Once again it was dark and... sort of clammy. He couldn't see a thing but he knew his vision was swimming and spinning. He was leaning on something, heavily. His senses were slowly returning. Now he could feel the harsh stone ground under his knees, and his own hand on his head, rubbing his eye. His teeth gritting strongly. His body was shaking. He didn't really know what happened, but it was like suddenly fainting. Darkness had just... swallowed him up, and then spat him up again.
Luxord slowly opened his eyes.
He had been expecting bright light, but the light that met his eyes was dim. Like that of a fire... torches? A strangled groan escaped his mouth, and he inwardly winced at the sound. He shifted a bit, placing his other hand on the ground, earning a very recognizable, clinking sound. It was the sound of coins. And a whole lot of them. He tried to blink the blurriness away, before he suddenly felt something pressed against his skull.
"Don't move," a firm, yet familiar, voice demanded, and Luxord could hear the sound of a gun. That was Xigbar's voice. "Don't wanna shoot ya..."
They had been on a mission together, Luxord tried to remember. To... To that cave near Agrabah. The Cave of... Wonders? Yes. They had been sent there to look for, what he remembered Vexen to describe as, some sort of stone. A large jewel. They had to look in that cave for hours, nothing they couldn't fill out with good conversation. Xigbar had talked about how he hated to go to Agrabah, but this place wasn't so bad. Luxord hadn't talked much, letting Xigbar keep him entertained. Sometimes, though, he commented on all the treasures lying around.
In the end, they had found the jewel, almost as big as a head, and being held up by a monkey statue, evilly grinning. Luxord had reached for it... and that was what he remembered.
"Xigbar?" He groaned. "What's going on? What happened?" He finally looked up, vision still blurry, but he could see Xigbar aiming once of his Arrowguns at his head. His facial expression was sort of unreadable, masked. Luxord made to stand, but Xigbar, per reflex, immediately pressed the gun harder against his skull.
"You done yet?" The Freeshooter asked.
"What happened?" Luxord asked louder, making sure to stay down. Xigbar was serious. Luxord's voice was shaky. He moved his hand to rub the rest of his face, a habit of irritation, when he suddenly flinched in pain and removed his hand. His nose hurt like, to put it bluntly, hell. It was a sharp pain, and he could suddenly smell the metallic blood. Something had hit him in the face.
"You attacked me, dude," Xigbar said simply. "Care to tell why?"
"Attacked..? No, I.." Luxord mumbled.
"Actually, you did," Xigbar said, then hauled him to his feet. Luxord suspected that he wanted to press him against the wall but instead, Xigbar looked him dead in the eyes. "Listen to me... You grabbed that huge diamond-thing, and then you suddenly attacked me."
And Luxord could see that he was telling the truth. His one eye was serious, and he could see dirt on the Freeshooter's coat and face. But Luxord's attention wandered to the to or three tears in Xigbar's coat, in his side, where blood was staining the area. The Gambler's eyes widened. Had he done that?
"Xigbar..." Luxord started out, his voice shocked and shaky. "I'm sorry. I couldn't... I did not know what I was doing, I - "
"It's fine," Xigbar interrupted him. "Just don't do it again - "
"No, it's not fine!" Now it was Luxord interrupting him. "I attacked you!"
"Yeah, and I got you pretty good too, so no sweat." Xigbar shrugged and tried to hide a wince. He couldn't understand why Luxord was freaking out like he did. Sure, he did attack him, and it had to have been a nasty feeling, not knowing what you were doing, but the Gambler seemed... furious at himself. But also something Xigbar couldn't quite place.
"You need to see a doctor. Vexen..." Luxord said, trying to look around to calm himself down. The ceilings of this so-called Cave of Wonders were high, beyond reach. And he remembered there being being some sort of hole in the floor.
"Yeah," Xigbar said after some time. "Come on, let's go."
"What about the jewel?" Luxord said quickly, not understanding how Xigbar could be so calm about the situation. Or seem so... easy around him after what he'd apparently done. "It's our mission to get it back."
"Dude," Xigbar said slowly, "You touched it, then you went apeshit. Doesn't take a Vexen to figure out that it probably ain't the best idea to touch it again. We just gotta tell 'em that."
After sometime, Luxord nodded. He pushed away from the wall and went to support Xigbar, whose posture seemed to sag more and more. After some hesitation, Xigbar let him. Bringing out his hand, Luxord opened a portal, holding Xigbar's arm in place over his shoulder with his other hand. He glanced discreetly over at the Freeshooter.
