Christmas comes early
Copyrights: All characters, settings, weaponry, and magic in this story belong to Square-Enix. The story, however, belongs to me.
Exactly two weeks since I was conceived from the darkness I woke up early and headed eagerly towards the room where Axel and I practised combat. By now I had learned all the skills necessary to defend myself in and initiate battle, but this was something I had come to look forward to every morning. Since entering the Thirteenth Order I had experienced coldness from each one of the members and, even though I had no Heart, it made me sad. Axel was the only person that I shared a bond with. It was strange. He was the only one who could get me to open up, who I could be myself around. I felt like I had a Heart. From the beginning he protected me from the scorn of the others and made an attempt to make me feel like a part of the Order. I am even so bold as to think that my coming into existence gave Axel somewhat a great sense of purpose –for himself- in the Thirteenth Order. It was a strong, platonic brotherly bond we had.
However, this morning was different from the rest. Entering the combat chamber my eagerness turned sour when I saw that it was not Axel who lazily waited for my arrival. Standing in the red-haired enigma’s place was a slender-framed youth with silver-blue hair covering a good portion of his face. His back was facing me, but I could tell his arms were haughtily crossed over his chest as conferred with a large, broad-shouldered enigma who said nothing. A look of deep thought was on the thick man’s chiseled face.
Zexion and Lexaeus.
“Roxas,” Zexion greeted curtly, turning in my direction after his companion nodded at my arrival. His gloved hand went thoughtfully to his chin as I stopped in the entrance of the hall.
“Where’s Axel?”
“Akuseru has been assigned on a mission today.”
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I stared intensely at the two Nobodies who gazed nonchalantly in my direction. Both enigmas, Zexion in particular, made me very uneasy. Lexaeus, though he rarely said much, was a very large, muscular built man who possessed the power of the Earth. He was Number Five, one of the first members of the Thirteenth Order who cared very little for the more recent members. Zexion was one of the youngest members and was Number Six. He was very calculated, for his age, always conspiring and using his soft, but very passionate, words to get others to do what he wanted. He was a member Axel had said I should be weary of, which was why I put my guard up the moment I saw him in Axel’s place.
“The Superior has been watching you train,” he said, breaking the silence. “He is pleased with your skills and thinks you are ready to represent the Thirteenth Order.
“But,” he continued, a trace of a smirk in his monotone voice, “he also couldn’t fail to notice that this whole time it has only been Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, that you’ve been succeeding in battle. I suggested we try something different.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Not allowing the Cloaked Schemer to see the dread I felt, I remained calm, narrowing my eyes at the youth. “Are you going to fight me?” I asked coolly.
A cold smirk spread across Zexion’s pallid lips. “Unfortunately, no.” Lowering his arms from his thoughtful stance, the enigma indicated to Lexaeus beside him. “I thought you might like to take on the Silent Hero.”
With no expression on his stone-like face, Lexaeus stepped forward on cue. In his gloved hand appeared a large, black tomahawk. A shudder of fear ran through me. The man was enormous! His weapon was enormous! How the hell was I supposed to defeat that and not get myself completely wiped from existence? This task looked impossible, but there was no way around it without tarnishing a reputation I barely owned yet. I could either back out of this fight and be dubbed a “wimp” like Demyx, or I could apply the skills I had learned through the course of my training and see if these two weeks had paid off. Gritting my teeth, glaring at the two enigmas before me, I made up my mind, drawing forth my dual-Keyblades.
“Well, well, well…”
“This is not a show, Marusha,” Zexion said coldly, glaring at the two Nobodies who just entered the combat room. Glancing behind me, I saw that it was both Marluxia and Larxene who decided to watch the spectacle. Oh great. Just what I needed! More people to add to the pressure I already felt when I saw Zexion and Lexaeus in the room.
