"Falcon, wake up," a voice called. Falcon opened her eyes drearily, realized it was only 5, and groaned.
"Go 'way," she murmured, and buried her head in her pillow.
"The Superior wants you up," the voice called again, and as Falcon sat up, she saw Axel standing there in front of her.
"Axel…" she groaned, "can't I sleep?"
"Nope," he replied, "you gotta be up at this time every morning." Falcon groaned again and got up as Axel walked out. She looked next to her to see a pile of clothing. To be specific, it was a completely black shirt with bloodred rhinestones on it spelling Demoness in fancy cursive. Under that, was a pair of black silk pants, flowy and extremely comfortable. Then, the standard Organization XIII black cloak that they all wore. Falcon stood up and pulled it all on. Surprisingly, she fit perfectly into all of it, which she thought was kinda weird. After checking herself in the mirror in the room, she yawned again, wishing more than anything that she could sleep, and walked out of the room.
"There you are, you take a long time," Axel said. With a start, Falcon realized he had just been outside her door the entire time.
"You scared me nii-san," Falcon said, "good morning."
"Morning to you too…" Axel replied, and patted her on the head, "let's go get breakfast before Roxas eats it all." Together they walked to the 5th floor, and helped themselves to heaps of chicken, sandwiches (of which Falcon ate five) and salad. Downing it all with a couple glasses of milk, Falcon sat back and patted her stomach.
"It's been so long since I've had a decent meal," she said.
"You match Roxas in eating ability," Axel said, his eyes wide, "that's amazing." Falcon smiled, and then remembered the girl she had seen.
"Hey, yesterday night a girl came to my room, she said she was the old Namine and that I would be Namine in two days' time, which is tomorrow, and I would be zero, power over all, and yet none. What did she really mean?"
"Exactly what she said," Axel replied, "our old Namine liked to talk in riddles. Basically to clear it up, she meant that tomorrow, you will have your initiation as Namine into our Organization. Everyone is gonna call you either Namine of zero for the rest of your time here."
"But my name is-!"
"I know," Axel said, cutting her off, "but we all have to call you Namine. It's the rules. The Superior said so."
"What about the zero thing? Power over all, and yet none. And she said something like zero overrules all when played second, but when first, is totally useless."
Axel smiled, "you'll just have to figure that out for yourself, got it memorized?" Falcon crossed her arms and gave Axel a hard stare. She had expected Axel to be clear with her if anyone was, and to tell her what was going on. Instead, he was being as evasive as the Namine girl, and she felt betrayed. At that moment, Roxas walked up to them.
"Ah…I'm stuffed," he said.
"Finally," Axel said, rolling his eyes, "I'd swear you have a black hole for a stomach."
"So I heard you met our old Namine," Roxas said, "she was pretty cool."
"What he means by that is he's trying to say he thought she was hot," Axel explained to Falcon, who smirked and nodded. Roxas immediately blushed.
"I-I did not!" he stammered, his face growing red, "we were just friends…"
"Sure…" Axel said, smirking as only he could, "I know what was really going on. You can't hide anything like that from me, got it memorized?"
Nothing particular happened that day, aside from Falcon aimlessly wondering and trying to figure out what Namine meant by the zero thing. It was constantly on her mind and it wasn't helping that whenever she asked Axel, Roxas, or even Demyx, they all smirked and said slyly, "you'll see." The only thing that did brighten her mood a bit was that she figured she would have to find out more about it the next day, that was initiation day. Also, it was her birthday tomorrow, and she would be officially turning ten. She would get her wings tomorrow, but there was nothing to prepare her for the soreness and pain that seared through her back for the entire day, which was part of the reason why she didn't get anything done. She was pained and grumpy when she walked outside that night, intending to sleep in a tree so her wings would have space.
The next morning Axel walked into her room and saw that she wasn't there. He was curious and slightly worried as he walked outside. He hadn't taken two steps onto the castle grounds when he heard an earsplitting shriek. He charged out, recognizing the voice as Falcon's. He watched, horror-struck, from behind a bush as two slits in Falcon's back in the shoulder blade region opened through the skin and fabric of her clothing. She screamed again as her skin split wider, and ebony black dragon wings unfurled through the cloth. Axel remembered her saying something about getting wings on her birthday, but he never thought it would be like this. The wings were developed, though they were still folded and covered in a thick black slime dripping from them. Axel cringed at the sight, it was kind of unnerving. Slowly, still trembling with the pain, Falcon sunk to the ground on one knee, gasping. After staying there for a minute, she slowly stood up and cautiously spread her newfound wings. They did stretch, and so did the black tar stuff, dripping even more, it looked rather disgusting. She flapped her black dragon wings experimentally, and found that they were rather big. With a few powered flaps, she rose into the air, and amazingly, she found that she was very light in the air. She tried some experimental flying, soaring through the air, and doing clumsy loop-de-loops. Her turning was near perfect. She needed to work on the braking in mid-air a bit though, but her weaving through obstacles such as closely knitted trees was flawless. Her sharp turned were good, and as she was flying, the black tar nearly all dripped off, leaving her with smooth black perfect dragon wings. She expected she would need a lot of practice, but it did not seem so. Her landing was almost there, she only stumbled a bit, but other than that, it was perfect.
"That was great!" Axel's voice called out, startling her.
"How do always manage to just appear out of nowhere?" Falcon asked.
