Chapter 4

Disclaimer - I only own Ruku

The8thSin - You are free to use your imagination to try and figure out what was in them, but I will say that more than once in this story, you will get hints about what was in them, and maybe all of what was in one. Yes, Riku's hair may be more flammable, but I think Sora's may just be the most fun to set on fire.

"Your names, like, match. It's weird." Demyx poked his head out of the closet, watching the two sitting in his room. They both shrugged, so he continued digging, and throwing everything out over his shoulder.

"Did you find one yet?" Ruku asked, growing impatient. He kept looking, so she took that as a no. "How hard can it be to find a spare coat?! I mean, c'mon, you've already thrown at least ten over here! And we need to get going!" In response, two more things came out of the closet, and landed on the desk next to where Riku was sitting. The first was the standard black Organization XIII overcoat, and the second was a blindfold. "It's not my fault he's not in my size, or that Superior is making me let him use one of my coats."

"A blindfold?" Riku asked, holding it up. They both nodded.

"We don't exactly want your friend Sora recognizing you. So, not only do you have to wear the coat, you have to wear the blindfold." Not that these will help much, with his hair color, she thought to herself.

"I won't be able to see!"

"Just put the stuff on, so we can leave. We're supposed to be in Hollow Bastion right now, but we can't leave until you put those on!" He scowled at her, but put on the coat, and then the blindfold, before pulling up the hood. "Let's goooooo!" She grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall, Demyx following close behind. They reached the Commons, where the rest of the Organization (minus Xemnas) was waiting. Most of them were sprawled out on chairs and couches. Vexen was pacing the room.

"Finally," muttered several of them, Axel the loudest. Luxord and Xigbar, who had been playing cards, glanced up, before putting away their game. Zexion snapped his book shut, stretched, and got up, muttering something about "not being emo", and then went to wait by Xaldin, who was opening a portal. As soon as it appeared, they all raised their hoods, and then filed into it by number (except for Riku, who just followed them all).

"Dangit, Riku, you're gonna give us away!" Ruku growled, smacking him on the back of his head, and then yanking him back behind the corner. He glared at her, but she ignored it, getting used to the look by now. All he ever seemed to do was glare or argue. The glare was kind of easy to overlook, though, because he was wearing the blindfold.

He settled down, and the two peered around the corner, watching. Loud bouts of talking carried across to them, but the words and meaning were lost, along with the emotion. The large group sitting on the other side didn't seem like the ever-serious group of Restoration Committee members that the Organization had been following for a while. The group of them, plus the Keyblade Master were sitting at the...Hollow Bastion Ice Cream Parlor, which apparently existed.

The whole group had been sitting there for the past seven hours eating ice cream. Just eating. And talking. And apparently a couple of them were getting drunk. Ruku made a mental note not to make sure she checked the ice cream for alchohol if she ever went there. As they watched, their waitress brought another serving of ice cream for them. Ruku silently wondered exactly how large there bill was going to be, and if they had enough munny for it.

The whooshing sound of a portal opening came from behind them, interrupting her thoughts. She glanced over her shoulder to see one of the others, Demyx most likely, standing there, hood up, beckoning them. She took a step back then turned and followed him, glancing back to see Riku getting up and coming too, but rather reluctantly.

"Are you sure it's like, smart, to send that Riku kid off with the mission report?"

Ruku snorted, staring at Demyx out of the corner of her eyes as the walked. "Since when do you care?" He shrugged, and kept walking. She watched him for a few more seconds before looking ahead, and went on in silence for a while. They wandered around one of the many levels of the castle that had absolutely nothing of interest for anyone on it, and just seemed pretty vacant, not even having more than a couple rooms.

Suddenly Demyx stopped. "I'm hungr-eeeeeeeeeee." He whined, grinning at her. She stopped too, a couple of steps ahead of him. "Which way to the kitchen?"

"Just make a portal, I'm worn out from that mission still..." He glanced over at her, only to recieve a blank look. "What?"

"No one's taught me how to make them."

After a moment, the two exchanged evil smiles, and changed their course slightly, heading for the residential floor.

"FOOD!!!"

