Chapter 2
By the time Roxas made it out of the dining hall, he was in a much better mood than he had been entering - even the sickly whites and grays that constituted the building's entire color palette didn't put him off too badly. Of course, he was also that much closer to insanity - but that would honestly just make him more at home in the place by this point, so he didn't fight it very hard.
He escaped his two companions with a hasty excuse - just because he was in a better mood didn't mean he wanted to deal with the two dumbasses any more than he had to - and took off at a jog towards the darkly elegant staircases that led to the upper reaches of the castle. Much to his surprise, the other creatures - nobodies, like him, he remembered - scattered throughout the castle didn't give him a second thought. He supposed that must have been one of the advantages of not being properly human.
He reached the flat top of the castle within minutes, only to find it already occupied, by another member he didn't recognize. The man's slate-grey hair - styled just perfectly to cover half his face - glinted under the light of their artificial moon, and he gave the intruder a cold look, evaluating.
"So," he murmured, mostly to himself, "You're the Keyblade's chosen one."
Roxas twitched a little at that - this guy was going to kill his euphoria.
"I guess," he responded noncommittally. "Nobody's bothered yet to tell me what that means, though. So, who are you and what the fuck are you going on about?"
His question was met with a choked, amused noise from the other, and they both crossed their arms as if this was some sort of competition.
"You are the Keyblade master's Nobody," he responded, eyes dripping toneless condescension. He took a step forward, then another, bangs waving in the breeze, and Roxas felt his good mood abruptly evaporate. That was happening annoyingly often.
Simply put, the idea of just being half of another person was quite repulsive. He wasn't sure whether it was that or Zexion's uppity attitude that was pissing him off more just then - but neither was making him particularly happy.
"Is that so. Why do you want me, then?" he responded, matching Zexion's arrogant manner point for point, though he didn't come by it quite as effortlessly as his elder appeared to. "Why don't you just capture this Sora and be done with it? You should leave me out of your stupid problems."
"You can rest assured that plans are already being made for the use of your Other. However," he continued, "given that your Other has an inordinate amount of power over hearts, and feelings - a power that seems to be linked in some way to the Keyblade - and given that you, a Nobody, also wields the Keyblade, you could advance our research immensely."
Suddenly, another voice interrupted their conversation over the crackling of a portal, familiar in its dauntless cheeriness.
"Aww, Zexy," Demyx said, ignoring Zexion's wince at the interruption - and the nickname - as he walked forward, " play nice with the new kid." He turned to Roxas with a small smile, then, in a half-apology. "What Zexion really means to say is that you're useful to our team. That, and, we generally won't refuse entry to any Nobody who kept their human form." Roxas wasn't quite sure what the tone in the other's voice meant, and before he could decipher it, the conversation had moved along. "It says worlds about your strength of character, you know."
That hit a sore spot.
"Or my Other's strength of character," he muttered, tone angry to hide the edge of quiet bitterness., though Demyx gave him a look that said he'd caught it anyway.
"Don't be like that," the older blonde said with another smile, and the other was surprised by the warm tinge of sadness in the other's expression. "Being a Nobody doesn't mean you're not a person, same as anyone else."
"Demyx," Zexion began - a careful warning, which the other subsequently ignored.
"No, Zexion, he needs to hear this," the blonde cut him off firmly. "I don't care if you believe what I'm saying or not.
That silenced him, at least for the moment - and Roxas marveled at that, how such a seemingly weak individual could garner so much respect, even from his superior. It occurred to him after a moment's thought, however, that Demyx, too, had kept his human form. There are many different kinds of strength.
"Anyway, Rox," he continued, "You're you, not Sora's Other or the Keyblade Bearer. Don't let anyone - even this big idiot - tell you otherwise."
There was a long silence, and Roxas looked from one to the other.
"Alright," he finally agreed, only half believing it. He crossed his arms uncomfortably, then, not realizing just how defensive it made him look - but he didn't want to be there, clearly, or to admit defeat by leaving. The older blonde saved him the trouble by grabbing Zexion by the arm and creating a portal.
