An uneasy silence fell in the meeting room in the wake of Axel's revelation of the goings-ons at Castle Oblivion. He had given the lot of them the 'abbreviated' version of the events, he would tell Xemnas and perhaps Saix later the full version. None of the remaining Organization members moved for a long moment.

"That's disgusting, I'm sorry you had to go through that," Roxas said finally. His face was scrunched up and contemplative.

"I'm not the one to feel sorry for," Axel laughed.

"Speaking of which, where is Naminé?" Xemnas asked, looking around the room, first at Axel, then at Larxene.

"She disappeared... I think she might have made her escape while we were all busy with Marluxia," Axel answered quickly. Xemnas looked skeptical, turning to look back at Larxene for confirmation. She nodded without pause.

"I didn't see her at all when I was there. By now, she must be with the Keybearer," was the simple reply.

"Speaking of which, what sort of interactions did the two of you have with him?" Xemnas inquired.

"I fought him... twice I believe. And spoke to him on a few other occasions," Axel answered.

"You met Sora?" Roxas interrupted, sitting eagerly on the edge of his chair, eyes glimmering.

"Yeah, I did."

"W... what was he like?"

All eyes suddenly fell on the youngest member of the Organization.

"He was... well..."

"That is enough, Axel. Speak to him no more of this," Xemnas interrupted, so quickly it aroused suspicions.

"Yes, sir."

"One final question, would you happen to know what Sora's plans were after Oblivion, or were you able to glean any information regarding places he would be now?"

Axel seemed to ponder that for a moment, while the Organization watched on in interest.

"No..." he said finally. "No, he said nothing that I could recall from my conversations, but I left before the actual showdown started. Though Larxene I believe was the last one to leave."

Xemnas' eyebrow quirked just the slightest bit. "Last one? I knew you were aided in walking into my room but..." he looked at Demyx. "There was more than the two of you to escape the Castle? I have seen neither hide nor hair of my poor comrades that were living in the basement, so your words that... Riku... Had taken care of them must be true but..."

The room suddenly went tense, and for a moment no one would say anything. Finally, Demyx spoke up, his voice sounding small even to him.

"I sorta... tagged along?"

"Why?" Xemnas asked, crossing his arms.

"I didn't have anything else to do, so I went..." the water elemental explained carefully, readying himself in case he needed to do something like bolt.

Xemnas seemed to ponder that response for a moment, thinking of a way to word it more simply to get a better response.

"Relax, there was no danger," Axel said suddenly, interrupting the coming storm. "You should've seen how fast the two of them put Marluxia down. The way their elements counteracted but worked together knocked him out of commission quickly. All that was left to do was leave him up to the mercy of the Keybearer... and Sora had run out of mercy by then."

The Superior seemed to contemplate over that for a minute, then nodded. "Very well. Axel, if you will come with me to give a full, detailed report. The rest of you may be dismissed."

Roxas was the first one out, fleeing quickly for reasons and places unknown, the others slowly and curiously following him soon after, though they all broke off for their various tasks.

Demyx sighed as he stepped out, grunting slightly at a sudden weight around his shoulders.

"Wonder what's with the kid..." Larxene's voice sounded in his ear. Her weight was forcing him to bend backwards at an uncomfortable angle or risk choking himself.

"If you'd let me walk normally, I might be of some help," he grunted.

"Fine, but..." rather than releasing him, she jumped up on his back, nearly knocking him on his face. "You're carrying me the rest of the way."

"As long as I don't have to get a back cramp before a mission, I'll be happy to," Demyx replied, grabbing her legs and adjusting her weight on his back so he could walk with relative ease.

"So where they got you going?" Larxene asked, almost boredly.

"Some place in the Back O' Beyond... I dunno. It was forested last I checked," he replied, trying to shrug, but finding some difficulty with his shoulders holding so much weight.

"That explains a lot of places," the lightning elemental said dryly.

"I never really bothered to read up on it, or even the mission. I think it said something about some evil bastard who's piqued Xemnas' interest... wants to see what kind of Heartless and Nobody he'll spawn. I dunno, the same as usual. They tell me to go do this mission, that it'll take forever, I end up spending two days just wandering around and fifteen minutes finishing it," Demyx laughed.

"Wow, I wish they would give me something that easy," Larxene mumbled.

"Aww, but then who would be our Heartless Warder?" came the teasing reply. It was promptly followed by a swift punch to the shoulder.

"It's not funny having to do that, you know."

"I know. They usually end up doing that to younger members... except Roxas, but he's the Superior's heart collecting machine."

"Pet heart collecting machine," the Nymph spat angrily.

"Whichever. It's not like we can change that. Nothing short of Roxas just up and abandoning us will alter Xemnas' opinion... and even then he'd probably send us all out on some sort of desperate manhunt," Demyx replied.

