Just a little note here: I just wanted to say that I changed some bits in chapter 4 and fixed newly-found grammar mistakes. Just so you know, 'kay?

Disclaimer: All Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix and Disney.

Passion

Chapter Six : Hysteria

He wasn't very sure he wanted to do this. He had absolutely no idea how this was going to turn out, and that fact succeeded in further discouraging him from going along with this. Frankly, he was searching for a way out of the situation he was in.

Luxord was standing outside the castle. Xigbar was watching from his perch on one of the silent buildings, saying he'd get a better view from higher up. In front of Luxord stood a certain blonde-haired figure that they had spent the last few hours tracking down. More specifically, Demyx. Said man was grinning at him in a very excited but nervous way, as if this was the first time he ever did anything like this. Not that Luxord would be surprised if it was.

Some time ago, Luxord had returned to the kitchen with Xigbar in hopes of finding Number IX. Much to his chagrin, Number IX had apparently chosen to mope in a secluded corner somewhere in the unnecessarily large castle. Despite Xemnas saying Xigbar would know where to find Demyx, Luxord had spent hours with the other man looking for him. After some time was spent walking around aimlessly, Luxord had pointed out that it might be a better idea to ask if anyone had seen Demyx. Apparently, he found out later, that notion had never crossed Xigbar's mind.

After getting information on Demyx's whereabouts from a very unhelpful Axel and locating Demyx two floors above where they were told he would be, Xigbar had tackled said man and successfully pinned him to the ground.

"Xigbar, he's suffocating." He pointed out, not really caring if Demyx did after the amount of walking they had had to do.

The gunner looked up from the floor to glance at him before he eyed the man beneath him who was, true to Luxord's words, gasping for air. Xigbar got up and stood next to him, waiting for the blonde to catch his breath. When Demyx did, he looked at Xigbar. "What was that for?"

Xigbar pointed a finger at him. "You do that again, dude, and I'll fucking shoot you the next time. I mean it. You were supposed to look for Luxord after breakfast! We get back to the kitchen to find out you already disappeared, saying you were gonna keep yourself company with your fucking sitar! And then we had to spend hours trying to track you down, since your playing spots change almost every single time you go off to play! Did you completely forget or something?"

Idly, Luxord wondered why Xigbar was lecturing the other man–though he was content to let him do the lecturing; Luxord probably wouldn't have–since the gunner had seemed perfectly fine at the prospect of wandering around earlier. He had spent most of the time telling Luxord more about the other members of the Organization, pointing them out when they happened to past a member Luxord had not met yet. As a result, the only members Luxord had not met yet were Lexaeus who, he was told, was off on a mission and Saix, who had mysteriously disappeared.

"Hey, wait a second. You're probably Number X, right? Man, this is so cool! I get to meet someone who wasn't in the Organization before me!" Demyx got up and flashed Luxord a grin. "I'm Demyx."

This was met with "I know." When Demyx didn't say anything he added, "We've met."

Demyx looked startled at this piece of information. Nervously, he said, "We…have?"

Xigbar whacked Demyx's head–the blonde let out a strangled "Ow!" and staggered forward slightly–before saying, "Duh. I introduced him to you in the kitchen this morning. Didn't you hear a single word?"

Rubbing the back of his head, he straightened and smiled sheepishly. "Really? Man, guess I didn't notice. Sorry. So, what's your name?"

He tilted his head slightly, wondering whether he should answer or ignore the question. Finally, he reluctantly said, "Luxord."

Demyx nodded enthusiastically. "Okay. Luxord. So, um…you guys were looking for me, right?"

"Yeah. Aren't you supposed to help Luxord figure out stuff?"

"I…was?"

Throwing his hands up into the air, the gunner walked away, choosing to lean his body against the wall instead of explaining.

Luxord was starting to doubt Xemnas's decision-making capabilities. The guy standing in front of him seemed to have absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Closing his eyes for a moment as he stifled the urge to sigh in annoyance, Luxord said, "Xemnas said you're to help me figure out how to use my skills." He opened his eyes. "Remember?"

Apparently, Demyx did. "Oh, yeah! Man, I totally forgot about it." He grinned. "Can we start now?"

Luxord shrugged as Xigbar, his irritation showing, said, "Obviously we can start now. Why do you think we spent the whole damn morning looking for you?"

