Roxas walked out into the Grey Area as he did every day. Being a Nobody with no memory of who he was, there wasn't much else to do other than missions and the clock tower after those missions. He woke up extremely early on this day for reasons beyond him: it was only 7:30 AM according to the clock that Roman had bought (or stolen, Roxas didn't really know for sure) for him when he left his room. Even Saix wasn't out this early, yet there he was, standing in his same spot. What caught Roxas's attention was the fact that he yawned when he entered. Roxas, or even anyone else in the Organization never saw him yawn for any reason.

Roxas looked left and right to see if anyone else was awake and up. No one. Apparently, something was up. [Roman,] he thought to himself.

Roxas went back to the member's quarters and sought out Roman's room. Upon entering, it was devoid of the desired Nobody. There were no bedsheets tied to a part of the bed, nor was there a note. His night clothes were deposited in one of the laundry hampers that Roman had found somewhere, so he must have left already. However, one thing didn't ring quite right with Roxas: Roman didn't take missions so early. There was also the issue of Saix yawning, indicating that he had been up for quite some time.

When Roxas took a look at the desk that had Roman's computer and space for his journal and other things, he noticed that the journal was open, and that there was writing on the page. He walked over to the desk and read the journal…

[Journal Entry]

Trying something different today, other than my unusually early journal writing stints. I'll take care of today's mission, then I'll see if I can catch Eve in the library again. Why, some journal invaders may ask? Yes, I'm directing these words at you, Roxas and/or Xion.

Well, leaving Eve with our resident Person-Who-Smells-Others alone doesn't seem like a good thing, and not for perverse reasons, no. I mean that she won't know a whole lot about knowing the workings of the active field. Granted, I bet she gets mission training that I've missed out on, but someone's gotta tell her about street smarts that she'll eventually have to develop. As a contingency plan in the event of a vacation, I can convince Saix to get me to Innocent Europe. I ought to give that Allen dude a piece of my mind for those lasers.

[Typical. Doing something nuts as usual,] Roxas thought to himself as he left the room. [So where is Eve now? When does she get up and start her training for the day?]

Unable to stifle his curiosity, he sought out Eve's room, which was indistinguishable from the other rooms by door. This led to him having a pillow thrown at him by Larxene. When he found Eve's room at last, he cringed at the door whooshing open so suddenly. If she was still asleep, he didn't want to find out how short HER temper was. He slowly crept into the middle of the room, where he looked around and took in what he could. Coming in from the room, the bed was against a wall to the left, like all the beds for all the bedrooms. There was also a nightstand, something not usually seen at times. The presence of a clock caught Roxas's attention, but he had to keep himself from walking over to pick it up, fearing that he might set it off.

To the right of the window was a dresser, dark blue in color. On its left side, a mirror nearly as tall as the dresser itself. There was no desk to speak of on an initial scan of the room, but only because it was to the right of the door if you faced it from inside the room. It had no computer or journal, so its top was completely blank, save for some patterning centering the Nobody symbol on it. Roxas heard soft breathing, barely audible were it not for him holding his breath, which he unwittingly exhaled.

It seemed that Eve was barely bothered by this, if at all, for she barely moved. She lay on her side, facing Roxas, complicating his situation. Slowly, he tip-toed out of the room, careful not to bump into anything else. When the door closed, he let out a loud sigh of relief and proceeded to the Grey Area once more.

"That punk…" Roman muttered to himself as he sat in the Grey Area. "How I was supposed to know he was stalling for a Chinese chick?"

Roman not only sported a lack of glasses, but he had managed to have them broken in his scuffle with Allen Walker, so he had to keep the pieces in his robe pocket. Thankfully, it only split at the bridge, so he could find someone to deal with it easily. He saw Roxas walk in and huffed a breath. "Eh? Hey, what happened to your glasses?" he asked.

"I tried (quote-on-quote) 'mugging' that Allen dude from Innocent Europe when some Chinese girl came around to back him up," Roman replied. "One kick later, and I'm nearsighted."

"So that's why you wear them…" Roxas said. "I figured it was to make you look good."

