I wrote this early in 2010 for a contest prompt back when I had already lost interest in Kingdom Hearts. BUT the lure was too strong, and I'm happy with the results. I posted it in deviantart, and forgot to put it up here. I found it again, and thought, HEY, might as well.
WARNINGS: ... Vague mentions of sex and more obvious mentions of torture.
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, self-explanatory.
Prompt:
"Vexen returned to his room to find THAT person."
It was painfully ironic that he should, after avoiding the man like the plague, find Marluxia there in his own quarters, stretched out on his bed like a damnable cat.
Vexen was in no mood for games, but the door locked itself behind him, making it quite impossible to run.
"You've been avoiding me." Marluxia stated. Even in his leisurely state, the gravity of the situation was evident on the neophyte's face. Vexen did not allow himself to be affected.
"Vexen, don't ignore me." Marluxia snarled as the scientist passed him, the older man laying his notes down on the table.
"You never even gave me a straight answer. I think I deserve at least that." The younger said, closing the distance between them much too quickly.
Marluxia ran a hand through the scientist's blond hair, his breath warm at the man's ear. Vexen felt his self restraint crossing the threshold, but still he remained passive.
"If I remember right, you're Xemnas' whore, Marluxia." He said coldly.
Marluxia pulled back. "I did what I had to, Vexen, to survive. You know what it's like. After all, it's why you never do ANYTHING, isn't that right?"
Vexen gritted his teeth. "I don't cross the line." He said.
"Maybe you should. Maybe then you wouldn't be such a coward." Marluxia whispered.
He stepped away, leaving the room, and Vexen, cold and quiet and alone.
-411-
The Organization was something of a shadow government in the city. People heard of it, fancied it as a rumor when it had nothing to do with them. Lu had not done such, and suffered for it.
He was still a child, aged twelve, when he'd broken into the labs. The Organization funded those facilities, but Lu had not known it then. All he knew was that there might be something of value he could find that would let him live weeks longer on the street.
He searched the labs in the darkness, finding only papers and nothing else worth the risk. He was about to leave when he'd been caught.
The scientist had a gun, pointed at him at a short range. All that had to be done was to pull the trigger, and Lu would find his brains dripping from the back of his head.
The scientist had said nothing, but he did not shoot. Right then, he approached the boy and pushed him under the table.
The lights came on, and two other scientists had come to the room.
"Even, what happened? The alarm went off and-" "It's nothing, Ienzo. I checked. There's nothing here." The blond said. Lu shivered beneath the table, but he was out of sight. He clamped his mouth shut.
"What happened, Vexen? Did any of the specimens escape?" Said another, a deep new voice.
Lu could not see clearly, but he did see black, boots and the hem of black coats.
"I am not sure what caused the commotion, Number One." Vexen said, sounding quite convincing.
"I think I know." Said another voice. The scientist, Even or Vexen or whoever he was, tensed visibly.
"Vexen, step aside carefully. There seems to be some vermin hiding under the table." Said the same voice cruelly. Vexen followed the order, slowly, and Lu almost cried out as a hand, clawed at the tips, dragged him out from under the table.
"What a surprise. A child." Said the deep voice. The man who took him from under the table, Lu noticed then, had blue hair and a scar on his face, giving him a feral air.
A dark man approached the child, examining him from head to toe. Lu shivered.
"Did you know about this, Vexen?" The dark man asked in his deep voice.
"No, sir." Vexen said lamely.
"What will you do to me?" Lu asked desperately. "Please, I got here by mistake! Please don't kill me."
The dark man laughed. "Kill you? No, we are not so wasteful." He said.
"Vexen? Perhaps you will have a use for the boy." He added, turning to the scientist.
"I do not need any more hands in the lab, Xemnas." Vexen said. The man Xemnas smiled. "I did not mean for him to help in that way, Vexen. Perhaps he would do well in your experiments."
The boy's eyes widened when the scientist gave his consent.
-411-
"Aaaaaauuuugh!"
Years. Years and years and it still hurt as it always did.
Marluxia was sixteen, currents running through his bones as he was once more strapped to the table.
The Organization had taken him in and used him, a lab rat that metamorphosed into a venomous snake in two years time.
