"Tine"

Maleficent and Pete entered the room where the project's main workings were conducted. This room was once used for the draining of human hearts so that they could be turned into manufactured Heartless. More of Ansem/Xeonhort's nightmarish machinery. Pete couldn't understand any of it anyway. Inside the room, machines hummed and hissed, burbled and sighed. Some glowed with strange gasses and liquids inside. Others sat silent, silver and menacing. There were only two machines within the room that Pete could understand perfectly. One was the nutrient tanks. These tanks were filled with a clear nutrient solution that was essential for the developing being's growth. The tanks were made of red glass so that when the fluid ran out, they would turn red. The second was the Dark Tanks. These were a little more complicated. These were filled with a heavy, sludgy solution that was secreted by the Heartless. It was called Dark Ichor. It could be found in small trace quantities in places where the Heartless swarmed. Maleficent had, however, managed to produce the gunk by artificially simulating the energy conditions that Heartless were attracted to. She had first gathered a small group of about a hundred Heartless from the city below the castle. And who had gathered these specimens? Why, Pete himself. Inside the room it was a mass of pipes and humming machinery. At the center of the mechanical maelstrom, a large coffinlike tank sat. It was shaped like a glass coffin, a coffin over seven feet high. Its glass was five feet thick. What its original purpose might have been, neither of them were sure. But Maleficent thought that it was a suitable container for the being that they were going to try and grow. The coffin was connected to a maze of pipes and hoses. Nutrient fluid, smelling strongly of rotted carrots lay in puddles beneath some of them. It was hard to clean up the thousands of leaks that sprung daily. The Dark Tanks pumped the essence of the Heartless into whatever was growing inside the coffin. Pete couldn't see what was growing inside. It was shrouded in a cocoon of its own darkly glowing energy. That was probably merciful. But, before one could get inside access to the wonders within the room, there were a number of security systems that needed to be passed. When Pete had insisted that this was foolish, that there was no one but themselves to go in and out, Maleficent had glared at him so coldly that he was surprised that he didn't just drop dead, covered with frost. So the systems went in, and Pete had installed them. There was a retina scanner, and a fingerprint analyzer along with a voice and speech pattern recognition machine. Pete had stolen these from Hollow Bastion while the busy bees of the Restoration Committee had been preoccupied with some disaster or other. It had been easy; the machines had been working and Pete merely had to weld here, and splice wires there.

"And it is ready" said Maleficent as the double doors hissed open. They both stared at their month of work. It hadn't all been beautiful. Twelve months in a year. Each month, Maleficent had struggled to produce one of her creations, trying to build it into the ultimate Heartless. She had read up on volumes of books on genetic engineering, written by someone named Vexen. Maleficent wasn't sure if the Heartless had genetics like humans, so she took no chances. She instructed Pete to kidnap a child each month, she didn't care what world. She took a sample of blood and sent the child back through the Dark Corridor---whether to their world, or to oblivion, it made no difference to her. But the setbacks had been many. Some of the creations had been absolute monsters. Others had been possessed of a kind of basic intelligence. But what they gained in mind, they lost in body. They had been weak and died after a few days. One lasted a week before finally dying of pneumonia. Pete had been crushed. Maleficent had been furious. She had read that this Vexen, who was apparently a member of Organization XIII, had managed to produce a perfect clone of Riku. The clone had possessed the power to control the darkness. But, Vexen speculated, that was most likely that the darkness power had become so a part of Riku that it was ingrained into his very DNA. Maleficent's creations were horribly flawed. But progress had been made. And now Maleficent knew that this would be the one that would live. How she knew this she didn't know. She thought perhaps it was the fact that this was the thirteenth one. It would live…and not only that, it would live to be her tool to gain dominance over the worlds. Maleficent strode over to the coffin. The object was suspended twelve feet above the floor. At the base, a control panel glimmered with lights. The metal itself was lit from within with that twisting green fire. Maleficent began to work on the control panel, her long red nails clicking on the controls. "It is all coming together" the witch said breathlessly. "My destiny is going to unfold before me."

"Ah…what does that do anyway?" Pete asked. "Does it control the coffin thingamajig?"

Maleficent whirled around as if she had forgotten that Pete was even there. She probably had. "It controls what it needs to control" she hissed. "And if I even suspect that you have been tampering with these controls, I will personally turn you into a Heartless and you can keep company with them" she gestured to the Heartless inside the Dark Tanks. Then she turned her attention back to the glowing panel. Maleficent turned knobs, pushed buttons, pulled levers. There was the sound of hydraulic pulleys as the coffin thing descended to their level.

"I will now drain a portion of the fluid from the holding container" Maleficent said. She pulled a lever. A bit of nutrient fluid back up into the tanks, sending the small drips from the pipes into small geysers of rotten smelling liquid.

