Episode Three: Suspicions

Xemnas had been waiting for his chief spy to return for a few days now. He mostly just stayed in his room, only coming out when needed. Everyone else ran around, busy with their daily tasks, but Xemnas sat there with his notes on Maleficent, making notations and corrections as new thoughts came to him.

Tired of being in once place, Xemnas took a walk. He did this sometimes these days when he could look no longer at his book of Maleficent, full of gaps and empty space. As he walked through the halls, he sauntered past a closed door. From behind this door, he thought he heard his name, so he slowed and stopped by the door to listen.

"Xemnas," it was Saïx speaking, "seems distracted recently. I don't know, he's a bit snappy and always has a look of discontent in his eyes."

"Maybe he's really a woman," Xemnas could hear Larxene's voice now, "I know I act wacky around that time of the month."

"Naw, he's been acting like this for a while now," this was Xigbar.

At this, Xemnas began walking again. He couldn't listen anymore.

He knew he had been acting suspiciously, but he hadn't realized that the others would notice. It was just one of those things he hadn't thought of. Another complication. He had to be more careful now, start acting like his old self.

But could he go back to the way he was? That was before he felt her presence… seen her face…

No, but he didn't have to go back to the way he was, he just had to act as if he had. Xemnas had never had much practice pretending to be something he wasn't any longer, but he had to try. And he had to start now.

Xemnas turned around and walked back toward the room from which he heard the voices.

"What're you all doing? Shouldn't you be working!" Xemnas said, bursting in through the door.

"Well, it's lunchtime," Axel explained, indicating toward his empty plate and everyone else's full plate.

"Oh, well, carry on then," Xemnas replied, going out the door. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Axel make the crazy sign with his finger.

Well, he thought, that was a disaster. So much for acting like my old self.

So Xemnas continued to walk down the hall, thinking about how he could manage acting like himself. It seemed that it would have to be a gradual process, he first needed to calm himself down. He had been on his toes ever since he started feeling Maleficent's eyes on him. He needed to find some way to relax.

Knitting? No, that would be too weird, and he would seem far from normal when the rest of the Organization started noticing scarves, hats, and sweaters piling up. Crossword puzzles? Nope, puzzles like that just made him even more aggravated. Various thoughts and ideas pranced through his head, and he finally decided on yoga. It would relax him and, as an added bonus, help keep his body supple. Xemnas would kill two birds with one stone.

So he went off to the library and got a beginners book on yoga. Xemnas came back to his room and started flipping through the pages, wondering how he would ever get his body into some of the positions toward the end. One resembled a certain French pastry whose name had slipped his mind at the moment.

Xemnas then decided that he should start reading the introduction, even if he wasn't going to start today. He read about yoga's uses and advantages, the correct breathing patterns, and other such things. As far as introductions go, this one was fairly interesting. As he finished reading, he felt something he hadn't in weeks: the feeling that he had finished and accomplished something.

When putting the book down, he decided that it would be a good time to go to sleep, as it was quite late. At nearly the same time as he felt Maleficent's eyes leave him (they had been watching for a little while now) Xemnas heard a knock on the door. Startled by both events, he didn't say anything at first, but when the rapping continued, he told the person to come in.

If Xemnas was startled before, he was in shock now. For in the threshold was someone he would not expect in an epoch. Although a lot tidier and less chunky than the pictures his chief spy had gotten him while searching for information on Maleficent, Xemnas was certain he knew who the large figure before him was. And it was not someone he particularly wanted to meet.