A/N: I am still going to continue with "Life in Three Colors," so don't worry. This is just the prologue for yet another story that I am doing. Actually... it's one that I wrote a year or so ago. I'm just making it better. ^.~

It's Marluxia/Zexion, which is not a crack pairing, imo. However, there shall be none of it in this prologue; this consists of what happened before everyone fell to Darkness and what not. Also, this story is going to be... odd. It might be a bit hard to follow at times, but that's okay. I shall try to explain things if it gets too weird. ^.^

Obligatory Warning(s): graphic descrip. of strychnine poisoning. (might not be for the faint of any internal organ, including but not limited to the heart and stomach.) character death (two murders, one suicide). uhm... I think that is all. ^.~ oh! it's really, really long.

x-posted to my now-dead dA (deviantArt) account, which I really should delete. ^.^;; (but if you've all ready read this and you're thinking, "oh God, it's THAT story - the one she ended way too abruptly!" don't just go off of that. I'm going to try to make this better, demmit! So please - stick with it, 'k? ^.^ )

enjoy!!! and, if you feel so inclined, please leave a review!! XDD


Ansem the Wise was, indeed, a great philosopher. Many in Radiant Garden were strongly of the opinion that he was, in fact, the greatest master of philosophy that their world had ever known and, perhaps, ever would know. This man's mind clearly extended beyond the realm of brilliance; there was hardly ever a problem that he could not solve or a question the answer to which he could not find. There were thousands in Radiant Garden who admired the philosopher, and there were even some who went so far as to envy him.

He had not only a brilliant mind regarding the metaphysical, but also the physical. He was a scientist who, along with his six assistants, worked relentlessly. They worked all day and long hours into the night searching for some "miracle chemical" to prevent the sinister powers of Darkness from extending its regime to the allegedly peaceful world of Radiant Garden. After all, there were many worlds out there, many of which had already fallen under the influence of the Dark regime; Ansem would not allow that to happen to their world. Always, no matter how bad things got, there always had to be at least one speck of positivity within the heavy, seemingly overpowering pessimism which surrounded them all. So long as that speck of optimism stood, everything in their power must be done to preserve it; for, after all, if it were to fall, then nothing would remain but a void – a vacuum – a black hole of nothingness.

There were a total of six great minds working under Ansem's brilliance; they were Aeleus, Braig, Even, Ienzo, Dilan, and Xehanort. All were relatively young – Xehanort being the eldest at twenty years-of-age and Ienzo being the youngest at merely sixteen – yet they were of above average intelligence, regardless of their ages. They, along with their Superior, knew not the meaning of the term "sleep." They were always working – always searching for that answer to the one question that even Ansem himself had yet to find the answer; how to annihilate the Darkness's reign of terror.

However hard they worked though, Ansem nearly always came up with an insurmountably better way to solve an issue than any of the apprentices put together. This would, undoubtedly, lead a person to ask himself why, then, Ansem bothered to have anybody help him if he was so clever. The answer, though actually quite simple, seems rather complex. He merely cannot do all the work himself. It may seem as though he can, but no matter how brilliant a person is – no matter how illustrious their mind is – he must have help in dealing with such complex, intricate, life-or-death situations. Simply stated, nobody can go at it alone.

The majority of the time, five out of six of the young apprentices were only annoyed to a small degree that their Superior nearly always out-thought them; five out of six of them would merely complain and vent amongst themselves, although they knew within the depths of them that Ansem was probably actually supposed to out-think them; after all, he was their Superior; it was in his job description. With this in mind, they more often than not simply muttered curses underneath their breath before returning to their books, notes, and experiments.

However, while quietly venting behind the boss's back was satisfying enough for the majority, it did nothing for Xehanort. He could vent all day until his face turned blue as the precipitate in Braig's test tube, but it was never enough to exhaust the frustration that was flaming within him. Within him, he had such a desire as was incomprehensible to anybody except himself; this desire was slowly turning into an obsession. However, it wasn't just any obsession; Xehanort's anger that he wasn't as brilliant as Ansem had started taking hold of him like a strong vice, and it was slowly beginning to consume him. He had decided that he had better do something very soon to save himself from falling off the edge of Sanity's cliff and landing in the gushing, tormenting waters of Madness.