“Please,” Marluxia said, amusement floating in his flawless voice, “don’t flatter yourself. You aren’t the only one who is eager to witness the boy’s strength.” Leading the way, with Larxene just behind his shoulder, the pair situated themselves just in front of the door, blocking the exit. The man’s keen, wolf-like eyes gazed towards us, as if smiling. His lips were curved in an upward smirk on his delicate face, framed by a mass of thick, feathery hair. Yes, Marluxia did look like the delicate flower in the blissful garden. But every rose had its thorn and he had more than just a few. Since I first beheld the man I suspected he wasn’t one to be trusted. In his eyes he always seemed to be plotting something. The fact that you couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking caused great tension.
“For your information,” Zexion snapped, a biting tone in his monotonous voice, “the Superior –
He was interrupted by the cold, high-pitched giggle of Larxene. Her hallow, doll-like voice made my skin crawl. “Do you really think your words can fool us, Zekushion?” A sneer formed on her porcelain face. “It is a little more than obvious you wanted to test the child’s strength out yourself and not share his abilities with the rest of the Order.”
“I’d say that’s rather selfish of you, Zexion,” Marluxia commented, twirling a fragile red-rose between his gloved fingers. He didn’t even glance up at Zexion, but instead looked at the flower as if it were more interesting than his comrade. “Does the Superior even know about this little event?”
“Of course he does,” Lexaeus suddenly spoke, making me jump a bit. I had almost forgotten that the large man was there. “Unlike you, Marusha, we do not scheme behind his back.”
“Whatever gave you the impression that I had ill-intentions towards our Superior, Rekuseusu?” Now he looked up at the pair, a dangerous glint shone in his blue eyes. “As it so happens, the Superior holds me in very high standards. Am I now beginning to see the corruption of jealously brewing?”
“Come now,” Larxene cooed, a delicate poison in her smooth voice. “Is this really the time to be acting like a children? Do we really need to be reminded to play nicely?”
It seemed that in this fray of worded insults I was completely forgotten. Standing in the center of the room, no more than a few feet from Lexaeus, I lowered my weapons and watched silently as the Nobodies bickered amongst each other. It seemed, that before my arrival, there had been some bad blood between those who were first amongst the Nobodies and the more recent ones. The more senior members were growing fearful that the newest editions would soon outrank them. There was, as Marluxia stated, jealously between the members of the Thirteenth Order.
Well, at any rate I was growing tired of this bickering. I was completely forgotten. Cast to the side like some rag toy that barely served its purpose. Both parties wanted to see what I learned in my short trial of training, they both made that clear. And I was growing impatient, my muscles now becoming cold. I just wanted to get this over with!
“Hey-
But Zexion, throwing out his own orders, cut me off. “Enough of this! We came to see the Discovered Key’s strength, not to argue about petty issues.” This sounded final and all who were present in the room silently agreed. Giving both Marluxia and Larxene a last, suspicious glance, the young enigma turned towards me. “I hope you’re ready,” he stated coldly as he crossed his arms over his chest, withdrawing himself to the other side of the room, opposite to the two he so greatly loathed.
Narrowing my eyes at the silver-blue haired youth, I nodded curtly. Though my muscles had relaxed a bit, the anticipation of the battle once again resuming got my adrenaline pumping. I was ready.
Tension lay like a thick fog in the white room. Swinging my Keyblades lazily from side-to-side, so that I could limber up and get the blood flowing in my wrists, I turned to face the bulky, broad enigma. Craning my neck slightly, I looked up at the beast of a man. His hardened face looked down at me with little expression. I might as well have been a bug needing to be exterminated for all he cared. It was enough to give me doubts about this battle. But by this time there was nothing I could do.
“It begins now,” Zexion declared coolly, allowing the fight to commence.
