"Pitiful." Xemnas was standing right where I teleported, surrounded by the rest of the Organization. "I told you not to fail us."
"I tried!" I wailed. "It's not my fault I'm not aggressive!"
"Failure such as this has only one punishment," Xemnas intoned, ignoring me.
"No!" I screamed, sinking to my knees in front of him. "Don't turn me into a Dusk! Please! I'll do better next time, I promise! I want to live!"
"Could you possibly be more pathetic?" sneered Luxord. I looked up and glared at him through my tears.
The Superior stared coldly at me for a moment before he spoke. "In any circumstances besides the current crisis we find ourselves in, I would transform you in a lesser Nobody. As it stands, the Organization cannot withstand any more losses. You must remain as you are." I almost passed out from relief, even if the rest of them groaned.
"You will fail," snapped Xaldin as the rest of the Organization filed past me, back to whatever they were doing. "Failure is bred in your bones. You will never succeed at bringing us the Keyblade master."
I looked up at the hulking, hairy Nobody through a film of tears and ran through a portal to my room. A small pearl with a broken, jagged coral ring lay on my bedside table, only serving to make my tears fall thick and fast all down my front. "He's right," I wept, clutching my ex-fiancée's engagement ring in my hand so hard that my leather glove threatened to tear. "I'll never succeed at anything. I couldn't even stop the Heartless in Atlantica…." I glanced at the ring, then quickly looked away as a feeling like what Merydia must have felt as she lay dying took hold in my heart. "Why am I up here? I'll never be useful to the Organization…there's no way I'll survive if Sora meets me again…."
"Dyme?" The transparent apparition of a beautiful mermaid with long golden hair all the way down to her pale purple flippers. "Please don't think like that, darling. I have faith in you. If the humans don't, who cares? They're humans. They don't have feelings."
"I'm human now," I reminded Merydia's ghost miserably.
"No, you're not. You're as much of a merman as you ever were. Once Roxas is back with you, that Kingdom Hearts thing will be finished, and you'll finally get to go home. In the meantime… oh, darling, please cheer up. I don't like seeing you this upset. You're worth the entire ocean and more, Dyme. They can't see it because they're heartless, soulless barbarians." Merydia floated over to kiss my cheek, and for a moment, I almost felt her lips against my skin.
"How can you say that?" I sobbed. "I wasn't even strong enough to save you! It's my fault you're dead!"
This time I definitely felt her arms around me. "It wasn't your fault," she whispered, tears sparkling in her own amethyst eyes, which looked a bit weird considering she was transparent. "I told you that day, remember? I couldn't have been saved."
"Hey, fish dude!" My door was pummeled by a barrage of knocks, and Merydia instantly disappeared. "Open up, I want to talk to you."
"Xigbar, if you want to talk to me, don't call me a fish!" I snapped. I'm easygoing and carefree normally, but call me a fish and I get mad. I'm a merman. There's a difference. Xigbar opened my door and entered, rolling his single eye and snickering. "I didn't say you could come in."
"Good thing I don't need to wait for an invitation," Xigbar smirked. "You know, the whole seniority thing and all that. I'm Number II, and you, little fish-dude, are only Number IX."
"It's called manners."
Xigbar laughed harshly. "Manners? As if! I'll be outta here as soon as I deliver a message. The Superior wants you to train a little before your next mission. Just an hour or so against each of us. Says he can't risk losing another member." He snickered. "Like it'll help. There's no way you could take on Roxas by yourself."
He didn't finish making fun of me. A water clone slammed into him, soaking him through. I swear I heard Merydia's silvery laughter. "I'll do my best! I'm not that weak!" I protested.
Xigbar spluttered for a moment, but shook back his soaked ponytail and turned towards my door, still smirking. "Tell that to Luxord. He's your first opponent."