Chapter 31

Lexaeus opened the door leading into the empty room and held it open, watching as Vexen, Zexion, and Michiko walked in. Finally, after everyone else had entered, Otonashi slowly walked in after them. Once everyone else was inside, Lexaeus followed, letting the door slam shut as he went.

"So, you're saying that somehow, just because I'm a Nobody, I have some sort of weapon and special powers now?", Otonashi asked. He knew that each member of the Organization seemed to have those things, going by what Riku had told him, but he still didn't understand why.

"Yes," Lexaeus answered, summoning his tomahawk, "Those who keep their form and intelligence as Nobodies become able to summon a special weapon. Usually, a Nobody's weapon takes the form of something familiar to them..."

The huge man held up his weapon, pointing to it. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out another object, apparently some sort of tool which resembled an axe.

"For example, my own weapon," he said, "Took the form of an axe... much like this one, but larger and more powerful."

Otonashi held out his hand and tried to concentrate the way Lexaeus had, but nothing happened. He stood there, looking as if he was clenching his fist and trying to grab something, for several minutes, but no weapon ever came.

"The first time is always the most difficult," Vexen said, summoning his own weapon, a large shield with spikes on the edges, "Especially if you attempt it outside of combat, in a situation with no stress of any kind. Summoning weapons, for a Nobody, is closely tied to one's instincts."

"So... if I want to find out what my weapon is, I've got to feel like I'm in danger..."

"Precisely."

Vexen snapped his fingers and suddenly a small group of Dusks appeared in the room, standing around Otonashi in a circle and wiggling disturbingly. Everyone else backed away into the corners of the room, standing and watching as the Dusks started to close in on the silver-haired man. Lexaeus and Vexen dematerialized their weapons and crossed their arms.

And then, one of the Dusks made a move. It hopped toward Otonashi, striking at him with one of its strange, skinny arms. He was knocked down, but not really injured, and stood back up just in time for two other Dusks to jump and kick him in the chest, sending him to the floor again.

"Do you think he'll be okay?", Michiko asked, turning toward Zexion, "It doesn't look like he's even trying to fight them..."

"He'll be fine," Zexion said, "Just watch. Before long the adrenaline will kick in, and with that comes the instinct to fight back..."

"And if it turns out he still can't summon his weapon," Vexen said, "One of us can always command the Dusks to stop. There's no real danger in this situation at all--but he doesn't know that."

"Yes," Lexaeus said, "Even the illusion of danger should be enough."

For several minutes, Otonashi was knocked around by the Dusks, occasionally making an effort to duck out of the way or block one of their attacks. One of the Dusks slipped behind him and rammed into his back, sending him into an attack from the other Dusks. He fell to the floor, clutching his stomach in pain, and then slowly stood up again.

"What are these things!?", he yelled toward the edges of the room, where everyone else was standing. There was no response--the other Nobodies only watched as the Dusks wiggled and prepared to attack him again.

Just as one of the creatures was about to step forward to attack, he lashed out, punching the thing in the face and causing it to wobble backwards slightly. He threw another punch, but the Dusk hopped out of the way, causing him to miss completely.

And then, something different happened. There was a flash, and Otonashi felt something beginning to form in his hand--a handle of some sort. Before he knew exactly what was going on, he pulled his hand back from another punch...

...and heard a swishing sound behind him, followed by the sound of three of the Dusks falling to the floor. He looked down at his hand, and noticed that he was now holding onto some sort of whip-like weapon, with a short handle on one end and a hook-like blade on the other. As he had pulled his arm back to get ready to punch again, the whip had swung around in his hand and slashed three of the Dusks behind him, leaving only two standing.

"He did it!", Michiko shouted, looking like she was about to hop up and down out of excitement. Zexion covered his ears--well, actually, only one of his ears, since the other was already covered well enough by his hair.

Only a few more seconds passed before Otonashi had finished off the remaining Dusks, swinging the hooked whip around in a circle and catching the two Nobodies on the weapon's blade as they tried to escape. There were several silvery-white flashes, and then the Dusks were gone.

"Hmm," Otonashi said, looking at his new weapon carefully, "With that hook on the end, it almost looks like some kind of messed-up fishing pole."

He dematerialized the weapon after looking over it, with the whip-like part spinning and wrapping itself around the handle before finally glowing brightly and vanishing along with the rest.

"Appropriate, I guess, since I was a fisherman... but I never thought I'd end up using a fishing pole as a weapon."

