For those of you who read The Last Nobody, I did say I would write a prequel… ugh. I hate that word. Prequel. Gross. But I think it's important, and I don't want to be done writing about Bruixe yet. I'm attached.

This one's a little different because I'm not really sure where it's going. I have a few ideas, one in particular that's probably going to piss off some of you… but don't worry, I'll fix it.

So, enjoy this fanfic about Bruixe in the Organization. And no, Riku's not in this one… sniff… well, not yet. I have an idea about how to work him in… you'll see.

Rubie glared back at the Eternal Kingdom behind her as if daring it to follow her. The marvelous white granite city loomed over the horizon, sparkling innocently. It doesn't look like a city of stuck-ups and fools, she thought bitterly. But you could never judge appearances. Never.

She strode moodily, shoulders hunched, for the outer wall, making for the silver gate that led to the outside worlds. When she got there, she noticed a man in a black coat leaning against it, arms folded.

"I've been waiting for you," he said.

"Who are you?" Rubie asked warily, shifting her shoulder bag to free her right hand, which she rested on the handle of the short sword – a kodachi – at her hip.

"The name's Axel," he said, lowering his hood to reveal a shock of red, spiky hair and emerald-green eyes. "A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"

Rubie raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

"I've been sent for you," Axel said. He held out a black-gloved hand. "You're the new one, right? Rubesia."

Rubie grimaced at the use of her full name. "It's Rubie."

Axel grinned. "Is it really? After giving up your heart, can you really keep that name?"

"How do you know that?" Rubie demanded.

"Why else would I be here?" he wondered aloud. "I'm just like you… Rubie. Ugh. What a lame name. Here."

He put his hand out so his palm was facing her, and letters conjured themselves out of thin air. Her name…

RUBIE

As she watched, the letters flew in a complex pattern, rearranging themselves. There was a flash of light, and Rubie shut her eyes to block it out. When she opened them, the letters read:

BRUIXE

"That's better," Axel commented. "Bruixe. A fitting name."

She blinked. "I don't understand."

"Your new name," he told her. "For your new life, with the Organization."

She didn't answer, lost in thought. A new life? she thought. I can deal with that.

She stepped forward. "Bruixe it is."

He smiled, and together Axel and Bruixe set out for the worlds ahead.

"Whoa," Bruixe commented.

She had always known there were other worlds, but she'd never actually seen one. The World That Never Was, as Axel had called it, was a dark and creepy place, a giant city full of Heartless and shadows.

"Why's it called the World That Never Was?" Bruixe wanted to know.

"Because it doesn't really exist," Axel told her.

"If it didn't exist, we couldn't be walking through it," she argued.

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's not supposed to exist."

"What does that mean?"

"It's…" Axel sighed. "It's like us. We're not supposed to exist, so of course the world we made isn't supposed to either…"

"What do you mean we're not supposed to exist?" Bruixe asked. "Wait – you created this world? How do you do that? Is that allowed?"

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Axel demanded, exasperated.

"Why do you care?" Bruixe questioned, just to get on his nerves.

It didn't work; he only laughed shortly. "Well, one at a time, then. What do you want to know?"

"You said we aren't supposed to exist."

"Well…" Axel rubbed the back of his neck. "Might as well just say it. You're a Nobody, Bruixe."

"Okay… what does that mean?"

"Can't believe this," Axel sighed. "What's the last thing you remember before I found you?"

"I don't…" I don't know, she was going to say, but it wasn't true.

Chains around her wrists, around her ankles, around her neck. So cold in this godforsaken dungeon… how long had she been in here? Days? Months? Years? It felt like eternity… there was no end to the cold, the unbearable quiet noonehearsme, the pain…

Pain…

HE would come back soon, and she would scream and scream and scream makeitstop, and no one would hear her. HE was coming more often now… she could still feel the crusted blood on her back and shoulders from last time… but even the whip wasn't as bad as the water… in her eyes in her nose in her mouth, surely she would drown but no, they always pulled her up, even if she tried to swallow the water justletitend they pounded it out of her, why couldn't they just let her die already…

She'd tried to strangle herself on the chain around her neck but couldn't get enough leverage. They hadn't even let her bite her tongue, that damn cloth in her mouth wouldn't let her cantbreathe and all because she'd used the darkness ISAIDIWASSORRY but that Councilor woman was dead and it was all her fault…

Darkness…

Maybe there was a way out…

There wasn't much time… HE would come soon… she reached out for the darkness…

"Um," Bruixe said.

"You do remember, then?" Axel said knowingly. "You don't have to tell me, but I'm guessing you lost your heart somehow."

I didn't want to lose my heart, she thought desperately. I just wanted to die… and I wasn't dead, but the pain was gone…and the fear and the sadness…

"That's what makes you a Nobody," Axel continued. "We Nobodies don't have hearts. We don't have feelings, either. In all logic, we shouldn't exist… but for some reason we do."

"We?" Bruixe whispered.

He nodded. "There's thirteen of us altogether… well, fourteen including you. Xemnas – he's our boss – says that usually Nobodies just become these mindless creatures. But the Organization is made of Nobodies that still have minds, and memories. We govern the lesser Nobodies. And now you're one of us."

One of… them? Bruixe liked the sound of that. She had never really belonged anywhere. And the heart thing… a heart she could live without. All it ever brought me was sorrow, she thought.

"So… where are we going?" Bruixe asked.

"There." Axel pointed out over the cliff they had just reached, into the sky. A massive white-and-grey castle floated there, defying gravity and logic. A gleaming silver pathway led up to the gates. "Organization headquarters: the Castle That Never Was."

"Original," Bruixe commented, and followed him in.