Hey, I continued writing this instead of studying… oops. But I've managed to get another chapter done. Forgive me if it is crap or feels rushed but I wrote this until about 4 in the morning, and that's when I usually start to see flying dragons… Please enjoy! (May not update for a while… I must force myself to "study" at some point.)

Xehanort, Even and Braig stood over a sleeping Isa. Even they were shocked that Isa reacted in this way.

"I never thought that that small piece of darkness would have such an effect on his personality," Xehanort spoke, breaking a silence. "I'm guessing it is because his darkness is now a majority. Usually his heart was exactly 50/50, which is a lot more darkness than the average person, but I guess that balance was fine for him. His light and darkness kept each other in check. Now, we have upset that balance and his darkness is more abundant, resulting in these mood swings."

"Oh, well is that a good thing or are we all screwed?" Braig asked, smiling.

"Well it's great!" Xehanort stated, throwing his arms into the air. "This way he will be like putty in our hands! Just think how much he'll change when we add more! He's already pushing Lea out of the picture without my telling him too! It's perfect! I'll do the next light extraction right now while he sleeps. I told Ansem to continue with Lea. So Braig, you'll need to get Lea's darkness again."

"That's all well and good, Xeh," Braig interrupted, "But we will need to deal with these moods of his for a while. I mean c'mon! Already he's acting like an unbearable little bitch and yet you want to add more? Count me out!"

"But Braig, the mood swings will only be temporary. Soon he will settle into a constant mood."

"Oh, so he'll be a constant bitch?"

"No. And NEVER call him that AGAIN!" roared at Braig, and then continued with his explanation, " I mean that he will settle with no emotions. An emotion may spring up once in a while but he will learn not to care for anything, or anyone."

"Even…"

"Yes, even him."

Ansem had extracted the rest of the darkness from Lea's heart and waited patiently for Braig to enter with replacement light which unbeknownst to him, belonged to Isa. Braig entered the lab in his usual cocky way, throwing and catching the container of light in his hands. Ansem looked wary at the man's carelessness and winced at every time it looked as if it was about to fall. Suddenly Braig threw the container at Ansem and Ansem had to leap for his life to catch it. Braig chuckled.

"Fast on your feet for an older guy, I'll give you that!"

"Braig, I want you to be serious for once when I ask you this," Ansem declared, continuing with Lea's procedure. Braig feigned offense.

"Not serious? Me? As if!"

"Braig, don't use that tone with me! This is serious and you're just helping to prove my point!"

"Okay, okay. I'm all ears!"

Ansem had injected some of Isa's light to fill the rest of Lea's heart and proceeded to finish up.

"About Isa's behaviour this afternoon," Ansem began, feeding a potion to the unconscious Lea, "do you know anything about it?"

Braig froze. 'Crap. He's onto us.' Braig shook it off. "Nah, hormones probably."

"Braig, is Xehanort… up to something?"

"Uh, whad'ya mean?"

"I know that Xehanort was present at Isa's operation. It is your obligation to tell me if he had any say in what went down in that room!"

"…"

"Lea has shown no side effects to these experiments! All it has done to him is made him a happier person who gives that happiness to others. Whereas Isa after his operation lashed out in front of the cafeteria at his friend then cried and sulked in a corner for an hour! Lea told me that this was completely against his nature! Now you tell me, Braig, how adding light to Isa's heart could make him act in this negative way!"

Braig was stunned by Ansem's clear wrath at that moment and gestured to him to calm down.

"Look, old man, the kid just acted in that way probably because of a lack of sleep! He went into that operation without sleeping the night before! Then I guess I added to it by bad-mouthing Xehanort in front of him. That was my bad! Then Lea joined in which was the last straw for Isa, apparently."

Ansem stared Braig in the eyes, hoping to see if he was telling the truth. Braig continued talking.

"Sir, Xehanort had no hand in what went down in that operation. Ya really think Even would let someone take over his experiment? As if!"

"Hmm," Ansem grumbled, "Well I see no other choice but to believe you at this point since you are a loyal guard here at my castle." Ansem turned to leave the room but halted and turned to continue speaking to the relieved Braig. "My problem wouldn't be that you were messing with me in all this. My problem would be, if you are lying to me, that this young boy is the one who suffers in all this."

Braig smiled deviously as Ansem left the room.

THE NEXT MORNING

Lea awoke to find himself in an empty laboratory. The only sound heard was the breeze from a slightly opened window next to his bed and a faint beeping coming from somewhere. Lea couldn't help but feel amazing. He had this urge to just run outside and skip merrily until he couldn't skip anymore. Isa could go too. Heck, everyone could come! Even Xehanort! That was when he remembered the incident that occurred the other day.

