Chapter 7! Enjoy!
Axel and I walked quietly through the never-ending tunnel of darkness. Neither of us said a word to each other as we passed by the many colors surrounding us. I looked at my feet as I thought about my lost friends. I tried desperately not to be sad but tears continued to beat against my eyelids whenever they closed.
I wasn't even paying attention when Axel stopped in front of me. I ran into his back and bounced backwards onto the transparent ground. Axel didn't even turn around to help me up. He just stood motionless with his eyes closed. I shook my head and slowly pulled myself up.
I walked to Axel's left and waited for him to do something. After a few minutes, Axel's emerald eyes snapped open as if he had been in a trance. "I think we're here," he said quickly as he raised his left arm in front of him. He moved his fingers ever so slightly. I turned to look in front of us as a portal appeared.
Axel walked forward towards it. "Why did it take you so long to realize that we were here already?" I asked following him. I passed through the black mist and appeared on one of the old familiar streets.
"Because Xemnas is trying to hide the headquarters from the enemy," he answered quickening his pace through the city.
Eventually the two of us came to the glass like pass to the sky. Axel and I had always been ones to walk when we could instead of teleporting. We slowly made the climb to the castle entrance and into the main hall.
"It feels good to be home," I said breathing in the air.
"What do you mean?" he questioned.
I thought it was a kind of obvious statement for me to make and I had no idea why he didn't understand it. "Hello? Home? We're home. I'm happy; we haven't been home in a few months, that's all."
"Oh…I just thought you meant something else," he said turning to walk down a hall. I ran up to his side and gave him a confused look as we continued along the polished hall.
"When you said home I thought meant like well, your real home, with your family," he said noticing that I wanted an answer.
"This has always been my home. You guys have been the only family I ever had. Well, besides what I had—" I trailed off. "I mean my mom died right after Kairi and I were born. And well my dad, I only knew him till I was five. I guess Kairi is the only thing left of my real family."
Axel didn't say anything, he just continued to walk, and so I continued talking. "Do you remember the first day I came here?" I asked. He nodded. "You told me that I didn't lose a family when I came here, you said that I got another one. Ever since then, I considered everyone here as my family. This is my home and these people are my family. I missed them when we went to go find Roxas." I finished and waited for Axel to say something.
He finally did. "I wish I could remember my family before I came here." He spoke in a normal tone but a hint of sadness clouded his voice.
"Don't you remember anybody? Xemnas said you would start to remember as you got older. I mean anything?" I asked.
"There is one thing."
My eyes widened with curiosity. I shot my eyes to Axel's face. "What! What do you remember!"
"It's not so much something, it's someone." I waited for him to continue. "And…I don't remember her as much as I hope."
"Her! What does she look like! What's her name! What's—" but Axel stopped me by placing a gloved hand over my lips.
"Listen. I've seen her since I was little. I couldn't see much then though. Back then it was like awakening from a dream. I would see her but then I couldn't remember what I had seen. As I grew older I saw more. She's about the same age as me. By that, I mean she grew as I grew. As I got older, I saw her get older in my memories."
"Why didn't you tell me that you remembered something before?"
"Because I wanted to keep it to myself until I understood who she was."
"Maybe she was a sister or somebody. Do you know who she is?" I asked.
"I don't know who she is. But I don't think she was a sister. I think I might remember that if she was."
"What does she look like?"
"She…well actually…she looks a lot like you only older. Did you have any older relatives, maybe a cousin?"
"Nope. My mom was an only child. My dad had two sisters but they died when they were young just after my mom and dad got married." Axel didn't say anything. "Do you remember anything else about her?"
"A little. I remember that we used to spend a lot of time together. I feel like she was my best friend or something. But not much else."
"Do you remember her name?"
He shook his head. I lowered mine, disappointed. I was hoping to know more. "But it was a beautiful name. I just remember it being beautiful," he said quietly.
I raised my head with a smile on my face. I was happy that Axel was remembering things.
Axel and I came to another large open hall with the ceiling towering above our heads. The two of us stopped to sound of hysterical laughter coming towards us. We waited until someone emerged from a second hallway to the side.