He would, he decided, devise a plan – an intricate, fool-proof plan – to actually become Ansem. And, if anybody happened to get in his way, or learn about his plan, he would simply have to murder the hindrance. After all, anything goes when you're an immoralist.

*****

Ienzo was a thoughtful young boy, and though he was an assistant in Ansem's lab, he was more of a philosopher than a scientist. He often found himself asking questions for which there were no factual answers; the answers to such questions could only be found by looking at things from different perspectives. Ienzo favored this over science, for in science, everything is black and white; there is always a definite answer. In philosophy, your mind can wander beyond the surface of what is fact and merely hypothesis; you can delve into the deeper meanings of Life and Death and everything in between. And, he found, you needn't fear Death, for in a philosopher's view, it is only an extension of Life. At least, that is one way of looking at it.

One evening, Ienzo was working in a corner of the lab. He was supposed to be performing a chloroform test on a potentially threatening plant that Even had found whilst walking about outside of the lab, but he had somehow gotten lost within his mind. He was holding the small vile of chloroform in one hand and a pair of forceps in his other hand (the plant leaf was concealed within the forceps' tight grasp), but it could easily be seen that his mind was elsewhere.

"Ienzo," a soft voice murmured behind him. When a pair of arms encircled themselves around Ienzo's small waist, he immediately came back to reality and jumped a bit, nearly dropping and breaking the glass chloroform vile.
"Aeleus!" Ienzo gasped his heart racing. "Don't do that! You nearly made me drop this." He blinked several times before remembering that he was supposed to be conducting an experiment on that plant.
"Ah, yes, wouldn't wanna drop the chloroform, would you?" Aeleus asked with a smile as he bent down to kiss his younger lover's neck.
"Stop it," Ienzo said, rather weakly. "I am trying to chloroform this leaf, and..."
"Well? I'm not stopping you," Aeleus replied, tightening his arms round Ienzo.
"Y-yes... yes, you a-are," the boy stuttered. "You are... p-preventing me fr-from... testing this."
"Am I, now?" Aeleus inquired, sounding rather intrigued. He raised an eyebrow, although Ienzo couldn't see it (Aeleus was behind him, after all). "Well, I can see that I've reduced you to the level of stuttering."
"Shut it," Ienzo snapped, albeit ineffectively.

It so happened that he ended up continuing the chloroform-plant experiment whilst being held close in Aeleus' arms. Of course, the experiment lasted a bit longer than it should have lasted, seeing as Aeleus broke Ienzo's attention every so often to passionately kiss him, but the experiment did get completed.

*****

The next day, Braig was scrutinizing the results of Ienzo's chloroformed plant experiment, and Dilan was writing up a report over it. Ienzo was with them just to make sure that Dilan got every bit of information correct. Xehanort, who was working close by, was allegedly coming up with some kind of formula which would counteract with the chemicals in a Heartless' body, therefore resulting in its death. However, what he was actually doing was coming up with his plan to overthrow Ansem. Although Braig and Dilan could not exactly hear every word that Xehanort was muttering to himself, Ienzo had seemingly inhuman hearing abilities, and he could hear perfectly.

"Hey, guys?" Ienzo questioned, his eyebrows creasing together in a suspicious manner.

"Eh?" Braig asked only half paying attention because most of his mind was concentrating on the mysterious activity of the bacteria on the plant leaf.

"Hmm?" Dilan asked in the same tone of voice, trying to pay attention to Ienzo and write down what Braig dictated – simultaneously.

"Uh... I thought I heard Xehanort muttering something about... uh..." he scratched the back of his head as a nervous gesture and proceeded to clear his throat. He didn't want to continue with his explanation, but he couldn't leave something unsaid.

"Heard him muttering something 'bout what?" Braig asked in that same noncommittal tone-of-voice. Ienzo figured that, since both of his colleagues were not fully paying attention, it would be okay to divulge this information. After all, they would probably forget about it, anyway.

"Um... well, I thought I heard him say something about overthrowing Ansem or something. Uh... I think he's coming up with some sort of a plan."

