I was sitting on my bed, strumming away at my sitar as usual, when Xemnas's booming voice echoed throughout The Chamber of Barren Euphony, also known as my room to everybody but the Superior. I'm not even sure what "euphony" means, to tell you the truth, but Xemnas feels the need to name every room in the castle something to remind us of our supposed nonexistance.
Anyway, Xemnas called me. Don't ask me how. I'd never seen a— what do you call them?— a loudspeaker in my room, but his thundering voice was there somehow. "Number IX. It is your turn to embark upon a mission in an attempt to alleviate the recent crisises that have been inflicted upon our Organization and return the lost Number XIII to our ranks."
I started shaking and nearly dropped my precious sitar. Oh, no. A mission? With the murderous Keyblade master on the loose? There was no way I could bring Roxas back! "What do you want me to do?" I squeaked.
"You are to travel to the realm of Olympus Coliseum and attempt to verbally bring Number XIII out of the Keyblade master. If the subject fails to respond, use agression to liberate his true disposition."
I moaned. All I meant was that I was really dreading having to fight, but Xemnas misunderstood it to mean that I didn't understand what I had to do. "Enter the Chamber of Consequential Resolutions and I allow you to aquire a written duplicate of your duties."
I let my sitar melt away and took as much time as I possibly could to walk down to Xemnas's office (why does he feel the need to give every room in the castle a really long name?). I wasn't just scared of going to Olympus Coliseum, I was terrified. Why couldn't I have been sent to somewhere happy, like Christmas Town? Or maybe even Atlantica? My heart ached at the thought of my home world. I missed being a merman so much, and a mission in the joyful, peaceful ocean would be so much better for me than the dark, cruel Underworld.
Without realizing it, I came to the Chamber of Consequential… Xemnas's office. "Number IX," the Superior boomed. "At last. I have in my hands the instructions you are required to accomplish. This Stone will protect you from the Underworld's dehabilitating curse, and hopefully augment your power. Do not fail us." He slipped a piece of paper and a coin into my hand, and slammed the door in my face. My lip trembled for a moment, but I refused to let a single tear fall. I slid up my hood and opened the portal out to the Underworld.
The minute I appeared in the grim Cave of the Dead, I found myself face to face with a dog. Not just any dog. This dog was so big I could have stood under it with room to spare (not that I'm exceptionally tall, but you get my drift), and thick, yellow ropes of drool dripped from its mouths onto my head. Yes, I said mouths in the plural. As in, this thing had THREE HEADS snapping and biting at the seafood dish in front of it. I was petrified by fear, and I stood there for a moment, watching the thing snarl at me with its cave of razor sharp teeth and rolling red eyes. Then I did the only thing that made sense.
"Run, run away!" I screamed, disappearing through a portal to a part of this world that wasn't inhabited by creatures bent on devouring me whole. I didn't even notice that the Keyblade master and his friends were behind me as I fled.
My portal led me to an empty cave that was mercifully lacking in monsters. "Jumping jellyfish," I panted. "Why is it that every world I go to ends in a near-death experience?"
"Would you get a load of this kid?" I jumped a foot in the air, but the only person who was talking to me was the image of a woman in the stone. Actually, it was five women, but only one of them was talking to me. She had thick, curly hair piled on top of her head and wore a Greek-style dress with a cape attatched to her arms.
"Cerberus ain't nothin' to be scared of, honey," the shortest, fattest woman in the group told me.
"Yeah, " agreed a skinny woman with hair spiked on three sides and a ponytail in the back. "All he needs is music and he shuts right up."
"Tell that to that kid with the key," laughed a woman whose hair looked like she'd lost a fight with the Larxene, whose element had been lightning before she was murdered by Roxas's Other. "Music's the easy way to go, but he just bashes at him 'till he falls right over. Men. Always the difficult ones."
"There's music here?" I perked right up.
"Is there music here?" laughed the last woman, who had long, thick hair. The others laughed, too, but it wasn't mean laughter. "There sure is, sugar, and it's all thanks to us."
The woman with the hair piled on top of her head nodded. "We are the Muses, godesses of the arts."
"I'm… Dyme… I mean, Demyx. The Melodious Nocturne."
The woman with the long hair smiled. "The Melodious Nocturne, huh? Now, that's a musical title if I ever heard one." The Muses hummed in harmony and sang:
"He
ran from Cerberus
But learned that he had what it took
A song
can calm the wildest savage
And that's the gospel truth!"
I clapped, but didn't get a chance to say anything else to the Muses. At the sound of footsteps, they turned, and I jumped. "Huh? Ah! You!" I mentally smacked myself. For a songwriter, I really don't have a way with words. The intruders were a duck and a dog, and a kid with spikey brown hair who I didn't immediately recognize. One look at his blue eyes and furious expression told me I did know him, after all. I lifted my hood off my head and pointed at him. "Wait a sec… Roxas?"
"Excuse me?" Roxas asked, confused.
"Roxas?" I repeated. "Oh, it's no use."
"Huh?" Roxas replied. "What are you talking about?"
I sighed and pulled the note Xemnas had given me out of my pocket. I'll admit it. I was stalling. "Let's see here… 'if the subject fails to respond, use agression to liberate his true disposition.' Right." I glanced over at the Muses on the wall while I put the note back into my cloak. "Did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one…." I could swear I heard the fat Muse go "awww!" and another one smack her over the head.
"You're bizarre…" remarked Roxas. He always did think I was a weirdo, but then, so did the rest of the Organization. It's not my fault I'm from the sea and no one bothers to tell me how to fit in up here!
I winced and lifted the Olympus Stone high into the air, where it glowed. I felt strength pour into me, but I knew it wasn't as much as it felt like. I was a pathetic weakling, as the whole Organization constantly reminded me.
"He's gotta be the thief!" accused the dog.
"Thief?" repeated the Muse with the long hair. "That boy wouldn't take away Dionysus's wine!"
"Somebody's gotta teach that kid a lesson," remarked the one who looked like she'd gotten Larxene mad at her.
I was annoyed, too. The thief? Can we say jumping to conclusions? Xemnas stole it! Not me! "Now that's just plain rude!" The Muses hummed an energetic tune, and I summoned my sitar. Now was the time to "use aggression to liberate his true disposition."
"Dance, water, dance!" I cried, and my water dancers appeared out of nowhere while I played to the Muses' song. Sora darted through them, splattering them until the cave was soaked with destroyed dancers. Fifty liquid casualties later, the music stopped, and I staggered backwards, holding the cramp in my shoulder. "Roxas," I moaned, "come back to us!" I opened a portal back to the castle before he could attack me like he had my clones.