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Notes:
Well it's been a month and ten days.
So... how's everybody doing?
Okay, I'm sorry, it's been a really long time, I was perhaps a little bit busy with life stuff. Christmas, New Years, and my meagre attempt at a social life. And being generally lazy. Mostly being lazy.
I'm a pretty lazy person.
Anyway, this chapter is very dialogue-heavy. Prepare yourselves.
Chapter III
An Affliction of Starlings
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The streets of Twilight Town were deserted as Kairi stormed through them, still fuming from her confrontation with Sora. She wasn't quite sure where she was going, but she doubted she would get lost. It was, according to Olette, a very easy town to navigate, especially when the town was divided into sections, with each section accessible only by train. Even in the dim, greyish light, she should have no trouble finding her way back. Once she'd calmed down, of course.
Why am I angry? She asked herself, stopping suddenly, taking in her surroundings and realising that she had somehow made her way to the station. Why am I angry… when I would have done the same thing?
Sighing, she took a seat at the bottom of the station stairs. I guess I'm just angry that I let him do it. Because he wouldn't have let me go out there by myself.
Any further of Kairi's self-deprecating thoughts were interrupted by voices from the top of the stairs.
"…really going to have your head."
"Psh, speak for yourself! Your chores haven't been doing themselves whilst you've been slacking off, you know."
"Sure, but I'm the innocent one. It was superior number eight who wanted me to accompany him to get ice cream."
Kairi twisted her head to look at the offenders. She could hardly see them properly in the dark. It was only when they were about two feet away that she could make them out, and see the black coats the both wore. And she knew what the black coats meant, other than making them even more difficult to see in such lighting.
"My dad thinks it might have something to do with Organization XIII."
"Hey, you!" she called as they walked away, leaping from her seat. They turned, the taller, red-haired one with a flippant eyebrow raised. The shorter one looked about the same age as she and Sora, and, she supposed, Hayner, Pence and Olette. She approached them briskly, her expression stern. "You're with Organization XIII, right?"
The blond opened his mouth to reply, but the redhead beat him to it. "Maybe, maybe not. What's it to you?"
Kairi scowled. "Don't play games with me. Everyone recognises those coats." The two exchanged a look before Kairi continued. "Tell me, then. What are you guys doing that's making the cornices so aggressive?"
The redhead's brow furrowed, while the blond replied, "We're too low rank to be involved with anything like that. Even if we did know, it'd be against protocol to go around telling people all about it."
But Kairi's eyes were fixed on the taller of the two. "You know something. I know you do."
He smirked. "It's like he said." He jerked his head towards his companion. "Even if I did, I couldn't exactly tell you." Putting his hands on his hips, he leaned forwards, smirking right into Kairi's face. Kairi refused to flinch or back away, staring levelly into the man's face. "Maybe you should be more careful, next time." He straightened.
"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Kairi, clenching her fists.
"Have I… met you before?" the redhead asked, suddenly looking genuinely confused.
This, of course, only served to further enrage Kairi, who opened her mouth to further protest when she was overcome by a powerful sense of familiarity, and stuttered nonsense instead. Had she met him previously? She'd never consorted with an Organization XIII member before now; never really consorted with anyone other than Sora and Riku.
The blond stepped forward. "Hey, do me a favour, okay? Say sorry to Hayner, Pence and Olette for me."
Kairi blinked, and closed her still-open mouth. "Uh, sure. Who am I apologising for?"
The boy smiled wistfully. "They'll know."
With a great clang, the clock tower began to toll. Kairi jumped, and spun to look at the large tower behind her, visible only by its pitch silhouette against the dull sky.
With a deep breath, she turned back to the Organization XIII members. Or, rather, she turned back to the space where they had been standing merely seconds before. Now, they were nowhere to be seen. Disappeared into the darkness.
When she'd confronted the two, she'd intended to come away with answers. All she really came away with was more confusion. So she decided to head back to Pence's and apologise to Sora.
Pence greeted her at the door, looking particularly harried.
"There you are! Where have you been?" he asked, then, before she could reply, said, "Sora and Riku left to look for you about ten minutes ago. I dunno how you didn't pass them on the way back."
