t h e l i f e l e s s l e e c h

by C A L A M I T Y xxx

Second OC fanfic. Rexa: a Nobody torn from chaos, clueless and helpless, was the original number 13. See how she goes through the roles from a lost shell, to a full-fledged Nobody, to a traitor beyond traitor, to a legend that would scar a heart for life.

3. Feeble Darkness

Previously on t h e l i f e l e s s l e e c h:

"...Poor girl. Lost physically and mentally. It pains me to see a new Nobody that is clueless in thought."

"But tell me, girl. Do you remember your past at all? Do you remember your family, your home? What about your name?"

"I...don't know."

xxx

Xemnas, is she prepared for the worst?

...Indeed.

xxx

"Marluxia, I trust that you will be able to guide her until she feels comfortable going around on her own?"

"Yes, my lord."

xxx

"Marluxia thinks that Xemnas found you in Traverse Town, a town where people lost their homes to the Heartless."

"The...Heartless?"

xxx

"But...I don't remember anything. How can I have memories if I don't remember the things that I'm supposed to remember?"

"Everyone has memories, even when they are unaware of it."

xxx

"It's about time, we found out what has happened to you in the past."

xxx

"I know you don't feel any different than her, but that's what being a Nobody is partly about. Once you're born, you've lost your memories of everything that has to do with your past, including your friends, family, even your own name. Once you realize what happened before you become a Nobody, you'll probably feel the same."

"You won't be waking up just yet."

xxx

"What do you know about him?"

"Weeellll, I'd tell you; but it'd be so heartbreaking, and you'd agree if I did. You'll find out later on, dear, I promise."

"You just hate to kill suspense, don't you?"

"Yes, but I call it 'exposing secrets'. It's for me to know, and for you to find out on your own. Sorry to break it to you."

xxx

"So...that thing that Isa described to her; it's...dangerous?"

"Hostile in every possible way, dear."

"But, how do I warn him!?"

"You can't. Even if I tell you now what those creatures are, your doppelganger over there can't read your thoughts; even when you're in her body, studying memories. Besides, its not like all of this is happening right now. We've told you that these are only fragments of your memories of the past. Just re-runs. You can't do anything about it but watch."

"But look on the bright side. Despite that we are just Nobodies who have no one to be, we still 'are'. So you're lucky you're alive to see all this; let alone, being brought back to life to have a fate that sets within the Organization."

She thought once again about how all of these were just figments of her past, and how she could do nothing to stop the worst to come.

---

Day 2

Era must have been thinking too hard about last night. Her head had ached a little when she realized that it was morning, and rubbing it didn't really help. Rexa wasn't really sure if it was her own head or Era's head though; since they were both the same people. Aside from what happened yesterday, Rexa had no idea what she would do around the morning, even if she was just watching pieces of her memories, she's taking the exact same actions as her other self. Era rose up in her bed with quite the messy morning hair, so she knew that she was tossing and turning. But she had no dream last night, at least she didn't think. With her hair out of the question, she got up from her red bed and walked over to where her mirror was and stood blankly in front of it, examining herself quietly. Rexa was partly freaking out because she saw her own reflection as a Nobody and not of Era, but apparently her other blonde didn't see the same thing. Rexa closed her eyes shut and opened them after a few seconds to see her real self's reflection in the mirror this time, and knew that she could see things that her illusion self couldn't see as well. So far, Rexa realized that she had a few friends, she could possibly have more, she had a long distance boyfriend, and that there is somehow a new species sprouting somewhere. She figured that today, she should try and find out what the creature was; at her own risk.

She heard her phone buzz loudly all the way from its charger on the cabinet. The caller wasn't in her phonebook, so it came out as all numbers. Pushing the 'call' button anyway, Era placed the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" Era asked. There was a slight pause between her call, so she nearly figured that a bot called her, but then a familiar voice finally answered.

"Era?" Renée's voice replied back, sounding a little desperate.

"Renée? Are you okay? You sound a little anxious for something."

"I...can't move. Something...attacked me. Can you come get me?" Rouge's voice seemed to fade a little since she had a bad connection with her own phone, and it seemed to Rexa that she could get hurt very easily.

"Renée...call for help. I'm on my way over; where are you?"

