The Forgotten
Chapter 2: Xeharest and The Unwhole
I turned to see who had saved me, and saw a tall, tan skinned man with long silver hair. He had orange eyes and a curious expression on his face. He had one arm across his chest and the other resting on it, supporting his head. He wore a black trenchcoat with chains on the front. He had a kind expression behind the curiosity, and the moonlight on his hair seemed to make it shimmer. My heart beat a little faster, but I didn't feel scared.
After a minute or two, he spoke. He had a quiet, but commanding voice. "What is your name?" I swallowed, my mouth was dry, and my throat felt constricted. At the third attempt, I managed to squeak out my name, in a patheticly cracked voice. "Theresa." I coughed and said it again, relieved that this time my voice was normal. He held his hand up, and my name appeared in blue letters in front of my face. The letters began to spin around and around, circling my head, changing position and mixing themselves up. He stuck his hand out again and a large gold "X" appeared, stopping the letters. Now the name "Xeharest" was in front of my face. "Xeharest, this shall be your new name." He said it again and shivers went down my spine. He said it like it meant something. He took my arm and pulled me toward a cliff beyond the black building.
At the edge he turned to me. "Give me your hand, most new members get quite scared at this. One became so frightened that he r an around screaming and fell off. Landed on his head. Poor Demyx hasn't been the same since. Since then I feel that I cannot let any new member try it at first on their own." I grabbed his hand. "I know that you barely know me, but, do you trust me?" I looked at him. His face begged for me to say yes and I nodded. He stepped off of the cliff. I squeezed his hand tightly as he pulled me with him. I closed my eyes, bracing for the impact of my body splattering on the ground below. I opened my eyes and saw whitish, see-through hexagons beneath my feet. I wasn't falling, I was on an invisible bridge. He let go of my hand. "Do you think you can get used to this?" I nodded, a little shaky at the fact that I was hovering hundreds of feet in the air. He noticed and smiled kindly. "Well, maybe I should make sure you're used to it before I let you try it on your own." He grabbed my hand again and gave it a reassuring squeeze. My heart sped up a little and we walked up the bridge, to a white castle high over our heads.
I was lead inside of the castle, given a black trenchcoat and gloves and brought to the room I am sitting in now. It is all white and there are ridiculously tall chairs everywhere. The one I am to sit on is on the ground at the moment. I stand in the middle of the room, while the man who named me sits in the tallest chair right above me. Others are in other chairs, they seem to be an odd assortment, but I'm hoping that they're friendly. Xemnas, the man who saved me, opens his mouth to talk, and we all listen attentively. "You might all be noticing the girl standing in the middle of the room right now. Her name is Xeharest. The newest member of the Unwhole."The unwhole? That must be the name of this group.
He motions for me to sit in my chair, and it lifts up to be at the same level as his. "As you all know, I am planning on recruiting more members to the Unwhole." I try to listen, but I can't help noticing the way the white light in the room makes his hair glisten. I'm a teenage girl with hormones, give me a break! "Also as you know, I cannot handle that many members by myself. Saix cannot run it, because I need him desperately to help me enough as is." A man with a long ponytail, black and grey hair, and an eyepatch leans to talk to the person next to him. I learn later his name is Xigbar. "Yeah, right, he desperately needs Saix alright, but not for that." I'm too busy thinking about other things to worry about that comment at the moment. "Xeharest will be leading the second half of the group and reporting to me, after watching her battle her heartless, she has proved herself worthy." My name snaps me out of my staring, and my eyes widen. He barely knows me, yet he trusts me as a leader? I can't believe it! "What do you think Xeharest? Can you handle that kind of responsibility?" The other nobodies grumble angrily, wondering why the superior didn't choose them. I nod, trying to appear as confident as possible. "Yes, superior, I think I can."
I spend the rest of my day being shown the castle and my room. Halfway through the day, Saix, a tall man with pointed ears, long blue hair, two scars making an "X" between his eyes and, if I'm to understand Xemnas correctly, a really bad temper, calls Xemnas away for urgent business. Before he leaves he tells me, "Xeharest," Shivers go down my spine again. "Feel free to wander the castle, I've shown you whose room is whose, come find me in mine if you need anything, but try to meet the rest of the group first, ok?" I nod and he leaves the room. Saix turns to me before leaving. "Don't make the mistake Larxene did. He doesn't care about you. He just tries to make the new people think he does. I don't even think he cares about me." I see a look of sadness cross his face then he leaves.
