"What type of idiot catches a cold from underwater?" Axel asked raising his eyebrow as Demyx was blowing his nose like a kazoo in bed.
"Well if someone didn't steal all my clothes, maybe I would have... would have.." Demyx stopped as he let out a massive sneeze as I ran Demyx's temperature.
"Well, he didn't finish his mission so you're going have to cover for his Axel, Superior's orders and all," I said glancing back at him as he groaned.
"Can I even use my weapons underwater? I'm the god damn Flurry of Dancing Flames, not the bubble man!" Axel barked at me as I just looked at him with a glazed look on my face.
"I don't give a shit, the point is that Demyx will die trying to swim around because he's a moron, and you used up all your vacation days," I said pointing the temperate at Axel as he pointed at me, "And what about you? Don't you have something else to be doing today? What about your first mission?"
"It's delayed for the moment since Xemnas knew that Vexen is not going to come up to help him, so he knew that I was getting sick when I first stayed here and should know all the symptoms by now."
I just shrugged before gesturing behind me to Demyx, "Unless you wanna be his nurse, you gotta help him to the bathroom and stuff."
Axel just tried to pick an argument just stopped realizing his defeat. "Fine I'll go, but I'm picking a buddy!" Axel said leaving through a dark corridor as I sighed handing Demyx a tissue box.
Another dark corridor opened up as Rauxdi came through with a tray of food and soups, "Here you do Demyx, hot food from Xaldin!" She places the tray at his bedside as he nodded a thank you in her direction.
"So does that mean I can go Audri?" She asked as I nodded, "Go ahead, thanks for doing that for me. Xaldin won't let me back into the kitchen if I'm even an ounce of the possibility of having sick germs on my person."
Rauxdi shrugs as she smiled giving a quick wave, "Sounds good to me. I'll see myself out."
"W-wait guys! I actually wanted to ask since I was on missions at the time," Demyx said trying to get out of bed before I pulled the covers back over him. "Stay still you idiot. But what did you need?"
"I wanted to ask how our initiation went!" Both me and Rauxdi looked at each other as he continued, "I know everyone else said you told them the story, but everyone kept saying it differently from the other. So what happened exactly?"
Rauxdi and I pointed at ourselves as we spoke, "I won."
"Say what pipsqueak? I totally kicked your ass," Rauxdi sneered as I just glared at her, "Hell no I pummeled you down."
"How about start from the beginning, I can try and listen to the best our my abilit- AHCHOO!" Demyx sneezed all over his hands as he grimaced from the thought of getting sick.
"Well... I got nowhere else to go, I don't mind sticking around," Rauxdi said sitting on the end of the bed as I pulled up a chair. "Alright, so where do we begin..."
Audri raised an eyebrow as she found herself knocking on Xemnas' door after Saix dropped off a message that he needed to see her. She opens the door to see Xemnas, Vexen, and Rauxdi talking around his desk.
"What's everyone doing in here exactly," She asked walking between Vexen and Rauxdi as Xemnas stood up from his chair.
"We are here gathered today to begin your initiation to have both officially appointed into the Organization. Vexen will be here to study you both to see what happens," Xemnas said as Rauxdi just lowered her gaze, "When what happens?"
Vexen cut in as he crossed his arms and paced around the room. "Because we still haven't found a way to figure out why you exist Rauxdi, we decided to pit both of you against each other and see what happens. Being if you both fight as equals or as a power struggle being shared by the same entity," He explained as Audri sighed, "So I gotta kick her ass."
Rauxdi stomps as she snaps at the girl next to her, "Says you! I'm going to kick your ass so hard my foot will come out the other side!"
"Ladies, please," Vexen said as we just glared at each other. "We had a place ready for you to both fight if you are both prepared," Xemnas said as he summoned a dark corridor. Rauxdi scoffed as she walked through the dark corridor.
Vexen walked through as Audri hesitated to walk through. "What's on your mind?"
"I... still haven't summoned a weapon, I just summon dark corridors for stuff I need at the time," She said looking at the floor as he sighed. "If it makes you feel better, we will stop the fight if it becomes lethal," Xemnas said holding his hand out to her.
