The Commission S2: Orden der Nocts [ A Kingdom Hearts/Minor TWEWY Roleplay ]

[Raiton Kensei]

The boy woke up. He looked around the room. The room was kind of small. To his left was another bed. It was messy so he knew womeone had been laying in it.

I wonder who was there. he thought

He got out of bed. He noticed he had wierd clohtes on. He had on a black hooded coak, with a black shirt, black pants, and black boots.

"Where did these clothes come from?"

"I put them on you. You was naked and I didnt want to look at a naked little boy."

Jeaxd appeared from a dark portal.

"Who are you?"

Jeaxd sat on the boy's bed.

"My name is Jeaxd. I brought you here."

He sat down beside her.

"So you saved me from that dark place."

"That dark place is called the Corridor of Darkness. You'll get use to it."

"What do you mean? I dont want to go to place again. It was scarey."

"Scarey?! You have no emotions anymore. Everything you feel from now on is based off of your memories. You're not even youself anymore."

THe boy was getting angry. He jumped off the bed.

"Not myself? Then who am I then?"

"You're Nobody. Just like me. Just like a bunch of others. You have no heart but the heart that you did have was so strong that it allowed you to retain a human form of you Somebody."

Jeaxd got up. She opened the door to the room and walked out. The boy followed.

"You're not making sense. How can I live without a heart?"

Jeaxd stopped.

"How indeed? Not even my book knows how."

Jeaxd was getting annoyed by all the questions the boy was asking.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Alex."

Jeaxd shook her head.

"Not anymore. Alex is dead."

She created an illusion of the boy's name. It floated in front of his face. She then added an 'X' and waved her hands. The letters were rearranged.

X E L A X

The new name floated in the air. He looked confused.

"Who is Xelax?"

"That's your new name."

[Azrael]

I thought you were dead, Lord Dauroth. How could a malignant being such as yourself be given the opportunity of haunting me from beyond the grave? Could the Gods be that cruel to bestow such a punishment upon myself? Lucipher tried his best to maintain a straight face when it came to Aaron, Sephira and Dana being in his company for he didn't need to draw out attention from them nor anyone else for that matter. Good thing those three are too busy talking to each other to look how much torture I am enduring from that man who's name I just wish to hate. Damn you Dauroth, how could you live yet my brother remain dead? He knew very well that after what would many in his organization have seen the battle very few had managed to escape alive as a bittersweet 'pyrrhic' victory, anything could be used against him by his opponents within to have him deposed from military and civilian command of the organization. Yet the concern to know why Dauroth had returned was something that interested the nobody. His future and the future of everyone may ride upon finding out. Why are you back? There must be a reason behind your return?

[Organization_42]

- Olympic Coliseum -

A sharp, stinging pain continued to make itself known on the arm of Fa Mulan. She had injured it in a fight with an insane warrior named Mirosius, and though she had long since given herself a potion and bandaged the wound, it hadn't gone away. If anything, it seemed to be growing worse. Mulan knew she should probably consult Riku about it, but she was trying to delay the moment when she would speak to him because she knew that he had more important things to do. The Restoration Society, which she had recently joined with him as the leader, had been scattered throughout the worlds. She herself had originally planned to go on a trip with them in something called a "gummi ship" to search for Riku's friend Kairi, but then she, Riku, and a fellow member named Qazre had all been captured and sent to seperate locations. The others were either still waiting in Traverse Town or had long since left to go searching for them. Either way, it would soon be time for the group to reorganize now that Riku was back together with his Kairi.

I wonder what we'll do when we're all together again? thought Mulan. She was looking forward to seeing Will Turner and Princess Snow White again; they had been her first friends when she'd lost her home world. And of course she was eager to see the familiar face of her horse, Khan, as well. But most importantly, she hoped that the Restoration Society would find a way to restore her home, the Land of Dragons. Maybe if they could revive her world, her parents, grandmother, and beloved dog would be alive again! In the end, that was what she wanted the most, though she was beginning to enjoy her time as a somewhat soldier-in-training.

As her arm began to ache even worse, Mulan suddenly remembered how her old father had been injured and almost killed while fighting in a war, and part of the problem had been his refusal to seek treatment until the fight was over. He'd won the universal respect of the Imperial Army and lost the chance to fully recover at the same time! I can't be like him; I need to ask Riku for help now that I need it. As Mulan left her room, she realized that her arm wasn't the only thing hurting now. Her heart was too.

***

- Halloween Town -

The Savage Nymph snickered as she watched a startled Roxas awaken when he was struck by her thunder attack, almost falling out of his bed in the process. But her fun was slightly ruined as Xion burst into the room, obviously intending to know what had upset her dear, beloved Nobody of the Keyblade hero!"Way to handle his nightmare Larxene." She said as she made her way past the blonde kunai-wielder to Roxas' side.

