Review Corner: Thank you to Light Within Darkness, kingdomheartslover13, and xDelfin for reviewing! Virtual pizza for you all.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the human names of numbers IX through XII. Everything else belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix. I make NO money off of this work of fiction.
000
'Lumaria' watched the letters as they spun around his head, spinning in a circle to follow them around.
"Wow!" He exclaimed. "This is awesome!"
Vexen chuckled, hiding it behind his hand when Xemnas gave him a look.
"It's going to be your name." Xemnas explained.
"Awesome is going to be my name?"
Lumaria stopped turning and scratched the side of his head.
"No." Vexen corrected with a chuckle. "The letters are going to form a name."
The letters stopped.
"How would you even pronounce that?" Xigbar wondered.
Zexion blinked at the letters. "M-A-R-L-U-X-I-A?"
"Mar-lux-ia?" Demyx offered from Zexion's side.
Lumaria tilted his head. "Mar-loo-she-a." He offered.
They looked at him.
"Sounds right to me." Lexaeus muttered.
"I guess we're gonna go with that, then."
Xemnas wrote down the name and, presumably, the pronunciation of it.
"So…are we done?" Axel wondered. "I need sleep."
"Agreed." Saïx said, flushing and looking away when Xemnas winked at him.
"Fine, you guys can all go." Xemnas said. "School in the morning."
He was only talking to the Original Six, which made the Neophytes laugh.
Xemnas vanished, Saïx soon after. The others dispersed quickly as well. After watching Vexen take his lover by the hand and escape through a portal, Zexion and Demyx left together hand in hand.
000
Zexion sat in Xemnas' science class the next day with a headache. He hadn't slept much after the naming ceremony, and all the lying about the Replica that morning when he began to act strange wasn't helping. The Replica had started stuttering a bit, not enough to be noticed by the others, but Zexion caught it. He had mentioned it to Vexen, so the two of them were going to try and shut the Replica down after school for a bit so they could bring it to the Castle and fix it. Vexen wasn't sure what he could do, but Zexion hoped they could at least slow down whatever was happening. The Replica was sleeping on the desk next to Zexion, his pen still poised like he was writing. Zexion himself only had half of the notes written down, and Vexen was working on designs for a Lumaria Replica. Zexion wasn't sure that making another Replica was a good idea. All interest should be focused on fixing the Myde Replica first. People had started to notice that Lumaria wasn't in school, which was strange for him since he had perfect attendance, so they had to act quickly. Xemnas' voice was drowned out by the ringing of the school bell, signaling that class was over. The Myde Replica shot up quickly, awoken by the bell, with a cry of "I swear, it wasn't me".
Zexion snickered and nudged him with his right hand.
"It's just the end of class bell." He informed.
The Replica flushed as the others laughed. Vexen quickly shoved his designs into his bag.
"We need to talk." Vexen muttered to Zexion, a hand on his shoulder, before he left.
"About what?" The Myde Replica yawned.
"Nothing. Mom's surprise party is all. Vexen's my cousin."
"Oh?" The Replica raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know."
"I never told you? Sorry. I thought I did." Zexion answered, stuffing his papers between the books in his backpack.
"No, you didn't." The Replica denied.
"Oh."
"But now I know, so it's fine, right?" The Replica was giggling, the giggles broken up a bit.
Zexion was concerned. How could the Replica's voice pattern be changing so suddenly?
000
After school was out, Zexion walked the Replica behind the school. Vexen had gone back to the castle during their lunch period. He was going to use a special remote to shut down the Replica so they could go back to the castle through a portal, and have little resistance.
"Why are we back here, Zexy?" The Replica asked.
"Oh, I just thought we'd take the long way home so we could be together for a little while longer." Zexion lied.
"Oh." The Replica took Zexion's hand in his and smiled. "Okay."
Zexion kept his ears peeled for Vexen, trying to locate his scent and having no luck that way. He answered the questions the Replica had about the homework and kept the conversation flowing, hoping the Replica didn't notice his distraction. The Replica suddenly fell silent and still. Zexion looked at him to find that his eyes were closed and he was just standing there. Vexen emerged from behind a dumpster, a banana peel stuck to the top of his head.
"What's with the banana?" Zexion wondered.
"Huh?" Vexen looked up. "Oh." He brushed the garbage off. "Someone overshot the dumpster."
"If you say so." Zexion chuckled. "Is he off?"
Vexen poked the Replica in the side and it fell into Zexion.
"Yeah, I'd say so." Vexen held out a hand and a black portal swirled in front of them. "Help me bring him back."
They picked up the Replica and stepped into the portal.
"That's an odd looking remote."
"What makes you say that?"
"I'd expect it to look more like a TV remote or a remote control." Zexion explained himself. "I mean, since the Replicas are robotic…"
"Well, actually, they aren't." Vexen chuckled. "This is a really simple gadget, really. It depresses the nervous system and essentially shuts the mind down. It's like the remote form of anesthetic. I have the ability to be shut down programed into the Replicas' minds."
"So how long do we have before he wakes back up?"
"Easily three hours, but I shouldn't need more than an hour to find and fix the problem."
"You're cocky."
"Whatever. You know I'm right." Vexen answered. "Besides, it's not like using a portal take s a full hour, anyway."
"True." Zexion waved his hand and the portal opened to the Castle Basement.
Demyx was sitting in a chair against the far wall, thumbing through a book from the Castle Library. He looked up and smiled when the Senior Members came in.