"Talent, I guess," Axel replied, shrugging, "that was good flying, I like your wings."
Falcon smiled, "thanks."
"Well, guess what time it is? It's your initiation time, so let's go before the boss blows his top at us," Axel said, leading her up. They met Roxas on their way to the Altar of Naught, and the three of them walked up the long stairs.
"Nice wings," Roxas commented, "I like them."
"Just got them," Falcon said.
"You should've seen her fly," Axel added, "it was great." Roxas nodded appreciatively, and indicated the top of the altar.
"Let's go then," he said.
"Are you sure it's not gonna hurt?" Falcon asked timidly as they walked up the steps.
"It won't, I promise," Axel replied, shaking his head.
"Yeah, you really don't feel anything," Roxas agreed, his slightly spiky dirty blonde hair beginning to sway in the light breeze.
"You're the most important member of the Organization, you know?" Axel said.
"I know," Falcon said, "What do I have to do?"
"Really, you just have to listen to what our boss: Xemnas, tells you. You'll be trained to fight for yourself, and we're gonna need you, 'cause you're the only one of us who actually has a heart," Roxas said.
"So...basically I'm just being used by the Organization because I have a heart?" Falcon asked, "you're gonna draw power from me, aren't you?"
"For a ten year old, you sure can analyze things," Roxas said.
"Comes from being a demon," Falcon replied proudly, spreading her new wings.
"We're not going to draw power from you, but Saix and the others might," Axel said, "they're worse than we are. Especially Saix, if he sees something he can use, he will, and without a second thought, got it memorized?"
"Yeah, but I still think it's unfair that they get to draw power from me just because I have a heart, is that what all Namines do?" Falcon asked, her bright green eyes searching them for the answer.
"Yeah, one after the other, there is a lot in this Organization that's unfair," Axel said, "I've lived with it for a while."
"Hurry up, Axel! Roxas! We're not going to wait forever!" Xemnas's voice called from above. Instantly the three of them broke into a run. Up on the altar, seemingly supported by nothing, the glow of the moon shone onto the 11 other members of the Organization.
"Took you guys long enough," Xigbar said.
"Sorry," Axel apologized, "our bad."
"Let's begin the initiation," Xemnas said, turning around and walking out to the outer edge of the circle. The members of the Organization were arranged in a circle with Falcon in the middle. Axel and Roxas gave Falcon a last thumbs up before the initiation began. Xemnas muttered a few words, and a black shadow aura began to glow around each person. With the moonlight, the shadow auras combined together in the center of the circle right above Falcon's head. A light began to glow around her, and the mass of shadow above her head sent tendrils of darkness down, spiraling and interlocking all around her. When the shadows dispersed, Falcon was still there, but bore a now different aura, the aura of the Organization. In her hand, she held the Fenrir keyblade.
"A keyblade?!" Xemnas exclaimed, "you're a keyblade master?"
"I guess so," Falcon replied, shrugging. Everyone was amazed, and yet very happy. A keyblade master was their new Namine, Organization XII would be undefeatable.
"I deem your new name, Namine," Xemnas said, thus completing the initiation. Instantly everyone crowded around Falcon, questioning her about the keyblade and asking all kinds of things, like how she became its master, and did she know? With a thrust, Falcon took Fenrir and threw it to the ground, where it clattered and spun several meters before stopping, the air was silent.
"All this talk of being the keyblade master and all that is making it seem like your expectations of me are to empower the Organization, which I will not stand for. You keep saying how because of this, the Organization will be great, but what about me? It's like you don't care about me!" Falcon cried, her eyes blazing. No one said anything for a second, Axel and Roxas gulped worriedly, glancing at Xemnas; he could be very unpredictable in his replies.
Xemnas stepped forward, "we do care about you, Namine. We're just saying that having a keyblade wielder as our new Namine is a great step forward for us. You too, shall reap the benefits of this."
Now Falcon seemed to calm a bit, though her eyes were still blazing. With a flash of light, the Fenrir returned to her hand, and she looked at it, examining it, as if this one sword would determine her fate.
"That was a big risk," Axel said as he and Roxas accompanied her back down to her room for a get together randomly. Roxas went to get some food for them, "the Superior is very unpredicatable."
"Well you would've been hell a angry too," Falcon replied, turning the keyblade over and over in her hand. She knew how to swordfight, she had been the best in her village back when her parents had still been alive, better than a lot of the adults. And she learned quickly, "why does the Superior make such a big deal out of the keyblade?"
"Roxas is a keyblade master too," Axel said simply, "and so is Sora, Roxas's other half. Keyblade masters wield great power, and our boss wants that power, got it memorized?"
"Do you say that a lot?" Falcon asked.
"What, got it memorized?" Axel asked, "yeah I guess, my catchphrase." Roxas came into the room with a platter of food and sat down next to them.
"Awesome, now you're a keyblade master too!" Roxas cried, grabbing a sandwich, "the Superior's really happy. You should've seen him, he was practically singing." Axel and Falcon both laughed as they imagined Xemnas singing.
"Axel! Roxas! Namine!" Xemnas's voice called, "I want you out on heartless duty! The damn heartless have multiplied again, and they're swarming over the castle grounds." Both Roxas and Axel groaned as they stood up.
"What else is new?" Axel asked, "talk about boring with a capital B."
"Yeah," Roxas agreed, "come on Falcon-I mean Namine, I want to see your skills. Show me what you've got, let's go kick some heartless butt."