In one swift, powerful movement Lexaeus thrust himself forward, extending his ugly tomahawk in my direction. Having no time to block the attack, I sunk low on my haunches and sprung off the ground, performing a graceful flip backwards just before the sharp end of the brute’s weapon could pierce me. Landing a good distance away I still had no time to recover from the enigma’s first move. Despite his bulky size, the man was surprisingly agile. In a matter of seconds he was once again upon me, raising he monumental weapon into the air, bring it down towards me. Ducking low to the ground, I managed to roll away to the side just in time, striking him with the Oathkeeper as I rose. Apparently I hadn’t caused him much pain, because Lexaeus merely gritted his teeth, as though ignoring any damage I might have dealt him, and spun towards me, swinging wide with his weapon. The tomahawk caught me in the middle with its flat edge, sending me flying through the air and landing back-first on the marble ground. Somewhere near the exit I could hear Larxene’s cold laugh of amusement.
Bitch.
Recovering, I rolled out of the way as the beast came charging at me, like a mad bull. Flipping onto my feet I raised my two weapons just in time as he lashed out at me with his tomahawk. The deadly song of metal rang throughout the room of the weapons clashed. Withdrawing his weapon, Lexaeus advanced towards me, forcing me back, again swinging his weapon skillfully in my direction, and thrusting it forward occasionally. Slash. Slash. Clang. Thrust! Clang. Slash. It seemed there was no end to his rain of physical assaults. However, in his flurry of attacks I finally saw an exit.
As the giant pulled back, preparing to thrust his weapon towards me, I quickly sunk down on my knees and sprung up into the air, performing a flip straight over his head and landed almost cat-like behind him. With great agility I rose and struck out simultaneously with both Keyblades. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. I didn’t stop my reign of attacks. Not that I finally was able to strike him. All I could think of was overwhelming my opponent with a mass of hard hits in the hopes that it would cause as much damage of possible.
Lexaeus growled in pain as each massive weapon struck him on the back. Finally, it got to the point where he could not take the beating anymore and the broad man turned around, blocking my attacks with the blunt side of his tomahawk and quickly backed away. At first, I had thought he was giving up, but I was greatly mistaken. Now that he was a good distance away from me he was able to attack me from a new, surprising angle. Lowering his weapon to his side, Lexaeus became rigid and his hardened face was filled with concentration. Then, raising his hands upwards, about shoulder-height, he used his Earth-bending powers to split a crack in the once-smooth, marble floor of the castle. From that chasm rose a large boulder, rotating slowly in the air. I looked up at the enigma to see him smirking almost triumphantly at me before he used his abilities to hurl the massive boulder in my direction. But I didn’t roll to the side, nor duck out of the way. I wasn’t going to flee, for I also had a power itching to be tested out.
Holding my ground I glared as the rock spun towards me at high speeds. Gritting my teeth, I anticipated the boulder’s impact. As it got closer and closer I channeled that energy inside me, preparing to use it to aid me in battle. Just as the spiraling rock was about to hit me I lifted both of my Keyblades, using the power of Light to slice right through the dense material. In two clean swipes the rock broke in half, parting to either side. I smirked up a Lexaeus, returning his triumphant grin. His arrogant smile was no longer on his chiseled face.
With a growl, I kicked off from the ground and charged towards the Earth-bender. This seemed to alarm him, because the man raised two more boulders from that crack in the white floor and hurled them at me as I approached. As I worked on channeling my own power, I managed to dodge one rock, but I was able to cut through the other with my weapons as I had before.
As I got increasingly closer to Lexaeus I could see a small wave of panic course through his hardened face and I knew he was becoming a little desperate. He could not allow himself, a senior member, to be defeated by a neophyte! Before he could counter my upcoming attack I used the remainder of my Light-bending abilities to my advantage. Now aware on how to control my powers I released it completely, bathing the room in a screen of pure, blinding Light.
“Where happened?” I heard Larxene snapped, probably thinking I had fled from battle. “Where did he go?”
“He’s still here. I can still sense him,” this angry statement was spoken softly by Zexion. If the young-enigma was still aware that I was here, and knew where I was, that meant I had to act quickly.
