This is something that I posted on TSR, so I decided to repost it here. Yay!

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Chapter One: Not a Very Organized Organization

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“I’ve been to see him… He looks a lot like you.”

“Who are you?”

“I am what’s left… Or maybe I am all that there ever was.”

“I meant your name.”

“My name is of no importance. But what about you? Do you remember your true name?”

“My true name… is…”

“Roxas!”

The spiky blond-haired teen snapped out of his reverie as a hand clapped on his shoulder.

“Congratulations! You finally got your marker at the Proof of Existence. Now you’re really one of us.”

Roxas smiled, although it contained no hint of emotion, and turned around to face his friend. “Thanks, Axel.”

The redhead brushed off the comment. “Nah… I wish I could say that I came up here to say that, but I just wanted to get away from the brawl downstairs.”

“What happened now?”

“Larxene and Xigbar have been chasing me around the castle for the last two hours, trying to lodge projectiles into certain parts of my anatomy.”

“…What did you do?”

“Burned Marluxia’s flowers.”

Roxas decided not to ask.

“Yeah,” Axel said, reading his mind. “You don’t want to know.”

Once again, Roxas decided not to answer and turned back towards the

view. He was sitting on the railing of the outdoor stairway, looking out across the World that Never Was. Neon lights sparkled under an eternally starless night. The darkness was absolute, except for the blinding whiteness of the castle, which seemed to balance it out somehow. It also eliminated the need for electricity within the castle. Hanging above it all was a brightly glowing heart-shaped moon, a blue aura hanging around it. Roxas could have sworn that it had gotten bigger since he got here, but he decided not to mention it to anyone. He was already on thin ice with the other members of the Organization already. Larxene would probably take his comment as an excuse to electrocute him again.

“So… the others will have to take you seriously now that the Superior has fully initiated you,” Axel continued, leaning on the railing next to him.

“Meaning that the death threats aren’t going to stop,” Roxas surmised.

Axel shrugged. “Meh… Pretty much. It’s the way things are. The Superior says that fighting is the way that we make up for our lack of feelings, but mostly I think it’s because we all hate each other’s guts.

“Besides… To be a member of the Organization, you have to stay strong for whatever mission the Superior sends us on. It’ll keep you alive.”

There was a short silence as a cold breeze blew up the stairwell. Roxas shivered as pulled his black coat closer around him. “Axel?”

“…Yeah?”

“Why did Xemnas… I mean, the Superior… Bring me here?”

“It’s his own rule,” Axel answered. “If any of us finds a Nobody who has still

retained the resemblance of a human being, like the rest of us, we have to bring that Nobody to the castle and present it to the Superior. …I have to tell you, the Superior was pretty interested in you. That’s probably why you got initiated into the Organization so fast.”

Roxas was silent for a moment, and then, with a flash of light, a Keyblade appeared in his hand. It was as white as the castle, angled with smooth spikes.

“Is this the reason?”

Axel’s face didn’t change as he glanced at the weapon. “…It’s got something to do with it, yeah.”

“Axel?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a cruddy liar.”

Axel laughed. “Figure that out all by yourself, did you?”

Roxas spun around, hopping down from his perch on the railing. A second Keyblade appeared in his other hand, this one black and sinister-looking. “Look,” he said, pointing the black Keyblade at Axel, “If I’m going to be a member of Organization XIII, I should know what’s going on around here. What’s the Superior planning?”

“I know that you’re not really going to use that thing on me,” Axel said in response.

Roxas glared at him.

“As for the plan… Sorry, but I’m not allowed to tell you. Just because you’re now an official member doesn’t mean that you get access to all of our secrets. You’ll have to build up your reputation first. We can’t just let any Nobody know what we’re planning.”

Roxas’ eyes narrowed, but he lowered the Keyblade. As soon as he did, Axel reached over and ruffled his hair.

“Hey! Hands off!” Roxas shouted, knocking his hands away.

Axel laughed. “Listen up, kiddo. You’re playing in the big leagues now. Until you earn your stripes, you have to listen to me and everyone else in this castle. Got it memorized?”

“Fine,” Roxas said, backing away. “I’ll figure out what’s going on around here, no matter what I have to do.”

“Have fun, then,” Axel said, starting to walk down the stairs. “Oh yeah… Don’t come downstairs for a while. I have a feeling that Xigbar and Larxene are still pissed at me.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Roxas said, turning back to the view. He had been hit by one of Xigbar’s ‘stray’ shots before, and it had not been fun getting the glowing bullet out of his back.

“And Roxas?”

“Hmm?”

“Lose the pretty boy act. It’ll get you killed.”

Dinner at the castle that evening was oodles of fun, in a sarcastic sense anyway.

