Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Crooked Ascension ❯ Just What Are They? ( Chapter 2 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: ShadowBendingShooter 
some clarification on who is whom, and Zanna starts to learn just what Isaac is capable of.
Non Anime: Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.05.2008 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.6K | Visits: 163 | Status: Work In Progress
some clarification on who is whom, and Zanna starts to learn just what Isaac is capable of.
Non Anime: Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.05.2008 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.6K | Visits: 163 | Status: Work In Progress
The next day Zanna stopped short at the door to her homeroom. There was a guy in the seat that she had sat in the day before. A very attractive guy. Kenneth stood up and got in her face.
“Yeah, told you that you wouldn’t have that seat today. Where ya gonna sit now?” he glanced at Isaac and then back to Zanna. “You fucking rip-off!” he yelled, pointing a finger at her face. Breaking focus from the guy with silvery blue hair, she glared fiercely at the redhead.
“Who the fuck are you calling a ripoff? At least I don’t get fashion tips from video games!” she sneered back at him
“I knew there was something I hated about you the moment I saw you, you biter. Go get your own look.” He growled back
“Biter? Of who?” she looked at Isaac, then back at the redhead “your friend? Shit, I’ve been rocking this look since I was thirteen. Where’d you get yours? You can’t have been born that ugly.” Some of the regular classmates laughed at this. Devin silenced them with a look.
“You wish you looked this good. And you might wanna cool your head, who knows how overheated it’ll get trying to keep up with me.”
“You sure you’re not talking about yourself? Didn’t sound like you were too thrilled to search the stacks for me yesterday.” Kenneth glared at Mordechai, who just shrugged.
“What were you in, the girly crap romance section? It’s not like you could actually win a guy over.” He scoffed.
“And who would want to win you over, with that eyeliner running down your cheeks?”
“They’re birthmarks, bitch!”
“Oh no! I’m scared! He’s gonna throw something dumb at me like a flaming Frisbee!” She mocked him more. Isaac turned towards the verbal battle with a look that said ‘what did she say?’
“Oh you have no idea who you’re dealing with. Believe me, I can make things happen. Things you don’t wanna know about.” The other classmates had fled to the corner of the room, wondering where the teacher had gone. Little did they know that Isaac had convinced him to leave when Kenneth had gotten up. Zanna sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Yeah? Like what? You gonna burn me with your cigarettes?”
“Oh I’ll burn you with more than that, bitch.”
“Shouldn’t you be off raping little boys, Axel?” She turned and stood with her back to the redhead, who was completely floored. Isaac sat stock still for a moment, processing what she’d just said, then jumped up and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the library bodily.
“What did she call me?” Kenneth asked his friends.
“Who’s Axel?” Dylan and Thane asked at the same time.
Zanna squirmed in the boy’s grip, surprised that someone the same size as she would be so insanely strong. She hadn’t said a thing to the boy yet, mostly from anger at the redhead, but also because she was rather embarrassed that she was enjoying the boy manhandling her. Once inside the library, he quite nearly threw her into one of the seats. Zanna was breathing hard when he slammed his hands onto the seat’s armrests. She jerked back, and two pairs of cerulean eyes met.
“How much do you know about the Organization?” he demanded.
“Orga-what?” she asked, completely confused. “I know the word, but not as a proper noun here.”
“Organization Thirteen. Nearly two decades ago they terrorized the worlds. You just called Reno by one of the member’s names.” His eyes narrowed.
“Never heard of them. And that boy’s name is Reno? But anyways, I don’t know why I called him that. It just came out or something.” Zanna shrugged. Frustrated, Isaac turned and started pacing in irritation. While he was doing this, he also probed her mind just a little. There were some blocks in her subconscious that he couldn’t get through, but she truly didn’t know anything about the Organization. He sat right there on the floor and slouched in defeat. Zanna wanted to reach out to him, find out why he was so upset, but she always got a little scared and shy around any guy she thought attractive.
“You may as well go back to the homeroom.” He mumbled. Zanna got up and took a couple steps before looking back at the boy. Sighing, she kneeled down next to him.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you anything. I just haven’t gotten to that point yet.” She winced for a moment. Patting him on the shoulder gently, she got up again. “Cheer up, okay Zex?” she said before leaving. Isaac stared at her retreating back.
Jericho looked up as Zanna slid into a seat in the science class. Kenneth was skipping class again, at this rate, he’d never finish high school. Looking around to make sure that nobody noticed him, he slid into the seat next to her, at the two person tables that the class had instead of desks. Zanna noticed him, but ignored the blue haired boy. After a long silence, Jericho leaned over towards her.
“What happened? Did he do something to you?” he whispered.
“Why do you care? You’re one of Reno’s friends.” She returned. Jericho shook his head slowly before responding.
“The look on his face said something was up.”
“We just talked. Something about some Organization or something. He got pretty worked up over it. I feel bad that I can’t help him out more.” She admitted.
“Yeah, he’s always going on about them, and how they were nuts, but had some good things going on too. I think he worries too much about them.” Zanna just shrugged and copied down the formulae that Yen Sid put up on the board. They returned to doing their class work, until she muttered something about how she was irritated at the coursework.