They finally arrived at the room, and Larxene jumped off Demyx's back, nearly shoving him into an instrument rack in the process.

"Sorry," she laughed, scratching the back of her head. Demyx took a deep breath to steady himself, then stood upright and shrugged.

With a grin thrown over his shoulder, the water elemental walked over to where two pieces of paper lay on his bed. He picked them both up, looking them over, before holding out what looked like a picture towards Larxene. She snatched it from his hand and looked it over.

"Oh good. This isn't the same place I got sent to," she sighed, rolling her eyes and giving him the picture back.

"It was that bad?" He raised an eyebrow, looking over the notecard.

"That bad? It was worse... there was this stupid little kid in a red fox suit that kept following me around, asking how it was I could make 'the rumbly light'!" the lightning elemental snarled angrily in response, laying a hand over her face. "He would not leave me alone until I showed him how I could make it."

"You fried him, I assume?" Demyx asked, shaking his head and laughing softly.

"Yep. It shut him up really fast. Of course, then I took his heart and watched him turn into the most peculiar Crawler," she shrugged. Demyx raised an eyebrow. "He was still wearing that stupid little fox suit, even as a Nobody. Can't remember what I sent it off to, though. Probably to jump off a cliff or something."

"You don't like kids, do you?" the water elemental asked, suppressing another laugh.

Larxene shrugged in response. "I was never a motherly sort of girl."

"I'll keep that in mind when we get our hearts back and you drag me home with you," Demyx teased. "Besides, I think you'd corrupt the poor thing beyond recognition." He was rewarded with a deadly glare.

He tucked the note card and picture in an interior pocket of his coat, and summoned a portal. A grin alighted his features. "Well, I must be off now. I have a date with a large, burly man."

Larxene laughed and hugged him in response, pushing her fingers into his hair to hold his head in place while she brought her lips close to his ear. "Be careful out there. If you die, I'm going to kick your ass. And then I'm going to fish your pathetic hide out of the darkness and kick your ass again." She moved slightly so her lips could meet his, and they did, with a strange sort of muted desperation.

When it was over, she stepped back, eyes still closed, sighing quietly. Demyx smiled gently and stepped forward, lightly cupping her face with both hands, pressing his forehead to hers. She seemed surprised as he felt her stiffen, but she didn't move. "I'm not going anywhere without you, Larxene." He pressed lips to hers once more, briefly, gently, and this time her response was without any negative feelings.

With that, he released her and quietly stepped through the portal. As soon as it had closed, Larxene let out a shaky sigh, her calm soon turning into a hollow rage. She slapped her right hand over the left side of her chest, trying to direct a glare at the spot her heart should have been. "I hate you, you know that? Your disappearing leads me to the one guy in the entire universe that's not a raging moron... but..." she sighed again, and began walking toward the door, hand dropping limply to her side. "I can't even be in love with him."

-

The portal led to a rather interesting place- in the distance, what looked like a giant wood wall blocked the view of some sort of settlement from which smoke curled from chimneys of log cabins. There were people flitting to and fro like ants, busy with something or another.

The sounds of footsteps approaching caused the water elemental to turn around, just in time to get slapped in the chest by a large, slingshooting branch. It knocked him flat on his back, and he opened his eyes enough to barely catch a glimpse of some dark-skinned woman wearing a strange, tan-colored dressing running through the woods like a graceful deer. He blinked, her voice catching his ears. She was singing about talking to trees and rocks and animals... and they responding. Of course, he thought for a moment it was his ears tricking him, but he wouldn't get the chance to catch more of her voice as the heavy, trudging footsteps of a man wearing thick boots drowned out the singing. The noise came from a strange blond man, who looked very out of place in the forest.

The stranger didn't even so much as spare a glimpse at Demyx, instead he seemed quite transfixed on the fleeing figure of the woman through the trees. That was fine, the guy could have a psychopathic girlfriend. "Better him... than me..." the water element mumbled under his breath, then chuckled at how ridiculous that sounded.

He stood up slowly, using the tree branch that had knocked him flat as leverage, before leaning against the base of it and pulling out the little mission note card, he never had the chance to really read it over before. As he expected, it was another 'get this person and make a Nobody out of them', no frills attached, though it was worded differently than it usually was.

He tucked the card back into its pocket, thinking over the mission even as he followed the trail opposite of the two crazy lovebirds, heading towards the settlement. The snapping of a twig was the only indication he wasn't alone, and suddenly several loincloth wearing men were surrounding him, spears pointed at him. The one with the most clothes- probably the leader, instructed one of the others, a youngster, in a strange, foreign language.

