The day after the Halloween bash was a day of rest and recovery for Organization XIII. And pretty much everyone desperately needed it.
Leixym, Axbrem, Xiyak, Xavier, and Knexedy, who had finished the night with a movie called "The Pumpkin Carver" or something like that, were all asleep in the living area, where they had been too tired from the film and the night to get up and go to their rooms.
Axille had passed out in the room she shared with Roxas (being the youngest and Roxas' protege, it had been decided she sleep there) and was still sleeping soundly with Roxas on the floor below his own bed on the other side of the room. He had fallen out of bed at some point in the middle of the night and had been too lethargic to get up again.
Only a few Nobodies were actually up at the time. Xemnas, who was never one to sleep in when there was work to do, Saix, who was never one to risk missing any possible work, Kyrox, who had been absent for the larger part of the night, Zexion, who hated getting up late, and Xigbar, who had woken up early to help Darxet. The teen was in bed with a bad hangover, and Xigbar had no choice but to help him.
"Dude, next time, don't drink!" Xigbar sighed as Darxet fell back on his bed, shaking like a leaf.
Xemnas was sitting in the calm and serenity of the kitchen with a coffee when Saix walked in, looking serious.
"Good morning, Saix." the Superior said.
"Good morning, Superior." Saix replied, sitting down at the table.
"How are the state of things?" Xemnas asked, noting the look on Saix's face.
"Everyone is either asleep, comatose, or in XXVIII's case, hung over." Saix sighed.
"Of course." Xemnas said in a monotone, displeased. "The others I can understand. But a hangover?"
Saix looked up at his Superior and sighed again.
"Yes, Superior. Unfortunately, we will not get any work done today." he said.
At that moment, Zexion walked in, his nose in a book.
"Good morning, Zexion." Xemnas said when the younger Nobody had walked in.
"Hm? Oh, good morning Superior, Saix." Zexion greeted them as he went to make himself a cup of coffee.
Silence passed for a while as Zexion returned his attention to his book, Xemnas finished his coffee, and Saix got lost in something in his head. After about five minutes of calm, peaceful silence, Xigbar walked in, looking annoyed.
"Hey, any of you know where I can find something for nausea?" he asked, leaning against the door frame.
"Yes. Top cabinet, the bottle that says Pepto-Bismol. It helps a lot for nausea and vomiting, why do you need some?" Zexion asked, gesturing to the medicine cabinet above the counter.
"Darxet's sick. Didn't you hear he got a hangover from last night?" Xigbar questioned as he went to the cabinet and pulled out the bottle of medicine.
Zexion sighed.
"Well, I hope he recovers quickly." he said.
"He better. Kingdom Hearts knows I'm not dragging his unconscious rear around on our next mission. Anyway, thanks. I best run before he throws up on his bed." Xigbar said, going through a portal to Darxet's room.
Almost as soon as Xigbar left, Kyrox appeared from a corridor and strode over to the table where the others were convened. He took his seat and crossed his arms, closing his eyes as he did. Obviously, he was bored.
"Kyrox, good morning." Zexion said, looking up.
Kyrox nodded in the direction of Zexion's voice, but didn't return the greeting.
"We aren't going to get any work done today, are we?" Kyrox asked after a few minutes of silence.
"No, unfortunately." Saix said.
"That's too bad." Kyrox said, looking up at the ceiling. "I was hoping Anix and I could go practice fighting Heartless."
"Well, I doubt that will be possible today." Xemnas said. "Unless of course we are suddenly besieged by a mob of Heartless."
Kyrox looked at Xemnas with a rare smile, wondering if Xemnas had been joking or sarcastic.
Zexion got up at that moment and put his emptied coffee cup away. He tucked his book underneath his arm and told the others goodbye before he departed for the library.
"I had better leave, too." Kyrox said, standing. "Heartless mob or not, I'm going to go practice."
"In that case, I will accompany you." Saix said, "I have been lacking in my combat practice as well."
"Then let's go." Kyrox said, following Saix through a corridor to the Hall of Empty Melodies.
Xemnas watched them go before putting his own cup away. With a sigh, he got up and went through a portal to his office, looking to do some paperwork and seizing as much of the day as possible.
Unbeknownst to him, however, was the shadowy, black something that had crawled into the kitchen at his departure...
Knexedy woke up with a long, loud yawn that woke up Xiyak and Axbrem, on the couch beside her.
