The streets of New Orleans were as busy and bustling as ever. They were so crowded and eventful that nobody noticed the odd activity that occurred deep in a dark alleyway.
"Facilier…" whispered a shadowy voice.
All of a sudden, a large shadow which connected to nothing rose against the wall. A long, skinny arm reached out of the shadow and clutched onto the wall, dragging the arm's owner out.
"It sure took you bobbleheads long enough to free me." the man said.
Three floating masks emerged from the hole, approaching the man.
"You'd best count your blessings, mortal."
"Consider'em counted. Now what do you want from me?"
The masks cocked their heads to the side amusingly.
"Don't play innocent! You wouldn't have let me go if you didn't need me."
"Fair enough, Facilier. The darkness is gathering."
Facilier raised an eyebrow.
"They form in troves and are approaching New Orleans. There is no time to find another medium. We plan to control the shadows through you."
"What are you going to do with shadows when you already have plenty at your disposal?"
"Misunderstood chimp. The shadows we speak of are much more malevolent than the one that we control. They are powerful, bold, Heartless…" the three masks said one at a time.
"Don't talk to me like I'm slow. I know very well what the Heartless are. They've been popping up all over different worlds. That still doesn't answer my question, though."
"Have we ever given you a straight answer when it came to OUR personal business?" the masks questioned, squinting their glowing purple eyes.
"Good point."
"And besides, we may 'need' you, but you still owe us for the talisman. You'll do what we say."
"Or? You'll kill me? You'll send me back to that dark hellhole?"
The masks squinted silently.
"So what's keeping me from leaving you jerks and living my OWN life?"
"I'm glad you asked." one mask said, lunging forward and putting Facilier in its mouth. Inside the mask were the sounds of pained, muffled yells. After a few seconds, the mask spit Facilier out.
"Now unless you want me to swallow next time, you'll do EXACTLY what we say."
Facilier was breathing hard with bugged eyes.
"Alright… You've convinced me. What do you need?"
*two hours later*
On the other side of New Orleans, a dark corridor emerged from the ground. A blonde woman with two thin bangs sticking out of her hair stepped out first.
"Roxas! Hurry it up! I don't have time for you to be dragging your feet!" the woman yelled through the portal.
A short, scowling young man stepped out second.
"And what DO you have time for, Larxene, besides eating, sleeping, and hitting on Luxord?"
Roxas was me with a sharp slap to the face.
"That's your warning. Talk some more shit and see what happens." Larxene said coldly.
"What are we here for again?" Roxas asked, rubbing his cheek.
"Saix said that there's been increased Shadow activity in this new world and as punishment for getting my butt kicked by a Land Armor in Agrabah, he stuck me with you."
'Gee, thanks, Saix.' Roxas thought.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Do your recon!" Larxene ordered, pushing Roxas forward.
"Our mission was to investigate the Shadows." Roxas challenged.
"YOUR mission. I'm not even supposed to be here, so why should I be expected to do anything? Besides, how are you going to investigate anything without doing RECON FIRST?!"
"Can you yell that a little louder?! I don't think the rest of New Orleans heard you!!" Roxas screamed into Larxene's ear. He looked around and for the first time noticed that the streets were empty.
"Nobody's here." Larxene said.
Roxas thought he heard a gasp, and he quickly turned, in time to see someone quickly close their window panes.
"Wrong. People are here. They're just hiding."
"From the Shadows?"
"It's our best guess."
The wind began to rustle loudly as Roxas and Larxene stood back-to-back, ready for combat. Larxene frowned.
"What am I doing? This isn't my mission. I'm getting a soda." Larxene said, walking away from Roxas and down the street.
"Larxene, stop!" Roxas said.
"What do you want now, you little brat?!"
"Behind you!"
Larxene turned around and flinched backwards in time to avoid the claws of a shadowy beast before her.
She tripped and rolled down the slanted incline she was trying to walk up. To keep her from injuring herself, Roxas ran forward and stopped her descent.
"Unhand me!" Larxene screamed as Roxas dragged her to a nearby building wall.
"Stay here." he said before running off.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Larxene growled as Roxas ran off to fight the beast.
"It's a Gigas Shadow." Roxas said to himself, noticing the size of the beast. He raised his hand in the air and a key-shaped blade fell into his hand. The Gigas Shadow leaped at Roxas but he deflected the monster's claw, making it stagger backwards only momentarily.
Roxas took a small diamond-shaped mechanism from his pocket and attached it to the blade's hilt. It glowed brightly, then transformed into a more intricate sword.
"Duel Gear!" Roxas yelled, brandishing his new blade.
The Gigas Shadow moaned in defiance, lunging forward again. Roxas parried the lunge, causing the Shadow to stumble forward.
"Die." Roxas said, bringing his blade down on the Shadow's neck, reducing it to a smoggy cloud.
"You can come out, Larxene." Roxas said.
All was silent.
"Larxene?"
Roxas walked back to where he left his teammate. She was gone, but her lightning knives were sprawled on the ground. Roxas also noticed scratch marks in the wall where Larxene was laying.
"Larxene! Where are you?!" Roxas called, hoping for an answer. He heard a low moaning from nearby.
Thinking it was Larxene, he ran toward it. When he turned the corner, he saw the top half of Larxene sticking out of an alley. Her eyes were closed and a small trail of blood trailed from her lip.
