A Dusk was the first to alert Larxene to the presence of the Keybearer, appearing in the Beast's room near the door and moving in a more sporadic way than most Dusks were wont to do. She waved it off and stepped towards the beast, hand lightly fingering at what used to be a beautiful canopy over what had probably been a magnificent bed. Of course, the bed chambers she was now in were quite... smaller than what she was used to. A castle this size's lord's chambers should've been much larger and much more grandiose, even if the Beast's temper had caused him to ruin it.

She turned back to the imposing, furry figure standing before the window and growling. She'd managed to get him to a point where she didn't need to remind him of Belle's good health being very dependent upon his actions, and it seemed he had even begun to appreciate the favor she was doing him.

"Beast, you ugly thing," She began, the way she always did. "Such a disgusting waste of flesh. What are you thinking, coddling that insipid rose? Do you still possess hope that your woman out there will, in any way break this spell you're under?" She laughed then, that cold, haughty laugh that just barely moved the cover from the well of her sadism. "I know her type, Beast. I am her type. Conniving. Scheming. Backstabbing. Traitorous."

Larxene circled in front of the Beast, head turned just enough that she could see the way his lips pulled back in a snarl at her words. She stopped, turning around on the opposite side of the monster from where she'd been standing. "It's time you dealt with her. She's plotting against you, and you know it. First, she'll steal your heart, and smash it to pieces against the ground." As if to emphasize her point, the Nymph slammed her foot down. "Then, while you're helpless, she'll take your rose. Your castle. Your life. And you will lay there, whimpering at her feet like the wounded animal you are. Unless..." she pointed a single finger up towards the ceiling as though what she was about to say was some ground-breaking information. "You keep your rage held tightly about you. It will protect you... make you strong."

The Beast let a slow, growling sigh. "I've had enough of 'strength'... I am tired. Keeping myself so full of hate leaves me so... empty and tired. All I want is-"

"-Love?" Larxene interrupted, snapping the word out so quickly she couldn't hide the jealousy obviously wound tightly about it. She composed herself, scowling deeply. "To love her and be loved in return?" She laughed. "You have less of a heart than I, animal. Who could possibly love a beast... and how could a beast possibly love?"

The Beast turned around swiftly, roaring at the entrance to the room, and Larxene noticed the Keybearer had arrived, ahead of schedule. She frowned, and looked at the Beast. "And look now, she has hired henchmen."

With a swift movement of her hand, Larxene placed a temporary magical barrier about the room, and teleported just outside the room, to the balcony, peering in through the large glass windows at the slaughter about to take place and seating herself on the railing. Just as she expected, the Beast tossed the Keybearer and his friends about like rag dolls for several minutes, until finally the boy and his friends were on their last legs. The lightning elemental bit her lip and smiled, leaning forward slightly to get a better view of the bloodbath about to take place.

But the Beast stopped, clawed arm raised high in the air, just above the Keyblade master's head.

Larxene felt the excitement she'd been feeling suddenly deflate, and she frowned. "Beast... what are you doing? Kill him..."

The clawed hand raised once more, and the smile slowly began to reappear on the Nymph's face, but it was killed for good when the clawed hand lashed out, only to grab the boy by the front of the shirt and haul him up and to the bed, where he was laid out on a clear spot to rest. The Beast turned to look out of the windows at her, and she could see the triumphant defiance in his eyes, and that brought forth her own animalistic growl of anger.

She slammed her hand into the railing so hard it hummed briefly before, frustrated and enraged, she teleported away, back to The World That Never Was.

Of course, she had to teleport back in when there was no one still in the Castle but Luxord, which was both a blessing and a curse. No one around meant no one to bother her, but since Demyx was gone that she could tell, she'd have nothing to do after she figured out her scheme.

Oh well. She stalked into her room, her ego sore and her temper raised.

-

Demyx, however, found himself in some creepy underground cave system, on the lam from some quite pissed off 'deities'. Which, much to his chagrin, the leader of was a damned good shot with bolts of lightning.

So he was now hiding somewhere in the Underworld, which was actually where he wanted to be as he needed to get something from the person that apparently ran the place. He didn't know why Xemnas wanted something as inane as a tiny figurine, but something told him that wasn't what Xemnas was after at all. He'd heard something from Xigbar about the Keybearer heading towards this particular world. And, of course, another part of his mission conveniently had to be about if the Keybearer were to show up to try and coax Roxas out of him.

Which, Demyx knew, was completely ridiculous. But, a command is a command, and it wasn't as if he was powerful enough to take on Xemnas alone. So he'd do what the Superior said. Or attempt to.

Quietly, he snuck his way down the long, winding corridors making steadily for his destination, and trying to ignore the fact this place was completely giving him the creeps. He pulled his hood up as he continued farther, though the place looked empty he didn't want to take the chance that the wrong person spot him. That and... it was quite cold in this place. Cold as death.