Roxas headed back down the streets of Twilight Town, walking quickly toward his home. Though there had been hundreds of the Shin'an infesting the place before, Sofia's death seemed to have driven them away--he didn't see a single one during his trip back home, and the footprints that had been there before were beginning to fade away.

Before long, he had arrived at his house, and checked the entire place for any sign of the glowing creatures before he entered. Fortunately, it seemed that nothing strange was going on there--there was not a single footprint that would give away the presence of a Shin'an, and everything inside was in the same place as it was before...

But, as the door closed behind him, he suddenly felt like he was being watched.

"Who's there?", Roxas asked, pulling his Keyblades free from their straps and nearly slamming them into the walls behind him. He looked around, but no matter where he looked, it seemed that he was alone in the house--there was no sign that anyone else was there.

As he walked further away from the door, his feeling of being watched intensified to the point where it seemed like whoever was watching him was in the room. He looked around the room again, still seeing nothing but his empty house, and finally turned back toward the door.

The air in front of the door rippled for a second, and then was filled with a crackling sound and a swirl of strange, translucent shapes. From this came a single large circle of rippling air, which first shifted shape to a triangle before becoming a square, a pentagon, and finally a hexagon, each larger than the previous shape. The hexagon suddenly flashed and began spinning toward the floor, and a silvery-blue figure in the shape of a tall man stood up from within it.

"What... who are you?", Roxas said, holding out his two Keyblades in front of him and preparing for an attack. The figure stood in place for several minutes, then simply shrugged at him before speaking.

"I am one who no longer has a name," it said, "One who has lost everything only to lose everything again, and who has gained that which he had never wanted."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?", Roxas said, "That doesn't tell me anything!"

"Then I will tell you one thing," the figure said, "Things have changed in the last ten years. Things that require us to change in order to survive. Some of us change by turning away from our past and taking a new route... others must return to their past."

"You're still not making any sense," Roxas said, "You haven't said a single thing I don't already know! Of course things have changed--if nothing had changed, I wouldn't have this scar on my side, and I wouldn't be fighting these glowing bugs all the time!"

"There is no reason to be angry," the figure said, "In fact, you should be happy, Roxas... it is time for you to return to a place familiar to you, and to reunite with a few old friends."

"What are you talking about?", Roxas said, lowering his Keyblades for the first time, "All of my old friends either live here in Twilight Town... or..."

"Or they're dead..."

The figure nodded, but then held out one hand. A circle appeared in midair, rotating slowly and transforming into other increasingly-complex shapes until finally it became a hexagon. The shape flashed, and then suddenly an image of a road surrounded by grasslands on all sides appeared. At the end of the road was a tower reaching high into the sky, and several dark shapes could be seen moving about through the windows on one floor.

"That's... that's Castle Oblivion," Roxas said, nearly dropping his Keyblades from shock, "And someone's in there... but... I thought..."

"You were correct--each member of Organization XIII who once lived in that castle has passed away in one way or another," the figure said, gesturing with its hands toward the image inside the hexagon, "But a certain resourceful member of the Organization had a backup plan, it seems... cloning. Three of their original members now live again."

"But there's more than three people in there," Roxas said, pointing toward the image with one Keyblade, "See? Inside that room--there's a girl with green hair, and a silver-haired guy with some kind of whip. What's going on?"

"That, I am unsure of," the figure said, "It seems that the ressurrected Organization is seeking new members among those Nobodies that have kept their form. And you..."

"Finally you say something that makes sense," Roxas said, smiling and putting his Keyblades back into their straps, "You're asking me to go and join the 'new' Organization XIII."

Roxas took a few steps toward the door, standing directly in front of the strange entity that had appeared in his house. He waited there for a few seconds, and then the figure shifted slightly to the right to let him pass.

"Heck, if I had known those guys were still around... I would've joined them a long time ago," he said, opening the door and turning to face the mysterious figure one last time, "If that's all you want from me..."

"If only it were," the figure said, holding its hand out once again and causing the image of Castle Oblivion to disappear, "What I want most from you is... for you to accept my apology."

"Apology?", Roxas said, "What for?"

The figure stood still for what seemed like forever, flickering slightly and almost seeming confused--quite a difference from the rest of the conversation. Eventually, it shrugged once again, before answering.

"Hmm... I see. In that case," the figure said, crossing its arms, "Perhaps it is better if you never know."

With that, the figure began to ripple and fade away, leaving behind a swarm of geometric shapes which slowly disappeared in small flashes of silvery light. Whoever or whatever had visited Roxas had left.

And Roxas let the door swing shut behind him, heading toward the outskirts of Twilight Town to begin his next journey.