I ponder this for a while. Nobodies without hearts aren't supposed to feel. Then again, when my heart was taken, it seemed almost gellatinus. Maybe, just maybe, only the inside of the heart is taken. Maybe the red shell is left inside, allowing nobodies to feel, just a little bit. Then another thought crosses my mind. Saix looked sad. Is it possible he has feelings for Xemnas? From the way he said it.....does Xemnas have feelings for him?
I can't dwell on this all day, so I head towards number 2, Xigbar's room. In the Unwhole, we are all assigned numbers. Mine is number 15, even though there are 13 of us. Apparently, Xemnas has good information that tells him that he should give that number to someone else. Someone who is already chosen, but not here yet. Same with the number 14. I knock on Xigbar's door and he opens it, looking a little ticked off. When he sees it's me, he smiles a little. "Sorry, Xeharest, I thought you were Larxene accusing me of shooting her bedroom full of holes on purpose." I tilt my head to the side. "Wha-?" He laughs. "She sent me in there to grab her kunai and my gun accidentily went off. It had nothing to do with the fact that she pinned me to the wall with her kunai last week then decided to practice shooting with my guns. Where do you think I got this eyepatch?" He laughs and I smile. I don't know if he's kidding, but he seems to find it funny. "So kid," I roll my eyes....just because I'm the youngest doesn't mean they have to remind me. He continues without noticing. "What brings you here? My well developed musculature?" He does a muscle man pose and I laugh. "Oh, yeah, totally, it has nothing to do with the fact that Xemnas told me to get to know everyone." He pushes me lightly on the shoulder. "of course the noob is taking orders from Mansex." My eyes bug out. "It's a joke that me and Axel have. Xemnas's name can anagram into Mansex, plus, it's funny cuz he has a thing going on with Saix. It's a secret so, naturally, the whole castle knows." He laughs again, and even though I feel upset, I laugh with him, he's too funny not to laugh with. "Well, I'd better finish meeting everyone." He waves as I walk down the hall. "Ok, nice talking with ya!" He walks into his room and shuts the door.
I try to ignore the depression settling in my chest, and get the song "Malchik Gay" out of my head as I head toward number 3, Xaldin's room. Xaldin scares me a little. He has dark skin and dreadlocks pulled into a ponytail. He has the biggest sideburns of any of the guys in the Unwhole and he is unnaturally huge. Plus, from what I saw at the meeting earlier, he likes to stab things with his spears when he gets mad. I knock on his door and he opens it, glaring at me. "What do you want?" I swallow and try not to sound scared. "I'm just trying to meet everyone in the Unwhole." He shakes his head and pulls a bottle of sake out of his coat and takes a sip. "Well now you've met me haven't you? I have a bad temper, and I don't hesitate to use my spears. You know what you need to know, now leave me in peace please." He slams the door in my face. I shrug and walk away. At least I didn't get stabbed.
Vexen, number 4, is next. This should be interesting. When Xemnas told him I still had a heart, he wanted to do experiments on me to see how. I hope he doesn't try it now. He opens the door and his eyes light up. "Oh, hello 15, are you enjoying yourself so far?" So far so good. "Yes, I suppose. How come it smells like sulfur?" He sniffs the air. "Ah, that is just san experiment I'm working on. Trying to make hearts for those of us who have none. Speaking of which, have you any idea how you kept yours?" I shrug. "Maybe it was the way I came to be....or not be or whatever." He sighs. "Well then, unless I can experiment on you this is a waste of time. Good day to you, I have much work to do." He goes back into his room. I roll my eyes. How come the fucking land pirate has better manners than a scientist and a random Jamican dude?
The rest of my conversations with the members aren't much better. Lexaeus, number 5, barely speaks. Plus, with his huge body and muscles, he's very intimidating. Number 6, Zexion, starts talking about the importance of mind over matter and how he can smell people's scents. How emo he looks doesn't help his creepiness. Then again, I had the hair over one eye thing going on before I was a nobody. Saix shoos me away saying something about how he'll give me advice later. I decide not to question why his coat is completely unzipped. He notices that I still have not put mine on and yells at me to do so. I put them on. The coat reminds me of my wizard robes, but wearing gloves all the time will take some getting used to.