"Overthrowing Ansem?" Braig asked unbelievingly, suddenly looking up from his microscope. He and Dilan looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

"That's ridiculous!" Dilan said rather loudly, causing Xehanort to look over at the three of them for a second. "None of us could do that; Ansem is too smart. Xehanort wouldn't be able to overthrow him even in his wildest of dreams."

"Yeah," Ienzo said, trying to sound like he agreed; "you guys are probably right. I probably just misunderstood."

"Of course you did. Now, Dilan, write this down..."

*****

That night, however, Ienzo was spying on Xehanort. He was outside of the man's bedroom door, and he had somehow managed to crack it open a bit without Xehanort knowing; he could hear perfectly what he was saying.

Apparently, he was planning on taking over. This frightened Ienzo; one of his colleagues was going insane – driving himself into madness. He couldn't tell the others, though, because they wouldn't believe him; even Aeleus probably wouldn't believe him. He had to keep it to himself somehow. The thought made him want to explode in tears – the thought of keeping to himself something that could potentially harm the rest of them made him want to die. He didn't want to live with the pressure; he now felt as though a great burden the size of all the worlds put together had been placed upon his shoulders, and he couldn't take it. He would have to stop it.

Just then, Xehanort's footsteps could be heard coming toward the door. Ienzo heard this and immediately began to panic; his eyes widened in fear, and he could feel sweat, like shards of glass, slowly cutting his forehead. He had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide – and his feet seemed to be plastered to the floor, not letting him move. The footsteps got closer and closer, and Ienzo's heart began beating faster and faster until he thought it was about to explode. Finally, Xehanort walked out of his room only to find a terror-stricken Ienzo standing outside of it.

"How long have you been out here?!" Xehanort demanded.

"I... I..." Ienzo could not speak; terror had taken control of him. He was shaking, and tears started to fall from his eyes. He now knew what Xehanort's plans were; he knew exactly what they were. He knew too much. Xehanort would have to kill him.

"ANSWER ME!" Xehanort yelled at the shivering boy.

"I know what your plans are!" Ienzo cried.

"You little –" Xehanort didn't even bother to finish his sentence; he yanked Ienzo to his feet and grabbed his wrist. He proceeded to drag the boy down to the lab where he would teach Ienzo his lesson. He would never eavesdrop on his plans ever again.

*****

Ienzo was struggling as hard as he could, but Xehanort overpowered him. With the aid of a C-clamp, Xehanort held Ienzo's jaw open while he poured the contents of a strychnine vile down the teenager's throat. After the entire vile was emptied, Xehanort removed the C-clamp from Ienzo's jaw and watched the effects with a face completely devoid of any sort of emotion.

Ienzo began coughing at first, then his vision became hazy. About ten minutes after having been given the toxin, the boy began to convulse ferociously, his head and neck being the first to undergo the painful torture. With the convulsions eventually spreading to every muscle in Ienzo's body, the boy began screaming for help, but it was to no avail; his colleagues, as well as Ansem, were sleeping in the complete other side of the building. Nobody was there to hear his blood-curdling screams of brutal pain – well, nobody except Xehanort.

The convulsions began progressing, and Ienzo's screams rose and rose in a crescendo of terror, but there was nothing that could be done; above the asphyxiating power of strychnine, no one can emerge. The frequency of the convulsions began increasing and increasing and increasing until they were in such rapid succession that there could be no hesitation between them, and it became so painful now that Ienzo could no longer even scream. His spine arched backwards continually until his forehead met his toes. Silent tears were streaking down his face, and a shining, glassy film was covering his eyes as his arms hyper-extended outwards and his fists clenched so tightly that it seemed as though his knuckle bones would break out from his skin.

His mouth suddenly clamped shut with a "crack" sound, and blood began trickling from the corner of his mouth where he'd bitten his tongue. His face fixed in a chilling grin, he began panting for breath as his windpipe began threatening to collapse.

Finally, with his eyes bulged out from their sockets and his face and arms a slight blue color, he broke out into a cold sweat and his body began to relax between the violent convulsions. When his small body could take the torture no longer, three of his vertebrae snapped in unison, the breathing pathways collapsed, and the boy asphyxiated. One could almost consider the death as a mercy.

