The Karma Organisation - 4th unit, part 1

[HearMeRoar]

The figure smiled to himself as he gazed out at the vista before him.
The view out of the window was a wonderful one; a wide space with mountains rising up and through the bleach-white clouds above.
Pale blue snow drifted downward, landing on the marble ledge of the enormous window.

There was no glass on the window, the builders of this tower having not invented glass of the necessary size yet. He didn't mind though. He enjoyed not having glass for once. The cool mountain breeze was rejuvenating and he loved having the beautiful blue snow land on his outstretched hand.

"Dad?" Came a voice from behind. The figure turned, his black robes swaying with a jingle of the chains attached to his collar.
In the centre of the large marble room stood the figure's adoptive son. He stood in what appeared to be some kind of study.

"Yes Mako?" The figure answered.

The bonds that connected the pair weren't the most obvious, he reflected. Firstly, they were different species. Mako was some kind of anthropomorph, a humanoid mouse whereas the figure was human...mostly.

His son stood wearing the same kinds of robes as the figure, elegant in their simplicity, with two silver chains hanging from each side of the collar. The figure stood as tall the figure ha done as a teenager and from his demeanour seemed to be one. The figure found it puzzling, considering he was only a year old. Mako had aged quickly, being like a toddler at the time they had found each other in the void.

"Where do you suppose everybody is?" Mako asked, his American accent remarkably different from his adoptive father's British one...another mystery to the uninformed.

The figure shook his head,

"I'm not sure. Apparently it's abandoned."

He looked back out of the window again at the beautiful view,

"I cannut' think why."

There was a thump from the door, another individual in the same black robes standing there. This one was taller than Mako, roughly the same height as the figure by the window though with the slightly more curvy statue of a woman. Her voice sang in a sultry but distorted and jumpy way, wholly unnatural and yet pleasing to listen to. It was almost as though each word had been said separately and put together later.

The figure knew why. He's been tempted to make her sound more human but had found himself liking the old voice too much.
He still smiled at the sound of "her" voice.

"We have combed the building and not found any life-forms. As part of the required search protocol, turrets have been positioned in all key entryways."

"Thanks petal," the figure nodded, "Keep me posted."

The feminine figure seemed to nod from under the hood of her robes.

"I will be available downstairs, Xupal," she answered, leaving curtly, walking somewhat jaggedly at first. Perhaps she was still getting used to her new legs.

The figure breathed in deeply, placing a hand on the back of the marble throne-like chair behind the desk. This would be a good chair...with some padding.

"Well," he sighed, "I'd better report to our bosses."

He turned to looked at Mako before starting to leave,

"Man the fort please, son..."

[HearMeRoar]

The dull, hollow, reverberating thud of Xupal's footsteps follow him down the corridors. At first he'd liked the polished grey/white marble but it seemed to be everywhere.

The halls sprawled throughout the building, a castle in the middle of some mountain region. It was odd for him to be alone like this.

How long do you plan on running for?

Do you really think you can keep this up?

One day, one of you will have to go...

It was true, though Xupal hated such errand thoughts.
He paused for a moment and tugged on the hood of his robes.

His robes?

Of course. He was still technically a Nobody and was he entitled to wear them.

He looked at his hands, stroked his van-dyke and struggled to remember what he'd looked like before all of this.
It was still painful to remember; Azymuth looking at him with those sad eyes, forced to punish him for what he'd done.

The continuity inversion. His greatest and most damning achievement...from both of his lives, to date...

He rememberd the grim satisfaction of watching the bomb go off. It had dragged the past to the present in an unstable and violently messy deux-ex-machina. He had found a way to save everyone and they had done this to them.

Well he had ruined the whole of Toril's timeline in the process, creating a decade long tear in time. Toril now had the most unstable timeline in the entire Infinitum and it was all his fault.

It was really no surprise the Deities had punished him they way that they did.

Azymuth was supposed to have destroyed him...but Azymuth had known a way out. He had known that if he left something of Xupal's former self survive it would find the barely real remnant of Mako's former self. Two pieces of a person flung through the universe, coincidently needing each other...and the God of Dimension had seen to it that they had found each other, assuring both of their survival.

They'd bonded that day, in the dark of that silent hell; what had amounted to a Heartless and a Nobody had filled the void of the other. They were linked together, probably forever or until one of them died, making the other truly whole. Neither were Heartless or Nobody anymore. They were an Eclipse.

No, he realised. He couldn't go back. He could never again see his wife or daughter. To do so would alert the Deities of his former home. Not only would he be punished, but so would Azymuth and Xupal's new son.

He felt himself shake for a moment, fighting the urging sensation of sadness and fear. He missed them dearly. It tore him up inside during most days, but he had to move on. Every day he had to remind himself of that. Besides, he had things to make amends for.

He breathed deeply and continued down the corridor towards the main hall.

Fixing thing's is why he'd joined the Karma Organisation and it's why he'd been pulling other lost souls in to the group. He had to persevere.

He turned a corner to find the robed feminine figure from earlier along with several white, bubble-like, elliptical turrets.

