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

The last thing Sora remembered was the darkness coming from beyond the door, encompassing the room where he and his friends had stood. There was still darkness clouding his vision, but now he could feel the softness of what he could only guess was a bed from the springs under the mattress material.

"Hey Sora, nice to see you're awake." A voice came from the darkness, most likely Leon's from the sound of it. "How you feel?"

Sora opened his eyes, or at least he think did. No matter how hard he strained to see or open his eyes a little farther, he still couldn't see anything but black. Suddenly it dawned on him. "I'm blind aren't I?"

"Yeah. But you aren't the only one. Riku, Kairi, and Yuffie are in the same boat as you." Leon said. "Merlin just got back and he took a look at you all and said he'd whip you up something to fix your eyes. So don't worry about it."

Sora smiled even though he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Then he remembered what was important. "How'd we get here? The last thing I remember was being swallowed up by darkness inside the castle..."

"You better start getting better soon. The Heartless are back to their old selves." Leon muttered. "I don't know what happened but you better start explaining."

"Just a moment Leon." A familiar aged voice said as the sound of a door opening came to Sora's ears. "Just let me get this poor child back to his old self and then let him explain himself."

Sora heard who he knew to be the old wizard Merlin walking over towards him. "Hi Merlin. How was the king?"

"He and the rest of his world is untouched by the Heartless thanks to the Cornerstone's powers." Merlin said flatly, laying a wrinkled hand on Sora's forehead. "Now hold still boy and keep your eyes open..."

Sora didn't know what Merlin was about to do but did as he was told. The next thing he knew was some cold liquid being poured onto his eyes. Instantly Sora clenched his eyes shut and sat up to wipe the cold solution from his face.

"I apologize for the temperature of my potion Sora, but this particular form of blindness was tricky to cure. The only way my potion would retain its potency was to keep it as cold as it is."

"What do you think caused their blindness Merlin?" Leon asked.

"I have seen this kind of affliction on several occasions from people who had dealings with an old acquaintance of mine." Merlin then looked back at Leon. "Have you ever heard of Mad Madam Mim?"

Leon shook his head. He had never heard of anyone by that name.

"Then count yourself lucky lad." Merlin then went on to explain who this Mim person was. "She's an old witch I had the displeasure of knowing back before I even knew my young friend Wart- er Arthur."

Sora meanwhile was clenching his eyes shut and opening them wide to try to help his eyes focus more. His sight was returning but now it was little more than a blur. He could see colors and movement but distinct shapes seemed to bleed into each other.

"How do you feel now Sora?" The magician asked, stroking his ankle long beard. One wondered how he could have facial hair that long and not step on it occasionally.

Sora shook his head, his vision now at last returning to normal. "Better now that I can see you guys. About the others..."

"I just gave them each a dose of my potion. They're all fine." Merlin said, putting the empty potion bottle back within the confines of his blue robe. "Good thing you woke up when you did. Any later and I would've had to put it back in Mr. Scrooge's freezer."

"Well, it's good to see you both again." Sora smiled, looking from Leon to Merlin. He was glad that he could see once more but he still wanted to see his friends. "Where are the others?"

"They're up and about and talking to Cid in Merlin's house." Leon said. "You were the only one knocked out when we found you."

This was news to Sora. He was glad that everyone sounded like they where fine but there was still what had happened back in the castle. What is Maleficent planning?

"Hate to break up this reunion," Cid said, walking into the room. "I've been getting strange readings from the outskirts of town."

"What kind of readings?" Leon asked, once more becoming the grim parent figure for the entire town.

Cid scratched the side of his head and took the toothpick he had been chewing on out of his mouth before speaking. Silently he wished he could break the promise he had made to his girlfriend Shera about not smoking his cigars anymore. "Well, my best guess it's something wicked fast because it's here one second and another it's another spot on the map."

"I better take a look." Leon said, turning to look at Sora who still sat on the bed. "You coming?"

Sora jumped off the bed and stretched his legs, something he felt he had to do every time he woke up ever since he had awoken from being trapped inside that cocoon in Twilight town. "Yeah, I'm coming."

The greeting Sora received from his friends was an ecstatic one. Kairi's hug nearly crushed the air out of his lungs. After Kairi had been detached Yuffie slapped the spiky haired boy on the back that knocked him over. Riku however just stood there and smiled, showing his relief in the most subtle way possible.

"Good to see you again Sora." Kairi said, blushing a little from how she had just death hugged her oldest friend.

Sora rubbed his aching back from where Yuffie had hit him and sighed. "Same here. So where all of us were blinded by what happened back in the castle?"

Riku nodded. "Yeah, we don't know how we made it out of the castle though. It's like one minute we were surrounded by darkness and the next we were being picked up by Cloud."

"So Cloud brought us here?" Sora asked.

Leon nodded. "Yeah, and after he brought you here Tifa gave him a stern talking to."

The gang laughed at that image. Cloud getting chewed out like a little kid by Tifa Lockheart was too much.

Leon smirked, he knew they'd get a kick out of hearing that. "Tifa left with Cloud before he left her behind again. We won't be seeing them for a while."

Suddenly, almost as if on cue the door burst open. Tifa had Cloud's limp unconscious form draped over her shoulders and lugging him inside before setting her boyfriend on the floor.

"Hey, can we get a hand here?" Tifa urgently inquired, looking at each of them with her brown eyes.

