Decay [Open to Org. members]

[Slash]

It all falls apart.
[August 5th, 2010]

[/center]

Xaldin waited quietly, sitting in his old chair. The Dusks had been sent out to reach the others, those who Saïx had informed him were here. They had also been sent to the new members, although Xaldin had been unable to give names- hopefully the Dusks weren't stupid enough to mess it up.

Lexaeus was gone. There wasn't a trace of him left. He'd left, and the resulting chaos would be amusing to watch.

Would he stop it? No, not yet. It would be better to let it pass through before he made his move.

He sat and waited for the other members.

[Axel]

Am I early?
--------

This time, when Axel appeared in the Round Room, he appeared sitting in his old chair. Having already spoken with Xaldin, he had expected something like this to happen. If this was about saving the Organization, though, he wouldn't be playing a huge part in it. The group had long since lost its effectiveness. Might as well dissolve.

Surprisingly, he was the first one here besides Xaldin. Funny, he wasn't known for his punctuality. Except when it counted. Vexen could attest to that.

He had nothing to say to the Lancer, so he crossed his arms and waited for the others.

[Aerith]

Something is different.
--------

The message Alanix had received was quite vague. Another meeting in the Round Room? The Dusk hadn't mention who had called this meeting, but she could only assume it had been Lexaeus. This was probably to discuss what direction to take now that the events of the Graveyard were over.

A Corridor deposited her on her chair, and she glanced around the room. Only two Nobodies were present. Axel was here, but she tried not to let her eyes linger for too long on him.

The other Nobody present was unfamiliar. Why hadn't she seen him before? He hadn't called this meeting, had he? It must have been Axel. Where was Lexaeus?

Though she swam in a thousand questions, they all remained in her head.

[Lagunamov]

And I was hitting the X every time too.

A Corridor opened in the air in the middle of the room, with the Freeshooter stepping from it and onto his chair, taking a couple of steps through thin air. He turned around, and as he flipped his ponytail back took a glimpse around the room to check those who were present.

Lexeaus was missing. The Nobody probably ended up defecting like others after the events at the Keyblade Graveyard. Being the leader of such a group of people took a toll, and having everyone disappear on him like they did the moment the main target was gone was probably the last stroke.

To even the numbers, Xaldin was back. Not that it’d make that much of a difference to Xigbar. He had sent the Dusks, the one which reached him getting promptly shot at and destroyed out of boredom. “I have been on a strict schedule of doing nothing, doing nothing, and shooting darts at a picture of Saïx for target practice. What was so important to break my routine?”

[Fate]

Stop calling, stop calling, I don't wanna think anymore~
--

Yet another meeting in the meeting room, the Dusk informed him. Had Lexaeus decided to speak to the Organization after the disaster in the Keyblade Graveyard? No, this wasn't Lexaeus. He wasn't present in this world anymore. He had been missing ever since he told the Schemer he wanted to think for a long time. After that, nothing. No sign of him anywhere. Though, if it wasn't him calling the meeting, who was it?

A Corridor of Darkness dropped Zexion off in his usual seat, others already there. Xaldin? Intriguing. He hadn't shown himself previously. Axel was also present along with Alanix and Xigbar. Though, while that was somewhat important, Zexion found his eyes drawn to the Superior's destroyed chair. He raised an eyebrow at it, wondering who would have done it and that it wasn't done sooner. Maybe he was missing some sort of symbolism from it, but that's all he got.

He stayed silent, surveying the rest of the room and waiting for the others to arrive.

[/font]

[Matt]

We Better Have Insurance On These Things

Vexen was curious as to what it's purpose might be, upon receiving the message of the meeting from a dusk. Almost always did he show up for the occasions-- simply choosing not to attend was far too unprofessional-- though it was usually out of a disinterested sense of obligation. Of course that was in the days of Xemnas, who was notorious for calling an assembly for the most trivial of reasons, and ultimately dragging them out for absurd amounts of time. Lexaeus, on the other hand, would only be doing so for an important reason. Perhaps he had finally formed some sort of decision.

Upon entering the Round Room, the Academic immediately noticed three particularly odd things. One: Lexaeus was not there. Two: Xaldin, was there. And three: the Superior's old chair had been completely destroyed. Based on the manner in which it had been broken, it appeared quite obvious that the one responsible was most likely the Silent Hero; such a feat of strength was impossible for any other member. But for what reason had he done it?