They experimented on him constantly, his condition only getting better but his mentality hard set. He became stronger, faster, and more powerful. He was- he WAS human perfection, molded from pain and advances in the league of science.
They named him, and titled him the Graceful Assassin, which was a fitting title indeed.
He was known to the entire city now. He was the threat, the punishment for insubordination.
Marluxia took pride in that.
His lips were bleeding when he was unstrapped from the table. Xemnas intercepted his steps and took his chin by the hand, kissing the young man roughly.
Marluxia closed his eyes, allowing himself to be abused.
He had always been told that he was beautiful, one of many traits he'd taken as an experimental success story.
Xemnas had full control over him, though, where the Organization was concerned.
Marluxia ignored the man at the table, only imagining him against his own will, the gaunt figure of the scientist.
He hated the man. Hated him for all these years of torture, for acting forever coldly to the assassin, for always doing what Xemnas asked.
Marluxia loved Vexen, and hated him utterly.
-411-
"Hey, Marly. Clocking out early?" A voice drawled.
Marluxia removed his hood and glared at Axel, who had since revealed his face. "My business has nothing to do with you, Axel. Find Larxene, by the way, and make sure she hasn't gone off killing simply because of her mood." He ordered.
"Yeah okay, team leader." Axel mocked, disappearing into the dark.
Marluxia made sure he was gone before he himself sank into the Organization's headquarters, their 'Castle', aptly named.
The assassin walked briskly, alone in the hallways save for the nobodies that flitted this way and that. Marluxia disliked being around them; they were the failures, something Marluxia was so close to becoming over the past years.
He soon found himself at the door of the lab, knowing what he'd find as he stepped in.
Vexen was alone.
Zexion and Lexaeus always left before then, with only Vexen keeping to himself as he executed the final tasks in his constant experimentation.
Marluxia's coat fell heavily to the floor as soon as the door had shut and automatically locked behind him.
The Graceful Assassin, true to his nature, came up without notice, but he knew that the scientist was aware of him. Vexen stopped writing when the perfect, rosy arms came around him and held unwaveringly tight.
Vexen did not look up at him, did not question the action. It had happened before.
Marluxia pressed lips to the cold skin, never stopping as he used his hands to remove Vexen's coat, turning the scientist to face him once it had been done.
Their union was wordless, secret, and ultimately all that Marluxia had.
-411-
Marluxia had come to the point where power was something he knew he held. Contrary to what others believed, that he was used and abused and obedient, Marluxia knew what he held.
He held power over the other Organization members, save for Saїx and the Superior himself. He held physical power, but that did not amount to much in his eyes.
His greatest power, he knew, was in his ability to manipulate the weak minded. He could play them like a harp, like dolls, all the while reaping his own rewards.
He hated being weak, like the pawns he played.
He hated it the most when he let it show, that day.
It was the same ritual, taking him in the lab where no one ever stepped, no one ever bothered to go to or even think about in that span of time.
The wordlessness was also part of a ritual, essential to them both. Marluxia had broken it right then.
"I love you, Vexen." He whispered at his peak.
There was nothing else said after, but the next night, the lab was locked, even to Marluxia himself.
-411-
"How do you really feel?"
The words haunted Vexen. He loathed himself for allowing Marluxia to affect him.
He never should have cared, but he did.
He never should have agreed to it, but he let it happen.
After playing it safe for all the years he served under Xemnas, he'd taken too great a risk. Marluxia…
Marluxia was proud, cruel, uncaring.
He hated him. He wanted him. But Marluxia was not his to have.
He could not risk crossing the line.
Marluxia was right. He really was a coward.
-411-
Marluxia returned to his own room, suddenly wary of the presence there. He raised his scythe, only to be met by Vexen.
That person. Marluxia felt angry. How dare he?
How dare he?
Vexen answered him, then. How he felt. Exactly how he felt.
Marluxia crossed the threshold, finding where his unfathomable hate and love met.
He took Vexen in his arms.
-411-
They were dead a month later.
Sorry if I raised your hopes of writing more 411. I'm not doing that anymore. But if you ask nicely, maybe I could whip up one.
R&R