II

Many hours later, the Castle of Oblivion was visited by another Nobody, a far stranger one. Its hood was pulled over its face as it walked around the halls of the vast palace where many had fought, and many had fallen. These hallways had become far darker and creepier which excited the mysterious wanderer.

"Where is the soul of the owner here?" questioned the figure as it moved into the large library where a single, crystal ball rested on a strange pedestal. The figure smiled and moved over to it. It placed its hands on the fragile glass; it began to glow as it formed figures within the sphere. There, in the glass was Marluxia, Sora and the two other forms that belonged to Xeiven and Lexrix.

"More of them, watching their fellow disappear," the figure whispered, "how interesting…"

Just then a hoard of Heatless had sprouted from the walls and ran at the figure. The figure reached back to its hood, pulled it off and revealed the face of Xuiquaxxitil. He smiled at the oncoming opponents. His smile was so eerie that it even made the Heartless hesitant on attacking the stranger. Xuiquaxxitil snapped his two fingers then, in a flash of black smoke, they all vanished. Around his neck, something gained a small hint of energy; it was a key, a relatively long, narrow key. This key, after it gained more energy, vanished underneath its hood. Xuiquaxxitil grasped at his chest with a gasp as though something had struck him, very hard.

"More of a penalty for this, they weren't even human" he groaned in pure anger, "they have no right to exist, while I cannot exist. I should not be punished for that attack."

Xuiquaxxitil lifted the key to its crystal-clear eyes, grinded his teeth and snarled, "Damned key."

He waited for a few minutes as though he were waiting for somebody to answer him, even though he had not asked a single question and nobody was in the castle with him at all. After about a minute of pure silence, he smiled and pulled the hood back over his head and continued talking to himself, "Marluxia was a fool, but those other Nobodies… I must seek them out. After all, Organization XIII can't be around forever. Just like life…" At that point, a grey essence formed around Xuiquaxxitil's hand and he continued, "it can easily be taken care of." The essence vanished with a loud hissing sound. Xuiquaxxitil looked over at the crystal ball and surveyed the scene in which Xeiven steals Marluxia's scythe, gives it to Lexrix and, eventually, when he stole Marluxia's power and gave it to himself.

"Quite greedy" Xuiquaxxitil sighed, "Stealing powers." He looked around the empty room, back to the crystal ball, smiled, kicked it onto the ground, but the ball did not shatter.

His smile vanished beneath his hood; he walked over to the ball and began to stomp upon it.

"Why. Won't. This. Break?" He yelled as he stomped even harder and harder. Just then, Xuiquaxxitil took one last, fierce stomp which broke the glass ball and, just as it broke, Xuiquaxxitil vanished.

In the meantime, off in the graveyard-covered world of Halloween, Halloween Town, a girl was sitting around in her Halloween costume, smiling and waiting for something to happen that she had known was going to.

Xeiven stopped when he crossed by her and smiled down at the girl.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with a seemingly caring smile.

The little girl looked up at the man and smirked, her hands folded behind her pinstripe coat, almost exactly like Xeiven's. This girl was different then most people you would meet but, then again, in Halloween Town, normal doesn't usually mean normal.
When Xeiven got to get a good view of her entire face, especially her smile, his smile faded. "You aren't a little girl, are you…You are Metharax." He questioned, "I've been looking for you. From what I've ascertained, you're quite the water weaver… and, you have a telepathic power, correct?"

The little girl, Metharax, couldn't open her mouth because of bindings sewn on her lips, keeping them together. But, her voice rang inside of Xeiven's mind, "I am here because I wish to be, and I know who you are. After all, I've already traveled in your mind, Xeiven."

Xeiven gained a look of anger, one he usually never achieved as she "said" this.

"You are but transfigured due to this town, correct?" Xeiven asked.

"Mostly" She responded, within Xeiven's mind.

Xeiven lowered his body so their eyes were level and he spoke, tenderly, "would you like to come to my castle?"

Metharax took a few seconds (anybody could have noticed that she was surveying his mind), then replied, "of course."

The two stood at their normal heights, Metharax a good foot-and-a-half shorter then Xeiven. Xeiven turned and opened a vortex and stepped through.

Whilst they were inside of this vortex of sorts, Metharax's figure changed greatly, the pinstripes vanished, she now looked a few years older, but her stitches remained over her lips, still binding them together.

"Metharax, why do you have the stitches over your mouth?"

Metharax looked up at Xeiven and grinned, just then her voice sounded all around them, not just inside of Xeiven's mind, "it was about three years or so ago, when I gained telepathy. My people, my 'family', could hear everything I thought, unfortunately. For you see, I could not control it… they decided that sewing my mouth shut would be a humane way to solve this, the fools only made it worse, more powerful." Metharax placed a hand on her lips and grazed her finger tips over the stitching, "When they tried to kill me, I could feel something tug at my chest, my heart was taken that day. Each member of my family that chased me down, all drowned, even though they were not in water. Having no heart made it simpler to deal with that, with… this… So, there are no more problems anymore… thankfully."

The conversation continued until they reached the other side of the vortex and stepped into The Abyss of Naught. They stopped and waked through the large world known to all as "The World That Never Was", a large, dark city with an, equally large castle that towered above it.

The sky was just as dark as it had been at Castle of Oblivion, however, it shown something illuminated against it, the heart-shaped moon.

"The organization's prized Kingdom Hearts" Metharax thought aloud as they stepped closer to gain a better view of the moon above them, "a foolish endeavor of the foolish ones that pursue it."

"Aye, but to the castle is where we are meant to arrive." Xeiven state as he continued walking.

Metharax followed close behind, listening to everything Xeiven had to say.

"A heart is still something that a person needs, something that I want back." Xeiven continued.

"A heart can be a horrible thing." Metharax stated, "Shouldn't you have known that with what happened?"

Xeiven snapped, "One rule, Metharax. Stay out of certain areas that do not concern you, ok?"

Metharax cowered a little, but regained her composure and replied, full-heartedly, "I apologize, sir."