Kiaxi stood in front of the floor length mirror that she had recently procured and placed in her room, admiring her growing biceps. She had been on several missions since her first reconnaissance mission with Axel and was still astounded by just how different the other members were with their teaching methods. Thankfully she had yet to go on a mission with Marluxia or Larxene, she suspected that Axel and Roxas had spoken to Saix and let him know about her shaky relationship with the two but she couldn't be too sure. All she knew was that she was thankful that she had been going out with everyone but those two.
She had gone on a recon mission with Vexen and despite the fact that his personality was as cold as his element she had surprisingly learned a lot from the scientist. Though, admittedly, she could have done without his condescending remarks.
Another mission had been with Lexaeus, he was a man of few words, but the silence between them had been amicable. She had previously heard less than favorable things about him and his methods from Roxas but from what she had experienced herself he wasn't a terrible guy. They had gone on a mission targeting a type of heartless, he was a great fighter though his movements were much slower than her own but what he lacked in speed he made up for in strength.
She was starting to get the hang of things and had even been taught how to summon dark portals, probably her favorite and most useful trick learned thus far. Despite her tremendous improvements, she still wasn't trusted enough to go on missions alone and still required a chaperone. She wasn't even allowed to summon a portal unless someone was with her, it was utter bullshit but she kept her complaints to a minimum.
A swift knock against her door pulled her out of her thoughts.
She shuffled across the room and pulled open her door to see Roxas standing on the other side, his lips upturned in a smile at seeing her.
"Good morning, Kiaxi." He took in her appearance, noting that she was already dressed in her cloak and boots, "You ready for today's mission?"
Her head bobbed eagerly, "I am, this'll be the first mission I've had with you since joining and you're supposed to be my mentor, "She teased before adding, "they sure keep you busy."
A chuckle escaped his lips, "Well, you're not wrong."
The blond had, in fact, been increasingly busy since Kiaxi had arrived at the castle. His duties as a Keybearer in the Organization were never done it seemed; they constantly wanted him out collecting hearts for their ultimate goal.
"Where are we going today?" She asked, watching as he flicked his wrist and summoned a portal in the hallway for the two of them.
He glanced over his shoulder at her as she stepped into the portal after him, "A place called Agrabah."
She hated Agrabah.
Well, it wasn't so much that she hated the world itself, but she hated that Roxas had not told her to prepare for the immense heat or the sand that would invade her lungs each time she took a breath.
They had only been there for a mere ten minutes and even though they were in the heart of the city, surrounded by mud brick walls, the wind still carried grains of sand that stung at her eyes.
"Where are we going?" She huffed, turning to the side to spit the sand out of her mouth.
Roxas turned to examine her for the first time since they arrived, grinning widely before chuckling, "I'm sorry, the wind and sand weren't this bad the last time I was here. We are actually going out into the desert—"
She stared at him wide eyed for a moment before frowning, "If it's this shitty here then don't you think it's going to be ten times worse out there?" She gestured wildly towards the large archway that separated the town from the wide expanse of the sea of sand outside.
He hummed in contemplation, sapphire eyes scanning the various vendor stalls around them, "You're right, we need something to protect our faces…or at least make breathing a little more tolerable…" His eyes landed on one merchant in particular and he shuffled towards the stall, Kiaxi followed after him curiously.
"Hello, how much for two of these?"
The merchant was a thin, dark skinned man who had a wide grin plastered on his face, "Good afternoon! These scarves are made from very fine, very rare materials and usually go for a pretty penny." He eyed Roxas before shifting his gaze to Kiaxi, "Though for the cute couple I'm willing to let these go for four hundred munny."
The girl frowned, stumbling back a step at the implication that she and Roxas were a couple but with one quick glance in his direction she noticed that he wasn't bothered, or more likely just simply chose to ignore the comment.
"I'll give you two-fifty for both." Roxas counter-offered.
The man seemed rather ruffled by that, leaning over the stall towards Roxas, "Three-hundred, that is the lowest I will go. These are very fine, rare materials and I will not part with them for less than three-hundred."
The blond shrugged and began to walk away, "Well, I guess I'll just have to go purchase from a different merchant."
Feeling panicked at the thought of losing a sale the man shouted over the commotion of the bazaar, "Two-fifty is a fair price that I will accept. I will even throw in a lovely jade bracelet for the lady."
