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


Vexen woke up with a slightly sore back, as he realized that sleeping on a glorified cot in his office was something that he couldn't do as easily as he had many years ago. Inspired by the previous night's conversation with Elsa, Vexen changed into his old blue vizier robes. They fit a little snugger than when he last wore them, but he still managed to squeeze in them.

He headed down the various hallways as he went to go see the other Organization members. As he made it there, he encountered Zexion in the hallway outside of the suite the other members were staying in. "Ah, Zexion, there you are."

"Good morning, Vexen. And may I say, I haven't seen you dressed so fancy since Radiant Garden," The Cloaked Schemer replied, raising an eyebrow.

Vexen chuckled. "Believe it or not, this is from my pre-Radiant Garden days. I'm surprised to see you out and about so early."

"I was off to get Larxene some coffee. I assume they have that on this planet?"

"Indeed they do. How…domestic of you," Vexen answered, curling his lips into a knowing grin.

"It's…it's something that I did when we were on mission at the Deep Jungle," Zexion replied in defense.

"Of course. Later today, we'll need to get the whole team together. We need to have an important chat."

Zexion nodded his head slowly. "Agreed. We need some sort of plan. Unless we plan on staying here." He looked over Vexen to search for any clues in his face to see how he felt about staying on Arendelle, but Vexen betrayed nothing.

"Excellent. I may be gone for most of the day, handling some errands, so I leave you in charge," The Chilly Academic explained.

"Errands or making up for lost time?" Zexion gently teased.

Vexen nodded his head. "Well, I guess we both have people we want to take care of." At the end of the hallway, Kai appeared. Vexen saw him and signaled him to come over. "My friend here is looking for some coffee. Could you point him in the right direction?"

Kai looked at Zexion with a raised eyebrow. "Two lefts and then a right," he replied, pointing Zexion down the hallway Kai just came from.

"Thank you very much," Zexion finished and then headed in that direction, leaving the former and current advisors to the Arendelle monarchy together.

"I'm off to see the queen. Do you know where I can find her?" Vexen began.

"Always so dismissive," Kai retorted. "Not even a hello."

Vexen rolled his eyes. There never was any love lost between the two men. "I'm sorry, I thought your job was to answer my questions."

"I see you've found your old uniform. I hope you don't misinterpret this statement, but I hope you and party are gone as soon as possible," Kai said with a sickeningly polite smile.

Vexen followed with a shrill chuckle. "I bet you do. However, I have no intention of staying here and replacing you, despite my confidence that I could easily do so. Your job is not in jeopardy. For better or for worse, I am removed from this planet and this lifestyle. So, you have nothing to fear. Except for your raging jealously, I suppose. Green always made sense as a color for you."

"Still quick-witted, I see. Well, I certainly hope you are right. The queen and the princess certainly do not need you to re-enter their lives just to break their hearts again," he finished. "The queen is already awake. She is eating her breakfast in the dining room. I take it you remember how to get there?"

"Oh yes." Vexen did a mocking bow to Kai and then continued on his way to find Elsa.

He soon found the Queen of Arendelle in the dining room, eating breakfast by herself. The scene was almost comical, with Elsa eating breakfast at the end of a very large table in a massive room. She was dressed in an elegant nightgown.

"Do you always eat breakfast by yourself?" Vexen began.

Recognizing the voice, Elsa chuckled. "Well, Anna isn't an early riser, so the answer is yes. I would be most pleased if you joined me, Even." He swung around the table, allowing Elsa to get a good look at him in his uniform. "Look at that. You were right!" she pleasantly teased.

"Of course I was right," he replied, puffing his chest out. He sat down at a table near him, taking some fruit from a tray and putting it on an unoccupied plate. "Although I think you should never be alone if you don't want to be."

"I spent a lot of time by myself. I'm quite used to it. You and father were gone a lot, and Anna was always bouncing around from activity to activity."

"That doesn't mean I still wasn't saddened to find you alone. And even if I couldn't be there often, I did at least task my associate with entertaining you."

A smile formed on Elsa's lips. She knew that Even was referring to the stuffed penguin he gifted to her when she was young. "Yes, Sir Jorgenbjorgen. He was always such a good listener."

"I know that I left a long time ago. But I want to try to make it up to you and Anna before I leave again. I also know that Kai isn't exactly a political mastermind. So, with your permission, I would like to show you a few things and teach you some important things about being the queen."

She smiled and nodded. "I would like that very much."

Vexen was hit by a sharp heart pang, but not severe enough for Elsa to notice. "S-splendid. I'd like to spend some time with Anna too, but if she sleeps as late as you say, that may be harder to do."

Elsa laughed. "Perhaps. But I know she'll love to visit with you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to finish getting prepared for the day. You are allowed to see me like this, but not the kingdom."

Vexen nodded knowingly. Elsa got up and started to leave. Vexen felt a strange feeling coming from Frozen Pride, despite not having summoned it. Confused (and making sure that Elsa's back was turned to him), he summoned his weapon and saw that it was glowing. He found this strange, as this almost never happened. He saw that a small reader that he installed on the shield was flashing a reading. Looking at the words, he was surprised to read that it said PRINCESS OF HEART NEARBY.

