Roses are Red.
Namine sat on her little white chair, her white sandals with their white flowers barely grazing the ground, her white dress folded neatly at her thighs, her white sketchpad before her on her lap, her white blonde hair falling elegantly over one shoulder as she gazed at the white paper.
White: she was whiter that white and devoid of all color. She had once thought her eyes were nice when Vexen had told her that you have blue eyes if your eye doesn't have a pigment. They were so very blue and thus she was so very empty from anything other than white. Apart from the castle in which she was imprisoned, she was the only white thing in it. The members of Organization XIII all wore matching black robes, standing out against the bleakness of the castle and making themselves different. They had powers and bright colors about them; she was empty and a witch.
Nothing about her was special. She was forced to do as the Organization members asked of her, bending Sora's memories to her will, and Riku's too. Pushing them and bending their minds until she was sure they would break and still they made her continue. When she refused anymore, they hurt her. They punished her. Larxene had said she was nothing like the Organization members, they were special and she was nothing. Nothing and yet they would never let her be.
She'd seen all of the memories of those she had hurt, she'd seen their childhoods, the rolling fields, shining suns, the flowing seas, the endless skies and all that made the world around her empty. She's seen beautiful things through another persons eyes and her heart ached for the freedom she could never have. She wasn't strong and she couldn't hurt all the Organization at once, only individually and by that point another would come running and most likely kill her. But… isn't that better than this prison?
They never spoke to her unless to her give her an order or crush her further into the dirt of her life… her existence that they delighted in telling her she shouldn't have. They never talked to her, except for Marluxia. He was the worst for his unyielding orders and demands from her but he spoke to her. He would occasionally talk to her for hours when he couldn't sleep. True, if she was asleep he would rouse her and insist she kept him company but she was grateful nonetheless, when the alternative is nothing, what have you got to lose?
She found she liked the conversations they had, they would talk about everything and nothing, sat in the corner of a room they had grudgingly given her when she'd originally just slept in the corridors but Larxene complained she got in the way. Marluxia rarely sat down on anything, even her chair when she was on the floor but he would lean against a wall and talk very softly, Namine had to strain very hard to hear his words but she heard them and replied just as quietly. She knew that Marluxia was doing this against his better judgment and that he would hate it for the other Organization members to discover he spoke more than necessary to their slave.
For that was what she was to them, a tool, a puppet and a slave. She obeyed their every command no matter what it would do to others and she did it with no sound, no complaint and no expression.
But after what she had done to Sora … and then to Riku… she couldn't take it any longer. Things had gotten out of hand. They hadn't broken or bent to the will of their tormentors. They were stronger than that and had merely accepted the changes Namine had made to their memories as fact. She had become their Kairi and they defended her endlessly. She had felt their love for her and their protection that wouldn't stop until they died. She had felt what it was like to be cared for and she had more reason to hate her prison.
She could feel her restraint slipping, she wanted to hurt her captors so much, she wanted to hear them scream, claw at her legs for their freedom and she wanted to see their tears as she would shake her head and deny them it before watching them die. She wanted them to suffer.
She rose from her chair slowly, uncaring as the sketchpad fell from her hold and clattered to the floor, her pencils and colors rolling away and skittering across the marble floor. She began to walk towards the door of the room, her hands reaching out in her mind to the room in her head where she knew her power lay.
She was moving on automatic, each movement slow and deliberate as in her mind she opened the door and immersed herself in the power. She was in the conference room she knew to Organization members conferred with Xemnas in, she'd seen it once, its towering chairs arranged in a circle with the Nobody crest adorning the floor far below. She was in a robe much like their own but it was gleaming white and fell far down her legs flowing all the way down the column of the chair like a silk waterfall to pool at the bottom. She had a sketchpad on her lap again but whereas this one was in her mind, it had chains drawn across it.
