X. Fate

On the day of Jack's 21st birthday, everything between us was over. Whether it was because his dad insisted on him making it public or me knowingly going to that momentous party, the fault was evenly distributed.

The crowd was busier than usual at the Silver Lynx, yet it was surprising how the regulars could still concentrate. I could have easily copied them and hid behind the fun and games, sparing me the pain of severing the thin tie between me and him, but I really couldn't. As a regular who was here most days, how could I overlook the single thing that mattered?

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this day." Where I was standing, I couldn't see Jack at all. I didn't get the impression he was used to speaking to a crowd – if anything, he liked personal contact and pushing them to their own personal limits. Public speaking, not to mention motivational speeches, required a completely different skill set.

People shuffled in my peripheral vision whilst others sipped their champagne. "The Silver Lynx has been standing strong since the time of my great grandfather. At the precipice of good fortune for all, he established this very casino in the midst of a financial crisis."

I was certain that the guests were hardly interested in its makings, but it was almost a given in a ceremony like this. The way Jack's voice reverberated as he continued to talk wasn't just because it had been amplified – in more ways than one, he was afraid. He spoke of the founder, who went through several bodyguards to challenge the many who were against the casino. He spoke of his grandfather, who became deaf and incapacitated yet it didn't slow him down for almost two decades.

Then there was his father. It was almost a given King Ludor was there to hear every word, and Jack made sure to keep gilding the lily. He elaborated on how King Ludor single-handedly sealed more business deals than his ancestors put together, how he had more influence than anyone dared to imagine as a result of it. Where the previous owners focused on maintenance, he focused on prosperity.

Where Jack continued to reveal his intentions to match his fathers, he sounded so confident I knew he was grinning all the while. The guests nodded in approval next to me, the words and delivery washing over them in an inspirational wave as they complacently listened to every word of an otherwise long speech.

Where Jack was clearly to be a leader of formidable influence, I knew what was going through his head. As he had gone through his ancestors, he had doubts he would do any better, or even a decent job. And if he was to be left alone, allowing those thoughts to plague him, he would surely fail his chosen path. The way he came to me, perhaps in a bid to get away from the pressure, I knew he was only delaying the inevitable.

And, from every conversation we had, I knew that he would rather tear the casino to the ground than be expected to lead the townsfolk to despair.

I couldn't let him throw his life of fortune away. I wasn't there to listen to his real problems, where he had chosen to keep it all to himself despite all those encounters we had. Now that he made it public, I too could make my opinions known about the matter. Like what I had told him in our last meeting, he was aware I was affiliated with Charles, and if necessary I would work it to my advantage.

I knew that like my father, Jack deeply cared about his followers. But from the number of times he took interest in me, what the world was beyond the casino and the deceit, I had known for a long time he was not cut out to be the next King Ludor. Rather, not yet.

I turned on my heel, although he still hadn't finished his speech. If he was to take that first step forward, I knew what had to be done.

-x-

I didn't need to do a whole lot to make Vincent's Nobody stronger – apparently she had built up her strength already in Traverse Town to the point the Dusk numbers were few there. With a bit of incentive, I managed to persuade her to leave her familiar surroundings and led her to the World That Never Was. The town below, although similar to Traverse Town, was teeming with Dusks and an ideal place for her to grow more powerful. It was ultimately Xemnas' dumping ground of failures – where he missed out, I was certain she and I would flourish.

I didn't mention any of my ripening plans to Luxord; however the number of times I went out after missions, he knew that I was definitely trying something.

The Organisation was tarnished, tainted even. Anything that Xemnas had poisoned with his heavy words was contaminated, and more exposure meant more mindless thoughts and lack of individuality.

That was why, when Number XII was introduced, I knew I had to get her before she too fell into that pit of uniformity.

Larxene looked up from her knives mulishly as I joined her on the settee. It was calming to be sat with her now rather than leering down from the seats in the Round Room, taking in the flash of danger in her green eyes that were otherwise hidden under long eyelashes. She too was dressed in the Organisation coat, covering the entirety of her petite physique. Her hairstyle was unusual too, with two strands that curved round like the horns of a demon. "Don't you have work to do?"

I raised my chin slightly. "I wouldn't go so far as to say my work is important," I chose to say. It was a standard recon mission, but it was just another way for Xemnas to keep our minds from his motives. He had told us the Keyblade wielder could secure our hearts and make us like everyone else; this I had never believed the moment he said it.

Larxene would do well to do the same. She willed her knives to disappear in a small blast of sparks, much to my dismay. "I don't think mine is either."

I laughed softly. "Why is that?"

She jerked her head towards Saïx. Much like he had always been, he was an intimidating character with the expression and clipboard to match, but Larxene wasn't bothered by that. "He's set me up to go with Demyx. Being my first mission and all, I thought I'd be assigned to someone a bit higher up."

First missions were always the most important. I recalled my own fondly, where Lexaeus and I engaged in Heartless control in Halloween Town. Even then I knew that Lexaeus wasn't the talkative type, but the way he forced his words out almost gave away that there was an ulterior motive behind it all. Thankfully he had gone through about three sentences before he got to the point.

How did your Somebody fall to the Darkness?

It was the biggest question that Xemnas was still trying to understand – because we lost ourselves through our means alone, he needed our cooperation to satisfy his curiosity.

With Demyx mentoring Larxene, however, they would probably both drive each other mad in the process.

"You'll come to find that not many put Demyx as their first choice," I said lightly. Although he was the first to accomplish the self-inflicted journey to be a Nobody and was actually highly dangerous, he made sure his outward appearance didn't match. He was chirpy and so laidback he had fallen over a long time ago. He was unique, but when even he didn't think so, no one else could see that.

Larxene gave a soft smile. "Did I ruin things?"

"It's not that." I ran a hand through my hair thoughtfully. "It's just the way things are right now. Everyone higher up has done their share, so it's only through process of elimination that Demyx is your partner today." I didn't add the fact Xemnas and Saïx were never assigned mentoring duty, and Vexen was either too busy poking things in his lab or too moody to partake in the tradition himself.

"So everyone takes it in turns to be first babysitter? That's reassuring," Larxene uttered vehemently. She made to cross one leg over the other and started to wave her foot impatiently.

If the Organisation ever became that big, I thought. "They're going to try and find out about your Somebody life. It acts as a ceremony of sorts."

She turned her head round quickly, and her fast-becoming-normal look of scorn was completely gone. Her eyes, although large anyway, were wide and beautiful. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she came up with the best thing to say. "Wow, they really know how to get under your skin, don't they?"

As she rearranged her expression into something less of concern, there was something to suggest that somewhere in the past, she had grown used to the lies.

"If it helps, would you mind telling me?" There weren't a lot of strong girls around, much less anyone who had gone through so much pain and clamber out of the darkness despite it. From all my trips around, they were either holding onto their daddy's hand or their husband's. If Larxene had come from anywhere I had travelled to, I couldn't see it as anywhere but Tortuga.

She laughed callously, a screech that made Saïx look up from his clipboard in alarm. "How about no?"

I wasn't insulted; far from it. "If your past is worth holding onto, or burying even, create your own history. No one here really has to know, do they?"