Vexen nearly forgot that he installed such a tracker many, many years ago, before Maleficent finished her plan of collecting the princesses of heart, as the Organization debated at the time whether to try to stop her or not (they eventually decided to let her go at Xemnas' urging, not knowing anything about how it fit into Xehanort's plan). He was even more confused that it was flashing now, as Vexen knew who the seven princesses of heart were, and Elsa was not one of them.

Vexen recalled researching what would happen to the princesses of heart after they had fulfilled their purpose of opening the final keyhole. He and Zexion theorized the pure lights would move on to new hosts, but they never found out if that was true. Standing there, Vexen realized the theory had just been proven true.

He dwelled on these thoughts as he watched Queen Elsa, New Princess of Heart, walk down the hallways.


Larxene wandered out of her bedroom into the lounge that connected the four bedrooms and led to the hallway outside of the suite. She was surprised to see no one was currently in the room. The fact that Axel and Demyx were not up was not a surprise, as both were known for sleeping late. But Larxene had expected to see Zexion or Vexen awake.

Larxene did not have to wonder where Zexion was for long, as he returned to the lounge shortly, ready to greet her with a cup of coffee.

"For me?" she asked.

"Of course. You know I'm not much of a coffee guy. And besides, I have to keep our Deep Jungle tradition up."

She took the cup, very grateful that Zexion remembered and motioned for him to sit down next to her on the couch, which he did. "No Vexen this morning?"

"He's already down visiting Elsa and Anna. He said he would be back later," Zexion explained.

"He really is attached to those girls, isn't he?"

"Yes. Although, when you think about it, they are the closest people to family that he has, outside of me."

Larxene nodded. "You know, the old windbag isn't that bad," she said.

That drew a smile from Zexion. "No he's not. Well, since it's just the two of us, I thought we could…maybe talk about…things and…us."

While there hadn't been a lot of time for Larxene and Zexion to sit down and talk about things since their escape from The World That Never Was, Zexion also knew Larxene had clearly been avoiding having the conversation.

"Yeah, you're right," she replied.

"Well, you know how I feel about you. And I understand that you may not feel the same way. So I don't want to pressure you into anything."

"Always such the gentleman." Zexion smiled. "It's not that I don't feel the same way, it's just that…I don't know how I feel at all. Regrowing a heart and all of the feelings that come with it are new and…well, it's a lot to take in at once."

Zexion nodded understandingly. "Of course. I'm very willing to wait as long as you need for you to figure things out."

"You have to remember, the last time I really, truly (indicating that she didn't count her flings with Axel as a relationship), was in a relationship, my boyfriend left me behind to die. So I have…a hard time trusting guys," she honestly replied. Larxene would never admit something like that to anyone else, but she felt comfortable talking to The Cloaked Scheme in this manner.

"I understand. But I want you to know that I will never abandon you. No matter what happens with the Organization. I will stay with you until the end if you want me to."

Larxene's eyes sparkled in appreciation. "That's very sweet of you to say. But, don't make promises that you can't keep. Who knows what's going to happen to us? And Vexen's off doing who knows what? Shouldn't we be trying to figure out what to do next?"

Sensing that Larxene's change of topic indicated she was finished with the conversation for the time being, Zexion chose to respond to her inquisition. "I think Vexen agrees. Perhaps we can discuss something this evening."

"That would be nice. I'd like to know if we're planning on staying here for a while, or if we're moving on to a new world," she continued.

"Agreed." The pair heard some stirring from Axel's room. "Looks like the Flurry is awake. Perhaps…you'd like to talk to him, too?" She flashed him an uncertain look. "You might be ambiguous about your future, but I think you know about whether it includes him." He rose up.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know. Somewhere out of this room preferably. I want to give you some space."

The Savage Nymph scowled at him. "I should kill you."

Zexion laughed, something he couldn't have dreamt of doing a couple months ago in the presence of Larxene. "Such a way with words!" With that, Zexion headed out the doors back into the castle.

Seconds later, Axel opened his bedroom door and entered the lounge. "Morning Larxene. Just you this morning?"

"Yep. Vexen and Zexion are both up and out. The water drip is still asleep."

"I'm actually fine with that, babe. I wanted to talk to you about something," Axel continued.

"Oh?" Larxene replied, sounding way too innocent.

"It's just that, well, it's been a long time since we've been together."

"Yes?" Larxene couldn't read Axel as well as she could Zexion, so she wasn't sure if Axel was taking this conversation towards a break-up or towards sex. She much preferred it would be the former.

"And well, a lot of things happened on our missions. Things have changed so much in the last couple months." He was thinking about Sabine in particular, although he planned on sharing that information with no one.

"Yes they have."

