Debut <open>

Lea walked through the white halls of the castle. He looked with disgust upon the black and white floor tiles, the white walls that seemed to GLOW. To put it bluntly, it was gross. Where was the color? The creativity? Whoever the delusional bastard was that designed this place needed some serious help. Sighing he wandered about. The heartless he had sent out were taking longer to find the minute bomb than he thought they would. Hell, this world was full of the things, what on earth was taking them so long?

He looked to the ground as he walked, puzzled by these events. He wandered about, no longer paying attention to where he was going, the black and white tiles blending into gray in his vision as his mind delved deeper into the thought. He no longer paid attention to how long he'd walked or how far. Only a sigh was produced from the vacancy that had taken him.

What was taking those heartless so long? Had the minute bombs moved to another world? Had someone killed all the heartless he'd sent? And what of the heartless that he'd sent to find the worlds heart? What had happened to them? Had they been exterminated? Thinking about it he finally came to the conclusion that the only being capable of killing ALL of those heartless was a keyblader. Or one worthy of the term. A nobody possibly, and certainly a member of the Organization. However, what were the odds of one of the thirteen nobodies coming here?

Not all that likely he finally resigned himself to the fact that they were just taking a while, or probably screwing around. Either way, Lea was starting to get pissed. If he saw one of those heartless screwing around he'd-

“Thieves of heart.”

Lea blinked and his vision melded back to normality. Looking around he realized he was in an open hall. To his left there was no wall; only pillars that, like everything else, seemed to glow. Walking over inbetween two pillars he placed his hands on the guard rail and looked down into the garden. At first, he saw nothing of any interest to him until a young girl rounded a corner in the garden, running.

Thief of heart. he thought, a growl in his head. Opening his palm he gathered energy into it. He felt his hand perspire as the thermal energy built up, then unleashed itself into a flame the shape of a knife. He watched as the young girl tripped on the uneven ground and watched as the black puddle built up into the form of a shadow heartless, one of the exact ones he'd sent out to hunt for the minute bomb. His eyes narrowed.

As she kicked the heartless Lea took his aim. The heartless flew back and landed, only to get up again. Lea threw the knife shaped flame at the weak heartless. His aim was spot on. It sliced through the heartless which disappeared into a puff of shadow. The knife lost it's form as it hit the ground and dispersed into nothing, leaving a charred mark in the grass where it had landed. Stupid heartless, going after a pitiful girl rather than completing the task charged to him.

With a sigh, he looked to the girl. Well, this was certainly unexpected. Maybe if this had been a few months prior, he might have been interested. However, this was the present and not the past. He had no such interest now. If she stayed out of his way, he didn't give a fuck, if she could be used... well then things may get interesting.

“ OHHH! You must be the castle guard! That’s why you saved me”

Well... Lea was thinking more along the lines of Janitor, but guard made a lot more sense. He nodded quickly changing the approach to the woman. A bit of the story he'd quickly made up had to of been changed. Instead of a desperate janitor, he was a desperate guard. He'd heard her yell "thief of heart" and came to her aid while looking for the keys. Yes, this would work quite well to his favor.

“ I’m sorry, for a moment I thought you had evil intentions but someone that saved another’s life cant be evil right?”

He nodded in agreement to her statement before his red eyes shifted to the left slightly. There a shadow laid in awaited ambush. He raised his hand and brushed a few locks of hair out from his eyes, revealing the fiery red irises. The movement was more of a command then anything. The shadow took the command and, reluctantly, went off to carry out the orders previously spoken.

“Show me the door, ill get it open one way or the other, it’s a good job I packed lots of shards with me for just such an occasion eh?”

"One can never be to careful anymore." he nodded in reply. "All these damned heartless roaming about you never know what'll happen." Of course, he was talking of himself and the others of the Dark XII and all the others of his kind, but whatever. Anything to complete this mission. It was a simple one too, find the keyhole and the minute bomb heartless and there you go! Easy-peezy, the only real challenge was finding the keyhole, and she'd just gave him a chance to make that three times as easy as it would have been. He hid a smirk as he thought, then the girls voice awoke him from his thought.

“Here, you’re the guard, you might need this”

This... might be bad. If he didn't accept the potion, he may insult her. However, if he did and it was a test then she may conclude the fact that he wasn't a guard, since a guard logically would've had plenty of potions. He decided insulting her was better than his lie being caught and waved his hand.

"It's fine. I have plenty of potions of my own, thank you. Besides, you may have need of it yourself." he said in a tone that hinted at compassion. Now, he just had to figure out where someone would place a keyhole in this world. The throne room seemed like a proper place. Luckily, Lea knew exactly where it was too.

“Ok, so, which door you want opening?

