The metal grating that made the floor of the laboratory, which had been constructed under the castle of Radiant Gardens, rattled with every step Xehanort took as he wandered the laboratory, a hand on his head. Things had only become worse as time had gone on from the birthday of his daughter. The whispering became more and more frequent and there were times where he apparently blacked out while sitting at a desk or while doing tasks at work. It seemed not too long ago had been another one of his momentary black outs as he could hardly recall anything from the past half an hour or so. What could he remember?

Ansem the Wise had finally deemed that the experiments needed to be stopped earlier in the day due to the growing number of the Heartless, as that was apparently what Ansem had dubbed them in one of his rather…odd reports. His name was signed at the bottom of it and yet the wording did not seem to resemble Ansem's tone or his writing style, and Xehanort's condition had been the second reason for Ansem wanting to stop the experiments. But afterwards, Xehanort could only recall he went downstairs with those odd whisperings telling him to watch the Heartless: something was bound to happen with them. But as soon as he went downstairs there had been a pain in his head and – and now he was wondering around with another paper in his other hand.

He finally took his hand off his head as he leaned against a wall and set to reading the paper:

'To study the Heartless' behavior, I picked one out for observation. It wiggled its antennae and, as if it were sensing a target, headed deep into the castle. In the deepest part of the castle, its antennae began vibrating, as if the Heartless were searching for something. Suddenly, a strange door appeared on the wall – I'd never known of its existence without the Heartless. It had a large keyhole, but didn't seem to be locked. So I opened the door. What I saw on the other side mystified me – what was that powerful mass of energy?!'

What on earth was going on? Where had this come from? Xehanort looked over the paper again and at the bottom found Ansem's name written once again. But no – why would Ansem write such a thing when he had told them to stop the experiments? Xehanort shook his head once again. He was so confused.

'It was a sight to behold. A shame you could not see it for yourself.'

"What?" Xehanort's eyes widened as the voice came back into his mind with a chilling echo following it as it always had. "What are you talking about?" He was left in silence, no reply once so ever from whatever it was that spoke to him. "I can't handle this anymore," Xehanort sighed quietly as he started through the lab and heading towards the exit. "Maybe Naida was right – I should have stopped this a while ago."

'Losing this battle already?'

"Shut up!"

"Xehanort?" A familiar voice called through the dim laboratory, causing Xehanort to raise his head. "What are ya doing down here all alone?"" Braig climbed down the stairs quickly only to catch Xehanort as he stumbled once again. "You aren't looking so good," he said quietly while his fellow apprentice forced himself to stand upright.

"I – I just need to rest. That's all," Xehanort said brushing Braig aside.

"What were you doing down here?" Xehanort was quiet for a moment as he started up the stairs to leave behind the laboratory. He would not tell him the truth, that he did not truly know.

"Making sure things weren't getting out of hand. Those things down there – we know how fast they can multiply. I mean – we started off with one and now we have nearly ten down there." Braig nodded slowly towards Xehanort.

"Go get some rest. Call in tomorrow if you need to," Braig said quietly as he followed Xehanort up the stairs and into Ansem's office which was dark other than the dim blue lights coming from the large glass containers which held that which the Heartless desired so much: hearts.

"I…" Xehanort trailed off, debating on what he should actually do. "I'll consider it," he finally said as they walked down the hallway with Braig at his side.

"Alright. Well – I'm out-"

"Why were you down there?"

"Looking for you," Braig said giving a shrug. "We couldn't find you, so I went down there," he said only to give a way over his shoulder as he approached the door. He grabbed a hold of his coat off the coat rack and threw it on in one fluid motion. "Later." Xehanort shivered somewhat as Braig opened and closed the door, letting the cold air from outside flood the hall for a brief moment. He stood in the silent hall for a moment, glancing over his shoulder towards Ansem's office before shaking his head: he needed to get out of here for a little while. He finally started down the hall and took hold of his coat and scarf and wrapped himself up rather tightly before setting out.

Once outside, Xehanort found himself looking upwards towards the clear sky, the stars above shimmering like they always did every night. He let out a quiet sigh, his breath becoming visible once it escaped him only to fade away after a brief moment. He would go home, eat, and go to sleep. It was the best option with how he was feeling at the moment. Xehanort nodded to himself as he tucked his hands away into the pockets of his jacket, attempting to keep them as warm as best as he could. He finally rounded the corner and began walking down the street where his house was only to see the front light of his home come on and the front door being opened quickly.

Before he had a chance to brace himself, Theia rushed out of the house and ran towards him as fast as her legs could carry her and ran into him, embracing him in a hug.

"Dad's home, Mom!" Theia called over her shoulder. "Come on dinner's gonna get cold-" She stopped suddenly and lifted her head upwards causing Xehanort to raise a brow and follow her line of sight upwards. "A shooting star- a bunch of shooting stars! Look Dad!"

"I see," he said quietly as he watched the shooting stars leave a trail across the sky. "It's a meteor shower." Xehanort felt his fist suddenly clench and realized he still had the paper which he had placed in his pocket.

