X coughed waving his hand in front of his face to clear away dust. Y ignored him throwing another stack of papers onto the desk in front of him. X coughed again his eyes watering. It was clear no one had been in this lab for a long time. Years at the very least, possibly even longer. Searching through the desks Y was pulling out file after file of papers and threw them in a stack in front of X after a quick skim over the contents. X could only see graphs and figures, things he had never understood.

"I'm a thousand percent certain this is a bad idea. A very bad idea," X said coughing off to the side and waving his hand in front of his face.  Y rolled her eyes as she continued skimming over the file in her hand.

"You know as well as I do no one ever comes into this lab. We were the only ones ever brave enough," she said closing the file and tossing it onto the desk. It landed with a puff of dust. X glared at Y.

"Or, you know, stupid enough," he offered. Y shot him a glare in return forcefully closing the draw she had been searching through. 

The old lab in their homeworld had long been abandoned. The two themselves couldn't remember the accident that had supposedly killed everyone who worked there. X wasn't even sure if they had been born at the time. He was inclined to think they hadn't from the age of the other Heartless that had been born from the accident, which had not been an accident. 

"I do not need your pessimism. Just shut up and help me," Y said turning her back on X and walking to another part of the lab. X rolled his eyes and followed her looking over the bench she seemed to decide was the next thing to search through.

"It's not pessimism, it's realism. But, fine. What are we even looking for?" X asked leaning against the bench and picking up a random stack of papers. His eyes skimmed over the words but he saw nothing even remotely interesting.

"It had occurred to me, the experiments done here had to be similar to what Terra-Xehanort did in Radiant Gardens, right?" Y asked. X frowned and nodded.

"Yes. I would assume they had their commonalities," he agreed.

"Right. So DiZ wants to learn all he can about those exact experiments, we can't get that info. So let's look at what we can," she explained. She frowned tossing aside the papers she had been looking at. X assumed they didn't have the information she wanted on them.

"I suppose that makes sense," he said.

"Right, let's check the library," Y suggested. X frowned crossing his arms not making any effort to move.

"I've read every book in that library at least twice. There's nothing there," he said. Y stopped in her tracks and turned to face him her eyebrows furrowed together as she frowned.

"When did you have the time for that?" she asked. 

"When you were gone," X answered with a shrug.

"What did you do? Stay here 24/7?" Y asked. The library here was filled to the brim with books. Some shelves were even overflowing with books crammed in the small space between the shelf and the other books. It would have taken her years to go through even one section let alone the entire library. Of course, X had always been much faster at reading and had started on his quest of reading every book in that library when he was very young. But it still would have taken years to finish the library.

"For the most part. If I could avoid the city I did," X answered. 

"Why?" Y asked. X shrugged again.

"There was nothing for me in the city. I thought it'd be better to do something productive. So I tried learning a few things," he said. Y frowned looking down. X had always had a harder time fitting in. He had very few friends since all eyes always had seemed to be on him.

"Oh," she said softly.

Despite his words, Y went into the library. X followed not giving much of an argument. They searched the lab in silence. Occasionally X would toss something for Y to look at, but he never said anything. Y allowed him his time to think.

Y gasped as she found a picture.

"Holy crap," she breathed out.

"What is it?" X asked walking over to her. His expression was one of concern, eyebrows drawn together and lips set in a small frown.

"This is Master Eraqus," Y said showing the picture of three young teenagers. "He was hot." X snickered turning his head to the side.

"I forgot that was here," he said.

"You've seen this before?" Y asked tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah. Terra found it when we were here," X answered. His frown deepened as the words left his mouth. His eyes narrowed looking at the picture. It was a look Y saw so often she didn't have to think what it meant. She turned her eyes back to the picture following X's gaze to the silver-haired teen.

"So, if that's Master Eraqus. Does that mean the silver-haired one is," she trailed off looking at the boy with silver hair. He was smiling with his arms crossed. He seemed to be rolling his eyes at something that was making the other two laugh. He looked so calm. So, normal.

"Xehanort. Yeah," X agreed.

"And the white-haired girl?" Y asked her eyes going to the girl in question. She was hiding her smile behind her hand, eyes closed. Y didn't know who she was, but she was almost certain she had seen her before.

"Tayressa, or her someone anyway," X said.