Kairi shook her head, unable to stop the smile that crept onto her face. "That sounds like them. Well, it sounds like Sora, and no doubt he would drag Riku along with him."
Pence ushered her inside. "What'll they think when they can't find you?"
"Well, Riku will probably convince Sora that I've already come back here. So I'll just wait for that."
Pence nodded, looking quite relieved. "Good. Do you want some apple pie, while you wait?"
Kairi giggled. "I'd love some."
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Was this what they called 'confusion'?
She didn't know why she existed. She didn't know what she did or was before her present state of existing, or if she had even existed at all before now. She must have, surely. One did not simply come into being with full cognition and awareness, knowing how to walk and speak, read and write.
Why, then, were her memories as dull as the walls of her room? Her head was empty, and the silence triggered a pondering, wondering emotion.
Confusion. Definitely confusion.
And what does one do when they are confused? she asked herself.
So she left her room to find answers.
The castle hallways were extensive and confusing, and equally as blank as her room. More so, in fact, for the lack of furnishing.
She wasn't sure where she was going. To find answers, of course, but she wasn't sure where to start, where to find someone who might give her what she wanted.
Instead, she happened upon the least likely answer-giving candidate.
He looked surprised, standing there, blinking, looking uncomfortable under her scrutiny. Did staring at people make them uncomfortable? He was staring back at her, and she did not feel uncomfortable. Perhaps his discomfort nullified any discomfort she might have felt.
She spoke, "Number Thirteen: Roxas."
His left eyebrow twitched slightly. Surprise? He blinked rapidly.
"Er, yeah. That's me. And you're… Number Fourteen. Xion."
She smiled. That was the polite thing to do, right? "That is correct."
"Uh… Right."
Silence fell again. Roxas seemed even more uncomfortable after their brief exchange.
"Why are you uncomfortable?" she inquired.
Roxas coughed. "Well, this is kinda awkward, don't you think?"
"How so?" She did not yet understand the concept of awkward. Was it the uncomfortable feeling? Perhaps her cognition was not quite as developed as she thought.
He frowned briefly. "We're just kinda… standing here. Staring at each other. It's not really an ideal social situation."
Xion mirrored his frown. "Then what is?"
"I-I don't know! Sitting somewhere eating ice cream together? That just about sums up my social experiences, at least." He raised his right hand to scratch at the back of his head.
"I don't have any social experiences," she stated.
Roxas' hand froze and he lowered it slowly. His facial expression was… somewhere between surprised and suspicious, a very strange combination. Perhaps she was reading it wrong. He crossed his arms over his ribcage. "Well, then…" he began slowly, his eyes affixed to her face, as if watching for a reaction. "Why don't we go to the dining hall and get some coffee or something?"
She felt her face stretch into a smile, felt a kind of… warmness in her chest. "I'd like that! I've never had coffee before."
Roxas laughed as they began to walk, side by side. "Yikes, never had any social experiences, never had coffee… have you lived in a cave your whole life?"
Xion shrugged. "I'm not sure. I can't remember any of my life before being with Organization XIII."
Though he was obviously trying not to show it, Roxas was obviously troubled by this information. And again, Xion wondered why. "Damn. That must suck."
There was no way that Xion could think to answer that, so instead, she asked, "Who do you eat ice cream with?"
Now it was his turn to shrug. "Oh, no one too special. I used to eat it with my friends, but that was before I joined the Organization. Now I eat ice cream with number six, Axel. I guess, now, he's my best and only friend."
A melancholy expression overtook him for a brief moment, and Xion, too, felt a sense of sudden sadness. "I don't have any friends," she realised aloud.
Roxas gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder, and held the dinner hall's door open for her. "You do now," he said, grinning at her as the door slid shut behind them. "Maybe you can join Axel and I for ice cream sometime.
Again, Xion's face split with her smile and her chest felt warm, and she very much enjoyed the feeling.
She'd not found the answers she'd originally set out to find, but she'd found something even better.
A friend.
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Pence opened the door almost immediately after Riku knocked, raising his eyebrows as he glanced between him and Sora.
"You two are morons," he said. "Kairi came back almost an hour ago!"
Riku gave a pointed glare towards Sora, who guiltily averted his eyes. "I told you. We should have just waited for her."
