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[Xion]

The surface she was lying on was cold and smooth, almost soothing. Her small frame was laid on the floor, eyes concealed by a black hood and closed, struggling to open. She just seemed to be unable to open her eyes. Her mind was too exhausted.

Images and voices spun around in her mind, distorted and vague, but somehow familiar even if she couldn't recognize them now. The sunset and a tower. Two faces she couldn't recognize immediately but that she soon figured had to be her best friends. Ice cream. And then memories that didn't seem to belong to her, all of it swirling around her blank mind. It was strange...

She rolled over restlessly letting out a shaky breath, as though she was suffering from a nightmare of sorts. She was trying to put her hazy thoughts in order, but in this exhausted condition she couldn't do so. She wasn't entirely sure of what had happened to her, but needed to know how she had ended up here, wherever it was. She was slowly starting to regain consciousness, but she still couldn't find the strenght to open her eyes.

After what felt like hours her bright blue eyes opened slowly; and she found herself staring at what appeared to be a white room. Why was everything so white here? It was blinding. So much that she had to blink a few times to get used to it completely; and even so all the brightness still got to her. Her mind cleared slowly and after a few more minutes, Xion sat up straight and stared around with a confused and curious gaze.

[Marluxia]

A bitter taste lingered on the tongue of a pink haired man, wandering the halls of the castle. Somehow, although the blank walls seemed as though they would echo the slightest of sounds, the cloaked figure had managed to remain silent, shoes gliding over the floor delicately. At the end of one hall, the man paused, placing a gloved hand on the cold wall.

Lord of the Castle.

How foolish he had been. Had he really thought that there was no reason behind him becoming head of Castle Oblivion for such a short time?

Marluxia's expression seemed relatively blank, displaying none of the thoughts that crossed his mind. Perhaps, it was for the best that he hadn't. Pulling up his hood, he tucked his hair delicately into it. For him, the hood held a sense of protection.

Axel.

Now, blue eyes narrowed, pushing on through the halls. Yes, he blamed Axel for his failure. Axel was the traitor of the traitors. What was worse? Everything had been placed right into Marluxia's lap, and then Axel had to go and rip it away from him.

Then again, maybe it would teach the Graceful Assassin a better way to go about it. In case there was a next time. But if there was, a certain red-headed man would have to be taken care of, first.

It seemed he had been wandering a while, entering and exiting various rooms, as if devouring the memories of each and every one of them. During this time, he found himself entering a room that wasn't quite as devoid of life as he had expected.

"Oh?"

There, in the room, was a 'person.' A sense of familiarity washed over the man, as he tilted his head to the side, slightly.

To match the question on his mind, the man decided to verbalize himself, as monotone as ever, "and what are you doing in here?"

[Xion]

The room felt oddly familiar, but Xion couldn't quite recall what was this place. She bit her lower lip, trying to think back. She knew this place. She just knew she did...

A castle. Thirteen floors and twelve basements. The higher you went, the more you forgot. Thirteen other people roaming around the halls, fourteen if she counted herself. That was what she finally managed to remember; but that wasn't much. She wanted the name back...

Castle Oblivion.

That was it, right?

The moment the name came back to her mind, was the moment the door opened and in stepped a tall man who had pink hair. Xion's eyes widened a bit and she caught her breath in surprise. She hadn't expected anyone to be around at the moment...

"I-I'm not sure..."she answered uncertainly when he adressed her, asking what she was doing there. "I don't know how I arrived here..."she mumbled almost silently, blue eyes widening in slight fear.

This man had to be one of the thirteen again, but what was his name? She couldn't remember all that well...one name out of thirteen seemed too complicated right now. Xion pulled her hood down, revealing her child-like face, short black hair and wide blue eyes. She stood up quite clumsily.

"Who...who are you?"

[Marluxia]

She was nothing but a child. Before she had even removed her hood, he had it pinned. She was one of many he had forgotten about from holding no significance to his life, it seemed. The only 'Organization' member to have been, in a sense, forgotten. It wasn't much of her fault for not recognizing him. After all, he had hardly been around during her stay, and he didn't even recognize her.

