Enik leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, sighing contentedly. "So. Where'd you guys say you were from?"
"Midgar." Cloud grumbled uniformly, as if it was a programmed response he gave whenever that question arose.
"We're from the Destiny Islands." Riku said through a mouthful of waffles, happier now that he had something to eat. Sora nodded to affirm his agreement in the response, but deep inside he was concerned.
I wonder why this Enik person's being so nice to us, even after he told Taro he should leave us alone. It makes him seem so…two-faced.
Sora's doubts about his trust in Enik were interrupted momentarily as Taro walked over with a plate of food.
"Waffles?" the boy asked, holding the plate out before him. Sora looked at the plate and shook his head slowly.
"No thanks, I'm fine."
"Are you sure—"
"Yeah," he said, halting Taro mid-sentence. "I'm good, thanks." Suddenly, Sora noticed everyone in the room staring at him. Enik's gaze, especially, worried him—it was very suspicious, even somewhat calculating. The last thing he needed was more reason for Taro's cousin to be wary of him. "Still sort of tired, you know?"
Taro nodded and walked back to the counter without comment, making the moment even more awkward as the conversation died completely. Riku clinked his silverware against his plate, looking around at the other people in the room as if he were willing them to start talking again. Cloud sat completely still, glaring at the wall and avoiding eye contact with anyone. Taro glanced at Enik nervously.
Unable to handle the uncomfortable silence, Sora stood up and walked out onto the front porch, sighing deeply.
Why me, he thought for the millionth time that day. Why?
Sora sat miserably on the railing of the porch, staring out at the ocean. Lost in the stressed out, conflicting arguments that were spiraling through his mind, he didn't at all notice when Riku opened the door and walked up behind him.
"Sora?" he asked quietly, nudging his friend. The younger boy barely turned around to face him before sullenly staring back out to sea. "C'mon Sora, stop being like this. You've been all withdrawn ever since we left. What's wrong with you?"
There was a drawn-out silence that seemed like it would never end, until Sora suddenly jumped off the railing and stood with his back to Riku, glaring angrily at the ground.
"You have to ask?"
Riku shook his head as he walked around in front of Sora, facing him now. "No, I don't. But you can't let everything we left behind keep you there when you're not."
"How would you know what that feels like?" Sora knew immediately that he had asked a useless question.
But Riku only chuckled quietly, sitting down on one of the porch steps with a sigh. He spun around to look up at Sora and smirked. "You have to ask?" More silence. "When I left everything behind me, it wasn't for any good reason like it was for you. But then I learned—and learned fast—how to move on. And I still had to leave what I knew behind me, including the darkness that I had struggled to give up. So you, Sora….you need to learn to move on too."
Learn to move on, Sora thought sadly. He says it like it's an easy thing to do. "Don't you understand, Riku? I just can't leave things behind like you could. I had to leave you and Kairi behind, and our home, too. Twice."
"And I left all of that behind twice, too, smart guy." Riku answered smartly.
"Only once on your own terms, though." The two grinned at each other sarcastically, but Riku held up a hand to silence his friend.
"Regardless—you have to think of it like this. You look past where you've been, and you look ahead to where you're going. The point is, don't stop going."
Quietly, Sora processed this information. Riku was right, after all—he couldn't mope around and obsess over things that had already happened, no matter how regrettable. Running a hand through his spiky hair, he nodded and sighed. "Yeah. You're right."
Shrugging his shoulders, Riku snickered. "When am I not? Which brings me to my next question—there's something else here that I don't know about, isn't there?"
"What?" Sora snapped hastily, a wave of panic enveloping him. "No, there's—"
"This morning. When I came downstairs? I'm talking about that."
"Oh that was nothing." Sora mumbled, speaking so quickly it came out sounding like one whole word. "I was just, um…."
"Sora, I wasn't born yesterday. What were Taro and his cousin saying, and why were you bothering to listen, huh?"
This was where Sora ended his persona of ignorance. Taking a deep breath and looking up at the sky nervously, he answered with a mumbled statement that was hardly audible. "Well, they were…they were talking about me."
"You? Why you?" Riku asked inquiringly. A tinge of concern entered his voice.
"Enik said—" Sora paused as he struggled to remember the exact words. "He said that Taro shouldn't have anything to do with 'that kid and whatever people he brought with him'. Because he thinks it's too risky for him to be involved."
"Because of—"
"Organization XIII." they finished in agreement.
"So now I'm left wondering what he's up to…Enik, I mean. I know he's just trying to keep Taro safe because of what he's been through, and his parents and all…"
"His parents?"
Sighing, Sora cursed himself for letting that slip. "Yeah, Organization XIII killed Taro's parents. The Heartless killed Enik's."
An awkward, sad silence settled over them. Riku exhaled loudly, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I can understand why they'd be worried, then."
"Exactly, but doesn't it still bother you that Enik thinks we'll somehow cause them to show up here again?"
"It does," Riku admitted, "but I'm not entirely sure that Organization XIII has any way to tell where we are. So for now, we're okay, and we're not planning to be here for too long. But did Taro talk him out of it at all?" Sora nodded, shook his head hesitantly, and nodded again. Riku scoffed. "So I guess that's a yes and a no. All I can say is don't worry about it. We'll do whatever it is we have to do, in spite of whether or not Taro is included. And forget about the Organization, we'll worry about them when we have to. Don't let it weigh you down."
"Yeah, okay." Slowly turning and heading towards the door, Sora stopped a few feet away from where he had been standing and nodded towards Riku. "Thanks."
"Anytime," the older boy answered, "but I'm not real fanatical on becoming a full-time psychologist for all of your neurotic needs, got that?" he added jokingly, shoving Sora into the door as he laughed. "Pull yourself together."
