Chapter Thirteen:

I stepped out of the portal into a whole new world. It was dark and it had an eerie silence that made me feel like something was going to come out and kill me right there. I lost all that feeling once Saix began explaining things to me.

"This is known as 'The World that Never Was'. You could think of it as a reverse Twilight Town." I didn't know what Twilight Town was, but I never bothered to ask because I was still taking everything in that Saix had explained to me.

I looked around as he explained it to me. "So like you, this place isn't meant to exist?" I asked.

"Yes, this is a nonexistent world."

"And, where is this Organization XIII? I thought they'd be here to greet me."

"They are. Our fortress is there. It is known as Castle Oblivion." I looked out to see a giant white castle in the center of everything. It looked like it had a billion rooms or something. I was amazed at the size. As I admired it, Saix continued. "Before you enter, you must wear the appropriate attire." He turned to me and snapped his fingers. Instantly, I was lifted in the air and felt my clothes changing shape. It was a weird sensation, and I didn't like it. Once it was over I found myself wearing the same black coat as Saix. Maybe it was a uniform. "This symbolizes you as a member. It will also allow you to travel through the Realm of Darkness. Now follow me, and I will present you to the others." I followed him without saying a word. I began thinking to myself, 'Maybe I made the wrong choice.' But it was too late to turn back now. I'm doing this for Ansem. I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize I was standing in the middle of a circular room with tall chairs. That's when I saw a bunch of eyes focused on me. They stared at me so intensely, that I was afraid to even flinch. I looked around to see who they were. They must've been the other members of Organization XIII. But the one that caught my full attention was the man in the tallest chair. By his vibes, I could tell he was the leader. He had long silver hair and looked at me with great value. I couldn't escape his gaze. I was being pulled to him. Strangely, he had the same vibes as the Ansem imposter. But unlike the Ansem imposter, this man was slightly more dangerous and threatening.

Finally, he spoke to me. "What is your name, my dear?" he asked me.

I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the fact that this guy was totally creeping me out and made my blood run cold. After trying to regain my composure, I was able to speak my name. "M-Misuki." I hesitated, keeping my eyes glued to his. I couldn't look away. I couldn't explain it, but he was forcing my gaze onto him.

"Well Misuki, welcome to the Organization." He greeted. "You may call me Xemnas. I am leader of Organization XIII; number I: The Superior. With your help, our goal will be realized, and our wish granted."

"Just curious, what is your wish?" I asked.

"First, you must be given a new name. You will be cleansed of all your painful memories." He opened a portal next to me and told me to walk through it. I came out of the portal into another part of the castle. Xemnas appeared a few seconds after me. "I shall grant you your new name." He held out his hand to me, and made my name appear in front of me. As I stared at it, the words began circling around me faster and faster. When they stopped, a new name was in front of me.

"Umixe." I whispered.

"That is right; it is the new you. You are now an official member of Organization XIII." For some reason, I couldn't say anything. I didn't know if it was shock or fright, but my lips wouldn't move. The next thing I knew I was in another room. It had a couch and a large window that oversaw everything in the castle. Outside, I saw a giant heart in the sky. There was something about it that made me stare at it.

"Welcome to the Organization. The name's Axel, got it memorized?" I turned my attention to this tall skinny man with spiky red hair and small eyebrows. Underneath his eyes, were two upside down triangle marks. He smiled at me and introduced himself as Axel. I stared at him for a short while, and then turned my attention back to the giant heart outside the window.

"No sense talking to her, Axel. She's just been initiated, and probably can't form a single sentence." Someone spoke. I looked in the refection to see a blonde guy approach us.

"Well we have to say something to her. Otherwise she'll be like this the whole time." Axel told him.

"Heart." I pointed to the giant heart outside the window, not really knowing what I was doing or what was going on.

Axel noticed I spoke and saw me pointing to the heart in the sky. "That's Kingdom Hearts. That's what's going to make all of us whole." I didn't respond to him. I put my finger down and just continued staring at Kingdom Hearts. I remember Saix telling me about it, but not really explaining it. It seemed no one was thoroughly explaining Kingdom Hearts to me. How was it going to grant them a heart?

"I see you're all giving Umixe a friendly welcome." A voice echoed. I turned around to see another man come through a dark void, but he had long pink hair. He approached us and smiled at me. "I see she's still in a bit of shock." He said. He took my hand, bowed to me and kissed my hand. I stared into his eyes that were filled with respect for me. "I'm known as Marluxia. I am number XI, so we are not far apart in the rank." I just stared at him, not even attempting to take my hand back.

