A/N: On with it once again. The romance of this fanfiction follows a very convoluted plot. I like to keep you guys guessing. XD.
Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I'd fire the King's fashion designer.
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XII: Do you feel
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Axel grinned. He had been doing of grinning lately. He just can't stop grinning (and from showing off his pearly, shiny, white teeth), partly because Marluxia had found someone else to direct his glares at (that unfortunate somebody being Zexion, who, strangely, glared back) than him, and partly because he had a heart. Finally.
Oh, and partly because Larxene was currently using his shoulder as something to cry on. Ugh. So cliché. But still, Axel likes her--it.
He's blaming it on the newly inducted heart he has.
He grinned again. Larxene sobbed some more.
Cute.
"Larx, stop crying already...you're the frickin' Savage Nymph!"
"I am!" She whispered fiercely. "I'm not Arlene!"
"Whoever said you were Arlene?"
"..." She sighed into his shoulder.
Axel felt the back of his neck prickle. He twisted his neck a bit just in time to see Zexion direct a scorching glare at him. Discreetly slipping an arm protectively around the blonde's heaving shoulders, he glared right back.
What was wrong with the blue-haired emo, anyway? Aside from the fact that he had miraculously shifted his curtain of hair from the left side of his face to the right, and from the fact that he was showing more emotion than he had since Axel had known him, Zexion still pretty much looked the same.
Hey, he saw Larxene first.
"Okay. You aren't going to kill me?" Sora asked worriedly, rubbing his hands together.
They had spent the good part of the early morning explaining the Organization's illustrious past to Sora, who had absolutely no recollection of Castle Oblivion. Naminé had certainly done a good job of chaining down the brunette's memories.
Gah. Speaking of brunettes...Marluxia was shooting him a look that very much said 'I'm going to kill you as soon as Larxene stops crying.'
What was it with these people?
"Depends," Axel answered hastily. "If you piss off the wrong guy, you might just end up dead."
Well, considering someone of Sora's strength, most likely, that guy would end up dead.
Sora sighed, pouting in the same way Roxas always did: in a very cute way that nobody would be able to resist it. Hell, if Axel didn't know the pout belonged to a guy who was wicked good with Keyblades, Axel would actually try to--
Okay. He's a guy. He liked Larxene. OKAY.
"Not that I'm alive anyway," Sora said morosely, shaking his head slightly to get rid of the excess water that Demyx had dumped on him earlier. Poor kid. But hey! He was soaked in his own blood; somebody had to clean him up one way or another. "Let's go through this again..."
The brunette (was it still brunette? His hair was half black now, not much unlike the rest of him) Wielder was actually good with names, Axel noticed.
"You--you're Xemnas," he paused, staring at the Superior, who was now looking more bewildered than the pyro thought possible. "Xigbar, Xaldin (who had apologized earlier for the Beast's Castle incident, never mind that he was actually the closest one who got to killing the Wielder out of the Organization), Vexen (who, by the smirk on his face, was probably considering the experiments he'd conduct on the Wielder--it wasn't everyday that you come across a half-Heartless, half-Nobody), Lexaeus, and Zexion."
At Zexion's name Axel hoped the blue-haired number Six would take a break from sending death glares over his way, but no dice.
"You guys are Ansem the Wise's (Xemnas' cough would have been much, much more convincing if Xigbar, Xaldin and Lexaeus hadn't coughed at the same time) helpers, right?" Sora asked.
Xaldin exchanged glances with Vexen. "We'd prefer apprentices, thank you."
Sora shrugged. He lost interest quickly. "Whatever. Okay. Saïx, do you know I hate you?"
Axel gritted his teeth at the sound of the Superior's little tattletale's name. He hated Saïx with a passion. The berserker grinned in the maniacal way only he could pull off. "Naturally."
"And do you know that the pointy ears are seriously cool?"
He did a double take, since when were pointy ears cool?
Saïx grinned wider. He looked positively insane. But then again, he probably was.
Sora stared at Axel. Or most probably, at the heap of blonde that was currently using his shoulder as a pillow. He quirked an eyebrow. Axel smiled. ""Axel, I've got your name memorized already... Demyx--"
Larxene suddenly shifted, bringing her folded arms down the white marble table together with her head. She whimpered loudly, making every Organization member stare at her (well, everybody who hadn't been staring at her previously).