Closing the remaining distance between Lexaeus, who looked about in a wild blindness, and myself, I sprang towards him. Pulling back my arm, I swung at the brute with the Oblivion Keyblade, striking his shoulder. Startled and in pain, Lexaeus growled and swung his weapon blindly towards me. Having an advantage over him, I was able to dodge his attack and move to his side, lashing out at him again with my Keyblades. He yelled again. But I would not stop so readily. With great speed I continued to strike the enigma with both my weapons, causing him to stumble back. He could not see me bathed in my light. Smirking, perhaps a little too arrogant, I leapt into the air and knocked him back with a powerful kick. Immediately I was upon him, once again striking ruthlessly with my weapons. Perhaps a little too ruthlessly, because the dark, red liquid that was Lexaeus’ blood graced my Keyblades and dripped to the broken floor. I didn’t care. I had become a merciless killer, trained by Axel himself. I wasn’t about to let up now.
“Enough!”
Suddenly the blinding Light was gone and the battle came to a screeching halt. I stood only feet away from Lexaeus, panting and dripping in sweat. Opposite of me, Lexaeus stood in a hunched position, his coat stained in his own blood. His hard, black eyes looked at me with a mixture of hate and fear. It was clear he had never encountered this power before. A satisfied grin spread across my face.
“You have proved your power,” Zexion said venomously as he approached me. Glancing at the youth, I could see a shadow of hate darken his fair face. “Welcome to the Organization, Number Thirteen.” Each word was biting and cold, almost mocking. Before another moment passed both he and Lexaeus were gone, having disappeared through a portal of Darkness. All that were left in the room was myself, accompanied by Marluxia and Larxene.
“I think we’ve found the Key,” the man said, turning to Larxene with a bright smirk on his face.
The woman merely smirked and nodded. “I think you could be right.”
Before I could ask what they meant the two enigmas vanished in a portal of Darkness, leaving me alone to ponder the meaning of their speech.
Copyrights: All characters, settings, weaponry, and magic in this story belong to Square-Enix. The story, however, belongs to me.
Chapter 5: Key Piece
Exactly two weeks since I was conceived from the darkness I woke up early and headed eagerly towards the room where Axel and I practised combat. By now I had learned all the skills necessary to defend myself in and initiate battle, but this was something I had come to look forward to every morning. Since entering the Thirteenth Order I had experienced coldness from each one of the members and, even though I had no Heart, it made me sad. Axel was the only person that I shared a bond with. It was strange. He was the only one who could get me to open up, who I could be myself around. I felt like I had a Heart. From the beginning he protected me from the scorn of the others and made an attempt to make me feel like a part of the Order. I am even so bold as to think that my coming into existence gave Axel somewhat a great sense of purpose –for himself- in the Thirteenth Order. It was a strong, platonic brotherly bond we had.
However, this morning was different from the rest. Entering the combat chamber my eagerness turned sour when I saw that it was not Axel who lazily waited for my arrival. Standing in the red-haired enigma’s place was a slender-framed youth with silver-blue hair covering a good portion of his face. His back was facing me, but I could tell his arms were haughtily crossed over his chest as conferred with a large, broad-shouldered enigma who said nothing. A look of deep thought was on the thick man’s chiseled face.
Zexion and Lexaeus.
“Roxas,” Zexion greeted curtly, turning in my direction after his companion nodded at my arrival. His gloved hand went thoughtfully to his chin as I stopped in the entrance of the hall.
“Where’s Axel?”
“Akuseru has been assigned on a mission today.”
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I stared intensely at the two Nobodies who gazed nonchalantly in my direction. Both enigmas, Zexion in particular, made me very uneasy. Lexaeus, though he rarely said much, was a very large, muscular built man who possessed the power of the Earth. He was Number Five, one of the first members of the Thirteenth Order who cared very little for the more recent members. Zexion was one of the youngest members and was Number Six. He was very calculated, for his age, always conspiring and using his soft, but very passionate, words to get others to do what he wanted. He was a member Axel had said I should be weary of, which was why I put my guard up the moment I saw him in Axel’s place.
