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Heart to Heart Chapter 2
Title: Heart to Heart
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Disney and Square own it all; I only wish I did. Why in the hell cant I come up with these wickedly cool characters and twisted plots? Why?
Summary: Sequel to Burning Heart and Earth's Rebirth. A special assignment from Ansem sets Dilan's conscience on edge, and he reaches out to the only person that he knows can help, the one person that he though he would never speak to again; Xehanort.
Xavier carefully inserted the tip of the otoscope into the left ear of the fussy baby in front of him. The baby's mother was holding the infant upright on the table, because lying the baby down resulted a scream of banshee proportions. That alone was enough to make him suspect what the problem was, but he needed to be sure. A quick glance at the inflamed, bulbous eardrum told him everything he needed to know, and he gently pulled the scope out.
"Well, we definitely have an ear infection." he said to the mother as he gently stroked the infant's soft, feathery hair "I'll get her on some antibiotics for ten days, which will take down the infection quickly, as well as something to help the fluid in her ears dry up. She's a bit young still, but try to keep her upright as much as possible. Doing so will help her ears drain and relieve the pressure." The young mother smiled gratefully at him, and after giving her what she needed and seeing her and her child on their way, he turned to straightening and sterilizing the exam room.
He was cleaning the otoscope when his senses twitched at the presence of darkness behind him. He paused for a moment then relaxed; it wasn't the Heartless. A second later, a portal opened behind him, and Even appeared as the portal closed.
"You're lucky that no one was in here with me." he said without turning around "Now what is so important that you couldn't contact me first?" He finally turned around to face his guest and was brought up short by the serious look on the blond's face. "What is it, Even?"
"Get your coat," Even said simply "There is something that you need to see."
"I can't just leave. I have things to do and patients to see."
"Then call Taylor, and from what Dilan has told me, you're going to have a new patient here shortly."
"Dilan," Xavier's eyes narrowed in suspicion. The lancer still didn't trust him, and Xavier wouldn't put it past him to sell him out to Ansem at the first opportunity. "What if this is some sort of trap?"
"It's not." Even looked uneasy, which made Xavier nervous. "I've known Dilan since he was nine years old, Xavier, and very little bothers him. Even with everything that we did, he never flinched, yet whatever he saw that made that him sneak home from his shift five days early unsettled him greatly."
"Sneak home? Shift? What is Dilan doing?"
"He's one of the guards from Radiant Garden that watching over the offworld prison." Xavier nodded; Lea had told him about the prison.
Even continued. "He says that after his last rotation out a month ago, a new prisoner was brought in, a child."
Xavier was startled. "A child? What could a child have possibly done to end up there? And what does it have to do with me?"
"Because he insists that the child -" Even looked Xavier straight in the eye. "- is you." Xavier rocked back in shocked silence, and Even smirked in an expression that invoked memories of his snarky Nobody. "Now, get your coat."
I can't believe that I'm doing this. Xavier thought to himself for what had to be the dozenth time as he followed Dilan down the narrow prison corridor that was brightly lit by harsh electric lights hanging from the ceiling. The building was made of drab, gray, concrete, and the walls were dotted with steel prison doors. The place made him very uneasy; if things had gone differently, he could have ended up here, locked away with no memory of what he had done wrong.
He followed the lancer down the corridors and tried to ignore the sounds of suffering coming from the cells that they passed. Every single person that was locked up here, Dilan had told him, deserved to be here, but that hadn't made him any less uncomfortable about the place.
Everyone, except for the one that they had come to rescue, however.
It has to be a Replica. Xavier told himself as he followed Dilan around a corner and down a corridor that was darker than the previous one. There is no other explanation.
He was broken out of his thoughts when Dilan stopped abruptly, and it was then that he heard them: the cries and screams of a child in severe pain. A sick feeling welled up in his gut, and he was sure it was showing on his face as Dilan turned to face him.
"His cell is up ahead." he said quietly "It's the last door on the left before the junction of the corridors. My alternate is up there, so you'll have to take him out before you can go in. You'll also have to take out whomever is in there with him, but it's usually just one person. Rarely, two people go in at once, so be prepared for that. Hide yourself in the shadows and give me ten minutes to get to my quarters, so no one will associate me with the break out. Good luck; you'll need it."
Without another word, Dilan walked away, and Xavier crouched down in a corner and called the shadows to wrap themselves around him, hiding him from view.
