Archive of Our Own

The water in the fountain glittered in the afternoon sun, and Lea gave him that wicked grin that meant he was about to suggest something reckless. It was too bright, and Isa had to look away.

“…and he’s waltzing right in. Man, I knew that kid wasn’t the sharpest bolt in the quiver, but this is almost too easy!”
Xigbar’s voice broke into Saïx’s consciousness. It was not unlike like suddenly surfacing from underwater, and Saïx blinked slowly once, twice.
He was sitting at a table, both it and the room blindingly white-grey. Xigbar was beside him, speaking animatedly to an indifferent Xemnas and another person – the same skin tone and hair as Xemnas, but a younger and distinct face. He was wearing one of their cloaks, and Saïx suspected he was supposed to know who he was, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
After all, no matter who he was or who he had been, he was going to be the same as all of them.
Saïx rested his gaze on the far wall, Xemnas’s even voice muffled and distant as the darkness rushed back in.

Someone was screaming. Isa couldn’t tell if it himself, or Lea, or someone else entirely. Living darkness had just climbed out of the corpse’s chest, had fixed its inhuman gaze on him, and Isa didn’t know if he was still breathing.
His trance was only broken by Lea’s hand around his wrist, Lea pulling him towards a door, down a corridor, to the nearest way away, and as they ran Isa focused on Lea’s firm grip, his only solid anchor in a world that was quickly falling apart.

The papers fell to the floor in a rush, and judging from his position, Saïx had been the one who dropped them. Wordlessly, he knelt and began to gather them together.
Xemnas and Xigbar broke off mid-conversation when he entered, greeting him with nearly identical silent stares. Saïx adjusted his grip on the stack and cleared his throat.
“Where are these meant to go?”
The tension broke. Xemnas sighed and Xigbar huffed, running a hand through his streaked hair.
“For fuck’s sake, Moonie, we just-”
“The Library.” Xemnas cut Xigbar off with a look, and the patience in his voice might have surprised Saix once upon a time, or made him wonder. But now he simply nodded and turned, closing the door on the resumed conversation.
Saix’s steps echoed in the hallway. When the original Organization had lived in the Castle, Saix had hated all the noise the other members had made: a cheap imitation of true life, the specter of true existence that they’d all insisted on pretending to.
But now he knew the truth, and that Organization had fallen, and the only sound to be heard in the Library was the groan of the door as Saix pushed it open. If he had cared, he could have found something poetic in the moment, something artistically horrible in the colorless and silent shell of a building. But he simply stared at the papers he’d set on the table until the darkness fell back over his mind.

The only light in the bedroom came from the artificial Kingdom Hearts that loomed over the world. It was always unmoving night here, but the Organization still reckoned “days” as if time had some meaning, and everyone had retired for the “evening.”
Axel’s eyes were colder than Lea’s had ever been, his facsimile of a smile didn’t quite reach them, but even so Saix was glad for the company. Well, as close to “glad” as a Nobody could be. Saix could not feel as Isa had, but as Axel leaned in towards him, spoke in hushed tones about treason and usurpation as Lea once had about schoolyard pranks, something in Saix’s chest unknotted and eased. Unfeeling shells could not have hope, but they could have a plan.

“-pared him as was requested, and then he decided to delay the process. Any inconvenience is entirely due to his irresolution and… impetuousness.”
Xemnas’s voice was smooth, even, and dripping with irritation. Saix identified that quickly enough, but it took him a few moments to realize someone was looking at him. That young stranger was studying him, his golden eyes searching and unreadable while someone else scoffed at Xemnas.
Saix had been hollowed from the inside out long ago, but even so something inside him stirred like it was trying to feel unnerved. Before it could solidify that notion the ongoing conversation picked up, the stranger stretched a hand out towards Saix, and everything faded away.

“Which would you rather suffer the loss of-“
The memory was fuzzy. The hall was white and grey patterns of dizzying angles, and as Saix spoke Axel looked away. He brushed past him.
“-better of this way-“
Axel was silent as Saix continued to speak, still as Saix turned back to look at him.
“-There’s simply too much on the line, Lea.”
[Something tickled the edge of his consciousness.
“Isa!”
Faint and distorted like precognition, or a dream.]
Axel did not turn around. His only response was to walk away.

Lunatic rested heavy in Saix’s hand, and Saix felt the ghost of strain in his arms, along his back, accompanied by a sense of unsteadiness. The air reeked of darkness and Xigbar was passionately complaining about something, but Saix could not find it in himself to focus his thoughts.
Saix’s mind drifted senselessly, and it could have been minutes or hours before his company shifted in a way that drew his attention.
A man stood in front of him, bent with age but possessing a crooked smile and those awful golden eyes. His mouth was moving.
“-no harm in finishing this now.”
The man reached towards Saix and the blackness began to wash over him, but this time Saix could feel it pulling on him, dragging him under and sinking his heart into the darkness.
Saix did not resist.

On days like this anyone would have considered Radiant Garden to be aptly named. The sun was bright, and the whole city appeared to be shining brilliantly.
Even in the shade, Isa and Lea found their ice cream to be melting faster than they were eating it. Lea had decided to respond to this problem by taking several large, quick bites of his popsicle - which was, of course, a very good way to give yourself brain freeze. Isa probably would have laughed, except when Lea had begun to flail he’d jostled Isa’s arm and caused his friend to smack himself in the face with his own ice cream, leaving a pale blue smear under his eye and all the way down his cheek.
Lea did laugh at Isa’s predicament, and a few retaliatory shoves later they’d both lost half their popsicles and made a mess of themselves. Any irritation was superficial, however, and soon both boys were doubled over in laughter.
Lea got to his feet first, and Isa took the hand Lea offered to help him up. The day was still young and full of opportunity, and side by side they walked into the light.