Larxene smiled and winked at them. "I aim to please!"

"Are you alright?"

Roxas was rubbing his eyes and trying to heal the numb feeling that had resulted from his electric wake-up call, but he stopped when he heard the beautiful sound of his concerned friend's voice. "I'm sorry Xion," he said, giving her a smile, "I'm all right; I just had a nightmare and I guess I overreacted a little bit."

"Awww, poor baby!" said Larxene mockingly, "Would like us to read you a bedtime story and give you a glass of milk?"

"Shut up Larxene," snarled Roxas. He REALLY didn't want to deal with her right now, not when his head was throbbing again and he felt sick over the terrible dream he had just experienced. It wasn't real, he kept telling himself over and over again, It was only a nightmare. Axel would never do anything to hurt me; he's my best friend. If he'd wanted to kill me, he had plenty of times to do it throughout the year. It was just a bad dream, that's all. But then, why had it felt so real and strangely familiar? When he thought about this, he realized that such feelings were what was really bothering him now.

He debated over whether or not he should tell Xion about his dream and ask her what she thought, but he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. After all, it wasn't something merely bizarre, like, "I dreamed that our enemies in the Commission started composing songs about how much they loved us!" The idea that he was having nightmares of their mutual best friend murdering him with a smile was a pretty disturbing one, and he didn't want to risk Xion looking at Axel differently over something stupid like this. So instead he asked her a differnt question that was somewhat related to the issue at hand. "How's Axel doing? Is he awake yet?"

[Vossler]

"An interesting question that you have posed to me and I shall bestow upon your person an answer that is satisfying yet all the more quite simple for anyone to understand." Ramaxuli was intrigued by the curiosity that the Gods seemed to have gifted this particular young nobody. Through mere analysis, the intruder seemed to be someone of more or less high intelligence and there was no doubt in the mind of the Orden hochmeister that this nobody's human counterpart pursued some form of scientific field in his past. "A man in possession of so many titles must be someone rather remarkable from just common sense. I, Ramaxuli, rule the Orden der Nocts and not just declare myself ruler of the ones under my personal command but all the nobodies that dwell in non-existence that are at the moment unaware of the existence of their future emperor of twilit nothingness. In due time, I shall rule this world, capital of my meta-universal empire. One with many titles has many of those because he is grand and his aspirations for this world and the universe are grand in themselves. Does that answer your question?"

Solex, rises from his bow, and says "I am pleased as of right now, you are a man of great power and wealth, I think I will like it here." Solex crosses his arms and observed the room to see what it beheld.



"Wise choice you made, boy." Ramaxuli responded, grinning as he saw the man go down on his knees and bow down to him. "Now answer my question, what is your name?"


Solex stoped his, stare of the room and told the man, "Solex, I'm a scientist." Solex crossed his arms again and scaned the man infront of him, thinking and wondering. "This place looks like it could hold valuable amounts of info and things to research, interesting; I like it." Solex announced.

[Ordeith]

(OOC: A very short post on my part; I'll post as the remainder of my characters tomorrow.)

Why are you back? There must be a reason behind your return?

The unspoken words lingered about in empty space for what seemed to be an eternity turned about on itself, until at last the eager shadows that hovered about them lazily grasped their meaning and took it into themselves. The invisible darkness churned about languidly for another moment or two, taking the time to savor the sweet flavor of a living man's thoughts before emitting another hollow reply. 'Return?' Have you truly believed me completely gone from this world? Hardly, dear boy, hardly....As for reasons, I could very well ask the same of you when you betrayed your fellow Children. The ethearal shadow of Dauroth sent forth an obscure thought communicating the action of a grin along the mental link between it and Lucipher, its cruel delight in the silver-haired Nobody's uneasy discomfort easily apparent. It relished in not only the sensory pleasure of connection to the living, but the concentrated negativity that radiated off of Lucipher; both empowered it drastically. The spectre of Dauroth continued unrelenting, for it ravenously craved more of the fear and hatred that Lucipher was so graciously providing. Enlighten me as to how you could so callously sever your ties to me after all that I did and sacrificed for you...I gave you power, I gave you comrades, I gave you support, and I endeavored to the best of my abilities to protect you from harm. So why? Why did you seek to kill me after all of the love that I gave you?

[Teiku 5]

- The Depths of Castle Oblivion -
- About 10 years ago -

Several days had passed since Xemnas' initial outrage at Project X. Zexion had spent less and less time in the laboratory where X was kept, and it confused the robot. After spending so much time alone, he took the initiative to work on some of those improvements he had suggested. Ammunition capacity was increased, sensors were made more sensitive, and additional features were added, all by the robot himself.

