I placed Zexion back down, since he inevitably passed out again. This better not be like the last three days. Although those bandages are a whole new matter. They weren't hiding an injury, for it would have most likely needed to be changed by now. Plus they were spelled, which was highly unusual. Even for him. I got up and returned to my desk, trying to clear my thoughts. What he was saying earlier... It's not an equivalent exchange. You need two to barter for it. One if you get lucky. What the hell is he saying? Those spells though, they're bind spells. Why in Kingdom Hearts would he need a bind spell? I ran my fingers through my hair. "...Just what are you doing Zexion?" I got up, sitting still was not helping. I looked up at Kingdom Hearts... Our saving grace. "What the hell are you doing..." I couldn't explain why I was upset with him for hiding this. I couldn't explain why I wanted to ensure he was better... Yet I wanted to make it right. However that could be done...

"Superior?"

"Yes Saix?"

"Why are we here?" I couldn't help but ask, I mean. I've gotten a "second chance" at life. I want to know.

"To complete Kingdom Hearts." Xemnas's gloved hands reached out towards the sky. "To return to being whole." He turned on his heel quickly. "So we, the supposed forsaken can live again."

Those words seemed to bother me... It seems they were talking about a similar situation... Zexion was one of Ansem's apprentices... Yet, I doubt my purpose even more than before. XIII is helping us progress. I jumped a bit at the rustling of sheets, for Zexion had stirred. "What I said to you in delirium, what was it?"

I'd rather him tell my why he was wearing spelled bandages, but one can only hope for such an easy conversation with Zexion... "You muttered something about some equivalent exchange thing. Something about a two to one barter, I don't really know..."

"Was that all I said?" He pulled himself up, with what seemed like a decent amount of effort.

"Yes. Would it have to do with those spelled bandages?"

"Perhaps." It wasn't an actual answer, but it was more than I was expecting.

I sat back down on his bed, looking him in the eye. "Why are you hiding this? Whatever this is."

"Why do you suddenly seem to care VII?" Hell if I knew.

"Is it an issue for one to be bothered by someone's well being?"

"Well. If you take by the facts that the cold uncaring diviner has gone from minding his own business to choking me to watching over me as soon as I lose consciousness and not telling the Superior or four upon my request then i'd venture to say yes." There it is again, the fact that I want to wrap my hands around his neck and at the same time I don't want to...

I sighed, not sure how to respond. "...Zexion, are you hiding something from the Superior?"

He fell silent for a second, looking for the words to say. "What good would it do me if I told you? You'd tell me off to him almost immediately." Except I wouldn't.

I placed my hands on his shoulders, in a gentle way that I had never thought possible from me. The words left my lips before I even knew what I was saying. "Why are you doing this? You're hurting your self for what reason? Why Zexion? To what end... "

I stared back blankly at Seven as soon as he finished speaking. First he's telling me that I need to do my missions faster, now he's doting over my private matters? I'm not so sure I didn't hit the floor. "I have my reasons. Even if I was hiding something that should be- so to say, kept away from certain members... What do you have in wanting to know it?" Now that I think about it, there was quite a decent amount of "concern" in his voice.

His grip tightened on my shoulders, most likely going to leave a bruise. Seven looked over to the window, and in that moment it was clear. It was the words that had been left unsaid that told me the most. I swallowed, knowing that one wrong word could cause him to snap my shoulder right out of its socket. "Is it so wrong to care? For supposedly incapable of feeling emotion we are such fragile creatures..." The unwavering calm in his voice concerned me. "It's almost like we have a tougher time being no one than actually existing..." He looked back at me, avoiding eye contact.

"...Seven..." What was he doing... I've never seen him like this again he doesn't usually decide to help when someone manages to get an injury...

"Tell me. Zexion. Tell me everything about your past." I froze up at the statement, since I'm not the one that gets asked about my past.

"No." The two of us sat there, in silence. No words, just gazing at the other. Waiting for the next move.

The silence was unnatural, the small creature we'd called a heartless dove straight at Xehanort, knocking him down and claiming it's prize: his heart. After a moment of shock the remaining five of us went to get away from this threat. It didn't take long for me to realize why this happened, it was entirely intentional. But for what means? Of course it wasn't an equivalent exchange and that means we'd now be the ones to pay for it. Two lives for one artificial heart. I jumped at the sound of Dilan's lance being swung and I dashed over to the notebook where those meticulous, deadly notes were handwritten. After leaping up a few times to grab it, I was successful... even though I knocked down a vial by accident. I stood frozen in place for a moment or two. "Wait! Dilan where's Ienzo?!"

"Even! He probably high tailed it out of here when the thing lunged at Xehanort."

