Author's Note: (forevermagik13) So this doesn't take place during a specific time, but rather over the course of... well goodness, according to rarmaster's universe... probably since... well, since probably right before Roxas and Xion's deaths up to about where rarmaster is posting in 'Dead Inside' currently. These are little short snippets of Marluxia Replica Thistle's life in the Rebellion. I hope they're interesting to you :)

Marluxia Replica Thistle was calmly walking down one of the halls, reading a book on insects that he'd found. It was very interesting. So interesting, in fact that he did not hear Joseph come barreling down the hallway on a skateboard. Joseph crashed right into Thistle, knocking them both over.

Joseph apologized profusely.

"Didn't 29 tell you not to skateboard in the halls?" Thistle asked.

"No, not really," Joseph said. "He just keeps saying that it's for reasons like this why I shouldn't even have a skateboard in the first place."

Thistle sighed. This wasn't the first time that skateboard of Joseph's had caused him trouble.

29 caught up to Joseph. After apologizing to Thistle, he began to reprimand Joseph again.

xx

Thistle was napping in the main room of Castle Oblivion. He could probably just as easily go to his own room and nap. But napping out in the open seemed less reclusive.

He was startled from his slumber when Joseph cried out:

"Hey! I was working hard on that!"

Thistle sighed. He lazily opened one eye.

A Vexen replica had just trodden on one of Joseph's many plans to invade the World That Never Was and destroy Saix.

"Oops! Sorry, Joseph!"

Never mind. It was Vexen. Not that it really mattered.

He closed his eye again and tried to go back to sleep. But it was no use, he was once again wide awake.

xx

Thistle sat on a couch, pondering the meaning of his existence. A Vexen Replica sat on the other end of the couch. Every other chair and couch in the room was occupied by more Vexen Replicas. Amaryllis was dozing in another chair.

Thistle relaxed a little. There had been much unease after the unfortunate destructions of Roxas and Xion. But they hadn't heard any more word about what Saix was going to do next.

He was interrupted by (of course) Joseph. Who thought it would be a great idea to worm his way in between Thistle and whatever Vexen Replica…

Oh, of course. It was Vexen.

Joseph had taken a liking to Vexen.

Thistle sighed and scooted over, going back to his contemplations.

Like, why he had joined the Rebellion in the first place.

Though, the answer was really easy. He couldn't stand Saix.

That was a good enough answer for Alpha and 23. And they were the only two who asked.

Joseph and Vexen had broached the subject of the kids…

Thistle couldn't help but wince. Even though he wasn't a particular fan of the kids… he was pretty convinced that Saix could have dealt with them better, rather than just drive a claymore through some and Disable and dispose of the rest.

Another reason why he'd joined the Rebellion… Thistle did not want to be working for the guy who'd Disable you as soon as look at you.

Thistle had just finished that thought when the first raid began.

"We have company at the front door! And they're not friendly!" Alpha called out.

"Shall I set up our line of defense?" Amaryllis asked, suddenly awake.

"Yes, yes, I think that would be best," Alpha replied, his mind thinking of a thousand other things that he needed to be doing. "Where's Riku?"

"Yes, where is he?" Amaryllis asked.

Joseph replied that Riku was napping. Amaryllis suggested that Joseph go wake him up. Amaryllis hoped that that would keep Joseph busy long enough to keep him out of battle. Thistle knew that wasn't the case.

Alpha and Vexen went off to the computer room.

"You prepared to fight?" Amaryllis asked, looking right at Thistle.

Thistle summoned his scythe. "Of course," he said.

Amaryllis gave a curt nod and went off to gather more fighters. Thistle made his way to the front room.

xx

Thistle was moderately good at battle. He wasn't exceptional like Riku, or some of the other Marluxia Brothers. But he wasn't bad like Tulip. Tulip had needed to get an entire arm repaired after trying to take down a Lexaeus Replica. Tulip and another Marluxia Brother, as well as one of the Vexen Replicas had all needed to use the Repair Program after that first raid.

Thistle had managed to get through the entire battle without a scratch.

That turned out to be a common occurrence. Every other Marluxia Brother used the Repair Program at some point. (Tulip more than anyone else.) All the Vexen Replicas that fought used it at some point or another. Even Alpha used it once or twice when he had a particularly nasty encounter with 37. Vexen kept getting lucky and never getting injured past the point of minor scratches and bruises.

Riku probably got injured the most, but he never once consented to use the Repair Program. Thistle had to commend him a bit for this. There was a point in time where he wouldn't want to use the Repair Program either. But now he was curious as to what it was like—having gone so long without ever needing to use it.

xx

The attacks had stopped while that Sora boy was here. For whatever reason, they'd stopped.

Thistle was calmly walking back to his room. He'd had a rather exhaustive trip to Twilight Town with Joseph. He couldn't even answer to himself why he'd agreed on that trip. But everyone else had been strangely elsewhere and 29 looked like he was going to pass out from lack of sleep.

Thistle thought he'd be nice.

It wasn't too bad, he hadn't even needed to pay for the ice-cream.

But now, he was the one who was tired.

He couldn't even begin to grasp how 29 managed. He figured that Master Vexen had just programmed the Vexens differently than the Marluxias.

He opened his door, yawning as he did so. And looked at his bed.

He jumped about three feet in the air when he saw that someone was already in it.

Granted, the someone wasn't sleeping. They were sitting on the bed looking down at a wooden sword.

"My apologies," Thistle said, trying to be polite. "I guess I just walked into the wrong room."

Sora looked up. He looked as if he actually attempted to remember Thistle's name, but he failed.

