Kingdom Hearts: Xion the Puppet
Chapter 6
Number XIII
"If there is someone who makes me believe that I have a heart. It would be you."
Day 17
Xion stirred in her bed, sleepless for yet another night. She tossed and turned until she just gave up and stared at the ceiling. She sighed and thought to herself, "All the books in the world could not quench my boredom right now. When will this suspension be over?"
She rolled to her side and looked at her door. Although it was night, something compelled her to get up. She walked to the door and it opened as she approached. She walked out to see down the hall a group of her comrades. It consisted of Axel, Vexen, Lexaeus (No. V), Zexion, Marluxia, and Larxene. She walked down the hall towards them. As she did, she could hear Marluxia's monotone voice say, "It is our job to make sure the hero fades from his original ideals. Once this is done, Naminé will be able to easily manipulate him into becoming our pawn."
Xion asked once she was close enough to the group, "Who is this hero? What are you all doing up at such a late hour as well?"
They all looked at the girl in dismay. Vexen was the first to speak up, "Child, whatever are you doing up yourself? Should you not be resting?"
Xion responded, "I needed to walk. May you answer my questions now?"
Axel responded cleverly, "Sorry Xion, it's a six man mission. Until we're back, it's kinda classified."
Xion asked softly, "A secret mission? But why?"
The entire mass this time looked back at Axel who was scratching his head he said softly to himself, "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?" He leaned over to whisper to Xion, "Look Xion. All I can tell you is that there is this boy who can use the Keyblade and he's heading towards an Organization stronghold. We're hoping to recruit him."
Xion sighed, "Another… Keyblade wielder? Could you guys have replaced me any faster? Is the boy a Nobody?"
Axel laughed awkwardly as he said, "Well I guess that's the kicker now ain't it? Sorry that's all we can say until we come back."
The girl nodded, "Ok, be safe then, all of you."
Larxene spoke up in the crowd, "Awwwww. She still thinks she can feel! Get over it kid, I won't miss you. In fact, I don't think we can."
Lexaeus muttered, "Larxene, stop. She is still toe young to understand." He walked out of the crowd and said to the girl blatant and monotoned, "Learn to use the Keyblade. Failure is not an option. That is you goal. A purpose in a purposeless existence."
Marluxia stated quickly as he extended his hand to reveal a massive Corridor of Darkness, "It's time we go. Our damsel in distress is already waiting there after all." The pink haired man walked through the portal first and the rest followed. Axel was the last to follow but before he walked through he saluted Xion and said, "Don't let Saïx be too mean to you while I'm gone. Later!" The corridor closed behind him and the young girl was left to just stare at the empty halls of this never existing castle.
Xion sighed, "Well, it's back to my room I guess." As she turned she noticed a member with his hood up roaming the halls. She thought, "Is he on an early mission as well?" She decided to follow him. The member took a left down a hallway. However, when Xion looked down the hall, she saw no one at all. But from behind her, the voice of Xemnas resonated, "Interesting, chasing the shadows now are we Xion?"
The girl turned around to see the silver haired leader of the Organization. She asked him, "Do you know who that was?"
Xemnas gave a brief laugh, "That was nobody, an illusion of what once was. Or perhaps she was who you claim to be."
Xion was confused by this, "It was a girl? But the only other female is Larxene and I saw her leave just now."
Xemnas looked down at the black haired girl with his own yellow-orange eyes. He stated, "You are just as Roxas then, interesting. Tell me Xion, do you feel Sora?"
Xion scratched her head as she got out, "Sora? I don't know anyone by that name. Or is he even a person? With your riddles it's sometimes hard to tell."
Xemnas smiled as he said, "I barely ever truly speak in riddles. What I say is the truth as I know it, an incomplete substance. All there is to know lies within a heart, one heart. The essence of darkness and light clash constantly together in a typical scenario. But I will leave you with this question Xion. Will a Heart ever be enough? For it is still imperfect and weak. So what do you suppose we create perfection from?" The man turned away and started to walk.
