It was a reflex. When the sound of shattered glass suddenly exploded in the silence, Xeline turned her face away, and pushed Silexio's head to her chest.
Through the darkness of her closed eyes, Saïx roared, and shards of crystal fell to the ground.
Then, he roared again. And again.
The clinking had stopped when Xeline opened her eyes again, but Saïx still growled in a violent protest.
Vines and thick roots had broken the huge windows that faced the wall where Silexio's door was. With an incredible speed, they had invaded the corridor and made the meter where Saïx stood a green jungle, full of rope-like plants that held him in place.
The berserker didn't like this. He didn't like it at all. The walls and frames where the vines were attached creaked as he pulled them with all his might, and a soft, pained moan had Xeline turn around, Silexio still in her arms.
There stood Marluxia, his face twisted to a strained grimace, and his arm reached out, the fingers bent like claws. The scythe had vanished, and a meter or so beside him, Vexen was approaching the captured Saïx in a careful way.
"Hurry up, cupcake", the Graceful Assassin said in a humouring, yet harsh way, "he's strong.I can't hold him like this forever."
Vexen made a sound that sounded something like "hmph", as Marluxia addressed him as "cupcake", but he didn't make a fuss about it.
Standing a meter or so from Saïx, he pulled an incredibly small test tube from his pocket, along with a slim syringe, which he rapidly filled with a carefully measured amount of the clear fluid inside the tube.
Trying at first to give him the injection in the throat, Vexen found that Saïx made a strange movement with his head, trying to bite him, and he ended up giving the shot in the side, where the grasping claws couldn't reach him.
Then, it only took a matter of seconds, perhaps half a minute, before Saïx struggled less intensely. He was breathing heavier, and in a sudden, the muscles relaxed, and he sunk to the floor. Moments after, he was knocked out cold, and after a little nod from Xemnas, Marluxia dropped to all fours, panting desperately and shaking visibly.
"Good work, number XI."
Between two gasps, Marluxia was able to answer. "Thank you, Superior."
There was a strange second of silence. The thought of putting Silexio down hadn't struck Xeline, so she was still carrying the little girl, who broke the odd atmosphere by asking:
"Puppy sleepy?"
"Yes, number XV", Vexen answered in Xeline's stead, "in a way."
"Oh.." Behind them, Xaldin had approached Xemnas, and the two of them were discussing what to do with Saïx, and the conversation grew louder and louder, and Silexio was on her way to hushing them down when Xeline put her hand over the girl's mouth.
"Puppy is sleeping very deeply", she said softly, "he won't wake up from that."
Silexio shaped her little cherry lips to an "O", and then nodded, letting the two nobodies continue.
"I can guess what Xigbar will say", Xaldin said in a rather soft way. "We all knew what happened last time it was this bad. But we didn't knock him out that time. We don't know if he'll still be crazed when he waked up."
"That is true", Xemnas answered in a rather defensive voice, "but I promised Saïx this place, partly as a refuge, a place where he would not be chased or hurt or locked up for what happens to him every full moon."
"But Xemnas", there was something serious about it, when Xaldin used the Superior's name in such a way, "we have to put the safety of", he made a gesture, "fourteen of the Organization's members before one", with a fling of his arm, he indicated Saïx.
"Indeed", Xemnas agreed, "but where to put him?"
At this moment, Vexen rose a hand in order to gain attention.
"A dungeon, perhaps. Sir?" he proposed. "After all, they're made for locking people up, so he won't get loose all of a sudden."
It was like something was gnawing on Xeline's spine, and while moving her weight over to the other foot, and adjusting her grip around the nobody of a five-years-old, she tried to figure out what it was, not paying very much attention to the conversation that took place some ten feet from her.
"Good", Xemnas had raised his voice slightly, and was now speaking to all of them. "Number XIII", Mistix's flung her head up, "go get number V", she hurried off. Quickly and soundlessly. "Number XI, release him, and number III get ready to take him to the dungeons. Number IV, go make sure there is one ready."
"Yes, Superior", Vexen answered, and nodded his head in something that looked like a half-bow. Then, he vanished towards the basement, and Marluxia started to draw the vines and roots back in order to release the unconscious Saïx.
