Inside a hidden labratory, inside a secret computer room, the sudden formation of a dark portal cut through the careful stitches of space. From it, two hooded figures stepped out and the portal of darkness vanished into wisps of nothing. The taller one threw a fond look around as he tossed back his hood. "Ah, man, being back here feels like old times," Xigbar said with a mocking smile, his one good eyes gleaming as yellowly as a Heartless's in the wash of fluorescent lights.
The other person glanced at Xigbar, cautiously lowering his own hood as he did so, revealing a young face and spikes of blond hair. Roxas. "You mean you've been here before?" Roxas asked Xigbar in suprise, watching the older Nobody walk over to the huge supercomputer that dominated the room, its glowing face a blue screen that awaited command. Xigbar fished a disk out of his jacket and pushed it into a disk drive. Instantly, a new screen popped up, demanding a number of passwords for security.
"Passwords?" Roxas murmured softly. His eyebrows knitted. "Xemnas didn't mention there were going to be passwords..."
"Don't sweat it! I got you covered," Xigbar said lightly. He didn't hesitate in typing something Roxas couldn't decipher. The computer whirled as it processed, then clicked, and a set of sealed metal doors to the right of the computer opened and the disk Xigbar had put it slid back out. Roxas could make out the phrase "System Started" before it disappeared and Xigbar plucked the disk out of the drive slot, tucking it carefully into his coat. Did that mean it was valuable to him? Roxas's mind filled with questions about this increasingly-mysterious mission. For instance, he wondered how Xigbar knew the passwords. Perhaps he'd been briefed with more info than Roxas had.
To be honest it'd been a weird mission from the start. It wasn't even really clear what they were supposed to be doing. There weren't any Heartless here for him to destroy with the Keyblade, so Roxas had no idea why he was getting brought along if there wasn't a real reason for him to be there, especially because his only orders were to obey without question whatever commands Xigbar issued. It looked like all Roxas was meant to do was follow him.
He'd been hoping to spend the week relaxing with Axel, who'd offered to take him to Hollow Bastion (if he really wanted to). However, the Superior informed him that he had a special mission with one of the senior members of the Organization - Xigbar.
Roxas's face dropped a little as he thought about it. Xemnas was becoming very strange. Axel might laugh (could any of them get stranger?) but Roxas was getting suspicious of how their leader acted around him lately.
Xigbar didn't even look at his younger comrade when he began strolling through the doors, leaving Roxas to hurry after him. They fell into step beside each other. Roxas turned his gaze on Xigbar again. "How did you know those passwords, anyway?" he asked curiously.
"Sorry. Can't tell. If I did, you'd have nothing to puzzle over the whole way there," Xigbar replied, grinning at the younger Nobody's glower. Roxas was about to press for an answer when they stepped on what seemed to be a switch. It shone brightly for a second and the floor in front of it vanished into a hidden sloped ramp. It appeared to lead even further below the lab. Roxas gasped out loud, staring in wide-eyed amazement, only to be forced to hurry again when Xigbar went down without waiting for him. Again.
Suddenly, he felt a sensation shoot through his body - it felt like someone was calling his name, somewhere down there. He paused to catch his breath and close his eyes.
Roxas couldn't believe how bizarre this was! He wondered if Axel would believe him. Probably not.
Axel claimed that Roxas exaggerated everything.
It was a dead-still stairway that plunged down in a spiral, into the ominous unknown. The atmosphere hung thick with - Roxas didn't know how to describe it. Loneliness, maybe. It felt incredibly lonely. And it was waiting.
Worlds apart, a young man lay in an endless white room that seemed pristine in its absolute emptiness. It enveloped. It swallowed.
His eyes were shut, for he was still sleeping, but that would soon end - his eyelids flickered, so slight, so slight, that you might not have noticed their movement at all.
He was suprisingly quiet for this mission, Roxas noted. Xigbar seemed lost in thought. The elder Organization member suddenly said aloud, "It looks dark, right?"
"Huh?" Roxas asked, puzzled. "This place? Yeah, I guess."
"As if!" Xigbar snorted. His expression did a complete 180 from pensive to a cockiness that seemed much more at home on his scarred features. "'This place' should feel like coming home for you! After all, this is the place where it all started."
Roxas said, "You know, Xemnas gave me this mission with you - but he was pretty vague about everything. I mean, he told me to follow you around and do whatever you told me, and that's it."
"You have to do whatever I say? Xemnas didn't mention that... Hmm, you're gonna do the mission report for me!" Xigbar joked.
"Haha. Very funny." Roxas rolled his eyes. They were almost at the bottom of the stairway when he slowed and almost stopped, the sound of that wordless voice rising like ringing bells in his ears. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, holding his head as the voice grew louder with every step they took. That strange sensation shot through him again, like a powerful magnetic pull trying to drag him towards its source.