"We had better go," he said with a pointed glance that even Roxas couldn't miss. "But, it was nice talking to you."
He created a portal with his left hand, then, and began dragging the other off towards it - though Zexion, petulant as ever, didn't so much agree to leave as was forced through. With an amused and slightly embarrassed wave, the two disappeared, leaving Roxas with a whole hell of a lot to think about.
XXX
"Zexion," Demyx began, exasperated, once they had left and settled down for tea in Zexion's tidy, pastel-colored sitting room, "You're not allowed to traumatize new members until I've had a chance to talk to them. Haven't we been over this?"
Zexion glared expertly at his rose-petal tea in its china cup as he purposefully avoided the gaze of the blonde across from him, partially because he didn't want to respond and partially because he didn't want to watch as Demyx murdered his own cup of tea by drowning it in sugar.
"I'm not traumatizing him," he responded irritably, "I'm informing him. I've told him nothing but the truth so far." Logic, apparently, had no effect on the other, because the younger sighed in apparent annoyance at his words.
"Roxas has the right to decide for himself whether it's truth or not, Zexion." Another cube of sugar disappeared into the syrupy abyss of Demyx's teacup.
Those cups were Royal Patrician china. He should have more respect for tea consumed in such fine tableware.
"If you prefer," he acquiesced gracefully, still distracted by the atrocity being committed not two feet in front of him. "But," he continued, dragging his gaze up to the other's unperturbed smile, "I think that your approach may leave him unprepared for the realities of life as a Nobody."
This was true - no-one but Demyx was going to show him so much understanding. They were going to tear him apart if he wasn't prepared.
"He'll figure it out," Demyx responded confidently, taking his first sip of his syrup. "In any case, he'll get more than enough cynicism from the other members."
That, at least, was true enough - but its implications required some response.
"…If you are waiting for me to acquire your unhealthy sense of optimism, you are going to be sorely disappointed," he informed the other with a raised eyebrow and no small amount of amusement.
Demyx laughed, practically sparking with something that made the Cloaked Schemer distinctly uncomfortable.
"No… I'm not waiting for that," he mentioned cheekily, and drained the last of his tea in an instant before waving and turning to go, leaving Zexion wondering just what he was waiting for.
He wasn't entirely sure whether to be disturbed or not.
XXX
It used to be that Marluxia's garden had stood out like a duck in a marching band among the stark winding staircases of the Castle that Never Was, but Axel noted with something approaching despair that he had long since gotten used to flowers taking over the upper reaches. It helped, though, that Vexen was violently allergic to roses - or psychologically allergic, considering what they were and everything, though that made it even better - and he spent all of his spare time yelling at the impassive Number Ten about how flowers did not belong in the headquarters of the Organization.
It didn't have much effect, but was amusing as all hell to watch. The scientist liked to go on and on about how he got no respect around that place, though Marluxia just gave his best amused smile - the fucker always smiled like he knew something you didn't, which tended to be less annoying when it was turned on someone else - and went about pulling weeds.
Sometimes, when he thought nobody was looking, Axel had seen him trying to train his Nobodies to trim rosebushes, which was funny as fuck too. He was keeping that little fact on the back burner to simmer until he found the best way it could be used against him. Or, until the Graceful Assassin did something that was in need of some particularly humiliating retaliation. Either was fine.
But on that particular day, Marluxia was joined in his garden not by a perturbed Vexen or Nobodies secretly trimming the verge, but by Larxene, who was amusing enough for two in her own right. The both of them seemed to be arguing over something - or rather, she was arguing and he was deflecting, in that arrogant, self-possessed way he had.
"Why are we waiting? What are we putting up with him for? We could finish this," she hissed, voice climbing octaves with the level of her frustration.
"We're waiting for the right time," Marluxia told her with an almost Zen-like calm, and effortlessly crushed the head of what appeared to be a small grub-worm between his fingers, smiling assuredly the whole time. This brought up the question of how insects made it onto the World that Never Was - but then, it could always have been a Nobody grub-worm. No accounting for Fate's sense of humor, after all.
