Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Crooked Ascension ❯ What are they? What am I?? ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: ShadowBendingShooter 
some more new surprises . . .
Non Anime: Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.08.2008 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 162 | Status: Work In Progress
some more new surprises . . .
Non Anime: Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.08.2008 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 162 | Status: Work In Progress
Zanna dashed out of the gate to the school the moment it opened. Confused and frightened, she didn’t register Jericho calling after her, and barely missed being hit by cars as she fled. She didn’t even register the tears that streamed down her face, a result of being hurt by Isaac. Slamming the door behind her, she ran upstairs and pulled down the trundle stairs to the attic. It was her safe place in every house they’d lived in since she was a child. Wedging herself between two boxes, she curled into a ball, trying to forget the crazy look in Isaac’s eyes as the tears continued to fall, unnoticed.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Jericho looked over his shoulder as Isaac walked up.
“What happened to Zanna?” he asked the older boy. Isaac closed his eyes, clearing his mind from the fog it had been in.
“We were talking. I tried talking to her about what might be hidden from her in her own mind, but . . . she ran.”
Jericho looked at him somewhat sternly.
“Did you do the creepy look?”
“What creepy look do you mean? I wasn’t aware I had a creepy look.”
“It’s this look you get when you want to pick someone’s brain apart. Almost like you’re telling them to hand over their brain like as if it’s a book to be read, cross referenced, edited, and tossed into a random pile of other books.” Jericho demonstrated a rather creepy look. Isaac looked taken aback.
“I look like that? That must have been why she ran.” Isaac pondered for a moment. “She . . . she looked as though she was about to cry, too.”
“You mean you haven’t noticed?” Jericho asked, stunned.
“Noticed? What was I supposed to notice, when I have so much on my mind?”
Thane had walked up during their conversation, and placed a hand on Isaac’s shoulder at this point.
“Girl’s got it bad for you man. Almost as bad as Ember’s got it for me.” He laughed. Jericho shoved the senior in the shoulder playfully.
“You know you love it Thane.” Turning back to Isaac, he continued. “Seriously, she thought she’d have to give you up because you’re two grades over her.”
Isaac thought this over, and pulled out his large journal to note this down as well. Jericho and Thane both raised their eyebrows at each other, since Isaac only noted down important details in his journal.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Donal sat at his house, waiting for his parents to sign the release form for the class trip to Destiny Islands High School. It may be his only chance to narrow down who he needed to research for any connection to Ais, and his minions of the last life. He had no idea if he would be able to recognize them immediately, but he figured that there would be some sort of connection that he’d feel between himself and his followers. It had taken a lot of convincing on his part to get Leon to agree to the trip. He did not appreciate the wait of a week to go, but it was for those with stubborn parents that took forever to decide.
“Oh well,” he said to the empty dining room, as his parents talked in the living room. “Perhaps by the time this trip happens, the child relative of Ais will have found the Lexicon, then I can force them to give it to me.” His orange-gold eyes gleamed evilly.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
“Zanna! Wherever you are, you’d better be unpacking our stuff!” her mother yelled as she came home, startling the girl awake.
Zanna hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep, exhausted from the day. Wiping her face where the tears had dried, she opened the box nearest her.
“I’m in the attic, going through boxes.” She called down to the woman.
Hearing no response, she continued looking through the box. It was one of the boxes that her mother had said came with her. There were no pictures to identify her birth parents by, and at the bottom was a large, dusty tome. It was black, trimmed with what looked like silver, and strange writing on the front. There was also a strange, three pointed design above the writing. Picking it up, she noted the strange feeling that came from it. It almost hummed with power. Dusting it off, the feeling faded, and one of the words on the cover became legible.
“Lexicon, huh? Ah well, it’s a pretty book, I may as well keep it.”
Zanna closed the box that it had come from, and carried the oddly light book to her room, where she put it on her desk. She then continued unpacking the boxes stacked in her room.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Isaac looked around the house for his guardian, having been orphaned the same as Zanna. He found the silver haired man in his study, looking at a sword that resembled a bat’s wing.
“Hey Uncle Riku, can we talk?” Isaac asked tentatively.
Riku turned with a smile on his face. Despite having silver hair, he was quite young. He’d had the silver hair even when he was Isaac’s age. Currently in his forties, he still retained some of his youthfulness, despite all he’d seen.
“Sure thing, brat. What’s on your mind?” he said, sitting in a large, comfortable chair. Isaac sat in one of the two other chairs in the study.
“Well, for starters there’s this girl . . .”
“I know that predicament.” Riku smiled.
“But there’s also something else about her. She . . . she’s called Reno by the name Axel.” Riku’s smile drooped a little, but he nodded and forced it back up.
“And she called me Zex. I can only assume it was short for Zexion.”
The look of shock on Riku’s face spoke volumes. Isaac could tell he’d hit a sore point in the man’s history. The older man’s mind reeled with the information, it was something he’d feared for a while, since Isaac looked so much like the Organization Thirteen member, as well as his friends looking markedly like the others. Inhaling slowly through his nose, getting some of the scents around him, he asked his ward only one thing.
“What do you smell, Isaac?”
The question threw the boy for a loop. He was not expecting that at all, and it seemed more random than anything he could have possibly imagined. He took a few tentative sniffs anyways, since Riku had never steered him wrong before.