"Ahh geez, what time is it?" the black-haired teen yawned, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Do we even have time here?" Axbrem asked as she pushed herself into a sitting position.
"Good point."
"Ugh, did any of us have a mission today?" Xiyak asked as she surveyed her sleeping comrades around her.
"Not according to this thing, we don't." a voice from the floor said. The girls on the couch jumped and looked over at Xavier, who was lying awake, studying a piece of paper.
"Found it on the TV. Apparently, everyone's recovering from the party last night so we have the day off!" she said, passing the note to Axbrem.
"Oh, well that's good news." Xiyak nodded.
"Or not." Axbrem said.
"Why not?" Knexedy asked.
"No work all day, with nothing to do but bum around? I'd rather risk my neck on a Heartless." Axbrem answered.
"Workaholic." Knexedy laughed.
"Man, shut up." Axbrem growled, throwing a pillow from the couch at her head.
"Ha ha—hey, did you hear that?" Xiyak asked suddenly, sitting up straight.
"Hear what?" Axbrem questioned. Then she heard it too.
A low growling sound drifted into the TV room, sounding almost like one of the voice simulators used at the Halloween party.
"I thought Halloween was over?" Knexedy joked, standing up.
"At least the lights are still—"
Then the room went black.
"—on." Axbrem sighed. Three metallic sounds slipped through the air as the girls drew their weapons and stood at the ready. Axbrem's bowstrings glowed with deep fire, somewhat illuminating the room.
"Sudden darkness, growling..." Knexedy muttered to herself.
"What are you doing?" Xiyak hissed as the growling noise grew louder.
"Quiet! After growling, there should be some kind of light source." Knexedy answered. "But I—"
"Found it! Over there, back of the room, farthest back wall. Two glowing eyes." Axbrem hissed, pulling her bowstring back. "Get down!"
She fired, and the room exploded into light as the thing on the wall was dazed. It had a long, reptilian body and an empty lantern as its tail. Knexedy stood behind Axbrem as the archer readied another arrow while the creature was down.
"Illuminator!"
Clang!
Steel met steel as Kyrox parried another swipe from Saix's claymore. The two were sparring in the Hall of Empty Melodies, unaware of the Heartless that had infiltrated the castle.
"Not bad." Saix deadpanned as he dodged another attack from Kyrox's Prometheus scythe, "Superior has taught you well."
Kyrox backed up, his scythe held in a defensive position, "He's taught me enough."
"Enough for now." Saix replied as he took a step back and menaced the younger Nobody with his claymore.
Kyrox darted forward and teleported behind Saix, disappearing and reappearing in a haze of dark smoke. As the Diviner turned to find him, Kyrox unbalanced the blue-haired Nobody and tripped him with one of the heads of his Prometheus scythe, sending him crashing to the floor.
Kyrox stood triumphantly over Saix and held the curving scythe blade to his neck, merely an inch away from cutting the skin.
"Enough for now." Kyrox said as he stepped off and allowed number VII to stand.
Saix stood and brushed off his coat, a mask of total uncaring on his face.
"Very good." he said monotonously.
Kyrox and Saix sent their weapons away when a scream suddenly wrenched the sleepy air of the Castle. From the sound of it, it was coming from one of the living quarters.
Without a word, Kyrox teleported to the floor from whence the scream erupted, Saix behind him.
As soon as they left the darkness, the two drew their weapons and readied for attack.
Xisel, Syaxsal, and Xylle had adopted rooms close to each other, despite their differences in rank. Xisel had been up early, tending to her dolls, when she heard a sudden shriek coming from Syaxsal's room, right next door.
Abandoning the porcelain doll on the floor, Xisel summoned Alice and Oz to her and disappeared through the door, meeting up with Xylle in the hall outside. Xylle had been hacking at the doorknob with her dual dagger weapon, and Xisel had to duck to avoid the solid metal knob as it flew off.
"What's going on?" the Marionette asked as she stood up and Xylle banged her way into the room.
"No need to be polite, I suppose.." Oz commented dryly as they all ran in.
Syaxsal was backed up to the wall, turning her head every which way as she let off a series of flashing lights from her spear. The sight dazed Xylle and Xisel and they weren't sure if they were just hallucinating the three Neoshadows that were silently creeping up on her.
Immediately, Xisel summoned her Puppets about her. She could see why Syaxsal wasn't reacting: the Trickster was blind and the Neoshadows silent; she couldn't hear or sense them!
