Marluxia
Template:InfoboxOrg13 Marluxia, the Graceful Assassin, is number XI in Organization XIII and the lord of Castle Oblivion. He is the mastermind of the internal rebellion in the Organization and the final boss of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In battle, he wields a large scythe and uses the power of flowers.
Sora's Arrival
Marluxia first appears in the series at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, when Sora first enters Castle Oblivion, making him normally the first Organization member to appear in the series (although the Enigmatic Man is a secret boss in Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix). Marluxia, still cloaked and hooded, explains to Sora that the Castle has made him forget all of his spells and abilities, and instructs him in the use of cards to fight. He also enters into battle with Sora, although he makes it very easy and it is only an instructional fight. After giving Sora a set of World Cards to begin climbing the floors of the castle, Marluxia leaves Sora to fend for himself.
Dissent in the Organization
Marluxia, working with Larxene and Vexen, plots to overthrow the Organization. They formulate a plan to use a young girl named Naminé, who has a mysterious power over memory, to deceive Sora into thinking he had sworn to protect her, and then have her use Sora to help them defeat the senior Organization members. This plot stems from a rivalry between some of the younger Organization members and the original six core members. Vexen, Larxene, and another Organization member Axel all did their part to feed Sora with information and lure him further into the castle. Each of them fought him on their own, although they didn't use their full strength and threw the fights. They also made use of Vexen's Riku replica to compete with Sora for Naminé's loyalty.
Marluxia and Larxene eventually learned that Vexen had been reporting back to Zexion regarding their revolt. After Vexen lost control of the Riku replica, Marluxia pronounced his project a failure, claiming that his mastery over Castle Oblivion allowed him the authority to do so. Marluxia threatened to tell "the Superior" of Vexen's failure, but Vexen pleaded with him not to do so. Marluxia agreed not to if Vexen would eliminate Sora. Although confused by the order, Vexen agrees, and heads Sora off in the Twilight Town world. He fights Sora for the second time, but is again defeated. Before he can reveal Marluxia's plans to use Sora, however, Axel strikes him from behind on Marluxia's orders, making Vexen the first Organization member to be eliminated.
Failure of the Plot
Axel's assassination of Vexen allows him to gain the full trust of Marluxia and Larxene. As Sora nears the top floors of the castle, Axel is left alone with Naminé to keep watch over her. Instead of keeping an eye on her, Axel allows her to escape, freeing her form Marluxia's control and ending her continued restructuring of Sora's memories, effectively ruining the plot to manipulate Sora into fighting the Organization. This prompts Larxene to attack Sora shortly after he defeats the Riku replica fro the final time, but she is killed in the struggle, leaving only Marluxia to carry out the plot. Sora finds Axel and Marluxia on the top floor of the castle, squaring off to fight. Marluxia makes Naminé appear in front of him as a shield to prevent Axel from attacking him, but Axel laughs it off, saying he's willing to go through Naminé to get to Marluxia. Marluxia then tells Sora that Axel is going to hurt her and vanishes, leaving Sora and Axel alone. Axel sneers at Sora for having become Marluxia's puppet after all, but Sora resolves to eliminate Marluxia right after he finishes Axel. The two fight, and Sora comes out the victor, but Axel escapes death and vanishes.
Sora pursues Marluxia into his inner chambers and attacks him. He destroys him, but finds that the real Marluxia had been hiding in an back room and that his opponent had only been a copy. Sora advances into the final room to confront Marluxia, who has combined with a large machine-like Nobody, wielding incredible power. Sora defeats him anyway, making Marluxia the fourth Organization member to fall.
Battle Tactics and Abilities
Marluxia fights using the element of flower and wields a large, pink scythe. He can attack with the scythe normally, or use it to slash at an enemy from across a distance. He can also send a flurry of petals at his opponent, which causes minor damage. Like the other Organization members from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Marluxia moves by levitating.
In his final form, Marluxia makes use of his machine-like Nobody to slash at Sora with it's legs, or fly at him and cause impact damage. He can also use flower petals to fire lasers at Sora, or to fire blasts of energy from teh bottom of the contraption.
Although it's never stated if Marluxia controls any lesser Nobodies, it's often speculated that he controlled the Assassin Nobodies before his death, due to his title being the Graceful Assassin. It's also rumored that Axel, as the only surviving member of Organization XIII from Castle Oblivion, inherited these Nobodies after the events of Chain of Memories. Another possibility is that Marluxia once controlled the Twilight Thorn, the reasoning being that "thorns" are found on flowers.
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