Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts (although that would be pretty cool!)


As usual, Saïx was the first to arrive to the thrones in Where Nothing Gathers. He had arrived ten minutes before the meeting was to begin and immediately walked over to his throne and sat in it, bringing it to its full height. Saïx was a little worried, as he was unsure of what was happening to all the various Organization members. The Superior had not told him about Vexen's explanations, so he was very eager for the meeting to get started so that he could receive some clarity. Not long after, a Portal of Darkness opened and Marluxia stepped out. "I am surprised to see you here so early," Saïx commented.

"Well, I had nothing better to do and the sooner we finish this meeting, the sooner we can return to our missions," The Graceful Assassin responded.

Saïx nodded, expressing his approval. "And the mission goes well?"

"For the most part," Marluxia replied. "A few bumps in the road but the base has been unaffected by our other shenanigans."

At that moment, two more members entered the room, although not from a Portal of Darkness. Larxene walked in while Zexion rolled in with his wheelchair.

Both Saïx and Marluxia looked to the new people that came in. A smile formed on Marluxia's lips. "Larxene, what did you do to him?" he asked in mock distress.

"It wasn't me!" she defended herself. "And I'm disappointed you thought it was me!"

Both Zexion and Marluxia laughed. "Well, my dear, you do have a reputation," Marluxia explained.

"No, we just had a nasty encounter with the Keyblade wielder and his lackeys," Zexion responded, "but otherwise, no worries."

Larxene had not seen Marluxia in a while, so she was eager to catch up and walked over to him. Zexion, meanwhile, started to wheel himself over to his throne so he could sit there instead.

"It's been a long time, partner," Larxene began. "How's Toontopia?"

"It's actually been rather enjoyable," Marluxia responded. "Although certainly not uneventful. Luxord and I have had our hands full with some natives of the planet."

Larxene nodded her head. "Same with us. Turns out staying hidden is a little harder than we anticipated."

Naminé walked in as Larxene and Marluxia were talking. She had left Olympus Coliseum after Roxas had won his match, so she was completely oblivious to the chaos that had ensued afterwards. Seeing Zexion was a welcome sight, but seeing the wheelchair immediately caused her to go into caretaker mode. She saw Zexion was attempting to transfer to his throne and rushed over to assist.

"Here, let me help," she called out as she jogged over to Zexion's position.

"Thank you kindly, Naminé. How goes it? Hopefully better than me?" Zexion asked.

She giggled. "You could say that. I'll have to fill you in on some big things that have happened in your absence. But what happened to you?" she asked as she helped him get out of his wheelchair and into his throne.

"Had an encounter with Sora that did not go as well as I would have liked. I'll make sure to tell you all about it as well. But I'll be fine," he replied. He pressed his button to bring his throne up to its full height and Naminé went over to her throne to do the same.

Next, Xaldin appeared via a Portal of Darkness. He was surprised to see Zexion, Larxene, and Marluxia, as he was not aware they had returned from their missions. "Oh, this will be a better attended meeting then I anticipated," he announced.

"You're right about that," a new voice called out. Dropping down from the ceiling (he had been there for who knows how long) was Xigbar.

"Good to see you, my friend," Xaldin greeted.

"You know, I kind of missed this depressing hellhole," Xigbar began, which elicited a chuckle from Xaldin. The two of them continued to chat and catch up.

The next member to arrive was Luxord. He stepped out of his Portal to see the rather lively group of members chatting. Luxord smiled as he knew that most times the Organization members were not as animated. But, having not seen everyone in such a long time led to greater conversation. He saw Zexion's wheelchair at the base of his throne and went to ascend his throne so that he could talk to him, as Axel had not yet arrived to be in-between them. "Some troubles on the mission, my boy?" Luxord asked.

"You could say that," Zexion offered up with a dry grin.

Another Portal of Darkness appeared and Vexen stepped out of it. He was not surprised to see all of the members here as many of them had already stopped to visit him in the hospital room for their various ailments. "It is good to have a full house again," he admitted as he wandered over to his throne.

Finally, Axel appeared. No one was surprised that he was one of the last to arrive. "What, no Demyx to arrive after me today?" he called out after seeing all eyes were on him.

"No," was Saïx's succinct reply, choosing not to elaborate.

Finally The Superior appeared in his chair, which meant the meeting could begin. "Welcome, members of Organization XIII," Xemnas began, "As you can see, not all of the members are present today. Lexaeus, Demyx, Roxas, and Xion are all on mission at Olympus Coliseum. Therefore, they will not be attending today's meeting. We have a number of items on the agenda, but I would first like to begin with a quick recap of the various missions that some of you have been on since our last meeting. Number X and XI, you may begin."

