Vexen walked worriedly down the stairs to his lab, hoping all the while that he would find it still intact. It had been a full 24 hours since he had allowed Xilepphi to attempt to create a new compound there and since then, he had not seen hide nor hair of the man. For everyone else, it was a blessing; it meant that the unofficial member of the Organization would not be randomly appearing to distract them from whatever they were doing and/or blowing up some other part of the castle. However, it usually didn't take him this long to make something new explode and so, Vexen was right to be distressed.
"Hopefully he's gone and blown himself up. Maybe one of his formulas has finally gone wrong." Xigbar had sulked after Number four had announced his destination, rubbing his eye patch as if to remember his most recent game of "Tag" with the explosive expert. The ice element certainly hoped not; it would have left a most horrendous mess and more explosive compounds than Vexen cared to dispose of safely.
He arrived warily at his lab door on one of the lowest floors of the castle. The door was still whole, untouched, and on its hinges. Staring distrustfully at the clean doorknob, Vexen approached it carefully, reaching out and gently turning it. It gave willingly, not hitch or click to indicate some unknown tripwire striking a match to an unknown compound. Opening the door cautiously and peering around it, he was greeted by complete and total blackness....which did nothing to ease his worry. Squeezing through the narrow crack, the ice element slowly began retracing his habit-formed steps, a path designed to keep his precious supplies on their shelves. He headed towards his "Dangerous Chemicals" room, as this was where he had last left the man.
The plexiglass room was dark...like everything else in his lab. Entering the sealed, mostly blast-proof room and closing the door behind him for the safety of the rest of the castle, he pulled out the flashlight he had been saving for such an occasion and scanned the floor of the room. It too was suspiciously clean, except for a few minor black marks he didn't remember. Vexen continued towards the desk he knew should be in the center of the room.
His fears were laid to rest when Number four found the scarlet-haired arsonist bent double over the work bench, carefully measuring out some grayish-silvery powder into a tare, surrounded by various vials and tinted jars filed with a rainbow of ingredients. For a few seconds, the scientist within him nearly screamed at the lack of safety measures: he wore no lab coat, rubber gloves, or even goggles on his head. And then he remembered that none of that really mattered. Plus, this was Xilepphi he was talking about.
"You know, you're going to ruin your vision like that." Vexen chided, flashing the light beam from the explosive expert to his chemicals on the table. The other man suddenly jumped, nearly spilling some of the powder, grimacing.
"And you're ruining my dark vision! Now get out!" Xilepphi snapped at the newcomer, topaz eyes nearly shut against the bright light. He hurriedly returned to his experiment, shuffling the powder back into a neat pile on the tare and setting it aside. Ignoring the command as he rightfully could, the ice element continued over to the table, inspecting its contents as he was pointedly passed over by the red head. Along with the newly side-boarded one, there were three other tares on the table: a large pile of pale blue glowing faintly, almost like paint chips but smaller, a tower of what appeared to be white sand, and one of nearly orange dust that had the consistency of chalk. Turning to the man who was now measuring out gunpowder from a pocket of his flak vest, Vexen pointed to the sand pile and inquired,
"What is this chemical? I'm fairly sure I've never seen anything like it in my lab before."
"Don't touch it!" Xilepphi barked without looking up from his current project. "Don't breath on it, don't look at it, don't blink at it, don't smell it, don't taste it, don't touch it, don't even think about it!" Ending his command by wildly gesturing in Vexen's face with a scoopula, the man tossed his braid back behind him and moved that tare as well to the side of the table.
"Calm down, Xilepphi. I'm just asking you what chemical this is-"
"Do you see this!?!" The bomb expert swung around to face the ice element, holding one of the jars he had picked at random from the table. His frenzied golden eyes were rimmed in a sleep-deprived shade of black. The blond took a step back.
"I don't know what this is," The other man began yelling, "But I bet you anything it's explosive and dangerous. Now if you don't get out of my lab, I will teleport it and a flaming match to your location!!!"
"O-okay, Xilepphi, I'l get out. See? I'm backing towards the door…" Vexen called nervously as he began reversing out of the room, now rather concerned about the red head's sanity. Xilepphi stood there, panting, explosives in hand until Number four quickly shut the door to the Dangerous Chemicals room. Even from behind the thick padding, he could hear a steady stream of Latin cursing as he hurried away.
"Damn, he's twitchy." Vexen muttered as he walked back upstairs, "I wonder what compound's getting his brain in a knot." A muffled explosion suddenly shook the castle, sending him sprawled across the stair, accompanied by a rapid explicative.
"Yes! It works!" Echoed up from the ground floor, followed by a cackle, and Vexen shook his head as he now hurried to report to Xemnas.