Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts (although that would be pretty cool!).
Vexen's day had already been quite frustrating even before Zexion contacted him. It had started off promising enough. He had woken up rather early in order to complete one of his Nobody Spawners. He had nearly finished it the night before, and was excited to finish it. Vexen had even put on one of his favorite Hawaiian shirts (a white one adorned with black Nobody insignias) for the occasion. After all, this Spawner would be the first one completed while he was on Neverland.
However, it quickly became clear that things were not going as planned. "This goddamn piece of garbage! This shitty excuse for a Spawner! Dusk, the box!" Vexen screeched, throwing his hands in the air.
Dusk speedily brought over a rather plain looking box, setting it on the ground. With great prejudice, Vexen kicked the box. It flew through the air, and when it landed, shattered into pieces. After a few seconds of sitting there, the pieces pulled together and reformed themselves into the box again. One of Vexen's inventions, this "frustration box" had saved many an experiment from being attacked by Vexen.
"Can't get the Spawner going?" Dusk asked. He knew his job was to be the calm one when Vexen got into one of his rages.
"Oh I can get it going. But this happens!" Vexen pressed the button on the Spawner, but instead of a Nobody appearing, a Shadow Heartless appeared instead. Sighing, Vexen quickly froze the Shadow. Summoning Frozen Pride, he struck and shattered the frozen Shadow.
"Well, at least that means you're close!"
"Yes, but that's not good enough! I need to get this done as soon as possible. I've got two more of these to make! And pretty much as soon as I finish these, we can move to Phase II of our plan. Then everyone gets his or her hearts back. There are literally millions of Nobodies who are depending on me to get this done so they can get their hearts back. A lot of pressure, that's for sure!" He took some deep breaths, trying to calm down.
"We can't remember anything about our past lives," Dusk reminded Vexen. Only Organization members had any memory of their past lives. "So it's not like we're desperate to return to our human form. Therefore, there shouldn't be that much pressure."
"I suppose so." A few seconds of silence passed.
"What are you going to do when you get your heart back?" Dusk asked Vexen.
"That's a good question, Dusk. I don't even know if the Organization will still exist. After all, we were formed with the sole purpose of getting our hearts back."
"You'll just be a scientist then? Have you always been a scientist?"
"Have I been experimenting all my life? Yes, but I wasn't always a professional scientist. I used to be in politics. I was a Royal Vizier, in fact!"
Dusk could tell by Vexen's tone of voice that his tenure as a vizier didn't end amicably. "What happened?"
Vexen sighed. "I found that science and mathematics were easier to control than hearts and minds of men. So I walked away. But I don't dwell on the past. Retrieve my goggles, Dusk. I'm going to open up the box and take a look." Dusk did so, and Vexen put them on. "All right, let's see why you're being so difficult."
Vexen removed the lid and was about to look inside when something started chirping. "Someone's calling?" Vexen hit a button on the table, which brought up a hologram projection screen with The Cloaked Schemer on it.
"It's true! The pain was so bad that I passed out," Zexion explained.
"And you don't think it's your…"
"I don't know! It could be my heart, you never know," Zexion interrupted.
"That seems unlikely, considering you don't have one. Let me do a scan of you. I'm sending you a chip to insert into your watch." Vexen opened a Portal of Darkness and sent the chip through.
Zexion received the chip. He pressed a button on the watch and a compartment popped out. He placed the chip in and shut the compartment. "What's this supposed to do?"
"It will allow me to do a scan of your internals." He pressed a button on his table. "It should only take a few seconds." The scan completed and Vexen looked at the results. He frowned, disappointed that he didn't find anything unusual. "Hmm…everything looks normal. No heartbeat, of course."
"How peculiar."
"Indeed. Tell me, was there anything similar between the two attacks?" Vexen asked as he raised his eyebrow.
Zexion thought back to the instances. "They occurred in similar situations, as I recall."
"And what were said situations?" Vexen pressed, leaning forward.
Vexen knew nothing of Zexion's crush on Larxene, and Zexion had no intention to spill the beans. Because of that, he had to choose his words very carefully. "They were moments of intense…emotion."
"Intense emotion? Be more specific." Vexen wasn't one to mince words, that was for sure.
