She stood shakily, leaning against the wall of a massive skyscraper for support as the rain pelted down relentlessly, soaking through her clothing in an instant. Staring into the dark window of the building was a young girl with layered tresses of grey-blue hair that came down to her shoulders accompanied by a set of dark amethyst eyes and small pink lips. Her outfit consisted of a ruffled skirt in purple and pink layers and a corset-like shirt colored black with purple lace. Her appearance was of little importance to her, what she really wanted to know was her name. She couldn't remember.
In fact, she couldn't remember anything from before this moment. How had she arrived in this dark city? Who was she? Did she have a family—were they looking for her? So many questions jumped around in her head, she was unsure where to even begin looking for answers.
The sky above was dark and ominous, lit occasionally by a flash of lightning accompanied by a clap of thunder. The city was illuminated by various neon signs but from what she could see there seemed to be no sign of life indicating that another soul inhabited this strange place other than herself. She was completely alone.
Or so she thought.
Suddenly the image reflected on the window of the skyscraper became distorted, when it cleared there was a tall, hooded figure standing beside her. She couldn't make out any distinguishing features but was almost certain that the being was male from his height and broad shoulders though his face was hidden.
She wasn't sure whether she should have felt fear towards this newcomer, the teen turned around to face him.
For a moment he was silent and she almost thought that he wasn't going to say anything at all and instead just stare at her awkwardly until she walked away. But then his gloved fingers rose from his side, grasping the fabric of his hood and throwing it back to reveal a tan angular face, a shock of silver hair, and a piercing golden gaze. He was strange and intimidating all at once.
"You seek purpose, dear child, do you not?" His voice was deep, commanding, and held an air of superiority.
The teen wasn't sure what she was looking for, maybe she did need a purpose in life, she sure as hell didn't know. Her amethyst gaze met his unwavering golden stare, "I guess so."
Though her answer was laced with uncertainty that was all the stranger needed to hear.
A chilling smirk tugged at the corners of his lips, "I am Xemnas and I am here to offer you a position in my Organization that will not only give you a sense of purpose but comradery as well."
She picked up on the vagueness of his explanation, noting that he failed to mention what being a part of this 'organization' entailed. She wasn't convinced and that must have been portrayed in the skeptical look painted on her face.
"You wish to know more." It was a statement, to which she nodded her head, "We are a group of like minded individuals who are working towards a common goal of becoming whole again by gaining back the hearts that we lost."
Now she was lost.
"Lost hearts?" She repeated, confused.
Xemnas chuckled, "You and I are beings known commonly as Nobodies. We are the husks of a human who fell to darkness. Organization XIII's goal is to complete Kingdom Hearts, which is a powerful entity that will grant us all hearts so that we may become human once more."
His explanation certainly seemed a little eccentric and she was about to thank him for his time and turn him down gently when the words he spoke next caught her attention.
"Do you remember your name?"
Her amethyst eyes widened.
"I thought not."
Before her several letters appeared midair, Ak-, they began to swirl around quickly before she had the chance to read what they had said. An 'x' dropped down from the sky and intertwined with the pre-existing letters to form a new name.
"Ki…axi?"
Whether this was her true name or not she really didn't know, it was rather frustrating not being able to recall a single detail about her life before this moment in time.
"Will you accept my proposal?" His eyes bore into her expectantly.
Kiaxi realized that she didn't really have anything to lose, at least this way she would have a place to stay until she figured out what had happened to her, so she nodded her head, "Yeah, why not."
"Excellent." His lips pulled back into a smug grin as he lifted his right arm from his side and held it out in front of him.
Suddenly a swirling portal of darkness appeared before the two, "After you."
She frowned, staring at the dark gateway with slight trepidation and momentarily wondering if it was even safe. Kiaxi glanced over her shoulder at Xemnas who seemed to look a little impatient waiting for her, so she quickly shuffled inside and stared in awe at the myriad of colors churning in the darkness around her.
