Chapter III: The Hunt
Hey again! 'Tis me, again, The Key To Darkness!
Oh yeah, Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square- blah blah blah, you get the idea. I own nothing other than: Xathe, any other OC, and the story.
Xathe: I think it's the other way around as far as the "owning" part goes...
Me: *sigh* Typical...
So without further-ado… I present… Chapter 3! :D
[Song Inspiration: Don't Stop Believin' by Journey]
Enjoy! -KtD
Day 171
...
Xathe walks into the grey room, looking around for Saix, but only to find Demyx playing his sitar.
"Number IX, where is Saix?" Xathe asks in monotone.
"He's in a meeting with Xemnas and a couple others. I got our orders already. And by the way, why are you so serious all the time?" Demyx asks, leaning back on his seat on the couch.
"What is it with you people? First, Number XIV quizzes me and now you? I'm serious, because, there's nothing to be jolly and nonchalant about! Why should I play around when there's work to be done?" Xathe shouts, angrily.
"Whoa! Easy, man! I was just trying to talk to you!" Demyx throws his hands up defensively.
"Ugh, listen. I've got things I need to do, alright?" Xathe growls, gripping the bridge of his nose.
"Alright, alright… but will you tell me why you wear your hood 24/7?" Demyx asks, hopefully.
"Look, once my job is finished… then you can ask whatever you want, alright?" Xathe offers, aggravated.
"Sure thing! And since we're partners on this mission… we can talk all we want!" Demyx gleams, getting up from his seat and stretching his limbs out.
Xathe's face suddenly lost color, 'I'm being forced to hunt the imposter with this guy?'
"Well! Let's hit the road, Jack!" Demyx proclaims, grabbing his sitar.
"My name isn't Jack…"
"… You are so weird…" Demyx face-palms.
"You would know wouldn't you?" Xathe teases, smirking.
"There it is! That's sarcasm! And you're not frowning anymore!"
Instantly, Xathe scowls again, turning his face to the ground, "Shut up!"
"Aaaand… now it's gone…" Demyx sighs, sarcastically dropping his arms and head in defeat.
"Ugh, let's just go."
"Sure thing," Demyx states, opening a dark corridor portal that they both disappear into.
...
Meanwhile, a meeting was taking place between several members of the remaining Organization XIII.
Xemnas looks over them all, checking the attendance of the invited members, "Where is Number VIII?" Xemnas growls.
"You know Axel…" Xigbar sighs.
Suddenly a dark pillar drops Axel into one of the thrones and Axel rubs the back of his head sheepishly, "Number VIII reporting, sir. Heh heh…"
"Late attendance is unacceptable, VIII." Xemnas states, slightly agitated.
"I know, I know. Anyways, you mentioned in the invitation, something about Xa-… err… about Number XV. Is something wrong with him?" asks Axel.
"That's what we're trying to figure out…" Saix answers, impatiently.
"I haven't even seen the lad…" states Luxord.
"Best you didn't… it doesn't concern you at the moment. So you are dismissed," Xemnas states.
"Great!" Luxord exasperates. Luxord disappears in another pillar of darkness, leaving Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Axel, and Saix.
"Anyways… I need to know something," Axel exclaims.
All attention goes to him.
"What is the purpose of Project XV? No. Cross that. What is Project XV?" asks Axel.
Everyone is silent.
"Hey! I made sure the kid stayed alive and asleep. He didn't move an inch unless you ordered it. I think I at least deserve to know what's so important about the kid?" Axel growls.
"He is related to Xemnas…" Xaldin deadpans.
Axel turns to him with an expression of disbelief, "You can't expect me to fall for that?" Axel chuckles.
"Technically…" Saix corrects Xaldin.
Axel looks at Saix, slowly starting to believe them.
"Xathe's human: Tahe` had relations to my human: Ansem," Xemnas explains.
"But… how is he related to you?" asks Axel, confused.
"That is not for anyone, but myself, to know," Xemnas states, in a monotone.
"So, nobody knows, really, who this kid is, except for Xemnas?" Axel exclaims.
It gets silent in the room, confirming Axel's answer.