Suppressing a smirk, Lea turned and started to walk in the throne rooms direction. He waved his hand over his shoulder and yelled over his shoulder "Come on, it's this way!" He continued to walk, his red hair billowing out behind him in the slight breeze. Yes, if things went according to plan, this would be a good day for him. He felt almost sad as he knew he'd have to get rid of this girl after his use for her was done.

“Sooo… What’s your name then?”

"My name? Lea." he said matter-of-factly. It was truth. He'd had enough expirance in lying to know that, usually, when you lied about your name you ended up sticking your foot in your mouth at one time or another. That's how lies worked. You had to keep them straight, and if you didn't you were screwed. A name was so automatic that it became instinct after a while, responding to it and such. He walked along, the grass being crushed under his feet as he walked along the soft turf. His hair bounced with his steps the sunlight giving it a sheen as it rippled and waved as the slight breeze blew.

“ So how did you become the guard of this place?”

...

.....

Fuck. That was his first thought. That was the ONLY thing he hadn't anticipated. How had he became a guard? Good question, and he didn't have a good answer. He had to think this through. How would someone become a guard of a castle filled with fucking mice? A very interesting question indeed, one Lea intended to learn for himself one day. It could pay off in the future. Mulling it over for a moment, he finally came up with a believable story. Or one he had hoped was believable.

"Well... when I was a kid, my world was taken by heartless." he said walking around a turn, flanked to his right by a giant hedged shaped like some kind of animal playing an instrument. He spotted the door at the end of the path. "I woke up here and lived out my life here. A while back there was this infestation of heartless, and I was one of the people who fought them back. After that, I decided to become a guard. Protect my home you know?" Finished he approached and opened it for her. He hoped it was a believable lie, if not then he would be totally screwed. As far as this girl went. He looked to her and watched, waiting to see if she had believed him or saw through the sham.

“I like lea, it’s a cool name”

Lea had to admit, it was a better name than most of the heartless of the dark XII were cursed with. Names such as Ienzo, Elaeus and so on. It was spelled weird for the way it sounded. Sounding like "Lee" and being spelled like "Lea" was a bit strange to say the least. He didn't mind though. It was just a name, a thing. What did it matter to him?

“Your world was taken too? That’s so sad, mine did, I only escaped because I was told to go find a way to seal the heart to our world… If I could do that then I could open and close them at will”

Lea blinked. This was a VERY interesting girl indeed. Open and close the heart of the worlds at will? Very interesting. Xehanort may have use for her, thus he may have use for her as well. He thought for a moment. Get rid of her, or take her prisoner? In the World that Never Was her heart would probably be swallowed fairly quickly. The more he thought about it, the better it seemed.

“ But before I could do much else the world crumbled away before my eyes, my safe inside a gummi ship.”

Okay, so some manipulation had to be involved. That would be fairly easy. Hell, already the gears were working in his favor. Unlock the power, get her to The World that Never Was, and there you go. The Dark XII has a new weapon. He hid a smirk as the finer points came along soon enough. He threw away his previous plans to do away with the girl, instead attempted a link with her. He would need her trust.

“ Sorry about him… I found him and he hasn’t left me alone since.”

Lea blinked, and looked around. There was no one that he could see. A stalker hidden away somewhere? If so, why the hell was she apologizing? He decided not to pursue the issue. He only shrugged not feeling the poking he was receiving from this invisible visitor. He walked on, in unawares.

“So, any idea where your keys might be? You do know… I could probably not just open the door, but create you a new key?”

He nearly burst out in laughter. Good thing Lea knew how to bottle up his emotions. This was just TOO perfect!! Now she was offering him an all time pass to the door! Wonderful! He had to let his hair fall in front of his face to hide a three second smirk before he swished the red carpet out of his face, once again revealing his red eyes to the world once again.

"Really?! Oh, that'd be great!" he said rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish and slightly apologetic smile "The thing is I have no idea where I put the keys in there. I think they're in the throne room, but I'm not sure." he said. This, was just to great. He held back a laugh as he continued down the hallway, the door to the throne room visible to him.

“ I wonder how heartless can even get here? I thought that a castle this big would have had some kind of defence system. On our planet we had the paladins, people that could bend light itself, very effective.”

Bend light? Also interesting, but Lea focused on the heart of the worlds.

“ Never been any good at it”

He apparently couldn't do anything with the bending of the light anyway, so he ignored that and focused on what lie in front of them. The throne room.

"There it is." he said pointing to the large door. It was high as the ceiling of this place. He walked toward it, looking to it with an eagerness in his eyes, a certain anxiety. Finally, the dark XII could see him for what he was. If the keyhole were here. If only it were here.