Ten younger Nobodies, lined up in no particular order, stared at the Organization with mixed looks of confusion, amusement, disdain, and a variety of other emotions some of the older Nobodies couldn't even explain. The Organization was caught completely off-guard, and could only stare at the new arrivals, at an utter loss for words.
"Everyone, meet your new colleagues." Xemnas said calmly.
Axel gawked, dumbstruck, at the new people. He couldn't believe the Superior had actually gathered them there, when the rest of them hadn't found anything! He especially didn't know how he had gathered such a...variety of characters in such a small amount of time!
One of the new people had on a black jacket, a black shirt, and worn blue jeans, while another one wore a green and white shirt that read 'Hope' in blue letters. And the little one in the background didn't escape his notice, either, she was clad in a royal blue tee and a silver jacket that matched the shirt to a 'T.'
"Superior...? Where did you find all of them?" Saix asked, his voice rising with anxiety. He wasn't concerned with the looks of the new people, he was concerned with the amount of time and work that would be devoted to these ten newcomers! Oh, the paperwork, the organizing, not to mention assigning mentors to proteges...
He almost fainted. Almost.
"Twilight Town, Hollow Bastion, Traverse Town, Destiny Isles, and a variety of other worlds you failed to check properly." Xemnas continued.
Xaldin was watching the new people apprehensively. Without taking his eyes off of them, he inquired, "And...what are their names?"
Xemnas actually smiled. One by one, he gestured towards one of the new fourteen Nobodies and said their names aloud.
"This is Kory Fyre Morte." he said, gesturing to the one with the black jacket.
"Kiya." he pointed to the girl with the "Hope" shirt.
"Elis." a shy looking girl with dark gray bangs that hid her face.
"Alyssa." a blonde haired girl whose face was hidden behind her hair.
"Tamenthe." a tall, blue-haired girl with silver eyes.
"Emily."
"Eriva."
"Kennedy."
"Amber."
"And finally, Allie." Xemnas finished, laying a hand on the youngest girl's head.
"They will serve as the first ten new arrivals, and I expect you all to treat them with the utmost respect." the Superior informed them.
In the silence that followed, Axel muttered to Roxas, "Crud, I've already forgotten their names."
"The meeting to rename and re-identify them all will be held later tonight, after we have given them some time to adjust to their new surroundings. I assume that is alright?" the silver-haired leader asked of the ten neophytes.
The tall, blue-haired one, Tamenthe, nodded.
"Yes, that is quite alright." she said.
Xemnas left, satisfied, and without much concern as to how his original underlings would react to being left alone with the newcomers. All he knew was that it would probably involve Luxord asking for a poker tournament.
Left alone, the originals and the neophytes continued looking each other up and down. Axel smiled to himself. If it came to a fight, the neophytes were outnumbered 10 to 13, minus Xemnas.
"Well, don't just stare." one of the girls, Kennedy, scoffed.
"Whaddaya expect, kiddie?" Xigbar countered.
"Don't call me 'kiddie', Ponytail!" Kennedy retorted.
"Why you little—!"
"Enough!" Saix broke in.
"No quarreling. Everyone is to either get along or ignore each other until the meeting. It's one or the other, and nothing in between." he said curtly.
Kennedy and Xigbar pulled back, eying each other.
"Yeah, sure Saix." the older Nobody said.
"Hmpf." the feisty girl muttered.
"And what about the rest of you, what can you lot do?" the pony-tailed elder asked, turning to the other nine.
The blue-haired girl Tamenthe gave a long, low whistle and a red and white bird flew out of nowhere. It alighted on her shoulder and watched the Nobodies with beady eyes, ruffling its feathers.
"This is my companion, he's a cockatoo." she explained. As if in agreement, the bird gave a squawk.
Vexen jumped back in surprise as the bird seemed to glare at him, its eyes narrowed.
"Why is that thing staring at me in such a wretched manner?" he demanded.
The bird just squawked innocently and sidled closer to Tamenthe's ear, giving it an affectionate peck.
Roxas laughed.
"That bird isn't staring at you, Vexen." he said, smiling.
Even Axel had to laugh a little.
Luxord cut in, shuffling his cards.
"Well that's all well and good. But what about the rest of you, lad and lassies?" he questioned.
Emily spoke up.
"Eh, I 'unno. Really, I just wanna have fun." she said, smiling widely.
"That's my kind of person!" Demyx exclaimed. He approached her and threw his arm around her shoulder, "And I was just beginning to think this whole crew was full of quiet, unexciting people. Granted, the bird was cool an' all, but I was hoping there'd be a prankster among you!"