Luxord and Marluxia looked at each other and Marluxia nodded, indicating that he would explain what was going on.

"Our mission at Toontopia has been mostly successful. So far, Luxord and I managed to easily locate the building in which the base was supposed to be constructed and construction has been progressing nearly unfettered. Luxord and I did have some encounters with denizens of the world, but this has not affected the construction of the base. Our return to The World That Ever Was was precipitated by an apparent heart attack that Luxord suffered, but all in all, the mission has been proceeding as well as intended."

Luxord added, "I'd like to add that I'm quite fine now, in case any of you were wondering."

"Good," The Superior replied. "How about Number II and VII?"

Axel decided to speak for the pair. "Regrettably, our mission has not proceeded as well as our friends in Toontopia. Upon our arrival to the planet, we found a much larger military presence then we had predicted. As such, we have been in contact with Lexaeus in order to determine the best course of action. However, as far as we are aware, our base has not been affected. Xiggy and I did run into some troubles with people from that world, but we managed to escape with only a few cuts and bruises and we were here to simply patch them up."

"And get something to drink," Xigbar added with a chuckle.

"If you have been in contact with Lexaeus, I imagine he will come up with a solution to the problem," Xemnas finished. "Number VI and number XII, what is your status report?"

Zexion was prepared to explain. "It is clear that isn't clear whether the base is safe and secure or not because we had to rather abruptly leave the mission to return here due to the various injuries that Larxene and I received. Our base was being constructed well (here Zexion was merely guessing, as they had not spent much time at the base), but our plans were greatly interrupted when Sora, Donald, and Goofy appeared and found us. We battled them valiantly, but sustained injuries as well as some of the heart attacks that Marluxia just detailed. However, we should both be fine and able to return to our mission relatively shortly to investigate the base. Although I'm sure I could contact Creeper to get a full report on that."

Xemnas said, "It is good that you were able to survive your encounter with the boy."

"His strength was even greater then you had described," Larxene added, "as he has been training and gaining more experience."

"That is indeed true, and he will be someone we will have to keep an eye on for various reasons," The Superior concluded. "Number IV, tell us about the Neverland operation."

"Unlike the rest of those who have not succeeded as well as possible on their missions, my mission to Neverland has been nothing short of an overwhelming success. Base construction has been excellent. I have had virtually no difficulties with any natives and I was able to create a number of spawners in anticipation for phase 2 of the master plan. However, I have been called back here to investigate the various heart attacks members of the Organization have suffered, including myself, I might add. I will further elaborate on my findings later in the meeting."

Some of the members shuffled in their seats interested to hear about Vexen's discoveries, but knew that he would explain (in probably too much detail) later.

"Very good," Xemnas replied. "It appears that the missions are, for the most part, proceeding in a way that continues to make our goal achievable. This concludes the first item on our agenda. Let us move on to the second item on the agenda. In the time that you have been absent we have had a number of arrivals to The World That Never Was. Two new types of Nobodies have appeared in the castle and it is not surprising to know that they have taken a form similar to some of our members."

Here several Organizations members shifted in their seats. There was a number of members who did not yet have a Nobody that looked similarly to their strengths. Vexen did not have one, although his adoption of Dusk suggested that the Dusks might respond more favorably to him. Lexaeus lacked a Nobody, as did Zexion, although Creeper had been serving him on his mission. Marluxia and Larxene also did not have any Nobodies. Naminé did not have one either, but no one in the Organization expected that to change.

"May I present to you Reaper and Ninja." Entering the room was Reaper and Ninja, ready to make their grand entrance. It was very clear to all that Reaper would serve Marluxia, as Reaper carried a smaller version of Graceful Dahlia. After a few lookovers, it also was not too hard to discern that Ninja would be Larxene's Nobody henchman.

"Congratulations, you finally made it to the big leagues," Xigbar said, breaking everyone's silence.

"Yes, well deserved," Luxord added.

The other members gave a round of applause as they congratulated the two neophytes for receiving their own Nobody Henchman. Both Marluxia and Larxene looked to be quite pleased, with Marluxia going so far as to grin ear-to-ear, a rare fete for him.

