The Dark City

A glowing heart-shaped moon hung in the neverending night, and shined it's pale light upon the empty realm. Rain was falling down on the desolate and empty streets of the Dark City. Looking in the sky, one could see a giant white castle that seemed to be floating.

Lexi descended out of a corridor of darkness, dressed in a long black robe, gloves and knee-length boots with silver trimming and high concave indentations on the top.

She gazed into the hollow streets, watching the mist writhe through the thorns, creating shadows and creatures nightmares are made of where there was nothing. Silence hung thick on the air; not the peaceful, serene silence, but the silence of a tomb, or the aftermath of a battle, where death and darkness thrived and the living had no place.

She could hear the whispers of hate and fear that hissed through the fog, ghosts on the wind. She could hear them call her name.

Something in her recoiled, reluctant to set foot in the dark city. They were waiting for her, somewhere beyond the mist. Still watching.

Filled with forebording she couldn't explain, she drew back, then stopped, angry with herself. Why this sudden fear? Fear meant nothing to her. Fear was the knowledge of pain, the awareness that you could be hurt, that you could die.

She knew pain. Intimately. She'd welcomed it at times, because it meant she could still feel, that she wasn't completely heartless. What more could anything do to her body that she hadn't already lived through? She had lost her heart, hadn't she? And she had survived all these years with nothing but her instinct.

"Lexi," something whispered through the thick fog, raising the hair on the back of her neck. She whirled, but no one was there.

Stepping back once more, she drew her blade and stepped into the narrow street, feeling the mist coil around her as she stepped into the fog.

A gray shroud enveloped her instantly, lit by the flat, even glow that somehow managed to darken everything. Nothing moved in the moonlit streets; all life in this city had once been swallowed by darkness and discord, thick fog sprang up everywhere, chocking everything out.

The gravel beneath her feet was wet and solid, through the writhing layer of smoke made it impossible to see what she was stepping on.

As she weaved through the streets, her blade held up and ready, she began to sense the wrongness of the city, right below her feet. The ground pulsed with hate and blood and despair; she could feel it, the emptiness of this place.

She could feel her nobody nature rise up in response, cold, ruthless and angry. And, for that moment, she wanted to kill Xemnas for taking everything important away from her. She wanted to take her blade and plunge it deep into his chest, to watch the light fade from his eyes right before crumpling to her feet.

Turning away, she struggled to compose herself, to stifle the cold rage ebbing through her. The darkness inside her was stirring, unwilling to hold back any longer, and the core of rage, like a spearhead, was directed at the Organization.

"Lexi," the voice whispered her name again, and she looked up.

She could see the bright neon signs of Memory's Skyscraper glowing in the far distance. She could see hordes of endless heartless and nobodies coming torwards her.

Several yards away, barley visable through the mist, a ghostly glowing figure walked through the space between the lamplights, catching her eye and then vanishing from sight. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Xemnas? Is that you?" She stepped forward, weapon drawn. "Come out and fight me like a man!"

Ignoring the voice of reason, forgetting everything that had brought her here, she followed the figure into the mist. Voices taunted at her through the skyscrapers, faint and incomprehensible, through every so often she heard them whisper her name.

"Lexi," One voice taunted. "Lexi," Another whispered.

She caught glimses of lone figures dressed in the same black robe as she, always walking away from her, just out of reach.

She then charged into the open road, eyes burning with tears, as said tears streamed alongside her as she ran.

Those tears fell onto the pathway of light, which were mixed with the raindrops falling from the heavy rainstorm falling above. The teardrops themselves were swept away by the rain, and she got herself ready for what she believed was her final battle.

She started to shake. Not with fear, but with complete, all-consuming fury, and burned her throat like bile. She knew this place. She reconized where she was at last. It was here, on this spot, where she was born, and where Xemnas must die. This is where Xemnas summoned her somebody, a castaway from a world far, far away and tore her heart out.

This was the place, a nonexistent world rejected by both light and darkness, where she was created from the remenants of a living human being with real hopes, and dreams.

This was the place where she was given her name. It had all started right here.

It would end here, as well.

"Lexi, Number Xlll," Footsteps splashed behind her, and a cloaked figure came into the clearing, clapping faintly. "The Organizations first and only traitor."

The cloaked figure drew it's hood back, revealing a beautiful tan face, and gold crescent eyes. He glowed faintly, as if hot coals burned inside of him. His collar-length hair shimmered like strands of silver that would slice her skin if Lexi were to slide her fingers through it...not that she would. He was the enemy.

He moved as if he were in charge of everyone and everything, seeming taller for it. His hair was styled in a layered, messy look, with a spike on top of his head, silver bangs falling over his eyes. His eyes, even across the distance, blazed pure gold.

"Tell me, Xemnas." She asked softly, not turning around. "Who am I?"

"Why nobody, of course." He was smiling at her, that same old, empty smirk that showed the madness behind it, but otherwise their movements were the same, practically identical.

