"So, this is what the Superior looks like."

"Yes." The eyes pierced her soul, able to see straight through her. "Although I'm sure Axel never told you what Ansem looks like, or rather, looked like. Then again, there are a lot of things he hasn't told you. Even if he may not know what all of them are."

"Shut up! Axel's completely honest with me."

"Axel doesn't know the meaning of honesty." He still spoke calmly, seemingly oblivious to her boiling rage. Unable to contain her anger any longer, Laska lashed out at him with a blast of silver fire. He teleported out of the way easily, but she attacked again, forcing him to defend himself. He appeared behind her and grabbed her arm, but she wrenched it away and surrounded him with swirls of magic. She summoned the staff to help her fight.

"I should warn you that attempting to fight me is futile." He appeared from the mists and summoned several Heartless to attack her. She dispensed of them with one attack, but more appeared. 'Why are they attacking me?' she wondered, fending them off. 'I'm on their side.'

"Ah, you were on their side. But you have begun to refuse the darkness, and they can sense it. They want your heart Laska. They want your power." As if echoing what he said, a small Heartless jumped at her, eager to rip her heart out, but she knocked it away. The others glared at her hungrily.

"I think they would like your heart even better. It's so full of darkness that it would make them really powerful, and who doesn't want that?" she said, trying to use his own tactic against him. The Heartless slowly advanced toward him, but he used his control over darkness to send them back to Laska. She blew them away with a large gust of wind, and used Stopga on Xemnas before he had a chance to attack again.

"Now that that's over, I can finally talk to you," she said, stepping over to his frozen form. The orange eyes still glared at her, but she glared right back with eyes of the opposite color.

"You know just as well as I do that I wouldn't have chosen the darkness if it weren't for you. I had one chance to reach the light-one chance. And you destroyed it. So you're going to pay." She used her magic to change the shape of the staff so it hard a knife at the top.

'If you didn't know, I have no heart. I am a Nobody. If you destroy me it will only feed the Heartless, just as you said,' he thought desperately, hoping she wouldn't do what she was planning.

"Yeah, but that won't save you. I can still use darkness."

'You're a hypocrite.'

"Shut up." She held the staff towards him, then pulled back and lunged.

Zexion was still annoying Vexen as he researched Laska's predicament, but his eyes were starting to grow heavy. Watching someone read for hours on end wasn't exactly exciting, even if you had nothing else to do. Suddenly, his head snapped up in confusion, eyes wide.

"Can you sense that?" he asked Vexen worriedly.
"Sense what?" he muttered, hardly listening. He had grown to ignore most of Zexion's comments.
"A really strong scent just faded. It's gone. And I don't think you'll like it if I tell you who it was."
"I'm trying to focus, so just tell me and get it over with."

"Xemnas." It was Vexen's turn to be shocked.
"You're kidding. Who could've possibly killed the Superior?"

"Take a wild guess." Vexen took off his reading glasses, folding them and setting them on the desk. He stood and briskly walked toward the door, Zexion following behind him. They teleported to the Superior's office in a matter of seconds, just in time to see a mass of darkness being devoured by the Heartless. Laska stood in a corner, facing away from them, with the staff near her on the floor. It looked as though she had just dropped it.

"Laska, what happened?" asked Zexion, being the first to speak.
"The darkness," she whispered hoarsely, turning to face them with tearstained eyes.
"What does that mean?" asked Vexen, oblivious to her tears.
"The darkness drove me to do it. I didn't do it on purpose. I've never killed anyone before…" she trailed off as thick sobs gripped her lungs, starving her of air.

Vexen and Zexion glanced at each other, uncertain of what to do. Another person faded in before they had a chance to even speak.

"I need to speak to the Superior, where is he?" Axel asked hurriedly. Laska focused on taking long, slow breaths and tried to calm down, but Axel had just made it more difficult.

"You see that giant mass of darkness that's becoming Thanksgiving dinner for the Heartless?" said Zexion, pointing at it.
"Yeah, what about it? This is important."
"Axel, you clearly don't understand what is going on," Vexen said flatly.
"I killed him." Laska's soft words nearly went unheard.

Nearly.