"Well… that too."

Roxas looked around the Area for Saix, but the Nobody wasn't there. The only ones in the Grey Area were Roxas, Roman and Xion, who had recently walked in. "How'd you even get there?" Roxas asked.

"A game of 'Poke the Bear.' Or rather, 'Poke the Wolf,'" Roman replied with a slight chuckle.

"Why do you make a living off of bothering other people?" Xion asked.

"Hey, I'll honestly admit that the only one that I bother on a daily basis is you," Roman said, gesturing to Xion. "So if you want me to be more bearable, take it easy on the scissors and drink some damn milk, woman! Some of the other guys may correct me when I call you woman!"

Xion delivered a painful slap to the left side of Roman's face. He cringed after the impact and mouthed, "Ouch!" He said aloud, "I've already been kicked! I do not need to be slapped!"

He walked out of the Grey Area, leaving the two Keyblade Nobodies alone with only themselves… or so they thought. At this point, they had just noticed a man in a red unzippered jacket, a sort of brown t-shirt and blue jeans to the right (their left) of the way out of the Area. He wore a cap which was under the hood, with it all obscuring the top half of his face, letting only his mouth and nose show. He also had a green carry-all bag with him and he kept his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Who are you?" Roxas asked the man.

The man turned to the Nobodies. "I'm here on official business. Business," he replied. "You got the cash or other little tokens, I got the stuff. No cash, I only got advice."

"What kind of money?" Xion asked.

"Munny, dollars, gil, yen, I take it all. So long as you got enough of whatever it is you're paying with. I'm still setting up shop though, so I'm just here on break until I have to get back to work, which is actually about right now."

Then the man left. [Work on what?] the Nobodies thought in unison, though they didn't know what the other was thinking.

"And the slap mark I got here," Roman said after putting the pieces of his glasses on the reading table, "Was from Xion a few minutes ago. Therefore, it's not really relevant right now."

Zexion looked at the glasses, then at Roman. "Just what in the world would have broken your glasses?" he asked.

"Ancient Chinese secret. That's all you need to know."

Roman looked around the library from where he sat. His train of thought was that where Zexion was, Eve would be around. At least, for a while. However, the girl was nowhere to be seen, even when Roman got up to look around the bookcases. He got an aerial view from one of the floating tiles, but Eve was still nowhere to be found. Not even a hooded figure, if any. He walked back to the spot at the table where he had put his glasses pieces and asked, "Hey, where'd Eve go, anyways?"

"I believe she is about to show her combat abilities in the Hall of Empty Melodies," he replied, closing his book and standing up.

"Oh, really? Sweet."

"You say that because you want to jump in for yourself," Zexion said.

Roman pocketed his broken glasses and ran to catch up to Zexion and said, "No, that ain't it. Sheesh, give me some credit. This is the first time that we'll see what she can do in battle, right? It should be easy by my standards."

"Your standards," Zexion said. "What of hers?"

Roman didn't reply with a sentence, only a grunt. He pulled up his sleeve slightly to look at his wristwatch that he kept under it. 8:37 AM. "Oh, jeez. If she's training now, she may not be up to full speed. I got her a clock set to 8 AM, and 37 minutes isn't exactly what I call ample charge up time," Roman said.

"Everyone is different. We may lack hearts, but we still bear metabolisms. Eve's metabolism may be more than the credit you are giving her," Zexion said as the door to the Hall opened.

Roman was surprised to see that other Organization members had turned out to see the day's events. There were six of them: Axel, Luxord, Demyx, Roxas, Xion and Vexen. He walked over to Roxas and Xion first and asked, "What's all the commotion? Did Xigbar and Xaldin get into a fight or something?"

"Uh, no," Roxas said, pointing down.

Roman looked and saw Eve on the blue platform, without her robes as she has been for however long she has been like that. She was in her dress from the day before. Roman looked around for other spectators, Xemnas in particular, but no one else was found. He felt a tap on his shoulder and spun around to see an unfamiliar looking Nobody type. It looked like something of a humanoid and a lizard put together, but with very light brown skin and a zipper for a mouth. Like all the other Nobody types other than the Organization members, it lacked eyes. "What… the fuck?"