“The scent of the islands, papou fruit . . .” He sniffed a little harder, catching something odd. “A smell . . . of darkness, and shadow. But that doesn’t make sense, how does darkness and shadow have a scent?”
Riku didn’t answer, but sat there thinking. He couldn’t believe it. Here, sitting in front of him, was the reincarnation of Zexion, the Cloaked Schemer. Renowned for his ability to identify people by scent from miles away. The man knew the scent of darkness and shadow was coming from himself, as well as some of the island and papou fruit scent, but they did live on the islands anyways. Those scents could be explained away, but not the darkness and shadow.
“I would answer your questions, Ze – I mean, Isaac, but there’s a lot I need to think about right now. I’d like to meet that girl though. Try to invite her for dinner, or something.” Riku stood, going through the shelves in his study.
Isaac stood, baffled by this change in personality of his guardian. Walking to his room, he tried to figure what had alarmed his Uncle Riku so much. It would seem he had much more to think about than before. Lying on his bed, he stared up at the ceiling. Not only was a girl interested in him, but she also had to have some sort of connection with the Organization, which was blocked off from her conscious mind, and unavailable for him to reach. She’d called him Zex, his guardian was bothered by that information, and the strange scents he’d picked up that made no sense to him. He also caught his guardian start to call him by some name starting with a Z as well. So many things were happening, ever since Zanna came along, that were so confusing. Thinking back on what she looked like, he supposed that she was rather attractive as well, but more than that, he’d rather find out what her connection was to the Organization. As well as why Uncle Riku had requested the ‘sniff’ test. It seemed that nothing made sense anymore.
Isaac lay there, ruminating on the possibilities of why everything seemed to be falling apart well into the nighttime.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Zanna woke up that morning feeling both weakened and energized at the same time. Looking at the Lexicon on her desk, she considered bringing it with her to school, but decided otherwise. She didn’t want to carry it around on a day when she had to deal with Reno in physical education, who knows what he might try to do with it for her comments in homeroom yesterday.
“Maybe tomorrow.” She said to the book, even though she knew quite well that it wouldn’t answer her back. Heading downstairs, she saw that she’d finally been graced with a lunch for school. Smiling, she thought that even if he’d scared her yesterday, that if Isaac asked her to join them for lunch again, she might very well take him up on his offer. She was becoming friends with Jericho and Thane, after all.
Seeing Zanna walking into the gates of the school, Jericho caught up to her.
“Hey.”
“Oh hey, Jericho. How’re you today?” she grinned.
“Decent. But hey, just to let you know, Isaac didn’t really mean to freak you out yesterday. He really didn’t know that he can look kinda scary when he starts talking about picking brains.”
“Kind of, he says.” Zanna laughed. “Nah, it’s ok. I figured it was just something odd that he does, since everyone in your group seems to be a bit secretive about that.”
Jericho looked a bit oddly at her.
“No need to bring that up.”
“Right, right.” Zanna nodded, and they headed into homeroom together.
The homeroom teacher had added in a new desk for Zanna, since the rest were all full. It did stick out like a sore thumb, but she at least had her own seat. The class slowly filled in, as they’d come in early to sit. Zanna pulled out her sketchbook, and continued a group drawing she was making of Isaac’s group. She didn’t notice Thane come up behind her and look over her shoulder.
“Devin’s hair is a bit longer, and more annoying.” He commented, laughing at the octopus that she’d stuck on his head for laughs in her sketch. Zanna looked up and laughed with him.
“I dunno, looks like an octopus to me . . .” she laughed.
The class filled up, and she glanced up once at Isaac as he came in, but then looked away, still remembering the look in his eyes from yesterday, as well as blushing. He didn’t go straight to his desk, but over to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, he spoke through the curtain of hair that hid his face.
“I’m – I’m sorry for yesterday, Zanna. I didn’t realize I could get like that.”
“Its okay, Isaac. You should see me when someone interrupts my drawing.” She smiled, blushing slightly.
“I’m glad to know that you weren’t hurt too bad by my actions.” He said, a slight smile crossing his features.
She flushed a little more as he walked over to his seat. The bell rang, and most of the class settled down. The group in the back, however, talked amongst themselves for most of the class. Zanna debated sliding her desk back, so that she could talk to them as well, but wasn’t sure how well being friends with only three of the members would keep the others from being rude to her. She noticed with a slight shrug that Devin wasn’t in school today.
Smiling, thinking she’d finally stop having her things blown around in algebra, she actually looked forward to creative writing, even if it wasn’t really that creative. Miss Megara still told them what to write about, instead of it being totally creative. It might cramp her style a little, but at least she could write her poetry in the free verse style, as opposed to all the rhyme schemes that she had to put up with in English classes. Something about rhyming seemed childish and uncreative to her. She added a few more people to her drawing of Isaac’s group, catching a few of the details of Dylan’s strange hairstyle. She hoped that someday she could make it a sort of mural in a room of hers, if they managed to stay here.
Unfortunately, creative writing ended too soon for her tastes, as she had to go on to algebra afterwards. Maybe she could get Isaac to help her with the gibberish, if he even understood what it meant. Groaning, she slid into her seat, not registering Mordy sitting next to her, instead of his regular seat.
“Hey.” He said, getting her attention.
