Vexen, Zexion, and Lexaeus were still trapped in the basement.
By now, the portals had stopped working for them, and the Heartless...creator was still blocking the way. Of course, it was still asleep, which lessened the danger.
"This is your fault." Zexion hissed, rounding on Vexen. The Academic looked at him, surprised, until he replied, "I was merely trying to keep us alive."
"Well now that we're stuck here, we don't know if everyone's still alive! For all we know, we could be the last Nobodies in the castle!" Zexion seethed.
"Don't be so ridiculous." Vexen snapped, "We would have sensed if one of the others were eliminated. That, or the sudden absence would be recorded on your computer."
"How do you know that?" Zexion exclaimed, "You were already wrong in telling us to stay here, when the portals still worked, so how do know you're right about this?"
"I don't." Vexen shrugged, "Half of science is trial and error, boy. Perhaps this is just another error."
"An error in your judgment, if nothing else." Zexion muttered as he went to lean against the wall. He typed something on his computer and lost himself in whatever he was doing, pointedly ignoring the Academic and the Hero still in the room.
Silence took over as the three Nobodies contemplated their fate—were they, indeed, the last men alive?
"I believe that is everyone here." Saix was saying. Some of the other members had been taken back to the Hall as well, and, without anything else to do, Saix was taking a head-count.
Out of the twenty-eight members of the Organization, only nineteen were there. The ones missing were Xemnas, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Axel, Marluxia, Xion, Axille, and Xylle.
"Well, we all know Axille's dead, so we can just cut her out." Larxene said. Roxas bristled and looked ready to protest, when Xigbar cut in for him.
"We don't know if she's dead yet." he said, "For all we know, she could still be alive somewhere."
"And likewise, for all we know, she could have been eliminated. Face it—the kid never had a chance here." Larxene shot back.
"She had every chance!" Roxas countered. "You never believed in her! No one did!"
"Rox," Axbrem said from behind, "we did believe in her. But let's face it, Larxene has a point. Axille's either been kidnapped or killed, and if this threat's as bad as we think it is, being dead might be a blessing for her."
"Look—if we don't know we don't know. Let's quit jumping to conclusions and try to figure a way out of our situation, okay?" Xigbar said, trying to ease the tension in the room, "The others that're missing could well be in the same boat as her."
"Yeah...I don't know what I would do if Axel or Xion didn't make it out of this attack." Roxas said worriedly.
"Or Vexen!" Knexedy exclaimed, worried for her mentor.
"Or Zexion." Alice the doll murmured, "We're all worried about them."
"Enough of that, all of you."
Everyone looked up at Saix, who was glaring at them with a frustrated gleam in his eye.
"Enough of what?" Roxas asked.
"Stop acting as if you have hearts to worry for them with." the Diviner said, "You are only deluding yourselves. They are most likely dead—accept that fact and move on."
"How could you say that?" Leixym asked, shocked.
"You forget, number XX, that you are a Nobody. You cannot feel worry, or fear, or sorrow. Acting as if you can is only blinding you to the situation at hand—do not forget, we could very well be attacked at any moment." Saix said coldly.
"Saix, that's not helping anyone any." Xigbar told him.
"But he does have a point." Xaldin said. "We have to focus on what's happening, or could happen, right now. No need to be pseudo-emotional for our lost numbers."
The neophytes still looked dubious, but they didn't protest further. Instead, they retreated to a corner of the room and sat down together, taking comfort from the presences of their remaining friends.
But the question still hovered on the edge of everyone's minds.
Are they still alive?
Xylle awoke to the horrible feeling of rope pressing against her stomach.
Thrashing around like an ensnared fish, she fought to loosen the blindfold that someone had tied to her eyes and summon her weapon. She could hear movement around her, and her senses were high on the alert.
She froze at the sound of footsteps moving towards her and she scowled, glaring in the direction they were coming from.
"Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?" she challenged.
The person, if a person it was, didn't reply.
"I'm warning you! You'd better keep back!" Xylle hissed. Her legs were still somewhat free, so she lashed out with her feet. She was pleased to hear a startled, pained grunt from in front.
"Xylle—!" the voice exclaimed, "Relax! It's just me!"
Xylle froze.
"Axel?" she asked.
"Yeah. Hold still, let me cut these things."
A moment later, Xylle could feel her limbs being released and she tore the blindfold off of her head, looking up at the redheaded Flurry before her.