His destination loomed before him far too quickly, and he took a moment to gather his wits about him before stepping inside, sneaking his way to the god's chambers. Unfortunately, someone was home.

Swallowing back the sudden lump in his throat, Demyx steeled his nerves and set forward. The god's hair was made of fire... and fire was naturally weak to water... which meant he had some sort of advantage here. With one hand, he lightly touched the stone in his pocket, feeling its renewing surge of energy. He didn't know why such a stone was a necessity, but he figured whatever it did was necessary.

The tall, dark figure before him turned around, casting an only slightly surprised look in his direction. "Well, what do we have here? A pint-sized evil doer? Or perhaps a short, dark, and handsome hero?"

Yes, Demyx knew he wasn't all that tall. But what the strange deity before him was saying irked him slightly, so his response was slightly snipped. "I'm here for the Tempus Statue."

Hades laughed, rolling his eyes and turning back, waving Demyx off with one hand. "I don't want to deal with you, kid. Go away."

The Nocturne squeezed his eyes shut against the angered frustration he could feel nagging at the back of his mind. "Well, then I'll just have to take it..." He pulled his sitar quickly from seemingly nowhere to in front of him, letting it float in the air in front of him so he could use both hands to play. His voice had dropped back into its eerie deeper tone. "Dance, water. Dance."

The water hit the fiery deity with a rather impressive splash, and even managed to knock the tall thing forward a couple steps. Not only that, it put the man's fire-hair out.

There was a highly awkward silence that followed the attack, before Hades turned around, more than slightly irritated but very, very unharmed. "That was cold." He snarled and almost before Demyx could put up any defense, hurtled a fire blast at the water elemental that would've made Axel jealous. He barely managed to get the sitar up before the blast hit him, and then only barely managed to maintain footing against the intense pressure.

When all was said and done, Demyx was left sore and panting, with the sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach that he was far outmatched. Hades took a moment to glare down at him, and Demyx took that one opportunity to do the only thing he could in this situation- run. The sitar disappeared as the water elemental took flight, going as fast as he could before Hades could catch up to him. Though, it wasn't Hades that soon became his top pursuer, but the three-headed guard dog that Xigbar had briefly mentioned something about the last time they'd talked.

So he fled, until he was through the giant doors that led back to the strange 'main' area of the Underworld where he'd started. He paused to look around, trying to calm his breathing again. There was another gate before him, one that was far back behind a short wall of fire. That would be a good place to wait out the gods' wrath, he figured, and so he stepped forward, bringing his weapon back to the fore.

"Hey! Who are you?"

Demyx froze, literally locked up, his earlier fright coming back to haunt him in a pale echo of its previous fury, and it took him a minute of berating himself for being so jumpy before he turned around to see a pint-size goat-thing glaring up at him.

"I asked ya a question," it said, crossing its arms and screwing its face up as it tried to look tough, angry, and inquisitive all at once.

Demyx didn't say a word, he just blind-sided the goat in the head with the back of his sitar, and quickly turned back. If that goat was here, others would be soon to follow. He quickly put the flames out with a short burst of water and jogged through, wanting to get as far away from this place as possible.

This time, he wandered more slowly and carefully, ignoring the Heartless along the way as they ignored him. It wasn't as if he had anything they wanted. As he walked, he let his mind wander, and wasn't surprised when it all came back down to him wanting to get the hell out of this frigid hell hole and back home. He was just standing in front of a large door trying to figure out how to open it- and also about what Larxene might be doing at the moment- that he almost didn't hear the footsteps approaching until the owner of them was right behind him.

"...Eh?" he turned around slowly, eyebrow raised though he knew the boy standing across from him couldn't see. "Wait a sec..." He blinked. Wow, the resemblance between the Keybearer and the Key of Destiny was highly uncanny. He hadn't noticed it before in Castle Oblivion, but now he did quite well. "...Roxas?"

They Keyblade master gave him the strangest look. "Excuse me?"

Demyx laughed. He had to. The kid's voice just cracked as he said it, forcing it a whole octave and a half higher. Sora glowered at him.

"Wow. I was... not expecting you to be so..." Demyx continued, waving his hand as he tried to think of the word.

"So... what?" Sora questioned hesitantly.

"Short."

Sora's glare returned in full force, as he drew his Keyblade. "What?!"

"Naw, not short. You're just so... small," Demyx laughed and waved his hand again, but stopped to rest his hands on his hips. "Whatever the case, Roxas! If you can hear me! What the hell, dude!"

Sora blinked in confusion, but readied the Keyblade, settling himself into his usual fighting stance.

Demyx sighed and pulled out the note card, flipping his hood back as he did so to see the card better. One thing he hated about having the hoods up on the coats was that it made it hard to see. "What the heck did this say... something, something... aggression to liberate his true disposition. Great. I'm just the person they need for this." He didn't try to hide the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Oh well. Aggression it is." With a single motion the sitar was out and in playing position, and Sora was at the ready. Demyx smirked. "Dance, water! Dance!"