Roxas' lips twitched into a small smirk which he quickly replaced with a thoughtful frown as he turned back around, "Alright, deal." He fished the munny out of his cloak pocket and handed it to the merchant who greedily snatched it out of the boy's gloved hand, eagerly counting it to make sure it was all there.
"Pleasure doing business with you, sir."
The blond Nobody nodded his head, grabbing the two scarves and the bracelet off the table, motioning for Kiaxi to follow him.
"Didn't take you for a haggler." She mused from beside him.
The boy shrugged, "Even I could recognize that he was trying to scam us, I wasn't going to pay him that much for these thin pieces of fabric."
"I guess that's fair." She chuckled as he handed her the bracelet and one of the scarves.
Her scarf was soft to the touch and for a moment she wondered whether the peddler had been telling the truth when he said they were made from rare and expensive fabrics. It wasn't thick or bulky, the material was thin and would be easy for them to breathe through to filter out the sand when out in the desert. Her fingers glided over the dark purple fabric briefly before bringing it up to her face, tying it around her neck in a way that she would easily be able to pull it up to cover her nose and mouth.
"You ready?" Roxas' voice was slightly muffled by the navy scarf that was already covering his nose and mouth.
She nodded, pulling hers up to protect herself just like he had done, "Lead the way."
It felt like they had been trudging through the sand for hours, when in fact it probably had only been closer to forty-five minutes. The harsh rays of the sun were unbearably hot, beating down against their backs. Their black cloaks were thankfully made of special material that regulated the temperature on the inside to keep them from being boiled alive.
The wind was dry and thick with sand that whipped against them, pulling their bodies this way and that. Twice, Kiaxi had lost sight of Roxas amidst the sandstorm and nearly panicked until the sight of his black clad form came back into view. From then on she made sure to stick close by him out of fear of being left behind.
"What exactly are we looking for?" She asked finally after realizing that there was nothing but sand and more sand for as far as the eye could see.
"There's supposedly a really strong heartless out here and that's our target." He sighed, "We just….have to find it first."
She let out a groan. It could literally be anywhere and the chances of them finding it were—
"Shit!" Kiaxi yelped, startled, as she fell into a hole that she had failed to notice.
"You alright?" Roxas peered down at her.
She stared up at him and nodded before taking a look around, "Yeah but…it almost looks like a tunnel...like it was just dug out here in the middle of nowhere. How strange."
Suddenly the sand around her began to shift and suddenly a large hairy leg emerged from down the dark tunnel, followed by another. She scrambled to climb back out of the hole, Roxas reached in and helped to pull her out at the last minute, narrowly avoiding being snatched by two large pincers.
The creature rose from the sand with a loud screech, clicking its pincers together hungrily as it stared down at the two with hundreds of beady little eyes.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is the target?" She bit her lip, staring up at the spider behemoth shaking off the waves of golden sand.
Roxas nodded his head mechanically, the creature was a lot bigger than he thought it would be, it was almost intimidating.
The spider was as large as a skyscraper, it's furry body a dark brown with the Heartless insignia etched in red on its underside. Its red, beady eyes zeroed in on the two and it began to skitter forward.
"Look sharp, here it comes!" Roxas called out over the sound of the Heartless' legs pounding against the ground towards them.
They silently agreed to both run in different directions, hoping to confuse the creature. It began to chase after Kiaxi, its eight legs thundering against the golden granules beneath their feet. The young Nobody cried out in frustration as she chanced a glance over her shoulder to see the beast quickly gaining on her. There was no way that she could run from something so large and so fast.
Roxas darted forward, leaping into the air and slashing at the back of the creature with a loud grunt. The spider was completely unfazed by the attack, further frustrating Roxas that he hadn't even cut through the exoskeleton.
"Might wanna hurry up, I can't outrun this thing!" She called out as a giant hairy leg suddenly blocked her path and she had to zigzag around it and run in the opposite direction to avoid the beast's pincers again.
Roxas scowled, "Working on it."
Each time the boy struck the Heartless it was as if he were a gnat, buzzing around the beast but not making any sort of headway with landing any actual damage.
Darkness began to pool around the creature and out of the shadows smaller versions of the spider sprung to life, skittering in all directions.
"Greeaat." Kiaxi groaned, drawing out the word as she saw the extra enemies dart out of the shadows and towards her.
Suddenly, one of Roxas' Samurai Nobodies materialized and began to attack the smaller Heartless. She glanced over her shoulder at the blond, watching him land blow after blow without so much as putting a dent in the spider's defenses.