He only knew thirteen. She was forgotten.

But she seems to be familiar. She is familiar. Who?

"I am," then there was a pause. No. He wasn't the lord of Castle Oblivion any longer. Such a shame. What a title it had been to cling to. "Was the lord of Castle Oblivion." It was as if he was giving her a split second to ponder, before continuing, "but surely that title bores you. Since joining, I've been titled The Graceful Assassin, Marluxia."

A long-winded introduction for someone that had just asked for a name. Perhaps he had just felt the need to state his title for the lack of grace that the girl had when she stood. He didn't want to even think about her dancing abilities, with that 'introduction' to her movements.

With a fluid motion, the man flicked his hair back, from his face, cherry blossom petals fluttering from it, and dissolving. Oh, the show that the man enjoyed to put on.

"And you, girl," the man's eyes seemed to fix on hers, "you wear our cloak, but I can't place a name to you." Gears turned in his mind, trying to find this missing name. She hadn't been important. This almost bothered him, yet his tone hadn't changed in the slightest, unless to raise slightly, as any humans' should, to pose a question.

"So, tell me your name."

[Xion]

Xion wasn't quite sure how much longer she would be able to stand on her feet; her energy hadn't quite returned completely, and her whole body felt numb. Even now, she was stumbling only slightly. For as long as she didn't fall over, things would be okay.

The man before her had introduced himself as the former lord of the Castle...former? The child was quite curious as to why he had lost the title, but asking would have been impolite of her, not to mention nosey. She didn't want to give that impression. Instead she just nodded as he spoke his name. "Marluxia..."she repeated, in hopes of re-learning it.

Then as she was asked her name, Xion paused. Oh...she'd been too confused to think of that...

She couldn't remember completely, but could recall a voice calling out to her. Who owned that voice didn't matter, what mattered was that she needed to remember her name, which had seemed to disappear from her mind briefly.

Then it came back, spoken through a familiar voice.

Xion

Her head snapped up. "Oh! Sorry...My name is Xion..."she answered, giving a weak smile. Then what remained of her strenght faded, she fell back to her knees.

[Marluxia]

Marluxia watched the girl stumble a little. Far from graceful. Every second seemed to just prove this more to him.

But she didn't seem to have the energy to really stand. It wasn't a hard concept to grasp that this would be why she even stood poorly. If she still did this after regaining herself, he would probably find it quite pitiful. In all honesty, he did, to an extent, already. Then again, Marluxia wasn't one for kind thoughts.

It seemed to take her a long while to retrieve her own name. For a moment, he actually questioned if the girl was just plain stupid. It's... possible.

To finish his thoughts on this, she finally answered. The name felt like a bag of bricks had slammed into his chest. It wasn't a true emotion that he felt. No. It was as though he was trying to remember something that was impossible. A faint memory passed through his mind of someone speaking the name. Raising his hand to his head, and closing blue eyes, it almost felt like an ice cream headache.

"Fourteen?" his voice seemed almost off, as if he were dreaming. He was re-living the second, but as a failed memory. It didn't feel as though it had happened. He felt as though he was hearing someone talking about the new member, Xion. Clearly, this -- potentially false -- memory was shortly before he had left for Castle Oblivion.

Was his mind making up this memory? It was all so vague that he couldn't tell.

Opening his eyes again, the pink haired man saw the last of the girl's attempt to stay up, as she fell to her knees.

Gliding forward, the assassin looked down upon her. To him, she was useless. Especially in this condition. For some reason, though, he still stretched his arm toward her, opening his palm, to assist Xion in standing again. Of course, if she took his hand, he wasn't just going to release his grip to allow her to fall again. He would hold her up, until he felt that she was capable of moving on her own. Regardless of how long that it would take.

Although he lacked a heart, it didn't mean that he couldn't be a gentleman. Even after the way he had treated Namine. At this second, Xion had nothing he wanted, and Marluxia was far from power-hungry. For the time being, at least.