Demyx sighed, letting himself go limp. At least until he felt the cold tip of a spear press under his chin and against his adam's apple. Willing himself not to swallow, he looked up into the cold, dark eyes of the supposed leader.

"You... with... black demons?" the man asked in an incredibly thick accent. Demyx raised an eyebrow trying to figure it out, though he had an idea.

"Black demons? What black demons?" he asked.

"Thieves!" the man grunted. "Steal..." He thumped his chest over his heart.

Oh, the Heartless. "Black demon thieves? I'm not sure what you're talking about... I'm not with them, though. I'm human..."he lied... half-lied. The scantily clad male looked confused. "Human..."

"I speak not White Man. We get one... does," the strange, dark-skinned man said. Demyx sighed softly, but maintained his posture. He could feel another spear digging into each arm and one on the small of his back.

They kept him there like that for what seemed like several hours, until the youngster returned with an older, even more dressed man.

"They say you are with Black Demons," the man said. His accent was still thick, but at least he got most of the sentence right.

"What makes you think that?" Demyx responded, trying to sound surprised.

"You dress all in black and sulk around woods... much suspicion."

He tried to think of an answer that wouldn't end with him getting stabbed. "I'm sorry I caused you worry. I... am... I am a simple villager... my... son died. I am in mourning. We wear all black when we... grieve." God that lie sounded horrible, even to him. But the black haired man nodded and the warriors stepped back slightly.

"White men made path. You not use, why?"

"I... got lost. I was looking for the path... so many trees," Demyx replied with a laugh. "If you could kindly show me the path, I'll be on my way back to the settlement."

The man nodded and pointed somewhere to his left. "Path there. We watch, make sure you go into settlement. Be cautious."

Great... Demyx thought. They're going to make sure I belong there. He didn't know what kind of people lived in the encampment, or even if they'd just throw him right out the minute he set foot in it. This made being watched a dangerous affair.

The warriors made a path for him, moving so it was open only in the direction of the path. Demyx stepped forward, smiling weakly at the leader. The man gave him a scowl in response. He needed to lose his watchers, and soon. He began humming softly as he walked, summoning water up beneath the feet of the warriors. At least the four that had followed him directly- the other two had split off and were watching from somewhere in the bushes. At the same time, he reached out and grabbed the attention of several of his Dancer Nobodies, readying them to be called to him.

"You know," he said, his voice drained of its usual mirth. "You were right to be suspicious, though. Because I'm not with the Black Devils..." He spun around quickly, sweeping his arm across and spraying the men behind him into the air with a burst of water. As the two in the bushes surrounding him sprang forward, he snapped his fingers and his Dancers materialized next to him. His sea green eyes were empty, the sinister looking grin that was his blank Nobody face crept across his lips. "I'm with the White ones."

The two men stopped in their tracks at the sight of the strange, twitching, flexible creatures. Suddenly the writhing creatures descended upon the men, and one screamed. The other four, recovered from their flight quickly tried to scramble together an attack on him, but found themselves beset by another handful of the lesser Nobodies. Screams permeated the air, followed by sickening crunching noises.

Suddenly, another sound rang through the air, dull and fuzzy, but loud enough to easily grab attention from miles around. An alarm. Demyx scoffed, turning to face the encampment, which was now busier than ever, a steady stream of people flowing out of the gates. A gloved hand shot out to his side, and the Dancers stopped their attacks on the strangely tanned people. With a single word, they disappeared.

A portal opened behind the water elemental and he melted back into it, disappearing before anyone from the camp could note his presence. He appeared on a tree branch opposite the large hill he had been standing on previously, arm up and leaning against the trunk while his other hand was on his hip, fingers tapping out the melody singing through his mind. Suddenly, all motion ceased and his grin seemed to get bigger, something malignant flashing in the empty depths of his eyes.

Most of the people had left the camp, and from what he knew, the man whose Heartless he was supposed to attain was a leader there. A good leader wouldn't leave to go fight, not like this. With most people gone, that left the man wide open for attack.

His slight blunder might have just made his mission easier.

With a short laugh Demyx disappeared once more.

-

A/N: THIS is only... what... six-seven days overdue? Apologies. School load went up, but now it's back down again. Yes it is going slightly AU... it might get a touch more AU as the story goes on, but I'm going to keep as close to canon as I can.

I will get the next chapter out within three days on pain of death. You may spam my email with hate if I am late until I do it- you have my permission on this.

Two cookies are going to be awarded per person- one for each of the Disney movies I referenced in here. One is obvious, the other might not be. But you only get it if you get the references right.

Reviewers! I must say, I truly love you all. Keep reviewing. Others who haven't yet- do so. I love hearing what you think. Even if it's 'lolusuck'. It gives me something to laugh at.