Chapter 17
Organizing the Facts
While the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, with the help of Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the former Organization XIII members, cleaned up the wreckage from the battle, Aerith checked the civilians for any injuries, and guided those who were hurt in the struggle over to the infirmary for treatment. Lea and Ienzo accompanied her to check on his colleagues.
Mickey cast Zero Graviga on debris to lift them up while Yuffie searched beneath them for any surviving affects or in case anyone had failed to flee before the buildings collapsed. Fortunately, they found no one. Sora, Riku, Goofy, and Aeleus moved debris out of the streets and piled them up where Leon instructed, dividing the pieces up by material.
When the streets were cleared and the debris was arranged, Sora, Riku, Goofy, and Mickey met up with Kairi and Donald, who had been assisting the people whose homes and businesses were destroyed by the Raid Armor by helping them settle into the relief apartments, which Leon and Cid had set up for the returning citizenry after reclaiming the town from the Heartless. Kairi noticed that Sora and Riku appeared uneasy.
"You all right?" she asked, concerned. "You look like something's bothering you."
"Cid and Shera checked the security footage in the computer room. While we were fighting the Raid Armor, Pete and some gerbil wearing a cape accessed the files," Sora said glumly.
"So? What does… that…" she began asking, only to trail of as it dawned on her what was going on.
"The Heartless was just a distraction," Riku finished, a bitter tone in his voice. "Maleficent released a monster large and powerful enough to destroy the town just to distract us."
Donald sighed. "If she can do that on a whim…" he moaned in resignation.
But Kairi saw a silver lining. "Actually, I don't think it was that easy on her," she reassured them.
"What do you mean?" Sora asked.
"Well, while we were helping everyone to the apartments, not a single Heartless showed up to attack," she explained. "I only saw one of those CLAYMORE scanner things, as if it had gotten a break and hadn't had to do much. Some of the people we were escorting said that one usually appears every few minutes, and everyone admitted that not a single Heartless came after them while they were panicking. Apparently, the streets cleared about a minute before the giant attacked."
"What are you suggesting?" Mickey asked, curious about the situation. Wouldn't the Heartless want to go after terrified, defenseless civilians? Wouldn't Maleficent want to cause panic and let more people be swallowed by the darkness? Why would she miss that perfect opportunity?
"Maybe it took so much out of her to summon a Heartless that powerful, that she had to dismiss the rest of the Heartless into the shadow so she could do so and couldn't summon any more afterward," Kairi suggested.
Sora crossed his arms and Riku put his hand on his hip, both contemplating Kairi's idea. "So Maleficent used so much of her power to bring in that giant that she can't even summon any more Heartless?" Sora pondered.
"And she wouldn't be willing to do so again unless it were extremely necessary," Riku added. "Which begs the question: why not just bring in any other giant Heartless? Or even a bunch of them if she figured that one would go down too easy?"
"She, or maybe her new ally, might've wanted to see how strong we all were," Goofy suggested. The others looked at him with a mix of surprise and confusion. "I mean, it took all of our power to bring it down. And we had been home for three months. For all she knows, we could've been training really hard, and by now the giant Heartless would have been no trouble."
"Huh. That is possible," Mickey admitted. "For now, let's hope that we won't be seeing too many big ones in the near future."
Before they could think further on the matter, they heard footsteps and turned to see that Lea was approaching. Sora and Riku did not notice the shocked expression on Kairi's face, which promptly morphed into one of anger.
"Hey guys—" Lea greeted, but he was interrupted when, before any of them knew what was happening, Kairi ran up to him and punched him in the face. The force of the blow caused him to stagger backwards.
Kairi pulled out her rapier and held it in a battle-ready position. "You have some nerve showing your face around here, Axel!" she said, seething with rage, remembering the time he kidnapped her to lure Sora into a trap and try to turn him into a Heartless. "I won't let you hurt Sora!"
At first Lea was confused, but then realized that Kairi still remembered him as the creep who threatened her. "Listen, Kairi, I'm sorry about that. I—" He was not allowed to finish, as Kairi swung her sword at him, forcing him to take a few quick steps backward.
"Hey, Kairi, stop!" Sora called out. He ran up and grabbed her by the arm, pulling it away so she was not continuously inches away from stabbing Lea. "He's a friend now. He helped me get to the Organization's world to find you. He even gave his life to bring us together!"
