Josiy's formula for an amusing oneshot- pick a character to start with, pick a basic timeline if it's in canon, consume loads of caffeine and write. Took…three hours total I think? Anyways, enjoy!
Summary: Before his death, Xaldin speaks to someone who always seems willing to listen.
Disclaimer: Hah. With my year long hiatuses, Square will NEVER let me own them.
The young keyblade wielder, Sora, was one in a million.
It was a rare compliment from Xaldin, and when he muttered it to the gun toting number two, it hadn't been meant as one. Just a child, but already over confident and set deeply in his beliefs about friendship, light and good.
Well, he himself had been like that once, and look where it had gotten him.
In retrospect, thinking that last bitter thought didn't work so well when he was camped out on a beautiful beach watching a sunset that always seemed too quick. For two days he'd been there, contemplating his next move in the tireless quest for the Organization. The splintered, heartless Organization.
Some selfless quest it was turning out to be. Dilan- the slow to laugh but quick to fight apprentice was less him and more someone else every day- it had started years ago by following Xehanort, one of his best friends, into the darkness. He hadn't come out the other end. From the shadows only Xaldin had emerged, suddenly prepared to kill to retrieve the heart he'd thrown away.
Demyx was dead now. The newest casualty to add to the list, but not the first. Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx, the bastard traitor Axel, in a way, even Zexion, Lexaeus and Vexen. Roxas lived on in Sora, which was as bad a death as any. More than half their ranks, and who was supposed to be next? Probably him, the dark haired man mused, seeing as he already had new orders to mess with one of the boy's friends.
How unfair it was, that those who hadn't brought this fate upon themselves, from number seven down, were the ones so soon eliminated. How dismaying, that those sent to Castle Oblivion never got one last look at the sky. How aggravating, that he could think these depressing thoughts and feel nothing.
If he could have these last few days to sit on the beach before he was sent to die, Xaldin would be more content. Not happy, per se, but able to go to the darkness with that last sliver of light.
"Hey mister, what are you doing here?" the high pitched voice caused the Nobody to look up, startled. A short figure stood there, hand over her eyes. A local, judging by the small boat, new to the shore.
"I don't know where here is," he confessed. Xaldin had created a portal to somewhere with a beach; he'd never considered there was anything beyond that. The world hadn't been what attracted him, but the ball of light dipping below the waves. Dusk begot dawn, just as he hoped Nobodies produced Somebodies.
"Oh, that's easy. You're on the play island," the girl answered happily, hands clasped behind her back as she thought. "Um, this is Destiny Islands, if you didn't know," she clarified, smiling again at his intrigued nod.
"Destiny, so this is the home of Roxas…" Though technically the young number thirteen had never lived on the islands, the one he came from most certainly had and they shared the same eyes. Eyes that reflected the sky here during the day on the Somebody, and the night on the Nobody. Poetic, but completely true.
"Hm?" Green eyes tracked his slow movements, gloved hands covering his mouth as he thought. Strange to wear gloves, but she'd already known he wasn't from there.
Explaining to a normal person seemed futile, so he instead asked another question, one he was sure the brunette could answer. "Would you know someone named Sora?"
"Oh yeah. We forgot him for a while. Well, I did," she added sheepishly, skirt bouncing as she rocked on her heels, "Kairi never really did. He's not back though, if you were looking for him."
Well, he already knew that. Xemnas had told him to wait outside of the islands, since even if Sora could get there; it wasn't where he'd be staying. No, he would be leaving soon to find the boy and, most likely, fade to darkness. Kick the bucket, be removed from the game, return to nothing…no matter what the euphemism was, he wasn't likely to love through this next encounter.
Sighing softly, he missed the widened eyes of the girl as she sat beside him on his lovely log. It was the best seating around, and it gave him a clear view of the ocean. Turning a moment later to question her some more, he caught the strange difference between her face and the rest of her. The flipped ends of her hair made her seem perpetually cheerful, but the pensive frown on her face was anything but. Raising an eyebrow, he waited for the expected explanation.
"You seem sad," she said, shrugging and upturning her lips gently.
"I'm not sad," he protested in annoyance at being easily read in his negative thoughts- even if showing emotion was no longer an involuntary action, "I can't be sad."