Well, Number Five had certainly never been one to be known to not be able to control his anger, even when he had possessed a heart. If he had done this, it was no doubt to send some sort of a message to them. What that was, Vexen was not sure. But what he was becoming increasingly certain of was that Lexaeus had in fact left the Organization. This was unquestionably not a good thing, thought he couldn't pretend it was much of a surprise either...

"Why hello, Xaldin." he said after a moment or two, breaking the current silence. "Isn't this a surprise..." Whether or not a pleasant one, he had not yet decided. He had never exactly "liked" the Lancer, but at least more so than many of the others. "I don't suppose you're the only responsible for calling this meeting, are you?"

[Slash]

The news.

[/center]

Saïx appeared without a word. Xaldin was there. So, he had decided to return. Lexaeus was nowhere to be found, though, and the chair that he would have sat in was completely destroyed.

A message. It was meant to send a message, and Saïx quickly deduced why Lexaeus was missing.

His silence grew deeper as he considered the situation coldly.

___________

Aixfeur appeared shortly afterward. There was someone she had not seen before, an older man with long, black dreadlocks. She did not know who he was, but no one else was attacking him so she let it go.

She sat back and waited to find out what had occurred.

___________

Xaldin watched each Organization member in turn, analyzing their movements. They didn't have emotions, so they were hardly easy to read- however, sometimes the muscles retained a sort of memory, reacting slightly in a faint shade of what it would have done had their owner possessed a heart.

It was with this that he read the members. Little of significance happened- Axel and Xigbar were predictable, and most did nothing but look at the destroyed chair.

The two new members, both female, had differing reactions. The white-haired girl had looked at Vexen when she appeared, not the chair or Xaldin. Then, when she had seen him she quickly glanced out of the corner of her eye back to Vexen.

Hm. So Vexen had gained an ally. Perhaps he had been the one to bring her into the Organization, or perhaps he had just convinced her to take orders from him.

The other girl was more confused than most. Not surprising. She wouldn't have known who he was. Her eyes went to no one in particular for confirmation, so either she had no allies or those allies had left the Organization.

When Saïx appeared, his eyes went straight to the chair and remained there. He was motionless for a while, but the all of a sudden Xaldin noticed the faintest twitch of his left hand, the very slow curling of the fingers.

Almost as if he was making a fist.

So you figured it out already. Well done.[/color]

Xaldin turned to Vexen. They were not friends, but on the other hand they had never been enemies. "I'm afraid so. It was rather urgent."

He gestured to the destroyed chair. "As you can plainly see, Lexaeus is not present. As is also obvious, the Superior's chair is broken into pieces. Unless someone in the Organization has gained an unprecedented amount of strength, it remains that only the Hero could have done it. Also, as you can see-"

He used the wind to shift some of the debris. Lexaeus's cloak was lying there.

"If there had been some sort of battle, the damage would have been much worse. Lexaeus, it seems, has abandoned the Organization."

Xaldin paused, waiting to see everyone's reaction.

[Fate]

Of course.
--

Lexaeus had been the one to damage the chair. Naturally, since he was the only one that could. It had a symbolic meaning to it, especially with his cloak left behind. Though, to Zexion, it was so unlike the Silent Hero to do something like this. He wasn't destructive by nature, even when he had a heart. He did this for obvious reasons, but it still... this was what he said he was going to think about at the Graveyard. The Organization members had left after that, almost every single one. The Schemer remembered Lexaeus not being too thrilled with that.

It all made sense, perfect sense. Yet, that left the Organization in a bit of trouble. Now that their new and "trusted" leader had abandoned them, what would they do now? He put his hand to his chin, thinking it over. He wanted to go back to his original hypothesis, functioning without a leader. No matter what, there would always be a struggle if there was a leader or not. And, getting away from that thought, none of them were about to go reprimand Lexaeus for abandoning the Organization; none were strong enough, and not many could say that his reasoning wasn't sound.

He shook his head. "What a shame. And here I thought we wouldn't have to return to square one." He looked at Vexen for a second, a weak glare-- the phrase "I told you so" was so tempting to say, but Zexion refrained. "I might as well say the obvious that it would be futile to go after him. Instead, we should consider the 'goal' of Kingdom Hearts and whether or not the Organization should pursue the retrieval of hearts as a group, or separately." Yeah, he went there, and he did it early. He wanted to see what would happen with that thrown out in the open.