"An alley near the city limits. I think someone else was here...earlier. I was passing by, and then I heard a scream from here. I checked it out, and next thing I know, something leaped at me and I was out in a second. I woke up five minutes later I think, and...I'm bruised everywhere...."

"Renée, try not to say anything else. I don't want to lose you, okay? I know where you are."

Era hung up without waiting for a reply. She tried to imagine what condition that Renée was in right now, but at the same time she really didn't want to think about it. Quickly getting dressed, in nothing more than a diminutive black blouse, a pair of cleaved jeans, and sandals, she ran outside swiftly to try and find her friend. Lucky for her, the town was small enough to run around and not take a lot of time, otherwise Renée would have to count on finding someone else to come and give her a lift. The other side of the town probably take a few shortcuts that Era had discovered in the past - a whole bunch of holes in the walls or walking a shorter path underground the subways or the old fashion forest cut- and she had a feeling that Rouge wouldn't expect her for too long. The first forest that she reached seemed to have had its trees cut down, making it easier to see through, and Era had no time for realization.

After a while of running and wheezing through parts of town, the anxious blonde stopped her fast pace for a moment to rest. She leaned down a little to let herself hang a little, only to find her cell phone vibrating in her pocket. Taking it out, it was only a text message from Lucas, but it was marked under 'urgent'. Shit, Lucas. Not right now...! Groaning, she read the text, only to be alarmed around the end.

Yo, Era! You'd better stay inside of home today.

I just witnessed this freaky thing right now. This shadow like thing...

I didn't know what it was, but it attacked a passerby on my way to work.

Now the cops are on their way here, but I realized there were more of those things lurking.

I don't know what they are, but everywhere I seem to turn there's more of them.

As far as I know, I may not get to work safely, so try and tell Renée and Natasha.

Warn them that these things are at-

Either Lucas ran out of space to text, or something startled him enough to send it unfinished. It was obvious that Renée didn't tell him about her condition; it may have been the thing he mentioned that attacked her. Era suddenly felt as if she never ran in the first place and had enough energy to run again. She began to dart through the chopped down forest as Rexa stood back watching her in gray vision. At this point, she knew that things were going to be bizarre; she swore that it would be.

"How does your flashback go thus far?" A very deep voice asked behind Rexa. She turned to find the bold man she met earlier, Lexaeus, behind her with his eyes closed and arms crossed. Figuring it was his regular poise, she tried not to aggravate him easily.

"Shocking." Rexa replied. At this point there really wasn't much to say since last night. She noticed that he had then opened his eyes to look past where she stood blankly.

"It won't be too long before the Heartless becomes a real threat to your people."

"It already has. Renée's hurt, isn't she?" Rexa replied. Lexaeus turned his head to stare at Rexa curiously.

"Well in your level of words, how much does 'hurt' hurt?"

What? Rexa nearly thought out loud. There was a disturbing silence after the question reached her head, for she knew that Lexaeus didn't seem like a Nobody that would toy with anything. "What do you mean?"

"I'm simply asking...how much pain do you suppose she can handle before it actually hurts?"

Rexa wasn't exactly sure herself. She did see in one of her first flashbacks on how Natasha got pretty fucked up by the group of kids, especially the wasted girl, but Renée's been through a lot worse. But around the time when she called in the morning, she sounded as if she's just gone through a freak accident.

"I'm not sure. She took a lot of pain in the past, and she sounded like she was in a lot when Era talked to her on the phone."

Lexaeus's expression didn't change, but he closed his eyes once more in deep focus. Rexa could see that through his face, he had the benefit of the doubt. The built Nobody scoffed a bit before looking past the blonde once more.

"Apparently she likes to get in trouble." Lexaeus continued. "And that she really doesn't fight back at anything, does she?"

Rexa thought awhile, knowing that there already has a been a lot of concentration in the awkward conversation. She did recall Renée getting in trouble a lot in the past experiences along with Era; the conspiracies, the cheating, the talking smack, and now the...-

"The...Heartless." Rexa suddenly realized. "What Marluxia told me about. That's what attacked Renée? The Heartless?!"

"It looks like you're ahead of things already." Lexaeus replied. Rexa noticed that ever since she's met him, she hasn't seen him smile once until now. "Well then, I guess while you look at what's ahead, you'll get another premonition of...what's to come."