She was so caught up in her wonderment over the swirling colors around her that she almost didn't notice Xemnas brush past her and it took her a few moments to catch up to him and his long strides. It wasn't a long journey, which she was thankful for because this walk through the darkness with Xemnas was awkward enough. Soon, the duo arrived at their destination and stepped out into a bright, white hallway.
The young Nobody stared in awe at her surroundings before casting a somewhat amused glance in Xemnas' direction. This place was too clean and sterile to be this dark man's hideout, she was almost expecting him to turn around and say 'just kidding, let's go to my real lair' but he didn't.
They paused in front of a large closed door, Xemnas cast a glance over his shoulder at her, "I will go in first, you will follow after shortly." With that he disappeared into another portal of darkness, leaving her standing alone in front of the tall ivory door wondering what she had gotten herself into. Did she make a mistake in accepting the strange man's offer?
She wasn't sure how long she was expected to wait outside of the door, was he going to give her some sort of sign to signal her to come in or was she supposed to just enter? He had told her to follow after him though, had she waited long enough? Kiaxi made up her mind, raising her hand to grasp the chilled handle of the door before her and pushing it open.
The room she stepped into was equally as white and sterile looking as the hallway had been, it was a circular room with thirteen high-rise seats all situated around the room at various heights, each one of them occupied by a cloaked being. In the center of the circle, seated in the tallest chair, was Xemnas himself staring down at her with a smirk, making her shrink back a little.
"Who's the chick?" Her head swiveled to find the owner of the voice, the man looked a little older than most of the beings sitting around her. His hair was salt and peppered, tied back in a ponytail, a black eyepatch covering his right eye caught her attention before her gaze drifted to the long, jagged scar on his left cheek. He was leaning forward in her seat, staring down at her with an almost predatory grin and she realized that the majority of the Organization members around her had similar looked plastered on their faces.
"Our newest Organization member, Number XIV, Kiaxi."
This revelation was met with mixed feelings from the group—some were interested in the newest member to their ranks while others seemed perturbed and shot her scathing glares. She tried to ignore the looks she was receiving, focusing on what Xemnas was saying instead.
"Like Number XIII, she will be spending time with each of your for her first few months here or at least until she is able to go on missions alone."
Her gaze met that of the only other female in the entire group. She had golden blonde hair slicked back with two long hair antennae sticking out of the top of her head and electric greenish-blue eyes that were narrowed into a glare. Kiaxi hoped that she wouldn't have to spend one on one time with her, she didn't seem all that friendly.
"For the next few days I would like for you to show our newest member the ropes, Roxas." Xemnas' golden gaze landed on a blonde haired boy who didn't seem all that enthused about showing her around but despite that he looked a lot more friendly than half of the other members of Organization XIII so she counted her lucky stars for that one.
The blonde, Roxas, nodded his head and with that Xemnas dismissed the group to their own devices. Portals of darkness fizzled and popped into existence as most of the group disappeared from the round room, including Roxas. She felt a small wave of panic rise within her at being left completely alone until a portal opened before her and outstepped Roxas, he offered her a small smile.
"I'm sure this is a lot to take in." He started before frowning, "You're soaked."
"I guess I am." She mumbled quietly, peering down at her disheveled and sopping clothing the clung tightly to her body.
The boy before her let out a soft sigh, "C'mon, I'll take you to get your uniform and then show you to your room so you can change into something dry. If you get sick you'll be useless to the Organization."
Something told her that she didn't ever want to be considered useless to Xemnas and his cause and she vowed right there to do everything she could to remain in his good graces.
Suddenly a second portal of darkness sprung to life in front of her and she took a step back to avoid being knocked over by the boy that stepped out of the swirling shadows. He was rather thin with bright turquoise eyes that shown brightly, matching the excited grin plastered on his face. Kiaxi couldn't stop staring at his hair though, wondering why this boy would willingly choose to sport a mullet out of all possible hairstyles.
"Yo!" He waved, his bright smile was contagious and she found her own lips twitching at the corners, "I'm Demyx, it's nice to see another friendly face around here—you are friendly, right?"
"I…yeah." She answered awkwardly.
