Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts II is copyright Square Enix, as are Demyx and Xigbar and Axel and Roxas and ya know those people. I cannot own them, but maybe one day I will join them, eh? Eh? XD

ALSO : the title is unceremoniously stolen from Depeche Mode, so I apologize, but it was too good not to use and come on, how could I not?

Authors Notes: OMG I actually really really like this chapter. I'm not sure if Xemnas is OOC or not, but I think he's just obsessed with Kingdom Hearts, yes? Yes… that's my excuse…

Background Music: AFI's "Decemberunderground"

Title: Music for the Masses

Author: Zoshi the Confused
Rating: PG-13 to M (eventually)
Category: Kingdom Hearts II

Genre: Adventure/Angst

Contains: (or will contain) Shonen-Ai/Yaoi, Violence, Adult Situations, and Swearing

Sentences or phrases done in Italics thoughts

Select words done in italics emphasis

Demyx crept down the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible. He had the sneaking feeling that someone was looking for him, and not in the nicest sense, exactly, either. His skin was prickling, a vaguely familiar feeling that he felt he should remember but couldn't due to the rising sense of unease that was making his stomach turn somersaults.

"Demyx."

The blond froze at the sound of his name. For a second he stood there, eyes closed as he wished that it had just been his imagination, then turned around, putting on his best smile.

"Uh, Hey Saix." He said, cheerfully, grinning at the blue haired man at the other end of the hallway. "Y'know, I'd love to stay and chat, but…uh, I have somewhere, er, important to-"

"Demyx," Saix's voice was still, mostly emotionless, but a tone of warning crept into it. "Come here."

Demyx was going to say something, but a strange feeling suddenly hit him. Saix wasn't doing anything he could see, but Demyx frowned. Everything seemed to be going hazy, filtered. Somewhere he could hear waves, rolling, breaking against a shore as the tides came in and out, in and out, in and –

"That's much better."
Saix's voice broke through the hazy images of ocean creatures that had been swamping Demyx's mind. The blond shook his head, then glared up at the taller man when realization hit him.

"That's playing dirty." He stood a foot away from Saix, having apparently walked the entire length of the hallway without knowing it.

"Direct your anger at the heavens. It is they who decided that the moon should hold sway over the water." Saix's expression didn't change. "You have not yet reported to the Superior."

Demyx winced, scratching his head nervously.

"Well, you know, I kinda got tired, and hungry, and I had to feed Req-"

Demyx halted his rambling, eyes wide.

Shit shit shit… he cursed himself in his mind.

There was no movement on Saix's face, but Demyx knew that the older man hadn't missed his slip. The blond groaned inwardly, hoping against the odds that Saix wouldn't figure it out. The blue-haired man was pretty sharp, especially for a berserker who regularly dealt out punishments that could destroy half a building.

"You will report to the Superior now." Saix said, his voice holding no room for argument. Demyx gave a shaky smile and readied an answer, but Saix was already waving a portal open.

"Go."

Without a word, and thanking whatever gods could exist in a world like this that Saix hadn't decided to be forceful, Demyx gave one last fading grin before stepping through the portal and into Xemnas's meeting room. He stood awkwardly at the end of a long, white table, playing with one of his coat sleeves as he waited for the Superior to acknowledge him. He glanced up once at the silver haired figure at the other end of the room, then swallowed nervously. He hated reporting to Xemnas; it meant he had to give a play by play of everything that had happened, all while being stared at by those strangely glowing orange eyes.

Xemnas stood at the large terrace window, staring up at what looked like half of a heart shaped moon. He stayed like that for a few more moments before turning to face Demyx. His eyes held that strange glow they always had whenever he'd been looking at that moon.

"You took your time." Xemnas said.

"Yeah, well, you know how it is…" Demyx attempted to grin, but failed horribly.

"Your report." It was a statement, one that clearly expressed Xemnas's desire to be elsewhere, doing things more important than listening to Demyx give his report. The tone made Demyx wonder whether anything he told the Superior would surprise him.

"Er, well, the world was pretty much dead…" Demyx began. Xemnas's raised eyebrow was to mimic surprise, but the action seemed more a part of a well rehearsed play than an actual display of emotion. Demyx continued, "The building's were a mess, and there was this girl, she was freaky. Seemed she was a Nobody too, right? But she was all quiet and emotionless- I mean, more than some of us – and she was way too still. And her dog..."

Demyx paused, a thoughtful looking coming into his eyes. It was a look Xemnas knew all too well, and he readied himself for another question about hearts or feelings or whatever else the young man could think of.

"Can animals become Nobodies, too?" Demyx asked. "I mean, I know some of them can become Heartless, but can they become Nobodies? Like us? Like, keep their forms and not turn into a lower-class Nobody?"

Xemnas looked at Demyx, eyes narrowed slightly in thought. It was an interesting question, after all, and it surprised him just a little.

"Why do you ask?" Xemnas crossed his arms as he looked at the blond.

"Well, the dog, it… it felt like a Nobody, too..." Demyx looked at Xemnas uncertainly.

"There are many strange things in the worlds that we do not know the answers to yet…" Xemnas mused. "But go on, what did you learn in this world?"

"That when worlds die, they go out with a whimper, not a bang…" Demyx said with a shudder. He could still remember it; everything was collapsing around him, but only silence existed, and as the world died, its colors flickered one last time, as it were breathing its last, before fading into oblivion and leaving him clinging to a portal he'd barely had time to make.

Xemnas nodded, his eyes thoughtful.

"As I feared… The world was strong with hearts, but its people were too accepting. When the darkness, and the Heartless, came, they did not fight. They accepted the darkness as part of the way the world was, and they and their world fell to the darkness." Xemnas turned back to the terrace, looking at the half-moon once more. "Such a shame… such a waste of hearts…"

The fact that Xemnas had turned away was a sign to leave, and Demyx began inching his way towards the door. Before he got halfway there, a flash of black brought him to a stop.

"Superior." Saix's voice might have carried across the room, but Demyx wasn't listening. It wasn't his voice that had made the blond shake and drained the blood from his face.

Xemnas turned, looking curiously at Saix, or, more so, at what Saix was holding.

"What is that?" Xemnas asked, although it could be certain that he'd already figured it out. Xemnas hadn't become the leader of the Organization by missing the small things.

"It seems our watery friend has gotten himself a pet." Saix's voice was passive, as always, but his eyes were taking on a strange glow. He held up a glittering ball of water, inside of which an agitated Requiem was puffing and flaring and doing everything to scare off what he considered an intruder and a threat.

Demyx didn't think; Demyx couldn't think, not at that moment. Later, he'd wonder whether pulling the water ball towards himself with all his elemental might was a smart thing to do, especially since the backlash of the action sent tendrils of water whipping against Saix hard enough to bruise.

He didn't think until the water ball, and Requiem, were safe in his hands. And then it was only to think that he must be the stupidest being ever to have existed. Looking up, he didn't know what was worse; Saix's murderous glare or Xemnas's look of mild surprise.

Silence pervaded a moment, Saix rubbing his arm slightly, Demyx holding the ball and shaking nervously, as they both waited on Xemnas's judgments.

"Let him keep it."

Saix sent a shocked look at the Superior, a look mirrored by Demyx, but Xemnas had already turned back to the half-heart moon.

"That will be punishment enough."

Endnotes: This felt like it was a lot longer when I was typing it into the computer. XX