Dlbn: Hey there, everyone! For those who are just rereading, you'll notice a few changes in these chapters. I've gone through and corrected all the horrendous errors in them. For anyone who hasn't read before; welcome, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. It all belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix. I make NO money off of this work of fiction.

000

Ienzo, Dilan, Braig, Even, Aeleus, and Xehanort stood together in front of the computer of Ansem the Wise. The foolish man they worked for hadn't allowed them to further their studies into the Heartless, but they weren't about to let that put a damper on their research. Xehanort typed some newly acquired data into the computer. "This is it, Ienzo?" He wondered.

The youngest of the males nodded. "That's everything." He looked over the spreadsheet in his hand. "Yup. Everything we need."

"Good." Dilan answered the boy. "If we need to do any more damn research, I'm gonna blow a fuse!"

"Relax, Dilan." Even ordered with a roll of his eyes. "We're in the experimental phase now."

"Your favorite part." Aeleus told him.

"Yep!"
Xehanort shook his head. "Calm down, all of you."

The others didn't say anything for a moment. "How are we so sure this will work?" Braig asked. "What if the Heartless grow out of…?"

"You worry too much." Ienzo accused.

"Our data is flawless." Even seemed sure of himself. "No need to worry."

Braig didn't seem convinced. Xehanort's hand hovered near a switch on the side of the Heartless Generating Terminal, the HGT. "Here goes nothing." He said.

Ienzo held his pen ready to write what occurred for further reference. Xehanort flipped the switch up. The HGT whirled to life. The conveyor belt at the opposite end of the terminal began rolling, gears creaking.

"Well I'll be damned." Braig said. "It works."

"Told you." Even snapped.

A black Heartless came out on the conveyor belt, dancing a sporadic dance that was common to the little creature's breed. Its yellow eyes seemed to glow under the lights from the lab as it hopped off the table and scuttled away from the six apprentices, antennae wiggling.

"What's it supposed to be doing?" Dilan wondered. "It seems afraid of us. Shouldn't it…look for food or go hide in darkness or something?"

Ienzo wrote down his observations. "Our information claims so." He informed.

Even looked over his shoulder at the paper. "He's right." The older male said. "They should be multiplying at the least."

"So what's wrong?" Xehanort looked confused as well.

"I don't know." Ienzo flipped through the pages upon pages of data the team had acquired. They were attached to the clipboard he held. "Everything seems to be in order."

"Try making another one." Even offered. "Maybe it's just this one."

Xehanort flipped the switch again and another black Heartless came out. This one was a bit bigger than the first one, but it looked essentially the same.

"That one's new." Ienzo said, writing down a small description of the Heartless on his paper.

The Heartless hopped off of the conveyor belt and scuttled towards them. Five of the apprentices backed up as a unit, but Xehanort stood where he was and stopped them from going too far. "Don't run," He ordered. "You know they attack when you run. Ienzo? You getting this all down?"

"Uh…y-yeah…" Ienzo stuttered, his hands shaking. He wrote down everything that had happened.

The Heartless stopped advancing when the apprentices stopped moving. It stood in place and twitched. The first Heartless scuttled over, walking sideways. It stood next to the taller Heartless and the two of them stared as though the apprentices' hearts were their next meal. More Heartless began to come out on the moving conveyor belt.

"Enough Heartless already, Ansem!" Aeleus snapped at their leader.

Xehanort had taken Ansem the Wise's name and masqueraded as him. He was still just plain old Xehanort to Ienzo, though.

"I'm not flipping the switch!" Xehanort answered, forcing the switch down into an 'off' position. "I turned it off!"

"Then why are they still coming?!" Braig snarled. "I knew this wouldn't work. Shit!"

Xehanort finally backed up with the others, into a wall. The Heartless kept coming out of the machine and advancing towards them. They were mostly black Heartless, but there were some other Heartless. Ienzo's pen scratched furiously across his paper, describing every different type of new Heartless. After a few moments of no one doing or saying anything, the first two Heartless launched themselves at the apprentices. The men didn't say anything, but each held up their arms over their chests to protect their hearts. No doubt that was what the Heartless were after. Ienzo clutched the clipboard to his chest.

"No!" Xehanort cried out.

The small Heartless landed on Braig and the other on Dilan. They scratched at the men's arms to try and move them from their hearts. Even and Aeleus pulled the Heartless off, but the Heartless just pierced their claws through their backs and ripped out their hearts. The two of them screamed bloody murder as their hearts beat a final few times before the Heartless devoured them.

"Even! Aeleus!" Xehanort called to them. "Damn it!"

Dilan, Braig, and Ienzo stood, motionless. "Damn." Ienzo muttered. "Our data was wrong…the Heartless are…they're…"

The bodies that were Even and Aeleus became shadow Heartless, like the small back one the machine had churned out first. "Simply amazing…" Xehanort trailed. "Ienzo!"

"I got it." Ienzo wrote it down, feeling his eyes cloud with light tears.

"There's no time for writing things down." Braig pointed to the machine, still churning out the Heartless. "We have to get out of here. Their numbers are increasing!"

