
Aqua glanced at him. "What do you mean?"
Helios didn't answer.
Because something inside him stirred.
It wasn't pain. Or fear. Or even dread.
It was a pull.
Like something buried deep inside him was knocking, whispering, clawing—asking to be let out.
He knew what it was. He had been waiting for this moment for quite a while.
And somehow he knew what it wanted.
His Keyblade Armor glowed once—and then, without a word, disassembled, dissipating into glowing fragments of light that scattered into the dark like dying stars.
The moment the armor vanished, darkness surged in.
A violent, crushing wave of raw shadow slammed into him—and radiated outward like a supernova.
"Helios!" Aqua shouted.
Both she and Skuld were thrown from their gliders, tumbling through the dark winds. Their armors held, barely, long enough to stabilize themselves.
But the space around them was no longer stable.
A vortex of black energy and spiraling gravity had formed around Helios, and at its center, he hovered—eyes clenched shut, body trembling.
"Why did he take off his armor?!" Skuld shouted, shielding her eyes.
"I don't know," Aqua yelled back. "But if I had to guess… he just lost to the darkness inside him."
A wave of panic crossed Skuld's face. "Are we going to lose him?!"
Aqua's hands clenched. "Be ready."
"For what?!"
"In case… we have to stop him."
At the heart of the maelstrom, Helios hovered, arms stretched outward as darkness ripped through him.
Near his heart, a blackness that had always been there began to change. It no longer looked like smoke.
It was thicker than mist—denser than shadow. It wasn't just surrounding his heart. It was entering it. Merging with it. Becoming one with his heart.
Outside, his body changes began to occur. The darkness bled into his veins, coated his skin like armor, and swirled into his soul like black ink poured into water.
The familiar flickers of violet and blue light within the dark mist now vanished.
This darkness didn't glow.
It consumed.
It was silent, infinite, and starless—a bottomless abyss given form.
Helios didn't scream. He didn't fight.
Because this wasn't a fight for dominance.
It was acceptance.
The missing piece had now just returned, and because of it, he now felt whole.
And the darkness feeling whole embraced its vessel.
The vortex collapsed inward all at once, shrinking and tightening until all that remained was a humanoid figure wreathed in absolute black, with faint, glowing markings across the chest—resembling the emblem of a Heartless, but warped, veined through with pulsating blue fire.
From behind Helios, black tendrils flickered like tattered wings, swaying unnaturally.
He opened his eyes—burning golden.
Then looked toward Aqua and Skuld, who retreated a little, preparing for a fight.
And flew.
The shockwave of his movement shattered what was left of their gliders. Aqua and Skuld landed hard on pieces of floating debris, barely managing to right themselves.
The aura radiating off Helios now was suffocating—an endless pressure. Neither flame nor weight. Just presence. And it demanded submission.
Both girls instantly summoned their Keyblades, armor flickering.
Aqua's voice trembled. "Helios...? Are you still there?"
No response.
He raised a hand—and with a single flick of his fingers, two swirling corridors of darkness formed behind them.
A gust of voidwind exploded outward.
It caught Aqua and Skuld off-guard—too fast, too heavy.
"Wait—!" Skuld cried out.
"Helios, stop!" Aqua shouted.
But the wind didn't listen.
It slammed into them, dragging them both backward.
Their armor crackled, resisting the pull—but the power was too concentrated, too absolute.
The corridors widened like hungry mouths.
Aqua's hand reached forward, just inches from Helios' face—her eyes glaring, wishing she had acted sooner.
But then—
They were gone.
Both Skuld and Aqua were hurled into the dark corridors, swallowed in silence as the portals snapped shut behind them.
Helios hovered alone in the Lanes Between.
His armor was gone.
He looked at his hands, shadows still flickering across his fingers.
'Not yet balanced. I've reclaimed my darkness. Soon… I'll grow my light to match it.'
He turned toward the void in front of him, eyes glowing as another dark corridor opened silently in his path.
"Now that the two nuisances are gone, I can do what needs to be done," said Helios coldly.
"Two Nobodies," he whispered. "Nobodies are born in the In-Between Realms, or otherwise known as Nexus Worlds. The ones I know of include Traverse Town, Yen Sid's Tower, Castle Oblivion, Twilight Town, and The World That Never Was. Radiant Gardens might possibly be one now that darkness exists there."
"I need to find them… before anyone else does. Traverse Town and Yen Sid's Tower are currently a no-go for me, especially in this form. I don't want to deal with Yen Sid, and if I head to Traverse Town, dealing with Merlin will be an equal headache. So for now, I guess Twilight Town will be the first location."
He stepped forward—and vanished into the dark.