So here it is; the final chapter of this story and there is nothing left of Lumaria in there. I've tried to be a bit cleaver with the chapter and made it 11 long for Marluxia either way I hope you all enjoyed it. Much love to all xx
Three weeks had passed since I had completed my first mission and recruited Arlene (or Larxene as she preferred to be called nowadays) into The Organisation and I had rather found a taste for my new life. I found out a short while after I joined that even though Axel had been the one to come and collect me it was actually Xigbar and Xaldin who alerted the Superior to how useful they thought I would be. I don't know what on earth they must have been thinking at the time – they must have known that I was onto The Trio, that's the only reason they could have found interest in my pathetic Other self – but now, after embarking on a few more missions eliminating targets that Xemnas wanted out of the way, I've earned the title 'The Graceful Assassin' and, if I do say so myself, it does rather suit me.
Before I lost my heart to the darkness I was awkward, clumsy and had very little skills other than writing clichéd and overused prose whereas now I'm a much superior version of myself. I'm stronger, faster, more powerful and, quite frankly, better than I had been beforehand. I am no longer held back by insecurities and self-doubt, now if I wanted something I simply took it because I had the power and the ability to kill anyone that stood in my way. Well anyone within reason, there was still the hierarchy within The Organisation to consider and I was still very low down on the ranking list, despite the fact that I wasn't on the bottom rung of the ladder anymore (but that was only because they had been added rather than me moving up).
It bothered me very little at first – I was still new to the powers that I possessed and living without the morality of having a heart holding me back. The more I got to know some of the higher ranking Nobodies, though, the more I was bothered by it. Aside from the Superior none of us were really any more powerful than any of the others; some of us just showed it more than others (that annoyance Demyx still refused to fight anyone or do any real work but contented himself with sitting there all day playing his sitar).
Some of us were more intelligent than others as well. That scientist who spent most of his time locked up in the basement – Vexen – he was a half-wit. Great academic intelligence, yes, but very little in the way of actually knowing anything about what was going on around him. I had no respect for him. I had no respect for Siax either – he was a mindless drone who followed the Superior's every word without question or any original thought of his own, he is nothing more than Xenmas' lapdog. Those two were little more than a joke to me but as they ranked higher than I did I was compelled to show them at least some respect as I would end up dead if I didn't.
There were members of The Organisation that I did get on with, however. I found Xigbar entertaining and Zexion easy to talk to also, much as we had before we joined The Organisation, I still spent a great deal of time with Axel and Larxene. It may have been because we all found we had a taste for killing and causing pain and destruction or it may have been that some very small part of us still remembered what it was like when we had hearts and were friends but that is a very romantic notion. Having said that, these days I've been seeing less and less of Axel since our newest edition to The Organisation arrived.
Roxas, the thirteenth member to join our ranks, wasn't exactly recruited in the same way the rest of us were. I don't know the finer details about it but I've heard rumours that his Other self – a young boy named Sora – did to himself what the rest of us had had forced upon us. I also heard that it was to save a friend of his; how sickeningly sentimental. If that is all it takes for him to want to sacrifice his heart then his life can't have been worth a great deal to him in the first place, although Roxas is easy enough to get alone with. He's rather shy and Axel seems to have fixed himself to the young lad. If nothing else having Axel at his side may prevent the boy from getting killed on his first mission, he only looks like he was about fourteen when he was turned into one of us.
The edition of Roxas has now increased our ranks to thirteen and we were given a new name by Xemnas. Rather than just The Organisation; we are now Organisation XIII:- thirteen of the world's strongest and most powerful Nobodies banding together to wreak havoc and destruction. It was pure perfection.
As for my Other self, I no longer heard him inside my head anymore; the one who I used to be was no longer there, replaced only with darkness. I no longer hear his thoughts inside my head anymore and he no longer fights back against my actions. I'm finally free from who I used to be and I'm happy…or I would be if I could feel happiness. I like not having him there in the back of my mind as it means there is nothing to hold me back anymore, not that he really held me back to begin with it was just vastly more irksome having him there trying to stop every single thing I wanted to do.
A gentle hand on my shoulder brought me out of my thoughts. I turned round and saw Larxene standing behind me. I smirked at her, how unlike her to approach so quietly – as The Organisation's only female she certainly has no problem with making her voice heard. She cast a quick glance around her to make sure that the two of us were alone. We were; I very rarely spent time with the other members unless it was her or Axel.