That got Kairi to calm down. She stood unmoving, looking deep into Lea's eyes. She saw his sincerity and remorse. She relaxed her stance. Figuring that this meant that she was not going to continue attacking him, Sora let go of her arm. She slid the rapier back into the scabbard. There was a moment's pause before she finally said "Sorry."
Lea waved his hands in front of him in a deflective manner. "No, it's not… I'm the one who should apologize. I just wanted my friend back, and I didn't care who I had to hurt to do it. But I realized I was wrong. I'm sorry," he confessed.
Sora chuckled sheepishly. "I guess I kind of forgot to tell you about Axel after we got back home. My bad," he said nervously. Kairi looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then gave him a slight mocking smile. Sora returned his attention to Lea. "So, Axel—sorry, Lea, were you going to tell us something?"
"Oh, yeah. The other former Organization members woke up. I already told Aeleus. We should go check on them," Lea explained. "Uh, you might want to restrain Kairi when we get there."
Sora and Riku nodded, understanding full well what he meant. But Kairi tilted her head in confusion. "Why?" she asked.
"Because Saïx is with them," he replied.
On the way to the infirmary, Sora and Riku explained how Lea, Isa and Ansem's apprentices, save for Xehanort, had been restored to their Somebody forms, but only Lea, Aeleus, Ienzo, and Braig had regained consciousness. Riku had vouched for Aeleus and Ienzo, saying that they did not act nearly as antagonistic as they did when they were Lexaeus and Zexion. Kairi wondered, if they had been villains before when they were Nobodies, what they would be like now that they have hearts again.
Lea knocked on the door while Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy stood by the window so that Aerith would see them. Aerith opened the door and let them all in.
Even and Ienzo were busily studying his and his fellow patients' vital readings. Aeleus was talking with Dilan. Isa was standing in the back corner of the room, lost in thought. They looked up when they heard the visitors arrive.
"How is everybody?" Mickey asked Aerith.
"Isa, Even and Dilan stabilized shortly after we left, and they regained consciousness half an hour ago," the healer explained. "Vitals appear to be perfectly normal, apart from being famished. There isn't even any indication of whatever injuries forced their Nobody counterparts to expire. It's as if all injuries sustained since becoming Nobodies were undone, but they still retain their physical maturity. I don't believe Even, Dilan or Aeleus aged since Vexen, Xaldin and Lexaeus came into being, but from what I understand Lea and Isa were teenagers and Ienzo was a child before Radiant Garden fell. I'm probably not the best person to determine how any of this makes sense, but whatever it means, they appear to be completely human and completely normal."
Donald shrugged. "I don't think there is a 'best person' to determine how any of this makes sense," he remarked.
Aerith giggled. "True enough. But it doesn't look like there would be any harm if you would like to talk to them. Maybe try to fill in the blanks as to what happened to them."
Dilan glared at the group nervously, evidently still remembering his defeat at Sora, Donald and Goofy's hands. They likewise were not keen on making small talk with him, and moved on to Ienzo, Aeleus and Even.
Even raised his eyebrow and smirked when they approached. "Well, I am glad to see that Marluxia's master plot failed," he told them. Sora stared at him blankly. Even frowned. "Of course, I have been informed that while your previous memories have been restored, you no longer remember your experiences in Castle Oblivion." He turned to address Riku. "What, pray tell, became of my Replica of you?"
"He faded into the darkness after our last battle," Riku answered solemnly.
"That's a shame," Even said, a hint of apology in his voice. "He was a promising specimen."
"Naminé had to shatter his mind to prevent him from killing Sora," Lea explained. "But he managed to pull himself together and came to Sora's aid against Marluxia."
This seemed to surprise Even. He pondered that revelation for a moment. "Interesting. He restored his own psyche from a catatonic state. But that should not have been. I created him as what was essentially a robotic organism, and I had to program behavioral responses and knowledge. He could develop memories or receive them via implantation, like what Naminé did when Larxene decided to pit him against Sora, but he had no heart, like a Nobody."
"Roxas sure didn't feel like 'Nobody'," Sora interjected. "And Axel seemed to care about him, and regret whatever harm he had done."