Sora frowned. "Yeah, well. Inaction isn't really my style." Riku rolled his eyes at that.
"Well, come in, then. There's apple pie in the kitchen, if you want it. It's probably gone cold, but microwaves exist for a reason," Pence said.
At this, Sora felt the inevitable characteristic grin creep onto his face. "What do you mean 'if' I want it? Of course I want it!" He bounded through the door, past Pence, into the hallway before anyone could say otherwise. Then, realising he had no idea where the kitchen was, he stopped, twisting to face Pence. "Uh… where's your kitchen?"
Pence chuckled as he closed the door behind a very unamused-looking Riku. "Second door on your right into the dining room, then through the next door."
"Gotcha!" Sora nodded, all but skipping through aforementioned door into the dining room.
Once again, he stopped in his tracks.
"Sora." Kairi was sat at the small dining room table. She stood as the door was opened.
"Kairi, I…"
"No, let me speak. I'm sorry I snapped at you. You… you did the right thing, and I guess I'm just angry that I wasn't well enough to be in your place." A small smile flickered across her face, and she sniffed.
"Kairi…" Sora wasn't sure what to say, so instead took a couple of steps towards her. "I'm… I'm sorry I said you couldn't have handled the infection. It was uncalled for."
Kairi gave a soft, subdued giggle. "No, no. You were right. I probably couldn't have." She stepped forward and flung her arms around Sora, burying her face in his shoulder. "I shouldn't have gotten angry. I feel like an idiot."
Sora laughed, and returned the hug. "It's fine. You were just worried, right?" he teased.
"Hm. Actually, you probably would have fared better than Sora, Kairi."
Pulling away from Kairi, Sora whirled around to glare at Riku. "What's that supposed to mean!?"
Apparently, Kairi was just as confused as Sora. "What is that supposed to mean? If I was just sick, my immune system variables would have been weaker, right? And with the glitch…" she trailed off, but she didn't need to finish the sentence.
Riku shook his head. "The glitch wouldn't have happened. The disinfectant would have worked, unless your SIR transplant is glitched, too." His expression darkened. "Which I highly doubt."
Giving a sheepish sigh, Sora sank into the seat opposite the one Kairi had just vacated. "Can't we just have pie and not worry about it for now?"
Pence pushed past Riku into the kitchen. "I'll get it for you. You want ice cream with it?"
Sora said, "Yes please!" as Riku said, "No, thank you."
"Kairi, you want another piece?"
Kairi shook her head. "I'm fine, thank you."
Pence continued through into the kitchen, and for a small moment, there was silence, as Kairi returned to her seat and Riku took the chair next to her.
"So," said Kairi. "Care to fill me in?"
Riku gave a pointed look towards Sora, who waved a hand in dismissal. "Go ahead. I'll just sit here drowning in corrupted code and confusion."
He rested his chin on his folded arms upon the table as Riku explained to Kairi what had happened in the alley; the electrical currents, the rapid mood changes, a whole lot of programming and variable gobbledegook. Pence brought in their pie about halfway through Riku's explanation, and exchanged a perplexed look with Sora before leaving them to it.
By the time Riku finally shut up, Sora had finished his pie, and was exerting a large amount of self control to stop himself from eating Riku's.
Kairi looked shell-shocked. "So you're essentially saying that Sora's existence within Ludum has become unstable, which is why variables don't work for him as they should… like the disinfectant variable. But the Omni Sana completely healed him, so surely it's not all variables?"
Riku shook his head. "No, it's not. Not yet. My guess is that the… circumstances of Sora's transplant have caused a corruption which has slowly festered into what it is now."
Again, Sora sighed. Both Riku and Kairi offered sympathetic expressions.
"What happens next, then?" Kairi asked tentatively, dragging her eyes from Sora to Riku. She was worried again. Sora could see it in the creases between her eyebrows.
"There's no way to know," Riku said quietly. "One possible outcome is that Sora's existence within Ludum becomes so unstable that he's unable to retain physical form. And since there's no known open ports into the real world, his code will likely dissipate and cause glitches in other parts of the system."
A stony silence followed. Sora didn't like it one bit. Both the silence and the talk of his possibly imminent demise.