"Your wrong!" She gripped her weapon and spun slowly to face him, feeling anger and rage pulsing through her like a rush of ink. The darkness was fully awake now, the icy barrior that had held it at bay, shattered.

Meeting his eyes, she sprang forward.

"Number Xlll, " Xemnas said, sidestepping her, his face never betraying his calm demeanor. And in a flash of bright light summoned his weapons. When the light faded to darkness, his gloved hands gripped two glowing lightsabers, but his eyes were empty and cruel, his face without emotion. "Have you come here to die?"

"I plan on living for a long time." She advanced steadily, calmly, the blade heavy in hand. "It's you who should be worried."

"Bold words for a puppet." The superior said, in a voice of quicksilver. "You are foolish indeed to come here. You let the darkness in your hollow soul guide you to enternal doom. The darkness pulls you by your strings, and vanquishes all form of common sense."

"The darkness doesn't control me, I control it."

"How interesting; the puppet has managed to grow a heart." He said, with a cold, emotionless smile.

"I am not your puppet! I will never bow down to you again!"

"You were always so difficult." He said, raising cold, dead eyes to her. "But unfortunately I cannot stay to hear this touching speech...The Organization sends it's greetings." With a snap of his fingers, he summoned the deadliest of Organization Xlll.

Behind him, hooded figures descended out of corridors of darkness, and laughed in union. They taunted and mocked her, only infrutrating her more. Some drew there hoods back, while others did not.

She recognized Rank ll's eyepatch, troll-face and slicked black poil-tail and had to stifle the urge to step back and draw her sword.

His head gazed over Xemnas shoulder, lips pulled into a vicious grin that was almost animalistic, teeth gleaming in the lowlight. His eyes narrowed gleefully, but it was the kind of mad glee that sent shivers through you, the type of glee that found humor in drowned kittens and poisoned cattle.

Xigbar smiled at her from the dark passage, arms crossed to his chest, a demonic grin on his face. She spared a glance at Xemnas, and saw him backing away, into the mist, with a smile still etched on his face.

"This is so like you!" She shouted into the endless night, stifling an attempt to follow. "Run like a coward, and watch the others do the dirty work for you!"

Number ll waved cheerfully...and stepped out of the portal.

"Where do you think you're going?" Xigbar smiled, drawing his own weapons as he faced the startled Lexi. "The party's just getting started."

Movement rippled behind her. She spun, throwing herself to the side as one of Xaldin's spears exploded from another corridor of darkness, and lunged at her.

She could hear their voices calling her name, clearer now and heard the snap of Xaldin's spear clashing onto the pavement, inches from her head. Backing away, she drew her blade, and slipped into the coiling mist.

A feeling of dread overcame her, then. This wasn't what she had in mind when Xemna's agreed to engage her in battle. He had lured her out here, intending to ambush her from the very beginning. How could she have been so reckless?

This wasn't a fair fight. How could she, the youngest of the 13, take on the entire Organization Xlll? They were stronger, bigger and more experienced than her. And they knew it.

Rose petals swirled in the soft breeze, making her blond tendrils lift and settle delicately around her shoulders. Transfixed by the beauty of it, she plucked a cherry blossom from the wind and watched it disintegrate to darkness in her palm.

"Number Xlll," The breeze whispered, startling her. "The light shines within you. I've seen it, glowing faintly in the distance. So close, but yet so far out of reach."

A tall, elegant figure appeared out of the mist. The cloaked figure drew it's hood back, revealing a majestic face, brooding blue eyes and pale pink lips. Rose petals bloomed from his hood, and dropped at his feet. His hair fell gracefully over his shoulders, delicate rose pink, and ended in masterful ruffles.

Marluxia stepped forward, and she raised her blade. Rose petals swirled around them in the warm breeze.

He spoke again, his masterful voice sending cold shivers up Lexi's spine:

"Breath into me, and make me breath. Bring me into the light. Look at what I have become. I reside in nothingness. I am empty, like a hollowed tree. But not you. Never you. I knew you were special from the beginning. Teach me the secrets of immortality, and I shall repay you by sparing your life."

"I-I don't understand." Lexi stammered, lowering her weapon.

He stood in place, rose petals sprouting from his hood. "Your aura. It's not from this realm. It's other-worldly. A world so far away it cannot be touched, it cannot be reached by darkness. It exists apart, in peace and prosperity, without magic or mayhem, without darkness or light. It simply is."

His pretty face hid ugly motives. "Obey me, and you shall live. Defy me, and you shall die. Choose wisely, for to lose is to win and win is to lose."

Lexi lowered her eyes, but raised her weapon in a readied battle stance. "I can't tell you what I don't know."

"I see," He said calmly, his face twisting into a mask of bitter hate, and summoned his weapon out of thin air. "Prepare yourself! For you shall drown in the heart-torn world of nothingness! I shall scatter your heart in the empty winds!"