Hello, readers! Welcome all to chapter six! :D

NebraeExbaren: Lol there shall be much more Cloud abuse ahead! And Lea only claimed to be a cook, but Squall decided it was a lie ^-^ So far he's more of a...well, a creeper XD And thanks! Due to complications, they decided not to remove it, but went straight to chemo. Thank you for your prayers :)

Evil Stormsister: Cloud has something of a key role in this. Kind of *shifty eyes*. And, um, you're Lea theory? I'll tell you in, oh, four more chapters or so XD And all the reminiscing is thanks to you pointing it out! I just have to try to think of Squall being broodier than usual XD And thank you for your prayers :) My whole family appreciates it.

Important Note: I haven't played Birth by Sleep or 358/2 Days, so this obviously won't coincide with it. Not to mention I doubt Squall is even in those games...

Not-So-Important Note: Do you ever have one of those days when you couldn't remember how to do something to save your life? Well, the past two weeks have been like that for me in the area of punctuation. I apologize in advance and have re-read multiple times, so I think I've gotten everything. But if you find errors, let me know! Woe is me. I have no beta.

On we go! XD

The stair well was dark to say the least as Squall lead them downward, heading toward a faint glow that traveled from some entrance or another deep in the basement. Lea had taken great care to make it look like no one had entered the trap door by flipping the rug over it before closing it. Despite that, Squall began to feel uneasy. Of course, he had every right to be. He was in an unfamiliar place filled with unfamiliar enemies and had a nutcase for a guide. It would be enough to make anyone paranoid.

But maybe that's all it was: paranoia. After all, the only thing he knew for sure about Ansem's scientists were that they looked like trouble. He had no proof they were up to anything devious or harmful.

Then again, that's why he was down here, wasn't it? Proof.

Squall felt his way down until he reached flat ground. Up ahead, a pool of light spilled from an open doorway, illuminating a long hallway with several other darkened entrances that branched off from it. He treaded forward cautiously, making each step silent and careful. Silent, at least, until Lea tripped on the last stair and ran into him. Squall staggered forward, his boots slapping awkwardly on the aluminum floor as he struggled to regain his balance, then he fell against the wall with a thud.

"What was that?" a voice called from somewhere in the basement.

The two men froze. Squall's pulse quickened, the blood pounding deafeningly in his ears as he tried to formulate a plan of action. Before he could act, however, Lea came up behind him, grabbing his arm and taking off down the hallway. They raced past the lighted doorway then dove into a dark room.

And face to face with a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

The Lionheart was in his hands in an instant. In that same instant, he realized there were at least twenty more pairs of the same golden eyes. But Lea, instead of being alarmed, batted Squall's weapon away and made a shushing gesture with his hand. It finally registered that the shadows were in cages. In the dim light, Squall could see that they were stacked high all around the walls, dozens of writhing, clawing, silent shadows.

But there were other, more pressing concerns to be dealt with.

Reluctantly, Squall turned his back on the beast and followed Lea behind a pile of equipment. Squall couldn't even begin to guess at the functions of the various machines, but as long as it provided cover, he didn't really care.

"Are you sure you weren't just hearing things?" a different voice asked from the hallway, close to their hiding place. Squall recognized the voice as belonging to Even. He remembered it from the week before; the condescending, impatient tones of the self-important.

"I guess it could have been the Heartless," the first voice conceded. That voice was most certainly Ienzo's. It sounded too young to belong to anyone else.

"The Heartless don't make noise, you nitwit," Even said gruffly. "Come on. We can't leave experiment twenty-one alone for long."

Squall listened intently to the fading footsteps as the two scientists retreated down the hall. Finally, when he could hear nothing more, he turned to Lea. "What are Heartless?"

The redhead gave him a strange look. "These things," he explained, pointing at a cage behind them. The black creature within it was small, no more than three feet high, with a rounded head that sported twitching antennae and a mouthful of black, sharp teeth. Its golden eyes were fixed on Squall as it reached clawed paws toward him from inside the plastic walls of the cage.

Actually, every Heartless in the room seemed to be staring at him.

"Why are they called Heartless?" Squall asked as he stared the creature down. They were the same kind of creatures that Rinoa had summoned…

"Well, I thought it was obvious," Lea responded with his usual smirk. "They don't got a heart. Unfortunately, they feel the only way to remedy that is to eat yours."

Squall had witnessed that firsthand. "Why do they have them?" he demanded. Creatures like that…they had no business being alive.

