Ns: And the final chapter this week…. We are getting awfully close to the point where we was before I decided to rewrite this thing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters related to Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 36: Manipulation

"I have never trusted you." Xemnas said. He sat in his throne and stared down at Saïx who for once was not sitting on his throne, but standing on the floor and staring up at the superior. "But I trusted you ambition, and was sure you could be kept in check."

"…" Saïx had nothing to say to Xemnas' sudden and unwelcomed honesty.

"You do realize that you have been under suspicion for some time?"

"With Marluxia gone does it really matter if I worked with him or not?" Saïx asked. "But to your information, I didn't have anything to do with them."

"Or so you say, but I'm afraid that Marluxia's demise only has made thing bleaker for you. The position as leader of the rebels is, after all, suddenly free for anyone to grab." Xemnas watched Saïx carefully, the implication hung in the air between them.

"I can assure you, sir, that if I were to betray the Organization I would choose someone more reliable than Larxene to team up with."

"Yes, you have shown real skills in being able to choose your allies. Axel was an excellent choice." Xemnas noticed Saïx surprised look. "What? You think we suspected nothing?"

"There is nothing to suspect, and even if there it was something that happen before the resurrection. You gave Marluxia and Larxene a second chance, why not me? I'm tenfold as useful as the two of them put together."

Xemnas waved his hand dismissingly.

"We knew exactly what they were up to that makes them easy to control, you on the other hand…"

"All I want is my heart back! I'm not up to anything."

"I saw you attack Larxene."

"When?" At first Saïx was confused, then he realized that Xemnas was properly talking about when he had bashed Larxene's head against his tombstone, but Saïx was sure they had been the only two in the Proof of Existence. "Larxene just happened to provoke me at a time my rage was high… I am a berserker after all."

"I'll like to believe that, but as far as I saw it was a completely unprovoked attack."

Since when did Larxene do something that was not provocative? What Xemnas had witness had to be some altered illusion of the event that Zexion had made. It would after all be easy for the illusionist to replay and alter the memory if he had first obtained if from Larxne, but it still worried Saïx that Xemnas had not discovered the illusion. How could the mightiest among them be tricked so easily?

"If you do not believe that I was in berserker-mode, what do you believe?" Saïx asked.

"I believe that you tried to subdue Larxene into the following you."

"That would be idiotic of me. Larxene would not be enough to take you on and she would also betray me at the first chance. I'm not stupid!"

"Unless you have a man on the outside." Xemnas said.

"Who should that be?" Xemnas looked at Saïx with a telling look. "Axel?" Saïx didn't believe this. Xemnas had gone crazy! "Did you miss the part where he betrayed everyone because of his attachment to Roxas."

"But why did he become attached to Roxas in the first place. How can I know that was not a thing you told him to do? It was you who made sure that Axel supervised Roxas' first mission. What if you planned it all: From Roxas' escape to Axel following him? That would explain why Axel has survived every encounter you have had with him. Because you secretly intended to have a man on the outside all the time and now you are forcing Larxene to aid you in the overtaking."

That was so ridicules, that Saïx at first didn't know what to say. Xemnas had to have caught a bad case of paranoia or something.

"Such a plan is not my style."

Xemnas folded his hand.

"Prove it!"

"An ultimatum?" X'ero gasped as she tried to focus on something else than Saïx's hand moving up her thigh. "You could be a little more specific than that…".

"Mmm…" Saïx didn't bother to formulate an actual word, properly because he would have to move his mouth from her neck, but X'ero was not about to give up. Not when she was finally getting something out of Saïx about why he acted so weird lately.

"Have you gotten an ultimatum from Xemnas?" X'ero asked. "Has he threatened you in some way?"

Saïx sighed deeply against her skin.

"Do you always talk this much doing sex?"

"Yes…" X'ero answered after quickly thinking the question over. "It helps to keep my mind somewhere else."

Saïx suddenly pulled away and grabbed her chin with two fingers.

"I want your full attention!" He demanded.

"…" X'ero placed her hand on Saïx chest? How had they lost their clothes again? Somehow the subconscious voice in her head managed to make itself heard through the dark haze of aggressiveness in her tired mind: She was too tired and close to losing control, and she was sure that this was somehow a betrayal towards Zexion. She should really not continue. "I'm not sure this is a good idea…" She tried to push Saïx away, but he didn't budge. Instead he placed his hand on top of hers and slowly dragged it downwards until her fingers brushed the fabric of his pants. This was the only piece of clothes separating them.