"Should I assume that you've just woken up?"

[Xion]

She wouldn't have been surprised if Marluxia had no memory of her ever being around. Xion could now remember Naminé telling her that everyone would forget her existence if...if what? That part she still needed to figure out. She was almost entirely sure that it would help her to figure out what had happened to her. But she didn't want to think about that right now.

It was almost strange being adressed as fourteen again, but it made her smile faintly, even after she fell. At the same time she was struggling to get back to her feet. Eventually she took the hand Marluxia was holding out and found herself suddenly standing. Well, that had been fast...Xion blinked dazedly for a moment until the walls stopped spinning and stayed where they should.

She nodded lightly when asked if she'd just woken up. "Yes...but I'm not sure of what happened...or how I got here at all..."she took half a glance around the room. It was so...empty. "Where is everyone else?"she asked suddenly, looking up. More than anything she wanted to know what had been of her friends...

Even though she couldn't remember their names, she knew their faces. She couldn't help but consider herself a bad friend for having forgotten.

[Marluxia]

The assassin watched, until deeming it safe to release the girl. For a moment, his arm remained out, in case she would still need it. If she didn't reach for it, for support, his hand would slip to his side after only a few more seconds.

"I believe that everyone is off doing their own tasks." Either that, or they hadn't reappeared yet. "I've only seen a few since I've returned. Some may not have arrived yet."

Marluxia couldn't deny that he had preferred the time prior to his death to now. Had he only kept himself more secretive, he would have lasted much longer. But then, there was the chance that he wouldn't have been able to have rein over Castle Oblivion for any amount of time. Considering, he was uncertain of if that was preferable.

"Some members may be better off keeping their distance from other Organization members." Surely, the girl wouldn't know that he referenced one in particular, though a few, including himself, should have held to those standards. The pink haired man was just too stubborn to care."It seems that a few of their last memories didn't hold some of us quite," pausing, the man shifted his weight, "favorable."

The thought of this caused a hand to ball into a fist at his side. He'd certainly need to get rid of Axel, because of this. Sure, Superior seemed to pardon every one of them, as, if he hadn't, Marluxia would have been one of the first to go, but each member surely could be allowed to hold their own grudges. Eventually, this would get to the Graceful Assassin, and he would do as necessary to eliminate the one that had exposed him, and created such a hassle before his demise.

"I don't recall you, Xion, but if you made any enemies during your last stay, you may want to be wary."

Although part of him wanted to turn away and leave, he didn't feel quite right leaving the confused girl alone in the room.

"Are you capable of walking?"

[Xion]

Xion's gaze remained quite lost as Marluxia spoke to her; but her mind had finally cleared completely. Some of her memories were still vague, but at least she could now focus on the conversation. Everyone else was away, it seemed. She nodded at that, dazing herself slightly.

"I see..."she said thoughtfully. That meant everyone else, or at least a few, were alive once more, a fact she hadn'r registered in her mind. As far as she remembered, many of them had died before she...what? She still wasn't sure; all she could quite recall before awakening in Castle Oblivion once more was fighting someone...but who? That last battle...

Who else will I have ice cream with?!

The next thing she tried to remember was if she had gained any enemies... not as far as she knew; after all, she'd barely opened up to any of them, except--

Roxas and Axel.

The sudden realization hit her and made her gasp in surprise. Her mind was working madly to try and remember more things, but nothing else would come. At least not for now

Just as she was asked if she could walk, she took two steps forward. She hadn't fallen over, which was a good sign. Yes, she could walk, but she wasn't sure where she was supposed to be going. Maybe she should just find a place to rest for a while? Or should she leave? After all; she'd left the Organization. Maybe they didn't want her back...

[Marluxia]

Turning away from the girl, he made a motion for her to follow him from the room. "There's a kitchen not too far from here," he stated, almost seeming to just be giving out a pointless fact, until he continued with, "there, we can sit, and, if you'd like, get you something to eat."