"Is that what happened to your Beretta, then?" asked Sora, breaking the age-long silence.
Riku looked almost surprised, as if he'd forgotten all about the perpetual number of bullets in his gun. "Nine bullets," he said, as if repeating a mantra. "Maybe… I don't know."
Sora scoffed. "For once."
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To Roxas, Xion was a big question mark. She had no memories whatsoever of her life before Organization XIII, and she had suddenly been inducted into a fourteenth position without, it seemed, any kind of trial process.
"Maybe I just don't remember it?" she suggested.
"Oh no, trust me, you'd remember it." He remembered his own more vividly than he would have liked. "It's not the kind of thing you forget in a hurry." Well, unless the sheer trauma of it caused it to become suppressed. He supposed that was a relatively viable option.
It was strange, really, that as suspicious and, honestly, creeped out by these recent developments as Roxas was, he was currently casually drinking coffee with the offending strange new member. Though, really, she wasn't that strange. True, when they had bumped into each other in the hallway, she had seemed almost robotic, but the more they talked, the warmer, more human and friendly she became. Although, that might have been the coffee doing its work.
"Coffee's pretty good!" she exclaimed, setting down her empty cup, her eyes wide and pupils slightly dilated. "I kinda want more."
Roxas laughed. "I think you've had enough. First-timers should take it easy," he joked.
"What are you talking about?" she laughed.
"I don't want it to be my fault if you get addicted to it."
Xion's expression suddenly turned serious. "Is coffee a drug?" she said, her voice almost sinister. Roxas couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing. Xion looked confused. "What?"
"It's not a drug in and of itself," he began to explain. "It has caffeine in it, though, which is highly addictive, though it's still not really a drug… I mean, you can get addicted to anything, right? And having too much of anything can potentially kill you. I guess the effect is just amplified in coffee?"
She looked interested. "Really?"
"I don't know! I'm not a coffee-expert or anything, and I definitely don't know how these things work in Ludum." He had a sudden thought, and snorted. "Maybe ask Vexen about it. He chugs about ten cups a day!"
Xion's eyes went wide. "Ten?"
"Around about, yeah!" Roxas replied, nodding enthusiastically. He wondered what the residents of the dark city would think if they knew what the members of Organization XIII got up to in their evenings. Here were Roxas and Xion, discussing coffee, for example. Briefly, he wondered what Axel was up to. As soon as they had returned from Twilight Town, they'd gone to dinner, then after that he'd taken off, saying he had an errand to run, and reminding Roxas to do his chores. But what kind of errand could he possibly run within the castle walls?
It made him feel edgy, being surrounded by so much secrecy. From Axel, even. He could understand being left out of the loop on a lot of things, given that he was of the lowest… the second lowest rank of the Organization, but the fact that the girl filling the lowest rank was the most confusing subject of all was just too much for him to ignore.
Xion followed him into the kitchen as he took the mugs to wash them. It had been part of his chores to wash the dishes after dinner earlier, so if even a single mug was left unclean, he was sure to hear about it. Xion watched him closely.
"Saїx told me that he'd be starting me on my chores tomorrow, so hopefully that means you'll have less to do, right?"
"Hopefully!" Roxas agreed, though he thought it was odd that they hadn't started her on chores straight away, as they had for him, and, surely, for the other members. "Maybe you'll be the one washing everyone's dirty dishes tomorrow."
She made a face. "Hmm, you can keep that one."
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Once Sora and Kairi had both finally settled down and fallen asleep, Riku left the house again. The front door had been latched, so he left through the room's single window, left ajar to let some fresh air into the small room. Leaving from an upstairs window definitely wasn't the most comfortable way to exit a house, he decided, ducking into a roll as he dropped onto the small stretch of grass beside the house. It was, however, the way to raise the least suspicion. Even if Kairi or Sora were to awaken, the chance that they would assume that Riku wasn't even in the house was fairly slim, he believed. He hoped. He would rather avoid the prying questions he would earn by being discovered.
Vaulting the low front gate, Riku set off down the deserted street, headed towards the tram commons. Specifically, the hole in the wall. As he passed through it into the woods, he found his mind wandering, wondering what could have happened to cause such damage to the coded environment that the scheduled environment error checks couldn't fix. It was certainly convenient, but almost suspiciously so.
