Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney. The idea for Mnexina is mine.

Kioku no Kusari

Chapter 3: Memory Recall

“My name is Kairi.”

Roxas frowned as he stared out over the town he once called home. Nothing was the way he remembered it. The iridescent clouds quickly drifted over the town, never looking the same for longer than a few seconds. Buildings stretched out further than he could remember and from his spot on the tower he could see Sunset Hill. If he stood up and looked hard enough, he could spot a glimmer of the glistening ocean in the distance.

He sighed in frustration and leaned back against the wall of the clock tower. “What a mess.”

“You forgot my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi. Okay, guess I can give you a hint; Starts with an ‘S’.”

Roxas tried to clear his thoughts, only to find it made things even worse. ‘Who was that boy? And why couldn’t she remember his name?’

“Ice cream for your thoughts?”

Roxas jumped, bumping his head against the wall. He hadn’t even heard Mnexina come back from getting the ice creams. He took the bar that was offered to him and began eating as she sat down beside him.

“So, anything you want to know specifically or should I start from the beginning?” Mnexina asked.

“Start at the beginning.” Roxas said. “And I want to know who Diz is.”

Mnexina took a bite of her ice cream while she thought of where to start. “We’re part of an organization whose members are seeking to regain their hearts by building our own Kingdom Hearts, which is where the hearts of the people of every world are collected. At one time there were thirteen of us; for that reason the Superior named us Organization Thirteen. The Superior is number one; Xemnas. He’s our leader and he usually sits in the basement and talks to himself. We always figured he enjoyed hearing himself talk. Number two is Xigbar, the Freeshooter. He uses crystal laser guns and can manipulate gravity to some extent. Number three is Xaldin, the Whirlwind Lancer. He can manipulate the wind, as well as his lances. Make sure you never interrupt him; he has a bad temper. Number four was--”

“Vexen.” Roxas interrupted. “He… he wasn’t very nice. Kind of… cold to everyone. I don’t think he was around very much.”

Mnexina shook her head. “He was taken out by the traitors the first week you were with us. Anyway, after him was Lexaeus, who was taken out by Diz’s little lackey. It’s a pity; he was one of the few decent ones around the castle.”

“I remember him, I think. He was… really, really big wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“And number six… that’s Zexion. He can create illusions. He’s… our friend, right?” Roxas asked hopefully.

Mnexina smiled. “That’s right! Looks like you’re starting to remember. Who’s number seven?”

“Saix. The, uh, moon guy.” Roxas frowned at his ice cream unsurely. “He’s the one we always got in trouble with. He’s like the Superior’s right-hand man. He’s got a temper worse than Xaldin’s, I remember. Xigbar was always pissing him off over something stupid.

“Number eight was…. Um…”

“The biggest traitor of all.” Mnexina said coldly. “We don’t speak of him anymore. Nor do we speak of numbers ten and eleven.”

“Oh.” Roxas was silent for a moment. “So, number nine is Luxord, right? The Gambler of Fate?” He began to get more confident the more he spoke of the others. “He’s really good at poker and finds it amusing to challenge Xigbar to games of strip poker. I guess it only helps that Xigbar is gullible enough to join in.”

“Their new hobby has been to run around completely shit-faced lately. It’s a miracle that anything gets done.” Mnexina said disdainfully.

“Marluxia was number ten and Larxene was number eleven.” Roxas remembered. “Number twelve was… is you. So… I’m number thirteen, right?”

“Number thirteen, the Key of Destiny.” Mnexina replied. “You were found here in Twilight Town.”

“Really?” Roxas asked, frowning. “I don’t remember that.”

“It’ll take a while before your memories restore themselves. It’s a slow process.”

“Oh.”

Roxas’s ice cream began dripping down the stick and he took a moment to lick it away and eat some more. Mnexina discreetly opened a small portal and stuffed the ice cream into it, not in the mood for the unique flavor.

“Okay, guess I can give you a hint…”

“What about Diz?” Roxas asked. “And who’s this ‘keyblade master’ he thinks I can awaken?”

“Diz was once a great scientist who lived in a world called Hollow Bastion. His research led to the discovery of the heartless and the heart of all worlds. From what I understand, his assistants took the information and used it to study the darkness of people’s hearts and as a result of that more heartless were created. Diz was banished to the world between worlds; a realm of darkness that is difficult to travel through.”