“Um, hi.” she blinked a few times at the boy sitting next to her. “Mordy, right?” she asked, checking the notes she’d jotted down in science, when Jericho had told her about the group.
“Yeah, caught that huh? Anyways, I got a message from Isaac.”
Their teacher glared at them, which just earned an eye roll from Mordy.
“As if I’d listen to that dude. Anyways, he says come to the band room at lunch. He’s gotta ask you something.”
Zanna giggled to herself.
“Wow, when Jericho says you don’t sound like the English expert that you are, he doesn’t lie.” Mordy rolled his eyes.
“Dude, just cause I’m good at it don’t mean I wanna use it all the time. Except, the old English dudes had some great insults. Oh, hey, want me to show you where the band room is, since lunch is up next?”
“Sounds good. And here I thought you didn’t like me.” She laughed again.
“Nah, just had to learn the ropes, right? Besides, you got Thane liking you, which is a step in the right direction in my book.”
“Mordechai! If you and Zanna do not pay attention, you will fail. Do you understand me?” the teacher bellowed.
Mordy narrowed his eyes at the man, then an evil grin spread across his face.
“Sure do, you toffee nosed, malodorous eel skin.”
“What did you call me?”
“Oh, my apologies, let me clarify for you, thou pigeon livered swollen parcel of dropsies. You lack any direction for yourself and must follow your superiors, often with your nose up their bum, which causes you to emit foul odors from your tanned, stretched skin of a worthless body.”
Zanna stared, and couldn’t help but giggle at the total change from surfer slang to proper and even old English. That and the insults were pretty funny. The teacher, still failing to understand what Mordy was saying completely, ignored them for the rest of the class.
“Well that was some display of language. I don’t think a single word of that was a curse either.”
“Nope. It’s really fun to pull that out when one of the teachers gets too gripey. It’s got a bigger impact going from how I normally talk, too. Anyways, class is almost over, let’s slip out early. I can always get Devin to translate this stuff for me anyways.”
Shrugging, Zanna followed the stripy haired boy.
“Wait, there’s someone who understands that gibberish?” she asked as they walked to the band room.
“Yeah, I sure ain’t passing on my own. Why? Need help with it?”
“That’s an understatement.”
“I’ll let ya look at my paper once Devin’s done with it. Even if it doesn’t make sense, he gives everyone the same problems.”
Zanna still chuckled to herself randomly as they strolled right into the band room. The bell had just rung, and a lot of the kids were packing up their instruments for lunch. Dylan was there already, and after giving her an unfriendly look, focused on the frets of his guitar, ignoring her and Mordy.
“Dude, I don’t wanna see so much as a drop of water over here.” Mordy told the boy as he showed Zanna where to sit.
Dylan’s only answer was to hit a sour chord. Mordy shook his head and laughed at him, sitting nearby Zanna, but on a lower level of the band room’s stepped seating. Zanna pondered over it as the rest of the group trickled in. Thane pulled Ember over to the piano after she shot Zanna an evil look, and occupied her by talking to her. A tall blonde boy looked at her as though she could be a possible experiment as he passed.
“That’s Rupert. Don’t drink anything he gives you.” Jericho said as he sat nearby her, but also on a lower level.
“Okay . . . the science geek, right?” Zanna asked, causing Mordy to laugh.
“She already got him pegged. That’s hilarious dude.”
Bastien passed by the group without a look, sitting by Dylan and Rupert. Reno was the next to enter, and started to head straight for Zanna, when both Jericho and Mordy stood in front of her.
“No, I can fight my own battles, guys.”
“You don’t want to fight this battle with nobody around to keep him in check, Zanna.” Jericho warned her.
Isaac walked in just then. Smirking, Jericho and Mordy sat back down. Reno hadn’t yet seen Isaac walk in and advanced towards Zanna again.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Reno.”
Hearing Isaac’s quiet voice, the redhead stopped in his tracks. He then took a wide detour to sit by Dylan. Zanna just raised her eyebrows before returning to her roast beef sandwich. Isaac climbed the stepped seating and sat next to Zanna.
“I see the rain check has cleared.” He smiled slightly.
“Yeah. I just wasn’t sure how everyone else would react to my joining you.”
“Don’t worry about the others so much, I won’t let them do anything.” Zanna blushed at this.
“But I did ask that you come for a reason. Seeing as I don’t have any classes with you outside of homeroom today, and we were a bit far away to talk during class, this would be my only time to ask. My uncle wants to invite you to dinner, and I figured tonight might be a good time.”
Mordy and Jericho exchanged looks, unnoticed by either Isaac or Zanna. She flushed a little and looked slightly away.
“I’d have to tell my mom, but I think I could make it. I’d like to drop off my stuff at home too.”
“Not a problem. We usually eat a little later anyways.”
Isaac took her note journal from her lap and wrote down his address and a time on a blank sheet. Jericho and Mordy started poking each other, grins on their faces. Leaning back to get a clear look at Bastien, Mordy called out to him.
“Dude! That’s fifty bucks you owe me! Looks like you lost this bet.” He laughed.
Zanna looked at him, confused.
“What bet?”
“Oh, mister gamble-o-holic over there bet me that you’d never be able to become friends with us. Thought for sure Isaac would hate you forever.”
