Thank you very much for the reviews and sorry for the wait. I'm glad that people are patient. And I did try to name chapters just to know which is which, though I'm still working on it.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Kingdom Hearts 2.
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Zexion and Demyx walked along a path in the Underworld, Sai a few steps ahead of them with his claymore out, keeping a sharp eye out for any Heartless foolish enough to come near them.
For the most part, Zexion tried to ignore Demyx's nervous twitching and glancing around, as though something were going to leap out at him and attack. Zexion's patience, however, was slowly wearing thin as Demyx kept clinging to him whenever he heard a sound. "Demyx, quit grabbing me. Nothings going to attack all three of us without having shown itself to us first."
Demyx relinquished his grasp on Zexion's arm, but looked doubtful about what the other had said. Demyx walked in silence for a moment, his attention drawn to little orbs floating around him. He poked one, and it disappeared. Demyx laughed nervously, then spoke, "Um, Zexion...can you tell if there are any Heartless nearby?"
Zexion sighed, but stopped walking momentarily to check. If reassuring Demyx would get him a few moments of silence, he'd humor Demyx. Zexion closed his eyes to concentrate.
Minutes passed, before Demyx hesitantly decided to speak up, "...Zexion...?"
Zexion's eyes flew open in alarm, and began to run down a corridor of the cavern.
"Where are you going Zexion?" Demyx asked in alarm.
"This way, unless you want to meet an enormous Heartless," Came Zexion's reply.
Sai and Demyx exchanged glances, before dashing after Zexion to catch up.
Behind them, a few tunnels away, something moved in the darkness with flashing eyes.
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Vexen was attempting to concentrate on making a potion to reverse the effects of the packets, but kept having to start over because none of the combinations he had tried had worked. And it wasn't helping that the Dusk he was testing with kept disappearing on him. Vexen pushed a test tube aside. It wasn't that he couldn't make an antidote, it was just that he needed the right conditions to get the potion right. Vexen gritted his teeth and clenched a fist. It also required that no one bothered him while trying to work, a fact that seemed lost upon two younger, trouble-making nobodies.
"Hey Roxas, what do you think this does?"
"I dunno Axel, but I wouldn't touch it. What if you turn into a Dusk again?"
Vexen attempted to calm himself. He really shouldn't be bothered with these idiots in his laboratory. He could still work as long as they stayed out of his way and didn't break anything...
CRASH!
"Do you think that was important?"
"What are you asking me?"
Vexen massaged his forehead. Scratch that. Those two were going to leave. Now.
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Larxene happened to be passing by Vexen's laboratory when the door flew open and two nobodies were booted out by a furious Vexen.
"Do you have any idea how much that cost? The next time I see you in here, you'll regret it," Vexen snarled, then slammed the door so that he could concentrate on his work.
Axel and Roxas were laying on the ground, looking at each other.
"See? I told you not to touch it, didn't I?" Roxas grumbled, prodding the ground moodily.
Axel sat up with a grin, "Wasn't my fault. Whatever it was should have been made better. I hardly even touched it and bam, it breaks."
Roxas sat up and shook his head," Why did you even want to go in there in the first place?"
Axel was smiling mischieveously, "Who said we went in there for nothing?" Axel held up a thin vial and shook it in front of Roxas, "I'm pretty sure I know what this does, and I think we should give it to...you know...Xemnas. He seriously needs help."
Roxas shuddered at the look he had seen on Xemnas' face, "Maybe, but why would we do that? Weren't we going to talk to him about Larxene once he was done with...uh...whatever he was doing?"
"What about me?"
Axel and Roxas froze, and looked at each other nervously.
Axel smiled, "You know, I don't think we should be here right now."
"Yeah...we should probably get out of here, and fast," Roxas responded. He and Axel were about to get up when a blade was placed against each of the backs of their necks.
"Are you going to answer me or not?" Larxene purred, playing with the kunai against the others necks teasingly.
"Oh, that, well, you see..." Roxas began, then drifted off, unsure what to say with a blade so close.
"Just wanting to tell Xemnas that you seem to be more irritable and that a mission to destroy things might release some of that anger." Axel finished for Roxas.
There was a silence, then Larxene withdrew the kunai and allowed the other two to stand up. She looked at them silently, then began to smile, "What exactly does that vial you have do? If it's interesting, I might forget that I was going to beat you two to a pulp."