"Mar…lu…xia?" I sounded out his name slowly. As I stared at him, I felt a disturbing sensation that was all too familiar to me. "Heartless are near." I whispered. I snatched my hand away from Marluxia and ran out of the room. I stood still looking for the Heartless. Four of them appeared out of nowhere and surrounded me. I summoned my keyblade and attacked without hesitation.

"Hey, Umixe what are you doing?" Axel asked me walking up to me with Marluxia behind him.

"Heartless have been eliminated." My sentences were short and to the point. I couldn't see straight at all. What was going on with me? I bent down in front of the Heartless I just fought and extracted the hearts from them and let them evaporate into me. Because I was in bad shape, I couldn't feel the emotions of the hearts. Once the hearts were extracted from the Heartless, they de-materialized right in front of me.

"Letting her go off and fight when she can barely form a complete sentence. How irresponsible." In front of me appeared an older man with blonde hair and a stuck up expression. He seemed really familiar to me, but I didn't know where from. He walked up to Axel and Marluxia, and lectured them from the look of it. "The Superior told you to keep a close eye on her."

"I am doing just that." Marluxia informed him, placing his hand on my shoulder. "She's perfectly safe with me, Vexen. You're just upset because Xemnas won't let you experiment on her."

"I could find better test subjects than her." He said as he examined my body. "How do you know if she really is the one we need?"

"Did you not see how she extracted the hearts? And look at her keyblade."

"Maybe we should test her strength." Vexen suggested.

"That's not a bad idea." Marluxia looked at me and asked, "Umixe, how would you feel demonstrating your abilities for us one more time?" I looked at him, confused and out of it. All I got out of it was I was going to be used as a lab rat and they wanted to see my power. I nodded, agreeing with it.

"Then it's settled." Vexen said. "All we need now is someone for her to fight."

"I'll do it." We all looked over to see Axel volunteering to fight me. "I kind of want to see what she's capable of. What better way than to experience it first hand and up close."

"Very well. Let the battle begin." Marluxia announced.

I faced Axel as we prepared to fight. I watched as his hands began flaming. When the flames cleared, Axel had two disk-like weapons with spikes at the end of them. "These weapons are called Chakrams. Got it memorized?" He repeated that same phrase to me. I didn't pay much attention to the things he was saying to me. All I focused on was the battle. "Fair warning: I'm not going to hold anything back." He said.

I clenched my keyblade in my hands, and attacked without warning. Axel blocked my attack with his chakrams and then shot them at me. I got hit directly, and was burned by the flames that surrounded them. The force pushed me back, but I managed to land on my feet perfectly. He launched the chakrams again at me, only this time I was able to block his attack with my keyblade, and send it back to him. The whole time we were fighting, Axel was smiling and laughing. Was he sure he was going to win? Or was he actually enjoying himself? Either way, it started to make me mad. I focused my energy and let go of my keyblade, letting it levitate around me.

"How is she doing that?" I heard Vexen ask. With the wave of my hand, I commanded my keyblade to launch an attack on Axel. It flew straight to him, knocking his weapons out of his hands and throwing him to the ground. I walked over to him and stared at the look of surprise on his face. As I did, I waved my hand to make my keyblade disappear. Then I helped Axel up off the floor. When he was back on his feet, he began laughing. "I've never fought that hard before. You're the real deal alright." His laughing made me smile slightly. "Guess you're not a total mindless zombie."

"I want to know how she managed to control her keyblade like that." Vexen walked up to us with Marluxia following behind him.

"She controlled it with her heart. It connected with her emotions, allowing her to become one with the keyblade and use it with no hands; just her emotions."

"I've trained hard to learn that technique." I said, finally getting control over my words and actions. "It took me only a few hours to finally get it right."

"I must say I'm impressed, Umixe." Marluxia said.

"Well I'm not entirely convinced." I looked over to see Vexen's smug, uptight look. He still doubted me.

I walked up to him, about to find out what his problem was. "What do I have to prove that everything I do is real?" I asked him.

He didn't answer me. All he did was stare at me for a while. His stare became intimidating to me, and I ran off. I didn't know where I was going to go, but I had to get away from all the tension Vexen was giving me. I stopped and took a deep breath. 'Calm down, Umixe.' I thought to myself. 'You just have to find a way to prove him wrong. Show them you are strong and you can do anything.'

"By the look on your face, I can tell you just met Vexen's attitude and major ego." My thoughts were interrupted by a woman with short blonde hair and two long strands sticking up and going over her head. I liked the way she had her hair, but felt that she was very ruthless and was able to get anything she wanted. She approached me and introduced herself to me. "The name's Larxene. I'm number XII."