Several bolts from Xigbar’s gun flew over Roxas’ head, closely followed by a couple of Xaldin’s lances from the opposite direction. The two were yelling something indecipherable at each other; something about target practice and getting in each other’s way. Roxas concentrated on becoming as small and unnoticeable as possible, to avoid possibly becoming impaled on one of those lances.

Fortunately, the other Organization members were preoccupied enough not to pick on the new guy. Vexen sat at the far end of the table, measuring out some suspicious-looking liquid into test tubes. The other members stayed far away from him, as he was known to ‘accidentally’ put various liquids into people’s drinks and laugh manically at the results. Further down, Demyx and Marluxia were arguing about whether the latter was gay or not.

“For the last time… I’m not gay!” Marluxia shouted at him, loud enough to be heard over Xaldin and Xigbar.

“Then dye your hair a different freakin’ color!” Demyx yelled back.

“No! I’ll have you know, I happen to like this color!”

“It’s pink, dude! PINK! And you control FLOWERS, for cryin’ out loud! WHAT OTHER PROOF DO YOU NEED THAT YOU’RE GAY?!”

Meanwhile, Luxord was building a house out cards, which somehow kept falling over every time he got halfway done. Eventually, he realized that Zexion, who was sitting across from him, kept knocking it over by blowing on it. With this realization, Luxord pounced on him, resulting in a fistfight. Lexaeus silently watched them fight for a while before stopping the fight by banging his tomahawk on the ground, making the floor shake.

Across from Roxas, Axel had summoned fire in his hand and was now doing various tricks with it, including making the stream of fire run up his arm and through his spiked hair. It was forever a wonder to Roxas that the pyro never burned himself.

Axel then glanced to the side and noticed that Larxene’s back was to him as she talked to Saïx. With a devious grin, he sent the stream of fire shooting down the table, setting fire to the back of her hood.

It took her a few seconds to notice, but when she did, she screamed bloody murder, grabbing the water pitcher to put out the flame. Naturally, Axel almost fell out of his chair laughing.

“YOU--!”

Now, along with the other screaming, yelling, and general mayhem, the sound of thunder now rattled through the hall as Larxene tried to strike Axel with lightning.

Roxas was beginning to get a headache.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Suddenly, the double doors that flanked the dining hall flew open with a bang, and everyone fell silent, the last echoes of thunder still rumbling near the ceiling.

Wordlessly, everyone who had been out of their chairs returned their seats, actually eating their food for once. The only sound that remained in the hall was the clipped echo of shoes moving across the marble floor.

Roxas didn’t bother to look up to see who it was. He already knew.

The sound of the footsteps kept moving until they stopped directly behind

him. A heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

“You are one of us now, Number Thirteen. Bear the title well.”

Roxas nodded and looked up into the face of the Superior.

Xemnas’ orange eyes bored into him as Roxas tried his best not to falter under his gaze. If he was ever going to be a true member of the

Organization, he had to show what he was made of.

“You will be very useful to us,” Xemnas said, loud enough so that his cold voice reverberated throughout the room. But then, he whispered very quietly into Roxas’ ear, “But should your usefulness fade, or you betray us, you will be eliminated. Understand?”

Roxas’ blood went cold, but he made sure that his sudden fear didn’t show in his face. He nodded.

“You will follow every instruction without question. When your loyalty has been assured… your place in our future plans will be definite,” Xemnas finished.

The Superior moved on, taking his place at the head of the table. The rest of the meal was continued in silence. Axel glanced over at Roxas quizzically, but the blond shrugged as though it were nothing. He decided to wait until after dinner to tell Axel that his hair was singed.

It wasn’t long after that that Roxas decided to go for a walk. As soon as Xemnas had left, it was business as usual with the rest of the Organization… or rather, open season. Axel had said that he would join him pretty soon, as soon as Marluxia stopped trying to chop his head off with his scythe. Apparently Axel had burned what remained of his flowers only three hours after burning the first batch. Roxas was starting to think that Axel enjoyed the death threats and man-hunts that seemed to be daily business for the Organization. Roxas just found it rather disturbing.

Not a very organized Organization, Roxas thought wryly.

He stepped off the luminescent path that lead to the bottom floor of the castle and began walking down the dark alleyways of the abandoned city, the neon lights lighting his path. Eventually, Roxas stopped noticing where he was going as he fell deep into thought.

If the fellow members of the Organization freaked him out so much, why had he joined anyway? He could have just denied Xemnas’ offer. As soon as that thought popped into his head, Roxas knew that it wasn’t true. As soon as he had entered that castle for the first time, he had been destined to become a member of the Organization. Xemnas wouldn’t have let him leave alive otherwise. Roxas had never seen him fight, but he knew instinctively that the man was deadly. Something about his eyes…

Another thought began to take place in Roxas’ head. If he was a Nobody, how could he feel scared of Xemnas? He flashed back to what Axel had told him when he had first arrived at the castle:

“You’re a Nobody. We’re the shells that get left behind when people turn into Heartless. We don’t have hearts, and we don’t have feelings. We can only to pretend to feel, or have the shadows of feelings.”