It was too bad that they couldn't cover his ears as well.
The next ten minutes were the longest of his life as he listened to someone torture and beat the child inside the cell. Despite his desire to not listen, he did pay attention during the few times the boy attempted to speak, and the voice was very much like his had been back when he had been a teenager living on the Destiny Islands.
It has to be a Replica.
He winced as the sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed down to him, followed by a scream of pure agony, and he threw the shadows off and stood up. The ten minutes hadn't passed yet, but he didn't care. He had to stop this, now.
He strode down the corridor and fired a ball of darkness straight into the guard's back. It blew the man off of his feet and slammed him face first into the opposite wall, where he then slid down to the floor unconscious. The cell door was cracked open, which made it easier for him to take a quick glance inside. The narrow opening only afforded him a small view of the room, but what he saw was more than enough.
A figure stood with its back to the door, next to a smaller naked form that was lying stomach down on the floor. The child on the floor was covered in blood, which obscured anything else he could have gleamed about him from the view. The person that was standing kicked his leg out, and there was another snap of a bone breaking, followed by a much weaker scream from the boy on the floor.
Xavier pulled his hood up to obscure his face and then slammed the door open. The person that was beating the boy spun around to face him just in time to take a ball of pure darkness to his face. The bastard was sent flying clear across the room, where he bounced off of the wall and landed face down on the floor. Xavier didn't pay any more attention to that monster, or even if he was still alive or not. His attention focused on the crying child on the floor, and he knelt down beside the shivering boy and looked him over.
It has to be a Replica.
The young teen was shaking in terror and pain, his eyes were swollen shut, and he was just covered in blood, some of it old and dried, some of it fresh. He was severely emaciated, and Xavier could clearly see that the consumption of muscle had begun. His face was gray, and Xavier gently reached out and stroked the matted hair that was as white as his own as he used his keyblade to unlock the shackles.
"It's alright," he said gently when the child shivered at his touch "I'm going to take you out of here. I know that you're hurting and that you're scared, but I need you to be as quiet as possible. Can you do that for me?" The boy whimpered in response, and Xavier cast a Curaga over him to heal the broken bones before he removed the open shackles and pulled a small blanket from one of his coat pockets. He spread out the blanket on the floor next to the boy, and then he gently rolled the child onto it. The boy whimpered as he was jostled, and Xavier watched him grit his teeth and set his jaw against the pain of being moved. He wrapped the teen snugly in the blanket before he carefully gathered him into his arms and stood up.
"I've got you." he said softly "You're going to be alright." With that he opened a portal and stepped through.
A Replica. It has to be a Replica.
He portaled first to the Destiny Islands, then to Disney Town, then to Radiant Garden, the Keyblade Graveyard, Traverse Town, the Mysterious Tower, and then finally, to Haven's Bridge. He stepped out of the portal just outside the hospital, and he quickly carried the boy inside.
Taylor was inside, and the man looked up at him when he walked in, and his jaw fell open in shock. Xavier carried the child into the exam room and laid him down on the table just as Taylor flicked the lights on. The boy whimpered again as he was gently unwrapped, and Xavier smoothed back his hair and cooed to him soothingly.
"Where did you find him?" Taylor asked as they began to treat the boy for the starvation and dehydration that the Curaga spell had been unable to do anything for.
"I'll explain later." Xavier replied as he looked the boy over. The Curaga had reduced the swelling of his face, which allowed his brown eyes to peep at his surroundings warily. "It will be alright. We're here to help you." He smiled reassuringly at the child as he told himself that at least he was not as bad as Isa had been after his rescue. Isa had been only days away from death when, four years ago, Lea, with assistance from Roxas, Xavier, and Ienzo, had smuggled him out of his prison cell in Radiant Garden. While this child was in deplorable condition, and just the sight of him made Xavier want to go tear someone's heart out, he was nowhere near as bad.
The Curaga had healed all of the broken bones, but a series of x-rays showed older breaks that hadn't been set and thus hadn't healed properly. They would have to be rebroken and reset later on once the boy was stronger. The welts and lashes had also closed, but some of them needed to be lanced and cleaned before they could heal, and some of them were obviously infected. The worst of them they lanced right then and there, flushed them out, and then bandaged them up. The lesser ones they would treat with antibiotics first and lance them if that wasn't enough.
