An Organized Meeting [Organization XIII]

A Royal Flush

A Corridor of Darkness appeared on a rather mid-height throne, and as it quickly vanished, Luxord appeared. He looked about the sterile, white room with its 13 thrones and circular platform located beneath it, bearing their insignia. Luxord always wondered what the point of that platform was--it hurt his neck to look so far down at it, and it was rarely ever used. Well, it was being used right now by a rather strange looking boy who Luxord had never met. "Hm, the joker to complete our deck?" Something about that seemed wrong, like they had once had a Joker. It didn't matter though, no point trying to remember every player in a game after they left.

Crossing his legs and leaning back in his throne, he began to waggle his foot up and down and look absentmindedly at the bleach-white ceiling. He felt himself like a cut deck. One half cared about the meeting, the other half couldn't care less. The new member intrigued him, but that was about it. The fate of the returning members was simply a bonus for him. The ones who had cheated before were coming back to face the judgment of the house. Still, he also hated to be left out of anything important, though that would be unavoidable--he was nothing more than the tenth member in a group where only the first six matter.

He silently sighed. "Nothing more than a card to be used when it suits the player." He stopped thinking for a moment, as well as the waggling of his foot. He pulled out his deck of card and began shuffling it, trying to whittle away the time. He hated it when other players stalled when their turn came.

You never learn, do you?

Something came to poke Xigbar’s shoulder while he rested on one of the couches at the lounge, officially known as The Grey Area. Leaning his head backwards to take a look at who was disturbing his quiet time, he found himself slightly amused by the sight being a simple Dusk. Of course, that could only mean someone had sent him a message, which soon enough was revealed to be about a meeting about to take place at the usual location.

“Ugh, some timing he has,” he sighed, slightly annoyed at the fact he had to attend a meeting instead of simply hanging out at the lounge until something to do came about. Of course, the meeting didn’t count as something to do; it counted more as something to be bored at, with the exception of possible opening for his jokes. Which somehow felt unlikely to come about considering the situation.

“’Sup?” his voice was the first thing to come out of the Corridor of Darkness he used to move directly to his seat at The Round Room. His seat was directly to the right of Xemnas, who as the one who had summoned them there was already present. Three other seats were already filled, Zexion two seats to his right a couple meters below him, Lexeaus to Xemnas’s other side, and Luxord on the opposite side of the room. The important thing to note was that someone not taking a seat was also present, prancing around the platform at the bottom of the room. Had it not been for his whistling, he wouldn’t have noticed at all.

“What, new recruit? I can see that ending well,” his sarcasm in his statement was so evident it could have been cut with a knife. Certainly, as members had grown larger before, the new recruits had turned out for the worse. After all, the three last numbered members had turned traitors, so he could easily see a dusk coming in the future ordering to erase the new one once more.

Vexen had been in the middle of performing research when he received the message via dusk that there was to be a meeting of the Organization's members. Well it was about time. He had begun to wonder if Xemnas intended to ever assemble everyone in the Round Room. It had been almost two weeks since he had returned, and he had yet to hear anything from the Superior in that time. As far as he knew, no one had. But now it was finally time to hear what he had to say. Undoubtedly everyone was curious to know what exactly the group's new plan was.

In a column-like portal of darkness, Vexen appeared onto his throne. Upon his arrival, he heard a voice directly to his left saying something about a new recruit. Glancing down, he saw a vaguely familiar face. Organization XIII's latest impudent little initiate: Nyxar. Vexen leaned back in distaste, not caring to look at the annoying little pest anymore. His last (and only) run-in the new member might have been brief, but the Academic's opinion was already firmly made up already on the boy. In a way, all of his loathing for the pesky neophytes that had once tainted the Organization was now directed solely at Nyxar. Perhaps not entirely fair, but if there was one thing a Nobody should know, it's that life is anything but fair.

"For once Xigbar, you might have actually just said something remotely intelligent." He noted in an amused voice. The Freeshooter might have been his superior, but he certainly made it difficult to have hardly any respect for him. With his juvenile behavior, and rather low intelligence, it was a wonder he was second-in-command at all. Still, at least Vexen was capable of acknowledging that Two was above Four, unlike some of the members below him.

Glancing to his right, he saw Zexion sitting in his chair, looking deep in thought. He would likely be asking many questions over the course of the meeting, to help curb his suspicions. Or help fuel them. Vexen wasn't entirely sure which of the two the Schemer was actually interested in doing. Glancing across to the other side of the room, he also found that Luxord and Demyx were there. Both of whom he had already expected would be there. However to Xemnas's left, he noticed a more surprising
face. "Lexaeus. I was not aware that you had returned."