She was only one rank higher than me. "I'm number XIII: Umixe."

"I can tell you and I will be very good friends." She put her arm around me and began teaching me the ways of Organization XIII. "Don't be intimidated by Vexen. He thinks just because he's the scientist around here he's the only one who's the most important, next to the Superior."

We walked and talked for what seemed like an hour or so. The more Larxene talked about Vexen, the more I began hating him. The way she was describing him and his full personality, I wanted to shut him up for good. She definitely felt the same way.

We were still talking when Axel walked up to us. "I hate to interrupt girl time, but we have a mission and Xemnas wants Umixe to come along."

Larxene stood up and looked at him. "Whatever you say." She turned to me. "Umixe, looks like you've just been given a chance to prove yourself to Vexen. Good luck; you'll need it."

"Come on Umixe. We need to go now." Axel told me. I got up and followed him. He opened a portal, and walked through it with me close behind.

We came to a strange town that was peaceful and full of happy people. The shops were small, and there was a train that ran all over the town. "What is this place?" I asked Axel.

"This is known as Twilight Town." He answered. "We were sent here to keep an eye out for some Heartless that were spotted in this area."

I looked around and used my hunting instincts to locate the Heartless. After a minute, I got something. "I found them." I said. I pointed northwest toward some small shops. "They're over there, running a rampage."

"Then let's get this over with." Axel rushed into the action. He had too much energy in him. Or maybe I didn't have enough. I followed close behind him and began fighting them off one by one. We made a pretty good team and got the job done quickly. The only thing that made me upset was that I was only able to save three of the hearts the Heartless have taken. The others floated up to the sky and vanished. I didn't know where they went, and something inside me told me I was better off not knowing. "Hey Umixe, follow me." Axel went through the portal, looking at me the whole time. Where was he taking me? I decided to follow him and be surprised.

We came to the top of a building that looked like the top of a clock tower. I followed Axel to the ledge where he took a seat on the edge. "Axel where are we?" I asked a little afraid.

He looked at me with a smile. "We're on top of the Twilight Town clock tower." He gestured me to come and sit beside him and watch the sunset. "I like to come here and have a little quiet time to myself sometimes." I sat next to him and just stared at all the people doing their own thing and having fun with each other. I watched them with envy, wanting to be in their position instead of where I was now. Axel looked at my expression and saw I was somewhat upset." Hey, you okay? You look a little down."

I really didn't know what to say about how I felt. I couldn't express them in words. "I don't know how I feel." I finally said. "All of my emotions are jumbled together."

He chuckled. "That's what happens when you first join. It'll pass soon. Trust me." For some reason his smile was comforting to me. I couldn't explain it, but he reminded me of someone. "Here, this is for you." He handed me a sea-salt ice cream. I took it and stared at it for a while.

"Thank you," was all I could say. I took a few licks of the ice cream and let the flavor sit in my mouth. We sat in silence watching the sunset. It was so beautiful, that I wanted it to last forever. "The sunset is so beautiful." I said.

"I guess it is." Axel responded. "Hey Umixe, mind if I ask you something?"

I turned to him and told him, "Of course. Ask me anything."

He took a long time to ask me. Maybe he was trying to find out how to phrase it properly. "Besides Saix almost threatening you, why did you decide to join the Organization?"

"Why do you want to know that?" I asked, biting off a piece of my ice cream.

"Because you have a heart. So in reality, you have no business joining us. But you did. Why?"

"Well, Saix said my abilities would help finish Kingdom Hearts. But my personal reason; I'm looking for someone. He disappeared a long time ago, so I thought being in the Organization would help me find him."

Axel chuckled. "Not to be mean, but that's stupid."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him, staring at him with a grimace look.

"I'm just saying it's not going to do you any good to look for someone while you're in the Organization. You might just be wasting your time."

His comment got me upset to the point where I threw my ice cream at him. I stood up to walk away. Before I did, I turned to him and said, "You think you might know me, but you have no idea what my life has been like. I don't need some lazy jerk face to tell me what decisions to make and whether or not they'll succeed. So just leave me alone!" I opened my own portal and returned to the castle.

Author's Note:

Sorry for taking so long updating chapters. I'm on vacation right now and I've been uber lazy ^^ Also, in case anyone is confused about Misuki's alternate name "Umixe", the 'X' is pronounced the same way it is in Marluxia's name. It's a 'shh' sound. Just thought I'd put that in there.

Please R&R