Once the child's medical needs were addressed, the pair gently bathed him, and Xavier took the time to wash the blood matted hair and gently comb it out instead of cutting it off. Taylor watched him with his brow furrowed in confusion, and Xavier only shrugged.
Xehanort had been pretty vain about his hair as a teenager.
But this has to be a Replica.
Once the teenager was clean and dressed in a hospital gown and socks, Xavier gently picked him up from the exam table and carried him into one of the private rooms, with Taylor walking beside him, carrying the IV bags. Taylor pulled the sheet and blanket back, and Xavier carefully laid him down and covered him up while Taylor hung the bags on the IV stand.. The teen settled down with a sigh and went to sleep immediately, and Xavier sat down in the chair by the bed and just watched him for a moment until Taylor broke the silence.
"So did Xemnas go out and find himself a lady to spend the night with?"
Xavier huffed. "Xemnas' philosophy was that was what his hand was for. No, this boy is not a son of mine."
"Then how do you explain the eerie resemblance?"
It was true, the sleeping teenager in the bed could have nearly passed for Xavier's twin were it not for the large difference in age. The body's frame was smaller, the line of the jaw a little sharper, and the hair fell in waves instead of the few spikes that Xavier possessed, but everything else was a near perfect match.
"A Replica?" Xavier said uneasily "That is the only explanation that I can think of. Someone made a Replica of me without aging it to adulthood."
"Why would they do that? And how did they do it? From what you've told me before, Replicas require a DNA sample and various types of data from the original. How would someone have gotten those things?"
"I don't know." Xavier said quietly "I have an idea as to the why, but the mere thought makes me queasy."
"Let's hear it."
"There was a death sentence on me, but they were unable to find me, so they get a Replica and punish it instead, though I don't understand why they would keep him a child."
"People are twisted, Xavier. That's probably the only reason. Someone thought it would be fun to torment and torture a child, so they kept him as one." Taylor sighed. "Of course, we have another question to contemplate now."
Xavier looked over his shoulder at the older man, who was standing in the doorway, leaning casually against the frame. "What is that?"
"Are you going to keep him?" Xavier stared at him in shock, and he continued. "It's a simple question, Xavier. If your Replica theory is correct, then you are the closest thing he has to a father, so again, are you going to keep him or find someone to foster him?"
Xavier looked away from Taylor back to the sleeping teen. "I... I don't know."
The older physician's hand came down to rest gently on his shoulder. "Think on it, just as long as you decide before he's well enough to leave here. I'm going to head home for the night, and I will tell your family that you're staying here to watch over a patient. Good night, Xavier."
Xavier nodded absently "Good night, Taylor."
The older man walked out, and once the front door had closed behind him, Xavier stood up and used the dimmer switch to lower the lights, gently tucked the blankets around the sleeping boy, and then returned to his chair, his mind awhirl with questions that he had no answers for.
Xavier spent the night in the hospital with his new patient to better keep a close eye on him. He rolled a small folding cot into the room and set it up at the foot of the bed, but as he was preparing to climb in it, a whimper from the child caught his attention. A quick look showed the boy shifting uneasily in bed, likely due to a nightmare, and Xavier stepped over to the side of his bed and reached out to him just as he began to cry softly.. He shivered and cried out weakly at the touch, which made Xavier pause for a moment. He then carefully wrapped the child in his blanket, scooped him out of bed, and settled down into his chair with the weeping teen on his lap.
"It's alright, little one." he murmured softly as he gently brushed the tears away. "It's all over. You're safe. No one will hurt you anymore." The teen curled close to him, as if he was seeking warmth and reassurance, and Xavier began to rock him gently and hum a quiet tune. After a few minutes, the boy quieted and was soon once again sleeping peacefully, but when Xavier stood and went to put him back in bed, he whimpered softly, and one hand clutched at his shirt as tightly as the catheter in the back of it would allow. Xavier couldn't help but laugh quietly, and he smiled as he settled back into the chair with the child still in his arms.
"I wonder what your name is." he murmured as he cradled the teenager "The resemblance between the two of us is quite eerie, yet it's him that you resemble the most, before he allowed the darkness consume him." He shook his head at his own thoughts. "Now let's get you back to bed, hmmm? I'm sure you'll be much more comfortable there instead of on my lap." He stood up from the chair and gently laid the boy down in the middle of the bed. The child was quiet and didn't attempt to hang onto him this time, so he was able to get him tucked in with no trouble. "Good night, little one."
