Chapter Six: Heart on Ice

Vexen stared at the laptop's screen. "This is going to be difficult," he stated, rising to his feet. Zexion and Lexeaus watched him pace, as they sipped their tea. "This man… is experienced with dealing with illusions, is physically strong, and is quite clever… a scientist reaching my caliber… he would be an asset to the Organization…"

Lexeaus paused before taking a sip. "It's dubious that a Heartless alone would be able to take his heart. You would have to weaken him substantially before a Heartless could successfully steal his heart. "

Vexen grimaced. "I know. The man uses snakes… perhaps if we could drop the temperature low enough and keep it that low…"

"There's an ice skating rink." Vexen and Lexeaus's attention snapped to lilac-haired man. There was a questioning look in their eyes. Zexion shrugged. "Demyx wanted me to go with him…"

There was a short moment of silence before Vexen abruptly changed the subject. "Do we still have those old reiatsu repressors?? I think I can modify them in time…" The three men jumped into activity.

--Battle Tournament--

Orochimaru took in his surroundings, before his gaze focused on his opponent. The man stood in the middle of the ice rink, standing as solidly as if the man had been standing on normal earth. The ninja stored away that bit of knowledge, before examining the rink closer. He knew that his opponent liked to use traps and chemicals to beat his opponents, rather than pure strength alone. The fact that the man was standing out in the open like this meant that there was some kind of trap waiting…

Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. The ice rink looked like most other ice rinks, a large oval shaped arena, surrounded by waist high walls. The section of the mall that housed the rink was smooth, reducing the chance of using the ceiling to a bare minimum. The only thing that came close to the rink from the smooth ceiling was a scoreboard.

Orochimaru had to give his opponent one thing. He certainly planned well.

Well… if he couldn't pick out the trap, then maybe the best way would be to spring it… Orochimaru grinned to himself, before jumping forward, landing nimbly before his opponent.

Vexen looked unsurprised. "Hello Orochimaru. You're late. I expected you five minutes ago."

A cold smirk grew on Orochimaru's lips. "I didn't realize that you were so eager to die."

Vexen looked unruffled. "Die? I have no intentions of dying…" he stated, calling forth his shield. "If anyone perishes, it will be you." He paused briefly. "Activate program 613."

Above them, the scoreboard roared to life, numbers flicking across where the scores were usually kept. If one were to watch the numbers for a time, they would notice a pattern of repeating numbers. An algorithm.

"To even the playing field a little, your abilities are almost completely sealed." Vexen shrugged. "You can use techniques that require little amounts of chakra, but techinques like summoning Manda… well let's just say they're not possible at this moment." A sword of ice solidified in the Nobody's free hand.

Orochimaru smirked. "Not a problem. I'll still be able to kill you easily," he stated boastfully, opening his mouth and tilting his head back. A sword emerged from the ninja's mouth. Orochimaru grabbed the hilt, extracting the sword from his mouth and quickly flowed into an attack, launching himself at Vexen. The blonde Nobody threw up his shield, Orochimaru's sword skidding on the shield's surface, before Vexen pushed forward, making the sword jump off. Vexen thrust forward with his own sword, only to have the strike parried. "Not bad," Orochimaru twisted his sword abruptly, almost disarming Vexen.

Vexen made no reply, but concentrated on the fight. This was one of his more risky gambles, and if he wanted to win, he needed to stay alive. And relatively intact…

Vexen bit back a hiss of pain as he felt Orochimaru's sword bite into his face, leaving a cut under his eye. The scientist was lucky that it hadn't cut any higher up. As the fight drew on, Vexen began to fight more and more defensively. As the time passed, Vexen began to realize the flaw in his plan.

He wasn't going to be able to outlast Orochimaru. The Nobody had thought that fighting on the ice would put the ninja at a disadvantage, and the chakra suppressor would deal with most of the man's techniques. Vexen had been wrong. The man didn't need his techniques to fight as much as the database entry had lead the Nobody to believe. Vexen scowled. He was definitely editing that entry after he finished the fight.

