Chapter Text
The castle the higher ups had dubbed ‘Castle Oblivion’ was definitely an interesting place. A building rising high above the ever present mist, with towers twisting out of it in angles that couldn’t work normally. There was also the lingering aura of ‘Go Away’ coming from it as Zexion followed the others down the path leading up to it. He’d say it made him uncomfortable, but how could it if he can’t feel anything. So he said nothing, half listening to Vexen explain something to Marluxia and just observed the bland marble entrance hall.
Apparently the higher ups had had their eyes on the place for a while, even having Dusks monitoring and scoping out the hundreds of rooms, the decision to send them here being a recent thing. Apparently there was something incredibly important here that they had to find, but Dusks don't have the intelligence to pull that off, while the lower floors were thickly coated in darkness. So they sent the ‘appropriate’ people to their respective ends of the castle, though they made Marluxia the ‘master’ of the castle, whatever that meant.
He was brought back to attention at Vexen’s scoff, “Don’t you try telling me what to do. You aren’t a scientist.” he said and stalked back over towards Zexion.
“You’re correct, I’m not. But I do know that you have a job to do, as well as I.” Marluxia replied calmly, in his almost monotone voice as always. It was actually kind of creepy if he thought about it. The pink haired man’s cold gaze flickered over to him, and too lost in thought, he just stared back dully. Vexen grabbed his arm roughly and dragged him towards a Dark Corridor, away from the master of the castle.
“Who does he think he is!” Vexen seethed as he stormed through the portal and into the noticeably darker basement, thankfully having let go of Zexion’s arm as they traveled. He decided to ignore the pacing blonde and inspect the workspace he would be in for the foreseeable future. But the older man didn’t like being ignored, something he always seemed to forget, “And now we’re stuck in a basement.” he scowled and gestured around them.
Zexion hummed, “They must realize we can’t do any work without equipment, right?” and his comment sent Vexen into even more of a flurry. He found it interesting to watch his fellow Nobodies emulating emotions from when they were human. Though he’d been called creepy before when it was noticed he was watching them. Can’t be helped.
Wandering away from the still pacing Vexen, he found out the basement was far more spacious than a single room, there were even multiple floors of it. But the very bottom floor was the most interesting with how much darkness was flooding his senses. Just like the reports said. He eventually came across one room where, if you weren’t accustomed to the darkness, you would probably choke in it.
He hummed again and inspected as much of the room as he could without moving anything. Until he came across a strange black stain on the ground in the corner, where the darkness was the thickest. Approaching it, the darkness took an almost hazy physical form, shielding around the stain, and Zexion recoiled from it. The small dark orb shifted and he saw through the haze a pointed rat looking head emerge from the stain, before trembling and melting back with a splash, leaving more stain.
He stared at it in shock, mouth open but unable to say anything. Because what the hell was that!? Backing away, he saw the makeshift shield faded back into the intangible darkness flooding the room. Was it triggered by proximity? He wasn’t sure why he was so shocked by this, he’d seen plenty of Shadow Heartless melt into the ground and reappear like that thing seemed to try to do, but this felt so much more… powerful than a Heartless despite being such a small looking creature.
It also felt… sentient. As if it were properly aware of his presence, not just because of instinct, and it was the one that summoned the shield. Something about that frightened Zexion, despite his inability to feel fear.
He immediately summoned a Dusk and ordered it to have certain types of equipment delivered, the Nobody clacking its teeth from behind its zipped face in response and slithered away. Then there were footsteps behind him, and he turned to see Vexen looking around the room from the entrance, before almost being tripped by the leaving Dusk. He made a scrunched face, “What powerful darkness. I don’t understand how you can stand it so well.” he said nonchalantly as he walked over, but Zexion only responded by gesturing towards the stain. The man lifted an eyebrow and finally noticed the corner filled with an almost smog-like darkness, reforming back into the shield at the blonde’s arrival.
“I was right…” Zexion murmured, “It does have some semblance of sentience.” and Nobody next to him huffed.
“So? What is it?” he looked over and he paused, putting a hand to his chin. Because that was the question of the hour, wasn’t it. Did Vexen even see the stain before it defended itself again? So he summoned his book and portrayed the image of the creature emerging from his memory onto a page to show him. Vexen hummed in thought, his eyes narrowing as he leaned in closer, “This is definitely…” the man looked back towards the shifting dark orb, “It resembles something…”.
