Part 2: Xalelja

Chapter 1: Outcast

Memo: fdsakjg;has Ugh. I feel like a beast finally let free from its chains… I've been waiting so long to write this scene, and now the time has come! Let's go!

Pronunciation: Xalelja = Shah-leh-yah

Xalelja was born into silence.

She had no means of determining her exact moment of birth into the world of in-between, or how long it took for her to reach a point of humanization. When she awoke, she was surrounded by a grey haze that did not disappear even upon opening her eyes. Or was she opening her eyes at all? She was stuck in a place between sleep and wake, between light and darkness. It is where all Nobodies are born.

Who am I? she asked herself countless times. It should have been an easy question to answer. Where did I come from?

At some point, while drifting in nothingness, she felt herself open her mouth as if to speak-but no sounds would come out. It wasn't that she was mute and could not make any sounds. However, the sounds that it took to form comprehensible words were totally shuffled in her mind. She had all but forgotten how to combine certain sounds together to make sense in any language.

And so the question of "who am I?" went unanswered for quite some time.

Xemnas often monitored certain points throughout the worlds for various purposes. Though the original six members of the Organization had been created almost simultaneously, and though the following two were found soon after, the search for more was becoming rather troublesome.

Countless times he had found Nobodies like himself, stronger than the average Dusk, but in the end, they were powerless, and therefore useless. He had cast them all back into the nothingness which suited them so.

Many times, his prowls led him to the Dark Meridian. Many times, those same prowls resulted in at least a human-like Nobody-but there had yet to appear one that was powerful enough to fulfill his wishes.

This, however, changed .

Xemnas came to the Dark Meridian wrapped in silence as always. He roamed the quiet shores, searching for any sign of a Nobody, Dusk or not. What he found surprised him.

Two bodies were cast upon the grey sands, sprawled out and not at all far from each other. One was a male, and the other a female-both young and soaking wet. Xemnas determined that they must have just washed up upon the shore; how long they had been drifting in the waters, he would never come to know. But they were most certainly Nobodies, the scent of nothingness unmistakable.

Xemnas watched in silence as the young man was the first to slowly open his eyes. They widened, as if seeing the girl was a large shock to him. But then his eyes closed slowly again, as if he were drifting back into his dream-like stage. It lasted different lengths of time for everyone; perhaps he was not ready to-

And then the young man yawned, stretching his arms a little, as if he had been simply taking a nap upon the beach the entire time.

"What do you remember?" Xemnas asked, and the young man's eyes shot open. As if frozen in fear, he slowly turned his gaze toward Xemnas' figure, then pushed himself up.

"Remember…?" he echoed, rubbing the back of his head. "Oogh…where are we? Who are you?" There was a pause. "I… Man, I must've thumped my head pretty hard. I don't even remember my name."

"You have been reborn," Xemnas told the young man. "As she has."

Xemnas gestured to the girl, who was still unconscious.

"Do I…know her?" the young man asked, his voice softening. "I… Should I know her?"

"Come with me. I will give you purpose."

"P-purpose?" Slowly the young man stood, brushing the sand off of his body. He then ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, chuckling. "Well…all right. It sounds interesting, at least."

"Excellent. But first, a name."

"My name? I don't remember-"

Xemnas held out his hand-not to silence the young man, but to bring forth his name. It had worked the same way for the rest of the Organization members.

But when Xemnas focused his power to bring forth the man's name, there was an obvious disturbance. When creating the others' names, Xemnas had not had any problems like this. A single name would not come; instead, there was a jumble of names pushing against each other, as if in a struggle for dominance.

He indeed must be special, Xemnas realized as a name finally came forth.

"…?" The young man stared at the letters, his expression blank. Xemnas only smirked, and with a wave of his hand, he sent the letters swirling around. When he placed his hand to place the "x," a new name was created.

"From this day forward, you shall be named 'Demyx,'" Xemnas declared. "Come, take the coat."

"But what about her?"

"You said you did not know her, correct? And she has yet to wake."

"But…" Demyx looked back down at the girl. "…I feel like I should know her."

As if in response to his intent gaze, the girl's eyes slowly opened. Demyx took a quiet breath in, surprised, while Xemnas watched in silence. From what he could gather, it was becoming obvious that Demyx and this girl had probably known each other in the past, and probably died around the same time, or at least in the same place.

"Hey, are you all right?" Demyx asked the girl, kneeling beside her. As if still dreaming, the girl pushed herself upright, her long hair falling over her shoulders. It was the same color as Demyx's eyes-the color of the ocean on a calm day.