"Demyx, Melodious Nocturne, please next time you want to give me a bath, tell me first--"
Number Nine grinned widely as he reached over and patted Larxene on the back in a very comforting way, that Axel didn't exactly like. He glared at Demyx, who was actually immune to such stares, since said glares were directed him on a minute-ly basis.
"--and no matter what anyone says, you're on hell of a fighter, stop grinning, your face will split. Luxord, Marluxia...Larxene."
Axel was too busy glaring at Marluxia, Demyx, and Zexion in one-minute shifts to notice the Wielder counting off their names.
"Uh," Sora's voice sliced through the tension. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?" Him, Marluxia and Zexion said simultaneously. Axel wanted to scream and yell. What was up with them today? WHAT?
"I'm asking Larxene," Sora pointed out with a raised eyebrow. The pyro shot a glance at Roxas, who was currently trying and failing miserably to keep his laughter in check.
"What, Wielder?" the blonde asked tiredly, propping her head up on her palms.
"Uhm," Sora hesitated. "Your hair--I thing the last time I saw it--"
"It's not my hair. It's my Other's. I'm reverting to Arlene."
"You're what?" Axel spat, wincing at the loudness of his own voice. What? He was surprised, he didn't know that Larxene was actually reverting to her Other! So that was why she was so depressed... No way in hell is he going to allow that to happen!
He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice Zexion scoot over and push him gently out of the way as he laid protective hands on Larxene's shoulders. She whimpered but didn't move.
"Get your hands off her!" Marluxia hissed, forcing Zexion's hands away. "Or I'll get them off for you!"
Axel stood there, bewildered. ZEXION?
"Cripes. I said, I think I'm turning to Arlene!" Larxene flushed before burying her face in her arms again.
She was cute when she blushed. No, she was beauti--
"I think' is way different than 'I am'," Sora's voice pointed out, but it was drowned by the bickering between Marluxia and Zexion.
Marluxia, Axel could understand; the brunette picked fights with him whenever he had the chance. But Zexion? No freakin' way.
"I told you, get your hands off her!" Marluxia hissed.
"What, does she belong to you?" Zexion hissed back.
"D'you think she belongs to you then?"
Zexion took a step forward, staring the brunette in the eye, who recoiled slightly. "Mar--"
"Okay, okay, I think she belongs to nobody," Axel cut in, eyeing the two of them. He was, honestly, pissed off. They were fighting over Larxene, who was now whimpering into the table, with nobody even trying to comfort her or something. "Marluxia, stop acting like you want her to be your girlfriend, because she obviously doesn't. Zexion, stop acting like she's already your girlfriend, because she's just not. Go back to being your normal emo self, would--"
"Then stop acting like you're her knight in shining armor," Zexion said coldly.
Axel stopped short, stunned. He choked and stammered in rapid succession before finding the ability to speak coherently. "I am NOT. N-O-T, got it memorized?"
"Thank you, Axel, but I can spell words fine on my own."
"What the hell is up with you, anyway!"
"Nothing. I'm just protecting Larxene," he said coolly, watching Axel's reaction.
He sputtered incoherently. "Protecting Larxene? From what? The Evil Pyromaniac Axel? Emo boy, come on, that's the lamest---MARLUXIA!" He hissed. Number Eleven was now smirking and sitting beside the blonde, stroking her hair softly as she whimpered more and more.
"What? You two are busy fighting, so I figured, do you even care about Larxene?"
"Shut the hell up," Zexion said angrily. "Get your hands away from her."
"I think Marluxia was the one who told you that--" Axel started.
"Shut up too."
"Zexion what is---"
"WHAT THE HELL DOES KING MICKEY HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?" a very mad Sora bellowed, cutting their argument short. He seemed to have been engaged in fairly civil conversation with Xemnas and Roxas. Hm. Finally. Sora realized he was being played.
"ANSWER ME!"
Snarling, Axel shoved Marluxia out of the way and whispered something into Larxene's ear, managing to get out a sentence before being wrestled to the floor by both the flower boy and emo kid.
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Hands were a very interesting aspect of the body. Roxas thought so. How the joints connected together so perfectly, how the fingers can do something as delicate as stroke a rose petal or something so deadly as wield a Keyblade.