Zexion tilted his head, “Well, it is quite melted, similar to Shadow Heartless.” he offered but Vexen shook his head and crossed his arms, eyeing the stain through a hole in the shield warily.
“It resembles the creatures from back home. Remember? They disappeared right before the Superior joined us.” he explained without even looking at Zexion, who was busy inspecting the image in his book.
“You’re right…” he muttered, not looking up. Because it did resemble the creatures that practically overran Radiant Garden until one day they just seemed to vanish along with the arrival of the Superior’s somebody. Back when they lived peacefully and human. Before everyone became obsessed with the darkness of people’s hearts and lost their right to exist. Because with what they did to all those people, they really do deserve this torture of nonexistence.
Vexen paid no mind to him and gathered the cold air in the room to summon his shield, and he could see the man’s intent to move closer. He tried to stop him, but before either of them did anything, the sound of a Corridor of Darkness opening interrupted them. He turned and saw Lexaeus step forward, easily carrying one of the pieces of equipment Zexion had requested. Behind him, multiple Berserkers carrying the rest followed, and once everything had been set down, the Berserkers left with nods towards the Organization members. At the confused looks in the direction they had left, “Saïx was kind enough to lend some of his subordinates to aid with your request, Zexion.” he explained and looked around the room.
“I will have to thank him.” he replied and went to inspect the delivered items, as the two others spoke about what was going on. It wasn’t a very large stain, so the containment capsule he had requested didn’t have to be very big, and thankfully, nothing had been broken by the clumsy Berserkers. The bottom was a ring capable of being bolted to the ground to prevent anything on the ground from escaping, considering the creature was able to mimic a Shadow in abilities as far as he could remember. The glass was only a few inches taller than him when placed on the bottom, alongside the detachable control panel that he would have to configure later, he didn’t want to think about all the wires at the moment. The lid was probably the simplest, just having to be sealed to the glass with thin support pillars to be bolted to the bottom.
Behind him, he heard Lexaeus hum in thought, before the sound of an angry hiss echoed in the room. Whirling around to see what happened, he stopped at the sight of the creature’s head poking out again, its red eyes narrowed at Vexen, who had tried approaching it. But its eyes widened as it quivered and melted back into the stain on the ground. “It must not be able to keep a physical form for long.” Zexion muttered, mostly to himself but the others heard him as they looked behind at him.
Lexaeus put a hand to his chin, “Perhaps it is because of the mass disappearance of them.” and Vexen nodded next to him, agreeing.
Nodding, “Help me set the equipment up around it, we have even more incentive to contain it now.” Zexion said and gestured towards the capsule yet to be assembled. Unfortunately he was only able to pick up the control panel, barely, so Lexaeus had to handle everything. He’d say he felt bad about all the work going to him, but he couldn’t. The man would say not to worry about it anyways.
After probably almost an hour and a half, the physical part was finished, and Zexion realized there wasn’t really anywhere to set up the wires. Luckily Vexen had done a more thorough look through previous rooms while he and Lexaeus were busy, so now there were trip hazards running through multiple doors. Oh well. Zexion let out a heaving sigh and collapsed against the wall, because while the wires aren’t heavy , most of them at least, there’s just so many.
“Tired?” Lexaeus asked as he walked up with an amused look. His response was a grumble and he laughed, “I’d say we both did a good job, so don’t be grumpy about it.” was said as he ruffled Zexion’s hair. He waved the hand away and stood up off the wall with a shrug.
They both looked over to the completed capsule, and inside it was the still swirling shield, which hadn’t dissipated since Vexen had gotten too close. He didn’t blame it, considering they had just trapped it so they could study it easier. Moving closer, he watched through the haze to see the stain hadn’t changed.
Lexaeus cleared his throat, “I must return and make my report of what has happened here. I’m sure there has been confusion on why you requested a containment capsule.” and he opened a Corridor of Darkness.
He turned towards the leaving Nobody, “Wait, please don’t say anything about the creature. Just say that there’s a strange stain on the ground emitting darkness and we wanted to keep it under control.” he took a deep breath from talking in one breath. He still didn’t particularly like talking, it was a learned ability now out of necessity. Their eyes met and after a few seconds, the other nodded.
