Chapter Text
Sometimes Saïx would rather bang his head into the wall than deliver news to the other members of Organization XIII. He could feel the strain behind his eyes already, quickly developing into a pain he’d have to speak through, because messages straight from the Superior never delivered themselves.
But Xemnas’ distance from his own operations aside, Saïx’s main headache came from the fact that Organization XIII never made it easy.
It was near impossible to round up all its members: with some of them taking every waking moment possible to get work done in scattered locations across the Castle That Never Was and others so intent on sleeping at every chance they could get, the only way Saïx had to relay information to anyone was to inform the lurkers in the Gray Area and wait there to catch other members simply passing through, as if it was some trap they weren’t expecting sprung on them.
Though this news may have felt very similar to such a thing.
He found Demyx, Zexion, and Larxene in the Gray Area the time he arrived. All regular faces there, and typically feigning some activity while alertly waiting for gossip to surface from one person or another. Axel wasn’t there, Saïx resigned to think it was because Roxas lacked mission assignments today.
If he waited a moment to deliver the news -for tactical reasons, not because he had any heart to want a delay in the Organization’s business- then he could ensure more members were present to listen. Xaldin should return to the Castle from a mission in Agrabah at any moment, and it was about the right time for Vexen to show up and start harassing the Organization’s Moogle for synthesis ingredients, something Saïx could always anticipate by a steadily increasing chill in the air.
Saïx’s arrival went ignored as he stalked over to his usual place in the Gray Area, his clipboard and stack of never-ending paperwork readily prepared at the narrow table shoved against the wall, which he’d been given in lieu of a real desk. It was stationed directly beneath a window from which was a view of Kingdom Hearts, as if to remind everyone who approached him of the Organization’s ultimate goal.
Vexen did, in fact, arrive in the Gray Area at just past sub-zero temperatures or so, if Saïx had to make a guess. His irate prattle at the Moogle and its prices cut through the room more sharply than the chill he’d brought with him.
Saïx tuned it out by reading over the top page of paperwork. Over and over. The words started to blur together, then warp, and as his tired eyes had just begun to glance over it entirely and see nothing, he distinctly saw the boldly inked message LOOK UP.
Unfazed, Saïx adhered, and found Zexion standing way too close to him, arms crossed snugly around a massive lexicon emitting green magic,
“Party tricks are an unprofessional way to get my attention,” Saïx said blandly. He didn’t step back to create any more space between them, instead keeping the distance that let him see every line of concentration on Zexion’s face. Saïx had never seen him look relaxed- or make many other expressions, really, that didn’t involve staring at another person like they were fascinatingly inept at any given task. Saïx would think it made him feel better, if they’d had any hearts to base that claim on.
“I could have picked a more painful way to do it, I suppose, but it didn’t seem you were ever going to notice me.” Zexion, as usual, chose a backhanded response. “I had a question about next week’s mission assignments. Since you’re so insistent that all claims be formally taken up with you, I’ve been waiting until you were at your desk to do so.”
How he had information on next week’s mission forms, which were locked in Saïx’s room and would not be visible to the rest of the Organization until that time, Saïx could only guess. And he was sure illicit company use of Dusks was involved.
“All mission pairings have been cleared with the Superior already,” Saïx recited the familiar line with no fondness, inferring that Zexion had taken issue with being paired with Demyx for a mission to Halloweentown. “I can’t make such changes to next week’s schedule. Perhaps I can take a note for future reference?”
“A note you’ll take directly to the Superior, I assume?” Zexion sounded skeptical, one hand tightening on the spine of his book. Saïx felt an all too similar pressure building in his head. “Because you obviously take the important matters to him.”
“I take all matters involving active members of Organization XIII to him,” Saïx re-stated over his emerging headache. He narrowed his eyes looking down at Zexion, who still seemed entirely unconvinced Saïx wasn’t just refusing his request. “You’ll likely see changes in two weeks’ time. The Superior is busy with other matters.”
“Such as?” Zexion prompted, sounding unreasonably bored for a conversation he’d started.
“Such as the message I have been asked to deliver to the whole Organization,” Saïx answered, deciding then it was time to get the issue over with. He felt more than saw the eyes that immediately fixed on him, the attention of other members in the room instantly attracted. “Directly from the Superior to all of you: One work night every week has been set aside for regular meetings over dinner. This is a mandatory event and your schedules will be adjusted accordingly.”