"Well, um, strong emotions of…" Zexion was clearly struggling in attempting to explain.
Seeing Zexion blush gave Vexen the clue he needed to understand what Zexion was trying to say. "You mean thoughts of love?" Zexion nodded his head meekly. "Oh ho! You've fallen in love with one of the denizens of your planet, haven't you?"
Zexion was instantly relieved that Vexen had jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Correct."
"This is fascinating! Heart pains as a result of love emotions? What could it mean? The possibilities are endless!" Zexion had rarely seen Vexen as excited as he was now. Realizing that he could hypothesize later, Vexen returned his attention to Zexion. "Now, don't worry about losing her. When you and Larxene are about to leave and destroy the planet, just take her with you. She might have some reservations about it, but you can explain later. No problem. Don't use the word 'kidnapping' though." He waved his hand, realizing that he was babbling on. "In the meantime, I will be able to monitor your vitals whenever. If you have another attack, it should register now on the scan." Vexen was talking pretty fast at this point, and Zexion was having difficulty keeping up.
"That's all?"
"Yep. Good luck with everything and we'll be in touch soon." With that, Vexen ended the transmission before Zexion could even respond. "Dusk, do you know what this means? This means that we may have tangible evidence for my hypothesis. The correlation between strong emotions and hearts may be stronger than I thought."
Just then, a Samurai Nobody came up to Vexen. "Excuse me, sir, but I thought I should let you know that several boats have left the pirate ship and appear to be heading towards our location."
Vexen tilted his head, interested. "Is that so? I'll investigate myself. Thank you." The Samurai bowed his head and returned to his sentry post. Vexen walked the few steps over to his house and then went around the back of the house to see. Sure enough, there were four dinghies coming towards the island. "Probably Captain Hook's men," Vexen told to Dusk, who had just came over.
"Hey there, Even!" a girl's voice called out. Vexen turned his head to look down at the lagoon, where he saw Marina waving. He gave her a wave, and then the two headed down to go greet the little mermaid (but not that Little Mermaid).
"Hello Marina!" Dusk greeted (he was always more cheerful than Vexen).
"What'cha doing?" she asked.
"Well, I've spent most of the day working on a machine," Vexen began.
"Problem is, he can't get it to work," Dusk chimed in.
"I think there's something wrong with the projectoimagestasioelectrosynthomagnetic knob," Vexen explained. Marina and Dusk both looked at him with confused looks on their face, as they had no idea what Vexen was talking about. He sighed, realizing they hadn't followed along.
"I'm not sure what that is, but maybe you just have to take it out and put it back in," Marina suggested.
Vexen chuckled his shrill laugh. "Oh yes, I'm sure that will work wonders." Fortunately, Marina was still to young to always get sarcasm, so that statement went right over her head.
"Look what I found today!" Marina exclaimed. She held up a gold coin that sparkled in the sunlight. "I was just swimming around and I found this on the ocean floor. Pretty cool, huh!"
"Very cool," said Dusk. He was far better at engaging children than Vexen was.
"Could be one of Captain Hook's," Vexen offered.
Marina's eyes bulged as a frightened look came upon her face. "What if it is? What if he comes after me to get it back?"
Dusk shook his head. "Very unlikely. Captain Hook wouldn't even know he lost it."
"I don't know, Earl. Captain Hook and his men are sailing towards us as we speak. Perhaps they are here for the coin," Vexen teased.
"Captain H-Hook's coming?" Marina stammered. "I need to get home right away!"
Sensing the girl's fear, Vexen quickly tried to backtrack. "I'm just kidding, Marina, he's not coming here for that."
"That's not what he's here for," Dusk added.
"Doesn't matter. My mom said to stay away from Captain Hook. He's dangerous," Marina explained.
"He's not that bad," Vexen said. "I'd say we're friends with him, even."
"You're friends with Captain Hook?" Marina asked, recoiling from them. "I gotta go!" With that, she dove under the water.
Dusk turned to Vexen. "Now look what you did. You went and scared the poor girl! She might never come back!"
"That could have went better," Vexen admitted.
"You should be ashamed of yourself."