"Hey, it's the Replica!" Demyx greeted, standing and smiling. "So the remote works?"
"Yeah."
Zexion took the full weight of the Replica in his arms as Vexen went to a computer-like control panel on the far wall, next to where Demyx was sitting. He pressed a button and a table came out from the floor.
"Lay him on that." Vexen ordered.
Zexion did as told as Demyx joined his side. The other Nobody kissed Zexion's cheek.
"Welcome home." He greeted as Vexen approached with a few cables.
"Thanks." Zexion responded, pulling Demyx to him and kissing the other male.
"Hey, if you two are going to do that, go somewhere else, okay?" Vexen offered. "I need to concentrate."
"What, I can't kiss my boyfriend?" Zexion asked. "Sheesh, Vex."
Vexen rolled his eyes and attached a metal cuff to each of the Replica's wrists.
"What are those for, Vexen?" Demyx wondered.
"To check pulse, normally." Vexen responded. "It's just going to check some things."
"Like?"
"I'm not sure Vexen even knows, Demyx." Zexion informed with a chuckle.
Vexen glared at him. He attached more cables and wires to the Replica before going back to the computer.
"I'm going to run a diagnostics check on the Replica and see if I can find a bug that's causing this speech problem." He explained. "It doesn't appear as though anything's wrong."
He looked over the words and numbers written in a blocky black font on the screen.
"Something has to be." Zexion argued, looking at the Replica. "Does it have a voice box?"
Vexen picked up a long chord with a camera-like object at the end. He walked over and held the Replica's jaw open. He pushed the chord lightly in, the camera end disappearing quickly inside the Replica's mouth.
"Keep an eye on the chord." He ordered.
Both of the younger Nobodies looked down to the Replica.
Vexen walked back to the control panel and flicked on a switch. He controlled the chord with another small switch.
"I found a tear." He said after a while, a quiet 'yes' following.
"So how do you fix it?" Demyx asked.
"Like this." Vexen returned with another chord and put it down the Replica's throat alongside the chord that was already there. "There's a small laser on the end that should correct the tear." He said, going back to the control panel.
He hit a few buttons and a small whirring came from inside the Replica. The whirring went away after a few minutes, prompting Vexen to return to the table and remove the chords. They all snapped back to where they had been earlier concealed, barely avoiding hitting Vexen in the head.
"The voice problem should be all fixed, now." He said. "I'm gonna go find Marly. Zex, can you bring him back?"
"Sure."
Vexen disappeared up the stairs.
"Marly?" Zexion wondered, once the blonde had gone.
"I don't get it either." Demyx shrugged and shook his head. He was still staring at the Replica.
"Something wrong?" Zexion wondered, following his gaze.
"It's like looking in a very creepy mirror." Demyx shuddered. "I didn't notice it before, but the Replica and I really look like one another."
"Yeah, you do." Zexion kissed Demyx's forehead. "And somehow, you're better looking."
Demyx chuckled and kissed Zexion back.
"We should bring that home before we do anything." He informed his elder.
"I agree." Zexion picked up the Replica as Demyx opened a portal. "I'll be right back."
"Okay." Demyx agreed. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
000
The other side of the portal opened up in Myde's bedroom. Zexion flushed at the idea of being in his boyfriend's room without his boyfriend. Well, technically Myde wasn't his boyfriend anymore, but what Zexion had said hundreds of times before was true. What was Myde's was Demyx's and what was Demyx's was Myde's as well; despite whatever Xemnas said. Zexion was sure that the eldest Nobody still didn't have any idea as to how being a Nobody really worked. Zexion lay the Replica down on Myde's bed, putting him under the covers and laying the pillows under his head. Zexion kissed the Replica's cheek.
"Goodnight, little Replica." Zexion whispered, before vanishing into a portal.
When the portal opened to Zexion and Demyx's room, Demyx was sitting on the bed, playing his sitar. The sandy haired Nobody smiled when Zexion caught his eye and joined him on the bed.
"That was quick." Demyx commented, strumming along on his sitar.
"I just had to drop him off in his own bed." Zexion responded, wrapping an arm around Demyx's shoulders. "His parents should think he slipped past them when he came home."
"Or question you mercilessly about why he came home so late." Demyx said. "Figuring that you were out somewhere together."
A chuckle from Zexion.
"I suppose it's possible, but I don't think he told his parents we were going anywhere. We didn't have a 'date' set, and…"
"Date?" Demyx looked to Zexion, his fingers stopping his strumming.
"Yeah. You know, a date. When two people…"
"No, I know what a date is, Zexy." Demyx cocked his head to the side. "I'm just wondering…how come we never do that?"
"What, go out on dates?"
Demyx nodded.
"Well…it just didn't occur to me to do that. And if we were out together and the Replica was around, people would ask questions."
"Well, the Replica's out of commission for now." Demyx jumped up from his spot on the bed. "Why don't we go out somewhere?"
"I don't know…"
"Aw, come on, Zexy." Demyx asked. "Please?"
Zexion smirked. "How can I say no to that?" He wondered. "Oh, yeah. No."
"Not funny." Demyx pouted. "Let's just go somewhere! Out to eat, take a walk, something!"
"Well…when you ask it that way…" Zexion stood. "You need clothes other than your uniform."
"Really, Zexy!? You'll take me out of the Castle?!"
"Of course." Zexion shrugged one shoulder. "I can't say no when I've got you practically begging me."
Demyx smile. "Thanks, Zexy."
"Of course. Come on. You'll probably fit in my clothes."