Even if Xion had wanted to leave, Marluxia didn't seem to have plans for her to do so. He could be stalling to see if anyone else would join the two, or just curious about the girl. It was up to the other's imagination. If one knew the man, the thought of following him anywhere, without being considered a 'friend' of some sort, would probably send a shudder down their spine. But, it seemed his intent was pure.

He would actually make her a meal, too, if that was what she wanted. As feminine as people claimed him to be, what would stop him from knowing how to cook? He was fairly certain that there was ice cream, popscicles, and cookies in the kitchen, as well, unless someone else had come by and eaten them when he hadn't been looking. Always a possibility.

He could imagine someone such as Axel doing that. Or Larxene.

Thinking about it, the pink haired man hadn't seen Larxene yet. It made him wonder a little, but held faint expression on his face to imply such a thing. Although he held no romantic interest in the woman, Larxene had been someone he felt more comfortable to talk to, and dared to even think that he might have missed it.

"Tell me about yourself, Xion."

It wasn't a commanding voice, surprisingly. Perhaps, as it was laced with intrigue, he was genuinely curious. Or just trying to sound friendly. More toward the latter, in his own opinion, as he didn't want to frighten the large eyed girl.

The graceful man moved relatively slowly, to make sure that Xion could keep up. He didn't want her to fall behind, or, really, fall at all.

[Xion]

Xion's eyes searched for the door, wondering where was she supposed to go now. She barely recognized the Castle anymore; maybe she was more confused than she really thought. Or maybe it wasn't the same without the rest of the Organization members; at this moment, it was quite lonely.

At the mention of getting something to eat, Xion looked up and gave a small smile. "That would be nice..."she said, following Marluxia toward the kitchen, walking slowly down the halls and corridors. They all seemed so far away, almost like they didn't belong to her memories. And yet at the same time she was aware that she had been there, it was...almost like it was home. Such realization stunned her, as Nobodies had no hearts and couldn't feel...then why did it feel like she had missed this place?

The young girl found it strange and fascinating that the castle seemed so different when everyone was away. It made her curious; but she didn't ask questions. Her bright blue eyes stared in silent curiosity at the blinding white walls and the tiled floor. She even wondered if the Dusks were still around here. If they were, she was going to have to look out for them, as they had appeared rather mischievous during her short lived stay with the Organization.

Then all of a sudden she was asked to tell about herself. But what could she really tell? She didn't really consider herself interesting, but she could try...

"Well, um...I-I like seashells...and ice cream..." she then made a statement that was going to seem rather obvious to Marluxia. "I'm not exactly good around people..."she added a bit shyly. A slight pink shade came to her cheeks, and it startled her. She was blushing? That was weird. "S-Sorry..."she mumbled, covering her face. After all, embarrasment was an emotion, and she was supposed to lack emotion.

[Marluxia]

"Sea shells and ice cream?" This actually made the man let out a faint chuckle. Hearing himself make the sound, he cut it short.

I'm starting to sound like the rest of them. Laughing? Hardly.

But she had such simplistic likes. Perhaps, being simple was a preferable thing, however. Even for Marluxia. Flowers were simple. A simple pleasure that he still intended to continue 'enjoying', in a sense.

It was no surprise the next statement about her. Even Marluxia had taken note of it, and he had only known her for a few seconds. At least, that's how it felt to him. He was still uncertain on how long the two had actually known each other, but it seemed, neither did she, if they had.

Turning his head for a second, to look at her, he noticed the faint pink coloring to her face. Strange. He could only attempt to brush this off. It was fairly refreshing to see someone show an emotion to cause them to blush. But, that was just it. An emotion. An emotion that Xion was capable of displaying, not only with her words, but physically. He could only brush it off. If he found her to be an imposter running about the castle, he would merely... take care of it.

But at this moment, something told him that she was not.

Allowing a faint smile to slip across pink lips, he only questioned, "why are you sorry?" before continuing to the kitchen door.

Opening it, revealed a surprisingly small kitchen. Although the room was more than enough to comfortably fit five or so people, it didn't seem that it would be able to hold the entire organization at the same time. The table, oval-shaped, only had four chairs around it, but two more sat stacked in a corner. Perhaps, this was because it was rare that the entire Organization would find themselves in this room at once, and only a door or two away was a spacious room with a couch, and various objects that made it more suitable for crowds.

