Origin

Eventually, Saix gave in and let Izzie bake a cupcake for him in honor of his birthday. He had wondered how she could cook, given that her taste buds were deadened-to anything but blood-but it was actually really good. Probably the best thing he'd ever eaten. And he was actually a pretty good cook himself. He just never did it because he never had time, and everyone else knew he was a good cook too, so they'd take advantage, especially Axel. Izzie laughed when she saw the look Saix got on his face when he took the first bite of the cupcake.

"Don't laugh at me," He mumbled, his voice muffled by the food.

"You look so shocked," She giggled. "What, did you think it'd be bad?"

Saix hurried to swallow so he could answer. "I didn't think it'd be bad…I just…How can you bake so well if you don't eat human food?"

Izzie shrugged. "I followed a recipe." He raised his eyebrows.

"That's it?"

"Yep. Though, I was a good cook when I was human, and I'm Italian, so,"

"What does being Italian have to do with anything?"

"We're known for being good cooks!" She said this almost as if she was offended Saix didn't know that little tidbit. He smiled a bit, taking another bite.

The rest of January and the whole of February took place with little incident. Minus the daily antics of the Organization's key air heads-and Xemnas's growing irritation with Iris- everything was running smoothly. Business as usual. However, Saix had to tell Iris to leave Xemnas alone. On several occasions.

"Iris, how many times do I have to tell you to stop bothering Xemnas?" He asked this in exasperation as he leaned over the back of the couch, looking down at the little girl. She nonchalantly flipped a page in her book.

"Maybe ten or so more times will do the trick."

"Iris!" He yanked the book from her hands, and she sighed, turning to look at him. "Xemnas is my boss. I work directly under him. How do you think it looks when you harass him day in and day out?"

"Sooo…what? Does he want you to reign me in? You're not my dad. You don't have any responsibility for me," She pulled herself to her knees and settled back on her heels, raising her light eyebrows. "Or does he think you do because Izzie is my mom and you're her boyfriend?"

Saix's face lit up at that term, his fingers clenching tightly against the stiff fabric of the couch. "I-I am not…her boyfriend," He grumbled. Iris smiled.

"Sure you are."

"Would you just-!" Saix caught himself before he raised his voice too loudly. He didn't need Dumb and Dumber (Xigbar and Demyx) across the room to hear him. He leaned forward, lowering his voice so it was little more than a hum. "Listen to me, will you? If you don't cut it out while I'm telling you, Xemnas will step in and you know he has more power than any of the rest of us."

"Any of the rest of you, sure. But here, I'll tell you what. If he tells me to stop, I might think about it."

"Iris-Iris!"

She ignored him, hopping over the back of the couch and skipping lightly away. Saix leaned his head back on his shoulders, sighing deeply.

…

Over the next several days, Iris made it her life goal to annoy Xemnas. From rearranging everything in his office, even moving documents within each filing cabinet, to sticking an air horn under his desk chair, to rigging a speaker in his bedroom that had Shrek yelling "What are you doing in my swamp?" on full blast, Iris pulled no punches. She stuck pictures of Nicolas Cage making that really stupid face everywhere; under lamp shades, taped to the underside of the toilet seats, on the face of the clock over Xemnas's desk…everywhere he could find it, he did. He didn't even know who the hell Nicolas Cage was. She somehow managed to set his computer so the monitor displayed everything upside down-he had to have Zexion fix it for him. She rigged a fake rat to fly out of a cupboard at him. And somehow, she managed to replace his desk and everything on it with a child's version. Tiny little pink and yellow desk with matching stool, pink phone, cheap red plastic laptop that didn't work…

"I'm going to get her for this," Xemnas growled after he finally managed to get everything in his office back to the way it was. Behind him, Xigbar laughed.

"You don't think it's cute?" Xemnas glared at him.

"No, I do not think it's cute!" He snapped back.

"You know, your reactions are most likely why she keeps messing with you," Xigbar moved to lounge on the couch by the door, draping his legs over one of the arms. "Which is weird. You don't normally let anything bother you. Why do you let her?" Xemnas's hands, which were busy trying to organize some papers on his desk, paused, and Xigbar smirked, crossing his arms. "Maybe on some level you do think it's cute."