"She, she was a keyblade wielder?" Y asked looking from the picture to her brother. It made sense. That would explain why she was familiar. But it seemed wrong. How could a wielder willing give up their heart? Unless it was such a strange circumstance like her own.

"Don't really know. She was here briefly while Terra and I were. She called them her friends," X said with a shrug. Y frowned looking back at the picture.

"Master Eraqus never really told us anything about his training. Only said he trained in Scala ad Caelum. I never knew there was anyone else," Y said. Of course, they had guessed there had been another. Master Xehanort, after all, had been a pupil with him. But they had never been told of those days.

"What a shame Eraqus never spoke of what once was."

The twins wheeled around, Y dropping the picture back where she had found it. She was surprised to see Tayressa standing behind them, her arms crossed. Her red eyes were watching them almost sadly. She leaned back against a bookshelf. "I always thought he was the more sentimental of us all. The one who held too tightly to the past."

"Don't talk about him that way!" Y snapped stepping forward, her fist clenched.

"I only speak the truth. He feared the past so greatly. He never taught his own pupils the truth of the darkness. Never told them a whisper of what the darkness was. Only that it was evil. He loved the light too greatly." Y watched her eyes move as she spoke, looking between the two twins as if they would understand certain parts of her words better than the other.

"If he was your friend how could you say that about him!?" Y asked, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She hadn't thought about her master in years. And thinking about him now, all she could think was he would be so disappointed in her. He wouldn't even acknowledge her as who she was. She would just be a monster now.

"I see he taught you well, little Light's Keeper. Do you too foolishly follow the light?" Tayressa asked, slowly pushing herself off the bookshelf and taking a few steps towards them. Y's fist clenched tighter.

"Light is the creator of darkness, you can't know one without the other. I might be a wielder of light, but that makes me a shelter for the darkness," she said. Tayressa laughed, her voice cold and empty.

"Perhaps he did teach you something," she said calmly.

"What about Xehanort?" 

The white-haired woman turned to look at X, her eyes narrowed. He stood calmly where he had been when she had arrived. He was calmly staring at her with his purple eyes narrowed.

"What of him?" Tayressa asked.

"You keep saying Eraqus was a fool. A blind follower of the light. What does that make Xehanort? Is he some righteous man with vision? The only one who saw the truth?" X asked. Tayressa smiled softly and looked down at the ground.

"No, he was just as much a fool. A boy obsessed with Fairytales. First obsessed with finding a way off his world, then with finding a power of fables," she said.

"Kingdom Hearts," X said. Tayressa nodded and looked back up.

"He was obsessed with it. He only desired it's power, for the sake of quelling his curiosity. Despite all warnings, he didn't care. He threw his life away to find a power no one could prove existed. Searched for one of those books as if he had no other choice," Tayressa said. Y frowned. Anger filled her words like she was finally speaking what she had always thought. Had Tayressa ever told anyone else this?

"Book?" Y asked, trying to keep her talking. Anything to understand Xehanort's motives. Anything to find out his next move.

"The book of prophecies. The place where it was first written," Tayressa said. Y's frown only deepened. She had heard of that before. Hadn't she?

"What was first written?" she asked.

"On that fated land a great war shall transpire," Tayressa began. Y was surprised when X was the one to finish for her.

"There darkness shall prevail and the light expire," he said softly. Y turned to glance at him. He knew those words, and, hadn't he said that to her before? No, he hadn't. But why, why did it sound so familiar?

"It never has really worked out that way has it? Light and darkness are always born to us together. Never alone," Tayressa said. Y gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I suspect you will learn in time. Sooner than you think," Tayressa said. Y was about to question her, but she was stopped by X stepping forward.

"You want Kingdom Hearts too," he said. Tayressa turned to look at him, her eyebrows raised in question. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she waited for X to explain. "If Xehanort is a fool then so are you. Or do you have some defense for yourself?" X asked, keeping his gaze even.

"No, I am a fool," Tayressa said softly looking to the side. "But what choice do I have? The worlds do not accept our kind. I want to correct what we did wrong. I want to allow them to return to who they once were."

Y frowned, feeling her chest tighten. She could understand that. After all, she couldn't imagine the idea of facing her friends as she was. She had never said it to X, but she was glad she had never found Aqua. How could she face her friends who thought no heart meant no feelings? How could she ever return to the normal life she had? Would they accept her as she was?