The change that Project X took the most pride in though was the redesigning of his exterior. Zexion did not have appearance in mind when he created Project X, only purpose. He looked crude. Wires and circuitry had been left exposed. Every movement brought with it the moving of metal pieces. But Project X didn't look like that at all anymore. His entire look had been streamlined. The robot had found scrap metal in the basement of Castle Oblivion and sculpted it to his desire. By the end of the day, X now looked more like a human than ever before. He had even made armor that could be worn during battle and stowed away when not needed.

The robot spoke out loud as he looked at his new form in the mirror. "How does the saying go? 'A knight in shining armor.' I do believe that is how it goes. The only thing that is missing is a sword."

Or a Keyblade. Don't you miss the Keyblade Minntax?

"What was that?" X was startled by the voice. It was the same one that came to him earlier, the one from inside him. "What is a Keyblade anyway?" Eventually X disregarded the event.

-Later-

X's patience for Zexion was wearing thin. Despite the fact X was a robot, his "mind" ran constantly for a reason that was unknown to him. It was this predicament that led the Project to start searching Zexion's notes for a solution to the problem. He ruffled through papers that were comprised of notes about mechanics and weaponry. But still no answers.

The robots eyes hovered over the only thing on Zexion's desk that he had never examined - the Lexicon. Zexion had forbidden his creation from ever even touching the book, let alone read it.

"But Zexion hasn't even visited this room in days. He shouldn't notice if just give its contents a quick look." The robot mechanical eyes began to pour of the volumes of information bound within the pages. There were notes on the workings of the heart and beings called the Heartless. But as the Project reached the most recent writings, the focus shifted to the Nobodies. X had heard the term Nobody before. Zexion said that X was made to assist the Nobodies take back what was rightfully theirs, but other than that the robot had been left in the dark when it came to such knowledge.

"Why would Zexion keep such information secret from me?" Just as that thought was finished, X flipped to a page that bore his name. While the information about Heartless and Nobodies had been new and interesting, the information Project X found about himself was confusing and borthersome. Several phrases jumped out at the robot.

-The shell is completed-
-The host has been secured-
-The extraction of the soul was successful-
-A new special Nobody-

No sooner than X had finished reading the notes and closed the Lexicon, Zexion stormed in the room. Although he seemed angry enough as it was, X knew he would have to tread gently if he wanted to question the Organization member.

"What is wrong Zexion? Perhaps some discussion can calm your nerves," the robot pushed ever so softly. "How do you like the changes I made?"

Zexion remained silent as walked over to his desk and opened his Lexicon. X noticed that the cloaked member was looking in the same section of the book that the notes about the robot were kept. Zexion mummured speaking to himself, "There must be some way to salvage this. Some way to please Xem-." His voice broke off quite suddenly as if he noticed a problem. "Why is there a tear in my Lexicon?" He immediately turned to the robot with a look of rage on his face. "You wouldn't know anything about it, would you Project X?"

The question struck a chord of fear within X. "No, of course not Zexion. Why would I have disobeyed you in such-." The robot's voice was cut off as Zexion hacked into his memory. X had no power as the digital banks that held all of X's information were scoured over by his creator. Apparently Zexion found what he was looking for, because the next thing X felt was the bulk of the Lexicon knocking the robot to the ground.

"And to think," Zexion said in a demeaning tone while hovering over the robot, "I was trying to save you."

"Zexion, please," the robot pleaded, "I don't understand. What did those notes mean in your book? Why am I special? What makes me a Nobody?"

"I'm afraid you'll never know the answers to those questions Minntax."

"That name, who-." Minntax never finished his last question as Zexion pushed the button marked 'Permanent Shutdown.'

[Hikari]

"I'm sorry Xion," he said, giving her a smile, "I'm all right; I just had a nightmare and I guess I overreacted a little bit."

"Awww, poor baby!" said Larxene mockingly, "Would like us to read you a bedtime story and give you a glass of milk?"

Xion shot Larxene a look that could kill. "And can you tell me why you're with us again? To be exact." She said, batting her eyelashes in a very sarcastic manner. No wonder things were better around the headquarters when she wasn't there... She thought to herself. Either way, Larxene wasn't the reason why she came into the room. Roxas was. As she continued to look at Larxene, awaiting a response, she knew something was troubling Roxas. Still, she wanted him to tell her on his own terms... Kind of. She let her curious mind get the better of her as she decided to ask him what happened.

"Listen Roxas, what hap-" She was then interrupted as he asked:

"How's Axel doing? Is he awake yet?"

