I own nothing of Kingdom Hearts. All rights belong to Square Enix and Disney.
A/N: Originally, I intended for this to be a one-shot, but seeing how long it was, I had to divide the content into chapters. This story will be about 4-5 chapters long. Hope you enjoy!
Rain poured upon a city that harbored no denizens, save for a man that was obscured by the hood of his black coat. The world would have been pitch-dark if it weren't for the neon lights and signs that were planted on the towering buildings and skyscrapers; though the man had traversed throughout this world countless of times, even calling it his 'home' once, and grimly thought as he strodded down the empty, puddle-lined streets that he was fully capable of reaching his sojourned abode blindfolded.
The notion made his skin crawl.
Ten long years... A decade, of withstanding a hollow shell of his former self- no doubt his mistakes. Yet after regaining what he had lost, he chose to give it away again; without a moment's deliberation! He then remembered his incentive for all his imbecilic antics and abominable deeds, and clenched his jaw, from both the memory and the rain.
The differencing lines between Braig and him were growing very, very thin.
Xigbar wondered if there had even been a dichotomy in the first place.
Passing the Skyscraper of Memories and the Dark City, the Freeshooter decided to not warp, but rather to witness his 'home' from nadir to zenith. To commemorate the oh, so fortunate fact that nobody no longer dwelled within their empty fortress? All the members, save for Xemnas and Saïx, were now reunited with their hearts- no longer Nobodies. Able to feel the myriad of emotions that they had longed for at last.
In Saïx's case.. it was quite an anathema. The Luna Diviner, by Xigbar's memory, was the most desperate of the lot to regain his heart; his impetus for everything: stooping below Xemnas and becoming his lapdog, severing his lingering bonds with the Flurry of Dancing Flames, intentional or not. And despite all he had done, more of which Xigbar couldn't recall at the moment, the celestial Moon hadn't grant him his orison.
Not to mention he was turned into a Vessel of Xehanort right after he gained what he had sought for so long...
Arriving at the Brink of Despair, The Castle that Never Was, hovered afloat in the air as it always had. Asymmetrical tower-like structures jutted out with the infamous Nobody sigil engraved on them. Xigbar walked towards the edge of the precarious cliff, eyeing the behemoth-sized abyss that emanated an ominous teal hue below him. Stepping to the right, a bright cerulean pathway was invoked in front of him and connected to a red circular lock that changed to green once fully forged.
He walked in a lackadaisical gait towards the Castle, taking off his hood and pulling out his ponytail when he had entered Nothing's Call. The blotchy, discolored scar on the left side of his face looked as if it were crawling towards his yellow eye. The Freeshooter vividly remembered his- well, Braig's fight with the fallen Keyblade Wielder. Him foolishly underestimating the Keyblade's power resulted in an aftermath that consisted of breaking a few ribs, losing his right eye, and the damned scar on his cheek- completely marring his once youthful and attractive face. "Could've been worse. Could've lost both my eyes," Xigbar murmured to himself, in hopes of lifting his abjectness.
Like the rest of the Castle, presumably, Nothing's Call remained unchanged nor hindered, aside from the dents on the floor from the Keyblade Wielder's blade as he and his companions ventured their way up their domain. The compartment was the standard pale grey colour with arbitrary placings of computer chip structures. Why the World was without Nobodies and Heartless swarming about was a mystery even to Xigbar. It had been less than two weeks since the Keyblade Wielder stormed into their bastion and 'annihilated' the remainder of the Organization. He recalled the diabolic witch and her accomplice joining the battle against the bestial monsters..
Nothing's Call held no further attention to him as he made his way to Crooked Ascension, though he recalled certain times where he would warp to the location in search of time alone. Now, anytime and anywhere in the castle was void of inhabitants, always time and space to be alone.
Disembarking the elevator, Xigbar fixated his gaze on the black bottomless depths through the glassed stairway as he trudged up the steps in Twilight's View. Memories of him conversing with the Cloaked Schemer, condescendingly rebuking the Melodious Nocturne for failing to meet quota during an excursion to the Olympus Coliseum, acclimating the newly recruited Gambler of Fate to his new home, and pulling disapproving antics on his fellow cohorts, returned to the nebulous pool of Xigbar's mind. He rubbed a spot above his left eyebrow to soothe the maelstrom residing in his head as he made way to his death place.
Of all the locations in the Castle that Never Was that Xigbar wanted to revisit, the Hall of Empty Melodies was veritably high on the list. Shutting the door behind him, the Sniper noted how the room possessed more color than the entire castle. The singular long flooring was of cobalt hue that led to the enormous rectangular platform which was rimmed with a pale-blue color. Here this place had served as the Organization's combat-training station for the members and lesser Nobodies.
White wings rested on the walls on either side of the balcony that he once stood upon, eliminating the hordes of Heartless that had swarmed the Chosen One. Xigbar walked to the exact spot where he had 'died' and stared for Kingdom Hearts knows how long. Prior to him initiating battle with the Keyblade Wielder, he, obviously being Xemnas' right-hand henchman, knew very, very well that their dying would not conclude to that abysmal oblivion that they had feared. The reason why he had chosen to engage battle with the young adolescent was not only to abrade and confound the boy, but because he had been ordered to awaken first to 'set the real gears in motion', as Xigbar titled it as.
Yet, what if. What if he weren't Xehanort's accomplice? What if he wasn't Number II? What if he hadn't known Xemnas' true goals like the rest of the Organization? What if their dying DID conclude to that abysmal oblivion?
He sneered in disgust and abhorrence.
"As if," he spat with venom in his voice and yellow iris, storming his way towards the next room where his anger was diminished the nanosecond he stepped foot into the graveyard after violently slamming the entrance door open.
Proof of Existence.