Xion answered immediately however, "Pure darkness or pure light."
Xemnas stopped after hearing this answer and said, "You've learned quite a bit in these three short weeks of existence. Perhaps you are ready to serve your purpose now." He looked over his shoulder as he decreed, "You're suspension has been lifted. You will be sent on a mission with Roxas this coming morning. Good luck, Keyblade's Chosen." Then the man faded into blurs as the Leader of the Organization disappeared.
Xion looked down at her hand once again and thought, "So even Xemnas hasn't lost faith that I can summon this 'Keyblade' thing." She briefly laughed to herself as she thought, "Well then I can't give up on trying now can I?" She walked back to her room and lay down in her bed, but instead of reading, like she normally would, she just slept.
Five hours had past before Xion was awoken by none other than Demyx knocking on her door. She groaned slightly as she sat up and asked, "Do you need something Demyx?"
The man answered in his odd to describe tone, "I would never wake you up if it wasn't important. That'd be a bit hypocritical on my part." Xion laughed a little and Demyx felt inner accomplishment before saying, "Saïx wants to talk to you in the lobby. Somethin bout you goin on a mission for the first time in FOREVER!"
Xion nodded as she said, "Thank you Demyx."
Demyx quickly stated, "No sweat! Well, I'd better complete my mission too, kinda wanna just lie around and do nothin for a while when I get back, with all the loud mouths gone that is."
Xion stated, "I concur, having Larxene gone for a while will be a good change. But I think the castle will get boring without Axel's vibrant personality. The others usually kept to themselves for the most part though."
Demyx gave a chuckle, "You didn't have to overanalyze it Xion."
Xion pulled up her hood and said, "Well, might as well get going. I don't want Roxas to be waiting too long." She got to her feet and walked with Demyx down to the lobby.
Xigbar greeted them immediately, "if it isn't the lazy and the poppet. It seems a bit early for you both to be up don't it?"
Demyx sat on the couch be him and pulled out his water sitar Arpeggio and began to strum while he sang fairly well,
"Oh Xigbar I may be lazy
And also a little bit crazy
But that doesn't mean I don't work
So stop being such a big jerk"
Xigbar laughed at this and said, "You prolly were makin that song up all night huh?"
Demyx defended, "What no. I can improvise pretty well when I need to. Get off my case bro."
Xion said, "I'm with Xigbar on this one. Four out of ten at best"
Demyx said, "Ouch, that was harsh. Geez Xion, I thought we were pals."
Xigbar laughed as he said, "Well what outrageous score would you give it?"
Demyx shrugged, "I think it deserves a three hundred and fifty eight out of two!"
Xion sighed, "That was pretty outrageous alright." The girl looked over to see Saïx walk into the reception area. She walked over to him and asked, "Hello Saïx. How was your night?"
The blue haired man stared at the girl and said, "I watched the full moon rise and set. It was… enlightening."
Xion smiled and said, "That sounds like a good thing, or at least I think."
Saïx nodded and said, "I have also awoken Roxas. He will be meeting you here momentarily so the two of you can start your mission together."
Xion waited until the dirty blonde came down the hallway. Roxas looked at Xion and said, "Morning Xion. Haven't seen you for a while."
Xion responded, but immediately noticed that she couldn't move her mouth. She tried for a couple of seconds to no avail and finally just settled for a nod of her hooded head for acknowledgment. She thought to herself, "What is wrong with me around this boy?".
Saïx stated, "Now that both of you are here, let's get to the debriefing. There is a heartless reeking havoc in the Tunnelway below the streets of Twilight Town known as a Dark Flower. That said, Xion can weaken it with her magic, but Roxas, you must definitely finish the job with your keyblade. Usually this would rank low enough to be a solo mission. However, since this is Xion's first time to this world, Xemnas believes that it would suit her best to experience the landscape with someone who is relatively knowledgeable of his surroundings."
