Setting: Pre-RP, home planet of the Reapers during its destruction.

Characters: Notori, Jun, mentions of Jirou and Chiyo.

Notes: Jun is much, much younger than the tough girl during her story. Before she was hardened from Reaper training, she was actually quite soft and kind to everyone, and very, very in love with Notori.

When the Heartless swarmed our planet and took over the very heart of the world, all I wanted was to run and hide. I thought not of my sister or my father, and least of all my mother across town who had always taken care of herself, but of me and the future I had.

When a world collapses halfway across the universe, all we see is its star blinking out. When a world collapses while you're standing on its soil, you see nothing but blackness and feel nothing but dread. It's not as peaceful as the fading of light.

Our world had been beneath the blood red banner of war against the Heartless for hundreds of years. Our city is close, one of the border worlds to Kingdom Hearts. When the earth shook with a thousand Heartless feet and I left my home with only the clothes on my back, the moon had changed into the symbolic heart shape. A white castle grew against the sky, hulking and forcing a shadow over what was already aptly named Dark City.

A fire ripped through the sky, and I looked up to wish my life away on a shooting star. It wasn't a star, but my father's gummi ship, stocked and loaded for months now in preparation to abandon our lost planet, flying away and leaving me behind. How many had he promised to take with him? Everyone who swore themselves to his Code and called themselves a Reaper had a room on that vessel, yet there he was, the great Jirou, launching and leaving us all behind.

The other Reapers were fighting. I could sense the turmoil in their hearts as they struck down shadow after shadow only to see my father forgetting them in his rush. There was no use for me. I had barely begun my training, and taking down an army of Heartless was no task for a child. Instead I ran with my arms pumping at my sides and my legs screaming in agony.

"Jun-bug!"

His voice! It called through the darkness and took my worries away. My Master, Notori! His scythe cut through the Heartless and he grabbed me to his body.

"Your father left us," he said. "He took Chiyo away from me. He didn't think we had a chance to win this one."

"We don't," I cried. "He left without us? We're going to-" But I couldn't say what we were going to do, because I didn't want it to be true. I still had some faith that now that I was with Notori, I was safe.

"Nah, we're getting out of here. Your father kept a few secrets of his own for just me and him." He sliced another wave of Heartless away as we tucked into an alleyway. I reminded myself that Notori was my father's first and only true apprentice, that the other Reapers were merely men who already showed promise. They each had apprentices of their own and taught them things unlike my father. Each small sect had their own secrets.

"Hold onto me," he said.

"Always," I said.

He held his hand up and opened a shadowy door. It looked like what the Heartless used to travel back and forth from our planet and wherever they rested. He scooped me up and took me through the door. I reveled in the way his pale face looked against the night sky.

He loved my sister. I loved him. I was just a shadow of my sister to everyone, even Notori, but I was his apprentice. My sister wasn't the one he had saved, but me.

"Notori," I said as we dove into the darkness. The door closed behind us, and I could see nothing. Our planet was swallowed up.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll always be here for you."