He went back to his usual posture before he disappeared into the shadows. Rexa had a feeling that all of the members of Castle Oblivion would meet her throughout this unusual experience. How long would this last? She wanted to see what happened, but only how she actually lost her heart, not all of this emotion beforehand. She even wondered how she was back in the castle anyway; since this was like a dream, was she unconscious? She'd wish she could just skip all of the past and get to the point of it, and then get back to reality. Before Rexa got back into Era's shoes, everything had faded in and then faded out to where she was still running, but this time she looked like she was in the outskirts of the town, which meant she was pretty close to Renée. The outside of town looked like sacred ground. Nobody was around and all of the buildings would be in a curved line as if they were forming a giant circle. At this point, the sun was at its highest in the sky, possibly searching for Renée easier. Era could hear a ruffling yet a scratchy sound not too far to her side, yet when she turned to find any sort of disturbances, there was nothing. It almost seemed too quiet around where she stood, so she almost immediately knew that there was something lurking behind her; but it was not visible at the moment, so she also knew it wasn't human. Another scratching sound echoed through the empty circle, a little farther away than the previous sound, but it sounded more like a shoe scraping on the concrete. As if it were a rhythm, the scrape sounded out once more, a little rougher.

"Renée?" Era called out.

There was no reply; instead, a distance hacking cough was heard around one of the alleys, possibly the dark alley that Renée mentioned on the phone. Without giving a second thought, Era ran to where the sound was triggered; and with her hope crushed, she found Renée...unconscious. Era stepped a little closer to get a better view -as much as she'd hate to- of her friend, who was laying on her side -as if someone or something rolled her over- and was bruised everywhere. A small red cut sat on her cheek looking fresh, as if she were just marked. The next thing that Era saw made her even more shocked; a little black fiend that she hasn't seen before was lurking around the motionless body, looking a little bit like how Isa described the creature he saw the other night; glowing gold eyes and a small black frame, as if it were a walking shadow. Rexa immediately recognized it from the way Vexen and Lexaeus warned her, and how Isa said it looked. So that was the thing that caused her to lose her heart?! It was only a few seconds before it noticed that Era caught it red handed.

"You..." Era managed to mouth out. The moment she spoke, it had retreated into thin air, leaving Era and the motionless damsel by themselves. It made her tingle a little to wonder if it was that creature that caused the mess, but it was out of the question in a short notice once she noticed that Renée's hand involuntarily twitched. "Ah- Renée!"

More movement began as soon as the harmed girl's name was called out, but it was a struggling attempt since her arm was either too hurt to move or her immune system had been damaged also; which was unlikely to Era, but it was a possibility considering the condition Renée was in, and Era could only imagine how hard it would be to lift herself up.

"Renée, stop moving. You're injured everywhere."

Renée possibly couldn't hear her, because she struggled to lift her arm until it was resting on her hip, and after a moment of being idle, she slowly opened her eyes. One of them had a faint red streak diagonally across it, making Era mistaken it for being cut open, but she was happily wrong.

"Is...it gone?" The weakened girl asked.

"I think so." Era replied, she knelt down beside Renée on her knees and moved a few blond and red strands off of her face so it wouldn't infect her sore skin. "How long have you waited? I told you to call help."

"I...did. But I fainted...before I could actually...dial them." Renée replied, followed by a hacking cough, which made Era cringe a bit. "That thing...it wasn't what attacked me...but I faked death so...that it wouldn't."

"Then what did attack you?" Era nearly snapped. She was nearly ready to tear apart whatever attacked her friend, even if it was a threat to the town. The little punk earlier couldn't possibly stand a chance.

"It was...similar to that thing that appeared...earlier. It was...much larger though...I didn't know what...it was, or what I could do...I was too scared to run." Renée's blinking seemed a little slower. Shit shit shit...! Era nearly thought out loud. If Renée didn't seek medical attention soon, she'd probably lose more than her skin.

"Come on, Renée. I'm taking you to the nurse."

"One problem...my arm...it's the only thing...I can move. The rest of me is...paralyzed."

Era cursed. "I'm calling help for you. Hold on." Renée made a sigh of relief in reply and closed her eyes. Era figured that she was fine for now, since she was breathing normally, but she did take a fatal beating. Pulling out her phone, she dialed the emergency number, determined to bring Renée the help she needed.

