Inverted Sky: KH 358/2 Days
Chapter 1: The World That Never Was part I
-Day 1-
Nothingness.
No up, no down.
Only darkness.
What is this place?
Is it even a place?
Or a figment of imagination?
Whose imagination?
Mine?
Me?
Self?
What does that mean?
Alive...I am...alive.
But what is 'alive'?
Wait...a voice?
Whose?
A brightness ahead.
Is this 'light'?
Slowly, a pair of blue eyes opened. They squinted in the bright light shining down over them. But as the eyes adjusted, a hooded figure moved into view. Cutting off some of the light, they seemed to gaze down into these blue eyes with an examining stare. 'I can...see...' a thought came to mind, eye lids closing over the eyes slowly before reopening.
'I?...me?' the musings continued as the eyes slowly shifted around, looking for anything else in this space.
The area seemed to be a pure white room with a series of tables on either side. All of which held strange devices and containers atop of them, yet none could be identified by the eyes gazing at them. While these eyes moved from side to side, there seemed to be something more to them. Past the eyes, there was a nose, a mouth, a chest, legs, arms...a whole body. 'Is this...me?' the thoughts questioned, all as the eyes took in the black coat covering this form they seemed to be in control of.
The garments were similar to what the hooded individual was wearing, yet it was obvious that the new life was smaller than them. All the while, the person seemed to continue gazing into the blue eyes, before suddenly removing the hood. This revealed Vexen, as he gained a wide smile of pride and excitement. "Excellent, it seems to have worked perfectly! As expected of myself." he declared in a gloating manner.
Shifting, ever so slight movements from the rest of the body, the eyes looked to their raising gloved hand. 'I can...move.' they spoke inwardly while slowly flexing their fingers.
'Who am I-' the thoughts began, yet there was a sudden and sharp pain in their mind, almost like the question was forbidden.
Letting out a shaky breath, the eyes refocused on their hand as it lowered back down. 'What am I?' they asked, their gaze shifting toward Vexen.
Said man watching all this with a nod, before he then moved beyond the eye's sight. Him coming up to the computer located a few meters from the head of the chair, of which this new being was laying upon. But as he began looking over the screen, said individual still laying on the horizontal seat began looking around once more. Their eyes narrowing slowly as if searching for a means to see their reflection. When nothing seemed visible, they simply gazed back up toward the bright ceiling above.
'What am I?' the repeated thoughtfully; 'I am...a girl? A boy?'
'Gender...yes...I am...a girl.' they answered after a few moments, actually nodding their head in response.
'I am a girl.' she echoed once more, almost seeming more confident in her own thoughts.
Following this declaration, the girl slowly began to move a bit more in the chair, testing her body. Then, in an almost rapid manner, she sat herself up with far greater ease than the girl was expecting. Once she was upright, she began looking around from this new perspective. Which allowed her to notice Vexen once more, whom was still typing on the keyboard of his computer. Yet while the girl didn't understand what it was, she could tell that the depiction of a feminine shape on the screen meant that he was analyzing her.
Something that made her feel something strange, and despite it being the first time she's felt it, she knew it was nervousness. A sense of anxiety for whether there was something wrong with her. But as she watched the green lights appear on the screen, she was then filled with another emotion that she knew to be relief. How did she know what these feelings were, even though she never felt them before? Did she perhaps have amnesia? Why did she know what 'amnesia' was? So much she didn't know, but perhaps this man did.
During all these thoughts, Vexen himself finally turned to face her. Seeing that she was already sitting up in the chair, led for the man to take on a prideful smile. Even while it was her first time meeting this person, the girl could already somehow tell that his smile wasn't directed at her. "Ah~, you're sitting upright already. Excellent!" he declared, still in pride toward himself.
"I am Vexen, your creator." the man introduced with a gesture toward himself.
"Vex..en..." she spoke out silently, the girl's own voice seeming almost foreign to her.
"Speaking as well, all the more impressive." Vexen chuckled out while smiling even wider.
"But yes, I am Vexen...and from this point on, you-." he continued, yet immediately paused and blinked at the girl.
Vexen seemed to go silent for a few moments, simply looking his creation over for a moment with a raised brow. The platinum-blond-haired man's expression appeared as though he found something odd about the girl. Breaking his silence, Vexen stepped closer to the girl and swiftly removed her hood, something she hadn't even realized she had on. Immediately following this, the light in the room felt almost blinding for a moment to the girl. Yet her blue eyes once again adjusted to the brightness, to which she gaze back to the man in front of her.
The man himself was just staring at her in what seemed to be shock, before it slowly shifted into a thoughtful gaze. "I suppose it was inevitable you would take on 'her' appearance. You were formed from the data we received from her after all." he muttered silently, obviously to himself.
"Still though...to have 'this' close of a resemblance, it's quite strange." Vexen continued curiously, tapping his chin a few times.
The girl had long black hair, which had all too familiar spiky elements to it. This, along with her blue eyes, gave the girl a nearly mirroring appearance to that of Sora. As she slowly looked down to herself once more, she lifted a gloved hand up toward her face. 'I have 'her'...appearance? Whose?' she wondered inwardly, to which a sudden image of Sora flashed through her mind.
This making the girl wince, as the same pain from before pierced into her head. The pain caused her to tense up, lurch forward slightly and clutch the right side of her face. "So...ra..." she whispered in a shaky manner.
Vexen's eyes narrowed slowly from hearing this, yet he quickly took a step backward just in case. Him soon seeing what looked to be a black liquid beginning to pour from the girl's hand, it seeping between her fingers. But as it hit the floor, the dark substance just seemed to disappear in an instant. Acting quickly, Vexen reached over to a table for a container, hoping to catch whatever this darkness could be. The moment he turned back to the girl however, she moved her hand away and the liquid no longer seemed to be flowing.