Ienzo was dead, and Xehanort only looked on emotionlessly as the younger one's body went immediately into rigor mortis.

*****

It was the next morning when Aeleus woke up and went down to the lab that he saw his lover in a backwards arch on the floor. His face was still fixated in that horrendous grin and, though his eyes were wide and sunken into his head, they were open in a look of unspoken terror and pain known not to a single soul. Aeleus immediately fell to his knees beside Ienzo and began sobbing; he buried his face in the corpse's neck and allowed his salty tears to fall onto Ienzo's now extremely pale skin – victimized by pallor mortis.

He removed his face from Ienzo's cold neck and began to look around the room for a sign of what may have caused his young lover's death. It took a few minutes, but then he saw it; a vile of strychnine lying on one of the lab tables. At this, Aeleus grew infuriated. He knew that the one person in the lab who used strychnine in experiments was Xehanort.

Immediately, Aeleus grabbed a scalpel from one of the supply closets before kneeling down next to his lover yet again and kissing him gently. He promised that he would be back; he just had to "take care of something first."

*****

Aeleus stormed down all the hallways in the building in an attempt to find Xehanort; he was ready to kill him without mercy or a second thought. Xehanort had killed his lover, therefore Xehanort must die!

Finally, he saw him. Xehanort was comfortably sitting on a couch working on a formula of some sort. This only infuriated Aeleus more; Xehanort just committed a heinous murder, and he was taking it so lightly!

"Xehanort, you bastard!" Aeleus yelled storming to the couch and yanking Xehanort up by his wrist. Xehanort merely looked at him with an intrigued look as though he were expecting no less than this.

"Oh, I suppose you found him, then?" Xehanort asked. It maddened Aeleus that his colleague was handling this in such casual a manner.

"You're damn well right I found him!" Aeleus yelled. "You fucking sadist!"

"You just keep sweet talking me, Aeleus," Xehanort said darkly. "After all, what choice do you have? I'm going to replace Ansem, and I will be your Superior; you will have no other choice but to obey me. Your little boyfriend merely found out about my plans; he knew too much; I had to kill him."

"Yeah, well, you know what?!" Aeleus threatened, gripping the scalpel behind his back with a death grip.

"What, Aeleus?"

"I'LL JUST KILL YOU, THEN!"

With that, Aeleus whipped out the scalpel and held it dangerously close to Xehanort's throat. Xehanort then grabbed hold of Aeleus' wrist and began to attempt to move the scalpel away. However, Aeleus was much too powerful. "No bother trying," Aeleus spat. "It won't do you any good." With that, he slowly slit the scalpel half-way down Xehanort's neck. Crimson liquid began seeping out of his throat. "You see this?" Aeleus asked in a voice as rigid as Xehanort's was when he caught Ienzo outside his room. "You fucking see this?!" Aeleus, with tears of rage leaking out of his eyes, was holding the blood-drenched scalpel right in front of Xehanort's eyes. "This," Aeleus explained, "is blood. This is life. This is what you took away from Ienzo, damnit!" He took a few seconds to breathe. "And you see this life vanishing from this scalpel?" Aeleus asked as he used the cuff of his own lab coat to rub his colleague's blood off the scalpel. Xehanort didn't even nod; he couldn't do anything. It was as though he were frozen there. "Your life is gonna vanish from you, too!" And with those few, yet powerful, words, Aeleus stabbed the scalpel into Xehanort's neck and dragged it down his throat all the way to his collarbone.

Xehanort then fell limp to the floor and died approximately five minutes after. Aeleus merely scoffed and threw the scalpel down; it landed atop Xehanort's corpse. He then walked off in the direction of the lab – in the direction of his dead lover – fully prepared for what he was about to do.

*****

Upon reaching the lab, Aeleus searched for another vile of strychnine. Upon finding one, he opened his mouth and drained the vile of its contents. He wanted to die the same way his lover did; he thought it only fair.

After going through the same incomparable torture that Ienzo experienced, Aeleus went into rigor mortis within an hour, and the lab reeked of death, poison, and what was the beginning of eternal night.