Chapter 001 : Dark Forest - The Wilderness.

Chapter: 001: The Wilderness

Location: Dark Forest

Characters: Vexen, Marluxia, Axel, Larxene, Lexaeus, Zexion

Rating/Warnings: PG-13, swearing

Summary: The first night away from Oblivion is not what everyone hoped it would be.

Chapter 001 : Dark Forest - The Wilderness.

The forest was uninhabited. Sounds were muffled and faint, even the chirping of birds and the shuffling sounds of other woodland animals.

Exhausted, ragged and worn, the former keepers of Castle Oblivion sat, staring into the shrouded darkness around them, jumping at every single little noise.

This was not a good situation. By any stretch of the imagination. What had happened to the Castle after their... sudden departure was anyone's guess. None of them were sure they really wanted to know. If their enemies, both old and new, were still in Oblivion, well and good. Maybe the remainders of the Organization would come and the two forces would destroy each other.

Or, maybe they had left, looking for them. In which case, the Organization might be looking for them, too.

Which was, really, even worse.

They think we're dead, Vexen consoled himself with the possibly-vain hope. They think we're dead, and they won't look for us for some time, if ever...

No one even thought about food, water or fire for warmth. Shivering, they sat in continual silence, alone with their thoughts, until the full moon was right above them.

Only then, did Axel stir, look up, and finally voice the one question that everyone was asking themselves.

"Well... now what?"

***

In the end, Axel decided to do all the work himself. The others were just going to sit around and stare and argue with each other anyway.

Morons, he rolled his eyes as he started the fire, occasionally throwing his two cents in. "You all should have known it wouldn't work."

"Shut your traitorous mouth," Marluxia hissed, blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You shouldn't have done half of the things you did."

"Hey, I was just having a good time," Axel shrugged, a grin threatening around the edges of his mouth, despite the situation. "You all were the ones who screwed it up."

"Shut up, Axel!" Vexen snapped, rubbing his hands between his knees. "You're as guilty as the rest of us- even more so! Causing the death of two members of the Organization..."

"You're still here, aren't you?" Axel sniped, but shut his mouth fast when he saw Lexaeus frown and shift his weight as if to stand out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, yeah, look, let's all stop arguing, huh?"

"As loathe as I am to agree, he's right," Zexion's voice was dripping with scorn, sitting cross-legged near to Lexaeus. "But this bickering is pointless. We're better together than apart... Who knows where our enemies are now?"

"Hopefully dead," Larxene tossed her hair over her shoulder, drumming her other hand against the ground. "Who's to say I want to spend any time with you losers?"

It was fascinating to hear Vexen's teeth grind. It was much louder than anyone really expected. "Larxene. Zexion is right."

"You would agree with him," Marluxia- who, secretly, did agree with Zexion- sneered at the scientist. "Blindly and without thinking."

"Shut up!" Even Vexen's shriek was muffled by the tons of weighty vegetation all around them. "What he says has merit! And plenty of it! Alone, we would be easy targets!"

"But together as a group, we're so inconspicuous!" Larxene drawled, purposefully baiting Vexen at this point. "Sure thing, no one's going to look for us like this..."

"Who's to say they'll look for us at all?" Zexion put his hands to his chin. "We are, after all, supposed to be dead."

"Not me," Axel put in his two cents. They ignored him.

"I don't want to risk that," Vexen shook his head. "I propose we stay together. But we shouldn't stay here. Not at all."

"I agree," Zexion nodded, and Lexaeus rumbled his agreement, to no one's surprise.

"I'm tired," Larxene said immediately. "I don't want to go anywhere at all. And you can't make me." She didn't, thankfully, tack on the childish so there on the end of it.

"We do need rest," Marluxia agreed, settling himself against the nearest tree. "Perhaps we could come to an agreement after we all get some sleep."

"Someone should stay awake to watch for any followers of the Organization," Vexen said immediately. Marluxia gave him a thin smile.

"Congratulations. You just volunteered yourself." With that, Marluxia settled himself more comfortably against the tree and closed his eyes. "Goodnight."

Vexen gaped like a landed fish and spluttered incoherently. Lexaeus and Zexion traded smirks and made themselves at home with each other, answering several rumors amongst the three neophytes present. "Yes, goodnight, Vexen."

Vexen looked at Larxene, who had the temerity to laugh at him. "You're out of luck, if you think I'm sticking my neck out for you. Stay awake, Vexen." She blew him a kiss, then bedded down.

"Yeah," Axel agreed, settling himself nearest to the fire. If it went out, he would sense it, wake up and light it again. "Don't fall asleep. Who knows what kind of... dreams you'll have." He gave the elder Nobody a very toothy, pointed grin, delighting in the way Vexen's skin went paler than usual. "Goodnight..."

Vexen's eyes flicked around, twitching at every small sound. He felt cold, a highly-unusual experience for him. This place was unnatural. Or maybe it was too natural.... He had never been dumped into the middle of a forest before. He was more used to sterile, sanitary labs, not the sticky sap and detritus of the forest floor.

