Hello everyone, and welcome to the 3rd chapter to Hearts of Darkness. Is it good? Don't know. Personally feel like no one likes this story. But any reviews help ya know. Feedback guys. Really need some. Anyway, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, a certain Disney character made by Alex Hisrch, or anything in this story except my OC's.

Over the next few days, Xehanort continued to study and was learning more and more about the mysterious creatures of darkness. He had been going to preform more experiments on the prisoners, but strangely almost all of them were gone, being slowly replaced by shadow like creatures scurrying around.

Xehanort had theorized that the creatures flattened themselves and had crawled underneath the door to other cells. He pulled out his notebook and began to write.

"The shadows that crawl beneath the castle…are they the people who lost their hearts or are they incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond my imagination? All my knowledge has provided no answer.

One thing I am sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart. Fortunately, there are no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report.

They still need a name. Those who lack hearts…I will call them the Heartless."

Xehanort put down his pen and examined a nearby cell where the two prisoners were. One briefly glanced at him before he turned his attention to something crawling around. Xehanort took a closer look and noticed a Shadow Heartless crawling around inside. Xehanort looked to the other prisoner to see why he wasn't responding to the Heartless. Turns out the man had died a few days ago. The Shadow Heartless briefly turned to the dead prisoner and sniffed at him before lunging at the other man's chest, clawing at it. The man's eyes widened and screamed in agony.

As the man passed out, his heart left his body and vanished into thin air. The man's body then was covered in darkness. When it cleared a Shadow Heartless emerged leaving behind no trace that the man was ever there.

Xehanort immediately the nearest clipboard and pen and began to write again.

"The Heartless appear in groups, and are multiplying rapidly. I've provided them both living and nonliving samples. They've responded only to the living. They seem to multiply after absorbing something from the living creatures. Their prey vanishes without a trace.

I believe the Heartless are taking hearts. They are born from those who've lost their hearts, and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless become Heartless themselves.

Though I lack proof, I am confident in this hypothesis. I must also study their behavioral principles. Though they lack emotions, they do seem to have some intelligence. How to communicate with them? It's just occurred to me: Could they be the darkness in people's hearts?"

Xehanort put the pen down again, and sighed. How was he going to solve the mysteries of the heart by himself? Sure, he had Braig to help him, but that wasn't enough. He knew what he had to do. Besides, maybe they wouldn't react that bad…

"What in the world?!"

Xehanort sighed and rubbed his eyes. Or maybe they would.

"What is the meaning of this, Xehanort?" Even continued to say. "I demand an explanation!" "Calm down, Even." Xehanort said. "This was necessary for-"

"Necessary?" Ria spoke up. "Is the study of the heart really worth all this?! Your experiments are getting out of control!"

"ENOUGH!" Xehanort yelled. "Need I remind everyone why we're doing this? For the greater good of Radiant Garden and it's citizens! So, no matter how cruel these experiments may be, or how immoral they may get, I ask you to help me study these creatures of darkness so we can protect our home!" The others looked at each other before reluctantly agreeing except for Ria, who angrily walked off.

As the others observed the Heartless, Braig pulled Xehanort aside. "Uh, we got a bit of a problem." he said. "We're all out of prisoners. Who are we gonna use for test subjects now?" "That little problem will be taken care of soon, Braig." Xehanort said. "Very soon."

"Still," Braig pointed out. "Couldn't hurt to get a few now, right?" "I suppose." Xehanort said. "Go then, and take Dilan and Aleaus with you."

Braig grinned and gave a half wave as he walked off. "Will do." The smirk on Braig's face continued to grow as he left. He knew just what kind of "volunteers" he should get. "This should be fun…" he thought.

Next morning…

"Ria!"

"Huh?" Ria snapped out of her thoughts to see Lea, Isa, and Laina looking at her worriedly. The four friends were once again sitting in the town square eating Sea-Salt Ice Cream along with Kota and Jae.

"You okay?" Isa asked. "Sorry," Ria apologized. "My mind's on other things." Lea put a hand on Ria's shoulder. "Eh don't worry about it too much," he said. "Besides we've got bigger things to worry about! Like who is living in that tower outside Radiant Garden."

Jae frowned at Kota. "You told?" he asked. "It just slipped out!" Kota defended himself. "Besides, since they know maybe they can help us!"

"We're not going to help you." Ria said. "Why not?" Kota whined. "Because you aren't going." Ria said. "You're lucky enough Jae's being allowed to even sleep over tonight." "No fair!" Kota said pouting. "You do realize that it's too dangerous to go all the way there, right?" Ria said. "What if someone got hurt?"

"She raises a good point." Laina said. Lea rubbed Kota's head messing up his brown hair a bit. "Don't worry, little man." Lea said. "Your sister and us will go look for you. Maybe Arlene and the others will go with us to help us out."

"We could just go by ourselves. Or not at all." Ria said not wanting to go anywhere with Arlene. "Can't do that." Lea said.

"And why not?" Ria asked.

"Safety in numbers. Plus we can't let down your little brother." Ria just rolled her eyes at Lea's response. "Whatever, fine. Still don't want to go with Arlene." "Well, we wouldn't even need to ask her, if Nia and Ventus were here." Lea said.

"Nia would know what I should do about Xehanort…" Ria thought. "I wonder what she's up to?"

In the Realm of Sleep…

"Ugh…" a girl with purple hair said. "I've been walking forever!" She was being followed by a little dog. Or cat. She still wasn't clear on what the animal exactly was.

Nia knelt down and rubbed Meow Wow's head who whined happily. "I wish someone could help us out. But who could possibly know a way out of here?"

The wind suddenly picked and Meow Wow growled. A bright light shone in front of Nia, making her cover her eyes.

As it cleared she heard someone yell, "I THINK I KNOW A GUY!"

Nia looked to who spoke and gasped. "What the hell…?" Out of everything she's seen in her life, she hadn't seen anything so…weird.

Later on that night…

Knock, knock

Julia rubbed the sleep from her eyes and answered the door. "Yes? May I-" She gasped. "What are you doing?"

"Grab her."

A muffled scream was heard before Julia passed out on the floor.

David ran into the living room where the scuffle had taken place. "Julia? What is-Braig? Aleaus? Dilan? What are you all doing here?" He glanced down and saw his wife lying on the ground. "What'd you do to her?!"

A bright flash of light appeared from his hand and the key-shaped sword from the wall appeared in his hands.

Braig raised his eyebrows and laughed. "Knew there were more of you out here!" He turned to Aleaus and Dilan. "You know what to do." The two men nodded and with one swipe knocked the weapon from the man's hands and knocked him unconscious.

"Take them back to the castle." Braig said as he picked up the Keyblade from the ground. "Well, now…this should make things much more interesting." Braig chuckled and headed back to the castle not seeing the person off in the distance who had witnessed the whole thing.

And that was chapter. Crappy right? I know it was. Next chapter: Lea and the others gear up to find out just who the hell lives in the tower outside Radiant Garden, Nia gets an offer she can't refuse, Ria must decide what to do about Xehanort, and David and Julia's origins are revealed. Not that anyone cares about this story.