"What's the big idea?" she snapped.
"Not my idea, I can tell you that much." Axel scoffed, "I didn't know you, Xion, and Axille would be kidnapped, just to let you know."
"What?" Xylle screeched, "Xion's been captured too?"
"Calm down!" Axel exclaimed, "I know where she is. Just shut up and follow me."
Xylle did, but the scowl on her face screamed distrust as she followed the eighth member down the hall. She noticed that the hallways were darker than the rest of the castle, and a bit less well-cleaned; there were spiderwebs stretching over the ceiling and dust was rising with every step.
"Where are we anyways?" number XXVI asked, stifling a sneeze.
"The Hall of Empty Words." Axel replied, though his voice was muffled, "It's an abandoned part of the castle that, until recently, only the Six knew about."
"The Six?" Xylle asked.
"Yeah. Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion. The founding members. I think that, in the original blueprints for the castle, this was supposed to be a living area. See? There are old rooms and hallways that could've been sleeping places. I don't know why, but Xemnas moved the living areas towards the center of the castle for everyone." Axel explained. "Wait, stop."
Xylle did, and saw that Axel had come to a smallish door. She watched, intrigued, as Axel pulled a small brass key out of his pocket and opened the lock. He went in, and Xylle followed right after.
The room they entered was very bleak and empty, even for the castle. It had a low ceiling, and narrow walls; Xylle could hardly believe it was a room.
After she got a good look around and returned her attention to Axel, she saw he was busy on the other side of the room. Straining her eyes, she could see that there was another door there.
"Come on!" Axel called after he managed to get the door open, "The locks are getting harder and harder to open. We have to hurry!"
Xylle ran over and dashed through the open door, almost colliding with Axel when he stopped.
"Sh." he hissed, holding a finger to his mouth. He pointed ahead and Xylle saw a stone-bound door.
"What?" Xylle asked, not bothering to lower her voice, "It's just a door. Come on!"
"No, Xylle, wait!" Axel exclaimed as she ran forward.
When she was within striking distance of it, the door rattled and dust fell off of it as the rock started to crumble. Xylle saw and tried to stop, but not before the door exploded in a hail of rock and rubble and a Thresholder became visible.
Zexion was confused.
The Creator (which he had named the foreign Heartless) had still not made a move, but now there was another Heartless presence being recorded on his computer. Where it was though, surprised him even more. In fact, his surprise made him momentarily forget his frustration with Vexen and he dashed over to the others, showing them his laptop.
"Number IV, Number V, look at this!" he exclaimed, pointing to something on the screen.
"A Heartless in the Hall of Empty Words?" Vexen asked, after reading the data.
"No one has been down there since..." Lexaeus trailed off.
They all looked at each other.
"Since...the incident." Zexion finished as he closed his laptop and tucked it under his arm.
"The incident." Vexen echoed. He shook his head, his green eyes dark.
"This makes no sense," he said, "why would a Heartless show up there? We blocked off all access to it years ago!"
"Someone's unblocked it." Zexion said, "And now there's a Pureblood there."
"Are you getting any other readings? Open that device back up, Zexion, maybe you can get a thermal." Vexen suggested.
"My computer is advanced, not magic." Zexion deadpanned, "But fine, I'll try it."
He sat down again and crossed his legs, placing the computer neatly on top of them. He bent his head forward and rapidly typed some commands into the device, mouthing them as he went.
"I'm getting...something. But the signal is blocked by the Creator and I can't get a good view..." he murmured. "But there's a red flash right here, very bright...I wonder what it is?"
Vexen moved over and got down on his knees, observing the screen intently. "That could very well be Number VIII, his unnaturally high body temperature would show brighter in a thermal scan than anyone else's."
"But how did Axel learn about the Hall?" Lexaeus asked as he sat down beside them, "We've been keeping it secret for all these years."
"Possibly someone leaked?" Zexion asked as he watched Axel's rapid movements on the screen.
"We were all sworn to secrecy about it, Zexion." Vexen reminded him.
"Yes, I know that." Zexion snapped, "But anything could've happened."
Axel's figure on the screen was jumping and dodging all over, undoubtedly fighting the Heartless, and the three intellectuals had no choice but to sit back and watch, and see what happened next.
But of course, while they were doing that, they were paying no attention to the Creator behind them. Slowly, it stirred and its yellow eyes glowed, and small lumps of half-formed Heartless began to rise off of it...