Emily laughed.
"Then I'm your girl!"
The Organization groaned. Great, now they were going to have two Demyxes.
Eriva sent a sharp glance Marluxia's way.
"Who're you, pink hair?" she asked in a teasing way. Marluxia was taken aback.
"Um...Marluxia..?" he said, unsure.
"Then I shall call you Marly." Eriva said, smirking, "So what're you, a hair stylist?"
"No...no, I'm not. I'm a gardener." Marluxia replied.
Eriva held a hand to her mouth and snickered.
"A...gardener." Emily said, wide-eyed, "That's not the manliest thing..."
"Believe me, we know." Demyx nodded sagely. Then in a whisper, he added, "We're not even sure how...y'know, sane he is."
"I heard that, Demyx!" Marluxia hissed, "And resent it, I might add!"
Lexaeus' attention turned to Alyssa. She was one of the quieter, out-of-the-way ones, and he just barely noticed her.
"And what about you? Alyssa, is it?" he asked.
"Um...not much to say about me, really.." her voice was quiet and she trailed off soon, absentmindedly patting her dull blonde hair. Lexaeus left it at that. He could relate; after all, he was the quietest current Organization member.
Zexion's attention was drawn to the one called Elis, whose head was down and was busily watching the floor.
Sensing the young Nobody's eyes upon her, Elis looked up, but her bangs still covered her eyes, shutting them off from view.
"Elis, yes? What can you do?" the illusionist asked.
He, that is to say, they, was taken aback when the small doll she had been holding spoke in her place.
"Puppetry. I control puppets and dolls." it said.
Axel stared.
"That is...kind of creepy." he said finally.
The doll didn't answer, rather, it went quiet and it was clear Elis was done talking.
"...to fill the awkward void, what about the rest of you?" Saix asked.
"I'm a pyro," the girl named Amber said, "I fight fire with fire, and I'm not afraid to get burned."
Axel grinned suddenly.
"My kind of girl." he said matter-of-factly, nodding his head.
"Yeah, just get on my bad side and you're gone." Amber replied, smirking.
"Good luck trying." Axel answered with a wry smile.
The others stared. They had been doing that a lot lately. Was this some weird banter thing that happened whenever two sadistic pyromaniacs met? Or was it just that they didn't like each other?
"Uh-huh, yeah...and what about you?" Xigbar asked sharply to the smallest one, Allie. She jumped from the sudden outburst and stared, wide-eyed, at the Freeshooter. She backed up a bit but didn't say anything, only continuing to gaze at him.
"What? What?!" Xigbar demanded. He was kind of annoyed—ten new neophytes to adjust to and they were taking in an eight-year-old who couldn't even form a sentence! The Organization seemed to be going to the dogs!
"I asked ya a question, kiddo, what can you do, and why did Superior pick you to join?" he repeated.
"Um...I'm...a...a mimic..." Allie's voice could hardly be heard and her gaze returned to the floor.
"A mimic? So basically you can't do anything but copy people? Ripoff, dude, seriously." Xigbar scoffed.
Allie stared at him for a second before her hair suddenly flattened out and extended behind her head into a long, dangling ponytail. Her face became half-covered by a blue eye patch and a long scar snaked across her left cheek, much alike to Xigbar's, and her eyes lightened slightly in shade. In a second, the transformation had completed, and a miniature Xigbar was standing before the first.
"I do copy people...but I get most of it right. If I knew you better, I could've done a better copy." Xigbar-Allie said. Her voice was a bit deeper now, with the "surfer"-tinted accent lying underneath her words, and her voice was much, much more confident. It was very strange to hear it coming from the mouth of an eight-year-old.
"...That is quite an interesting ability." Saix said, staring in fascination at the transfigured Nobody. Xigbar-Allie shrugged and soon, she was back to her normal shape. His attention was drawn to the last neophyte, who was talking in quiet tones with Zexion.
"And you, Kory, what can you do?" he asked.
Kory looked up.
"This will sound rather queer...but I seem to have a heightened control over darkness. I understand you Nobodies can fade in and out of darkness whenever you please...but I have noticed that I seem to be able to literally fade into darkness. And control it as if it were a kind of dark magic." he said. He shrugged and returned to his conversation with Zexion, ignoring the twenty-two others.
"So...do any of you play poker, by any chance?" asked Luxord suddenly.
"No...?" Kory replied.
"Not...really." Alyssa admitted.
"No." Elis' doll spoke again.
"I don't." Allie said, gaining a bit of confidence.
"Well of course you can't." Luxord told her.
"I do, sometimes." Eriva said.