"Probably their sick experiments, don't you think?" Lea said, not appearing at all concerned about the anger in Squall's voice. "Let's go find out." He glided past Squall and headed for the doorway. Squall followed, turning to give the creatures one last contemptuous glare before exiting.

They stayed silent as they traveled through the darkened corridors, only lit by the occasional wall-mounted lamp here and there. The whole place had a sterile, dark feel that Squall couldn't really explain. Almost like a battlefield of sorts, but without even that level of security. He didn't understand it and he didn't like it. The walls, floor and ceiling were varying shades of white. The few rooms they had visited all told the same story: laboratories or storage rooms filled with medical and scientific-looking equipment. Several rooms had Heartless in clear containers stacked around the walls. Others had caged animals of varying species, many of which looked sickly or rabid.

But that paled in comparison to the last room they visited.

Upon initial inspection, it looked like any of the other labs. Lea was even about to pass it by until Squall stopped. "Wait," he said softly, reaching out with a gloved hand to turn on the light switch.

This room felt…different. Squall wasn't sure why until he saw the bloodied cells on the other side of the room. Cells designed to hold humans.

Suddenly, other things began to stand out: the operating tables with shackles placed to human proportions, the human X-rays that hung on the lighted panel, the human heart in a jar on the table…

Squall had seen many things in his time as a mercenary, but human experimentation? That took the cake.

He was beginning to feel sick. He had seen all he needed to see to go to the other room and execute the murderous scum responsible and still sleep well afterward, such was the righteous anger burning through his veins.

"Not a good plan."

Squall turned on Lea in disbelief. The redhead didn't sound upset by this. He was surveying the room like he might the guest room of a friend's house, with calm curiosity. Not horror, not anger, but curiosity. "We can't let them continue this," Squall hissed.

Lea didn't respond, but stepped forward into the room. He examined the X-rays closely, rifled through a few charts, then picked up the preserved heart.

"Lea," Squall snapped.

"We don't know what's going on here, Squall." For the first time, Lea sounded stern, though he kept his eyes on the heart in his hands. "We don't know if the people that have been through here volunteered for this, or maybe they're war criminals, or murderers looking for some payroll."

"You think they volunteered to be locked up in those cells?"

Lea fixed him with an even look. "We can't go in there and cut them down in cold blood and be any better than they are."

So the man did have some kind of conscience? A fine time for it to make an appearance, when Squall wanted nothing more than to strangle the life out of Even. "What do you suggest we do, then?" he demanded. "We can't just sit by while people die."

"Who says anyone's dead?" Lea asked. "We don't know that."

"You can't live without a heart," Squall snarled, gesturing to the organ in the jar.

Lea shrugged. "Depends on the heart."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means we shouldn't jump to conclusions." He moved over behind a corner and out of Squall's sight. "Come have a look at this," he called.

Squall begrudgingly obeyed and was surprised at what he found.

There were three glass containers lined against the small section of wall, giant test tubes that reached from the ground to the ceiling. Hovering inside were three pink, crystal-like hearts spinning gently in the air. Squall was relived to find that they weren't human hearts, but were instead the symbol usually used to represent love, like those paper cutouts that used to be so popular in Garden on Valentine's Day.

That being said, Squall also remembered a Heartless pulling one out of a cadet's chest. "What are they?"

"Hearts," Lea replied. At the look Squall gave him, he smirked. "No, not the organ, exactly. More like a…a symbolic and physical representation of the soul, I guess."

He still remembered the look on that cadet's face..."It's not the heart?" he asked quietly.

"Not technically," he said, gazing intently at the objects. "But you know all that stuff the heart represents? Passion, love, feeling, hate, darkness? That's what this is. The essence of someone is contained in each of these."

Squall turned his eyes back to the hearts. "Can you survive? Without a heart?"

Lea shrugged. "It's been done before, or so they say."

They continued to stare at the floating hearts for a few more minutes before Lea finally shifted. "Let's get back above ground," he suggested. "We'll figure out what to do from there." He turned around and left.

Squall glanced at the hearts once more before following.

Squall returned to his dorm in the early morning, hours past curfew and feeling worn and exhausted. The night's events had taken a bigger tole on him than he had realized. He was surprised to find Cloud gone when he arrived, but the thought soon fled his mind. He barely managed to remove his boots before he fell back into his bed and drifted off to sleep.

Hmm...Cloud's gone, huh? Interesting XD

I have lost reviewers! Have I done something wrong? .-. If I have, please tell me! I'd love any opportunity to make this story the best it can be!

Have a great week, and see you in chapter seven :D

God Bless,

-RainFlame