He trod carefully over the thick roots. The darkness was thicker amongst the trees, and returning with an injury would surely trigger questions.
Did the error checks even run anymore? Was there anyone left Outside still maintaining the server? A solid mass settled in the pit of Riku's stomach at the thought that there might be no one watching over them anymore. That they were all alone, trapped in code, left to fend for themselves whilst more and more glitches cropped up, eventually rendering Ludum unstable and causing the deaths of who knows how many.
It would certainly make sense, with the way things were going now.
As the trees thinned, Riku pushed the daunting thoughts from his mind, focussing instead on his current goal.
The Manor's front gate was open. Not much, but just enough for Riku to slip through. He approached the front door, but before he could even knock, it creaked open slightly, enough for him to see the pale, blonde girl staring at him.
"Who… are you?" Riku posed the question carefully.
The girl blinked, as if surprised. "My name is Naminé," she said simply.
"And… why are you here?"
The girl, Naminé seemed surprised again. "Who are you?"
Riku didn't answer straight away. Dodging a question was about the most suspicious thing a person could do. "I'm Riku. I'm looking for DiZ."
Her eyes widened sharply, and she opened the door further. "I'm sorry! I was told to let you in if you came, but I didn't know what you would look like. DiZ is in the library. I think he's been waiting for you." She stepped to the side and motioned Riku in.
Riku couldn't hold back a scoff as he stepped over the threshold. "Of course he has. But you still haven't answered my question."
Naminé closed the door behind him and gazed at him levelly, as if deciding whether or not he could be trusted with the answer. Riku met her gaze with skilful neutrality.
"I'm in hiding," she said finally.
"From whom?" Riku inquired.
"Organization XIII," said a new voice. Not an unfamiliar voice, however. Riku spun around.
"DiZ."
The red-wrapped man stood at the top of the grand staircase in the centre of the foyer nodded formally. "Hello, Riku. I see you've met Naminé. You can go back to your room now, Naminé."
Without a word, Naminé nodded, looking sullen, and traipsed up the stairs and down the hall. DiZ didn't even so much as look at her, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on Riku.
"What would Organization XIII want with her?" Riku wondered aloud.
Without answering, DiZ turned and took off down the hall in the opposite direction. With a roll of his eyes, Riku climbed the stairs and followed behind him.
"Does the fact that you're back in civilisation mean that you've given up on your little fool's errand?" DiZ asked casually, not bothering to hold the library door open.
Riku scowled. "It was a legitimate theory. We're only here because the situation was urgent."
"Was a legitimate theory?"
His scowl deepened. "Things didn't quite go according to plan."
"Right. And so you've been slowly leading your friends back towards civilisation. With good timing, it seems."
DiZ obviously hadn't bothered to close the floor-door when he left previously, so the staircase to DiZ's secret Creep Room was already open. Riku followed him down, keeping his eyes fixed on the back of the man's head.
"Good to know you've been spying on us," he said, accenting his sarcasm with a touch of mistrust.
DiZ chuckled, sitting down in his chair in front of the main control station. His own personal surveillance system. 'Personal' as in 'Unofficial' – DiZ was perhaps the most skilled hacker in the whole of Ludum. It was no small feat to build up your own rig and system and hack into the server's built-in surveillance. Looking at the many monitors across the walls was almost like being on the outside again, looking in. Almost. "Indeed. You'll also be happy to know that you were correct about Sora's SIR."
"Yeah?"
"It's certainly glitched. But it's no coincidence that it chose now to start displaying itself as such," the man explained, not being very forthcoming with details. Riku stayed silent, waiting for him to continue. "There are glitches appearing all throughout the realms. I'm afraid I can't figure out why, but they're causing all manner of ill happenings. Your gun, for instance, appears to be a separate glitch from Sora's SIR transplant, and wholly exploitable, I might add."
"For now, yeah, but it's bound to have some sort of drawback eventually," Riku reasoned.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. There's only one way to find out."
Riku didn't like the sound of that at all, but he had to admit, there was really no other option.
"However, whilst this is both pertinent and fitting to your curiosities, it is not what you came to ask me," DiZ said, hitting the nail on the head. He was as sharp as ever.
