Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or it's characters.

When Ienzo awoke he found himself in his, so-called room. The boy stretched and when he looked around, he almost jumped out of his skin. Xehanort was sitting on a wooden chair in the corner, staring hungrily at Ienzo.

The boy let out a squeak of surprise, as if on cue Xehanort sauntered over to the edge of Ienzo's bedside. Trying to take the youth's hand into his. "I was waiting for you to wake up. You make the sweetest faces when you sleep."

Ienzo attempted to pull away. But that just made Xehanort clamp down on his hand even harder. "Where do you think your going, precious?" Xehanort then pinned both of Ienzo's arms down to the fluffy bed, and straddled his hips. The white-haired youth boldly moved his face inches away from Ienzo's. This made poor Ienzo begin to shake with fear.

"Please don't." The violet-haired boy whispered quietly. Xehanort just smiled and brushed his lips over Ienzo's.

"Let go, that's disgusting!" The young boy squirmed.

Xehanort sat up boring into Ienzo's crystal blue eyes. "Ienzo, you have been chosen to be queen. Ruler of all heartless, and all of Radiant Garden. It is time that you succumbed to your fate."

"And what fate is that, exactly?" Ienzo eyed him cautiously.

Xehanort smiled a genuine smile. "Alright I'll humor you. As the queen of the heartless you have the ability to command all creatures of the dark. They will do as you say, so long as you have my approval. Since you are queen I am able to protect your heart from these creatures so long as you stay close to me. Are you satisfied?"

"No, not until you get off of me." Ienzo said flatly.

Xehanort began to feel very strange. As he looked at the boy whom had been his friend for so long. The apprentice had mixed emotions, he wanted to keep their friendship the same, but he also wanted to make love with him. To experience it for the first time with someone who was closest to him. Ever sense the apprentices had started experimenting a more passionate side of Xehanort had emerged. Passionate for Ienzo, and deadly.

"Xehanort?" Ienzo's quiet voice snapped the older apprentice out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" he said dazed.

"What do you want from me?" Ienzo was slightly afraid of the answer he would receive, but he was curious all the same.

Xehanort said seriously, "I want your eternal love. I want you to stay with me and never leave."

It was then that Ienzo began to believe that he may never be able to escape from Xehanort. The blue-eyed boy was silent until Xehanort, having a change of heart, decided to let him up.

As the young king got up to leave he turned regarding Ienzo once more, "Oh, I forgot to mention that we will have a guest with us today. He wants to express sorrow for the loss of Ansem the Wise and extend his country's friendship. You must be on your best behavior."

This was all moving so fast that Ienzo barley had anytime to let his mind catch up. First Ansem comes back from the dead, then the fight with Xehanort, a wedding and now a lord coming to banter. Ienzo's head began to spin as a few servants barged into his lavish room and began to ready him for the company.

"King Xehanort has requested that you wear this Queen Ienzo."

"But... But it's a dress. I can't wear that." Xehanort slid next to Ienzo and whispered in his ear. "If you ever want to see your friends again in one piece you will wear the dress." Ienzo grumbled, but put it on. The dress was a black with a corseted top with blood red flowers crawling up the sides.

A Few Hours Later:

A brown carriage pulled up to the broad gates of the castle. With a scrawny man wearing a tupae inside it.

Ienzo was shocked to see that people inhabited the streets of Radiant garden. The suffocating darkness that once surrounded the castle was replaced with sunshine and children laughing as they played simple games.

They dinned in a hall made of cold, white marble. Ienzo keep to himself while Xehanort and Lord Flynn penned out a treaty. Suddenly a noise echoed through the halls of the castle. It sounded like an animal being tortured.

The Lord's mouth hung open in surprise as he asked, "What on earth was that?"

Xehanort feigned confusion, "I'm not sure, but I'm going to find out. I will be back momentarily."

Xehanort excused himself, leaving Ienzo with a golden opportunity. "Sir, you must help me. Xehanort has gone mad."

The brunette gave Ienzo a look of bewilderment. "Excuse me?"

"I know that he has harmed Ansem the Wise. He may be dead, or trapped somewhere in the castle."

"What, but why?" Said Flynn.

"Xehanort wanted the crown and the kingdom." Ienzo stated unhappily.

"Well there is no way I am signing a treaty with him now." The skinny man crossed his arms, "But what can I do to help?"

"I need you to distract Xehanort for me while I search for Master Ansem."

"I .. I'll try." He stuttered.

Suddenly as if on cue Xehanort appeared again. "So sorry about that sir, just a stray dog chasing a cat and nothing more. Ienzo dear, I need you to fetch another pen for me, please?"

For the first time in a few days Ienzo felt a bit of hope, tugging at his heartstrings. "Of course." Ienzo nodded as he tried not to sprint out of the large room. He wanted so badly to find his friends.

Ienzo ran to the labs, but found them to be locked. So he tried Ansem's old office, but it seemed as if no one had been there for years. Ienzo looked sadly upon the large oak desk and pictures covered in dust. Next the youth checked the lecture hall. Still nothing.

He would have continued his search were it not for the horrid scream that echoed off the cold walls of the castle. Ienzo ran, as fast as he could in a dress, back to the place where all of the apprentices once gathered together every night for meals.

"Xehanort. What was that?"He said bursting through the double doors.

"What was what?" Xehanort was as irritating as ever.

