"Where are we supposed to find this person?"
Axel looked to the forgetful blonde after asking the question, knowing full well that Demyx was useless when it came to remembering things, as the ditzy youngster scratched his head, evidently trying to remember the location of the new member that was to join the enigmatic Organization, Axel rolled his eyes and turned to the other blonde youngster with him;
"D'you remember?"
Roxas nodded his head, grinning slightly as Demyx pulled a cue card from his back pocket.
"Hollow Bastion………"
"That's the place!"
The fiery haired youth just shook his head, and grinned; Demyx could be rather blonde at times…and dense, but he always proved to be great entertainment!
"I reckon you left half your brains in yesterday…"
"Tell ya a better one Axel………I know I did!"
"Cid, Yuffie said to drop these off………and Merlin said to stop messin with that thing…"
The blonde, foul-mouthed pilot turned as a teenager walked through the door of Merlin's house carrying a box of computer chips;
"Leave 'em down dere Mai…and tell Merlin ta mind his own goddamn business!"
"Do I look like a feckin messenger to you? Go tell him yourself!"
Cid grinned as the youngster placed the box on the table he had pointed to, she was a mystery in herself, having no recollection of who her parents were or where she had originally come from, Mai had shown up in Hollow Bastion just after Organization XIII's downfall, and had been there since, she seemed to have fitted in perfectly, as well as learning an extensive vocabulary; compliments of Cid Highwind of course!
"I'm goin for a walk to Leon's if anyone's looking for me."
"No problems girl, and if ya see's Cloud tell 'im Tifa's looking for 'im…"
"Will do…Shera's looking for you, something about fixing a gummi ship you were meant to fix about a week ago…"
Mai walked out the door of the small cottage with a grin on her face, Cid could still be heard cursing within! She was seventeen years old, with long silverish-gray hair that cascaded down to her hips, golden eyes that seemed to have a reddish sheen to them and tanned skin; Mai was an attractive teen by any standards.
As she turned the corner at the top of the steps to the bailey, Mai walked full force into someone and stumbled backwards, both with surprise and with the force of the impact, but before she had a chance to tumble back down the large flight of stone steps, a hand caught her around the wrist and pulled her away from the edge,
"Sorry about that, wasn't lookin'!"
"Hey, don't worry about it, accidents happen…"
Mai looked to the person she had collided with; he looked to be about the same age as herself and had spiky, sandy-brown hair, aswell as vivid blue eyes. With him stood another young man, this one; with longish silver hair, cut in a layered and slightly spiky fashion, aswell as green eyes, and two teenage girls; one with medium length blonde hair and the other with medium length dark red hair, both girls appeared to be extremely similar in looks. As they lapsed into a silence, Mai took the initiative to talk;
"I'm Mai, are you guys lookin for someone in particular?"
The youngster she had bumped into was the one to answer her question and list their own names;
"Yeah, we're looking for Leon, by the way; I'm Sora, this is Riku, Kairi and Namine, you don't know where he is, do you?"
At this Mai actually grinned, she'd heard many tales of the two young men, the two had been the ones to cause the downfall of the both; revered and feared "Organization XIII", and as far as she knew; Kairi was originally from Hollow Bastion, or, by it's old name; Radiant Garden, and was a Princess of Heart, but one thing confused her; wasn't Namine Kairi's Nobody…or something along those lines? But it looked as if questions would have to wait until later,
"Yeah, I'm headin over there now if you want to follow, I think I fancy annoyin him for a while, not sure yet…"
Sora grinned as the teenager pretended to consider this option for a minute or so, but something bugged him about her; why did she look so familiar? Where had he seen that silver head of hair and those golden eyes before?
As they walked towards Ansem the Wise's old lab, Riku looked to Mai, she seemed familiar to him too, but he just put it down to déjà vu, or something to that effect…
"So…how long have you been here Mai?"
"Eh…about two years, I arrived shortly after you guys beat the Organization…"
Riku nodded, still intrigued about the girl;
"Where you originally from, so?"
At this Mai actually laughed, she'd asked herself that question on many occasions over the two years as it was…
"I'd tell you if I knew Riku, but all I can remember is waking up in Merlin's house two years ago and being told that Cloud had found me just outside the crystal fissure, other than that; it's a blank, with a capitol "B"…Oh Leon………"
Leon smiled as he recognised the sing-song voice wafting through the open door of Ansem's old lab,
"Yes, Mai…what's wrong with you?"
"What's fuckin right with me!"
"Very little…and stop cursing, I've enough with Cid doing it as well as you!"
"Ah, bite me………oh yeah, you've visitors…two of which have keyblades…"
Leon looked up from the computer at which he was working, to see a pleasantly familiar face, Sora. He smiled, despite, a nagging feeling, if the warriors of the Keyblade were back, then there was something up………Sora saw the hesitant look in his old friend's eyes, and jumped to the point;
"Destiny Island was attacked by Heartless…and Nobodies, if the Nobodies are back, then there's something seriously up,"
"You think the Organization is back?"
Sora nodded in reply;
"Another reason that's likely is this; meet Namine………"
Mai finished his sentence without even thinking;
"Kairi's Nobody…"
Both Riku and Sora turned to face the teenager, no one, but themselves knew of Namine…and Roxas………Sora stared at her confused;
"How did you know that?"
