Vexen had given the bunny a thorough examination. The poor creature still hadn't stopped shivering, not to mention holding up the sign in anguished manner every five seconds. The sign holding did not, of course, help with the examination, making Vexen angrier by the minute. By the end, he was shaking as mush as the bunny for completely opposite reasons. Roxas leaned uncomfortably over to Xigbar and asked in a low voice, "Does Vexen need happy pills too?"

"Nah," Xigbar said smugly. "Those never worked on him. Only thing that did was a pretty woman or a helpless lab experiment. As there are no pretty women around Castle Oblivion, we had to make do with sacrificing villagers to the vial."

"There were villagers? So THAT'S why the World That Never Was has so many buildings," Roxas said contemplatively.

"Did you think we built them ourselves?" Xigbar frowned, crossing his arms, eyes still pinned on Vexen.

"With our dastardly mind rays?" Axel added spookily.

"Shut up," Xigbar grinned. "We're getting to the exiting part of the show."

"And this," Axel explained to Roxas, "is what they had to do back in Xigbar's day when there were no video games."

"Wowwwwwwww," Roxas said appreciatively. "I have a new respect for old people."

Xigbar and Vexen turned to stare at Roxas. It's that sort of dull stare that is laden with hate and 'you better say your prayers, boy' thoughts. Roxas inched behind Axel and twiddled his thumbs nervously.

Vexen looked up at the ceiling gave a deep sigh. "You just called me old, correct?" It was a rhetorical question. A dangerous sort of warning question. Axel shoved Roxas out into the open and threw himself onto a couch. Roxas continued to twiddle his thumbs, speeding up the process as the seconds passed. Xigbar shrugged and began to look at Roxas as Vexen turned around.

"Boy," Vexen said menacingly, "There's something I need to show you."

- - -

Xemnas heard the scream from afar. It was a sound of anguish and horror and pain. "That is the sound of ultimate suffering," he said dully.

"Roxas got the bunny treatment," Zexion said. "I knew it was coming to him." The cargo bay was silent for a few moments. "Superior?"

"What, Six?"

"I think that scream loosened these ropes."

"Then you can get me my coffee, right?"

"…No, Superior."

- - -

Larxene knew one thing. She was losing the war. But Larxene also knew something else. She was winning the battle. All the kicking and screaming and shouting in the bathroom had come to one effect. A key, which had been firmly latched on the top of the doorframe, well out of her reach, had fallen to the floor. The woman picked up the key and held it up to the light in a rather smug, cliché way. It glinted ever-so-slightly with glee perhaps more evil than Larxene's own. At last, it was free! Free to put under its dominion all these miserable humans that had stuffed it up there on the doorframe! Free to—ugh— oomph—why was this woman stuffing it into a keyhole? It was so undignified. And, what—oh, how lame. She put it back on the top of the doorframe to wait in misery. The end of the world was delayed once again.

Larxene strode out into the fluorescent light of the corridor. Her lips curled up into a smile. "I'm back," she called out in a singsong voice. "Come and catch me." She strode off purposefully for the locked office room. Game time was up and surely the security of the office wasn't half as important as a lady's privacy. The door was bound to be weaker.

Just down the hall, in the opposite direction from the one Larxene was headed, Demyx grinned nervously up at the guard, who by now had his foot stamped forcefully down on the Nobody's chest. "Just what are you folks planning on doing?" he asked, his arms crossed. "I hope that it's nothing against the airport's policies of… making a giant greenhouse out of the lobby." Marluxia's happy dance around the room (setting up flowerpots and creeping vines) stopped short. Xaldin and Lexaeus leaned forward in interest, as if one man. The air was humming with tension.

:"I have to go potty," Demyx said in a small voice.

"Do you really?" The guard shook his head. "I think what you really have to do is clean up this mess. What are you, anyway, a rock band?"

"Organization," Marluxia muttered as he went to pick up his plants and stuff them in his (apparently expandable) pockets.

"Whatever. Just get cleaning."

Demyx sniffled. Xaldin rolled his eyes. "We really don't have time for this, you know." Lexaeus sighed and pulled out his journal again.

Lexaeus's Journal

Entry #3

It looks like Xaldin will use his coup de grace. On a janitor. No, no, I know what you're thinking—wow, he's gonna' pull out a wind dragon in the middle of an airport? That's so awesome! Well, sorry to say that the dragon is a fairly mild thing out of Xaldin's arsenal. No, what I think he's going to do—oh, wait. Looks like I was right.

For future reference, hitting people over the head with fists like Xaldin's really's the ticket out of things. Never turn your back on the wind. Seriously.

It looks like I better get up and moving.

