Xeline twisted in her bed as distant growls and yells found their way to her ears, sensitive even when sleeping. She was able to hear everything that went on in the castle - that was one of the abilities that came with her element - and it had been a hard time until she learned to sort away everything without importance.
Now, her beautifully drawn brow knit, and after a moment, she realised it wasn't in her dreams that stone was torn apart, but in the real world. As real as it could be in The Castle That Never Was.
Grey eyes, the colour of storm clouds, flew open, and she stared into the air for a moment, localizing the sounds.
There was Xaldin's voice, shrill from controlled fear and angrier then she'd ever herd him. He was commanding others in a way unlike him.
There was a roar from a voice that resembled Saïx's, but it was rougher and deeper than usual. He sounded bewildered. Furious.
The sound of Demyx's footsteps as he danced a few meters backwards, and she could faintly discern the swoosh that a paw, wielded through the air, created.
At this point, Xeline got out of her bed, and far away in the eastern end of the castle, she could hear Marluxia do the same thing.
Seconds after, she'd thrown on a bra and a pair of trousers, and was running out the door, still zipping her cloak.
"Look out!" It was Xigbar's voice and it trembled in a way that made him sound downright petrified. Yet, she could hear him run a few steps, and then there was a tearing sound along with a thud. Demyx screamed, but then had to back off again.
Xeline picked up her pace now, running so fast, her foot length hair whipped behind her, and in another part of the castle, Vexen was summoning his shield, and there was a clink as he picked up something made of glass, and apparently put it into his pocket. Then, his heels drummed against the stone stairs.
Now, the part of the castle she was getting to looked more and more like a battlefield. Windows were shattered, walls broken. There were places you couldn't recognize from how they looked a few hours ago.
"Xeline!" Zexion said her name in a rapid way. "Saïx is in this wing - he's gone mad. More mad than usually. Xigbar, Xaldin and Demyx are searching the place now. I'm supposed to collect the others here." He sniffed the air the same moment Xeline could hear Marluxia's steps come closer. "Number XI is almost here, and we sent Vexen to prepare something to calm Saïx down."
Xeline nodded. All this was said in a stressed speed, yet not a single word was missed.
"I think he's done. I herd him coming up the stairs."
Now, Marluxia joined them, scythe already summoned in his hand, and he got the same update as Xeline.
"Why Demyx?" the pink haired man asked, and Xeline was wondering the same thing. Xaldin and Xigbar were amazingly good fighters, and also a strong team. But Demyx's good abilities lay more in his way with people, and.. Ah, she'd figured it out; the same second Zexion explained it.
"He can calm Saïx down. He does that quite often."
"Mh", Marluxia just nodded as the sound of two approaching men reached even him. One of them stumbled under the weight of the other, who was dragging his feet on the floor.
"Xigbar", Xeline mumbled, listening to their breathing, and Zexion threw a quick glance at her, "and Demyx." The Cloaked Schemer smelled the air.
"One of them are wounded", he added, a frown on his face, "perhaps both."
"Where is Xemnas?" Marluxia hissed, as the steps came closer. "He should be here, handling the situation."
"He's on his way", Mistix was panting slightly, and even Xeline jumped as she spoke behind them. This was the only person's footsteps she couldn't hear. "He's just checked the other corridors. Luxord, Roxas and Lexaeus are shutting off the corridor leading to the kitchen, and Axel and Larxene are by the stairs to the attic." Then, the blue haired nobody drew a sharp breath. "Dem!"
The both nobodies that'd been approaching had now rounded the corner leading them into a corridor where the group could see them.
Demyx were hanging unconscious over Xigbar's shoulder, and his head rolled on and off for each step. Xigbar, in turn, was paler than a ghost, and his right arm hung bleeding and useless by his side.
"Xemnas!" he called, and behind them, the Superior was approaching. "This is out of control! We can't hold this away!" By "this", he meant Saïx, and Xeline felt a strange jerk inside of her, like her intestines were twisting in an odd way.
"We have to", the voice was not to be contradicted.
"He's gone mad!" Xigbar's voice was now getting shriller and shriller. "I can't feel my right arm! And he even turned on Demyx! If we're to keep him away from the rest of the castle, we can't guarantee Saïx's.."
"Enough", Xemnas interrupted, and in the short pause that followed, Xeline noticed the sound of running feet, followed by a thunder of paws. "Saïx's safety is to be guaranteed, do I have to remind you of my orders? This isn't something he can control, and therefore.." Xeline hissed for them to be quiet ".. he can't be supposed to.." another hiss "..accept any damage from.."
"Shh!" Now, the both men noticed her, and her tense face actually made them turn quiet. The six nobodies listened intensely, but Xeline guessed she was the only one that could hear Xaldin approach in a furious speed.
"Xeline, what are you..?" it was Maruxia's dark voice that broke what for every one else was silence.
"Xaldin's on his way", Zexion raised his head, apparently smelling the air again and nodded in agreement. "I don't think he's hurt, but something's following.."
Xeline interrupted herself as she realised the meaning of her own words, and they all sunk into a position ready for fight, by sheer reflex.