“The Superior has been watching you train,” he said, breaking the silence. “He is pleased with your skills and thinks you are ready to represent the Thirteenth Order.
“But,” he continued, a trace of a smirk in his monotone voice, “he also couldn’t fail to notice that this whole time it has only been Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, that you’ve been succeeding in battle. I suggested we try something different.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Not allowing the Cloaked Schemer to see the dread I felt, I remained calm, narrowing my eyes at the youth. “Are you going to fight me?” I asked coolly.
A cold smirk spread across Zexion’s pallid lips. “Unfortunately, no.” Lowering his arms from his thoughtful stance, the enigma indicated to Lexaeus beside him. “I thought you might like to take on the Silent Hero.”
With no expression on his stone-like face, Lexaeus stepped forward on cue. In his gloved hand appeared a large, black tomahawk. A shudder of fear ran through me. The man was enormous! His weapon was enormous! How the hell was I supposed to defeat that and not get myself completely wiped from existence? This task looked impossible, but there was no way around it without tarnishing a reputation I barely owned yet. I could either back out of this fight and be dubbed a “wimp” like Demyx, or I could apply the skills I had learned through the course of my training and see if these two weeks had paid off. Gritting my teeth, glaring at the two enigmas before me, I made up my mind, drawing forth my dual-Keyblades.
“Well, well, well…”
“This is not a show, Marusha,” Zexion said coldly, glaring at the two Nobodies who just entered the combat room. Glancing behind me, I saw that it was both Marluxia and Larxene who decided to watch the spectacle. Oh great. Just what I needed! More people to add to the pressure I already felt when I saw Zexion and Lexaeus in the room.
“Please,” Marluxia said, amusement floating in his flawless voice, “don’t flatter yourself. You aren’t the only one who is eager to witness the boy’s strength.” Leading the way, with Larxene just behind his shoulder, the pair situated themselves just in front of the door, blocking the exit. The man’s keen, wolf-like eyes gazed towards us, as if smiling. His lips were curved in an upward smirk on his delicate face, framed by a mass of thick, feathery hair. Yes, Marluxia did look like the delicate flower in the blissful garden. But every rose had its thorn and he had more than just a few. Since I first beheld the man I suspected he wasn’t one to be trusted. In his eyes he always seemed to be plotting something. The fact that you couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking caused great tension.
“For your information,” Zexion snapped, a biting tone in his monotonous voice, “the Superior –
He was interrupted by the cold, high-pitched giggle of Larxene. Her hallow, doll-like voice made my skin crawl. “Do you really think your words can fool us, Zekushion?” A sneer formed on her porcelain face. “It is a little more than obvious you wanted to test the child’s strength out yourself and not share his abilities with the rest of the Order.”
“I’d say that’s rather selfish of you, Zexion,” Marluxia commented, twirling a fragile red-rose between his gloved fingers. He didn’t even glance up at Zexion, but instead looked at the flower as if it were more interesting than his comrade. “Does the Superior even know about this little event?”
“Of course he does,” Lexaeus suddenly spoke, making me jump a bit. I had almost forgotten that the large man was there. “Unlike you, Marusha, we do not scheme behind his back.”
“Whatever gave you the impression that I had ill-intentions towards our Superior, Rekuseusu?” Now he looked up at the pair, a dangerous glint shone in his blue eyes. “As it so happens, the Superior holds me in very high standards. Am I now beginning to see the corruption of jealously brewing?”
“Come now,” Larxene cooed, a delicate poison in her smooth voice. “Is this really the time to be acting like a children? Do we really need to be reminded to play nicely?”