Bastien grumbled irritably as he got up and handed Mordy a handful of money. He then walked over to Thane and handed him some money as well. Thane grinned and tossed his pink hair as the blonde walked away.
“And what was that one, Thane?” Jericho asked, after Zanna had nudged him.
Thane turned to the small group of underclassmen. He knew it was Zanna’s question, but figured she was still wary of a few of the group. He couldn’t blame her though, after the way Reno had acted.
“What gender our dear Isaac was interested in.” he grinned as the junior froze.
Zanna’s face turned bright red in seconds, and she tried to hide behind her hair. Mordy’s and Jericho’s jaws dropped, and even Dylan stopped playing. Feeling eyes on her, as well as certain they were staring at Thane and Isaac also, Zanna hurriedly grabbed her things and stood.
“I’ll see you tonight, Isaac.” She said shortly as she fled the band room.
Isaac slowly turned to glare at Thane after she’d left. Thane’s only response was an embarrassed smile and a shrug. Reno tried to ignore what was happening, much like he ignored one aspect of his life that he didn’t want to admit to.
“Bastien, make sure she knows that Thane was being an idiot. I have to get to class.” Isaac said as he stood, picking up his backpack and journal.
Ember looked at her boyfriend worriedly. Sure, she didn’t like taking orders from the quiet kid, but she knew what he was capable of, and because of that, she respected him. The bell then rang, so she kissed him goodbye and followed Bastien to history class. She hoped that Isaac didn’t end up doing anything to him, otherwise she might get angry.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Bastien grumbled at having to be the messenger boy this time. Usually it was Jericho’s job to let people know what was going on, not his, and he still wasn’t sure if he liked the girl. Something about her creeped him out. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but she was just strange. He still didn’t have all the odds figured, so he was going to sit back and wait to see what happened. It was just like a game of Texas hold-em to him. In fact, all of life was like a card game to him. It was just a matter of who the odds were on, what the odds were, and who got lucky.
“Hey. You.” He said as he saw Zanna at her seat, still hiding behind her hair.
“Isaac says that Thane was just being an idiot.”
Zanna just nodded, and he sat at his seat, ignoring her again. He’d delivered the message, so he was done. He wanted to check, but Thane just had to throw out that bid, causing everyone at the table to see it, if they wanted to continue on this hand. It had potential to be an interesting game, so he’d seen the bid too, barely. The flop hadn’t even been dealt yet, how could Thane choose to bid? There was still too much to be decided.
Zanna paid no attention to the history teacher as the old tale of the Turks from another world was told for what seemed like the fiftieth time to her mind. She continued mostly on her group drawing of the group, inserting herself next to Isaac, looking at him shyly and blushing. She kept the sketch in pencil, since she knew that there would probably be changes as she got to know the others a little better.
At one point, the teacher mentioned the Organization. Hearing this, Zanna paid attention for a few minutes to what he was saying.
“A few people speculate that some of the Turks were the original Others of a few of the Nobodies that were in the Organization. We don’t know this for sure, as we have no records of this. There is the matter of Zexion’s Lexicon, which many believe to still be in existence. Until we find it, or find proof that it even exists, we may never know.”
As the teacher droned on about the Turks again, Zanna continued work on her drawing. So far, she had her and Isaac in the center, with Mordy, Thane, and Jericho around them. Ember was off to Thane’s right, holding his hand. Reno was nearly to the edge of the page, glaring at her. The octopus head was off somewhere to Mordy’s left, standing with Dylan and Bastien. Rupert was a bit farther right than Ember, holding some chemicals in his hands. She was just penciling in Dimitri next to Rupert when the bell rang.
She didn’t notice Ember glaring at her as she hurried off to the gym. Zanna still hoped to win over the girl, as she figured that being the only female in the group, she’d like to have another girl around, even if that girl was a tomboy by nature. Ember struck her as not quite as girly as she dressed either. She might wear halter tops, miniskirts, and other ‘cute’ clothes, the girl seemed a lot tougher than the clothes she wore would indicate. Perhaps it was this aura of danger surrounding Ember that made Zanna give her a wide berth. Ember would probably be a powerful ally, if she ever got on her good side.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Today Coach Clayton set Zanna in a group of classmates against another team that included Reno. She grumbled irritably at being put against him, but still played. At least she didn’t have to guard Dimitri this time. She did her best to play fairly, but every time Reno came near her, she felt something sparking her legs, like someone was flicking a lighter near her. She would look sometimes, trying to catch him with a lighter in his hand, but he never had one. As annoyed as she was getting, it never seemed to occur to her to wonder how he was either hiding the lighter so fast, or how he was sparking at her without one. Each spark got her angrier and angrier at the redhead.
“Cut it the fuck out, Sparky.” She growled at him as he tried to block her shot.
“Cut what out, poser?” he smirked at her.
Irritated, she passed the ball to one of her teammates a little too hard, earning an outburst from the guy.
“Hey! Watch how you handle the ball!” he yelled at her.
Zanna didn’t care, didn’t even hear him. She stood there, glaring at Reno, not noticing something in her gut skew and twist. If she’d have paid attention to it, she might have stopped to wonder what it was, but her anger was quite nearly controlling her now. Reno swaggered up, getting in her face. He didn’t seem to notice the aura of full blown anger around her, or didn’t care.
“What’cha gonna do, cry?” he sneered.
