Marluxia smiled wistfully to himself.

Yes, that might work!

He picked up a vial that was filled with shimmering silver liquid from up off his desk. It belonged to Vexen, but Marley didn't care. All he knew was that he'd found what the concoction could do; and it wasn't pretty. He flicked away the black orb that had at one time been a Dusk. After feeding it the contents of the bottle, the Dusk had quickly depleted to nothing but the small orb that now lay on the floor by his feet.

Marluxia wanted more than anything to carry out his plan that very second, but he would have to wait. After all, forcefully shoving a drink down Xemnas's throat wouldn't be that easy. No, he would have to be patient. Slipping the vial into his pocket, he turned to leave the room.

An aggravated Larxene let out a growl from somewhere in the room. "Marluxia, how long did that have to take? I've been sitting here for an hour at least!"

Marley gave her a sharp glance. "First of all, that only took approximately half of an hour. Second; you invited yourself to come in here. I never asked you to come."

Larxene scowled. "Alright, alright; but are you done now? Are we ready to finish this?"

He only sneered. This was going to be interesting. If their plan didn't work, things could be tragic for him and Larxene. He wasn't so sure about Axel, however. Axel had a tendency of worming his way out of trouble. As for Vexen, well… He honestly didn't care what happened to Vexen. Marley made a mental note to begin working on a plan B.

They briskly left Vexen's lab. Vexen had no idea they had been in there, but what he didn't know wouldn't kill him. There was a mandatory meeting scheduled in an hour, and Xemnas would hopefully indulge himself in his usual glass of champagne. All they had to do was slip the liquid from the vial into his drink and that would be the end of it. Marluxia controlled his urge to shine a flashlight under his chin and laugh evilly. Laughing evilly was a daily occurrence for him, however, so he wasn't surprised when a malevolent chuckle escaped his lips unwillingly.

Larxene gave him a bemused look. "What's so funny?"

Marley slapped his forehead in annoyance. "What do you think is so funny?" he snapped. "The plan, Larxene! The plan! What else would I be laughing at? Your shoe? Is that it? Because your shoe is so amusing!"

Fake tears welled up in Larxene's eyes. "Y-you don't have to be so rude about it!"

Marley rolled his eyes as he endured another one of Larxene's staged breakdowns.

Marluxia, with a sniveling Larxene at his side, set out to change the course of history.

Or at least, that's what he thought.

Xemnas sat in his designated chair at the head of the table. So much for early attendance… he thought to himself as he counted everyone in the room. They were still missing four people: Xigbar, Axel (no surprise there,) Demyx (none there either,) and Luxord.

It had been fifteen minutes since the meeting was originally scheduled to start. If those four didn't show up soon, they would have to start without them. Their post-operation meetings were necessary, and to miss it was unthinkable. Xemnas yawned and glanced down at the reports. Xigbar's was supposed to be on top, corresponding to the fact that he was Number II; but since he wasn't here, Xaldin's paper had taken his place. The neatly printed testimony stood out as one of the longer ones, but Xemnas had little interest in what it read.

When He looked up again, Luxord had already taken his seat. That was quiet, he thought, somewhat disturbed. As he watched, Xigbar and Axel both burst into the room, gasping for breath. As soon as they realized that the whole room was staring at them, both hurriedly took their seat.

It didn't seem likely that Demyx was going to show up at all. Xemnas figured they would just get started.

"Alright, now that most of us are here, let's continue on. I need a brief status report from all of you. Xigbar, you first."

Xigbar cleared his throat. "Err; well Sir, the western side of the city was clear of any heartless activity. As far as I could see, there wasn't any there."

"Good." Xemnas muttered. "Xaldin?"

"Superior, I have positively identified a definite layout of the area under examination. An accurate description of the world and its heartless population has been included in my report along with a scaled map."

I should probably look at that then. I'll get around to it eventually.

"Thank you, Number III." Xemnas abruptly remembered something. "Luxord, Xigbar, Axel, I need your reports." All three passed their papers foreword, and Xemnas couldn't help but scowl when he saw Axel's testimony. There was only one sentence written on it; 'Twilight Town has good ice cream.'

Xemnas glared at Axel who waved innocently. Fortunately, Xemnas knew better than to give Axel an important mission. He had been told only to supervise Demyx while he was there. Unfortunately, Demyx's report wouldn't be much better.

Damn my intuition…

"Alright," he sighed, "Vexen, what do you have to report?"

Vexen shifted in his seat. "Um, well, Sir, I uh, report, good news. Yeah, good stuff. Umm, yes."

