Kingdom Hearts: System X

By Christine Lennoire

Beta: Bakageta

Summery: "Nobodies that heartless.." and no, I didn't make a grammar error. Hearts are corrupted. Heartless nobodies? Who in the hell is System X? It's from the King... But Ansem... Roxas... Sora... But he's my friend! Kingdom Hearts... Keyblade. They're... smart! They came after me... It's him... They're working together... We have to do something...

a new journey has begun

Chapter Eight: Prince #4

Sora and the others waited pretty patiently. Days passed without any sign of their friends return. After the first week, they finally started to get worried about their well being. It was pretty weird for them to be gone so long, even if they went all the way to Disney Castle. Still, it would be three more weeks until they finally got their long awaited response... although, it wasn't what they had expected... Not. At. All. Riku quickly ripped it open and read it aloud for everyone who couldn't crowd close enough to see the writing. It certainly wasn't the King's handwriting...

Hey, guys

Long time no see. We missed you so much that we just had to drop in. But all we found were these two guys and your pathetic King. So we're still waiting for you. If you want your friends and King back, you'll come pay us a visit, okay? Thanks.

Love ya,

Roxis and Rath

Riku shook his head and threw the letter down. "Damn it! They caught us. And we were so close." Kairi sighed and walked over and picked up the letter from the ground. Riku sighed. "What now? We have to go get Donald and Goofy. Not to mention the King. Who knows what Roxis and Rath could do with them. And we can't let the System win. Not now!"

Kairi patted him on the shoulder. "But what if we can't defeat them? We can't let them get us too! If we lose and they get Sora and Roxas... then it's game over! And not just for us... EVERYONE!" Kairi said, sitting on her bed and throwing her hands up in the air. Lae sunk down to the floor with a defeated look on her face. Sora growled angrily and took the letter from Kairi, reading over it a second time, rather quickly.

"But if we don't, it won't matter, so we have to!" Sora shouted. "They are our friends! We have to protect them! No matter what stands in our way..." Riku sighed.

"Still... I think you're forgetting one thing..." Riku added, pointing out the window. "Donald and Goofy took our only means of transportation. There is no way that we could get to Disney Castle, even if we wanted to!" Lae stood up and ran to the door, peeking out the small window in awe.

Lae grinned. "Don't count on it! I think Chip and Dale escaped!" she said excitedly, looking back at the others. Everyone ran out to see the Gummi ship hurtling towards them. Demyx grinned and started running.

"WATCH OUT EVERYONE!" He shouted, ducking behind a bush. Roxas and Axel jumped back and the Gummi ship landed between the three nobodies and the others. "Eep." Demyx said, looking out from behind the bush and grinning. Roxas and Axel glared at the wimp who saved himself... 'the scardy cat' Roxas thought to himself in a very annoyed manor.

The door opened, but Chip and Dale weren't the ones to come out. A boy stepped out – a boy wearing the black robe of the Organization. Demyx stood up quick and brushed himself off. He looked completely abashed. "Z-zexy!" he ran over to meet the other boy. He looked completely tired and beaten. His face was weary and there were bruises all over. Sora just looked at him, completely confused.

"Who!" Sora asked, looking at the strange silver haired boy.

Axel grinned playfully. "Ah! Hey Zexy! How'd you end up in our ship, falling through the sky? And you look like you just went through a terrible fight... or a tornado. I'm guessing the tornado, since you 'don't fight'." Axel chided, lowering his face to Zexion's height. Zexion appeared very annoyed. Very. Annoyed.

"Don't call me that." he said, limping towards Axel as Axel raised his head, and standing right next to him – which was an awfully fun sight, considering Zexion's nose came to Axel's chest. But he looked pretty fierce, standing there like that. Axel laughed and messed up Zexion's already disastrous hair. Demyx decided that Zexion had a nice break and that he could now...