Roxas nodded as he said while facing the ground, "Alright then, let's go." He raised his hand and created a Dark Corridor and walked through it.
Xion began to follow, however Saïx grabbed her shoulder and said, "Watch him closely Xion. Watch how he wields his Keyblade and learn from it." The girl looked up at Saïx and nodded as she followed Roxas through the Corridor. Xion noticed that Roxas was still looking downwards. The girl asked herself, "Has he become able to fake feelings as well? Something seems to be bothering him." She tried to speak once again, but again with no success.
Eventually the other end of the corridor opened and the two walked out. Xion was overtaken by the beautiful surroundings. There were buildings everywhere that reflected the sunset perfectly. Then she thought, "Wait a minute. Isn't it morning? Why is the sun already setting? Time must flow differently in this world than the World that Never Was."
Roxas gave a brief introduction in a monotone, "Welcome to Twilight Town. There are plenty of people here so try and cause as least suspicion as possible. The underground trail system is below the town so I suggest that we go to the Sandlot entrance. Any objections?"
Xion looked at him and shook her head in response. As she did this a corridor appeared to reveal a flower heartless. It had pink petals and a green 'stem' but it also had an odd looking yellow face. Xion thought to herself, "The target? I thought it was below the city."
Roxas threw his hand down to his side and a weapon unlike anything Xion had seen appeared in his hands. The blade had and blue handle with an obnoxiously large yellow hand guard on both sides. The blade was actually not a blade at all. It took the shape of a metal pole until the very end it jutted out in a crown formation. The overall structure lived up to its name as Xion thought in awe, "The Keyblade?"
The flower Heartless pulled back before shooting out a couple of seeds, which Roxas deflected with ease. Then the boy ran up to the flower and cut the stem in half. The flower disappeared into the darkness, and the heart it released shot rapidly into the evening sky. Roxas looked back at the hooded girl and said, "Don't worry so much about the small ones, just keep pressing onto the target. Marluxia once told me that. But that doesn't stop Saïx from getting on my case sometimes about only killing the target."
Xion tried to respond, but couldn't once again. She screamed in her mind, "Talk back! Why can't I speak to him?!"
Roxas looked below the small bridge they were on towards the sunset and said, "The Sandlot is just down there. I don't know why you're not talking, but I guess it doesn't matter, we still have a job to do." He jumped off the bridge and began walking down the road. Xion followed until they reached an open square plaza area. That's when dark corridors appeared to reveal three more flower heartless. Roxas crouched and readied his sword. Then he rushed in and dealt two strong blows to the closest foe, causing it to disappear. The other two shot seeds simultaneously at the boy but he skillfully jumped over both. As he landed, he lunged towards his target on the left, which dodged it by bending to the side. The flower to the right spat seeds at Roxas, who wasn't' paying attention to it. Xion thought quickly though and launched a fire attack to cut off the seeds and turn them to ash. The flower to the left swung down at Roxas with it's head, but was quickly hit to the side by Roxas' parry. The boy then swung completely around and swung his keyblade at full force which resulted in a fatal blow to the Heartless' head. Roxas then threw the Keyblade at his final opponent, which tore through the face and caused the Heartless to disappear as well. The Keyblade curved in the air and it came back to it's wielder, who caught it with ease.
Roxas sighed as he said, "On to the target I guess."
Just after this, the two noticed three other kids run by, It was a rather pudgy kid, wearing a red sports shirt with black spiky hair, a blonde boy with the weirdest hairstyle Xion had seen since she existed, and a cute girl with long brown hair. They all ran into a tunnel entrance. Xion thought to herself, "Who were they?"
Roxas started to walk over to where they had gone and motioned to Xion to follow. He said, "Come on. These are the tunnels where we will find our target. But be sure to not let the kids know we're here. Rules and all, so, you know, gotta follow them."