Yes, his gloved hands were very interesting. That's why he's staring at them no--
"I SAID--"
"Sora." Luxord spoke up. "To summarize, it was actually because of him that this had happened in the first place."
Thank you, Luxord, for saving us from becoming Keyblade carnage.
It was Sora's fault, actually, he was the one who said he wanted to go home and tell Riku and Kairi the news. Xemnas told him that King Mickey had taken care of that, Riku and Kairi won't worry about him anymore...What lie the King had told to convince them, Roxas would dearly like to know.
Besides, Sora couldn't go home! Look at him! He's half Antiform, for crying out loud! Riku'll probably kill him on sight! Not to mention Destiny Island's Paladins! But the brunette Wielder still had probably no idea what his face looked like, and Roxas didn't want to be around him when Sora found out exactly what stabbing himself did to his physical appearance.
Little children would most probably run away the moment they saw Sora coming.
Okay.
Sora was evidently fighting the urge to break down and cry as Luxord related what Xemnas had told the Organization earlier.
Was he overreacting? Hell no, in Roxas' opinion! Sora's faith and trust in King Mickey had been shattered. The King had thought him expendable.
Roxas felt sorry for his Nobody (it was such a joy to think of Sora as his Nobody), he really did. Such a happy day for the Thirteenth Order, but such a sucky day for Sora.
"How do I know you tell the truth?" Sora asked desperately, sounding very much like he'd gritted his teeth.
"We offer no proof but what is currently happening now to you," Xemnas said simply.
Sora fell to his knees, defeated.
Roxas stared at him. In fact, the whole Organization (even Larxene--she had stopped her whimpering spell for a few minutes because of Luxord's explaining) was staring at the Wielder.
He suddenly stood up abruptly, looking determined.
"I'm gonna go home now." He stated flatly.
"No!" Roxas yelled frantically, then paused. It sounded a bit retarded if he told Sora he couldn't come home because he'd scare the townspeople away and get killed in the process. "I-I mean--"
"The King has instructed me to send you to him as soon as you are completely recovered," the Superior covered smoothly; Roxas marveled at how the Superior could do something like that. Hm. Maybe he could ask him...?
"Who gives a damn about him, anyway?" Sora breathed angrily. "Why do you care, Xemnas? He was the one who told me to kill the Organization in the first place."
Roxas felt his eyes widen; he had never heard Sora talk about King Mickey like that, at least directly (and that's saying something, he had lived in Sora's head for at least half a year, and he heard every thought that went through the brunette Wielder's head, whether he liked to or not). He was most likely very mad; likely because he had no emotion to get mad with now.
Xemnas gritted his teeth visibly. "We--"
"I don't have time for this..." Sora huffed. "Nice seeing you guys, but I have school on Monday."
He spun around on his heel, and Roxas made a grab for his wrist. Surprisingly, he didn't miss. Sky blue eyes stared into cerulean ones, and Roxas could almost hear him snarl.
"Sora! You can't!"
"Why the hell not?"
"You---uh, you need to rest! You've been stabbed twice tonight!" He thought furiously, before saying the first rational explanation to mind.
"I'm fine," Sora replied, but there was a tiny hint of hesitation in his voice. Score one for Roxas!
"No you're not, " Roxas said triumphantly. "Xemnas said the King'll take care of everything, so you don't have to worry about Riku and Kairi worrying."
"I don't care, I want to go home," he said stubbornly, studiously ignoring the drop of blood slowly making its way down the bridge of his nose.
"You need to wash up, at the very least," Vexen spoke up, making him and Sora swivel their heads towards him.
"I guess..." he gave in, no longer able to not pay attention to the thin stream of blood constantly running down the side of his face down to his chin.
"Third door on the right."
Sora shrugged and he spun around, walking out the white (now bloodstained) door, leaving a bloody handprint on it as he went.
"One of my coats are there! The one on the far left, okay?" Roxas called out after him, watching his bloodstained sneakers whip out of sight before sighing in relief. He turned his attention back to his fellow members, three of which were currently involved in a three-way duel (well, Zexion kept mostly out of the way, it was what he always did).
Placing his bet on Axel, Roxas gave twenty munny to Luxord and watched, relishing the fact that he was actually, honest-to-goodness, feeling happy.