He wasn't sure why she was wearing the robes of a Nobody though. In fact, the rest of 4th unit had begun wearing them since he'd been put in charge of them. He supposed it made them feel like they belong; not to mention the hoods were good to hide behind...which some of the people working for him clearly felt inclined to do. Xupal hadn't seen GLaDOS's "face" in nearly two weeks.

"Are you OK?" Xupal asked, lowering his own hood, hoping it would evoke some confidence, his chalky grey hair falling on to his shoulders.

"I am operating as per required protocol," she responded in her usual song-like robotic voice.

Xupal scoffed, approaching her and placing a reassuring hand on what he supposed was her shoulder.

"Sod protocol, how are you?"

She seemed to consider her answer for a moment.

"I...am fine. I am still unaccustomed to being humanoid, however."

Xupal nodded sagely,

"Well there wasn't much we could do with you as a frame attached to a ceiling, was there. Besides, methinks it went rather well."

He used his finger to tap her shoulder, invoking a tinny thud,

"Besides, this new body makes you seem more...approachable."

GLaDOS joined him as they walked down a staircase towards the large double doors of the main entrance.

"Why DID you rebuild me?" She asked.

"Well, I didn't do it...I just got somebody else to. Look, I had many reasons to do it...mostly because I like doing stuff like this."

He scoffed at himself,

"...Even at my age."

He often forgot how old he really was. As it happened, he was approaching his thirty seventh birthday. He didn't celebrate it anymore but it didn't stop him keeping track of it.
He turned to GLaDOS and smiled wryly,

"You should see who I plan on recruiting next."

He nodded at the turrets and they whirred in a curt response.
Xupal waved his hand briefly, summoning several Nobodies in support of the sparse gun turrets.
Xupal's Nobodies weren't unlike the Wizard he had been in his previous life in their abilities. They were as tall as he, made of flowing, ragged grey robes with no lower half. The top half floated in the robes with white skeletal arms and an almost featureless but vaguely cat-like head, black misty smoke rising from empty eye sockets.
The turrets whirred in recognition of the support. Xupal nodded to himself. Now this castle was theirs. They could finally get on with things...

[HearMeRoar]

It had been a week since the group had first occupied the castle.
Studies had been set in motion and plans had been drawn and from the looks of things, the castle had been left unoccupied for some time.

"Considering the amount of dust that we found everywhere," Mako commented dryly, "You'd think we wouldn't have needed a detailed study to tell us how long this place had been empty."

"Sarcky bugger," Xupal smiled, straightening the clutter on his desk. There wasn't much of it, at least not yet, but the empty marble room from a week ago was looking much homier.
His spellbook sat on the desk, along with a jade statue he'd found in one of the basements. Bookshelves had been brought in to the room and the marble throne had been padded and fitted with a hide exterior. All in all, it would do.

"How's your own room coming along?" Xupal asked his son, looking up at him.

Mako shrugged, seemingly distracted,

"It's OK, I guess."

Xupal stopped fiddling and allowed the whole of his attention to fall on his son.

"OK," he said sympathetically, "What's wrong?"

Mako approached the window, witting on the ledge. It hadn't stopped snowing since they'd arrived in the castle and the pair shared a love of watching it drift down.

"I...I want to know about who I was...before."

Xupal nodded, not particularly surprised. He'd been working it out himself.

"I was wondering when you'd ask that," Xupal answered, turning around to sit on his desk and look out of the window behind it. Mako looked in to his father's eyes, a longing there that Xupal had never seen before.

"You remember what I told you about the day we found each other?"

Mako nodded silently.

"Well, I had just been destroyed, punished by the gods of a faraway place for doing something that was very bad even though it helped a lot of people. But the god that destroyed me let a small part of me remain, the slightest sliver of my essence, of my nature."

Xupal found it painful to consider as the truth rushed to him.

"From then I was only a small part of who I had been before, a sample of my old self."

He cast his gaze over the mountains outside,

"I was incomplete...as were you, son."

Mako shook his head, confused,

"I don't understand dad. What does this mean?"

Xupal swallowed, unsure of how to continue,

"There was a man, not unlike you. He ventured in to the darkness to learn to summon the same weapon that you hold...the Keyblade."

Mako nodded and extended his hand. By his will his Keyblade appeared in his hand, the Incursion Key. It was a polished silver, though distorted. It was though it had once been a sharp, giant key that had now been unnaturally distorted. It was still a potent weapon, but something about seemed unnatural, as though it shouldn't have been allowed to exist.

"Part of the ritual involved means facing a part of yourself, of submitting a part of heart, your being as part of the trial. In doing so, the man from whom you came released a part of himself to the void. It happens to every Keyblade wielder as part of the Station of Calling ritual."

Mako remembered that. He had undergone the ritual himself. He had found himself in a black void with a single platform suspended in it. He'd fought some heartless there and had come to terms with his destiny as a wielder of the blade.

"That place," Xupal continued, "Is a place within your own being, a bridge connecting your heart to the rest of the universe. Keyblade wielders are taken to that place by the blade and tested."

