Disclaimer: I don't own anything. However, I have several buttons... WHICH YOU MAY NOT PRESS. Thank you.
AN: So, this turned into a little challenge fic for me. One of my friends is in a writing guild, and the challenge was "What is this button for?" So, in turn, he challenged me, and this was the result which is, for once, not romance! 8D
So enjoy this oddity! C:
"Whatever you do, you do not press that button."
Demyx, the ninth and newest recruit to the Organization, had been led into the spacious white room by the Superior himself. There wasn't much to it—all white, no décor. Same as all the other chambers within The Castle That Never Was. Really, there was just no style to this place. However, in the center of the room was a simple (and you guessed it!) white chair, and before it was an upright podium. Xemnas led the Nocturne over to it.
"Why?" Demyx questioned, of course. He had always been a curious little cretin.
"You must guard it with all your might, and ensure that our enemies do not break into this room and touch it. This single thing that I have assigned to you will determine how much I may truly trust you, and also, if anyone were to press it, it would prove to be absolutely… well, it's best that I not diverge into this. I am entrusting you with this most formidable task, IX. Fail me, and there will be most… unpleasant repercussions."
The young Nobody cringed, and the Superior motioned for him to take a seat.
"I expect it to remain untouched in your time here. You will be finished when I call upon you."
And with that, Xemnas glided (for all he did was filled with the melodramatics equal to that of a constantly depressed poet) out of the room, leaving Demyx to stare at the platform before him.
The button he had been told explicitly not to press didn't look all that special; it was small, delicate, and silver, and perhaps not even the size of his thumbnail. In fact, the expanse of the podium dwarfed the poor thing, and Demyx felt absolutely sorry for it.
Still… what was so important about this little button?
Surely it wasn't so drastic?
Yet Demyx knew that everything they did had some sort of significance, and this had to have been no different.
What would happen if he pressed it, he wondered.
He rocked back and forth in his chair, random lyrics popping into his head. He thought to write them down, but excused himself for not having a pencil. He thought to retrieve one, but also excused himself for having to watch this accursed button.
He started, then, to thinking what in the seven levels of Never Was (though there were in fact thirteen, but for the sake of the expression…) would happen if that little nub of a button were to be poked.
"Perhaps a self-destruct mechanism?" he found himself saying out loud—nervous habit.
No, that wouldn't be it. Xemnas wouldn't be so stupid.
…However, the thought remained. Perhaps it was to destroy the evidence in case the Keybearer ever decided to drop in, and in a last-ditch effort, Xemnas could eradicate the place in some sort of dramatic scene where he drags himself across the floor covered in blood and entrails, his hand shaking as he slapped it down on the button. And then there would be this soft female voice that would announce, "Self destruct in five minutes." Then there would be this gut-wrenching part where he would have to escape with his intestines hanging out, and then the aliens would attack—!
Whoa, there, getting a little carried away there, Dem.
He returned to eyeing the button, resting an elbow on his knee and a hand under his chin. He hummed a random tune softly to himself, and wondered where he had heard it. Perhaps he himself had written it, in a past life, and it was coming back to him in this moment of boredom.
Maybe… maybe if he pressed it…
No! Xemnas had counted on him to watch this! He wasn't about to betray his leader just to satisfy his own curiosity. That would just be terrible!
He turned his eyes from the button, then. If he stopped looking at it, he would stop thinking about it.
Nope.
Nuh-uh.
Not. Gonna. Touch. It.
Demyx looked back at the button.
No.
Must.
Resist.
Temptation!
He hummed the tune louder, perhaps only adding to his building insanity. Another thought popped into his head at this moment, consisting of creaking gears and a secret chamber opening up before him. He would saunter in, hesitant at the blinding light preventing his sight, and then he would make it through, and glance around, all of the secrets of the universe revealed to him…
'Oh, just once, just once?'
Great, now he was begging himself—another foolishly nervous habit. Really, Axel had once told him to see a shrink, and now he realized from where the redhead was coming.
"No, I am NOT going to TOUCH. THAT. SHINY. PRETTY. BUTTON."
'But you know you want to,' his conscience whispered.
"No, I do NOT. LIES," Demyx replied, staring off into space, attempting to rid all thought of the button from his system.
'Oh, but don't you want to see what happens? Really, isn't it so… tempting? I mean, it's so… amazing.'
Demyx wouldn't exactly describe a button as amazing, but his mind worked in mysterious ways. However, the voice had a point. It was a pretty interesting button, what with it being all alone in this little room all by its lonesome…
"Nope."
'Do it.'
A hand had begun to hover over the shiny little thing, and a finger tapped irritably on the steel, making a muffled "ping" noise each time they met.
A breaking point drawing near, his finger drew closer and closer. He bit his lip. What would happen? Just what, oh what, would happen? Explosions? Secret-y secrets of utmost secret-dom? …Or perhaps, something so mind-bogglingly amazing that… well, there was just no way to even begin to describe his scattering thoughts at what it might be!
He poked his little finger down on the button, and prepared to add pressure—
"What are you doing?"
"Huh, what?"
Demyx turned about and faced Number II of the Organization, Xigbar, looking as un-amused and cocky as ever.
"How did you get in?"
"Please, have I ever been able to not get into places?"
True. Demyx had only been around for a few days (or so he thought, but this "in-between world" really didn't have any sense of time) and he had noticed that Xigbar had a way with breaking into places. He thought to ask if he had been a master thief in his last life. Or a pirate. Or both. Probably both. The eye-patch spoke for itself.
"So, what are you doing, like I asked earlier?"
"Guarding a button."
With a well-placed "pft," the Freeshooter crossed his arms over his chest with a sly grin.
"Xemnas still doing that?"
"Excuse me?"
"All new recruits do this. VII never touched the damn thing, and VIII touched it within the first five seconds of the test, then decided it would be fun to press it over and over, then scream 'What the Hell is this?!' You're not even supposed to touch the damn thing, which makes me wonder how VIII had managed to get into the Organization. Maybe Xemnas liked it that he was defiant. Anyway, seems like you're doin' well, though."
Demyx remained puzzled, though, and looked back down at the button.
"So… what's it do…?"
Xigbar smirked, and Demyx nearly turned white at his answer.
"Nothing."