Organization XIII - It's a beautiful day!

Xemnas grabbed Axel by his collar and got nose to nose with him.

"You'll help me now," Xemnas growled, "or there may not be any reservations to keep."

Xemnas released Axel.

"Go back to the castle, find Vexen, warn her about Marluxia's mood swings in case she doesn't already know. The two of you find a way to contain Marluxia until I return. Capture him and hold him. These reservations you speak of should be extra incentive for you to accomplish this quickly, but DO NOT do anything half-assed."

Xemnas put a hand on Axel's shoulder and looked into his eyes.

"Axel, I'm counting on you more than you can fathom."

 

Marluxia started walking around the castle. He was very clueless as to what happened moments ago. "Is the castle collapsing on its own?" He asked himself.

As he walked, he tried to remember every single event that happened since his heartless had arrived. Before he knew it, he was in front of his bedroom. He walked inside and looked around. There were vines with thorns growing all over his walls. He tried to send them away using his powers, but they stayed put. He didn't mind the vines, so he didn't try to cut them, since cutting any plant can hurt him emotionally.

He opened the drawer and threw the pieces of candy inside. That's when he found a collar with spikes. It was one of the collars used to control the nobodies. He sighed and put it back in the drawer, right next to... a vile? He picked up the vile and shook the red liquid a bit. He didn't know where the vile came from or what it did, and he really didn't want to know. He placed it on top of the drawer and got in bed to sleep.

 

Xemnas gave Axel one last look before walking away down the mall.

Got to dry off, Xemnas thought as he walked, Got to walk this off, got to think, got to plan, got to dissect, got to study, got to cut open...

"Um...excuse me, sir..." said a voice from behind.

Xemnas whipped around to find a young girl at a kiosk. She was relatively short, with long blonde hair, and wearing a short white dress and flip-flops. The booth she was sitting at was a caricature booth; She was sitting in front of an easel that had a sketchbook resting upon it, and she was surrounded with drawings of famous people. Fairly good drawings.

"What is it, little girl?" Xemnas said in a much harsher tone than he would have liked.

"I was just wondering if you were okay, since you seem to be sopping wet," said the girl. "And I'm seventeen."

"What was that?" Xemnas said.

"Seventeen," said the girl. "I'm not a 'little girl,' I'm seventeen. I should be eighteen soon...I think."

Xemnas raised an eyebrow. "You think?"

"Well, that's just it," said the girl slowly, "I don't remember all that much up to a few years ago."

"That's...fascinating..." Xemnas said. He didn't know why this girl was talking to him, but it brought up uncomfortable thoughts of his own loss of memory from his early life. He turned to go.

"Wait!" cried the girl. "Umm...I'll caricature you! On the house!"

Xemnas turned around. He realized there was something unusual about this girl, but he couldn't quite place it. "Who are you? And what do you want with me."

"I don't know who I am..." said the girl. "I don't even remember my own name. If I ever had a name," she added sadly.

Xemnas thought to himself that he should just walk away right now, and save a lot of grief. Yet, he found himself sitting down on the stool opposite this girl's sketchbook.

"Aside from the fact that I look like a drowned rat, what made you speak up to me?"

"Well," the girl said as she started drawing, "This is going to sound crazy, but I seem to have this...ability. I can sense people's hearts, and sometimes even the important memories they keep there."

"The brain is for memory," said Xemnas uneasily.

"Yes," said the Girl, "but we attach emotion to important memories." Her pencil was moving so fast with such precision that it was barely perceptible. She continued, "But that's niether here nor there. The point is, I can sense that your heart isn't here."

Xemnas perked up, and fixed a suspicious look on the girl. "You don't say..."

"Mm-hmm," said the Girl, "I sense that your heart is somewhere far away." She looked straight into his eyes. "Like mine."

Xemnas' jaw dropped. A Nobody?!

The Girl tore the page off her sketchpad and handed it to Xemnas. The likeness on the page was uncanny.

"You seem like someone who can help me," the Girl whispered. "Meet me in the food court in about one hour. You don't have to, in fact I don't expect you to, but I would really like it if you were there."

She then turned with an obviously fake smile to a tourist couple who were itching to be drawn.

Xemnas got up, started to walk away, looked back at this strange girl, then at her drawing, which he then folded and placed inside his inner cloak pocket before walking away.

 

Axel sighed and spoke before Xemnas left, "Yes sir..." The redhead sighed. He REALLY needed to get to the restruant by six. He was planning this day for a long while, and NOTHING had to get in the way of it.

