Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Square related character. This is a Sephiroth story, so just keep in mind that Sora and Co. may not appear. Just get that good before this all starts.

The following is a reference for the future of this story, (just incase you may be wondering later on). These are Ansem's reports 2 and 3, if you couldn't tell already ^_^...

Report 2

It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments: Extract the darkness from a person's heart. Cultivate darkness in a pure heart. Both suppress and amplify the darkness within. The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle. Some time later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness... What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?

Report 3

The shadows that crawl beneath the castle...Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond my imagination? All my knowledge has provided no answer. One thing I am sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart. Fortunately, there is no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report. They still need a name. Those who lack hearts...I will call them the Heartless.

(Alright, with that said, on with the story! Please review and tell me what you think!)

Whispers in the Wall

Trudging through the dark and dank halls of the lower prisons, his boots echoed throughout the area, being all but the loud cries of the Heartless to be heard. With the dimly lighted torches around, which had been lit before by the guards for his entrance, he looked past the cell bars and to the creatures lying inside. Most were the normal; either small, single Heartless or the dirty, white-wrapped Heartless, but nothing really new. However, as he saw one of the cells empty, he stared closer into it, seeing it wasn't empty after all. His face twisted in disgust, kneeling to catch a good glace before he came to his first conclusion.

"Huh...They really messed up this time," he stated, reaching in a tilting the bent head.

This person, who ever she had been, was dead. Cold, lifeless, dead. It didn't even appear like her heart had been taken, but had just died for some unknown reason. The girl, looking about her mid-twenties, had matted black hair, falling over her blindfolded face. Her skin was ghostly pale, giving the indication that she was inert. She wore a tattered long-sleeved shirt that was a dark green and had sleeves that extended over her hands, with a pair of baggy black pants and no shoes on her feet. He just shook his head in almost pity, (but of course he had barely any to be classified as pity). Standing up, he was about to shout something, went shockingly he heard a laugh, a human laugh, and looked back down. He stood back, seeing the smirking face gazing up at him.

"Don't bother," the girl said, the words coming from her dry throat and escaping through her cracked lips. "They can't hear where they are anyway."

"You're...alive?" he questioned, bewildered at the notion.

"I guess you could say that. I have a heartbeat, so I suppose that counts for something."

In his wonder, which never really happened, he reached forward, forcefully putting his gloved hand to her neck in trying to feel her pulse. Indeed he felt it, and in the moment he noticed one, he pulled away, knowing that she really was alive.

"Three hundred and fourteen..." she murmured to herself.

"What did you say?" he inquired, still in his unbelieving condition.

"Oh...Well you're the three hundred and fourteenth person to do that. Not really surprising why either."

He just stared, narrowing his eyes after a bit of thought. Shaking his head, he turned away, beginning to walk back. He didn't need to deal with this, and his own self-embarrassment was enough in thinking she had been dead. 'Let the guards handle it' he would say in his head. As he reached the entrance, his anger made his blood boil, grabbing one of the guards by the collar.

The guard just stuttered in fear, "Y-yes sir?"

"Someone is alive down there," he hissed.

"B-but that is impossible! N-no one w-would be alive if they were down there with the Heart-" he tried to argue, but only received a death gaze from him.

"Do you question my word, guard? I said someone is alive, get it? These Heartless have not tasted the blood of the living at this waking moment just yet, and I would require them not to so they will be efficient in the arena. If they are starving, they shall thirst for more and in doing so will do anything to get it. Understand?"

The guard just nodded shortly, being dropped to the ground afterward. He scoffed in annoyance, thinking of how incompetent these people were. How all these people were. If it were up to him to decide he would have all these foolish being eradicated, for they were no use to him. Even his servants were useless, and the one running this place; it made him wonder how he ever took it over. The past owners must have been real weaklings to let someone like Hades gain power. And though he could overthrow him easily, he just didn't feel like running a world of his own, and would rather have others do it for him. He didn't care what happened to this place, and so long as he was obeyed in being the strongest warrior in this stadium, he'd just let things slip by and fight whatever came in his way.

Entering into the halls to his apartments, he could see the servants fumbling to get things in order, opening the doors for him and standing in a line incase he asked for something. Of course, as always, he didn't, waving a hand to dismiss them and landing his back on his bed as they quickly shut the door behind. Putting a hand on his head, he felt a major headache coming on, shaking his head while shutting his eyes. Maybe he should've just let that girl stay down there; then he wouldn't be so bored. He hadn't fought anything in so many months and it was driving him mad, stooping so low as to request contestants to be brought in. Feeling he was growing rusty, he sometimes faced against Heartless, but then again they were pathetic compared to him. Was this to be the remainder of his life? Waiting for some unlucky foe to come and fight him?

He turned his head to the window, hearing shouts emerge from it. Standing up, he walked over, looking out into the arena floor, where the door to the prison cells had been. His eyes widened as he saw what was unfolding, even wondering how this would turn out. Two of the guards lay lifeless, their hearts taken and swallowed, and the other two poor souls trying to ward off the horde attacking them. The Heartless just pored out of the prison doors like a swarm of locus, all rushing to consume their victims. He just smirked, knowing that he would be called upon sometime to beat off these masses, and his boredom would be avoided for at least a second.

In the corner of his eye he saw something move, turning his head away to face it. A shadowy figure leaned against the wall, seeming like it tried to stay out of the sunlight as much as it could, and made it's way into the halls of the Coliseum. He chuckled, taking the masamune that was against the wall and pulling it from its sheath, beginning to walk to the door. With this it opened wide, a servant running through.