Riku frowned. "No, it's not. I want to know what will happen to Sora."
DiZ smirked. "Ever the noble, loyal friend, Riku. There was a time when you would have cared more about your glitched gun than your glitched friend."
"What does that matter?" Riku practically growled.
"I was merely observing, as I always do. I'm afraid I know little more than you do as to what is going to happen to poor Sora. I suggest you… prepare for the worst."
Riku clenched his fists. When he spoke, it was an effort to keep his voice from shaking. "You're lying. You always have a theory, at the very least."
Again, DiZ chuckled. The sound angered Riku to the point where it was very difficult for him to stop himself from clocking the old man in his concealed face. It would achieve nothing, but it would be very satisfying…
His next words, however, took Riku by surprise.
"If you want answers, you know where to go. But you're not the only one looking, so I suggest you exercise caution."
Riku blinked, forgetting his anger for a moment. But only a moment. "Stop speaking in riddles, damn it!"
"Is that all, then?"
No, it wasn't, not by a long shot, but Riku doubted that DiZ would be willing to give him anything further, and he was already sick of the man's mocking tone. Without a word, he turned, and left.
Naminé was sitting at the top of the stairs in the main foyer. As much of a mystery that she was, Riku doubted he'd get any further information from or about her, either, so he simply nodded at her. He could feel her eyes on his back as he stepped through the old, creaky door, closing it behind him with a scraping click.
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"I once thought we could have been good friends."
"We were. And we still could be, if you'd consider pulling your head out of your own backside." Axel was quite proud of his retort. Saїx was considerably less amused, opting to ignore the fact that Axel had said anything at all.
"So, have you come here for a reason, or do you simply wish to irritate me with your… overly vibrant presence?" the scarred man questioned.
Overly vibrant presence? The man's running out of insults, Axel thought to himself, with a hint of a smirk. He pushed himself off the hallway wall he'd been leaning against, keeping his arms folded as he stared flatly at Saїx, who returned the stare with even less emotion. "You told me you'd explain about fourteen. Here I am; where's my explanation?"
Saїx chuckled apathetically, his stance mirroring Axel's, and yet making it seem twice as unfriendly. To Axel, Saїx was the embodiment of why Organization XIII members were so often labelled as Nobodies. Emotionless, unfeeling, and cruel. "Why are you so curious?"
Axel rolled his eyes, but otherwise kept his expression as neutral as his used-to-be-friend's. "Because I've every reason to be. The Superior's a man of routine and tradition. Why would he suddenly change that for a little girl?"
There was a stretching silence, in which Saїx and Axel merely stared at each other. The air was hostile, as it always was between the two. 'Always', since they joined Organization XIII. Axel could hardly remember the last time they'd so much as smiled at each other, or offered a friendly greeting. Was there ever a time like that? Axel wondered to himself. Or was it a nightmare I once had?
Saїx's face suddenly twisted into a sinister sneer. "Very well," he conceded. "I'll tell you. I've been instructed to, anyway."
"Really," Axel deadpanned, scowling.
"Not here, though. Follow me."
So he did. Reluctantly, now that he knew that Saїx was supposed to tell him anyway. They could have avoided that whole interaction and simply cut to the chase, but no. Apparently, Saїx thought that his antagonising antics were more important. Jerk.
The room that Axel was led into was one of the castle's many strategy and planning rooms. Or… what was it that the higher ups called it? The conciliatory room?
"This is my personal consilium space," Saїx explained, with more than a hint of smugness in his tone. He was a mere rank above Axel, yet Axel didn't have his own 'consilium space'. Didn't want one, if having one would turn him into a self-righteous prick.
"I can tell it's yours – it's as boring as you are." It really was boring. There was no kind of personalisation, it was as plain as any of the unused strategy rooms; circular, with an equally round, thick table in the centre, a large, curved monitor on the wall opposite the door, and filing cabinets embedded into the wall underneath the monitor. A slit on the wall next to the monitor indicated a printer, and a rectangular indentation on the side of the table indicated some kind of pop-out control panel. This indication was proven correct, when, seconds later, Saїx (completely ignoring Axel's comment once again), pressed in the centre of the rectangle, and the control panel slid out as the monitor switched on, displaying the Organization XIII logo as it started up.