Xemnas turned, no look of amusement at all on his face. Xigbar held his hands out. "Look man, all I'm saying is that if it were anyone else, you'd have stopped it a long time ago. And you gotta admit, the kid is pretty cute."

"She's an immortal child," Xemnas replied. "According to Isabella, immortal children are more beautiful than older immortals."

"Well maybe it's because she's so cute that you can't get after her." Xemnas sighed, moving to sit on his desk chair. "What are you keeping them here for, anyway?" Xigbar continued. "They're not gonna help you with your acquisition, and Izzie is making Saix turn to mush. Besides that, there aren't even any Heartless in their world. They're not all that useful to us."

"Ah, but recently the Dusks have reported a small black creature near Blackfoot Creek. It could be Pureblood Heartless." Xigbar stared at Xemnas for a moment, then recognition flashed across his face.

"Oohh…I see what you did." Xemnas had opened the door to Izzie and Iris's world, a door that was previously vacuum sealed. This allowed a pathway for any and all Heartless to enter. And the more Heartless there were, the more hearts the Organization could obtain. "But still, Izzie is insistent on not letting any of us go to Blackfoot Creek and, after what happened to Saix, I don't blame her. If he could barely hold his own against a vampire, I doubt any of the rest of us could," When Xigbar saw the look on Xemnas's face, he added, "Maybe you could."

Xemnas shook his head slightly. "The girl might change her tune when she hears the Heartless are threatening her home."

"Eh, you have a point there."

With a small, wicked smile on his face, Xemnas swiveled his chair to face his desk. He reached up to one of the cabinet doors attached to it and opened it-He jerked back when a huge, hairy, black, fake spider flew out of the cupboard at him.

"Dammit!" He snarled. Xigbar broke into hysterics.

…

It took a few more days, but eventually Xemnas handed the order down to Saix to conduct a search for Heartless in Blackfoot Creek-and specifically that Saix be the one to go. He received a brief similar to the ones he drew up for other members. He sighed. What was Xemnas playing at?

"No." Izzie shook her head fervently, her arms crossed.

"It's an order. I can't refuse it."

"Why can't Axel or Demyx go? I thought your job was to manage everyone else."

"It is. I don't know why Xemnas wants me specifically to go, but if the orders come from him, they have to be carried out exactly the way he instructed. No one can go in my place."

Izzie's pretty face looked angry as she glared up at Saix. "And I just convinced Iris to stop harassing him, too," She growled. "Fine. But I'm going with you, and if I get even the tiniest feeling that a vampire is anywhere near Blackfoot Creek, we're coming back."

Saix decided to take what he could get. "Alright."

"When is the mission?"

"Tomorrow. We'll go after everyone else leaves."

…

The next morning, while waiting for everyone to get to their own missions, Izzie was sitting by Iris, foot tapping.

"You seem irritated," Iris said as she dragged a pencil across a piece of paper. She was drawing a pair of dancing ballerinas.

"I am irritated," Izzie replied. "You know what? I take back what I said about you annoying Xemnas. Go crazy." Iris giggled, setting the pencil down and curling up at Izzie's side.

"That's the first time you've given me express permission to bother someone. Not that I'm not thrilled for the opportunity, but still."

"He's deliberately putting Saix in danger."

"Alright, Isabella. Let's get this done." Saix cut into their conversation, coming up to the back of the couch. As Izzie stood, Iris leaned back, crossing her legs.

"I wonder what I can do this time…" She mused quietly.

…

The dark corridor swirled shut, and Saix watched as Izzie lifted her chin, taking experimental whiffs of the air. She was quiet for a long while, listening for anything she didn't like, and when she turned back to face him, she looked displeased.

"Satisfied?" He asked. She huffed, crossing her arms.

"I guess."

"Alright," He looked down at the mission brief Xemnas had given him. "So where are the Big Snowy Mountains and Qanuk Waterfalls?"

"Big Snowy Mountains? Qanuk Waterfalls?" Izzie repeated, her eyebrows shooting up.

"Yes. That's where we're supposed to go."

She scoffed a bit, moving her hands to her hips. "Um, they're about three hours south of here."