Zexion's door slid open, the slight noise it usually made not heard over the voices of numbers IX and XIII. They stumbled into the room, instantly tripping over a few new items that had been discarded to the floor since the last time they had come. Ruku stumbled, but caught herdself. Demyx was less lucky, and fell over, knocking into her and landing in a pile on the ground.

Zexion groaned, rolling over in his bed. "What do you two want..." He grumbled, eyes still closed. "And," he continued, cracking one open to glare at them, "why are you disturbing me at this ungodly hour of the morning?!"

"FOOD!" They both bellowed, jumping back to their feet. Zexion rolled over to face the wall again, hoping that after seeing he was still half- or perhaps three-quarters asleep, they would just leave. But no, the two don't leave like one with any sense of normalcy would, they both pounce onto his bed, and forcibly dragged him out of it.

He found himself lying on the floor, as it seemed they had not the strength, or perhaps attention span, to keep him standing when he was not going to put forth any effort of his own. Zexion groaned again, using a large portion of his willpower to not call forth his weapon and powers to destroy the two standing before him, and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"So, are you going to feed us, or are we going to have to make you?"

The three Nobodies stumbled out of a portal, arriving in the kitchen. As the portal closed, it make a sick little fwiiiiiiishing sound, unlike the usual ones. But it was pretty good for a first try. At least they hadn't gotten attacked, like the first time a certain pyromaniac made one, according to Zexion.

It had taken quite a bit of convincing - or blackmailing - to get him to agree to make them some food. But not so much to get him to teach Ruku how to make a portal. Apparently, he'd rather be a teacher than a chef. Oh well.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, VI found, to his dismay, several other members of the Organization there - namely Larxene, Axel, and Xigbar, all eating their breakfast, which happened to be bowls of cereal. It looked like now he was going to have to make something for all of them. And he'd never be allowed to forget this.

Ruku and Demyx took a seat at the table, a little apart from the others, and waited. Waited and watched them. How he wished now that they'd never been on his computer. With an annoyed sigh, he turned to the fridge and began getting out ingredients. Larxene was in thought about something, and Xigbar seemed to be reading the newspaper (odd?), but Axel was watching him now. Trying to ignore the pyromaniac, he focused instead on finding utensils, and other things he would need.

It took quite a while, but eventually he came across several pots and pans, amongst everything else he thought would be needed. Unfortunantly, while looking, he had caused a racket, and now another had shown up - Xaldin - whilest the rest were watching him, looking slightly amused.

Once again trying to ignore everyone, Zexion turned away, and began to prepare.

"Whoa."

All of the Organization - and Riku - was now in some place around the kitchen. All except for VI were seated. And he was serving them.

Luku and Demyx stared in awe at the array of food around them, not paying much attention to any of the others as they waited to be told it was okay to eat. They had tried to grab some bacon as soon as it was done, but Zexion had taken it away, and told them that if they were going to "be rude enough to awaken him, then they would have a civilized meal, and wait for everything to be finished". They never would have agreed to this if they'd known it would take two hours for everything to finish, but from what they could see, it would be worth it.

Many foods - most of which they had never heard of, and some they couldn't pronounce - were set around the table. The last one - something to do with chicken, it seemed, from the smell- was almost done. And they were all starving.

As soon as a certain red-headed pyromaniac and hot-tempered blonde had figured out that Zexion was cooking for them, they had, of course, had to send off Dusks to find all the others, claiming that "something they wouldn't believe" was going on. It was true, most of them didn't believe it. But they were hungry.

As the stove "ding"ed, several breathed sighs, happy it was now time to eat. VI turned around and placed the dish on the table, signaling that it was now okay for them all to dig in. And that they did.

After everyone had filled their plates and was eating, some idle chatter started up. Eventually the conversation split into different parts - several started talking about plans, Zexion sat there, listening to them all, Larxene and Marluxia seemed to be talking about...flowers, while Ruku, Demyx, and Riku started chatting about teenage stuff, with Axel randomly chiming in. It seemed to Ruku that meal times were considered "neutral" among the Organization, because nobody was arguing (no more than just quarrels about plans) and no fights had broken out yet. Many of them were complimenting Zexion on his cooking, but he tended to ignore these comments, only nodding. After a while he tuned into the younger member's conversation too, though he wasn't saying anything.