Audri shook her head and walked through, rejecting Xemnas' outreached hand.
"My good sir, are you sure Castle Oblivion is the best place to do this?" Vexen asked as Xemnas nodded, "It's contained enough as a research facility. We just got to hope these two don't turn this into a calamity."
"I can't believe you said that Superior," Vexen said nervously as they both watched the two girls standing in the middle of the room.
"Ready to get pounded in the ground?" Rauxdi said as she summoned her giant metal gauntlets as Audri nodded nervously. "You know it!" Audri laughed nervously as Rauxdi smirked.
"Let's go Audri! Who's the stronger firecracker!" Rauxdi shouted as she jumped high up and ready to pound Audri into a pulp. Audri side-swept Rauxdi's fist at the last possible second, grabbing hold of the glove and swinging herself towards the ceiling.
Rauxdi looked up to find Audri had her hands together. As she summoned a dark corridor, she barked, "I'm not going down easily Rauxdi!"
The next thing Rauxdi knew, an avalanche of snow just poured out of the dark corridor, crashing on top of her and filling up the arena.
Audri fell back in the slow, falling on her ass as she sighed seeing Rauxdi wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"Gotcha!" Rauxdi jumped out of the snowbank behind Audri, her gauntlets open wide for the grabbing as Audri summoned a dark corridor underneath her to fall through. Rauxdi fell headfirst into the snow as she got up shouting.
"This is bullshit! Don't be a damn coward!" Rauxdi screamed as Audri appeared behind Rauxdi and tackling her into the snow.
"Sir... Does Audri even have a weapon?" Vexen asked raising his eyebrows as Xemnas shook his head, "Not at all. Still can't manage it and only summon dark corridors."
Vexen's jaw just dropped at the realization as he shouted, "She still hasn't summoned a weapon!?"
Audri just kept jumping back from Rauxdi as she kept swinging her fists at her.
"Dammit Audri, will you just stay still!" Rauxdi snarled as she found contact with the wall behind Audri's head.
"No thanks, don't wanna die today Raux," Audri said laughing as she slides through a dark corridor and came up behind her holding her back from swinging another aimless punch.
"I gotta admit Rauxdi, you're kind of pathetic. I can't believe you can't land a hit on me, why can't you after all these years? You used to beat me up all the time," Audri taunted her as Rauxdi growled as she fell back, crushing both of them in the snow pile.
"You're the dipshit that can't summon a weapon, I think you have no reason to talk!"
A dark corridor opened up beneath Rauxdi, immediately dropping her on her face as Audri leaned outside of the dark corridor frowning, "Weapon or not, I'm kicking your as-"
Audri got yanked out of the dark corridor as Rauxdi launched her gauntlet and grabbed a hold of Audri and pulling her back to her.
"Aw, guess I got caught," Audri said sticking her tongue out as Rauxdi growled. "Nice try Audri, you dumb ass," She said clicking her tongue against her mouth as she pulled her free hand back.
"I suppose she didn't have much of a chance beating her. Such a shame," Vexen said before Xemnas smirked.
As Rauxdi started to aim for Audri's stomach, the impact never arrived as Audri held her hands out and caught Rauxdi's fist, struggling to hold her Nobody's strength back. "Fuck off Rauxdi, I'm not giving up that easily!" She snapped as the redhead gritted her teeth trying to push forward.
Audri grunted in frustration as she felt her fingers cracking from the force of Rauxdi's attack, not really breaking but just popping.
She closed her eyes tightly as she felt Rauxdi finally pulled her hand back and tried aiming for her head.
I'm not useless! I can fight... I just need a weapon of my own, Audri thought to herself as she started to focus on her breathing. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion as Audri felt something humming inside of her chest. She placed her hands over her heart and dug her fingers into her chest for a moment before she felt something click inside of her.
The next thing she knew, everything was back to normal speed and Rauxdi swung her arm at Audri's face. Her eyes opened up in fear before something moved in front of her face taking the impact of the attack.