She should really withdraw her hand.

Like right now! Her fingers folded themselves around the fabric and she dragged them down. It was as if her body was moving on its own… No, such a sentence was just an excuse. A part of her had to actually want this. X'ero saw the ghost of a smile, or perhaps rather a victories smirk, around Saïx's mouth. Then his fingers dug into her shoulders as he held her in a firm grip.

"I want you full attention." He repeated into her exposed ear. Then he kissed her. It was strange even though Saïx's nails definitely was clawing into her skin and even although his sharp teeth grazed her lower lip, X'ero realized that she was actually enjoying it when she wasn't automatically trying to space out. There was a prickling sensation everywhere they touched so X'ero put her arms around his neck and pressed their bodies together to make sure that they touched as much as possible. As she felt him press against her, she was not scared of the soon to be pain, but eager to gain a relive from the fire that had spread inside of her. It was so very different from what she had tried before.

"We don't have forever." Saïx stated and looked her in the eyes. X'ero nodded. It was funny. For the first time in her existence – both as X'ero and Nihil, X'ero actually believed that another person truly saw her as a woman.

Demyx was sooo not the right for this job. His hands, feet and whole body were shaking, but Larxene had told him that if he didn't do this she would use him to sharpen his knives on – after she was finished kicking him where the sun don't shine. Convinced that Larxene meant it, Demyx could not see how he had a choice and snuck away in the middle of the mission to do the job for Larxene. He carefully looked around in the rubble.

"Hello, is there anyone? Scary knights?" It looked like they weren't there. Lucky him. Now he could tell Larxene that he had done what she asked without actually haven't done anything. He just loved it when he could lazy his way through work. Demyx turned around and shouted. The female knight was standing right behind him.

"I... I don't want to fight!"

"Then you should speak…"

"Two seconds…" Demyx fished his cue card out. "Engage the female target and persuade her into accepting the offer. Also don't be an idiot and read the card out loud…." Embarrassed Demyx put the card back into his pocket. "Could you pretend not to hear that?"

"…Just give me the offer…."

"It was something with Kingdom Hearts, and… lot of big words. It is all in here." Demyx tried to hand the knight an envelope, but his arm was smacked away by an armored hand.

"We do not work with your kind." The male knight, who turned up out of nowhere, said. The envelope flew out of Demyx hand and fluttered to the ground.

"Then I'll be going now." Demyx turned around and hastily disappeared through a portal.

Once they were sure that he was gone the male knight picked up the envelope.

"We should destroy this…" he said. "But we should at least read it first."

Saïx was tying his shoelaces while trying to figure out what to say to X'ero. It was not that he cared if it was impolite to fall into silence after what they had just done; he was just sure that X'ero had some right to know the truth.

"X'ero…" Saïx said without looking at her. "You know I mentioned something about an ultimatum…" Saïx stopped not quite sure how to explain it all to X'ero. When X'ero surprisingly came with no comment to his sudden silence, Saïx looked in her direction. X'ero had apparently rested against the cave wall as she got dressed and had somehow managed to fall asleep against the rocky support. The long side of her green hair fell over her face.

Saïx watched her sleep. Wasn't the saying usually that worries was erased from the face when sleep overtook the mind? X'ero certainly didn't look peaceful; in fact she seemed to be in pain. Saïx reached out to wake her from the nightmare, but quickly changed his mind. Nightmare or not, X'ero had trouble sleeping without her drugs. It had to be healthier for her to fell naturally into sleep. Instead of waking her Saïx grabbed the coat which she had yet to put on and dropped it over her. He kneeled beside her and carefully placed his arm around her shoulders so he could tilt her until she was resting against his chest. Saïx slipped his other arm under her legs and lifted her.

X'ero stirred, but didn't wake. With some trouble Saïx succeeded in opening the portal and as he stepped into the path leading to the Organization he looked down at X'ero resting against him. It was as if he could feel her through the cloak, Saïx couldn't remember when he had last been so oversensitive to a girls touch. X'ero suddenly stirred once more, her lips moved and she clutched the fabric of his cloak in a desperate grip. Her gloves appeared and Saïx knew in that second that she was losing control again.

"Wake up!" He shook her body to no avail. "X'ero, wake up now!" Last time he could wake her with water. Why couldn't he shake her awake now? The darkness had already spread from her gloves and into feathers, circling around them.

"…Prove I'm better…" Words were escaping X'ero's moving lips.