Making a motion toward the table, the man implied to have Xion sit, gliding to the counter, which was positioned beside the fridge, turning to look at the girl. Here began questions on food.

"Do you want a snack, or a 'meal'?" Pulling open a cupboard, he noted that the cookies had remained in tact. "We have cookies and ice cream, if you want a snack, or," he paused, glancing in the refrigerator, jerking back relatively quickly, and slamming it shut. Although his eyes and face didn't show it, he wasn't going to state that it seemed that someone had decided to place live frogs in the refrigerator. Thankfully, they were in a large see-through container, but the man hadn't noticed this detail until he was already closing the fridge. Sure, he knew that some people liked their food fresh, but... that was just ridiculous. And frogs?

The man couldn't imagine eating frogs.

"Eh," Marluxia went more from memory now, not really desiring to stare at another person's food that took up an entire shelf. Mentally, he was also trying to eliminate foods that he didn't think she would care for that he knew were present. He was trying to think of what a teenage girl would like. She was a teenager, right? She looked that young. Then again, Zexion looked pretty young, and he was older than Marluxia. Still, he attempted to 'play it safe' by using foods he could only imagine were more popular in teen years.

"We have things to make pizza, tacos," why was everything that it seemed like a teenager would eat either greasy or... just not appealing? "Chicken, and salad?" Really, Marluxia wasn't a big fan of meat, and didn't eat too much of it. He wasn't a vegetarian, but still didn't fancy meat products. "People your age like spaghetti, don't they? We have almost anything you could want." Ending this babble on the food that the organization had, the man placed a gloved hand over his face, pressing his forehead into it, which also covered his eyes. He didn't know what she liked.

If he could feel, he knew that stupidity would be on the top of his emotions right then, as he was clearly clueless to what the girl liked to eat, other than ice cream. He'd get her whatever she wanted, even if he had to stop into another world to get it. Portaling would make it only take about a minute, if it was necessary, so it wasn't out of his way.

But part of him felt that she'd just want ice cream. She said that she liked it. But it wasn't substantial in the slightest.

"Unless it's frogs. No matter how much you may like them, I will not cook you frogs." This was added, as his mind went back to the frogs, but could have easily been taken as a strange joke. It was only guesswork on who was intending on eating them later, and he wasn't really curious to find it out. Personally, he hoped that he would be in a different room when the owner of them returned.

Disgusting.

With the way that I read off food that we had, I must not come off as a 'people person,' myself.

[Xion]

With her eyes fixed on the floor, it was easier to avoid the embarrasment. After a while the blush faded, thank goodness. Xion didn't even know she could be embarrased and blush. It was an almost new experience, seeing that she couldn't remember everything yet. Strange indeed...

She looked up. "I...I'm not sure why I am sorry...I guess I didn't expect to blush..."she answered with a weak smile as she walked into the kitchen. Oh. It was kind of small. She sat quietly on one of the chairs and peeked around with wide blue eyes. As far as she remembered she'd never been to the kitchen of the Castle. Or maybe she had only been there once or twice? She wasn't sure. Whichever the truth was, she looked around in almost childish curiosity as if she'd never been there.

The food questions were a lot, and Xion wasn't entirely sure of how to answer them. She did flinch a little bit at the mention of the frogs, and then laughed a bit. "No, no...surely not frogs..."she answered. Eating a frog seemed like a disgusting idea to her, no matter how hungry she was. It was just...ew.

"I guess a snack will be fine. I can get something else later..."she said, looking down at the table as she tucked a lock of short black hair behind her ear. She still had a lot of questions, but didn't want to ask. She was already giving a lot of trouble.

There was one thing, however...

"I left the Organization before,"she said after a while, "to try and figure things out...if I come back, will the others be mad at me?"she asked. It was a scary perspective. Thirteen against one didn't really seem like a nice thought. The last thing she wanted was to have to face the rest of the Organization. And after all, they weren't exactly nice to the people they labeled as traitors.

