Marla Shift

Marla "Marluxia" Shift is number XI in Organization XIII. He is an unstable, psychotic serial killer and one of the three main antagonists, the other two being Christopher Xehanort and Zeke Fender. Before joining the Organization, he was notorious for his mass-murders, in which the bodies of his victims were found amongst beautiful flowers in Central Park. Shift's obsession with floral life is almost equivalent to his obsession with killing people. While many Organization members are cold and calculating and only commit acts of evil because they believe it is correct to do so, Marluxia is truly an inhuman monster. Most of this comes from his troubled childhood, throughout which he had been constantly sexually abused. His genitals were removed at the age of three by one such abusing by his father, who had wanted a girl instead of a boy. He was later adopted by another man, and was sexually abused then.

Personality
Marla Shift is a deranged serial killer with next to no grip on sanity. Always eerily happy except when others go through his things or being denied a killing, he has no time for negative emotions. Although appearing to be a homosexual with his pink hair and flamboyant attitude, Marla has no sexuality whatsoever, which is why most professionals claim him to be a true "monster". He also does not kill for sexual pleasure, instead doing so just to do so.

His calm demeanor is usually due to constant medical lethergy from his perscription of Zoloft, which he takes often as to not disobey orders handed down by Xehanort. He generally can keep control of his murderous urges, but only while under the influence of his medication and while being supervised by his superiors.

Travel makes him nervous, and he is confined to New York City for the sole reason to keep him as sane as a monster can be. While in Miami, he loses control of himself when he, Larxene, and Xaldin confront Isa, and attempts to kill him. He is stopped by Xaldin, and is taken back to New York only after being sedated.

Seems to have an obsession with Roxas. Whether this stems from childhood, or if he is only after what Axel holds dear is yet to be determined. However, one of Marluxia's first encounters with Roxas included threatening to kill him if he screamed, and covering his mouth while laughing hystrically.

History
Marla Shift was born to a father who did not care for him. His mother died in childbirth, and her only request was that her child would be taken care of. Marla's father, Walter Shift had not wanted a son but a daughter, and constantly attacked Marla's inability to be just that. Marla could not understand why his father was so angry, but he tried his best from the day he could walk to be a loving daughter, failing miserably.

At the age of three, Walter had attacked his son while he was playing in the tiny garden they had, and mutilated his genitals, cutting them clean off with a spade. Marla was then taken into protective custody where he was shipped to many different orphanges to be taken care of by nuns. At this time, Marla was extremely vulnerable, but had learned how to act like a girl well enough to pass for one. He would frequently string flowers from his hair and be submissive to those around him, crying on demand, squealing in pain, and passing rumors.

While in Proctor's, the last orphange he lived in, he was taunted by many of the boys after they found out that he didn't have genitals. His only protection came from a sixteen year old girl, named Rosie, who would keep Marla's adversaries at bay. However, shortly after Marla arrived, Rosie was adopted, and he was left defenseless. This was the first and last time he had ever felt true fear.

Shortly after Rosie was gone, Marla began fighting back, often recieving damaging blows to the head and stomach. Marla spent most of his preadolescent years in constant fear, and at the age of twelve, he attacked the leader of the small boy-gang.

He had managed to knock him out with a bat, and had tied him up in his room. After a long bout of taunting and harsh word fights, Marla sodomized his peer with the same bat he had used to subdue him. The boy did not die, but he was so embarrassed and confused about what had happened, he never spoke of it to anyone.

This silence lead Marla to believe that this was okay, and continued to commit the same heinous acts towards others in the orphanage while never once being punished for it. Therefore, he enjoyed caused such scarring damage to those around him. After a few months at Proctor's, Marla was adopted by Chris Hart, who had initially shown Marla kindness and comfort.

For a week after he was adopted, Marla abandoned his destructive and intrusive nature in lieu of a gentler, kinder child who did what he was told, and loved everything around him. He was a completely different person, however Chris had fallen into a pattern of molesting and raping young Marla on a regular basis. Marla, who remained confused about who he truly was, did not fight to protect himself, nor did he tell anybody about his struggles with his sexuality.

While in high school, Marla fell behind his peers and turned to working at a restaurant named Luxia's, where he developed a relationship with the gardener. While working at Luxia's he neglected his studies, dropping out of school completely by the time he was seventeen and devoting much of his time to studying flowers and plants.

At the age of nineteen, Marla was still an uneducated monster in disguise when Chris tried to rape him for the last time by forcing him into oral sex. Marla had killed Chris that same night by removing his genitals and choking him with a small ivy plant and cut to the throat. This was also the night he killed his only love interest, Jaclyn.

Marla spent the rest of his late teen years killing people nonstop. He claimed to have read a book that guided him through his killing process. ''The Guide to Serious Serial Killing by Ned Mitchell. ''He believed that it was this book that kept him safe, and has memorized every word on every page, quoting it constantly and turning the rules over in his mind. He had created a Modus Operandi that included sexual abuse, genital mutilation, sodmizing, cutting body parts off, then slitting the throat and burying the body in Central Park, where the graves are marked by flowers.

When inducted into the Organization XIII, Zexion (formerly Zeke Fender) had attempted to teach Marluxia the difference between right and wrong in the eyes of the Organization, but had only succeeded in creating a more twisted being that can only tell what the difference btween a living and dead person is. Marluxia is only sane when taking Zoloft, and--even then--is still extremely susceptible to manipulation from other members of the Organization.

Role in the Organization
Shift plays a vital role in the Organization as an assassin/terrorist used to strike fear into the hearts of Xehanort's enemies. Although fellow Member Xigbar is a more experienced and accomplished assassin and is used primarily for that, Shift has an intimidation factor no other Member can best.

Relationships in the Organization
Due to his insanity and lack of humanity, Marluxia does not get along well with other Members unless they are superior in rank to him. Marla cares for nothing of the politics of the Organization's motives nor does he particularly care for anything that will not make him or Xehanort, who he is undying loyal towards, happy. Most Members treat him as a weapon rather than a human being, which is something Shift prefers.

Weapon
Marluxia's weapon of choice is a homemade scythe, which he uses to cut apart his victims and/or sodomize them with it. It is kept collasped until it is needed. Other common household supplies are used for torture, such as toothpicks on Greg Coy, baseball bats on stronger men, and razorblades on young women.