Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

[heraldric]

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his

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[sitard3d]

Whether or not eating was actually necessary for a Nobody, Demyx tended to opt for it, since it felt more normal and he'd done what he could to preserve a semblance of a normal life since he'd lost his. That he'd missed breakfast had actually been entirely accidental, as his increasingly-frustrated nurse had spent the better part of an hour fielding her charge's baffled questions(several of which were repeated multiple times with only minor changes in wording, simply because Demyx didn't believe or couldn't comprehend the answers). It had only been once she'd mentioned joining the other patients that he'd finally been prepared to leave his room at all, and that was primarily because he was hoping to find someone more cooperative to interrogate.

Besides, if he'd wound up here, there was a chance some of the other members of the Organization had too, right? And regardless of the strangeness of the situation, there was one rock-solid fact Demyx clung to as a constant - the rest of the Organization tended to have a better idea of what was going on than he ever did. So the key was to find one of the other members and ask them questions. (A bonus was that they couldn't possibly get annoyed, although they did tend to get bored and walk away after awhile.)

To Demyx's immense relief, his little hypothesis evidently held water; it only took a minute of scanning the surprisingly bright room (and it was nice to be on sunlit worlds as a change from the monotony that was The World That Never Was, whether or not his pleasure was genuine) to spot a person with silver hair. And while the man was facing away from him, the height that was just a bit too tall to be a teenager yet too short to be anything else was instantly identifiable - Zexion.

In a way, it was kind of weird; he'd expected other Organization members to be here, but not those of the Castle Oblivion contingent. Yet in retrospect, was it any stranger for them to be here after they'd been destroyed than for any of the other Nobodies?

Oh, well. Leave the musing to the people who were better at it. Demyx shook the thought from his head and moved quickly towards the younger and yet still senior Nobody, smiling more from relief than because he had any illusions about getting a smile in return. "Hey!"

[sixth_scents]

Whether it was the less compact nature of the room, or the fact that the other patients mostly gathered in groups far from the bulletin board (with the exception of a few patients gathering nearby), but Zexion was able to detect Demyx's presence by the fresh-rain scent permeating the air around the other Nobody.

"Hello, Demyx."

He didn't turn around; he knew his comrades' scents by heart (or to the Nobody equivalent of the missing organ), and Demyx was no different. IX hadn't been mentioned as one of the present members, though it sounded like new patients continued arriving, so it wasn't out of the question that Demyx may have just arrived.

He continued to study the board, back to his subordinate.

[sitard3d]

Demyx did his best not to deflate. True, Zexion had hardly acknowledged him, but that wasn't exactly unexpected. Even under the strange and uncertain circumstances, expecting anyone else - especially Zexion, who was even more standoffish than most of the others in the Organization - to feel relief similar to his own at seeing a familiar face was way too much to have hoped for.

"Uh..." Opening gambit having fallen flat, it took Demyx a second to recover and remember his purpose for having approached Zexion in the first place. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

[sixth_scents]

Zexion turned to face Demyx. "I am one of the least likely to know what exactly is happening, having only arrived here myself this morning. Though I have managed to learn a small amount about this place, the completed puzzle still eludes me." Chances were that none of the other patients knew the full story behind the institute, though Zexion did not propose this theory out loud.

The bulletin board no longer held interest for the Nobody. He headed towards an unoccupied chair, pondering over what he had learned at breakfast.

[sitard3d]

"You just arrived, too?" Demyx blinked for a moment at that, but didn't take too much time to roll that one over in his mind, as he had to trail after Zexion when the other Nobody moved away or get left behind. "But you were destroyed way before me..."

[sixth_scents]

"Did I not just say that?" Zexion asked with false irritation. "I arrived this morning. And I myself do not understand how it is that I have come here at the same point as yourself, especially since you claim to have been destroyed long after my demise." It probably wouldn't be wise to mention Luxord's presence at that moment; with the paradox being difficult for one of the Organization's more intellectual members to grasp, Zexion didn't even want to consider how IX would handle the corruption of the timeline.

The Nobody settled down into the chair. Steepling his fingers, he peered up at Demyx. "So, you suffered destruction too? Might I ask where, and by what means?"

[sitard3d]

"I don't claim to have been, I was," Demyx replied with a slight frown. "That's not the sort of thing I'd make up, or be mistaken about. It sucked." 'Sucked' was an understatement, but Demyx suspected he could spend a week with a thesaurus and not come up with a word that could adequately sum up the miserable experience of simply breaking up and drifting away, like carbonation into the air.

