C08
LOCATION: 1st floor of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Monday, November 26th 2X60
TIME: 1720 hours
...did she do it?
She did it, right? She defeated a Heartless.
She's not sure exactly how—she had charged somewhat blindly, and the next thing she knew, the Heartless was disappearing. It must've been her. Maybe somewhere between swinging her Keyblade around, she managed to hit the Heartless? She must've gotten incredibly lucky to take down her first Heartless like that.
The first Heartless she's defeated!
Okay, she knows that in the grand scheme of things, defeating one Heartless isn't a big deal. Her mind is hyping this up into a dramatic moment, and she reminds herself of the situation.
They're in the halls, still on their way to the elevator, blocked by Heartless.
"C'mon, let's go!" Hiro beckons.
Naminé jumps into action, following him down the hall. Sora joins them as they reach the elevator. Naminé glances in his direction, noticing the other Heartless are nowhere to be found. Did he knock out the rest all at once?
The three of them hop in the elevator, and Hiro jams the button for the 10th floor. Once the elevator doors shut, the three of them collectively let out a sigh of relief.
"That was unexpected," Hiro murmurs.
"That was certainly not the plan," Naminé acknowledges.
"That was dope," Sora exclaims. "I didn't know you guys can fight! Could've saved me some pressure thinking I had to look out for you guys."
"I really can't fight," Hiro clarifies. "It was barely self-defense."
"Same," Naminé agrees. "We take basic Keyblade lessons in school, but this is my first time actually fighting Heartless."
"Then you guys are just talented? Or really lucky. Maybe both."
Talented? Naminé's doubtful. She tracked into OATS because personal preference aside, she's neither athletic nor very coordinated. Even basic Keyblade classes had been a struggle. It was clear from the start that she'd be a horrible field agent.
She has enough self-awareness to acknowledge that she is not a good Keyblade wielder. It was probably the adrenaline, and a lot of luck, that she took down that Heartless. In fact, she doesn't know if she could do that again.
The numbers on the display screen flicker through the floors as the trio approaches their destination. Naminé reminds herself of the mission: get to the security room. Get to the security room.
With a ding, the elevator doors open and they head out.
Thankfully, it seems like none of the Heartless have come up to the 10th floor. The three of them proceed through the halls on high alert and reach the security room without any encounters. Hiro starts barricading the entrance, and Naminé slides into a seat to monitor the CCTV camera screens.
"You find'em?" Sora asks, hovering next to her.
"We literally just got here. Gimme a sec."
She fiddles with the controls, trying to get a sense of how the system works. Comparing the images on the screens to the building blueprint, Naminé starts to put together a mental picture of what she's seeing through each camera. Flipping through the first floor's views, she begins to locate some of the Heartless. She also finds good angles to monitor LOD and HB's frontline defense.
"Ask Rhyme how many Heartless are in the building," Naminé commands, and Sora quickly taps on his earpiece to speak with her. Meanwhile, Naminé finds two...six...nine Heartless and counting…
"She says there should be 18," Sora reports.
"18, okay. I've found two packs totalling 12 Heartless, and minus the six we took out, that means I've found them all." Naminé sighs in relief. "You taking out those four Heartless really helped. I'm surprised you pulled it off."
"Yeah...I'm not sure how I did it either."
She glances at Sora from the corner of her eye. "What do you mean?"
He shrugs. "I don't know. It all happened super quick. Actually I heard you shout, so I turned and saw the Heartless about to attack the kid. I was rushing over to save him, and then there was this bright light. I think I saw you take care of things, so I turned around and continued fighting. It was a little easier, somehow, so I was able to take them out."
Naminé looks at Sora. Part of her thinks he's humble-bragging, but he doesn't seem like the type. Rather, he genuinely seems a bit confused by the details. Also, the white light wasn't just a figment of her imagination? Then where did it come from?
Her brain is already juggling the two packs of Heartless on CCTV camera screens, so she files that thought for later.
"Anyways, what do we do now?" Sora asks eagerly.
Naminé rolls her eyes at his enthusiasm. "We found'em all, so now we wait."
"Wait?" Sora repeats incredulously.
"Yes, wait. Believe it or not, a lot of OATS work is waiting. Now that we're done collecting information, we just wait till we have enough agents for the mission."