"Well, if it isn't Hothead and Bad Temper? Welcome back. Maybe you two could help me out, should I start calling Axel Hothead and Raene Bad Temper or keep them as they are?" Demyx said walking up between Axel and I. He put his arms around both of our shoulders grinning crazily.
"It's nice to see you too, Demyx. But, I'd like to stick with my old name thanks," I said pushing his arm off.
"Axel, buddy-o-pal. Xemnas has called a meeting," he said after Axel shoved his other arm off of him too.
Axel and I started to walk in the direction of the meeting chamber but someone grabbed my hood and held me back. Axel stopped and watched as Demyx started to talk to me. "Sorry, Beautiful, but Xemnas wants only the real members," he said letting go of my hood.
"No problem. I'll catch you later, Axel," I said turning the other direction and walking around the castle.
I wandered around for a while until I noticed the big, dark oak double doors at the end of the hall. Through those doors was one of the few rooms with color in it. I made my way inside and took in my surroundings. I was in the library. The huge circular room was one of Larxene's favorite places to spend her free time. The room was five stories tall and had a diameter of five stories too. The entire outer wall was one giant bookcase. Several more bookcases shot out to the center of the room from the outside. The ceiling had several large crystal chandeliers, but only the large one in the center was lit.
I walked to the center of the room. Several times when I was little I used to come in here to pass through the other door to another part of the castle. Larxene would be sitting in the very center of the room with piles of books around her. She would have them stacked up to her full height and have several books open at once laying on the floor in front of her.
The room was dusty since no one ever came in here anymore. Vexen and Larxene were the only ones who actually used this room. Now that they were both gone, no one bothered to keep it clean. Some of the isles of bookcases were completely filled with cobwebs. Inches of dust covered the books and desks and chairs from being unused in over a year.
Next to me in the center of the room were several stacks of books coming up to near my height. Books were thrown open all around my feet. Larxene never left books out unless there was an emergency. She must have had to leave for the last time right away and never got to come back to her library.
When I was younger and would pass through the library, Larxene was so interested in the book she was reading that she never noticed my presence. I sat down where she usually sat in her circle of books and picked up the book that was open up in front of me. The cover had been worn away as well as the title page and several other pages throughout the book. Some pages were torn or ripped. Some were even missing.
I was about to put the book back on the ground where I found it when I noticed a neatly folded piece of paper where the book had been laying. I picked it up and carefully unfolded the embroidered paper. On the inside was the writing of Larxene in her waving handwriting. It read:
This is just a bookmark for the book that I am reading. I never liked to keep a diary of some sort, but I decided to keep this so I could look back on it later. I did try to keep a diary once but I lost it among all the thousands of books in this room.
This is my all time favorite book in the whole library. I've decided not to write the title down anywhere since it wore away many years ago, so that when I am looking at it again one day, I can test my memory and see if I can remember it once more. I am also going to test myself to see if I can remember the lost pages or paragraphs.
Marluxia has an idea on his mind, which I am not to write or talk about under any circumstances. It's a sure fire plan and will finally get us the respect we deserve. Marluxia asked Axel to come along with our plan. He agreed. Marluxia also asked if Raene would join but Axel demanded that Raene have no knowledge of the plan. Marluxia has planned for us to start our plot within the next week. There is no way that anyone can stop us!
Well, Marluxia is here. He says that we have to go now and that it's urgent. I guess that once our plan succeeds I'll be back to clean up these books. Until then I'll miss you beloved library.
Long live the Organization
Larxene, number 12, The Savage Nymph
I closed and neatly folded the paper and placed it back under the book.
Larxene and I weren't always at each other's throats. At one time, we actually were civil to each other. And by 'civil' I mean, we weren't trying to rip each other's hair out.
Around the time that I was nine and she eleven we actually were getting along. I'm not sure why but we just did. I even let her pierce my ears, believe it or not. I already had my ears pierced once but she insisted on me getting a second piercing next to the first.
"Larxene, are you sure about this?" I asked sitting on the small trunk at the end of her bed. I squinted my eyes together trying to rid myself of the nervousness that was clouding my mind.