Xylle threw herself at the Neoshadows, who turned to fight her. Oz and Alice, maneuvered by Xisel, went over to help. Alice dropped silvery white strings around the Neoshadows and Oz appeared to tie them down with magic, but when Xisel pulled her other hand back, the ensnared Heartless jerked back as well, hitting the wall.
While puppeteering the Heartless to attack its allies, Xisel went over to help Syaxsal up. With all the noise now, Syaxsal could focus and she pointed her spear at the Heartless, moving towards them to fight as well.
From outside the room, the three girls could hear Anix's unusually loud voice alerting the beset Organization.
"Heartless! Heartless in the castle!"
Anix and Kyrox fought back to back as Saix helped Cavex out of her predicament. She had been the one numbers XVII and VII heard screaming and, upon arrival, found Anix fighting a Destroyer Heartless. When he had seen the reinforcements come, Anix could find just enough time to turn his element upon himself, increase the volume of his voice, and alarmed the castle of the presence of the Heartless.
Anix blasted a Guardian away with a sonicboom and pressed against Kyrox, who was trying to fight off a Destroyer while keeping an eye on Cavex, who had been hit with a beam from the Robots shortly before they arrived.
"Where are all of them coming from?" Kyrox hissed as he dodge rolled to avoid the Destroyer's beam.
"No clue, but I'm not sure how much more of this we can take!" Anix exclaimed as he dove to the side as the two Robots readied their attacks. Stupidly enough, the two Heartless released their attacks at the same time and promptly obliterated each other.
"Good thing they have no brains." the blacksmith said as he leaned against the wall.
"I would not be too sure of that, XXV." Saix said. Kyrox, Anix, and Cavex looked at him.
"The Heartless did not just conveniently wander into the Castle all at once. They, or someone controlling them, planned this." the Luna Diviner said.
"But Nobodies are the only beings who could summon Heartless, I thought?" Kyrox asked.
"Someone is not loyal to the Organization." Saix said darkly as he opened a portal to another part of the castle, "Someone is a traitor."
Alone, the three younger Nobodies looked at each other, unsure. A traitor?
"Someone's betraying us?" Cavex asked.
"Sure looks that way, doesn't it?" Anix questioned.
"Whether they are or they aren't, we need to make sure everyone is alright." Kyrox said. "Make sure everyone is on the alert. Without a doubt, there are many more Heartless where those two came from."
Axbrem notched another arrow to her bow as the room went dark again. She was growing tired of this constant shifting from light to darkness, and vowed to make this the final shot.
Leixym, Knexedy, and Xiyak were advancing towards the twin yellow lights at the end of the room; Axbrem could barely see their silhouettes as they went towards it. The three had devised a strategy: Axbrem shot it into illuminating the room again, then in those few seconds before the light went out, the others would jump on it and dwindle its health. So far, it was working.
Taking a breath and aiming straight for the place between the eyes, Axbrem closed one of her own and sighted along the trajectory of the arrow, ensuring her aim would be true.
She let go and pulled another dart from the quiver on her back and blinked as the room exploded into light. Immediately, Knexedy's sword glinted through the air and slashed through the Illuminator's back, cutting its health even further. Xiyak punched her metal-clad knuckles together and lightning cracked through to the Heartless, setting it alight with crackling electricity. Leixym sent a wave of water at the Heartless and in the madness that followed, stabbed her own weapon through the Illuminator's head, forcing it to explode into curling tendrils of smoke. Between the weaves of darkness, a ruby heart drifted almost lazily to the ceiling, where it promptly disappeared through the plaster.
"Something's very wrong here." Knexedy said as she backed up against the wall, thinking.
"No dip. There are Heartless in our castle!" Axbrem said as she ran over to join them.
"Not only that but...Illuminators, in general, are weak and easy-to-beat Heartless. That one took us almost an hour to defeat, and there were four of us attacking. The only way for a Heartless to become that strong would be if the heart it contained was abnormally strong...or someone very, very strong had summoned it." Knexedy explained.
"What?" Leixym asked, shocked.
"Nobodies—" Xiyak said.
"—are the only beings capable of forcibly summoning a Heartless anywhere." Knexedy finished for her.
"Then one of us summoned it." Axbrem said bitterly.
"Or maybe there were more than just one." Knexedy sighed.
All of them fell silent, contemplating who, or what, would betray the Organization like this. A prankster? An actual traitor? Or just a party-crazed Nobody?
None of them could even begin to guess.