Xion nodded as the two walked down some steps into an underground transport area. They took plenty of turns before Roxas finally grabbed Xion by the arm and pulled her back behind a corner. Roxas said, "There are the kids. Let's listen and see if we can't learn something."
A boy's voice said, "Look Pence, I don't know why you dragged us down here, but it better be good."
A higher pitched voice, but definitely still male, stated, "Alright, get this guys. I heard some rumors about some huge monster thing messing up some shipments between the east and west side of town."
The female asked, "So you drag us down here because of some rumor? And if it is a monster, wouldn't It be dangerous? So what exactly are we going to do."
The one named Pence responded, "Isn't it obvious Olette? We're gona be the heroes and stop it."
Olette sighed and said, "We aren't heroes guys. And besides, we have homework to do."
Pence commented, "Way to be lame Olette. Geez, just thinking about saving the town here. What do you think we should do Hayner?"
Hayner, the deeper male voice, answered, "I hate to admit it, but Olette has a point this time Pence."
Pence groaned and asked, "What? Are you saying you don't want to be a hero?"
Hayner disagreed, "No, I didn't say that. But what I am saying is that we should think about it first. If it's really a monster, then we need to come a little more prepared."
Olette brought up, "I have an idea. Why don't we go get Seifer's gang to help. With the six of us, one single thing won't stand a chance."
Hayner reluctantly agreed, "Ugh, I hate those guys, but it does sound like a better option than just having us three. Ok then it's settled, we'll get Seifer and beat us a monster!"
Pence said excitedly, "Awesome! I'll run ahead and tell them the plan!" Roxas saw the black haired boy run back down the hall they were just in from behind a lone pillar. Hayner and Olette followed at a slower pace. Once the kids were gone, Roxas and Xion came out of hiding.
Roxas said, "It's kind of unfortunate to think that we'll be defeating the Heartless first. They seemed to be pretty excited about this." He motioned to Xion to keep moving until they came to another long stairway. Loud banging noises echoed through the hall and Roxas said, "Pretty sure we found our target. Let's get going." Xion nodded and followed Roxas down the stairway and saw a giant purple flower Heartless. Roxas said, "I'll keep it distracted while you use fire magic to weaken it."
After saying this, Roxas lept into the air and swung his Keyblade at the face of the plant. However, the plant dodged to the side, and as Roxas came into range, the Heartless swung around and hit the boy against a wall and fell into a pool of water. Xion reached out her hand towards him to show concern but Roxas said, "I'm fine alright? Just weaken the target." Xion nodded and launched a fireball at the flower, which ignited it immediately, but it didn't seem to care all that much as in spat seeds at the girl in retaliation. Xion dodge rolled before sending another fireball at the monster, however it was burst early by another shot seed. While the Heartless was distracted, Roxas struck at the stem. Upon feeling the Keyblade's sting, the monster twirled completely around to hit Roxas and spun him to a launch which hit landed the boy to hit Xion and both children to hit the wall. Roxas exclaimed, "Crap! This isn"t working." The two staggered to their feet as the monster prepared to fire seeds at them. Roxas reacted quickly and said, "I'm going to run in for a powerful hit. When I give you the signal, shoot a Firaga at me, alright?" He ran to the side before Xion had time to tell him how crazy of a plan she thought this was. The Dark Flower shot it's seeds at Xion who reacted barely fast enough to block the full attack with flames., However, she felt a sharp pain across her arm even after blocking. Everything moved too fast to even check on it. She saw Roxas begin to jump as he yelled, "Now Xion!" The girl did as the plan asked and she shot a large fire projectile where the boy would land next to the Heartless. Roxas began to spin around in the air and his Keyblade caught Xion's Firaga. He continued his spin and as he made contact with the flower, a wall of flame engulfed the being completely. The body faded to ash as the heart shot up into the air. Roxas caught himself nicely on the landing as he was panting from adrenaline.