"Laska, do you mean to tell me that you murdered the Superior!"
"Be nice, Axel. Can't you see she's upset?" said Zexion.
"How do you think the rest of the Organization is going to take this? It's not like we can just randomly pick a new leader! Xemnas was the one who created the Organization in the first place, and now he's dead!" He shouted the last part, causing Laska to burst into tears and run out of the room crying, leaving the staff behind. Axel glared at her as she left, then walked over and picked up the staff. It changed shape at his touch, turning black and red with a spiral of spikes running along the shaft. A shuriken adorned the top of it, glowing with a red aura.

"What should we do now, Axel?" Vexen asked, anticipating an answer already.

"Whatever I say. I think I'll be in charge now." Zexion nodded and walked out of the room, while Vexen waited until he was gone. Axel studied the staff. "Axel, you know what it's like to kill someone. Why were you so harsh on the girl?"

"Because I feel no regret. She has a heart. I have a shell of one. You should know that; it applies to you too."
"Does it really mean that emotion is beyond your reach?"
"Feelings, no. True emotion, yes. A shell cannot truly feel, only sense and imagine. You study that kind of stuff all the time; shouldn't you know all of that?"
"Shouldn't you?"

She ran.

Away from the chaos she had just created.

Away from the disaster, away from the darkness.

Away.

And she ran into Nexis, tears streaming down her face and eyes red and raw from crying.

"Laska, what-"

"You've got to believe me, I didn't do it on purpose, I was being controlled by the darkness, now something bad's going to happen and it's all my fault!" She cried so much that she started choking from lack of air. Nexis gently embraced her, allowing her to cry into his shoulder. Her sobs began to become more infrequent, and she began to breathe more smoothly.

"It's okay, Laska, I'm sure that whatever happened, it wasn't that bad."
"Yes it was!" She was in danger of crying all over again.
"I need you to calm down. Now, slowly tell me what happened." She sniffled a few times, getting her emotions together, then slowly stepped away from Nexis and fearfully looked him in the eye.

"Well, I went to go talk to the Superior and he said that I chose darkness a long time ago. I told him that he was the one who made me do it, but he denied it. Then he said he knew a lot about the darkness, and he showed me what he looked like." She shuddered at the memory of the evil orange eyes.

"Then he said Axel was never honest with anyone, and that he never told me anything about Ansem or anything like that. Then we started fighting, and I used a Stop spell to freeze him after he said the Heartless wanted to devour my heart. Eventually, I..I.." she was barely able to continue.

"I stabbed him. The Heartless ate what was left of him; it was all darkness. Then Vexen and Zexion showed up, then Axel, and he was really mean to me and then I ran away." Nexis said nothing for a moment, going over the words in his head.

"I don't really know what to say, Laska. You said you didn't do it on purpose, that darkness took over. But it just sounds like you got really angry and couldn't control yourself." Laska smiled up at him. Nexis always knew what to say.

"There's something I need to ask you," he said slowly.
"What?" He took a deep breath, staring into her glistening blue eyes.
"Are we still friends?"
"Of course. Why? What could have made you think we weren't?"

"You really weren't acting like a friend. Darkness isn't a good thing." Her smile faded as she glanced away.

"I'm sorry. But now I'm afraid there's no way I can get out of it. Especially because of what just happened. I've decided."

"Decided what?"
"To give up my heart."
"But Laska, that will kill you!"

"After everything I've done, I don't deserve to live. I learned that if I stay in the darkness too much longer, I might get turned into a Heartless. Vexen told me he thinks there's a Nobody version of me that is in the light. If my Nobody could get my heart when I give it up, my heart would finally be in the light, and that's what I've really always wanted, isn't it?"

"That won't work. A creation of the light will not accept darkness."
"It might work," she said quietly. He sighed, holding her at arm's length.

"There's a small chance, but why take the risk? I don't want anything to happen to you. It was bad enough not seeing you for seven years. Can you imagine how bad it would be if I never saw you again?" She stared up at him, two tears sliding down her face.
"I'd rather give up my heart than lose it to the darkness."
"But why?"

"It's inevitable. I can't get away from it, especially after what happened. Think about it, Nexis. How would you feel if you killed someone?"

"Like I would if I lost you." Unable to say anymore, she turned and walked away, leaving Nexis to stare after her sadly.

