Demyx sighed. Being forbidden from taking on any missions should've been a little bit more fun. At least, that's what he'd always thought. In literally any other circumstance, he could've summoned his Sitar—beautiful Sasha!—and at least strummed a few chords. He gazed down at the straps over his arms, binding him to the bed. What good was the title "Melodious Nocturne" if he couldn't even make music?

He rolled his eyes. Books were out of the question as well, since they were too far out of his reach. But are they? What if. . . ? Gazing at the stack of books Zexion had yet to put away, he summoned Sasha and jiggled his wrist so that she was facing the bookshelf. If he could only… hold it just so and bump the shelf in the right way, he might juuuuuuuuust be able to—He flinched at the loud crash—make the bookshelf fall over, apparently.

And that was it. Zexion would kill him, orders or not. Ugh. Why did staying in the castle all day have to be so boring? Demyx sighed and contented himself with making a small ball of water to play with until his inevitable demise.

~\*/~

Axel wiped his brow. It seemed like any other day in Wonderland, so he wasn't quite sure why it was taking so much infernal effort to eliminate his target. Going up against a swarm of Pink Concertos and a Lurk Lizard might not be fun exactly, but it shouldn't be so blasted difficult.

He dodged an attack and set one of them on fire. A niggling started in the back of his throat, which triggered a coughing fit. Unfortunately, the Heartless weren't so kind as to let him call a time out while he figured out his problems. Between running around and blocking with his Chakrams, he barely had time to cough, let alone try to breathe.

At last, Axel rolled underneath the large stove in the room. He finally had a chance to catch his breath. He inhaled deeply and started coughing again. While he slowed his breathing and tried to ignore the burning sensation in his lungs, he noticed one of the Pink Concertos burst into flames.

He watched in wonder. Was there someone else using fire magic in the room? He knew for sure that he hadn't been the one to cast it.

~\*/~

"How did Demyx get the water all the way up to the ceiling?" Xion asked, scrubbing with all her might. "He wasn't even on the same floor when this happened?"

Roxas shrugged. "Well, he's always been good at water magic, so maybe he can control it from a long distance away…?" His grip on the rag on a stick grew slack. "You think this is clean enough?"

Xion examined it and grunted. "I'm not sure. Oh, there's still a bit over there!"

Roxas wilted. "Oh, yeah."

The two continued to dry and clean the ceiling in silence, each lost in thought. Xion wondered just how strong the water magic had to have been to be to be used from such a great distance, whereas Roxas wondered how much longer they would be ordered to clean.

His eyes widened. "Hey! Why didn't they order Axel to clean up the mess? He could've dried the ceiling with his fire! Or even a Dusk?!"

Xion nibbled on the corner of her lip. "I heard he played some kind of prank on Xaldin, and Xaldin wasn't too happy with it," she whispered, despite the fact that the other Organization members were cleaning on different floors. The Dusks weren't trusted to clean in certain rooms, so naturally the labor fell to the dutiful shoulders of the Organization members.

Roxas's brow furrowed, all thoughts of cleaning forgotten. "Pull a prank? On Xaldin?! Axel would nev—Oh, wait. Maybe he would. This is Axel, I guess… but a prank sounds more like Demyx's style. I wonder what he did."

"Well, whatever it was… I just know I wouldn't have wanted to be there. Xaldin's kind of scary." Xion looked a little nervous to be sharing what she felt… or what she remembered fear feeling like, anyway.

Roxas tried to think of ways to reassure her but was interrupted by a wave of water smacking into him. Staggering, he gasped involuntarily, for the impact had knocked the wind out of him. Instantly, he was choking on water. His attempt to cry out only allowed more water into his mouth.

Seconds later, the water simply disappeared. Xion lay beside him, wheezing. She must've gotten the chance to take in a breath before the water hit.

Roxas curled into a ball and started coughing up the liquid he'd inhaled. When he could finally breathe again, he rolled over onto his back and let his eyes drift shut, exhausted by the effort he'd expended.

Xion silently slipped her hand into his. Perhaps she didn't have the energy to speak, either.

He allowed himself to focus on the steady sound of her breathing. And then his eyes flew open. "Ugh," he croaked, mouth weirdly dry after all that water, "Great. Just great. Now we'll have to dry off the room again." He allowed his eyes to slip closed once more.

~\*/~

"Fascinating!" Zexion peered in the dimly-lit room. He had been sent to find out why Demyx had decided to immerse parts of the castle in water again (and possibly warn him against doing it again, under pain of turning into a Dusk). Instead of finding a repentant Nobody, or even one quivering in fear at the thought of being caught, Zexion could see that Demyx was sound asleep. The blond snored softly, the only indication that he'd been awake earlier a mess of books and one toppled over bookshelf. "But then how did he create and control the water?" Zexion muttered to himself.

Nobodies had never been recorded using magic in their sleep, let alone when they were sick. However, until the day prior, it had been unknown that a Nobody could even truly become ill. But to summon such a large amount of energy, turn it into water magic stronger than even a Watera—strong enough to soak half the castle!—and while sleeping?

Zexion creeped closer to the sleeping Nobody. Laying a hand on Demyx's head, Zexion noted the unusual degree of warmth radiating off the sleeping Nobody. This required more study… Perhaps the Superior wouldn't mind if Zexion requested just a few more days of examination. The benefits that could be reaped are astounding! Zexion thought, brushing off the tickling feeling in his nose.

~\*/~

At last, Axel had completed his mission. He sighed and opened another Corridor to Darkness. As much as he wanted to go back to his bed and sleep, he had been given a double mission, which meant that he was only half-done with his work.

He reached a hand to rub at his aching temples and then stepped through the Corridor. Immediately, he was struck by an icy wind. Pulling his arms close to his side and securing his hood, Axel sighed. Now to freeze my butt off… Ugh, I hate this world.

Hi again!

I know it's been a few weeks. Sorry about that. :/ Teaching these last few weeks has been more draining, for some reason. 'Course, my students are young, so it always takes a lot of energy. . . We just got home, and I collapsed onto my bed. It took all that was within me to get up to edit this chapter (which has been mostly done for about a week) instead of taking a nap. I might just take one after posting this.

But ta-dah! I plan for this to be only a few chapters more. Hope you like it! :3

Edit: I'm sick. Now that I have the time (and motivation) to continue, I have been rereading and editing the chapters. I hope to finish editing ch. 8 tonight after school and then... study for a quiz, But when I'm done with my quiz and with the project (and studying for the research paper) I should be able to write chapter 9! Maybe tomorrow or the say after? We'll see...) 4/15/24

Soli Deo gloria!

~LHDD