Tifa had blood on her hands and fore arms and she had torn some of the material of her pant legs to make quick bandages that were covering Cloud's arms. Cloud's shirt and his right pant leg were cut and torn showing bloodied gashes made by a sharp weapon. Tifa on the other hand had no injuries other than a small clean cut on her cheek. Whatever they had ran into it obviously wasn't nice.

"Tifa! What happened to Cloud?" Sora asked, worried for the spiky haired soldier.

"We were ambushed by this sword wielding maniac on a horse on our way back to town." Tifa laid a hand on Cloud's forehead, hoping that he would be okay. "Cloud tried to counterattack but that freak managed to knock Cloud's sword out of his hand and did all this. I had to kick the horse's knees and knock it down so we could get away. But he lost a lot of blood on the way here."

"We'll go check it out." Sora then looked at the ninja girl. "You coming too Yuffie?"

Yuffie nodded her affirmative. "I've been with you this far. Besides we need to work on finding Orin and I think Cloud might give me a little more respect if I got a little revenge for him."

Riku smirked. This girl had a lot of guts to come with them. With a little practice Kairi could probably be as strong and skillful as Yuffie in time.

"Well then be careful. This thing could be a new kind of Heartless or something new." Cid said.

"Okay. Take care of things guys!" Sora said, heading out the door with his friends following him.

After they were gone Cid looked at Leon. "Yuffie's been a lot more out going lately."

Leon shrugged, he didn't really care. He had other things to worry about, namely having to call off meeting Aerith at her new flower shop. "She just wants to get out of working."

Cid wasn't sure, if that was the case she'd be complaining more than she had.

As the gang entered the reconstruction area they heard a loud maniacal laugh off in the distance of the Ravine followed by the beating of hooves.

---

Deep within Radiant Garden in a small room made long before Orin, now little more and a shadow of his former self. He skulked around in rooms that had not seen the light of day in many years. Although the darkness was thick his glowing yellow eyes pierced the darkness like a sharp knife. Around him stood many large tubes, not unlike that which he himself had come out of. He could make out that in some of the tubes were occupied but their features were obscured by a strange dark green fluid that they floated within the tubes. As he walked through the rows and rows he quickly noticed a large switch bolted to the nearest wall. With what human curiosity was left in him he used his now clawed hand to pull it down. Upon completing this rather mundane action the lights came on. This included small lights within the underside of the tubes that somehow made the fluids inside the containers become transparent. Orin then noticed something, something that shook him to his core. The tube on the very end was shattered and there was a large green stain on the tile floor where the fluids had dried. This was the tube that HE had come out of.

After inspecting the tube next to the one that was shattered and empty, Orin discovered a child about his age. He was wearing the same outfit Orin was wearing, he was about a foot taller than him, and instead of antennas he had black thick curled up cords that were a mock imitation of hair. The final thing that Orin noticed about him is that although this... creature's eyes were open they neither moved or seemed to contain any thoughts or will of its own. It was little more than a doll. A doll made by a mad man.

Maleficent smirked as she watched Orin stare at the lifeless dolls in the other containers. She was pleased that he had reverted to such a pure form. She was also glad to have sent her old acquaintance the Headless Horseman after the Keyblade wielder. She knew he was a powerful opponent and had yet to fall in combat, but she knew that she had thought the same way about herself and she had lost to that little brat.

Her attention was suddenly brought back to Orin as she head him smash open a tube and its contents spill out onto the floor. Orin completely ignored the unknown chemicals that were spilling onto his feet and shins and looked at the slumping figure in the tube. The lifeless body of the other Heartless child was still not moving.

"So my boy, how does it feel to meet your dear lifeless siblings?" Maleficent said smoothly as she appeared in the room. "Ansem- excuse me Xehanort once showed this room to me. These dolls were his earlier creations. Imperfect and unable to cope with human memories. I believe the one you now opened was created from a Darkside Heartless."

Orin looked back to the lifeless Heartless child. Orin remembered what Xehanort's journal had said about these other children. They could not hold the memories of a life that never existed and descended into madness or in this one's case, simply stopped moving. Orin felt a sense of pity for this Heartless. It was trapped by the life Xehanort had tried to create to make it a living thinking thing and by his actions had actually done the opposite. With a swift movement of Orin's claws he slew the other Heartless child. Certain he would've wanted to die than remain in that limbo of an existence. Orin watched as the child's remains dissolved into dark mist and a glistening heart floated off in the same manner as the Heartless he had slain back on Destiny Islands. To Orin this was like a foreshadowing of his own death. That is what it will be like when he dies. Slowly he felt an unfathomable rage begin to boil up from within him. Was this all he had to look forward to? A violent death at the hands of someone? All of Orin's pent up emotions erupted in the form of a half human screech as he began to smash open the other glass tubes with his dark claws.

Maleficent meanwhile enjoyed the sight of Orin falling farther and farther into his darker side. Now that the Heartless where under her control she would soon be able to regain power over this world before the townsfolk could gather its strength, still she wanted to see what would happen if she pushed her newest pawn a little deeper into the darkness.

To be continued...

A/N: Although not shown in the Kingdom Hearts series, the Headless horseman did appear in a Disney anthology film voiced by Bing Crosby, in fact it was the last film of its kind. It was one of the staple cartoons I watched when I was a kid.

Madam Mim was the only notable person in Sword in the stone who could be called a villain. Not only was Sword in the stone my favorite Disney animated movie growing up, Madam Mim was also my favorite Disney villain. She was always so off her rocker.