As usual, I do not own Kingdom Hearts and its characters (they belong to Square Enix).. only this fanfiction and the alternate universe.
Chapter 4: Introduction to the Nobodies
Aqua did not realize "sneaking" in with a fellow young servant would result in major disaster, which technically meant she had to put up with not only humiliating herself in front of all the strange men in black coats, but also their powerful leader.
It all started with a blonde haired vixen rudely opening Namine's unlocked door (something Aqua really regretted to do) since the poor girl had overslept. Hell, she even freaked out at Aqua for being an unwanted intruder in the freaking castle, and even perhaps refusing to listen to Aqua's desperate pleas of wanting to explain why she's with her servant (skipping out the marriage part since she absolutely refused to see Vanitas again).
"Poor Namine.." Aqua couldn't help but to feel pity for her young friend as she quietly stood near Aqua with her head bowed down. It really seems that the Master is a REALLY scary man for Aqua now…
"Having to pick prickly plants in the middle of night.. being yelled at for sleeping in by accident, and now having to be humiliated in front of so many men… She really had it harder than me, didn't she?"
The young woman stared straight at the main throne in front of her, trying her best to remain calm with a straight expression on her face without showing any sign of fear. She did hate it when she saw the lewd smiles that some insolent men (such as the pink haired one) plastered on their faces, especially when thirteen (excluding two females) of them were sitting on tall thrones surrounding the two girls.
A particular man did catch her attention though, and it wasn't a friendly reaction from her at all. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail with white streaks running in it, plus he also had an eyepatch (which she did not recall seeing) and always inheriting a mocking smile written on that stupid face of his. O God, how much he annoyed her back in her village… especially when he just kept boldly going up to her no matter how many times she rejected his hand in marriage.
"Braig…" Aqua hissed under her breath as her eyes slowly narrowed at the sight of this disgusting man. It was too bad that she couldn't go up to him and wipe that smirk of his face, for the sound in the room immediately faded to silence and she knew the leader had finally arrived to determine both Namine and her punishments.
"So… This is our fellow intruder and disobedient servant girl…"
Poor Aqua couldn't help but flinch at the sudden sound of the Superior's deep voice. Her attention immediately snapped right back to the now occupied seat with a silver haired man lounging on it lazily. She quickly straightened her appearance, standing tall and strong, ignoring the fact that she was already presentable to the public audience around her.
Sitting on the central throne was a tall man with bronze skin and silver hair that cascaded down his shoulders. It was unfortunate that she couldn't really make out the rest of his facial features from this far distance, but she was actually pretty sure he was actually younger than what she was currently assuming his age to be. Nonetheless, she couldn't help but to pull Namine behind her out of her protective reflexes.
Pretending he did not notice those actions from the water maiden, the leader continued to study the young woman for a few more seconds.
"What is your name?"
"My name is Aqua." The older one responded, trying her best to not show fear to every single member of this desolate room.
"So… what brings your presence here to this dark and desolate kingdom, where the sun would never rise, and especially without announcing yourself in the first place?"
"Wait, what?" Aqua was suddenly confused by that sunless statement, suddenly feeling even more stressful from knowing that she was trapped in a place of eternal night. She swore she could hear the many mocking snickers of the surrounding hostile occupants. She willed herself to continue persisting in hiding her inner fears by keeping her expression blank and posture straight, continuing to shield Namine from behind.
"Yes, the sun wouldn't rise here, even from the beginning of time. It's very unfortunate that such a bright gorgeous woman would end up here with such a lowly ser-" Braig taunted next to Xemnas, though earning a thorough glare from the Superior instead.
"Don't talk about Namine like that!" Aqua snapped immediately, feeling her fury rise at the description of the poor blonde behind her. She hated it whenever her friends were put down by others, even if she barely knew Namine for a day.
"Hmph, defending a servant that's lower class than you, how gallant.." Xemnas was so close to actually turning the Free Sharpshooter into a dusk for snarkily speaking out at such a wrong timing…
"I was a village born girl, what else difference does it make?" She challenged, but keeping the engagement part silent. The water maiden had officially decided from the day one, if there's actually a way to escape this cruel forced decision, it's to either run away, be abducted along the way, or to die.
Before Braig could speak out, Aqua immediately continued, "By the way Braig, I never knew that you ever belonged to a gang. That would explain the many absenses as to why you were never attending the annual parties of our village, you creep. "
"Whoa whoa whoa, clam yourself down, Missy. I don't know who this … Braig person that you were addressing is.. and we SERIOUSLY lived in the same village? Wow.. How come I can't remember seeing a beauty like you there?"
Before Aqua could return a sharp response to those last words, Xemnas snapped angrily, "Enough! Xigbar, one more word, and the rest of your fate would never be as happy as you would think."
Xigbar immediately shuts his open mouth and grumbled away to himself as Aqua turned her attention to that silver haired ruler as he recomposed himself and turned his attention back to her.
"So… tell us, how did you manage to get to this cold, dark realm, Miss Aqua.." "She still had that same graceful beauty from before, doesn't she… and still young and single-"
"Wait… Did I just describe her as beautiful?" Xemnas suddenly questioned himself within his intelligent mind. But before he could open his mouth again , Aqua was already explaining what she had been doing.
"Well, sir. During my sleep, I was mistaken as a lifeless corpse, and was escorted in a coffin, as you can see by my funeral dress on my body, and Namine found me before I could suffocate further more in there." The first part of the story was a total lie, but Aqua did not want anything to do with that lustful prince at this stage. If she were to be held here against her will, so be it, she will find a way out of here as long as they won't send her directly to Vanitas' kingdom, and perhaps bring Namine along as well.
"Namine… was that true?"