"I don't like this, guys." Leixym was saying.
She, like her other neophytes, were feeling an unbearable weight of tension rising between the groups of neophytes and older Nobodies as the rift between them grew. Belxeo, seated on Amenxtthe's shoulder, squawked nervously and shuffled closer to his owner, his feathers ruffled from the stress.
"The castle's too quiet." Xavier said grimly, "I don't like it."
Darxet beside her narrowed his eyes and doubled over, fighting back a wave of nausea as the others watched him anxiously. He went green for a moment before it faded, and he sat back, paled.
"Darxet, are you alright?" Cavex asked anxiously, "If not, I can give you some—"
"I'll be fine, I'm fine." Darxet said, shaking his head. "But what do you all think about this situation?"
"I don't like it." Oz the doll said, "It's too quiet, and it feels like we're growing apart when we should be standing together."
"No sense in thinking that, Oz." Xiyak said. She sent a brief glare at the other Nobodies before lowering her voice to a whisper, "It feels like they're plotting something."
"What? C'mon, I know it's been a rough day, but no need to think about a conspiracy." Knexedy said, looking at her with wide eyes.
"No, really!" Xiyak insisted, "I mean...look at them! Whispering together like that, do you honestly think they're not planning something?"
"They're most likely just planning out a strategy for when and if we are attacked." Kyrox said.
"If they were, why aren't they asking us? I don't know, Xiyak might have a point..." Xavier murmured.
Xiyak nodded, pleased. "Exactly!"
"Look," Knexedy sighed, "I know it's been a rough day but they're our partners and our mentors. I don't think they're planning on doing anything stupid right now."
"How do you know?" Xiyak asked.
"I have faith in them!" Knexedy said stubbornly, "Something's up, but I don't think they're going to betray us! End of discussion!"
"You're sounding more like Vexen every single day." Alice the doll sighed.
"I can't help it, okay?" Knexedy said, "Just...have a little more faith in them."
"Faith won't get us anywhere." Xiyak said grimly, "Look there."
Everyone turned around at the sound of Heartless arriving, and in a flash of white light everyone had drawn their weapons.
"It's back on!" Axbrem hissed.
Xylle staggered backwards as the Thresholder nailed her in the stomach. She looked up as a flaming disc flew by overhead and smashed into the face of the right-hand Heartless. Shaking off her shock, she held her daggers tight and lunged at the left-side one, managing to cut a hole down its arm.
"We have to hurry, there isn't much time left!" Axel called over the noise of the fight.
"Time left to do what?!" Xylle questioned as she narrowly avoided another sucker punch, this time to the face.
Axel didn't reply, rather he sent another exploding chakram into the keyhole between the two Heartless. It went through and he jumped back, avoiding another blow.
"Get back!" he shouted. Xylle did, and watched, fascinated, as Axel raised his hand and cupped it, holding his fingers together.
A maniacal smirk appeared on his lips as he stared at the Heartless and said, "Goodbye."
He snapped his fingers, and the Heartless was engulfed in a blazing inferno, blown up from the inside.
Smoke from the fire and the fading Heartless wove together and rose into the ceiling; there was no heart appearing this time.
"...Whoa." Xylle said, surprised. Axel just shook it off and moved towards the door, placing his hand out as he did.
He pushed it open and beckoned for his younger follower to come as they entered into a large room. Xylle looked up as they went in and saw the ceiling was surprisingly high, despite its position in the castle. The walls were smooth and domed, akin to the Place Where Nothing Gathers.
After coming to this realization, she became hauntingly aware that this place was even more familiar than she had thought. There were six high thrones in here, arranged in a circle, and all of differentiating heights. The main difference was that the upper half of the room was lost in black, empty shadow.
Their footsteps echoed loudly as they walked out onto a circular platform and Xylle shuddered, remembering the day when she had walked out onto the floor of the Round Room; her footsteps had sounded the same as they did right now.
"This was the original Place Where Nothing Gathers." Axel whispered, "It was scrapped, like the rest of the Wing of Faded Memories, when the Organization got too big."
"The Wing of Faded Memories?" Xylle asked, her voice hoarse in the huge room.
"That's the name of this place. It used to have a different one, way back when, but after they moved Xemnas renamed it and called it the Wing of Faded Memories." Axel explained, "Now hush, let me do something."