Of course, the fight was anything but epic, Demyx simply throwing up a simple challenge for the Keyblade Master to overcome, and unfortunately managing to get himself hit more than a couple times in the process, one particularly vicious strike sending a screaming pain through his shoulder. When all was said and done, the Nocturne was left cradling his abused shoulder, and trying not to let the pain show through to his face. "Damn... Roxas! Come back!" he dropped his voice to murmur. "We need your help more than ever, now..." And with that, he teleported out.

Sora was left quite confused by the eccentric man, but shrugged and continued.

Demyx, on the other hand, found himself once again leaning heavily against a wall, pressing the side of his head against the cold, smooth surface, clutching at his shoulder. He was almost not taken by surprise by something warm closing over his raised hand. Almost. As it was, he tensed, which was a mistake, the injured muscles in his shoulder throbbing angrily and nearly forcing his knees out from under him.

"Woah, calm down Demyx."

The voice was Larxene's, and he nearly collapsed backwards into her out of relief. Instead, he turned around quickly and smiled. "When did you get back?"

"After that stupid runt and his friends decided to crash my party at the Beast's castle," Larxene waved her hand dismissively. "Most of my hard work to getting that monster into a powerful Nobody was erased in like... three minutes by that kid."

He laughed at that, before noting that Luxord was standing just behind Larxene. He nodded and smiled at the older man in greeting. "Hello, Luxord."

"Good day to you, Demyx. If, indeed, this world possesses such a thing as 'day'," the Gambler replied with his own nod.

Demyx attempted something of a one-armed shrug. "Hey, is doctor Axel around?"

Both Luxord and Larxene went silent at that, almost as if waiting for the other person to say something first.

Finally, Larxene got frustrated and spoke, cradling her forehead with a hand as she did so. "No. Axel left."

The Nocturne raised an eyebrow. "As in he left the Organization or he's out on assignment?"

"Well, he hasn't entirely 'left' the Organization perse," Luxord explained slowly. "But he's become very unpredictable and has been disappearing for long periods of time without warning or not completing his missions right. The Superior sent Saix to watch after him."

"Ouch, babysat by the Berserker," Demyx winced.

"Well... Xemnas doesn't want to lose Axel. He knows too much," Luxord continued. "His nose is too far into matters for him to be expendable or to just be written off as 'traitor'. As of right now, he's supposed to be looking into kidnapping Sora's little girlfriend and bringing her back here to provoke the Keybearer into killing more Heartless."

Demyx frowned, his mental processing clear on his face. "But won't irking Sora just make him try to kill us? What if he finds his way here?"

Luxord fell silent for a moment, contemplating. "I don't know."

Larxene rolled her eyes. "As long as we've got the girl, I don't think he'll do anything to try and hurt us. We've got him under our thumb for as long as we've got her here. All it will take are some non-empty threats and he'll dance to any tune we play." She emphasized her final point with the wiggling of her fingers as if she were playing a piano.

Demyx sighed. "Assuming Axel doesn't decide to take a detour to find Roxas again." The Gambler raised an eyebrow in inquiry, but Demyx gave him a deadpan stare until Luxord's look returned to normal. "You know that's what Axel is doing."

"But retrieving Roxas is your job," Luxord stated simply, feigning ignorance.

"Retrieving Roxas is all of our jobs. None of these 'missions' are actually missions at all," The Nocturne turned his back on the Gambler and began to walk away. The Nymph followed him, deep in thought.

"These missions are suicide, you know this, right?" Luxord called after a moment.

Demyx sighed, his shoulders sagging. "I wish they weren't."

"The Superior wants his Key back," Larxene said without missing a beat on the tail end of the water element's statement. "Even if that means sacrificing every last one of the rest of us to do it... I wish I could care enough about it to feel angry instead of just... defeated." She threw a look back at Luxord, who nodded.

"The Superior is no longer... stable. Watch yourselves," He warned, before a dark portal swirled open around him and swallowed him.

It was then Demyx started laughing, shaking his head as he did so. "What's happened to us... and what is it with guys owning castles and going a little crazy?"

Larxene shook her head. "I have no idea. I miss the old days. When the Organization was... the Organization. Not, a collection of a whole bunch of different people with completely different agendas than the person next to them, or at least none that were too extreme." She sighed, and looked at the ceiling for a moment, before looking back at Demyx and smirking. "We're the only ones in the castle. Let's go raid the potions storage and get that shoulder of yours some help."

He sighed in relief. "For a moment, I was thinking you were going to suggest something completely debaucherous for the two of us being alone in here."

The Nymph laughed at that, pressing the tip of her finger against her lips. "Perhaps after your shoulder is healed." Demyx could already see the ideas forming.

-

A/N: Ok, so like fifteen different things conspired to make this chapter Really Freaking Late. Not the least of which was the release of FM+. I'm sorry, guys. DX I'll be better next time.

Read and Review, even if it is to tell me how much I suck for this being late. I'm ready for it.