The Whirlwind Lancer took a turn on a foot and a knee, and then spurted the last meters into the crowd in the corridor.
"He's about half a minute behind me." Despite the running, he was hardly panting at all.
They all fell silent. A tense, almost electric silence, that for Xeline was disturbed by the sound of Saïx's running feet, how he smelled the air, and slowed down, slowly coming closer.
Half a minute passed. A minute. She could hear his breaths now, the scratching of his claws against the stone floor. And then he came into sight.
The blue hair was wilder and longer than before, and the golden eyes held a terrible glow. Along Saïx's right arm, there were long strains of blood, and the hand was covered in it. He was on all fours, but slowly rose to his feet, the back shooting up, and arms hanging down, slightly curved like he was holding something between his animalistic hands. The chest was heaving, and fangs had sprouted from his mouth, so it formed a horrible grin.
Behind her, Xeline could hear the sound of Xigbar swaying and tottering a little, and then Xemnas' voice followed, giving an order without taking his eyes from Saïx.
"Number II, leave. Take Number IX out of here and treat your arm. You'll be more in the way than of use in that state."
The little smack that was herd revealed that Xigbar opened his mouth and was about to contradict, but he changed his mind. This wasn't the time to argue.
"Yes, Superior."
They took off through a portal, and whatever it was about it - the movement, the sight, the sound - it made Saïx start to slowly approach them.
There were places on his thighs and knees where the trousers had ripped; and when the moon-dancing demon man came closer, Xeline could see how muscles twitched and tensed in his naked upper body.
Somewhere in the other end of the wing, she herd the quick stepping as someone turned around and started to run in their direction. Vexen, she confirmed, after listening another tense moment, and discerning the clinking of whatever glass objects lay in his pocket.
As Saïx crept closer, she herd the sound of Xaldin's hands gripping harder around the shaft of the lance, how Zexion drew a deep breath in order to gain concentration and how Marluxia's cloak rustled as he raised the scythe. She couldn't hear anything but Mistix's breaths, which were louder than normal, and Xeline herself summoned the two meter silver chain which held a slim and pointy one-foot blade in the end, and a ring that fit perfectly on her finger in the other.
They all made ready for combat, even Saïx who panted harder, whose muscles tensed more, and from whose mouth it ran a thin stream of clear saliva.
He huddled, making ready to leap, and they crouched, ready to meet the attack.
And then, a door opened, almost right between them.
The blue-haired beast hesitated, and his eyes flicked from the group of nobodies to the open door as the sound of shuffling footsteps reached his ears.
"..noisy", a small, sleepy voice announced, as a grey-haired little girl showed up in the doorway. She held the corner of a blanket in one hand, and rubbed her eye with the other, which was balled to a little fist.
The tiny nobody smacked her mouth a couple of times, like it was dry after sleeping with her mouth open, and then, large eyes blinked at them.
"Xellie?" That was her nickname for Xeline, and her tired eyes wandered from one nobody to the other, while a low snarling was leaking from between Saïx's lips. "Maru-chan?" She had misheard Vexen saying Marluxia - and as the scholar pronounced it Marusha, it wasn't very strange that Silexio had made it Maru-chan. "Xally? 'Isti.." She interrupted herself as a dark shadow was growing from behind.
It felt like.. like all her blood had turned freezing cold as the little girl turned around, facing a furious and highly deadly berserker, hardly three feet from her face.
Silexio blinked a couple of times, and then she asked a very simple, very childish question.
"Puppy mad?"
His chest was heaving faster and faster, as he practically gasped for air, feeding the growl that was created deep down in his throat. For a moment, Saïx looked like he didn't know what to do, but then the animalistic side of him took over.
A clawed hand was raised, ready to strike the little girl as Xeline let go of the chain, letting it disperse, and then taking the few meters to Silexio in a quick leap.
In that very moment, the second she was running forwards in a speed she didn't think herself capable of, Silexio's eyes - no, her entire face - seemed to change. For the time a heartbeat takes, the pupils narrowed, and the asking features turned hard and cold, and then it was gone.
The girl didn't make a sound, didn't even take her eyes of Saïx, as Xeline picked her up and stumbled a few steps backwards, dodging the wielded paw precisely, but feeling the draught it created and the metallic smell of Xigbar's blood.
She hadn't been thinking, and now, she stood - lonely, it seemed - in front of a beast that had maimed one of his companions and attacked one of the persons closest to him. If a nobody could ever feel fear, this was what Xeline felt right now.
She was unable to move, though every muscle in her body was tensed and trembling. Her mouth was slightly open, and her eyes glossy for a reason she could not determine herself. Saïx came closer, so slowly it took an eternity, and his golden eyes seemed to glow just like the moon that showed through a window on the opposite wall. And in all this, a little hand tugged Xeline's hair, and Silexio's childish voice was herd again.
"Xellie, puppy mad.."
"Yes, Silexio.." The answer was no more than a faint, trembling whisper. "Puppy is mad.."
But.. he seemed to hesitate. For a single moment, Xeline thought - but she wasn't sure - she saw a trace of struggle in Saïx's eyes. The tendons of his throat was tensed hard, and as one muscle seemed to work for attack, another looked like it was trying to keep him back.