The four remaining apprentices ran out of the room, Heartless following. Braig tripped on the overturned rug in the middle of the hallway and fell to the floor. Dilan turned. "Braig!" He called, starting to run to his friend.

Ienzo grabbed him roughly by the forearm as Heartless pounced on Braig's back, ripping his heart out. Braig screamed as Even and Aeleus had before. The Heartless on his back devoured his still beating heart. "Braig! No!" Dilan cried out.

Ienzo pulled him foreword. "There's nothing we can do now, Dilan! Unless you want to die, too, run!" He ordered, still clutching the clipboard in his hand.

"But…Braig…"

The boys watched in horror as Braig became a shadow Heartless and bounded after him. Ienzo tried to pull Dilan with him as he ran, but Dilan didn't move. "Braig…It's me. Don't you recognize me?"

"Dilan, no!" Ienzo tried to go after him, but a strong hand grasped his arm and held him back.

"It's suicide." Xehanort whispered. "He's done for."

As he spoke, Braig leapt at Dilan and pulled his heart from his chest. He engulfed it as Dilan crumpled to the ground, becoming a Heartless.

"This way!" Xehanort ordered Ienzo, pulling him along.

Ienzo stumbled after the older male, pulling his arm away. The Heartless, including the ones who used to be Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Braig, chased after them. Xehanort hit a panel on the left hallway wall and it slid away to reveal a hidden passage. He pulled Ienzo inside and shut the wall. Heartless hit the wall panel and ripped at the wallpaper, but they couldn't break through the brick wall itself. Xehanort pulled a lit torch out of the holder on the wall and held it up high. "Let's go. Come on." He ordered.

"How long has this been here?" Ienzo wondered, keeping a wary eye on the older male.

"I figured something might go wrong with our experiments, I just didn't know it would be on this scale. We lost four outstanding young gentlemen today."

"They were anything but gentle, Braig and Dilan especially." Ienzo corrected, making the sign of a cross over his chest for speaking of the dead in such a manner.

"I created this passageway about a month ago. It leads to the outside."

Ienzo nodded and looked over his charts and recordings. "You thought something would go wrong and yet you let us go ahead with the experiments anyway." Ienzo snarled. "We lost them because of you. We should've listened to the old man."

He was referring to Ansem the Wise, who had vanished from their world some time ago. He had predicted that their further experiments would lead to their downfalls, and he had been right. If only they had listened to him.

"Be quiet." Xehanort ordered. "You want to survive to see another day or no?"

Ienzo said nothing and stared up at the older man.

"Thought so." Xehanort said. He led Ienzo through a twisting maze of tunnels. When they made it to the other end of the hall, another panel opened up into Xehanort's room. Ienzo followed Xehanort in.

"Why does it lead to your room?" Ienzo wondered, suspicious.

"It's the closest to the best escape route." Xehanort's answer seemed innocent enough, but Ienzo didn't exactly trust him.

Still, Ienzo followed him out into the room. Xehanort led him back into the hallway and out the castle's back door. They descended the stairs to the ground and walked away from the castle, which was being overrun by darkness and Heartless.

"Now what?" Ienzo wondered.

"We flee." Xehanort responded.

Ienzo looked around, making sure nothing was following them. A couple shadow Heartless scampered after them. "Xehanort!" Ienzo called to the older male. "We have company!"

Xehanort turned. "I figured as much. Come with me."

Ienzo followed him through the woods to a clearing. There were a bunch of white creatures, with metallic-royal-blue markings running up and down the sides of their bodies, in the clearing. They were walking around with long, even strides. Ienzo watched, fascinated, and wrote a description on the notepad he was still holding.

"What are these things?" He wondered.

"I don't have a name for them." Xehanort shook his head. "They began appearing when the people of this town started to lose their hearts. They aren't Heartless."

"I can tell." Ienzo nodded, scribbling on the paper some more. "Why are we here?"

"I have a feeling that our friends are among them." Xehanort entered the clearing.

The unnamed creatures stopped walking around and stood, watching Xehanort approach, their bodies swiveling from side to side in quick, jerking movements. Ienzo began to join the older man, but Heartless leapt out from the trees.

"Xehanort!" Ienzo called to warn him.

Xehanort turned to him, and the strange look crossing his eyes was the last movement Ienzo ever saw him make. His body crumpled to the ground as the Heartless devoured his heart.

"No!" Ienzo cried in protest.

Bad idea. The Heartless turned to him and leaped across the ground, bounding back and forth. One of the larger shadows formed out of the darkness of Ienzo's shadow. It leapt at his heart.

"No!" Ienzo protested again, swiping at the creature with his clipboard.

Ienzo scribbled down a message as a last ditch attempt to warn whoever came along next against the danger. He hadn't finished his words when the Heartless pounced and knocked him to the ground. He fought back, kicking the Heartless away. But one of them ripped its claws into his chest and pulled out his heart. The sound of his heart beating and the glowing yellow eyes of the Heartless that killed him were the last things Ienzo ever remembered.

000

Zexion awoke with a start, screaming, a few years after the deaths of Ansem's apprentices.

"Damn you, Ienzo." He muttered. "Damn you to hell."