“Don’t let Rupert hear you say that.” He laughed.
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, you probably haven’t met him. He’s a senior – long blonde hair, green eyes, total science geek. Cold ass bastard.”
“Why are . . . why are you talking to me, instead of being cruel to me like that kid with the spiky brown hair, or the two guys with the black hair? Or Reno?”
“Trust me, if Reno were here, he’d never let me get away with this. He’s in this class too, but he’s ditching, like always. He’s never gonna graduate.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t know. I guess if Isaac trusts you enough to be alone with you, then I guess you’re ok. By the way, the one with the brown hair is Dylan – he shot spitwads at you, and the two with the black hair are Mordy and Devin. Devin probably blew your stuff everywhere.”
“Yes, he did. The jerk.” She silently seethed for a moment. “What’s with the whole school being scared of you guys anyways? I could understand Reno being kind of a problem, but you’re not really that bad.”
“I’m worse than you think. But it’s a bit . . . difficult to explain.” Zanna just shrugged and went back to the drone of the teacher’s voice.
“Do you want to know who the others are?” he asked after a while.
“Sure, then I won’t go calling people by weird names.” She laughed, pulling out a fairly hefty notebook that Jericho stared at.
“Holy crap you’re just like Isaac . . .” he trailed off, then shook his head to clear it. “I’ll start with the seniors. I’ve told you about Rupert, then there’s Ember, she’s our only girl so far. She’s got short blond hair, and the shrillest laugh I’ve ever heard. She’s also particularly sadistic.”
“I think she’s in my history class . . .” she interrupted flatly. Jericho checked a sheet of paper and nodded.
“Anyways, she’s Thane’s girlfriend. Thane . . . well, you’d know if you met him. He’s got pink hair. We don’t know why, but he likes it. He’s a brilliant artist too.”
“He poked me with his pencil my first day here.”
“Oh yeah, he does sit behind Isaac in homeroom. Anyways, that’s the seniors, then there’s the juniors; Dimitri, Isaac, and Devin. Dimitri is huge and unavoidable. Seeing as you’re about the same size as Isaac, he’s probably twice your height, and three to four times your weight in muscle alone. Isaac you met, and Devin . . . Devin’s the one blowing everything around.”
“Coach Clayton told me to guard Dimitri in gym yesterday . . . worst day ever there.”
“Yeah, Dimitri looks scary, but he’s really pretty nice. That brings us to the sophomores. Dylan you know, and probably hate, but once he warms up to you, he’s really nice. He’s a good musician too. Reno . . . needs no more introduction, I’m sure. Then there’s Bastien. He’s a business major, excellent at cards. Don’t ever play a game with him. He’s also got short blond hair like Ember, and quite a lot of piercings.”
“Hmmm, I saw someone like that in history. He was pretty quiet, but he stared at one of my drawings.” She pulled out the sketch and handed it to Jericho.
“May I?” he asked, picking up a pencil.
“Do what? I don’t want you changing my drawing . . . I really like that one.”
“No, no, just the name.”
“Oh, I guess so.” Jericho set to erasing the ‘Josh’ that she’d put in the corner and started scribbling. He passed it back to her after he finished. She looked at her drawing, saw it unchanged, and then looked at the name Jericho had written in.
“I didn’t even know him then! How could I have drawn Isaac?” she said, turning pink. Jericho just shrugged.
“We were baffled too. Thane has a copy of it in his sketchbook.”
“How?”
“He’s like a human copy machine with art. But anyways, I haven’t told you about us freshmen yet. It’s basically just me and Mordy. I’m a pretty good debater, but that’s my only apparent talent, until the moon comes out, but that’s another story. Then there’s Mordy. He’s brilliant at English, but you’d never guess it by the way he talks. He’s just . . . odd. A bit too interested in firearms too, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, I’m a freshman too. I just hope my mom doesn’t decide to move us yet again. I might actually like it here.” She then muttered under her breath “junior, huh? Guess that ruins my chances.” Jericho smiled at hearing that, but turned away so she didn’t notice. Zanna rested her head on her folded arms and looked nearly miserable. He nudged her shoulder with his.
“Don’t give up so soon.” He said, before packing up his stuff and leaving as the bell rang.
“Wait . . .” she called after him. “I don’t even know your name, dude.” She drifted off as she left the classroom.
She walked to her next class, one of her favorites. She figured she’d be waiting for this class to come a lot throughout her stay in this school. Art had always been her favorite subject, since she was always doodling something. She handed her class schedule slip to the teacher, a British woman with brown hair who simply introduced herself as ‘Jane’.
“We only have one seat left in class, over there, fourth row, the seat next to the window seat.” She directed.
This class, like science, had two person tables instead of desks. She was glad to see this, as she liked room to work. Sitting in the seat, she started pulling out the surplus of art supplies she carried around with her at all times, not noticing her tablemate come up and sit next to her. She barely noticed the sketch she’d done in history yesterday slide out of the book she kept it in and slide towards her tablemate. Stopping, she reached over to retrieve it, when a slender, masculine hand picked it up. She whipped her head around to deliver a sharp retort, but stopped suddenly when she noticed who was sitting next to her. She quickly flipped her hair in front of her rapidly reddening cheeks.