It seemed that in this fray of worded insults I was completely forgotten. Standing in the center of the room, no more than a few feet from Lexaeus, I lowered my weapons and watched silently as the Nobodies bickered amongst each other. It seemed, that before my arrival, there had been some bad blood between those who were first amongst the Nobodies and the more recent ones. The more senior members were growing fearful that the newest editions would soon outrank them. There was, as Marluxia stated, jealously between the members of the Thirteenth Order.
Well, at any rate I was growing tired of this bickering. I was completely forgotten. Cast to the side like some rag toy that barely served its purpose. Both parties wanted to see what I learned in my short trial of training, they both made that clear. And I was growing impatient, my muscles now becoming cold. I just wanted to get this over with!
“Hey-
But Zexion, throwing out his own orders, cut me off. “Enough of this! We came to see the Discovered Key’s strength, not to argue about petty issues.” This sounded final and all who were present in the room silently agreed. Giving both Marluxia and Larxene a last, suspicious glance, the young enigma turned towards me. “I hope you’re ready,” he stated coldly as he crossed his arms over his chest, withdrawing himself to the other side of the room, opposite to the two he so greatly loathed.
Narrowing my eyes at the silver-blue haired youth, I nodded curtly. Though my muscles had relaxed a bit, the anticipation of the battle once again resuming got my adrenaline pumping. I was ready.
Tension lay like a thick fog in the white room. Swinging my Keyblades lazily from side-to-side, so that I could limber up and get the blood flowing in my wrists, I turned to face the bulky, broad enigma. Craning my neck slightly, I looked up at the beast of a man. His hardened face looked down at me with little expression. I might as well have been a bug needing to be exterminated for all he cared. It was enough to give me doubts about this battle. But by this time there was nothing I could do.
“It begins now,” Zexion declared coolly, allowing the fight to commence.
In one swift, powerful movement Lexaeus thrust himself forward, extending his ugly tomahawk in my direction. Having no time to block the attack, I sunk low on my haunches and sprung off the ground, performing a graceful flip backwards just before the sharp end of the brute’s weapon could pierce me. Landing a good distance away I still had no time to recover from the enigma’s first move. Despite his bulky size, the man was surprisingly agile. In a matter of seconds he was once again upon me, raising he monumental weapon into the air, bring it down towards me. Ducking low to the ground, I managed to roll away to the side just in time, striking him with the Oathkeeper as I rose. Apparently I hadn’t caused him much pain, because Lexaeus merely gritted his teeth, as though ignoring any damage I might have dealt him, and spun towards me, swinging wide with his weapon. The tomahawk caught me in the middle with its flat edge, sending me flying through the air and landing back-first on the marble ground. Somewhere near the exit I could hear Larxene’s cold laugh of amusement.
Bitch.
Recovering, I rolled out of the way as the beast came charging at me, like a mad bull. Flipping onto my feet I raised my two weapons just in time as he lashed out at me with his tomahawk. The deadly song of metal rang throughout the room of the weapons clashed. Withdrawing his weapon, Lexaeus advanced towards me, forcing me back, again swinging his weapon skillfully in my direction, and thrusting it forward occasionally. Slash. Slash. Clang. Thrust! Clang. Slash. It seemed there was no end to his rain of physical assaults. However, in his flurry of attacks I finally saw an exit.
As the giant pulled back, preparing to thrust his weapon towards me, I quickly sunk down on my knees and sprung up into the air, performing a flip straight over his head and landed almost cat-like behind him. With great agility I rose and struck out simultaneously with both Keyblades. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. I didn’t stop my reign of attacks. Not that I finally was able to strike him. All I could think of was overwhelming my opponent with a mass of hard hits in the hopes that it would cause as much damage of possible.