Despite letting out a huff, the man returned the container to the nearby table and turned his gaze back to the girl. Upon doing so, Vexen's eyes blinked many times and slowly widened as he saw that the girl's right eye was now a golden color. The platinum blond-haired man then narrowed his gaze, either knowing what this meant, or at least having a theory or two. Yet he simply cleared his throat, distracting both the girl as well as himself. "It seems there might be a few surprises, despite the success." he said quickly, shrugging his shoulders briefly.
"Regardless...you are to be designated as; 'Xion'. And your mission is to help collect hearts from the Heartless." Vexen stated firmly, regaining his full composure.
"For now that is." he added in a near whisper so that 'Xion' could barely hear.
The man then moved a bit closer and held out a hand to the girl; "Now then, lets make sure you can at least stand properly. Your motor skills should be the same as 'hers' from the point of when the Superior fought with her, so you should be able to manage that." he declared, seeming to have more of an expectation, than hope.
Xion gazed to the man for a moment before reaching out and taking his offered hand. With Vexen's help, she stood to her feet, making the girl feel oddly more steady. Her taking a few steps forward, not finding any difficulty in doing so, despite it being her first time walking. 'It's like I've known all of this from the very beginning.' she thought, blinking many times as even her thoughts were coming in clearer and faster.
"Perfect. Now then...summon your Keyblade." Vexen said, his tone making it sound more like and order, than a request.
The raven-haired girl looked to him from over her shoulder, before down at her gloved hand. "Keyblade..." she whispered aloud, her voice coming out more naturally as she held this hand out.
While Xion didn't know what a Keyblade was, her mind was filled with images of a golden bladed weapon. But she soon grimaced slightly, feeling as if she was trying to take something that wasn't hers. Which lead for the girl to focus on her hand, a few sparks of white gathering around it. Seeing this, Vexen took on a wide smile and nodded, his creation already exceeding all his expectations. "Yes...good, just like that." he whispered silently.
"Focus your mind on the power inside of you, allow it to take shape in your mind and call it forth to your hand." Vexen explained further in a whisper.
Upon his words, Xion moved her hand outward and created a flash of white through the air. Once it disbursed, it revealed a Keyblade, but nothing like what Sora herself wielded. Its handle looked like a pair of angel wings connected together, while two thin blades extended up to the five pointed teeth of the key. Its key chain token meanwhile, looked to be five pink and yellow shells connected together.
"Oathkeeper." Vexen uttered out silently as his eyes simply stared at the weapon.
"Interesting that you would summon the Keyblade opposite to Roxas' Oblivion." the platinum-blond-haired man muttered to himself, something that made Xion simply tilt her head curiously.
'Roxas...somehow, I feel like I know that name. But why? Why do I know so much, yet not anything about me?' the girl questioned, almost irritated about her lack of understanding of the things she wanted to know.
"Now then...lay back down. I still need to run a few diagnostics to make sure you can indeed join us as soon as scheduled." he continued, turning to the computer once more while gesturing for her to sit in the chair.
"Us?" Xion whispered out with a blinking gaze.
"Indeed...you will be joining Organization XIII as its fourteenth member!" the man declared, sounding prideful of this statement.
The black-haired girl however, just stared at him blankly for a moment before placing a hand to her hip. "That sounds kinda contradictory, don't you think? Plus, isn't it a bit lame to be the 'fourteenth' member, in a group literally called Organization XIII?" she commented in a huff, yet soon blinked many times in surprise to her sudden outburst of words.
Immediately following this, Vexen turned to her with a shocked expression. While he had not yet met Sora, this certainly sounded like something the teen would say from what he's heard. After a few moments, the man turned his gaze back to the screen and began looking through a vast amount of text and formulas. "Did some of her personality sneak through somehow?" he said to himself in a deeply thoughtful manner.
Yet Xion just blinked a few times while sitting down on the chair once more, placing the Oathkeeper Keyblade to the side. The girl simply frozen in place for a few long moments, before gently resting a few gloved fingers over her mouth. A very confused expression arose upon her features, as she eventually laid herself down. 'I feel so odd for saying that. It was like I was just speaking everything that came to mind. Yet I don't even know where those thoughts would have come from.' she started inwardly, taking in and letting out a deep breath.
'I mean...I was just 'created', right? So where could they have originated?' Xion continued, placing both hands behind her head and crossing her legs in a familiar way.
'I suppose I'll have to figure things out as I go. But one thing is for sure...I need to figure out exactly who I am.' she continued, the sound of Vexen's tapping on the keyboard slowly seeming to lull her to sleep.
'I wonder if I'll always be so 'snarky'.' were her last thoughts before her consciousness drifted off.
At the same time, Vexen just shook his head slowly and let out a breath. "There is no reason for why Sora's mannerisms would have come through, at least not from my end." he spoke after a few long moments, giving a glance toward the sleeping girl.
"Which means...something must have happened during the Superior's fight with her. Something he hasn't told us about." he whispered, briefly looking around to make sure he was indeed alone.
"I suppose I'll have to wait for when we bring Sora to the castle. Then I might be able to find a few answers." Vexen added before turning back to the computer, and his work.
And there you have it. I didn't change too much for this chapter, save for a few things. But I decided I wanted to have a bit more of a 'self discovery' scene than before. I wanted it to seem realistic for an individual whom was just 'born', but with much of the knowledge that comes with already being grown. I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, and will let me know what you thought. Until next time.