He summoned a miniscule ball of fire and let it hover on his hand for a moment, before he flung it up at the darker parts of the room. The ball, like a miniature sun, illuminated the six thrones in turn as it flew from one to the next. From her standpoint, Xylle could see that Axel was puppeteering the fire to move around, like Xisel did with her puppet strings.
"Nice control." she commented, watching the sun fly around.
"Thanks. It's a trick I learned after watching Xisel. Apparently, you neophytes are good for something." Axel replied. His fingers stopped moving and the sun hovered in place, right in front of the largest chair.
He gently pushed it forward and Xylle backed up, craning her neck to see what was up there. The sun flashed for a moment and Axel hissed something that sounded like "Found you."
Xylle's eyes widened as she saw who was up there.
Xion struggled feebly against the ropes that bound her. The blood pounded in her ears as she realized she was staring at the inside of a rag; she was blindfolded.
Her struggling got rougher and harder as she tried to loosen the ropes that bound her, but they were tied tight and wouldn't move.
She blinked once or twice when she peered through the rough material of the fold, her eyelashes scratching against the material, blocking her vision.
Was that a glowing ball of light coming at her?
No, she chided herself, you're still dizzy. After all, that was a pretty nasty ambush...
But after a minute of watching the strange deity hovering lazily towards her, Xion realized that it was, in fact, real. What it was remained to be seen, and rather than finding out and maybe it being something she wouldn't want to encounter, she turned her head and started to buck even more, trying to escape before it got too close. Her eyes shut tight and tucked her head down, desperate to protect herself from this unknown being.
But she dared to look up, just a bit, and saw that the floating ball of light was directly in front of her.
Xion screamed, even louder when she heard sharp wind whistling through the air and something sharp slice by her. She was being attacked!
She jerked from side to side, trying to go on the evasive as she felt more sharp breezes rifling past her. For some reason, or by some miracle, she was never hit, but the projectiles were loosening the ropes!
Whoever's attacking me isn't very bright.
At last, she felt the last rope being cut and she summoned her weapon. She straightened up and jumped, expecting to feel nice, solid ground beneath her.
So how surprised was she, when her feet touched down on nothing but empty air?
Needless to say; she plummeted like a stone.
"Now where is he, Zexion?" Vexen asked.
"It looks like...he's in the old Round Room." Zexion said, bewildered.
"The old Round Room?" questioned the Academic.
"That's what it says." Zexion shrugged.
"...Number IV, Number VI, put that device down and look at this."
They looked around to see Lexaeus with his shoulder rigid, his axe sword drawn as he stared at the Creator.
The two others looked up slowly and saw that, while they had been pouring over the computer, the Creator had awakened again and was producing even more Heartless than before. But on the bright side, it wasn't targeting them.
"I don't think it even knows we're here." Zexion whispered.
"Yes...let's attack it." Lexaeus said suddenly, heaving his Axe Sword high.
"What?!" Vexen exclaimed, "Have you gone mad? We'll never survive a fight with that monstrosity!"
"But if we fight it and eliminate it, no more Heartless." Lexaeus argued.
"Whoever created the Creator could make another one, though." Zexion said, stepping between them, "They did it once, they can, and will, do it again. We have to focus on figuring out who created this thing, and find a way to get to and finish them off. Once we get rid of the puppetmaster, the puppet will be lost."
"We're cut off from the others, Number VI." Vexen told him, "Even if we did find out who caused this, how would we stop them?"
Zexion looked away but said nothing. He had no response to that.
"Exactly." Vexen said. "The Creator is leaving us alone, so leave it alone."
"The more nothing we do, the more our problems build up." Zexion warned.
"We will be fine." Vexen said firmly.
Lexaeus dropped his weapon but said nothing, still glaring hatefully at the thing that had disturbed his life at the castle.
Leixym backed up with her neophyte friends as a gang of Shadows and Soldiers turned to face them. Small stuff, easy peasy.
Her confidence was swept away with the appearance of a Windstorm and a Phantomtail, and the two flying Heartless turned on them.
With a pang of shock, she realized that they were only targeting the neophytes. The original Organization stood back, looking on, with nothing turning to attack them.
"Understand me now?" she heard Xiyak hiss. Disdainful mutters around her alerted Leixym to the fact that the others had noticed what she had, and maybe, just maybe, her conspiracy theory had some truth behind it after all.
There was no more time to talk as the two sides clashed.
Like a well-oiled machine, the neophytes split into two groups and led the Heartless away; dividing the threat would make it easier to take down.