'Glomp' him. It was like a hug, but much more quick and practically had Zexion crashing to the floor under Demyx's weight. Luckily, he was able to lock his knees and force himself upright again. Most of the members in Organization XIII hated Demyx. Mostly because he was the weakest of them all. But Axel and Roxas were nice to him. And Zexion didn't seem to hate him or love him. Either way, it was the same to him, and he put up with the crazy blonde – which led to Demyx's fondness of him, because he was the only person above Axel who didn't despise him.

There was this fascination with him... not to mention that a lot of the others considered Zexion weaker that Demyx even, only because he chose never to fight. So why did he look like he just fought the System AND all the heartless, eternals, and nobodies that probably crowded Castle Disney at this time...?

"You okay?" Demyx asked, using his height and current location (hugging Zexion) to bend down and be able to see Zexion's face. He looked like he was trying very hard not to kill Demyx. If Demyx had a heart and could feel fear – well, let's just say he would have run for the nearest hiding spot a long time ago, but since he didn't – he continued to hug the shorter man and smile.

Zexion wrenched himself free of Demyx and scowled. "No. And neither are any of you." he said seriously, looking around. "System X has captured the king and his queen. Not to mention that the castle is horded with eternals and heartless. The nobodies are remaining outside the castle... trying to make sure that nobody even makes it inside."

Sora grinned. "That just means one thing!" he said, looking around at all his friends, who all nodded in agreement.

"RESCUE MISSION!" They all shouted confidently. Zexion twitched, unsure if they WANTED to die, or if they had yet to fully grasp what he had told them... or perhaps they were just all plain crazy. Still... there were a lot of them... maybe...

He was being positive... Zexion shook that thought quickly.

"How could you possibly hope to survive all that AND save your friends? It's ludicrous. What you need is a plan." he said in a matter-of-fact way, hoping to persuade them to see some sense and decide to forget that imbicile plan of just barging in and...

Demyx laughed. "We aren't going to 'just barge in there'! Of course, we need to hurry. You of all people know that! Planning... that's what we have you here for!" he grinned. "You are our great tacticion. I know you can come up with something by the time we get there!" he said. Zexion just glared at him.

"Then that's settled! Let's get the Gummi Ship up and running!" Kairi shouted, being the first one on board. With a shout of 'Coming!' Riku and Lae followed her aboard. Axel and Roxas followed close behind, with Demyx squealing in a false kind of happy, behind them. Zexion continued to stand there. Sora stared at him.

For a moment, a staring contest had begun. Finally, Zexion was the one to look away. "I can see the changes..." he said sadly. "None of them are the same. I didn't want to admit it, but... it seems I have been fooled. It seems... that I have a heart, and that those horrible people are really after it. Not to mention that Demyx and Axel have had their taken already. With... Demyx... it is all too obvious. He's not... happy... anymore." he said softly, trying to hide all emotion.

Sora smiled at the silver-haired nobody. "Yeah, you're right. But that doesn't mean a thing! We're going to beat this... together." he said. "Zexion, right?" he asked. Zexion nodded, eying the Keyblade master. "Nice to meet ya!" he grinned, holding out his hand.

Zexion stared at it for a moment, before reluctantly taking it and shaking hands with him.

"So... RESCUE MISSION!" Sora shouted, climbing aboard. Zexion watched him go and sighed, following behind him and jumping up onto the ship again. This was going to be one hell of a fight. And Zexion had about an hour to perfect the plan that would keep them all from dying...

"Joy." he grumbled, reluctantly sitting next to Demyx and trying to work out his plan -while- dealing with Demyx, who kept talking to him and distracting him from his work.

Finally, he had an idea... so crazy that it just might work.

Yay, new chapter! Whaddaya think? Hope you're liking it. Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying it and following along. Please, keep reviewing and I hope to hear from some new people too! Constructive criticism is accepted and taken seriously. Reviews make me update faster.

Cupcakes for all my former reviewers – and here's a pan for all of you I know will review after you read this!

Christine Lennoire