Flowers still in hand, Axel opened a portal in front of him and went inside. He then found himself in his room. He put the flowers in his desk drawer and headed out of his room.

He thought to himself for a moment. 'Should I get Vexen, or Marluxia first?' Deciding on Vexen, he wandered through the castle, looking for her. "VEXEN!!!" He called repeatively.

 

Xemnas couldn't get the image of the strange girl out of his mind. She was very intriguing...obviously she was a Nobody, but how could she have come into existence without his knowledge? She had a spark about her, though she seemed sad, and she was very...pretty....

Stop that right now, Xemnas! he scolded himself, You're old enough to be her father. Probably grandfather too.

I should just leave it at this, his mind continued, After all, I'm not out to make Organization XIV or anything like that.

Yet, in the back of his mind, he knew he would make that meeting all the same.

He found himself in front of a Hot Topic. Might as well pick up that "Sorry I Didn't Believe You And Let You Almost Get Molested" present for Xigbar.

He walked into the unusually cramped little store. He saw a t-shirt that had Invader Zim looking menacing in "human" garb, with the slogan "We're Perfectly Normal" written underneeth. Perfect, Xemnas thought.

He found Xigbar's adult size and went to the cash register. The cashier said "That is one rockin' cloak you're wearing. Dude came in not too long ago with that same cloak, except he had really spikey red hair. Are you two in a band together?"

"Yes," said Xemnas sarcastically, "We're in a band together. These are our uniforms. He sings and I play bass guitar. We're trying to break out, but the record companies want to keep us down."

"That's rough," said the cashier. "What's the name of your single?"

"It's called Just hand me the damn bag."

After paying for the shirt, he meandered his way back to the food court.

 

Vexen followed her superior's instructions and was heading towards her laboratory, though she had a strange feeling clinging to her very nonbeing. Her eyes were almost hazed over and her body trembled. The fear that Xemnas instilled in her was beyond explanation.

She stalked through the halls in a daze, losing thought of where she was going and what she was doing. Then, a voice called her name out. It was Axel who Vexen bumped into just as she turned a corner. A light flashed before her eyes and she blackout for a moment.

A man with long white hair stood before her, laughing in a manianical way. Fear gripped her, but the man was in shadows and she could not make out his face. His cold voice rumbled, "Hmph. And you thought you would get away with this, now did you?" A hand reached for her....

"NNOOOOOO!" The woman snapped, calling forth such power as she had never been able to conjure. Stuck in her hallucination, she did not realize that Axel was before her, and she attacked him, sending many sharp ice shards at him, along with blizzard snow. It was a full scale attack and drained her of much of her power.

Finding herself on her knees and very weak, she used her last bit of remaining energy to open a portal. "You won't hurt me again. I've found the way and you can't stop me." And then she vanished.

--------------------------
OoC: Wow, I had a lot to catch up on... I'm so glad you're back, PoH, and I expect you to post as soon as you get back from the trip... well, that is after we hang out at S&S!

.... and, yes, it's my turn for a plot twist now. :p

 

Demyx stirred restlessly, excited of what may lie ahead for Axel and himself. He smiled, but it faded due to anxiety. "I need to find something to pass the time." He said to himself.

He grabbed his sitar and played a few notes...

He went in the shower....

He watched an episode or two of Spongebob Squarepants.....

He created his own sock puppet show.......

"Well, I'm bored again now." Demyx said as he couldn't think of anything else to do, he only gazed at the clock. 3:30pm.

 

Stunned by what Vexen had done to him, he just stood there. After a bit, he melt the ice that covered his body. "Damn, great. Now I'm wet." Seeing it was a long while until 6:00 pm, he took out his cell phone and called Demyx's room phone.

 

Demyx was quite startled when he heard his phone. The startled sitarist answered casually, "Hey, Demyx here. What's up?"

He had already figured that it would have been Axel as he was the only nobody that had been calling him lately.

 

Axel smiled when he heard Demyx's voice. "Hey, baby. I had reservations for six, but it seems that seems too long to wait, so can you like, get dressed right now? I'll be at the front door at four, okay?" He said in a joyfull tone.

 

((Sorry that I haven’t posted lately… I have this big project due Monday… And I’ve been working pretty hard on it… >.> ))

Xigbar laughed manically, then pounced on Luxord. He grinned evilly, then whispered, “No…â€

WHAM!

He punched Luxord a good one on the face again. He grinned even more. It seemed he liked the feeling.

[i[WHACK, WHACK, WHACK!!![/i]

He punched Luxord three more times – each time harder than the last. He pulled his arm back, about to punch him again, when he stopped. He blinked, clutched his hand tighter, and narrowed his eyes, but he remained frozen in place. He just stood there, growling at Luxord.