“Did you rename this?” Isaac asked quietly, offering the sketch back.
“Um, no. A guy with blue hair did. He told me everyone’s name but his own.” Zanna stammered. Isaac thought for a moment.
“Probably Jericho then. He does have science with you. I take it Reno ditched again?” he asked nonchalantly as Zanna stuffed the drawing back into her book.
“Jericho is his name? Yeah, I didn’t see Reno in the classroom. The other guy told me that he wouldn’t get away with telling me anything if Reno had been there.”
“Yeah, Jericho is a good friend, once he likes you. He’s good with important messages to be delivered, and informing people of things that they might need to know. He’s also a strong debater.” Isaac told her. “So what did he tell you about me?”
“He did mention he was good at debate, and mentioned something about the moon, but wouldn’t say what. He really didn’t mention anything about you, aside that you’re a junior.” Zanna shrugged, her flush finally wearing away.
Isaac pondered a while, while Zanna doodled. Her nervousness at being so close to him was, to her mind, still glaringly apparent. He barely noticed though, having more pressing matters on his continuously busy mind. Zanna and Isaac did the work in silence, her being too nervous to speak to him, he having too much on his mind to start a conversation. Every now and then, Zanna would sneak a side glance at him, doing a sketch of his features as a personal side project. She kept this under a book though, lest he find out that she had this interest in him.
When the bell rang, she slid it carefully under her other sketch, that Jericho had renamed. Shouldering her bag, she started to head out to spend another lunch in the library, when Isaac called to her.
“Hey, Zanna.” She jumped, not knowing he’d known her name, and flushing slightly at how much she liked the sound of it coming from his mouth.
“You want to spend lunch with us?” he asked.
“I, I really shouldn’t. I don’t think everyone likes me. I was going to spend it in the library reading anyways.” She shrugged, not wanting to reveal that she had no lunch again.
Isaac walked over to where she’d stopped short.
“That’s too bad. Maybe another day?” he asked, an easy grin on his face. Zanna nearly melted right there.
“Sure thing.” She squeaked out and fled to the library.
Heart racing, she slid into her favorite section of the month, metaphysics and the paranormal. She had been reading up on abilities that real people had, partially because of what Dylan and Devin had done to her, partially because she wanted to find out if she had anything like it herself. She couldn’t believe how close she’d been to fainting when he grinned at her. It frightened her and amazed her all at the same time. She’d never felt so drawn to anyone this quickly before. In fact, she felt an odd connection to the whole group, but didn’t want to say anything. It seemed that no matter what class she was in, there was always one of the group of eleven people in class with her. She just hoped that her French class would be a little easier on her.
“I saw what you did to Zanna’s sketch, Jericho.” Isaac said flatly in the band room. The freshman jumped under Isaac’s stern gaze.
“I just wanted to show her, nothing more.” He stammered, a little worried that he’d angered the one guy that could scramble his brain with little work.
Silence stretched out for what seemed like nearly twenty minutes, but was only a couple at most.
“Thank you. You gave me a perfect opportunity to get a feel for her personality.” The junior slowly smiled.
Jericho let out the breath he was holding, and visibly relaxed. Thane and Ember were off to the far end of the band room, apparently content with making lunch out of each other, they were so absorbed in their make-out session. Dimitri and Devin were sitting by Dylan, who was yet again strumming his guitar. Rupert was helping Bastien with his science notes, and Mordy and Reno were sitting with Jericho and Isaac.
“So, what’re you gonna do to her now?” Reno laughed evilly, still not forgiving her for the ‘raping young boys’ comment, even if she’d called him by another name.
“Nothing, yet. There’s something I’m still missing about her. She has those subconscious blocks, which may be hiding why she called you Axel.” Isaac said, pondering. He didn’t want to mention her calling him ‘Zex’ just yet.
“You think she’s got something to do with this Organization business?” Mordy asked.
“Possibly. Remember, I told you there was a fourteenth member that didn’t have a lot of information written about her yet. Just the name Naxzan, her ability, and that she’d died after Saix.”
The trio thought for a while, when Mordy’s eyes shot a little wider open.
“Hey, you said that the Organization’s names were based off of their original names, but anagrammed with an x, right?”
“Yes, why? Have you found something?” Isaac looked up with interest.
Mordy ripped a sheet of notebook paper out of his binder, and wrote down the name Naxzan.
“So we start with the fourteenth member’s name, right? Take out the x,” he crossed it out “and rearrange the letters.” Drawing lines from each letter, he spelled out Zanna’s name. Isaac’s face paled.
“That could mean anything though. Maybe her mom had a thing for the Organization like Isaac here does.” Reno said, slapping his silvery haired friend on the back.
“That’s true too. But we can’t just ignore that kind of coincidence.” Mordy shot to the redhead. The three surrounding Isaac looked up when he suddenly stood.
“I have some reading to do.” He said shortly before heading to the library.
“But Isaac” Jericho called after him “next period starts in a couple of minutes.”
