"So, this Sora kid; is there anything else special about him besides that he holds the 'keyblade'?"

"There is one other thing. There was a time when he too became a Heartless."

"Hmm. When?"

"It was in another world, called Hollow Bastion, where he went to rescue the princesses of heart. He had to give up his heart to free the last princess."

"Wait a minute. If he lost his heart, then how is he still coming this way? It's as I was told. When someone becomes a Heartless, they lose their minds and their feelings. They're consumed by the darkness."

"Right. But not Sora. He was able to hold on to his feelings, even as a Heartless. And there was only, one other man that could do just that."

"He managed to get out of the stage of being a Heartless? I don't see how a regular human can do that."

"They can't. And that's the other thing that's special about Sora."

"I see."

xxx

"You see, Rexa, there is also another person coming the way towards this castle. Marluxia and the others knew about it, but they weren't planning on telling you, since they believe you're in too much in an early stage of a Nobody to learn about- and take on both of them."

"As much as that seems like a safe idea, that seems sort of judgmental."

"We're not sure who this person is yet. We have Zexion working on finding out who it is right now, but we wanted you to know about this as well, since this probably won't be the first thing Marluxia's going to hide from you."

"You don't really think Marluxia's going to lie to me, is he?"

xxx

"Are you nervous?"

"Somewhat I am, yes."

"Don't be. Any hint of doubt can increase your chance of downfall."

"Are you ready for this?"

"Yes."

"Step through."

The darkness cleared and Rexa could see all of her surroundings. It was no flashback however, this place was real. She figured it was ruins, or just a very bleak looking version of her home. She recognized everything from the hilltop where she stood; the same spot she -rather Era- landed when she went through the flashback slumber. Everything seemed beat down by something. Either this town has been abandoned for a long time, or the Heartless really did overrun her home. Everything that was going to happen all had to do with finding her inner strength. Feeling as if she's taken a good look around the scenery, she began to walk downhill towards the town, mainly her house. As much as she felt alone, she knew that she was being kept an eye on by the organization, probably not just the members in Castle Oblivion, by everybody. The distant gusts blew a very musty smell into the atmosphere, and Rexa remembered how the town seemed a lot cleaner till now. But she did question how Heartless managed to wreak havoc in the town. As much damage they could cause to a regular human, they couldn't be that powerful enough to break down the whole town; At least she thought.

She had reached the streets and things looked even worse from within the town as she walked along the sidewalk towards her house. It became half a forest, as a couple of trees had apparently sprouted and wrapped themselves around various buildings. Vines and weeds spread around out of cracks and looped around whatever object they touched. Rexa figured from the start that there weren't any people here anymore, but something else was missing. Animals. There wasn't any sign of wild life anywhere as well. No birds in the air, no bugs crawling on the dirt or grass, no stray cats or pet-like creatures, nothing at all. The only existing lives around here were the plants and the blonde cloaked Nobody. But then Rexa just realized out of thought, was this place what the town looked like this very moment, or was it an illusion just to help her train? She probably wouldn't find out till the end.

After walking a long way from the hill to the very front of her house, she stood still with other thoughts in her head. She wondered where her parents were or if they were even still alive. The same questions reflected on Renee, in which she never found out if she woke up from her coma yet, and if so, where was she now. So many questions, yet sadly no one was around to answer them for her. Hopefully this was all just an illusion and her hometown was still in good shape, as well as everyone else. Rexa reached her hand out to towards the door to turn the doorknob. The only thing wrong was, her hand went right through it, as if it were a hologram. So this place is just a replica. She could walk right through this door. And she did. Her house in the inside didn't look too beat up, but it did look like it hasn't been touched in a while, and there were cobwebs everywhere. Some random items did fuzz up a bit for a sign that everything in this place was fake, so Rexa committed it to memory. Upstairs was the first thing that came to mind after that. Instead of taking her time, Rexa found herself actually running towards the stairs, and then going up them as if something urgent came up. When her foot touched the last stair leading to the second floor, she glanced at the door to her room. It wasn't closed completely, but it was open by an inch or two, leaving a gap to look through. But something was very strange. It looked like little shadows and swirls of darkness seemed to slip through the gap and evaporate in the open air outside her room. It left a very dark aura surrounding the door, and Rexa could tell that something in there most likely isn't an illusion.

"You know I don't like surprises." Rexa said as if she were talking to someone ahead of her. Stepping in front of the door, the feeling of an unknown force became larger as she placed her hand calmly on the knob. She gave a few more seconds to take a deep breath, and then she yanked the door right open. Inside, her room looked trashed up, and there were a certain number of Heartless roaming around aimlessly on her floor; at least until they noticed that she was standing there watching them in surprise. The obvious yet funny thing was that she didn't feel as frightened as Era did when she faced the Heartless for the first time. This was a been-there-done-that feeling, only Rexa wasn't sure what would happen next. She saw one of the smaller Heartless meet her gaze, and she saw that deep down, the creature somehow knew she was its enemy.