Larxene had gotten increasingly angry at Nexis's response to her feelings. 'How could he like Laska more than me? I'm prettier, for one,' Larxene smirked, 'and stronger, too. Why can't he just give up on her?' Larxene desperately wanted to wring Laska's neck, but the thought of how Nexis would react continued to delay her plans. As anger seeped further into her, she finally decided. It had to be done.

Laska listlessly marched up the stairs leading to the fifth floor. She was observing the walls around her, attempting to distract herself from what she had done. No decoration, no ornaments...just plain white. For some reason she couldn't understand it; she found it very annoying. As she reached the top of the stairs, she was surprised to see Larxene walking down the hall ahead.

"Now what could you be up to? Chasing after Nexis some more, I suppose?" She let out a chuckle. Larxene's look became ferocious. "Because of you, he doesn't even notice me! You're ruining my chances at having him fall for me!" A faint sparking sound began echoing throughout the corridor.

"What do you intend to do? Fight me?" Her look said it all. Laska smiled without knowing it. "Good. I need somebody to take my rage out on." The room began glowing red, and the two prepared to fight. After a brief pause, the catfight began.

"Firaxa!" Laska fired a mighty stream of gray and black fire right at Larxene. She teleported above the burning ray, and with a cry, hurled multiple electric kunai at her opponent. Laska dodged most of them, but a single razor pierced her robe and shocked her right leg.

"That's it! There's no turning back from here!" A group of flaming orbs appeared and circled Laska. With a flick of her hand, they went right towards Larxene. She used her magnetic pull to suck in the flaming balls, and quickly fired them back at Laska, charged with electricity. Two of them struck Laska's arm, and one struck her right in the chest. She couldn't understand it. She used to be so strong...the darkness should be increasing her power. Somehow, it was draining it away!

"Hah! You are no challenge at all." Larxene used a quick Thundaga attack and hit Laska in the foot. Determined not to give in, she held in a cry of pain, but soon fell down to one knee. As Larxene continued to rain attacks down upon Laska, she felt weaker and weaker, weaker than she ever had before. She couldn't hold in her pain any longer. She let out a muffled shriek, but stopped herself.

"This is too bad. I wanted to have more fun. Unfortunately, it's over for you." Larxene suddenly took on a cruel smile, and waved her hand in the air. A spear of lightning hung from the ceiling, aimed right at Laska, who struggled to stand up.

Laska knew it was over. She knew she would die...and she wondered, would choosing the light have prevented this? Would she have lived? Would Nexis...still be her friend? She thought about this very briefly, and realized, 'He wanted to be my friend. He wanted to restore our former friendship...not very emotionally, but he still tried…and I let the darkness blind me from the truth.' And with that, she felt even more sure that she deserved to die. "Let it come, Larxene, I will fight you no longer." She stood, facing Larxene confidently but sadly.

"Farewell, you worthless being." The lightning spear fell, headed straight for her heart. The suspense was killing her…

And then it struck.

Laska screamed, an aura of darkness flooding out of her heart. She began to fall backwards, and Larxene teleported away before anyone would know what had happened. But not before getting a small souvenir.

Nexis was lying in his bed, thinking about Laska. 'Where did I go wrong? What made her so angry with me...and why is she around Axel so much? I just don't get it...'

Very suddenly, various flashing images began appearing before his eyes. Pictures of Laska from their childhood. The two of them playing together...the bracelet...her beautiful smile…and then an excruciatingly painful jolt in his own heart. His eyes widened, and he let out a cry of disbelief. A heart had faded...a strong one. As his own heart raced, fearing the worst, he held out his hand and tried to look at Laska's heart.

It didn't show up. He tried harder and harder...it wouldn't appear. He couldn't believe it...he wouldn't. The look of despair on his face turned to fury and rage...his mind couldn't take it. Laska was gone.

He instantly teleported to the fifth floor, feeling that to be the source of the disturbance. Right as he arrived, he saw someone falling backwards right in front of him, and instantly reached out to catch her. He realized instantly that this was Laska. She looked up at him pleadingly, tears running down her face. Her eyes suddenly turned dark, and she grew cold. Then she started fading, right in Nexis's arms. There was nothing he could do.