"Fine then, not like I'd want you lecturing me all the time."
"One more smart comment and I swear I'll throw you in the ocean."
Xaice pounded his fist against the tall glass door, forcefully enough that he was on the verge of shaking the castle's foundation. "Xarik, get out here!"
"Why should I?! It's not like we're going to get that rat of a Keyblade Master yet."
The boy laughed bitterly, his hand dropping to his side. The sound, which was eerily somewhere between ecstasy and contempt, echoed through the infinite halls before gradually fading into the silence.
"Xar, why else would I come bother you like this? The Superior's called a meeting on our departure, and we both need to be down in the main hall in a few minutes. Get mov—" Barely able to finish his sentence, Xaice smirked as a blur of black leather and lavender hair flew past him and took off down the hall. Jogging casually in order to catch up, he reached out a hand and caught her mid-stride.
A glare that seemed to flood with venom met his gaze. Without noticing, Xaice laughed again and let go of Xarik's arm gently.
"You don't have to run, we'll make it there either way," he informed her calmly. Panting, Xarik looked around frantically before settling her gaze on Xaice and nodding slowly—her eyes filled with anxiety.
Xaice sighed and turned around, continuing on down the corridor at a leisurely, bored pace. "It's no big deal, you know."
There was silence for a moment, and Xarik mumbled something from beside him; he turned his head to stare at her.
"What'd you say?"
"I said…" she hesitated. "I said 'it is to me'." The comment instigated another laugh from Xaice, who quickly earned himself another hateful glance. "What's so funny?"
"Isn't it always?" was his reply as he shook his head. "All you ever think about is getting the better of him, isn't it?"
Looking over at Xaice from behind her disheveled, purple-hued hair, Xarik blinked her brilliant silver eyes. "What else is there for me to think about?"
This statement stopped the boy in his tracks. His affable, careless grin faded into a preoccupied grimace. "Well, there's…uh…" he pondered the subject for a moment, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully. Minutes passed. "Life?"
"And what is this 'life' to us, Xaice? We're dead."
"Not technically…" he protested, all traces of contentment erased from his expression.
"Yes, perhaps not in the literal sense of the word, but dead all the same. We, as Nobodies, have no hearts—we're only half a being. If that isn't at least close to dead, I don't know what is." A sigh escaped her. "We have nothing to look for in life, because it is lost to us. We are here only to fulfill the needs of the Organization. To do that, we must defeat all those who stand in our way. And, as you know, that means defeating the Keyblade Master. That, Xaice, is our life…or lack thereof." They continued walking, Xaice barely keeping pace as he was so lost in thought.
"So, what you're saying…" he finally said, uncertain, "what you're saying is you obsess over killing Sora because it's all we have for a purpose? All we have for a life?" Xaice stared at her doubtfully, wondering what she was trying to say. But Xarik nodded slowly, turning her gaze away from his questioning face. "Xar, how can you say that? I always thought that you knew…"
"Knew what?" she spat. Anger and hatred swiftly clouded her menacing glare, her face turning a light shade of red. "That the only reason we still exist is because we had a strong will in our past life—and now that will, what's left of us, is being manipulated, is being used as a roadblock for a stupid, two-bit brat with a damn giant key?!"
"That's not what I meant." Xaice argued, stepping closer to her. "I always thought you knew that you were too good to ever think that. You're too…" he struggled to find the right words. "You're too real to ever have to think you have no more of a purpose than the one handed to you."
"What are you talking about?" she snapped, her voice lowering almost unnoticeably. Curiosity slowly crept into her tone, and a look of confusion flitted across her face.
"Xarik…" Xaice muttered, looking back over at her. "I feel the same way you do, sometimes. Hell, it doesn't seem like it, but I do. I've known for a while that it was really a waste of time, all this—we exist for the Organization, to do what we're told when we're told, and to spend every moment tracking down Sora so as to bring him to an end. That's all we're good for, really."
Xarik scoffed, swallowing tears back. He was right and she knew it—but she wished he was wrong. "Now you see why I call Larxene my mother. She's the best thing I've ever had so far—someone close to family which is real—isn't it? She was someone to look up to, someone to model myself after so I didn't feel so used. So I feel like I can decide who to be instead of them deciding for me; like I'm my own person. " A tear slid down her face. "But the sick thing is that's exactly what they want us to think."
"You're different, though." Xaice added quickly. The two of them had stopped walking completely and were standing in the middle of the second floor hallway, near the last flight of stairs; seemingly motionless from a distance. Only at a close range would anyone notice the sorrow in their eyes, how their shoulders shook with suppressed sobs. As she wiped a stray tear away, Xarik lifted her head sadly and looked into Xaice's deep brown eyes. "Xar, don't tell yourself that you're worthless. It's true, we don't have much to live for." He smirked. "Not that we're living. Just know that to me, you are the most real person in the world. And you always will be."
Seconds passed in silence as they stared at each other, a million emotions flashing in their gazes all at once. Right when it seemed like the silence would keep lasting, Xarik threw herself forward into an unsuspecting Xaice's arms. The withheld sobs escaped her at last, and as Xaice hesitantly wrapped his arms around her, he began to cry, too.
Neither of them bothered to move. They just stood there, in each other's arms. They cried for themselves, they cried for each other, they cried for the rest of the Organization—the ones who, like them, might never get the chance to exist for real. But right then, Xarik and Xaice were as real to each other as they wished they were to themselves. So they cried.
After a moment, Xaice composed himself and held Xarik out at arm's length. Her sorrowful gaze met his, her stunning metallic eyes glimmering behind the tears.
"What?" she asked, sniffling quietly.
"Nothing," he said softly. "Making sure you were okay."
Pulling her close again, Xaice whispered three words into her hair. He hoped she hadn't heard him.