"You did what?" Vexen asked sharply, as he draped Xigbar's now discarded coat and shirt over the back of a chair.
"We left it," Xigbar said simply, lightly swinging his legs as he sat on the examination table. His elbows were resting on his knees, and even though his wounds had been patched up and bandaged, Vexen still had to wonder how on earth he ignored the pain of such a position. Xigbar lifted a hand to stop Vexen. "And before you start ranting, no, I'm not an idiot. It obviously had some side-effect."
"So you say..." Vexen grumbled. "However, it amazes me that I still can't leave you two unattended, for more than an hour, without having to bring out at least a first-aid kit." He started packing his equipment down again, sarcastically thinking that he should have a bag labeled 'For Xigbar and Luxord'. He scoffed.
"Lux is probably resting now," Xigbar mumbled after a moment of awkward silence. "He tries to sleep a lot, you know. Tries."
"Of course I know, you dolt. I'm no idiot either."
"Any idea what could be bothering him?"
But Luxord wasn't resting yet. In fact, he was slowly stepping away from the almost closed door he'd been eavesdropping at. He started walking, knowing that Xigbar and Vexen hadn't noticed him. Xigbar seemed alright. He only just managed to hear Vexen demanding that Xigbar got some rest, before their voices faded out.
"Eavesdropping isn't exactly very polite." Someone said, and Luxord found himself looking up at Lexaeus.
"... I... I was just leaving," Luxord said lamely. But Lexaeus grabbed his shoulder with a huge hand, but gently so.
"Hold on," the Silent Hero said, and before Luxord knew anything else, the larger Nobody had grabbed his nose and given it a good yank.
The Gambler cried out in pain and brought his hands up to his face. "What did you do?" He demanded with a hiss, and sent Lexaeus an icy glare – Well, it would have been, if Luxord didn't look so askew.
"Manual alignment, as Vexen would call it," Lexaeus said. "I corrected your nose."
Luxord groaned in pain and irritation, before calming down. "A warning would have been nice... But thank you." He gently felt the area around his nose, wincing slightly. It was still spinning and throbbing, and it had to be swollen and bruised also.
"You should at least get rid of the blood." Lexaeus said simply before walking off.
Luxord watched his retreating back, before turning on his heels and heading for his own room. Luckily, he didn't run into anyone else. The clocks in his room signaled that at was almost dinner time, but Luxord was not hungry. At all. He went straight to the bathroom and flinched at how he looked in the mirror. It wasn't enough that he felt like hell, he looked like it too. The bruising even went as far as to his eyes. Great. He started washing, but absentmindedly so. He couldn't believe that he'd attacked Xigbar, that he'd actually injured him. He gritted his teeth slightly.
"It's what happens..." He mumbled to himself before splashing water in his face again. He tried calming himself by telling himself that it was Nobody-nataure, being so deadly. It wasn't just him, they were all trained to kill. They were all... oh, it was no use. He didn't even know why he was so upset, and what he was trying to call himself down from. But his hands were still shaking. He dried off his face and went to his bed.
'What's wrong with me..?' He thought, ridding himself of his coat and boots before lying down. He thought about that surprisingly often. He didn't like losing himself. And he was afraid of doing so, every singe day of his life as a Nobody. He was afraid of losing his... humanity. Hell, he wasn't even a human anymore, he was a Nobody. A Nobody who had attacked his friend savagely. The fact that he was even capable of that...
And with an element like his, he had to be able to control himself. He put his hands under his head, feeling the muscles in his arms and chest stretch out. Time was not something to be controlled by a... he couldn't get himself to say the word.
"What do you want from me...?" He asked sleepily before sleep actually took him.
The only lights available in the Dark City were the artificial lights from the buildings, and the pale light from Kingdom Hearts. At least there was supposed to be lights in the buildings. Now the Dark City was darker than ever. Now it was one big maze, and he couldn't just teleport away. He quickened his pace, wanting to find his target quickly. He'd seen the figure run this way, and he just knew he had to stop him. Something was off about him. About the whole situation, actually. He knew that Luxord was not far from him, but it was so dark. His vision was adjusting, as he turned around a corner and saw the Gambler leaning against a wall.
"Lux!" Xigbar called, running up to his side, but Luxord moved away from him, keeping his head bent. "Lux, what are you doing?"
"Stop!" Luxord hissed and batted Xigbar's hands away from him. "Stay way from me!" His voice was out of control, Xigbar thought. Almost frantic. The Freeshooter took a good hold of him and turned him around, but he almost wished he hadn't. Luxord's eyes were closed but the confusion and anger was clear on his face. What bothered Xigbar the most was the lines of blood that trickled from his eyes and down his cheeks. Xigbar was speechless, but he kept holding on to him.