Just as the blonde Nobody has predicted, the Heartless lashed out; and as if it were a reflex, Rexa jumped high above the attacker at a perfect timing before she could get hit. The attacker was caught off guard, but she was right in front of the other roaming Heartless; five others to be exact. Now how would she attack? She would at least have some weapon of a sort. As if it were a sign, a sudden light headedness swept through Rexa's head, but it felt more like someone was trying to reach out to her. After a few more seconds of waiting anxiously, the distant voice finally reached her clearly.

When desperate times call for desperate measures

Reach into yourself to find your inner strength

And act with vim and vigor

After that, Rexa didn't know if something was controlling her, or if she really was acting out on her own as if she knew what she was doing. Reaching her hand out, she turned her attention towards the Heartless that was eyeing her suspiciously. Deep down, Rexa had no idea what was about to happen, but then a flash appeared before her eyes, and light ribbons that eventually turned dark encircled her hand, and eventually wrapped around her body. As much as if looked strange, the feeling around her eventually coursed through her skin, and it felt comforting. She didn't know if it was just her, or if it was something all Nobodies shared in common. She closed her eyes, and before she knew it, she felt something solid in her grasp and pressing around her coat like a snake. Opening her eyes again, she watched in awe as she noticed she was holding what looked like a well designed chain whip in her hand. It was silver and light blue colored, and looked deadly as it was wrapped around her figure. At the end of the chain was what looked like the point of a dagger or something similar to a blade. She noticed the art on the handle of the chain whip was of the Nobody's symbol, but overlapping it was a purple line art of a small rose. The whole weapon itself had a toxic look to it, but Rexa thought it was very fitting. It was as if time froze and started all over again, since she had forgotten that the Heartless were still around, making her prone to being attacked while she was caught off guard. Despite that she was nearly surrounded by the enemy, she was still in awe of her weapon of choice.

"No way…" She heard herself say. Her attention was instantly brought back on the Heartless, whose focus seemed to harden on her as another was about to jump for another hit. Rexa acted quickly, swiftly raising the chain whip from around her waist to out in the open, and immediately shot it towards the attacking Heartless. The sharp edge stabbed right through the fiend's puny body, and it vanished into nothingness. Rexa realized that this would be easier than she expected, but her room was much too cramped to hold in her and the Heartless in a battle. She did the one thing she thought she would never do; She jumped right through the glass window that was beside her bed. She knew it would be a hard landing, since her room was on the second floor. But it was like another discovered Nobody reflex triggered, and Rexa put her feet down with the toe of her boots pointing down for a more easeful landing. The impact itself wasn't any worse than jumping from a couch to the floor, and Rexa was amazed in what she was capable of doing so far.

Just as she predicted, the Heartless either jumped out the window behind her, or teleported from her room to any spot around her. Luckily, the brawl would be in a more open space, so she was perfectly fine with dealing with the buggers. The chain whip gleamed from the hit of a little sunlight against the silver edges, and the feeling was just as nerve tingling as if she drew a sword slowly out of its sheathe. Just as she did in her room, she threw her arm out with the whip in her hand, threatening to cause major bloodlust.

"You're all finished."

"How is she progressing?" Lexaeus asked Zexion. The silver haired Nobody put his index finger on his temples, concentrating hard as the other two Nobodies waited for anything else to occur. Despite that the other members couldn't, Zexion could actually go into Rexa's mind so he could see what she was doing and where she was. What she didn't know was that what she has learned from her training would be put to the test later on.

"So far, she has encountered a horde of Heartless, but she has discovered a part of her strength."

"And how is the battle between her and the Heartless?" Vexen asked immediately.

Zexion's finger lowered to the bottom of his chin, and he smiled weakly. "So far, it's doing fine. She's discovered her chosen weapon, so for now, the Heartless are no match for her."

"And that's what's strange." Lexaeus replied. "A newborn like her doesn't get the first of her powers that quickly and easily. Something or someone must be guiding her or searching her hidden powers for her."

"As far as I know, no one else is around, and there's nothing going through Rexa's head right now except to destroy her enemy. I can still stay with her though, in case something does go through her head later."

"Do that." Lexaeus replied.

The three weren't expecting anyone else to go into the room at the time, but an unexpected visitor vortexed into the room, the other Nobodies' attention immediately pointed at whoever it was. To their surprise, out of all people, it was Larxene who appeared in the center of the room. She smiled coyly as if she were expecting answers to whatever question she had; if she had one. Walking closer to the other three Nobodies, she placed her gloved hands on her hips as she spoke.