But even like this, the neophytes were hard-pressed, and the Originals were showing no sign in coming to help. They hovered in the back of the room, watching uneasily as their partners did battle with their returning adversaries.
"Kyrox, on your left!" Anix called as he ducked a swipe from the Windstorm's tail.
Kyrox turned and swung his scythe around and nailed the Neoshadow that was sneaking up on him right in the head. He was pleased to see it faded without another attack, and he realized that they were back down to their usual level of strength.
"They're back to normal, everyone! Push them back!" he called encouragingly, as he went to aid Anix in fighting the Windstorm.
When he got closer, he was pleased to see that Anix was wearing earplugs this time, so that when the Windstorm reared back and let a deafening screech rock the room, he fought on without even flinching.
Axbrem and Xavier were the heads of the battle on the other side of the room. Axbrem ducked every now and then to avoid the Phantomtail's attack, but things were going relatively smoothly now that they knew they were dealing with average-strength Heartless.
"Knexedy, on your right!" Darxet shouted as he swung his hammer around and promptly crushed an oncoming Soldier.
Knexedy, without looking up, raised her sword and crashed it against the ground. A fiery explosion started up and wiped out almost half of the surrounding enemies as Knexedy staggered back and Darxet caught her, helping her recover.
"Nice one." he said.
"Th-Thanks!" Knexedy exclaimed. She looked up and pointed, her eyes wide.
Darxet looked up and saw the Phantomtail swooping down on top of them, only to be thrown off-course by a well-placed arrow.
Axbrem ran over and readied her bow as the Phantomtail circled just out of reach, contemplating the next move.
"Some other time, okay guys? We're kind of in a situation here!" she hissed as she shot her arrow up and it dug into the leg of the Phantomtail. It screeched in anger and dived, looking for all the world like a peregrine falcon on a nose-dive as it came at them. Darxet pushed Knexedy to safety and raised his hammer, throwing the heavy head against the Phantomtail's and knocking it aside like a fly.
It hit the wall and flopped to the ground, fading into nothingness as a ruby heart floated up into the air and vanished.
He looked back at Knexedy, concern flaring in his eyes, before he saw she was running back to help Syaxsal and Xavier fend off a team of Sargeants.
"Darxet, wake up! We need you!" Axbrem said into his ear. He looked around, saw her, and shook his head, pulling himself out of his stupor.
"Right. Let's go." he said. He pulled his hammer up over his shoulder again and went to help the others, ready for this fight to be over.
Xion screamed for all she was worth, plunging into darkness like she was. Her screams even reached the high corners of the ceiling as she struggled to find a handhold, a ledge, something to stop her from falling to her death!
She suddenly felt herself sucked into a cold void and she froze, too scared to open her eyes. The coldness lasted for only a moment and the next thing she knew, she was sprawled out on the ground, gasping for breath.
She looked up through a blurry haze and saw two dark figures slowly coming into clarity, backed by the ominously dark ceiling of the room. One had dark green, wavy hair and the other had painfully familiar red spikes...
"Axel! Xylle!" she exclaimed, sitting up. Xylle fell to the ground next to her and stared into her eyes, too numb to do much.
"Xion!" Axel exclaimed as he wrapped the girl in a one-armed hug. "You're alive! Thank Kingdom Hearts!"
"I know, I know, but...how?" Xion asked, confused, "One minute I was falling out of the sky and the next I'm on the ground!"
"That was me." Xylle murmured, "I transported you back here while you were falling...one of the perks of having space as your element, I guess."
Xion looked into her partner's eyes for moment before she grasped her in a hug.
"Thanks, Xylle! I'd...I'd probably be dead right now if it weren't for you." she murmured.
Xylle blinked and returned the hug, however awkwardly, and mumbled, "It wasn't anything."
Axel sat back and watched the two friends reunite with a soft smile on his face. Until he remembered what last thing he had to do and he grimaced, standing up.
"That's all good...but we still have to find Ax...Axille." there was a kind of uneasy hesitancy on the word "Axille," something the other two didn't understand.
"What's wrong, Ax?" Xion asked as she stood up.
"I..." Axel's green eyes met her blues and he shook his head, forcing a smile. "It...It was nothing. Come on, we have to find her."
Xylle tilted her head questioningly to one side but said nothing, merely following along in their wake as Axel led them out into the next room, and on to the final encounter.