"What happened to you...?" Xigbar asked quietly.
"I... can't... I can't..." Luxord mumbled and tried to shrug out of Xigbar's vice-like grip. It was no use, Xigbar wouldn't let go of him. In fact it was almost like he needed to keep the Gambler standing.
"Can't what? See?" Xigbar pushed. "Relax, I got ya."
"No!" Luxord suddenly yelled and used the surprise to pull himself away from Xigbar. "I can't control it!" He fell to his knees and clutched his head, mumbling to himself. Xigbar went for him a third time, but he was suddenly unable to move. Like he just... couldn't. Luxord was still on his knees, seemingly clutching his head even harder, and groaning repeatedly.
Xigbar felt something click in the air, and suddenly the sound of rock and concrete cracking could be heard all over the place. He could see the ground and buildings actually shattering in several places! Luxord let out a terrible yell, before Xigbar started seeing whatever metal was on the buildings and elsewhere let out a large groan itself as it bent and rusted, giving in to time.
Xigbar could suddenly move and made to run to Luxord, but the Gambler was already trying to get to his feet, and he swung an arm at Xigbar, not hitting him physically, but still somehow pushing him back with such a force that it sent the Freeshooter rolling.
"Lux, stop it!" Xigbar yelled as he tried to regain control of himself again. For heaven's sake, the guy was destroying buildings! Streets! He was gonna destroy a whole city! He watched as Number X, still with bleeding eyes, threw his head back in pain, overrun with this power, and let out a sickening scream, which was then drowned by another loud sound, this time of glass everywhere shattering.
Xigbar looked up at the buildings and saw the windows practically explode outwards, shards starting to rain down on the streets. His reflexes told him to get himself and Luxord out of the way of the deadly rain, but before he could even move, the shards dissolved into sand, as time undid the process that had turned it into glass to begin with.
Finally, it all seemed to stop, and Luxord slowly fell to his knees again with a thud. Xigbar waited for the remaining sand to have settled, covering his face slightly, before he finally went to stand and ran for the Gambler. But, as Fate would have it, the now weakened and destroyed buildings started to collapse...
… And that's when Xigbar woke up, breathing heavily and looking around frantically.
"Lux?" He asked looking around, but realized that he was in his own room, in his bed. What a dream, he thought. If he had a heart, it'd be in his throat right now. He was covered in sweat, he could feel it soaking through his bandages and a bit of his shirt too. After some time, he got out of bed to change his shirt, wondering why he would have a dream like that. And why Luxord? In fact, he hadn't really checked up on the blonde after they had returned from that failed mission. He found himself pacing around in the room, before he gave a final nod and teleported to Luxord's room, not caring that he might be asleep at this time.
Luxord's room was dark and quiet, and Xigbar felt an uncomfortable pang of déja-vu before he looked out the windows and saw the lights from the city. He flipped the switch, bringing light into the room in a second. Luxord stirred visibly at the sudden light. He had to have been sleeping since they got back from the mission. He wasn't even under the covers, or out of his clothes. The Gambler opened his eyes in confusion, hissing a bit at the sharp light and the pain in his nose.
"... You're not a monster," Xigbar said quietly, watching as Luxord tried to close his eyes and sleep on. Finally, Number X's eyes settled on him.
"Xigbar?" Luxord blurted out. "What are you doing in my room?" Again, the thought. He wanted to sit up for politeness' sake, but he was too tired, and Xigbar came in and out of his room whenever it suited him.
"You're not a monster, Lux. That's what had you freaking out, wasn't it? After you attacked me?"
"... How are you?" Luxord tried to work his way around Xigbar's questions. Sometimes, the Freeshooter could be surprisingly insightful, just like Lexaeus. In fact, everyone in the Organization seemed to have their own little moments of knowledge.
"I'm fine, now answer me."
"I don't know, Xigbar." Luxord said, finally sitting up and getting out of the bed. Xigbar was just about to think that he was going to kick him out, but instead Luxord went to the window to look out.
"No reason to freak out, it's not like you did it on purpose."
"Exactly," Luxord said quietly. "What if we, in the end, just become thoughtless beings, not doing anything by our own will?"
"Won't happen," Xigbar said simply. When Luxord gave him an asking look, the Freeshooter gave a heavy sigh and sat down on the bed. "Tell me why you're freaking out like this..."
Luxord turned to look at him. After some time, he started talking.
Whew, that was a tough one.. I apologize for any confusion.