Chapter One The Man with No Heart

The Magnificent Garden was the most beautiful place in all of Hollow Bastion. It was once the favorite place of Ansem and even after Hollow Bastion's initial destruction and abandonment, the garden never lost its beauty. Birds chirped, fish swam in the small ponds and squirrels frolicked playfully through the bushes and trees. In the middle of the serenity sat a tall man emotionlessly watching the happy wildlife around him. He sat on the ground near a broken stone bench on his haunches. His long jet-black hair was kept out of his blood red eyes with a red headband that matched the cape he constantly wore. Under his cape he wore all black to the tips of his fingers, except for his left arm, which in place of a hand was a golden claw. Emotionlessly he continued to stare at the birds and squirrels. He saw no happiness in their play; he felt no happiness in his heart. This man was Vincent Valentine.

And he was a Heartless.

Vincent continued to watch the animals until the sun began setting. As the little creatures disappeared to hide from the growing darkness, the man continued to stare indifferently into the space he had been looking at for hours. There was no point in moving, no point in staying. Eventually, Vincent needed a change and decided to get up and look around. There was of course nothing new to look at; he had not left the garden in months.

His life had grown as empty as his heart. Suddenly he passed by something he hadn't seen in years: a picture of 'Ansem the Wise' the man who had destroyed his life. Many years ago, almost seventeen now, he had gone to castle of Hollow Bastion as a mercenary to do work with his companions when Ansem asked him to help him with his research. However the research was him, and through a horrifying experiment his heart was removed. But unlike other Heartless, he didn't loose his mind and his memories, just his emotions. There was still one emotion left, the only thing still in his life: anger, which was all too well displayed as he destroyed the image of the ruler with a blast of the shotgun he kept on his back. As the smoke wafted into the night sky, the anger that had consumed him slowly died down.

Once again he was left with nothing. Glancing up he hoped the stars would bring him some kind of comfort, as usual they didn't. Deciding that staying on the ground all night wouldn't do him any better than leaving, he finally got up and walked to the place he usually stayed, one of the remaining stone gazebos that once littered the garden. He passed by broken statues and overgrown garden ornaments indifferently until he felt a strange feeling in his gut, a feeling he hadn't had in a very long time. There were Heartless around.

The only thing Vincent hated more than Ansem were other Heartless and in a rage Vincent tore through the garden looking for the source of evil that was tormenting him. A swarm of black Heartless shaped like globes with giant mouths were swarming around something. Caring little about what had garnered their interest, Vincent pulled the shotgun off his back in with an animal-like snarl systematically blasted away the evil creatures. Only when the final Heartless twitched and disappeared with a 'poof' did Vincent notice the Heartless had attacked something. Mildly curious, Vincent cautiously got closer, not yet putting his weapon away.

On the ground was a strange looking naked teenage girl. Her skin was extremely pale with a bluish tint, her hair was extremely long and on half of her head her hair was pitch black, not reflecting a shard of light, on the other side of her head her hair was bright white and seemed to be glowing. In the middle of her chest was a dark violet mark in the shape of a keyhole. She was unconscious. Vincent bent down to check if she was okay but he drew back his hand when he touched her. Her body was icy cold but she appeared to be breathing. He pulled off his cape and wrapped it around the girl; he picked her up and started walking out of the garden as quickly as possible.

As he carried her he noticed that strange cold sensation she emitted seemed to radiate through his cape, but he paid no attention to it. Instead he focused on finding help for her and after a few moments he entered the small charming village at the foot of the abandoned palace. It had been months since he last came here and had hoped that the location of what he was looking for had remained the same. His eyes flashed to a small florist shop. There were no lights inside but he still went up to it and with his metal clawed hand started banging on the door. At first there was no reaction, but he didn't lessen the intensity of his rapping. Finally some shifting could be heard inside and a light came on. The door opened and on the other side was an irritated young man in his early twenties with blonde hair rubbing the sleep out of his blue eyes, and at the moment he was only wearing pants.

"Whadayawant?" he said groggily. The other man said nothing. The blonde blinked and finally recognized the other figure, "Vincent?"

"Cloud, what's going on?" said a sweet female voice. From the back of the shop a girl with light brown hair wearing a fuzzy pink robe stepped out.

"Aeris, it's Vincent!" Cloud stepped out of the way and Vincent stepped inside.

"Vincent? What are you doing here?" Aeris said with a great degree of shock to be seeing her friend.

"It's been a very long time since we've seen you," Cloud said cheerfully. Vincent didn't return the same pleasantries.

"There were some Heartless, they attacked this girl. She doesn't seem to be in very good shape," Vincent replied bluntly.

"What?" Cloud gasped, "Heartless?"