The Nobody held out its hand to reveal that it had been holding a pair of glasses. "Your replacement glasses, my liege."

Roman heard nothing, but the words appeared in his head without any warning. He reached into his pocket to take out the broken pair to ensure that they were different. Comparing the two, the pairs were practically identical, right down to the prescription on the glasses. The only difference was the amount of dirt to be seen, which was absent on the newer pair. Roman tossed the broken pair into the hole below the platform and took the newer pair, promptly putting them on. "Oh thank God, they're clean," he commented.

"Anytime, my liege," the Nobody "said," and it floated away in the usual fashion.

"What the hell was that…?" Roman asked before being shushed by Demyx.

Roman found an spot to stand and observe. Eve had gotten into a fighting position as Dusks began to materialize from the floor or the air above. She looked left and right to look at her first assailants. Six of them.

She recognized them as the "Dusks" that the boy from the day before pointed out. They were indeed stretchy and wobbly as he had demonstrated. One of them started to slither in mid-air towards her. With little thought, she brought her hand in a chopping fashion down on its head. A collective gasp from the spectators above with one or two exclaiming in excitement called out from above as they watched.

Eve found that not only did she shut her eyes in the process, but her hand felt… different. She couldn't exactly place it. She opened her eyes and saw not her hand, but what looked like a blade. The metal seemed to integrate into her arm, resulting in all of it up to her elbow being metal gray. [I envisioned a blade coming down on it…]

She envisioned her own hand, and the blade began to glow. It eventually melded back into her own hand, and her normal sensation was regained. She looked up and gasped as a stretchy arm shot out to hit her. Quickly thinking of a shield, she put her hands out to defend, and the two glowed and fused together. The Dusk's hand was met with a metal shield bearing the Nobody crest and was deflected, causing it to flutter about. She unfused her hands and formed her left into a blade which she cut the Dusk in half with. The right, she made into a fist and slammed into another Dusk. By that time, her hand had turned into a spiked ball.

Her hand remained a ball as the left reverted to normal. She swung her ball-fist around, catching nothing this time, but forcing the Dusks to retreat and group together. Three remaining. They separated and attacked from the front and sides, but Eve ducked, causing them to collide into each other. The three Dusks ended up in a tangled heap, vulnerable. Eve brought her hands together to form a hammer in the moment, which she brought down on them all, crushing them. She separated her hands once again, checking to see if any survived the attack, but she saw nothing.

There was clapping from the balcony above…

Roman turned around to see three of the strange lizardmen Nobodies near the wall, one of them clapping. It stopped and "said," "It is our turn now. I believe that this will be our final battle, but there are more of us, as you can guess."

"Wait… you're gonna what?" Roman asked.

The three Nobodies jumped over the spectators' heads and onto the platform, in front of Eve, who was facing away from the balcony. They assumed the same martial arts stance as Eve readied herself accordingly. "Hey! HEY! What's going on here?" Roman shouted at the Nobodies.

The small platform on the opposite side of the entire room was now occupied by Xigbar, who had apparently brought a bag of popcorn to the spectacle. "Seriously, what the fuck," Roman continued.

"I take it no one told you?" Xigbar called out.

"Wait, this is part of the trial?"

"Bingo. Besides, if you weren't going to sic 'em on her, Xemnas would have."

"That makes a whole lot of sense at the moment."

The "Nobodies" struck. They all flew at Eve with a palm strike which knocked her into an invisible barrier, even when she had made a shield of her hands. The impact knocked the wind out of her and took her mind off of keeping the shield intact, so it disintegrated back into her two hands. One of the three enemies dropped down on her with an axe kick aimed at her head, but she moved her head in time for it to narrowly miss hitting her. However, she was met with another grabbing her and throwing her into the center of the arena on her back.

"Aw, come on!" a voice called out from the balcony. "Was that seriously necessary?"

The creatures looked up as if to address the voice, but nothing else was heard. "Wait, master?" the voice asked.