Distracted by her partner, Kiaxi had no time to react as a group of three Spider Heartless surrounded her, all of them leaping at once to attack. She brandished her scythe to swing but was stunned when another creature joined the fray to attack the enemies that threatened her.
"Congrats, you finally summoned your lesser Nobodies." Roxas grunted as he made a wide swing at one of the legs, watching as it buckled from the blow and the spider staggered forward a little. His eyes widened in realization as he found the weak spot.
Kiaxi stared, wide eyed, at the newest addition to their team. Her lesser Nobodies were hooded figures with no real distinguishable features, truthfully they reminded her of the Grim Reaper from those human fairytales. They were cloaked in black, the hood covering where their faces would have been if they had one, she couldn't see past the hood to confirm whether they had one or not though. The sleeves were long and billowed out at the ends, protruding from the sleeves were sharpened scythes which took the place of arms. The Nobodies hovered above the ground, no feet or additional appendages could be seen, they were like phantoms.
Their lesser Nobodies swiftly handled the small fry, giving the two a slight advantage and allowing them both to focus their attention on the real enemy.
"It's the legs, Kiaxi!" Roxas called out as he let loose his fury on one leg in particular until it snapped with a sickening crack. The spider let out a pained screech and began to thrash about, stomping its remaining seven legs wildly and snapping its jaws.
She nodded in affirmation, running forward to finally join the fight. She was quick, her reflexes having been honed during her days spent in the training room, and now that she wasn't acting as a distraction she could focus on helping Roxas defeat the creature.
"If we each take a different leg at a time we should kill this thing in no time." She mentioned, glancing over at the blond boy to see him nod in agreement.
Almost as if sensing the impending doom, the spider summoned more of its minions but they were quickly met with the blades of the Samurai and Reapers.
Another leg gave way, breaking free from the body and falling unceremoniously onto the sand beneath it. Roxas smirked triumphantly as the Spider cried out, wiggling its nub.
Kiaxi swung hard, as her blade made contact with one of the legs a small stream of smoke began to billow from the wound, followed by a sizzling sound. She watched in astonishment as the flesh began to melt away and drop off.
"What…?" She stared in wonder at the damage she had done, eyes wide in bewilderment. Suddenly a hand gripped her wrist and yanked her back, she stumbled and fell, landing hard on her behind, "Wh-what was that for?" She rubbed her sore bottom and pulled herself back to her feet, shooting a look in Roxas' direction.
He met her stare with an annoyed look of his own, "Never lose focus like that again when you're in the middle of a fight. That thing almost stomped you to death. Pay attention."
She winced at his harsh words but couldn't exactly say that they weren't unwarranted. He was right, she was too easily distracted and that could mean the difference between life and death. She was lucky that he was here to pull her out of her thoughts, just like Axel had been on her first mission.
"Right, sorry." The slate-haired Nobody frowned, shame painting her cheeks a bright red and she was thankful for the scarf for hiding that from her partner.
By now the Heartless had started to scurry away, now aware that it was fighting a losing battle and deciding to leave with what legs it had left. Roxas let out a low growl and began his pursuit after it, determined to not let it get away.
Kiaxi took off after the blond and their target, her short legs pounding against the ground, spraying granules of sand in her wake. Her speed allowed her to catch up to the beast much quicker than Roxas despite his head start and she set to work, hacking away at the leg she had previously injured. It didn't take long for that appendage to disconnect from the body and the spider was then left with five working legs.
In a last-ditch effort to save itself, the Spider started to dig. Dig to where, Kiaxi had no idea. Maybe it thought that if it buried itself they would give up and leave it to nurse its wounds. Regardless of the thoughts of a mindless beast, the two Nobodies had no such intention of letting it get away. Their assignment was clear; destroy the Heartless and return its heart to Kingdom Hearts.
She closed her eyes and willed her Reapers to come forth once more to aid them. The beings drew from her power and appeared from wispy portals of darkness, quickly realizing their target and using their corrosive powers to melt the flesh of the Spider's legs much like Kiaxi had done.
Roxas caught up, noticing the lesser Nobodies and Kiaxi working together to take out the remaining legs, his lips twitched appreciatively, and he raised his Keyblade to strike again.
With their combined efforts Roxas and Kiaxi quickly disposed of the Heartless, it collapsed against the dunes with a screech before bursting into dust and relinquishing a giant, red floating heart.
"Good job!" She dismissed her Reapers and turned on her heel to face her partner, a wide grin painted on her face beneath her scarf.