"Three hours?" Saix groaned. "This is supposed to be in the same state,"

"It is. They're here, but they're halfway across the state. Montana is big, Saix."

"This mission is only supposed to last the day," He growled. "And if this place is three hours from here, it'll take six just to travel." Izzie stared blankly up at him, and he glared back. "What?"

"Did you forget? I can run us there and it'll only take like ten minutes. Hop on."

Saix tilted his head, confused, as Izzie turned her back to him. "Hop on…what?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "My back."

"Your back?"

"Yes, my back. I can't take you anywhere if you don't climb on."

"How can I climb…onto you? You're so small,"

Izzie sighed then, rolling her eyes and turning toward him, reaching her hand out and grabbing his forearm. Then, before Saix could even take a breath, she slung him across her back with little to no effort, not even acknowledging the awkward way his body had to curl against hers.

"Lock your legs and hold on tight," She said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. He did as she ordered, wrapping his long legs around her slight frame and tightening his arms around her neck so tightly they would choke a normal person.

And then she took off.

Saix had seen her run before, but they were usually extremely short distances, like from one end of the room to the other, and it had always made her body turn into nothing more than a blur. He knew that and accepted it-it was simply something that was a part of her. However, now, it was a downright terrifying part of her.

The trees and rocks and ground all zipped past them at deadly speeds. Saix couldn't feel her body move; her legs didn't seem like they were moving, nor did her hips shift with each stride she made. He couldn't hear her feet hit the ground, couldn't hear her breathing increase with effort. But she was moving.

Now, Saix was not a pansy. It took a lot of effort to rattle him even a little. Right now, he was rattled. His eyes stayed wide open, his body frozen and unwilling to so much as blink, even though the cool March air whipped them and made them burn. It felt like he was sticking his head out of an airplane window. Something unpleasant twisted in his gut, the dizzying faintness of motion sickness. Against his chest, he felt Izzie's body rumble, and he realized, she was chuckling. Had he not been paralyzed right now, he'd have said something.

And then, Izzie's body came to a complete standstill.

Saix inhaled sharply, his mind lagging, struggling to take in the drastic change in scenery as well as get his lungs to breathe and the rest of his body to function properly. A few yards away, he could hear the rushing of a waterfall.

"Gonna get down?" Izzie asked, her voice light, happy. Saix finally managed to blink, and he slowly moved his arms, trying to remember how.

When he loosened them just enough-

He let out a shocked yelp as he slid down Izzie's body, hitting the cold, slightly wet ground on his backside and having all the wind knocked out of him. Izzie turned, looking down at him incredulously for a moment before bursting into laughter, her high, ringing voice bouncing off the trees.

He stared up at her for a moment, his eyes wide, and then, his soul and personality-which seemed to have been left back in Blackfoot Creek-finally came back to him, and he narrowed his eyes. Huffing, Saix yanked himself to his feet, twisting an arm behind himself and swiping the dirt and dead leaves off his back. This seemed to be even more hilarious to Izzie, as her laughter increased, one of her hands going to her stomach as she braced her other hand on a tree.

Annoyed, Saix turned on his heel and began stalking off further into the forest.

"Where are you going?" Izzie called, humor heavy in her voice, as she streaked to stand in front of him. Ignoring her, he turned to his left and kept walking.

"I'm going to the mission site. You don't seem to care, but I have a schedule to keep."

"You're going the wrong way, dear." Saix whirled around, his hair swaying over his shoulders as he glared at her.

"Do not call me 'dear'," He warned lowly. Izzie just smiled at him, looping her arms innocently behind her back as she approached him.

"Don't be such a sour-puss. Come on, it was funny! It's not often I get to see such a look on your face,"

"Well don't get used to it!" He snapped.

She sighed, a small smile still on her face, and let him seethe for a while before she said, "You have leaves in your hair."

Saix's hand immediately flew to his hair, angrily swiping his fingers through the tangled strands and ignoring when it hurt. Izzie shook her head slightly and skipped up to him, bouncing herself on her tiptoes and shooing his hand away before using her smaller, more nimble fingers to pluck the dead foliage out. Unlike his brisk, aggressive movements, Izzie's was softer, more gentle. He couldn't even feel when her fingers touched his head.