"The right time? What could be better?! The Superior's distracted, and -"
Marluxia cut her off, eyes flashing in Axel's general direction, as he put his left hand up to pause her - the right was busy wiping Nobody grub-worm guts on his uniform. Classy.
"I believe," he said with a smile almost as false as the one the redhead put on in that instant, "that we have a guest, Larxene."
Interesting. So it was something important. He would have to eavesdrop on them more often.
Those musings were interrupted periodically by thoughts of how perfect those two were for each other - they'd both kill you without a second thought and smile the whole fucking time.
Then again, by that description, he fit in perfectly with them. The perfect threesome - a triumvirate of sadism. Axel laughed to himself at that thought as he stepped forward around a particularly healthy bush.
"If it's not my two favorite people," he lied, knowing he was being blindingly obvious and not caring. "What, lover's spat?"
Larxene's gaze became particularly stormy as Axel stepped in, contrasting - or not - with the evil grin she still wore. The moonlight made her look particularly venomous, which was distinctly appropriate.
"Get the fuck out of here," she snarled, and the redhead feigned intense, soul-rending pain at her words.
"Ouch. You cut me deep," he said, clutching at his chest. "Stabbed right where my heart ought to be." He pause, and her eyes narrowed. "Anyway, why the hate? Haven't done anything to you. Recently," he added with a feline grin.
Almost immediately after he said that, he remembered their last meeting - he had presented her with a copy of Aliénor de Poitiers's fifteenth century book on court manners, hidden under the cover of the Marquis de Sade's early treatise on pain in sex. Likely, she hadn't been particularly happy with that - he couldn't imagine why not.
"Go fuck yourself."
"You know, Miss Poitiers would be real disappointed in you," he drawled, smirking. "She can't help you if you don't use her wisdom," he said with a pointed stare and a laugh. His gaze glanced over Marluxia for a moment - he couldn't help but appreciate the man's body, despite his general arrogant manner and the fact that he was a complete asshole. Didn't stop him from looking - or from tasting, a time or two.
It was easy enough to get a good fuck when he learned - completely by accident, naturally - that power play was what did it for the assassin.
"We were having a discussion," Larxene informed the redhead, interrupting his thoughts with a smile that promised excruciating pain. "And you need to take your bony ass and scramble the fuck out of here before I cut off your genitals and shove them down your throat until you suffocate. You would die like you lived, sucking cock." She paused, and even Marluxia had the decency to look mildly impressed. She was getting better . "Is this quite clear to you?"
"Crystal, sheesh," Axel laughed, still not caught off balance even by her threats, putting his hands up in a placatory gesture. "I'm leaving, I'm leaving. Unless you want me to stay and demonstrate my skills," he leered in Marluxia's general direction. He, most unfortunately, didn't appear to be biting, in any sense.
"Axel," the other man responded in warning.
"Alright, I get it. I'm off. You two lovebirds have fun without me," he drawled carelessly as he left, with a falsely cheery wave over his shoulder.
Well, that was altogether too much fun, he thought to himself as he walked through his portal, blacks and purples swirling around him. I should really piss them off more often. And with that mental note, he headed off towards Roxas's new room, whistling as he went.
XXX
The general creepiness of the situation, Roxas noted with annoyance, was offset only by the fact that he'd wager Vexen was incapable of any kind of sex. If it had been anyone else showing up in his new bedroom unannounced, he would have given them a swift kick to the dick and left them with that. The only reason he wasn't now was because he wasn't entirely sure whether the scientist actually had a dick or not.
It was really amazing how someone so sexless could give off such pedophile vibes.
"For the last time," Roxas repeated, annoyed. "I'm not going with you anywhere."
Vexen went a little bug-eyed at that, and the younger was sorely tempted to ask him just what species he had been before becoming a Nobody. He settled, instead, for scowling - but that was his general response to life anyway.
"I need to perform tests on you. For the betterment of our research, and furthering our cause," he said in what was surely meant to be an inspiring sort of voice, but fell horribly flat. He was like a political speaker who accidentally blundered onto the stage at the opposition's protest rally - idiotic beyond redemption and always about two steps away from being stoned.