When she was satisfied that we were alone she leaned forward and kissed me heatedly before sitting on one of the chairs next to me. That was one thing that always made me laugh; since we had both been turned into Nobodies, whereas I had been infatuated with her now she was the one who was always chasing after me. Oh, she was able to hold her own in a fight and had even gone a few rounds with some of the strongest members and come away with only a couple of cuts and bruises but I was the one she always went running to when she wanted to feel like a woman. I was happy to oblige of course – heart or none, she was still stunning and I was still a man.
"Hey." she purred as she gazed deeply into my eyes, hers burning with lust and desire. "What are you thinking about?"
"Me?" I asked before shrugging and turning to stare out of the large window in front of me. "Nothing."
"You sure?" she asked. "Cause it looked like you were deep in serious thought for a moment there."
"It's nothing important." I told her. "I suppose I was just reminiscing."
"About before?"
"Yes." I replied. "The memories are a little hazy but they're still there nonetheless."
"Yeah…" she murmured. "Mine are like that too and sometime I still get thoughts that aren't my own. I mean they are my own but they're from before."
"That will fade in time." I told her. As I looked over at her, it was only then that I noticed the small cut on her cheek and the dark purple beginnings of a bruise under her left eye. I reached over and brushed the cut with my thumb, she winced slightly. "What happened?"
"Got into a fight with Xaldin." she mumbled looking away. I chuckled, leaning back in my chair. I didn't even have to ask how it had happened.
"What did he say this time?"
"He kept calling me 'Princess'." she growled. "He knows how much it annoys me."
"You really need to learn to control that anger of yours." I stated.
"Yeah well they need to not piss me off so much." she shot back. I chuckled again; she really was something else, gentle with me one minute then like a demon with anyone who dared rub her up the wrong way the next and I could see her beginning to get angry now. It was very rare that she did turn her anger on me and when she did it always ended in rough, very satisfying sex. I could rile her up even more and indulge her but I think I'll save that particular pleasure for when I can really make her angry.
"Where's Axel?" I asked after a moment's pause.
"Still with the blond zombie." she stated, returning to her somewhat normally calm self. I laughed.
"Now, Larxene, that's hardly nice." I told her. She shrugged.
"Whatever, he is a zombie." she stated. "I took him on a training mission the other day, freaky kid didn't say a word to me. He just stood there staring off into space the entire time apart from when he was fighting."
"He does have a tendency to do that on occasion." I mused.
"Tsk, try all the time." she corrected.
"When I took him training he seemed perfectly amiable." I stated. "Maybe he's just not used to women of your calibre."
"Kid does scream virgin." she agreed.
"Now," I smirked, silently agreeing with her. "that's hardly fair, the boy's only about fourteen after all."
"Is it wise for him to be hanging out with Axel then?"
"My, my, Larxene do you actually care?" I asked in mock surprise. She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her head away like a petulant child.
"Of course I don't. I just don't think Axel is the world's greatest role model." she growled.
"If he can get the boy to open up then I don't see the harm in their little friendship." I stated.
"I guess so." she shrugged. "Most of the time he's so zombified the only person who can ever get any sense out of him is Axel anyway and that's because he's just as damaged as he is."
"Axel isn't damaged." I laughed. "He's just eccentric."
"He's a pain." she stated.
"Maybe so but he does have his uses." I smirked.
"I guess he does." she replied, her smirk matching mine as she realised what I was thinking. "By the way," she added after a pause. "Superior wants to see you, me and the pyro about a new mission to Castle Oblivion."
Ah Castle Oblivion. A stronghold overrun by Heartless that Axel, Zexion and I took over for The Organisation. We eradicated the vermin and, as reward for leading the attack and taking down the largest of the Heartless, the Superior named me the master of the Castle. That suited me nicely; it allowed me to have somewhere to hide out when I had had enough of the other Nobodies and it was satisfying to be the master of somewhere. Any chance I had to go there I took it so being sent there by Xemnas was a lucky break for me, especially as it kept me away from his watchful eye.
"Did he say what it was for?" I asked. Larxene shrugged.
"Said he'd only say it to all three of us," she stated. "but I'm guessing it's something big for him to send all three of us in the first place."
"Then it should be something interesting then." I smirked.
"Oh it's big." Larxene smirked back. "I heard Zexion, Creepy Vexen and that weird tall one who doesn't say anything talking about their own mission to Castle Oblivion."
"What?" I asked suddenly angry. Did that single minded cretin think that this mission was too much for us? That it was too much for me? I was the damn master of that Castle, I could do whatever I pleased there and I needed no one to fight with me. Larxene seemed to sense my anger for she got up and slid onto my lap, slipping her arms around my neck.