Xion let out a sigh as her eyes made their way to the floor beneath her. "No not yet. Unless he's woken up during the time that I've been here. Maybe I should go check." Then, her blue eyes found his face as she said: "No more nightmares okay?" And with a quick smile and one final glare at Larxene, she made her way out of Roxas' room over to Axel's.

It almost felt like a long walk over to Axel's room. Wondering if he would be awake. Wondering what Roxas' dream was about. Wondering what the Organization would do now.

Finally she had made it to Axel's room, and it felt like nothing had changed except the scattered pillows on the floor from when she rushed over to Roxas' room. Taking a deep breath and a glance over at her red-haired companion, she set up her pillows again and made herself comfortable as she watched over Axel.

~*~

Taking a walk around in these empty halls seems like a good idea. Yeah right. Xreos thought to himself as he leant up against a nearby wall. He was so conflicted on what to do next. One half of him wanted one thing, and the other wanted another. "If only making decisions were easy..." Saix was captured. Their leader was captured. By the enemy. Goes to show how great the Commission is. "What happened to us?"

Well let's see, poor foundation and lots of rats filled with thoughts of betrayal.

And lets not forget that while YOU could have helped the Commission from collapsing you decided to have "fun" with the enemy.

"What a fool I am." Xreos said to himself as he mentally slapped his palm to his forehead. After a few minutes of thinking he finally came to a realization. "No need to wallow on the past you fool! Its time to rebuild the bent and broken." Backed away from the wall as he picked a rose from a nearby vase and crushed it.

"Its time to be what we never were."

[Azrael]

Six hours had passed since the deadly barrage of bombs unleashed by the Warhawks on the World That Never Was had inflicted their toll on the civilian population and every nobody outside the castle was either completely exterminated or at the point of death. Who would guessed that beings with hearts managed to do something that even us heartless monsters couldn't do...wipe out an entire city. Irony at its finest. Xiras thought as she lied down on top of her bed inside the room that she made as her living quarters, staring at the poorly drawn wave drawings, obviously the room belonging to Demyx prior to his demise last night. I'm so bored now. There's nothing to do.

-----

Solex stoped his, stare of the room and told the man, "Solex, I'm a scientist." Solex crossed his arms again and scaned the man infront of him, thinking and wondering. "This place looks like it could hold valuable amounts of info and things to research, interesting; I like it." Solex announced.

"Satisfactory response to my offer, my friend." Although there were obvious differences in various cateogories, Solex sparked Ramaxuli's seemingly locked memories of the deceased Organization XIII researcher Vexen, nobody of the apprentice Even. Perhaps it was his 'I'm a scientist' line that really reminded me much about that fool although I hope he doesn't give me as much problems as Vexen did to Marluxia back when there was that problem of Sora in the castle. The memories didn't reveal whether Vexen was competentwhen conducting his experiments but Ramaxuli needed someone like him if it came to learning the one thing that was still virtually unknown, the mysteries of the human heart and the components needed to form one. Many questions are needed to be asked while many more are needed to be answered once and for all... It would be an important step prior to the completion of Kingdom Hearts as he needed to understand the heart before even thinking of taking advantage of the most powerful heart, Kingdom Hearts' legendary power. To take the heart's power as my own, I must know and understand its properties. For one who knows nothing can understand nothing.

"Since we had been properly introduced, why don't you make yourself comfortable and take one of the empty rooms as your permanent living quarter." Ramaxuli said, grinning at how he had gained a new member, and a new pawn at that.

[The Future]

"I'm not aware of any assignments available for the three of you to partake at the moment although I'll see what I can find at the moment. Even at that, I can't promise you much considering that much of the attention has been shifted to dealing with the wounded and dead, Sephira and Dana."
"Okay," replied Dana as he placed his hands on his sides and continued talking, "I guess we'll go do something to kill time unless you have something for us to do, like possibly helping out with the wounded and dead soldiers that you have spoken of?".

[Azrael]

'Return?' Have you truly believed me completely gone from this world? Hardly, dear boy, hardly....As for reasons, I could very well ask the same of you when you betrayed your fellow Children.