"Oh, right. Okay. Um…let's…go outside!"

And he had ended up here, his clothes soaked due to the rain. After they reached here–he wasn't sure where 'here' was, somewhere in nowhere, probably–Demyx had told him what they were going to do. He had tried to explain but had not been doing a very good job of it, ending with Xigbar summing it all up for Luxord as "He'll attack, you defend." From what little bits he had managed to grasp from Demyx's sorry excuse for an explanation, Luxord concluded that Demyx would be taking the offensive role. Apparently, Xemnas had decided the best way to go about this was to force his skills out; meaning Luxord would be forced to defend himself against Demyx's attacks.

This probably meant Luxord had to figure it out soon or he'll end up being pushed around by Demyx.

And that was the last thing he needed to happen today.

Ignoring Xigbar's words–he had said, "I'll make sure nothing too serious happens, since you're new at this and all. Not like we're expecting you to be incredible at this or anything," before he moved up his building of choice, running on air as Luxord watched, silently fascinated–, Luxord regarded Demyx with a guarded expression as said man pulled out an unfamiliar looking object from the water–which had begun to gather around him–and said, "You ready, Luxord?"

Of course not. It wasn't like he spent every minute of his time fighting; he couldn't remember ever fighting before. But he didn't really have a choice right now, did he? Luxord watched Demyx's fingers move over the strings of his weapon of choice, still feeling a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he was most definitely not expecting to be suddenly surrounded by water figures–which, on closer inspection, looked very similar to Demyx–, much less being attacked by one.

He stumbled backwards, more from shock than pain. The water figures danced about him before attacking him repeatedly as Luxord struggled to defend himself with his bare hands.

After a while the attacks ceased. Demyx moved closer to him and said, "Well, I'm not sure if this would work for you, but I thought I should tell you anyways." Luxord straightened to look at Demyx. "See, when I trained with Lexaeus, he told me to focus my energy into some sort of attack. Maybe you could, you know, try that?"

Luxord gave a slight nod but refused to say anything, lest he gave away the annoyance building inside of him, so Demyx moved back and formed more water clones. Luxord glanced at Xigbar before focusing on the clones' new wave of attacks, trying to think clearly as he protected himself. His mind was in a state of slight turmoil, and Luxord had to try hard to dismiss the panic that was slowly creeping into his mind as he frantically searched for some sort of clue as to what to do next.

Unable to think of anything, he only succeeded in growing more annoyed. Frustrated at his own helplessness, he swallowed a growl and searched his jacket for the deck of cards he had won back at the tavern a few days ago. Still having no idea what he was supposed to do–and feeling quite ridiculous about it–, Luxord picked the first card he managed to pull out and did the only thing he could think of; he flung the card at the nearest water clone.

Since he wasn't really expecting anything to happen, he wasn't really surprised when the card went right through the clone, not causing any damage whatsoever. He heard a familiar laugh and turned to look at Xigbar. Luxord could feel his face pull into a frown when he saw the gunner laughing, bristling at the thought of being someone's source of amusement.

Demyx told him to focus his energy into an attack. He wasn't sure how energy was supposed to feel like nor how he was supposed to focus it, but when he felt the sudden wave of restlessness wash over him, Luxord grabbed at the feeling and shoved. He felt his whole body tighten in response, every part of him tensing at the unfamiliar feeling. Purely on instinct, he grabbed another card from the deck in his pockets, pushed the static feeling into the card and felt something fall into place inside him.

Whirling around to face the figures standing behind him, he threw the card again, this time focusing his entire mind on the new feeling. To his complete surprise, the card he threw grew bigger right in front of him, multiplying its size until it was as big as Luxord. Adding more shock to his amazement, the card flew through the water clones standing in front of him, spinning as it caused the figures to burst like bubbles falling to the ground like rain. His eyes continued to follow the enlarged card, watching as it continued moving until it stopped and shrunk to its original size.

Silence fell and the only sounds Luxord could hear were his own breath and the rain hitting the ground. Demyx stared at him, his mouth hanging open slightly as he gazed at him, but Luxord wasn't paying attention to him. He felt his gaze hardened as he shot the gunner a glare, feeling satisfied at the surprised expression the other man's face. When he opened his mouth to speak, his words were cold. "Was that good enough?"