The shorter junior stopped walking as he heard that. Sighing, he resolved to talk to Zanna later. Perhaps during free period. The group started picking their things up and heading to their classes, Thane and Jericho walking together to the language arts building.
“Why did you distract him from his warpath?” Thane asked.
“I don’t know, I just don’t get the evil vibe from her that Mordy seems to think she has.” Jericho shook his head. Just as they reached the French class, Thane spoke again.
“I don’t think she’s so bad either. It’s just that she messed up on her first day.”
Zanna was already seated when Jericho and Thane entered the class. Remembering what Jericho had told her about the pink haired guy, she left a couple of her random doodles out, sort of as a lure to show that she was a decent person. It wasn’t much, but it was all that she could think of. Unfortunately, it was Jericho who sat next to her once more, and not Thane as she’d hoped. Partway through class, she nudged the blue haired boy.
“Could you, you know, show those to Thane?” she whispered to him, sliding the folded paper with the doodles in it under a corner of his French book.
“Trying to get on his good side?” he asked, pulling the sheet out and looking at her artwork.
“Kinda, yeah.” She replied, trying not to get caught by their teacher.
Jericho nodded, and without such discretion, turned to Thane and talked to him about the drawings and doodles that she had handed him. Zanna marveled that they could get away with such obvious conversation in class. Some time into the conversation, she noticed Thane pull out a high end sketchbook and tear out a sheet from it. He folded this and handed it to Jericho, who shortly after ended the conversation with the pink haired guy.
“He wants you to have this. Says it’s not his art, and it’s not fair of him to keep it.” Jericho told her, blatantly handing her the folded piece of art paper.
Zanna glanced up at the teacher as she took the paper, who did in fact look at her, but ignored the exchange. Feeling somewhat giddy from the response of the teacher, she unfolded the sheet. It was a carbon copy of her drawing she’d done in history yesterday. Astounded, she looked over at the senior. Thane turned to half look at her, smiled a little and winked. Zanna couldn’t believe how lucky she was to be included into their group, albeit slowly. She had the feeling Reno would be the last to come around, but that didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would. She didn’t notice the girl from gym yesterday glaring at her, she was so excited to be part of a group she could finally get along with. She’d been the outcast for so long that she supposed she might very well have been depressed, as her mother called her.
“Hey, earth to Zanna.” Jericho called to her quietly, startling her out of her musings.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“Thane got a little silly with one of his drawings, he wanted to show it to you.” He grinned, a little evilly.
Zanna looked over at the artist, who handed her another sheet of paper from his sketchbook, across Jericho’s desk. She took it, just a little brazenly, due to her last experience with Miss Swann, their French teacher. Opening it, she saw a drawing of herself daydreaming . . . of Isaac. She turned red and semi-glared at the now-laughing Thane.
“Not funny.” She told him, tucking the paper into her book.
“Hey, c’mon now, I gave you your art back, now give me mine.” He replied.
“As long as none of you take it seriously, fine.” She said, pulling it back out of her book.
“Aw, now where’s the fun in that?” Thane teased her, taking the paper back and tucking it into the pocket of the sketchbook.
Miss Swann cleared her throat, and the trio turned back to the board. The rest of the class continued in silence, Zanna thinking about what Thane had drawn, Jericho and Thane considering talking to the others about how she wasn’t so bad of a person to know.
When the bell rang, Jericho stopped Zanna once more, outside of the classroom.
“Hey, just wanted to let you know, Mordy told us something weird at lunch today, so if Isaac gets a little weird, it’s only because of the strange connection that he made.” Zanna looked at him oddly.
“What sort of connection?”
“Something to do with the Organization. I’m sure by now you know that it’s one of Isaac’s pet projects.”
“Yeah, but I already told him I don’t know anything about them.”
“I wish . . . I wish I could tell you what could happen, but we’re kind of sworn to secrecy on it.” He told her sadly before running off.
Zanna wondered to herself what that was about, then continued into the library for her free period. She wondered why she got a free period at this school, since at her others, only seniors did. Shrugging, she went into her favorite section and pulled out a random book, not noticing that it was about the manifestation of powers in people who became Nobodies. Sitting in one of the comfortable lounging chairs at the back of the library, she opened the book and started reading. She didn’t notice Isaac sit in the chair next to her, with a large tome of his own.
“I think we should talk about what you’re hiding from us, and possibly yourself.” He said, startling her.
Zanna put down the book and looked at the silvery-blue haired boy. Taking in everything from his hairstyle to the color of his eyes, and the arch of his eyebrows, she committed the image to memory for further artistic purposes.
“What am I hiding? I have no idea what you’re talking about Isaac.”
“There are subconscious blocks in your brain, of course you wouldn’t know.”
Zanna blinked rapidly, not quite sure she was hearing him correctly, or if she wanted to believe what he was saying.
“Are . . . are you psychic?” she asked incredulously.
“You could say that. But I believe you know something about the Organization, it’s just blocked off.”
Zanna was starting to get frightened by the strange light in Isaac’s cerulean eyes. She wanted to trust him with what he was saying, but the way he was talking scared her, as though he was going to pry open secrets in her brain.