God damn it, get away from my head and stop plaguing my thoughts with your presence. It is bad enough that you and your minions murdered my brother in cold blood when he returned to me alive yet you're here, free from the Pits of Taratus to psyche me out. I thought that the opening of that much pure energy from that Origin Point you had been seeking would had destroyed what remains of you that would had survived. And me being a traitor? You were the very one who was going to kill me from the very start! The energy that it took to prevent Dauroth from damaging his mind with his psychological torture to the point that he would had gone completely insane took an even greater toll on his body. Is this all that is left of Dauroth? Nothing more than the component of the soul which makes him nothing more than a mere phantom? The memories of how he had entered into Dauroth's castle with the sole goal of eliminating him and the Children once for all only to find out that Xemnas had thrown his lot with him. I gave that bastard the chance to be free and live a live of peace yet he uses it to turn on me and use his alliance with Dauroth as a means to gain Kingdom Hearts' power. How easily I crushed him in battle yet fighting Dauroth was as hard as it could even with the strength of both light and darkness under my control. The memory of the dark lord being mere inches away from ending the existence of the nobody until... My brother stopped him and he died saving me. And look at me, I wasted this chance and now everything I could hope to cherish from my old life as a human is gone by my own actions.

"Okay," replied Dana as he placed his hands on his sides and continued talking, "I guess we'll go do something to kill time unless you have something for us to do, like possibly helping out with the wounded and dead soldiers that you have spoken of?"

What the fuck did you even say? He couldn't concentrate very well on Dana and the silver haired nobody could barely have heard what the keyblade wielder had said. It's hard enough to keep him from crushing my existence from within but I have to listen to this guy speak? Senseless torture for even someone like me to endure. Dauroth's dark shadow was maintaining a solid grip on him and he could feel the lord choking him with what strength he had gathered up. "Just go and help the wounded. Leave my presence!" shouted the teenage Warhawk commander at the trio, successfully getting them to buzz off and exit out the building. He was now all alone with Dauroth.
Enlighten me as to how you could so callously sever your ties to me after all that I did and sacrificed for you...I gave you power, I gave you comrades, I gave you support, and I endeavored to the best of my abilities to protect you from harm. So why? Why did you seek to kill me after all of the love that I gave you?

Do not think that I am not grateful for what you had bestowed upon me during the time I foolishly believed that your intentions in helping me were selfless in their nature and they served me well in many a battle in my quest to crush the Rose Order and later its successor organization the Commission. It is hilarious that you cry out that I am a traitor when you yourself had planned to do away with not just me, but everyone else. You were even so heartless to contemplate killing the only thing that ever cared for an ugly thing like you once it was time to open the Origin Point. Don't lie to me, I overheard your rantings in the last meeting we had as allies prior to my visit of the elder mage Yen Sid. You were going to murder me and I prevented that from occuring, didn't I?

[The Future]

"Just go and help the wounded. Leave my presence!"
"Alright...." said Dana as the three heroes walked away. Something's wrong with Lucipher, he's never acteed like an ass like he was just then, I have to find out what it is.... thought Dana. He was very worried about Lucipher, what was wrong with him, how were the three Keybladers gonna fix it, and could they fix it? Sephira, Dana and Lucipher walked into the base's hospital, many injured soldiers were laying in their beds. Dana walked up to two men, their bed's were side by side, their eyes wide open, focused on the TV screen on the ceiling right above Dana, the first man was a teenager, he had dried blood on his face, and a bandage was wrapped around his right ear but it couldn't hide what was wrong with him, the man had lost his year in battle. The second man was about in his 60's, he had a long white beard that ran down his chest, he seemed the cleanest of the two but his right leg was missing. Dana's eyes widened, he couldn't help but stare at area the man's leg should've been. "Excuse me sir. but what happened to you-" but Dana was cut off when the man spoke, he sat up and rolled his eyes, "What the fuck do you want!?" the man asked. "Whoa dude, settle down, I just wanted to know what happened to your leg..." said Dana who was now worried the man would throw a tantrum like a four-year-old kid who wanted a toy but couldn't have it and wake up the sleeping wounded soldiers. "God damn it, why do people keep asking me this?" asked the man as he looked up at the sky. "I guess I'm just gonna leave you to your thoughts..." announced Dana as he started to back up slowly to join his friends.

"Hey you! Wait! Come back here!" yelled the man. "Yes?" asked Dana, walking back to the man's bed-side. "That girl over there," said the man who pointed at Sephira, "is she your girlfriend?". "Uh, no, we're just friends!" replied Dana who was sweating because he was nervous, he did not want to express his true feelings for Sephira. "Well then you're a freaking moron, she's pretty man, you need to get with her!" said the man. "Dude, stop insulting me, we're just friends and that's how I want it to be...." announced Dana who stood straight up then walked over to his friends. Dana tapped Sephira and Aaron on the back, trying to get their attention and then he whispered, "Let's get out of here, that dude back there," he said pointing at the man, "he's saying weird crap and it's freaking me out.... we'll come back later, these guys can wait a few hours, let's grab something to eat". Aaron and Sephira nodded at the same time and the Keybladers headed out of the room and Dana didn't even bother to look back.