The girl opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came out, and she closed her mouth again, looking disgruntled. Her brown eyes slowly looked up to Xemnas, whose face was still shrouded in his hood.

"What do you remember?" he asked the girl. She slowly shook her head. Her expression was the same Demyx's had been when he'd been presented with the same question. "Speak."

Knitting her eyebrows, the girl once again opened her mouth, but she remained silent.

"Useless," Xemnas mouthed to himself, looking down at the girl. And yet, there was a strange aura emanating from her, the same one that had come from the others, even Demyx at that very moment. "Stand," he commanded, and the girl stood. Her face, though beautiful, seemed to harden in almost an accusatory manner as she stood in front of Xemnas.

Again, Xemnas searched for her name, but the letters were lost in confusion, worse than Demyx's mind had been. He chose the first name that appeared clearly to him.

"'Jalela'?" Demyx murmured as the letters floated in front of the girl's face; her expression, too, turned blank. "…Doesn't particularly ring a bell…"

The letters swirled around, and Xemnas placed his hand, and an "X," at the very beginning of her name.

"Xalelja," Xemnas said effortlessly, leaving Demyx tongue-tied. "Come, both of you." He then looked at Demyx. "You have been chosen to the wear the coat. Xalelja shall accompany us for the time being, despite her uselessness."

"And I'm useful?" Demyx said with a small chuckle.

"You have yet to fully awaken to the power that is dwelling within you," Xemnas explained. "As has she. However, you seem to be fully functioning."

Surprisingly, Xalelja didn't seem insulted; her face was still somewhat blank and confused. Had any of them been able to see inside of her head, they would have experienced sheer chaos.

"Come. We shall proceed to the Castle."

Opening a portal, Xemnas ushered the two newly born Nobodies inside.

"Do not worry," Xemnas told Xalelja. She looked up at him, again with unusually hardened eyes. "I will find a use for you yet."

Without stopping to think of the meaning of this declaration, she nodded once and followed him and Demyx into the Corridor of Darkness and on to the Castle That Never Was.

"Well, well! Looks like you weren't wasting your time after all!"

Xigbar was, of course, the first to greet Xemnas back.

"And lookie here. Two for the price of one!" He took a long look at Xalelja, who stared back. "One of them is even good-looking. Nice work, boss."

"Gather the rest. We have work to do," Xemnas commanded, and Xigbar chuckled, then disappeared into a portal. "You two-I shall now test your potential to see if you are truly worthy of joining our number."

Xemnas snapped his fingers, and a white, grotesque creature-a lesser Nobody-appeared before Demyx.

"Defend yourself," Xemnas told him, and Demyx looked at him, eyes widening.

"Wh-what-are you crazy!? With what?!"

Before anyone could reply, the Nobody attacked, knocking Demyx back. Xalelja felt a shot go through her nervous system, but with no way to express the phenomenon, she simply watched as Demyx knocked the creature back with his foot.

"G-get away!" he shouted as the creature persisted. "I said-get away!"

Throwing his hand out as if to slap the Nobody, Demyx turned his head; yet he felt the strange sensation of moisture on his hand. He turned just in time to see a small spurt of water flying from his own hand. Xemnas smiled in approval.

"Y-yeah, that's right! Back off!" Again Demyx threw his hand out, and water shot out, knocking the Nobody back. "And now this hand! Yeah!" In a rhythmic pattern, Demyx continued his attacks. "Like I'm dancing! Yeah, yeah! Dance! Dance! Dance, water, dance!"

At his words and last strike, out from the water formed a large weapon, shaped like a sitar. As the lesser Nobody disappeared, Demyx stared in awe at what he had summoned forth.

"Th-that was stressful," he whispered, breathing a sigh.

"Congratulations. You have earned your right into the Organization," Xemnas declared. He then set his sights on Xalelja, who stared back. "Do you think you could do the same?"

Xalelja paused; her mind was still a mess, but she knew what she had just seen and what she had felt. She had sensed the strangest of sensations every time Demyx had been hit. What it was, she had yet to discover, but she had no way of proving it without putting the experience into words. And obviously, that was not happening. After thinking it over, she shook her head.

"…Very well."

In a blur of darkness, Xalelja soon found herself in a new room, almost like a bedroom. The walls were completely white, but the room itself was dimly lit, casting a grey haze on both her and Xemnas.

"You shall stay here for the time being," he told her, "until you either come to your senses, or go back to the nothingness."

Lowering her head, Xalelja slowly slumped to the floor as Xemnas disappeared into a portal. It was upon her to think of a way to save herself, but there had to be a possibility in the first place. And Xalelja had her doubts.