Xigbar stared at him with an eyebrow high over his remaining gold eye. "Getting a headache?" He sighed theatrically and spread his gloved hands wide. "Aw man, I always get stuck with the sickies and the wimps. Now that's why I'm more of a lone wolf kinda guy."
"No, I'm fine," Roxas groaned. Slowly, the voice in his head ebbed away, like the tide rolling out, and the feeling of being pulled died down enough for Roxas to straighten up. He focused on Xigbar and, feeling a little embarassed at being seen like that, said brusquely, "Let's just keep going."
He was dreaming of his friends again - a girl whose sea eyes were washed in rings of softness and tides of strength, and a boy - a boy with the very essence of light and good for a soul whose pure existence had been stained darkly. He had been dreaming of them for a very long time. But their images seemed to grow clearer then they'd been for years as, worlds apart, Roxas stood before the Room of Sleep.
His guardian watched over the brunett with increasing apprehension as the faintest of stirrings became the beginnings of awakening.
The doors before Roxas suddenly opened in a rush of mechanics. He peered inside warily. It appeared very similar to the interior design of the Organization's castle in the World That Never Was; gray and metal and unfeeling. In the middle was a throne-like seat. From there, symbols resembling chains on ran across the floor and up the walls. Roxas noticed more symbols; in fact, he recognized them.
"The Nobodies..." he muttered under his breath, staring fixedly at the emblems stamped on the walls around the room. "This place... it's the Organization's!" He turned to his superior with suspicion written plainly on his face. "Xigbar, why did Xemnas-"
"Take a seat, Roxas," Xigbar told him, gesturing at the middle of the room with a pointed finger to indicate the throne-like chair.
"What?!" Roxas exclaimed, taken aback. His blue eyes narrowed darkly when Xigbar pointed again with heavy emphasis, as if Roxas was a little slow. "Are you joking?"
"'Fraid not, compadre. On the chair. Order," he reminded Roxas. When Roxas gave up and sighed, moving towards the desired object of the room, he noticed that Xigbar was watching him with a scrutinizing intensity that Roxas had rarely seen in his flashing yellow eye.
He never expected the thing that appeared as soon as he made it to the chair. He recoiled. It was a suit of blued armor sprawled on the floor. Next to it, Roxas saw, was a Keyblade he'd never seen before stuck in the ground. It wasn't so much suprise at seeing the armor and Keyblade as it was the intense feeling of déjà vu that really overwhelmed him. The moment he saw that sad little slump of armor, Roxas became aware of the voice in his head again - only its request was somehow distinct, even without its words.
Roxas climbed into the chair and sat, his eyes as fixed on the armor as Xigbar's. The chain symbols along the floor lit up. The light touched the armor, and suddenly, the armor moved. Its joints creaked. It raised its cracked helmet to Roxas - and he was stunned, shocked, to see a pair of sea-blue eyes inside the helmet, staring at him with obvious wonder.
"Ven," the girl in the armor breathed out, staggering up, and staggering to Roxas, who sat frozen in his seat as his mind screeched, leaving only static. "Oh, Ven, you-"
Worlds apart, eyelids peeled apart to reveal the humming blue color of Terra's eyes for the first time in ten years.
He was awake.
And, he sensed, knew, so were they.
A/N: Yup. It is a oneshot - written mostly because I wanted to just contribute a piece to the starving Ven, Terra and Aqua fanfiction - seriously people, write some Chasers and feed me! It's a oneshot, because I'd have to come up with more plot if I were to keep writing it, and that would just make me irritated and grumbly if I had to come up with a chapter-long plot (although you wouldn't believe the backstory I came up with the explain the story, so technically, I could write a fic - I'm just lazy). I almost didn't write it since I'm very shy about writing, then, in this brilliant burst of inspiration, I decided so what if my story sucks?! I'm writing it anyway! I'm writing it for me! I think more people should take that stance - it works wonders.
Oh Xigbar, you know you're just complaining for the sake of it. I think he might have once gone on a mission with Demyx, but that's really all he has to complain about! (No offense, Demyx. You just whine alot. It'd probably lead to Xigbar purposefully abandoning him while he's surrounded by a massive ring of angry Heartless, and secretly hoping he gets mauled.) Also, I find it kind of funny that Roxas, who was disappointed with his new mission because he wanted so badly to go to Hollow Bastion, had his mission on Hollow Bastion - as those of us aware of the Room of Sleep's location know. Roxas just never figured it out. Ah well, maybe next time, huh buddy?
Disclaimer. Although I'd be happy to claim any review any of you want to leave me... wink wink, nudge nudge. Nudge. Nudgenudgenudge.