Axel hovered by the door, ready to simply leave if Saїx's bullshit became too much. It was a viable option now that he knew that he supposedly needed to know this anyway, so he would technically be denying Saїx the chance to do his job. He was only here for curiosity's sake, really.
"What do you know about Castle Oblivion?" Saїx queried, tapping the edge of the control panel's keyboard as he waited for the computer to boot.
It was a strange question, Axel thought, but decided to throw him a bone. "It's the admin realm. Or at least it used to be, when there were still admins and game masters in Ludum. What was it called back then? Land of Decapitators?"
"Land of Departure," Saїx corrected in a highly unamused voice.
"Yeah, whatever. Land of Decapitators sounds cooler."
Saїx continued as if Axel had said nothing. "You are correct, however, in saying that the realm is now unoccupied. Which, of course, presents a golden opportunity for any regular players who manage to find themselves there."
"But that's not possible. It's locked; no one can get there. Even if someone were to hack their way in, the castle is like a labyrinth, isn't it?" Axel said, simply regurgitating knowledge from printouts he'd been forced to read on the matter in the past.
"Correct. Which is why that player, or, players, a whole Collegium, even, would need the two keys," Saїx explained, opening a file and displaying it on the monitor. It was a detailed file of Number 14, Xion, including a 3D model, mugshots, and classifications.
Axel's brow tightened of its own accordance as he read it through. "Is this for real?" He asked sharply.
"It is, indeed, entirely factual," Saїx confirmed stiffly. "Number Fourteen is one of two keys that will allow Organization XIII to reach, navigate, and take hold of Castle Oblivion, and therefore the whole of Ludum."
"Great. I'm part of a Collegium that strives for world domination," Axel sighed.
Saїx shot him a sidelong glare. "It's not about ruling the game world, Number Eight, it's about taking control for the better interests of the people. Right now, the millions of players who are in here for a better life than what they would have on the outside are floundering about with no one to lead them. With us in power, they will have purpose and direction, and we can turn this program into a world worth living in."
Axel scoffed. "Since when have you cared about the plight of the common people? Since when have you cared about anything?"
Slowly, Saїx turned, hitting the shutdown button on the control panel, which slid back into the table. "Do you not care about the common people?"
"More than you do, surely."
Saїx's expression did not change.
So Axel continued, changing the subject slightly. "What about the second key?"
"That is where you come in, Number Eight," Saїx said mysteriously, his expression remaining as still and blank as every boring wall of the Organization's castle headquarters.
"Skip the ambiguity, asshole, and do your job," Axel said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes.
Once again, Saїx ignored Axel's comment. "Your job is to track down the second key."
Axel sighed.
"Of course it is."
New Terminology:
Consilium space: Another term coined by the higher-ups of Organization XIII (who seem to think they have some kind of influence over the ways of Ludum) to describe a space used for planning and strategising. Otherwise incorrectly known as a 'conciliatory room'.
Notes (cont.):
Very light on the new terminology this chapter, probably because of all the fluffy filler in the first four sections.
Don't expect nothing to be happening for long. I myself will get bored if nothing happens for more than a chapter.
Though, I've honestly no clue when/if chapter four will be ready. The only reason chapter two was posted so soon after chapter one was because I finished it shortly after posting chapter one, after having debated for ages over whether or not to post chapter one, and when I posted chapter two, I had only the first section of this chapter written.
I usually like to be ahead, but as of now, chapter four doesn't even have 'Chapter IV'. I literally finished writing this then edited it and posted it because it's been longer than I would have liked. I briefly considered posting a shorter version of this chapter, with only the Kairi/Sora/Riku sections that I had written at the time, before deciding that it wasn't quite complete like that.
If I wrote shorter chapters, I would probably be able to update faster, because it's faster both to write and edit a shorter chapter, but I have an OCD for consistency (and many other things, too - I carry hand sanitiser with me at all times) and all the chapters so far have been between 5000 and 6000 words.
What do you, dear reader who is reading this, think?
This isn't a ploy to get reviews, I honestly would love your opinion.
On that note, thank you to those who have given me feedback so far!
Good gods I talk too much.
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