Quick Notes: Whee for inspiration! =3 This idea came from listening to 'Above the Rising Falls', a remix of the Hollow Bastion theme that can be found at http : www. ocremix. org/ detailmix. php? mixid = OCR01229 (of course, take out all the spacing and add the two slashes!) and from watching Cowboy Bebop. I quite like it, actually (this is amazing! Two fics that I've liked in a row!) and am currently debating on whether or not to add more. We'll see what everyone thinks, but unless there's an overwhelming majority, it'll probably be an 'if-I-ever-get-inspiration-again' thing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nope. And it's probably a good thing, too; else we'd be playing a game riddled with bugs. But it would have come out last year. =3
Suggested Music: 'Above the Rising Falls', available at http : www. ocremix. org/ detailmix. php? mixid = OCR01229 (yes, I am shamelessly plugging this, as it is extremely good. Thanks to himitsu from HoP for linking it!)

Someone once began the statement, 'Isn't the human body just a shell?'

That person was a genius.

Of course the human body is only a shell, superimposing a link between imagination and the material world. Because as sad as it seems, everything relates back to the material world. A life cannot be lived without touching the material world; from the moment of birth to seconds before death one can never—though never is always such a strong word!—leave the material world. Of course, the body is just a shell for a soul—something stronger, stranger, stronger than what it first seems.

What makes up the human body, anyway? Nothing but material. Material, locked into place by skin and bones and muscle and tendon. But the real thing that holds it all together is the heart.

Ansem was smart; I'll give him that. However, he was not smart enough. He was not smart enough to realise that the true power lives in the soul. His instruments tore the material apart, to get at what else? Another material. The soul floated from the body, leaving it as just a heap of material, marked by only a glittering crystal that was the victim's heart—not the literal heart, as it were, but the figurative heart, or what was always known as 'karma'. The good deeds one had done in their life determined how bright their heart was; how powerful.

And the souls floated away, to where I waited in the darkness. Ansem never understood the darkness, although he assumed he did.

Someone also said this statement: 'Never assume because it makes an ass out of u and me.'

That person, though admittedly not the brightest, was bloody clever.

Nevertheless, I daresay this statement was meant for Ansem. While he assumed that he was the one controlling the darkness, he failed to see it eating away at him. He failed to see that his heart was one lacking—there was no shining, sparkling gemstone to mark his karma.

His tool, the boy, realised this. He was more knowledgeable than Ansem, though our ideas were impressed upon him quicker. They said people do crazy things when they're in love, but I had never realised exactly how insane the things mentioned went. Of course, it worked out in my favour, but that's not to say I didn't raise a metamorphic eyebrow at the child. He was young, as were his friends. How are they to know who they love so young in life?

All the same, though, I liked love. It made one's soul so much brighter, despite the dark that clung to him as he worked, gaining power over the Heartless and losing sight of his truths.

The other boy's soul had darkened, as well; killing so many things—even things like the mindless Heartless—had taken its toll on him. And once—oh, how I had savoured that time—his soul had even begun to drift toward me! Unfortunately for me, however, that wretched girl called him back.

But on the opposite side, the girl's soul was remarkably bright. Brighter than most I'd ever seen before, and only growing stronger while the others' delved to dark. It was so bright that I could nearly seize it, pulling it to me through long disjointed fingers.

I looked about me, surveying my surroundings with a satisfied glee. So much space since the Heartless had been cleared out. So much room for the souls that would soon be joining me.

Ansem had never realised how much he'd given me. A pity his dark soul had been lost when my kingdom had been opened. It wouldn't have refilled all the ones that had been lost when he opened it, but it would have been a start. And it would have given me such amusement to torture his soul, listening to the beautiful screams that would have come from it!

But as one said, it does no good to mourn over things in the past. One must always look ahead to the future, to the horrors in store for others.

A smile sprang unbidden to my lips as I heard the doors swing open behind my back. I turned slowly, not bothering to glance over my shoulder as I did so—my soldiers would know better than to get within swinging distance.

Oh, my! There was something with my soldiers! My mouth opened in a silent crow of delight, blinded eyes surveying the thing with careful meticulousness.

When I realised what it was, I couldn't stop the laughter this time, a cruel, harmonic sound that echoed off the walls. The thing blanched in front of me, making my laughter rise, until I finally cut myself off sharply.

It was him! The boy! Suspended between two of my soldiers, he looked at me askance; a rather impertinent look for a victim.

I spoke quietly. 'You look upset.' A smirk played across my lips as his eyes narrowed dubiously, trying to see past the darkness that was my outer appearance.

'I am upset,' came the reply, just as quiet.

'Oh? And why would that be?'

'That would be because I am currently rendered incapable to stand upon my own feet,' he answered pointedly. 'Something I rather prefer to this.'

So the boy would not back down before something clearly superiour to him? I resisted the urge to cackle again, instead speaking once more.

'You don't find your companions delightful?' I asked, not missing a beat. 'I would think one would rather enjoy being treated as royalty.'

All fences were finally dropped; the boy glared at me. 'The last time I checked, being forced to go somewhere was not defined as the 'royal treatment'.'

'What a shame,' I sighed, sneaking out a tendril of thought to my soldiers. It crawled along the left one's arm until it reached the boy, worming up over his shoulder and toward his head. 'And I thought I was being rather welcoming.'

