My heart.
Where is my heart? Please…. I want… I need… My heart.
This emptiness inside of me… I cannot stand it. Help me… Please… Help... Somebody... Anyone... help.
The creature which stumbled around… He didn't remember his name, he didn't comprehend this place. Only that it was vast, dark, and so empty. Yet he stumbled around as he hopelessly searched with outstretched hands, as if he hoped to catch something. All that he touched though, was empty air.
"My heart…. My heart…" He kept stuttering. "Please..." he fell to his knees as he grabbed his head. "I need my heart!"
It seemed like this hopeless lonely creature would be lost for-ever, at this dark place, doomed to eternally search for the thing he had lost... And he hissed as he grabbed his chest that felt so empty and hollow.
Then suddenly… A small creature came. It was tiny and black, with round yellow eyes and a pair of black antennas on its head making it look almost like a bug as it crawled over to the man sitting on his knees, then put its claw like hand on his knees.
The mans eyes opened wide as he looked down, at the bug like creature.
For a moment they sat there in silence.
"You..." The man spoke. "You are not my heart… But… You feel… So familiar." he reached a hand for the creature, and the creature was still, allowing him to touch. The man gasped. "The emptiness… It's not so painful now." he commented then looked down. "I know you." he realized. "You are..." he halted then frowned. "I am… Not Isa." he stated. "He said.. I'm not really Isa… I am a fake." he commented as he slowly stood up.
The black creature looked up at the man, then it grabbed his leg and pointed the other way.
"You… You wish to show me something?" The man whom was not really Isa asked. "Okay." he nodded as he bowed down and picked up the creature in his arms… The creature… a heartless… This tiny thing, was actually someones heart… It felt so warm and familiar. The massive emptiness, it wasn't so bad at all now, even as he walked through all of this dark emptiness guided by the heartless in his arms.
Then finally they stopped… In front of them was a massive creature that seemed like it was made out of shadow, slowly it opened its eyes that revealed themselves to be as big as dinner plates.
Astounded the creature looked at the man whom wasn't Isa, and that man looked back at it… The big heartless.
Slowly the heartless reached its hand towards him. "My… My body." it spoke. "Please… my body."
The man gasped. "You… You're." he swallowed. "Isa." he breathed. "The real Isa." and he stepped forward. "My heart." he swallowed reaching up. "My heart!" he smiled happily.
Then he felt the creature in his arm move and he looked down. "Lea." he swallowed at the creature. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't take very good care of your body. It must be somewhere around here though," he commented as he looked around. "I mean… Logically, if I am here… Where-ever here is." he commented looking around. "A place where people who died but aren't actually dead goes." he mumbled. "A realm in between… and what we see, is what our hearts are reflecting. Your body must be in another part.." he informed the heartless in his arms.
It didn't seem to understand much.. Not to surprising. It was the body which had all the memories and abilities of a humans.
Hearts… were something a lot more difficult to even explain.
The blue haired man looked up, and to his right… in the horizon… There was a clock tower! With the sun setting behind it. "THERE!" he pointed. "Axel must be there! Your body!"
The heartless seemed eager already to just get going but then it halted.
"It's okay." The man smiled. "You helped me Lea… When I needed you the most. You came." he breathed. "I... Thank you. I wont forget this. Go get your body." he asked putting the heartless down and it jumped then it ran off allowing the man to turn to the much bigger heartless as he smiled. "Isa." he greeted as he reached out his hands. "I… I've been so lost."
And the huge shadow hand of the heartless reached forward, then as their hands touched a figure seemed to project from the heartless… A teenage boy with shoulder length blue hair.
Then, the darkness of the heartless seemed to disperse and all there was left was a golden glowing light… The true form of his heart.
And the man smiled as he reached out, allowing the light to land in his hands. Then, he pressed his hands and the light towards his chest, allowing it home where it belonged.
He felt the warmth, coming from his chest and filling his body as slowly, his body turned to light and he smiled… He was complete. He didn't belong at this place anymore, this in between realm. He was going back to the light.
Isa groaned… his body It felt so heavy. And the light, it was shining through his eye lids hurting his head. As if he had been inside of a dark room for a very long time and was now blinded by bright light, cutting right into his brain. It really hurt. Slowly did Isa open his eyes as he sat up, then he blinked.
He felt… Different! He didn't feel that emptiness! Then he grabbed his chest. "My heart!" he gasped then he smiled warmly holding his hands over his chest.
"Aww isn't that nice? Morning my sleeping beauty!"