- - -

Roxas was cowering in the corner, trying to pull the (sadly deceased—that IS that nice way to put it, isn't it?) bunny out of his leg. It was cold and stiff and took forever to pry out. Vexen had returned to his desk and was now viciously tearing papers out of a phonebook. Axel was sitting rigidly on the couch and Xigbar had seemed to decide to take a nap—while suspended in midair.

At last, with a loud popping sound, the bunny came free. Roxas sighed and tried to imagine how much munny he would have to pay Marluxia to patch up his coat.

It was only a few seconds after that the door to the office began to be assaulted.

It seemed that someone was kicking the door—though it may have been punches, or elbows, or something very forceful. But of course, it didn't really matter, because all the Nobodies knew at once what it was. An angry woman.

To them, it didn't really matter WHICH angry woman it was, it was just scary. Scary beyond belief. An angry woman doesn't play fair. If it were Larxene, she wouldn't even play fair on normal days any more than you would willingly eat maggots for no prize. And I mean seriously no prize—no wow factor, no money, and no fulfilling the need to survive. Fairness was pretty much like that with Larxene. It simply didn't exist.

So of course, the first thing that happened was Roxas screamed out, "We're doomed!" The second thing that happened was Xigbar fell out of the sky and onto the floor. The third thing that happened was Axel went from sitting ON the couch to hiding UNDER the couch. And the fourth thing that happened was Vexen immediately stopped tearing the pages out of the phonebook, which was a good thing, because the pages were almost gone and who knows what he'd want to tear up next.

The door began to buckle. Roxas decided to join Axel under the couch. Vexen smiled briefly and strode over to the door, then opened it, timing it perfectly just as Larxene (for it was she) was about to land another well-placed kick. The woman was caught off balance and the look of rage was still on her face as Vexen tipped her lightly over onto her face. "Zexion's not here, if you were wondering."

Larxene got up quickly. "I see," she said contemplatively. "You shipped him off somewhere, didn't you?"

Vexen returned to his desk, still calm. "I didn't."

"Luxord did," Xigbar interjected. "And he's not here."

"Well," Larxene said, "you four are here. Axel, Roxas, your feet are sticking out." Axel and Roxas groaned—well, on Roxas's part, it was more of a whimper—but the point still stands. "Roxas," Larxene said in a suddenly concerned voice, "Nikes are bad for you, didn't you know that?"

Roxas had just extricated himself from under the couch and he thusly whipped his head around, eyebrows down in a rather crushed expression. "No they aren't!"

"Vexen's done tests."

The scientist shrugged and smiled as Roxas looked nervously over at him. "I have; it's true." Larxene smiled over at Vexen and they both enjoyed a really pleased feeling that tingled down to their toes.

"I…" Roxas bit his lip. "What shoes ARE good for me?"

"Reeboks," Larxene replied instantly. Roxas looked over at Vexen for confirmation (don't ask ME why he trusts him) and Vexen laced his fingers together and beamed. Roxas looked down at his feet and began to breathe a little faster.

"All this time," he muttered. "I'd been deceived. How… how could I avoided this crisis?" Then, with a wild-eyed look, he screeched out at no one in particular, "But they were on SALE!" The boy fell to his knees melodramatically and Larxene relaxed. Power. It felt good—after all, it'd been a full twenty minutes since she had felt so cruel. It was such a long period.

"Well," Vexen shrugged, "you could wear your pink bunny slippers."

Roxas looked suspiciously over at Vexen. "How did you know that I even owned those?"

Axel dragged the last of himself out from under the couch (as he had been doing so for the whole conversation). "I asked and he told," Vexen replied, jerking his head in Axel's direction.

"Axeeeeeeeeeel," Roxas growled. Larxene snickered and leaned a bit more comfortably against the wall. Xigbar crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Give it up little dude," he said. "Vexen goes on an inquisition every month to take inventory. It isn't Eight's fault. Speaking of inquisitions…" Xigbar turned to eye Larxene. "What are you going to do?"

"Oh…" Larxene frowned. "I don't know. It's getting boring here. I'd like to get back to the World."

Vexen raised an eyebrow. "You aren't going to kill us all—or just Zexion?"

Larxene smiled grimly and cracked her knuckles. "Oh, I wouldn't give it up. But if you think about it, it would be easier to catch Zexion in our home territory."

Xigbar nodded. "Of course, you'd have an advantage."

Larxene nodded serenely. "Yes… and then I'd have more time on my hands to rip his little ears off."

Both Roxas and Axel's hands came surreptitiously up to their heads as they felt carefully to make sure that their ears were well protected. Then Xigbar got up and looked around the corner. "Dudes, Xaldin's coming back."

Roxas frowned. "How did YOU know that?"

Xigbar's mouth curled into yet another smile. "Pointy ears, dude. They work double time."