"Would you just relax? It won't hurt a single bit," she said calmly holding her kunais and sharpening them with a rock she somehow came to find.
"You're gonna stab me with those to pierce my ears?" I shouted curling into a ball and covering my ears with my gloved hands.
"No, no, silly. Sharpening them simply makes my aim better," she said smiling.
That didn't make me feel any better. "So you're gonna SHOOT a hole through my ears with them!" Larxene didn't look up but the smile played across her face got bigger. "Larxene, last time you shot near me with those I had to spend a week in Vexen's lab waiting for him to find some cure for the wound."
She giggled. "Yeah, sorry about that." I looked down at my feet. I heard her stand up. "Ok, ready!"
"Larxene, I swear if I get hurt from this, I'm sicking Axel on you," I said as she stood next to me. I closed my eyes as I heard static and electric popping in the room. Then a feeling shot through my head that tingled.
I opened my eyes when I felt Larxene putting something in my ears. I looked up at her face. She was smiling. She then handed me a mirror. I carefully grabbed the mirror and looked into it.
To my surprise my ears were pierced. I didn't feel any sharp pain or electrocution. I had in a pair of blue raindrop-shaped dangling earrings. Next to them higher up the ear was a new pair. There were little lightning bolt-shaped studs. They were bright yellow and had a silver outlining.
"My personal signature," Larxene said after a moment.
"It didn't hurt," I said happily looking at myself in the mirror a few more times.
"They will." I looked up at her in confusion. She just smiled and left the room. I sat there on the trunk thinking. What did she mean? How could they hur—? A sudden pain shot through my head.
I screamed out in pain while listening to the giggling of Larxene outside the door. After the pain went away, I sat there quietly until I heard the shriek of Larxene. I laughed as I saw a point of a chakram slam through the wall next to the door and then the sound of fire erupting outside the room. "Larxene! Get back here!"
My memories faded away. I brought one hand up to my ear. The same pairs of earrings were still there; the blue raindrops and yellow lightning bolts. I stood up and walked out of the library and around the castle for a few more minutes until I stumbled upon the largest open white room in the castle that I had ever seen.
Of course I had seen it before, but there could be dozens more in Xemnas' private quarters that are much bigger than this room. The room that I was standing in was the training room. This room could hold a thousand Organization XIII's and still have room for everyone to be fighting.
I stood in the center and admired the tall white room. Scars of all sorts marked the walls and floor: scrape marks from Keyblades, burns from chakrams, holes in the walls from Luxaeus and Larxene. Those holes in the ground had been filled with water from Demyx and frozen by Vexen. Shoot wholes from Xemnas and Xigbar. Parts of the walls were collapsed thanks to Saïx. The room was completely destroyed but still strong.
"Axel are you sure she is ready? I mean she only started teleporting a few weeks ago, are you sure you should be summoning Heartless and Nobodies already?" Demyx asked.
Axel, Roxas, Larxene, Demyx, Marluxia, and I were the only ones in the training room. We were all kind of near the corner of two walls and away from the doors. Larxene was sitting on a white throne next to us all and Marluxia stood behind her like a big brother watching over his baby sister. Demyx was leaning against a wall with his arms folded against his chest. Axel, Roxas, and I were all standing there in the middle of everyone with our weapons summoned.
"Yes, now would you just shut up!" Axel said getting annoyed with him and his constant interrupting.
"Is that anyway to treat the Birthday Boy?" he said. It had been a few months since I had gotten here, almost a year in fact. Today was Demyx's ninth birthday and he was going crazy.
"Don't act like it's anything special. I mean, everyone else's birthdays are going up too," Axel said. In a few days it was Larxene's ninth birthday. Then Roxas would be turning seven, then Naminé, then me. After the three of us turned seven, Axel would be turning ten. He surprisingly wasn't very excited about it.
Marluxia who was twenty snorted with laughter at our immaturity but no one seamed to notice. "Well, I think you should be happy, Demyx. Happy Birthday!" I said giving him a hug. He smiled.