---

"I am so fucking BUSHED." Era moaned loudly as she thudded on her bed covers. She invited Natasha over to her house after the ambulance picked up Renée to be taken to the hospital to hang out with her, and was also constantly texting Lucas about Era's experience since she was too tired to explain it once more. Natasha pulled her hair back in a black bun before trying to tie Era's.

"Well that must have been the lamest morning you've ever been through." She said as repeatedly stroked the handful of hair so that she could get it in a bun perfectly.

"It was. Seriously." Era mumbled through her sheets. "What does Lucas have to say about it?"

Natasha checked her phone curiously, seeing if her last text was replied recently as she tapped her fingers swiftly on each and nearly every button.

"He says, "That is WACK." "

Both of the girl's laughed at their other friend's reply, which seemed contrary to everything else he's ever said. Era didn't exactly know what was wrong with her, for ever since Renée went to the hospital and she ran back home, she felt a little shaky, but she didn't think that anything was wrong with her, unless she was somehow in shock; but Natasha was attempting to relax her.

"What do you suppose it was? That thing that was lurking around that alley?" Natasha questioned. Era rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling in deep thought.

"I don't know. Some kind of bug? But then again, I don't think a bug could do that much damage to anyone."

"Well, you are a witness. The FBI or whoever might contact you sometime since you're a friend of Renée, and they may want to know what it is themselves." The black haired girl replied. Almost immediately after she stopped talking, she froze as if she just realized something important. "Wait- have you told Isa about this yet?!"

"Its complicated to answer that because...I think he saw it too." Era replied. Natasha reacted as if she had just been slapped.

"Dude, if he knows something about that...thing that's roaming around town, he might be able to relate to the situation!"

"But he hasn't been attacked."

"Maybe not last night or anytime before, but what about all this morning?"

"He's asleep during the day, don't you remember?" Era replied, a little freaked by Natasha's realizations. The jet-blackette had leaned over to undo the blonde's fresh bun, to try and comb it frantically through.

"Era, you're missing my point. The last time you guys talked, it was the first time he mentioned the thing, right? What exactly did he say about it?"

Era hated repeating herself, as much as it seemed like the right means to do so, but she had nothing to lose, except for her voice. "He described it exactly how I saw it today: small, black like a walking shadow, and glowing yellow eyes. Apparently it vanished too the moment he saw it, but he told me that if he saw one again, he'd send me a photo of it."

Natasha got up from the red bed and decided to sit on the floor, mainly so that she could look Era in the eye in a far distance; that and Natasha's expressions seem more serious when she's looking up or down.

"When or if he sends that photo, you have to ask him to look for more of them."

"What?! That's way too risky! Didn't you just hear me tell the story of how Renée ended up!?" Era replied loudly as she sat up a little from her down position, giving just about as much eye to Natasha as she was giving to her. "That'll be like, using him, you know? I can't do that."

"We're not using him, we're asking for his help, and we're going to get Lucas and the others to help out too; since they weren't the only ones suspicious about this too."

Era blinked, playing with her lip ring a little bit with the tip of her tongue. "Who's they?"

"Those professors and scientists that live not too far from this town. I think they work for this one guy named Ansem? But anyhow, he and his apprentices are professors that study most inhumane and superhuman topics, if you know what I mean- and they heard about the sudden attacks that we've been getting lately. It was in one of the recent articles my mom was reading."

"You mean you got a bunch of nerds to assist us...?" Era asked blankly. She didn't seem that all impressed, but Natasha was adding on.

"They're not nerds - actually I heard they're pretty attractive, but they're the nation's top rated scientists and the like. They could help us find the hidden mystery about this...creature."

"You know, that might be a good idea." The blonde replied, awestruck. She stroked a few stands of hair over her shoulders as -to her surprise- Natasha pulled out a few articles from the little green backpack she brought with her. They were all education-based stories and reports, mainly based on Ansem; what were apparently called Ansem's Reports.

"Your mom really reads these? And you?!"

"If I've got nothing else to do. I'm not going to just sit in the middle of the floor, blankly waiting for the right moment to take a duce, especially with what's been happening lately."

