Ansem the Wise's POV

I was very intrigued by this Heartless Yen Sid had informed me of. The fact that he maintained his memories didn't shock me as much as it would have before I heard about Xehanort's and Sora's, but what did interest me was his human appearance. I found myself looking forward to his arrival.

The day after I learned of him, Xion arrived with a strangly dressed boy. His air of Darkness told me he was the one I was waiting for.

Midnight's POV

The day after my talk with Yen Sid, Xion took me to Radiant Garden to meet Ansem, whom I hoped could figure out what exactly I was. Xion was a lot quieter than the day before, and seemed to sneak a glance in my direction every time I appeared to look away. I asked her about it, but she just nervously muttered an explanation that basically told me "I don't want to talk about it." I had overheard Roxas talking to Axel, Sora, and Riku about her possibly having a crush and not realizing it, but I didn't quite see how it could apply here.

She lead me up to the top of the castle and opened the door to a study. A man with long blond hair and a goatee sat at the desk, dressed in a purple polo and tan pants under a lab coat and red scarf. "Welcome, Xion, Midnight. I recieved word from Yen Sid about why you are here, and I must apoligize, Midnight. Xion's condition seems to be more pressing than yours." I looked between them in confusion, wondering what might be wrong with the girl. "Xion, would you like Midnight to leave for this? You may not want the results revealed." She shook her head. "Fine then. Please take a seat by the bookcase while I prepare, you two." We did as he said and he started typing into a holographic keyboard.

I looked at my friend with concern. "What's going on that you're worried about?" I asked.

She sighed and put a hand over her heart. "This morning, I woke up with an aching pain in my Heart. I was worried that something had gone wrong when Sora created it for me, so I told Yen Sid and he passed it on to Ansem."

"Created?"

She nodded. "I forgot you were a little behind," she laughed slightly. "I was just an empty puppet made to replace Sora before the final battle a few months ago. Sora revived me and two other Nobodies - Roxas and Naminé - to help out, then gave us all real Hearts." I was surprised two learn her backround. So she knows what it's like to be herself and someone else; just like me.

A huge machine suddenly built itself out of floating data and dropped into the back of the room. "It's ready now," Ansem reported. Xion walked over to him and he opened the steel door. She stepped inside and the door closed. "You'll need to remove your clothes or the machine may digitize them. Don't worry, we can't see you."

Xion's POV

Already knowing Ansem not to be a pervert, I removed my clothes and put them into a small compartment. It closed and the machine started. Scanners came to life and took a quick overview of me before the monitor in front of me blinked on. It showed a 3-D image of me, only blue and covered in lines, then started to disassemble the model until only a Heart remained. It zoomed in on the Heart and looked it over for outer damage before moving inside. A cloud of my memories flew all around the inside. The monitor moved past them into the emotional spectrum Ansem had shown me when he studied my Heart while it was still new. This part had actual color, each color indicating an emotion. It zeroed in on a pink orb that was pulsing more than the others: the area designated for compassion and love. Seeming to find its answer, the monitor turned off and the machine shut down, opening the hatch with my clothes. I put them back on and exited.

Ansem had pulled up what the monitor had showed me on his computer and was watching with interest. "Well, Xion, I may have your diagnosis, but I must request that Midnight stands outside. This is for her ears only." Midnight nodded and left. Ansem showed me the last bit of the recording, then laughed. "Your Heart isn't damaged, Xion. It's simply going through something you have yet to experience."

I glared. "Just tell me what the hell is wrong with me."

He laughed again. "There's nothing wrong with you; you're in love."

I took a minute to comprehend what he had said. "Huh?"

He checked his data. "It appears the pain you felt was the the pain of losing your one true love, amplified by your still developing Heart. Perhaps you had a dream last night in which this individual either rejected you or perished. Do you remember anything like that?" I shook my head. "Well then, after I run Midnight through the machine, we can dig a little into your subconsious to find that dream." He pressed a button and the door outside opened. "You can come in now." Midnight reentered, and suddenly my stomach clenched as though I was goimg to vomit. "Xion, if you would exit, I would appreciate it. I'd rather be the first to judge this specimen." I left them alone before I thought to ask what he meant.