They sat there for quite a while after everyone had finished eating, but after a couple hours, some of them excused themselves. Saix was the first to disappear, and then came Lexaeus and Vexen. Pretty soon on VI, VIII, IX, XIII, and Riku were there. All but Demyx were quiet, but he continued talking for a while, before noticing no one else was. They shared a glance, and then silently went off to different destinations in the castle.

Ruku didn't stay to watch where anyone went. She got up, and headed straight for her room, not quite sure why her happier mood had left. But as soon as the meal had been over, she had just...Wanted to get to her room. And stay there, locked up for the night.

Too bad she couldn't do that.

As she came to her room, and was about to have it open, she spied a piece of paper taped to it. It had a scribble of handwriting, which she had to lean forward to read. It took a few seconds to decipher the sloppy cursive, but she got it.

"XIII, report to Superior's office.

-VII, Saix"

The note was short, and to the point. It also slightly ticked her off. Her hopes of having a "peaceful" night were now shattered, broken, and lying on the ground in millions of pieces. Even if she'd had tape, it would have taken far too long for her to fix it, so she settled on walking to Superior's office, instead of portaling. She'd make him wait, because he'd broken her hope. Meanie.

Not exactly knowing where Superior's office was, Ruku headed off in the general direction of it. She would stop at the kitchen to see if anyone there could give her directions. At least she knew where the kitchen was.

She walked silently, her mind acting as if it were half-asleep. In the several minutes it took to reach the kitchen, she'd had exactly one thought. "I wonder if they have any tape?". This thought disappeared as she entered, and looked around. There was only one other Nobody in the room, and it was one of the two she'd rather not talk to. In fact, she felt like annihilating this one right here and now, except Superior would probably get mad at her. So she just ignored him.

X tracked her with his eyes as she walked around the room, not quite sure what she was looking for. Just as she decided to leave through one of the other entrances, she saw something shiney on the table. Not caring what it was, she grabbed it and slipped it into a pocket, before portaling up to Superior's office.

"Enter."

Superior's voice came from behind his door, right as Ruku was about to knock. This unnerved her a little, but she told herself that if Zexion could smell people, it was possible Xemnas could track them somehow. So she went through, closing the door behind her. She stood in an office, with many shelves of books on one wall, an open balcony in another, with a white desk directly in front of it. Superior sat behind the desk in a tall-backed white chair, and she took the only empty seat in the room, a smaller white chair, in front of the desk.

They sat in silence for a while, Xemnas jotting down notes on paper (or was he playing hangman? She couldn't tell.) and Ruku staring at the balcony behind him. Eventually, he shuffled his paper in an anchor-man way, and slipped them into a drawer in the desk, this time drawing out a file. He opened it and scanned a few things inside, then turned to her. "Luxije, you have been here a while now." He stated.

Two or three days? She thought to herself, but said nothing. "You have only been on one mission so far, and it was not very difficult. But from the brief time you have been training, it seems to me that you are ready to take on a simple task by yourself, or a moderately difficult one with one other member going with you. This time, it shall be the former. Tomorrow morning, you shall go to a new world we have discovered. The only beings residing there are a new breed of the Lessers, and they seem fairly harmless, unless provoked. You shall stay there for several days, reporting every other, and then summarize your findings."

He waited several seconds for this to sink in, and she gave him a nod in response. After seeing she wasn't going to say anything else, he added, "You may go now, but report here tomorrow morning, as soon as you have eaten for your supplies."

As XIII portaled off to who-knows-where, Xemnas laced his finger together, watching where she had just been. Ignorant child. This shall be a test of your strength. And...Hopefully...Will give us some information. Some information about the heart you never had.

Hey, hope you guys enjoyed!

I'd appreciate if no one asks what the object she picks up in the kitchen is, you'll find out next chapter.

I'd appreciate a few more reviews, but not demanding them! They just, y'know, motivate me...-hint-

'Till next time!