"Dilan, I can't just leave the boy here."

"We have to go. Now." I heard another inhuman sound. This time it was Braig. Fortunately Dilan and somehow Aeleus had managed to pull him away.

A voice that I was presumed to be incapable of spoke. "It's this it's after..." I looked at the delicate vial, the small heart encased within. Of course, I ran. If I got to the top of the tower it's likely that I can avoid the darkness for a bit longer. This was vivid, I ran up the stairwell books and vial clutched to my small being. At the top balcony, I looked out (which I regret) to see the darkness, claiming the world that was once my home. I set the rune I had remembered from a book. Light. That way I had a minor barrier. "How do I get rid of it?" Then it hit me, I could bind these cursed things to something... or someone. I looked over to the vial and notes in my hand, do I have any other choice? I closed my eyes and remembered the strong binding spell from one of Master Ansem's spell books.

What felt like an eternity later I fell onto the ground, tired and gasping for air. Did I mess up? I felt... heavier. "Ienzo... What are you doing?" I slowly sat up, looking up to the source of the voice only to see something that looked a lot like Xehanort. I didn't dare look at the vial now, if it was empty then i'd be a fool to look. I simply made eye contact with him and I didn't speak, I hadn't talked in a long time and there was no real need to now. He moved closer to me, his foot stopping when it hit something and sent it rolling. The vial rolled right to me and I quickly picked it up, clutching it to my chest. "Now dearest Ienzo, would you happen to know where the experiment has gone?" I swallowed and heard a high pitched scream, presumably Even's. "It's a very important thing." I still refused to say a word. "It worked. I know, there was an artificial heart. The door to darkness is real! " He almost spun around but his amber eyes stopped, and looked at my chest. Where both my own heart and the empty vial lay. His "tone" of voice changed. "What happened here?" I slowly got up. Pretending to be scared. I was ready to throw the vial for him to fetch it like the twisted monster he now was. "Ienzo." I took a step back. He took a large one to close the distance. "Why are you holding an empty vial?"

"I destroyed it."

He looked a little surprised from hearing me speak, "you what?"

"I destroyed the research. It's gone. The hearts, the research. Gone Xehanort. It's all gone." I don't know where the courage came from, but I welcomed it.

"You didn't. No, you couldn't of..." He was getting closer to me now, the anger clear.

I can't recall what happens next, but somehow, I heard a voice. Such a lovely, gentle voice. I listened, it gave me a choice. To give up my heart. That's just what I had done. Then it all faded to black...

"...Zexion?" I was almost nervous to say a word, for Zexion hadn't moved his gaze (other than an occasional blink) for a good forty minutes.

"Yes, Seven?" His sapphire eyes met with mine.

"What exactly happened in Radiant Garden?"

He gave me what I hadn't expected. "It's a long story..."

After what seemed to be an eternity, I came to learn that the superior was just using us. Just for his own will. Kingdom Hearts could never return the hearts, it only turned them in to an instrument. One that when complete, it would be in Xemnas's hands. Zexion showed me, Ienzo's final memories. The binding of it, I saw the bandages removed. What seemed to be simple mana marks were the destruction of a world. I brushed my fingers over one of the markings, causing Zexion to straighten his back. But I saw it. A fragment of the research... Of all the things he knew, I never would have surmised that he'd ever willingly forfeit his heart... And I knew from that moment on, I would protect him. Even if it killed me... "Zexion?"

"Yes?"

"Why is this hurting you?"

"That, is a question that I myself am unable to answer."

"I'm going to write you off."

"What?"

"You're not leaving this castle like this."

"Who gave you the forsaken right to do that?"

"I did, I'm not leaving either, and you know what, I want this to end. All of it. I've been living in a false reality… Is there a way to prevent Kingdom Hearts from being complete?" I pulled him closer to me, protectively, like how a child would hold their favorite toy.

Surprisingly, Zexion had yet to move. "Not from what I recall."

It was terrifying, yet peaceful all at once. I no longer knew why I was "alive". I no longer cared. All I knew is that I wanted to stop Xemnas from completing Kingdom Hearts... I wanted to see the Superior fall to the darkest depths of hell. You know what? I want to take the sorry bastard there myself.

A/N: A whopper of a chapter.

With the actual reason to the plot. OTL

So if you haven't gotten it. (Or fully understood it.) Ienzo in his final hour or so of life, took all the research that the six of them had done and bound it to his soul. Because he realized Xehanort had caused destruction for his own gain. So Ienzo took it into his hands to stop it.

Also clearly Xemnas has no idea about Zexion having the research bound to him.

Here's the part where Saix changes his opinion. About Everything.

Also, the italics would be flashbacks.

So that is all.