So, including Nyxar, Organization XIII ranks had now been returned to eight. It was a reasonably formidable number. Higher than the group's original amount of members, at least. As a matter of fact, the only founding member that wasn't present was Xaldin, which was unfortunate, considering the fact that he was one of the least annoying in the Organization. "Are we waiting for anyone else?" he asked, evidently ready to commence with the discussion. "Or are we merely waiting for number Eleven to find his seat?"

[/size]

A Bit of Information

Other members began to show up one by one, Luxord appearing directly after him. Both of them remained silent as they waited for others to show. The next Nobody to appear caught Zexion's attention more, though he showed no reaction other than a slight widening of the eyes before returning to his blank face. It seemed Lexaeus had at last returned, a very good thing indeed. True to his nature, he stayed quiet as well as other members emerged, Xigbar, Demyx and Vexen being the last to join the group. There was chatter after the Freeshooter appeared, Vexen responding. He paid it no heed, waiting for the Superior to speak.

And that he did, addressing one of Zexion's questions in his introduction. His answer as to what to do about the traitors satisfied him and no longer stayed on the Schemer's mind as the Superior continued onto the next subject: the attack on Radiant Garden. Zexion pulled up all of the information he knew quickly, the little bits that he had managed to acquire when he visited the world to assess it himself. It was fortunate that he did, for the Superior seemed interested in what he and Vexen had to say on the matter.

"It does not seem we are looking at a familiar force," he said at first, his tone monotonous as it usually was, "I managed to acquire the description of the attacker but nothing else: a silver robe and red hair, not matching any descriptions that I am aware of." He paused for a moment, letting that fact sink in. "Maleficent also seems to be present in Radiant Garden, though she did not aid the attack. If she had, I do not believe the world would have been left standing." Maleficent was not a very merciful force to deal with, especially if one recalled how Radiant Garden was when she took over. Whoever this mysterious attacker was, he was either merciful... or something else that Zexion could not place.

That was all he truly had to say on the matter, not having any other information to present to the Superior and the rest of the Organization. His arms remained crossed as he kept his gaze on the Superior, not moving it.

[/size]

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but...

“Just because I don’t have a stick up my ass all the time and don’t bury my head in books or in experiments doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. But you are insecure, so I understand your need to look down on people, Number Four,” Xigbar answered in quiet a calm manner to Vexen, mocking him back after he indirectly questioned his intelligence. Of course, he couldn’t go into details of how manipulative he could be without other people realizing, otherwise someone else in the room would catch on to it and it could mean lots of troubles for him. And by troubles, he meant death.

His response went slightly unnoticed, not that he cared, the faster the meeting went through the topics the better. It didn’t take long for the Intel reports by Zexion to be brought up, bringing into attention some new force in the works, making trouble for their enemies. Of course, if it wasn’t aligned to anyone in particular, it could spell trouble even for them. The idea of his former home being destroyed didn’t sit that well with him, but that was most likely residual nostalgia from his former self; if that.

“Well, woop-dee-doo, that explains everything, Captain Obvious,” he remarked once Vexen was done expanding what Zexion had delivered in only a couple of sentences. He skipped any mentions of the witch, for she was of no importance, focusing only on the strange man. “Does it really matter what his intentions are? If he goes around destroying stuff it will costs us hearts, isn’t that the issue here? I mean, if he starts killing keybade masters, the epitome of light warriors at the moment, the amount of people that release hearts properly for us to collect will diminish, unless we worked around that problem, but I don’t think our brilliant minds here have done that yet, right?” he asked with genuine interest in the topic, but said question also served as a stab to those two who sat directly to his right.

That's the Rub

"And therein," Luxord began after hearing Xigbar's comments, "Lies our problem. In order to be complete, we need those hearts the Keyblade Masters give us to form Kingdom Hearts. However, I know that you all realize the different stakes of the game this time. We're not talking about a simple friendly game of poker anymore. It's more akin to Russian Roulette between the Light and Darkness." He drew out seven cards from his sleeve, and they levitated in the air in front of him. With a small motion of his index finger, they formed a simple, two-tiered card house. "It doesn't matter which card I pull," he curled his index finger back into his hand, making one of the top cards fall, thus causing the entire house collapse. "It's going to crumble." Taking the cards back into his hand they vanished, and he continued, "While we may be immune to the ebb and flow of those two sources, their collapse will utterly destroy our plans. And that is not something we can have happen."

Having said his piece, he reclined back in his chair. They could use that man, who so pompously calls himself a "tool of darkness", but they would have to make sure to not actively involve themselves with him. Like forcing one to call their bluff, they would have to lead him without actually leading him. But this man seemed smart, even calling himself a "tool" meant that he realized his own position with the darkness. He'd be a worthy adversary, but could they successfully turn him into an unwitting ally? Or would he simply become a nuisance, as he was now? A wry smile formed on Luxord's face at that thought. "Man truly is the most dangerous game one can hunt..."