The morning came steadily, but the sun had no route of entry into the underground laboratory. A black haired individual slightly opened the door to a bedroom. There was a certain young man sleeping soundly, clean sheets pulled up just over his waist. With a cold hand she softly stroked his shoulder, and he stirred awake, peeking under dreamy eyelids. Seeing the woman, he turned his face away.

"I see you're feeling better." Xanya walked back to the door, resting her palm on the cool handle. "If you need anything...there's a storm coming" she changed subject mid-speech, disappearing out of sight.

He looked to where she had stood, bothered by her inconclusive sentence. "A nonsensical waste of words." he bluntly finished, stopping to contemplate. For all he knew these walls be all he was ever going to see, he would be a prisoner's to his rescuers. Zexion's thoughts lay pondering as his mind couldn't fathom what they would want from him, still he was sure it had to be something unforgivable like what made each of them what they were. He retraced to the nightmare of when he became the monster he now was, lonely and heartless... less than nothing, a Nobody. Whatever had driven him into that madness hid, buried under layers he had built over the years. The question was... was it to protect some precious moments that were a trigger to the end, or to protect himself from the affect they could still hold him to.

Opening his palms upwards, there was a brief flash of blinding light, and a large book rested in his hands. Instead of the rough edged 'Book of Retribution' he was usually seen using in battle, this one was softer, indicating it was for a more personal use. Opening the cover, his long fingers traced over worn out texts until he stopped at a faded picture. It was a young girl, barely older than seven or eight. Could it be the child from the dream he had had during the night.

The blunette's mind threw him harshly against a translucent wall in an empty room. Echoes breathed into his head, screaming voices drove him closer to insanity. Pictures hovered above his consciousness, winding back and forth. Zexion was flung awake and immediately pulled back into some hallucination. The man held out his hand, hoping to find something to hold onto in that whirlwind. Madness ripped him from his body. "I don't want to fade away!" He cried, squeezing his eyes shut, tears almost forming in the corners. "Please..." the last word was barely audible but it quietened the hurricane. There was a faint flicker, and a small figure sat across the space from him on a painted wooden chair. Her short black dress and ebony hair contrasted all the ivory around them. Zexion himself was in black and blue, trousers and tee. Upon seeing her, there was no holding back the rain in his eyes. He fell to his knees...

The girl wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in tight. The young man turned into her embrace...There was a loud thud and he screamed out. Eyes opening sharply, he found himself on the floor, lying on his left side. Feeling his wound, it was dampening rapidly. Zexion cursed in his head. "Easy there." a gentle voice comforted him, as a hand carefully supported his head. "Let's get you back up." He gazed up to see serenity across Xanya's keen features. This time he relied his weight more readily on her, guided efficiently back onto the welcoming surface. As much as he chose to unconsciously hate her, there was a diligence he admired enough that his expression calmed into an upturned frown.

She now looked straight into his eyes with an opaque gaze. "To answer your question, I'm a telepath. I see and hear your thoughts and may interact with them." Twisting her head, she observed fragments of emotion breath across his face.

"I did not ask." He huskily forced between flashes of pain and hints of peculiar euphoria.

"Actually," She sat down next to him. "You did. Behind that...fortress of illusion, you have a lot to say. Why hide?"

Zexion turned away, he felt naked in her sight. It was like there were no barriers to put up, nothing he could shroud, like he was forced to be the empty shell he feared he was. "Is it not ludicrous to ask that which you know."

Xanya stopped to almost smile. "Perhaps, but what would you call running from yourself. It's the first instinct of a Nobody, right? We want to be normal so bad, that we deny the very thing that keeps us alive. Hatred." she opened a draw in the night stand and pulled out a clean dressing. The blunette sat up slowly, still facing away. Pealing back the blood soaked bandages, the girl sighed. "Whatever made you become darkness must have been obscene."

There was a quiet huff. "That is quite an irrational thing to say."

"Maybe you're right, but there it is anyway. Now promise me you'll be more careful in the future, and please, try not to bleed everywhere." The raven-haired woman grinned at her own comment, snaking round him the new cloth, and pressing the wound. To Zexion's surprised, there was no pain, just the pressure her hands created.

Soon sensing her presence seemed to be nothing more than a hindrance, she quietly removed herself with no further exclamation.

Desolate in the hushed room once more, the blunette dried flakes of liquid ice from his eyes. There was no memory behind them, but what Xanya had uttered into his mind left some resonance that felt almost real. How could someone he didn't know have this effect on a being incapable of feeling? A book left on the small table next to him caught his attention, before he had a chance to settle properly back into bed. Next to it he miraculously found his reading glasses, apparently salvaged from the tatters of his discarded cloak.

The title on the first page read 'Silent Hearts' and it stirred up some old thought in the back of Zexion's mind, yet this like many things lately, lay beyond recollection. He flipped through until he got to a page where there was what looked like a plain bookmark, the third chapter. Putting the piece of thin cardboard on the bed, and skimming the first few lines, he let his eyes set about halfway down. ' "That's not true!" The seven year old stubbornly shouted and shook his head violently. This woman, more like angel of death in her ash coloured suit, was cunning in all her lies. There was no chance that they were gone, not unless she had seen to it herself. Tommy pulled his tainted blue bunny close to his bursting chest, there had to be some mistake...' mid-sentence, Zexion's head groaned, starting to pulsate before he had the chance to finish. He looked away for a moment, seeing the underside of the bookmark

If only there was a chance to repeat
Each mistake I made, each regret
Never let all the moments fleet
Zealous thoughts I wish to forget
Ones heart never to be complete

The world we knew died inside as we walked out separate ways. The time we shared lives in memory longing for us to fade.

Those words provoked something in him, some long lost part. Stopping to think again back to what Xanya had briefly said, could any of it be relevant to the rhythm his absent heart beat in. After a moment of hollow remorse, he went back to the book.

...

Slumping to the ground outside the door, the black haired female buried her aching head in shaking hands. He really must have hated so much that everything there was, had been buried far beyond remembering. It wasn't his fault that he turned out this way, bitter and cold. She had destroyed the beautiful boy he once was. If only she could take all his pain and carry it as hers, just give him the second chance that he'd been robbed of. Now was too late to fix the shattered past. But she would atone.

...

"Hey, you okay?" A red head squatted next to her, attempting not to sound too up-beat.

Xanya shook her head, letting it hit the door behind her. "No, most certainly not. I'm a Nobody Xen, I don't feel anything but I still ache all over." There was a long heavy pause "I was right."

Her friend sighed and dropped fully down onto the floor. "What do you mean by that?" she could already guess what it was.

"He..." sorrow and regret formed in her eyes. "he doesn't remember, but he still resents me, I can sense it." a lonely silence fell in her empty chest.

"Look I'm sure that's not true, I mean could you consider talking to him about it?" Xenjin wouldn't hold high hopes for a favourable answer. The shorter girl stood up, biting her lip till it almost bled. "No, I'm sorry." moving away, each step carried the weight of each heavy thought. "Tell him I'll fix it all. He may return to the organization and everything will be as it was before it was damaged." she departed through a doorway.