[Marluxia]

Opening the freezer, Marluxia examined what kinds of ice cream they had. Giving it thought for a minute, he pulled out two plastic packets, seeming a common trait of popscicles of sorts. Really, he wasn't certain who had brought this into the castle, and had never seen this type of ice cream in a box before, having only known that a merchant or two sold them, but he assumed that they had been brought here by Axel at some point.

After all, he liked this type of ice cream, didn't he? The thought to poison the rest of the container was tempting, but if they didn't belong to Axel, or the wrong person took one, he'd rather not be at fault. The assassin did not need another strike to his name. Especially since he wasn't sure if 'traitorous actions' counted as one or two, and he was fairly certain that a third time would result in being disposed of. Not a pleasant thought.

It really didn't matter who had owned them, anyway, as it seemed that nobody respected the thoughts of, 'I bought it, meaning you do not eat it.' If the owner threw a fit, it was a simple fix to buy them more. More of something a person liked seemed to create a sense of happiness, anyway. Pfft. Like Marluxia cared if someone else was happy.

Handing the girl a still-wrapped item, he muttered a, "I'm not sure how these actually taste; they're probably not as good as if you bought them from a person, but Axel likes them. You seem like you'd share similar taste." As he stared at the wrapper of the second one, that had remained in his hand, he debated if he actually wanted to try it. Quite a few things that Axel liked seemed quite disgusting, thinking about it. But the box that they had been in sounded like something people would like. Sea Salt Ice Cream? He didn't know.

He still wasn't sure if he wanted to try the strange sounding treat.

"Hm?" hearing Xion speak, the pink haired man lifted his eyes from the packet, pulling out a seat across from her, and sat, to listen. A faint chuckle escaped his lips once more, and a smirk lifted at their corners. "Mad at you?"

Unwrapping the food, he took mild interest in it's blue color, but didn't show it, thinking of a response to the girl more. "Xion, I highly doubt that many of us will be mad at you." Shifting slightly, he stuck his tongue to the ice cream, only to pull away from it a second later. This ice cream was indeed strange. Strange looking, strange tasting. He wasn't quite sure what to think about it.

Unless you've killed somebody in the Organization, I doubt anyone hates you." Leaning forward a little, he flicked his wrist in an almost dismissive way, "After all, I'm still here," he paused, thoughtfully, "though I have a feeling that Axel has more enemies than I do.

Although, without really knowing the nature of the crime that had caused Marluxia to make a statement on his own allowance to be there, and what Axel had done to make others in the Organization seem to despise him, the statement stood true. And it also did seem quite true that Axel had more enemies than the Graceful Assassin.

"I have a feeling, if Superior wanted either of us back, he won't have any problem with you returning, as well."

[Xion]

Xion reached out to take the popsicle, almost curiously, and unwrapped it. She took a small bite out of it, cautious. Oh, it was good, The taste was familiar, salty, but sweet at the same time. She took another bite, more confidently now. "It's nice...thank you,"she said with a tiny smile. She then let him speak, listening in silence. She was almost completely sure that she hadn't killed anyone in the Organization...

She sat in silence, eating the ice cream almost happily, swinging her feet a little. It was almost as though the sugar had risen her energy. Which it probably did. She was pretty much ignoring the brain freeze and just enjoying the ice cream, not really thinking. Then she was hit by a question. Again.

"What do you think we're supposed to be here for? I mean...why do you think we're back?"she asked. It might be a tough question; yeah, but it was important...and they couldn't have returned just because. Someone or something had called them back. It was almost...logic...

"What are we supposed to do now?" By that time, she had already finished eating her ice cream and was now wiping her hands with a napkin and starting to get up. Her strenght was completely back. She wasn't sure where she was supposed to be going now. Xion was wondering if she could go to the clock tower, but it wasn't going to be fun to go on her own. Maybe she could get some sleep. That could work, although she doubted she could sleep reight now, right after having ice cream.