"And I keep telling you no!" Roxas shot back. "You can shove your test tubes up your own ass. I don't trust you and I don't trust your science."
"Science," he informed the younger imperiously, "Is the reason for your existence. Science is the way we came to be how we are and how we'll get back again. It's the explanation for all things, and the highest aspiration anyone can have."
Roxas was fairly sure that the audience was about to get medieval on his ass. Stoning would be the least of his worries.
"Fine, great, but go aspire on your own. I'm not going to be your little playtoy," he shot back, arms crossed and not backing down an inch.
"The Superior orders it," he threw out desperately, one eye bugging out even further than the other, and I was fairly certain that he was lying. Xemnas didn't seem to do much more than stargaze - and possibly do interior decoration.
"Then let him come down here and tell me himself. Get out."
Roxas heard his door open quietly, and spent a moment being thankful that, firstly, he had a door at all - his last was in millions of pieces over the floor - and secondly, that his new visitor had bothered to use it. A quick glance told him that it was Axel, and he was bizarrely grateful for the rescue.
"You heard the kid," Axel noted with a half-smirk as Vexen's eyes did their very best to roll so that they could watch both men at once. He only succeeded in looking more than a little bit confused, though his face did contort extraordinarily. "Leave, or I'll make sure Xaldin knows you were harassing the Keyblade Bearer - in his own bedroom, I might add." Axel's words came with a grin that was all teeth and danger. "He might not be too happy about that, see. His lances are sharp, y'know, and they'd love to taste your gut."
Vexen gave him a look that bordered on pure hatred, but that just seemed to increase Axel's amusement at the whole thing. After a - brief - stare-down, during which the blonde doctor was decidedly on the losing side, he turned around and with a sniff that was meant to be haughty, left - out the door, this time.
"Very well, but you'll regret it when the Superior hears how noncompliant you have been," he said as he swung the door shut, evidently not expecting any sort of reply, after which Roxas gave a long sigh of relief.
"Thanks. He wasn't leaving me alone."
"All in a day's work," the redhead responded with a smirk. "You just gotta learn to boss him around a little. He pretends to be a lot tougher than he is, and for the record, Xemnas and Saïx won't back him up in his little plots when he's being an idiot, so no need to worry about it."
"That's… that's good, I suppose." At least the higher-ups weren't supporting him in his stupidity - that was definitely a plus. He paused for a moment, glance falling on Axel's tattoos, then across the perfectly made bed. "Anyway, what are you doing here? Don't you have more important things to do?"
The redhead's cautiously eager expression made Roxas more than a little bit uncomfortable, but he didn't comment on it. Within a moment, it was hidden behind his casual smirk, leaving the blonde to wonder whether it had been his imagination.
"More important than showing our newest member the ropes? Nah." He paused, slinging a lanky arm over the younger's - admittedly reluctant - shoulders. "Things are kinda slow right about now anyway."
Odd, really, that members of the Organization found themselves without anything to do so very often. It said a lot about them, really.
"What, no plots to take over the universe?"
"Those are for next month," he responded cheerily. "In any case, you and I are going someplace together," he stated rather than asked. "To get to know each other, you know."
"I don't think…" The blonde drifted off, then, implying the end of his sentence. Everybody here seemed way too interested in him - he could only assume that they didn't really get much excitement.
"Come on," the other wheedled, "To get to know each other and shit. It'll be fun. There's not much company around here other than psychopaths and idiots, and some of them are both."
That seemed like an unfairly apt description of the rest of the Organization, and Roxas took a moment to pity the other - and himself, too. After a moment, he finally met Axel's gaze and responded.
"Yeah, alright," he agreed grudgingly, trying not to let the redhead's happy expression make him smile in return. He wouldn't give in that easily. He wouldn't.