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Naminé liked the Castle that Never Was the most in the wee hours of the morning; it was the only time of the day (or night...or everlasting night) that the Castle was absolutely quiet. No elemental spells, no kunais missing her head by inches, no curses shouted in the corridors... only the sound of her own footsteps echoing off the walls of the Materia-lit corridor.
She liked the silence. It let her think more clearly. Also, the fact that DiZ and Riku had kept her in solitary confinement since she had come into existence (or so they said) may have had some influence on her preferences. Or maybe she had just gotten so damn tired of the constant bickering.
Whatever. Her Plan was underway. All she needed was a few more weeks, and her careful planning would be a success. Hopefully, Roxas would like it.
She wondered how hope really felt like. It must be something good, judging from the amount of hoping Somebodies always did.
Yawning, she continued to trudge her way up to her and Roxas' room. She didn't exactly favor portalling tonight, because it'll sap the little energy she had left--good thing Roxas gave her five Curagas earlier, or she'd have dropped asleep at least thirty minutes ago.
"Tacks? Only the tacks are left?"
Naminé froze. She had lived (okay, existed) in this Castle long enough to recognize each and every one of Organization XIII's voices. She was absolutely sure that this--whoever it is wasn't a member. And he was ranting about mirrors right now (that mirror was the third one Saïx had broken into tiny little grains of glass--seriously, he had enough bad luck from breaking mirrors for about twenty-one years already, but since they didn't believe in bad luck, Saïx only had to replace the broken mirrors, which he hadn't done since last month).
She quietly made her way further down the corridor and pushed the bathroom (Bathroom 6A-D) door open. It creaked inward with a very eerie silence (since she herself had just oiled its hinges; actually, she had oiled all the hinges of the Castle, because she can't just stand the creaking they made. Nobodies could portal, why the heck would they need doors in the first place?) and that--whoever it was, let out a gasp.
Make that a whatever.
A Heartless thing was frozen in the motion of zipping up one of the Organization's coats. Which made both hilarious and tragic situations run through her mind as to where it got the coat from. Pure black, it was taller than her; she had never seen a Neoshadow grow as large as this. And with spiky hair. Black, pitch-dark, spiky hair. And huge yellow Heartless eye.
And it turned to face her.
Blue and yellow eyes stared at her. Half-Heartless...and it looked very much like some kind of darkness had leached onto someone very impossible. Sora.
She opened her mouth and screamed.
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"Oh. Oh. Aaaaaah!"
Roxas jerked his head up from his arms (which made a very good pillow). He had fallen asleep for who knows how long; yet the same three people were arguing with each other. So far, nobody seemed to be winning. And he placed twenty on Axel; whatever; he had placed bigger bets on his best friend, and always won.
Hm. That scream was pretty much a remnant from the dream he was having; it was of Sora and Riku coming home to Destiny Islands. Cripes, maybe he should've chosen another shard of memory... but then again, other shards won't have a certain blonde in it. He grinned, reliving the memory. Through Sora's eyes he stared at Kairi, who was really--
"Get the hell away from me!"
His eyes widened. That voice was impossibly female.
Demyx tilted his head to the side as he strung out another chord on his sitar. "Was that Naminé?"
"Naminé!" Roxas yelled, and he stood up in a second, and went through the door and out of the room in even less. He had forgotten about the pale blonde girl in the whirl of excitement concerning Sora and his heart. From her previous scream, it sounded like she was being attacked. If anything happened to her--
He cut his thoughts off as he sprinted towards her voice.
"Naminé! What is it!"
His ears perked; it was Sora's voice. She must've walked in on him in the shower. Roxas didn't exactly like the idea; although if she walked in on him being in the shower...he felt his face burn.
"How did a... a something like you get in here!" she shrieked, her voice echoing through the Castle.
"Oh shoot," he muttered as he forced himself to sprint faster. Naminé still didn't know what was going on, and knowing her, she'd probably kill Sora, thinking that he's a Heartless.
Sora muttered something unintelligible, but Roxas picked up the words 'going on about' and 'Sora'.
Roxas rounded the corner to where the bathroom Sora had gone to was, and was greeted by an earsplitting scream, courtesy of Naminé, who looked very much panicky for a Nobody.