Each chain seemed copy a ghost of itself to lift from the page, the original staying on the paper, and criss-cross in the air before her. Outside her mind she saw Larxene exiting her room, the lemon-blonde spied her making Namine way down the corridor and stormed towards her, Namine heard her shrill voice vaguely, demanding an answer to why she wasn't in her room. Namine looked up at her as the woman neared, Larxene's hand raised to strike the sixteen year old girl when Namine reached out in her mind and selected a chain, her hand tightening around a link. She saw Larxene freeze. Namine's lips curved into a maniacal grin, the hand in her mind tightened its grip and the chain creaked. Larxene stiffened and then the hand squeezed the chain so hard it snapped, shattering into pieces and cascading down to the floor in Namine's head and Larxene fell to the floor with a scream that echoed down the halls.
The other members would be sure to hear that, they'd be running towards her right now. Namine's grin widened, that saved her the trouble of finding them. Saix was the first on the seen, his room being the closest to Larxene's. The bluet froze at the sight, Namine towering over a probably dead Larxene but what frightened him the most was the grin on Namine's face. He had a sinking feeling the girl was going to kill him next.
Saix chain snapped and he fell just as Larxene had, slumping to the floor to spasm in pain and scream, his cry being so much louder than any noise that should have been possible to make from a human throat. But these were special circumstances and her grin was locked in place at the thought that she was special.
She turned and saw Roxas and Axel coming, the first of the others by the sound of the pounding footsteps. Roxas held out an arm and stopped Axel as they saw they two forms lying by Namine's feet, eyes open, pupils dilated in fear and mouths agape in a silent scream.
"N-Namine…?" Roxas asked, his voice cracking in fear when Namine reached for his chain, it broke so easily under her gaze and hand, shattering irreparably and falling to the floor. The floor far below her in her mind was glittering with the shards, sparkling like the stars in the night skies she had seen in other people's minds.
Axel caught Roxas as the dark blonde teen fell, his mouth open in a scream that made him cringe with fear, that noise was one that everyone knew, every animal and every living creature knew it, it was the sound of complete fear and the sound before death. "R-Roxas? Roxas!" He shook the body of his closest friend and Namine suspected they were something more behind closed doors when Xemnas couldn't see but she didn't care. Axel was as bad as Xemnas for unfeeling orders and Roxas had never even spoke to her, never looked at her, she was merely an object like a table or something much less useful in his mind. Her grin faded and her eyebrows arched downwards, glaring at the two males, one dead and one nearly dead. Her hands gripped Axel's chain in two places and tore it with such anger that the shards sprayed out in a twinkling arc as they flew outwards.
Axel screamed just like the rest and collapsed with Roxas, their hands intertwined and Axel's head resting in the crook of Roxas' neck. Namine almost thought it sweet as she saw Vexen, Zexion and Lexaeus. The Basement group that monitored the undergrounds of Castle Oblivion. Zexion had found her… his power sensing her in the lowest part of the castle and he brought her to Xemnas. He'd never spoken to her either; he'd hauled her to her feet and dragged her back to face Xemnas, not one word from him. Vexen was full of foul words to grind her life further into nothing and Lexaeus… he'd been the one to give her the name 'witch'.
Her hands tore through the metal chains and they fell just as the others had, clattering to the floor and breaking them instantly. Vexen went first, followed by Lexaeus but Zexion fought it for a moment, his hand reaching out to her and whispering her name, "N-Namine…'m s-sorry."
With his apology said he fell like s doll, his body splayed out, the black robe around him like a pall. She almost paused at his words but she shrugged it away with a turn of her head, the words were needlessly said, with them at her mercy she knew they would all be sorry. She heard footsteps and saw Xaldin and Xigbar running towards her with Luxord not far behind. They didn't seem to pause as they produced their weapons and hurled themselves at her. She was mildly amused as they tried to attack her, freezing their assault as she took all three of their chains in her hand, her other hand holding it just as tight further down.
Their momentum halted, they landed back on the ground, crouched over at the pain that was obviously shooting through them. The corner of her mouth twitched with amusement as they tried to fight her hold but she just tightened it and they fell, screaming. And then she broke them. Like a fragile vase their minds shattered and fell as hard as their bodies did, hitting the floor with a resounding thud.
"…I heard it from over here, Superior." She heard Demyx voice calling.