“I can help you remember them, if they’re in there.” He continued, reaching a hand out to her, but with an eerie smile. Frightened, Zanna grabbed her bag and ran.
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Author's Note: I do not know any facts about the official XIV, and any information in this story about XIV, including the name Naxzan, and what will be revealed as her abilities, are solely from my own imagination and not to be taken as fact.
“Yeah, told you that you wouldn’t have that seat today. Where ya gonna sit now?” he glanced at Isaac and then back to Zanna. “You fucking rip-off!” he yelled, pointing a finger at her face. Breaking focus from the guy with silvery blue hair, she glared fiercely at the redhead.
“Who the fuck are you calling a ripoff? At least I don’t get fashion tips from video games!” she sneered back at him
“I knew there was something I hated about you the moment I saw you, you biter. Go get your own look.” He growled back
“Biter? Of who?” she looked at Isaac, then back at the redhead “your friend? Shit, I’ve been rocking this look since I was thirteen. Where’d you get yours? You can’t have been born that ugly.” Some of the regular classmates laughed at this. Devin silenced them with a look.
“You wish you looked this good. And you might wanna cool your head, who knows how overheated it’ll get trying to keep up with me.”
“You sure you’re not talking about yourself? Didn’t sound like you were too thrilled to search the stacks for me yesterday.” Kenneth glared at Mordechai, who just shrugged.
“What were you in, the girly crap romance section? It’s not like you could actually win a guy over.” He scoffed.
“And who would want to win you over, with that eyeliner running down your cheeks?”
“They’re birthmarks, bitch!”
“Oh no! I’m scared! He’s gonna throw something dumb at me like a flaming Frisbee!” She mocked him more. Isaac turned towards the verbal battle with a look that said ‘what did she say?’
“Oh you have no idea who you’re dealing with. Believe me, I can make things happen. Things you don’t wanna know about.” The other classmates had fled to the corner of the room, wondering where the teacher had gone. Little did they know that Isaac had convinced him to leave when Kenneth had gotten up. Zanna sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Yeah? Like what? You gonna burn me with your cigarettes?”
“Oh I’ll burn you with more than that, bitch.”
“Shouldn’t you be off raping little boys, Axel?” She turned and stood with her back to the redhead, who was completely floored. Isaac sat stock still for a moment, processing what she’d just said, then jumped up and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the library bodily.
“What did she call me?” Kenneth asked his friends.
“Who’s Axel?” Dylan and Thane asked at the same time.
Zanna squirmed in the boy’s grip, surprised that someone the same size as she would be so insanely strong. She hadn’t said a thing to the boy yet, mostly from anger at the redhead, but also because she was rather embarrassed that she was enjoying the boy manhandling her. Once inside the library, he quite nearly threw her into one of the seats. Zanna was breathing hard when he slammed his hands onto the seat’s armrests. She jerked back, and two pairs of cerulean eyes met.
“How much do you know about the Organization?” he demanded.
“Orga-what?” she asked, completely confused. “I know the word, but not as a proper noun here.”
“Organization Thirteen. Nearly two decades ago they terrorized the worlds. You just called Reno by one of the member’s names.” His eyes narrowed.
“Never heard of them. And that boy’s name is Reno? But anyways, I don’t know why I called him that. It just came out or something.” Zanna shrugged. Frustrated, Isaac turned and started pacing in irritation. While he was doing this, he also probed her mind just a little. There were some blocks in her subconscious that he couldn’t get through, but she truly didn’t know anything about the Organization. He sat right there on the floor and slouched in defeat. Zanna wanted to reach out to him, find out why he was so upset, but she always got a little scared and shy around any guy she thought attractive.
“You may as well go back to the homeroom.” He mumbled. Zanna got up and took a couple steps before looking back at the boy. Sighing, she kneeled down next to him.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you anything. I just haven’t gotten to that point yet.” She winced for a moment. Patting him on the shoulder gently, she got up again. “Cheer up, okay Zex?” she said before leaving. Isaac stared at her retreating back.
Jericho looked up as Zanna slid into a seat in the science class. Kenneth was skipping class again, at this rate, he’d never finish high school. Looking around to make sure that nobody noticed him, he slid into the seat next to her, at the two person tables that the class had instead of desks. Zanna noticed him, but ignored the blue haired boy. After a long silence, Jericho leaned over towards her.
“What happened? Did he do something to you?” he whispered.
“Why do you care? You’re one of Reno’s friends.” She returned. Jericho shook his head slowly before responding.
“The look on his face said something was up.”
“We just talked. Something about some Organization or something. He got pretty worked up over it. I feel bad that I can’t help him out more.” She admitted.
“Yeah, he’s always going on about them, and how they were nuts, but had some good things going on too. I think he worries too much about them.” Zanna just shrugged and copied down the formulae that Yen Sid put up on the board. They returned to doing their class work, until she muttered something about how she was irritated at the coursework.
“Don’t let Rupert hear you say that.” He laughed.
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, you probably haven’t met him. He’s a senior – long blonde hair, green eyes, total science geek. Cold ass bastard.”
“Why are . . . why are you talking to me, instead of being cruel to me like that kid with the spiky brown hair, or the two guys with the black hair? Or Reno?”