"Relax," she purred. "it's nothing to do with our mission. It's their own separate crap, nothing to do with us."
"Good." I replied somewhat pacified. It annoyed me that the thought of having to play nicely on a mission with six of us to what is my Castle made me angry. Of course these weren't real emotions (I could no longer feel anything anymore) but the ghost of some of the stronger ones – hatred, anger and, dare I say, even love hadn't quite gone away yet. Although I was told by Zexion that even those would fade in time it's just that they were the most prominent among humans so they were the ones that faded the last.
Xemnas's lack of faith most definitely made me angry. I had more skills and was deadlier with a weapon than Vexen and Zexion (although I must admit that I was very surprised when I discovered what he could do with that lexicon of his). I also knew my way around Castle Oblivion without even trying – there was no possible way that I could get lost in its halls – yet he favoured the higher ranking Nobodies much more than the rest of us even if they lacked the skill and ability to get the job done.
It had occurred to me for quite some time now that despite the goal that Xemnas had been striving towards since he first began recruiting for The Organisation being easily attainable in my opinion, especially now that we had one with the power over the Keyblade that Roxas possessed, we were still no closer to achieving it. This is because Xemnas doesn't know how to use people to their full potential and he lets cowards and fools like Vexen and Demyx live when he should have turned them into Dusks a long time ago.
Now if I was the Superior I would take a very different approach to attaining Kingdom Hearts. Firstly I would do away with any members that were holding us back (and Siax; even though he's a good fighter he's a cretin and impossible to live with) and then use the skill of the others to the best of their ability and take down any adversary that stood in our way. If I were the Superior…but that doesn't sound like such an insane idea. I could easily run this Organisation and take over from that fool Xemnas all I would need is someone to be my second in command…
"Hey," Larxene's voice brought me back to the conversation at hand. "Marluxia are you ok?"
"What?" I asked turning to look at her.
"You were really quiet for a long time there." she stated. "What were you thinking about?" I felt the corners of my lips quirk up into a smirk. Now this is what I needed – a second in command who would blindly follow my every order and do what I told them to regardless of how crazy or dangerous it might sound. Larxene was definitely the woman for the job; she had the skill in a fight and she had the brutality to murder without question but she also had the willingness to follow my every word and not question me as she knew that she would get sex out of it if she did.
"How would you like to be Queen of this Organisation?" I asked.
"What?"
"How would you like to be my second in command? We'll overthrow Xemnas and that subhuman Siax and we shall run Organisation XIII."
"Are you crazy?" she asked pulling away from me slightly, staring at me as if an extra eye had opened up in the middle of my forehead. "You can't actually mean that."
"But I do." I smirked slipping my hand up her back to grab a handful of her hair. She gasped softly as I gave it a small tug, pulling her head back with it.
"Think of it," I whispered against her skin as I leaned closer to the column of her neck. "you and I ruling side by side as the leaders of this Organisation. Whatever we wanted we just took for ourselves." She let out a soft whimper as a grazed my teeth against her collar bone. "It would be so easy; taking Xemnas down and anyone else who stood in our way, we could have everything we want."
"What about if we fail?" she half moaned as I sucked on her earlobe before dragging my teeth across it as well. "If anyone finds out we'll be dead for sure."
"Don't worry," I whispered softly in her ear before pulling back slightly so that we were nose to nose. "I already have an idiot lined up to take the fall, a redheaded pyromaniac idiot. This plan is fool-proof, there's no way we can fail." A smirk of her own spread across her beautiful face and I was about to lean in and kiss her when a sudden sharp pain seared to life in the front of my head, one I hadn't felt for a very long time. I raised my hand to my forehead and clutched it, trying to ride out this sudden onslaught of inexplicable agony.
"Marluxia?" Larxene asked, concerned, as I sat there holding my skull as it felt like it was being ripped apart from the inside out. I hadn't felt pain like this since I had first turned into a Nobody and I had no idea where it could possibly be coming from. Then all of a sudden the pain disappeared almost as suddenly as it had started. "Are you ok?" she asked again when I didn't move. I shook my head and looked up at her, smirking as if nothing had happened.
"So are you in?" I asked. She stared at me for a moment, waiting to see if I would collapse again but nothing more happened so she slammed her lips against mine, sealing our deal with a rough, heated kiss. With her at my side taking over The Organisation and getting rid of Xemnas was going to be easy and there was no one who could stop me.
.
.
.
Somebody…please…kill me…