Hey! Okay, before I get back into this, I want something to be made clear: I gave my old account to a friend so she could manage a forum without issue. Since she still needs it for her forums, I'm moving my old stories to this new account. This is all basically a copy and paste of the old stories on the new account, so nothing for this story until chapter 15 has changed (except for the fact that all the author's notes are gone).
Speaking of author's notes, if you want to read any of the old notes, you'll have to read them quickly because as soon as I finish moving this story over, the old account will be deleting them.
Old account/moving from account: Darkness on the Horizon Leader
And hey, if any of you who originally contributed to this story (submitting OCs and whatnot) please, send me a PM! I'd love to hear from you guys!
"Lord Xemnas..?" Saix questioned his Superior. They were in the leader's office, and Xemnas had just said the oddest thing Saix could ever remember him saying.
"We need new members. A lot of them." Xemnas repeated.
"Um...My lord, we have fourteen members already. Are you certain that is not enough?" Saix asked. He was dreading the inevitable response.
"Yes, I am certain. There are far too many worlds out there, with far too many Heartless, and what with Demyx and Axel's pranks, Luxord's weekly 'game nights', Marluxia's obsession with his garden, we are short-handed and in dire need of extra help." Xemnas continued.
"But, my lord, the effort to find and bring together two recruits..."
"I said nothing about two, Saix." the Superior Nobody said.
Saix looked hopeful for a mere second before Xemnas continued.
"We need at least six more members. Fully doubling our ranks would be ideal. And it cannot be too difficult—have everyone working on it." he said. Saix's face fell.
"Fourteen more members? Superior! Will we have enough space...?" he inquired. He was desperately trying to avoid the colossal effort of finding fourteen new Nobodies, and all of the work that would come with it.
"Have Lexaeus, Xaldin, and a few others renovate the castle. Saix, get to work." Xemnas said curtly. He was done talking; they were getting more members.
"Yes...sir." Saix sighed, defeated. He excused himself from the office and set off to gather the members and assign tasks.
"The others are going to be after my blood, I'm sure of it."
"...we're actually doubling our ranks?" Axel scoffed in the Gray Area, about thirty minutes later. The news had been given out and as expected, they were very unenthusiastic about the prospect.
"I thought that was a joke!" Xigbar exclaimed.
"This is ridiculous. Where are we going to find fourteen new recruits?" Vexen demanded.
Saix was swamped by complaints and questions, and it was all he could do to prevent one of them from taking out their weapons and murdering him.
"I understand your complaints!" he said loudly, over the mixed voices, "But Lord Xemnas has ordered us to do this. So please—do it."
"Fine.." Xion murmured, "Where do we start?"
"Yeah, where?" Demyx asked. He, personally, was excited about the idea of all those new people. Surely one of them would share his love of music and goofing off!
"I have assigned you to different worlds—you are to investigate them in trios. Axel, Roxas, and Xion, you are to go to Traverse Town and search there. Xigbar, Demyx, and Luxord, you three are to check out Destiny Isles. Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion—Hollow Bastion. And Marluxia, Larxene, and Xaldin, you are assigned to Twilight Town. Return to me when you have either found or failed to find a possible recruit, as we have many more worlds to check out." Saix said, handing the groups their respective mission papers.
The members departed with much bad-tempered muttering and quiet commentary, disdainfully awaiting their momentous task.
"This is going to suck." Axel muttered bluntly as he, Xion, and Roxas left.
The search for new members went...horribly.
Day after day, tired, disgruntled, irritable Organization XIII members approached Saix with their reports. There weren't any really decent fighters in many of the worlds, and it was becoming a true stress trying to glean them out.
"Just keep searching." Saix would tell them. He was worried; the reports and paperwork had really begun to pile up, and Xemnas was never anywhere to be found! Every time Saix approached the Superior's door, there was either no one home, or a sign that said "Do Not Disturb ~ For Anything."
Which left Saix alone to take over for him. The only plus side was that the Castle was much emptier and quieter when everyone was gone.
Larxene approached him one day, looking more annoyed than usual.
"This is pointless! Where's Mansex at? I need to tell him that this is a complete waste of time!" she spat. Saix, who now had dark circles underneath his eyes from lack of sleep, just sighed and answered: "The Superior is out again."
Larxene shot him a venomous glare before stomping away to her room.
"You know what is ironic?" Luxord asked him. He had heard the entire conversation, and was smiling to himself. "The only reason we have been searching for new members was to help make progress on Kingdom Hearts. But now, we're making next to no progress at all!"
It took Saix a moment to process this, and Luxord walked away, laughing his head off.
"...that is ironic." the Luna Diviner sighed, rubbing his temples.
It had been about three weeks since the order had been sent, and still no progress on the new members or Kingdom Hearts had been made.
Saix approached the Superior's office door with little hope, as the silver-haired Nobody had been missing for three days now. Upon reaching the door, Saix knocked and listened to the hollow sound. No reply.
He turned around and began to walk away, when he heard the oh-so-quiet sound of a turning doorknob.
"Ah, Saix, there you are."
The blue-haired man turned around and saw his leader standing in the office door. Saix noticed that he had dark rings under his eyes as well, as if he had been working very hard on something or the other.
"Superior! You're actually here!" the second-in-command exclaimed, "Superior, I must ask you to please withdraw..."
Xemnas held up a hand for silence.
"Saix, Saix, everything is taken care of. Assemble the members in the Hall of Empty Melodies in thirty minutes—everything will be explained then." he said.
When the door closed, Saix stared at the plain frame, uncertain. Had the Superior actually lost it? It wasn't as though any progress had been made!
Nevertheless, the ever-loyal Saix departed to assemble the Organization in the Hall. Many were out on missions and some were wandering the halls somewhere; it would take a while to get them all together.
"Why're we here again?" Demyx asked, half an hour later. The Organization was assembled in the Hall of Empty Melodies, and all thirteen of them were impatiently awaiting their master's arrival.
"Superior said to, that's why." Xigbar said.
"Ugh...how long will he be?" Larxene questioned, her voice thick with annoyance.
"Calm down, XII." Xaldin told her.
"Yes, calm down, XII. I am here." a deep voice boomed into the room.
The bickering members fell silent, both in respect and in surprise at what the Superior had brought with him...