Axel frowned as he looked into the pearly orb. So far, Sora and his friends disposed of the Guard Armor with ease. Actually, it wasn't really a Guard Armor nor a Heartless. It was merely a fragment of Sora's memory based on Sora's first visit to Traverse Town. Regardless of whether the Guard Armor was strong or not, this time the young Keybearer was not caught off guard, already heading straight for the head of this creature. While Axel was watching the battle, an Organization member entered the room, but this member was different apart from the blonde hair.
"I didn't think you would come, flame boy. Did Xenmas send you?" This member was a woman, and is the only female member of Organization XIII. She was a quick fighter, using both her kunais and power over lightning to dispose of her foes. It is hard to tell by looking at her sweet face, but if anyone got on her bad side, she would grant them personal hell.
"Yeah, he sent me, seeing as THIS boy is here," Axel said as he pointed to the monitor. By this time, Sora was speaking to someone, though it seemed as though no one was there. Then again, there seemed to be a pink girl standing there, but it might have just been an illusion. "And may I ask how he came to this place?"
"Well, Marluxy thought that we could treat the boy, make him comfortable so that we can strike a bargain."
"Right..." Axel eyed the orb again. "And comfort for him would mean going through a recreation of that homeless town and fighting a bunch of fake Heartless."
"Well," Larxene fiddled with her fingers. "Marluxy might have mentioned his friends in order to get him here, but none of us didn't think he'd go searching on his own."
Axel palmed his face. "Great. I don't know how Sora managed to get his hands on a card that lets him go to the other floors, but I am wasting time I should be spending in Twilight Town by having to look after that kid. Just...tell me where he is."
"Zexion, I just noticed Sora and Roxas have one thing in common," Axel thought. The silver hair member known as Zexion was sifting through a box of supplies mainly because he was the only one who didn't have a task in the castle so far. Other than his ability to change his appearance, he is pretty much unknown.
"And what would that be? If it's the same soap they use, I'm not surprised." Zexion pulled out a container of liquid from the box.
"...I did not notice the soap thing, and I don't want to know why you pay attention to that kind of detail." Axel rubbed his head. "And now that you ruined the setup I had, I don't think I'm going to point out my discovery."
Still, Axel pointed to a bruise on his head, which caused him to wince when Zexion applied the alcohol and bandage to the wound. When Axel first met Roxas, even when Axel opened up with a friendly conversation, he and Roxas had ended up fighting each other. During the course of battle, Axel had been able to burn and slice the boy without any difficulty, but regardless how the battle ended, Roxas's first blow to Axel had struck him in the head. Strangely, Sora had also struck that same spot on his head, maybe after the same number of minutes had passed and with the same amount of power behind it. For this battle, Axel was able to knock Sora out, though he left Sora there as he teleported to one of the basement levels.
"Okay, so even if Sora can accept that little fight as a friendly welcome, he didn't have to lie about his friends being here."
"Well, I'm sure Sora would calm down," Zexion brushed his hair back as he somewhat became shorter and his hair became lighter. When he spoke, his voice was different, somewhat younger. "If his servant friend talked some sense into him."
"I have a name you know." Axel and Zexion turned to the source of this voice, who was a silver-haired youth. At the moment, he was wearing an Organization cloak, which added to the duo's surprised looks. "It's Riku."
Standing behind the newcomer was Vexen, also wearing a black cloak. "Impressive work, isn't he?"
Marluxia paced back and forth as he glanced at a container with a white specimen in it. While Sora continued to work his way up the castle, Marluxia was cursing himself, having just remembered that he did not have the genius of Vexen. Just how was he suppose to create the artificial Dusks he promised if he didn't even know how Dusks were born...or even live? Disgruntled with the unanswered question hanging in his head, he stormed out of the room, not paying attention to Namine, who had just arrived from the previous floor.
"Hi, Mr. Marluxia." Marluxia looked at her for a brief moment, suspecting that there was a bitter tone in that sweet voice of hers. "How's your project so far?"
"It's...it's none of your damn business." Marluxia was about to walk out, but he noticed that Namine pulled up a chair and sat in front of the viewing orb, taking out a drawing pad and some pencils. Marluxia stayed a while as Namine put together a drawing of green and black, creating some sort of small incest with a top hat. The insect seemed to be stand on some sort of brown spikey mass reading a book of some sort. However, after she had etched the name of the book, Namine then colored over the title with the same red used to denote the bindings. Just as she did this, both Marluxia and Namine heard some gasps from the orb. Marluxia turned his attention, seeing a cricket complaining about the loss of his well written entries. He shot a glance at Namine again, who only smiled as she started on a new sheet.
"How interesting. You can even alter objects as well as the memories themselves?" Marluxia had just forgotten that he did not like talking to her, but the question did come up rather unexpectedly.
Namine shook her head. "Memories are only fragments that continue to linger in the heart. A heart cannot truly forget, even in the case of amnesia. You know as well as I that I can only rearrange fragments of memories to create fake memories as well as copy them to an empty doll. A book, however, is not a fragment of the heart but rather of this world."
"I see, I see," Marluxia then frowned, excluding the fact he was frowning this entire time. "And you manipulated the book!"
She shrugged. "I don't know really. However..." Namine looked at the orb when it was Larxene's turn to confront Sora. "There is something about him that makes me feel...strange."
Marluxia fumed.