Isa stiffened… That voice… It was a familiar and extremely unpleasant voice. Belonging to a very unpleasant man always wearing an eye patch to hide his destroyed left eye. "Xigbar..." he whispered as he glanced up to true enough, see the man with his eye patch…. The remaining eye shining a dangerous golden color.
"You remembered!" Xigbar grinned. "How touching! I'm honored!"
"Urgh.." Isa groaned as he sat up holding a hand towards his forehead. "Where… am I?" he asked. "How… I…"
"Died? Yup! You sure did." Xigbar grinned as he sat down crossing his legs.
Isa groaned. Oh great, if this was his personal hell that was just too well designed. Spending eternity with this guy was a fate no one deserved, not even the worlds worst killers. Then suddenly he noticed, another body beside him and Isa gasped by the sight of a middle aged man with long blond hair. "Vexen?! But he's.."
"Also dead, uhu." Xigbar nodded and suddenly Isa looked around seeing more bodies, all organization members, and then his eyes widened as he saw the spiky red hair which could only belong to one person.
"Le.. Axel." Isa managed to correct himself though still crawled for the figure. How… How could this be! He was gone! He was… Isa felt tears pressing through his eyes as his throat tied itself in a knot. "Axel..." he spoke again reaching for him with a shaking hand. Desperately wanting to touch the other young man, just to make sure! Was he real? I thought you were gone! Lea!
"Geesh, is this what having a heart does to people?" Xigbar asked. "This is kind of pathetic."
Isa halted on his way to Axe, his hand still reaching for the red-head but he had yet to touch, then slowly he lowered his hand and turned his head glancing at Xigbar instead.
"And even I used to be scared of you to." Xigbar commented. "HAHAHAHA! Don't make me laugh."
Isa halted, then he closed his eyes to try and get this rush of emotion under control. Xigbar was in the room, he couldn't afford to act on emotion! He had to control himself.
And he took a deep breath as he sat up removing himself from Lea, putting a well rehearsed cold face on, a face to signal he didn't actually care about what was happening and he turned to Xigbar, slowly standing up. "My body was slain by Sora back at the castle, now I am here, not only is my body back the way it was, but my heart is in there to. How?" he asked.
"Simple really." Xigbar stated. "It's like this see… As long as your heart still lives, your body can't really die. And as long as your body is around, your heart can't really die. Which is why the heartless will always just re-appear when you slayed them. They literately wont die as long as their body is alive, and visa versa." he stated. "The only way to kill them for good is to kill both heart and body simultaneously." he stated. "Your body though was destroyed on a microscopic level, how-ever… As long as your heart was out there, it could not die and would search to re-complete itself. On the same time as searching for its heart… The heart finding an opening searched for the body and finally heart and body found each other and you were re-completed. Tadaaa!" he grinned as he spread out his arms.
The stone cold face expression on Isa's face was very worthy of Saix, it didn't give anything away. "I see. So for all this time, all we ever had to do was to let our bodies be destroyed and we would be re-completed. Another lie Xemnas fed us. Kingdom hearts wasn't ever needed to re-complete us." he stated then looked around. "This is the very place we were first turned into nobodies. I see." he stated. "Heart and body sought the place they were last one."
"You got it! Glad to see your brains weren't left behind." Xigbar grinned.
"Then what are you doing here?" Isa asked. "You are still a nobody I see. What do you want?" he asked.
Xigbar smirked. "Simple really…" and he pointed a finger at Isa. "You!"
Isa didn't move a face muscle.
"What? No shout of surprise?" Xigbar asked.
Isa remained cold.
"Geesh, so that isn't just your nobody acting like that?" Xigbar asked. "All right." he shrugged. "You got darkness in you, even as a person your darkness was always quite strong. You proved yourself to Xemnas over the years, even the original Xehanort is pleased. Congrats, you are one of the chosen!" he stated. "Champions of darkness! Give yourself a hand."
Isa's eyes narrowed, it was though his only body part moving.
"So, you just need to come with me, give up your heart to make room for Xehanorts darkness, let him fill you up nice and easy. And we are good to go." Xigbar stated.
"And why exactly would I do that?" Isa asked. "As a child I was foolish, now though I know better, I was being used. Why should I allow myself to be used like that again?" he asked.
"Ah I see, well, then let me make this easy for you." Xigbar smirked as he leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. "Come with me, and I wont kill Flamsilocks laying over there."
At that Isa's eyes widened.
Xigbar smirked, clearly happy to finally have provoked an reaction from him. "Now that his body and heart has been reunited, he is just a normal person again." he pointed out. "Killing him now will be so much easier than before. Also it would rather please Xemnas, dear little Axel has caused a lot of trouble for us you know. Xemnas aint that big a fan of traitors."