"That awful noise. It sounded like someone was dying." Ienzo was determined to find out exactly everything that was going on.

"Well, I wouldn't call it dying per say, just losing something vital." Xehanort closed the distance between them.

Ienzo took a sweeping glance of the room and found that Lord Flynn was missing. "Where is he?"

"Why what ever could you mean Angel?" Xehanort cocked his head to the side, as he stared into Ienzo's eyes.

"Don't you play dumb with me. Where is Lord Flynn and how did all of the people just suddenly appear in the shops and homes? And what about the darkness that surrounded your castle. It just up and vanished? I don't know what your doing, but I don't like it." Ienzo said as he tried to back away. Fear tickling at his neck.

"The town would not be to Lord Flynn's liking, so I simply tweaked it. Let's discuss this no more" he said flatly as a mutant heartless entered the room. Ienzo tried not to scream as it started to spasm. Xehanort quickly sent the creature through a dark portal.

"That heartless looked a lot like a man."The short apprentice squeaked.

The pair were silent for a moment. Then Ienzo plucked up enough courage to say, "That was him wasn't it? Is that what the others have become?"

"Now is not the time to speak of such things. We are to be married tomorrow after all and you will be needing your sleep." Xehanort attempted to put an arm around Ienzo's waist, but the small violet-haired boy dodged the unwanted contact and ran as far away from Xehanort as he possibly could. He ran past the kitchen and into the library to collect his thoughts.

Ienzo was determined to find his family and escape before getting married to the demon. But he had no plan. How would such a small boy accomplish such a great task?

He would start in the underground dungeons. But find nothing. Except a very slippery floor and a meanly placed puddle.

Soaking, Ienzo looked in all of the apprentices rooms. The blue-eyed boy found everything in the same order the apprentices had left it. "Well this was a waste of time. Xehanort is sure to find me any moment now. Still ... I have to keep trying."

So with a resolved mind Ienzo checked out the work room. He found that inside the white closet was a makeshift bed and shredded pieces of rope. Ienzo took a sniff of the air. He could faintly sense a hint of chemicals, spices and remnants of sea-salt ice-cream. "They were here a few days ago. But where are they now?"

"Ienzo, I don't like this behavior your exhibiting. If you do not come back to me I will find you." His singsong voice rang in Ienzo's ears.

"Get out of my mind!" The blue-eyed boy shrieked as he clutched his head in dismay. "Stop creeping me out. This is not what the Xehnaort I use to know would do!" Ienzo ran as quickly as he could out of the white room, as if that would rid him of the voice in his head.

In the Hall

Xehanort was enraged, Ienzo had gone too far. Sure at times he could be frightening. But that was aside from the point. Ienzo had made a promise.

Every time someone left him alone he felt strange. He could hear voices whispering things to him. That was how he got the brilliant idea to trap Ienzo. He never really meant to scare the boy so. It would seem that Xehanort was changing.

"Ienzo" A voice called softly.

Ienzo's whole body froze in an instant. It took all of his strength to keep his mind from shutting down. "Is that you, Eleaus?"

A figure emerged from the dark. "No." Xehanort said in a deathly quiet voice.

The orange-eyed apprentice could have easily used the shadows to manipulate his form, but he knew that if he did that he would become something too evil to imagine. "Why do you leave me? Is it because I frighten you? Please do not be afraid."

"You are not yourself. I want you to release my friends. Now!" The small teen demanded.

Xehanort stood in front of the exit. Feet firmly planted to the ground. "No." Was his stern reply.

"Then I will not marry you." Ienzo shouted, he was both mad and scared.

"You will. Ienzo, you made a promise. But that is so like you. Making promises and then breaking them. You are a devious little thing."

Ienzo's heart jumped into his throat. "What do you mean?"

Xehanort's face contorted into that of a madman, "Remember the time when you promised Ansem that you would watch the lab rats for a week? But you never did, you let them die. Then you tried to talk your way out of it. Or the time when you promised to help with our charity drive, instead you sat in the library reading. Or worst of all you promised to help me retrace my memories, but you left me alone in that cold room. So you could spend time with Eleaus!"

"Stop it! Your warping my mind! That is not what happened." He ran back the way he came, but was blocked by Xehanort. The young apprentice tried the other way, again and Xehanort teleported inches away from his face. "Your not as innocent as you claim to be. After all it was you who convinced Ansem the Wise to build us that underground lab."

Ienzo's head began to spin. He recalled all of these events. The worst part about it was that Xehanort was telling the truth.

"Perhaps the darkness has gotten to you after all. Maybe I'm too late to save you." Ienzo glared as Xehanort continued, "I am feeling generous today, I'll cut you a deal. If you go through with the marriage I will release my hold on all of the residents in Radiant Gardens, including the other apprentices."

Ienzo was not a stupid child. He knew very well that this was a trap in the making. However his friends were nowhere to be found. Now was his only chance to save them.

In a sweeping gesture Ienzo responded, "As you wish."

Xehanort smiled as he summoned a portal of darkness and disappeared in it. A cluster of dusks guided Ienzo to his room. 'Back to square one.' He thought.

A/N: So this chapter was the hardest one to crank out, out of all of my FF's. I seriously changed it around five times. Maybe more. I also recently suffered a family tragedy. I was not in the writing mood. I'm not overjoyed with this chapter, but the story needs to move on. I hope you all liked it.