Roxas laughed nervously, then looked over at Axel. "So, what does it do?"
Axel smiled, "You want to know? Why don't we just go test it out?"
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Marluxia was inside a room with some more of his 'dangerous' plants, and was currently taking care of them. He didn't hear the door opening or he fact that Saix was approaching him in a stalker-like way.
"Marluxia." Saix deadpanned, ignoring the jump and gasp from Marluxia as he turned around and faced the Berserker.
Marluxia eyed Saix suspiciously, wondering why he was there. Since Saix didn't usually talk to him, Marluxia assumed that he was here on Xemnas' orders, "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy? If Xemnas wants me to go on a mission, tell him I will when I'm done." He huffed irritably.
"Xemnas wants you to accompany me to The Underworld and Hallow Bastion, to keep an eye on Zexion." Saix responded, slight anger rising in his voice.
Marluxia crossed his arms and glared cooly back at the Luna Diviner,"And if I don't want to?" He knew enticing Saix was probably not the smartest thing in the world, but he didn't like being thrown into missions without being spoken to about it first.
"You're going whether you want to or not," Saix responded, and with that, approached Marluxia.
The Graceful Assassin backed away slowly, trying to decide how to get out of this prediciment. One on hand, he was interested to go, perhaps to catch Zexion in the act of doing a prank, but on the other hand, he'd rather not have to go with Saix... Marluxia let out a surprised yelp as he was hoisted up and over onto one of Saix's shoulders. As Saix headed into a portal, Marluxia was silently attempting to curse Xemnas for doing this to him. Little did he know that it kind of worked.
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"Was it one of the new Heartless the Superior was talking about?" Demyx asked Zexion.
Zexion was leaning against the cavern wall, trying to discern where the Heartless was and which way it was going. He was also trying to figure out how the heck they were supposed to beat or capture something that size. Sai would probably be able to last in a fight with it, but not for very long, depending on what abilities the Heartless had...
"Zexion, did you hear me?"
Maybe the reason Xemnas sent him was that he'd be able to devise some plan on how to deal with new Heartless, so that the rest of the Organization could deal with them...or maybe Xemnas just didn't want to deal with it...
"Zexion?"
Why not send Xigabr? He could easily pinpoint a Heartless' weak spot and hit it. Even Axel would be able to cause damage with his fire element. Heck, even Roxas could beat a Heartless bigger than himself if he was motivated to do so.
"Um...Zexion?"
What the heck was Xemnas thinking sending Demyx with him? Sure, his element was water, and that was useful, but considering that Demyx didn't exactly like to fight...
"Zexion!" Demyx pulled on Zexion's furry ears to get his attention.
Zexion let out a pained cry and whirled around to Demyx with a furious expression as he held onto his own ears. Ignoring the throbbing, Zexion gritted out,"What do you want? Can't you tell I'm trying to think here?"
"Well, yeah, but...you see...I was just wondering if that Heartless was the one we were running away from," Demyx asked nervously, pointing across the cavern.
Zexion followed Demyx's pointing, then sucked in his breath. There was a Heartless blocking the passageway, and was salvating more and more at the three two nobodies and replica. It resembled Cerberus in a way, if Cerberus had decided to get matted purple and white fur, trade in two of it's heads and get spikes coming out of its body, as well as lose patches of skin. The Heartless opened it's jaw to reveal two rows of sharp teeth as it roared at them.
Demyx clung to Sai as he spoke to Zexion,"Is it wanting to eat us?"
Zexion frowned as the Heartless licked its lips and headed towards them in a slow trot. "No Demyx, maybe it wants to play." Zexion said sarcastically, as he dodged backwards to avoid being crushed by an enormous paw.
Demyx and Sai dodged as well, trying to avoid the Heartless' paws as it attempted to catch them.
The Heartless let out an annoyed whine and backed off a few paces, as if analyzing the three others.
"Z...Zexion, what is it doing?" Demyx asked.
"Should I fight with it yet?" Sai questioned, thinking that if he did he could get a lot of Sea-salt ice cream for doing so.
"Not yet. We need to see what it's capable of. I'll let you know when to attack," Zexion responded. He eyed the Heartless in confusion. Why was i just standing there, swaying? What was it waiting for? Was it savoring it's victory of cornering them?