Aeris cleared one of the tables she used for cutting flowers and indicated to Vincent to set the girl down. Gently the tall man set the frail looking girl and Aeris went to checking her, "She doesn't seem to be hurt, just unconscious,"

"Is her body being that cold normal?" Vincent asked.

"Cold? She seems a little cool, but it seems her body temperature is normal," Aeris replied.

Vincent touched the girl's hand, it felt that same extremely icy temperature he had felt earlier, "You sure? She feels like death,"

"I'm sure Vincent, I've been a healer since I was a little girl," Aeris gave him an odd look.

"What about the Heartless, Vincent?" Cloud insisted urgently.

"Heartless? What Heartless?" A new voice piped. Yuffie, one of Cloud and Aeris's neighbors and dear friends had come into the shop. Her short hair was disheveled and she was wearing blue pajamas covered with kittens, "Oh hey Vinny, what are you doing here?"

Another grim voice added to the discussion, "What is everybody doing? It's the middle of the night,"

"Leon, it's Vinny, and he saw Heartless!" Yuffie quipped. Despite being tired she didn't lose her enthusiasm.

"Vincent?" Leon, who in his anger at having his sleep disrupted left the house only in a wifebeater and boxers gave the same confused look to Vincent all the others had. Nobody had known Vincent for very long, but his shared interest in destroying the Heartless originally seven years ago had made him a close ally to the displaced residents of Hollow Bastion. But over the years he had become more and more distant with his friends, until several months ago he had stopped talking to them altogether.

"Vincent, maybe you should start from the beginning," Cloud suggested, sitting down at the table the strange girl was laid on. Aeris went to the back to grab her guests some drinks and they all sat down to listen to the dark man's story. Without mincing words, Vincent told them about the sudden appearance of the Heartless and the strange girl that they had attacked.

"How many where there?" Leon demanded.

"And they just came out of no where?" Cloud added.

"I didn't count. I saw them, I blasted them. There might have been as few as ten or as many as twenty, but I don't think there were any more. And yeah, one second there was nothing, and then I felt them around," Vincent replied bluntly.

Yuffie had stopped paying attention to the men, she had her head on the table and stared at the girl, who hadn't moved since Vincent arrived, "Who do you think she is?"

"I have no idea, but the Heartless were really interested in her," Vincent answered.

"Is she a Heartless?" Aeris asked.

"No." Vincent answered simply, "I'd tell if she were. It's odd that she isn't. There were a lot of Heartless and she wasn't fighting back, she shouldn't have her heart anymore,"

Suddenly, the girl on the table began to moan. Slowly, she opened her eyes and sat up to look at all the people in the room. Her expression was vacant and indifferent, and though Vincent's cape had slipped a little off her shoulder, she made no attempt to move it back. Her already odd appearance seemed to become even stranger. On the side of her black hair, her eye was the same blood red as Vincent's, on the other her eye was bright blue. Aeris gently approached her, so not to scare her, "Hi there, don't be afraid, we're not going to hurt you. Are you alright?"

The girl didn't answer but her vacant expression vanished as though she suddenly realized the people around here were real.

"What's your name?" Yuffie asked.

The girl blinked a few times as though she was trying hard to remember, "I-I don't know,"

"What about where you come from?" Cloud added.

"I don't know…" her voice was quiet and light, and as frail and small as her pale body.

"Do you remember anything?" Leon said gently. For a few seconds she said nothing as she paused to think, but then sadly shook her head.

"If she can't remember who she is, there is little we can do for her," Cloud said flatly. Aeris and Yuffie gave him a horrified look but Leon nodded.

"Cloud's right. If what Vincent said is true and the Heartless are back, that means that the worlds are in danger again. But that also means the walls between the worlds are gone," Leon explained, "We might not be able to help her, but the only one who knows the most about the Heartless beside Sora is King Mickey,"

"Somebody will need to get a Gummi Ship and take her to the Magic Kingdom. I'll find Cid and go," Cloud volunteered.

"No," Vincent said suddenly, "The Heartless are back, you and Leon need to stay here and stop them from destroying Hollow Bastion again. This place has gone through too much already. I'll go, you won't need me,"

"Fine," Cloud nodded.

Aeris turned back to the mystery girl, "We're going to help you, okay. Do you mind going with Vincent?"

"No, I want to go," the girl said monotonely.

"Oh we can't keep doing this!" Yuffie said irritably, "Even if she doesn't remember her name we've got to call her something. The trip from here to Magic Kingdom isn't short, you can't exactly call her 'hey you',"

"That's true," Aeris looked around the shop and spotted one of the flowers she kept in the store's refrigerator, "This is called a Matilda's Heart, they are said to bloom best when raised by someone with a strong heart and has blue and red petals. Why don't we call her Matilda? Do you like that name?"

The girl nodded, "I like it a lot, it's pretty,"

"Okay, then until we learn your real name, we'll call you Matilda,"