"Oh…well… proceed," Axel mumbles, slowly.
"Good. Now, today we have gathered to discuss my new plans for Project XV…" Xemnas begins, smiling at the plan in his mind…
...
The dark portal, Demyx and Xathe went into, opens up in The World That Never Was, below the Castle and they look around them.
"See him yet?" Demyx asks, hopefully.
"You're not getting out of this mission that easily," Xathe chuckles.
"Aww…" Demyx murmurs.
Xathe takes one step forward and is instantly stopped by a sudden flash blocking his vision. Another lost memory comes to him.
(Flashback)
Xathe rushes quickly through the dark alley between those last two buildings of the street. His breathing is heavy and fast.
Suddenly he's cut off by a dark portal opening in front of him and behind him. A cloaked man walks out of the one in front and another from the one behind.
He's trapped.
"Wait," the one in front pleads, removing his hood to reveal his blonde-spiky mullet and relaxed features.
"What do you want from me?!" Xathe shouts, trying to catch his breath from the chase.
"We just want to talk to you! Please? Just come with us and everything that's happening to you can be explained," Demyx explains.
Xathe shakes his head in denial, "No! Explain to me now! How am I alive? Why do I feel so empty? Where is my heart? What am I supposed to do, now?!" Xathe asks, furiously and hastily.
"This little game is over, Demyx. We were ordered to take him by force if he didn't comply," the hooded one, behind Xathe, growls.
"Ugh… fine… I just didn't want to get my hands dirty…" Demyx grumbles.
The man behind Xathe reaches out to grab his shoulder but Xathe ducks and back-kicks the man in the gut, throwing him back.
Demyx sends several water clones at Xathe, forcing Xathe to retreat.
Xathe quickly jumps back against the wall beside him as the water clones surround him.
He instantly reacts, summoning his Keyblade and slashing through the clone directly in front of him. He continues on, rushing towards the wall on the opposite side of the alley, in front of him.
Xathe gets a kick-start, running right up the wall like it was the floor. Demyx stares, surprised at Xathe's ability to run up walls. Xathe then plants his foot on the edge on the top of the building, back-flipping off the edge and onto the building parallel to it.
He then rushes off, disappearing into the night.
Xathe grabs his throbbing head as he comes back to the present.
"Dude? Hello? Yo, man! What happened?" Demyx asks.
Xathe jumps at the sight of Demyx, because of the memory, but then settles down as he slowly picks himself up from the ground.
"How long was I out?" Xathe asks, in a low tone. He presses his fingers to his right temple in pain.
"You just hit the ground and came back. It had to of been only 10 seconds or so," Demyx explains.
"Oh… it was… just a head-rush. I'm fine," says Xathe, shaking his head of the dying-out pain.
"Ya sure you don't wanna go back to the castle?" asks Demyx, hopefully.
"… You're still not getting out of this, Number IX," Xathe chuckles.
Demyx laughs and they both turn and continue their search for the imposter.
"Yeah, recon has always been my thing, ya know? I'm not much of a fighter. Not cut out for it," Demyx goes on.
Xathe hated conversing, but it stopped Demyx from trying to secretly leave when Xathe wasn't looking, so he let Demyx carry on and on about Demyx, Demyx, and more Demyx.
Finally, Xathe decided to speak up, "I love to fight. It's thrilling. The rush I get when I watch my enemy rush at me with a challenging look. The sweet feeling of victory, when I see them drop to their hands in knees in defeat," Xathe explains, his pulse getting faster as he imagines it.
"But… what if you lose?" asks Demyx, slightly interested.
"Well… then I lose… not much more to say," Xathe deadpans.
"Yeah… but doesn't it suck?"
"More than you know…" Xathe murmurs.
"Then why take the chance? You could die,"
"That's life. It's a gamble. It's all about taking chances… even if one of the chances is death…"
"Ugh… you sound like Luxord!" Demyx scoffs, sarcastically.
They both chuckle at the comment and then it gets silent for a while as they patrol the streets of The World That Never Was.
"Ya gonna take it off?" asks Demyx, suddenly.