I see Axel, number 8, in the hallway and stop to say hello. "Hey, kid." I roll my eyes, unlike Xigbar, he catches it. "Don't sweat it, I call everyone 'kid'. Got it memorized?" I laugh and wonder if he knows anything about Xemnas. "Axel, can I ask a question?" Axel smirks. "Ya just did kid." I roll my eyes and he laughs and nods. "Saix told me that Xemnas tries to make every new person think they're special. But he doesn't reall think they are. Is that true?" Axel shakes his head. "Damn, kid, Saix only tells that to people who either start thinking of themselves as overly important, or people who really fall hard for the guy. I'm assuming you're the latter. If I were you I would listen to him, Got it memorized?" I tilt my head. "Ok, but, he mentioned Larxene. What happened to her?" He sighs. "Larxene used to be as sweet as you are, kid. But she fell for the guy hard than a bag of bricks. Then, when she was totally committed to the Unwhole, he treated her just like everyone else. Which means he treated her like crap. Even though she has someone else now, she's never been the same. She's always angry. Don't turn into that ok? You're too sweet to, besides, another Larxene is a scary thought. She's the one who gave me these. Got it memorized?" He gestures the the diamond shaped scars under his eyes. "Stupid kunai...," he mutters. "Before I go meet numbers 9 through 12, can I ask one thing?" He nods. "How the hell much do you spend on hairgel dude?" He laughs, the long red spikes of his hair bouncing up and down. He says bye and I head toward Demyx's room.
Number 9 opens the door. "Oh my God, you're the new girl! Xeharest, right? It's awesome to meet you! I was just playing my sitar, wanna come in and listen? I can show you my water clones!" I nod, laughing. He seems a little hyper, but pretty friendly. I sit down on his bed and he walks over to a minifridge in the corner. "Monster, red bull, vault, or mountain dew?" I pretend to think about it then say mountain dew. He grabs two and walks over. "I'm just trying to meet everyone, so far, you, Xigbar and Axel are the nicest ones I've met." He laughs picking up his sitar. I notice he has a blonde mullet. Most cannot pull off a mullet but it actually looks really good on him. He starts to play and a few clones of him, made entirely of water appear. After a few minutes he puts down the sitar and turns to talk. "So, hows everything going so far?" I think for a moment. "Confusing, half of it's great and I don't know the other half." He laughs. "Well, I am certainly the wrong person to ask for help, I'm sorry." I laugh. "No problem, thanks for the soda, and the awesome sitar playing, but I wanna meet the rest of the Unwhole before I get too tired, talk to you later?" He nods and waves. "Yeah, see ya!"
I knock on Luxord's door. He's not very tall, taller than me, but not overly tall. The short hair and beard gotee thing have gotten so out of fashion though. He's only interested in playing poker so I move on to Marluxia. He opens the door and again I force myself not to laugh at his pink hair and the pink rose petals that seem to show up every time he lowers his hood. "Ah, the new girl. Hello, I'm Marluxia. I don't have much time to talk right now. I have to go confront the superior about some very important business. I'm sure Larxene has time to talk though." He hurries away and I head for Larxene's room. She opens the door and smirks. "Well, if it isn't Xemnas's little love interest. Has he roped you in too? It's only a matter of time before he breaks your heart." I swallow and try to speak. "Roped....roped me in? To what? I'm not his l-love interest. And I feel nothing for....for him, ok?" She laughs. "Right, and kunai aren't my weapons, oven mitts are. Face it, you've fallen hard too. I'd like to tell you to leave it alone, but seriously, why should I be the only one to go through the pain. I will warn you not to let him take advantage of your feelings though. He'll try. Apparently Saix isn't enough for him." She looks away, and I see hurt and pain in her emerald eyes. The two pieces of blonde hair that stick up, almost like antenna on her head, quiver as she tries not to cry. I nod and tell her I'm tired and head toward my room. I've heard too much. Today has been weird, and I just want to sleep. The last thing I think of before I sleep is that at the beginning of the day I was being dragged with my father to kill a baby, and now here I am in a strange castle, with strange people and we all have strange powers. I yawn, roll over and fall asleep.