Tim Fortune
Presents
THE TRAGEDY OF MARLUXIA, LORD OF CASTLE OBLIVION
or
The Nobody Play
Chapter the Second
The Taking of Power
Marluxia paced outside of Larxene's room. After hearing the prediction and receiving the news of his promotion, it was just too interesting not to tell her.
She was, without a single doubt, the best friend he had at the Castle. Vexen was alright for a conversation or two, but as far as tangible friendship went, there was none better than her.
Once again, the Assassin didn't know why. But he didn't dwell on it too much. A friend was a friend after all. Especially in this den of emotional deadness.
He knew that she didn't really like to be bothered while she was in her room, but the news was just too big not to tell her. Bracing himself, he knocked on the door. Marluxia winced, but nothing happened. He had been prepared for a shrill scream or at least a lightening bolt to come down and hit him. Instead, there was nothing. Looking around nervously, he cautiously opened the door.
Stepping inside, he carefully shielded his eyes, just in case she was standing right in front of him. When he uncovered his eyes, he found that he was alone.
He breathed a sigh of relief. She must be out somewhere. Marluxia turned and was about to head out the door, when the door to the bathroom opened and a cloud of steam followed. His senses didn't have time to process what he saw, as a few kunai, as well as a couple of volts of electricity hit him simultaneously.
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"Ow. Ow." he winced as he sat in the infirmary as Larxene pulled the kunai out of his neck and back.
"Sorry." she said as she removed another one "But what were you thinking Marly? Coming in there while I was in the shower?"
"Did I know that? Ow!" he asked, as another one came out "And cut me some slack! I knocked first!"
"Obviously I didn't hear you." replied Larxene as she pulled the last kunai out "Besides, you know I don't like anyone going in there. Not after I found Axel sniffing around." She rolled her eyes.
"But were 7 kunai and about 150 volts really necessary?"
"Believe me, if you had been Axel, it would have been much, much worse." She slapped a bandage on his neck.
"Anyway," she said as he climbed off the table "What exactly were you doing in there?"
The Nymph eyed him with suspicion as electricity began to cackle around her knuckles.
"C'mon Larxy!" replied Marluxia "You know I'm not like that. I have something to tell you, but I'd rather not do it here."
She nodded and the two of them went off to his room. They walked silently through the halls, only passing the occasional Dusk, but they made it to his bedroom. They walked inside and Marluxia stuck his head out the door to make sure no one was around. Popping his head back in, he locked the door.
"Okay," he began "In case you haven't already heard, Xemnas has just appointed me Lord of Castle Oblivion."
"Really?" Larxene replied with a mischievous glint in her eye "Well now, that is big news."
"Yeah, I know." he said with a weak chuckle "But there's one other thing. Before Xigbar showed up and gave me the promotion, some odd woman in the woods predicted that it would happen. And not only that, she said that I would be Superior after that!"
"Superior!" exclaimed Larxene "You?"
"Yeah!"
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
Larxene chortled slightly and that soon grew into full blown laughter. As the seconds passed, the Assassin's face slowly turned to anger.
"Sorry!" she said wiping away a tear "I just find that hard to imagine. You, Superior of the Organization. It's just..." She burst out laughing again.
Marluxia just rolled his eyes. "You know, why did I even bother telling you if this is the reaction I get?" he said "What makes you think that I can't be Superior?"
"One word: Flowers." answered Larxene "If you're gonna be Superior you need a more badass element. I mean, Mansex up there has Nothingness and I gotta admit, that is pretty fucking cool. Hell, I'd be more likely candidate. Electricity conquers all!"
"I seriously doubt powers come into play."
"They do if you want people to take you serious." she responded "You really think fucktards like Xigbar or Axel will listen to the Flower man? Hell no. How is a posy gonna strike fear into their non-existent Hearts?"
"Okay, okay I get the message!" he shouted "But can we be serious for a moment? I was told that I'd get Castle Oblivion and I did. So that means that I should be Superior."
"If that's the case then," said the Nymph "How you gonna take Xemnas?"
"I..." he paused "Have no fucking clue. I doubt I even could."