"I could go—"
"You told me HB's cut-off is 10. There's 12 Heartless out there."
"..."
Naminé turns away from the CCTV monitors for a moment to look Sora in the eye. "I get that you want to do more. But sometimes, the best thing you can do is wait. Like your colleague said: we don't want you to get hurt."
She's not sure what finally gets through to Sora, but he seems to understand the situation and quiets down. Naminé quickly returns her attention to the task at hand. Keeping track of the two packs of Heartless isn't too difficult, and time flies with the mind-numbing task.
Eventually, LOD reports that the Heartless on their side is finally thinning out. Which leaves Naminé with the unfortunate responsibility of explaining to Zack why she's in the 10th floor security room instead of the bunker with everyone else. He'd just told her off for acting on her own—this'll likely take the cake.
She bolts through her explanation of the plan, hoping to focus on the practical to-dos. They're still in the middle of fending off an invasion, so everyone's definitely more goal-oriented now. "Right now I'm keeping an eye out on both packs. There's 12 Heartless in total, according to someone from HB who's been keeping track, and I can guide you to their locations—"
"Naminé," Zack interrupts, and she gulps nervously. "We're sending an operator to you, and you can explain everything for him to take over."
Part of her exhales in relief that he hasn't blown his top yet. But the other part seethes at the thought of surrendering control of her mission to a rando.
"Since I'm here already, I could just—" she begins but Zack quickly shoots her down.
"Remember when we talked about having too many cooks?"
"Spoils the broth, right," she mumbles under her breath. "I'm sorry for overstepping, sir."
"Just making sure we're on the same page. Which it sounds like we aren't, since you're definitely not where you're supposed to be." Hearing the harshness in Zack's voice, Naminé braces herself. "We'll talk about this later—the operator should be there within five minutes. Sit tight."
"Yessir."
Disconnecting the line, Naminé sighs heavily. It sounds like trouble is on the way. Really, what did she expect? She went completely against what Zack had asked her to do.
"Wow, did you get in trouble with your teacher?" Sora teases with a smirk.
"No. Well, kinda, but not really." She huffs at how easily Sora riles her up. "He didn't say it was a bad plan or anything. I just overstepped."
"What do you mean?"
"Technically I'm an audit. There's a lead and other OATS operators assigned to this entire mission at Organization XIII. I'm supposed to be watching."
"Like shadowing them?" Sora asks. "Wait, so you're not actually an operator?"
"I am! I'm registered as a level three operator with the government, which means I'm allowed to work as a lead OATS operator without supervision. I'm about to graduate at the end of the school year."
"Okay, I assume that's supposed to sound impressive," Sora says dismissively. "So why're you an audit instead of officially working the mission?"
She knows it's not his intention, but Sora inadvertently reminds her of the screw up and her two-week probation. Just when she'd started to forget about it…
And no way in hell is she trudging through that now, with Sora. She shrugs nonchalantly.
"That's just how our assigned roles turned out. When our instructor told me to stay put, I should've listened to him. There's a chain of command for a reason.""
"Bullshit."
Naminé's eyes widen at his impassioned exclamation, watching as he continues with his rant. "It's not like you're a clueless new recruit calling the shots when you don't know shit. You're capable, and you came up with a great plan that helped minimize potential casualties of an unexpected attack on either side."
"But then you're saying the ends justify the means. No matter what, I still went against our instructor's direct orders," Naminé argues, realizing that she sounds exactly like Cecil. It might not feel fair, but it's gotta be right, cause Cecil's their superior.
Right?
"This is why LODers remind me of robots," Sora scoffs. "You guys are all so inflexible, like everyone's gotta follow what your dictator says down to a tee."
Seriously? He's attacking her world again? "There's laws for a reason, Sora. Someone's gotta call the shots and maintain order. If we all tried to do our own thing like HB, nothing would get done. That's why your ruling administration is a mess."
"What, I didn't mean—stop coming after our government all the time. They're doing their best to consider everyone's point-of-view!"
"And that's why you guys never accomplish anything," Naminé points out. "HB and its figurehead leader talk the talk, but I never see them walk the walk. Do they just twiddle their thumbs in meetings eight hours a day?"
"At least our administration listens to what its citizens have to say! If your dictator told you to jump off a cliff, I bet you'd do it."