"Reaper will serve Marluxia and Ninja will serve Larxene. There are very few of these new Nobodies so far, but as time progresses, they will inevitably build up in number. It is clear that Kingdom Hearts has bestowed this gift upon you as a reward for your tireless efforts to the Organization. Thank you, Reaper and Ninja, you are dismissed."

The two Nobodies left, allowing the meeting to resume. "All right, onto the third item of business. Vexen, what findings have you?"

"Thank you very much, Lord Xemnas. As you undoubtedly now know, a number of members of the Organization have suffered what we have termed heart attacks, despite our obvious lack of hearts. Zexion, Larxene, Luxord, and myself have all experienced these attacks while on our missions. It has truly been a stressful experience. However, I have done my best to discern the onset of these attacks. Here's what we know: each attack has been suffered not in a physical situation, but rather in a situation where a strong emotional moment would have occurred had we been in possession of hearts. It should also be noted that these attacks have been temporary, not showing any long-term effects outside of the initial blast of pain, which is often painful enough to render the member unconscious. I will admit that I have many questions about this that I do not yet fully understand, so although I cannot offer a solution, I certainly can offer a hypothesis. As I mentioned, Larxene has suffered an attack, so after her first attack I fitted her with a particular watch designed to measure certain attributes. After a second attack happened, we looked at the results and this is what came about."

Vexen clicked a few buttons on his watch and then his watch acted as a projector, putting out a large image of the Larxene's data. The members were surprised to see the obvious two heartbeats that had existed. "As you can imagine, the attack was located right in those two spikes of a heartbeat. I have more evidence to back this up but my theory is…" (Here, he paused for dramatic effect) "…that we are actually regrowing our hearts."

Vexen's words sent the group into a frenzy as members reacted with shock. They immediately started talking to each other, attempting to ask questions and generally trying to understand the implications of Vexen's statements. Xemnas exuded a surprised face and one of concern as well. He had not expected Vexen to correctly learn the origin of these mystery attacks on his first try. However, Xemnas often underestimated Vexen and that was going to cost him in this situation.

Members fluttered about, eager to discover the implications of this and understandably, many of them had questions.

"Do you know why the hearts are growing back?" Axel asked.

"At the moment, no, I merely was able to confirm this theory only a half hour ago so I have not been able to fully explore the implications, but it is something I wish to discover."

"Why has this only affected certain members?" Luxord asked.

"I could try to show you a list of similarities between members, but at this point there are very few patterns that indicate why it's happened to the people that it has."

"But more importantly, why now instead of the last several years and why all at once?" Xemnas intoned.

"Those are excellent questions, Superior. I have yet to provide answers for you, however I am confident in my theory based on the available evidence I have here."

"Perhaps you should tell us more about your evidence so we can attempt to verify your hypothesis," Xemnas added with a look of some consternation, which Vexen noted as odd.

"Of course. The pieces of evidence that I have used to assemble this theory are-"

But Vexen was interrupted as a Portal of Darkness opened right down on the floor of Where Nothing Gathers. Stepping out of the portal was Demyx leading a broken looking Roxas in addition to Lexaeus, who was carrying Xion. The newcomers looked around, surprised to see that everyone was there at the meeting (as they were, of course, unaware of the gathering).

"It is most fortunate that you all are here, because we must speak about a great tragedy." Lexaeus began. "At the Coliseum, Xion was overtaken by darkness courtesy of Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Roxas and I managed to bring her back, but in the battle, she was injured too much and appears to have died."

This shocked the members even more than Vexen's theory, as no member of the Organization had ever perished before. It wasn't even sure if it was possible.

"This is terrible," Marluxia began.

"Indeed, and I wonder if perhaps there is anyway that Vexen could revive her, due to her status as a creation of Vexen's," Lexaeus replied. Vexen's face blanched.

"I…I don't know. I've never…I've never tried it before, but I suppose it's possible," The Chilly Academic said.

However, Demyx spoke. "There is something more that is a little more frightening. Go on Lexaeus."

The Silent Hero gently sat Xion down and withdrew the container from inside his cloak. "As she perished, this floated out of her and using a Heartcatcher, I managed to snag it."

"What is it?" Xigbar questioned.

"It appears to be a half formed heart."

And once again Where Nothing Gathers erupted into chaos.


Hey there everybody! Hope that everyone is staying safe during this difficult and uncertain time. The Organization has finally been brought back together, although who knows for how long! I'd love to see some more reviews on this story so I can get your input! Anyways, sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger, but next time we will see the fallout of Vexen's theory and Xion's death on The World That Never Was.

See ya real soon,

The Mustachioed Academic