“Get the fuck away from me!” she yelled, shoving him.
As her hands made contact, a brief, bright purple flash emanated from her hands. Reno went flying across the court, hitting the other basket’s post, hard. He didn’t move for a while after he hit. Zanna looked at her hands in amazement, not noticing Dimitri staring at her, slack-jawed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
A/N - yeah, I started adding spacers due to a request from a friend of mine who does beta reading for me.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Jericho looked over his shoulder as Isaac walked up.
“What happened to Zanna?” he asked the older boy. Isaac closed his eyes, clearing his mind from the fog it had been in.
“We were talking. I tried talking to her about what might be hidden from her in her own mind, but . . . she ran.”
Jericho looked at him somewhat sternly.
“Did you do the creepy look?”
“What creepy look do you mean? I wasn’t aware I had a creepy look.”
“It’s this look you get when you want to pick someone’s brain apart. Almost like you’re telling them to hand over their brain like as if it’s a book to be read, cross referenced, edited, and tossed into a random pile of other books.” Jericho demonstrated a rather creepy look. Isaac looked taken aback.
“I look like that? That must have been why she ran.” Isaac pondered for a moment. “She . . . she looked as though she was about to cry, too.”
“You mean you haven’t noticed?” Jericho asked, stunned.
“Noticed? What was I supposed to notice, when I have so much on my mind?”
Thane had walked up during their conversation, and placed a hand on Isaac’s shoulder at this point.
“Girl’s got it bad for you man. Almost as bad as Ember’s got it for me.” He laughed. Jericho shoved the senior in the shoulder playfully.
“You know you love it Thane.” Turning back to Isaac, he continued. “Seriously, she thought she’d have to give you up because you’re two grades over her.”
Isaac thought this over, and pulled out his large journal to note this down as well. Jericho and Thane both raised their eyebrows at each other, since Isaac only noted down important details in his journal.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Donal sat at his house, waiting for his parents to sign the release form for the class trip to Destiny Islands High School. It may be his only chance to narrow down who he needed to research for any connection to Ais, and his minions of the last life. He had no idea if he would be able to recognize them immediately, but he figured that there would be some sort of connection that he’d feel between himself and his followers. It had taken a lot of convincing on his part to get Leon to agree to the trip. He did not appreciate the wait of a week to go, but it was for those with stubborn parents that took forever to decide.
“Oh well,” he said to the empty dining room, as his parents talked in the living room. “Perhaps by the time this trip happens, the child relative of Ais will have found the Lexicon, then I can force them to give it to me.” His orange-gold eyes gleamed evilly.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
“Zanna! Wherever you are, you’d better be unpacking our stuff!” her mother yelled as she came home, startling the girl awake.
Zanna hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep, exhausted from the day. Wiping her face where the tears had dried, she opened the box nearest her.
“I’m in the attic, going through boxes.” She called down to the woman.
Hearing no response, she continued looking through the box. It was one of the boxes that her mother had said came with her. There were no pictures to identify her birth parents by, and at the bottom was a large, dusty tome. It was black, trimmed with what looked like silver, and strange writing on the front. There was also a strange, three pointed design above the writing. Picking it up, she noted the strange feeling that came from it. It almost hummed with power. Dusting it off, the feeling faded, and one of the words on the cover became legible.
“Lexicon, huh? Ah well, it’s a pretty book, I may as well keep it.”
Zanna closed the box that it had come from, and carried the oddly light book to her room, where she put it on her desk. She then continued unpacking the boxes stacked in her room.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Isaac looked around the house for his guardian, having been orphaned the same as Zanna. He found the silver haired man in his study, looking at a sword that resembled a bat’s wing.
“Hey Uncle Riku, can we talk?” Isaac asked tentatively.
Riku turned with a smile on his face. Despite having silver hair, he was quite young. He’d had the silver hair even when he was Isaac’s age. Currently in his forties, he still retained some of his youthfulness, despite all he’d seen.
“Sure thing, brat. What’s on your mind?” he said, sitting in a large, comfortable chair. Isaac sat in one of the two other chairs in the study.
“Well, for starters there’s this girl . . .”
“I know that predicament.” Riku smiled.
“But there’s also something else about her. She . . . she’s called Reno by the name Axel.” Riku’s smile drooped a little, but he nodded and forced it back up.
“And she called me Zex. I can only assume it was short for Zexion.”
The look of shock on Riku’s face spoke volumes. Isaac could tell he’d hit a sore point in the man’s history. The older man’s mind reeled with the information, it was something he’d feared for a while, since Isaac looked so much like the Organization Thirteen member, as well as his friends looking markedly like the others. Inhaling slowly through his nose, getting some of the scents around him, he asked his ward only one thing.
“What do you smell, Isaac?”
The question threw the boy for a loop. He was not expecting that at all, and it seemed more random than anything he could have possibly imagined. He took a few tentative sniffs anyways, since Riku had never steered him wrong before.
“The scent of the islands, papou fruit . . .” He sniffed a little harder, catching something odd. “A smell . . . of darkness, and shadow. But that doesn’t make sense, how does darkness and shadow have a scent?”
Riku didn’t answer, but sat there thinking. He couldn’t believe it. Here, sitting in front of him, was the reincarnation of Zexion, the Cloaked Schemer. Renowned for his ability to identify people by scent from miles away. The man knew the scent of darkness and shadow was coming from himself, as well as some of the island and papou fruit scent, but they did live on the islands anyways. Those scents could be explained away, but not the darkness and shadow.
