Danny glanced up, seeing Roxas join him. He picked out one of the ice-creams – sea salt flavoured, of course – and two cups of coffee, joining him at a table.
"Been busy?" he asked, handing him the ice-cream.
"You've no idea. Sora's shaking up everything up there. I think he's planning on going from top to bottom and changing everything."
"I've heard some rumours, but nothing definite. Care to fill me in?"
"You, Danny? Not knowing?"
"Got to get the gossip from somewhere, haven't I?"
"Let's see... the two Advisors lost their positions. He apparently interviewed them, and found they didn't qualify, much to their chagrin. I've got one of the positions."
"What about the other?"
"You remember that woman from the Council who lent a hand from time to time?"
"Of course."
"Her name's Sab, and she's the other one."
"Interesting. What happened to the ex-advisors?"
"They're both down with the Authoritors now. Our friend Karen has taken the vacant council position after Sab took the advisor one. Some of the other members went up in flames over that, saying he was picking out only people he liked, until he snapped on them, told them that if they didn't like his way of doing it, they could get out of his Arcology, and lose everything they have here. They stopped arguing after that."
"Attached to their power much?"
"Most of them inherited it. How's Axel?" he asked suddenly.
"I'd stay clear of him for a bit longer, if I were you. He's been irritable ever since you left him as our First."
"That was Sora's idea, actually. What happened to Jamie? I've not been able to find out anything about him."
"Oh, he's gone over to working for Swordsman. Apparentlly Swordsman was impressed with his skill with that spear, so he's finally branching out into other weaponry."
"Probably about time too."
"Yeah, they're practicing on any Heartless they can find."
"At least it's something useful to do. Maybe he'll find his complete being, and reunite with him."
"About that, what are you and Sora planning on doing?"
"We're holding off on it for now. Having the two of us around instead of just him is proving more useful. Besides, Sora owes me a favour."
"Since when?"
"Since I came up with most of his plan for him. If I hadn't thought it up, he'd never have beaten Sephiroth."
"Whatever happened to him, by the way?"
"Seph? He got given a burial by the council, and his statue up in that huge hall got moved with all the other past Grandmasters." He gave a short laugh. "The sculptor's having a bit of trouble with Sora's one – apparently Sora doesn't look commanding enough for his tastes."
"It has to do with the untidy hair, I think," Sora told them, appearing nearby. "Mind if I join you?"
"We can hardly say no, can we?"
"It's Danny's café. He can kick me out if he wants. I might have something to say about it if he does though."
"Don't worry, Sora," Danny told him. "I don't think I'll have any reason to do that."
"I'm not the one who needs to worry about it."
"What brings you down to the level of us mere mortals, then?"
"What else? A break from the paperwork. The council's delighting in passing everything right up to me. My new advisors-" he glanced at Roxas, "Are meant to be filtering out most of the stuff that doesn't need my attention. Even then, I'm still getting a lot."
"And you wanted to be Grandmaster so badly," Roxas commented.
"No, not really, I just didn't have much choice. It was either him or me, and at least I can do better than he did."
"Hand it over to someone else?"
"There's no one I trust more to do it. I'd rather do it personally and know it's going the way I want it to, than trust someone else to do it."
"I don't suppose you'd care to enlighten me on a few things to come?" Danny asked.
"Like what?"
"Like the kinds of changes you're likely to make down here?"
"Wait and see," Sora grinned. "When I'm through, things will be better for everyone. Trust me on that."
"You know, I always get nervous when he tells me that," Roxas told Danny. "I think it has to do with the fact I actually do trust him."
Author's Note:
And here we reach the end of this tale. Will there be another one after this? Right now, no one knows. It's a possibility, however, but I've got other stories to finish writing first. In the mean time, I hope you've enjoyed reading this one, as much as I did writing it - if not more.