Chapter Thirty Five: Findings

Secret Report: Vexen III

Any intelligence can respond to stimulus. With memory, it can integrate what was learned. Higher forms can assign meaning, positive or negative, to events. In this respect, we nobodies are little different from those with hearts. Our memories filling in the difference between what was lost by our hearts and what we know.

And yet for all of this, it means so little. All this stimulus and experience has become routine. Nothing has come close to stirring anything close to real emotion in the Organization. And as the years have gone by, monitoring of the Organization's core membership has fallen by the wayside. Beyond routine checkups to ensure health, there has been little to spur the sort of investigation Zexion prescribed.

So why now? Why Roxas and Naminé? Are the two so vastly different from normal Nobodies that they have begun to grow what we lack? If so, then why did Axel and Zexion show similar readings? Either they are far more different from regular nobodies than we initially assumed, or…

Or is there something fundamental that we have been mistaken about?

There seems to be a spike in the readings. Let me see if these are mere echoes of our memory or…

Secret Report: Lexaeus IV

Thousands of test subjects. Countless notes and experiments. If we could not identify this, they would all be a waste.

Roxas and Naminé are growing hearts, and Axel and Zexion seem to be far along in that same process. After a decade following Xemnas' instructions, they seem to have fulfilled our goal in a week!

Were all our experiments so faulty? Our conclusions so off base? In all this time, Xemnas had maintained that the creation of our own Kingdom Hearts was the only thing that could restore our hearts. If such is the case…

Xemnas is not a fool or a lunatic. He has guided our Organization and maintained it for all these years. Much of our procedure and notes were approved by him personally.

But seeing this, I recall one hypothesis that he forbade me from pursuing. Declaring it something he would investigate personally.

If we nobodies are empty, what can be put inside us? Can something grow within us?

Or be placed inside us?

He has never given me an answer in all these…

Secret Report: Vexen IV

I usually don't write these reports so haphazardly. I usually wait until all our conclusions are drawn until..

No. There is no time.

I was going over the readings and cross referencing what I could. Trying to see what we might have missed in our experiments that this situation might have sparked. When I passed by Lexaeus as he was writing his note.

And his hypothesis.

It had to have crossed my mind at one point. But I was so focused on the moment. So focused on trying to ensure our plan for Kingdom Hearts was airtight. We still haven't ensured that the collection is free from…

Interference.

I warned Xemnas that if we did not safeguard the hearts we gather, it may be possible to taint them. To influence a sample of them so heavily they believe they are another person entirely. All Xemnas told me was that he would handle it personally. But if he's been trying to suppress the very idea we could all be subsumed by another personality…

He could make us all his slaves. Take our knowledge and bend it to his whim. But if he's been planning this for years, what has he been waiting for…

Keyblade.

We need to leave. Everyone. Roxas and Naminé especially, if we don't get out we'll all be pawns of—

The door to the lab bust open with darkness, and Vexen's pen punctured the page. Lexaeus had stopped writing his own report just as Vexen voiced his own conclusion. Dropping whatever essentials he was gathering, he summoned his tomahawk and glared at the swirling shadow pouring in. Frantically, Vexen tried to gather the recent notes the two had taken…

"Come, Guardian!"

Only for Ansem's command to herald the dark figure barreling into the room. Lexaeus swung his Tomahawk to knock it back but it wasn't enough. In a clash of steel and shadow, Lexaeus strained as the guardian caught his weapon. The two struggled against each other, the Tomahawk shaking in their grips.

And Lexeaus didn't have the chance to unleash his strength this time.

Metal creaked as the weapon began to bend. Lexaeus looked to the door as Ansem in Riku's body walked through the shadow as though it were nothing. He then glanced at Vexen, reports still in his hands, uttered one word.

"Run."

With a snarl of steel Lexaeus' weapon broke. Tearing his blade in two to throw back the guardian. Lexaeus charged at Ansem, and his strike hit against a blade of shadow. Vexen had only seconds to escape. To run and find who he could to get out.

Yet as he sprinted out the door into the hall, Vexen couldn't help a backwards glance.

He saw the guardian seizing Lexeaus, leaving him open as Ansem pulled back with his sword.

Screwing his eyes shut, Vexen ran as he held onto the reports. Trying to shout out the cry he heard behind him. The dark corridor was useless. Ansem could easily follow him or take control of the shadows as he walked them. He couldn't contact Marluxia and Larxene with them hidden away in the upper floors. Vexen and his group were likely still busy…

Eyes widening, Vexen pushed himself. Realizing the path he needed to take if there was to be any chance. As he saw the shadows gathering around him, he spied the door he needed and ducked inside. With a slam, he shut the door into cold storage behind him.

So many samples and tubes. Experiments that would never see fruition. To think he came here to further his work with the Replica program after No. i.

For a moment, the adrenaline wore off and Vexen slumped. His thoughts and regrets at long last catching up. Was it ever worth it? Was he merely a puppet dancing on Xemnas' strings for some decade-long plot? Was he so easily misled in the name of progress?

Had he really killed so many?

