Oh, so many gags involving the number two. Which shall I pick? Hmm… OW! Fine, I won't try a lame intro gag this time. :)
Yup, it's time for the second episode of Invader. I'll make it nice and long this time around. I have a lot of suspense to go around, so I have the feeling this is going to be one of those chapters that keeps me awake until four in the morning. :) Enjoy.
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Invader, Part Two—Hunting Dog
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"So you're telling me that you saw a suspicious man in Halloween Town?"
"Yes, Superior."
"When the place is already filled with vaguely suspicious characters, and you were already on edge?"
"Yes, Superior."
"And in the time you followed him, he beat Number IV to the ground, while he was still at the castle?"
The Keybearers glanced at each other. They had taken Vexen back to his lab, so he could still get the work he was supposed to be doing done. Of course, when it came time to explain the incident to Xemnas, he had shut his ungrateful mouth.
Roxas turned back to the Superior. "We have proof. He dropped this." He waved the piece of paper in the air.
Xemnas used a small dark corridor to grab it—he was the only one who had that ability. He read it, glanced at Xion for a moment, then tossed it on the ground. "I find it to be in very generic handwriting. A dusk could have written this for all I know."
"We're telling the truth!" Xion said just a little bit too indignantly—maybe that glance had gotten to her.
Xemnas raised his eyebrow, and the Bright Shadow sank back into her seat. Satisfied for the moment, he continued. "Of course, I must take all reports of attacks on Organization members seriously. I'll send an investigation team tomorrow. But know this." He leaned forward dramatically. "I won't be happy if this turns up false. And if there is evidence that you lied about this, well… now's your chance to speak up about a lie and not be punished as horribly. Only a day spent rendered mute by nothingness, perhaps."
The Keybearers shuddered, but didn't say anything further. They were confident about this. The Superior stared at them for a moment, then shooed them away.
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Saix stood in the middle of the room, clipboard in hand as always. "XIII, you're with Larxene in Beast's Castle today. XIV, you have solo heart collection in Twilight Town again. And VIII…" He looked over at Axel, who was sprawled on the couch. "…You're with me."
Everyone looked at Saix oddly. He never went on missions, or if he did no one else had seen him do so. Of course, even he had been surprised by Xemnas' orders—the Superior rarely acknowledged the Keybearers, let alone actually listened to them and made orders based on their reports. But a report of an attack on Vexen could not go uninvestigated.
Axel walked over to Saix, stretching as he did. "The Superior decided to believe them, huh?" he said in a quiet voice.
"Not believe. Merely investigate. There is no proof until the investigation. And I'm not entirely sure they were supposed to tell you."
"They tell me everything, Sai. Everything."
"You believe them as well?"
"I've never caught them in a lie before. I'm guessing you don't?"
Saix just made a non-committal snort.
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Heart collection was supposed to be simple. It was supposed to be the most basic possible job she could get. Go out, whack this many Heartless, come back. Whack some more and maybe we'll give you something cool.
So why was it hard all of a sudden?
Xion fell to the ground after taking down the last Yellow Opera in the local group. There was a swarm of the electric Heartless today, and they were all over town. But they were still pretty basic—it should have been practice day. But Xion kept hesitating for some reason, giving the Heartless a chance to zap her with their lightning. She would go back into battle and fight fiercely… but then she'd hesitate again, and another bolt would hit her.
She sat on the ground, catching her breath. "I must be going insane," she said to herself. She didn't have any better explanations.
Her mind drifted to the figure in Halloween Town again. Questions filled her mind. Who was he? What did he want? What was—no. In a moment of realization, Xion realized that this was what was distracting her. She had to let go of the figure for a while.
That was easier said than done. It is easy to think about something obsessively, but it is hard to intentionally not think about something. The number of hits from bolts dropped dramatically, but she still couldn't get her mind off him. It was those words he had written—14 not supposed to be there—she dwelled on the most.
When she took down the last Heartless, she sat down on the ground again, staring up at the clocktower. It seemed almost as though the figure was still watching her. Darn, she was really going insane—now she was hallucinating. It was like she could see him there, on top of the clocktower.
Wait. That isn't a hallucination, is it?
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Just as Saix had suspected, they found nothing when they arrived at the supposed scene of the crime.
Axel bent down and felt the ground, looking for the slightest sign of conflict. "Maybe a day was too long to wait."
Saix crossed his arms. "Or maybe it didn't happen at all."
"You just don't trust them, do you?"
"After all the trouble they've caused, I can't say that I do."
Axel turned around, a somewhat sad expression on his face. "They're good kids, Sai. I thought you said you respected them."
"I also respect your various absurd hobbies. Respecting something and liking it are two different things."
Axel sighed and went back to investigating. When he looked around the corner, he called. "Hey, Saix, take a look at this."
When the Luna Diviner came around the corner, he saw two robotic arms, torn from their sockets on the wall, and a broken video camera. Okay, that was something. He leaned down and picked the left arm up.
He felt the arm in his hand, inspecting it. "It seems like this was pulled from the wall with great force. There's a lot of damage."
"Well, I knew that much. Anything else?"
"Only Lexaeus would have the strength to do this, and he had already returned from his mission when this supposedly happened. Whoever or whatever did this is definitely not Organization, and it's strong."
Saix put the arm in his coat pocket and picked up one of the pieces of the camera. "More of the same," he said. "Even a Keyblade would only dent this. The Keybearers definitely didn't fake this."
"What did I tell you? They don't lie."
"I never said that they were right. This might be from a different incident." He looked at the bottom of the camera. "Looks like this was broken on something round. A knee, maybe."