"Well that was really nice to hear, Natasha." Era joked. Both of the ladies laughed at the last part of the conversation as Era forced her jet-black haired friend to get back up on the bed to get comfortable. She took her time to show some examples of Ansem's reports to Era, who was studying them carefully since she didn't want to give Natasha the wrong idea that she was getting bored. A few of many parts of the reports were a little complicated to understand, and seemed contrary to a normal human being's ideas. It had all sorts of things that Era has never had the slightest idea about- or heard of; it main topic focused on the mysteries of the human heart, as if it were almost some kind of a mission to unlock them. There was something else that caught Era's eye, especially Rexa's: the DTD; aka Door To Darkness. It sounded like some kind of a haunted house attraction, but if it were in a highly educated professor's articles, then there had to be another meaning to it, as crazy as it sounded. Era felt that it was a good choice for Natasha to bring the reports with her to her house, despite that they haven't really answered anything yet, she felt as if she read further, then she would have a few answers to questions of her own. Natasha stayed around for about three hours before her mom called her to tell her to go home and help run errands, leaving the Ansem Reports to be with Era for the rest of the day. It was funny how whenever friends have to leave her house, she'd immedialty do something else that differed from whatever activities they were doing before, but Era wanted to keep reading the articles, as much as she hated to admit it to her very social friends; something about them seemed to suck her into reading more. Still on her bed, she lied on it flat as if she were getting in position for a massage, and went back to the page that she was originally on in the first issue she picked up.

And then it hit her. Rexa back out of virtual reality once again and separated from her somebody, again. The aura that she could sense was as suspicious as how Era looked as she read slowly across the Ansem Reports. Rexa waited as she wondered who would arrive to keep her company, but time seemed to go by a little longer than usual, and there wasn't a boot tap or a single breath to be heard. Pushing Era aside to the other side of her concerns, she turned around and noticed that Zexion was standing behind her the whole time, a concentrated and lustful look in his eyes, it nearly frightened her. Rexa sighed as her sudden rise of tension took its time to lower back down.

"Shit, Zexion. You scare me and don't even give me a hello."

The silver-haired man lowered his hands from his chin. "Nice to see you too, Rexa."

Rexa scoffed a little from his curt reply, but looked over back at the other focused blonde. "So...what's happening here?"

"She's trying to learn something. Soon she will get her answers, and a little more than she bargained for." Zexion replied. Rexa could tell from his glazed stare that he wasn't through talking. "For you see, we Nobodies ,too,know the wonderful studies of Ansem The Wise."

"Ansem? The Wise?"

Zexion nodded. "Yes. That was his full alias. Many people favored him, and still do; when they don't even realize it."

"Still do? How long ago did all of this happen?"

"Not too long ago, figuring that you were still the same age as you were when it happened."

That didn't really help loosen the tension that Rexa felt right now. "And...what about his apprentices?"

Zexion looked mildly taken back for a moment from the last question she asked, but in just a second he went back to his concentrated look. "You sure do like to ask questions."

"Hey now, I have a right to ask questions. Especially about things that happened to me in the past that I wasn't aware of until now."

"Well there you go then." Zexion said as if he were crediting her for doing something good. "If you keep watching what goes on, your questions will be answered. We've been through the same thing, so we would know." It left Rexa speechless momentarily, but just watching her past wasn't enough to answer her other questions, not to her. She looked at Era for another moment, but then looked to the side to see that Zexion was staring at her as if she were a book. "You have a scent of such innocence and weakness, and a newborn nobody. But out of all of the history that I've learned about nobodies, you're the most questionable newborn I have seen."

"Is that bad?" Rexa replied with a suspicious tone. Zexion let his hands hang down past his hips again.

"Well I'm not saying its good, but its not that it's bad either. See, that's what's so intriguing about you."

He disappeared, without a trace, without another answer to another question; was the worst to come, or has it already came? In a snap, Rexa was back looking through Era's eyes, and felt sudden emotions of delightment and amazement, as if she just learned something she was longing for. Natasha probably read all of the reports already, but she'd want to get in contact with her soon to tell her about what she learned. Who else though could she talk to about this crisis? A great answer suddenly hit her head, and she checked the clock. It was five minutes past four thirty, so it wouldn't be too long before evening strikes. Era picked up her phone and looked to see that she got a missed call. When she checked it, it was apparently from Isa, who called five minutes ago; but Era didn't notice because her phone was on 'silent' and was on its front lying on the counter. But Isa...oh Isa; he'd definitely hear about this.