“But we travel by that between world.” Roxas said.

“Difficult, but not impossible.” Mnexina said. “Anyway, as for why he thinks you’ll awaken the Keyblade Master, when he’s never been asleep to begin with, I have no idea. Perhaps he’s gotten himself confused.”

“How do you know him?”

“Unfortunately, I’ve had some dealings with him the past. It was all on the Superior’s orders and I did manage to come out ahead, but barely.”

“Starts with an ‘S’.”

“Who’s Sora?”

Mnexina looked momentarily taken aback as her eyes went wide and her lips parted in surprise. “W-where’d you hear that name?”

“I dunno.” Roxas shrugged. “It just came to me.”

Mnexina hesitated. ‘I didn’t think it’d come to this so soon.’ She let out a breath of air she didn’t know she’d been holding in and then impatiently swiped her hand over her brow, brushing aside her bangs. “Sora was the name of your original self, just as mine was ‘Naminé’. They’re not names that matter very much anymore. Especially not to us.”

Roxas wasn’t going to let the subject go so easily. “What if Sora’s the one Diz thinks I can awaken. What if I was suppose to be kidnapped by Diz so he can awaken. What if by awakening Sora I would join with him and regain my heart.” A frightened expression came over his face. “What if that was my only chance to get a heart. I--”

“Those are all very chancy what-if’s.” Mnexina interrupted before he could get too carried away. “We don’t know what would have happened if you and Sora were to meet. I think - and the Superior agrees with me on this - that there would be disastrous consequences for any Nobody who meets their Somebody, never mind that it shouldn’t be possible for such a thing to happen. Unfortunately,” She sighed. “The keyblade complicates everything.”

“I’m telling you, I saw someone up here!”

Mnexina and Roxas leapt to their feet at the sound of the voice on the other side of the door to the stairway.

“Hayner, I didn’t see anything.”

“Are you sure you weren’t just seeing things?”

Roxas reached for the door a look of longing in his eyes. “Hayner. Pence. Olette.” He whispered.

Mnexina reached out and laid her hand on his shoulder. “Things are different here. C’mon, we’ve got to go before they get up here. It’s time I reported in to the Superior anyway. We’ll drop by your old room and grab a coat before we go.” She quickly opened a portal and steered Roxas towards it.

Roxas snapped out of his daze quickly and hurried through the portal with Mnexina right behind him. Just as the last swirl of darkness vanished, the door slammed open and an irate Hayner stomped out onto the ledge and looked around.

“See, I told you there wasn’t anybody.” Olette said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Roxas was up here.” Hayner said, continuing to look around.

“Wait, Roxas?” Olette looked taken aback. “Hayner, Roxas is gone. He’s been gone for over a year. If he were back then we would have heard something about it.”

“I know what I saw.” Hayner said stubbornly.

Olette and Pence exchanged hopeless looks, worried for their friend. It was the first time in months that he had spoken the blond’s name.

Zexion lay on his bed flipping through a new scientific journal he managed to swipe on a previous mission. It was one of the few quiet and peaceful times around the castle and he was determined to relax and enjoy it.

‘Where is it?’ He wondered.

The door slammed open with a particularly loud bang, but unlike any of the other nobody’s around the castle, Zexion calmly looked up and regarded his one ally through lidded eyes. “I take it the mission went awry.”

“No. Mission went fine.” Mnexina growled, stomping into the room. The door slammed shut behind her on it’s own as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Roxas is back, so I took him down to see the Superior and to tell him we’ve foiled Diz’s plans again. And you know what the first thing he does is?”

Zexion doesn’t bother asking what, knowing that she will tell him anyway.

“He gives Roxas a new mission! What is he thinking? Roxas just got back! He needs time to readjust to everything and everyone before he goes out and does some work again! He at least needs some time to train with his keyblades again!” She ranted. “And you know what the worst part is?” She looked over at Zexion and for the first time since she arrived at the castle he saw hurt and confusion in her eyes. “He’s doing the same shit as before. He’s separating the two of us from Roxas so we don’t have so much as five minutes to talk to him alone.”

“We have busy work again, don’t we?”

