(Disclaimer/Author's Note): We do not own any Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or Disney characters or places. Or any other media object that may be found within the text such as popular books or games. This will be the standard disclaimer for all chapters. Thank you. On another note, names that are not familiar are more than likely our original characters. At first, the main female non-canon character is a bit annoying, this is on purpose. Besides, it's one against twelve, she will not be the center of attention. Another thing we should mention... though this story deals a lot with Organization XIII it is not limited to their point of view. The story line is vast and one needs to be prepared to visit many different worlds and to deal with multiple story lines and characters.

Chapter 1

"I range the fields with pensive tread

and pace the hollowed rooms

and feel (companion of the dead)

I am living in the tombs."

--Abraham Lincoln, Memory

Deep within the castle music reached out dimly, and like all noise that has covered a great distance the volume had died away and lingered only as a reflection of itself. Even so, the soft vibrations that waved through the air were still strong enough to touch upon the energy that lay dormant within the fortressed walls. That tickle of life was touched with more than just sound...

There was awareness. That was somehow not right, although he could not recall why. It seemed like the prospect of having sentient thought rooted again in his essence was off, out of place, for whatever reason. He sat silent for a long while and before long he was aware of himself. As if only in just that one instant alone he recalled that he was a person. "This is odd." Speech came with ease and with every second more of himself worked itself out in his mind.

"What is?" A familiar voice answered his unplanned statement. This second proof of existence seemed less shaky of a foundation: it meant someone else was there. "What is your opinion of 'odd' anyway?" The voice continued. It managed to sound less disoriented than he felt.

"Am I not… gone?" He asked the voice, Luxord's, he had come to realize.

"I do not think death—if that is what you mean by gone—is entirely ruled out of the possibilities here. Yet, by all accounts this form of continued communication should not be happening if that were the case. Hypothetically." A different voice spoke up. "And by all means, Xemnas, do open your eyes."

The man obeyed and his dark amber eyes found him in a room almost as black as what his eyelids had been. This was not a problem for those acquainted to Darkness and so Xemnas was able to pick out the eleven other figures in the room with ease. The man standing nearest to him, the last to have spoken, he soon recognized as Vexen. "What's going on?"

"We've not quite figured that out." Zexion voiced from nearby. Xemnas's mind was reeling, both Vexen and Zexion had died before him. So had Luxord for that mater. What was there to figure out then? They must be in Purgatory, the man decided on his own.

"God gave us another chance!" Demyx's lighthearted voice interjected after Zexion. A slightly awkward silence followed the statement. Young number IX's opinions were no secret within the Organization but that didn't mean it was ever the default belief of everyone else.

"Perhaps we should start first with how exactly it has happened. Our existence has always been a distinctly odd one that defies usual reason, but let us see if we can explain it scientifically." Lexaeus said softly to their young comrade.

Xemnas sat up, now officially in control of his thoughts again. He decided to expand upon the subject at hand first, "Science by definition is the removal of the supernatural as explanation of occurrences in the worlds," he reminded, "and myself through six are just that, scientists. We'll figure something out."

There was a soft snicker from across the room and though he did not voice this opinion, Luxord had found himself thinking, 'You'd think with everything that's happened in the past he would know better than to talk like that. There is nothing scientific that I can see about any aspect of our situation.'

"Why are we still just sitting here?" Xaldin soon inquired after a few minutes had passed and no one else had decided to suggest something productive.

"Does anyone else hear music?" Axel asked, his mind having been lost in his own thoughts from the beginning of the conversation. All heads turned to the general direction of the question and they saw as Axel shrugged under their scrutiny, "Just throwin' that out there." He could hear it outside wherever they were and he thought it was weird. Not that coming back from the dead wasn't weird, though, the red-head just thought a little differently than his comrades and piano music wasn't fitting into this scene for him.

Xemnas pulled himself to his feet in the darkness. "All questions, I suppose, can wait a little longer. Number three has a point, let's at least get out of this room. Any ideas of where we might be?"

"This place smells of us and time...and fire." Zexion spoke aloud cryptically with a pondering expression gracing his features—hardly discernible with the distinct lack of light.

"Yes, I'd say it would smell like us what with everyone all conveniently sitting here." Xigbar's husky voice floated from a back corner where he'd been sitting. He gave an empty laugh as his younger friend gave a loud sigh to his sarcasm.

There was a rustle of movement then Larxene was up and walking towards one of the darker rectangles that stood on either side of the room they had woken to. "I think I found the door," she announced, the comment filled with exasperation.

As the rest of them stood and reacquainted themselves with their joints and muscles before filed out after the female, Saix hung back and was now standing beside the still slightly off-balanced Xemnas. "I still am missing my heart. We were returned but not restored it seems." The diviner waited patiently for the other man's response. It was a rather disappointing turn of events, to get their lives back only to find it was the incomplete version they'd fought so hard to remedy.

"At the moment we have other things to worry about." Xemnas had realized this somber fact too but it would do them no good to dwell on it. They'd lived this long without their hearts, what was a little longer?