They kept on talking, sending Zexion off to make sure Vexen chose a dungeon with chains attached to the wall, and then arranging it so Lexaeus and Xaldin could carry Saïx there as soon as the Silent Hero showed up.
Xeline was weighing from foot to foot as she watched Xaldin and Lexaeus strap Saïx to the wall, handcuffing him tightly so he hung unconscious by the wrists.
She had finally put Silexio down, and the little girl was now holding a tress of Xeline's ankle length hair tightly. The two female nobobies were the only ones but the Superior, Xaldin and Lexaeus that were still in the room, and Xeline twisted uncomfortably as the Whirlwind Lancer finally rose.
"Done", he said shortly, and brushed some dirt off his hands.
She couldn't really call it a feeling. For she was a nobody, she wasn't able to feel. Right?
"Good", Xemnas's voice was slightly strained, like he didn't want to do what he was doing. "Isolate him until tomorrow."
But still, maybe she didn't feel it, but she thought it was wrong. To lock him up like that. To force him to, when he woke up, face the terrible things he'd done all alone.
"Yes, Superior", Xaldin answered, and Lexaeus let out an agreeing little "Hm".
She couldn't stand it. He was probably going to laugh at her, but..
"Seal him away."
"Wait!" In the corner of her eye, Xeline could see Silexio turn a pair of sparkling eyes at her, and the elder nobody put a calming hand on the little girl's head. "Superior, please wait."
"What now, number XIV?" The voice was.. tried, weary in a strange way that she didn't understand.
"Isn't it a little.. well, cold-hearted to lock him away like this?" Xemnas raised an eyebrow at these words. "I mean, you said yourself he couldn't help it, and.. and we don't know how he'll react tomorrow, when he finds out what happened."
He agreed, she could see it already, and Xeline knew the argument she'd expected wouldn't even take place, for she'd won it.
"It is necessary to keep number VII locked up until we know if he has control of himself when he wakes." He hesitated. It was hardly to be seen, and probably Xeline - the one that stood right in front of him - was the only one that noticed. "But what do you suggest?"
"I.." Xeline didn't really know what she wanted. It just seemed to wrong to do what they were doing, but she couldn't come up with some other solution.
Xemnas cleared his throat, he didn't like people that didn't speak when they'd asked permission to, and been granted.
"Let me stay with him." It was a desperate saving said with proud grace and control, and from the look of his eyes, Xeline could see that her Superior was impressed by her way of suggesting that she would be locked up alone together with a man that might tear her to pieces the moment he woke up. Or, he would've been impressed if he'd been able to.
But the battle was already won, and Xemnas would agree. It he had a soft spot for Saïx, or just realized this was the most humane thing to do was unclear, but he nodded shortly, and gestured to Lexaeus to open the door again.
When Xeline moved through the slim opening between the door and the doorframe, she felt a little jerk in her hair, and a childish voice was raised.
"Sillie too!" A smile touched the female nodoby's lips as the little girl spoke the self-proclaimed nickname that was pronounced as "Silly".
"No, sweetie", she answered, with a voice that would be soft even for a woman capable of feelings. "You need to go back to sleep." She was quiet for a moment and noticed the pout that started to form on Silexio's lips. "But you know what? Why don't you and Xally bake some cookies for Saïx to have when he comes out again? I'm sure he'll be happy."
"Sillie and Xally make cookies for puppy?" She pointed at herself, at Xaldin and at Saïx, as she spoke the names.
"Yes", Xeline nodded. "He will surely be feeling bad when he wakes up tomorrow, so he'll want cookies."
This was the simple logic of Silexio. Someone wasn't all right, so give them cookies. Surely, Saïx could not feel, but the eight year old girl just knew that in theory, and could not translate it to the reality.
"Sillie go make cookies!" The grey-haired nobody threw a fist in the air in a pose that was surely meant to look like a super hero's, but she didn't succeed very well. She looked more like a kindergarten football team player before a match.
Xeline laughed quietly as the little girl ran off, tugging Xaldin along as she went. Then, a cold - no, almost cold, but not entirely - gaze was locked upon her, and Xemnas nodded a little, hasting her to go into the cell.