"It TALKS! It FREAKIN' TALKS!" she yelled, summoning Dusks in a wide protective ring around her. He gulped; he had seen her summon twice as many Dusks (he cringed at the memory of her and Kairi's catfight) before; but she was a powerful summoner regardless of how many Nobodies she summoned. She was the only one who could the Twilight Thorn under control; she was scary that way.
"Kill him!" she screamed, pointing her finger at a very bewildered Sora.
"NAM!" Roxas yelled, skidding to a stop before Sora could summon his Keyblade. The brunette spun on his heels and gasped, relieved. Naminé was not, however.
"ROXAS! IT'S GOING TO KILL ME!" she yelled in fright as she ran to him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. His chest heaved, partly because he was panting heavily, and partly because she was clinging to him like super glue.
"N-N-Naminé, he's not going to--" he struggled to catch his breath. Why hadn't he portalled up here in the first place...?
"Sure as hell no," Sora said loudly, grinning most probably at the scarlet that painted his cheeks. Roxas shot him the Look, and his grin widened. Naminé whimpered, and Roxas put an arm around her shoulders, hoping that she would calm down.
"WHAT!" Okay, she wasn't about to calm down any moment soon.
"It's me. Sora. Remember?" the brunette asked gently, stepping closer to them, which resulted in Naminé burying her face in Roxas' shoulder, which then resulted in Roxas feeling a bit...woozy.
He looked up at the concerned face of his Nobody. He took a deep breath and asked, "Man, have you looked in the mirror yet?"
Sora shook his head dejectedly. "How could I? Mirror's broken in the stupid bathroom... Anyway, why should--"
"Sora? Is...is that really you?"
Naminé looked over her shoulder at Sora, and Roxas could guess that after she releases her grip on her coat there'll be holes where her fingers had poked through. For a girl of her frame she sure was strong.
"Yeah," Sora answered in his most convincing offhand voice (but Roxas knew otherwise--the brunette used that voice whenever he was in a very uncomfortable situation) as he ran a hand through his hair. He winced; it seemed he had dug his razor-sharp nails in his scalp again, thus resulting in a thin trickle of blood fom his hair.
Roxas snorted, and Sora shot him the Look.
Naminé fainted. He caught her immediately in his arms and knelt.
"Jeez. Is she going to be okay?" his Nobody asked, concern (now he was the one remembering concern) creasing his forehead (well, half of it; pitch-black skin doesn't usually show wrinkles that clearly).
Roxas nodded as he looked down at the unconscious girl, and he blew a stray hair out of her face. "She's just...in shock. I guess. I'm going to take her to our room now--"
This time, Sora snorted.
He grimaced at whatever perverted thought the brunette was thinking right now. "We share a room. SHARE!" he said defensively, shaking his head violently.
"Whatever," he replied, grinning that rapidly-becoming infernal grin of his.
"You have blood on your face again," Roxas pointed out, tired of seeing Sora's teeth flash before him all the time. "Maybe you should ask Vexen to stitch you up," he said slyly.
Sora looked disgusted. "Uh. No thanks."
"If you need any help," he sighed, picking up Naminé bridal-style (she was very light; forget her constant complaining about how she was becoming fat), "my--our (he shot Sora the Look once more) room is on the fifth floor, Right Wing. With XIII on front."
"Obviously," he rolled his blue eye (you couldn't exactly roll a Heartless-eye, could you?) and he crossed his arms.
Roxas rolled his eyes in retaliation as he portalled out, opening the Corridors to their room.
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"Finally. You have decided to talk about this in a civil manner?" Xemnas asked. Hopefully, none of his subordinates would actually die today.
Marluxia glared at Axel.
Axel glared back.
They both hissed at Zexion, who was playing with a lock of Larxene's waist-length hair.
Zexion tackled Marluxia to the ground.
Axel shrugged and joined in pummeling the both of them to a bloody pulp, summoning his chakrams.
Larxene sighed.
Xemnas sighed.
Demyx struck out another chord.
Vexen scribbled some more on the white marble tabletop.
It was not a good morning (not that they had mornings, but they liked to follow outside time) at all.