Isa stood still, yet the way his body stood rigid and his hand tightened in a fist betrayed him.
"Hah, that heart of yours causing you trouble?" Xigbar asked then snapped a finger as suddenly a group of dusks appeared, three grabbing Leas unconscious body making Isa's eyes widen. "You know… It really is quite something." Xigbar stated. "That kid, even after he turned into a nobody he stayed so loyal to you. He even killed for you… Allowed himself to become the clean up boy for you." he stated. "It's no wonder he had enough eventually. Going through so much trouble for such an ungrateful friend." he stated as the dusks started to pull.
Isa hissed as he looked down, then he glanced up. "You do realize that if this is the way you are going to make me come back, It wont be out of loyalty for Xemnas."
Xigbar sighed as looked up. "Look it doesn't matter why you come back, only that you do. We need thirteen vessels of darkness to clash with seven guardians of light, that's all there is to it. And the darkness inside of you." he pointed at Isa. "Is of the most strong overwhelming kind."
Isa looked down, his fist tightened.
"Just look at that, you hate me right now." Xigbar stated. "Not just hate me, you're really wishing you could kill me. Right here, right now. Only thing stopping you is that you are smart enough to know that you can't, not as you are now, a mere normal human being. Kind of pathetic really."
Isa's entire body was shaking, out of the corner of his eyes… He could see Lea being grabbed by all of those dusks. Defenseless, and it was true! Isa didn't have any of the powers Saix had, he couldn't do anything. He was pathetically weak.
Lea… He was right there next to him. The real, genuine, Lea… His friend. The only friend he had left... Everyone else was gone.
Then Isa's body relaxed, his tightened fist loosened and he took a deep breath as he looked up. "You are offering me my powers back so I can kill you myself?" he asked in a deliberate nonchalant voice. "How very nice of you. Then if anything ever does happen to Lea. You will indeed be very much dead." he stated the underlying threat in his voice clear to hear.
And Xigbar grinned as he snapped a finger and all the dusks let go of Leas body as they stepped aside, as well did a dark corridor open up.
"Spoken like one who is one with the darkness." Xigbar stated. "Shall we?" he asked as he gestured at the dark corridor.
Isa glanced at him. "Not anyone else you want to pick up while you are here?" he asked.
"No." Xigbar stated. "You see, none of these people were ever true candidates to become vessels." he stated. "Their hearts were strong, but their darkness not nearly vast enough. Xemnas always planned to get rid of them all sooner or later."
"Why not get rid of them now?" Isa asked.
"Some of these people still has knowledge, knowledge which could be useful." Xigbar glanced on the ones whom had former been Vexen and Zexion, then he glanced up. "Best of all, the way they are now, they are just weak humans. They are no threat but could be of use later. Also." he grabbed Leas hair pulling the red head up. "Leverage." he commented as he let go, sending the body down on the ground. "Any final heart filled words of goodbye?" he asked.
"No." Isa stated as he turned to the corridor. "Let's go." he asked as he stepped through.
As he walked behind Xigbar… He really had to fight to keep his composition… his heart proved very troublesome indeed. He had to fight his urge to just turn around and run back, grab Lea and beg for forgiveness.
It wouldn't do any good though… Xigbar was ruthless, his threats were always to be taken seriously. Also… Isa really didn't have any powers the way he was now. The skills he had honed…. They were gone. If he were to be of help, he had to do this.
Slowly he reached up, feeling his chest where his heart resided…. It was enough to make you laugh. He had finally gotten his heart back, and already he had to give it up. It really wasn't something he wanted to do, how-ever… Isa closed his eyes, determinedly to etch the feelings he had now into his memory. So when he lost his heart again, he could think back to this very moment, think back and remember why his heart guided him to do this.
He would remember these feelings… The happiness and sorrow… Lea was not going to know about any of this.
It would be better that way… Lea would believe that Isa went of his own free will. It would stop him from coming after him, that was good. Then he would be safe. Lea had gone through enough pain already because of Isa. This way... Lea could finally have a normal human life. He could go out there and make friends with practically everybody he met, just like he had done when they were children. He could go about having normal days... To imagine this, it did make Isa's heart hurt. How-ever, on the same time it felt nice. It really would be nice if Lea at least, could have a normal life from now on.
Lea… I know now. You didn't leave me… I pushed you away. I truly am sorry. Now that my mind is clear again, and I can see what I did was wrong. I must do what-ever I can to atone. I brought you so much pain... You are right, I have been a horrible friend. In fact, for the last ten years. I haven't been any friend at all. I hope one day, I will be able to make it up to you. Somehow... And I hope you will be able to forgive me.
If anyone can… It would have to be you. Lea.