"Good job yourself." Roxas countered with a smile of his own, "And look at you, discovering your lesser Nobodies and your element during the fight. I'd say this mission was a success, wouldn't you?"
She nodded before blanching at a thought, "You know, if I didn't hate spiders before I definitely do now."
The Keyblade wielder chuckled, "Yeah, can't say they're my favorite and that one took a lot longer than expected to beat."
Her head snapped up at his comment, lips down turned in a frown, "Listen, I'm really so—"
"Don't worry about it." Roxas quickly interjected with a sigh, "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I know you're new and you were just confused about your new ability and all that."
"Thank you."
"Of course, now let's get back. I don't know about you but I'm exhausted."
As soon as the portal opened into the hallways of the Castle that Never Was the sandy blond-haired boy, Demyx, had ambushed the two with a mischievous grin.
"Heya, hope you don't mind me borrowing Ki for the rest of the night!" He didn't give Roxas the chance to respond before his fingers wrapped loosely around her wrist and he tugged her into a portal of his own making.
Once inside he let go of her and began humming some upbeat, nameless tune as he strolled onward through the corridors of darkness.
Momentarily dazed by his odd behavior, Kiaxi took a moment to watch his retreating form before jogging to catch up with him, "What was that all about?"
He peeked over at her through half-lidded eyes, a secretive smile etched on his youthful face, "You'll see."
His cryptic comment did nothing to ease her mind, but she trusted Demyx and felt as if he was the last person in the Organization who would lead her towards danger. With that thought in mind she fell into step beside him and listened to whatever song it was that he was humming, deciding to enjoy the trek through the darkness.
The sitar wielder's eyes snapped open and his arm slowly lifted from his side, summoning their exit. His lips pulled back into a wide grin and he gestured for her to go first, "Ladies first."
A small laugh escaped her as she walked past him and stepped out into the bright sunlight awaiting her on the other side of the portal. Her boots sunk a little in the sand and for a moment she feared that she was back in the desert outside of Agrabah but the sound of waves crashing against the shore quickly relieved her of that thought.
They were standing on the shore of a small islet, surrounded by water so crystal clear that she could see the sandy bottom for quite a ways away. The salty ocean breeze brushed by them, playfully tangling through her slate blue hair.
"Isn't this place great? I found it recently while doing recon and I just had to share it with you." Demyx bounced excitedly on his heels, his seafoam eyes alight.
A bright smile graced her lips and she nodded, "Yeah, it's beautiful, Dem."
"I'm so glad you think so!" He quickly unzipped his long black coat and discarded it onto the sand before starting on the laces of his boots.
Somewhat startled by his actions, Kiaxi stuttered, "W-what're you doing?"
As if sensing her unease, he sent her a reassuring smile, "Relax, it's just really hot out and I'm not trying to cook myself here on the beach."
He was right. Though the temperature wasn't as extreme as the desert had been, it was rather humid and a light sheen of sweat was beginning to form on her forehead. She scrambled to remove her coat and boots while Demyx laughed, left in just a tank top with his black jeans rolled up to his knees.
Now just left in her black t-shirt with her jeans rolled up as far as they'd go, she turned to face Demyx, watching in amusement as he dug his toes into the soft sands and wiggled them. A contagious grin spread across his lips and soon Kiaxi was also digging her toes into the wet sand, mimicking his movements.
A sudden thought struck her, "Say, Demyx?"
"Hm?" He glanced over at her.
"Why did you decide to show me this world?"
He didn't even hesitate, "Well, we're friends, right? I thought that since Axel and Roxas have that Clocktower thing that maybe this could be our place."
A sudden warmth radiated from within her at his words, he was just so genuine and made her feel happy. Or perhaps it was just the remnant of the memory of feeling happy, since they supposedly were incapable of actually feeling true emotions. But whatever it was that she was experiencing…she liked it, it was soothing.
"Yeah, I'd like that."
He beamed at her answer and the two friends turned towards the ocean, watching as the sun slowly made its descent beyond the horizon, painting the sky in soft pinks and oranges.
This took a lot longer to write than I have originally anticipated. The main reason is because work is killing me right now, we've been down a person and so I've have to work a lot of overtime without many days off so when I do get home from work I pretty much just go to bed lmao.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I have many many more to come, hopefully the next one won't take as long to get out. Thank you for reading! If you could leave a review and let me know your thoughts that would be so amazing! Thank you again!