All the other members had portalled out some time earlier, muttering something about rest and relaxation (or in Lexaeus' case, lettuce, and in Luxord's case, getting Sora to play poker) and getting a heart and how the years have caught up and--
His eyelid twitched. They had just noticed that. The years have actually caught up on them. Take him for example. It had been almost seven years since Xehanort turned Heartless, and he had been stuck at the age of twenty-five ever since a few hours ago.
Thirty-two. He shivered to think what Xigbar's age was now. Xehanort had the sense not to ask Braig about it, so why would he do that?
Aside from that, nothing else had happened to them...well, not right away. He winced Marluxia delivered a particularly punishing jab with his scythe to Zexion's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Superior," Vexen said, not looking up from his hieroglyphical Sharpie writing. "We are still part Nobody; we only have but a tiny shard of heart--"
"Ah, but a of a very powerful heart--"
"--still. Probably the only difference is that we can feel now... I can still stick Demyx full of needles if I want to." The blonde Nobody laughed, a sound that very much sounded like scraping off rust with sandpaper.
Xemnas' mouth quirked in a smile; the first true smile he had ever since he turned Heartless. He gazed amusedly at the scribbling number Four was doing. "What is that?"
"All the hypotheses I will be testing on Sora."
He grimaced as his amber eyes passed over the words 'physical pain', 'drugging', 'blood', 'heart-shard', and something that he dearly wished he had read wrong.
'Key gone'.
It then hit him; the Organization couldn't live with only a shard of heart, of the Key to Kingdom Hearts, nonetheless. How would he put Backup Plan II-C into action?
Vexen made a derisive noise as he wrote an undecipherable equation. "We must find a way to return the shards to Sora..."
"I--"
He nudged his seat a bit to the left to avoid getting beheaded by a flaming chakram.
"Oof Sorry Superior!" Axel called, Recalling the fire wheel. "Won't happen--shut the hell up flower boy!"
Xemnas sighed tiredly. He turned to Vexen, who was watching the fight with interest (meaning, with a predatory gleam in his eye). "Do you have any idea why Larxene is...reverting, as she said? Is it true?"
He put down his Sharpie and laced his fingers together. "I have read enough Somebody poetry to know that the heart is a very powerful thing."
"So?"
"Two hearts call out to each other unconsciously...sappy poetry, but true."
Xemnas' brows drew together in confusion, impatience, and irritation. He wasn't the only one who was 'melodramatic' (as Demyx put it) in the Order. "The point."
"You do remember our time, yes...?"
He nodded stiffly.
"You do remember Arlene, then?"
Xemnas sighed together with Vexen. "She...that explains it." He stared at Zexion, who had completely forgone his unemotional image (what else was there to do? They actually had emotions now) in favor of teaching numbers Eight and Eleven a lesson they shall never forget.
Arlene had been a beautiful novice of Radiant Garden, and had been hotly pursued by wooers who tried to tell her that the religious life was not for her. She was firm in her decision, though. However, she had, in a way, grown forbidden affection for Ienzo, their youngest comrade. Now Ienzo, being the bachelor scientist that he stereotyped himself to be, ignored her, partly because he didn't want his image to be tainted, and partly because he didn't want Arlene to get in trouble for falling in love.
But... the laboratory staff, especially him and Ienzo's closest friends, knew that the blue-haired scientist had fallen in love with her too, no matter how he denied it.
A stupid relationship, really. She loved him, he loved her. But her vows and his ego stood in the way.
One day, the blonde novice finally worked up the courage to tell Ienzo outright that she loved him, but the boy crushed her with his reply: "I love somebody else."
Of course there was nobody else, yet Ienzo saw it as the only way out.
Arlene took her permanent vows next day, and Ienzo was crushed himself. He didn't think she would give up that easily.
But she did.
Two weeks after that Ienzo was the first to turn Heartless.
Arlene disappeared from the convent a year later. She had been taken by Heartless too.
Sad.
"Don't call me emo kid!" Zexion's voice snarled, disappearing into the shadows and choking Marluxia from behind. Number Eleven jabbed him with his scythe.
As soon as they had come together as Nobodies, Xemnas noticed right away that Ienzo, now Zexion, had changed drastically. He refused to be in the spotlight and preferred to work in the shadows.
He never smiled or showed emotion for eight years of being a Nobody. Not even a hint of remembrance. Except when Larxene was inducted into the Order.