 

Vexen found herself in an icy environment, covered in snow and trembling. She trembled, her mind still psychologically affected by her vision. She kept coming in and out of the same hallucination, grabbing bits and pieces as a story unfolded before her, one that seemed all too familiar.

"The heart..... I... I can.... with the he..... he-heart. I.... found.. STOP!" Her body, despite its natural attraction to the cold, was frozen to unconfortable and dangerous levels, but she was too weak to do anything about it. She was also in a terrible state of mind, so much so that she did not even take the time to survey the area or question herself as to why she portalled here.

 

((OOC: I can do plot twists and fateful meetings too))

Xemnas looked around the food court and saw the Girl sitting at the fountain he had made his grand entrance in. She was thoroughly engrossed in a small paperback.

"What are you reading, may I ask?"

The Girl jumped for a moment, and then relaxed. "You'll think I'm silly," she replied.

"Try me."

"It's the latest tale of romance from Dr. Mansex. I don't suppose you've heard of him?"

"I'm...familiar..." Xemnas said vaguely. "I've read all of...his...work so far."

"Really?" The Girl smiled. "I never would have figured you as a fan. I've read this one at least twenty times. It's my favorite. I'm at the part where Selene pounces on Sir Edward at the charity auction."

Oh yes, that scene, thought Xemnas, I had a lot of fun writing that one. Mmm-hmm...

He sat down next to her. "So, my young friend, tell me. Of what assistance can I be for you?"

"Well," said the Girl as she put the book down next to her, "I guess the first question would be...what are we?"

"We are Nobodies. We are what's left when a person loses their heart. We've been able to stay in a vaguely human form because whoever we were before, for good or ill, was strong of heart. And having no heart, we supposedly can't feel emotions."

"But I can certainly feel things," said the Girl. "Relatively faintly, but it's there."

"That tells me that your heart was not consumed but still exsists somewhere."

"And besides, wouldn't you die if you lost your heart?"

"Well...not in certain circumstances."

"Such as?"

"Well, if your heart is taken by a Heartless, the dark part of your heart turns into a heartless and the rest of you becomes the Nobody."

"A Heartless?" asked the Girl? "What's that?"

"Those little black things that, well," Xemnas tried to do an exaggurated Heartless movement.

"Oh, those. I hate those things. Whoever's responsible for them needs a good slap."

"Well," said Xemnas sadly, "I'm right here, so go ahead." He leaned down to her.

"What are you talking about?" The Girl asked.

"Well, the story goes that when I was a young man, or at least younger than I am now, I turned up on the doorstep of Ansem the Wise, ruler of Radient Garden, with no memory except for a name. The old man took me in and made me his cheif scientific apprentice. We began experimenting on the heart, but Ansem thought it was too dangerous and he ordered us to stop. But we didn't."

"Should I grab some popcorn?" the Girl asked with a mischeivous grin.

"Shut up. You asked. Anyway, we created the Heartless for our experiments, and that lead to the discovery of a door in the castle basement. A door to darkness. I asked the other five apprentices to use me as a Guinea Pig in the hopes that my memory might awaken. Instead, I became a heartless myself and this Nobody you see before you awakened somewhere else. When the nobodies of the other five apprentices showed up, we vowed to get our hearts back. After collecting a few more members over the years, we formed Organization XIII."

The Girl applauded. "What a spirited performance," she said with a giggle. Yet the look she gave him was one of affection.

"So now we've all changed our names, to reflect our fate. They rearranged their own names and added a letter X, and I did the same, except with the name of my former master. Miserable old goat," he added under his breath.

"Hey, that reminds me," said the Girl. "I didn't actually catch your name."

"Oh, it's Xemnas," he said, shaking her hand. "And what should I call you? I can't just keep calling you 'Girl.'""

"Well, like I said, I have no memory of my time before being a..well...Nobody, I guess."

"Which is very odd," said Xemnas.

The Girl continued, "Anyway, you seem to be good at making up names, so I'll let you choose one for me." She smiled.

"I'm not that great," said Xemnas, "If I knew your real name, I'd add an X to it and rearrange the letters. It's predictable."

"I trust you." said the girl.

Xemnas thought to himself. Hadn't he seen this done in countless movies? Look around to see if you can make a name from things that are written around you. Unfortunately, they were in the food court.

"Well, let's see," he said

Xemnas looked to his left. He saw Nathan's World-Famous Hot Dogs.

"Na..."

He looked right. Some kid was screaming for a Happy Meal at McDonalds.

