(AN: Thanks for being patient while I worked on updating the story guys, sorry it took so long, I've had some changes in my work and school schedule recently. I'll be trying to write more often so I can regularly update the story.)
Weiss' head was reeling from all the information that was just presented to him as he sat next to his friend. Nox had told him everything, his meeting with Kayaba, the Two years they had before death became permanent, even that his friend had rejected his destiny. One question still purveyed through his mind.
"Why did you need to attack me to mark me as a Keyblade wielder? Wouldn't it just have been easier to explain this to me without the fight?" He questioned.
"Well, the item description for the recusant sigil says it can only be bestowed to the worthy. Since this is an MMO, I figure that you have to prove yourself to me through combat or something." Nox replied pulling up his menu. He tapped on an item and two sticks of blue ice cream bars appeared in his hand. "Sea salt ice cream? I grabbed some after Kayaba gave his God Complex speech."
Weiss smirked and accepted the ice cream bar; he took a bite out of it. Immediately his mouth was filled with the cool taste of the salty yet sweet ice cream. "Well, at least we won't have to deal with tasteless food while we're trapped in this sick game." Weiss chuckled, "So what happens now? I mean, you seem pretty set on the insane task of ending a war before it begins, and you said yourself you can't do it alone."
"Easy, I'm going to build an army of my own. Kayaba said I was now the leader of the Nobody Faction, so I figure I might as well keep with game cannon and make it Organization XIII. We will work in the Realm of the Dark and Light so that the war will be stopped. I'll also have to choose Keyblade wielders for the realm of Light so they won't be left completely defenseless should I fail." Nox replied. He then paused and looked Wiess straight in the eyes. "Weiss, you're one of my closest friends, and you're who I want as my number II in this Organization. However, I don't want to force you into a faction you don't want to choose. So, I'm going to give you a choice, you can join me in my quest or you can choose another path. I'll be fine with whatever road you take. You should already have the Nobody skill tree available, so if you want to join me use a skill point to unlock the first trait." Nox replied, standing up and putting his hood back up. "I will have to say, if you do join me you will have to undergo a name change. You are joining the Organization after all, and I do like to keep the theme of Kingdom Hearts consistent."
Weiss chuckled as he stood up and looked Nox in the eyes. "If you think I'm going to let you charge into Hell alone you're crazier than I am." He opened his menu and accepted the Corridors of Darkness perk. Immediately his clothes were replaced with the trademark Black Coat of the Organization. The letters of his name appeared in translucent silver between Nox and him. Nox held out his hand and the letters swirled around before they reappeared and fell into a new order, the W in his name had replaced by an X. The letters spelled Essix. He then joined Nox's party.
"Welcome to the Organization Essix, now lets go to our new home." Nox said opening up a Corridor of Darkness. "But first, I have one more thing I need to do." He continued, holding out his Keyblade towards the sun. Suddenly a large keyhole appeared in midair, and a beam of thin brilliant light shot out of the Keyblade, going through the keyhole as it emitted a bright light.
"There, now everyone can progress to the next world." Nox said as he and Essix turned and walked into the corridor.
Essix walked through the swirling mass of dark energy and then found himself in a dark alleyway. Rain was pouring down from dark clouds, illuminated by a bright heart-shaped moon.
"Welcome to the World that Never Was Essix." Nox said. "Now, here's the fun part. We need to fight our way through the streets and all the way through the Castle to claim this place as our own. Which should be interesting, considering there are only two of us… and you're level 2."
"So it's basically a suicide mission?" Essix asked, his eyes darting around, making sure enemies didn't sneak up on them.
"Yeah… basically…" Nox replied, half shrugging as he flipped up his hood and summoned his Keyblade. "But… since everything here is over leveled, I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to level up pretty quickly."
"Well that's… good" Essix replied, flipping up his own hood and drawing his sword. "So, where do we start?" He said as he positioned his sword in a diagonal defensive stance.
"Follow me" Nox replied, walking forward into an ally way that seemed to be pulsating with darkness, his Keyblade slung over his shoulders. Essix followed suit, and as they stepped into the ally, the darkness sprouted bulging yellow eyes and close in on them. Essix brought up his sword in a defensive pose, bracing for the darkness to overtake him. Then all of a sudden he heard Nox shout out "REFLECT!" and a silvery, transparent dome encircled them both, causing the darkness to encompass the dome. Then Nox followed it up with a lightning spell, making a small dent in the massive swirl of heartless that was around them.
"Damn, thought that would be more effective." Nox mumbled.
"Hey Nox, do you remember what level you gain access to magic in the game?" Essix asked cautiously as cracks started to form in the reflect spell that was protecting them.
"Level 5, I'm pretty sure."