"I knew it, I'm an excellent judge of character." He beamed, ignoring the skeptical look that Roxas shot his way, "Well, anyway, I better get going. It was nice to meet you, if you ever need anything I'm number IX feel free to stop by any time!" With another wave he disappeared back into his portal and it was just Roxas and Kiaxi once again.
"He was…" She started slowly, not sure of the word she was searching for.
The blond seemed to understand what she was thinking, however, "Yeah, that's Demyx; he's an odd one alright." As if suddenly remembering their previous mission Roxas motioned for her to follow him as he led her down the hallway and taking a series of twists and turns.
The girl realized that the castle was much larger than she had originally anticipated, and she was almost certain that she would find herself lost in no time once left to her own devices. Kiaxi did her best to pay attention to her surroundings as Roxas lead the way but everything looked exactly the same that she just couldn't keep track.
They stopped before a closed door that she almost hadn't noticed as it blended in with the white of the walls pretty well. He stood there and awkwardly gestured towards the door, "Well, have at it. While you're in there grab a coat, some undershirts, pants, and a pair of boots in your size. I'll be here if you need me."
She nodded her head and ducked inside, closing the door behind her before staring in awe at the long racks of hanging black coats, neatly folded black pants, and the shelves of black under shirts and combat boots. Hesitantly, Kiaxi shuffled forward and reached for one of the coats that was closest to her. It fell off the hanger with ease and toppled down on top of her, she held it out in front of her and noticed, with a frown, that the material dragged against the floor—it was much too big for her to comfortably wear.
With a groan she stood on her tip-toes to put the coat back on the hanger. She didn't even know what size she was and everything, for the most part, looked that same.
Almost ten minutes had passed before she heard a light knock on the door followed by Roxas' muffled voice behind it asking, "Hey, uh, you almost done in there?"
She let out a small, nervous laugh, "Honestly? It would be so much easier if I didn't have to sift through everything to try and find something that might fit me."
He sighed and opened the door enough for him to slip inside, striding over to one of the cloak racks and sifting quickly through it until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a coat and held it up to her, "Try it on." Kiaxi did as she was told and zipped it up, staring down at herself and then angling her head so that she could see how it looked from behind.
"How'd you know my size?" She gave him a skeptical look.
He shrugged, "Well, you're pretty small so I just went to the next size under mine."
She stayed quiet and just nodded, it made sense after all as he did seem to be one of the shorter members of the Organization from what she had seen of the others in the Round Room and she was just a tad smaller than him in stature. Now that she had her coat she quickly strode over to the other racks and pulled a couple small tank-tops and short sleeved shirts from the pile, holding them up in front of herself to gauge whether they'd fit her. Once satisfied with the shirts she stuffed them under her arm and picked through the shelf that held the pants, thankfully all sorted by size.
After another few moments of indecisive silence, Roxas strode over to her and grabbed a couple from the middle of the rack, "I'm only guessing here, but I'm going to say that these should work. If I'm wrong you can always come back down here and sort through them whenever." He shrugged as he shoved the pairs of black form fitting pants into her arms.
Lastly, she needed to pick a pair of boots which only took a few moments to find her correct size after comparing the boots to the shoes she was currently wearing. With her arms full of her new wardrobe, Kiaxi turned on her heels and followed Roxas out of the Clothing Ward.
"Alright, I'll show you to your room now and let you get settled in." He was already partly down the hallway and she had to sprint to catch back up with him.
As she rounded a corner she felt herself collide with another body and she fell, unceremoniously, to the floor, her clothing lay scattered around her. Assuming that it was Roxas who she had bumped into, Kiaxi rubbed her sore behind before frowning, "You didn't have to wait for me, I'm more than capable of catching up on my own." Her amethyst eyes trailed up the figure and she quickly realized that it definitely was not Roxas. The man was tall and lithe looking with a head of perfectly feathered pastel pink locks and menacing dark eyes that narrowed down on her.
In an instant his hand was wrapped around her throat, pinning her against the tiled floor beneath her. Despite his rather feminine appearance he was rather terrifying.
