Well, we've hit chapter ten.
We arrived back in the Double It! canon after a not-significant walk. Thankfully, the portal under Pandora's stairs wasn't too far from the door to Double It!
"Why does every portal I go through end up being one way?" I muttered to myself.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." I quickly replied, sighing. We quickly walked to Destiny's room.
"So, what should we do now?" Destiny asked, practically falling onto the bed.
"We should try to figure out who was swapped for who." I looked at her, basically saying that she was an idiot.
I was in a bad mood, alright?
"Well, we know about Xenri and Korrax." She counted off. "Their link would have to be that they both have someone they love slash sleep with." I blushed. It was a pretty blunt comment.
"I think another is obvious. Khanx and Exneri."
"Of course, both mute... hang on a second..." After a minute or so of digging around, she found a pad of paper and a pen. "Right, so Krixae, Xirama, Leixym, Exneri and Korrax from Nobodies Forgotten, and Xenri, Luxkls, Khanx, Clairex and Torexaltceh from here..." She wrote the names in two columns. "We know who were swapped for two of them..." She drew two lines, connecting the two pairs we'd figured out.
"So that just leaves three pairs..." I muttered, thinking. What factors could be similar between those Nobodies... I had this nagging thought at the back of my head, but I just couldn't get hold on. "I don't suppose you have another friend who is an expert on dissecting character personalities and histories?"
"Unfortunately, no." I sighed.
"Great." I closed my eyes behind my blindfold to think.
"Do you know anyone?" Destiny asked.
Then I realised something. "We need to check on our characters!" I shouted, remembering.
"Oh, it'll take them ages to get back here." Destiny dismissed.
"Never underestimate a villain. Let's check anyway." I dematerialized at that, running towards my canon. Frankly, with them both being stories based around similar ideas you'd think they would be closer together.
I was faced with a choice. Be active and on the scene if I arrive to find something off, or check everywhere at once.
I chose to check everywhere at once and headed for my room, going into the CCTV control room next to it.
A brief glance showed nothing, but I looked again just to be sure.
The Dining Room of Disparage had several stains on the walls where food had been thrown, and the Gym of Joyless Toil was still damaged from the giant Heartless attack Caixsa and Haxisal had fought off, eventually. The Kitchen of Chaos still had a thoroughly stabbed door from that as well, but Crooked Ascension had been fixed.
The last set of cameras I checked were the ones on The Corridor of Eternal Rest. Aside from a bloody hand print, there was nothing.
Wait, a bloody hand print?
I instantly started to run.
Thankfully it was only a few minutes before I reached the door the hand print was next to. I hadn't bothered to check which door it was on, but now I saw the number on the door.
XV. Caixsa.
"Oh, come on!" I moaned, opening the door. I had to duck an explosion before I managed to see who was in the room. "Oh! What's your name..." I murmured. I knew the young man in the room, I just couldn't place him. "Come on... machines for arms... Gah! I should know!"
"Um, who are you?" He asked.
"Hawk, the author." I replied, absentminded.
"Um, I think you've made a mistake. The author's a girl, called Destiny."
"I know. We're good friends. Listen, if you want the full story, talk to... I don't know. You've got Luklxs, Khanx, Xenri, Torexaltceh and Clairex." It hit me. "Aryx! That's it!"
"Yeah, so... where am I?"
"Um..." I realized something.
And noticed that it was morning.
"I'm sure Destiny's mentioned something about canons and dimensions. Well, this is mine. It's where the five members that appeared in your dimension appeared are from." I paused. "I confused myself..." I muttered.
"So, what. I got swapped as well?" He asked, starting to look confused.
"Yeah. Now, what do you have in common with Cai..." I muttered, trying to think.
"Who?"
"The person you swapped with. Probably. Maybe." I added. I noticed the blood on the blood, human shaped but otherwise blurred enough to disguise any other features. From the amount of blood, I'd say that it had all gone off Cai. He'd be clear.
"Okay..."
"Sorry. Long day. Thirteen hour car journey followed by an attack and a demonstration of a light bazooka before getting back here and finding that Cai had been swapped..."
"Fair enough... Wait, what?" I ignored him, I was too busy thinking.
"I'll make sure your looked after. There are several differences to this castle. You may get a little lost..." I paused, then glanced at my watch.
It was quarter past ten, meaning that practically everyone would be awake. Everyone but Kraxnf, probably.
"I'll be back as quickly as I can." I told him, dashing out of the room. "Everyone! Where Nothing Gathers! Now!" I didn't bother with grammar, or padding, I needed to know if anyone knew what was going on.
Or if anyone else was swapped.
There were four empty thrones. Two were accountable for, the other two, definitely not. Thrones XV and XXI.
"Great! Cai and Xasech. I think I may end up with an angry Loki..." I muttered.
"What?"
I looked to see, obviously, two figures on the platform. One was Aryx, the other was instantly recognizable by the scar over his eye.
"Xemichal." I said, nodding respectfully.
Clairex was looking at him, close to intently, and I noticed he was glancing over to her every now and again.
I think that might be a little OOC for them, but hey, who knows what Destiny omits.
"Yes, it's me."
"Right. You two will get Cai's and Xasech's rooms and thrones. Take care of them." I paused. "Better remember to save them..." I muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing." I told them. "Now, because of Krixae, I feel I should warn you. Onyxz, come down here." The Star-Eyes Thief appeared on the platform, his hood, as normal, up but not hiding his face. "You two, are not to fight. I'm warning you."
"Why do you need to tell us that?" Aryx asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Because both of you are dating different versions of Xion." They stared at each other blankly. "Yeah, I felt I should tell you after what happened with Roxas and Krixae."
"Now, I have a question." I told them. "Why would Cai be bleeding?"
"Well..." I looked at the speaker. Demyx. He was plucking at his sitar downheartedly. "They did get a duo mission today..." He said. "When they got back, both were covered in blood and neither willing to talk."
"Yeah. Cai looked traumatized and Xasech looked hyper." Axel said, looking around. I noticed his gaze kept returning to Xirama's throne, currently occupied by Xenri. "Cai went back to his Proof, while Xasech was giggling like mad. It took ages to get the blood out of the walls..."
"Right, so what was the mission?" I looked at Xemnas, but it was Saix who replied.
"It was a clean up mission. Simple. They had a fair sized group of Pureblood Heartless to destroy that could have interrupted one of our Keyblade wielder's heart collection missions."
"So, it was a preemptive strike." I muttered. "What world? And what area?"
"A world named Gran Pulse. Area Eden."
"Idiot!" I yelled. "You put one of the members who favors magic and one who still uses it it a world where using magic is basically a death wish! Next time, send only Nobodies who do not use magic!" I warned, glaring. Saix flinched.
"Right, I'm just going to check on the others. You guys, behave. This time, remember I'm not bluffing when I warn you about the guard."
"Who is it anyway?" I looked, to see it was Maylenex.
"That's a secret." I told them.
"Wait, what guard?" Aryx asked.
"Well, see you soon!" I dematerialized, seeing that Aryx looked just a little nervous.
I didn't like how I ended up writing this part of the story... I'm never good at writing, or even speaking, conversations...