"And I just wonder if it's time we end our flings. I mean, you're still great, but with the news that our hearts are regrowing; that kind of changes everything, ya know?" The Flurry of Dancing Flames was working hard to let her down gently without drawing her famous rage. But her answer surprised him.

"More than you know, yes."

Axel sensed a tonal shift in her response that indicated his intention was being well received. "Actually, maybe not. I've seen some of the looks you give Zexion. And he's very friendly with you."

Larxene looked surprised that Axel perceived more than expected. "How'd you know?"

Axel chuckled. "Because you're not so complicated." Larxene's eyes flashed a warning sign that Axel quickly picked up on. "But don't take it personal! Most Nobodies aren't."

Larxene's rush of anger subsided. "Hmph. You're not as bad as I thought," she said.

Axel smiled his devious grin. "And hey, we had good times together, but…" he trailed off.

"You're right. It's…it's time we both move on. Our lives have changed so much recently. There's so much to explore now," she answered, her old confidence returning.

"Exactly! So much of the galaxy to explore! Well, I'm certainly glad we had this talk. Now, if you don't mind me, I'm going to go start a small fire to get that lazy Demyx up."

"What?"

"Oh nothing too serious. But it will be funny! I've got a roguish reputation to uphold." And with that, Axel sneakily opened Demyx's door and headed inside to cause mischief.

"That went…better than expected," Larxene mumbled to herself. "And for what to do next? My secret," she finished with a smirk.


Vexen did eventually meet up with Anna, finding her down by the Royal Stables. She was preparing Kjekk, her white horse, to go out riding. "It's good to see that Kjekk is still alive and kicking," he began.

This startled Anna and she nearly fell off of her horse. "Uncle Even! I wasn't expecting you!"

"I didn't mean to startle you. I was wondering if you would like company on your ride."

"Oh absolutely!"

Vexen went ahead and quickly prepared a horse for himself and then the two were off. Anna was more than happy to talk and talk and talk about any and everything, while Vexen was content to listen. Finally, she got to a topic that she sought Vexen's input on.

"And then there's Kristoff. Sometimes, I just can't figure that man out," she began.

"Kristoff? The ice harvester?"

"Yes, my boyfriend. We've been together for three years now and he still hasn't proposed to me!"

"Three years? That is a decently long time," Vexen commented.

"I wonder if it's me? I mean, I love Kristoff, but maybe I don't show it enough? I don't know! I'm pretty sure he still loves me, but what if he doesn't? What if he's just trying to find a time to let me go gently?" Anna frantically started to question.

Vexen chuckled. "I think you're overthinking things, Anna. I'm sure your boyfriend is crazy about you. How could he not love such a fine, beautiful young woman as yourself?"

Anna giggled. "Oh stop that."

"Knowing what I know about gentlemen, it's likely something he hasn't even thought about. Although I will speak to the boy. After all, I need to see if he's good enough for you!"

"Uncle Even!"

"It's my royal obligation," he huffed facetiously.

"I'm sure," she teased. Anna was quite pleased to have someone like Vexen to talk about her boy trouble with. In the past six years, she really didn't have an older male presence that she trusted to talk to. Kai was nice, but was fairly impersonal when it came to the personal lives of Anna and Elsa. "I appreciate your assistance. I'm still apprehensive about boyfriends. You know how my first boyfriend proposed to me on the day we met and then also tried to kill me a few days later, so yeah, not a great track record."

"Ah, you mean Prince Hans. He really was an asshole," Vexen replied. His bluntness caught Anna off guard and she started laughing uncontrollably. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just…well, you're absolutely right. He was an asshole. I just didn't expect to hear that from you!"

"You are not eight years old anymore! My language doesn't need to be as impeccable."

The horses soon arrived back at the stables and Anna and Vexen got off their horses and put them back into their pens. "I haven't done that in quite some time. It wasn't as bad as I remember," Vexen joked.

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed it." Anna then came over to Vexen and gave him a big hug. "And thank you for everything." Again, Vexen was hit with another heart pang, but he was able to conceal it from Anna. "Let's head in for some hot chocolate!" she cheerfully said.

"Sounds delightful," The Chilly Academic replied. Anna skipped ahead, leaving Vexen behind. Lost in thought about Anna, he nearly missed a familiar sensation of Frozen Pride. Even more confused than before, he summoned Frozen Pride to see a second flashing message. It read SECOND PRINCESS OF HEART NEARBY.

Vexen's eyes nearly boggled out of his head. "That's…that's impossible," he muttered to himself. "But then again, they truly are pure lights…"


Hey there everybody! I know that I normally post on Fridays, but I thought I'd move this chapter up one day to get in one last post in 2020. Well, I did not complete my goal of finishing the story this year, but I'm still pleased with being able to get eight chapters up in this unusual year. Expect to see another update in the near future, as I've been able to get a lot of writing done as of late. As always, thank you to all of you who read/review/favorite/follow this story (special thank you to the Guest reviewer for the last few chapters!). Next time, the rebel Organization members will decide how they want to proceed. Happy New Year to everyone!

See ya real soon,

The Mustachioed Academic