“Trust me, if Reno were here, he’d never let me get away with this. He’s in this class too, but he’s ditching, like always. He’s never gonna graduate.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t know. I guess if Isaac trusts you enough to be alone with you, then I guess you’re ok. By the way, the one with the brown hair is Dylan – he shot spitwads at you, and the two with the black hair are Mordy and Devin. Devin probably blew your stuff everywhere.”
“Yes, he did. The jerk.” She silently seethed for a moment. “What’s with the whole school being scared of you guys anyways? I could understand Reno being kind of a problem, but you’re not really that bad.”
“I’m worse than you think. But it’s a bit . . . difficult to explain.” Zanna just shrugged and went back to the drone of the teacher’s voice.
“Do you want to know who the others are?” he asked after a while.
“Sure, then I won’t go calling people by weird names.” She laughed, pulling out a fairly hefty notebook that Jericho stared at.
“Holy crap you’re just like Isaac . . .” he trailed off, then shook his head to clear it. “I’ll start with the seniors. I’ve told you about Rupert, then there’s Ember, she’s our only girl so far. She’s got short blond hair, and the shrillest laugh I’ve ever heard. She’s also particularly sadistic.”
“I think she’s in my history class . . .” she interrupted flatly. Jericho checked a sheet of paper and nodded.
“Anyways, she’s Thane’s girlfriend. Thane . . . well, you’d know if you met him. He’s got pink hair. We don’t know why, but he likes it. He’s a brilliant artist too.”
“He poked me with his pencil my first day here.”
“Oh yeah, he does sit behind Isaac in homeroom. Anyways, that’s the seniors, then there’s the juniors; Dimitri, Isaac, and Devin. Dimitri is huge and unavoidable. Seeing as you’re about the same size as Isaac, he’s probably twice your height, and three to four times your weight in muscle alone. Isaac you met, and Devin . . . Devin’s the one blowing everything around.”
“Coach Clayton told me to guard Dimitri in gym yesterday . . . worst day ever there.”
“Yeah, Dimitri looks scary, but he’s really pretty nice. That brings us to the sophomores. Dylan you know, and probably hate, but once he warms up to you, he’s really nice. He’s a good musician too. Reno . . . needs no more introduction, I’m sure. Then there’s Bastien. He’s a business major, excellent at cards. Don’t ever play a game with him. He’s also got short blond hair like Ember, and quite a lot of piercings.”
“Hmmm, I saw someone like that in history. He was pretty quiet, but he stared at one of my drawings.” She pulled out the sketch and handed it to Jericho.
“May I?” he asked, picking up a pencil.
“Do what? I don’t want you changing my drawing . . . I really like that one.”
“No, no, just the name.”
“Oh, I guess so.” Jericho set to erasing the ‘Josh’ that she’d put in the corner and started scribbling. He passed it back to her after he finished. She looked at her drawing, saw it unchanged, and then looked at the name Jericho had written in.
“I didn’t even know him then! How could I have drawn Isaac?” she said, turning pink. Jericho just shrugged.
“We were baffled too. Thane has a copy of it in his sketchbook.”
“How?”
“He’s like a human copy machine with art. But anyways, I haven’t told you about us freshmen yet. It’s basically just me and Mordy. I’m a pretty good debater, but that’s my only apparent talent, until the moon comes out, but that’s another story. Then there’s Mordy. He’s brilliant at English, but you’d never guess it by the way he talks. He’s just . . . odd. A bit too interested in firearms too, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, I’m a freshman too. I just hope my mom doesn’t decide to move us yet again. I might actually like it here.” She then muttered under her breath “junior, huh? Guess that ruins my chances.” Jericho smiled at hearing that, but turned away so she didn’t notice. Zanna rested her head on her folded arms and looked nearly miserable. He nudged her shoulder with his.
“Don’t give up so soon.” He said, before packing up his stuff and leaving as the bell rang.
“Wait . . .” she called after him. “I don’t even know your name, dude.” She drifted off as she left the classroom.
She walked to her next class, one of her favorites. She figured she’d be waiting for this class to come a lot throughout her stay in this school. Art had always been her favorite subject, since she was always doodling something. She handed her class schedule slip to the teacher, a British woman with brown hair who simply introduced herself as ‘Jane’.
“We only have one seat left in class, over there, fourth row, the seat next to the window seat.” She directed.
This class, like science, had two person tables instead of desks. She was glad to see this, as she liked room to work. Sitting in the seat, she started pulling out the surplus of art supplies she carried around with her at all times, not noticing her tablemate come up and sit next to her. She barely noticed the sketch she’d done in history yesterday slide out of the book she kept it in and slide towards her tablemate. Stopping, she reached over to retrieve it, when a slender, masculine hand picked it up. She whipped her head around to deliver a sharp retort, but stopped suddenly when she noticed who was sitting next to her. She quickly flipped her hair in front of her rapidly reddening cheeks.
“Did you rename this?” Isaac asked quietly, offering the sketch back.
“Um, no. A guy with blue hair did. He told me everyone’s name but his own.” Zanna stammered. Isaac thought for a moment.