"Oh will you grow a pair already?" she said exasperated "This could be all a coincidence, but this is a Golden opportunity here. We don't want to waste it. Look, you're already in a position of power, so why not exploit it for more? All kidding aside, I do believe you could make a good, no fuck that, a great Superior. If only you weren't such a pussy."
"Now wait a..." Marluxia said angrily, but Larxene kept talking.
"Hell, you wouldn't have gone after Number XV if I hadn't poked and prodded you. That's probably why they gave the position to you instead of that card freak Luxord. You've proven you can handle yourself in combat. So just grow a pair already and take the fucker down."
"How?"
A smirk crossed the Nymph's face. "I think I'm getting an idea."
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Marluxia walked through the doorway of Castle Oblivion and looked around the front entrance way in awe. Sure, it wasn't as big as the Castle that Never Was, but it was still a respectable size.
"Wow," Larxene said as she came up behind him "Will you look at the size of this fucking place?"
"Yeah, I know." Marluxia smiled "And it's all mine."
"All ours." she corrected, pulling on his hood's drawstrings so she could look right in his face "I have every right to it that you have. It wouldn't be yours if I hadn't forced you to confront the traitor."
"Interesting choice of words." Marluxia said as she snapped his head back up "Considering what we're planning here."
"Oh give it a rest." responded Larxene as she walked up the small flight of stairs "When we're in charge, we'll write the History."
"Yeah, 'when'." he said as he slowly followed her "But what if this doesn't work?"
"It will."
"Yeah, but, what if?" he said holding the door at the top of the stairs open for her "There's a lot of variables here that could go wrong and I think that it would be in..."
"Shut the fuck up!" she snapped "You fucking sound like Vexen when you go off like that. You seriously got to stop spending time with him."
Under his breath, Marluxia added "I would too, if you stopped being a bitch for a while."
Larxene sharply turned around, her hair standing on end from the built up electricity, and all 8 of her kunai between her fingers.
"What'd you say?" she said as a bolt of lightening landed next to Marluxia causing him to jump.
"Nothing!"
"That's what I thought." and she turned around and headed off into the other parts of the Castle.
"Oh Lord, get me through this." Marluxia said with a skyward glance as he went off in another direction.
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Six portals opened up in front of Castle Oblivion. From them, Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Zexion, Saïx and Luxord stepped out.
"Just look at it Lux!" Xigbar said walking up to the Gambler and putting his arm around him "All this could have been yours!"
"Don't remind me." he said bitterly. Turning towards Xemnas "You said that this was a lock for me! What happened?"
The Superior just shrugged. "Marluxia proved himself more worthy."
"More worthy my ass." Saïx said under his breath, as Xemnas approached the door and knocked. Slowly, the door creaked open and the party entered into the sparkling white hall.
"You know," Xaldin said taking a look around "It always calms me when I'm here. That is, if I don't go blind from all the white."
"Just wait." said Xigbar with a smile "Marly'll have this entire place decked out in pink soon. After all, it's only day one."
"Just as long as he doesn't mess with my second library." Zexion said "There's lot of rare collectables there!"
"Sorry Zex." Laughed Xigbar "He's gotta make room for his Barbies. Or maybe Ol' Sparky will move them. Jesus, don't those two ever separate?"
"Not that I've seen." added Xaldin "They might as well be conjoined at the hip. Or Larxene might as well have him on a leash."
"Scary thing is Xal, I can easily picture that. Course, I wouldn't mind being on the end of her leash, eh?" He laughed and nudged Xaldin, Zexion and Luxord in the side. Only Xaldin laughed with him.
"Bloody wanker." Luxord said under his breath.
"Took the words out of my mouth Luxord." Zexion replied "Of course, I wouldn't use such low brow terms, but the sentiment is the same."
"Alright!" Saïx said, a little more angrily than usual "That idiot invited us over, so we met as well go and find him."
"Why Saïx, I'm right here." and in an explosion of flowers and darkness, Marluxia appeared in front of them.
"Wow, what a fruit." snickered Xigbar as Xaldin laughed alongside him.
"Greetings O Lord of Castle Oblivion." Xemnas said with a slight bow.
"Greetings O Superior." replied Marluxia with a similar bow. Straightening up, he added "Right this way please." Xigbar, Xaldin, Zexion and Luxord followed, but Saïx and Xemnas stayed back.