"Mi..."

He searched the court frantically. His eyes rested upon Né-Né Oriental Express.

"Né..."

Xemnas shook his head. "How's that?"

"'Naminé'? How do you spell that?"

Xemnas hung his head low. "With an 'e' after the second 'n' that has a little accent mark on it."

"Naminé...Naminé..." she said, "I like it. I think it's pretty."

She rested her hand on his and looked into his eyes.

"Thank you, Xemnas."

"You're welcome...Naminé..."

 

((OOOC: Yay for plot twists! ...damn, Marluxia is still sleeping? O.o))

 

((OOC: If anyone would know, wouldn't it be you?

Oh, and a little birdy told me it was your birthday....I forget if it was today or tomorrow, but either way have a Happy!))

"You said that my not remembering was odd," said Naminé after a while. "Why is it odd?"

"Well," said Xemnas, "Because most other Nobodys who keep human form also keep the memory of who they were. There's only one other Nobody I know who lost their memory, and in that case their original being reconstituted, and very quickly, albiet without the Nobody in question. My guess with you is what I mentioned before. Your heart is still out there, somewhere, which means that your original self probably reconstituted without you."

"Can you find out who it is?"

"It's possible, but it would take a lot of time and resources. But I will help you."

Xemnas leaned in and continued. "Now, tell me about this power you have?"

"Well," Naminé started, "I can look into people's hearts. You said the brain is for storing memory, and this is true, but all the important memories we keep have emotion attatched to it. Those memories link in people's hearts like a chain, and I can read them. I even think I touched them once."

Xemnas stared, "Touched them?"

"Yes...one time I was drawing this woman, and I looked into her heart and saw a really bad memory...I'll admit I was curious...my mind sort of, well, twanged it and she starts pouring her soul out to me."

Xemnas looked into her eyes. "If you can summon memory," he said slowly, "would it be possible for you to erase it?"

"I don't know..." said Naminé, "I guess it would all depend on wether or not I could create new links to put in their place."

"Can you?"

"I don't know."

Xemnas stood up and knelt down right in front of Naminé. Taking her hand in his, he said "I think you do have the power, and I would like to teach you how to use it. I want to teach you how to live as a Nobody. It won't be easy, but living as a Nobody is dangerous without help. What do you say?"

 

Demyx couldn't hold back an excited giggle before replying with "Sure, Axel! I'll be ready in about 15 minutes!" He shouted with a wide smile.

He hung up the phone and squee'd with delight, sighed happily and opened his eyes.


".....15 minutes?! Oh shi-" He cursed himself for saying that when he still had style his hair.. which usually took half an hour to an hour. He rushed around his room trying to get ready in time.

 

Axel chuckled at Demyx's exitement. He then opened a portal to his room so he could get ready for himself.

The redhead went insie the portal and as quickly as he could, he went to his closet. Waaay in the back he found one of his nicest tux. He shed his clothing and started to put the tux on.

 

"I think," said Naminé, "I would like that very much."

"Excellent!" said Xemnas, "You training will start tomorrow. Where do you live?"

"I usually just sleep in Bed Bath & Beyond. Nobody really notices me."

"Wow," said Xemnas, stunned, "I wish I had a place for you back in the castle. Well...there is that old storage room on the 13th floor I've been meaning to clear out...hmmm, but I wouldn't want you to run into the other Organization members until you've had some combat training...they've all been acting odder than usual lately...and combat training for you is way into the future..."

Naminé giggled. "Don't feel bad, Xemnas. I've lasted this long. What's another year or so, eh?"

Xemnas regarded Naminé. "I have to warn you, the training will be rigorous."

Naminé put on a look of mock determination. "I won't fail you, Yoda. I am not afraid."

"You will be," Xemnas rasped, "You will be..."

They locked eyes for a moment with stern looks b efore both bursting into laughter.

"I should probably get going..." Xemnas said

"Wait," said Naminé, grasping his hand, "Would you like to get something to eat first?"

Xemnas stood there for a second. Hmm...dinner with a pretty young girl, or a castle full of possessed people?

"You choose the place. My treat."

 

Demyx stumbled around, knocking over small items of furniture as he went, still rushing to get ready in time for Axel. His hair was half done and the other half was flopping over his face. "GRAH!" He said in frustration.

"I should have started getting ready earlier.." He sighed at his own mistake. "I guess I'll know next time.. or maybe not."

 

Axel looked at himself in the mirror. He looked very... sexy. He smiled at his self and, since his hai was already to his liking, he took out some of the make-up he bought at Hot Topic and put on some eyeliner.