[/font]

[Axel]

Let's not mince words here.
--------

The remaining members of the Organization showed themselves one by one. All except Lexaeus. That destroyed chair and the cloak left behind were more than enough clues as to why he was not showing up.

Lexaeus had left them. Finally, someone everybody considered stable had gotten the right idea and jumped ship. Axel had known it wouldn't have made much difference had he himself left. He had done it before, after all. But Lexaeus leaving... Now there was something that could shake things up in irreversible ways.

Surprisingly enough, Zexion pounced on the idea that the Organization should consider disbanding. Odd that the Schemer would make such a suggestion. While not nearly as loyal as Lexaeus, Zexion had always struck Axel as the committed type. Even back in Castle Oblivion, he had not liked Organization members turning on each other.

Yet, here he was now, suggesting that they all just forget about the whole thing. "Depends on what you think will get us our hearts back, Zexion. The Organization has always thought that Kingdom Hearts was the only way to do that. But building Kingdom Hearts separately will be tedious at best and downright frustrating at worst, if we try to work on our own. Might as well not even disband if we're all still working toward the same thing."

He looked at each of the others in turn. "That is what all of us want, isn't it?"

[Slash]

Objection.

The white-haired girl and Saïx reacted immediately to Zexion's words. The girl stared down at him, unblinking, her eyes full of contempt.

In truth, Xaldin was a little confused as to Zexion's reaction. That was so unlike the Schemer...It did not make sense in the least. Perhaps he had fallen into the same pit as Xemnas? That was a pity.

Saïx kept silent, but Xaldin saw his hand twitch again, more this time. The Diviner then looked up, saw Xaldin watching and uncurled it slowly.

Xaldin is a pest and Zexion an idiot. I will not stand for this,[/color] Saïx thought.

"You have a way that this would keep from delaying the return of our hearts? Impressive. Either you are far more intelligent than the rest of us...or just an impulsive fool."

[Fate]

I want my order and damn it all I'm not going to get it.
--

Zexion shook his head to Saïx. He raised this idea too soon, naturally. He needed to explain his thinking a little more. "Perhaps a rephrasing then. The Organization, in its current state, cannot work well together. We're not organized and we're unfocused. Lexaeus made that clear by his departure." He gestured to the chair himself. "To add to that, have any of us actually looked into other ways of gaining our hearts? Kingdom Hearts cannot be the only way and it's doubtful that it is the way to begin with. It only gave Xemnas power, not his heart."

He sighed. Yes, he was loyal to the Organization and its wishes. He wanted his heart back just as much as the rest of them did-- he barely remembered what it was like to have one to begin with. But at this point, could the Organization even work together toward that goal? If they actually worked together, perhaps without a leader, they could get stuff done. He needed to say that then. "I will say what I did in our last meeting. If we work separately within the Organization, without a leader, I believe we'll be more productive." And that was all he was going to say. He opened up a can of worms by opening his mouth. Now he needed to let the others go at it.

[/font]

[Aerith]

I propose something.
--------

Alanix watched the proceedings with a casual eye, leaning slightly against an arm of her chair, her legs crossed. She was back in her old priestess attire for the time being. The moment she had found out they were not required to wear that cloak anymore, she had discarded it. And with something akin to remembered glee, she had tossed those infernal boots out the window of her room.

Now that both her feet and a good portion of the rest of her body could breathe better, Alanix could think better. She had told Aixfeur her secrets, but none of the others seemed to know, else they would have brought it up.

Perhaps it was time to say something. The Organization, if it was going to stay an Organization, needed some direction.

"Whether or not Kingdom Hearts is the way to regaining our hearts, there is a problem of great significance that should concern us all."

She paused to take a deep breath. "I have seen and spoken with the Champion twice. His goal is to restore the balance of light and darkness, not to have darkness overpower the light. Whether he is successful in this endeavor himself is not important to me. Though he is powerful, he still possess a heart, which can always be lost to darkness."

Another pause allowing absorption of her words. "If balance is not maintained, the worlds collapse, including this one, and we are left with no chance of ever getting our hearts back, doomed to fade back into darkness. Perhaps, since we are neither of the light nor the darkness, we are the most suited for achieving and overseeing that balance."

The thought had been tugging at her ever since the Champion had told her about the balance. Hearts in the light and in the darkness were both equally corruptible and were far too fickle to be anything but chaotic, a natural enemy to balance and order. But Nobodies were not swayed by vague feelings of the heart on a daily basis.