"Well, spying on new girl, are you?" She asked as if she caught them doing something very wrong. Her attention was mainly on Zexion, who was doing all the 'spying'.

"What's it to you?" Vexen asked scornfully.

"Nothing against her, really." Larxene replied. "But I just don't see what's so fascinating about her. I remember when I was a newborn, and I wasn't given nearly as much attention than hers. It was also the same for you all. What makes her so special?"

Zexion let his arms fall to his waist. "We know that she became a Nobody because she committed suicide as her former self. Not only that, but she had a connection with Xehanort's Heartless without realizing it. She knew about Ansem, the Heartless, and everything else all before she sacrificed herself, unaware that she saved no one. You should know all of this since you watched her past along with the rest of us."

"Hmm, well I'm pretty sure you went through worst. Considering that all three of you were Ansem's apprentices."

"Yes." Vexen cut in. "If she had looked further into that mansion, she wouldn't have discovered just Xehanort's portrait, but our old biographies as well."

"But she didn't. What now?"

"We don't exactly know about her power yet. But I have a feeling it's quite dark." Zexion said. Larxene rolled her eyes to another part of the room like she was getting irritated with the conversation now.

"All of our powers are. We ALL reside in the side of darkness, all Nobodies. You act as if she's the only one."

"You're one to brag." Vexen said, getting aggravated himself.

"Be quiet. All of you." Lexaeus said boldly. Everyone did and glanced over at the built Nobody as if he spoke for the first time ever. "Nobodies don't have the heart to trust or to believe everyone. Larxene is no pushover, since we all have our opinions on this newborn. But we're not going to shame the Organization and fight over it." Everyone was put to silence after that, but it was a possibility that they all heard Larxene mumble something coarse. "Larxene. Enough. I think it's time you leave us to do our work."

The blonde scoffed. "Whatever. You three enjoy each other. I have better things to attend to." She turned around and waved her hand goodbye before being enveloped by darkness and then disappearing elsewhere.

"She is truly a nuisance." Vexen said after she was gone. "But actions speak louder than words, I can prove her wrong about whatever she thinks of Rexa."

The tactician glanced at Vexen, a little concerned. "Vexen. You're not going to-"

"Zexion, I'm a scientist. Of course I'm going to conduct an experiment."

"I don't know what you're going to do." Zexion replied. "But do be careful. She was just 'born', you know. If anything goes wrong at the stage she's in, the results could be fatal."

"Of course I will be careful." Vexen smirked. "My experiments never fail to satisfy. I can assure you that you'll be quite fond of what I can come up with."

Rexa let out a sigh of relief as she turned around the face her house. As much as the fight with the Heartless seemed easy, it was still exhausting. It was actually no surprise that they were all found in her room. She would have to go through the whole house again to get back and look around her bedroom. But she didn't want to. She noticed that there was an easier way. Her bedroom window was on the side of the house, as well as the storage hut, which was small enough to jump onto yet big enough to give her a boost to her bedroom window. Since she broke through it, there would be no hassle in getting it open. Putting her plan into action, she jumped high to reach the ledge of the roof of the hut and pulled herself up. The hut wasn't too sturdy, so it was okay to walk on top of it. Walking to the edge of the hut towards the side of the house, she looked up to see that she would have to use a little bit of a bigger jump to reach the window, but she figured it wouldn't too much of a problem. Hunching down and placing her fingers against the gutter lining, she gave herself a large boost to start the jump off, and while she was in the air, she grabbed the edges of the window once she was leveled properly. Immediately pulling herself inside, she stumbled a little bit on her landing, but managed to get back in her room.

She wondered if looking around her room had anything to do with the next stage of training, since finding her weapon was one thing, but there had to be more to this simulation. She looked over at her cabinet, which had been left open from where she last checked, but nothing looked suspicious about it. Then she glanced over at her mirror and noticed something she wasn't expecting. There was a reflection, but not of her; at least the mirror was half correct. In the mirror was Era, staring back at Rexa with a confused look. The mirror only half knew what she truly was. Glancing over towards her door, she realized that it was closed, but remembered how she yanked it open when she barged in her room, so she knew that she didn't close it. Something or someone else could be in the house.

Opening the door, she glanced around each corner of the hallway. Nothing, just like she felt before she went in her room earlier, she felt that something dark was still around. Walking slowly as she looked around for clues, her boots lightly patted against the maroon carpet as she past the stairway. But then she saw something in the corner of her eye, stopped walking, and glanced over down the stairs. There was another portal. She figured it led to somewhere that she was supposed to explore next, so she took the risk of possibly being sent somewhere dangerous and walked down the stairs towards the portal. Looking back slightly, she glanced at the other parts of the house before beginning to run through the portal. She felt it close behind her, and could sense that she was being taken elsewhere. Though it was not rough like the vortex she took to arrive at the place, so she knew that she wasn't heading back to Castle Oblivion. After a few seconds, things began to brighten again, and she closed her eyes so she wouldn't be blinded. When she opened them again, she was no longer in her house, but at the place where she woke up after she had lost her heart. She remembered how she sat helplessly in the dark alley of whatever town this was. This was where Xemnas met her to take her 'home'. This was probably a simulation as well, so she couldn't ask anyone any questions; No one was probably around. Walking out of the dark alley, she looked around cautiously. Nobody was around, not even the animal with the red pom-pom seemed to be around either. The town was exactly the way she saw it for the first time, just without anyone else around except for her.