'Isa had completely screamed at me for no good reason, and then cried! That wasn't Isa. I have to find out what was bothering him. I don't want our friendship to end on something as stupid as this.'

Lea struggled to stand from his bed and slipped on a housecoat left out for him. He pulled his door open and glanced from side to side to work out where he was going again. He then decided to slide down the hallways like some sort of ninja, avoiding anyone else in the castle. He darted from corner to corner, hiding behind walls when he saw Dilan and Aeleus walking down the halls. They passed.

'Ah ha! The two towering giants failed to notice the stealthy Lea as he carried on his journey to…'

"Lea, what are you up to?" Dilan asked. They'd snuck up behind him.

'Damn!'

"Oh just being awesome, guys," Lea bragged, standing in a hero position. "Say, is Isa up yet?"

"Yes. He is in the cafeteria eating," Dilan answered.

Lea saluted them both, gave up his ninja/superhero image, and sped to the cafeteria.

He entered the room to see Ansem and Xehanort in deep conversation at their usual table, Dilan and Aeleus had returned to join Braig at another table, and Isa and Ienzo sat chatting at the table furthest away from him. Lea grabbed lunch without looking at what was actually on his tray and walked over to the pair who hardly noticed him coming. He sat next to Isa, clattering his tray on the table. Isa turned to glare at the culprit who made this racket.

"Why are you guys not sitting with Braig, Ael and Dil?" Lea began, "It isn't war of the tables is it?"

Ienzo was looking at Lea's tray of food the whole time. "Why did you pick up a side salad with no main meal?" Lea looked in horror at his "lunch".

"Ugh, I don't like salad!" Lea moaned, "And it was my favourite meal today wasn't it?" Lea expected a response from Isa but received none. He sighed. "Isa, I'm sorry about whatever I've done to make you this unhappy. We could talk and I could try to stop the annoying thing that I'm probably doing."

"I think I'll leave you guys to talk," Ienzo said, picking up his tray and leaving to sit with the others. Lea stood and walked to the seat opposite Isa to see his face.

"C'mon Isa, you know I'll try. I just want you to be my usual best friend."

"You were with Braig and the others yesterday. You walked in as if they were your best friends. As if they were the ones who have been with you through thick and thin. As if they were the ones who have always protected you," Isa blurted out.

'Well at least he's talking to me,' Lea thought.

"Isa, you have nothing to worry about. None of them are my best friend. You are."

"Well, you don't act like it. It's okay for you being outgoing and able to make friends easily, but I can't. It just seems as if you're trying to find someone else to replace me. Someone more like you."

"I am not trying to replace you, Isa, believe me! It's just that I like to talk to people and become their friends so more people will remember me. But you're my best friend. If I didn't care for you I would be sitting over there with the others. And what do you mean you can't make friends? Haven't you become great friends with Xehanort? Haven't you been sitting talking to Ienzo these last couple of days? Including yesterday when you saw me with the others?"

Isa was deep in thought for a moment. 'Why did I act the way I did yesterday? It was nothing to be jealous of. And in front of everyone? That didn't seem like me. That feeling I felt yesterday… I think it was actually hatred, for something as simple as this. What is wrong with me?'

"Lea, I am so sorry I overreacted!" Isa confessed. "I was being a complete hypocritical jerk and I dunno what got into me! I am so sorry!" Everyone else left the room one by one.

"No worries man," Lea smiled. "We all have those days."

"But I was such a…"

"Shut up it is all fine, I swear."

"Lea, just listen…"

"No. I've heard enough. All is forgotten."

'There's this over-whelming light from inside of Lea just now,' Isa thought, "It sort of makes me feel happy, and I want to smile. Is this the effect of Lea's fully light heart? Will I have this effect on others when I have my heart filled with light next session?'

"Hey, we have the day off since it is Saturday, don't we?" Lea spoke.

"I don't know. It's Saturday?"

"We should go visit Kairi like we said we would!"

"Oh… I dunno…"

"We should go visit her. Come on, let's go right now!" Lea enthused, jumping to his feet, grabbing Isa's arm and yanking him to his feet.

"No Lea, we should probably tell someone first!" Isa protested, being dragged out the room. He looked around and no one was in the room for them to inform them of where they were going.

"Aww, don't worry 'bout it, we won't be long," Lea giggled, managing to force Isa out the cafeteria doors. "They won't even notice we are gone!"

"WHERE ARE ISA AND LEA?" Xehanort screamed at Dilan and Aeleus who stood guard at the front door. The two guards looked confused.

"Well they must be somewhere in the castle, we've been here this entire time," Dilan declared. "…Unless, the short time during and after lunch we weren't there they went out."