"X'ero, we'll both be harmed if you don't stop…"

"Don't care… I'll destroy you, me, everyone until I have proved that I'm worth something…" It was not X'ero who spoke. Saïx realized. It was the darkness stored deep in her mind. The feathers were now completely surrounding them.

"X'ero, please wake up!" Saïx considered dropping her, but that was properly too late. Zexion had managed to stop it last time. What had he done? Comforted her? "Please, X'ero..." Without thinking Saïx did what he always did and softly stroke her green hair behind her ear. The movement of the feathers suddenly stopped. For the eyes of Saïx the dark colour bled away from the feathers as they melded back into the small mages in his arms. A single feather did not dissolve but fell on her chest now in a green color only matched by her hair. Saïx picked it up. It was emitting strange warmth he hasn't notice before. He decided to keep it without saying anything to X'ero. She seemed to finally have fallen into a dreamless slumber, no reason to wake her because of a feather.

Nothing further happened on Saïx's way back to the Organization and he was able to place X'ero on her bed.

"This is goodbye…" Saïx said, and decided to quickly leave before she had the chance to wake up and protest.

Outside of her room he watched the green feather. He had to report back to Xemnas which he properly wouldn't survive. Somehow it was as if the feather spoke too: "Pride is and emotion too." Hadn't X'ero said that to him once? Was he really willing to lose his existence just because he thought it was dishonorable to flee? If he ran Xigbar would be sent to track him down, but if he reported to Xemnas he had to face Xemnas or be transformed into a dusk. Saïx was convinced he could defeat Xigbar, but fleeing was just beneath him… The green feather was almost as soft as X'ero's hair. She was a survivor. She would want him to flee.

"Ahh…" Demyx appeared through a portal and jumped when he saw Saïx. "I've absolutely not done anything bad."

"...I've have no idea what you are talking about." Saïx said. "And I don't care. It is not my problem anymore." Saïx vanished through his own portal, leaving the confused Demyx behind. None of them were his problem anymore. The only one he regretted leaving was X'ero, but she wouldn't have followed him anyway.

"I don't care if he jumped on your head!" Nihil crossed her arms in anger. "I told you to scram!"

"You really know how to make a man feel wanted." The white haired witch screeching didn't make Axel's head ache any less. Saïx had decided to kick him hard in the head before leaving, just to prove some kind of point. Sure, Axel still existed, but he was not sure the headache was worth it. "Why can't you just trust me?"

Nihil held two fingers up:

"One: I'm generally an untrusting person. Two: If I'm going to start trusting people I won't start with a traitor."

"What?" Axel spun towards Nihil. "To you information I have never turned on you."

"Yet! Mention one person who you haven't betrayed."

"…Roxas."

Nihil rolled her eyes:

"He was the nothing of the keyblade master, right? Did you not kidnap his girlfriend just so you could get your friend back? Did you even stop to consider if that was what Roxas want? Or was it just your own selfish need?"

"SHUT UP!"

Nihil barely managed to dodge the fireball that was aimed at her.

"How DARE you speak of things you know nothing of?" Axel more shouted than asked. The air surrounding him burst into flames. "You are nothing, but a stupid, little witch who knows nothing of friendship, hearts or pain."

"Calm down!" Nihil ordered as she backed away from the pulsating heat. "You don't have a heart, so it is not like you can get angry."

"I don't care. I'm so pissed off right now!"

Nihil could tell from the increasing rapidity of the pulsating fire that the whole room soon would be engulfed in flames. She franticly searched for her echo, but with the direct connection served she couldn't find it. Instead she screamed as the whole room was drowned in flames.

As the inferno began to die out a cloaked figure jumped down to the scene.

"My, my…" he said as he lightly kicked till Axel's unconscious body. "If I had known you were going to kill the witch. I wouldn't have bothered following you in the first place. Not point in tracking a dead target."

A crackling sound was heard from one of the corners of the room and a blue beam hit the figure square in the chest. His hood fell down and revealed Xigbar as he was pushed into the wall by the force of the attack.

"Don't!" Nihil snapped as she appeared, completely unharmed. "Count me out yet!"

"How did you survive that?" Xigbar asked while he discreetly took a potion from his backpack.

"I can absorb all magic attacks, fire attacks included."