The boy slept peacefully through the rest of the night, the morning, and well into the afternoon. Xavier was enjoying some soup that Alexander, now seven years old, had brought him from home when the teenager began to stir. Xavier put the soup bowl aside and moved to the bedside just as the boy's eyes fluttered open.
"Are you back with us now?" Xavier asked gently as the boy's tired brown eyes wandered about the room before settling on him. The child didn't answer, likely too traumatized to speak, and he flinched when Xavier reached out to touch him. He smiled gently at the teenager and talked to him soothingly as he went about checking him over. Once that was done, he left the room with an assurance that he would be back, and he returned in short order with a small glass of warm water mixed with glucose. As they had with Isa, they would have to gradually get the child used to eating again to prevent the potentially deadly Refeeding Syndrome.
He gently sat the boy up in bed, and allowed him to take small sips from the glass, murmuring soothingly to him the entire time. The child's frail body was shaking hard, and it was only Xavier's arm around him that kept him upright. Once the water was gone, Xavier laid him back down and tucked him in, and the boy watched him with frightened eyes, like he believed that Xavier would do something the second he wasn't looking, until he was simply too tired to stay awake any longer.
"I know that you don't believe me, little one" Xavier said as the boy's eyes closed and he began to nod off "but I promise that you're safe now." He gently grasped one of the teen's hands in his own and held it as the boy feel asleep.
For the next two days, Xavier patiently tended to the boy in his care, and during that time he never left the hospital. He ate the meals that Alexander brought him from home, showered in the bathroom aside the office, and slept in a cot at the foot of the boy's bed. Several times a day, he fed the teenager warm sugar water to get his wasted body used to eating again. He knew that soon they would be able to upgrade him to clear liquids other than sugar water, then to opaque liquids, and then to light solids. It was a slow process, but renourishment couldn't be rushed after starving for so long.
It was during the boy's evening feeding on the second day, that he noted the child seemed to be working up the courage to say something. Several times, he opened his mouth slightly like he was going to talk, but then he would close it without saying anything.
"Are you alright?" Xavier asked gently as he took the empty glass away "Do you need something?"
The teen looked at him for a moment, unsure, and then he very hesitantly opened his mouth and spoke in voice that was raspy from weeks of near constant crying and screaming.
"May I... may I please... have some more?"
"I'm sorry, little one, but no." Xavier reached out and gently stroked the boy's hair and ignored his flinch "If you have too much too soon, it will make you sick."
"I'm hungry."
"I know, child, I know, but it's too soon right now."
The boy looked down at his skeletal hands, which were lying on his blanket covered lap, and nodded faintly. "You saved me. I remember you knocking away the man that was hurting me, and you wrapped me in a blanket and picked me up." he said quietly, and then he looked up at Xavier. "Thank you."
Xavier smiled. "You're welcome, little one." The boy leaned against him, and Xavier smiled again as he held him. "Can you tell me your name, child?"
"My name is Xehanort."
Xavier's breath caught in his throat, and he had just enough time to lie the boy back down before he was hit with a coughing fit. He left the room quickly and went to the office, where he got a cup of water from the sink and drank it down to stop the coughing. He then looked at his reflection in the mirror over the sink.
My name is Xehanort.
"He is a Replica." Xavier said to his reflection "There is no other option. He has to be." He washed his face and then returned to the boy – Xehanort's – room, and he walked through the door to find the teenager sleeping peacefully. His white hair was lying across his face, and Xavier gently brushed it away before he pulled the blankets up to his chin and tucked them around him. Surprising himself, he then softly kissed the boy on the forehead.
He's a Replica, and he's been so badly abused during his short life.
Xavier sighed as he sank back down into his chair by the side of the bed.
"This is so unfair." he said to the sleeping child "They give you your life and then make it as painful as possible for you, only because they couldn't find me." He titled his head back to look up at the ceiling. "Well, Mama wants grandchildren. I don't think this is how she intended to get them." He laughed lightly at his own thoughts. "Never thought I would end up a parent."
With a sigh and a shake of his head, he got up from his chair, dimmed the lights in the room, and sat down on the edge of his cot to kick his boots off. He then laid down and tried to go to sleep, but with the thoughts whirling around in his mind, sleep was a long time in coming.