“I would answer your questions, Ze – I mean, Isaac, but there’s a lot I need to think about right now. I’d like to meet that girl though. Try to invite her for dinner, or something.” Riku stood, going through the shelves in his study.
Isaac stood, baffled by this change in personality of his guardian. Walking to his room, he tried to figure what had alarmed his Uncle Riku so much. It would seem he had much more to think about than before. Lying on his bed, he stared up at the ceiling. Not only was a girl interested in him, but she also had to have some sort of connection with the Organization, which was blocked off from her conscious mind, and unavailable for him to reach. She’d called him Zex, his guardian was bothered by that information, and the strange scents he’d picked up that made no sense to him. He also caught his guardian start to call him by some name starting with a Z as well. So many things were happening, ever since Zanna came along, that were so confusing. Thinking back on what she looked like, he supposed that she was rather attractive as well, but more than that, he’d rather find out what her connection was to the Organization. As well as why Uncle Riku had requested the ‘sniff’ test. It seemed that nothing made sense anymore.
Isaac lay there, ruminating on the possibilities of why everything seemed to be falling apart well into the nighttime.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Zanna woke up that morning feeling both weakened and energized at the same time. Looking at the Lexicon on her desk, she considered bringing it with her to school, but decided otherwise. She didn’t want to carry it around on a day when she had to deal with Reno in physical education, who knows what he might try to do with it for her comments in homeroom yesterday.
“Maybe tomorrow.” She said to the book, even though she knew quite well that it wouldn’t answer her back. Heading downstairs, she saw that she’d finally been graced with a lunch for school. Smiling, she thought that even if he’d scared her yesterday, that if Isaac asked her to join them for lunch again, she might very well take him up on his offer. She was becoming friends with Jericho and Thane, after all.
Seeing Zanna walking into the gates of the school, Jericho caught up to her.
“Hey.”
“Oh hey, Jericho. How’re you today?” she grinned.
“Decent. But hey, just to let you know, Isaac didn’t really mean to freak you out yesterday. He really didn’t know that he can look kinda scary when he starts talking about picking brains.”
“Kind of, he says.” Zanna laughed. “Nah, it’s ok. I figured it was just something odd that he does, since everyone in your group seems to be a bit secretive about that.”
Jericho looked a bit oddly at her.
“No need to bring that up.”
“Right, right.” Zanna nodded, and they headed into homeroom together.
The homeroom teacher had added in a new desk for Zanna, since the rest were all full. It did stick out like a sore thumb, but she at least had her own seat. The class slowly filled in, as they’d come in early to sit. Zanna pulled out her sketchbook, and continued a group drawing she was making of Isaac’s group. She didn’t notice Thane come up behind her and look over her shoulder.
“Devin’s hair is a bit longer, and more annoying.” He commented, laughing at the octopus that she’d stuck on his head for laughs in her sketch. Zanna looked up and laughed with him.
“I dunno, looks like an octopus to me . . .” she laughed.
The class filled up, and she glanced up once at Isaac as he came in, but then looked away, still remembering the look in his eyes from yesterday, as well as blushing. He didn’t go straight to his desk, but over to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, he spoke through the curtain of hair that hid his face.
“I’m – I’m sorry for yesterday, Zanna. I didn’t realize I could get like that.”
“Its okay, Isaac. You should see me when someone interrupts my drawing.” She smiled, blushing slightly.
“I’m glad to know that you weren’t hurt too bad by my actions.” He said, a slight smile crossing his features.
She flushed a little more as he walked over to his seat. The bell rang, and most of the class settled down. The group in the back, however, talked amongst themselves for most of the class. Zanna debated sliding her desk back, so that she could talk to them as well, but wasn’t sure how well being friends with only three of the members would keep the others from being rude to her. She noticed with a slight shrug that Devin wasn’t in school today.
Smiling, thinking she’d finally stop having her things blown around in algebra, she actually looked forward to creative writing, even if it wasn’t really that creative. Miss Megara still told them what to write about, instead of it being totally creative. It might cramp her style a little, but at least she could write her poetry in the free verse style, as opposed to all the rhyme schemes that she had to put up with in English classes. Something about rhyming seemed childish and uncreative to her. She added a few more people to her drawing of Isaac’s group, catching a few of the details of Dylan’s strange hairstyle. She hoped that someday she could make it a sort of mural in a room of hers, if they managed to stay here.
Unfortunately, creative writing ended too soon for her tastes, as she had to go on to algebra afterwards. Maybe she could get Isaac to help her with the gibberish, if he even understood what it meant. Groaning, she slid into her seat, not registering Mordy sitting next to her, instead of his regular seat.
“Hey.” He said, getting her attention.
“Um, hi.” she blinked a few times at the boy sitting next to her. “Mordy, right?” she asked, checking the notes she’d jotted down in science, when Jericho had told her about the group.
“Yeah, caught that huh? Anyways, I got a message from Isaac.”
Their teacher glared at them, which just earned an eye roll from Mordy.
“As if I’d listen to that dude. Anyways, he says come to the band room at lunch. He’s gotta ask you something.”
Zanna giggled to herself.