Mnexina nodded. “Yeah. He wants us to go to Atlantica and find some chest for him. There’s not anything left in Atlantica for us to collect, and he knows it! There aren’t even heartless there anymore.”

Zexion sighed and shut his book, making sure to note what page he left out on. “Whether we like it or not, Xemnas knows what he’s doing. Think about it; what would you do if you were our leader?”

“Get everyone’s respect, first of all. And not let plots of betrayal rage out of control to the point you have to eliminate other members. And I’d make sure everyone knows what the hell they’re suppose to do.” Mnexina said.

“And what if you were slowly going insane while losing control of the organization you are leading?”

Mnexina hesitated a moment, slowly beginning to understand where Zexion was going with the conversation. “I’d… run everyone so ragged they wouldn’t have time to think and therefore plot against me or begin to think that I was losing control.”

“Exactly.” Zexion agreed. “And all of this has led to the development of a theory on the Superior’s recent habits.”

Mnexina cocked her head sideways. “So you’re trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with him? Good luck.”

“I believe that he absorbs all of the nobodies who have faded.” Zexion said bluntly. “Their abilities, their memories, everything.”

Mnexina frowned. “But that doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t we have seen him use the abilities more to try and scare us into continuing to follow him? Or… maybe he expects us to figure it out and knows that not knowing the extent of his powers will keep us in enough terror.”

“He’s going insane.” Zexion pointed out. “He doesn’t have some elaborate scheme to keep us under his thumb; not anymore. I think it’s more along the lines of him not being in the right mind to use any of his abilities, new or old.”

“I can’t believe no one else has noticed this.” Mnexina remarked.

“Luxord, Xigbar, and Xaldin spend nearly ninety percent of their time drunk and the other ten percent suffering from a hangover. It’s little wonder they never notice what goes on. And Saix would leap off a bridge if Xemnas told him to. He practically worships him.”

“And Roxas hasn’t been around to see most of it… How are we going to tell him about all of us if Xemnas keeps us all apart?”

“What I’m more worried about is, if he is making a conscious effort to keep the three of us apart, why does he continue to team us together on missions?”

The two fell silent for a moment, trying to gather their thoughts.

“Perhaps he does know what he’s doing.” Zexion murmured, sounding troubled. “Roxas sees things clearly while we overanalyze everything and miss the most obvious of things. And the others, as oblivious as they are to everything, would notice if they didn’t see the two of us talking together. Because Roxas has been gone for a while, it’s less noticeable to have him out on missions.”

“And with us being paranoid over everything he might be doing, it keeps us in the dark as to what his real plans are.” She sighed and laid her head down on Zexion’s feet. “What are we going to do?” She asked hopelessly.

Zexion said nothing.

Once again, silence overcame them, lasting for longer than just a few minutes. It was briefly interrupted when Xigbar opened the door and slurred, “Dudes! Y’gotta come see this!” before turning around and running down the hallway. Seconds later, Xaldin and Luxord stampeded past, screaming obstinacies.

“You know,” Mnexina said after a moment. “I know we aren’t suppose to feel things and all, but I’m kind of curious. Do you want to go see what the idiotic trio has gotten into this time?”

“Only if you allow me to collect proper blackmail against them this time.”

Mnexina raised an eyebrow. “You realize they won’t care, right?”

Zexion smirked. “They will when they’re sober.”

Mnexina sat up and gaze him an odd look, clearly conveying her doubt about them becoming sober anytime in the near future. “Fine. Gather away. Lets get out there before Xigbar forgets about what it is we’re suppose to be seeing.”

The two of them got out in the hallway just in time to witness a huge explosion blowing open the door to room number seven.

“Saix is going to be pissed.”

End Chapter

It took far too long for me to finish this chapter, and I apologize for that. There's something about summer vacation that makes me not want to do anything, including work on stories. But I can guarantee that as soon as school starts up (on the 21st of this month, for me.) there will be no end to the flood of ideas and inspiration I get. Not to mention that working on stories will be much more appealing than doing homework.

This chapter was much shorter than I wanted it to be, but there wasn't much more I could write unless I wanted to delve into chapter 5's plans. The next chapter should be much longer, especially since I get to bring Yuffie in and she talks nearly as much as Demyx.