-Saru-
"I will not be used like this!" Saru shouted furiously
"You don't have a choice," Xemnas replied, his cold voice sent shivers down her spine. "Refuse orders and I will have you disposed of." Saru slowly lowered her fists.
"What is wrong with you people?" she cried, turning away as tears ran down her cheeks, unable to stop them. Saix approached her from a darkened corner, lifting her small chin up to force her to meet his golden eyes.
"Keep on the road you're going down," Saix paused momentarily, savouring the image of her pitiful face, "and you too will become one of us."
Saru barred her teeth and tore away from him,
"Shut up! I never said I wanted to be one of you."
"But you did, didn't you?" Xaldin looked down upon them from his tall chair, his deep voice emanating from under the shadowed hood. Saru opened her mouth but couldn't speak. It was true. She'd lost sight of herself after wanting to protect them all her life.
"I just wanted him to know how much I love him," she uttered, burying her teary face in her hands.
"I have an offer for you," Xemnas muttered with a smirk on his face, as if he were speaking of something completely irrelevant, "do this for us and I will know I can trust you. I will be your loyal servant."
Saru swallowed hard, her dry throat coarse and tired from crying. She felt the knot in her stomach tighten from the glimmer of evil in the Superior's eye.
"I won't do it," she said without faltering. Xemnas rose from his chair and floated effortlessly down towards her. Mockingly effortless. His swift movement suddenly after as he seized the front of her coat startled Saru, but she didn't blink as he stared at her, studying her.
"Impudent wretch." He spat. Saru glared.
Xemnas sighed and released her, letting her crumble to the ground under her own fragmented weight.
"I don't want to do this, it would be somewhat of a waste," he teased in a low mumble, circling her as she got to her feet, "but I shall kill you myself if it comes to that." He gave a wicked smirk before pulling her closer against himself; Saru stood straight, arms at her sides. She gave a little gulp without realising and hoped no one noticed.
The Superior gave an exasperated sigh, showing off to the others as he gently ran his fingers down her back. Saru flinched, turning her head to cover up her blushing. Xemnas chuckled and closed his eyes dramatically. Saix slapped his face in disbelief and turned to leave the room.
"Did you think I had forgotten?" Xemnas whispered in her ear, touching her cheek though she would not look at him. "I can make you wish you had never gotten involved with us," his fingertips traced along her cheekbone and down to the corner of her mouth. "Cliché as it sounds, I can give you that which is a fate worse than death."
Saru's eyes widened.
Panic struck through her veins, contorting her limbs in a bid to escape but Xemnas was too quick. His sharp movements were no match, and before she could cry out in protest his hand plunged into her eye socket. His long, slender fingers curling around her eyeball. She could feel it as each nerve frayed and was broken with a severe crunch; he twisted her eye and ripped it from her socket. Saru couldn't make herself stop screaming. It was like having a dagger scoring across her face, like her head would split in two from the pain. Hot, deep and bloody.
His grip on her collar loosened and she dropped to the floor, her blood covered the marble ground. Saru blinked her vacant eye; the sensation of negative space Xemnas had left made her cringe and vomit. Xemnas glowered at her, his dark eyes menacing and soulless.
"Expect no mercy," he spoke callously, walking away from her to the void Saix had opened for him. Saru looked up, panting long and slow as she watched them leave without a lasting glance through the black portal.
Unable to move, Saru knelt in a heap on the floor, every gasp pounding a migraine into her scull, she wheezed with a vacuous breath,
"Zexion," she uttered, "help...me..."
-Zexion-No one had really been around much today. Zexion was feeling a little bit depressed that everyone obviously had something far better to occupy themselves with than to give him some company.
"I wonder if Demyx is around, or Lexaeus." He muttered to himself, opening the door to the library to find yet another huge empty room, "the Castle's never this quiet."
He turned a corner round a looming tower of books and was met with a small door that opened easily for him. It was dark and led to the basement. Zexion sighed,
"No one fixed the lights then," he wasn't surprised, he'd grown accustomed to reading by candlelight by now anyway. Zexion walked down the steps carefully, holding tight to the rickety handrail. His footsteps echoed around the walls of the large chamber.
His footing slipped and broke through a wooden step. His body plummeted downwards until he was stuck, one leg paralysing him as the other was scrunched askew under his person.
"What happened to my life?" he yelled at the top of his lungs, beating his fists into the stairs until they came away and crashed in a jumbled heap on the floor. After retrieving all his body parts from the mess Zexion made his way into the darkness, squinting to see his way.
He wasn't afraid of the dark, how could he be? But he didn't feint fright of it like Demyx did, he wasn't that attention seeking. Zexion found solidarity in darkness comforting more than anything, most of his treasured moments had been here in the dark with Lexaeus, and to the lesser extent Vexen.
The basement didn't feel right somehow and as he walked further into the unknown as figure came into view. Staggered, wobbly on its feet. The part of Zexion that once held a heart throbbed awkwardly as Saru made her way towards him.
"Zexion," she stifled, her shoulders tight, hands smothering her face.
"Saru!" He shouted, running to her, he knelt and caught her before she collapsed on the hard floor. "W-what happened?" his eyes glossed over though he couldn't make her out in the dim light. Saru shook her head, eye closed as he pulled her close. Saru clung to him, her hands shaking, wanting to become every part of him.
He could smell the blood before he saw it, she was drenched in it. Her normally sugary hair was sopping and sticky, glued to her face. She wouldn't look at him.
"I'm so sorry," Zexion wept, digging his fingers into her back as he repeated her name over and over again. "I couldn't protect you, I wasn't there when you needed me. After you watched over me all this time."
Saru buried her hands in his hair, kissing his cheeks, his lips, his eyes. He kissed her back, distressed longing in his deep kisses, aching to comfort her in any way he could. Saru blinked, the phantom shifted in her socket. But it wasn't the pain that was causing her grief; it was the fear of what was coming next.
Hope you lieeeek~ ^^