As there was nowhere for him to sit nearby, Demyx simply flopped onto the floor, propping one elbow on his knee. "It was in Hollow Bastion," he replied to Zexion's question. "During a big Heartless attack. Roxas - well, uh, the Keyblade Master," he corrected, recalling at the last second that Zexion had been destroyed before Roxas and the Keyblade Master had reformed back into one entity. "Anyway, he was there. Roxas became part of him again after Castle Oblivion, somehow...became whole, I guess, like we wanted to. But he forgot all about us, and I don't think the Keyblade Master remembered Roxas, either. Xemnas sent me after him once to try to wake Roxas up, but it didn't work. The second time, I had to fight him." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh, lost."

[sixth_scents]

Zexion gazed at at the other Nobody. "There was little doubt in my mind that you had been destroyed; I was only making sure." He leaned back. "Besides, I know exactly how you felt at your destruction, Demyx." After all, he himself had suffered a similar fate.

The Schemer listened quietly to Demyx's explanation. At the mention of the Heartless invasion, he muttered "Again?", though it was more to himself than out loud. But he listened without interruption to the rest of the recount.

"So. Roxas and Sora merged into one being. But how did that come about? Roxas was with the Organization; he did not remember Sora at all. How was he able to become whole without such vital knowledge...?" He trailed off, staring off into space.

[sitard3d]

Demyx decided not to read an insult into Zexion's statement as to how he'd never doubted that Demyx had been destroyed, even though he suspected one had been intended. He'd never impressed any of the Organization with his combat skills, really; his losing to the Keyblade Master probably hadn't come as a surprise to anyone. "Yeah, I guess you would," he acknowledged. "Sorry."

As to how Sora and Roxas had become whole again... "Good question." He lifted one shoulder in a helpless shrug. "I don't think even Xemnas knew. And since the Keyblade Master didn't even remember Roxas, it's not like we could really ask him about it - heck, whenever we mentioned Roxas to him he acted like we were talking nonsense. I dunno how much good it would do us to know, anyway, though; I mean, I always figured Nobodies who had living others were special cases, so it's not like what worked for Roxas would apply to any of us. Our others are..." He waved a hand vaguely.

[sixth_scents]

"Gone," Zexion finished, "or otherwise inaccessible." He folded his hands into his lap. The Roxas-Sora conundrum was just another mystery to add to his plate, though not a top priority given the circumstances.

After a moment of silence, the Cloaked Schemer spoke up again. "It seems that many important events occurred after my death. How much happened between our respective demises?"

[sitard3d]

"Uh..." Demyx ran a hand haphazardly through his hair. "A lot...? I'm probably not the best person to tell you all of it; it's not like anyone really kept me well-informed. Roxas left the Organization...I don't remember if you were around still when that happened or not...but I'm pretty sure it wasn't until after Castle Oblivion that Axel left to find him. Technically we were ordered to kill him when we couldn't get him to come back; I think Xemnas said that the old guy, Ansem, was hiding Roxas, so we'd only just found him when he joined with his other. And since his other didn't even remember Roxas at all, we couldn't really convince him to come back. Axel didn't like that, though, so he left...they called him a traitor." Demyx laughed, a bit bitterly for him. "It wasn't too long after that Xemnas sent me after Roxas' other, and I lost."

[sixth_scents]

Zexion listened to every word carefully, though a select few stuck out. "Ansem? Surely he couldn't have escaped...?" Well, that was interesting, knowing his old mentor somehow made it out of his exile. And naturally he would work against the Organization, whose original six members betrayed him.

The Nobody gave a bitter laugh of his own, practically scoffing at Demyx's mention of Axel. "Only after he left did they called him a traitor? Well, it certainly took them awhile to figure that one out. I would have thought that it would be figured out sooner, though I shouldn't have expected as much from the surviving members."

[sitard3d]

"All I know is what the Superior told us," Demyx replied with a slight shrug. "I don't know why he'd mess with Roxas, either, except I guess to make things difficult for us. I don't even really know what he did; Axel was the one who found Roxas, and he didn't really tell me anything about it."

He eyed Zexion sidelong, somewhat uneasily. Zexion didn't really have much of a good opinion of anyone, as a rule, but he sounded particularly hostile about Axel right now...someone Demyx had always been friends with. "I dunno," he mumbled. "I mean, I always thought he was loyal enough, and that he just didn't want to have to hurt Roxas..."