Chapter Text
Marluxia couldn't help the smirk he had as he watched the teams of nobodies march off. Finally, he had done it. Finally, after months of plotting in the dark, he was free from under the (direct) shadow of Xemnas and was given command of the Organization's second base of operations - Castle Oblivion! And with that, he finally has the privacy to take steps towards his goal of taking over the Organization!
As the last nobody left his line of sight, Marluxia found himself frowning. As pleased as he was at finally having room to breathe after walking on eggshells and to have a test run at running the organization himself, he couldn't help but question why here of all places? And why him? It was no secret that he'd been like Roxas when he joined the organization, that he'd only actually started behaving more like a person the later half of the time he spent with them, and that he'd had little to no memories of his life prior.
So why? Was this some sick joke by Xemnas? Truly a plan to obtain another hero of the keyblade? Regardless of which reason it is, he couldn't trust Xemnas. His Heart told him that much. And he'd let his heart be his guiding key in this instance…
Huh? Why did he think that? That's preposterous! Nobodies don't have hearts!
“H-Hello? C-Can you hear me?”
Marluxia froze.
His team was not alone in the castle. As team leader, he should alert everyone to regroup and get out fast. And yet… something about the voice feels familiar…
“Yes, I can hear you, Loud and clear.” Marluxia found himself replying. “Still, what are you doing here? This doesn't feel like a place for a child to be in. Let alone one who seems to be by hi–”
“Oh thank light above you're here. I fell into a deep sleep, again, it feels like…” the voice chuckled. But despite the familiarity (and aching) it brought, the voice also felt like it wanted to cry. “And when I woke up, I found myself trapped here! A-and the people I had considered my parents, they- they disappeared from my senses!”
Marluxia felt his blood boil. How dare those people take advantage of his naive and kind nature to befriend and kidnap him like that!
Still, as much as he wanted to rage some more, he had more pressing matters to attend to - mainly rescuing the boy.
“Do you have a clue of where in the castle you are?”
Eh ?
“I’m coming to rescue you.”
Eh???!!???
…
I mean, yes. I'm in this white throne room with chains that light up one after the other, somewhere really high up… Ah! This way!
With that, Marluxia heard a door open.
What am I doing, chasing after ghosts like this? Marluxia thought to himself. Larxene and the others are going to be so mad at me.
On the other hand, there's this feeling of an unkept promise I'll be fulfilling by following this ghost - who seems so familiar… and that I shouldn't let anyone else see him first…
His heart throbbed.
Fine! I'll go!
Taking a deep breath, Marluxia ran down the opened door.
May my heart be my guiding key.
“Hwaaaarghhhh!”
With a cry, Marluxia brought his scythe down on the heartless. It dissolved into wisps of purple smoke in an instant and as the last of the smoke dissipated, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He had been at it for several hours, never pausing for more than three minutes to not let himself think of all that he had seen - purple rooftops under a sky of near-perpetual Daybreak, nor of the images of certain people; a boy with curly silver hair, a girl with black hair, a boy with black hair and fedora, a boy and a girl with blonde hair and perhaps the one who got the biggest reaction of them all, a girl with bright orange hair tied up in twin pigtails…
But now he was finally here - in another white hallway with a large cream door at the end of it.
“So this is the door you're behind?”
Yeah, Marluxia! Are you ready?
“How can you trust me so easily?”
Huh? What do you mean?
Marluxia chuckled. “Well, for all you know, I could have had some malicious intentions towards you…”
I know. But something about you seemed familiar somehow… so I decided to trust you based on that.
…
Does that make sense? The voice asked hesitantly.
“Yeah. Yes, it does honestly. It does…” Marluxia admitted. Your voice reminded me of someone I had promised to look after long ago… and now I g-get to fulfil that promise. His voice felt like cracking up, but he managed to hold it together the whole way through.
Oh. S-sorry. I-I didn’t mean to stir up those memories…
“It’s fine,” Marluxia assured him. “Don't worry about it.”
The air around the floor felt like it had lightened up. Thanks.
Well, shall we get going?
Marluxia nodded. “Lead the way then.”
Alright.
Marluxia walked across the room, trusting, but still alert for any sign of danger.
It turned out to have been the right call. He was already halfway across the room when suddenly, the door burst open, light streaming forth like a tidal wave.
Graceful Dahlia was in his grip at once as he shielded his eyes from its glare.
Marluxia blinked. He's not dead? Not injured at all? He checked himself carefully. Apparently he really wasn't injured from the light. Just a little confused and slightly irritated.
Did it really have to do that ? He asked the voice.
Ah. Sorry about that, Marluxia! The voice replied sheepishly. It's… rather dramatic.
Yeah. No kidding… Marluxia muttered, before seeing something that got him breaking into a sprint.
“VEN!” He heard himself yelling before dropping to a knee in front of the blond boy.
“Ven! I'm so sorry for taking so long…
But I'm here now. And everything will be alright soon. It will be alright soon…”
“Hey! Petals! Where are you? Marluxia???” Larxene called out, her voice cutting through the thoughts building up in his mind.
“Hey, Petals. We found something in the basement of the castle…” Larxene began. Then she saw who he was looking at, and hell broke loose. “What the? W-who the hell is That??????”
His hand was on her mouth in an instant.
“Larxene. We are shutting down all communications with the Castle that never was effective immediately.”
At her wide eyes, he continued, now in a softer voice reminiscent of his younger days: “I know this might be sooner than we had planned, but something feels fishy about all of this. I'm not letting them know about our discovery until we better understand what is going on here, and why they are so insistent about finding this place and him. Not after last time.”
He hadn't intended to say the last part, let alone out loud. But he was grateful she nodded.
“Thank you, Larxene.”