Yuki descended the stairs onto the first floor. She had gone through all the other floors without a problem. Apparently living in the castle took away the need for the cards. Each floor looked identical. Pure white hallways with no way out except forward or behind. The halls looked endless like it would take years to transpire. But it only took hours for Yuki to reach the bottom. What had taken the intruders days was a simple task for the young Heartless.

Today Yuki had been assigned to search the lower floors for the Nobodies Zexion and Axel. With Marluxia being lost only days before, Zexion and Axel were the only Nobodies left. Axel had managed to escape the key-bearer and fled to the lower floors while Zexion had always been keeping watch over the lower twelve floors. For some reason though, both had remained silent if they were still alive. They showed very much distrust to the Heartless. Yuki couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with the rebellion Marluxia had spoken of. Were Axel and Zexion in on it and afraid of what the Heartless would do to them if they found out? Or were they afraid no one would believe them if they said they didn't have anything to do with it?

Yuki shook her head as she reached the middle of the first floor. It wasn't her concern what the Nobodies were doing. All she had to do was find Zexion and Axel and avoid contact with the intruders that remained. Nothing more.

The sound of voices caused Yuki to freeze. She looked back and forth for a place to hide. The barren hall gave no help besides the pillars that stuck out from the wall. Seeing no other option Yuki ran to hide behind the nearest pillar. She pressed herself up against the wall flipping her hood up to hide her dark hair. If she was lucky they wouldn't be paying attention and just think she was part of the wall. The sound of voices drew nearer slowly. Footsteps soon accompanied the voices.

"I think it is best we remove our hero from this castle. It is far more dangerous than it seems here." One of the voices said. It was obviously male but carried a thick accent. Easy to remember but hard to describe.

"Of course." A girls voice replied. Yuki could recognize her voice as the girl Marluxia had trapped with him. Naminé.

"There are others here beside the Nobodies aren't there?" A boys voice asked. His tone was harsh and demanding.

"That is unlikely. I would have sensed their presence by now." The man replied.

"Then explain the redhead." The boy challenged. Yuki narrowed her eyes looking at the ground. The redhead? Did he mean Axel? Or one of the red-haired Heartless?

"What redhead?" The man asked. The r in red rolled more than it should have when he spoke.

"Some red haired girl came and spoke to me. She claimed to be a Heartless." The boy replied. There was a short pause in the conversation.

"Naminé, are you aware of any other beings in this castle?" The man asked.

"Well, the Heartless were never supposed to come in contact with any of you. But they are here." Naminé said nervously.

"Heartless?" The man asked surprised. There was another pause.

"Yeah, you know, beast formed from darkness in hearts." Yuki straightened up a little out of shock. That was Aryum's voice. What was she doing here? Yuki heard the sound of a weapon being drawn and a slight bit of movement.

"You again." The boy said through clenched teeth.

"Yes me again," Aryum confirmed jovially. "Don't worry I'm not here to cause trouble. Just stopping by to say hello."

"What is your true purpose here creature of darkness?" The man asked. Aryum laughed.

"Just a bit of advice," Aryum explained sounding almost concerned. She sounded only halfway interested if the three before her survived or not. "If you want to keep your hero I suggest you leave quickly."

"Why? Do you threaten his life?" The man asked. Hostility was clear in his voice.

"Oh no. You see our leader values this place very much. It's her home in more ways than you know. And she really doesn't like anyone else being here. That's the reason our organization was stationed here, to keep an eye on the Nobodies." Aryum explained. Yuki heard footsteps telling her Aryum was pacing around them. "But anyway. If you stay here too long she may get angry. And then you'll have to deal with our trump card."

"What's this trump card?" The boy asked. Aryum laughed again.

"Someone not too different from yourself. He's got powerful darkness that one." She said. Yuki tilted her head to the side confused. X was the organization's trump card?

"You're Heartless. Don't you all have powerful darkness?" The boy asked, agitation creeping into his voice.

"In a way, but none like him. Trust me, he can be scary." Aryum replied. "You never bet against him. Well, not most the time anyway."

"We do not have time for this girls games. We have to leave." The man said. There was the sound of a dark corridor being summoned and footsteps that quickly vanished. It was silent for a moment afterward.

"Ok, Yuki it's safe for you to come out now." Aryum said. Yuki put her hood down and slowly moved away from the wall. The red-haired Heartless stood looking at Yuki with a smirk. She was tossing dice up into the air and catching them repeatedly.

"Thanks, Aryum." Yuki said.

"No problem. Sorry, I'm a bit late for work, had a wager with number eight I needed to finish." Aryum replied. Yuki nodded then looked at the ground thinking.

"Is X really our trump card?" Yuki asked. Aryum chuckled.

"Well, he's not the trump card but he is a trump card." She replied. She stopped tossing the dice and began to inspect them.

"Is he really that powerful?" Yuki asked confused. Aryum rolled her eyes.

"X is a special case. He had quite a bit of time on his own before joining us. Plenty of time to learn some dangerous tricks." Aryum answered. Yuki nodded though she still didn't understand. Aryum sighed. "You'll understand eventually kiddo." She walked over to Yuki and ruffled her hair. Yuki swatted at her hand annoyed.

