Xemnas's Point of View
When I went to check on Alexus, I heard sobbing and ran to her room as fast as I could. I found her crying in a fetal position. "Alexus?" I rushed to her side. "Are you hurt?" I was searching for any sign of injury.
"No." Her voice was hardly a whisper and sounded hoarse from crying.
"What's the matter? Are you sad that your mother couldn't be here?" It was the most logical conclusion I could come up with.
"Yes."
"I see. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No thank you, Papa."
"Alright then. I will allow you some time alone."
I started to leave, but Alexus called after me. "Papa?" I turned around and went back into the room. "It's actually not true. What I told you about being sad about Mama. At least, that's not why I was crying."
I interpreted that as her wanting to tell me why she was sad, and I kneeled at her bedside and stroked her hair to comfort her. She didn't say anything, so I prompted a response. "Would you like to tell me why you were crying? I will not make you tell me, but I will listen if you would like."
"I want to tell you, but… I did something bad today, and I'm scared to say it."
I knew that whatever she had done wouldn't be so bad that it would shock me, so I tried to reinforce that I was there to listen and not to judge her. "Whatever it was, I'm sure it wasn't all that bad. You can tell me."
Alexus took a deep breath and told me her story. "Joe, he wouldn't stop talking about that dumb Pixie Hollow. He went on and on, and I got upset. I felt like he didn't need me anymore, so I wanted to show him that I didn't need him, either, so I started talking about how amazing my new life is. I saw he was hurt and felt happy about it, so I kept going. I wanted to show him how he made me feel. It felt good at the moment, but now that it's all over, I-" A few stray tears fell from her eyes again before she continued. "I regret it. That might have been the last time I ever had the chance to talk to him, but now I lost my chance to make it meaningful because I was petty. It hurts so much." She started sobbing again.
Her situation sounded familiar, but I was more concerned with my crying daughter than thinking any more about it. I wasn't sure how to help Alexus until I remembered what she reminded me of. "You felt betrayed, so you played him at his own game. I had done that once." I hadn't meant to start any type of conversation that could potentially lead to my past, but in her frazzled state, I had said the words before I even realized what I had done.
Alexus stopped crying and wiped the tears off her face. "You- you had?"
"Yes." I closed my eyes and immediately became immersed in my memories of when I was apprenticed to Ansem the Wise. "I was an apprentice to a man who was afraid I would surpass him in my search for-" I stopped before I could say anything more and opened my eyes with a start. If I had gone too much farther, I would have begun conversations she wasn't ready for, such as my involvement with the Heartless. "That was a long time ago. Back before the incident that left me without a heart."
"What were you searching for?"
"Hm?" I pretended not to remember, hoping she would drop the subject.
"You said you were going to surpass the man who was afraid because you were searching for something."
I turned to deflection. "Ah, that. Nothing for you to concern yourself with. Let's talk more about you. Sometimes, we take certain things people do or say as a challenge, and in the end, things don't always work out in a way that is to your liking. You can't go back and change the outcome, but you can look to the future and make smarter decisions. Next time, you have a decision to make. Either avoid this scenario altogether or attempt to go about it in smarter ways. That may not have been what you wanted to hear, but it is all I can say with honesty."
"Be smarter about it… So… you don't think I was wrong?" Alexus asked me earnestly.
"No. You were well within your rights. I'm proud of you," I replied. In the back of my mind, I knew that morally, I shouldn't have encouraged it, but I wasn't a moral man. I was the Nobody of a man whose morals meant nothing when they came in the way of science, and even before that, a man who would cross any line to further his own goals. From that viewpoint, there was nothing wrong with anything Alexus had done, so I set my concerns aside as she settled down. I tucked her back into bed, my doubts still tugging at the back of my mind.