“Probably Jericho then. He does have science with you. I take it Reno ditched again?” he asked nonchalantly as Zanna stuffed the drawing back into her book.
“Jericho is his name? Yeah, I didn’t see Reno in the classroom. The other guy told me that he wouldn’t get away with telling me anything if Reno had been there.”
“Yeah, Jericho is a good friend, once he likes you. He’s good with important messages to be delivered, and informing people of things that they might need to know. He’s also a strong debater.” Isaac told her. “So what did he tell you about me?”
“He did mention he was good at debate, and mentioned something about the moon, but wouldn’t say what. He really didn’t mention anything about you, aside that you’re a junior.” Zanna shrugged, her flush finally wearing away.
Isaac pondered a while, while Zanna doodled. Her nervousness at being so close to him was, to her mind, still glaringly apparent. He barely noticed though, having more pressing matters on his continuously busy mind. Zanna and Isaac did the work in silence, her being too nervous to speak to him, he having too much on his mind to start a conversation. Every now and then, Zanna would sneak a side glance at him, doing a sketch of his features as a personal side project. She kept this under a book though, lest he find out that she had this interest in him.
When the bell rang, she slid it carefully under her other sketch, that Jericho had renamed. Shouldering her bag, she started to head out to spend another lunch in the library, when Isaac called to her.
“Hey, Zanna.” She jumped, not knowing he’d known her name, and flushing slightly at how much she liked the sound of it coming from his mouth.
“You want to spend lunch with us?” he asked.
“I, I really shouldn’t. I don’t think everyone likes me. I was going to spend it in the library reading anyways.” She shrugged, not wanting to reveal that she had no lunch again.
Isaac walked over to where she’d stopped short.
“That’s too bad. Maybe another day?” he asked, an easy grin on his face. Zanna nearly melted right there.
“Sure thing.” She squeaked out and fled to the library.
Heart racing, she slid into her favorite section of the month, metaphysics and the paranormal. She had been reading up on abilities that real people had, partially because of what Dylan and Devin had done to her, partially because she wanted to find out if she had anything like it herself. She couldn’t believe how close she’d been to fainting when he grinned at her. It frightened her and amazed her all at the same time. She’d never felt so drawn to anyone this quickly before. In fact, she felt an odd connection to the whole group, but didn’t want to say anything. It seemed that no matter what class she was in, there was always one of the group of eleven people in class with her. She just hoped that her French class would be a little easier on her.
“I saw what you did to Zanna’s sketch, Jericho.” Isaac said flatly in the band room. The freshman jumped under Isaac’s stern gaze.
“I just wanted to show her, nothing more.” He stammered, a little worried that he’d angered the one guy that could scramble his brain with little work.
Silence stretched out for what seemed like nearly twenty minutes, but was only a couple at most.
“Thank you. You gave me a perfect opportunity to get a feel for her personality.” The junior slowly smiled.
Jericho let out the breath he was holding, and visibly relaxed. Thane and Ember were off to the far end of the band room, apparently content with making lunch out of each other, they were so absorbed in their make-out session. Dimitri and Devin were sitting by Dylan, who was yet again strumming his guitar. Rupert was helping Bastien with his science notes, and Mordy and Reno were sitting with Jericho and Isaac.
“So, what’re you gonna do to her now?” Reno laughed evilly, still not forgiving her for the ‘raping young boys’ comment, even if she’d called him by another name.
“Nothing, yet. There’s something I’m still missing about her. She has those subconscious blocks, which may be hiding why she called you Axel.” Isaac said, pondering. He didn’t want to mention her calling him ‘Zex’ just yet.
“You think she’s got something to do with this Organization business?” Mordy asked.
“Possibly. Remember, I told you there was a fourteenth member that didn’t have a lot of information written about her yet. Just the name Naxzan, her ability, and that she’d died after Saix.”
The trio thought for a while, when Mordy’s eyes shot a little wider open.
“Hey, you said that the Organization’s names were based off of their original names, but anagrammed with an x, right?”
“Yes, why? Have you found something?” Isaac looked up with interest.
Mordy ripped a sheet of notebook paper out of his binder, and wrote down the name Naxzan.
“So we start with the fourteenth member’s name, right? Take out the x,” he crossed it out “and rearrange the letters.” Drawing lines from each letter, he spelled out Zanna’s name. Isaac’s face paled.
“That could mean anything though. Maybe her mom had a thing for the Organization like Isaac here does.” Reno said, slapping his silvery haired friend on the back.
“That’s true too. But we can’t just ignore that kind of coincidence.” Mordy shot to the redhead. The three surrounding Isaac looked up when he suddenly stood.
“I have some reading to do.” He said shortly before heading to the library.
“But Isaac” Jericho called after him “next period starts in a couple of minutes.”
The shorter junior stopped walking as he heard that. Sighing, he resolved to talk to Zanna later. Perhaps during free period. The group started picking their things up and heading to their classes, Thane and Jericho walking together to the language arts building.
“Why did you distract him from his warpath?” Thane asked.
“I don’t know, I just don’t get the evil vibe from her that Mordy seems to think she has.” Jericho shook his head. Just as they reached the French class, Thane spoke again.
