Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Regrouping and Training

In the days following Roxas' abduction Xigbar found that things in the Organization weren't as good as they had been in the days after the boy's awakening as a Nobody, and he wasn't sure who to ultimately blame for that, even though Sombra was his most likely candidate for their recent troubles. Saix had told Seras and Xion that Roxas was away on an extended mission, to make up for the fact that he was no longer in the castle, but on the third day Xion asked if her friend had been taken from them, like the members that had been sent to Castle Oblivion. Axel told them that he was fine, just that he had been abducted by someone wearing their robes, which was why he was tracking the figure down to find their friend, but he was interrupted by Xemnas, who told Xion that he gave the order, so if she wanted to be angry at someone it was better it was directed at the one who deserved it. Such a thing had been a surprise to Xigbar, because he was sure that Xemnas would be the same as before, but he was continuing to act differently than he assumed and continued to address each of them as his 'friends', making him wonder if their leader had gone insane at long last.

This was one of the rare times where he found that the calming tea that he usually drank, which happened to be the same brand that Vexen used, didn't do much to help him this time around, but Xigbar made sure he was presentable when he was near the other members of the Organization.

"Dude, you need to relax. Axel's going to find Roxas and then things will be back to normal before you know it." Demyx said, while at the same time turning a page in the book he had been reading since breakfast, because it was interesting to him and it was a nice change of pace from his sitar, which seemed to annoy most of the other members, so he figured that he'd take a break for a while.

"Honestly, it's you that should be taking this seriously: we lost one of our wielders and Sombra is still out there, waiting to do more damage to our operations." Xigbar remarked, as everyone knew that Demyx was the laziest member of the group, and yet his power to actually grant their wielders buffs with his music, which they discovered during the battle with the army of Heartless, was enough to cause Saix to order him to stay in the castle, as he didn't want that power to fall into Sombra's dark hands, before he sighed, "What you reading anyway?"

"Oh, this? I was visiting Twilight Town, before Roxas was taken, and found this in one of the local stores." Demyx replied, to which he held up the book for a moment as Xigbar turned to look at him, where the one-eyed Nobody noticed that it had a familiar light blue, almost sky blue, cover with a white design on it, something that caused him to pause for a moment since he was sure the tome in question was hidden elsewhere, "I've got to say, this has some interesting stuff inside it."

That was all Xigbar needed to hear as he marched over, snatched the Book of Prophecies from Demyx, and opened it to the page that the other Nobody had been reading, only to find that it wasn't what he was expecting, because it was about music and different types of songs, it even had examples for one to practice with, instead of prophecies like he assumed.

"Hey! Be careful with that... it's one of a kind." Demyx said, carefully retrieving the book from Xigbar's hands, who was just stunned by what he had seen, as if he couldn't believe that he would go out of his way to learn new types of music, while at the same time doing his best to make sure none of the other members realized he had goofed up, "I've been wondering if another type of music will produce a different result, when I try to buff our friends, so I figured learning more about music in general couldn't hurt. You feeling alright, Xigbar?"

"Yes, just... stressed out, I guess." Xigbar replied, though true to form he didn't apologize for snatching the book, rather he just walked over to another portion of the room they were in and leaned against the wall, allowing him to look at the rest of the members that happened to be in this area so he could think about things.

He had been sure that what Demyx was reading was the Book of Prophecies, something that had serious consequences if it was left out in the open, since he knew it was actually buried in a black box that no one else knew the location of, but after seeing the words he wasn't too sure. If it really was the book in question than it made sense that his own master would have done something to ensure he couldn't read it, because he was, after all, supposed to be an observer, but that was only if the book was what he thought it was. Since Demyx wasn't getting up and shouting at them about the end of the World, nor the Keyblade War that happened to be Master Xehanort's ultimate plan so he could use the power of the pure Kingdom Hearts, so if the laziest member of the Organization wasn't screaming his head off Xigbar could assume that he overreacted and this wasn't the book in question. He realized that this was for the best, because if that was actually the Book of Prophecies than it called into question how Demyx, of all people, could have found it, since the only one who might be able to discover the box was his own master, the missing Master of Masters, and that would raise numerous concerns if that was the case.

In the end Xigbar decided not to continue down that train of thought, Demyx, while sharing one or two of his master's odd habits, was not the Master of Masters and he refused to even consider such a thing, causing him to focus on the Vampires for a moment as Seras sent them out on their own missions.

"With their aid Axel should be able to track down Sombra... we can only hope all of them are successful in finding Roxas and bringing him home." Xemnas remarked, where all Seras did was nod her head, while the others knew that he had given the order for them to head out in the first place, since they were the best units they had and would likely return in due time with news of their success.

Xigbar could only hope that Xemas was correct, that the Vampires and Axel would be able to do the job, maybe even take down Sombra before she became more of a threat to all of their vital plans, even though he had a terrible feeling that things were going to get worse from this point and hoped that this was just his nerves getting the better of him.

---

While the Organization was dealing with the effects of Roxas' 'disappearance', and what it meant for them, Sombra simply continued her work inside the Gummi Ship, having created a heart container that would keep a heart trapped inside it, but there was a good reason for making such a thing. She didn't want to trap a heart inside it, rather she designed it to keep all of the heart fragments she had collected so far in one place, without running the risk of accidentally devouring them if she was enraged, and the container would make sure the fragments didn't vanish on her. After talking with Aqua for some time, and crossing off a number of individuals who could be the owner of the heart, Sombra had come to the conclusion that they belonged to someone that Aqua would rather be rid of, the dark being known as Vanitas, and yet Ventus, despite having been put into a coma by the figure in question, calmed his friend down. After hearing everything about how she had found the heart fragments, and that she had been keeping them safe, both Ventus and Sora agreed that they wanted to try and reform Vanitas, both give him an actual body and see if he could be convinced to leave Master Xehanort's dark path, causing Sombra to chuckle as she stored the fragments away.