"Why not?" Curiosity lit up her face as she seemed to take him in. Long braids, a frown that never fully faded, black attire completely unsuitable to the location. It was like sitting beside Zexion, or Ienzo as a teenager.
"I don't have the heart to feel emotions." The truth spilled from his mouth before he could cover it, but what harm could this teenager cause? A girl, with no visible weapons.
Thinking over what Kairi had told her, the girl stared at him, startled. "Doesn't that make you one of the bad guys then?"
Xaldin thought about Belle and Beast, nearly destroying their happy ending. Of Radiant Garden being destroyed, of all the dragoons under his command that had once been human like this girl. "I suppose it does."
Somehow, she didn't scream, run or attack him. Instead she paused and spoke calmly. "Are you going to do bad things to my friends while you're here?"
"No. Your world doesn't hold interest for us any more." Not once the keybearer was gone. Destiny Islands was a paradise without anything they might have use for.
"Any more?" she asked, cocking her head to the side as she reflected on the conversation. "Does that mean you're going to hurt Sora?"
"Not nearly as much as he'll hurt me," Xaldin muttered irritably, causing the brunette to again drink in his expression and words, seemingly confused by the answer, but unconcerned.
"You can feel pain?"
"Yes, of course," the scientist lying dormant in the whirlwind lancer perked up considerably, "it's the body's natural reaction to harsh stimulus"
"But not love?" she added sadly.
"No, not love." The braided man clarified, nodding. Not love, or joy or contentment or even boredom. He couldn't even mourn his fallen comrades, no matter how close they'd been in life.
"No wonder you seem sad," she murmured, eyes on the sunset. Following her gaze, Xaldin watched the sun as it continued to slip under the horizon. Silent for a moment, she began to speak again. Not of hearts or villains, as they had before, but of life on the islands, of her beautiful best friend who, despite many fans, waited for her boys to come home. Of public school, something he'd never been to.
He returned the same trivial information, describing the worlds that were out there, the legends of princesses of heart and the door to light. His stories were those of Demyx, of Aeleus after treating an injured animal, Vexen's experiments, of all the fallen. He spoke until the words ran out as the girl, a friend of his enemy, listened intently.
It carried on for what might have only been a half hour, before the sun was fully hidden from view, and the night sky twinkled with stars. At that point, he stopped and glanced over to the other and the mood shifted from nostalgic to a free, calming peace. They both knew, without speaking, that it was time to move on with life, to return to the worlds they belonged to.
It was a parting, but the girl refused to let it be an ending.
"Well, I hope you find your heart soon," the brunette offered happily, rising to her feet, "and when you do, I hope you come back here and visit Selphie's Matchmaking Service!"
Staring at her bewilderedly, Xaldin repeated the words, trying to follow her line of thought. "Selphie's…Matchmaking …Service?"
"Yup." Jabbing a finger at her chest and giggling, the girl tacked on at the end, "I'm Selphie!"
"I see," he answered nodding and attempting a smile. It felt foreign, but for a first attempt in so many years, it wasn't too intimidating.
"So mister, can you tell me your name?" Selphie asked, returning to her original hands behind back pose.
He thought about it, strange as it was. What was the name of this man who had been talking to a girl on a sandy log? It wasn't as though he was the young apprentice anymore; he'd known that since the beginning, but the cold callous Nobody never questioned anything. Orders, no matter how useless were followed. The one who rather than fighting Beast and winning him over, was delaying the inevitable, was not Xaldin really. Just a nameless entity
Still, it was only polite to offer a name in return. After all, it might be the last chance he had before the end. "You may call me Dilan, once I retrieve my heart."
"Okay mister Will-Be Dilan, come back soon!" the girl chirped, turning to leave and waving happily. "Talking to you was fun!"
It was, he realized, watching Selphie head towards her own boat, and conjuring a portal. Xaldin had, while they spoke, felt a large weight off his chest. No longer was he dwelling on the deaths of his fellows. Their stories had been passed on, and to someone who Xaldin could accept that he, in an odd way, liked. Stepping through the portal to a world in which he would probably meet his doom, Xaldin smiled wistfully for one last time.
To feel as a Nobody…a last gift he'd never imagined.
Concrit and reviews both loved. Even flames shall be giggled at like a banshee.
-Josiy x