Was that it then? Was he only feeling the shadow of fear? If it was only the shadow of an emotion, Roxas pitied the person with a heart who met Xemnas. They would probably die of terror.

In fact, it was only because of that shadow of fear that kept Xemnas in his top spot as Superior. He was the only one the other Organization members respected. As for the rest, they all hated each other and would want nothing less for them all to disappear. Roxas wasn’t sure if he thought the same.

So far, he had not reason to hate anybody, or the shadow of hate anyway, as the injuries he had accumulated so far were because he had happened to get in the way of one of their fights. Even so, Roxas was sure that the reason that the other members hadn’t picked a fight with him had something to do with his Keyblades. When he had first shown it to them, in that white tower with the tall chairs, they had looked on in ever increasing expressions of awe and fright.

All in all, the only one that didn’t seem to want him to die was Axel. He had been the second person that Roxas had met in this place, after the Superior, of course. Xemnas called in the redhead soon after Roxas first entered the castle, and had ordered him to show Roxas around the place, and “above all, be civil.” Roxas now knew that that order had meant that Axel was not allowed to use Roxas as flaming chakram practice, but back then he had just wordlessly followed Axel out of the room, wondering what sort of place he had brought to.

At first, there had been a forced silence between them, but as the tour through the castle progressed, Roxas got the feeling that Axel was actually enjoying himself. “We don’t get a lot of newbies around here,” the pyro had explained. “And when we do, they’re not as temperamental as you are.”

Roxas hadn’t caught his meaning until he saw Larxene and Xaldin fighting in the main room on the first floor of the castle. It would have been almost been fun watching the lightening bolts reflect off of Xaldin’s lances, if it hadn’t been happening a centimeter away from his head. That had been the beginning of Roxas’ ‘avoid fights at any cost’ policy.

In any case, Roxas felt that Axel was the only one he could really trust out of the other members of the Organization. He treated Roxas like a younger brother, almost, but Roxas knew that Axel couldn’t really care about him. They were Nobodies. They couldn’t feel. Roxas sighed. Trust was all they had, then.

A shrill scream suddenly came from up ahead.

Roxas jerked his head up, pulled from his thoughts.

A blond-haired girl with skin so pale that it glowed against her dark surroundings was running in his direction. Her head was turned back, looking at her pursuers, which seemed to be—Roxas squinted—Heartless!

“Damn,” Roxas said, his two Keyblades appearing in his hands. He started to rush forward, but then on second thought, pulled his hood up to conceal his face.

Suddenly, the girl whipped her head around, spotting him. She shrieked with fear and surprise, skidding to a stop and then falling backwards.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she begged. Up close, her skin didn’t have the same unearthly glow as before. There were several small cuts across her face, and her arms and legs were covered with bruises. The white dress she wore was torn and smeared with dirt. She looked up at Roxas with wide blue eyes, almost like a deer’s, unshed tears making them appear glassy. Her fear was apparent.

And I must look like some sort of demon of the dark, Roxas thought.

“Get behind me,” he said, stepping in front of her and pointing his Keyblade to the incoming Heartless.

“Who… Who are you?” he heard the girl ask, but he didn’t answer her.

The Heartless flew right at him, as if they were willing to sacrifice their existence and become one with the dark. Which they probably do, Roxas thought. It only took a few well-aimed hits with the Keyblade to send them into everlasting darkness.

Too easy, Roxas thought, and turned around to make sure that the girl was okay.

She still sat on the ground, but now looked up at Roxas in admiration instead of fear.

“Get up,” Roxas ordered.

The girl scrambled to her feet, faltering for a moment before standing up straight.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Roxas asked. For a moment, he was aware of how harsh and cold his voice sounded.

“Hey, I asked first!” said the girl, but then gasped a moment later as Roxas leveled the Keyblade at her throat.

“You’re in our territory”—a confused look crossed the girl’s face—“so I’ll be the one asking the questions,” Roxas said.

Why am I being so mean? Roxas thought. Why am I even having these thoughts…? Nobodies aren’t supposed to care… aren’t they?

The girl shook her head. “I…I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Roxas asked in a confused tone. “A name…? Anything…?”

The girl shook her head again, looking down. Roxas suddenly noticed that she was clutching a tan-colored notebook to her chest. What is that…?

“I’m… I’m just a Nobody,” she finally said.

“A Nobody?!” Roxas exclaimed.

A high-pitched keening suddenly came from behind them. The girl Nobody jumped in surprise.

“Damn, more Heartless,” Roxas swore. He turned to the girl. “No matter what happens, stay next to me, okay?” She nodded.

“Alright then…” Roxas said, grabbing her arm. “Run!”