He smiled, a slight curve of the lips. But when Larxene's eyes flashed and tried to hit him with a kunai, the smile vanished.
Vexen scribbled some more on the tabletop."You see? Zexion's reverting too, because their Others have deep connections."
Xemnas nodded thoughtfully. "What about Roxas and Naminé? They cannot revert to their existing--"
"--we'll see about that," Vexen cut in. "We'll just have to wait and see."
They fell silent.
"Hey, Xemnas?"
He jerked forward from his seat, and sighed in relief when he saw it was only Sora. "Wielder."
""You have an extra room I can catch up on sleep in?" he asked in a very uncomfortable voice, as if he didn't like admitting defeat that he needed to sleep or something.
Ah. Yes. As soon as the Wielder saw his reflection, it's sure that he'll be asking for a permanent room. He made to stand up and direct Sora to a vacant bedroom when Larxene called out in a very tired voice.
"I'll take him!"
The scuffle stopped temporarily, and a very surprised and frightened expression pasted itself onto Sora's face.
"I'll be fine, Zexion, I'm just going to show him his room," she said quietly. "Please don't kill Axel and Marluxia."
Hey! Zexion was actually surprised! For the first time since becoming a Nobody! The blue-haired Six stared at her before mumbling something that vaguely sounded like 'okay, take care'.
She quick-ran to a still very bewildered Sora's side, and grabbed his hand. "Sora. Let's go. Now."
Xemnas smiled, amused. If looks could kill, it was good that the Wielder never looked back, because he'd drop dead from the combined power of the death glares Axel, Marluxiav and Zexion were sending his way.
----------------------
Whoosh.
Larxene let go of her concentration as she led Sora through the Corridors. She didn't exactly look where they were going, she just let her feet lead the way. She was too distracted right now.
Cripes. They had to give her a shard. They had to let that idiot Zexion join the stupid Organization.
He had to crush her heart.
NOT. HERS. ARLENE'S.
There's no frickin' way that she'll let herself revert to Arlene. EVER.
"Here you are!" she said, gleeful that she had actually managed to get to the right destination.
Sora looked at her in a very suspicious way. "Uhm. Okay."
"See you around, Wielder," she waved a hand dismissively, eager to get a mirror and start cutting her hair off.
"No way," he said loudly, crossing his arms in a Roxas-like fashion. Stubborn Wielders. "I'm going home straight after my clothes dry out."
She looked at him from top to bottom. There was no way that he'll want to show his inky face to his so-called friends after he saw himself in a mirror. Speaking of mirrors...she really wanted to cut her hair.
"Not so sure about that," she smirked, and portalled out, not waiting for his reply.
A kunai slipped out into her hand and she fingered the cool metal, wondering what she'll do with all the hair she's bound to end up with. Maybe she could get Marluxia to trim her hair...if Axel and Zexion hadn't killed him already.
Shaking her head, she portalled into her room.
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A/N: Running out of time here, yes? I've got class in thirty minutes.
Bet's on whose going to get killed first? Axel, Marluxia, or Zexion? What's on next Friday's menu?
Organization XIII has their shards of heart, but what about a certain memory witch?
WILL ROXAS AND NAMINE REVERT TO SORA AND KAIRI? Impossible? Possible? How?
Questions. So many questions.
Thank you to Maux( Nomura just had to leave so many questions to be answered in KHIII...), Skitty 2004(Now you know why Zexion has been staring at Larxene -cough--cough-), darkdude71(Actually, Sora's not even alive, he's just existing now, like any other Nobody), twilighttries (Thank you SO much...XD The story all started with one sketch I made..haha), hikari-aozora(it'll all get fixed in the end...one way or another, tragic or not...T-T), Teh Pwnful Kiwi (the blondie's Plan is underway...you'll have to wait to see what it is), Ellie0223 (The Order can feel, Sora can't, Namine? You'll see) Namine's Heart(ah..sorry, but I'm a very very lazy person...Evil!) Sakura Scout (I wrote the author's note with you in mind).
So anyway, most of you say this story should be way more popular than Trinity. Then why does this one have so few reviews, huh? I'm getting sad here...
Review. Please?
Flame? Go ahead.
Next chapter's quote:
"I can't love."
It's pretty obvious with a capital O. Haha.
Ja ne!