"Take what off…" answers Xathe.
"You know. The hood?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"No reason to do so."
"Sure there is!"
Xathe turns to Demyx, "Oh really?"
"Yeah. So we can get to know each other better."
"No," Xathe deadpans.
"Well, can you at least tell me what you look like?"
"I'm a Nobody."
"More specific than that, dummy," Demyx chuckles.
"Fine… but don't tell anyone, alright?"
"Sure!"
Xathe looks both ways, dramatically. He then turns to Demyx and whispers, "I'm a giant pink unicorn."
Demyx bursts out laughing and this even makes Xathe chuckle amusedly a little bit.
Demyx slowly gains back his control over his laughter and exclaims, "Come on! Be serious with me this time!"
"Fine. I don't know… I have blue eyes… most of the time… and black hair. That's pretty much it," Xathe explains.
"How old are you?"
"Hm. I really don't know. But I'm guessing I'm about... 15?" Xathe contemplates.
"15?! Jeez! You talk and act like you're in your twenties!" Demyx exclaims.
"Yeah, I'm about 15…"
"Heh… your Number and age are the same number... 15." Demyx chuckles to himself but it doesn't humor Xathe very much.
"Yeah…" Xathe agrees, awkwardly.
...
Demyx and Xathe walk out of a dark corridor opened in the Castle.
They found nothing in the dark world except for unusually hostile and large amounts of Neoshadows.
Demyx handled the searching and conversing while Xathe handled the hostilities. They both did their jobs well, together... surprisingly enough.
Xathe looks down in disappointment.
"Hey, don't sweat it, man! You have good days and you have your bad ones," Demyx exclaims, attempting to cheer him up.
"That's not good enough…" Xathe deadpans, walking away towards the long hallway in front of them.
"Hey… uhh… what's your name?" Demyx asks.
Xathe turns his head, looking at Demyx over his shoulder.
"You never told me…" Demyx rubs the back of his head, sheepishly.
"I don't even know anymore…"
"Aww, come on! Don't give me that."
"… Xathe…" Xathe whispers, walking away.
Demyx remains silent until Xathe is gone.
When Xathe leaves Demyx's eyes pop open in shock.
'There's no way… so… we finally got him to join us? Well… that's somewhat comforting… but how come he's (at least) this comfortable with me, knowing that I hunted him down and attacked him? Unless… he somehow forgot…' Demyx contemplates, mentally.
...
Xathe walks into the grey room… for some reason, hoping, some-what, that someone would be there.
Nobody was. But then suddenly, a dark corridor opens in the center of the room and a boy with the Organization coat on walks out of it with a look of embarrassment on his face. He has very-spiky blonde hair and ocean-blue eyes similar to Xathe's. But he looks… strangely… very familiar to Xathe.
"Who are you?" Xathe growls.
"What? I-I'm Roxas. Who are you?" Roxas asks.
"That's none of your concern. But your late. Why?"
"Nobody else ever worried about me being late…"
"Well, I'm asking, now. So answer the damn question, already," Xathe spits, hastily.
"I was out, eating ice-cream with Axel and Xion…"
One of those two names burn into Xathe like a hot flat-iron on his skin.
"Axel… Axel has returned from Castle Oblivion?" Xathe asks, confused.
"Yeah… he's been back for a few days now…" says Roxas, scratching the back of his head, confused.
"Axel's an…" he looks down "…acquaintance of mine…" Xathe states, slowly.
"Okay…"
"…Sorry I yelled at you. Thanks for the info," Xathe walks away, back down the hallway.
Roxas looks down, in question. He soon gives up and walks away.
...
Xathe walks into his room, getting onto his bed and closing his eyes.
'Tomorrow… I will find you…' Xathe proclaims to himself.
And for the first time in almost a year… Xathe finally fell asleep.
Okay? That's the end of Chapter 3. Hope you enjoyed! Even though I don't really need to say it, I will anyways. Please review or give any ideas or suggestions that could help improve the story. No flames, as usual. The comments are much appreciated.
Anyways! Thanks, everyone! -KtD