Missions
"Blackfoot Creek...Montana?" Axel, number eight of Organization XIII, read the name of his mission site aloud, casting Saix, number seven, a questioning look.
"The Dusks reported this new world a few days ago," He replied with his dull, lifeless voice. "I'm sending you there with Demyx to conduct recon."
As his name was spoken, Demyx, number nine of the Organization, strolled into the Grey Area, a sitting room of sorts, stretching.
"Morning," He said in a high, cheery voice.
"Here." Saix did not greet him back as he handed him a mission brief similar to Axel's.
"Huh," Demyx mumbled. "Where's this?"
"Apparently it's a new world," Axel replied in place of Saix, who was writing something down. "But uh, Saix?"
"Hmm?" He lifted his golden eyes, uninterested, as Axel held up his mission brief.
"Did you not see just how big this Montana is? Six-hundred and thirty miles across, two-hundred and fifty-five miles lengthwise? How in God's name are we supposed to conduct recon there in one day?"
"And did you not see the name of the town within Montana you're supposed to survey?" Saix replied, exasperated. "Of course we don't expect you to scrutinize the whole area."
"How big is the town?" Demyx asked, looking down at his mission brief. "Oh! Not so bad! Not even a fraction the size of the area it's in."
Axel looked back down at his paper.
Blackfoot Creek, Montana. Population 3,243. Established 1895. Reports say the area is mostly surrounded by forests, and a large river runs just outside town limits. Gather information on the people, history, and wildlife in the town and surrounding area.
He heaved a deep breath, and folded the paper to put in his pocket. "Alright, Demyx. Let's get going."
After Axel and Demyx set off for their mission, Saix instructed the others on their own missions before going about his daily sweep of the castle, making sure everything was operating as it should be. "Dusk," He called to one of the Organization's subordinates, a grey, humanoid creature with no facial features, and it floated over to him. "I need you to sweep over there." The Dusk nodded, and swam through the air to the broom closet. Saix continued on.
Wherever there was an area that needed cleaned, he instructed a Dusk to do so. If something needed fixed, he instructed a Dusk to fix it. This was his day. Every day.
In the morning, he spent about two hours, from eight to ten, corralling the rest of the Organization's members for their missions. From ten to noon, he went around the castle, making sure everything was in working order. At noon, he ate-very quickly-and then had his daily meeting with Xemnas, the Organization's leader, until about one-thirty. At two, he went back to the Grey Area to meet with the other members as they began returning from their missions to get their reports. He did this until around five, when the last straggler returned. At five-thirty, everyone sat down for dinner. At six-thirty, Saix began preparing mission briefs for the next day, which took him into the late night hours. At around eleven, he switched from that to filing away the reports from that day into his computer and sifted through the ones that corresponded with each other to get more detailed descriptions of each world, the number of Heartless, and the number of humans in that world. Then finally at about two-thirty in the morning, Saix finally went to bed. He was up at seven.
Saix was Organization XIII's second-in-command. This was why he was given the tasks of assigning missions and setting heart quotas. But that also meant he wasn't allowed to leave the castle, except under direct orders from Xemnas.
Before Luxord, Organization XIII's number ten, joined, Saix also went on missions. That, on top of all his other duties, burned him out. Where he got about five hours of sleep a night now, he only got about two then. About a month before Luxord joined their ranks, Saix snapped and turned on Xaldin after he made some smart remark, and it took Xemnas himself having to break the fight up. It was then that he gave the order that Saix was to no longer go out on missions.
Of course, it wasn't like Saix wasn't grateful he got three extra hours of sleep a night, but he envied the other members who got to go out of the castle every day. Spending day after day after day in the same place makes one just a little stir crazy.
Though...sometimes he would sneak out after hours, go to a bar or a club. But not because he wanted a drink.
As he continued his sweep of the castle, he sensed a presence. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw Xemnas standing at the top of the stairs leading back to the Grey Area.
"There you are," He said in his low baritone.
"Lord Xemnas," Saix couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. It wasn't often that Xemnas went anywhere in the castle but his room, office, the Round Room, or the dining room. "Were you looking for me?"
"Yes," Xemnas descended the stairs and approached Saix, his posture casual, but commanding. "Did you send any of our operatives to the new world?"
"Yes, sir. I sent Axel and Demyx."
"Good." Then, Xemnas turned to walk away. Kind of stupid to track him down just to ask one question, Saix thought, but he called after him.
"Sir?"