"Master! The Hea-" the servant began, but was cut off shortly after.

"Yes, yes, I know. I shall take care of this mess," he stated, walking past and out into the halls.

When he came past a few corners out, he heard a painful cry, seeing a corpse of a guard being tossed aside like some doll and the Heartless twisting around and heading to his direction. Seeing that they were all just small, meaningless Heartless, he shrugged it off, preparing to strike as they came. He smirked, knowing that this one little serge of a battle would give him some incentive, calculating there were so many. But as they came, they suddenly stopped, all at the same time glancing up. Sephiroth, as he was known to be called, conscious that these Heartless weren't smart enough for a counterattack, gazed up at well, only to have feet being kicked into his face.

Stumbling back, he quickly gained balance, narrowing his eyes in anger to what did that. Straightening, he witnessed an enraged face of the girl from before, standing in a fighting stance with her eyes still blindfolded with a black strip of cloth. Oddly enough, the Heartless did not attack her, even if they were attracted to living beings. Maybe her dead appearance meant something, but he didn't know...and really didn't care. He spit to the side, tasting a twinge of blood in his mouth, and raised his masamune up again, glaring.

With an unexpected grin, the girl waved her hand, the Heartless backing away and into another corridor of the place, soon crossing her arms.

"You're one to loose your temper easily, are you not?" she questioned.

"Well, being kicked in the face doesn't exactly happen that often. At least I have the reassurance that you'll never do that, or anything, ever again after this next minute."

Her face looked puzzled, tilting her head slightly. But bringing it upright again, she shrugged, waving a hand at him. He just raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" he inquired.

"Waving goodbye," she answered.

"What?" he questioned irately. But before he could say anything more, she ran off, coming to a window around the next hall. As he followed, he saw her jump off the edge, looking off in knowing that was a five-story fall. Surprisingly enough he did not see her fall, or land for that matter, and was infuriated that she had gotten away.

'She can't get that far,' he thought to himself. 'She'll come around again, and when she shows her head I'll be there to sever it!'

In the late hours of the day, Sephiroth went back to his apartments, defeating all the Heartless he could find at the time. All of them had seemed to disappear, just out of thin air, but from all he had seen earlier he believed he had gotten rid of most of them. It didn't bother him to sleep, because he figured they were all too frightened to get near him again. He again flopped down onto his bed, lying back and shutting his eyes. In the time it took him to dose off, someone's patience was becoming shrill. When he finally did fall asleep, the figure came down from her hiding spot aloft on the roof above his open window, silently walking over to him. In vague emotion, she reached down a hand, putting it on his chest where his heart would be. But, as she had almost expected and had not hoped, it did nothing, sighing.

A pair of eyes came open with her touch, a firm hand coming up and twisting her wrist. Sephiroth jumped up, using his other hand to wrap it around her neck, backing her up against a wall and squeezing it tight. His eyes glazed with a certain coldness, starting to speak with a deathly tone.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he questioned.

She did not answer him, but only stared, or seemed like she was, through her blindfold. From her gritted teeth, she calmed, stretched out her hand and placing it on the side of his face. She tilted her head again, confused in a way.

"You're warm...You can't be a Heartless..." she proclaimed, Sephiroth rapidly ripping her hand away but still keeping a hand around her neck.

"Why are you here?!" he exclaimed.

"M-my family...they're hungry..." she stated, her head bending down. "And you're not going to get in my way!" With her spare hand she lunged forward, punching him in the stomach and his grip being released.

She ran by him, reaching for the window but tripped because of the hand grabbing her ankle. Quickly looking back, she used her other foot to bury it into his face, his hand not releasing like before. Instead he pinned her down with a knee on her stomach and a hand around her throat again, reaching for a light to the side. He grabbed a candle on the desk, lighting it with a short fire spell and bringing it close to her face, almost that it was touching the cloth just over one of her eyes.

"You will tell me who you are and you will tell me what you mean by your 'family,'" he ordered, the words barely escaping through his gritted teeth.

"Okay, yes, I will tell you, but please get it away, please! That light hurts, it hurts!" she screamed, catching Sephiroth off guard. He pulled the light away, the girl seeming to relax a bit. Even though she was being choked, she put her hands over her eyes, her face tightening and Sephiroth feeling beneath his hand her throat swallow. She was in pain, all because of the bright light put up to her eyes. Strangely he noticed a small amount of sympathy added to wonder, but remembering she had tried to steal his heart he only tightened his hand.

"Now say it!"

"I...I..."

"Say it!" he shouted, lifting her head slightly and hitting it hard against the rock floor. "I want an answer!"

"My family...please, let me go to them..." she said, her voice soft as a whisper.

"Your family; are they the Heartless?! Are they?!" Again, he hit her head against the floor. "Tell me! Are you checking out things for them so they can harvest their dinners?! Or are you seeing how liable the prey is?!"

"Please...Neither my family nor I will never bother you again...I promise...just please, let me go."

"Never," he spat, grabbing her hair and lifting her from the ground while he stood up. "You will stay here for the night and in the morning you shall explain this to me, including the detail of where your 'family' presides. Maybe we can deal with their hunger problem by returning them to the darkness from whence they came!"

"No, please, you don't understand-" she tried to explain, but he would hear none of it.

"Oh, I understand completely!" he ridiculed, shoving her into a wardrobe. She shouted and screamed through the thick wooden doors, pounding on them. But he just locked it shut, making sure she would have no chance at escape. He laughed, returning to his bed and lying down, ignoring her exclamation completely to get some peaceful sleep in knowing his tediousness would be delayed for a while to come.