"I'm sorry! I have difficulty communicating with children. I'm used to having conversations were more mature people!" Vexen snapped.
However, there was no time to continue arguing with Dusk, as the pirates were nearly upon the island. "Ahoy there!" a voice called out. Vexen and Dusk proceeded to go to the shore, where they could await the pirates' arrival.
"What do you think they are here for?" Vexen quietly asked Dusk.
"No idea. There are certainly a lot of them, though."
After another minute or two, the dinghies arrived on shore, with Captain Hook stepping off the first boat. "Even. Good to see you again," he greeted. Turning to Dusk, he added, "You as well, Mr…"
Sensing Hook didn't remember his name, Dusk helped him out. "Earl."
"Ah, yes, Earl."
"What brings you to our humble abode, Captain?" Vexen asked.
"We're looking for Peter Pan's hideout," Hook explained as he continued onshore, followed by the pair. Vexen had heard all about Peter Pan from (a mostly drunk) Hook when the two had initially met. They hadn't crossed paths since.
"Very good."
"What exactly are you building in this area?" Hook asked while tugging at his mustache with his hook. Vexen knew that the base building was definitely visible from the Jolly Roger, but had hoped that Hook wouldn't investigate it too thoroughly.
"A proper laboratory for my scientific research. My portable lab can only suffice for so long," Vexen lied (Probably better than saying it was a base designed to bring the planet's downfall).
"And who is doing the constructing?" Hook asked as they continued along.
"Others of Earl's species," Vexen replied.
At this point, the pirates, Vexen, and Dusk had reached the two Samurai sentries. "Most impressive," Hook noted.
One of the pirates went up to a Samurai and started touching him. "'Tis the strangest thing?"
Hook shook his head in annoyance. "Oh, stop that," he commanded. "I'm terribly sorry," Hook said to Vexen.
The pirate did not stop, instead noting the swords he saw. "Look, this creature here has swords. Let me take a look," the pirate said and reached for the sword. The Samurai stood there, unsure what to do. He turned to Vexen, looking for guidance.
However, Vexen did not have to say anything, as Hook pulled out his pistol and shot the pirate. The pirate fell to the ground, dead. All of the other pirates immediately straightened up, not wanting to be the next victim. Vexen was shocked by the act, but was able to conceal his feelings. "I'm sure you have quite the formidable force of these aliens. Perhaps you would be willing to assist me in my quest to find Pan's hideout?" Hook asked.
Vexen wanted to say no, as he had more important things to do. Then again, the man who asked had just shot one of his men in cold blood, so Vexen had that to consider as well. Thus, Vexen crafted his answer as carefully as possible. "While I'm sure my force would be helpful, I must decline, as that would be meddling in a world's affairs. As an interworld traveler, I try to avoid that whenever possible. I've already interfered in your events once." He was, of course, referring to his saving of Hook, something that Hook certainly hadn't forgotten. He then awaited Hook's reaction, cringing on the inside.
Hook paused, before nodding with a smile. "Aye, that's right. You are a man of honor, Even, and I appreciate that. Good form." Hook then turned to his men. "Onwards, you dogs!" He tipped his hat to Vexen. "Until next time." Then he led his pirates past Vexen's home and into the jungle.
Once the pirates were out of earshot, Vexen sighed a breath of relief.
"We lucked out there," said Dusk.
"That we did," said Vexen, his eyes drifting to the dead pirate.
"I'll go get some Dusks to get this out of here," replied Dusk as he pointed to the body. He then set off.
Vexen wandered back over to his lab table, where the Spawner was still sitting. He put his goggles on and located the projectoimagestasioelectrosynthomagnetic knob. He shook his head, before he removed the knob. He then put the knob back in place. He shut the lid on the box. "That's not going to work," he grumbled to himself. He pressed the button and, to his amazement, a Dusk spawned in front of him. "Well, I'll be damned," he said with a chuckle, "she was right after all."
Hey there everybody! Yay, Part 20 is done! I'm thinking that puts this story at about the half-way point. As always, thanks to everyone reading/reviewing/following the story; you guys are awesome! In the next installment, we'll see how the Tournament at the Coliseum is going.
See ya real soon,
The Mustachioed Academic