“Wow, when Jericho says you don’t sound like the English expert that you are, he doesn’t lie.” Mordy rolled his eyes.
“Dude, just cause I’m good at it don’t mean I wanna use it all the time. Except, the old English dudes had some great insults. Oh, hey, want me to show you where the band room is, since lunch is up next?”
“Sounds good. And here I thought you didn’t like me.” She laughed again.
“Nah, just had to learn the ropes, right? Besides, you got Thane liking you, which is a step in the right direction in my book.”
“Mordechai! If you and Zanna do not pay attention, you will fail. Do you understand me?” the teacher bellowed.
Mordy narrowed his eyes at the man, then an evil grin spread across his face.
“Sure do, you toffee nosed, malodorous eel skin.”
“What did you call me?”
“Oh, my apologies, let me clarify for you, thou pigeon livered swollen parcel of dropsies. You lack any direction for yourself and must follow your superiors, often with your nose up their bum, which causes you to emit foul odors from your tanned, stretched skin of a worthless body.”
Zanna stared, and couldn’t help but giggle at the total change from surfer slang to proper and even old English. That and the insults were pretty funny. The teacher, still failing to understand what Mordy was saying completely, ignored them for the rest of the class.
“Well that was some display of language. I don’t think a single word of that was a curse either.”
“Nope. It’s really fun to pull that out when one of the teachers gets too gripey. It’s got a bigger impact going from how I normally talk, too. Anyways, class is almost over, let’s slip out early. I can always get Devin to translate this stuff for me anyways.”
Shrugging, Zanna followed the stripy haired boy.
“Wait, there’s someone who understands that gibberish?” she asked as they walked to the band room.
“Yeah, I sure ain’t passing on my own. Why? Need help with it?”
“That’s an understatement.”
“I’ll let ya look at my paper once Devin’s done with it. Even if it doesn’t make sense, he gives everyone the same problems.”
Zanna still chuckled to herself randomly as they strolled right into the band room. The bell had just rung, and a lot of the kids were packing up their instruments for lunch. Dylan was there already, and after giving her an unfriendly look, focused on the frets of his guitar, ignoring her and Mordy.
“Dude, I don’t wanna see so much as a drop of water over here.” Mordy told the boy as he showed Zanna where to sit.
Dylan’s only answer was to hit a sour chord. Mordy shook his head and laughed at him, sitting nearby Zanna, but on a lower level of the band room’s stepped seating. Zanna pondered over it as the rest of the group trickled in. Thane pulled Ember over to the piano after she shot Zanna an evil look, and occupied her by talking to her. A tall blonde boy looked at her as though she could be a possible experiment as he passed.
“That’s Rupert. Don’t drink anything he gives you.” Jericho said as he sat nearby her, but also on a lower level.
“Okay . . . the science geek, right?” Zanna asked, causing Mordy to laugh.
“She already got him pegged. That’s hilarious dude.”
Bastien passed by the group without a look, sitting by Dylan and Rupert. Reno was the next to enter, and started to head straight for Zanna, when both Jericho and Mordy stood in front of her.
“No, I can fight my own battles, guys.”
“You don’t want to fight this battle with nobody around to keep him in check, Zanna.” Jericho warned her.
Isaac walked in just then. Smirking, Jericho and Mordy sat back down. Reno hadn’t yet seen Isaac walk in and advanced towards Zanna again.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Reno.”
Hearing Isaac’s quiet voice, the redhead stopped in his tracks. He then took a wide detour to sit by Dylan. Zanna just raised her eyebrows before returning to her roast beef sandwich. Isaac climbed the stepped seating and sat next to Zanna.
“I see the rain check has cleared.” He smiled slightly.
“Yeah. I just wasn’t sure how everyone else would react to my joining you.”
“Don’t worry about the others so much, I won’t let them do anything.” Zanna blushed at this.
“But I did ask that you come for a reason. Seeing as I don’t have any classes with you outside of homeroom today, and we were a bit far away to talk during class, this would be my only time to ask. My uncle wants to invite you to dinner, and I figured tonight might be a good time.”
Mordy and Jericho exchanged looks, unnoticed by either Isaac or Zanna. She flushed a little and looked slightly away.
“I’d have to tell my mom, but I think I could make it. I’d like to drop off my stuff at home too.”
“Not a problem. We usually eat a little later anyways.”
Isaac took her note journal from her lap and wrote down his address and a time on a blank sheet. Jericho and Mordy started poking each other, grins on their faces. Leaning back to get a clear look at Bastien, Mordy called out to him.
“Dude! That’s fifty bucks you owe me! Looks like you lost this bet.” He laughed.
Zanna looked at him, confused.
“What bet?”
“Oh, mister gamble-o-holic over there bet me that you’d never be able to become friends with us. Thought for sure Isaac would hate you forever.”
Bastien grumbled irritably as he got up and handed Mordy a handful of money. He then walked over to Thane and handed him some money as well. Thane grinned and tossed his pink hair as the blonde walked away.
“And what was that one, Thane?” Jericho asked, after Zanna had nudged him.
Thane turned to the small group of underclassmen. He knew it was Zanna’s question, but figured she was still wary of a few of the group. He couldn’t blame her though, after the way Reno had acted.
“What gender our dear Isaac was interested in.” he grinned as the junior froze.