"Not in that form." Xigbar stated. "You are not a heartless anymore, little lady. You cannot absorb magic anymore,"

Nihil smiled that eerie smile that proved her relation to X'ero.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

No, Xigbar wasn't sure of anything, so he decided to at least heal the wound he had received, but the potion bottle exploded between his hands as soon as he touched the lid. A strange smell filled the air and Xigbar could feel himself becoming drowsy.

"Not good!" Xigbar felt to the floor as his eye closed.

Nihil blinked. That she hadn't seen coming. She sighed, unsure of what to do now. Her first instinct was to kill both Nobodies, but she wasn't sure who exactly the one eyed Nobody was and if it, perhaps, would be better to keep him alive. Her eye went to Axel as she realized that she properly still needed his knowledge.

X'ero slowly opened her eyes. She had had a terrible nightmare about the time Nihil had lost her heart. The barrier she had kept the darkness behind had been completely eroded, but her mind seemed clearer than usual. X'ero looked around with sleepy eyes. She was back in her own room. Saïx must have carried her there. It was first then that X'ero discovered Zexion sitting on her chair at her table with a blank look on his face.

"Your skin has a foreign scent of moonlight and darkness on it." He said. X'ero immediately knew what he was referring to.

"I'm sorry." She said. All though she wasn't quite sure what it was she was apologizing for.

"I told you not to use your body as a weapon."

"I didn't… It was not like I gained anything from it. Saïx was just persistent and… "Her words sounded wrong even in her own ears. "I… It's just… It's because…"

"Why do you think that you need an excuse?" Zexion interrupted before X'ero managed to be completely tongue tied.

"I don't know…"

"So… Was it good?"

"Should you really be asking that?"

"I am asking."

Zexion's line of question made her extremely uncomfortable.

"Actually… it was good. I never realized that it could be so… exciting."

"That's perfect then." There wasn't even a hint of sarcasm in Zexion's voice. X'ero didn't know why, but it upset her, and before she knew it she was out of the bed and had slammed her hands into the table. Her aggressiveness surprised herself.

"Why do you react that way?" She asked.

"How do you want me to react, X'ero?"

Confused again X'ero sat down again.

"I don't know."

"But I do." Zexion said. "You want me to be jealous and angry." X'ero looked up surprised. "But I can't be that, X'ero. No heart, remember."

"I know that."

"But I am flattered that you obviously want me to be possessive of you, and truth to be told: Had I not gone to sleep I would never had allowed any form of intimacy between you and Saïx. I went to sleep, though, and when I woke up I could see that Saïx had managed to build some kind of sexual tension between the two of you. It was then I realized that you are right."

"I'm right?" X'er was pretty sure that when it came to relationships she was never right.

"Jealousy is a feeling and we are on a step of evolution ladder where we no longer need feelings. It was much better for me to allow Saïx to change your view of sex. More much logial."

"My view?"

"You said it yourself: It felt good!" Zexion leant forward. "X'ero, you don't have to have either reproduction or killing people in mind when it concerns intimacy. Sometimes people are together because they belong together and it physically just feels right. We are two such people."

"But you warned me against it!" X'ero protested. Zexion shrugged.

"Of course I did. I wanted you to 'feel' that it was wrong being with Saïx - even if I knew you would eventually do it."

"Why did you not just tell me this from the beginning? Would that not be simpler?" Not that Zexion ever did anything simple.

"You would have refused to believe me, ran away and/or even tried to kill me." Zexion stated.

X'ero couldn't really argue against that. She had run away when Saïx had 'confessed', and she had technically tried to kill him too.

"X'ero, you want to be with me too." Zexion insisted. "That is the reason why you were displeased by my reaction."

"That does make sense." X'ero agreed.

"Good." Zexion moved beside her and placed his hand on top of hers. "And you don't need to worry about Saïx' reaction. He has fled from the Organization."

"What?"

Zexion smirked and his image suddenly changed, and Xemnas was sitting beside her:

"I've never trusted you." He quoted. "But I trusted your ambition."

"It was you all the time?" X'ero asked. Zexion transformed back to his normal self, and nodded. "What about Xigbar? He obviously knew about it."

"I had to cast the illusion on Xigbar too." Zexion said. "Saïx would not have believed it if Xigbar hadn't been taunting him." Zexion looked thoughtful. "I'll need to do something about Xigbar when he gets back." Zexion stood up. "I should properly get to it." He paused at the door. "Do me the favor and take a bath. I may not be able to be jealous, but the sooner his scent is of you the better."

Ns: And this was it for this week. The next will be up next week. (And I better get starting on writing the new chapters.)