"So," She breathed once his hair was clean. "Ready to go to the waterfall?"

Before he could answer, she wrapped her fingers around his hand, the icy-cold of her skin sinking through the leather of his glove, and pulled, leading him back toward where she had stopped running. She led him over a large rock, under some hanging moss, and around a few tall trees he didn't know the name of, and there they were.

Off on the left was the waterfall mentioned in the mission brief Xemnas had given him. It was huge, the granite cliff soaring hundreds of feet above them. The water tumbled into a wide river before them; about four hundred feet separated the land. On the other side of the river, Saix could see a few elk grazing lazily. Above his head, a large hawk circled, letting out a screech that echoed in the sky.

"So what exactly are you supposed to do?" Izzie asked as Saix slowly walked along the side of the river, his gaze directed at the ground.

"Look for any signs of Heartless," He replied. "The Dusks reported something small and black around here. We're guessing Purebloods, and if we're right, there will be some residue somewhere." Izzie frowned deeply, fiddling with the garnet pendant hanging around her neck.

"Heartless, here?" She murmured. That would be catastrophic. The other worlds the Organization frequented seemed to be closed off, with just one town or city, and extremely low populations. Here was an entirely different story. The population of Montana alone was one point sixty-nine million, way more than Twilight Town. In the US, the population reached over three hundred million. Worldwide, the population was over seven billion. The Heartless would have a field day with the sheer amount of humans, and the humans, having no way to fight them, would fall into anarchy. Governments would collapse, people would sacrifice each other just for one more day…It felt like a stone dropped to the pit of Izzie's stomach. Heartless in this world would literally mean the apocalypse.

She sat perched on a large boulder near the waterfall, her fingers continuously twirling around her necklace, as she anxiously watched Saix sweep over the area. He disappeared into the tree line, a couple hundred yards back into the forest on either side of the river, then would follow it south and back. His face was blank as he worked, carefully observing strange markings on trees, disturbances in the dirt, and other things he thought were worth scrutinizing. She hadn't realized three hours passed until Saix sighed, and turned his attention to her.

"Well?" She asked, not sure she wanted an answer.

"I don't see any traces of Heartless around here. But that doesn't mean they haven't been here or that they won't come. We'll need to observe more closely." Izzie nodded. She wasn't sure if she should feel relieved yet, but it had to be good news that Saix hadn't seen any sign of the Heartless, right? "Are you worried?" He asked her as he came to stand below where she was sitting. She gave him a look.

"This is my home. Of course I'm worried. Besides that, when you think about just how many humans there are in this world…" She didn't finish her sentence, but she shuddered, shaking her head slightly. Saix observed her quietly for a moment before looking up to the sky. The sun was just below its highest peak, indicating it was around one in the afternoon. It was positioned so its rays were shining right down on the waterfall and river-and by extension, Izzie. He looked back to her.

"Does the sun do anything to vampires?" He asked her.

She glanced at him briefly before looking up at the sun, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Not really,"

"Why do the legends say it burns you then?"

She hopped down to stand before him, then ushered him to sit with her by the river. "The original vampires came from a disease, did you know that? Thousands of years ago, when humanity was just learning to walk, there was an outbreak of a virus. As humans and vampires evolved, it was wiped from existence, but in its heyday it was quite a formidable plague, something akin to the Black Death. The original vampire was not anything like me," She looked to Saix. "Humans that became infected with the virus had around a ninety-eight percent chance of dying. The other two percent mutated, in every possible way, into a primitive, blood-thirsty monster. The originals became hunch-backed, crawled on all fours, grew long, sharp claws, and all their teeth became razor sharp. Their bodies decayed, eventually rendering them immobile, and when they lost their ability to move, they lost the ability to feed, and would starve to death. These vampires were easily killed by human weapons. This is where the legend of stakes to the heart, holy water, and sunlight originated. They were purely nocturnal creatures, their skin so brittle and thin that they became sun burned very easily. It gave their skin a blistered appearance, and if left in the sun too long, they would literally cook. If impaled with a stake, not just in the heart, but anywhere, they would die the same way a human would. And any water, not just holy water, would cause some kind of reaction with their skin, causing it to swell and burst. The reaction was so violent that they would lose arms and legs."