"Hm?" Xemnas stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"Why did you send our agents to this world? According to the Dusks, there's no Heartless there. It's useless to us."
Now Xemnas fully turned back to Saix, smiling rather cryptically.
"I didn't disclose this information, but I suppose no harm will be done if I tell you. The Dusks also reported that there is an intriguing creature in that world. It is not a form of Heartless, nor is it a form of Nobody. I wanted to search the world to find this creature." Saix frowned.
"A new creature? Like what?"
"I do not know. All the Dusks could say was that it was small, and fast. Unbelievably so."
"If that's all we know about the creature, it would be difficult to find, wouldn't it?"
"It could be. I wasn't thinking that the creature could be found today, though. I was thinking that maybe the others could find out more about it, gather intel on it, so that one day perhaps we could find it."
"I see."
"For now, keep giving missions to this world as recon. If and when the others begin collecting data on this new creature, I will authorize you to disclose more information."
"Yes, sir."
With that, Xemnas turned on his heel and walking away, leaving Saix by himself, minus the wriggling Dusk here and there. Did that count as his daily meeting?
Five o'clock finally rolled around, and Saix was waiting most impatiently for the last two members to return. They were the first to be sent out that day-Axel and Demyx. As he stood, arms crossed and foot tapping, a dark corridor swirled open.
"Man," Demyx moaned as he stepped into the Grey Area, raising his arms high above his head in a stretch.
"I feel that," Axel replied, cricking his neck.
Saix waved his arm with a fast, jerking motion, irritated, and the dark corridor dissipated.
"I sent you two out seven hours ago. What took you so long?"
"Hey, that world is a big place," Axel said. "If you want a detailed report, we have to be thorough."
"We actually got lost a couple times, too," Demyx added. "There weren't any landmarks near the corridor, and everywhere in that forest looks the same."
"So what did you find?"
"It's a quaint little town," Axel replied. "They were in the middle of a harvest festival."
"Really picturesque. The river that runs near there is called the Blackfoot River. I think it was named after...natives, did they say?" Demyx looked over to Axel, who nodded.
"I'm not sure who the natives are or what they look like, but I'm guessing they're different than the people who live there now." Saix stared for a while at the two.
"Anything useful?" He asked flatly. Demyx stuck his tongue out as Axel said,
"Actually, there was manor in the middle of the forest. It was weird. That area is not somewhere I'd put a house...at least, not a house like that."
"Was it abandoned?"
"Not as far as I could tell. It was in good shape, and there was a car in the driveway."
"And is that all the information you got?"
"In a nut shell. My written report will be more detailed."
Saix nodded as Demyx began for the hall.
"Let's eat! I'm starved."
Later, when Saix finally got to his room, he shrugged off his standard issue Organization coat, peeled the gloves from his hands, and kicked off his boots as he trudged to the bathroom. As he switched on the lights, he reached over with his other hand and opened the medicine cabinet to pull out a bottle of Aleve.
Every night, after running on five hours of sleep, dealing with absolute idiots all day, and sitting in front of a bright computer monitor in a dim room, he got a headache, and every night, he had to pop some pills. As he swallowed three Aleve, he twisted the handle of the sink and looked in the mirror.
To many, Saix was a beautiful man-tall, five foot eleven, and muscular, his build close to that of a swimmer. His features were arranged attractively; a curved jawline, thin almond shaped eyes the color of gold, straight nose, downward turned lips, and his skin was light, a peach cream color. He would've been even more handsome if he expressed even an ounce of emotion on his face...at least, one that wasn't a glare or a frown, one of the only two expressions he ever wore.
His vivid blue hair was long and frayed, coming to his midback, with two sections hanging over his shoulders and shorter parts spiked on the top of his head. He wore two simple studded earrings in each pointed ear.
But perhaps the thing that stood out most about Saix's appearance was the large, X-shaped scar on his forehead, stretching up a couple inches above his perfect eyebrows and extending down next to each nostril, its apex right between his eyes. He hated a lot about his appearance, but the scar was the thing he hated the most. It was a constant reminder of his weakness, of being forced to submit to a monster of a person. No one wanted to be in the Organization, but out of everyone, Saix didn't want to be in it the most. And he was the only one who couldn't betray it.
He turned his eyes away from his reflection and yanked his toothbrush out of its holder.
About a month passed since the first reconnaissance mission to Blackfoot Creek. Saix sent each member there, and after the fourth mission, a team consisting of Lexaeus and Zexion, numbers five and six respectively, reported of a little girl, no older than ten, that was wandering around the forest.