Lexaeus growled in pain as each massive weapon struck him on the back. Finally, it got to the point where he could not take the beating anymore and the broad man turned around, blocking my attacks with the blunt side of his tomahawk and quickly backed away. At first, I had thought he was giving up, but I was greatly mistaken. Now that he was a good distance away from me he was able to attack me from a new, surprising angle. Lowering his weapon to his side, Lexaeus became rigid and his hardened face was filled with concentration. Then, raising his hands upwards, about shoulder-height, he used his Earth-bending powers to split a crack in the once-smooth, marble floor of the castle. From that chasm rose a large boulder, rotating slowly in the air. I looked up at the enigma to see him smirking almost triumphantly at me before he used his abilities to hurl the massive boulder in my direction. But I didn’t roll to the side, nor duck out of the way. I wasn’t going to flee, for I also had a power itching to be tested out.
Holding my ground I glared as the rock spun towards me at high speeds. Gritting my teeth, I anticipated the boulder’s impact. As it got closer and closer I channeled that energy inside me, preparing to use it to aid me in battle. Just as the spiraling rock was about to hit me I lifted both of my Keyblades, using the power of Light to slice right through the dense material. In two clean swipes the rock broke in half, parting to either side. I smirked up a Lexaeus, returning his triumphant grin. His arrogant smile was no longer on his chiseled face.
With a growl, I kicked off from the ground and charged towards the Earth-bender. This seemed to alarm him, because the man raised two more boulders from that crack in the white floor and hurled them at me as I approached. As I worked on channeling my own power, I managed to dodge one rock, but I was able to cut through the other with my weapons as I had before.
As I got increasingly closer to Lexaeus I could see a small wave of panic course through his hardened face and I knew he was becoming a little desperate. He could not allow himself, a senior member, to be defeated by a neophyte! Before he could counter my upcoming attack I used the remainder of my Light-bending abilities to my advantage. Now aware on how to control my powers I released it completely, bathing the room in a screen of pure, blinding Light.
“Where happened?” I heard Larxene snapped, probably thinking I had fled from battle. “Where did he go?”
“He’s still here. I can still sense him,” this angry statement was spoken softly by Zexion. If the young-enigma was still aware that I was here, and knew where I was, that meant I had to act quickly.
Closing the remaining distance between Lexaeus, who looked about in a wild blindness, and myself, I sprang towards him. Pulling back my arm, I swung at the brute with the Oblivion Keyblade, striking his shoulder. Startled and in pain, Lexaeus growled and swung his weapon blindly towards me. Having an advantage over him, I was able to dodge his attack and move to his side, lashing out at him again with my Keyblades. He yelled again. But I would not stop so readily. With great speed I continued to strike the enigma with both my weapons, causing him to stumble back. He could not see me bathed in my light. Smirking, perhaps a little too arrogant, I leapt into the air and knocked him back with a powerful kick. Immediately I was upon him, once again striking ruthlessly with my weapons. Perhaps a little too ruthlessly, because the dark, red liquid that was Lexaeus’ blood graced my Keyblades and dripped to the broken floor. I didn’t care. I had become a merciless killer, trained by Axel himself. I wasn’t about to let up now.
“Enough!”
Suddenly the blinding Light was gone and the battle came to a screeching halt. I stood only feet away from Lexaeus, panting and dripping in sweat. Opposite of me, Lexaeus stood in a hunched position, his coat stained in his own blood. His hard, black eyes looked at me with a mixture of hate and fear. It was clear he had never encountered this power before. A satisfied grin spread across my face.
“You have proved your power,” Zexion said venomously as he approached me. Glancing at the youth, I could see a shadow of hate darken his fair face. “Welcome to the Organization, Number Thirteen.” Each word was biting and cold, almost mocking. Before another moment passed both he and Lexaeus were gone, having disappeared through a portal of Darkness. All that were left in the room was myself, accompanied by Marluxia and Larxene.
“I think we’ve found the Key,” the man said, turning to Larxene with a bright smirk on his face.
The woman merely smirked and nodded. “I think you could be right.”
Before I could ask what they meant the two enigmas vanished in a portal of Darkness, leaving me alone to ponder the meaning of their speech.