"He's not a dictator—"
"—don't call him a figurehead—"
"Uh, Naminé, right? Heard you have info on Heartless in the building."
Naminé turns away from her dispute with Sora, scowl still on her face as she looks at the vaguely familiar OATS operator. Switching to professional mode, she stands up and offers her seat. He sits down and looks a little boggle-eyed by the set up.
"Okay...wow, that's a lot of screens. What're we looking at here?"
"It's CCTV cameras set up around the building. Here's the blueprint, and these cameras correspond to this location—"
"Wait, wait, I don't have the blueprint memorized or anything. Lemme jot this down…"
Naminé patiently goes through the angles of the CCTV cameras...a few times, since the OATS operator apparently gets easily overwhelmed. Finally, after he starts to get a hang of things, she leaves him to his own devices. Taking a step back, she unfortunately has to watch him lead the field agents down the wrong hall at least three times before they finally find the remaining Heartless. She could've gotten them there 20 minutes ago.
Okay, she shouldn't be so critical.
At least he got them there?
The LOD field agents quickly take care of things, and HB's wave of Heartless starts to ebb as well. Organization XIII steps in with their security to handle surveillance. Naminé checks the time and realizes they're way overdue for dinner. Understandably, the meal is postponed for another hour to give the staff time to prepare food, leaving both worlds with some time to rest and tend to their injuries.
The group in the main security room heads to the first floor to reunite with everyone else. Naminé spies Xion and the rest of WINNER, thankfully largely unscathed. Just as she's about to join her classmates, Sora latches onto her sleeve and she turns around.
"Between you and him, I'm glad you were my operator," Sora says in a low voice, glancing towards the OATS operator who'd joined them in the security room. Naminé blinks owlishly. Is that...a compliment? Or is he being sarcastic? She's not the best at reading between the lines.
"Thanks," she says, unsure if that's the appropriate response.
Sora appears a little taken aback as well, loosening his grip on her sleeve. "Just saying," he mumbles, scratching his hair and turning away to join the HB group. Naminé watches him curiously, wondering not for the first time what's going on in Sora's head. Is he always this scatterbrained?
She hears Zack call her name, and she quickly rejoins her classmates. They head towards the clinic for the field agents to get checked out and then for debrief. Naminé is curious to hear how their plan played out but reminds herself to keep quiet this time.
She allows herself a snicker when they acknowledge that guarding the building entrance had them stretched too thin.
Told you so.
LOCATION: Dining room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Tuesday, November 27th 2X60
TIME: 0830 hours
To quote Xion, Naminé kinda misses their 'nasty ass cafeteria food.'
It's hard to believe that her little break with this away mission is finally coming to an end. She hadn't expected to learn about Nobodies, kill her first Heartless, and get into arguments with some random guy from HB. But apparently life has a way of surprising you. And all in all, it's been a productive week.
Just as she finishes breakfast, Naminé hears someone call out her name. Her heart stops when she realizes it's Zack. Yesterday after everyone had left the group debrief, he'd spent 30 minutes going over OATS hierarchy and the concept of authority. The entire time, all she could think about was her delayed dinner. And she wasn't even let off scot-free—she had to write up a reflection on her behavior and her 'newfound appreciation for respecting the chain of command.'
Despite all that, some part of Naminé still wants to miraculously get on Zack's good side. After quickly dropping off her plate and wiping her mouth, she approaches him.
Zack greets her with a friendly smile. "Are you done eating?"
"Yessir. Um, have you eaten?"
"Not yet, but I'll grab something later. I wanted to talk to you about something."
Oh-kay...that doesn't sound good. There's like a few hours left on the mission and she somehow screwed up again?
"Let's head to one of their meeting rooms."
"Um, do you know how long this'll take?" Belatedly, Naminé wonders if she sounded a little arrogant. "I'm just asking 'cause I still need to pack, and I don't want to hold everyone up."
"Don't worry, that shouldn't be a problem," Zack says as he holds open the door for her.
Naminé steps in, surprised to see WINNER and Terra seated around a meeting table. Nodding politely, she takes the closest seat, which is next to Roxas. The somewhat tense atmosphere has everyone nervously glancing at each other.
What the hell is going on?