After that she headed out into the rest of the ship and found that Sora had positioned the ship near Twilight Town, which allowed Ansem the Wise to work on the Datascape that would be fooling the Organization, while providing an easy way for Seras and the others to return to the Gummi Ship, which was why she had emerged from the lab, as Seras, Axel, and Xion had arrived.

"How is he?" Xion asked, because while she understood Roxas' reasons for wanting to take a break, as she understood her friend and even shared his desires, she wanted to be sure that this was good for him and that he wasn't driving himself up a wall or anything.

"Roxas is doing just fine. He wanted to be an ordinary boy for a time, which is what we have given him." Sombra replied, to which she tapped a button and a screen switched to the world that was below them, where they found that Roxas was in the middle of hanging out with the trio that had caught his attention, learning the rules of a local game called 'Struggle', a fighting competition of sorts that involved hitting foes and collecting special orbs, "His new friends realize that he's not from around the town, but at the same time they don't seem to mind... in fact they are enjoying his company more than he was expecting, and some of the people in Twilight Town seem to like him as well. Based on Ansem's readings it looks like the Organization has begun investigating the Datascape, meaning it will be some time before they realize that they've been deceived."

"Yeah, and right now some of them are focused on verbally fighting each other... I mean, Xigbar nearly jumped Demyx the moment he realized the laziest member was reading a music book." Axel said, which was both hilarious and kind of sad, as all of this was no doubt due to the stress that Sombra was causing to the Organization, something that caused him to pause for a moment as he focused on the figure that was in front of them, "Xemnas has also tasked me with tracking you or Roxas down, to the point where the Vampires have joined me in the hunt, so you should be expecting them to stop by and join us. I take it you have more that you want us to do?"

"Nothing mission related, but something that should be done sooner, rather than later." Sombra said, where a dark portal opened nearby and Riku stepped out of it, the dark coloration of his coat turning the color that belonged to their side, as Radiant had made it possible to change the color with a single thought from the wearer, who happened to have a second coat in his hands, "Axel, I want you to join Riku and go track down Kairi... based on the information that we have on Saix, well, I'm sure that he'll go after her once we start the true offensive against the Organization, and this will allow us to keep her safe. At the same time we'll be able to let her and Namine rejoin before using another Replica to give Namine her own body again, just like we did with Roxas and Sora."

Axel nodded and departed without delay, allowing Xion and Seras to join the others in heading down into the lower area of the ship, though for the time being there was nothing to do but wait for his group to return, but Seras was happy to see that Fluttershy was up and about. Fortunately they didn't have to wait very long as Axel and Riku returned to the ship with a third individual, Kairi wearing the coat that had been provided, something that was followed by Sora hugging her once he knew she was here, even though he was thankful that they had brought her here. In an odd turn of events Kairi told all of them that she wasn't about to sit on the sidelines, rather she wanted to help them save the World, in whatever way she could, causing Sombra to tell her that if she wanted to help there was someone who could train her, as Aqua was in the middle of helping Fluttershy catch up. What Sombra found to be more interesting was that while Kairi and Namine quickly rejoined, and then she used a Replica to separate them, Axel asked Aqua if she would be willing to teach him as well, as he wanted to do more for the group and he figured that being able to wield a Keyblade, with accuracy, would be the best course of action.

Sombra chuckled as they moved into the training area, where Aqua started talking with Kairi about how the younger girl came to call the Destiny Islands home, though as that happened she held her left hand out and light gathered around her fingers, the holy element she had gained from all of the Angel Stars.

"That's new." Fluttershy commented, as she realized that there was a lot she didn't know and that she required a bunch of studying, in both combat and just in what Sombra had done, to understand everything she had missed after being split into a Heartless and a Nobody, "What are you going to do with that?"

"Simple: train." Sombra replied, where she held her palm out towards the rocky area that was in front of them, because she had used the information inside Zexion's tome to understand how to wield the power to make areas like this inside the ship, so they didn't have to worry about wrecking the Gummi Ship's insides, before she fired a burst of light energy that rushed into the stone and blew it apart, leaving a crater behind as she frowned, "Of course I still need to refine this power, but by the time we make our move against the Organization it should be ready to go."

The others nodded their heads and started their own training with Aqua, who had Ventus help her out since they could split them up into two groups, all while Sombra could only wonder how the Organization would handle everything that her friends were going to throw at them in the near future.

Comments

[Xalok]

If Demyx is truly the Master of Masters, I can 100% see him pull that move on Luxu, just to fuck with him a bit.

[Black--Soul]

If that was a deliberate trolling of the stressed leading observer, than it was a masterful executed plan.

[Ze1a7in]

I'm curious if Ventus recognized Axel as the kid he sparred with in Radiant Garden?

[Hexan Tronic]

Honestly, I wouldn't put it past Sombra to just leave a music book filled with code only someone like Demyx could understand where he could find it. It would have actual music in it. Just a hidden code as well.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11858765 That does sound like something Sombra would do, honestly.