Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I DO own the OCs. If you'd like to use them in a fic, just tell me.

Am I Heartless?

Part 15

Maleficent sneered as she listened to Pete's blubbering and pleading for her forgiveness at her feet. She had heard all of his excuses so many times she no longer seemed to hear them. She just knew her patience with his incompetence was running thin.

"Silence!" Maleficent thundered, unleashing a gale of wind strong enough to knock even Pete's tremendous bulk back towards the wall. "Enough of your blubbering you buffoon! Now tell me why you are back so soon. Even YOU cannot fail that quickly."

"It was the Heartless, they just appeared and just... well, destroyed the ones I brought with me." Pete blubbered as he crawled back to Maleficent's feet, bowing so low on the ground you might've thought he was laying on the hard stone floor. "Those other Heartless are completely out of control! What are we going to do?"

"Enough of your sniveling, I have the situation under control." The old witch sneered as she whacked the ground by Pete's head with her staff. "The child I brought here is going to end that problem for us."

Pete had covered his head with his hands after the strike of her staff, but now he felt brave enough to look up at her. "What is that kid for anyway Maleficent?"

"You shall soon see Pete." Maleficent said, walking over to the balcony to pet her beloved overgrown raven. However something in the sky caught her attention. "Pete, we are about to have company. Do stay here and make sure they are entertained."

And with that the old witch vanished in flames, as did seem to be her custom.

As Pete lifted himself off the ground he let out a relieved sigh. He knew he had gotten off easy. If that kid had not become Maleficent's new source of amusement she might've used her magic and turned him into a toad as she had threatened or if worse came to worse she could've thrown him to the Heartless.

---

Meanwhile in the lower floors of the castle Orin flipped through the pages of the book once more, maybe he'd see something he hadn't noticed before. Indeed he did, the last page of the book was stuck to the inside of the back cover. Idly Orin read aloud;

"The door that I found within the castle that gave me the glimpse of the dark power I now hold is now locked. I myself have used my own newfound power to make sure that only I can reopen it in case those that would serve me would betray me. The following is the incantation for opening the door if I should ever need to call on its power again:

Into the kingdom of darkness again

Across the bridge of death, beyond the gates of light

Into the heart of darkness, into the black of night

Into the darkness I command my soul

Never shall I repent, never shall I be saved.

I go into the house of death

Before my last breath my enemies all shall die…"

That last line left a foul taste in his mouth. Orin didn't like a single word of those lines, they just weren't things he would say. Orin didn't like to talk about death or darkness or things like that nature. Such things reminded him that he of what he really was. But should that really bother him? He's a Heartless, but he didn't feel evil or wanted to destroy things. That is... until someone touched him like Yuffie did. Then again what Maleficent said had merit, he was a creature of darkness and as long as that was evident the people this side of the door would never truly accept him as he is. In the end Sora, Riku, and even Kairi would try to slay him. To them he was nothing more than a heart stealing monster. Orin would gladly open these doors and resign to the depths of the world on the other side.

---

"Whee! Man this fun!" Kairi cried aloud as she did a barrel roll.

Yuffie however had one hand on her mouth to keep her lunch down and the other to hang on to Riku's waist because she couldn't think of any 'happy thoughts' at the moment other than being on the ground.

Sora just smiled, flying by use of Tinkerbell's fairy dust was the fastest and certainly one of the funest way of traveling to the old castle that sat within the gorge past the Deep Depths. The fairy that had given them this taste of her power flew with them, ensuring that they would not fall to the hard crystal ground below until they arrived at the castle.

"Hey, that tower up ahead looks like a good spot to set down!" Kairi pointed out, indicating the tower left of the large Heartless symbol that was now falling into ruin along with the rest of the castle. Their landing was an ungreeted one, not a single Heartless could be seen from the tower's balcony nor in the small room just inside the open doorless entrance.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home." Yuffie said, peeking inside the tower. She was already feeling much better now that she had something solid under her feet. But truth be told she was almost glad to see that no one was home. She didn't want to fight so soon after that flight. It meant she'd have to kick butt then get ready for another trip through the air.

"I wonder what the old biddy is planning." Yuffie wondered out loud.

"Well, what ever it is it won't happen." Riku said. "I know the Maleficent, and I don't have to tell you she's pure evil."

Yuffie shook her head. "She and the Heartless were the main thing that drove us from Radiant Garden in the beginning. Xehanort or whatever he was calling himself at the time just kinda sat back and watched."

Sora scratched his head, he was glad that things were so much better here but at the same time he was a little worried that if things didn't go well the people of this world might loose their home again. "Well the only ways out of this room is a hundred foot fall and those stairs over there. I guess we're gonna see what else is in this crumbling castle."