Zanna’s face turned bright red in seconds, and she tried to hide behind her hair. Mordy’s and Jericho’s jaws dropped, and even Dylan stopped playing. Feeling eyes on her, as well as certain they were staring at Thane and Isaac also, Zanna hurriedly grabbed her things and stood.
“I’ll see you tonight, Isaac.” She said shortly as she fled the band room.
Isaac slowly turned to glare at Thane after she’d left. Thane’s only response was an embarrassed smile and a shrug. Reno tried to ignore what was happening, much like he ignored one aspect of his life that he didn’t want to admit to.
“Bastien, make sure she knows that Thane was being an idiot. I have to get to class.” Isaac said as he stood, picking up his backpack and journal.
Ember looked at her boyfriend worriedly. Sure, she didn’t like taking orders from the quiet kid, but she knew what he was capable of, and because of that, she respected him. The bell then rang, so she kissed him goodbye and followed Bastien to history class. She hoped that Isaac didn’t end up doing anything to him, otherwise she might get angry.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Bastien grumbled at having to be the messenger boy this time. Usually it was Jericho’s job to let people know what was going on, not his, and he still wasn’t sure if he liked the girl. Something about her creeped him out. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but she was just strange. He still didn’t have all the odds figured, so he was going to sit back and wait to see what happened. It was just like a game of Texas hold-em to him. In fact, all of life was like a card game to him. It was just a matter of who the odds were on, what the odds were, and who got lucky.
“Hey. You.” He said as he saw Zanna at her seat, still hiding behind her hair.
“Isaac says that Thane was just being an idiot.”
Zanna just nodded, and he sat at his seat, ignoring her again. He’d delivered the message, so he was done. He wanted to check, but Thane just had to throw out that bid, causing everyone at the table to see it, if they wanted to continue on this hand. It had potential to be an interesting game, so he’d seen the bid too, barely. The flop hadn’t even been dealt yet, how could Thane choose to bid? There was still too much to be decided.
Zanna paid no attention to the history teacher as the old tale of the Turks from another world was told for what seemed like the fiftieth time to her mind. She continued mostly on her group drawing of the group, inserting herself next to Isaac, looking at him shyly and blushing. She kept the sketch in pencil, since she knew that there would probably be changes as she got to know the others a little better.
At one point, the teacher mentioned the Organization. Hearing this, Zanna paid attention for a few minutes to what he was saying.
“A few people speculate that some of the Turks were the original Others of a few of the Nobodies that were in the Organization. We don’t know this for sure, as we have no records of this. There is the matter of Zexion’s Lexicon, which many believe to still be in existence. Until we find it, or find proof that it even exists, we may never know.”
As the teacher droned on about the Turks again, Zanna continued work on her drawing. So far, she had her and Isaac in the center, with Mordy, Thane, and Jericho around them. Ember was off to Thane’s right, holding his hand. Reno was nearly to the edge of the page, glaring at her. The octopus head was off somewhere to Mordy’s left, standing with Dylan and Bastien. Rupert was a bit farther right than Ember, holding some chemicals in his hands. She was just penciling in Dimitri next to Rupert when the bell rang.
She didn’t notice Ember glaring at her as she hurried off to the gym. Zanna still hoped to win over the girl, as she figured that being the only female in the group, she’d like to have another girl around, even if that girl was a tomboy by nature. Ember struck her as not quite as girly as she dressed either. She might wear halter tops, miniskirts, and other ‘cute’ clothes, the girl seemed a lot tougher than the clothes she wore would indicate. Perhaps it was this aura of danger surrounding Ember that made Zanna give her a wide berth. Ember would probably be a powerful ally, if she ever got on her good side.
I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI/XII/XIII/XIV
Today Coach Clayton set Zanna in a group of classmates against another team that included Reno. She grumbled irritably at being put against him, but still played. At least she didn’t have to guard Dimitri this time. She did her best to play fairly, but every time Reno came near her, she felt something sparking her legs, like someone was flicking a lighter near her. She would look sometimes, trying to catch him with a lighter in his hand, but he never had one. As annoyed as she was getting, it never seemed to occur to her to wonder how he was either hiding the lighter so fast, or how he was sparking at her without one. Each spark got her angrier and angrier at the redhead.
“Cut it the fuck out, Sparky.” She growled at him as he tried to block her shot.
“Cut what out, poser?” he smirked at her.
Irritated, she passed the ball to one of her teammates a little too hard, earning an outburst from the guy.
“Hey! Watch how you handle the ball!” he yelled at her.
Zanna didn’t care, didn’t even hear him. She stood there, glaring at Reno, not noticing something in her gut skew and twist. If she’d have paid attention to it, she might have stopped to wonder what it was, but her anger was quite nearly controlling her now. Reno swaggered up, getting in her face. He didn’t seem to notice the aura of full blown anger around her, or didn’t care.
“What’cha gonna do, cry?” he sneered.
“Get the fuck away from me!” she yelled, shoving him.
As her hands made contact, a brief, bright purple flash emanated from her hands. Reno went flying across the court, hitting the other basket’s post, hard. He didn’t move for a while after he hit. Zanna looked at her hands in amazement, not noticing Dimitri staring at her, slack-jawed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
A/N - yeah, I started adding spacers due to a request from a friend of mine who does beta reading for me.