“I understand.” he assured, then turned to leave. The room was quiet afterwards, and he slumped against the same wall. That was just way too much talking for him, and he needed a break. Glancing towards the capsule, the shield was starting to actually disappear. Did it not realize he was still here?
He watched silently as it tried poking its head out again and looked around what it must consider a prison. He didn’t realize he was in sight and their eyes met, causing him to freeze at the piercing glare. Zexion swallowed as it didn’t melt after a couple seconds and it just stared at him, making a low hissing noise that gradually grew louder. But under the hiss, there was a strange garbled noise, changing pitches in patterns that reminded him of someone talking. Was this creature talking to him, just in its own language?
Zexion made sure to write that down, trying to ignore the way it didn’t stop staring. Until there were footsteps and he looked up to see Vexen entering. Glancing back to the capsule, the creature had melted again, “Hmm? Where’s Lexaeus?” the blonde asked when he spotted him.
“He went to report back.” he replied, ignoring the other rolling his eyes and went to the control panel of the capsule. Because the creature had managed to stay physical for long enough, Zexion checked the scanner for vital signs. The records showed that the creature did indeed have some semblance of a heartbeat, meaning it wasn’t just some strange Heartless variant from before they became so common, but something actually alive. Placing a hand on the glass, he watched the now defenseless stain, “What are you…” he whispered so quiet Vexen didn’t hear.
It was difficult to tell time in Castle Oblivion, especially when you’re in the basement doing research and ignoring the outside world. Zexion and Vexen were sent here to research the darkness permeating the basement levels, and how it could be used to the Organization’s advantage. So no one really other than them questioned the creature that seemed to be the source, because they had made sure to keep it a secret, per his request. Vexen had said he was smart to keep such a valuable research project secret from the others, but truthfully, he was being selfish.
He wasn’t sure why he was being selfish about this, but he was and whenever Lexaeus came to check in and gather their reports, the man could tell. He didn’t mind, they were friends back when they were human, and are still friends as Nobodies. For some reason that confused others, but it didn’t involve them anyways, so it didn’t matter.
“So? Anything new?” Lexaeus asked as they stood in front of the capsule.
Zexion opened his mouth to answer but Vexen spoke over him, “Yes, and it is quite interesting. The creature has become much more active as of late.” the man sounded creepy when he got like this and he scrunched up his face at the blonde. Ignoring Zexion’s expression, he walked over to the control panel and pressed some buttons, pulling up some statistics on the screen. The two conversed without giving him a chance to say anything, so he just wandered over to the side of the capsule and looked in, watching the stain for any of its more recent movements.
Like Vexen had said, the creature had been more active lately. Raising its head and hissing at them a lot more, though Zexion never mentioned the low garbled noise to anyone. There was even a time where its arms appeared and it seemed to try scrabbling out of the stain, but only left more of the black inkiness on the ground. It seemed so desperate to form the rest of its body.
He watched as it shifted and lifted its head to glare at Lexaeus, which he seemed to notice, “I see what you mean. It seems it has even forgone the shield.” he said and almost as if in response, the shield reformed hazily.
Zexion chuckled, “It heard you.” and Lexaeus looked at it in surprise.
“It is aware of our words. Interesting.” the man nodded.
Zexion then explained to him what to report and what to hide, while he watched the shield slowly dissipate out of the corner of his eye. Despite it growing strong enough to sit and linger in its half-melted form, it seemed to be losing its ability to keep its shield up for extended amounts of time. Was the shield just to protect it while it was in just a weak state and as it gains a physical form it no longer needs the shield so loses it? He knew of some animals that functioned like that.
ẘ̷̙h̴̖̘̪̊͊͝_̶͇̗̮͊̆̕_̷̣́͊̓e̷̗̚̕ ̶̠͕̹̀̆_̴͉̮͒_̶͉͚̇͒ ̸̛̭͖͠ṯ̸͇̯̊_̶̯̼̋̈́ͅį̴̳̐̕s̷̹̔
Luckily he had finished talking when he was immediately distracted by the low growl. The others seemed to notice the noise as well, but must’ve just chocked it up as the creature trying to threaten them. But no, that was most definitely it speaking in its odd garbled language. Except he could almost barely make out syllables being drowned out by the growl.
He couldn’t deal with that at the moment though, as a couple Dusks suddenly appeared, informing them of summons for a meeting and update on their orders.