"Make a wish!"

'To be free.'

"Dad?" Xehanort raised a hand and held his head with it. Slowly he pushed Theia back with his other hand.

"Sorry, Theia. Dad just needs to go rest," Xehanort said quietly as he watched the sky before entering the house. "Naida," he called as he walked in while Theia stayed outside to watch the meteor shower.

"Welcome home-"

"I'm going to bed-"

"Without eating?"

"Yeah," Xehanort sighed as he walked towards the bedroom. "Good night." He closed his door behind him though that was the last he recalled until the buzzing of his alarm clock woke him from his sleep. When he opened his eyes he found himself with his head on his desk and the paper under his arms with a new addition on it. He focused his eyes and finally made out the last couple of sentences which seemed to have been written after he had read it the previous night:

'That night I observed a great meteor shower in the night sky. Could it have been related to the door that I opened?'

"No," Xehanort muttered as he looked at the paper. He lifted it up and found another paper under it:

'A massive core of energy lay beyond the door sought by the Heartless. It may be the ultimate goal of the Heartless. But what is that energy? I have devised a hypothesis based upon my observations of the Heartless as of late.
I've come to realize the Heartless feed on the hearts of others and that they yearn for that energy core – why else would it have led me to it? That thing beyond the door must also be a heart – the heart of the world perhaps! There is no proof, but, having felt that immense energy, I am certain. I am certain that was the heart of the world!
The Heartless are trying to take hearts not only from all living creatures, but from the planet itself. I wonder…What do they mean to do with the heart of the world? – Ansem'

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Xehanort?" Naida called tiredly as she rolled over in the bed

"No-Nothing. It's nothing," he said hurriedly as he rose from the chair of his desk. "I just need to get ready for work."

"Be careful," Naida sighed quietly as she closed her eyes and attempted to go back to sleep as she always did on the weekends when he got up to go to work. His daily routine was rushed and Xehanort hurried out the door, papers in hand. He stopped once outside and studied the two. Now that he looked at them more so he could see that it was certainly not Ansem the Wise's handwriting though it was similar. Had he truly been writing these papers?

"What have I done?"

"Dad?" Xehanort looked towards his right where he saw Theia sitting on the porch near him. "Look what I found!" She pointed in front of her where a red square measuring about three inches all the way around sat with smaller different colored squares around it. "It was in the street when I got up this morning."

"Theia, I have other things to take care of-"

"It's all squishy, touch it!" Before he could make a move, his daughter had leapt to her feet and forced a few of the cubes into his hands. They had some weight behind them, the surface feeling solid yet sticky to a degree. When he opened his hands and looked down at what had once been several cubes had formed a larger purple cube. "And they stick together too! They're so much fun!"

Xehanort stared down at the cube in hand before shaking his head:

"That's great, Theia. But I need to go to work now," he sighed, unsure of how he was going to handle what he had discovered just a few moments ago.

"Take them with you," she sang as she sat back down, almost sitting on her scarf as she did so. "Use them to squeeze when you're angry!"

"Good bye. Behave," Xehanort sighed, forcing a smile as he stepped off the porch and headed towards the castle.

-

"I don't want you guys going down there," Ansem said quietly to all of his apprentices gathered at the table. "These experiments are done, do you understand? I wish I need not to go any further with this," he said with a depressed tone in his voice. "Now then, what about that meteor shower last night?"

"It was completely unpredicted," Ienzo said solemnly. "There was no evident reason for it."

"My daughter collected samples that I'm assuming fell from the sky-"

"You actually let her touch that stuff?!" Even exclaimed shaking his head. "Who knows if that stuff is toxic to living animals?!"

"Well, I'm not dead yet," Xehanort sighed giving a slight shrug. "But I think the material might be worth investigating. Perhaps it could be useful to us? It's a sturdy material that seems to form a chemical bond with itself but other than that, it's fairly sturdy. It could be a useful building material or something along those lines."

"I was thinking along the same lines," Ansem said giving a nod towards Xehanort. "I think it's an interesting material to study. Let's get to it, gentlemen."

As the day progressed and the analysis of the gummy material continued, a lone topic weighed heavily on Xehanort's mind: How was he going to deal with the fact that he was somehow forging reports under the name of Ansem the Wise? He hardly understood the issue himself. Was it the fact that this other voice -The whispering? – was managing to take control of him? It seemed so.

And his theory seemed to only be proved correct as he later found himself staring at yet another report with Ansem's name on it by the end of the night:

'I am studying material from the meteors that rained down that fateful night. What a find! The material is foreign to our world. It is elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are combined, they bond easily. None of the records even mention such a substance. Was it introduced to this world when I opened the door that I found? I wonder how many other such materials drift through the atmosphere of this tiny world. How I wish I could soar off and find out! Could there be uncharted worlds out there? Beyond this world? My curiosity never ceases to grow!
But…I should stop speaking of such unrealistic dreams. For now, there is now way to venture beyond this world. We are all but prisoners of this tiny place.'

"What…have I done?" Xehanort muttered quietly.