As the minutes, perhaps hours, ticked by, his thoughts grew increasingly dismal. You know... perhaps I really am dead... and this is hell.

That made horrible sense. Why else would he be stuck where he was, with who he was trapped with? Axel, of all people. Axel. It just wasn't fair.

Something stung him on the small of his back, and he bit into his jaw with a muffled yelp. What the hell was that?

There was another sharp sting, and he batted at it. Then another sting on his hip, and two more on one thigh.

It was extremely painful, and he couldn't stop a shriek from waking everyone else up. Axel sat up with a start, the fire flaring with his shock and surprise, and Vexen could clearly see dozens of little red ants swarming over the lower half of his body.

Number Four screamed like a girl, and leaped to his feet, doing a frantic, desperate dance to get the stinging, biting insects off of him.

Axel started to laugh, until he realized that his foot was also directly in the path of the swarm. And the fact that, despite his boots, his foot was in quite a bit of pain. The ants were in his boots. Now it wasn't funny at all; rather, it was an extremely serious and dire situation.

As Axel stripped off of his boot, howling, Larxene zapped the few stray ants that had crawled onto her, and escaped with little more than a mild few bites on her arms. They hurt, but it was nothing like the agony Axel and Vexen endured. "Great campsite, Marluxia. Did you know about this?"

"Hardly," Marluxia examined the insects from a bit of a distance, standing well back. "Interesting. What are they?"

"Ants, you idiot," Zexion already had a mud poltice clapped to the side of his face that had been stung. "Red ants."

"I know that they're ants," Marluxia glanced over at Zexion, lips twitching. His hair hid most of the swollen line of cheek and jaw, but it was clear he was in some pain. "I was wondering as to their species."

"Who cares!" Axel hopped on one foot a good distance away from the continual swarm of ants. "Kill 'em!"

"Are you insane?" Vexen, who had dragged himself to the nearby brook and was soaking his lower half in the frozen water, shot back. "Are you mad? There's millions of them, and they're ants!"

"It would be a waste of our energy and power," Marluxia agreed, taking a few more steps away from the now-growing swarm. "Though I think the other side of the stream is a better place to be..."

"Idiot," Zexion repeated, clearly in a foul mood. "Moron. Ass." Lexaeus tried to sooth him with a touch on his shoulder, and was violently rebuffed, and crossed the steam in silence.

Once the others were on the other side of the stream (with Vexen still in it, soaking in the numbing, blessed waters), Larxene enjoyed zapping a few ants here and there, before nimbly skipping across the river on a few stones.

Unless she chose it, she wasn't fond of getting wet.

Once she settled on the other side, the argument began anew. "We should leave at once," Vexen insisted, dragging himself out of the stream. "Obviously, this place is dangerous."

"Maybe for you," Marluxia smirked faintly. "However, the rest of us are handling this perfectly."

"Speak for yourself," Zexion hissed, one hand touching the poultice around his eye. "I agree with Vexen."

"Hold on," Axel held up a hand. "We can't just go around opening up portals all over the place. That'll be a big, shiny "HI THERE, HERE WE ARE!" to the Organization."

"Then what do you suggest, Number Eight?" Vexen snapped, unable to quite get away from the use of rank and number. "How would you go around this?"

"This campsite is a bit safer." Axel gingerly touched his foot. "Besides, some of us can't walk right now."

"Meaning you," Larxene, always ready to snipe at the other side, pointed out.

"Shut up," Axel shot her a glare, hands twitching slightly. "I'm good enough to help build a shelter, right? So we build a shelter and hang out around here for a while, until we're forgotten about. Then we rejoin civilization."

"That's too dangerous," Zexion disagreed immediately. "Our enemies may be looking for us, even now. Who knows what he is capable of now..."

A shiver passed through all three elder Nobodies, and they looked away from everyone else, briefly lost in their thoughts.

"...ok, so that leaves us what, hiking through a cold, miserable forest with different animals than we're used to, no idea what we can eat, nothing to eat or drink?" Axel drawled, putting his arms behind his head. "Here we've got a stream, and we can hunt..."

"We shall compromise," Marluxia cut in, with that damned air of command that, at the moment, most of the company wanted to beat out of him. "We shall stay here for some time, gathering supplies... and our strength... then we shall move."

It was a good idea. But no one wanted to admit that, seeing as Marluxia was the one to come up with it.

"Our enemies," Vexen began, just as Axel broke in with "And how are we gonna move?" at the same time as Zexion coldly added "And just how long is 'some time'?"

Marluxia's eyes narrowed, and his lips curled up slightly. "Well, then. I would so love to hear your input. Later. I was so... rudely awoken by someone." He gave Vexen a sidelong, condescending look. "But now, it's time to sleep."

"Ass," Vexen growled, trying to make himself comfortable.

"Mm." Marluxia smirked slightly, settling himself against a tree. "Goodnight, gentlemen. Lady."