"Intriguing. When I was acquainted with Roxas, he seemed to be an empty shell. He did not have your memories, and so he did not have any prior experience from which to imitate emotions. But he made friends? This warrants further analysis."
Lea broke off from the conversation and approached Isa. The blue-haired man avoided his gaze. Lea tried to start up a conversation but he felt nervous and had difficulty finding a place to begin.
"Hey," he finally said. Isa remained silent. Lea scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. He knew that patching things up with his former best friend would not be easy, but he was hoping to at least find a point to jump off from.
"Hey," Isa finally replied, weakly, still avoiding Lea's gaze, though it seemed to be more out of shyness than scorn.
"So… we're people again," Lea said, trying to start a conversation. "We have our hearts back."
"You don't seem all that different," Isa commented. Lea frowned, worried, but Isa clarified. "The last time I saw you, you weren't very different from the way you act now. As for me… did I honestly treat you like that?" He seemed horrified as he remembered his prior actions.
Lea snickered. "Yeah, you were cold. I tried to get you to lighten up, but you just glared at me with those orange eyes. You didn't even give me one of your cheap remarks."
Isa smirked and finally made eye contact with Lea. Lea's eyes widened in surprise. "And all the while you just went right back to trying to be funny," Isa remarked. He furrowed his brows in confusion when he saw Lea's dumbfounded expression. "What?"
"Y-your eyes…" Lea stammered, pointing two fingers at his own eyes.
Isa walked over to the window into the hallway and looked at his reflection. He was shocked when saw that his irises were of their natural green-blue color, as opposed to the yellow-orange hue that had developed over the last few years.
"I had always wondered how my eyes were changing," he mused. He was joined by Even, who was examining his eye color as well, intrigued.
"I had been curious about the same thing," the academic admitted. "None of us had met that transformation except for you. The only other members to have a similar eye color were Lord Xemnas and Xigbar, but their irises had been like that before becoming Nobodies."
"Braig only earned that color a year before we had lost our hearts," Dilan interjected, speaking in a distinctive oily English accent. "It was shortly after the accident that cost him his eye."
"Which brings up the question: where are Xehanort and Braig?" Even asked.
"There was no sign of Xehanort. And Braig's down the hall," Riku answered. "We were trying to interrogate him earlier today. He seemed to know you would come back into being, and he said something about expecting someone to meet him when he woke up. But we couldn't get anything out of him."
Even crossed his arms pensively. "If it is as you have inferred, then perhaps there is more to the nature of Nobodies than what we have been led to believe," he declared.
Isa, Lea, Ienzo, Aeleus, and Dilan took a moment to process that they had been played for ten years. Their hearts sank as they realized that everything they had done up to that point was likely all part of Xemnas' twisted game.
"Now what are we to do?" Aeleus asked, finally breaking the silence.
Another silence followed, as no one knew how to answer that question.
"We spent ten years helping Xemnas with his plan, and before that we betrayed everything we worked for," Ienzo lamented. "Where do we go from here?"
Even raised a single finger, to indicate that he has come up with an idea. "We are researchers. We could start by understanding our situation, and determining what secrets Braig is indeed hiding," he suggested. "I for one would like to know how beings born without hearts could indeed demonstrate emotions of their own."
The other former apprentices thought about what he said for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a plausible arrangement," Dilan said.
"And maybe we can help Squall's group put the town back together and look into whatever they people Sora, Riku and the others are fighting are after," Lea added. He glanced around at the others, waiting for a response.
"I can work with that," Isa agreed.
Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Aerith, who were watching the former Organization XIII members and listening to their conversation, looked at each other and gave each other a satisfied nod. "Glad to see that they're working things out," Goofy commented.
"Maybe they aren't such bad people," Kairi said with a smile. "I wonder what that means for the others, like that man with the playing cards, or the guy with the guitar?"
"Who knows," Sora responded, wondering the same thing himself. At the same time, he remembered what Demyx had said before they fought.
Oh, we do too have hearts. Don't be mad.
Could Nobodies have hearts?
They were drawn out of their thoughts when they heard someone rapping on the window. It was Yuffie, again. Aerith let her in.
"Sora! Guys! Come to Merlin's House! We have something!" the ninja told them, hardly holding in her excitement.