[Matt]

Flawed Logic Is Flawed

"Obviously." he replied nonchalantly to Xaldin's not-so-incredible deduction, as if the Lancer's announcement had been one as blatantly evident as "the room is white". Vexen wasn't exactly sure what sort of reaction Number Three was expecting from the scientist, but he did seem to looking for one. And not just from him, but from all of the members. As such an expert on the subject, the Academic could recognize the focused, wandering eyes of someone studying his surroundings, observing any details they could.

That of course wasn't exactly an action that should raise particular suspicion-- he did it all the time (in fact, in noticing, he was doing it at that very moment)-- but something about the manner in which it was being done was vaguely menacing. Then again Xaldin always had a sort of menacing aura about him. Regardless, Vexen believed he could be a valuable ally, if he could really be trusted that was. Either way, it would be best to keep an eye on the Lancer.

Oh look, Zexion was being counterproductive, as usual. Honestly, one had to wonder whether he was simply incapable of coming up with intelligent ideas, or did he just mentally filter all of those out before speaking. Whichever it was, Number Four was beginning to tire of his terrible suggestions. Here we was complaining about being set back to square one, and yet was attempting to send them back even further to square zero. Clearly all of his attempts at teaching Ienzo logical thinking had been totally lost upon the boy.

Vexen was about to speak (seeing as Axel and Saïx, though having the right idea, could not be expected to proficiently argue it) when the new girl spoke up. And... she was changing the subject. Honestly, at this rate this meeting was going to take forever. On top of that, she was ranting about the "balance", no less. Honestly, he was starting to get very tired of hearing about that annoying subject, which people were suddenly pretending to understand so much better than they actually did.

"It seems like a more reasonable statement to say that those who belonged neither to the light nor darkness have no place interfering between the fighting of the two." he stared at Alanix for a moment, before adding. "Besides, what evidence do you even have for assuming that there is such a crisis? You seem to think that the Realm of Light is going to collapse from-- what-- too much light?" he smirked. "Must I really explain why that is ridiculous?"

[Fate]

Well fine, I'll say something.
--

Alanix made this meeting much more interesting by what she had to say. She exposed that she had been talking with the Champion and what his true goal was, not at all the "Tool of Darkness" but one wanting balance. He probably should have been more concerned that Alanix had indeed came in being on both sides; though with what she just said, he couldn't argue that she was truly a traitor. She raised an interesting point, overseeing the balance since they were of neither light nor darkness. He thought about it for a second.

And then Vexen had to speak up. Should he even acknowledge him at this point? Probably better to not. He should probably just deliver the information he had and maybe add his opinion. "I also met with the Champion recently. He told me that he going to an unreachable realm and no more Keyblade Bearers will be killed. And, he asked me to tell you, Alanix--" his gaze returned to her briefly "--that his secret need not be kept anymore and his final request of finding a way to prevent the Door to Darkness from being opened after it's unsealed."

He paused, letting that sink in. "Make of that what you will, but it something that we need to consider no matter how we decide to get our hearts back. I don't believe I need to state the obvious that if there is too much darkness or light, our goal is at risk."

[/font]

[Slash]

Idea.

[/center]

Saïx looked coldly down at Number Thirteen, while Xaldin seemed almost amused. They just let traitors wander in...He thought that they would have gotten better about that.

"Well, Zexion. Interesting that you've met him. Of course, you probably should have called a meeting after learning that...important bit of information." He put a hand to his chin in a somewhat exaggerated expression of thought. "And you jumped at the idea of not having a leader. Very uncharacteristic. It's almost as if you have some sort of ulterior motive. If she was the Champion's mole, then why didn't she know this before you?" He shrugged.

Loyalty was an annoying burden and interefered with his goal. It would be far better for him to undermine Zexion than it would be to support him. Besides, he had set himself up for it nicely.

Aixfeur, meanwhile, decided to jump into the argument on the side of the Academic, nullifying her previous code of not speaking at these things.

"Even if there is an imbalance, and even if it is dangerous, there has been worse before. They correct themselves or are corrected by those close to them. Why should we upset the cycle? We have no place in either. Let them tear each other apart for such things."

Saïx remained silent. Xaldin's accusations of Zexion had a bit of weight behind them, but it didn't matter one way or the other.

He had an idea. He'd have to talk to Axel after this.