Chapter 1 - Chapter 3
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Rating: R
Disclaimer: Disney and Square own it all; I only wish I did. Why in the hell cant I come up with these wickedly cool characters and twisted plots? Why?
Summary: Sequel to Burning Heart and Earth's Rebirth. A special assignment from Ansem sets Dilan's conscience on edge, and he reaches out to the only person that he knows can help, the one person that he though he would never speak to again; Xehanort.
2.
Xavier carefully inserted the tip of the otoscope into the left ear of the fussy baby in front of him. The baby's mother was holding the infant upright on the table, because lying the baby down resulted a scream of banshee proportions. That alone was enough to make him suspect what the problem was, but he needed to be sure. A quick glance at the inflamed, bulbous eardrum told him everything he needed to know, and he gently pulled the scope out.
"Well, we definitely have an ear infection." he said to the mother as he gently stroked the infant's soft, feathery hair "I'll get her on some antibiotics for ten days, which will take down the infection quickly, as well as something to help the fluid in her ears dry up. She's a bit young still, but try to keep her upright as much as possible. Doing so will help her ears drain and relieve the pressure." The young mother smiled gratefully at him, and after giving her what she needed and seeing her and her child on their way, he turned to straightening and sterilizing the exam room.
He was cleaning the otoscope when his senses twitched at the presence of darkness behind him. He paused for a moment then relaxed; it wasn't the Heartless. A second later, a portal opened behind him, and Even appeared as the portal closed.
"You're lucky that no one was in here with me." he said without turning around "Now what is so important that you couldn't contact me first?" He finally turned around to face his guest and was brought up short by the serious look on the blond's face. "What is it, Even?"
"Get your coat," Even said simply "There is something that you need to see."
"I can't just leave. I have things to do and patients to see."
"Then call Taylor, and from what Dilan has told me, you're going to have a new patient here shortly."
"Dilan," Xavier's eyes narrowed in suspicion. The lancer still didn't trust him, and Xavier wouldn't put it past him to sell him out to Ansem at the first opportunity. "What if this is some sort of trap?"
"It's not." Even looked uneasy, which made Xavier nervous. "I've known Dilan since he was nine years old, Xavier, and very little bothers him. Even with everything that we did, he never flinched, yet whatever he saw that made that him sneak home from his shift five days early unsettled him greatly."
"Sneak home? Shift? What is Dilan doing?"
"He's one of the guards from Radiant Garden that watching over the offworld prison." Xavier nodded; Lea had told him about the prison.
Even continued. "He says that after his last rotation out a month ago, a new prisoner was brought in, a child."
Xavier was startled. "A child? What could a child have possibly done to end up there? And what does it have to do with me?"
"Because he insists that the child -" Even looked Xavier straight in the eye. "- is you." Xavier rocked back in shocked silence, and Even smirked in an expression that invoked memories of his snarky Nobody. "Now, get your coat."
******
I can't believe that I'm doing this. Xavier thought to himself for what had to be the dozenth time as he followed Dilan down the narrow prison corridor that was brightly lit by harsh electric lights hanging from the ceiling. The building was made of drab, gray, concrete, and the walls were dotted with steel prison doors. The place made him very uneasy; if things had gone differently, he could have ended up here, locked away with no memory of what he had done wrong.
He followed the lancer down the corridors and tried to ignore the sounds of suffering coming from the cells that they passed. Every single person that was locked up here, Dilan had told him, deserved to be here, but that hadn't made him any less uncomfortable about the place.
Everyone, except for the one that they had come to rescue, however.
It has to be a Replica. Xavier told himself as he followed Dilan around a corner and down a corridor that was darker than the previous one. There is no other explanation.
He was broken out of his thoughts when Dilan stopped abruptly, and it was then that he heard them: the cries and screams of a child in severe pain. A sick feeling welled up in his gut, and he was sure it was showing on his face as Dilan turned to face him.
"His cell is up ahead." he said quietly "It's the last door on the left before the junction of the corridors. My alternate is up there, so you'll have to take him out before you can go in. You'll also have to take out whomever is in there with him, but it's usually just one person. Rarely, two people go in at once, so be prepared for that. Hide yourself in the shadows and give me ten minutes to get to my quarters, so no one will associate me with the break out. Good luck; you'll need it."
Without another word, Dilan walked away, and Xavier crouched down in a corner and called the shadows to wrap themselves around him, hiding him from view.