"Zexion! Look out!" Demyx called out suddenly.
"What...!" Zexion began, then let out a surprised gas as something wrapped around his middle and brought him over towards the Heartless, which seemed to be smiling now. Zexion glanced down and saw that it was some kind of tentacle was wrapped around him. Where the hell did it come from?
"Zexion!"
Zexion twisted to see Sai running forward with the claymore raised.
The Heartless began to back away, as though intending to take Zexion away with it to some dark corner of the Underworld.
"Hang on Zexion! We'll save you!" Demyx exclaimed, following Sai at a distance.
Zexion sighed, hoping that somehow, he would be able to get revenge on Xemnas for sending him on this mission. He began to struggle against the tentacle. But for now, he'd have to concentrate on his current problem.
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Xemnas was staring out the window of his office/room at Kingdom Hearts. He was silently wondering how long it would take Zexion and Demyx to complete their mission. A knock on the door brought Xemnas out of his thoughts, "Enter." Xemnas responded, not taking his eyes off the heart-shaped moon.
"Hey Superior. We were wondering if you could maybe talk to Vexen. He kicked me and Roxas out for just hanging out in the laboratory." Axel commented, as he and Roxas entered the room.
Xemnas didn't turn around, but already his peaceful reprieve seemed to be doomed now,"He doesn't do that on a whim. You must have done something."
"Well, we may have, but anyway, he wanted you to have this." Axel replied, taking out the thin vial.
Xemnas finally turned around and eyed the thin vial suspiciously,"And why would he have you give that to me if you broke something already?"
"He said that we should do something useful." Roxas answered.
"Hmm, and what did he say after that?"
"That we'd regret going back into the lab." Roxas responded truthfully. 'I hope you know what you're doing Axel.' Roxas thought nervously. If this went wrong...
"Very well. Go and assist Xaldin and Xigbar on removing some more dangerous plants from the room Marluxia suddenly decided was his." Xemnas said, waving a hand to dismiss them.
"Ugh, I suppose." Axel walked forward and set the vial on Xemnas' desk. Then, he and Roxas left the room, closing the door behind them.
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"I can't believe he actually believed us. I thought he would find out." Roxas said as they headed for the room Xemnas had told them about.
"Don't worry, it'll be worth it." Axel replied,"And besides, I read that it wears off in a few days."
"But still, it'll be creepy to see an overly happy, energetic Xemnas. What if it does something else to him, did you think of that? What if that makes him want to give us more missions? " Roxas asked uncertainly.
Axel clapped Roxas on the shoulder,"You worry too much, c'mon, let's get going."
"If you say so..." Roxas muttered as he followed Axel.
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Marluxia walked alongside Saix unhappily, giving his surroundings a distasteful glance,"Utterly dull. There isn't anything growing here."
"It is The Underworld. Things are dead, so nothing would grow, would it?" Saix responded, keeping an eye on his surroundings. He was already getting an uneasy feeling...
"Dammit! Let go of me you overgrown mutt!"
"Hang on Zexion!"
"We'll save you!"
Marluxia and Saix watched in silence as the huge Heartless lumbered by, one of its tentacles keeping a firm grasp on Zexion, who was struggling in vain to get away. Behind them, Demyx and Sai hurried to keep up.
Marluxia watched the scene in amusement,"Hmm, maybe it was worth it to come after all."
"..." Saix wondered why a replica of him was still around. Shrugging, Saix ran after the group, deciding that Xemnas wouldn't appreciate it very much if any Organization XIII members were defeated by a sorry excuse of a Heartless.
Marluxia followed him reluctantly, seeming to think that Zexion was getting what he deserved.
Voices echoed along the cavern walls as the pursuit began.
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Yes, I am alive! And I have been wanting to update this story. I finally had some inspiration. Sorry for the wait. Homework plus GetBackers had taken over my mind for awhile.
I enjoyed typing this chapter, and I'm glad I did. It's put me in a better mood at least. So...could anyone let me know if the transition from the last chapter to this one was all right, plus any other thoughts?
I'm glad that people like this story, and I hope to keep it going as long as I can. I can't say when the next chapter will come out though. I have two-three papers to work on for the next three weeks, so I won't have very much free time. I just happened to have a lull in homework to be able to type this one.
Until next time, thanks for reading and/or reviewing!