"Well you should have come straight here after lunch with no dilly-dallying!" Xehanort yelled, putting his face close to Dilan's in an aggressive manner.

"Well we would've but your buddy Braig distracted us with a task he needed help with."

Xehanort scowled and stormed inside to yell at Braig. Dilan and Aeleus made faces at Xehanort behind his back as he walked away. They laughed at each other and then continued to keep watch.

That day the sun was bright and beaming against the periwinkle summer sky. Lea and Isa used to always be visited by Kairi when they were out playing. She would always pick them flowers before her grandmother would take her back home. Sometimes they would even babysit. She would always bring a smile to their faces without trying. For once they were going to give her a visit. Lea made sure to pick out some flowers to give her and walked in the direction of Kairi's grandmothers. However she wasn't in the house, she was outside picking flowers.

"Hey Kairi," Lea spoke up, standing behind her. Kairi jumped and then turned to hear who belonged to the voice. She suddenly got really excited at seeing her two favourite people.

"Lea! Isa! It's been ages!" Kairi squeaked. She looked at Lea's arm which was hidden behind his back. "Are you back for Paopu day?"

Paopu day was a holiday in Radiant Garden that celebrated the giving of gifts to someone you care about. It originated from a legend about a place that had star-shaped fruit which involved the sharing of a paopu fruit meaning the people sharing's destinies would be intertwined. However Radiant garden had no paopu fruit so normal gifts were used instead. Lea and Isa had forgotten that it was Paopu day because they'd even forgotten what date it was.

"…Uh, sure!" Lea answered. "I even brought you flowers!" Lea handed Kairi the flowers and Kairi took the flowers and sniffed them. She sighed happily. She grabbed a two bunches of flowers she had picked and gave one to Lea and one to Isa. Both thanked her. Kairi looked at Isa as if expecting something. Kairi used her puppy-dog eyes to look at him.

"Isa, why don't you give her your present?" Lea laughed, noticing that Kairi thought the flowers were just from him. Lea nudged Isa's arm and pointed at the flower field beside them. Kairi noticed this.

"You… you didn't get me anything?" Kairi whimpered.

"Of course I did!" Isa responded, edging his way over to the field.

"No you didn't! You're thinking of picking me some random flowers just now!" Kairi cried.

"Look Kairi, don't cry!" Lea said, walking over to the crying girl. "Those flowers I gave you were…"

"Just from Lea," Isa interrupted, stepping closer. Lea was shocked. Was he starting up his mood again with Kairi this time? Lea looked as if he was going to start punching. Kairi got more upset.

Isa reached behind the back of his head and removed his pendant. He walked over to Kairi and placed it in her hand. Lea was astonished by this action. Kairi squealed in happiness. Lea grabbed Isa by the arm and dragged him over to the side to talk with him.

"Isa it's a lovely gift and you were really nice giving it to her and all, but I can't let you do that!" Lea whispered to him. "You love that pendant too much so you can't just give it away like that!"

"Lea, it's just a piece of jewellery!" Isa hissed back.

"Just jewellery?! That jewellery was given to you by your hero! Usually you wouldn't let anyone touch it! Now you're giving it to a child!"

"Lea, it's not a big deal," Isa replied. "She's happy with it."

"Yes, I can see that. But, she was also happy with my flowers! She's that kind of person who would accept anything! You could've given her that tissue in your pocket and she'd be kind enough to accept it! But that necklace?" Lea ranted but Isa looked unaffected by his words.

"Lea, I just don't care," Isa breathed. Lea took a step back. Isa…What is wrong with you!? He turned to Kairi who had put on the necklace and was parading around the fields with it around her neck. Lea shook his head at Isa in disappointment and walked up to the cheerful girl.

"Okay, Kairi, we need to go again," he told her. Kairi hugged Lea and was about to hug Isa but he hadn't followed Lea to say goodbye to her. "Don't mind him. Look Kairi, I have this huge important task for you to handle okay?" Kairi nodded. "I want you to look after that necklace you have on. Don't give it away or break it. Keep it close to you at all times, got it memorised?"

"I've got it memorised," Kairi mimicked, pointing two of her fingers to the side of her head.

"Good girl," Lea smiled, "Well we'll see you around little one."

"Lea wait!" Kairi shouted. Lea listened up. "Look out for Isa. I have a bad feeling about him. Something's changed in his heart. I feel that yours has too, but for the better. But, his is a foul change. Just make sure he doesn't fall…to darkness."

Lea nodded. He was puzzled. Kairi had suddenly grown up like 10 years there. Even she saw the change in Isa. And the darkness? Why would he be risking darkness when his heart was supposed to be almost full of light because of the experiments? Something terrible was going on here.