"It'd be in your best interest to watch where you're going next time." His smooth voice came out in a deadly whisper, "The Organization doesn't have time to babysit incompetent children. Watch yourself or your next mistake will surely be your last." His grip around her throat tightened.
Kiaxi narrowed her eyes, finding her voice once again, "Excuse me, but who are you to be making such threats? Last I checked Xemnas was in charge and he chose me to join for a reason, I-I don't think he'd be too pleased to hear the things you've just said to me." His grip on her throat had caused her to cough a few times but she felt that she got the message across.
He let out a feral growl and pushed off of her so that he was in a standing position, Kiaxi thought he was going to relent and leave so she began to pull herself to her feet when a flash of metal appeared in his hand. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the pink haired man had the tip of his scythe pressed against her throat, the sharp blade drawing a small trickle of blood as it pricked her tender flesh.
Roxas decided to intervene at this moment, he swatted at Marluxia's scythe with his Oathkeeper and the man, very reluctantly moved the blade away from her vitals.
"C'mon Kiaxi, I still have to show you to your room." He side-stepped the senior member and wrapped his fingers around her wrist to hoist her back up to her feet. Roxas shot a glare over his shoulder at Marluxia who in turn let out a ferocious growl and disappeared into a portal of darkness with a flip of his hair but not before leaving the two with his parting words.
"She's not worth the effort."
Roxas rolled his eyes before turning to face the newest member, offering her a lopsided smile, "Your social skills could use a little work."
She snorted, "No kidding."
She dusted herself off and collected the articles of clothing that had previously been strewn about haphazardously when she fell, "Who was that?"
"That was Marluxia. Don't take him too lightly, despite his appearance there is a reason why he's known as the Graceful Assassin." Roxas spoke evenly, "To be honest with you, you really don't want to get on the wrong side of any of the members here—most of them won't hesitate in eliminating you."
Kiaxi ran a hand through her damp slate-blue hair with her free hand before nodding, "Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind."
Roxas banished his weapon after realizing that he was still clutching it tightly and then reiterated, "Your room is just up ahead. Be sure to keep up this time."
She nodded quietly, taking long purposeful strides to keep up with the boy. He took her up a flight of stairs and then down a narrow hallway with doors lining either side of the hallway. She noticed that odd numbers were on the right while the even numbers faced them from across the way. Number XIV was located at the very end of the hallway, naturally.
The newest Nobody stared at the silver roman numerals engraved into the stark white door before turning back to face the blond.
"Well, here it is." He spoke almost awkwardly, "I'll let you get settled in and then I'll see you in the morning for the start of your training."
Confusion set in.
"Training?" She repeated.
"Well yeah, we have to figure out what your weapon is." Roxas then added thoughtfully, "As well as what element and less Nobodies you have control over."
Kiaxi bit her lip and frowned, "Sounds exhausting."
The blond Keyblade wielder shrugged, "It can be, just depends on how quickly you pick things up. Anyway, get some rest."
The boy turned on his heel and disappeared behind the doorway across the hall labeled XIII. A small sigh escaped her parted lips as she slowly turned back around and opened the door to her room. She wasn't sure what she had expected, the room was exactly as the rest of the castle had been—white and plain. There was a bed up against the wall, across from that was a large window where the heart-shaped moon could be seen shining brilliantly. There was a dresser in the corner of the room as well as another doorway that led to her own private bathroom.
Shuffling inside, making sure to close the door behind her, Kiaxi dumped her clothing on the floor and made a beeline for the bed. The feeling of fatigue crashed into her at full force and she all but fell right onto the mattress, still in her damp clothing, falling asleep almost instantly.
Well there's chapter one of Welcome to Oblivion! I actually started this particular story over 10 years ago (before I even started Wherever You Will Go) and it was before 358/2 days came out which is why I didn't originally include Xion in the story. I considered it this time around but then I figured that would be too much work to rework the ideas that I already had in my head for this story. So while I do believe that Xion played an important role she will not be appearing here.
If you liked the story so far please follow and leave a review! Thank you so much!