He was rewarded with a mocking grin as Xigbar responded. "Well, it's a start."

Luxord wanted to hit him, hard. He had never felt as annoyed as he felt now, not even when Xemnas had first appeared and started this whole thing! Struggling to keep a blank expression on his face, Luxord turned to Demyx and said, "What now?"

He winced inwardly as the other blonde visibly flinched at his harsh tone. "Oh, well…um…I guess, I suppose we could try it again. You know, see if you could do it again." Realizing what he had just said, Demyx took a step back and hastily added, "Not that I'm saying you can't! I'm sure you can!"

Letting out a sigh, Luxord said in a more calm voice, "Okay."

As the water figures made another circle around him, Luxord searched for the feeling earlier. He found it again and channeled it into another card, this time finding the task slightly more difficult to accomplish. Nevertheless, the card mimicked the action of the card earlier as he watched it spin, its sharp edges slicing through Demyx's water clones.

They kept this up for some time. Luxord discovered various other things he could make his cards do–and when he had only 12 cards left, he threw one of his dices instead and marveled at the results–as Demyx continued to form more water clones to replace the ones that the gambler had destroyed. The whole time this was happening, Luxord could feel of Xigbar's gaze as the gunner watched silently from his spot. The intensity of his gaze made him shiver, but Luxord refused to give in to the temptation to meet the gunner's gaze.

It continued until Demyx announced that he was tired and asked if they could stop. Luxord was grateful for the chance to rest; his whole body felt tired. Feeling the sudden absence of the gaze, Luxord turned to find Xigbar moving towards them. His annoyance returned when the gunner clapped his hands, a smirk appearing on his scarred face. "Luxord, bravo. I seriously didn't think you'd get the hang of it so fast."

Xigbar's words made him unsure of how to respond; was he mocking him or did Xigbar really mean that as praise? Since he wasn't sure what were the right words to use here, Luxord decided to remain silent. The gunner merely grinned at his lack of response and turned to Demyx. As they started talking, Luxord started to lose focus. His vision blurred and cleared, giving him a headache.

'You have to stop this! This is pointless!"

He put one hand against the wall on his right, trying to clear his head. He didn't recognize the voice, but it felt familiar. Feeling dangerously close to falling, Luxord leaned his body slightly against the wall. The headache got worse, and now he could see almost nothing but a sickening mixture of colours.

'You can't keep winning forever! Stop this while you–'

'Arrogant bastard! Over-confidence will be–'

'We already have so much!'

He clutched his head with his free hand. Suddenly, whatever energy he felt he had left drained out of him and Luxord rested his body completely against the wall. The different voices came more rapidly and even more menacingly, sending waves of pain throughout his body.

'Mind my own fucking business? What the fuck are–'

'–just causing unnecessary worries, what, with all–'

'It's a free country, man. Means I'm free to do as I please.'

'–partners. We're supposed to look out for–'

'I've got the gun! Now just do what I–'

Luxord could vaguely feel himself sinking to the ground. His vision was a complete blur now, and he could feel himself panicking, his breath quickening. The voices were overlapping themselves now and he couldn't make out the words. He heard footsteps approaching him, but was too unfocused to register the concerned questions being sent his way. Luxord could do nothing but ignore the additional voices, concentrating more on keeping what little was left of his sanity intact.

Feeling sick in the stomach and dizzy, he tried to move, but gave up when it made everything worse. The panic was coming in full blow and somewhere along it Luxord recognized hysteria dancing on the edge, calling to him, as if willing him to give in. Everything hurt; his head felt like it was being cracked open. Giving up control of his mind seemed to be a very tempting option. Just as he was about to give up and reach out for the safety of insanity, he felt a hand on his back.

The last words he heard before his vision turned completely black were 'traitor' and 'Luxord?'

End of 6th chapter

What do you think? The ending was completely unexpected. I had no idea it'd turn out like this but it did. I sort of liked it (though it's probably seriously lame), so I left it at that. Another note: I will not write a complete story on Luxord's past life. I'm only gonna put in little bits every now and then, unless I change my mind. Reasons are because I wasn't sure what to make it without making it lame, and because I think I prefer to write just vague hints.

Thank for your time. Also, please tell me what you think about this. I need to know. Thank you very much.