"And you're just letting Xemnas act on his own?" X asked.

"We have, what you would call, a backup plan. I hope not to use it if not necessary. It's a riskier version, of what has already been done," Tayressa replied. She was avoiding the question. Y suspected that meant she was just allowing Xemnas to act. But, a backup plan. That was a problem.

"Is there some guidebook with multiple ways to summon Kingdom Hearts that are circulating the worlds?" Y asked.

"No, but the Book of prophecies holds it's own stories. That, paired with a child who remembers the first war, one can find out near anything," Tayressa said calmly. She repressed a soft chuckle looking at Y as her face fell.

"Where can I get ahold of one of these books?" Y asked.

"Only one remains. The others were lost with their foretellers. But, I won't tell you where you might find this book. It's rather precious. An entire world on its own. Protecting a record of what led to the fall. Such knowledge shouldn't be carelessly given," Tayressa answered. X snickered shaking his head.

"So you suddenly don't want to talk. Funny, considering that's all you've done," he said. Y looked at Y, resting her hand on her hip.

"We could always make her talk," she suggested. X stared at her a moment before nodding.

"We could."

"Is that a challenge?" Tayressa asked.

"But of course," X said. With a flick of his wrists, his daggers appeared in his hands. Tayressa glanced over to Y. 

"Unless you want to just tell us what we want to know," Y said summoning her keyblade. Tayressa sighed looking down.

"Fighting against the apprentices of the boys I was once able to say I loved. I suppose though not my first choice, I shouldn't pass on the opportunity to test you," she said. Y frowned as she looked back up. In her hand, a black katana appeared in a beam of shadows. "Let us begin."

X was the first to move, in the blink of an eye, he was behind Tayressa. Without moving from her position she placed her katana behind her back to block his blows.

"A trick from Xehanort, I suppose," she said calmly. Y glared and shot forward herself. Once again it seemed Tayressa effortlessly blocked her. "And you're as straight forward as Eraqus." Y's glare deepened.

Between the two twins, they managed to land the first blow soon. But it seemed to Y she wasn't really trying to fight them. It was more her trying to block their hits and trip them up. She hadn't gone on the offensive. Before long they had cornered the woman, who still looked relatively unharmed. A small cut on her cheek showed blood, Y glanced nervously at X who had to look to the side.

"You two, they taught you well," Tayressa said calmly as she reached up to wipe away the blood. Her narrowed eyes landed on X and a smirk slowly spread across her lips.

"Tell us what you know," Y demanded, drawing attention away from her brother. Tayressa turned to her, keeping a smirk.

"I think not. Until we meet again, Keepers of the balance," she said. She bowed lowly as a dark corridor engulfed her. When the darkness vanished she was gone. 

"Oh come on!" Y complained banishing her keyblade. "What's the point of being more elite if they can just ignore us!?" She turned to X who only shrugged. He had always been the best at commanding other Heartless, she had seen him make many of the Organization members bow to his whims before.

"She shook us up first. The orders hold less power, easier to defy. Not to mention, she's pretty tough herself," X explained calmly. His head shook as he seemed to be pulling himself from his thoughts. He had grown paler, and Y hoped it didn't get any worse.

"Seriously?" Y asked.

"Two between me and her," X confirmed. Y frowned. She hadn't paid much attention to the hierarchy. It seemed to her it didn't matter. She knew Yuki was above her, and X was right below. But past that she didn't have the slightest clue how the order went.

"What do you think she meant?" Y asked looking back to where Tayressa had been. She had said plenty of strange things. But one thing stuck with her.

"Which part?" X asked.

"One who saw the war," Y said. She didn't know how long ago the war had happened. Thousands of years if the stories were true. Were the stories wrong? Had it happened not so long ago? And who had had the misfortune to see it?

"Not a clue. I thought everyone who had seen the war was dead," X said. Y nodded not really hearing him. Maybe it hadn't been so long ago. The wounds it caused still seemed so fresh.

"We should go. DiZ will be waiting," Y said, shaking her head from strange thoughts that made her head pulse.

"What are we going to tell him?" X asked.

"I'll figure that out later. Come on," Y said, opening a dark corridor. Though, she guessed her dark corridors weren't exactly dark. X had once compared them to mini lanes between. She thought that might have been more accurate. Who had she seen use them before? It was someone she knew. Someone she had really cared about.