[Organization_42]

- Aloha Islands -

Now that he was starting to think more clearly, Emyd wondered what he had been doing on the beach before he'd fallen asleep, and how he'd even gotten there in the first place. He had no recollection of coming to his usual spot at all...and now that he thought about it, there was nothing he could recall about the rest of his day today. Uh-oh, what if I have amnesia?! he thought as he started to panic, I don't know how I could've gotten it, but I guess if I remembered how I'd gotten amnesia, that would kind of rule out the possibility of amnesia in the first place! Little did he know as he was puzzling this out, the lady who had found him had already reached the main crowd and screamed about a dead body that moved. The next thing Emyd knew, he heard a loud, familiar shriek: "NANI! Nani, look! IT'S EMYD!!" Suddenly, a little girl in a red floral dress came tumbling into his arms. "You're alive! You're alive! And we had a funeral for you and everything, but now you're back! YAY!"

Did she say a FUNERAL? thought Emyd in shock. Nevertheless, he chuckled as he hugged the girl back and said, "Nice to see you too, Lilo!"

"You have to come meet my dog! His name's Stitch, but he's not really a dog, he's an alien from outer space, and he's all blue and has six legs and..."

WHACK!

Emyd cried out as he felt something smack him over the head: a rolled up magazine, to be precise. And said magazine was being wielded by none other than Lilo's older sister, Nani. "Where...have...you...been...?!" she managed to shout in between hits, "We...thought...you...were...DEAD!"

"Dead? When did I die?" asked Emyd. His life had definitely just taken a confusing turn.

"Don't play dumb with me! I'm talking about the day after that terrible storm, when no one could find you anywhere! We were worried sick, and you never came home, so eventually we decided that you must have been killed..."

"I cried and cried and cried at the funeral!" annouced Lilo cheerfully, "You would've liked it though. We all said really nice stuff about you!" Emyd smiled at her, but he was getting more troubled by the second. What storm were Nani and Lilo talking about? And why couldn't he remember a thing about what had happened to him?

"Nani?" he asked, "How long has it been since I disappeared?"

"About two years," she replied, leaving Emyd in a state of shock.

***

- Halloween Town -

Xion let out a sigh as her eyes made their way to the floor beneath her. "No not yet. Unless he's woken up during the time that I've been here. Maybe I should go check." Then, her blue eyes found his face as she said: "No more nightmares okay?"

Roxas grinned back and said, "Okay, I promise." When she smiled at him like that, he wished he could just lean over and kiss her, but she was already halfway out the door, and besides, there was no way he was going to show such open affection for the girl he loved in front of Larxene. She was still standing there with her back against the doorway, rolling her eyes at the exchange between the two friends.

Of course, as soon as she caught his gaze, she offered him a fake smile and said, "Feeling better now, sweetheart?"

"I doubt you'd care even if I wasn't," he grumbled in reply.

"You're right. I wouldn't. But I'm bored, and you're turning out to be a fine piece of entertainment, so I think I'll stay!" Roxas groaned; she had no idea how much it sucked to be him at the moment. He wished Xion hadn't left when he was still trying to settle down from his nightmare, but that wasn't really her fault when he insisted on pulling a macho act and also refused to tell her what the dream had been about in the first place. Part of him wanted to get up and join her in Axel's room, but the other part of him was now secretly scared to go near his unconcious best friend. Oh grow up! he told himself angrily, I was just a stupid dream, and Axel needs me right now! I need to get out of bed, find Xion, and make sure that they're both okay!

Meanwhile, Larxene couldn't help but wonder why Xion was acting so defensive and protective around Roxas. Really, if the tension that she'd felt between herself and her fellow female had been any indication, someone could've poked Roxas and the ravenette would've flown off the handle! If they'd had hearts, she would've sworn that there was something going on between the two, a one-sided crush at the very least. But that couldn't be right; it had to be something else...

"Hey! What are you climbing out of bed for?" she asked Roxas suddenly.

"I'm going to check on Axel," he replied shortly, not wanting her to come AT ALL. He just wanted to be alone with his best friends. So he pushed past Larxene roughly and went back to the room where Xion was waiting by Axel's bedside; he pulled his own chair and joined her. Somehow, seeing Axel up close and personal made the dream feel even more silly to Roxas, and he couldn't believe he had taken it seriously! Gently, he placed a hand over Xion's and squeezed it. Maybe it was just his imagination, but Axel's condition didn't look so bad anymore. Please be okay...

