Ansem stood in the castle basement staring up at the lifeless machine, its massive parts coating the room's walls.
He dreaded to think of what the machine was used for, though knowing his apprentices, he didn't want to find out. He'd have to find out how it worked and shut it down.
Abandoning the thought temporarily, Ansem turned his attention to the floor and the ramp that had, mercifully, been left open. It was likely that his apprentices had enforced some method of denying their master access to the lowest levels.
Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Ansem descended the ramp. It was considerably longer than he had first anticipated, snaking around the walls in a wide circle, descending several stories beneath the castle.
Eventually reaching the narrow corridor at the bottom of the ramp, Ansem was faced with a long series of identical doors.
The first on his left appeared to be a disused storage room and so Ansem paid it no heed, slowly traversing the long corridor.
A large number of the doors on either side led to small cells. Ansem ducked into one to examine it. There was a splatter of blood on the polished white floor but other than that there appeared to be no sign that anyone had inhabited the small room.
Ansem left the room, more appalled at the fact that the apprentices appeared to have destroyed the evidence of the people that they had imprisoned here, destroying their existence, than he would have been if he had found a stack of corpses.
He continued along the narrow corridor, ignoring any further cells he found, until he came to a turn. The corridor turned both ways.
The route to his left was short, only an inlet, with a single, small door. Disregarding it as yet another storage room, from its battered appearance it appeared to be unused, Ansem turned right following the longer corridor to a large set of double doors.
The doors stood open, revealing a magnificent, albeit deserted laboratory. The image alone made Ansem's heart sink. A laboratory so grand was meant to be used, scientists bustling around, papers and clipboards in their arms, experiments lying eagerly on the table tops.
Though, he knew for a fact that in this laboratory, none of the experiments were waiting eagerly. Rather they were waiting with a sense of trepidation.
When Ienzo had come to him with a request for a new laboratory, Ansem was only too happy to oblige, of course, he had been curious when Ienzo had stated the desire to have the laboratory in the castle's basement but after being assured that the apprentices required this location to keep their experiments from presenting any danger to the castle's other inhabitants, Ansem had immediately hired contractors to construct the laboratory. Ansem had requested it be furnished as fully and quickly as possible.
Now he regretted that decision.
He walked between the deserted benches, examining each workstation as he passed. The first was rather obviously Ienzo's chosen station. Books were piled high, blotting out the white surface. The next was again obvious as to who it belonged. A small pistol, one of Braig's least favoured weapons, lay amid notebooks and sheets of paper.
Aeleus' workstation was crisply organised, a rubrics cube sitting on the table, aligned perfectly with the table's corners. Passing Even and Dilan's workstations, respectively covered with chemicals and textbooks, Ansem reached the workstation he sought.
Xehanort's workstation was completely clear.
Nothing lay on it, not a sheet of paper, nor a folder. Ansem ran his hands over the table's surface. As his hand slipped under the edge on the right hand side of the table, he felt a protrusion.
Bizarre.
Ansem applied pressure to the protrusion and found that it clicked into place, a small drawer shooting out from the desk and almost striking him in the abdomen.
Inside the drawer was an array of files, all of them a dull grey colour and all accurately labelled.
The first was a compilation of experiments carried out and their results. The second bore the label "HYPTHESES".
Ansem lifted them both free from the drawer when a smaller, white folder fell from between the two. This folder was, bizarrely, blank.
Xehanort was the type of person who couldn't bear for information to be mixed up and so he always labelled his folders and notebooks.
'For it not to be labelled, this folder must contain something he doesn't want to be seen.'
Setting the other two folders back in the drawer, Ansem flipped the small folder open to peruse its contents.
Reading the first document, his eyes began to widen. It sounded extremely familiar.
It hit him.
Ansem glanced down to check the signature at the bottom of the page.
It was his.
Flipping through the pages, he found an accurate copy of his signature adorning the bottom of every one. His personal, monogrammed paper had also somehow been duplicated.
Xehanort had been writing reports while posing as him!
Ansem could have kicked himself. He'd been such a fool.
Xehanort was too smart. He'd covered all his bases. By writing reports posing as the Lord of Radiant Garden, it would be interpreted that Ansem himself was leading the experiments.
Damn!
If anyone found these, they would reach the conclusion that Ansem had led the entire operation. The apprentices would be seen as having been following commands.
They would never be punished for what they had done.
Xehanort again descended the staircase to the lowest levels of the castle. He'd seen Ansem emerge from the ramp and immediately rushed to check the Door.
Neither the room nor the Door had been disturbed, leading him to believe that Master Ansem had not discovered it.
He then followed the corridor down to the inlet on the left.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he was confident that Master Ansem couldn't have checked the room. He had been too calm.
The familiar scuttling sounds of the basement's Heartless inhabitants reached his ears, their scuttling considerably more agitated since his previous trips down to the lowest level.
Striding around the staircase to the hollow inlet behind them, he found his guarded cage. The small child sat huddled, still staring, wide-eyed, at the heavy door beyond which the creatures lay.
Xehanort turned to examine the door when the small voice cried out.
"Please let me go!"
The little girl shuffled over to the edge of the Guard cage that was closest to where Xehanort stood, her blue eyes pleading.
"Please! Please don't give me to those things!"
Xehanort turned, meeting the wide cerulean eyes. His lips drew themselves up into a faint smirk.
"Oh no child. I need you for a greater purpose."
The small girl pushed a stray lock of her ruby hair behind her ear.
"W-what?"
"I'm not sure yet but I know there is something that I will need a test subject for and you are the only one left now that that fool has-!"