"Oh, could we just get on with this!" Larxene shouted jumping off of the marble throne.
"Right. Ok, Raene…um…ok we need someone to help us," Roxas said. Nobody had any idea of how to properly train me.
Marluxia stepped forward and started to explain to me basic moves and ways to defend and attack. I wasn't very good when he asked me to go against Roxas. But, I was good enough that Roxas got upset.
Marluxia told me to take my stance and start. I was doing ok and blocking swings from Roxas but occasionally he did hit me on the arm with his white Keyblade. Marluxia told us to only summon one for now. Roxas had summoned Oathkeeper while I summoned my black Keyblade.
After Marluxia told us to stop Roxas got all upset and summoned both. He said that he had been training with only one Keyblade his whole life and that he wanted a change.
That wasn't a problem though. I just simply summoned my other one. We started again. It was harder for me to hold both at the same time. Probably because I never had lifted heaving things before and be expected to attack people with them. Roxas beat me pretty hard that time.
Marluxia said that I should for right now start on basics like blocking. He also mentioned that I had a gift that he had never seen before. He said that he had never seen anyone do so well on their first try. I guess he was talking about that time I first summoned my Keyblades the first day I came here.
He said for just a few minutes for me to try and block lightning strikes from Larxene. Larxene jumped up excitedly. She started off easy and I was blocking them with one Keyblade. Then all of a sudden she started going crazy and shooting lightning at me from all directions. I jumped up and down as if I were barefoot on a bed of burning coal. Larxene laughed until Demyx summoned his sitar shot a torpedo of water towards Larxene. She immediately stopped her attack because her own weapon was electrocuting her.
I turned and walked out of the scarred room and went down a hall that led to an outside staircase. It was a beautiful night; it wasn't stormy and there weren't any clouds in the sky. Thousands of stars were shining down as I climbed the long marble staircase on the eastside of the castle.
All of a sudden I heard quiet laughter and talking coming from my left. I looked and through a window I could see the backs of two Organization members walking by before they disappeared out of view through the window.
I jumped through the window since it was only a few feet off the ground from the stair I was on. I turned and looked to see Saïx and Xaldin walking with their backs turned towards me. I slowly followed. They obviously heard me and turned. I walked up to them.
Over the years Saïx and I had gotten along better than when I first got here. I figured that is wasn't his fault that he was the one who kidnapped me. It could have been any of the members; Xemnas just chose him to do it.
"Well, Xarene, welcome home," Saïx said. He smiled his smirk that he has.
"How was the mission?" Xaldin asked.
"Good. So, how was the meeting?" I asked casually.
"You mean you haven't talked to him yet?" Saïx asked surprisingly.
"Talked to who? Axel? What about him?" I asked.
"Why don't you go find him? We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," Xaldin said summoning a portal and dragging the snickering Saïx in with him.
What did they mean 'surprise'? I thought for a moment before jumping in a portal. I knew exactly where Axel would be.
I stepped out of the portal to face the back of Axel. He was leaning against the railing of the tall white tower. Xemnas was standing next to him talking but Axel didn't seam to be listening. I couldn't understand what Xemnas was saying. When he noticed me, he walked over to the staircase that led to his private quarters.
After Xemnas was out of view, I walked up to Axel's left and leaned over the railing just as he was doing. I looked down to the dark hole that the castle floated above. It went on forever until it probably reached the other side of this world.
"Sure is a beautiful night, huh, Axel?" I said casually. He seamed troubled by something, but over the years I knew not to jump right into asking him what was wrong.
"Yep," he simply answered. He closed his eyes. His soft, pale eyelids covered the bright green color and he breathed in deeply a few times before opening them once more.
"Is something bothering you, Axel?" I asked forgetting not to jump right in.
He sighed then stood up. I turned and leaned my back against the railing. He paced around a moment before stopping in front of me and looking me straight in the eyes.
"Raene," he breathed quietly closing his eyes again. I listened carefully to his next words. "I have some bad news."
Sorry it took a while to update everybody. It might take a while to get the next one up because I have to visit family for the next few days. R/R