Midnight's POV

I entered the machine and retracted my clothes into my being, apart from the chain around my neck and the Heartless emblem hanging from it; those seemed to be my only real possessions. I removed the chain and put it into the compartment, allowing the machine to start. It scanned me and a monitor turned on, showing an image of me, only completely black. It zoomed in on where my Heart was imprisoned, scanning it for any abnormalities. After scanning the outside, it went in. That's when things got creepy.

Inside the Heart was nothing but a swirling vortex of Darkness. Every memory was rooted in place by several black sinues sprouting from the sides. The emotional spectrum was in a state of equilibrium that seemed unnatural. The monitor turned off and my chain was returned. I summoned my other clothes and exited.

Ansem was staring at the data in wonder. "Extraordinary!" he breathed. "Most Hearts are in equilibrium of Light and Darkness, but yours has barely any light at all! I'm surprised you haven't been a Heartless longer!" I stared at the data in equal fascination. "And the equality of your emotions! In this state, the smallest compliment could cause you to propose while the slightest annoyance could awaken the Heartless inside of you, yet your emotions stay perfectly in check, even yesterday at the carnival. It's as though you were trained to control it." He tabbed the data. "I'll need to study it some more. Come back tomorrow and I may have an answer for you." He opened the door for Xion. "Midnight, help yourself to anything in the kitchen. Third floor, first room left of the stairs." I followed his directions and quickly found the kitchen. I looked through it and eventually came up with one of those ice creams with two sticks that you break in two. A star-shaped fruit was in the middle, right where it would be broken. I decided to break it and give the other half to Xion, seeing as she seemed very agitated after her examination.

I made it up just as they finished going over the data. Xion was sitting by the bookcase holding her head and Ansem seemed to want to help her, but something about what had occured was too funny for him to bear. I sat down next to her and held out the ice cream. She looked at it for half a second before taking it. "Wow, something must be really going wrong today," I observed.

"You have no idea," she groaned through her ice cream. I took a big bite, bigger than a human should have been able to, but luckly she didn't notice and ate until she crunched the fruit. Ansem looked up and seemed both shocked and amused when he saw the ice cream. Xion looked at it for a long moment before simply finishing it and sticking the stick to the side of the bookcase.

Ansem's POV

I could not believe what I had just witnissed. They had just shared a Paopu Fruit without noticing until it was too late! My god, am I glad I got up this morning!

I bid them farewell and pulled up Midnight's overview. I put the data of his DNA sequence through a analyzer to see if he might be a subspecies of some kind, but the results were even more astounding. Instead of just one or two, a list of every known Heartless came out. I ran it a few more times before accepting it as correct. "But how could he be all of them?" I studied his DNA a bit closer and noticed that every copy of the sequence I had collected was different by a tiny bit. "It changes," I realized. "That's why it says he's all of them; his changing DNA must cause it to match another Heartless after every change." I deduced the pros and cons of this and filed everything under "MIDNIGHT."

Midnight's POV

I was beginning to worry about Xion again. Ever since we'd left, she'd been totally silent, much like when we first arrived, but this time she seemed to be keeping her gaze off me exclusively. What did Ansem tell her? I wondered. I thought back to the ice cream, but dismissed it as it seemed too stupid to be a possibility.

When we arrived back at Twilight Town, Xion didn't even report back to Yen Sid before running back to the building everyone stayed at while here.

I returned to the tower and told the wizard what Ansem had found. "Interesting," he commented, stroking his beard. "A Heart made almost entirely of Darkness, yet still able to remain in your body; memories held in place, preventing them from being lost; equilibrium among emotions. I must say, you are the most intriguing Heartless I've ever encountered. I doubt I'd be surprised if you could weild a Keyblade!"

"Speaking of which..." I intensified my gaze. "I want to learn to use a Keyblade."

Here's my first message of this story. I just wanted to make sure you weren't imagining Xion, Lea, and Isa in Organization coats. For Lea and Isa, imagine them in their BBS clothes, although minus the scarf for Lea and unzip Isa's jacket. As for Xion, I'm coming up blank so I'm leaving this one to your imaginations. And for clarification, I'm skipping Midnight's Keyblade training 'cause writing those tends to bore the crap out of me and I'm already tempted to start another fic. Just letting you know.