Isa waved from a distance to Kairi and waved at Lea to hurry up. Kairi waved back and Lea jogged to his spot and walked Isa back to the castle.

Isa, what is going on in that heart of yours?

When the boys returned to the castle after a silent walk back, Isa went straight to Xehanort's lab. Braig had told him that Xehanort had been looking for him so he decided to look for him to prevent the man from being too furious with him. He slowly opened the lab door and looked inside to find Xehanort and Even. Xehanort noticed Isa and signalled Even to leave. Isa took the hint to enter. Even elegantly walked from the room and quietly shut the door behind him. Xehanort turned to him.

"And where were you?" Xehanort asked in a threatening tone.

"I was just visiting an old friend with Lea," Isa gulped.

"And who told you that you could do that?"

"Well it was our day off so we didn't think it mattered…"

"Well, it does matter!" Xehanort yelled at the boy and smacked him across the face with the back of his hand. Isa lowered his head. "This was Lea's idea wasn't it?!"

"No, sir. It was my idea. I am sorry, sir. Please forgive me."

And with that Xehanort seemed to calm down again. He lifted Isa's trembling chin to examine the red mark he just left on the boy's face. Isa winced, thinking he was going to hit him again.

"What you have to understand, little Isa, is that everything we do here is top secret. Therefor you must inform someone if you are leaving the castle and why you are doing so. There are many spies willing to extract information from two kids who wandered off from the castle. You understand?"

Isa nodded and Xehanort smiled. He let go of his chin and prepared Isa an icepack for his stinging cheek. Isa tried to calm himself. He was terrified. He felt, however that he should be more scared. That he should run for his life. But no. Something was forcing him to stay.

"So who is this friend you went to visit, hmm?" Xehanort questioned. "I need to ask now."

"Oh, I-it was a g-girl wh-who we used to kn-know," Isa stammered.

"Ah, so was this your girlfriend or something?" Xehanort asked, handing him the icepack.

"No! No! No! She's a girl Lea and I used to baby-sit. She's only like five!"

"Well that cured your stutter!" Xehanort laughed. Isa smiled- in fear in case he turned on him again. "So why were you visiting her? Why not parents or other friends? Why a five year old?"

"We thought we'd just go to say hi. And she always brightens us up without trying."

"So, you mean, your moods are lightened just being near this girl?"

"Yeah, it's weird. It's kind of like how Lea's been making me feel sometimes recently- definitely not all the time with Lea. It's just pure enlightenment you get being around her."

"Interesting indeed. And what is this girl's name?"

"Kairi, sir."

"Isa," Xehanort began with a devilish grin, "Come with me." Xehanort left the lab through a side

door which lead to yet another- messy- lab and Isa followed him through. "Just wait a minute." Xehanort started clearing away various boxes and gizmos while Isa explored this newly discovered area for him. He examined a strange, capsule-shaped machine and wondered what it was for.

"Xehanort, what is this for?" Isa asked. Xehanort glanced over his shoulder and saw what had peaked Isa's interest. Isa wiped some of the dust off it with his finger.

"Oh, that my dear Isa is a transporting machine," Xehanort explained. "I used to use it before I worked out how to use my dark corridors."

"It sounds cool."

"Oh, I agree. However, there were many errors in its design. One of them being when you are transported, you lose all your memories. You can only bring back these memories if you return through the transporter using the remote you carry with you. That's very risky because on the other side you would forget what the remote was actually for and just hope you press it. I stopped using it after my first go. By luck I pressed that button and returned."

"How can you tell it where you want to go?" Isa wondered aloud.

"That was part of the magic. It would take you to a place that is connected in some way to your heart."

"What if you don't know any of the other worlds?"

"Every heart knows every world, since every world shares the same sky," Xehanort answered, sounding bored with that contraption. He pointed to another machine which was boxed in shape and included a comfortable-looking chair inside it. "Now this is the real deal here!" Xehanort announced, pointing at this other machine.

"What is it?"

"This, my dear boy, is a light amplifier. I have worked on this for ages but I have always been missing the final piece. Now it sounds like you have found that final piece for me!"

"In what way?"

"Well, this machine in order to operate requires a person born with a heart of pure light. This person would sit in here and their vast light would be amplified, hopefully destroying every little dark creature that thrive in our city. I'm also hoping that this light would rid every one of the darkness".

"So you need Lea or I to do this for you since we'll have pure hearts?"

"No, I believe it has to be one of the 7 princesses of heart. These are seven maidens born with not a drop of darkness in their hearts. And it sounds like one of them lives in Radiant Garden."

"Kairi?"

Xehanort nodded and smiled again. "Isa, go bring me Kairi."