[∞]

- Memory's Skyscraper, The Dark City, The World That Never Was -

The wind, cold and smelling almost stagnant, blew through the hair of the Third Squire of the Orden Der Nochts. He stood at the top of a skyscraper, a tall one, the tallest one, in The World That Never Was. The Castle with a similar name hovered ominously over the glowing void in the ground. It stood twenty times higher than anything the surrounding Dark City could muster, but to Animaxio, his preferred nickname being Max, it held far more secrets. The Castle That Never took up much vertical space, but the surrounding city spread far wider, hundreds of kilometres of streets, and hundreds of buildings that Max had yet to explore.

Max took another breath in, raising his head to the sky as he did so. Dark grey clouds hovered by as always, the sky a near-blackness beyond it. Then, he opened his eyes to that sky, a brown almost as dark as the sky it looked upon. After that, he lowered his head back down gently, and some wind blew a streak of his wavy and dirty-blonder hair across his face, which he displaced with the brush of a single finger. He now looked down, more than a hundred feet, straight to the bottom of Memory's Skyscraper.

As he looked to the ground, memories of the last fateful time he had stood one hundred feet above the ground came to life. The people. The wire. The Heartless. The fall. The End. Max's right hand rushed to his throat, as though he were choking or his throat had been cut, but no such thing had happened, it was just a memory. But nonetheless, Max would have been unable to feel the wound and scar that lay there with his hands, it was covered by a navy scarf made of something like neoprene. The garment wrapped once around Max's neck, crossing over at the back, and ending in twin armoured hands that were currently clasping onto his shoulders. It was a strange secret that Max had no reason to hide, but he still wanted to keep it unknown. So far, no one in the Orden knew of the wound across his neck.

A second breath, this time to calm himself, and Max stepped off the roof, a single foot forward, then letting his body fall. He made half a graceful revolution in the air, his head now facing downwards, before his scarf moved of its own accord. Without his own hands touching them, the two hands gripped on Max's shoulder's pulled away, and the scarf itself on either side grew longer, to arms nearly three metres long. These two arms, flailing gently in the wind yet clearly with a strength behind them, grabbed the wall that Max was now facing, the back wall of Memory's Skyscraper. They failed to penetrate the surface for less than a second, but a more forceful push saw them embed themselves. Max immediately slowed down, but made no effort to stop.

With a single smooth movement, he kicked himself away from the wall and the arms of his scarf pulled out, and he sailed across the gap between buildings, still head-first while falling. Without bothering to look, the scarf-arms came around behind him and cushioned his impact against the wall, before digging into it. He pressed his feet hard against the wall, and pivoting slightly on it as the angle of his body changed, pulled slightly more horizontal. Then, he bent his knees and kicked off from the wall once more, now sailing diagonally through the air, face down. His own hands had remained stationary at his sides the whole time, but now they came into action, and with gloves lacking the fingertips, he grabbed the horizontal bar of a light post.

With the gathered momentum of the fall, Max swung himself around the pole twice, dissipating his inertia, before coming to a rest on top of it, squatting on it with just his toes. He looked up to the sky, it's own darkness barely distinguishable from the black brick of the buildings. The lip of the cityscape seemed an age away, the sky an eternity. Then, his eyes came down, to see the street, ten feet below. Max smiled to himself, he was now used to coming so close to death. He practically 'existed' at its doorstep every day, being a Nobody and lacking a Heart.

His head once more looked to the sky, and the scarf-arms settled onto the horizontal light pole, before seeming to grow once more, and coiling like a spring. Max's eyes darted around momentarily, looking for his next destination. He knew where he wanted to go, but he had to make the first step. There! The mesh and bars of an outdoor stairway. He would not take the stairs, such an approach was easy and boring, but it certainly offered a convenient way to ascend. He had gone down, now he would come back up.

One second, Max was there, the next, he was gone, travelling at remarkable vertical speed to meet the out-jutting stairway. The muscles in his legs rippled with the force he had built up in them, and the arms of his scarf unfolded in far less than a second. This time, he grabbed with his hands again, on the bottom floor of the stairway. The arms of his scarf then reached up and grabbed the lip of the barrier that was supposed to stop anyone from falling off the edge. Max, swinging himself out, brought his legs onto that barrier, then jumped up, his scarf-arms again reaching for the next barrier. He had several more floors to get accustomed to the motions, but by the next two, he was ascending them one at a time.

Reach. Grab. Pull. Flip. Jump.

Five more times, and he was at the top. He took less than a second to find his next means of ascent, the large windows, or at least their frames, would be excellent for more climbing.

Less than a minute later, he was back up on the rooftop of Memory's Skyscraper. He was now visibly exercised. Not from that single activity, that was easy. Rather, he had performed similar acrobatic acts for the last hour, and he was starting to tire. One last action, far less about acrobatics and one more just about jumping the right way, and he was on the ground, following the path up to The Castle That Never Was.

