Author's Note: I lied. I said this was a oneshot but it was 'long' for a oneshot, and it split into threes perfectly. I lied, I lied. Sue me. Heh, joking. This is a story I promised on my MSN messenger and my bio page, along with some other…interesting little stories and a huge remix project of my bigger works. Yup, I'm busy. And my summer's just begun. So I hope you enjoy this story. My betas certainly did.

Copyrights: Characters, settings, and back story belong to Square-Enix and Disney. This itty-bitty mini-storyline is mine. The title isn't, if my information's right. Has nothing to do with the song.

Disclaimer: It could be my fault Castle Oblivion happened the way it did. I told the Superior that my mission failed, easy as it was. After all, Naminé erased the truth.

Lights and Sounds

1 – Mission Impossible

His orders were explicit and very simple. He knew it wouldn't be hard following them. In fact, it was his belief that this could be the easiest mission ever assigned to any member of the Organization.

Convince the Princess of Heart to follow you out of her world. Then take her to Castle Oblivion, where we'll use her to manipulate the Keyblade Wielder when he comes. If this proves utterly impossible, then abandon plans and return. We can deal with the Keyblade Wielder without her if we have to.

He looked down at the paper one more time, scanned the very professional writing, and felt the need to commend Vexen for actually taking the time to type out orders that could have been scribbled out in pen.

Can't believe you have the time to do that sort of thing…

He crinkled his nose as a fresh blast of air brought to him the scent of salt. He's already decided he didn't like the ocean but he couldn't avoid it, not if he was to do his job and do the best he can finding and taking the Princess of Heart with him back to Castle Oblivion.

Why couldn't they have used the boy to bring her to Castle Oblivion? The two are nearly alike; it would be so easy to convince her. But no, that bastard had to run off looking for the Keyblade Wielder himself and he's dumped the task on me, on me! Well then…

Zexion folded up the paper and pocketed it. He looked around, narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied the landscape. His left eye, free of his blue hair, took in the flatness of the waves, the faint silhouettes of the offshore islands, and encoded them in his memory. Remembering how Destiny Island's shores looked like would be very important to their cause later on, he knew. Being able to recreate Destiny Island could be a useful tool indeed.

He turned towards the houses up ahead. All the lights were out; it was peacefully quiet. It was night, after all. Zexion sighed, then closed his eyes and sniffed the air. He frowned at the blast of salt and sand, then sniffed again. Through the cold and the salt he caught the faint traces of people. He could smell the sweat of people crisscrossing all over the beaches and realized he was in for one hell of a mission after all.

How was he supposed to find the Princess of Heart this way? Nobody back up at Castle Oblivion had a clear idea of how she looked like. The one they were relying on to make the plans work, Naminé, had said she was going to need the boy's memory in order to give them a good idea of how the Princess of Heart was going to look like. That wasn't all that helpful and it took the Superior's orders to keep him from lashing out at her in frustration. Zexion was being forced to hunt down someone he had no idea looked like.

I could be using this time to do something more important, he thought crossly as he took several steps forward smelling the air. All he got was sweat, then he started picking up sickly sweet aromas and the heavy musky smells of what seemed to be dogs. Perfumes and dogs. His mind was being muddled over.

A few more steps and at the very edge of the beach he picked up a new scent. He sniffed twice, then gasped and took a step back. He had no idea what it was but it was utterly overpowering. He didn't know how to describe it – it wasn't salty or sweet or heady or musky or sickly – but it practically glowed amongst all the other smells. And it was headed straight up a street, up the hill and deep into the quiet town.

Zexion sighed. He was really in for it now.

Author's Endnote: Um…two pieces of advice. One, Naminé doesn't do much. Two, I like crack.