'Welcoming?' the boy repeated in disbelief. Goodness, he shifted emotions fast. 'Welcoming? This isn't welcoming.'

'You don't find the place charming?' I asked in mock-bewilderment. Of course, he wouldn't, having been subjected to it until I'd seen fit to clean the place.

'I find anything having to do with the colour black simply revolting, myself.'

Finally my own pretences were dropped. 'I would expect more consideration from the boy whose life I hold in my hand,' I commented dryly, twirling a hand slowly. Shards of aqua mists swirled into it, forming a small loop. The colour of his eyes, I noted with another smirk. 'Trust me; you don't want me deciding you aren't worth the trouble.' I waited a beat, until the thought-worm had completely disappeared into his head before closing my fist, applying only slight pressure to the loop.

As the boy gasped in both shock and pain, I felt a portion of my mind click once, throwing into sharp relief the feelings from the other boy.

He stared at the patch of darkness before him, unable to make out anything but the gnarled shadowy hand that held the loop, glowing aquamarine in its grasp. Right now, there was pressure. Pressure on his lungs, allowing him to take only small breaths. He tried to reach up, to free the restriction from his throat, but the hands holding his wrists and shoulders would not allow the movement. He felt bile in his throat and choked, trying to swallow but wanting to keep from retching. How could the thing before him do that?

I smiled to myself, releasing the loop and putting it into my pocket. 'Now, then. Let us make this easy.'

I strode forward, cutting the distance between us in only a few steps. 'Welcome to the Crystal Seminar,' I said with a wry grin, reaching out an arm. Darkened fingers wrapped completely around the boy's throat, overlapping with room to spare. The boy gasped as my soldiers released his arms and he fell, only to be held up by the throat. His hands instinctively came up to clutch at my own, scratching at them to try and release himself, but his struggle was in vain.

As a mere soul, I could feel no pain.

I carried him to the wall closest to my workbench, then drew my arm back. Blue-green eyes opened suddenly, looking down at me in apprehension and—was it? Yes!—fear,and for a moment, our eyes locked.

I threw my arm forward.

The boy's back connected with the wall with a sharp smack; his eyes widened in pain and his arms dropped on impact. That was all it took (that one second) for my shadows to swarm over him, covering his body from the neck down in a sheet of darkness. He glared at me for a second before they finally overcame him, and his head dropped limply to the side.

One soul.

I watched in enchantment as he began to glow faintly—one not looking for it would never notice it. The same aquamarine colour as his eyes, as his life-loop. I pulled it out of my pocket and peered down at it, looking through the circle. An image crackled to life on it, of the boy as he was now.

A grin, and it was replaced in my pocket. It would most likely come in handy in the long run, would it not?

I reached up, placing one long finger on the boy's forehead. Part of the boy's glow coalesced at that point, slowly being drawn down my arm and absorbed into my body. As this happened, I felt my body changing, organs rearranging, my limbs becoming smaller.

I looked in the crystal of my workbench, pursing my lips slightly at my appearance. The eyes were wrong; the eyes, such a vibrant orange, were too noticeable. I reached out a hand, frowning at it until a strip of black cloth appeared in it. Cloth that would remain opaque to anyone outside of myself, while remaining transparent to myself. I reached back, tying it carefully into silver locks, tightening it so that there would be no chance of it slipping and revealing my eyes, the one thing that could betray me now.

I reached out a hand and flexed the fingers carefully, looking it over. The fingers were quite a bit shorter than what I was used to—how did humans ever hold anything, anyways? I concentrated, and they lengthened slowly (I was careful not to make them too long, though) until they were a more manageable length.

I leaned over my workbench, sending out a mental call to a select few of my soldiers, the ones of my elite force known as the Unknowns. 'Let us go,' I murmured, tongue between my teeth, trying to use my creations with such short fingers. Eventually I resorted to only using the index fingers of both hands, jabbing at the keys I wanted to hit—attempting to type properly only made me strike the wrong keys.

The Unknown lined up behind me as I did this, until a bright portal opened before us. One strode forward into the void, and the rest lined up. I struck another few keys until the portal varied in colour, signifying to the next that it was safe to enter. And so the pattern went, until only my 'partner' and myself remained.

'There is something here,' he noted, nodding toward the boy.

'Yes. Yes, there is,' I grinned, looking toward him as well. 'Unlike you, I was able to find my own to model myself after, instead of resorting to the distorted images of lost and angry souls. Although I must admit, you did not do such a bad job.'

'No, I didn't,' he agreed, holding out his arms for inspection. 'All limbs are in the correct positions, and the body isn't the worst looking that I've seen.'

I didn't mention that it looked close to the other boy I'd seen before. That would crush his work.

'Our mission begins now?' he asked.

'Yes, it does,' I replied, tapping the final few keys. The portal flickered once, before flashing and shining the clearest blue I'd ever seen. 'We begin here.'

'Crystal Seminar, Rosarran,' he murmured, raising his right hand.

'Crystal Seminar, Eid,' I replied, bringing my own hand to clasp his.

As one, we released each other's hand and turned, striding into the portal with no hesitation.

My Palace is dark, now.