It was too bad that they couldn't cover his ears as well.
The next ten minutes were the longest of his life as he listened to someone torture and beat the child inside the cell. Despite his desire to not listen, he did pay attention during the few times the boy attempted to speak, and the voice was very much like his had been back when he had been a teenager living on the Destiny Islands.
It has to be a Replica.
He winced as the sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed down to him, followed by a scream of pure agony, and he threw the shadows off and stood up. The ten minutes hadn't passed yet, but he didn't care. He had to stop this, now.
He strode down the corridor and fired a ball of darkness straight into the guard's back. It blew the man off of his feet and slammed him face first into the opposite wall, where he then slid down to the floor unconscious. The cell door was cracked open, which made it easier for him to take a quick glance inside. The narrow opening only afforded him a small view of the room, but what he saw was more than enough.
A figure stood with its back to the door, next to a smaller naked form that was lying stomach down on the floor. The child on the floor was covered in blood, which obscured anything else he could have gleamed about him from the view. The person that was standing kicked his leg out, and there was another snap of a bone breaking, followed by a much weaker scream from the boy on the floor.
Xavier pulled his hood up to obscure his face and then slammed the door open. The person that was beating the boy spun around to face him just in time to take a ball of pure darkness to his face. The bastard was sent flying clear across the room, where he bounced off of the wall and landed face down on the floor. Xavier didn't pay any more attention to that monster, or even if he was still alive or not. His attention focused on the crying child on the floor, and he knelt down beside the shivering boy and looked him over.
It has to be a Replica.
The young teen was shaking in terror and pain, his eyes were swollen shut, and he was just covered in blood, some of it old and dried, some of it fresh. He was severely emaciated, and Xavier could clearly see that the consumption of muscle had begun. His face was gray, and Xavier gently reached out and stroked the matted hair that was as white as his own as he used his keyblade to unlock the shackles.
"It's alright," he said gently when the child shivered at his touch "I'm going to take you out of here. I know that you're hurting and that you're scared, but I need you to be as quiet as possible. Can you do that for me?" The boy whimpered in response, and Xavier cast a Curaga over him to heal the broken bones before he removed the open shackles and pulled a small blanket from one of his coat pockets. He spread out the blanket on the floor next to the boy, and then he gently rolled the child onto it. The boy whimpered as he was jostled, and Xavier watched him grit his teeth and set his jaw against the pain of being moved. He wrapped the teen snugly in the blanket before he carefully gathered him into his arms and stood up.
"I've got you." he said softly "You're going to be alright." With that he opened a portal and stepped through.
A Replica. It has to be a Replica.
He portaled first to the Destiny Islands, then to Disney Town, then to Radiant Garden, the Keyblade Graveyard, Traverse Town, the Mysterious Tower, and then finally, to Haven's Bridge. He stepped out of the portal just outside the hospital, and he quickly carried the boy inside.
Taylor was inside, and the man looked up at him when he walked in, and his jaw fell open in shock. Xavier carried the child into the exam room and laid him down on the table just as Taylor flicked the lights on. The boy whimpered again as he was gently unwrapped, and Xavier smoothed back his hair and cooed to him soothingly.
"Where did you find him?" Taylor asked as they began to treat the boy for the starvation and dehydration that the Curaga spell had been unable to do anything for.
"I'll explain later." Xavier replied as he looked the boy over. The Curaga had reduced the swelling of his face, which allowed his brown eyes to peep at his surroundings warily. "It will be alright. We're here to help you." He smiled reassuringly at the child as he told himself that at least he was not as bad as Isa had been after his rescue. Isa had been only days away from death when, four years ago, Lea, with assistance from Roxas, Xavier, and Ienzo, had smuggled him out of his prison cell in Radiant Garden. While this child was in deplorable condition, and just the sight of him made Xavier want to go tear someone's heart out, he was nowhere near as bad.
The Curaga had healed all of the broken bones, but a series of x-rays showed older breaks that hadn't been set and thus hadn't healed properly. They would have to be rebroken and reset later on once the boy was stronger. The welts and lashes had also closed, but some of them needed to be lanced and cleaned before they could heal, and some of them were obviously infected. The worst of them they lanced right then and there, flushed them out, and then bandaged them up. The lesser ones they would treat with antibiotics first and lance them if that wasn't enough.