"Are you really sure you want to do this Superior?" Number VII asked.
"Saïx," sighed Xemnas "We've been over this. I'm quite sure that I made the right choice here. Quite bitching about it and try to enjoy yourself. After all, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Any number of things!"
"Can you stop being paranoid for one night? No, apparently. I'm not asking you to like Marluxia, but at least tolerate him for the time being, if for nothing more than I asked you to."
The Diviner rolled his eyes. "Playing the loyalty card now aren't you?" The Superior shrugged. "It always worked in the past. Just keep your comments to yourself and when tomorrow comes, you can never have to come here again and never deal with Number XI either, except for meetings. Deal?"
Saïx sighed. "Deal." And the two of them went down the hallway that Marluxia had wanted them to go down.
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Later that night, when the group had settled in their beds, Larxene and Marluxia hovered around the monitors watching their guests sleep.
"Well," Marluxia said "This is it. I'm about to commit the equalivent of treason."
"It'll be easy." she replied "Just go in there and do it."
"Yeah, but what if I get caught?"
"Jesus Christ! Do have any balls at all?" she snapped "We already planned for this. You're not going to get caught. It's foolproof."
"Yeah, but what if..."
Larxene smacked him hard across the face.
"Listen to me mister!" she said grabbing his shoulders "You go down there, and do it. No buts. Just do it! And if you don't, you better kill yourself."
"Kill myself?" he said rubbing his cheek "Why would I..."
He didn't complete the sentence as she hit him once again.
"You better kill yourself if you don't kill him, then I'm gonna kill you. And it won't be pleasant, you won't enjoy it and it won't be over quickly. You got that?"
"Yes." he squeaked out. Clearing his throat, he said "Yes." A little manlier than he had the best time.
"Good." she replied "All you gotta do is think that this time tomorrow 'I have the Organization in the palm of my hand!'"
"What about Saïx?"
"What about him?" said Larxene "Who gives a fuck? When you're Superior, you can turn him into a Dusk if he gives you any lip. Hell, you can do whatever the fuck you want. But," and she said this a little more sweetly "And this is a big but, you can only do so, if you go down there and BUST A FUCKING CAP IN MANSEX'S FUCKING ASS!"
A little bolt of lightening landed inches away from where Marluxia was standing.
"Understand?" she said with a sickly sweet smile.
Marluxia didn't say anything, but he just nodded.
"Good." she said and she opened up a portal in the corner. Before stepping into it she said "I'm not gonna monitor you. I'm just gonna trust that you'll do the job. Cuz if not...well, use your imagination." And she disappeared inside the portal as Marluxia was left all alone in the monitor room.
"Oh God." he said and he turned and vomited in the corner "This is it. This is fucking it. Oh Jesus."
He was rightfully nervous. He was about to kill the Superior. Kill him. That would make even cocksure Axel nervous. But, he was sure that he could do it in a way that made sure that it was done. He was going after him while he slept.
"Jesus Christ." he repeated "I'm actually going to go through with it. I'm really gonna do it."
The Assassin didn't move for a few moments. He just looked at the monitor screen where Xemnas lay sleeping.
"Alright Marly." he said taking a deep breath "Just go down and do it. Just like taking off a band-aid, do it quick and get it done."
He began laughing as he realized he used removing a bandage to murdering someone in cold blood. Normally, it wouldn't have been that funny, but anything to calm his mind about what he was about to do.
"Just go down and do it. Just go down and do it. Just go down and do it." he repeated to himself, as he merely paced around the room. He stopped, took another deep breath and said "Okay. Now I'm ready."
And he opened up a portal to darkness and stepped through it.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: And here's chapter two finished!
A little interesting note on this chapter. I took Khaos' advice and wrote the entire thing in about an hour and 15 minutes, using that Write or Die program. When you put the pressure on like that, it really does wonders. Maybe I should write Cognito chapters in here, just to make sure it doesn't take me a week between updates.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one. I'll be back with chapter three when I get the reviews for this one.
Thank you everybody! The Magnificent Tim Fortune 11/24/08 8:41 PM (And hey! I actually finished at a decent time. Once again, thank you Write or Die!)