Awakening

I wake up in a dark room, there are multiple machines and devices I don't recognize. As I look around the room briefly, I see a man with long blond hair grinning down at me. I don't like the look in his eyes. He cackles, "Success! It's awake! Finally, my experiment has worked!"

I don't know what he's talking about, so I just stare at him. He claps and runs from the room, shouting, "I must alert Lord Xemnas at once!"

I'm so confused, I don't know where I am, who that man was, who "Xemnas" is, or even who I am. I sit up slowly and wince as I feel something tug on my skin in multiple places. I look down slowly and tilt my head. My body is kind of small, and there are multiple tubes attached to me. Four in each leg, three in each arm, there's even a tube attached to my chest. There's a small sheet wrapped around my body and the rest of me is bare. I barely recall what a "body" is, but I know I have one. I look around the room again, hoping to understand more of what I'm seeing, but my mind is blank.

I don't really know what I'm looking at. My mind just repeats machines, different kinds of machines. The door opens and the blond man returns. I notice he's wearing a white coat over a black one. That doesn't make sense, does it? Behind him is another man in a black coat. This new man is very tall, and he has white hair and scary eyes. I don't like the way he's looking at me. I shiver, I prefer the blond man's eyes now. I look away from the new man and I listen as the blond man speaks again, "See, didn't I tell you? It worked! Experiment 3128-X-I-O-N-14 is ready!"

3128-X-I-O-N-14? Is that what I am? I don't know what that means. I can feel the scary-eyed man looking at me again and I peek a glance at him. I regret it. He smirks at me as I look at him and he crosses his arms, "It seems your experiment might need more work, Vexen."

The blond man frowns, "What ever do you mean by that?"

"What did you say 3128-X-I-O-N-14 looked like? I don't think it's ready to be planted." the man replies.

The blond man, Vexen, scoffs, "Lord Xemnas, I assure you the experiment is ready! It's appearance is something I can fix with ease!"

The man, Xemnas, shakes his head, "I'm giving you until tomorrow to get it fixed. If the appearance returns to how you described it to me, then we can proceed with the plan. If not, scrap it and start again."

Vexen groans, "Yes, sir."

Xemnas leaves and Vexen turns to me, sighing, "What could have went wrong? The appearance was consistent until it woke."

He frowns and starts turning handles on the machines around me, connected to me. I try to blink away the darkness clouding my eyes, but after a few seconds, I lose my newfound life. I hear the sound of waves, the darkness melts away, revealing a beautiful island. The sun shines high and I can hear someone laughing. I hear a new voice, "Give it up, Sora. You'll never win like that!"

Another voice speaks, "You cheated, Riku! I'll beat you this time!"

The previous voice, Riku? laughs, "Winning isn't cheating, Sora! You're such a sore loser!"

"Say that to my face, pretty boy!" Sora replies. I can see three kids on the island now. A silver haired boy, who's laughing and holding a wooden sword, a brown spiky haired boy, who's sitting on the sand, pointing a wooden sword at the silver haired boy, and a violet haired girl standing beside them, laughing. It's her laugh that I heard first. The silver haired boy smirks, I recognize his voice as Riku, "Want to try again, then?"

The brown haired boy jumps up, "I'll smash you!"

He's Sora. Sora smirks then, "First to get ten strikes on the other wins?"

Riku raises his sword, smiling, "You're on."

The violet haired girl giggles, shaking her head, "Guess I'm the judge then. On the count of three, attack."

She looks between them, "Ready? One. Two. Three!"

Sora and Riku dash at each other and the vision fades back to darkness. I open my eyes again and I'm still in the dark room with all the machines. I'm still wearing a sheet, with many tubes connected to me. I see Vexen off to the side, walking back and forth with his arms crossed. After a few minutes he looks at me. He gasps and runs over to me. He frowns, then quickly smiles, "Well, the appearance isn't the original, but it hasn't changed since I started fixing it. This will have to appease Lord Xemnas."

It's kind of annoying that he's looking at me and talking, but he's not talking to me. He turns and rushes from the room. I lie here for a few minutes before he returns with Xemnas again. As they enter the room, Vexen is talking, "-It may not be the original design, but the appearance has been consistent these past weeks. I told you I could fix the mistakes about the overall appearance."

Xemnas crosses his arms, "And since you started fixing the appearance, how many times has it shifted?"

"Hm, twice since the first shift. But this appearance has been consistent as of sixteen days ago." Vexen replies, raising an eyebrow, "Well? What do you think?"

Xemnas walks up to me and leans slightly towards me, "How reactive is it? It must be coherent, it's eyes follow you as you speak."

"I've yet to hear 3128-X-I-O-N-14 speak, but the body is responsive. The eyes follow as you speak or move, and it follows commands, simple ones as far as I know. It has yet to get off that table, I've been making sure it can support itself without the help of my machines. The experiment can move its head, arms, and legs. Give me a few days to make sure it can support itself, and we can go forth with the plan." Vexen explains.

"If the plan is to succeed, it must be able to function like us. You have until the end of the week to get it prepared." Xemnas states.

Vexen nods, smiling, "No worries, sir. I'll have her ready in time. By the way, it's Number XIII's second day, how is he doing?"

Xemnas turns and leaves, speaking as he walks away, "Roxas's progress is as well as expected given the circumstances."

Vexen nods as Xemnas leaves, then he turns to me. He claps once, smiling slightly, "Now, then, shall we get started?"

He starts unplugging all the tubes and I wince as each one leaves my body. A silver liquid flows lightly from each tear the tubes leave behind. Vexen notices this and he moves across the room, then comes back with white cloth? He takes my left arm and quickly wraps each place the liquid is coming from. He does this to my right arm, as well as my legs as the tubes are removed. The final tube to be removed is lodged in my chest. Vexen grabs a hold of the tube, causing me to flinch.

"This will probably hurt a lot, if you can feel pain." he says.

He then rips the tube out and I know I can feel "pain." As the tube is ripped from my chest, more silver liquid flows out, and a very sharp, intense pain flares through my whole body. I scream, and I now know I can make noise. Vexen sits me up and wraps the small white cloth around my chest, stopping the strange liquid. He seems pleased with himself, "Well, you can feel pain. That's good, I'll have to remember to put that in my notes."

He helps me off the slab I've been lying on and I feel weird, standing. My feet kind of hurt and my legs wobble. I want to lie back down. My body trembles and Vexen holds me up, "I have to make sure you can function without the machines. I need you to take a few steps."

It takes a few minutes before I can make my feet move, my body wants to collapse. This all feels wrong. I'm not sure how long Vexen had me walk back and forth across the room, but the more I do it, the less the movement hurts. After awhile, Vexen lets go of me, "Now, walk back to the other side of the room by yourself."

I follow his instructions. I wobble, but I make it to the slab I lied on without falling down. I turn back to him and he smiles, clapping once, "Splendid! Now, come back over here."

I walk back over to him, and I'm even less wobbly, too. He claps again, "Wonderful! I knew this would work!"

Yes, I work. His.. Experiment.