As his feet came to the edge of the city and the start of the glowing void dozens of feet below, Max did not stop. His stride didn't change, as his foot came out onto thin air, but then hit something.

A hexagon, translucent purple and with glowing white edges, met his foot. Two more footsteps and he was off that one, and another hexagon materialised and became his stepping stone. He continued in this manner all the way to The Castle's lowest floor.

[Zephyr]

[[OOC: Three pages late...]]

It had been six hours since the devastative force of Lucipher's, or rather Hojo's, bomb had been unleashed on the City where the battle had been fought. The girl Kallen was in no was unused to the sight of such carnage but still, the image that had been burned into her mind of the aftermath was hard to shake off; or maybe it was something else entirely that had her in such a funk. It was hard to tell, but whatever the case, as she trudged along with the rest of the Warhawk foot soldiers it was certain that she was feeling out-of-sorts. The entire Warhawk army had been ordered to retreat before the bomb had been dropped so none of them had been caught up in the blast - at least, it appeared that way. Until they got back to camp there was no way to tell who had been lost and who hadn't. I wonder if Aries and Haruki made it out all right? I haven't seen Aries in a while and I haven't even laid eyes on Haruki since landing in the Pride Lands. Thoughts of friends aside, she sighed and glanced up at the cloudy sky where she could barely glimpse stars dotting the black sky from cracks in the clouds. Suddenly, a man in front of her let out a shout and stumbled backwards, clutching the side of his neck as red liquid streamed through his fingers. Everyone stood for a moment, wondering what had happened when suddenly they were assaulted by swarms of white creatures. That they were Nobodies, there was no doubt; but they were a new kind of Nobody, one Kallen hadn't seen before. The retreating army had been caught off-guard by these creatures, and now the air was filled again with shouts of surprise and the clamor of weapons being unsheathed as their retreat was being turned into another battle.

"Reapers." The mysterious Nobodies announced in their peculiar way of speaking that wasn't really speaking at all, since they made no sound - you just sort of knew what they were saying. Kallen swung her fists at one of the Reapers approaching her, and felt a pain in her side as another came out of nowhere and struck her, knocking her back a few steps. She rushed forward again, intent on pummeling the creature that had actually hit her, when suddenly a rather large sword came down on the Nobody's head, splitting it like some sort of melon.

"And there you go! How to kill an attacking Nobody one-oh-one." A cheerful-looking man who looked to be about Kallen's age walked forward after pushing the dead Nobody aside, and smirked. "Of course, it would help if you had an actual weapon instead of fighting empty-handed."

Kallen looked up and stared blankly at the person standing in front of her. Had he not seen that she was about to send that thing back into the darkness from which it came? "I had that, you know." She said, turning and landing a kick on another advancing Reaper.

"Sure," He replied, still smirking as Kallen proceeded to pummel the offending Nobody. "You could at least thank me for saving your life."

Saving my- is he an idiot? "I would hardly call butting in at the last second and nearly chopping my arm off 'saving my life'. Now are you going to take care of any of these disgusting creatures or not?" With that last sentence, the Nobody Kallen had been fighting dropped to the ground, lifeless, and Kallen began walking off to find the next target. "By the way," She said, stopping and turning back halfway, "Thanks for 'saving my life'." She smirked once, and strode off.

[Azrael]

Xadnte appeared in the Castle that Never Was, astounded at how he had just attacked this place sometime before. He found it peculiar how quickly things could change. Now the head of it was his master Ramaxuli, who saved him from certain doom just before attacking the castle. Xadnte cursed his uselessness during the battle, though it was a good learning experience for him. He now loathed Somebodies, who always seemed to use thier blessings in the wrong ways. It angered him that they even had the audacity to bring someone like him into the world. Taking a stroll down a hallway he guessed he would have to see what Ramaxuli would want, and stand by for orders.

"I may be bored as hell but I know one thing and that is-" Xiras said as she moved her body from the previous position she had it on the bed and sat back up and faced the door that led to the castle hallway. "-I won't be able to do anything fun if I keep myself cooped in my room doing absolutely nothing. Not like there's anything interesting to do downstairs since those Reaper lesser nobodies are having all the fun torturing the hell out of that bastard Saix and upstairs is where Ramaxuli is planning out our next move againist our enemies. It wouldn't be polite if I interrupted him in the middle of whatever he is doing." Just when she was about to consider actually following her master's orders and rest for the evening's remainder, she saw Xadnte pass by her corridor and finally she found someone besides Sumxic to hang around with. Xiras sighed and stood up and ran out the door to catch up with the fellow member. "Hey kid, wait up!"