She heard Rauxdi's voice shouted "The fuck is that?!" as the thing protecting her face exploded into pages. Thousands and thousands of blank pages started to wrap around her like it was a flying formation. As Audri looked around her, she could hear a small clang. She looked down and found that a protruding purple and magenta chain was sticking out of her chest by a few inches and floating in front of her like the end was broken.
Is... This what I think it is? She thought to herself before the pages around her started to form into a ball of darkness at the end of the chain coming out of her chest. As the darkness dissipates, a thick red and magenta spellbook with a goldish orange heart emblem on the cover appeared with the chain attached to the spine covered in an ornate gold design. It just floated in the air as Audri looked at it.
What caught Audri's eye was the emblem the cover as the heart happened to have with a sharp cross at its base.
Rauxdi was standing there a few feet back with her hands lowered as she looked at the surprise unfold before her. "Hey Audri, you better learn how to use that real quick!" She barked, gaining the girl's attention back as she suddenly slapped her hand on the cover of the spellbook, having it quickly open up to a blank page.
"Ready or not!" Audri said with newfound energy in her body as the book hovered by her side as it was flanking her.
Rauxdi was barely standing there with cuts along her arms while Audri knocked out on the floor. Rauxdi gritted her teeth as she could feel the sharp phantom pain of papercuts all up and down her arm as she glanced over at Xenmas and Vexen on the other side of the room.
"How long did that last for Vexen?" Xemnas asked as Vexen sighed shaking his head, "About 75 minutes. I'm surprised they lasted that long. But Audri does have one interesting talent."
"And that would be?"
"She seems to have a similar ability to Xigbar and Zexion when it comes to space manipulation. But instead of controlling gravity, she has just harnessed the power of using the dark corridors to provide her with resources or elemental distractions to flee a battle. She's no illusionist, but she knows how to taunt someone into her corner," Vexen said taking down mental notes as Xemnas nods.
"The one thing that came out of this is that Audri finally summoned a weapon. Although it is... an interesting choice. I wonder if Zexion can take further interest in testing out of abilities," Vexen explained as he eyed the unconscious form on the floor.
"I think I know what they will become," Xemnas said as he walked over to see Rauxdi and talk to her.
Audri and Rauxdi were summoned to Xemnas' office a week later, standing by the window in Xemnas' office as he looked down on them.
"Audri. Rauxdi. As much as I could give you more X's to put in your name, I won't. But I know you will both name a great Number 00."
Rauxdi and Audri just looked at each other before Rauxdi asked, "Number 00? Isn't that just 0 then?"
"Both of you are one of the same. Where one lacks in strength, the other excels in it with pride. Where one lacks in curiosity, the other excels beyond measure," Xemnas said as Audri just glanced at Rauxdi, "Did he just say...?"
"He did just say that we're either the weak or the dumb one," Rauxdi said with annoyance as Xemnas pinched the bridge of his nose.
"For the meanwhile, you both excel in different areas, but that could change if you both trained in other aspects if you tried. There is no destiny where you can't become perfect images of yourselves," He said glancing at them as they nodded, "Because of your connected ties, you are both know as the Two-Headed Vulture."
"A vulture? That's not exactly cute is it," Audri said as Rauxdi shrugged, "Can we pick another animal?"
"No, I said you get to be the vult-" "How about a shark, or an orca? Those are more deadly!"
"Nah, what about a viper? Since we're more like silver-tongued snake charmers."
"Are we talking about how we both like dic-"
"I don't care what animal you call yourself! But you go by Two-Headed Vulture because you both will be witnesses to the rebirth of the universe! Do I make myself clear?" Xemnas shouted as they both looked at him with glazed over looks on their face, "We'll stick with Two-Headed Viper instead. Do you want my tongue or her fangs?"
"Please leave my office."
"...And that's how we officially got our title!" I said with a smile as Rauxdi poked me in the arm. We looked over to see Demyx had passed out in bed snug as a bug.
Rauxdi handed me an empty glass grinning, "I might have dumped tons of cough syrup into his drink while you distracted him with the story."
I just shook my head as I put the glass on his nightstand as we left his room.
"I was hoping the story would bore him to death so he'd make us leave faster," I said as Rauxdi choked out a laugh.