The Organization--The Early Years
"Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"
That saying never seemed relevant before, but it fit Xehanort's insanity quite well. While Ansem amplified the Darkness out of childlike, superstitious fear, Xehanort did the same because he sought to draw power from the Darkness, to become something more than just a mere researcher. Who is more of a fool? That all depends on how you look at it, I guess.
Either way, those two fools eventually caused the downfall of our research, our city--and even our world. But any natural force driven to its destructive limits has other side-effects beyond simple destruction, and so the Organization XIII was born.
As we soon discovered, the body did not simply fade away when a Heartless sprung forth from it--it was sent to another world, far away from Radiant Garden and its insane Darkness-fearing king.
Xehanort was the first to go, but his transformation was quite different from the rest in two ways--first of all, his heart already contained an immense amount of Darkness long before any experimentation was done, and second of all, he gave his body up willingly.
I'm not sure which of those differences was the cause, but somehow Xehanort's Heartless retained the form of its former body, with only a few minor changes taking place. Once Xehanort was a Heartless, he insisted on each of his fellow researchers becoming one as well--but none of us would go willingly.
The unwillingness of others never stopped Ansem, and it never stopped Xehanort either. For a second acting just like any other Heartless, he tore our hearts from our bodies by force and transformed them into Heartless--mindless, insect-like Heartless, not like Xehanort. My heart ended up as some kind of bizarre lizard-like creature, but I can't remember exactly what became of the other four Heartless.
Whatever happened to our hearts, it was of no concern to us anymore. They were lost, blending in with all of the other Heartless that were steadily amassing within the dungeons of Ansem's castle. We were now Nobodies--still ourselves, but somehow not--and we had arrived on a new world.
Each of us knew, somehow, that we were no longer the same beings as before. Because of this, we each decided to choose a new name--Xehanort, who by this time had been calling himself "Ansem" for years, chose the name "Xemnas." It was his previous name rearranged, with a single X added to symbolize the heart that each of us had lost. This X, much like the X in algebra, was a variable--though each X looked the same, they all symbolized a different heart.
Braig, formerly the one in charge of money and scientific supplies in the group as well as the second-oldest, was now Xigbar.
Dilan, the group's bodyguard and the third-oldest member, was now Xaldin.
Even, who was once the greatest scientist of the group as well as the oldest, was now Vexen.
Elaeus, the man in charge of food and other supplies as well as the one who did any construction work required, was now Lexaeus.
And I, formerly Ienzo, the group's tactician and janitor, was now Zexion.
Xemnas set himself up as the leader of this "new" group--if you could really say it was a new group at all--and began referring to himself as "the Superior." Fortunately, he was no longer obsessed with Darkness--unfortunately, this obsession had shifted toward the hearts themselves rather than either of the two forces within.
We first discovered an ancient castle on the outskirts of the world we had arrived in. It seemed abandoned, not touched by any form of intelligent life for several thousand years yet still standing, unharmed by the elements. We avoided the castle--it was too large and too unkept for six people to possibly clean up.
Not long after our discovery of Castle Oblivion came our first encounter with other Nobodies. At the time, we didn't realize that we, as intelligent Nobodies, could control the lesser varieties, so we were forced to fight them off. It was then that we discovered the strange new powers that we had gained as Nobodies.
We could each control some type of matter or energy, and each of us were able to summon forth a powerful weapon out of pure energy. Summoning the weapons came quickly, and seemed to be mostly based on instinct--controlling our other powers came much more slowly, which was quite a problem for Xemnas, Vexen, and I, who lacked much skill in physical combat.
The first Nobodies--the ones we now call "Dusks"--were fought off by Lexaeus and Xaldin, though it was quite an effort at first, even for them. Eventually each of us gained better control over our powers, built up our physical strength, and grew more skillful with our weapons. Working together, we managed to fight off the other, less-intelligent Nobodies that had arrived on our new homeworld with us, along with other enemies--Heartless, thieves, mobs of villagers intent on burning us at the stake, and more. There was even a lone Keyblade wielder, the first we had ever encountered anywhere outside of the ancient legends, who proved to be our most difficult challenge, by far, in the early years.
Xemnas, originally one of the weakest of the group, quickly grew incredibly powerful as he mastered his combat skills. Rather than wielding a physical weapon, he preferred to fight with blades of pure energy which could be formed in his hands without even the slightest amount of concentration--revealing his rather frightening power of making small amounts of energy from nothing.
Xigbar, too, grew powerful--his powers allowed him to manipulate the very fabric of space, transporting him from place to place in an instant or letting him ignore gravity's pull. He quickly grew fond of floating in midair, upside-down, while gunning down the near-helpless Nobodies that attacked him. Even now, this trick is one of his favorite moves in battle.
Xaldin, though not very skilled in day-to-day life, become monstrously powerful in battle, second only to Xemnas out of the original six members. Though at first he could only call forth one of them, he eventually became so skilled at combining his weapons with his wind powers that he was able to control six spears at once, whirling around, slashing and jabbing at anything that moved.
Vexen lacked strength in combat, but his powers--and weapon--weren't meant to be used with just brute force. His weapon was a spiked shield, optimized for defense but capable of dealing a good blow to an enemy as well. Using his powers, he was able to chill the air around him, making it painful for an opponent to move or even freezing them in place.
Lexaeus, like Xaldin, grew to be a very powerful fighter in our early years. His weapon, a strange axe-like blade which he called a "tomahawk," was by far the most dangerous one in the early Organization, capable of crushing an enemy's bones, splitting them cleanly in half, or both. Also like Xaldin, Lexaeus was good at using both his weapon and his powers at once, causing earthquakes with a slam to the ground or launching a barrage of rocks at his opponents.
And I... I was, sadly, left behind in the combat department. Even Vexen could easily defeat me, both in physical and energy-based combat, without much trouble. Though I had the advantage of youth, it seemed that youth really wasn't as much of an advantage for Nobodies as it was for normal humans--so I was forced to use my mind, rather than my weapon, to fight. My powers allowed me to manipulate others with illusions, so I developed these powers to the highest level. At the height of my power, I could convince someone that their best friend was trying to kill them--and have them not only believe it, but feel the pain from each of their friend's blows.
But that power is gone. I'm no longer a weaver of shadows, but a shadow.