He searched over each member’s face for any disagreement. He wished for the satisfaction of seeing it definitively reflected across each of their faces. Kingdom Hearts, however, had never been known to grant wishes, and his chest remained emptily aching.
Larxene’s laugh was a bolt through the stunned atmosphere of the room, loud and jeering. “You’re joking. Xemnas wants us to have dinner together? What, is the Organization not becoming good enough friends on our mission to get our hearts back?”
“Lord Xemnas believes it will be beneficial for mission coordination and teamwork to regularly spend time together.” Saïx stated the lie he’d rehearsed. “Even though we cannot ‘bond’ as Somebodies can, better tolerance and understanding of each other can increase mission effectiveness and prevent distrust between Organization members.”
Contrary to the image he was currently portraying for the Organization, he found the idea nearly as ludicrous as Larxene did.
Organization XIII would benefit very little from dedicated time in each other’s presence. It was merely a chance for Xemnas to search the Nobodies for any sign of disloyalty or malicious intentions. Frankly, it had the negative consequence of raising the risk they attack and kill each other.
He watched Larxene purse her lips and wait expectantly for him to take back his statement, the look in her eyes getting angrier and meaner with every second that he didn’t do so. Zexion and Vexen looked much the same, standing in false shock on opposite sides of the room.
“You’re serious?” Demyx eventually said, filling the silence that had overtaken the room as he sat up from the couch. His fingers twitched on his half-tuned sitar, and Saïx almost wanted to savor that Demyx had finally taken his attention from music to work for once.
“I don't think it would be a very funny joke,” Saïx said gruffly, by way of reply. “Sunday nights. Every week. You will show up for dinner.”
“That’s absurd, I have too much work to be taking time off for such frivolous things-” Vexen’s voice rose as he began to rant about the importance of his science projects. Saïx had already turned to walk away, and didn’t catch more of what he was saying.
If Vexen wasn’t blocking the path to the Moogle, Saïx would have stopped there to get a potion to mitigate his quickly forming migraine attack. As it was, a dark room and complete silence would have to do.
The Dark Corridor walk could not have been short enough.
* * *
News about ‘Sunday dinner’ spread among Nobodies like a wildfire- of which Saïx had seen a great many. It went beyond the usual levels of gossip sent via Dusk from one room to another, and Saïx was constantly ordering members of the Organization to stop talking in the hallways and return to their work.
It was a pain, manifesting as always behind Saïx’s eyes and forcing his low stare. Organization XIII members seemed even less inclined to approach him for their daily missions than usual, a fact in its peak when Saïx noticed on the day before that Demyx had sidestepped over to get his mission without a single word, not even a complaint about the mission assignment or his workload. Saïx would almost have been grateful, if it wasn’t proof that he was more reluctant than ever to do what was expected of him.
Saïx had never been closer to an understanding of Demyx.
Perhaps if the first Sunday Dinner was enough of a disaster, Saïx would be asked to remove it from the schedule, and he could have back that precious hour and the allotted budget could return to its normal place: Organization members’ salaries.
Saïx could feel a clench in his stomach already at the thought of being confronted on Monday evening when various Organization members realized some of their munny had been moved over to pay for the food they would have every Sunday.
“Your mission is to catch and report back on the status of an unusual Heartless in Wonderland,” Saïx said sternly to Xion over the clipboard he’d handed her, as if she couldn’t read the words on her own. “Do not kill it yet, unless provoked. It seems to be guarding something, and we want to discover what that is before attacking. It could bode useful to the Organization.”
Xion nodded and stepped away to enter the portal, posture rigid. She always presented as mission-ready and as professionally as Vexen had painstakingly taught, but if Saïx didn’t know better he would assume it was out of fear that she kept such an upright manner. As if the puppet could even imagine what fear was.
Fear could not be taught to a Nobody.
“Xion.” Saïx barely returned to the present before Xion had fully disappeared into the Corridor. She pivoted silently, and he felt her stare from beneath her hood. “Dinner tonight is in the Altar of Naught. Have Axel show you where it is.”
Xion nodded again and vanished into the Darkness.
He was more proactive in reminding the other Organization XIII members, scowling over his mistake all morning as he handed out mission objectives and answered the same questions as always. The Moogle across the room squawked suggestions for items or command panels to buy before leaving, tagging on prices so absurdly high that not even Roxas fell for them.