Xehanort cut himself off as his hand collided with the wall, the thick, white plaster cracking and splintering around his clenched fist.
The girl screamed and jumped back to the other end of the cage, huddling herself as far from Xehanort as she could get.
Xehanort's shoulders shook with barely suppressed rage and his chocolate eyes burned.
Slowly extracting his fist from the wall, he stood up straight, smoothing his hair back and adjusting his lab coat around him. After taking a deep breath, he turned and strode from the room, the little girl's eyes watching him warily.
Even had taken up residence in the castle's great library, leaving only to feed and sleep. After their disgrace before their Master, the apprentices had all abandoned their experiments and disappeared within the maze of the castle.
On the rare occasions that they encountered each other, no recognition was shown. It was as if they had become vicious enemies, all blaming the others for their public disgrace.
Even had decided to take refuge amongst the books that gave him his knowledge, the books of science and magic that had captivated his soul since childhood. Whereas Braig had sought to make his peace amongst the vast array of firearms that he kept at his disposal. He was often found in one of the fields where he had established his own personal shooting range.
No-one had any clue what had happened to Aeleus. The towering apprentice was difficult to miss, yet none had seen him since that day. He had simply vanished to some remote location in the castle, emptying his room of its puzzles and problems as he went.
Even wasn't entirely sure about Dilan but if he had to take a guess, he'd have assumed that Dilan would be in one of two places, doing one of two possible things.
The first, Dilan could be down in the fields, hunting and killing small fluffy creatures.
Or it could be the second, which was much more likely. Dilan could be up on the roof, testing his control of the wind that blew around the castle's battlements.
And of course, the ringleader in their debauched experiments.
Xehanort.
Even frequently crossed paths with the confident apprentice, each time ignoring his existence completely.
There was always something about Xehanort that made him feel uneasy, particularly now. Xehanort didn't seem to care that they had been disgraced in front of their master and forced to abandon their experiments.
It was almost like he hadn't noticed.
Xehanort still strutted his way around the castle, playing the part of the famed and favoured apprentice of the great Lord of Radiant Garden.
Even had even witnessed Xehanort travelling down to the basement through Master Ansem's office.
The apprentices knew that the Lord had confined himself to his quarters since his discovery of their experiments and Xehanort, of course, was using that to his full advantage.
Even shook his head in disgust and continued returning the heavy volumes in his arms to the shelves where they belonged.
Thinking about it, he was, of course, surprised to have never come across the youngest apprentice roaming the library's vast shelves. Ienzo's love of books surprisingly managed to outweigh his own. Ienzo was never found without a pile of books in his arms.
'Perhaps he hasn't had the heart to be around his beloved literature. We are all disgraced; he's probably feeling the pain of it.'
Even rounded the corned, almost dropping the books in his arms when he found Ienzo, curled up against a high-shelved bookcase, a heavy volume on his lap and more scattered around him.
Ienzo glanced up, meeting the eyes of his fellow apprentice. His uncaring stare lingered only a moment before he turned his face back to the pages of the volume.
Even bristled slightly before he began stomping past the engaged apprentice.
He gasped and froze as Ienzo appeared in front of him. The shorter apprentice grabbed a book from his pile and either by Ienzo's skill or sheer luck, the book was tugged free from the pile with the rest barely moving.
Ienzo examined the book he had taken from the taller apprentice for a moment before whacking it straight back onto the top of the pile in Even's arms, adding a couple from his collection on the floor as well. He then seized the book underneath the volume he previously retrieved and again tugged it free. He made a satisfied sound and strode back towards his floor spot, leaving a flustered Even behind him.
Braig found himself hanging by an ankle from a tree. He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his remaining eye at a nearby bush.
"Damn it Dilan! Get me the hell down from here!"
Dilan leapt out from behind him, cutting the rope around Braig's ankle, causing him to fall to the ground in a heap.
"Ow! Damn it you jackass!" Braig rubbed his head in an attempt to soothe the pain.
Dilan meanwhile was doubled over with laughter, tears pricking at his eyes.
Braig glared and jumped to his feet.
"Oh yeah? You think that's funny huh?"
He grabbed his gun from the ground and fired. Dilan's laughter caused his knees to go weak, dropping him to the ground just in time to fall out of the path of Braig's bullet.
His laughter subsided fairly quick.
"Oh you little bitch!"
Stomping back over to the tree, Dilan retrieved his spear and charged at Braig, the latter using his mastery of gravity spells to leap into the air and plant his feet on the underside of a branch, firing at Dilan as he went.
The meatier of the two apprentices in turn used his mastery of wind spells to deflect Braig's bullets.
The two grinned and Braig leapt down from the tree to face Dilan.
"You're gonna get your ass kicked Braig."
Braig grinned again. "Bring it muttonchops."
Ansem returned to his study to find Mickey examining one of his journals. He turned when he heard the wall panel vanish.
"Did you find anything?"
Ansem nodded.
"Actually I found something rather grim."
Mickey was all ears.
Ansem drew out the white folder and handed it to the small king.
Mickey's face progressed through numerous expressions. Confusion. Surprise. Intrigue. Shock. Anger.
"B-but these are-. They bear your signature!"
Ansem nodded.
"Yes. That is what concerns me. Xehanort has somehow managed to duplicate both my personal monogrammed paper and my signature. This is his protection."
Mickey's face fell.
"With this we can't prove anything without implicating you!"
Ansem nodded again.
"Yes. Xehanort has been extremely clever here. By writing reports and signing them with my name, it can never be proved that I wasn't the person running this monstrousness. We cannot charge Xehanort with what he has done."