"So, let me bring everyone up to speed," Zack announces. "I know Terra's already discussed this with WINNER, but the government's decided to fund a partnership between DiZA and Organization XIII to further explore strategies against Nobodies. I'm sure we can all agree that this is a pressing issue, and Organization XIII does have some ideas that warrant further research. Since the participants of this mission have started making connections with Organization XIII, it was decided that Terra along with WINNER will stay for an extended mission to learn more concrete strategies in fighting Nobodies."
Naminé blinks, glancing at the WINNER members by her side. It's hard to read their poker faces, likely due to the presence of the two instructors in the room. The thought of an extended away mission isn't particularly appealing to Naminé, and she imagines WINNER feels similarly.
"Recently, we were informed that one of Organization XIII's side projects also shows a lot of potential repurposed for fighting Nobodies. They've offered very generous terms for including us in their research, so we've decided to partake in this project as well."
Naminé nods along to Zack's explanation, trying to figure out where she fits into the picture. All of this sounds like debrief information he could share on the gummi ship ride back. What's the point of dragging her aside to inform her now? It's just Terra and WINNER staying behind in The World That Never Was.
Unless—
"That's why, Naminé, we're also extending your stay here with Organization XIII."
What?
"I'm sorry, you mean I'm also staying behind to learn from Organization XIII's research?"
"Yes."
She waits for Zack to explain further—to say anything—but it looks like he's just waiting for her to say yes.
"Um, I can see how a field team can benefit from learning to fight Nobodies," Naminé begins carefully. "I'm not sure what I'll do if I stay behind. I'm just supposed to be an audit."
"Right. Nonetheless, Organization XIII specifically requested that you join this particular research project."
What?
"Why would they ask for me specifically? What do they expect from me? How do they even know of me?" Everything Zack says generates more questions. Can't he just lay things out and tell her what is going on?
"I think their staff can answer your questions better than I can. They should be joining us soon—"
As if on cue, someone knocks on the door and Zack invites them in. Naminé turns as vaguely familiar members of Organization XIII enter the room. Her eyes light up at recognizing Hiro.
Then narrow at the sight of Sora.
Someone needs to tell her what the hell is going on, cause not knowing is driving her crazy.
"I'm glad we're all able to meet on such last-minute notice," Hiro says with a grin. "Anyways, I just want to say that I'm excited to work with both worlds, and I really think we'll all benefit from this joint effort—"
"What in the world is going on?"
Sora's voice cuts through the room, silencing everyone else. It's a little startling to hear the edge in his voice. While part of her wants to tell him off for interrupting Hiro, she's mostly grateful that someone's speaking up and expressing her exact sentiments.
Hiro grins nervously. "Oh. Okay, I see what they meant by 'last-minute.' So they haven't told you anything?"
"I found out five minutes ago that apparently I have to stick around a little longer while everyone else gets to go home," Sora complains.
"Ah yes. I specifically asked if you could join our project," Hiro explains. His words sound oddly familiar.
"Why?"
"Before this all goes to your head, I didn't only request you." Hiro's eyes drift over towards Naminé, all but confirming that she is also part of this mysterious project. Nervously glancing towards Sora, she realizes he's already looking at her when they make eye contact. More than anything, he looks as confused as she feels.
"You asked the LODers too?" Sora exclaims.
"Don't say that," an older woman by his side reprimands.
"They have a team interested in general strategies fighting Nobodies, which means I might work with you guys occasionally. But yes, I asked Naminé too."
As if on purpose to give dramatic pause, Hiro chooses that moment to clear his throat. Naminé's anxiety levels are already through the roof. Any moment now, Hiro, just tell us what the fuck is going on.
Hiro beams at Sora and Naminé.
"Well, I have a theory that both of you can use Synergy."
A/N: This chapter felt a little anticlimactic, given all the action that happened in the last chapter. And oh, what is this? Are Naminé and Sora FINALLY starting to get along? Lmao I swear I'm making an effort to write them vibing versus constantly getting on each other's nerves.
I hope you're enjoying the story so far! If you are, I'd really appreciate if you left a review with your thoughts and/or comments you might have! I always love to hear what readers think, and even super short reviews absolutely make my day!
I hope you stay tuned for the next chapter, and in the meantime, I hope everyone is staying safe and taking care of themselves! Until next time!