Xemnas raised an eyebrow.

"Oh! Right, well, uh," Vexen rambled, "I, umm, discovered this thing. A new species of heartless! Yes. Um, Yeah. I tried drawing it on my report, but, uh, yeah. That didn't turn out so well."

"I'm scared to look." Xemnas said to himself uncertainly. He sighed. Xemnas could already feel the liquor craving taking over. Usually that only happened about halfway through the meetings, but he was especially anxious today. It had been a busy week, what with all the recent heartless activity. He had spent hours attempting to locate that Sora boy. Just the thought of that kid made him want to tear someone's limbs off. Not that he would…

Xemnas signaled to Saix, who instantly knew what he wanted and disappeared without a word. Being far too caught up in his own affairs, he failed to notice Marluxia's malicious grin.

"Alright then," he sighed. "Lexaeus, as eager as I am to hear your report, It isn't quite necessary at the time. If you would just give me a brief status report on your progress so far, that would be just dandy."

"Ha, dandy…" Axel sniggered from his seat.

Xemnas shot him an emotionless glare. "Silence, Number VIII."

Lexaeus cleared his throat impatiently. As soon as Xemnas nodded his head in the direction of the Silent Hero, Lexaeus continued.

"Well Superior, things at castle oblivion are going smoothly. We recently hired a helping hand to keep the ground floor clean."

"A helping hand?" Xemnas raised an eyebrow, suddenly skeptical of Lexaeus' statement. "Number XI, what were you thinking, hiring a helping hand? I told you there was to be no outside interference in the Organization."

Marluxia shrugged. "I hardly think a pig from the Hundred Acre Wood could cause much damage to our Organization, Superior."

"You hired Piglet?" Demyx teleported into view just as Xemnas opened his mouth in protest. "Piglet's a sweetiekins. But why'd you hire him to clean? He's a little small, don't you think?"

Xemnas scowled in annoyance. Where in the world was Saix… "Number IX, if you would be so kind as to take your seat, then we could move on."

Demyx pouted his lower lip, transforming suddenly into a pitiful being capable of nothing but guilt. "I'm so sorry Superior," he whispered, his voice quivering as if on the verge of a sob. "I forgot about the meeting. Will I be punished?"

Xemnas sighed. That face… It was unbearable to look at. He shielded his eyes and waved Demyx to his seat. "No Demyx, not this time."

Demyx's usually cheerful face returned as he danced toward his chair.

"Now, where were we?" The superior inhaled a deep breath, attempting to calm his nonexistent nerves. "Oh yes, the Piglet. Marluxia, I order you to dispose of the thing as soon as you return to Castle Oblivion. I don't care how, just do it."

Finally, after long minutes of waiting, Saix returned with the Superior's usual glass of Champagne.

"Superior, I apologize for the wait. The bottles had been… rearranged…" Saix said, casting a glare at Luxord who only shrugged.

From his seat, Marluxia grinned.

"Thank you, Saix. You may take your seat." Xemnas ignored Saix's murmurs of consent and quickly indulged himself in the drink. As annoyed as the Superior was to have this sort of addiction, it was the only thing keeping him from snapping during the meetings. He would never drink otherwise. Unfortunately for Xemnas, tonight's beverage would prove to be worse than fatal.

At least, in his opinion.

Marluxia shifted in his seat, the anticipation in his emotionless shell of a body almost too much to handle.

Almost.

He watched the "Superior" take one last swig of his drink before setting down the empty glass.

It won't be long now.

Holding his breath, Marluxia waited. And waited. And waited.

For a long moment, nothing happened. It seemed as if the whole Organization had realized that something was wrong. There was a stiff tension in the room as the fools waited for Xemnas to speak, but Marluxia knew he wouldn't get the chance.

And he was right.

The Superior let out a heavy cough and collapsed onto the floor and momentarily out of sight of the rest of the Organization. Saix, of course, was the first to stand and rush to his aid. Axel was next, but Marluxia had a sneaking suspicion that it was only to see what was occurring.

There was a sudden gasp from both of them, and then a frantic scrambling to the Superior's side. Marluxia pondered with a silent joy what was happening. He recalled the black orb that the dusk had produced and wondered what shape Xemnas would be. A Square, perhaps.

But he was in for a surprise. Saix managed to lift the Superior off the floor, but what they saw wasn't the same leader they all remembered. Alas, it wasn't a shape at all. Nor was it Xemnas.

Well, not exactly.

What had taken the Superior's place was none other than a child.

That wasn't supposed to happen.