“I don’t think she’s so bad either. It’s just that she messed up on her first day.”
Zanna was already seated when Jericho and Thane entered the class. Remembering what Jericho had told her about the pink haired guy, she left a couple of her random doodles out, sort of as a lure to show that she was a decent person. It wasn’t much, but it was all that she could think of. Unfortunately, it was Jericho who sat next to her once more, and not Thane as she’d hoped. Partway through class, she nudged the blue haired boy.
“Could you, you know, show those to Thane?” she whispered to him, sliding the folded paper with the doodles in it under a corner of his French book.
“Trying to get on his good side?” he asked, pulling the sheet out and looking at her artwork.
“Kinda, yeah.” She replied, trying not to get caught by their teacher.
Jericho nodded, and without such discretion, turned to Thane and talked to him about the drawings and doodles that she had handed him. Zanna marveled that they could get away with such obvious conversation in class. Some time into the conversation, she noticed Thane pull out a high end sketchbook and tear out a sheet from it. He folded this and handed it to Jericho, who shortly after ended the conversation with the pink haired guy.
“He wants you to have this. Says it’s not his art, and it’s not fair of him to keep it.” Jericho told her, blatantly handing her the folded piece of art paper.
Zanna glanced up at the teacher as she took the paper, who did in fact look at her, but ignored the exchange. Feeling somewhat giddy from the response of the teacher, she unfolded the sheet. It was a carbon copy of her drawing she’d done in history yesterday. Astounded, she looked over at the senior. Thane turned to half look at her, smiled a little and winked. Zanna couldn’t believe how lucky she was to be included into their group, albeit slowly. She had the feeling Reno would be the last to come around, but that didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would. She didn’t notice the girl from gym yesterday glaring at her, she was so excited to be part of a group she could finally get along with. She’d been the outcast for so long that she supposed she might very well have been depressed, as her mother called her.
“Hey, earth to Zanna.” Jericho called to her quietly, startling her out of her musings.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“Thane got a little silly with one of his drawings, he wanted to show it to you.” He grinned, a little evilly.
Zanna looked over at the artist, who handed her another sheet of paper from his sketchbook, across Jericho’s desk. She took it, just a little brazenly, due to her last experience with Miss Swann, their French teacher. Opening it, she saw a drawing of herself daydreaming . . . of Isaac. She turned red and semi-glared at the now-laughing Thane.
“Not funny.” She told him, tucking the paper into her book.
“Hey, c’mon now, I gave you your art back, now give me mine.” He replied.
“As long as none of you take it seriously, fine.” She said, pulling it back out of her book.
“Aw, now where’s the fun in that?” Thane teased her, taking the paper back and tucking it into the pocket of the sketchbook.
Miss Swann cleared her throat, and the trio turned back to the board. The rest of the class continued in silence, Zanna thinking about what Thane had drawn, Jericho and Thane considering talking to the others about how she wasn’t so bad of a person to know.
When the bell rang, Jericho stopped Zanna once more, outside of the classroom.
“Hey, just wanted to let you know, Mordy told us something weird at lunch today, so if Isaac gets a little weird, it’s only because of the strange connection that he made.” Zanna looked at him oddly.
“What sort of connection?”
“Something to do with the Organization. I’m sure by now you know that it’s one of Isaac’s pet projects.”
“Yeah, but I already told him I don’t know anything about them.”
“I wish . . . I wish I could tell you what could happen, but we’re kind of sworn to secrecy on it.” He told her sadly before running off.
Zanna wondered to herself what that was about, then continued into the library for her free period. She wondered why she got a free period at this school, since at her others, only seniors did. Shrugging, she went into her favorite section and pulled out a random book, not noticing that it was about the manifestation of powers in people who became Nobodies. Sitting in one of the comfortable lounging chairs at the back of the library, she opened the book and started reading. She didn’t notice Isaac sit in the chair next to her, with a large tome of his own.
“I think we should talk about what you’re hiding from us, and possibly yourself.” He said, startling her.
Zanna put down the book and looked at the silvery-blue haired boy. Taking in everything from his hairstyle to the color of his eyes, and the arch of his eyebrows, she committed the image to memory for further artistic purposes.
“What am I hiding? I have no idea what you’re talking about Isaac.”
“There are subconscious blocks in your brain, of course you wouldn’t know.”
Zanna blinked rapidly, not quite sure she was hearing him correctly, or if she wanted to believe what he was saying.
“Are . . . are you psychic?” she asked incredulously.
“You could say that. But I believe you know something about the Organization, it’s just blocked off.”
Zanna was starting to get frightened by the strange light in Isaac’s cerulean eyes. She wanted to trust him with what he was saying, but the way he was talking scared her, as though he was going to pry open secrets in her brain.
“I can help you remember them, if they’re in there.” He continued, reaching a hand out to her, but with an eerie smile. Frightened, Zanna grabbed her bag and ran.
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Author's Note: I do not know any facts about the official XIV, and any information in this story about XIV, including the name Naxzan, and what will be revealed as her abilities, are solely from my own imagination and not to be taken as fact.