"I…"
Mai thought for a minute or so, only to come to the conclusion that she had no idea of how she'd known of the blonde girl, it had just been in her head…"
"…have no idea………"
Riku let the matter lie and turned back to Leon;
"Can you get in touch with King Mickey?"
"Mmm…it'll be a few days or a week before he can get here, you guys are welcome to stay in the mean time, I'm sure Mai'd be happy to have some people her own age around…"
"Awww, you sound all daddy-like and protective Leon…"
"Can't you even act serious Mai?"
"Serious! This is me acting serious, can't you tell?"
"There's something else, how I'm sure the Organization are back…"
All heads turned towards the blonde girl as she spoke;
"Roxas went back to The World That Never Was…"
Leon looked at Sora with a questioning glare, the young man honestly had no idea who "Roxas" was, Sora grinned as he noticed this and answered the obvious oncoming question,
"He's my Nobody…"
"You sure as hell know how to confuse a girl anyhow!!"
Mai looked from Sora to Leon, who grinned widely as the hyperactive teen continued;
"Is this the new fashion…having a Nobody-"
The rest of her jeer was cut short by a strange sensation; it felt like a sort of tingling…Mai got to her feet just as a voice echoed through the very air of Hollow Bastion itself…
"Come out, come out, wherever you are…"
By the time the group of six made their way to bailey, three cloaked figures could be seen standing on top of it, each one with their weapon, or weapons drawn in preparation of a fight as a small group had accumulated below, consisting of; Tifa, Cloud, Cid, and Yuffie. (In case any of you lot are wondering, this is a crossover between KHII and FFVII, so there's no Aerith in it coz she's dead and it's after Advent Children, so I made Cloud and Tifa "involved", there'll be a lot more FFVII characters showing up in this than in the game, k?)
"What do you want?"
Axel grinned at Cloud's question as he lowered his hood; the other two did the same.
"Awww, you don't sound happy to see us…"
The fiery haired youth pretended to be hurt by the ex-SOLDIER's comment. Cloud on the other hand was severely confused as he stared at the youngster;
"Reno…what the hell are you doing here?!"
Axel's grin disappeared from his face at lightning speed upon hearing the familiar name, even though it had been years upon years since he'd seen the owner of it,
"Not me, but near enough; he's my brother…"
Demyx stood straight, as did Roxas as they both stared at Axel, shock evident on their faces as they spoke in unison;
"You've a brother?!"
"Yep, I'm originally from Midgar…a slums kid!"
"I thought y'all were gone?"
Demyx stood next to the still, slightly, confused Axel, and grinnned widely down at Cid;
"Are you not happy to see us? I'm hurt by that I am!"
"Give it a rest, you don't have a heart to hurt dipshit!"
Demyx turned, as the female voice echoed from behind them, but his retort seemed to die in his throat as he spotted the owner of the voice; Mai,
"Hey, Roxas, who does she look like to you?"
Roxas didn't even bother to look around as Demyx continued his paranoid staring at Mai;
"I know that Namine looks like Kairi, you idiot! And would you two ever pay attention, we were sent here to get someone…and I don't fancy being on the receiving end of Xemnas's temper again, I'm still hurting from last time…"
At this Roxas clutched the left side of his chest, evidently in pain. He'd paid for his deserting of the Organization, many times over at this stage with both his blood and his bruises. It seemed that Xemnas didn't believe in just one punishment, whenever the Superior got, somewhat, pissed off; it always seemed to be Roxas who took the brunt of it…
"I'm not on about your ex, you moron! LOOK!"
Both Axel and Roxas turned in unison, both prepared to let shout at the blonde, but both stopped dead in their tracks upon seeing the girl Demyx was pointing at; Mai.
"Someone fancy tellin me what I did?"
Mai looked hopefully to the other five, all of which shrugged their shoulders, completely and honestly at a loss, as the three-cloaked youths continued to talk among themselves, Axel looked to his comrades, a small smile playing on his lips;
"If he's her Dad…then who's her Mam?"
Roxas grinned all the wider as he gave a clue;
"How many women are in the Organization?"
Demyx shuddered as he thought of this, then turned his attention back to the present matter;
"Who's gonna call back up? You heard the orders; if the Keyblade's chosen one shows up were to call in the rest…"
Both Roxas and Demyx looked to Axel, the fiery-haired youth shrugged;
"Fine………hey Cloud, if you see Reno, tell him Alex said well!"
"Alex?"
"Yes Roxas, that's my true name…fuck, you're all rather blonde today!"
Axel shook his head and summoned a dusk;
"Find the Superior."
The dusk then disappeared, evidently carrying the message back to the Organization's stronghold. Within minutes, ten additional cloaked figures appeared.
"Where is she?"
Roxas pointed towards the teenage girl as Xemnas spoke; The Superior surveyed the youngster from beneath his black hood, as did Larxene, it was odd, there she stood and neither of the two felt any emotion towards her………
"We all just gonna stand here or what? Coz if so, I've better things to be doin!"
Xemnas simply smirked and lowered his hood as Mai spoke, Larxene did the same with hers and stepped forward so as she was now situated alongside the Organization's leader, then Xemnas spoke, in a, somewhat, smug tone;
"You would fight us…your own parents?"