Once the child's medical needs were addressed, the pair gently bathed him, and Xavier took the time to wash the blood matted hair and gently comb it out instead of cutting it off. Taylor watched him with his brow furrowed in confusion, and Xavier only shrugged.
Xehanort had been pretty vain about his hair as a teenager.
But this has to be a Replica.
Once the teenager was clean and dressed in a hospital gown and socks, Xavier gently picked him up from the exam table and carried him into one of the private rooms, with Taylor walking beside him, carrying the IV bags. Taylor pulled the sheet and blanket back, and Xavier carefully laid him down and covered him up while Taylor hung the bags on the IV stand.. The teen settled down with a sigh and went to sleep immediately, and Xavier sat down in the chair by the bed and just watched him for a moment until Taylor broke the silence.
"So did Xemnas go out and find himself a lady to spend the night with?"
Xavier huffed. "Xemnas' philosophy was that was what his hand was for. No, this boy is not a son of mine."
"Then how do you explain the eerie resemblance?"
It was true, the sleeping teenager in the bed could have nearly passed for Xavier's twin were it not for the large difference in age. The body's frame was smaller, the line of the jaw a little sharper, and the hair fell in waves instead of the few spikes that Xavier possessed, but everything else was a near perfect match.
"A Replica?" Xavier said uneasily "That is the only explanation that I can think of. Someone made a Replica of me without aging it to adulthood."
"Why would they do that? And how did they do it? From what you've told me before, Replicas require a DNA sample and various types of data from the original. How would someone have gotten those things?"
"I don't know." Xavier said quietly "I have an idea as to the why, but the mere thought makes me queasy."
"Let's hear it."
"There was a death sentence on me, but they were unable to find me, so they get a Replica and punish it instead, though I don't understand why they would keep him a child."
"People are twisted, Xavier. That's probably the only reason. Someone thought it would be fun to torment and torture a child, so they kept him as one." Taylor sighed. "Of course, we have another question to contemplate now."
Xavier looked over his shoulder at the older man, who was standing in the doorway, leaning casually against the frame. "What is that?"
"Are you going to keep him?" Xavier stared at him in shock, and he continued. "It's a simple question, Xavier. If your Replica theory is correct, then you are the closest thing he has to a father, so again, are you going to keep him or find someone to foster him?"
Xavier looked away from Taylor back to the sleeping teen. "I... I don't know."
The older physician's hand came down to rest gently on his shoulder. "Think on it, just as long as you decide before he's well enough to leave here. I'm going to head home for the night, and I will tell your family that you're staying here to watch over a patient. Good night, Xavier."
Xavier nodded absently "Good night, Taylor."
The older man walked out, and once the front door had closed behind him, Xavier stood up and used the dimmer switch to lower the lights, gently tucked the blankets around the sleeping boy, and then returned to his chair, his mind awhirl with questions that he had no answers for.
******
Xavier spent the night in the hospital with his new patient to better keep a close eye on him. He rolled a small folding cot into the room and set it up at the foot of the bed, but as he was preparing to climb in it, a whimper from the child caught his attention. A quick look showed the boy shifting uneasily in bed, likely due to a nightmare, and Xavier stepped over to the side of his bed and reached out to him just as he began to cry softly.. He shivered and cried out weakly at the touch, which made Xavier pause for a moment. He then carefully wrapped the child in his blanket, scooped him out of bed, and settled down into his chair with the weeping teen on his lap.
"It's alright, little one." he murmured softly as he gently brushed the tears away. "It's all over. You're safe. No one will hurt you anymore." The teen curled close to him, as if he was seeking warmth and reassurance, and Xavier began to rock him gently and hum a quiet tune. After a few minutes, the boy quieted and was soon once again sleeping peacefully, but when Xavier stood and went to put him back in bed, he whimpered softly, and one hand clutched at his shirt as tightly as the catheter in the back of it would allow. Xavier couldn't help but laugh quietly, and he smiled as he settled back into the chair with the child still in his arms.
"I wonder what your name is." he murmured as he cradled the teenager "The resemblance between the two of us is quite eerie, yet it's him that you resemble the most, before he allowed the darkness consume him." He shook his head at his own thoughts. "Now let's get you back to bed, hmmm? I'm sure you'll be much more comfortable there instead of on my lap." He stood up from the chair and gently laid the boy down in the middle of the bed. The child was quiet and didn't attempt to hang onto him this time, so he was able to get him tucked in with no trouble. "Good night, little one."