"Don't call me kiddo, we're practically the same age." Yuki complained. Aryum shrugged and walked away from Yuki.

"But you must remember." Aryum chided. "Most Heartless show no signs of aging except for our amount of knowledge. You're probably the youngest elite." She said with a wave of her left hand. Yuki furrowed her brows together.

"Really? But what about Y?" Yuki asked. Aryum waved off the question as she began walking down the hall.

"Not important at the moment. We have Nobodies to find." She said. Yuki looked up and ran to catch up to Aryum.

"But I wanna know!" Yuki complained. Aryum just laughed ignoring her. "Aryum," Yuki complained.

"I can't tell you. It's not my place." Aryum said glancing over her shoulder at Yuki. She gave a quick smile at Yuki then continued to lead the way to the lower floors.

*<3*

The lower floors were empty. There was no sign of either of the Nobodies. The dark rooms held no clues to what had happened at all. Not a thing seemed out of place. But that was hard to judge without ever having been down there before.

"I'm willing to bet they both kicked the bucket." Aryum announced. She scanned through the files on the desk that had probably been used by Zexion. Yuki stood staring at nothing. Her mind raced with a thousand different thoughts.

"So they're gone? The intruders killed them?" Yuki asked slowly. For some reason, her stomach felt like it was tied into knots. It was making her feel uneasy.

"Yup, I would assume so." Aryum replied. She frowned still flipping through the files. She picked up a stack of papers and hid them behind the desk in a folder. She then turned to look at Yuki. She was surprised by the young Heartless' unresponsive look. None of this was registering with her. Aryum sighed. "Well, this is unfortunate."

Yuki glanced at Aryum. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well, with Organization 13 down in numbers we'll have to work more. That I'm pretty sure a few of our members had some important relation to one of the Nobodies who died." Aryum explained. Her lips were pursed together as she thought.

"What kind of relations?" Yuki asked. Her mind thought of what Marluxia had said to Larxene. When he mentioned her past.

"Well, Axel was Sykitune's little brother, I think. Zakey was friends with Larxene." Aryum listed off thinking.

"Larxene used to keep an eye on you." Yuki said remembering what Marluxia had said.

"And a terrible job she did." Aryum said with a laugh. "Well, no need to waste more time. Let's go tell the boss." She snapped to open a dark corridor. Yuki nodded not arguing. She wasn't paying attention really. She was still shocked. Axel was gone. All of the Nobodies were gone. Yuki couldn't help but wonder what Roxas thought about this news. Was his stomach in knots too?

*<3*

Yuki sat on top of the clock tower thinking. Her heels tapped against the wall as she kicked her legs absentmindedly. Though she was holding an ice cream she had barely eaten any of it. Her stomach still felt like it was tied in knots. It was beginning to be very uncomfortable.

On her right side, Y sat looking at her worriedly. Well, she looked worried. X sat on Y's other side. He looked lost in thought. Y sighed and looked down.

"You know, it's not really a bad thing." She said quietly.

"How is it not a bad thing?" Yuki asked. Her voice sounded bitter.

"Well, when someone's Heartless and Nobody are killed they can go back to being human. It's really just like getting your heart back." Y explained. She smiled at Yuki peacefully hoping to calm her nerves.

"Is that really true?" Yuki jumped and looked behind her. Roxas was standing by the corner of the building. He was resting his hand on the wall as he looked at Y curiously. Y opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by X.

"Honestly we don't know. It's never happened with one of the elites." He said. "But that's what the theory is." X looked down at the ground thinking. Roxas nodded slowly.

"Oh, ok." He said then sat down on Yuki's other side. He looked down at the ground silently. Yuki smiled at him softly.

"It's good to see you're awake now." She said trying to be optimistic. Roxas nodded.

"Yeah, I was up yesterday but you didn't show up. X and Y wouldn't tell me why though." He explained.

"Hey! It's not our fault no one would tell us what happened!" Y complained. Yuki laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah, it's no big deal. Just got a little beat up on a mission." Yuki said. Roxas looked at her unsure but nodded. "So where's Xion at?" Yuki asked changing the subject.

"I dunno. I haven't seen her." Roxas replied.

"Hm. That's a little strange." Y said thinking. She tapped her chin looking up at the sky. Roxas shrugged.

Yuki glanced over at X and Y remembering Aryum's words. If what she said was true they were hiding a lot. Yuki wanted to ask but at the same time wasn't sure. Maybe they would tell her later. Maybe it wasn't something they wanted the Nobodies to know. But it interested Yuki. What made X so dangerous? And how long had they been around? Yuki sighed and looked out at the setting sun. Those were questions for another time. It wasn't important at the time. All that was important was moving forward. And figuring out what was making her stomach twist into knots.

*<3*

Day 51- Gone,
Today I had to search the lower floors for the Nobodies. From the looks of things now they're all gone. For some reason, my stomach feels like it's tied into knots. I hope it fades.
Aryum mentioned some weird things about X and Y. I'm kinda curious but I don't want to ask too much.
Roxas is awake. He didn't look happy. Guess he heard about Axel being gone.