"Larxene!" Roxas called, running toward her. Larxene's eyes fluttered open.
"Roxas, get me out of here." she said, unable to sound intimidating.
Roxas grabbed her arm, but once he did, Larxene was violently pulled deeper into the alley. Roxas almost went with her, but he stood his ground, tugging Larxene's arm against whatever was fighting him.
"Ow! What are you trying to do?! Rip my arm off?!"
"I'm *grunt* trying to save your life!" Roxas said, pulling harder. He looked at what was fighting against him in tug-of-war, but furled his eyebrows when he saw that nothing was there. Larxene's legs were floating in thin air.
Roxas's feet were dragging through the hard dirt as the invisible force pulled Larxene deeper.
Looking again, Roxas noticed that bottoms of Larxene's pant legs had pressure applied to them, but he didn't see anything applying the pressure.
"It's invisible." he said.
"Nice perception, Sherlock! Now pull me!" Larxene yelled.
Slowly, Roxas was able to pull Larxene back, but it wasn't because he was winning. Larxene wasn't coming forward; her pants were being pulled back by the invisible force.
Larxene felt what was happening. She sighed and cursed under her breath.
Suddenly, Larxene came out of her pants and she and Roxas flew backwards. The invisible force also flew back into the dark alley, with Larxene's pants in tow.
As Larxene stood, Roxas noticed that she was wearing yellow and white striped panties.
"Uhh…" he murmured, unable to keep himself from staring.
Larxene gasped and squatted back down again, bringing her knees into her cloak so nothing else showed.
"Tell anyone and I snap your neck." she said icily.
"Alright." Roxas said, still flustered. "I think we have enough information. A few Pureblood Heartless have scared the New Orleans inhabitants, and a Veil Lizard is running around as well. Let's RTC."
"Uh uh! I'm not going back to the castle in my panties! Demyx would never let me live that down! Go get my pants." Larxene ordered.
"What?! Why do you have to be so unproductive?" Roxas complained, dropping his hands to his sides and turning his back to Larxene.
"Come on, Roxas. I lost my buzz knives and my dignity was just literally stripped away from me."
"And?"
"Fine. Go and RTC. I'm not moving from this spot and you can't move me. What's Saix gonna say when he finds out that you left me here on your own will?"
Roxas scowled almost as hard as Larxene.
"Oh, you're coming with me."
"Says who?"
"Says this." Roxas said, conjuring his Keyblade.
"Wait, wait, wait! You don't have to go THAT far!"
"Lights out." Roxas said, raising the flat end of the Keyblade.
"No! No! N-"
WHAP!
xxx
On the roof of the Castle That Never Was, Xemnas stood, staring unblinkingly at the large golden heart-shaped moon in the sky.
"What do you need, Saix?" he said without turning.
"I don't know, nor do I care for the details, but Roxas returned with an unconscious, pantless Larxene. New Orleans is nothing special. It's just a world with slight Pureblood infestation." Saix said.
"Hmm. No, there's more to this. We should know by now that not everything is what it seems when it comes to these unexplored worlds."
"Roxas also reported a suspected Veil Lizard roaming about."
"Exactly my point." Xemnas said, raising an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"A few scattered Purebloods roaming aimlessly around, and a random Veil Lizard appears? That doesn't seem sketchy to you?" For the first time, Xemnas turned away from Kingdom Hearts and faced Saix.
"I see your point, but like you stated, it could just be random. Most things that we deal with are."
"True. Send Roxas back to New Orleans to scout again, because I have a strong feeling that there is a lot more to that world."
"Who should I send him with, or should I send him alone?"
"Has Larxene shown any improvement?"
"Judging by the way she returned, I would have to say no."
"Hm. Send her with Roxas again. Maybe this time, she'll show more initiative than aggression."
"If I may say, that's a fairly large 'maybe'." Saix said before walking back to the circle elevator from whence he came.
Xemnas turned back to Kingdom Hearts.
"Only you and I know. I should've known that Roxas's broken memories would make it difficult for him to detect it. With one gone, this is our only opportunity to balance the Worlds once again. There must be seven. Always."
Xemnas turned and levitated toward the circle elevator that Saix had just exited from.
xxx
"The Heartless are approaching steadily. I'm prepared to do my part. What about you?" Facilier asked one of the masks floating around him.
"My shadows have failed. All they retrieved were a pair of pants belonging to a pale, fair-skinned young girl. Don't ask."
"That's all we need, MORE white girls in New Orleans. Was she with anyone?"
"A young boy assisted her. His name is Roxas. A surveying shadow heard it from the woman."
"Does it matter?"
"Actually, yes. This boy has the ability to dispel the Heartless. He's a threat.
"Liability at best. There's no chance that this boy can roadblock our plan. Not with as many Heartless as WE'RE about to throw out."
"On the other hand," began another mask. "a shadow that I dispatched came back successful. We have captured an Emblem Heartless."
"Excellent. Begin your so-called 'voodoo Conversion ritual'. If it works, nothing will be able to stop us."
"Unless that kid comes back."
"Oh, don't worry about him. For now. This is just a field test. If it fails, we have nothing to lose, but if we succeed…"
"We'll have EVERYTHING to gain." the center mask said menacingly.