"In the realm of light, this loss of a piece of one's self is insignificant, but in the darkness the loss is more potent. You were that loss...a piece of another man's heart."

Xupal looked away from the window and headed to the bookcase, thumbing through for the research on the heartless.

"While we were never complete hearts or bodies, when we found each other there was enough for us to bond and to fill the void of the other...allowing us to regrow."

He opened the book at a page detailing diagrams of himself and Mako.

"You are my heart Mako," Xupal said sadly, "And I am your body."

The room fell silent.
Mako silently approached Xupal, taking the offered book.

"So..." Mako answered quietly, "I'm not real?"

Xupal lowered his head,

"Neither of us are. Enough of my former self existed to make Xupal and Mickey continues to live. We're just shadows of them both."

He returned to his desk and sat down,

"Technically I'm not really a Nobody and you're not really a Heartless...at least not in the traditional sense of how the two are created."

Xupal summoned one of his lesser Nobodies and shrugged,

"And yet here we are..."

He realised that Mako was approaching him. Xupal stood, embracing his son as Mako began to sob.

"I'm sorry son," he said softly, trying not to cry himself, "I know this isn't easy. We both exist and don't. We're both whole and incomplete."

He lifted his son's head to look in to his face. Mako's eyes were becoming red and puffy, making Xupal want to cry more.

"But I love you, son. Nothing can change that and that makes us both real."

Mako nodded, wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his Nobody-robes.

Xupal sighed. He wasn't sure about doing what it was he was about to do,

"Son...do you want to meet him?"

He took a step back and raised an arm towards the centre of the room, the black portal of a Dark Corridor appearing in a cloud of thick, black tendrils of smoke.

Mako looked from the Corridor to his father and back again, and nodded.

"I think I should," he answered, stepping towards the opening...

[HearMeRoar]

The pair stood at the threshold of the opening, Mako gearing himself to enter the portal.

On the other side of this aperture was his original self.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

Dad says he's a king or something. How do you act with a king? How do you act with a king that's you?"

There was a nervous voice from the doorway that wasn't Mako's or his father's.

He kept breathing, waiting patiently. His dad would take care of this.
He noticed Xupal's presence leave his side briefly as he joined the unknown person at the door.

Ignore them...just breath. You can do this.

His calm was interrupted by his father's incredulous shout.

"Jesus Christ in a fucking chip shop!" He bellowed, slamming on the floor a clip-board the adjutant had apparently been carrying.
He stormed to his desk, bringing a furious fist down on to it's surface, "Already?!?!?!"

Mako opened his eyes, looking to his father and then to the extra person. A teenage girl, around his age, but human. She had taken to wearing the black robes of a Nobody, apparently emulating Mako and his father. He reassured her with a brief smile, retrieving the clip-board from the floor.
He looked to his father again an found him gazing back. Xupal lowered his head and said softly,

"Skip to the fourth paragraph."

Mako's eyes raced towards it, skim reading the words until the name jumped out at him.

Rhaxs...

"Fuck...me..."

Xupal rubbed his eye and growled,

"Tenily, get the others. We need to talk." He smiled apologetically at his son as the portal to the Dark Corridor closed,
"Sorry, but King Micky will have to wait..."

[HearMeRoar]

"It's a message," Xupal said bitterly, addressing the room. The core of unit 4 sat, cramped in Xupal's study. Chairs had been brought and the thirty or so people sat in an arch before Xupal, perching on the edge of his desk.

"She's calling herself this to send a message to me; to tell me she knows I'm back and who I am now."

"Who is this person?" A young male asked. Xupal hadn't learned his name yet though he stood out. He hadn't taken up the unit's new habit of dressing in Nobody robes and sat in what appeared to be medieval-esque peasant's clothes.

Xupal handed the clipboard to the young man, directing his view to the circled name on the page.

"Remove the 'X' from the name and rearrange the letters. That'll give us her real name."

Xupal sighed and scratched his head. He didn't like the idea of where this was going.

"It's a tradition among Nobodies," he explained, "When you become one you take this new name."

Most of the folks in the room nodded sagely. Some of them had been briefed on this already though now it was common knowledge amongst them.

"Shar isn't a Nobody, but by doing this her name would not only get in reports...but in my reports and she knows this'll get my attention."

He half-growled to himself, not pleased.

"What would you like us to do?" An elven woman asked. This was another one that hadn't embraced the apparent new 'uniform' of the group and sat in bonded leather armour.
Xupal paused, wondering that very thing for himself.

"Well naturally I'm eager to find out what she's up to. She's supposed to be dead."

He cracked his knuckles, suppressing his nervousness,

"But then again, so am I."

He pointed to the elven woman and GLaDOS,

"You two, head back to where you heard this report from. Keep a look-out, ask around, be inconspicuous."

The two nodded.

"As for the rest of you," Xupal continued, "We need to sort out the home affairs before we go gallivanting off all over the infinitum and head office has a task or two for us first."

He waved a hand in dismissal,

"I'll keep you all informed."

With a collective nod from the group, the meeting was over...