And then it hit her. Something told her this part of the training had something to do with the other part of town she was going to enter before Xemnas came out and stopped her. She might have had to go in there this moment. Glancing over at the brick stairway, she made her way up the stairs and around the accessory store where she knew the entrance to the other side of town was. The area itself was dark, and the doors were huge, so she'd have to put in a whole lot of effort to get them open. But then again, she had forgotten that she was a Nobody, and the strength of a Nobody surpasses one of an average human being. Committing that fact to memory, she stepped in front of the door, and pushed it forward as hard as she could, and she managed to get it open wide enough for her to slide through. She did still question why some of the town's doors were so huge.

She then looked around. Nothing seemed to be any more unusual than the front gate of the town. The surroundings seemed to consist of buildings and construction built in a square shaped barrier, and in the center was the regular leveled ground. Facing in front of her was apparently a clock tower, but this area of the town seemed harmless; so what could have Xemnas warned her about earlier that one time? She took three steps forward towards the lower ground, her third step ended up being a scrape against the rubble from the heel of her boot, and suddenly, she realized what the superior meant. Out of nowhere, a man was running, running fast and frantically, as if he was being chased by the devil. She didn't know if this was real or fake at the moment, but chasing behind the man was what looked like a Heartless, but a different kind. The one she has seen looked like life-sized bugs, but this one was like a life-size toy soldier. It leaped towards the man in a sudden flash, and the helpless victim fell back. He gaped as if he had just lost his source of oxygen, and then his figure vanished, a heart forming in front of the fading silhouette and later on floating towards the sky. In place of what used to be the helpless man formed another soldier-like Heartless. So that's one way of losing your Heart. Rexa thought.

As if her thoughts echoed through everything and everyone's brain, the two Heartless turned their heads toward her. As pathetic as they looked, she did figure that they may be a bit more challenging than the smaller fry she took out earlier. But then again, there was only too, so it wouldn't be long. She stared back at the fiends expressionless, putting her hand behind her as if to hide something. Soon her chain whip shined through, the handle appearing in her grasp and the chain whip itself dangled loosely behind her.

"Don't give me that look."

"I don't think she was like us when we were newborns." Axel stated as a matter of fact. He, Marluxia, and Larxene were in the same room, Larxene appearing not too long ago to join them. She had shared her little run in with the other three Nobodies at the castle basement room, and basically came back to the other two to get their opinion. "You're not jealous, are you Larxene?"

Larxene scowled at the comment Axel made. "N- What the fuck!? Am I the only person that suspects that she's getting some kind of special treatment?!"

"No use getting worked up about it. We were all welcomed to the Organization in different ways. We don't all have to be the same."

"All we know is Nobodies will be Nobodies. She's only been here for so little time and you're already looking at the negatives about her." Marluxia said calmly. "We never looked at you with such a temper when you arrived; special treatment or not."

Larxene crossed her arms together and rolled her eyes to another direction. She figured she'd just be quiet than make herself look even more ridiculous than she probably did already.

"It doesn't matter how we're treated or not. We're all special in different ways, so you're just as important to us as Rexa or anyone else."

"Then act like it for once." Larxene replied bitterly. To her surprise, Marluxia only grinned, and then vanished before she knew it. She scoffed as if she figured that he was being rude to her, but the sudden appearance of him appearing in front of her gave away second thoughts. "What do you think you're-", that was all that she could say before he grabbed her roughly around the shoulders and pulled her face to his. Larxene's eyes widened, while Axel just stared in curiosity. She then tightly closed her eyes as if she couldn't believe what he was doing, but she did think that he took her words quite literally. She wondered if the kiss was real or something just to calm her down temporarily; either way, she began to feel comfortable with the moment. It lasted longer than she had expected, but when their lips parted, she felt a grim smile form on her lips. Marluxia opened his eyes as well and looked over to the side as if he was also speaking to Axel.

"Don't forget. We are all the same yet different at the same time. Rexa isn't any more important than any of us." He turned his head towards Larxene. "Understand?"

Larxene nodded slightly, and then chuckled, bringing her gloved pointer finger to her lips as if she was planning something devious.

Try and top us all now, Rexa.