Sora hadn't finished when a small hand jerked his ear. He turned to see Tinkerbell tapping her foot in midair. She had been waiting to be sent back to Neverland for sometime now.

Kairi giggled at Tinkerbell's way of getting Sora's attention. She'd have to remember to do that next time she wanted to get messy hair's attention. "Forceful ain't she?"

"Oh yeah.., Sorry Tink..." Sora sweat dropped as he focused his thoughts and raised the Kingdom Key, sending the small pixie back to her home in a flash of light. Afterwards he turned to his friends. "Okay guys, let's go."

Pete however had been hiding just around the corner of the stairway and leaped out at them as soon as they began to descend. "You aren't getting past- OW!"

Pete didn't even get to finish his threat as Riku just pushed him over and quickly stepped over him. Pete was about to get up when three more pairs of feet plowed over him and hurried off further down the spiraling stairway.

Pete lifted his head up, feeling a little groggy from having his head stepped on a few times. "Hey... That wasn't all that nice you little brats..."

Pete would've chased after them but as he got up all the blood rush to his head made him dizzy and almost comicly he tripped over his own feet and knocked his head on the wall. If Pete had had any more momentum he would've been sent rolling down the steps like a large rubber ball. But thankfully for Pete, Sora and the gang, and the steps (XD) he only flopped down like a beached whale and went into a peaceful sleep. Leaving our heroes to transverse the stairs uninterrupted.

Finally, after seemed all too much like Castle Oblivion with it's nigh endless staircases they reached the bottom. Where in they could guess this must be the basement of the castle, the room was made of darker stone than the others they had seen, or maybe it was just water damage from the castle having so many holes in it. There was a large black door bearing the Heartless insignia and right in front of it sat Orin, looking at the contents of an old ratty book. More than likely it was Xehanort's journal.

"Orin!"

Orin looked over in the direction of the voice to see Sora followed closely by Riku, Kairi, and... Yuffie. She probably just came to make sure they finished him off. Orin gave them a glance before staring back at the book. He wasn't really reading it, he was waiting for them to either make their initial insults or just attack upon sight. He didn't really care if they liked him anymore. Right now even he didn't really even like himself.

Kairi looked at Yuffie, expecting her to say something before anyone else did. But surprisingly the ninja girl just looked away, not wanting to look at Orin. That memory sparked a quick chill in Yuffie's chest where Orin had tried to yank her heart out. Yuffie placed her hand on her heart and tried to calm herself down as quickly as possible.

Familiar sinister green flames flickered behind where Orin sat, before coming a tall blaze of green and black flames. Out of which stepped Maleficent looking as smug and confidant as ever.

"I see you said the incantation my boy..." Maleficent said, slinking up behind Orin. "Now..."

Unexpectedly Maleficent drew a small knife from under her cloak and grabbed Orin's wrist. Orin let out a cry of pain as Maleficent used the sharp weapon to slice a gash in the young man's palm. Not only did this shock and anger Sora and the gang but they were equally surprised as dark mist, not blood Orin's wound.

"Stop it you old hag!" Kairi shouted, brandishing her Keyblade and staring daggers at Maleficent. She was not going to let her hurt Orin any further. He still needed to talk to Yuffie and make things right, even if she had to force them to.

None to gently Maleficent shoved Orin's leaking palm onto the door which seemed to greedily take in the mist from Orin's hand. Barely a moment had pasted since she had pressed the wound to the black stone surface and the symbol on the door began to glow red.

Maleficent allowed Orin to yank back his arm, which only now began to close and hinder the flow of his shadowy essence. For Orin the sight of that same mist coming out of his hand that came out of slain Heartless was a clincher. There was no longer any doubt in his mind what he was. He flopped down on the floor and just stared at his hand as it slowly began to close.

"That's enough Maleficent!" Sora shouted, hoisting his Kingdom Key as he began to charge at the old witch. "You're through!"

Riku and the girls took up their weapons and followed them into combat.

"Now now my dears," Maleficent cooed as she pushed on the door. "Let me get the door for you."

The door let out a loud groan as it slowly began to open inwards. As it did the light in the room began to fade, effectively stopping the Keybladers in their tracks. Orin's now glowing yellow eyes could be made out even in the encroaching darkness.

Sora tried casting a few fire spells to perhaps brighten up the room but they only lit a radius of inches beyond their flames. Other eyes began to appear in the darkness, Heartless were coming out of the door and trying move along the walls behind them to try and flank them.

Sora tried to swing at the Heartless but it was too late. Darkness filled the room.

To be continued...

A/N: I'm not exactly thrilled with the final version of the incantation. All I really did in the end was alter some lyrics from Manowar's song 'House of Death'. But it was the best I could think up at the time because I wanted to get this one up ASAP.