Vexen swing his sword at Orochimaru, forcing the ninja to take a step back. He extended the hand that held his shield.

White creatures twisted into being, crowding the rink. Little ones that crawled long the floor, ones shaped like samurai that wielded two swords, ones that twisted and contorted with each movement, dancers that moved with an inhuman elegance and grace, sorcerers with folded arms that observed the scene calmly, enormous ones with swords as large as they were; all crowded into the rink around Orochimaru.

The ninja paused for a moment, taking in his new opponents, before a smirk formed. "This is it?" With no further words, Orochimaru flung himself into battle, slashing and attacking with a ferocity unseen before.

But for each of the Lesser Nobodies that were cut down, three seemed to take their place. Vexen had stepped back out of range to observe the fight. The Lesser Nobodies had been a precautionary measure, just in case he had been unable to continue. A look of displeasure settled on the scientist's face. They should have shown up by now…

Orochimaru was starting to get tired of these games. It was time to end this. He slashed through a row of nobodies, their bodies falling neatly into two pieces as he reached the end of the row.

"Where are you Vexen?? I tire of your games!" Orochimaru called out, beheading one of the Lesser Nobodies, and stabbing another in the head.

"I'm right here," Vexen stated quietly, shoving a claw into Orochimaru's chest. He had just emerged from a black portal that had opened behind the man. Zexion and Lexeaus stood off to the side, watching the events proceed silently. Vexen twisted the claw in Orochimaru's chest and slowly began to pull it out.

Orochimaru let out yell, and reversed his blade, swinging it in a stabbing motion under his left arm. Vexen felt the sword bite into his side, and finished yanking out the claw. In the claw's grasp was a pink pulsing Heart.

The ninja felt his legs crumple beneath him, his body feeling abnormal. It felt as if his body was breaking apart. The snakes that comprised his body were wriggling convulsing.

Vexen took a step back, lowering the claw as he watched as Orochimaru disappeared into the darkness. Without his Heart, the ninja's body couldn't sustain itself, and disappeared into the darkness. A new Nobody. Vexen glanced down at the claw. Orochimaru's Heart was writhing, trying to go join Kingdom Hearts. The scientist smirked, pulling out a sample jar and sticking the Heart inside. Satisfied, he dismissed the Lesser Nobodies and walked over to join Zexion and Lexeaus.

"A new member perhaps…" Vexen stated. "Hopefully one who will respect the high-ups…"

"Dubious…" Zexion stated. "He's not known for loyalty. He and Marluxia will get along fine."

Lexeaus remained silent, looking over the battle field.

Vexen turned to stare where Lexeaus looked. "There's nothing there. Come, I need to go perform some experiments…" With that said, Vexen turned and opened a black portal to his makeshift laboratory. Zexion followed quickly. Lexeaus remained still for a moment, before he too followed after his comrades.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!! Nothing I tell you!! So keep your lawyers away from me, before I am forced to go fangirl on you!!

Author's Note: Another big round of thanks to my brother, for being so helpful… I'm sorry for making you explain, and then re-explain Orochimaru so many times… You have my gratitude little bro… My opponent this round is Kohaku Kawa. Good luck to you!!

Now, even under my brother's tutelage, I still might have gotten some things wrong. My apologies if that is so. I tried to add in some chakra stuff… even though it was almost immediately suppressed… As for the whole deal with the Heart… a lot of it is Kingdom Hearts fandom. In the fandom a person is comprised of the Heart and the Body. Heartless, and some machines can remove Hearts from people. If a person's Heart is removed, then the body fades into the darkness, and becomes a Nobody, while the removed Heart usually becomes a Heartless, or becomes a part of Kingdom Hearts. Ironically… Nobodies have bodies but no Hearts, and Heartless have hearts but technically have no body… yeah it's kind of weird… but that's the canon for you. Basically, what Vexen does is he removes Orochimaru's Heart… and the rest is history. If you still have questions, feel free to leave them in a review!!!

Thanks for reading!! Have a nice Day!!