XXX
Moonlight shone cheerily onto the roof of the Imperial Palace as Xemnas stepped out confidently onto the wood, tailed as usual by a rather more wary Saïx. They didn't know, yet, precisely what this world might entail - the reports of the Dusk and lower Nobodies were rarely to be trusted - and so the Luna Diviner found it not only inappropriate but possibly dangerous to be completely uninterested in one's surroundings. But then, it was almost always up to him to figure out the practicalities of life while his Superior focused on the larger picture, like where would be the most strategically beneficial world to go for next.
"Is this acceptable?" he asked with a wide gesture towards their surroundings, voice rumbling as his Superior's eyes roved the courtyard, focusing on a small figure making its way across the bridge. Saïx's animal-keen gaze recognized the strong lines of that face, even from their distance - Captain Shang, looking just the same as the reports had indicated; and as expected, a likely candidate for manipulation to their own goals.
"Quite," Xemnas replied back, smooth as ever. "I think we will leave this one to Xaldin's considerable intellect."
"A wise decision," Saïx agreed, though privately he had set his sights on this particular world - but whatever his lord required, he fulfilled, in the service of their greater goal. As soon as Captain Shang was out of sight, they created another portal and stepped back through, onto the next possible conquest. They had a list, of sorts, and though Xemnas would not allow the indignity of checking it off on paper, he did quite the same thing mentally, adding notes as he went along.
In the back of his head, he realized uncomfortably that the job he did was disturbingly alike to a secretary's - but, as always, he pretended he had never thought it as he set foot onto the next world.
--
Halloweentown was more or less as Saïx had expected - a gaunt and dreary place that was comfortable despite how forlorn everything appeared. It took only moments to realize that the only unexpected factor was their own appearance.
"Um, sir," he began, not allowing his face to betray the surprise or incredulity - not to mention the hollow amusement - that Xemnas's new wardrobe brought on. He still wore his black trench coat, but a pair of rather nice scaled wings had sprouted from the back, and his lower half appeared decidedly… serpentine. A jewel in his forehead completed his new look, but judging by the expression of mild disgust and the hand to his new adornments, he was none to pleased. "I…" He drifted off then, not entirely sure of how to bring up a conversation on the topic.
"…You, also, don't appear entirely like your normal self," Xemnas noted with something approaching derision, and Saïx put a hand up - a now clawed hand - to find that he had somehow developed fur within the last minute or so. And fangs, though that wasn't nearly so much trouble.
"…Interesting," he said, but privately he hoped that they would step right back where they had come from and not come back. Whatever that world had to offer couldn't be worth the level of humiliation it brought.
"…Well. I believe we should keep this world in the back of our minds for now, and be thinking of alternative plans."
That was one of the many moments when he was immensely grateful for his leader's genius.
--
In Atlantica, it was Xemnas who spoke up first. Saïx was too busy being rendered speechless by their long - and rather handsomely gemstone-colored - tails.
"There is nothing in any of the hells that would make me put up with this again."
Saïx quite agreed.
--
They thankfully saw the Pride Lands before stepping out of their portal.
Both refused, without a word, to even go in.
In the end, the list of worlds they would use was considerably shorter than they might have imagined. Both were more grateful for that than they could comfortably admit.
XXX
It took only about a total of five or so minutes for Roxas and Axel to appear at the location the latter had decided upon, upon which occasion the younger felt the need to - mentally - congratulate the other on his good taste. They stood together on the edge of the clock tower's rim in Twilight Town, the massive edifice standing out firmly among the other structures of the upper reaches. Below them, everything was painted in orange and red - it was approaching dusk there, though Roxas seemed to remember the town having that coloring at all times of day - and it stretched out for what seemed like miles until it reached the edge, smooth and subtle as the buildings slowly faded to nothing, and beyond that lay the sea in all its glory.
"Nice place," the blonde said, maybe a little bit breathless from the view - and Axel laughed because the understatement was brazenly obvious, and they both knew it.
"I thought so too," he agreed with a grin, then paused thoughtfully. "Wait, wait. We're missing something, don't you agree?"
The other opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by Axel's sudden disappearance, returning moments later with a pair of - probably stolen - ice cream bars in his hands.