Eve regained her balance and transformed her right hand into a blade again. She ran at the "Nobody" in the middle of the group and thrust it into its midsection. No one was expecting that, and whoops and various cheers came from the balcony. From there, Eve swung her blade-hand up to leave the enemy nearly in half before it exploded into a flurry of lights. The other two didn't seem at all affected by their fallen comrade, other than one attempting a flying knee directed at Eve's face.

She ducked from this attack and replied in kind with a right-hand upper slash, chopping off the tail of the attacker. She then used the same hand to stab the Nobody in the back with it twice. It hit the ground, then burst into lights. The remaining Nobody took the opportunity to deliver a palm strike directly to the side of Eve's face, sending her across the platform on her side. Various groans came from the balcony. Eve nursed the side of her face where the blow had connected as she saw the enemy rush towards her. She had just noticed that it had no eyes, and its mouth a closed zipper. She did not hesitate at the sight, as she formed a blade of her free, left hand and sliced vertically upwards as the Nobody was about to bring its own hand down on her in a chop. The attack made it stop in its tracks, as if frozen in time, before it slowly separated into two halves of an empty bag, of sorts before it dissolved like its comrades.

Eve straightened her posture and brushed back her hair with her normal hand as clapping came from the balcony above. She heard one of the spectators say, "Hot damn!"

She didn't reply to this. She instead turned to face Saix, who had recently walked in through one of the doors leading onto the platform. He looked down at the girl with his usual cold stare. "So that is what you are capable of on the battlefield," he said.

"Battlefield…" Eve repeated softly.

"Eve. Number Sixteen. The Maiden of Blades."

After he said that, a few small Nobodies materialized behind him. Two of them floated and stopped side-by-side a few feet from Eve and Saix, while one transformed itself into a sword. It hovered in front of Eve for a moment, spinning slowly, then drove itself into the floor inches from her feet. Without prompt, she took the Nobody-sword and drew it from the ground, holding it in front of her. She heard a voice in her head, saying, "We are now at your disposal, my lady. With time and training, we will come to your aid at your request."

The sword quickly shifted into a bird-like creature, with the other two following suit. The three of them soon flew out of the arena, leaving no trace save for the wound in the floor. "Very well," Saix said. "I will tell Lord Xemnas of this new development. Expect any day now to yield your first mission."

Is that what she can do?

Weird…

Why did I choose this girl, again? Did I intentionally choose her?

…

Rgh, I can't remember.

But that boy… is that really him?

I need to find out. I've already caused what I think are problems for this girl already. If he is him… then I know what I have to do.

That sticky note could have been just messing with me.

Eve sat on her bed, staring at the floor with drooping eyelids. She had the faint remembrance of:

She needed to thank someone for something. And,

What exactly was she thinking around this time last night… and how did she come to pick her clothes from her first day?

In all honestly, it was a blur now. She kept the dress and arm warmer, but she couldn't remember how she chose them. She looked at the ice cream stick they boy gave her. It still had "WINNER" on it. [Was I thinking of the WINNER stick?]

She lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over herself. The clock read 9:45 PM. [Something so small… it shouldn't have been easy to forget. And I still don't know the boy's name.]

[Journal Entry]

Roxas has brought up on one occasion some strange dreams. Some dude in red pants along with some orange-clad noob and a blue thing. Some sort of aircraft, he says. Maybe he's going through something like what I've got going for me?

Hard to say, but I don't know about his internal picture quality. Maybe it's really fuzzy and static infested. I know that my dreams are crystal clear. Speaking of which, that dream's still going. Same delays, same gunshots, same ending line. Something about that really gets me tense, I dunno what.

[New Nobody: Monk]

Fierce combatants in hand-to-hand. They have pledged absolute loyalty to Roman, so they are extremely hesitant in battle against him. Anyone else, the sanctions go away.

[Author's Notes]

- Accidental lie from last chapter's A/N's! Next chapter is the true intro, so don't hurt yourself with a held breath.

- The Monk Nobody design here is based off of the White Monk job class of Bangaa in the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games.