"Wh-why yes, Superior… I found her sleeping in a freshly dug grave…" Namine shyly bowed down her head as she spoke, rendering Aqua to reach behind her and squeeze her hand in comfort.
"Very well then, what do the rest of you think we should do with her, especially after she intruded in on us…"
All the sudden, the room just suddenly roared to life as all fourteen members of this castle were loudly discussing what to do with Aqua, the volume increasing dramatically as one group tries to overpower the other with the top of their lungs, laughter and disapproval. Everyone was dressed in the same black coat, despite the different genders (only two though), but a particular blonde one actually caught her eye.
"V-VEN! Ven, it's me, Aqua!" The water maiden suddenly lets go of the shorter girl's delicate hand in excitement to rush toward the throne where a blonde haired boy sat.
"U-um… do I even know her? And who's this.. Ven?" The younger boy named Roxas couldn't help but to look around at his two best friends sitting on different levels above and below him beside him as Aqua ran closer to him.
"Ventus! Come on! Me, you and Terra were friends for a VERY long time! Please don't tell me you don't remember me at all!" Aqua pleaded desperately as she thought she finally found her missing friend, but she cried out as she ended up tripping over her long dress by accident.
Roxas couldn't help but to have a weird feeling eating at him as he immediately teleported in a black flash to reach the girl below his seat and help her up. At the same time, Namine already reached Aqua and was helping Roxas support her as the fancily dressed girl groaned while lifting herself up from the ground in embarrassment, face blushing into the color of a tomato.
Though Aqua did not notice it through her painful lifting, Roxas and Namine's hands ended up contacting each other's for the first time in their lives, and Roxas couldn't help but to pay attention to that cute girl next to him despite his original task. Such an innocent girl in a pretty white dress… she gave him the angelic impression. The accidental touch of his gloved hand against her soft ones ignited a shock through both teenagers, though it was actually pleasant for them. Roxas turned his burning face away from Namine as she bowed her equally burning face down as well.
Little do the two young teens know, a certain black haired girl that sat next to Roxas the entire time was trying her best to show discomfort from what she witnessed in front of her….
What was Xemnas doing the entire time? Studying Aqua's behavior the entire time with a blank expression written all over his face. So now, this girl from his dreams was right in front of him and was a lot more beautiful than that blurred silhouette that he always found himself reaching out for in the middle of the night….
"SILENCE!" Xemnas was suddenly snapped out of his reverie as a blue haired male with a cross shaped scar on his face roared out when the noise level got too high for everyone to handle. As soon as everyone began to quiet down again, the Superior had already prepared a small speech for this situation.
"I say… I sense this young woman has a strong heart within her, with a strong light burning within it… Perhaps, we could learn more about the heart from her as she was here right now…"
"W-wait.. Sir, I don't understand what you're addressing right now." Aqua began to panic a bit, but quickly regained control over herself.
"We are all Nobodies, beings without hearts. Everyone around you, including the servant and I, are Nobodies. We may seem and act like we can feel… but all in all, those were only vague memories of how we were when we're human." Xemnas replied, and ended up cutting off Aqua's words before her own mouth could open.
"Perhaps you could teach us how it was that you can feel these emotions that surge through your heart as you speak. Ever since we lost our hearts, we wanted nothing more than to get it back into ourselves."
The poor blunette was shocked beyond words of what she was hearing. Even Namine was a… Nobody the entire time? What mess had she officially tangled herself into now, she did not know.
But perhaps, since Roxas was a Nobody that was courteous to help her, and the fact he also bore a great deal of resemblance to the brother she never had, she actually didn't feel that hostile anymore. In fact, maybe "Roxas" will figure out that he was truly Ventus at one point in her stay, and they can escape this horrid place with Namine since they showed tiny signs of attraction already (this she did not understand though, since Xemnas already claimed that even they are Nobodies). Maybe they can even find Riku and join the rebellion against the enemy country that was waging war on Land of Departure… and maybe find him in the slow process..
The blunette stared up with fierce determination written on her face as she finally made her decision, "Thank you for your hospitality. I will stay and teach all of you the true capacities of the heart, but Namine has to be able to do what she wants, even if she's a servant."
"… Whatever you say, Miss Aqua…" Xemnas smiled, a bit surprised to find out that she had submitted so easily without fighting much…
The room was about to have an uproar again due to the fact that none of them were able to voice out their already made opinions, but Xemnas announced the dismissal like nothing happened… and all of them ended up disappearing in the dark portals behind them, leaving only him and the other two female occupants behind.
The Superior ended up snapping his hand, rendering a dark portal for Namine to lead the trio back into the rest of the castle with the rest of the Nobodies…
A/N: Sorry if anyone truly sounded OOC there... this is again, my first time writing about these characters... and I don't really like a screechy Aqua that would throw herself into trouble (I know.. she did get thrown into the prison in the Enchanted Dominion), so I made her more cunning and sneaky instead, but I hope it would still work to make this story interesting.. and I unfortunately don't like a violent tempered Xemmy either *shot* XD
Damn.. this chapter was LONG.. but I wanted to set the mood quickly before getting into the story deeper. Sorry RokuXion fans, but I actually only thought of these two as siblings (and the fact I dislike narcism) and I had shipped RoxasxNamine from the beginning of KHII when I was 12.. so ya.. but do not worry... Xion's "jealousy" will end up leading her to someone familiar in this story *wink wink*, and thus the story would be more connected.
RoxasxNamine will serve more as a comic relief couple since I just can't see them interacting sexually in many ways. I see them more as innocent characters that do know what's going on... but when it comes to other things *cough cough*... they would have hilarious reactions coming up. XD
Anyways.. I hope I did not kill your motivation to continue on with reading this story.. but I do hope to recieve some constructive reviews to help me improve more on my writing in general. So stay tuned for Chapter 5 soon ;)