******
The boy slept peacefully through the rest of the night, the morning, and well into the afternoon. Xavier was enjoying some soup that Alexander, now seven years old, had brought him from home when the teenager began to stir. Xavier put the soup bowl aside and moved to the bedside just as the boy's eyes fluttered open.
"Are you back with us now?" Xavier asked gently as the boy's tired brown eyes wandered about the room before settling on him. The child didn't answer, likely too traumatized to speak, and he flinched when Xavier reached out to touch him. He smiled gently at the teenager and talked to him soothingly as he went about checking him over. Once that was done, he left the room with an assurance that he would be back, and he returned in short order with a small glass of warm water mixed with glucose. As they had with Isa, they would have to gradually get the child used to eating again to prevent the potentially deadly Refeeding Syndrome.
He gently sat the boy up in bed, and allowed him to take small sips from the glass, murmuring soothingly to him the entire time. The child's frail body was shaking hard, and it was only Xavier's arm around him that kept him upright. Once the water was gone, Xavier laid him back down and tucked him in, and the boy watched him with frightened eyes, like he believed that Xavier would do something the second he wasn't looking, until he was simply too tired to stay awake any longer.
"I know that you don't believe me, little one" Xavier said as the boy's eyes closed and he began to nod off "but I promise that you're safe now." He gently grasped one of the teen's hands in his own and held it as the boy feel asleep.
******
For the next two days, Xavier patiently tended to the boy in his care, and during that time he never left the hospital. He ate the meals that Alexander brought him from home, showered in the bathroom aside the office, and slept in a cot at the foot of the boy's bed. Several times a day, he fed the teenager warm sugar water to get his wasted body used to eating again. He knew that soon they would be able to upgrade him to clear liquids other than sugar water, then to opaque liquids, and then to light solids. It was a slow process, but renourishment couldn't be rushed after starving for so long.
It was during the boy's evening feeding on the second day, that he noted the child seemed to be working up the courage to say something. Several times, he opened his mouth slightly like he was going to talk, but then he would close it without saying anything.
"Are you alright?" Xavier asked gently as he took the empty glass away "Do you need something?"
The teen looked at him for a moment, unsure, and then he very hesitantly opened his mouth and spoke in voice that was raspy from weeks of near constant crying and screaming.
"May I... may I please... have some more?"
"I'm sorry, little one, but no." Xavier reached out and gently stroked the boy's hair and ignored his flinch "If you have too much too soon, it will make you sick."
"I'm hungry."
"I know, child, I know, but it's too soon right now."
The boy looked down at his skeletal hands, which were lying on his blanket covered lap, and nodded faintly. "You saved me. I remember you knocking away the man that was hurting me, and you wrapped me in a blanket and picked me up." he said quietly, and then he looked up at Xavier. "Thank you."
Xavier smiled. "You're welcome, little one." The boy leaned against him, and Xavier smiled again as he held him. "Can you tell me your name, child?"
"My name is Xehanort."
Xavier's breath caught in his throat, and he had just enough time to lie the boy back down before he was hit with a coughing fit. He left the room quickly and went to the office, where he got a cup of water from the sink and drank it down to stop the coughing. He then looked at his reflection in the mirror over the sink.
My name is Xehanort.
"He is a Replica." Xavier said to his reflection "There is no other option. He has to be." He washed his face and then returned to the boy – Xehanort's – room, and he walked through the door to find the teenager sleeping peacefully. His white hair was lying across his face, and Xavier gently brushed it away before he pulled the blankets up to his chin and tucked them around him. Surprising himself, he then softly kissed the boy on the forehead.
He's a Replica, and he's been so badly abused during his short life.
Xavier sighed as he sank back down into his chair by the side of the bed.
"This is so unfair." he said to the sleeping child "They give you your life and then make it as painful as possible for you, only because they couldn't find me." He titled his head back to look up at the ceiling. "Well, Mama wants grandchildren. I don't think this is how she intended to get them." He laughed lightly at his own thoughts. "Never thought I would end up a parent."
With a sigh and a shake of his head, he got up from his chair, dimmed the lights in the room, and sat down on the edge of his cot to kick his boots off. He then laid down and tried to go to sleep, but with the thoughts whirling around in his mind, sleep was a long time in coming.
Chapter 1 - Chapter 3
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