She looked up, the bangs of white blonde over her eyes as she watched Xemnas and Demyx round the corner. This was far too easy, her grin was back and held fast as she shattered Xemnas without another thought, but as her hand reached towards Demyx' chain, she paused. He had snuck her out of her room one night and let her listen to him playing music on his sitar, rather than his power this was simply his hobby and he loved it so much she could hear the passionate music as though he were playing that moment. Her face softened and Demyx watched her with fear, she noticed this and then realized he wasn't hoping fro his forgiveness, he knew he was just as guilty and he was waiting for the blow. He had stood with the others when they had punished her and struck her down and he hadn't done anything.
She snapped it and listened to the screams echo in her mind, a clarion call of fear and death that ran through her. Their retribution, she surmised. They wanted to break her as she had broken them but this was her power. She could shake them from existence now… make the world forget they ever existed… but she didn't. Her heart fought with her rage and she held her head in pain as neither could compromise and the screams grew louder until her own joined the fray.
"I'M SPECIAL! I'M SPECIAL!" She screamed so loud her throat felt as though it was being torn in half.
The screams were reaching the point where she knew her ears were bleeding, she couldn't stop them and she couldn't stop her own screaming. She heard footsteps and her rage seemed to freeze, her heart had power now and it wasn't capable of killing and her rage had left her. She knew that she'd missed someone and now she would die. She didn't care and she turned her head as far as she dared to face the person as they came around the corner, their footsteps halting as they spied the sea of dead black and the beacon of white at the centre. She was crying and she just wanted released from the life that choked her.
"I'm special… I'm special…" She couldn't hold back the pent up tears of sixteen years of neglect and torture when she knew there was a better life out there. The tears fell like liquid crystal from her empty blue eyes and she couldn't see; her surroundings all blurring into a fuzzy haze.
She felt arms wrap around her as her knees buckled, holding her tightly and refusing to let her fall when she couldn't hold herself up. Her fingers clawed into the material at the others shoulders and she buried her face into their neck, "I am special… I am special…" She felt their arms tighten; a hand on her hair soothing her softly and words whispered in her ear.
"You are… you are special…" She knew that voice…
"M-Marluxia..?" Her voice was raw with screaming and crying but she still spoke, ignoring the pain that speaking caused her.
Rubbing her eyes free of tears she stared up at the face of the only one she'd missed, his cream skin, dark blue eyes and pink hair. He seemed so angelic she could barely bring herself to do it, she was still in that room in her mind and even the girl in her head was crying but her hand outstretched could just take the chain and break it, she was but a hairsbreadth away from complete and utter destruction of his mind but she couldn't take it. He'd been cruel and kind to her on numerous occasions, he'd even explained to her why he was cruel. He couldn't show weakness to the others lest the harm both of them and he couldn't let her kindness cost the Superior so he'd been cruel to be kind. At the time she hadn't believed him but being held by him rather than being suitably killed for her actions she realized he never meant to harm her.
He'd never hit her before, only snapped at her with words and now he was all that stood between her and oblivion, holding her up and keeping her back as the insanity passed. She could break them all with one strike… but then… then she couldn't…
Marluxia's hold on her grounded her and her hand in her mind faltered, drawing back into itself as the chains began to fade, the room beginning to disappear into nothingness and she hit reality with a shudder and ripple through the air like water. Her eyes were fully focused now and she stared once again at Marluxia, his face close to hers as she gasped for air.
"Its okay, Namine, It's all over… you are special." Marluxia whispered as she buried her face into his chest and they sat on the floor, Marluxia's cloak shielding them from the death around them and holding them both close as the endlessness washed over them like waves.
Her hand sought out his as she rested on his chest, her body over his and slipping into an exhausted sleep with dreams free from oppression and despair. Her mind filled with thoughts of bright colors, tall grass, soft sand and boundless skies, cradling her and Marluxia, their faces alive with life and happy smiles of peace. But that was for tomorrow and right then was for them to sleep. Sleep and forget.
I just wanted to post this oneshot. I have always had a soft spot for Namine/Marluxia, dunno why. I hope you like it ;P