"That is…disgusting," Saix commented. Izzie chuckled. "But if they were so frail and ugly, how did the vampire become so strong and beautiful?"

"The survivors the originals preyed on became infected as well," Izzie replied. "But for some reason, they didn't turn. Instead, they passed it down through generations. Eventually, as humans evolved and their immune systems changed, the virus became unable to infect new hosts, and vampires died out completely. There was a period of time, probably between the sixth and seventh century BCE, where my kind did not exist in any shape or form. And then a human who found himself in a desperate situation resorted to cannibalism to survive. When the first drop of blood touched his tongue…he turned. He was a carrier of the dormant virus, which reacted violently to the makeup of human blood. He was the very first vampire we've come to know, my ancestor in a way. Because there were no other vampires to guide him, he single-handedly caused a boom of newborn vampires, resulted from him leaving his meals unfinished. Three of the vampires created in that first wave were Atticus, Decimus, and Celio, the brothers who would eventually form the Council. Somehow, they were able to maintain their rational thought, and realized humanity was sprinting to the brink of extinction because of this one vampire and his offspring. They quickly banded together and sought to fix all the damage he had caused, starting by eliminating the source of the problem."

"The very first modern vampire-"

"Was killed by his own offspring, yes," Izzie nodded. "The brothers quickly rose to power, gathering powerful vampires from all over the world to become our monarchy. And that's all she wrote." Izzie looked back up to the sun, and Saix observed her. Her skin was so white that it reflected the light like she was a beacon, but he saw that in the sun, there was just the hint of red to her lips, her cheeks. He wondered idly if that was the result of the human blood her body had yet to process.

Weird how one guy's blunder thousands of years ago brought her into existence. Weird how a selfish man's greed brought Saix into existence. Weird how everything worked out just right to bring them to each other.

Fate is quite strange.

"What time do you have to be back at the castle?" Izzie asked him after a few moments of listening to the rushing waterfall.

"Mm. Probably should go now." He replied, pulling himself to his feet. Izzie hopped up as well, smiling mischievously as she turned her back to Saix. He made a small sound in his throat. "Joy." He grumbled, hesitantly wrapping himself around her back.

"Close your eyes," She suggested. "It might help."

He took a deep breath and actually did as she advised, tucking his face into the crook of her neck and squeezing his eyes shut, trying to focus on the sweet scent that came off her skin. He couldn't tell when she took off, couldn't feel the movement of her body, just like before, but somehow his body seemed to know. His stomach twisted with motion sickness again, his throat becoming dry. He tried swallowing, but that did not help.

"Alright. Hop down."

Part of Saix wondered if she was yanking his chain. That had to have been only two minutes, at best. What, was she not running at full speed before? Slowly, hesitantly, Saix peeked up from the thick veil of Izzie's chocolate locks, and he saw the manor standing a few feet away. Surprised, he straightened up, still clinging to her back like an oversized monkey.

It took him a minute, but he loosened his legs-remembering it was a bad idea to loosen his arms first-and once his feet touched the ground, he let go of Izzie's neck. He swayed when he put all his weight on his legs, and she turned, reaching out to steady him.

"You okay?" She asked with a wide smile. He tried his best to glare at her, but he had the feeling it didn't look so threatening.

"I'm fine. Let me just…" Saix shuffled over to a tree stump a few feet away and squatted down, lowering his head. Izzie pursed her lips, her shoulders shaking a little as she quietly chuckled.

It was quite rare to see Saix not be the big, bad, tough guy. Kind of nice to see this side of him. He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Stop it." He warned lowly. She smiled at him, but only for a moment before she suddenly stiffened, her eyes going wide and an expression of horror taking her features. Saix frowned and stood, approaching her. "What?"

She didn't have to answer, for in the next moment, a young man was standing several feet from them, his skin white as snow. He had on a black cloak, his hood covering his face, and a silver necklace with a large, gaudy pendant hung around his neck. In the center of the pendant was a large sapphire. Under the shroud of his hood, Saix saw his lips pull back into a cold smile, revealing a pair of sharp fangs. Those lips moved then, and a voice like wind chimes filled the air.

"Miss. Isabella Santoro."

…