"When was the last time any of you checked the holding rooms?"
Even's question caught them all by surprise. Xehanort glanced up from his textbook at the blond, then at his fellows, silently echoing him.
"I think the last time was when me and Dilan took that last batch down there, yesterday morning," Braig answered. "Why?"
Even tilted his head to indicate the passageway behind him. "I think all of you should see this."
They followed him down to where they had locked the subjects away after their hearts had been removed. Inability to restore their hearts had prompted the group to not collect more samples until they could work out the latest kink in their work, so the only sound was of the six men moving down the hallway. The heartless ones were completely silent.
At least, they had been. As they drew near, Xehanort could hear quiet squeaking and rustling coming from the holding rooms. Glances at the others told him that they heard it as well. Despite the noises, they did not hesitate to gather around the doorway of the cell Even opened up.
"Somebody turn on the light. There's no way for us to see whatever it is Even is so worked up over in the dark."
"Dilan, the light is on," Elaeus pointed out.
There was a collective intake of breath as the researchers suddenly realized that the shifting mass of shadows had humanoid shapes, were possibly even sentient. At the very least, they were aware of the six in the doorway - several were already creeping towards them.
Several long moments went by as they stared in shock, broken only by the squeal of one of the shadows as Braig's booted foot launched it across the small room after it got too close for comfort. "Definitely an unexpected outcome," Even said. "The subjects that were in here have completely vanished."
"What are they?" Ienzo asked.
Xehanort smiled. "Our next experimental subjects."
Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something else entirely beyond my imagination?
Those who lack hearts...I will call them the Heartless.
When Xehanort walked into the study, Elaeus was wrapping a bandage around several deep scratches on Even's arm. "What happened?"
Even was scowling fiercely, looking like he might jump up from his seat at any moment. "I was providing the Shadows with some food from the meat lockers when they attacked me instead. I was fortunate that Elaeus was there, or else..." He didn't need to finish the sentence. They had all seen what happened to living people locked in with the Heartless. "I believe that there are more of them now than there used to be. They're multiplying down there, somehow."
"Did they respond to the meat at all?"
"No, Xehanort!" Even slammed his free hand down on the desk. "They responded to me. Do you not understand? They devour hearts, not normal food, and they hunt in groups. If we aren't careful, we could become just like them."
"We'll simply have to be cautious, then," Xehanort replied calmly. He left the study to the holding rooms. He wanted to make certain observations himself, without the apprentices around. Safety, their safety, had always been stressed to the six by Ansem as paramount, and he was about to break the first rule of safety they had set down over the Heartless.
He was going to let one out.
center /center
Ansem the Wise returned to the castle the next day, and was warmly welcomed back by most of the inhabitants. Between the fanfare, unpacking, and needing to attend to numerous royal duties, he was unable to join his students in his study until late that evening.
Not that any of them minded very much. It gave them time to work out exactly how to tell him of their discoveries about the darkness and the heart that the Heartless so neatly provided them. The fact that a few of the Shadows had escaped and had to be tracked down also made them grateful for the extra time, since it took several hours to find them all.
Xehanort was fairly sure they were all accounted for; the way they multiplied often made it hard to keep an accurate count of the Heartless.
Several takes of artificial hearts were placed around the room, the two large noteboards on the subject matter were finished and leaning against a bookcase, and Ienzo and Dilan were playing a word game on a third, when Ansem arrived, red sash draped carelessly over his shoulders.
"Did any of you see the meteor shower last night?" he asked as he took his seat.
Dilan nodded. "We all did. An impressive display."
"And completely arbitrary. We had no way of expecting it, and it was only by pure luck that we caught it," Even added.
Ansem smiled. "I, too, thought it both impressive and fascinating in its unexpectedness. In fact, some of the meteors fell near our camp last night, so I brought some back for us to study. Very unusual material...I left it with the steward, Elaeus. You can get it from him in the morning." The other students' chuckles did nothing to dampen Elaeus's grin. "Now then, how have your studies gone?"
It was the question Xehanort had been waiting for. Using the noteboards, he outlined the process of how the darkness engulfed a heart and created a Heartless. The Shadows, they had determined, were incarnations of that darkness, trapping the heart in a physical being. Ansem appeared shocked to learn that they kept many Heartless in storage in the lab.
"You've done very well in this," he said slowly, examining the boards. "But where did you get the hearts that became these...Heartless?"
"The artificial hearts-" Xehanort started.
"Your artificial hearts have no inherent light or darkness," Ansem overrode him. "Yes, I did have time to read the reports you sent me. Are you trying to tell me that man-made hearts somehow became consumed by inner darkness they blatantly do not have?"
"No, Master Ansem."
"Then tell me, Xehanort, where did you get the hearts?"
He hesitated for a moment, but Ansem's focus look demanded nothing but the immediate truth. "We removed them from subjects collected from the town."
Ansem steepled his fingers and pressed them against his lips, eyes closed. He took several deep breathes before opening his eyes and asking, "You took hearts out of living people?"
"Yes, Master Ansem."
He looked around the room. "All of you, all six of you, knew about this? Took part in it?"
The other five, who had remained motionless since the discussion had turned dangerous, each gave their affirmatives, quietly as if to avoid further attention. Ansem looked like he had been punched in the stomach at the revelation. Gathering his composure, he told them, "I want this stopped, immediately. Everything you've collected about the heart and the darkness is to be discarded," his voice rose over the protests, "All of these Heartless need to be destroyed, everything."
"Everything, Master Ansem?" Ienzo asked. "All of our hard work..."
"Everything," Ansem said firmly, rising from his chair. "Except those," he added, pointing at the noteboards and the tanks. "Those will remain in here to remind the six of you..."
He couldn't finish. Shaking his head, he hurriedly left the room, leaving them to look helplessly at each other.
"We misjudged his compassion," Elaeus said quietly.
"Do we really have to destroy all of it?" Ienzo looked up at Xehanort, his eyes large and pleading.
Xehanort shook his head. "Of course not," he reassured him, ruffling the younger researcher's hair and earning himself a swat.
"He told us to get rid of it all," Braig pointed out.
"He's just tired from his journey, and it made him overreact to having this sprung on him," Xehanort reasoned. "We'll let him calm down for a few days, then work our way back onto the subject. The Heartless aren't going anywhere, we'll just have to be careful when going into the lab so he doesn't notice. In the meantime, we can examine the material that fell from the sky last night."