His eyes fell on the cooler of Zexion's supplies. Or rather the smuggled container of ice cream the boy still indulged in after all these years. The last link he had to a childhood Vexen helped to steal away. With a wry smile, Vexen looked inside. It seems he hadn't quite secured it today. No doubt everything going on with Roxas caused it to slip Zexion's mind.

Vexen saw the shadows creeping in through the door. Creaking as Ansem pushed against it.

Vexen made up his mind and prepared. He shut the lid to the container and summoned his shield. Vexen gathered the cold in the room around him and muttered. "I'm sorry Zexion, but this is the best I can do."

Vexen and Lexeaus were attacked by Ansem and defeated.

That was what Marluxia said as he met them after the mission. As if it was just another piece of news or an inconvenience.

But that wasn't how Zexion saw it.

His eyes widened, and he turned and called a dark portal. Roxas barely had time to say anything before Zexion ran through it.

Wincing, Axel looked to Roxas and began to walk to ward the lingering dark corridor. "We better go after him."

"I don't have my coat." Only to stop at Naminé's words as she fidgeted. "I won't be able to get down there as quickly."

As Marluxia smiled and put a hand on Naminé's shoulder, Roxas felt a chill settle in his gut. "Fortuitous timing. There is something we must discuss alone." He looked to Roxas, caught between staying and going, and gave a nod. "Go. Help your friend."

Roxas furrowed his brow at how sincere Marluxia sounded. He had to wonder if he enjoyed playing with people like that. Yet it was only as his eyes met Naminé's and she gave a firm nod that he followed Axel. Even if Marluxia was playing games, Naminé wasn't going to give in easily.

As he emerged from the portal, Roxas couldn't help a gasp. He was so used to the walls of Castle Oblivion as pristine that seeing them wrecked was a shock. The lab door was blown open, Darkness seeping from gouges left everywhere.

"Sounds like he's further down. Near cold storage" Axel muttered as he pointed down the hall to where familiar voices echoed. Roxas ran down to catch up, only slowing as he finally caught sight of Zexion surveying the scene before a frozen door.

"Will you keep it down out there?" Larxene's voice echoed from inside, as Roxas peed through to see here surveying the damage. Ice had spilled from the door into the hall. Shards embedded into the walls were still dripping with darkness. So much of what was left in cold storage was trashed barring a few sealed containers. But Larxene was interested in one in particular. "At least most of the food's intact," she muttered as she shut the larger crate. "Well, with two less mouths to feed we won't have to—"

"They can't just be gone!" Zexion's outburst caused Axel and Roxas to take a step back. "Vexen had to have had a plan! Some kind of escape! Lexaeus always managed our contingencies! Some…!"

Axel winced and scratched the back of his head. "This place doesn't really have secret passages, and there's no running from Ansem in dark corridors."

Rolling her eyes, Larxene walked out of cold storage. "I'll save you the trouble. Marluxia and I confirmed with our scrying orbs that Ansem terminated Lexeaus and Zexion."

"Why didn't you do anything?!" The three of them shouted at her. Regardless of how much of a pain she was, Roxas at least was sure that Larxene and Marluxia wouldn't let an Organization member die on their watch. From the shock on Axel's face, it seemed as if he had the same idea. But from how Zexion seethed, grip tightening on his book, he was just enraged.

A rage which meant nothing to Larxene as she waved a hand at them. "Because portaling into darkness right next to a head heartless like that is a death wish, and neither of us wanted to kick the bucket." She looked at Zexion before pointing a finger at him. "Now if you've finished up your melodrama, we need to reassign you."

Swatting away her hand, Zexion growled out, "Reassign?"

Rolling her eyes, Larxene continued, "With our main researcher and his sidekick guard dog gone, you're the last egghead in Castle Oblivion who can take up Ansem watching." "So yeah, you're done following Roxas, hope you got whatever notes you needed."

Zexion blinked, and tilted his head, "My notes?"

Putting a hand on her hip, Larxene scoffed, "Your research notes? That is why you joined up with him?"

For a moment Zexion glanced at Roxas, and for a moment Roxas thought that some of the tension that had gripped Zexion since hearing the news about Vexen and Lexeaus eased. Though Zexion soon glared at Larxene with a stern face. "That's none of your concern, Larxene."

Unfazed, Larxene waved him off. "You're right. It really isn't. Anyway, clean up the lab or don't. Whatever helps you work better."

Axel walked up to Zexion and put a hand to his shoulder."We might not be as smart as you, but we can help you fix up the lab." Slowly, Zexion gave a nod and patted Axel's hand in gratitude.

Roxas stepped forward with a nod. "Just tell us where to start."

"You're not starting cleanup, right now." Larxene walked toward him with crossed arms. "We've got something to discuss, alone."

The look in her eyes was more serious than mischievous, and Roxas couldn't tell if he liked it better or not. No doubt Larxene's talk was a counterpart to whatever discussion Marluxia wanted to share with Naminé.

Well if she could face Marluxia, then Roxas could certainly handle Larxene. He gave a nod and answered, "Lead the way."