"I hear music!" Axel confirmed from somewhere outside of the door and there was a general mumble of agreement from the rest.

"More riddles than I care to contemplate." Xemnas whispered as he at last walked out of the room, giving no more mind to Saix's looming presence as he entered the hall.

------Earlier-------

'Well isn't this just perfect.' One girl let herself think sardonically as she walked through the unfamiliar territory. 'Damn them all! I shouldn't even give a shit. I'm alive and that's the only thing that's worth something now. Perhaps what kills me the most is that I can't make myself not care! Not, per se, what actually happened, but the fact that I can't just say, screw you! And move on… ' Absently these thoughts passed by, but no real weight was placed upon this inner monologue because the more sensible part of this girl's brain was currently in use of scouting out some form of life.

Empty rooms, dust covered objects, animal tracts through the dirt on the floor were all she had found in this odd bastion she'd stumbled upon. Not anything she thought she could use was to be found. But the walls themselves offered her some peace of mind—no more rain, no more fighting around every corner with this world's unnerving indigenous wildlife.

The place was an abandoned labyrinth she soon discovered, and after finally giving up on endlessly circling the dark chambers, she settled down in one of the more spacious rooms. It was like all the others in the fact that it was dim beyond all comprehension. But then, one usually wanted it to be dark when it came to sleeping. Necessity drove her to this decision to slumber not common sense as she was going on day two without it. She'd seen none of the foul creatures that had plagued her before entering this unlooked for sanctum so she felt moderately secure in her choice to nap.

Using the dark blue fabric of her shirt sleeve as a haphazard duster she cleared a spot for her head so that she wouldn't spend the whole time filling her lungs with unnecessary dirt. It was almost unavoidable in this place though, but the little effort seemed worth it. It helped to make her feel like she still had some control of her situation.

When next she woke up it still looked the same, as if no time had passed. If she wasn't already crazy then the prospect of no moving time would surely drive her to it. Climbing to her feet stiffly, the result of sleeping on the cold, metallic floor, she resumed her inspection of her adopted shelter.

For a brief moment the girl began to wonder if this place had been pre-selected for her exile. The want of food and abundance of hostile beings seemed to suggest so. No easy punishment would have been wanted after all. "I'm so hungry." She said out loud, listening as her voice reverberated off the metallic walls.

Audibly talking to herself was not something she often did but for lack of companions she let herself fill the silence. "I need to piss too." She was becoming aware that she was using a lot more crude language lately. Pent up rage she soon labeled it. But back to the matter at hand, "Holy shit! If this place has been abandoned for so long then the chances of working plumbing are gone!"

All the while as she talked to herself her legs ran on autopilot and looking around from one dingy hallway to another identical one she began to notice the absence of bugs and spider webs and how the tracks that she could make out in the dust, aside from her own, were not of any animal's trail she could recognize, bipedal or not. "This place really is utterly dead." She opened a random door and looked inside, "I half expect to see corpses in these rooms."

The interior of this particular room was not as gruesome as that. In fact, it was slightly pleasant—with a spacious layout, a couch, and a piano in one corner. From the scarce objects that she'd been able to identify thus far, a piano did not seem to coincide with the picture she had painted of the former masters of this fortress. From what she could gather, this item was a little out of place.

With nothing better to do she walked over to the forgotten instrument and looked at it closer—her eyes were used to the darkness by now. "I bet it is completely out of tune," she said speculatively. "However, it should be a worthy distraction." And with that she pressed down on three of the keys at once, simultaneously dragging away the dust as she removed her fingers.

With her own family having owned one of these relics, she could listen to the notes with a trained ear and knew that the instrument was not out of tune. She pressed a few more to make certain before sitting herself down for some actual playing. Her bladder problems—along with other more predominate ones—seemed to go away for the moment. It felt good to have something of familiarity in her possession and without anything else to be doing she needed something to be busy with.

After two songs and trying to stop her brain from thinking she finally consented a pause in her playing, "But damn if I'm not lonely." She whispered wistfully. Only now was she really allowing herself to realize this. She was utterly alone and her notes grew more solemn because of it. If ever there was a worse way to slowly waste away she couldn't fathom it.

She shook her head and with new resolve she set her finger to the keys. Feeling sorry for her self wouldn't solve a thing. "That would be very well playing into their plans! I'll die with dignity damn it! Starve if I must but I won't do it broken."

"Haunting words call through the night
Waiting to devour me
Lost in this chaos, this darkness where I have fallen
Only echoes answer my calls, my voice just a repeat
I suffer alone in this hell yet fight against my defeat
Questions hum and scream through my mind as I slowly fear to fade
Yet my heart rebels against this fate, what a mind of hate has been made…"

She hadn't expected to find herself singing, making up the words as she went, but it made her feel better. It was a good thing that she had no audience, though, because then perhaps her self proclaimed strength would have been an easy pretense to see through. But, alone she was allowed to lie for her sanity's sake all she wanted. She continued to play away at the keys and she could hear as they echoed off the walls.