"It's cool," he replied with a shrug.

Noticing how awkward this had the potential to get, Thistle backed out of the room.

Go figure, his room was next door.

xx

Thistle was walking through the halls, reading again. This time, it was a book about underwater plants. Reading while walking through Castle Oblivion had become one of his favorite past times as of late. He had gotten good to the point where he could avoid anything that was in the way.

He casually stepped over Joseph's skateboard for example, and continued on his way.

However, he couldn't avoid Joseph himself. Joseph ran into Thistle with quite a thud. However, since this was not the first time this had happened (to either of them) neither of them were very fazed and recovered quickly.

"Thistle! Come quick!" Joseph said.

Noticing the urgency in Joseph's voice, Thistle pocketed the book and followed after Joseph.

He couldn't help but gasp when he turned the corner.

A small, blonde girl wearing a white dress was collapsed on the floor, her face scowling as if she was in pain.

There was no mistaking that this was Riku's Namine.

"What happened?" Thistle asked, not sure if he wanted to be by a collapsed Namine when Riku showed up.

"She was on the floor when I arrived. She kept saying she was okay, but obviously she was just trying to make me feel better or something. When I told her that Riku would be back soon, she just fainted."

"We should get her to a room. Go find 29 or Alpha. Do not get 23 or 19, for they'll make a big deal of it. If you must, get 2 or Amaryllis. Inform them that Namine is here. I will take her to a room. I think the one down the hall from mine is empty."

"The one next to my room?" Joseph asked.

Thistle thought about this for a second, then nodded.

"No, don't put her there," Joseph said thoughtfully as Thistle bent down to pick Namine up.

"Why not?" he asked. He couldn't help but notice how light Namine was. She was almost lighter than Xion. And Thistle had only lifted Xion that one time because she had passed out because her data was collapsing…

Thistle hoped Namine's data wasn't collapsing. That would kill Riku…

"You should put her closer to Riku's room."

Riku's room, along with Alphas, 29's, Amaryllis', and a few select other replicas were on a separate floor. It was the same floor that the computer room was on.

"Is there an empty up there?" Thistle asked.

"Yeah, after we lost 11…" Joseph said sadly.

"Oh, right," Thistle said, bowing his head for a brief moment.

Then, he formed a dark corridor to the little hallway.

Of course, he would corridor himself to the wrong end. He passed Alpha and 29's rooms, then Amaryllis and 2's rooms. Then Riku and Snapdragon's rooms. Then he came to 11's room and a room that he vaguely recalled no one ever using.

Rather than go into 11's old room, he went across the hall to the already empty room.

It was the one next to Riku's anyway.

He lay Namine down on the bed and started to leave…

Then thought better of it, figuring he should stay with her until someone else could watch her.

Joseph came back with 29 and Alpha both. Alpha had a portable tablet with him.

"I'll do a scan," Alpha said. "She looks… well, she looks awful. 29, can you do something with Joseph please?"

"Aw, but I wanna watch!"

29 rolled his eyes and calmly led Joseph out.

"Do you need me to do anything?" Thistle found himself asking. There was something about the little girl laying on the bed that made him want to just do anything to ensure her comfort. Which was odd, Thistle thought.

Alpha shook his head.

Thistle shrugged and made his way out of the room.

He winced when he heard Alpha mention the words 'memory meltdown.'

xx

Things seemed to move rather quickly after the arrival of Namine. Thistle had asked Alpha at the first chance he got about Namine and the collapsing data thought.

Alpha assured him that such a thing wasn't the case. The only apparent problem was that Namine's memories had a habit of attacking her—a fact that Riku was already aware of.

Thistle was surprised when Riku thanked him.

'For bringing Namine to a comfortable place when I couldn't do that myself,' were his words.

Thistle was happy to be noticed.

After Namine arrived, Sora left. Thistle didn't bother to ask why.

After Sora left, the attacks on Castle Oblivion picked up within hours.

"I am so tired of Saix sending in all of these search parties," Thistle complained to Tulip as they walked the halls in between two attacks. "I thought we were going to finally be rid of them, but apparently not."

"Oh come on," Tulip replied, rolling his eyes. "You can't expect him to give up so easily. Even I knew that we couldn't keep them away forever. You'd better not let Amaryllis hear you talk like that…"

A small gasp from behind them made Tulip pause. Thistle and Tulip both looked over. Riku and Namine were sitting on a couch—Namine was holding her head in pain.

Thistle winced, this was not the first memory meltdown Namine had had after the original one she'd had upon coming here. However, it was the first one that Thistle had been around to witness. He subconsciously took a few steps back, knowing Riku to be a little testy when this happened. He instantly decided that he'd rather be dealing with attacks than having to watch this right now…

Something that Tulip had said triggered a meltdown.

"Oh shnap," Thistle heard Joseph say. Thistle hadn't been aware of Joseph being around—but he wasn't really surprised to find out that he was.

Joseph was patting Tulip on the arm. "Sorry dude, but you are so dead."

"Don't blame him…" Namine gasped. "It's not… his fault…"

Riku pulled Namine closer to him.

Thistle looked at Tulip and shrugged. Though he had to figure that Riku would probably spare Tulip because it would be pointless to dwindle the Rebellion's numbers… but still…

"Joseph has a point," he said. "We've all learned that Riku doesn't let anyone hurt Namine."

Tulip's face paled. He had the sense to just walk away.

"Ice-cream?" Joseph asked, handing one out to Thistle.

Thistle took the ice-cream without even a second thought.

However, he had to discard it when the next attack began.