Pete, who had never actually seen this process, was stunned by the complexity of it. The fluid had gone down, leaving the top of the coffin empty. Pete couldn't see anything through a layer of foggy condensation. "Is that all?" he asked.

"That is all for now" Maleficent said. "I will be back in two hours time to finish the preparations for Roman Numeral Thirteen. It will be the biggest tine of the trident I use to stab the forces of King Mickey."

Pete could agree with that, yeah he could second that emotion, after all the boat boy king had trapped him in another dimension, one where he was forced to participate with alternate versions of Goofy (who had a family) and usually get into all sorts of stupid situations. It was only Maleficent's timely rescue that had kept him from going mad. Secretly, he thought that that was exactly what Mickey wanted to have happen. And now ol' Pete was working for the side that was going to kick Mickey's light-wielding butt.

"…to clean up the mess" said Maleficent.

"Oh, sorry, what was that?" Pete asked. He had been so busy in his own thoughts that he hadn't heard his liege-lady's words at all.

"I said that I trust you to clean up the mess that our process has made" Maleficent said. She had already opened the door to the room. She paused and turned to him. "Oh, and Pete…do remember what I said about the control panel. I will turn you into a Heartless if I think that you've touched it." With that, the doors slammed shut behind her. Pete removed a mop from a small closet in the wall.

"Doesn't think I can't follow the rules" he muttered. "Of course I can! Why I was the Captain of the Royal Knights! If anyone can follow rules it's ol' Pete!" he began to mop, unintentionally moving closer and closer to the control panel. It was so…mysterious with its flashing lights and knobs, and the way it was lit from within with Maleficent's power.

Touch me Pete it called. Pull my levers! Mash my buttons! I'm game! I love it when people work on me! I'm a control panel for Darkness' sake!

"No" Pete muttered to himself. "Can't touch…Heartless" he tore his gaze away from the temptress presence that lived within the machinery. But the voice wouldn't leave. Oh, come on. Do you think that Maleficent will do that to you? of course not! Don't be such a baby! She needs you to do menial labor. Can you imagine Maleficent carrying heavy loads! God forbid!

"Forbid…" Pete whispered, more than half hypnotized now. The mop fell to the floor unnoticed. Pete lurched to the control panel. It looked so beautiful with its inner light. Pete peered at the controls. Most of them where beyond his understanding…but one of them jumped out at him. It said downloading. A small screen displayed information. The screen went like this:

Maleficent: Mother, Supreme Being

Pete: Underling, second in command

Sora: Pawn of the Light existence---he must die

Mickey: Enemy of All Existence---he must die

Pete understood suddenly that this information was being downloaded into the developing brain of the creature in the coffin. Pete typed the keyboard a few times. More information popped up. Bright blue words saying Self Awareness Package streamed across the plasma screen:

Name: XIII

Age: 0

Purpose in life: Fulfillment of Mother's wishes

Appalled, Pete realized that this was what this creature was going to spring from the coffin believing, knowing. Pete felt a wave of sympathy for it. He then made his decision. This thing was like a newborn baby, except that its destiny was mapped out for it already. Mapped out by someone who didn't care if it died or lived, as long as it served its purpose? Pete found that he couldn't let that stand. He didn't understand. Here he was, risking a fate worse than death all for something that wasn't even human, or humanlike. Was this…kindness? He hoped not. Kindness would have no place in Maleficent's universe. He began to type. Perhaps it was not too late. Pete scrolled down to the purpose in life. He erased the words. Then he considered the age. Well, Sora was going to be sixteen. It would be fitting for him to die at the hands of someone his own age, right? He switched the age to sixteen. Then he considered a name. Thirteen just wouldn't do. He racked his brains, but he couldn't concentrate on finding a name. He kept expecting Maleficent to burst into the room, and scream at him. She would point her staff, glowing with green fire and he would feel a terrible ripping sensation as he heart was ripped from his chest by her terrible magic. But nothing happened. Then he remembered what Maleficent had said. "It will be the biggest tine on the trident I will stab King Mickey's forces with."

"Tine" he said. "Your name is Tine. Whatever you are, your name is Tine. Can you hear me?" he asked. There was no answer, only the sounds of the machines. It got kind of lonely in here, he realized, with only the frigid and avaricious Maleficent for company. It would be nice to have a new face around here, especially now that it was not going to be a mindless automaton. And who knew? Maybe having a more…normal person around would change even Maleficent's cold, dark heart. Pete made sure to cover his tracks, returning the screen to its original state. He was quite clever he thought. He opened the doors and left to get some sleep.

What he didn't see was the eye that opened in the coffin.

Ohhhhhhh! Creepy isn't it! What has that fool Pete gone and done?!