"Great… so the best I can probably do right now is poke the angry swirl of death with a pointy stick." Essix groaned.
"Hey, it could be worse! The fighting system could be based on Chain of Memories!" Nox chuckled.
As those words left Nox's lips, the reflect spell broke and darkness cascaded upon Nox and Essix. Instead of re-spawning though, they found themselves in the middle of a stained-glass platform in the middle of a black abyss. Also occupying this platform were over 50 Shadow heartless surrounding them. "This must be how the game handle's larger conflicts.", Essix thought to himself. He and Nox jumped to a back-to-back defensive stance with their weapons drawn.
"Alright, I'll take care of my side if you promise to not let too many get past you Essix." Nox said jokingly.
"Fuck you Nox." Essix grumbled as he cut down the first heartless that leapt at him, or at least left a large red gash in its chest as its health bar fell into the yellow zone. "Well, shit!" Essix thought as the Shadow looked down at its chest, possibly surprised it was still alive, and leapt at Essix again. The counter attack from Essix slashed off its head. As it dissipated, its brethren leapt at Essix. He gulped, as he started hacking and slashing at each enemy that came within swords reach, focusing on keeping them at bay with slashes rather then focusing on killing them one at a time. Meanwhile, Nox was having no problems taking out everything that was being thrown at him, the Shadows fell and dissipated with each slash of his Keyblade. He could feel a smile creeping across his face as he slaughtered the enemies with ease. Eventually there were no more enemies left, and they found themselves transported back to the ally. Essix noticed he had leveled up to Level 6. He quickly opened up his menu and saw that a new Magic skill tree had opened up. He dedicated a skill point to it, unlocking the first spell, Fire. There was then an option to either use it defensively, as a circling vortex that surrounded the caster, or offensively, firing a fireball from the caster to hit an enemy. Essix selected the offensive version, and then dispensed his other skill points into his weapon tree, increasing his attack and speed, along with unlocking a new skill Combo Plus that added an additional attact to his combos. "That should help if I actually get to attack something in this game!" He thought to himself as he looked over at Nox casting a Cura spell, bringing both of their health bars back to green.
"Thanks." Essix said.
"No problem. Good job back there, glad you didn't die." Nox replied
"Yeah, and I gained a few levels while I was at it."
"Not too shabby, now lets get a move on. You'll be at a decent level in no time."
"You can say that agai… Wait, what do you mean decent level!?" Essix shouted as he hurried to catch up with his friend who had already walked to the end of the alley. For the next few areas of the cityscape they were in, they really didn't come across any notable encounters, mostly small groups of Shadows and Neoshadows. Eventually they made their way to an open space with a large illuminated skyscraper, a small bit of text appeared and informed them that this was Memories Skyscraper. A hooded figure stood at the base of the steps that lead to the front door of the skyscraper. Essix and Nox looked at each other and at the hooded figure.
"So, my munny's on this being Roxas. What do you think Essix?" Nox joked
"I say Riku." Essix replied.
They walked toward the hooded figure, which brandished a black keyblade that they both instantly recognized as Oblivion. He then threw back his hood, revealing a completely dark figure with a blindfold over his eyes and long dark hair. Four Health bars appeared over his head.
"OH GREAT! IT'S ANTI-RIKU! Seriously Kayaba, you couldn't have given us a normal boss! YOU HAVE TO GIVE US HIS OP ANTI-FORM! When I find you I'm going to shove this Keyblade so far up your ass-" Nox began shouting at the sky, but before he could finish his rant, the Anti-Riku teleported above him and slammed his keyblade into the ground, sending out a shockwave that sent Nox and Essix flying back. Essix was reeling as he started to stand up, seeing that the Anti-Riku was attacking Nox, who was still lying on the ground, he shot off a fire spell, which contacted with the boss, but caused almost no damage whatsoever. Nox, meanwhile, was defending against a barrage of attacks that Anti-Riku was throwing at him. Eventually he saw an opening and he stabbed at Anti-Riku, pushing with all of his strength to get the boss off of him. The Keyblade actually sank into the boss, dealing damage as he was pushed off of the Keyblade wielder. Nox worked his way up to his feet as he continued pushing the blade into the boss' chest. The boss then teleported away, back into the sky. But Nox was ready this time and he rushed away as Anti-Riku slammed down, barely escaping the shock wave. He found himself next to Essix as they looked at each other.
"So… I'm guessing I distract him while you deal damage?" Essix asked.
"I mean… yeah, we could do that, or just hit him whenever we see an opening." Nox replied.
Essix shrugged as Anti-Riku lunged himself at the two, his blade outstretched. No matter what they did, Essix knew they were in for the fight of their lives.