Xion sighed with relief but then realized once again the pain in her right arm and looked down to see two cut's in her jacket with fresh blood in them. She squinted in pain as she gripped the open wounds.
Roxas noticed this immediately and ran over to the girl and said, "You're hurt!" He pulled out a green vile, that Xion recognised as a potion she had obtained on her first mission. The boy broke the glass and spread the green mist over the girl's arm. Xion tensed because of a brief moment of pain, but then she felt nothing at all. She looked down to see that the wound was completely closed. She looked at Roxas who said, "See? All better. Now let's get back to the castle. I can't wait to tell Axel how…" He stopped and then looked away from the girl before saying in a deeper monotone, "Actually, you go on without me. I have something that I want to do first." He reached out his hand and called upon a Dark Corridor. He said as he walked back up the steps of the tunnel, "If you could be the one to report into Saïx, I'd appreciate it. You did a good job today." After that he disappeared from sight as he reached the top of the steps.
Xion thought aloud, "What was with him?" Upon realizing it came out verbally, she frustratedly asked, "More importantly. What the heck is wrong with me?" She looked at the Dark Corridor that her comrade had created and sighed, "And why do I still know so little, I need to learn, and train, and apparently figure out how to talk. But I guess that can wait until I report in." She looked back one more time up the steps that Roxas had ascended before walking through the portal to RTC.
Xion was immediately greeted by none other than Xemnas himself standing in the foyer. Xion asked, "To what we owe the pleasure of you coming down here Xemnas?"
Saïx answered for the leader, "We are both intrigued about what the results of today's mission is."
Xion looked down at her feet and said, "All Heartless were defeated with Roxas' keyblade. I'm sorry, but I don't know how I can learn anything from him if I can't even talk to him."
Xemnas asked, "Could you please clarify what you mean Xion? How can you not talk to our thirteenth member?"
Xion replied, "I can't, it's like impossible. Clearly I can speak to anyone else, but whenever I talk to Roxas, my mouth just doesn't open."
Saïx gave a brief laugh as he said, "It seems to me like a young girl's crush. However, that would be impossible given your state as a nobody."
Xion shook her head, "I actually don't believe that would remotely be the case. I don't find myself at a loss of words, just with no control over my mouth."
Xemnas said to the girl, "I would not be troubled by this fact Xion. All I must say is to try, for without attempts, there can be no success." He turned his back to her and Saïx and said in an incredibly intimidating sense, "But I will give you a limit. Unless you prove your ability to wield a Keyblade in the next week, you will be erased. Farewell, and good luck." The man disappeared just as he had earlier in the day.
Xion was left there in a neutral state of mind. She thought to herself, "If only I could feel fear. Maybe that would push me to do more."
Saïx asked, "And on that uplifting note, I must ask, where is Roxas?"
Xion replied, "He said he wanted to do something in Twilight Town before he RTC'd."
Saïx said, "Alright then. It seems that the mission was a success so I can't complain about him taking a little personal time. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow for your next mission Xion."
The girl questioned, "Can I ask a favor of you Saïx?"
The blue haired man nodded in response. Xion then asked, "Could you please let me share missions with Roxas until my week is up? Maybe I'll learn to wield a Keyblade by just being around someone else who can."
Saïx smiled as he said, "That is the kind of thinking I like to hear from people. I'll talk to Xemnas later and see what I can do." He started to walk back over to the windows as he said, "I hope your right, for our sake and yours."
Xion nodded and said, "Thank you Saïx, enjoy the rest of your day." Then she retired to her room with only the thoughts to log in her journal.
And here it is! Chapter 6! I wrote this in honor of Square releasing all of the KH titles on one system for 1.5 and 2.5 on the PS4 out in America in 2 days. I'll post from this point on whenever we get a KH3 trailer, or something more than a couple of screenshots I guess. Can't wait to see what Square has in store for the end of the Dark Seeker Saga. Enjoy!