"Man, Saix, you're practically a hunting dog."
Saix tried not to shoot a death glare. "That better not have been intentional."
"Not intentional, sorry. You really should lighten up a little, though."
Another non-committal snort. They were so useful…
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No way was Xion letting the Figure get away again. She summoned her Keyblade and quickly dark corridored to the top of the tower. The Figure was already running, heading into the maintenance door and moving down the steps. Xion tried to get a spell off, but then she realized she had used them all up fighting the Heartless. Muttering words Axel had advised her to avoid, she ran down the steps after him.
Just as Xion was about to get close to him, the Figure jumped into the clockwork of the tower, using parkour to get around the various gears. She considered following him, but then thought better of it—the one time she had tried true parkour, she had gotten her face scrapped up by the stone so badly that Roxas had actually let out a small scream when he saw her. Why is everyone else so good at this, she thought as she dark corridored to the train station to await the figure's arrival at the bottom.
She watched from below as the Figure jumped onto a steam pipe on the wall and slid down it at incredible speed to the bottom. When Xion took a swing at him with the Keyblade as he reached the bottom, he rolled under it, grabbing it as a lever to swing her out of the way. She only stumbled for a moment, but a moment was all the Figure needed. He ran off, much too fast for Xion to catch up in time.
Xion fell to her knees and screamed in frustration, pounding the ground with her fist. If she had a ranged weapon like Xigbar, or if she had even had any spells left, the Figure would not have gotten away. It always turned out this way, somehow. The multiverse seemed to be conspiring to frustrate her at every turn. What had she ever done to deserve it? She was one of three people in the Organization who wasn't a complete jerk, maybe four if you counted Saix, and he still had his moments.
She pounded the ground again. "Why is everything so hard?!"
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Axel and Saix came back with the evidence. Roxas was already in the common room, bouncing his foot impatiently. When he looked up at the two, Axel gave him a thumbs up and a smile. He nodded, but didn't seem any less worried.
Saix looked at Axel. "I'll take these to the Superior. You can do whatever you do in the evenings."
"You know what we do in the evenings, Sai."
"Because you don't let me forget, especially when I try to give you real work to do…"
Axel walked over to Roxas and sat down next to him. "Hey, Rox."
Roxas' non-committal snort put Saix to shame.
"Are you okay?"
The boy finally broke his silence. "Xion isn't back yet."
"Sometimes she takes a while. You know she can be a workaholic."
"I still think we should check on her."
"We're headed to Twilight Town anyway, so today's your lucky day." Axel got up and opened a dark corridor. "Come on."
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Xion was still crouching on the train station floor when Axel and Roxas materialized outside the tower. She was wiping a few small tears that had welled up in her eyes. Roxas saw her through the window immediately and ran over.
"Are you okay?" Roxas asked, leaning down.
"I… saw him. Chased him… he got away. Just like last time… just like every time I try anything…"
Roxas looked up at Axel worriedly. The Flurry of Dancing Flames pulled Xion up, patting her on the shoulder as he did. "Come on. We'll get some ice cream, then we can talk."
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It took a few bars for Xion to tell the whole story. She would fall silent every other sentence, and either Roxas or Axel would have to encourage her to go on. She was also plowing through her ice cream, trying to act more interested in it than in the conversation. Nonetheless, she managed to finish within the hour.
When she finished, put his hand on her shoulder again. "Don't worry about it. We saw the stuff this guy broke, and he took down Vexen apparently unarmed. He's tough. You don't need to feel bad about him getting away."
Xion sighed and stared off into the sunset. "But it's every time, Axel. I can never get anything right."
"Don't talk like that, Xi, because it isn't true. I've seen you out on the field—you're amazing with that Keyblade. And you're singing is the best I've ever heard out of anyone, ever."
Xion smiled for the first time since they found her in the station, though it was a small, sad smile. "You really think so?"
"Yeah, I do. You are great at a lot of things, Xion, and I know you can do anything you put your mind to."
"Thanks." She looked toward the distance again. "There's another thing. That note… it said I'm not supposed to be here. Like I'm not supposed to exist or something. And when Xemnas looked at me after reading it…"
Axel hugged her. "No one gets to say that while I'm still breathing. No one. He'll pay for that."
Xion just let herself become absorbed in the hug.
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2,040 words. Told you it'd be longer. :)
Xion is trying to steal the spotlight again. I'll tell all you newcomers now: I like Xion. If you don't, I respect your opinions, but you'll just have to deal if you want to read the fic. I recommend reading the manga, because she's better in it and because it's what my interpretation of her is based on. You've been warned.
Anyway, a quick note: In my headcanon, the kids sit to either side of Axel on the clocktower, even though Roxas is in the middle in the game. It makes scenes like this a little easier. I mean, can you imagine Axel trying to go around Roxas to hug Xion? They could fall off! :)
Begin rambling. I took a few quizzes, and apparently I'm most similar to Sora or possibly Ventus. Now, I think I'm too brooding to be one of the Soras, and I'm not Batman-esque like Riku, so I mostly compare myself to Xion, at least my headcanon version of her—probably why I like her so much. But hey, the shippers always pair the Soras up with her, so I guess that's a perk. :) End rambling.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, reviews are always appreciated. Maybe I need to change up my outro a bit, because this is getting a little repetitive. :) But do give a review if you enjoyed! There's a box right there…
Thanks for reading, and be sure to tune in for the Chapter 3 of Invader, a tale well calculated to keep you in… what? 4:15 AM?! I was joking, for crying out loud! :)