The day they lost their hearts was the day everything changed forever.

Looking back, Vexen can't think why they did what they did. Walking willingly into the darkness. Tossing away their hearts. What fools they'd been! Every last one of them!

But Xehanort had been a charismatic man. He'd known exactly the words to speak. The buttons to push. What to promise each one of them so that they would follow him.

And now the seek to return what the lost. And why? They'd thrown the damn things away by choice hadn't they?

But what were they now? Were they without pain? Without anquish? Of course. But what they'd found was far worse than even the darkest and most painful emotions.

Emptyness.

Devoid of any and all feelings. Devoid of life.

And for the first time in his life, science had failed him.

He looks at those around him now. Each retreating farther from the others every day. Perhaps decending into madness. Perhaps each living in their own private Hell. Vexen knows he's living in one himself.

He can't even connect with Lexaeus and Zexion anymore. Though he remembers the days before. Recalls Lexaeus' patience and kindness and Zexion's shy curiousity and wonder.

At times he thinks perhaps those two suffered the worst of it. Lexaeus had been the gentlest soul Vexen had ever known. Always helping. Always protecting. And he's come along for Vexen and Zexion's sake, hadn't he? To continue watching over them. And what use was it now?

And Zexion... God, Vexen knew that Lexaeus must have thought the same as him. He followed because they were all he had. Just a child, caught up in the madness they created.

Vexen should have known better. Should have done something to stop things before they reached that point of no return.

But what's done is done, isn't it? What can he do now but watch those he'd held dear slip further and further away.

Even now, their close enough to reach out and touch. But what good would it do? The people he loved, are they even still in there somewhere?

How helpless he is.

How foolish he is.

And how cold this world feels now.

And empty.

Yes, the day they lost their hearts was the day everything changed forever.

But you make your choices. You live with them.

And whatever you do, you don't look back.