They had said that she was dressed not at all like a hiker, but instead wore a vibrant purple dress, had long, pale blonde hair that she let hang freely, and even more strangely, had heeled shoes on. It was observed that she had no difficulty navigating the terrain; in fact, she leapt onto the trees, swung off their branches, and climbed them simply by digging her fingers into their bark. They also confirmed the initial observation made by the Dusks-she moved so fast her body blurred.
The girl had been spotted several more times since then, each time dressed like she belonged on a runway rather than a forest, and always doing something that broke the laws of physics.
After the eighth sighting, Xemnas made the order for Saix to hand down-capture the child.
He received the order about five minutes to midnight from a Dusk, and sighed, opening a file on his computer to rewrite Axel and Demyx's mission for the next day. "Great," he grumbled. "I'm not going to get to bed until three now."
As he worked, he wondered; if the child was so fast that her body became nothing more than a blur, how could Axel and Demyx catch her? He wondered idly if he would need to deploy more than just two members to Blackfoot Creek, but quickly scrapped that idea in favor of not having to edit more members' missions. As the glow of his computer screen lit up his face, time ticked on.
The next morning, after getting exactly three hours, thirty-two minutes, and twelve seconds of sleep, Saix stood in the Grey Area, already irritated. His eyelids felt heavier than they normally did, and he had a mild headache. Xaldin, Zexion, and Larxene had already gotten their missions for the day and had left, so that meant he had seven more people to herd out before he could even sit down.
From the bedrooms meandered Axel and Demyx, who were leisurely talking about something or another, taking their sweet time to get to Saix. His eyebrow twitched with impatience.
Finally, finally, they got to him, and when Axel looked at him, he was met with a harsh glare.
"Jeez. Awfully early to be in such a bad mood, don't you think?"
"We do not have moods to be ruined," Saix replied, though his voice was quite sour. Demyx snorted a little, earning him a glare as well.
"Where we goin' today?" Axel asked, capturing Saix's attention again. He handed them both their mission briefs.
"Blackfoot Creek. You are to find and capture the girl who has been spotted there recently."
"Okay, but like...what if she isn't there?" Demyx asked.
"Then you will go back. As many times as it takes. So maybe don't slack off."
The two rolled their eyes as he opened a corridor, and as they left, he heard Axel say, "Pretty sure kidnapping is illegal most places, but okay."
Shortly after Saix ate a sandwich for lunch, he was heading for the Round Room for his meeting with Xemnas when the man himself called out to him.
"Did you pass on my orders?" Saix turned to face him.
"Yes, sir. I sent Axel and Demyx to capture the child,"
"Good."
"What do you hope to accomplish? I don't see how a child could be useful to us."
"Perhaps she could be. We'll need to put her through tests."
Saix didn't answer that. Even though he was unfeeling, he had an issue with subjected a child to experimentation.
"Oh man!" Suddenly the high, frantic voice of Demyx sounded from down the hall. As Xemnas turned to face him, a deep frown formed on Saix's face. The younger Nobody ran up to them, keyed up and freaked out.
"Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man!" He cried as he approached.
"Demyx, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Blackfoot Creek on your mission." Saix chastised.
"I was! We caught the kid! But...oh man," Xemnas's eyes narrowed as Demyx fluttered about, flipping his hands like he didn't know what to do with them.
"Spit it out, you idiot!" Saix growled.
"She wasn't alone! There was another girl like her, and she looked mad, guys, like real mad! It took both me and Axel having to hold this kid so we could get her here and now she's breaking every cell in the dungeon!"
"That is impossible," Xemnas replied, his voice even.
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Demyx rushed out. "Look, just...come to the dungeon, okay? We gotta do something, or else that kid will destroy the entire castle!" As Xemnas and Saix exchanged glances, Demyx whirled around. "I gotta get back! Axel can't handle her by himself!" As he took off, Saix sighed.
"Sir?"
Xemnas stared after Demyx for a moment, his expression stoic.
"Go to Blackfoot Creek." He said finally, making Saix start.
"Me?"
"You are stronger than Axel and Demyx combined. If there is another like the child, you should have no problem with her. I will go to the dungeon." Saix inhaled deeply.
How long had it been since he'd gone on any sort of mission? Two, three years? To be honest, he was about to break into a dead sprint to get to the Grey Area so he could just go. But he retained his composure and lowered his head obediently.
"Yes, sir."
...