"Sea salt ice cream," he said as he handed one of them to the younger, and sat down on the edge of the tower, "I hear it's the best shit out there," he drawled, still trying to sound like a badass and failing miserably. There weren't very many people in the world who could still look terrifying while sucking on an ice pop, and Axel was most unfortunately not one of them.
"Is it really," Roxas murmured as he followed the other's example, gamely taking a lick as he sat down next to the redhead and finding it to be quite acceptable in flavor. He was almost surprised by how comfortable he was in that moment, watching the train go by and eating sweets with someone who was probably one of the most dangerous men alive. If they could, of course, be defined as living.
"Not bad," the blonde finally agreed with a small smile, casually monitoring the progress of a group of friends across the square below them.
"Whoa, whoa - hold everything," Axel said with an overtone of excitement that made the other look up questioningly. "Was that a smile I just saw from you?"
Roxas fixed that mistake within a half-second, schooling his features back down to his practiced scowl.
"No, no, don't be like that," the redhead continued, almost pleading, but with an eager look of happiness that almost made up for Roxas's momentary embarrassment. "I didn't mean anything by it. Seriously, you should do it more often."
"…I think I'm good," came Roxas's carefully neutral response. He had the distinct feeling that the rest of the Organization would - figuratively, he hoped - tear him into tiny, flavorful bite-sized pieces if he was anything less than perfectly callous.
"No no, come on," the redhead wheedled with a small grin, "I bring you up here, buy-"
"- steal," Roxas cut in.
"- buy you ice cream, and you can't even give me one little smile?" he asked, eyes wide in what he was probably unaware was a decidedly puppy like expression. The blonde sighed, shaking his head and taking a lick of his melting ice cream. He was perfectly aware that the other man had seen him smile before, at least once - but he supposed the difference was that, that time, he had been doing it honestly.
"…You don't want me to end up like Demyx, as the organization's punching bag, do you?" he muttered in response, absently playing with one of the many chains on his coat. Psychologists must have had some kind of name for that, really - for joking about what was really bothering you.
"Hey, Demyx is a lot stronger than he lets on," he informed the other, tone slightly defensive if he listened carefully. "He could kick most of their asses if he wanted." Axel paused then, sucking on the end of his ice pop. "But I see your point. Though," he continued, "it's not like I want you to smile in front of them, anyway." The last part of that thought went unsaid.
The most annoying part was that Axel somehow made it sound so appealing.
XXX
Not so very long after the acquisition of Number Thirteen, Roxas, Marluxia chanced upon something of a treat - an imposing white castle, set down improbably in what seemed quite like the middle of nowhere, which had been inhabited for some time by a tiny spineless girl who went by the name of Naminé. She had been born into that world alone, in that castle - which appeared to have extraordinary properties itself - and had, knowing that she lacked something intangible, named herself.
Once he had ascertained these facts, he decided that she appeared to be a Nobody, like he himself was, and it took Marluxia more than a little bit of thinking to understand why the Superior hadn't found her and named her himself as was his custom. His first thought on the matter was that Xemnas was perhaps even more fallible than the assassin had previously thought him.
However, after even a short acquaintance with the girl-child, it became apparent that she didn't have even the most basic abilities attributed to their kind. She had almost no connection to the darkness and even less fighting ability - and as if sensing that, the fates had decided not to gift her with a weapon. Likely, it was the absence of those attributes that made her difficult to detect by whatever Xemnas's normal methods might have been.
Naminé herself was small and pale, a ghostly white to match the sterility of the castle she had come into being with, and delicate the sort of child who would never be able to stand up for herself.
That, of course, made her easy to manipulate. That one quality - in addition to the ability, she later admitted, to manipulate the memories of the Keyblade Bearer and those close to him - made her perfect for Marluxia's plans.
He discovered through her careless use of words that the one thing she desired most in that world was friendship, understanding, and compassion. He pretended to give her the first, though he was quite incapable of the last two, and, promising to return with more companions, he left her locked in her ivory tower. There, she would wait for him to return - he, her knight in polished armor, coming to rescue her from her loneliness in despair.
He didn't plan to return, of course, until she was quite broken.
XXX
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