Despite the monotony of it all, Saïx had absolutely no anticipation for the evening’s events, and preferred the occasional silence that fell between indifferent appearances from Organization members throughout the day to the raging storm that dinner would undoubtedly devolve into.
Roxas, before departing to meet the day’s heart quota for himself and Xion, posed a question that Saïx had not been prepared to hear: “Will Xemnas be at the Sunday Dinner?”
Saïx looked down on Roxas, the boy’s face blank. It seemed he had no emotion to attach and feign with his question. Merely curious.
“The Superior is incredibly busy.” That was not a satisfactory answer at all, but Saïx knew Roxas would take it. “He may be there on occasion.”
Roxas’ lips thinned slightly in his imitation of a frown, but he didn’t press further for an answer. He summoned his Keyblade and walked through the Dark Corridor that Saïx prepared, passive as anyone else.
Time ticked down from the clock that displayed whatever arbitrary number Luxord had spun it to that morning, Saïx only reliably using it to tell how much time had passed since he’d last glanced its direction. Time always felt still in the World That Never Was, with the unchanging starry sky and the endless bleary neon lights below the Castle’s vantage.
Nothing, not even ‘hours’, existed there.
The clock read 9:00, which was enough of an indicator that Demyx was, predictably, almost two hours late to retrieve his mission and begin the workday. Saïx summoned a Dusk to force him from bed, or whatever couch he’d stolen away to in the depth of the Castle That Never Was. It wasn’t a witch hunt he needed to embark on personally.
Demyx’s appearance was a frantic scramble from one Dark Corridor to another, barely listening to Saïx’s mission order as the Dusk continued to beat at his legs with its floppy limbs.
Frankly, Saïx would have taken a broom to join in with, had one been in reach.
With all of Organization XIII at last in the places they needed to be for the day, Saïx settled his weight back against the creaking table and picked up the top page of his paperwork. A mission report to review and send off to the library, written by Luxord. Nothing spectacular. He sent it off to the library via Dusk.
Next paper. A form with the request to change the entry and return portal into Agrabah, from Xaldin and additionally signed by Axel. The recent desert storms had kicked up a nearly impassable path of sand blanketing the city, and made recon difficult. Saïx would authorize it and send Vexen to find a new location for the portal.
Next, a stack of pages about a Heartless, a strong one wandering about Christmastown, which Roxas would soon be sent to defeat. Zexion had written it up, and even included an illustration from the last time he’d been sent on recon there. How thoughtful. Saïx approved its addition to the Organization’s custom encyclopedia on Heartless and sent it off.
Page by page, Saïx worked continuously through the documents left on his table, counting only five left to work through before Corridors of Darkness began opening in the Gray Area. Members of Organization XIII unceremoniously dropping mission reports and queries atop what Saïx had nearly called a completed workday. He resisted the urge to fruitlessly sigh and complain.
He did, however, straighten out the deplorable mess of papers each time a new one was added and glare at the culprit.
Nobody glanced back at him, much less apologized. Saïx might have felt real shock if they had.
The return process was unmistakably familiar too; Xigbar had to be tracked down in the Pride Lands by two Dusks for staying overtime, and Zexion was not in the world he was supposed to have returned from but instead requested the RTC portal from the City of Thebes’ library.
Saïx authorized both portals reluctantly, though he would not have cared if the consequences of their actions left them unable to attend the quickly approaching Sunday Dinner. They would have to answer to Xemnas for that, and what would it say of their loyalty to the Superior? Nothing Saïx would lose sleep over.
Frankly, if Saïx wasn’t convinced it would cause a riot among the neophyte Organization members if numbers Two and Six didn’t show up to the mandatory dinner, he wouldn’t have let them back through the Corridors at all.
However, Saïx shut down both Corridors as Xigbar and Zexion disappeared into the Castle, another two reports added to Saïx’s workload without a word of thanks. He pushed the overgrown stack to the back of his table so he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore.
That was a problem for after Sunday Dinner, and any messes it might cause. Saïx had preemptively set aside time in his schedule for ‘putting out fires’, so to speak, following Sunday night’s events. Several Dusks and even his own Berserkers had been rallied in the case of a real emergency, as well. Simply to prepare for the worst.
Not that anyone in Organization XIII would dare cause trouble at the first dinner event- not if the Superior was there, at least.
Of course, Saïx knew that Kingdom Hearts didn’t grant wishes, but he put one out anyway that the Superior would show up.