"I'll try." Emily added.
"I'll...give it a shot." Tamenthe said. Her bird squawked.
"Fantastic!" Luxord exclaimed.
"Wow, Lux, they haven't been here thirty minutes and you're already cheating them of their munny..." Xaldin said.
"I don't cheat! I'm just better than you at poker." Luxord replied. "Shall we play now?" he asked to the three neophytes.
"Not right now, Luxord. We have a meeting to prepare for." Saix reminded him. Luxord drew back, muttering.
"Right, right. Fine. After the meeting." the Gambler muttered.
"Yes...after the meeting you can begin to rob these children of their munny and their sanity. You are such a saint, Luxord." Zexion commented dryly.
"Aren't I?" the card-player answered.
"Allow us to show to you to your rooms." Saix said to the newcomers, "We'll call you when the meeting is about to begin."
The neophytes just nodded.
An hour later found twenty-three Nobodies gathered in the Round Room, the original thirteen members of the Organization in their respective seats, and the ten rookies on the ground below.
"My friends, we are gathered here today to welcome these new Nobodies into our ranks...and re-identify them with a new name, a number, and an assigned mentor. It is my hope that they will feel welcomed in our castle...and so, let us begin."
"Amber, your new name from here on, is Axbrem. Your number is XXIII, and you shall be trained by Axel." the Superior continued. Axbrem gave Axel a thumbs up, who gave her another one back.
"Kiya, from now on you are named Xiyak. Your number is XXII, and your mentor shall be Larxene." Xemnas said, gesturing to Kiya.
The newly named Xiyak nodded and cast a grin up at Larxene, who simply sneered back.
"Eriva, you are hereby named Xavier, and your number shall be XXI. Your mentor will be Marluxia." continued the leader. Xavier smiled at Marluxia, who, remembering the hair stylist comment from earlier, grimaced slightly.
"Emily, you are now Leixym, and will be taught by—and I can not believe I am saying this—Demyx. Your number is XX."
Demyx and Leixym cheered together. In the hour and half they had known each other, the two had grown very close.
"Continuing on," Xemnas said after the two had stopped their cheering, "where was I...oh yes, Kennedy. You are now called Knexedy, your number is XIX, and you will be instructed by Vexen."
Knexedy nodded and Vexen twitched, unsure of his new protege. But nonetheless, he nodded.
"Elis, you are now known as Xisel. Your number is XVIII, and you will be taught by Zexion." Xemnas continued, nearing the end of his speech. Xisel turned her head in Zexion's direction and Zexion nodded down at her. They both weren't on speaking terms, yet—neither having much to say, truly.
"Kory...you are now known as Kyrox. Your number is XVII, and as you are not truly companionable with the others' elements...I have decided to be your instructor." Xemnas said, looking down at the teen. Kyrox looked up, surprised. The gathered did so as well, normally Xemnas had no time nor patience for teaching, much less being a mentor of his own accord!
Xemnas continued after a brief pause to regain his breath.
"Tamenthe, you are now to be called Amenxtthe. Your mentor is Xaldin, and your number is XVI." he said.
Amenxtthe's cockatoo gave a loud squawk of satisfaction. It was obviously pleased with the choice. Amenxtthe nodded.
"And finally...Allie." Xemnas said, his roving, orange gaze finding the small girl.
"From here on, your name shall be Axille. Your number is XV, and Roxas shall be your instructor."
Axille blinked uncertainly up at Roxas, who returned the look with satisfaction. He gave her a reassuring smile and returned his attention to Xemnas, who had cleared his throat again and was getting ready to talk again.
"Neophytes, you will be granted two weeks to adjust to the castle and to your fellow members. But after that grace period, you shall begin your work for the Organization. By this, I mean simply attacking and killing Heartless in the many different worlds, performing recon, and fetching such-and-such items." he said.
He waited a brief moment for this to sink in before he went on.
"Now, everyone, this has been a long—and I dare say, eventful, day. Return to your rooms and get some rest. Dismissed."
The Organization members, new and old, kept to their rooms, still wary of each others' presence. The neophytes were concerned of the older members, and the older members were concerned of the neophytes.
After all, in one day, Organization XIII had swelled to Organization XXVIII, and one could only imagine the trouble and chaos that could come from that!
I decided to write the next chapter based on what we have. Many thanks to Chewan, sonicdisney, Zexiontwo, Leixym, beckster411, Sun and Moon Entity, Infinite Eyes, and Bond of Flame08 for letting me use their OC's in this endeavor!
More to come when we have more OC's to work with. I will try to get the next chapters posted as soon as possible!